milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Mouse is at the Bar, sipping a Blue Screen of Death and looking incredibly pleased with herself. Pleased enough that she's likely to buy a drink for anyone she knows even vaguely, or any new acquaintance she takes a liking to. The sprite tends to spread her good moods - and celebratory alcohol - around.

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"You're looking unusually cheerful tonight," says Bob. "Who died?"

"Now Bob. I'm hurt. Why would ya ask a thing like that?"

"Because I know you?" Bob elbows her playfully as he sits down. "Okay, seriously, what's up?"

Mouse straightens up and positively beams with pride. "Think I found the answer t'how Daemon infected Guardian code. Although..." She deflates a little, turning serious. "Y'may not like it."

Bob sobers immediately. "Let's hear it."

"Well, Guardians get their protocol updated now an' then - new security upgrades, virus protection an' the like. I checked th' infected code against the open-source protocols in regular Guardian code b'fore Daemon's infection hit. An' ya know what? Daemon made herself look like an upgrade."

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"You're joking."

"Nope. Didn't Megabyte pull a trick like that one time? Anyway, it woulda been harder t'figure out more'n that if I didn't know as much about Users as I do from bein' here."

Bob shakes his head, stunned. "How in the 'Net are we supposed to defend against that?? We can't take the open-source codes down, it'd take us forever to get updated against new viruses..."

"Well, it ain't a matter a' who c'n read the open-source code," Mouse explains. "All updates t'Guardian code have ta be authorized - th'packets come with an encrypted key. Seems like the User who made Daemon got his hands on it. The Collective might have t'come up with some new security procedures t'make sure that doesn't happen again. Th'only other way it'll be fixed is if the User - or Users - runnin' the Supercomputer start usin' different encryption, which they might get around ta doin' if they noticed Daemon. Wouldn't count on them, though."

Bob nods, looking thoughtful. "If there's one thing this place has taught me, it's that we can't count on the Users to know what's really going on. I'll talk to Turbo, see what we can work out..."

"Not 'till I decide whether you should tell 'im I figured it out or not. Might influence his decidin' what ta do, which'd be bad, but it might just tweak 'im, which'd make me awful happy."

Bob raises an eyebrow. "Mouse, do you really think we can afford to wait around on this? For all we know, the User who made Daemon has ten other viruses waiting to be released."

"I was just kiddin'," Mouse says petulantly. "It's up ta you whether t'tell 'im or not. Heck, he might figure it out if ya don't. Turbo ain't that BASIC."

Bob nods. "I'll let you know what he says."

A brief pause.

"Y'know, we never actually discussed payment..."

Mouse laughs. "Frag, Bob, ya couldn't afford t'pay me fer this. So I guess it's just gotta be on me."

"C'mon, I hired you to do this, I've got to make it up to you somehow."

Bob has been described in canon as having an 'overdeveloped sense of fair play.' Granted, it was Megabyte saying it, but...

"In that case, make sure I get credit fer this, as a conditional kinda thing. Havin' Turbo admit I saved his ASCII from Daemon 2.0 or whatever comes next is all the pay I need."

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"You're sure I can't afford to pay you in units?"

"What? You afraid he's gonna get mad at ya or somethin'?" Mouse teases.

"I don't have to be afraid. I know he's gonna get mad about that."

"He couldn't do anythin' to ya," Mouse says. "Nothin' more'n shout at ya, anyway, an' how bad is that?"

"Obviously, you've never seen him actually get mad."

"Yeah, but I've had plenty'a folks mad at me - Megabyte, f'r instance. It ain't a matter a' how loud they c'n be, just what they c'n acutally do." In Mouse's case, this is usually 'not a damn thing, really.'

"Look, this ain't just about talkin' ta Turbo now - ya don't seem ta realize that you're the hero a'the Net an' th'most powerful Guardian in it. Turbo can't do much more'n guilt ya."

"I'm not the hero of anywhere," says Bob, looking down modestly. "Dot and Enzo did all the planning, all I did was nearly get myself deleted."

"Aw, c'mon. Besides, that ain't how most folks see it. It's what they think happened that really matters, sugar. Thought you'd've processed that by now."

"Somebody's in a good mood..." Dot smiles coming up. "Whose accounts did you freeze?"

"Now now, Dot," Mouse chides, "Y'know I don't get up ta that kinda fun anymore."

"True, but I haven't seen you this happy since you figured out the Game Warning system." Dot returns. "And as far as I know, none of the officials after your bitmap have hit obseletion yet."

"Not that I wouldn't mind if one or two of them suddenly were off the Net..."

"Well, I been doin' some work fer Bob," Mouse says. "Been bangin' my head against a firewall fer a while know, but I finally got the problem sussed."

She doesn't elaborate. She's very clearly waiting for Dot to ask what it is.

Work? Bob did not mention sending Mouse on any work.

"What kind of work?"

"Figurin' out how Daemon infected the Guardians," Mouse says. She's a little surprised that Bob didn't let Dot in on it. "He wanted me t'work with the Collective on it, but since the last time Turbo hired me for somethin' I almost ended up blowin' Mainframe ta bits..." She shrugs.

"I can see why Bob kept it a secret," Dot replies, tapping the bartop lightly. "And I don't blame you...

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How did she do it?"

"Made her infection look like a standard Guardian protocol update. The User who coded her got 'is hands on the packet encryption key that's supposed'ta okay those things," Mouse says. "Either the Supercomputer Users have gotta get better encryption, or the Guardians need ta make some new security procedures for authorizin' updates, like not havin' 'em be automatic."

"A User." Dot glowers at the top for a moment. "Hard AMIGArita please, Bar."

"You're not going to have an easy time explaining that to the Collective. They don't believe The User actually exists, remember?"

"Well, not the way we know Users exist. I think I - well, Bob - can tell 'em without gettin' into that."

"They will have to listen to him, considering what happened." A pause. "Doesn't explain how she managed to infect the data structures. But at least we know how to stop something like her from happening again."

Edited 2007-12-21 06:19 (UTC)

"Yeah, well, maybe I'll work on that one next," Mouse says. "But lots of infector viruses can hit data structures - Megabyte did. Ya just need access to th' system core ta take down the whole shebang that way. It's the Guardian infection that's kinda unsettlin'."

"You're telling me. The entire experience falls into the file of unsettling."

"Yeah. But I'm thinkin' it was bound t'happen some time," Mouse says gravely. "Viruses're always gettin' bigger an' badder. Stands to reason there'd be one as bad as Daemon, eventually. 'Least we survived it, an' maybe next time we won't get hit so hard."

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