Fatal Error - Keith R. A. DeCandido [31]
That has to be the hoariest load of clichéd crap I’ve ever uttered in my entire life, she thought. Hope it worked.
110 gazed up at Sonya, who saw only fear in his eyes. The question was, could he get past that fear?
Finally, the Bynar nodded and said, “Very well, Commander. I will try.”
Slowly, 110 walked toward one wall. Like all the other interfaces, it looked like a giant marble slab, but this one was lit with a variety of symbols in the Makaro language. 110 activated his belt unit and started letting loose with a rapid-fire stream of binary code.
The symbols started to flash by more quickly. 110 only occasionally actually touched the interface—mostly, Ganitriul was responding directly to the binary code.
Every time Sonya saw the Bynars in action, it amazed her that people could be so in tune with a computer that they could communicate directly with it.
However, having seen 110 and 111 working in tandem, she could tell that 110 was working at about a quarter of the speed. She also noticed that he was getting frustrated with certain elements, and going back and trying something again.
“What’s he doing?” Utaka asked.
“Undoing your sabotage,” Sonya said.
“How?”
Sonya just smiled. “It’s what he does.”
Minutes passed, and still the rapid-fire stream of binary code came from 110’s mouth. The rhythm of the code started to fall into something like a pattern that Sonya could detect. 110 didn’t seemed as frustrated, and did less backpedaling and hesitating.
“What’s taking him so long?” Hawkins asked. “I thought these guys could walk through computers like nothing.”
“Two of them can,” Sonya said angrily. “One of them takes a little longer. Anytime you want to step in and help out . . .”
Holding up his good hand and backing off, Hawkins said, “No, Commander, ’course not. It’s just—”
He was interrupted by a loud thud against the door.
“My guess?” Corsi said, looking at the door. “The remaining Eerlikka just realized that the code doesn’t work, and they’re trying to break the door down.”
“That’s a pretty reasonable guess,” Sonya said sardonically. “If they get through, protect 110 at all costs, understood?”
“Yes, sir,” Corsi said, taking up position at a forty-five degree angle to the door on one knee. Hawkins did likewise at an equivalent point on the other side of the door.
Smoke started to show through the door. Sonya could now hear the whine of the Eerlikka blasters through the weakening rodinium door.
The pure simplicity of the binary code washed over 110. At first, it was like coming home again. He was comfortable for the first time since 111 died.
At least, until the first glitch.
It was a simple mistake. He went down the wrong subroutine. A simple error—a misreading of a command.
If he’d been working with 111, it would never have happened.
He continued to navigate his way through Ganitriul. It was a complex system, and one that had many different facets. The Eerlikka had spent the millennia improving Ganitriul, building new processes over the old ones. But some of the older ones were still in place, never having needed to be improved. The newer routines were almost completely compatible with the older ones, adjusted for maximum efficiency.
Although Lieutenant Commander Duffy’s statement that Ganitriul might put the master computer on Bynaus to shame had struck 110 as unlikely at the time, he now had to admit that Ganitriul was, in its own way, almost as impressive. For that alone, the Eerlikka deserved commendation.
Once again, he lost his way, this time exploring some of the older programs that regulated the economy, and which hadn’t needed any alteration for almost a thousand years. He let his curiosity get the better of him—something 111 would not have tolerated.
Eventually, he found the source code for the invasive program. It had taken far longer than he’d expected, especially since the fruits of the program were all over every system he’d visited, going back to when he had interfaced with Ganitriul at the other terminal.
110 had to admire the