"LUNAR: Tales From Crystal Tokyo"
LUNAR:
Tales From Crystal Tokyo
By
Daryll Pung
Episode
1-02: Just One Of Those Days
Rated:
R
City
of Milwaukee, Planet Earth, Sol system, 6 March 2736
"Zachary!" snapped the teacher.
He blinked, and looked up, one finger closing the program he'd been
working on. He could clearly hear
the snickers of his twin stepsisters and their friends behind him.
"Yes, Mr. Darby?" he replied calmly.
"I asked what the primary cause was for the First Lunar-Nega
War," Mr. Darby said.
"What else? Greed for
territory and hatred of the Golden Millennium," answered Zachary.
"Don't get cocky, young man! And
pay attention! Now, Anna, why did
Neo-Queen Serenity I try diplomacy before dispatching the fleet?"
As the targeted girl stammered out an answer, Zachary glanced behind him,
at the smirks on the faces of the group behind him.
He turned back around, and gritted his teeth.
It was shaping up to be a normal day.
He leaned back, his expression neutral.
Being as intelligent as he was, Zach was as ready as he ever would be for
the upcoming Test. He had studied
hard as of late, and he felt all the pointless reviewing was simply dulling his
edge.
It's not like he had much else to do besides study.
He often wondered why, if he was so brilliant, his life was such a mess.
Then he would mentally kick himself.
He knew exactly why. His
mother had always doted on him, as had his father.
After his father had been killed (he didn't remember how), his mother had
begun to change.
Or had her true colors just been revealed? he wondered.
Whatever the reason, shortly after his tenth birthday, she remarried to
the wealthy corporate head that was now his stepfather, and he had gained twin
stepsisters exactly three days younger than him, as well as a stepsister five
years younger. Along the way, his
young half-brother had been born. The
second the vows had been exchanged, his life had changed, and not for the
better.
His life went from paradise to hell on earth.
Sure, the money ensured he had whatever he wanted (despite the fact money
wasn't required to live in the Golden Millennium, many still wanted it to keep
up a wealthy lifestyle), but his mother turned cold, relegating him to last in
her priorities. He had become the
unwanted child. For he was the
only member of his 'family' who didn't worship at the temple of the almighty
credit, he frowned bitterly. He
had no friends, for his twin half-sisters always scared or bribed anyone
remotely resembling one away from him.
Well, no friends in the physical sense, he amended.
Despite their wishes, his stubborn pride refused to let him back down,
and he simply kept his grades up, locked himself in his room, listened to his
music, and spent his free time virtual gaming or on Worldnet, where he had
plenty of friends under the hacker alias RaGe187.
He shook his head, listening to his teacher drone on. If they only knew, he thought with a grin.
He had complete access to the house AI, bypassing even the intelligence
routines and the parental lockouts. He
knew a dozen tricks about dealing with AIs.
For despite their intelligence and capability, they were still machines,
vulnerable to a skilled individual who knew the ways in.
For fun, he had already hacked the school's AI, as well as several
different company AIs. His
stepfather's company included, of course. He
had even hacked the AI of the Earth Council Of Representatives, Neo-Queen
Serenity I's advisors on Earth.
He reactivated the program he had been playing with, and worked on it,
while seeming to pay attention. For
as of late, he had been involved in the biggest challenge any hacker knew.
He was trying to get into the most intelligent, most brilliant, most
powerful AI in the GM. He was
attempting to access the main AI at the Crystal Palace on Luna.
It was a challenge worthy of his intellect and tenacity.
It was...
"ZACHARY THOMAS!" snapped his teacher.
He again heard the snickers as he sighed.
Definitely a normal day.
"Zachary got chewed out in front of the entire class," Tabatha
giggled. He gritted his teeth,
barely tasting his dinner.
"Apparently Mr. Braniac was SO concerned about the Test he couldn't
pay attention to Mr. Darby," added Tamara.
"Girls," began Ronald van Houten, their father.
"Shouldn't you also be concerned about the Test?"
While his mother had taken that last name, Zach hadn't.
"Well, if we pass, we pass," shrugged Tabatha.
"I'd rather take after you. As cool as it would be to be a
Senshi..." she trailed off.
"...We doubt it's as cool as running a huge company," finished
Tamara.
Zach rolled his eyes. He
noticed Mary, his 'mother', glaring at him.
"Stop that right now, Zachary!
You demean them! At least
they'll be successful! That's more
than you'll ever be!" she snapped.
Zach blinked, noting everyone was glaring at him.
He glared right back, pushed his plate away, and turned and stomped up
the stairs to his room. He almost
never took the lift, preferring the back route.
He stalked into his room, locked the door, and glared at the wall
receptor.
"Music!" he exclaimed.
Most certainly a normal day.
"Open up, Zachary!" griped Ronald.
No answer. He knocked again,
louder this time. He couldn't know
that Zach had the music cranked, as the soundproofing in the house was the best
money could buy. He also couldn't
know Zach had turned off the door buzzer after the second buzz. There was one other thing he couldn't know, but was about to
find out.
"Computer, parental override, code Ron five three three six,"
he said impatiently, glancing at Mary, who looked ready to explode.
"Access denied," came the emotionless reply.
The pair blinked in surprise.
"Excuse me?" asked Ronald in a dangerous tone.
He tried again.
"Access denied," was the same result.
"Try yours," he said angrily.
"Computer, parental override, code Mary seven two one three,"
she said, with a raised eyebrow.
"Access denied," the house AI said again.
"And precisely why are our codes denied?" shouted Ronald.
"Code clearance for entry into this door is restricted," came
the answer.
"I think it's broken," said Mary.
"We'll have to call a technician."
They moved away, muttering.
They were totally unaware that Zach was watching through the visual
pickup, laughing. He shook his head
and settled down to work, fingers moving nimbly over the keyboard, headset
adorning his head. He reached under
his desk, activating his "special" equipment, and the hiss of the
signal path rerouting gear and AI programming set rose audibly.
"Computer, begin jukebox mode," Zach said, settling back to
work. Music blared even louder as
complex codes streamed across the four flat screen displays.
As the thunderous finale of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture trailed
off, Zach sighed, rubbing his eyes. He
missed the beep as he gazed at the poster of a RSN battleship on the wall over
his bed. As his eyes wandered
around the room, a blinking cursor caught his eye.
ACCESS GRANTED.
ENTER CLEARANCE CODE:_
"Whoa!" he gasped, sitting straight upright.
He rubbed his eyes again, making sure his eyes weren't deceiving him.
"I'm in," he whispered in disbelief.
"I'm really in!"
Slowly, he cautioned himself.
Must go slowly, leave no trace that I was ever here.
He frowned in concentration, activating the charting programs, blinking
at the sheer complexity of the various tiers of awareness, at all the
subroutines, at the amount of data available.
Why, it'll take days just to chart everything and figure out how to
best access everything without being detected!
He grinned, pausing in his charting to leave a small back door for
himself in the complex firewall coding. Even
as the guitar riffs from Sevendust's Waffle began to fill the room, he
leaned back, smile increasing.
Who's Da Man? he couldn't help but think.
His eyelids drooped, and he allowed himself to relax slightly, even as
the signal paths were fully plotted, and various watchdog programs and firewall
programs were highlighted and bypassed. He
reached over to the fourth screen and activated the AI buffering program to
insure that the computer itself wouldn’t notice his efforts.
RaGe187 has done it again, he thought happily, keeping a careful
eye on things. He had overestimated
the time and difficulty constraints, but perhaps that was all to the better.
His fingers tapped the desk as the four screens displayed their progress,
far into the night.
"And since the Test is tomorrow, today is a relaxation day for
everyone," said Mr. Darby. "Go
home, relax, do whatever it takes to put your mind at ease and prepare you for
tomorrow. No thinking about the
Test for twenty-four hours!"
As everyone shuffled, getting up from his or her desks, Zach rubbed his
chin. That gave him plenty of time
to finish charting and begin actually hacking the CP's AI. Excellent! He
could shorten his time estimates; as he did mental calculations he realized by
the time he actually took the test, he should have unrestricted access and be
reading whatever he wished!
As he got up, noting the superior expressions on the twins' faces, a
sudden thought struck him. The
primary programmer of the CP AI was...
Damn.
I just hacked into Sailor Mercury's computer coding, and did it so
skillfully no one yet knows!
He ignored the twins as they stalked down the hall, away from him, secretly
elated at his success. He knew
hackers could be divided into two categories: the first kind hacked because they
wanted to test their skills against the best programmers around, and they wanted
to know things few others did. The
hacker community referred to the second kind as “crackers”. It was this variety that gave hacking a bad name.
They entered a system for the purpose of doing harm or making money.
Zach knew he was one of the former.
The latter variety, while rare, still existed, so he decided he would add
a few enhancements to the CP AI, to make it harder to get in.
Surely the GM higher ups would appreciate that...
Such thoughts cheered him as the entire school went home for the day.
Zach promptly ignored everybody and went upstairs, noting a technician's
vehicle parked outside. He raced to
his room, locked the door, and threw his school comp on the bed, flipping on
his equipment. He had to cover his
tracks. He grinned, accessing the
house AI and programming several faults into it so that the technician wouldn't
look too deep into the system.
Let's see who's smarter, he thought, keeping careful track of the
tech's progress. Bring it on!
"Ah," said the tech, pointing to his diagnostic screens. Several blinking lines of code, in various locations,
highlighted programming conflicts. He
wished Mr. van Houten wasn't looking over his shoulder, breathing down his neck,
but the man was someone to impress, and keep happy.
"Looks like that isn't the only door you would have gotten that
response from. All of the bedrooms
are locked down in a similar fashion. It
looks to me like someone may be hacking into your system," the tech said,
running a hand through his blonde hair. "Whoever
it is isn't very good, as the person should have known enough to do this on a
lesser scale, more discreetly. Although
the access logs have been thoroughly erased."
"Any ideas?" asked Mrs. van Houten.
The tech frowned. "Probably
some school kid, in a computer tech course.
Such people are generally in it for the money.
Matter of fact, you may have a bigger problem than that," he said.
"You might want to check with your kids and see if someone's
blackmailing them." He set to
work.
"The girls have been spending extra money as of late!" gasped
Mrs. van Houten.
Mr. van Houten frowned slightly. "They
always spend extra money this time of the year, on clothes and such.
Besides, I'm pretty sure both would have mentioned something."
"About what, dad?" asked Tabatha, entering at that moment.
"Has anyone been blackmailing you?" he asked.
"No," said Tamara, puzzled.
"I may have overestimated how far the hacker got into your
system," commented the tech. He
looked up. "That's all whoever
it was has done. If that's the
case, I can add a few elements to make it harder to hack in."
"Do so," said Mrs. van Houten.
He grinned thoughtfully, examining the coding on the screen, fingers
moving nimbly over the keyboard.
He grinned thoughtfully, examining the coding on the screen, fingers
moving nimbly over the keyboard.
Nice, thought Zach. This
guy's not bad. He documented
the changes, already countering them, though not saving his work.
At least, not until the tech was finished.
He waited until the technician logged off.
He initiated a background search for any background watchdog programs.
When one was found, he frowned slightly, and carefully used the tech's
password to access the program. A
few slight changes, and Zach saved everything.
Now he could get back to his real work.
It was several hours later when Zach finished the pathway he edited for
himself in the CP AI. He left no
extra traces, making sure he was subtle about everything he did.
Unlike a cracker, he didn't want to do any harm, or wreck their defenses.
He knew that the minor changes he had made wouldn't be noticed unless
they were actually being looked for.
Now, what kind of interesting things can I find? he thought,
selecting the first directory. His
reading began to engross him, he forgot about his worries about how easy it had
been and let himself delve into the reading.
He also overlooked other possible defenses.
Such as...
Magic.
Crystal
Palace in Crystal Tokyo, Planet Luna, Sol system, 7 March 2736
"What's he reading now?" asked Sailor Mercury.
Luna snorted. "You sure
about this?" asked the black cat advisor of Serenity.
"Yes," said Sorcerer Dramlyn.
He leaned forward. "He's
delving into time travel related files. Fortunately,
that stuff isn't on the Test."
Artemis raised an eyebrow. "You're
really sure about this?" asked the white cat advisor.
"The dream studies of Sorcerer Kinsai have been thoroughly
cross-checked and researched," said Dramlyn, leaning back.
"With Sailor Uranus' and Neptune's help, we've tracked him
down." He nodded to the two
Senshi, leaning against the doorframe. "This
young man's magical potential is through the roof, and everyone agrees it is
better to groom such talent for our use, rather than leave it for potential
corruption."
"I'm not sure I agree," said Sailor Pluto.
"It is unwise to allow him to continue."
"If he's one of us, it won't matter, will it?" smiled Sailor
Saturn.
"Does a bottle of champagne make that much of a debt in your
account?" chuckled Dramlyn. "Remember,
I'm betting he'll be the first ever to do so well on the Test."
"I remember," Sailor Pluto said.
"Unfortunately, I cannot always tell ahead of time if such an
occurrence will happen." She
had a faint smile on her face.
"One of the reasons he made that bet," Sailor Mercury said with
a slight smile. It disappeared as
she examined the status display. "This
one's potential is actually disrupting all the safeguards.
We'll have to keep an eye on him."
"Indeed," said Luna softly.
City
of Milwaukee, Planet Earth, Sol system, 7 March 2736
"Wow," murmured Zach, running his hand through his hair. The things he was reading were simply amazing.
"I had no idea." He
glanced at the clock, and reluctantly began shutting things down, slowly backing
out, and closing everything behind him. It
was early for him, but Zach had a big day tomorrow.
As the last light went out, Zach lay comfortably in bed.
He gazed at the ceiling, and double-checked to make sure the loaded
plastic gun was in its place.
Tomorrow was a big day.
The day of the Test.
Zach couldn't know about the eyes upon him.
He couldn't know that on the roof across the street, a Senshi crouched,
watching. He couldn't know the
truth.
A day of reckoning was at hand.
And he would be in the middle of it.
STAY
TUNED!