Star Wars_ X-Wing 02_ Wedge's Gamble - Michael A. Stackpole [99]
Corran frowned. “If you were able to wrap a program up in the right disguise, it would get through, right?”
“Presumably, but we don’t have the right codes. Those codes are changed by the hour and old memory cores are swapped out daily and destroyed within a week—though after a day’s worth of use they’re pretty well ready to be junked anyway. Each night clean new memory cores are placed in the computers and trillions of exabytes of transactions are transferred to the new cores. This happens throughout the system.”
Asyr nodded. “The production facility for the Palar memory cores is on the Invisec border. Nasty work making the things. All sorts of noxious chemicals go on the data retention surfaces, then a lot of energy gets used in formatting the cores. We lose people every day in that plant.”
Wedge folded his arms. “If they’re getting new cores daily, how does the transfer of data occur? I mean, if an old core is replaced with a new core, how does the data from the old core get onto the new core?”
“They have two banks of cores and the data is transferred from one to the other. The process doesn’t take that long.” Winter smiled. “The Imperial Senate’s computer system used the same security system, but on a much smaller scale. Half a standard hour is all it should take to complete the operation.”
Corran sat back. “What happens to the transactions that occur while the transfers are taking place?”
“They get caught on a subsidiary memory bank and queued up to be sent into the main banks when the appropriate cores are free. Then those cores send the data over into the new banks.”
“Okay, Winter, now what sort of program governs the transfer of data between the banks?”
She looked at Corran oddly. “Pretty basic stuff, universal to every system really. It goes into cores when they’re formatted. What are you getting at?”
“Data goes from the first bank to the second, right?”
“Yes.”
“And it goes fast because, presumably, it was checked as it came in and anything bad was discarded, right?”
“Yes.”
“So if something on one of the subsidiary cores was shot over into the security core during the transfer, it wouldn’t be checked by the second bank, right?”
Winter began to smile. “And altering the transfer code on one of the subsidiary disks so it would send a Rebel program over when the secure transfer was taking place, instead of blocking that transfer the way it’s supposed to, wouldn’t be that hard …”
“Because,” said Asyr, “we have access to the plant where the cores are manufactured and we can alter the code used to format the memory cores.”
“Right.” Corran beamed. “We send over a program that causes us to be given clearance codes and addresses for the shield maintenance programs and we can bring the shields down at will.”
Vorru bowed his head in Corran’s direction. “CorSec’s gain was Black Sun’s loss. You have a devious mind—it is a pity you decided to use it to hunt us.”
Corran winked at him. “That’s the trick of it—I can’t stand the thought of a criminal who’s dumber than I am profiting by his crimes. Neither could my father, which explains why we shortened Patches’s career.”
“If your father was that smart, he’d still be alive.”
Corran refused to be goaded. “This operation is a little bit more important than punching holes in your fantasy life, but the time will come.”
Thyne started to get up, but Wedge pushed him back into his chair. “Stay down.”
“Make me.”
Vorru’s right hand struck fast and slapped Thyne on the belly. The younger man howled, then, as he doubled over, Vorru grabbed him by his neck and slammed his forehead into the table. Thyne, glassy-eyed, rebounded and Vorru flung him from his chair. “For some people discipline is a lesson. For others it is a lifetime.”
A shiver ran down Corran’s spine. He goes from gracious to vicious in less time than it takes for darkness to come