By Raven
Chris had sent Evan through the gate when he returned home. Evan wanted to flee his house, to avoid Sophie�s temper fit. Once again, Sophie was pregnant, and in a foul temper. So, Evan agreed to be Raven�s pilot in her little reconnaissance and infiltration mission.
Evan ran simulations till he was satisfied on how to make Harper sit up and bark. True, Harper, of all of them, had more free will then the rest, but he still needed a pilot on occasion. Harper could theoretically fly himself, if there was an emergency, but it would have to be dire indeed for him to abandon his charges, as he tended to call any passengers in the ship.
Raven had taken an organic compound to give Harper a sensor lock that wasn�t nano-based. The trip was going to take sixteen hours, so a little sleep wasn�t going to hurt. Evan went down for ten hours or so, leaving the Black Raven on cruise control, so to speak. Raven napped for four hours herself, flushing all the nanites from her system. They would live in the blood bag for a few days or so. Salem had given her a crystal that would store all the data like a tricorder. He had used his magic to make it Erglash proof.
Raven then took the next twelve hours to prepare for what was going to be the hardest computer hack she had done since she had hacked into UNITY. Schuyler had told her, when she and Chris were at the Guild, that to hack into the UNITY was impossible. All that had tried previously had failed, and three actually had died in the process. It had taken her 84 hours to do it. No one knew how she managed the feat. Well, Raven had a little secret. Yes, she had stolen the tech to create the Raven fleet and for Carl�s new matrix. But, Raven had also invented something that was uniquely her own. So, once again, she set herself up to hack an Erglash. The difference between this time and the last was it was going to be a lot more dangerous, and she was going to be on her own, so to speak.
Her device was simple- it was a device that allowed her to compress all of her memories into a very small area. That area was in the brain stem. This meant she had her entire brain capacity to use as a hard drive. Essentially, her brain was now functioning as a computer that ran at the speed of thought. She then used the device�s other functions- one was to partition her brain, creating an artificial environment. One that would allow her to multitask and move through as if her mind was a holodeck. Salem would keep the Erglash from getting out of its designated area. Aside from that, she was going to be alone in this.
Salem knew science, but Raven understood programming. Even Schuyler had to concede that she was the best computer hacker he had ever met. Jade was once again up to her elbows with the other two in planetary restoration. Raven had not told Jade that she had opened a full line to the creation force through the stone. Raven knew that it was all right for her to do this somehow. In her heart, Raven wondered if her mother was ever going to talk to her directly again; one day maybe, one day. She didn�t have time to think about that now, however.
Evan had got Harper into the building by setting the ship into an ore cart. Once they were in the building, they traveled to where the governor was. The cloak was fully engaged, and all on board were ready. She had her Neurocompressor in place, and it was Erglash-proof now too. Raven was sure that it had been Naya that had done that while she slept.
There was also a stone next to the compressor. It had a note tied to it that read �Cammo stone�- the note wasn�t signed.
Once they had reached the level that the Erglash Governor was at, she hopped out. Salem gave her the all clear to begin about ten minutes later. She took one more look around before she began. The crystal was in position. Harper was sitting up on top of the building with the transporter locked in case of critical failure with orders to snatch her and blow the refinery. A microt holding a piece of Ulthiex-1419 was set to go off, destroying the Erglash if it managed to break free. Her final ingredient to this cocktail was a dangerous mixture. One ounce Ziratty, two ounces Chucky�s Platinum, two ounces Elixir Vitae, and two drops essence of death. The combination would send her mind into an altered state of thinking. She would pay for it later though.
�Bottoms up, cat.� Raven sent to Salem as she looked over her shoulder and slammed the mixture. Once again, she was trapped in her mind with a killing machine consciousness.
She set her environment, then set the stasis lock. Her timing was seamless, and the Erglash didn�t know what had happened. Once she had convinced it that she was just another file protocol, she began to copy its programming. The information files were extensive.
She ran into no difficulties till she got to the personality matrix. That was where the command verifiers and the transmission junctions were stored. Yes, the Erglash used drones as long range transmitters. What hadn�t been made clear though was that they were real time relays that would stop transmitting if any outside signal was detected. But, if the command matrix gave a certain signal, it would possible to tap these transmissions. The trick was to build a device that could pick up their telepathic transmissions.
Raven copied the personality matrix she would need to purge the ego of the governor before they could retrieve her.
Evan was getting a little nervous when he got the signal to retrieve Raven. Harper was in a twitch- he was picking up ships. Elapsed time had been nearly four and a half hours. Evan could hear Harper from the back- �I have her! Go!�
Harper was surprised at what Evan did then- he literally stood the ship on its tail and slammed on full acceleration, shifting into T-space at an altitude Harper thought was dangerously low. It wasn�t until later that Harper realized that it actually was a safe altitude- the higher the gravity, the faster the atmospheric pressure drops with altitude. Raven told Harper, �Eight minutes till it is aware.� Harper relayed the data to his pilot.
Raven looked at Harper- he was trying to undress her for the decon process. �No, must download.� she managed to say. She heard Salem vocalize, one of the few times he chooses to.
�Hand her the palmtop, she needs to get the information out of her head.� Salem assisted in the download, but it still took half an hour. Raven was fading in and out when she saw the space man.
Evan looked at his mother in law. Harper had gotten the fluorine contamination out and off of her, but she was still in trouble. He was in a hazmat suit because of the amount of radiation she had absorbed. He needed to enact the Neuro Purge function on the device she was wearing.
Salem gave him instructions on how to do it. He hit the sequence of buttons and watched as Raven�s eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she began to seize. Salem had given him a mouth piece to place in her mouth, knowing full well that this would happen.
Evan could only watch and keep Raven on her side as she convulsed for the twenty minutes it took to purge the Erglash Governor�s ego from her brain. When she began bleeding from her ears and nose, Salem gave him the all clear to turn it off.
Evan disengaged the device, which is the size of a quarter and covered in lights, from her skull. A split second after he turned it off, Raven was on her knees, puking into a bucket that the cat produced. He had been hung over and praying to the porcelain goddess several times before, but this made him to never want to drink again. The substance that she was eliminating was black and thick, like tar.
�Don�t get too close, Evan. It is toxic, even more so than the radiation.� Evan knew the voice in his head was Salem�s, and he tended to listen to the cat just out of habit. Once she was done, the bucket disappeared. Then, there was a small purple flash.
When the flash died down, Naya was standing there with Bram. She took a look at her mother, then at Evan. Naya made a gesture, and her mother was covered in a purple light. She made another gesture, and the whole cargo space, and Evan, was bathed in a similar light.
�I got rid of the radiation she was emitting and cleaned the hull. You can take the suit off now, Evan.
�She is going to be really sick for a few days. I couldn�t get rid of the radiation poisoning. Keep her warm and make sure she gets some sleep.� Naya told her brother-in-law. Naya left in the same manner that she came, in a cloud of purple smoke.
Salem looked at Evan for a moment. �You will need to get her to drink this.� He handed him the flask from Chucky. �Sit her up against you on the floor and hold the bottle under her nose.� he instructed.
Raven was drifting in and out of consciousness. She became aware of someone telling her to drink. She hurt all over, and her head hurt worse then when she had a migraine. She drank only to keep whoever was being so noisy quiet.
Evan placed her in the bunk and all the sound was cut from the cabin. He would go back every couple of hours and make her drink. She never became fully aware. He became worried when he noticed that she was running a fever and was exhibiting the signs of chills and sweats. �It is the radiation poisoning. Her body is purging the effects.� Salem reassured him.
�Just how much radiation did she take?�
�Enough to make the bombing of Japan and most of the nuclear test program seem like a Sunday picnic on the beach.� Evan could only stare- that should have killed her. �Actually, it is trying to now. That is why she is so ill. Her regeneration is in overdrive. She is, thank goodness, so exhausted that she is unaware. But I am willing to bet she is having some really wild dreams.�
�You really think so?�
�Oh, kid, I know she is. I know.�
Raven was sitting with Chris, Penny and Schuyler at Munden�s waiting for the concert to start. Schuyler was sitting over his second drink- they were all celebrating. Alex and Robin announced that they were going to have a baby.
�So, Zander and Alex catch this guy from Enlil�s group trying to wire a bypass into UNITY.� Schuyler was trying his best to tell the story. �He actually thought that UNITY could be hacked into.
�I built UNITY to be completely hack proof. There isn�t a hacker alive that could get into that computer.�
�Just because you built it, Lark, doesn�t mean it is hack proof, it just means that the right person hasn�t come along.� Raven said.
�You want to bet?� came Schuyler�s slightly slurred voice. Raven looked at her fourth shot of Ziratty.
�Sure. I�ll take your bet now. What are the stakes?� Raven asked. Penny�s reaction was shock and horror. Chris could only hold his head and mouth the words �Oh, no�.
�So, what are the stakes, Lark?� Raven asked again. He sat there for a moment and thought.
�Okay, you lose and you give up that.� He was looking at her bottle of Ziratty. Now mind you, it is the size of a wine bottle and had been a gift from Andrew.
�All right, and for your end of it, lab rat, you stay out of the lab for a month and learn to do something constructive, like knitting.�
�Fine, but if I have to learn to knit, then you have a time limit. How about ninety-six hours?� It had taken one of the others who had attempted hacking UNITY that long to get past the first tier of encryption.
�I want a week to prepare.� Raven left at that moment. She had a lab that was hers, but she used it mostly as a painting studio. Since it was a holo-deck, she now used it for another purpose. She had been studying on a world that used bio computers. She knew that the brain was capable of storing vast amounts of information. Look at her brain; it stored every memory that she had ever had. Once she learned something, it was forever imprinted in not only her brain but her body as well. She used a higher percentage of her brain, so there was more active space in her brain.
The idea was to compress all of her memories that were not needed to hack the computer into a smaller area. Much like files could be compressed to take up less space. It had taken her working in a temporal compression chamber for nearly a year to get the device to do exactly what she wanted it to do.
The final device she called the Neuro- compressor. It had more then one function. The first was to compress all the memories that she didn�t need into a small area. She was then able to place those memories anywhere in her brain she wanted. She found that she could place them in her brain stem. That area was able to take the stress of holding the �Files�.
The next ability was she could create in her mind an iconographic environment- with that, she was able to see system functions in real time. Because she was sharing space with computers in her mind, the device also has a neuro purge function. In a sense, it would wipe anything that was not her from her mind. She also, in that time, developed a compound that expanded her consciousness. She started with dragon�s blood, but that tended to be to erratic in how it affected her. She then went to the stuff from one of Chucky�s Mithral bottles. To that, she added Elixir Vitae. Ziratty came next, with the final ingredient being one of Andrew�s Tears. The mixture was dangerous in itself and toxic after ingestion and expulsion. Exposure to it was deadly.
Once she had figured out both parts and had drawn up a general game plan, she turned off the compression.
The rest of the week she spent in planning and mental preparation. She was not to use any magic to do the ordeal, and Dr. Wolf was there to verify that aspect. Within the deepest, most encrypted part of UNITY was a file. Once opened, it would cause every monitor at Guild Central to play a piece of taped footage. Specifically, Schuyler doing the teapot dance. It was only accessible if she did the hack.
The first thing Raven did was to convince UNITY was that her mind was part of the network storage system. Once that had happened, she went to work.
The system was known publicly to have twelve tiers of encryption. Raven knew it really had thirteen. Each tier of encryption was based on a different principle, getting exponentially harder with each level. The first three levels had been relatively easy, working on terms of human mathematics and physics. The next three tiers were based on the technical manuals of various worlds with no discernable pattern. Tiers seven, eight, and nine were based on the language data base that the guild had, the more obscure the language, the better. The final three tiers coding were based on Quadrinary programming and Temporal Physics. Tier thirteen was based on the tonal language of the Orin. The Orin were a crystal based life form that had a language based totally on sounds. They had approximately thirty million sounds and sound combinations in their spoken language. For Raven, the language tiers had been the easiest, and the thirteenth had been the most fun.
Once she had gotten past the encryption, the system had welcomed her into itself. One of the common errors that people made in trying to get into UNITY was that only a Cyberpsi could get into it. UNITY was doubly fortified against that. Raven had come across that information from Angel. The only reason why Raven had been able to cobble her mind to the computer was because it could read telepathic transmissions. Or, to be more correct, it could read Neural impulses. By setting her memories into a small dormant space, this had confused UNITY. Setting her mind into an interface terminal had furthered that confusion, because without her emotions she had become, like her grandson Byron, a human computer. The Cocktail had allowed her to think as fast, if not faster, then UNITY�s processors with the same multitasking capability as a normal computer.
With her mind in the altered state, it still took her eighty-four hours to accomplish her task. Chris had let Doc know what was going on, and he had agreed to watch over the process. Julia was also there out of interest. She wanted to see if and how the Neural compressor worked.
They had stayed there in shifts monitoring her, but they were both there towards the end. �You know, Julia, I don�t understand how she has managed to do this. She should not be able to function with her mind in that kind of Neural activity.� Dr. Harris mentioned.
�Stephen, it is possible because of her mind. Because her brain can create new neural pathways at any time, this allows the device to work.
�What she has done is reconfigure her brain patterns. Her cellular memory will return it back to its original position or settings once she is done.�
�But, Julia, what keeps it from happening now?�
�Before she undertook this endeavor, she spent several hours in a deep trance, much like the one she is in now. She has literally willed her mind to change its pattern. The compressor just holds it in position so that she doesn�t have to think about it.�
�That doesn�t explain the other activity though.�
�Stephen, take a look at the contents of her stomach.�
�Oh, my! What ever that compound is, it is extremely toxic, but there is a direct correlation to her increased brain function. She is definitely going to pay for it, most definitely.�
The looks at the guild and on Schuyler�s face had been priceless and Polaroid quality. Raven was still tied into UNITY and the security system when she set the packet off. Schuyler actually had fallen off his stool in the lab. When he woke up from fainting dead cold, he got up and walked out of the lab. There was no whining or bitching. In the end, he learned to crochet, making a blanket that Raven treasured for many years. But, no one except Raven knew that it was Schuyler who started making the baby booties that would mysteriously appear when a child was born at Guild Central.
�Come on, Raven, you need to wake up a little.� Raven could hear voices, but her head hurt so bad she just wanted to pass out again. �Come on, Mom, you need to sit up just long enough for us to help you change.� Raven knew that voice- it was Allison. She sat and let herself be undressed and then dressed in her fuzzy. She knew it was her fuzzy, because of the way it made her feel.
Raven breathed in deeply. She smelled more then one person and a lot of fur. Allison and Salem were the first scents she recognized, along with Chris. Then she smelled the Grimp master controller along with... Natchak was there, but that meant they, or he, had revealed himself to Allison and Chris.
�Honored Raven, we revealed ourselves to your daughter and life mate when we heard the ship�s distress call.� Raven relaxed at that news- Harper had called ahead to warn them. Raven reached for the palmtop and struggled to hand it to Chris before she blacked out.
Chris looked at his wife, then at his daughter. �So, what�s the verdict, kid?� he asked.
�Nothing bad, Dad, just bone weary exhausted. She has a migraine, due to neuro transmitter imbalance, but that will go away with a good long nap.
�I gave her enough protein to keep her out for at least three days, but she is so worn out, it may be longer.� she reported.
While she spoke, Chris could only look at the Red. They had revealed themselves to him and Allison shortly after Raven had left. Apparantly, the female Nerien was a Farseer, and had followed Raven out of system. Natchak, their leader, was interested in not only the information from the palmtop, but also how his Beloved had done it.
He then looked over at Raven, who was now floating in a pale blue field of energy. Natchak had called it a sensory deprivation field. Chris had tried it himself for an hour- it was very relaxing, and had cured one of the worst tension headaches he had ever had. Laying on a cabinet, within arms reach, was Salem in tiger form doing his duty. The other thing that Raven had was a thick afghan that Sky had dropped off. She had only said it was a replacement and a thank you gift from a friend. It was three or four shades of purple and black. It looked incredibly comfortable and she seemed to enjoy it snuggling up to it like a small child.
Once again, his beloved had done the impossible, hacking a computer that couldn�t be hacked. Well, once again she was safe, and he could watch over her. Now it was his turn to do some work here. He looked over at Natchak and Nerien. �I am ready to start whenever you are.� he said.