Chapter 2
Chapter 2.
C-256 was a popular coding language, compatible with many 256-bit operating platforms, such as the hardware residing in my brain. This programming language enabled authors to create virtually anything, from 3D graphics to basic scripts. I needed the latter, in the form of a brute force password cracker. Such a program was simple, it attempted to run through a sequence of numbers and letters, one digit at a time. The irony was, I already had dozens of such programs, sitting in my wetware's primary storage. Tools of my trade. I just couldn't get to them.
I'm a proficient hacker, by my own opinion, but with all my utilities locked out, I had to break in to my toolbox. With it, I gained access to my communications suite. Even with that, I wouldn't be out of the woods. Almost all low power, long distance comms employed a relayless protocol called hyperwave. Faster than light, it can travel many parsecs. That's great, but there's no method to triangulate its origin, it's impossible for others to use it to determine where the hell I was at. Trinity had no GPS satellites in orbit, every time someone tried to put one up, it got shot down. The natives enjoyed their hiding spots.
If I did manage to call my team, what could I say? Hi guys, come get me out of here. Where's it at? I don't know... but I'd have to worry about that, later, maybe they could come up with ideas.
+48 hours.
Configuration mode utilized weak security, indeed. It had unlimited logon attempts for root, thank Dog. I tried default passwords, like "default," but Zim apparently wasn't that stupid. I tried "Zim," and a few other ideas, but nothing worked.
I didn't have the time necessary to create a dictionary, to attempt common words. If Zim was using random letters and numbers, it would be a waste anyway. So, my brute force utility was dumb and quick. I succeeded in compiling it, it was chewing through possibilities right then. The CPU load gave me a headache, which was common with high processor loads, it's powered off milliwatts harvested from the brain stem. That could have been the stims, whatever Zim was feeding me. I hadn't slept at all.
Maybe the headache was from exhaustion. The chair did allow me to stretch out during my rest periods. I was able to figure that out pretty quick. Movement was like chocolate, simply amazing, but I could never get enough. I hadn't realized how much I had taken it for granted, the ability to move my limbs. After the first day, my climaxes shortened in length, and my recovery time stood at the limit of an hour.
The program was now five digits in, and indeed, so far, they were all random letters and numbers, upper and lower case. I couldn't tell how many digits long the password was, my program was too basic to perform that kind of analysis. Waves of sweat broke out on my nose when I realized I was racing against multiple clocks.
What if I was such a "good producer," Zim didn't need me for the full week? What if the final step my "owner" requested, was to destroy my wetware? What if Zim discovered what I was doing? What if he brought someone else in, and locked my HUD onto the one camera observing his initiation? I already felt scarred for life, having watched it done to me. I feared my future.
My ass was very sore, it would be a long time before I let someone mount me again. Would I even want to have sex again? Methods that could wipe memories existed, maybe I could use one, to forget this crazy experience, to help bring me back to my old life.
+48 hours.
I was a complete wreck, I'd spent four days locked into the machine now. I randomly hallucinated at times, bugs in my software manifested themselves in my HUD, crawling around within my field of vision. I tried to improve my code to increase performance, but now I couldn't get it to compile. Often, characters I entered into my wetware doubled, or tripled, or they were the wrong choice entirely. It was as if I was mashing my paws against a keyboard. My ability to control my wetware was slipping, even with the root password, I might not be able to login.
During my rest periods, I tried to sleep. Consciousness refused to release me, it was nothing more than a thousand-meter stare. I swore off sex completely, for the rest of my life. Insanity crept in, but I kept asking myself, if I felt crazy, then I couldn't be, right? Crazy people don't know they're crazy.
Rest, it was all I needed. My mouth watered for all the wrong reasons, like when I thought about walking or running. I just wanted to curl up on my side, put my tail over my nose, and sleep. I'd give up all my revenge on Zim for just one night of sleep.
Eighteen extractions per day had to be unhealthy. Staying awake for this long, was not healthy. I could feel it in my bones, my body knew, this couldn't go on forever. At some point, something was going to break.
There wasn't much to do between attempts at coding and compiling. I learned more C256, and attempted various programs I had always wondered if I could make. I was bored, I started to explore.
At first, I told myself no, don't select any of those other cameras, Keman. You want privacy, so give them theirs. Such inhibitions didn't last for long.
I now knew certain cameras were lower resolution than others. The floors had inexplicable gaps in certain places. I could see that the felinoid on Camera 3 was next to a door, another exit, perhaps. Camera 13 had recently came online, it displayed a creature I had never seen before, still thrashing in its restraints.
Not everyone was "donating" sperm. Many were growing sections of tissue, replacement organs. Comatose, living, breathing organ factories. I counted my luck that I wasn't one of them.
+24 hours.
I finally decoded the password for root: "3hj48KlSo021"
I only had to use it. I refused to try, until I built a graphical applet that looked like a fly swatter, to squash the bugs swimming around in my vision. It didn't work, but the password did, and I was in.
I fired up my comms, and contacted my team via text, it was the only way I could speak. They seemed angry with me, at first, accusing me of taking their money and ditching them. I completely explained my situation, which was embarrassing. Their anger shifted, refocused on rescuing me, and I felt pride when they informed me they had dropped everything to recon the planet. They proposed deploying microsats into orbit, with the hopes they could survive long enough for my wetware's GPS to get a fix on my location. All we needed was time, and luck.
+24 hours.
Six days in now, and the microsatellite trick failed miserably. Too many people wanted to remain anonymous, my team's ship quickly earned a hostile status. Not a good thing, around the likes of this planet.
My team presented an alternative. Instead of finding me, they had dug into the underground slave network on Phaylact, with some success. They thought they knew who was supposed to come pick me up. The plan was to intercede violently, wipe out that team and take me in their stead. Then, we could find out where I was headed to, and seek further reparations. Murder, death, kill. I liked this idea, a lot, though it took several attempts to get me to understand it. My attention span was toast, and every sixty minutes, my team knew it was best to just leave me alone, I was "busy."
I asked them to hook Zim up to one of his machines, and leave him there to die. They said they would see what was possible. The authorities needed to be involved, to rescue the others trapped in the facility, it was also the only way to prevent my team's ship from being attacked in orbit. There were other details, but none made much sense to me at this point. Just come get me, I don't want to explain to some cop what happened, let someone else do that.
+24 hours.
Zim entered my area. The walls came up, in he walked. I bristled, my fur puffed out, I worried he was too early, or something. My anxiety skyrocketed just seeing him. My heart gave its best attempt at self destruction. Seven days without sleep, not good. I couldn't stop shivering. Zim approached me with a hypospray in his hand. At least, I hoped that it was me. I couldn't tell which camera I was looking at anymore.
"That will be all." Toneless, he had what he wanted. A stab of hope and elation plunged into my guts, as I made the mental connection. He had no idea what was about to happen.
I felt a sting in my neck, blackness enfolded. Sleep took me into its tender embrace, and all my worries, fears, all my pains and aches, they exited stage left.