Betta's Station by Johnnie Ruffin

Author:Johnnie Ruffin [Ruffin, Johnnie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-01-23T22:00:00+00:00

Before Jadis could change the subject yet again away from his waste output, the entire room trembled and several drops of water struck the back of his head. The room was cast in a shade of blue that blinked intermittently. It was a Drafer alarm, yet an alarm still.

T’enic pressed the buckle of her belt. “This is Lizard Inn, I’ve lost all communication with the lower half. I can’t reach Maintenance.”

Jadis furrowed his brow as he watched the holographic percentage change from 57 to 58, and then 59 at the corner of his vision. His download was suddenly proceeding. He was tempted to hack the federal database, but few came away from that without repercussions. Instead, he attempted to reach any security modules that might interface with him.

The room trembled again. There was a shutter that reverberated through the entire structure, and then silence.

Jadis Ter was on his feet and running toward the entrance. “I know what this is. Some idiot is firing on the station.”

T’enic gasped. “How is that possible? We are protected.”

Jadis didn’t wait to answer. He was through the entrance and into the dry, warm chaos that was The Disc. Employees in flight suits were running for lifts that weren’t working. There were a few that were trying to keep order by organizing into proper teams. There was no sign of clear leadership, which nagged at Jadis, but he moved forward, interfacing with his ship.

There was no firewall, no protection against any type of attack on the network. Even in the most basic setup, there was something to protect against intrusion. Jadis was easily able to access all the commands that were once encrypted on the old station. It was almost as if it had reverted back to its derelict state. He called a multitude of commands in an effort to get some information of what was happening outside the station.

An exterior scan revealed a heavy cruiser with no clear identification. It was more than a few parsecs away. The station would have never detected it on its own, rather the feds were updating the telemetry in real time. Several federal fighters were en route to intersect the battle cruiser, but there was a more immediate threat. More missiles headed toward Betta’s Station, at least a dozen. The station’s counter measures would not stop them all.

It figured. The one time he decided to suffer through a full stay outside of his ship, and actually taste honey, he would be caught in a massacre.

“Station!” he called, watching the people claw at the lift entrance, some casting others aside to pull at the crevice between the doors.

A kiosk appeared, but all the signs and words were in red. “This is station. I apologize. We are in a state of emergency. All interaction between customers and station is temporarily disabled.”

Jadis rolled his eyes. He placed a new subroutine that caused a reboot and allowed him to access root. Soon he had linked some of the environmental controls with his current interface.

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