Hacking the Sun - The Re-Remake

Chapter 27 Share, Comment, Subscribe 1/3

"Capture," Jessica whispered.

"I'm picking up additional energy readings above us," said Babel.

"Then it's safe to say these pillars are channeling power into the floor above this one?"

"And throughout the megastructure."

Mired by curiosity, Raptor inched his hand closer to the center sphere. Jessica jumped and slapped his hand away, shaking her head. "I wouldn't pull on that thread," she told him. "You don't know who or what is waiting on the other side."

Raptor stared back and forth between her and the enticing orb, then silently nodded.

David, meanwhile, spun around the room like a curious child. "There was a reason we never saw the executives," he said, "why there was always a meeting room but never a meeting, and why they never showed their faces downstairs."

The hiss of sliding metal carried Jessica's attention to one end of the room. She saw Beelz step into an open capsule elevator. The door then enclosed and lifted her to the top.

We're out of time.

Jessica hustled to the closest elevator. Raptor and David followed, and, side by side by side, the three of them crushed into coffin-sized capsules before ascending.

They were ascending Goliath, to a realm none but Azarean gods had laid eyes on. At the corner of claustrophobia, everything stopped. Less than an hour ago, they were on planet Earth. How did they get to this place?

The sliding door revealed an area as mysterious and subdued as the last. Distant city lights shined beyond the windows on all sides, reminding Jessica that life continued below. She advanced in cautionary steps before she could get lost, surroundings draped by a symbol she hadn't seen before. A banner bedecked each vertice of the room, with a circular insignia whose three distinct sides appeared as Yin and Yang with a third sibling.

Railing underneath the windows, there lay an entire network of terminals. Lights for every button, colors for every function, functions for every secret Goliath solicited in its hive of lies. Jess only needed one, one access point to the giant. And one materialized directly before Beelz, risen from the room center like a candlewax mold. It was a single, round node with a perfectly smooth surface.

Now or never.

Without a doubt, this was the kernel from which to dive headfirst into Goliath's network: transportation, net applications, space installations, Asgard. Assuming position around the mechanism, alongside Beelz and David, Jessica studied the components obsessively

"There's no stopping now," she said, betraying a note of excitement.

Raptor stood vigil by the elevators, gun snug. "Now or never. Make your mark, Lynx!"

In the blink of an eye, the node fired green holograms that strobed across the room. Jessica tested a theory by placing her fingers on the interface. The texture was indescribable, "Like creamy plastic," was the closest she could get. She felt at home, an otherworld home but home nonetheless, and the controls felt like riding a bike.

"I have access!" she said.

"Then you're going to hack their infrastructure?" asked David. "Go public with their clandestine projects?"

"It starts with this," she said, brandishing her R2-D2 flash drive. "This recording will be the tip of their Seppuku."

David placed his hands on the holograms. "I can help. I'll make sure the data circulates corporate channels and public domains for good measure. It won't be much, but it will go a long way in discrediting Goliath and Spearhead."

Beelz's fingers were already navigating the holograms opposite of Jessica. "Goliath has contingencies and allies in The Union for mitigating disaster," she said. "So, I'm going to flood WON's Cyber Command with a DDoS they'll never see coming. When—if they find the source, it won't matter. They'll be in a bottomless hole by then."

Breathing into her mic, Beelz coordinated with Boros and Amon who, judging by the holograms, were helping transmit Beelz's virus across the intercontinental map. Meanwhile, Jessica and David undermined Azarean cyberspace like a fire at the center of a web. Together, their computer savvy gambit filled the room with nothing but the sound of typing and high-pitched ringing. It was a contrast to the loud start of Curtain Fire.

"Isn't it strange that Malvis always had unrestricted access to Goliath?" started David. "You'd think he was the—"

"Just have to broadcast!" Jessica interrupted.

"Looks like the prime networks are active," Beelz replied. "You can deliver a simulcast over the Transnational Eden Network. Everyone will hear Malvis and the terrorist while we spread the contents of that chip."

Jessica grinned feverishly. Setting the stage, as it were, had almost concluded, the show near ready to commence. David distracted himself, however, eagerly toggling holograms as he did. "I think I've found a hidden cache in this room."

"Worry about that later," Jessica muttered.

Killed by curiosity, David tapped the node. His touch invited a mechanical grate from an instrument rising between the trio. At the corner of her eye, Jessica noticed two crisscrossing pistols.

"Jessica," David called.

"Not now."

"Lynx!" Raptor yelled.

The wall blew.

Jessica slammed against the floor, splashed by dust and rubble, sight wavering between blurs and blankness while the sky enveloped them. Despite temporary deafness, she could discern the terrible noise of gunfire.