Page 90 of Journey to the Forbidden Zone

“The comm channel is still open, Captain,” he answered. “But there is no one on the other end to receive our transmission or to send a reply.”

Horror washed through her. There was no way to speak with him?

“Cuz Zed ain’t there anymore,” Letitia commented.

On the viewscreen, Zed’s blocky form remained clamped to the satellite, motionless. No lights blinked on his chassis. He was an empty shell.

Carmen stared, her blood turning to ice water in her veins. The silence stretched, thick and suffocating, broken only by the frantic thumping of her own heart echoing in her skull.

He was gone. She prayed he was inside the satellite and able to work.

But deep in her soul, she feared she’d killed him.

CHAPTER 32

Zed manifestedwithin a construct of pure information. If he’d had eyes, he’d have blinked as he acclimated to the mainframe of the security satellite.

His avatar, a self-referential projection based on humanoid design parameters for efficiency in navigating human-created systems, appeared as a sleek android clad in a dark suit. A pair of opaque sunglasses shielded his optical sensors from the harsh, shifting light of the digital environment. In his hand, a briefcase of hardened data contained the intricate hack-code package Norvik had compiled.

The satellite’s mainframe was not a physical space, but Zed’s processors rendered it as one for navigational coherence. He stood at the junction of shimmering corridors constructed from cascading streams of encrypted data. The walls pulsed with faint, rhythmic light, the heartbeat of the security protocols.

Overhead, rivers of data flowed like neon auroras, casting shifting patterns of cyan and crimson on the “floor,” a grid of interlocking security algorithms. Doors, imposing slabs of dense firewall code, were embedded seemingly at random intervals along the corridors. Each represented a barrier protecting deeper subsystems.

Initial assessment:Environment confirms satellite’s military-grade design. Standard UPA access protocols absent. Physical intrusion had been necessary.

Objective:Locate core processing unit. Bypass security. Implement hack code to disable satellite’s recognition protocols targetingAntilles’s embedded chip.

Zed moved. His avatar glided silently along the grid floor. The first door loomed ahead, a monolithic slab etched with complex, shifting runes of authorization ciphers.

He stopped before it, extending his free hand. From his fingertips, thin tendrils of adaptive decryption code extended, probing the lock mechanism. The runes flared, resisting. Zed adjusted his algorithms, countering the adaptive countermeasures Norvik had warned about. The runes flickered, destabilized. With a soft click resonating through the data-space, the door dissolved into shimmering particles. Beyond lay another corridor, identical to the first.

Progress:12.3%.Optimal.

He repeated the process at the next door. This one presented a more complex lattice of encryption, requiring a longer, 3.7-second decryption sequence. The tendrils of code wove intricate patterns, picking the digital lock.

Click. Dissolution. Another corridor.

The third door was larger, thicker. Its surface wasn’t just runes; it pulsed with active defensive protocols, a low throb of energy warning of intrusion detection thresholds.

Zed initiated a more cautious approach, deploying stealth subroutines to mask his decryption attempt. His tendrils moved slower, more deliberately, seeking vulnerabilities. The door’s thrumming intensified slightly.

Detection probability rising:18.9%.

He adjusted, rerouting processing power to stealth. The pulsing stabilized. His code tendrils found the primary cipher node. He began the delicate process of rewriting its authorization parameters.

He was 87.4% through the sequence when the environment changed.

A low, guttural growl reverberated through the data corridors, shaking the grid floor beneath his avatar’s feet. It wasn’t sound, but a raw data packet of pure threat, transmitted across the system. The shimmering walls flickered violently. The rivers of information overhead churned into chaotic whirlpools.

Security subsystem activation:Level Gamma.Threat designation:Watchdog.

From a side corridor Zed hadn’t yet explored, a shape emerged. It resolved into a massive, six-legged construct of pure, aggressive code. It resembled a hound, but distorted, predatory. Its body was formed from jagged polygons of dark energy, its ‘head’ a featureless wedge dominated by a gaping maw lined with shimmering, razor-sharp data fragments meant to shred intruders. Its six legs moved with unsettling, insectile speed, claws scraping sparks from the grid floor. It had no eyes, but Zed felt its awareness lock onto his avatar with terrifying precision.

Primary threat identified.Analysis:Aggressive deletion protocol.Physical engagement:Non-viable.Evasion:Priority.

The watchdog lunged. Not with physical mass, but with a burst of corruptive code aimed to overwrite Zed’s core protocols. Zed’s avatar sidestepped with inhuman speed, the corruptive burst slamming into the wall where he’d stood, dissolving a chunk of the shimmering data-structure into chaotic static. The watchdog pivoted instantly, maw gaping, emitting another growl-packet that vibrated Zed’s very code structure.

Zed abandoned the door. He spun and ran.