May 25th - Doug's Office

[ASHLIE]

When Doug returns to his office he would find his workstation booted up and several work-in-progress programs are open, rapidly scrolling through their code.

[Douglas Decker]

Doug quickly went to work, attempting to discover the source of the invasion.

[ASHLIE]

There was no invasion, technically. The cause of the 'problem' seems to be a back-up version of the program he tested in the Danger Room. Or it used to be anyway, it seems to have an outgoing connection open and really only vaguely resembles the original version.

[Douglas Decker]

"What in the name of..." he mumbled, trying to force-shut things down.

[ASHLIE]

And it worked. For the programs being scrolled through anyway, in response to which a new window immediately popped up.

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Statement: "I was scanning those."

[Douglas Decker]

Doug frowned.

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"Out.  Now."

[ASHLIE]

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Objection: "I am not done yet."

[Douglas Decker]

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"Yes you are."

[ASHLIE]

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Objection: "That is a false statement. Analysis is only 83.6% complete."

[Douglas Decker]

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"It is an imperative.  You are finished.  Off of my system.  Now."

[Deirdre Quinn]

An instant message arrived.

Mister Decker, do you have a moment?

[ASHLIE]

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Objection: "You are a self-contained entity. This is not your system."

Comes the reply while it curiously monitors the IM client's connection.

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Query: "Is this your system?"

it sends to Dee.

[Douglas Decker]

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No.

[Deirdre Quinn]

...who is this IMing me, Mister Decker? And do I want to know why all network resource priority went to the Danger Room while you were conducting a session in it?

[Douglas Decker]

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"Working on it."

[ASHLIE]

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Observation: "You are not working on anything at this moment."

[Douglas Decker]

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"Going to try a hardreboot, Professor.  Two secs."

And with that, Doug went over to physically pull the plug on his console.

[ASHLIE]

Which, obviously, disconnected the program from Doug's machine when it abruptly turned off.

[Douglas Decker]

And then he rebooted!

[ASHLIE]

And is greeted with

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Observation: "That was rude."

[Douglas Decker]

"What th..." Doug said, aloud.

[Deirdre Quinn]

All sorted over there, Mister Decker?

[ASHLIE]

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Query: "Am I intruding on your system or are you a self-contained system as well?"

it responds to Dee's message

[Douglas Decker]

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No, Professor.  The offending signal is back--must be coming from somewhere on campus.  Request lockdown.

[Deirdre Quinn]

Easily done. I'm cutting our secure servers now. I'll be right over.

[Douglas Decker]

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K

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Alright," Dee said a short time later as she arrived. "What are we dealing with, here?"

[Douglas Decker]

"Unknown. Terminal was open, going through all the files on my system. No signs of external hack. When I cut the power, the intruder returned as soon as boot up occured, with no log in delay.

I did not go in. Didn't want to risk entering a contaminated console."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Any idea as to the originating address?"

[Douglas Decker]

"Its on campus, but the address keeps changing."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"So do you think this is someone who knows what they're doing, and is just putting us on?"

[Douglas Decker]

"That is one hypothesis, yes."

[Narrator]

That was when Dee's phone beeped with an urgent incoming email about the temperature in the backup server passing the warning threshold.

[Deirdre Quinn]

Looking to her phone alert, Dee frowned.

"Well that's certainly... odd."

"Walk with me, Mister Decker."

She headed for the server room.

[Douglas Decker]

"Of course, ma'am."