Souris followed the power line into the complex and then into Space Command’s mainframe. The “door” blocking the way into the code section was easy to find, and she began to weave her way through the electronic logjam.
Then she noticed the program running through combinations also trying to get through.
It took six combinations to get through the door, and the computer had five. McFairn edged forward on the seat, waiting for the last one to be decoded.
Souris was in. It didn’t take her long to figure out the unlock code.
A second later the sniffer program broke through and had it also.
Souris had no idea who was running the program, but she reacted anyway. On the way out of Space Command’s computer, she triggered the emergency alert, putting the base on DefCon Four footing.
McFairn has just pulled out the disk with the unlock code when an alarm stridently sounded. For a second she thought she’d been caught, and then she realized what was happening. DefCon Four had been triggered. She ran to the door and down the corridor.
The massive blast door was swinging shut, locking her inside.
Souris had found manipulating the mainframe from inside exhilarating. As soon as the base was secure, she disabled the program to allow it to stand down from the alert footing. Then she disabled the secure communications trunk line on her way out, completely cutting off Space Command from the rest of the world.
The cool breeze on his cheek. Dalton focused on remembering that feeling from the moment he had scattered Marie’s ashes.
He felt it again. The gray gave way slightly with a tinge of red. Then it was gone.
Dalton concentrated. There was something, someone close by. He felt the breeze once more. He reached out to it.
“I’ve got something,” Hammond announced.
“What?” Mentor was hovering over her shoulder. “I’m boosting power,” Hammond said.
Dalton felt the connection, grabbed on to it like a drowning man to a lifeline. As he raced back toward the Ranch, there was a presence next to him, doing the same thing.
He couldn’t spare the energy to reach out to it, to find out who or what it was.
Then he was inside his frozen body, his mind still with access to the virtual plane. He felt the power come back into him from Sybyl.
“ Dalton and Jackson are back,” Hammond said. “I’m bringing them out.”
“What about Barnes?” Mentor asked.
“Nothing.”
On her way out, Souris paused inside of Sybyl, contemplating the changes that had been made since she left Bright Gate. She saw what Jenkins had done, the modifications to the computer and the programming.
As the connections with Sybyl grew stronger, Dalton could sense Jackson. He was on the virtual plane inside of the Ranch, watching as Hammond began the process of bringing his body back. He knew he’d have to go back into his brain shortly, but he wanted one last chance to figure out what had happened.
“Are you all right?” he asked as he searched the virtual plane for the third member of their team. “I think so.”
“Where’s Barnes?”
“I don’t know-” There was a pause, then her voice came back. “Someone else is here. In Sybyl”
He immediately picked up the presence she was referring to. “Hold!” he. sent to Hammond, but the link through Sybyl wasn’t strong enough. He could feel the virtual world slipping away from him. With a desperate effort he “lunged” toward the foreign body. His virtual essence careened into the other and he was overwhelmed with a flurry of images and emotions; shining through it all like a beacon was the fact that whoever or whatever the presence was, it had just come from out of Space Command’s mainframe and had the unlock code for the MIL STAR retransmitter.
As that startling piece of information resounded in Dalton ’s consciousness, the virtual world faded away and he was back in his own mind, inside his body.
23
The helicopter carrying Valika and Cesar landed on the rear deck of the Yuri Gagarin. They quickly off-loaded and were met by Tanya Zenata. Cesar wasted no time on pleasantries.
“Have the modifications been completed?” he demanded.
“Yes, sir,” Zenata responded.
“The computer?” he asked.
“We’re putting it on-line as per Professor Souris’s instructions. She left it programmed. All that is needed is for someone to initiate the program.”
Cesar smacked his hands together. “Excellent.”
He headed forward, leaving Valika and Zenata.
“What is going on?” Zenata asked. “What does he have planned?”
Valika had a weapons case in each hand. “It is best for you not to know.”
Souris was back in her body, inside the helicopter, but she was still connected to Aura. A quick systems check told her power was very low and she would have to shut it down soon, but she was still relishing the contact she had made with the Psychic Warrior in the other computer. She had felt the man’s essence, an experience unlike anything she had ever encountered before. Reluctantly, she returned to the real plane and shut down Aura. “To the airport,” she ordered the pilot.
“What happened?” McFairn demanded.
General Mitchell was at the back of the main control room for Space Command, trying to make sense of the various reports his people were giving him.
“Something got into the computer,” Mitchell said. “We’re off-line and sealed in.”
“ ‘Something? Like what?”
A young officer ran up and gave the general several computer printouts. McFairn waited impatiently as the general read.
“We don’t know,” Mitchell finally said, sparing her a moment before going back to the paperwork.
McFairn felt a trickle of sweat go down the center of her back. “What did it access other than the DefCon Four alert and knocking your mainframe off-line?”
“Damn,” Mitchell swore as he flipped a page. “It got into the DefCon Four codes.”
For a moment McFairn thought she had been found out, but she realized it was worse than that as Mitchell continued.
“Which codes?”
“Whoever did this got the unlock code for something in MILSTAR.” Mitchell frowned. “Why would someone want that?”
McFairn knew exactly why someone would want that, and the pieces fell into place-the Ring experimenting using a satellite as a retransmitter and now stealing the unlock code. They were going to appropriate the system and use it with Aura.
“How long will it take to get the computer back online and get communication with the outside world?” McFairn demanded.
General Mitchell shook his head. “We don’t know. We hope in a couple of hours, but this is unprecedented.”
McFairn checked her watch. A couple of hours. By then CS-MILSTAR would be deployed and on-line.
“What about the shuttle?” she asked. “If we’re off-line, who’s ground base control?”
“ Houston would automatically have taken over,” Mitchell said.
“I need an outside line,” McFairn said. “ASAP.”
“We’re doing the best we can,” Mitchell said.
“Do better.”
“If the code has been compromised, we can’t take any chances,” Dalton said. “We stop both. HAARP and the Ring/Mithrans.”
“How?” Jackson asked as she tossed aside the towel she had been using to wipe embryonic fluid off her face. “The Ring’s got some sort of weapon they can use against us as Psychic Warriors.”