HAWK

CHAPTER NINE: WORM (2/5)

The revelation of the databeam's purpose was far worse than anything Kas had imagined.

If the signal was as it seemed - a computer worm designed to target X1's - then that would provide a tidy explanation for how Selva was destroyed. Kas had been operating under the assumption that the space station had been attacked from the outside by alien weaponry, but it made much more sense that it was sabotaged from within.

Selva was Primi's base for all X1's - it was their home. While the exact number of X1's inside Selva was unknown, it was certainly in the thousands - easily enough to launch a brief but devastating assault and blow Selva to salt.

But Kas also had a more immediate concern in that she was still in close proximity to an X1. Although it hadn't attempted to harm her, a terrifying question remained: if Hik had indeed been infected with the worm, then what had it done to him?

'Hik?' Kas said cautiously.

'Yes, Ms Balera.'

'What do you make of the databeam potentially being a worm that infects X1's?'

'I find it a rather alarming thought, Ms Balera.'

'Do you think you're infected?'

Hik took a moment to ponder this. 'I am unable to find any trace of such a virus in myself, though it is possible that said virus has corrupted me more deeply than I am able to determine.'

'I say we plug him in,' Dante said, standing defiantly with her arms crossed.

'Wait a minute,' Kas replied. 'Hik. Who is in control of you?'

'I respond only to you, Ms Balera.'

Kas rubbed her face and turned to Dante. 'Alright, plug him in.'

Dante grinned and rubbed her hands together. 'Been looking forward to this.' She ran off behind her desk and disappeared beneath it, only to reappear moments later wielding one end of a thick black cable which she yanked towards Hik's back. It had a large silver socket on its end, and once it came within half a foot of Hik's spine, it snapped itself to it magnetically.

'There we go,' Dante said. 'How do you feel, Hik?'

'I feel perfectly normal, thank you for asking.'

'Wonderful. Mr Whiskers, run diagnostics on Hik. And pay close attention for any sign of the databeam virus.'

The detailed model of the X1 shimmered, and Kas saw its feet begin to fill up with digital green liquid. Once it reached the dome, the fluid disappeared and a short message blinked on the true-res screen:

NO VIRUS FOUND

'Damn, I thought that would work,' Dante said. 'Mr Whiskers, show me a record of the X1's firmware updates.' The message on the screen dissolved and replaced itself with a list of text:

X1.14-RACV/UNKNOWN-003

X1.14-RACV/UNKNOWN-002

X1.14-RACV/H1K-363

X1.14-RACV/H1K-362

X1.14-RACV/H1K-361

'Interesting...' Dante mused.

'What's interesting?'

'These are Hik's most recent firmware updates. The one at the top - unknown zero-zero-three - that's the one I created for you, the one he's currently running. The one underneath will be the one the Black Chains used when they hacked him. But the rest...' Dante stepped closer to the screen as if to check she was reading it correctly. 'They are very interesting...'

'Why?'

'They're all prefixed H1K and then a number. The most recent is H1K-363, which leads me to presume there are 363 firmware updates bearing the same prefix. It's not the Federation's code, which means somebody else had Hik before the Chains. And they had him long enough to update it 363 times.'

'Is that weird?'

'Well, once you've hacked an X1, it's under your control. There's no need to hack it again, let alone more than 300 times.'

'Why would someone do that?'

'I have no idea.'

'Is there any way to check Hik's records? See if he knows anything more?'

Dante shrugged. 'Sure. You could ask him.'

Kas turned back to the X1. 'Well, Hik?'

'I'm sorry, Ms Balera. I'm afraid I'm unable to remember anything past my most recent firmware update.'

'As I thought,' Dante said. 'The last two updates have wiped his memory. He has no way of accessing them without...'

'Without what?' Kas prompted.

'Without rolling him back to a previous firmware version. H1K-363.'

'We can do that?'

'Don't see why not, but I wouldn't advise it.'

'Yeah, no kidding.'

Kas might not have been a computer expert like Dante, but even she knew that if she rolled Hik back to an old version, there'd be no telling who he might turn into. He certainly wouldn't have any allegiance to her. For all she knew, he might go on a killing rampage.

'Look,' Kas sighed, 'this is all very interesting and everything, but Hik isn't why I'm here. I came here because I need to know what this databeam is and what it does. More than anything, I need to know where it came from.'

'I don't know if I can tell you exactly where it was transmitted from,' Dante mused, 'but I might be able to point you in the right direction. Mr Whiskers, open the star-map.'