Interconnection - Chapter 7: The Time Has Come

"What [snip] was that?!?" I croak before falling onto the floor and chucking up the breakfast Sarah made for me.

Just when I thought I had taken WAHC/WIHC to the limit by creating my TCAT communication technology. It turns out that these psychopaths have already created not only telepathic communication technology, but they've managed to take it to the next level by encapsulating the whole experience in a virtual reality state. Multiple people can all connect together and join in this virtual reality experience without ever leaving the comfort of their chair. It's a meeting of minds connected via the internet.

That's exactly what I just experienced when I connected to their secret server using the program TheDoctor gave me. I linked my mind into one of their secret little meetings, and they weren't very happy about it. I have to hand it to them, it's a smart way to have secret meetings, especially when it's designed so that everyone looks and sounds the same inside the virtual reality. It's the perfect cover. I imagine that my unexpected visit shocked them quite a bit, they probably thought they were completely in the shadows.

Day 182.

"We have the house surrounded. There's no point hiding. Come out peacefully and no one has to get hurt. This is your last chance to comply or we'll have no choice but to use force." shouts the agent through his megaphone.
"Sir I don't think he's going to budge. We should storm the place before he tries anything. Who knows what sort of stuff he's planning in there, we need to act before he gets a chance to do something." another agent argues.
"He probably wants us to storm in their. God damn it, fine... lets do it." replies the agent in charge.
"Ok men the order is in, it's time to mobilize our units. The suspect is extremely dangerous and expected to be heavily armed, our orders are to shoot on sight. Lets move!" yells the SWAT team leader.

Tear gas canisters burst through all the windows. The door bursts open and the SWAT team swarms the premises in perfect form.

"Sector A is clear!"
"Sector C is clear!"
"Target sighted in sector B."
"Target has been neutralized."

"Sir we're being informed that SWAT team took him out successfully." says one of the agents waiting outside.
"Ok lets go in and make sure it's our guy, pack up any and all electronic components and bring them back to the lab. Lock down the house, no is to get in or our unless they have clearance." the agent in charge responds.

The agents enter the house and carefully look around the computer room, before walking into the room with the dead body.

"Damn it... I think we killed the wrong person. There's no evidence anywhere to indicate this is our guy." the head agent mutters with a calm frustration.
"You told us to shoot on sight sir. He was the only person in the house." the SWAT leader replies.
"You did your job fine... don't worry about it. We'll get this mess cleaned up. Your team can leave now." the agent responds.

"There is breaking news coming out of a small town in Missouri, where an old man living alone has been shot dead by a SWAT team. The man, an American citizen, was a suspected terrorist extremist and authorities say he fought back with an assault rifle. The premises is currently under investigation by the FBI and no one is allowed in or out. Friends and family of the deceased say he was a very gentle man, and they had no idea what he was involved in. Many still refuse to believe the official report despite the evidence presented."

Incoming TCAT call (TheDoctor) ...
Call authorized ...
Initializing connection ...

"Are you watching the news right now?" asks TheDoctor.
"Yeah, I saw it, they killed that old guy, and it's my fault." I answer.
"Dude don't blame yourself, they were the ones who killed him!" TheDoctor replies with a raised voice.
"I bounced my connection through his computer but deleted all the connection logs from his computer so they couldn't trace it any further than his PC. I knew they would trace my connection back to that PC. I should have used a scum bag instead of some poor old man, but I didn't even think to check who I was putting in the line fo fire." I mutter.
"Anyway, I also got word that CrystalViper is serving a minimum 45 year prison sentence. His real name is apparently Jack Kulsan" TheDoctor informs me.
"Wow that's harsh. I guess the guy really pissed them off by stealing that software." I replied.
"Maybe we should try to bust him out... modify his police records or something like that." TheDoctor suggests.
"I have a better idea. They want to play a game, so then lets play a game. I'm going to release a nation wide message telling the world about this secret technology. Killing that man was the last damn straw! At the same time I'll demand that they release Jack within 24 hours, or I'll let the world know exactly how the technology works." I announce.
"Are you sure people are ready to know about this technology? What are you going to tell them?" TheDoctor inquires with a clearly concerned tone.
"I'm just going to tell them that the Government has been covering up these projects and is working on advanced ways to abuse this technology to manipulate the minds of public citizens. I wont tell them exactly how it works or how to use it themselves, but I'm going to tell people how to protect themselves from this technology, they deserve to know that much. It will be enough to convince them to release Jack, or risk me telling the public everything." I explain.

Day 193.

"So the battle of the minds has begun then?" Eve asks.
"It seems that way doesn't it." I reply.
"Is this everything you expected it to be?" she asks in a calm tone.
"I am responsible for the death of a man. I didn't want that." I answer.
"Some times sacrifices must be made in order to reach the ultimate goal." Eve explains.
"I don't care about your philosophical reasoning, he's still dead!" I scream.
"But was it you who shot the man dead?" Eve asks, already knowing the answer.
"Of course I didn't. But I may as well have. If it weren't for me he wouldn't be dead!" I reply.
"And if it weren't for those Government agents who stretch the law to fit their needs, he wouldn't be dead either." Eve explains with a some what raised voice.
"I know that, but I can't deny that I am partially responsible." I respond.
"Everyone is partially responsible for the suffering of another. All we can do is work to help others who are suffering, where possible." Eve tells me.
"And that's exactly what I intend to do."

I awoke to Sarah fumbling her way out of bed, at 6am in the morning. I don't know how she does it, it would kill me to get up that early 5 days a week. If only she knew how much I was earning from my botnet, she probably wouldn't bother getting up to go to work each morning. And at that moment it dawned on me that as I get closer to Eve I seem to get further away from Sarah. I can talk to Eve about anything, but it isn't that way with Sarah. I need to keep secrets from her, mainly for her own safety.

I decided to sleep a few more hours before getting out of bed. I need to be refreshed and energized, the next phase of my plan is happening in but a few hours. It's actually amazing how much energy one can burn up simply by thinking really intensely for a long period of time. I would bet that's it's almost as good as physical exercise in terms of calories burnt, except that it strengthens your "brain muscles" and not so much your other muscles. I'm sure other hackers must know what I'm talking about.

My mind is feeling clear. My thoughts are in perfect focus. I have TheDoctor in defense mode watching for any attempts to stop me. This wont be easy, even for me. A lot of things could go wrong with this, it's definitely the most risky and dangerous hack I've attempted so far. But it's something that I feel must be done. At the moment they have a monopoly on this technology, meaning no one else except myself and their quasi-government organization have access to it.

What I heard them talking about in that secret meeting was highly disturbing, they clearly don't intend to use this technology for the benefit of Humanity. People can't protect themselves from this technology if they don't even know it exists. I've been unfair in keeping it to myself for this long, when I swore that I would disclose any secret technology that I discovered. Now is the time to disclose at least a small bit of what I know. The time has come.

To begin with I need to hack into one of the less secure satellites, and then use that satellite to communicate with a nearby satellite which is used for transmitting television signals. Once I have an open connection to the TV satellite I should be able to initiate an exploit designed to disable the security features and enable me to install my own custom firmware onto the satellite, so that I can use it however I want, with little chance of other forces being able to stop me.

I start by hacking my way into the communications department of some obscure satellite company, which turns out not to be too hard. Hacking into one of their orbiting test satellites is a fairly complex process, but I work through the steps smoothly. I thought it would be a bit more difficult to hack into a satellite, now I need to use this satellite establish a connection to a popular television satellite. Brute force seems like a good option, I should be able to interfere with and override the original signals using a clever script I wrote.

"The first target has been acquired. Are we all clear on your end?" I ask TheDoctor via our TCAT conversation.
"Everything looks good to go. No problems detected so far." he responds.
"Good. Initiating phase two of Project Chalk Dust."

Interrupting satellite transponders ... done
Overriding satellite uplink/downlink signals ... done
Establishing direct satellite uplink ... done
Initiating XKIL6 backdoor exploit ... done
Installing custom firmware stl_cfw.dat ... done
Initiating upload of msg_2_world.dat ... done
Transmitting signal over North America in ...
3 ...
2 ...
1 ...
Live transmission stream in progress ...

NOTICE: Do not copy my ideas and make any part of this story into a novel, movie, or any other type of commercial/profitable venture without my explicit written permission. You may contact me via PM on this message board if you have any questions. Thank you.

I know there were a few people who've been waiting for this chapter, so here it is. Sorry to leave you guys at another cliffhanger, might be a while until I get another chapter out.

Thanks for uploading this post! great story so far, been waiting almost every day for the next chapter lol thanks again!

reply to post by coldhand


No problemo.

And I love how the mods have censored my already censored word.
This is a story for christ sakes... show some maturity people.

Cliffhanger, grrr. Good reading so far. Thanks for the update, and keep them coming! Can't wait to see what happens next.

Am awaiting patiently.

I cannot believe you dont have more flags.
you are a very good story writer.

there are a lot of free books site you could put this one.
or are you going to put it in print?
or sell on the web?
Just dont stop! even after you finish this story.

the thing about dreams and the subconscious
is that it has an amazing ability to fill in the back ground.

when you dream you do something like a hard drive clean up.
and as feedback you get dreams. and your subconscious
gives you a life like story to play in.
well its something like that.

the subconscious is the key.
you dont make it do what you want it to.
you dont force it.

you can train the body /mined to do things instinctively.
like karate. you train and do katas.
a kata is like a dance. you repeat a lot moves.

and you come to a point where you dont think!
you just do it. its the same as catching a ball.
you just do it. That is the part of the mind we need to work with.
um! I am losing my train of thought.

lucid dreaming thats what you need to start.
but you need to do it with purpose.
like training the mind to be more intelligent.
like mensa tranning.

sorry for my insane ramblings.

Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
I love how the mods have censored my already censored word.

What's so funny?

15b.) Profanity: You will not use profanity in our forums on the Websites, and will neither Post with language or content that is obscene, sexually oriented, or sexually suggestive nor link to sites that contain such content. You will also not use common alternative spellings or net-speak alternative for profane words.

And, furthermore: The writing forums are still part of ATS. Being a writing forum does not justify censor circumvention.

reply to post by masqua


It wasn't 'net speak' or a 'common alternative', it was a word with * characters censoring all but the first and last letter. I wanted to still relay the intensity of the situation, without directly violating the rules of the forum. I'm sure even a 5 year old wouldn't find that offensive. But what ever, I don't really care.

Great story! Looking forward to chapter 8.

S&F

Originally posted by buddha
the thing about dreams and the subconscious
is that it has an amazing ability to fill in the back ground.

when you dream you do something like a hard drive clean up.
and as feedback you get dreams. and your subconscious
gives you a life like story to play in.
well its something like that.

the subconscious is the key.
you dont make it do what you want it to.
you dont force it.

you can train the body /mined to do things instinctively.
like karate. you train and do katas.
a kata is like a dance. you repeat a lot moves.

and you come to a point where you dont think!
you just do it. its the same as catching a ball.
you just do it. That is the part of the mind we need to work with.
um! I am losing my train of thought.

lucid dreaming thats what you need to start.
but you need to do it with purpose.
like training the mind to be more intelligent.
like mensa tranning.

sorry for my insane ramblings.

edit on 3-2-2012 by buddha because: aliens made me do it

Old post but I wish this were all true. There are at least a handful of recurring dreams or recurring themes that I would love to purge "like a hard drive cleanup".