THE PSYKITTEN PROJECT.

Prologue: (Or rather more an amateur-logue...)

They say that the Universe started with a big bang, yet nothing begins with such a spectacular or wonderous start. That would be too perfect for Mother Nature. They tend to fizzle, grow, gradually expanding with a slow unstoppable force, rather than just "pop" into existence. Actually, the Universe started with a small green light. Below this light was a symbol, it was a circle, with a vertical line inside the circle. It wasn’t a very bright light, but it was a beginning...

In space, no-one can hear you scream... which is a bloody stupid and incorrect statement to make; you can hear someone scream, they just aren't screaming loud enough. There was nothing worth screaming out that loud about...

The year was 2159. Humanity had spread across the galaxy like a venereal disease, treating everything that it found with as much respect as a fundamentalist has for dinosaur fossils. A healthy trading commerce had been set up between other worlds and alien races. [Or at least between the ones that couldn't be defeated in open warfare. - The Kitten.] Across this inky blackness drifted the Earth Trading Vessel "Decade Pigeon". Well, it would have been a trading vessel if it actually traded, but the particular occupants thought that trading was beneath them, or at least several feet to the side. The Decade Pigeon was a medium sized cargo vessel, with most of it's bulk consisting of cargo holds. A few laser turrets spiked its weather beaten hull. These would be used to defend the ship, should pirates ever be fooled into thinking that there was actually anything worth stealing onboard. Antennas and warp vanes jutted out of the hull in apparent disarray, giving the ship the appearance of a sexually rampant porcupine. It was an old ship, and as well constructed as something someone had made after watching 'Blue Peter'. It was the sort of ship that could hide in an asteroid field, if it didn't become one first. In fact, the ship had been boarded three times, not by pirates, but by salvage vessels looking for scrap. It was the sort of ship that has you looking for the wire that it slid down.

The hacker sweated nervously in front of his laptop monitor. At last he had possession the terminal’s address. It was now just a matter of breaking the security code. He had already uploaded the address to his employers, as per instructed. That seemed strange, because they gave him the impression that’s all they wanted. Surely they wanted the information on the terminal as well? What was the point in having the address without knowing what was on the machine? At least they would pay well. He looked at the monitor screen in front of him. The code would take a long while to crack. He could do it, as long as he remained undetected. He began to execute a few ICE neutralisers.

A monitor flashed up a brief message to the chief security officer on duty. The officer immediately leapt from the chair and ran out of the office.

It had taken five minutes to get the first digit of the code, and now he was on the second. If he carried on at this rate, he would have no problem in cracking the code. As of yet, there was no indication of his activities being detected. He wondered what he could do with all the money he would earn for this job.

The assault squad burst into the room, the first two members ducking down as they entered through the door. They knelt down, raising their guns into the room beyond. Two more members ran in behind, and all four opened fire simultaneously. The hacker never even noticed...

<PREV | NEXT>