N-10: Hands

There was a reason it was called slicing. Hacking.

Bloody, violent terms.

But, he mused as he flexed his fingers, he never had to get his hands dirty. The keys glowed beneath his fingertips, reminding him that he was a breath away from all the information anyone could ever want. It was oddly comforting, the soft thrumming of the computer in the background was an almost anticipatory murmur. They were both ready.

Irritated static burst over his comlink. "You doing this or not?"

He rolled his neck and pursed his lips, then licked them once; a pre-battle ritual. With a grunt he unlocked the keypad and brought up the system mainframe.

"I'm doing this. Keep your kovid on."

Immediately a series of codes flashed across the screen, too fast for eyes to catch, the uplink on his HUD blinking like a Coruscanti Carnival show. It startled him for a moment, as it always did, but a split second later he was catching up.

His fingers found the keys they needed, the output on his datapad showing the progress he was making. He chased the right digits through the system, eyes scrolling through the jumble of letters and finding a pathway into the brain of the beast. Keys clicked as he worked, struggling against a current until – access. He saw its nerves, the impulses firing that told it when to turn, where to go.

When to kill.

He fought for control, the heavily encrypted link already pushing him out again, sensing an unknown presence. He swore to himself, chewing the inside of his cheek absently, eyes never leaving the screen as his heart rate increased. The firewalls threw up their shields and he was caught for a split second, but he rattled off an evasive code and checked the datapad output.

Shab, this was cutting it fine…

"Coming in fast, vod…"

He attacked the keys harder, hands flying across the board with practised precision. "I'm working on it."

Tension crept up his spine and tightened in his throat; he felt his hands start to shake from the adrenaline and he wanted to take his hands off the keypad for moment to clench and unclench his fists. But he couldn't; at this point a second out meant his brother would be-

Well. Toast.

He took a deep breath to calm the quivering in his gut, fingers still blurring across the screens in front of him. The datapad output was like timer counting down in his peripherals, and in a moment of stomach-flipping doubt he didn't think he'd be able to crack it.

Crack. Another one of those sickening words.

Red flashed up in his HUD and he blinked, trying to catch up with the code output. He swore again and scanned the overwhelming amount of numbers and letters, and found what he was looking for. He slammed out a series of keys and waited for confirmation of his success.

For a horrible moment he thought he'd failed, and then red turned to green.

Before he could think about it he ran the self-destruct sequence. And then as he always did, he paused before hitting the final key.

The datapad output exploded in a split second white-hot flare, and then clicked into scrambled static.

It was the usual anticlimax. He didn't even get to see the fireball.

For a moment all he could hear was the thudding of his blood in his ears and the constant thrumming of the computer. It seemed rather empty now. He licked his lips and tasted blood, and realised he must have bitten his lip at some point but didn't remember doing it. Didn't remember the pain.

A held breath whooshed through the link. "Well shab..."

And then he was fine again.

"And that, Ord'ika," he said, sitting back and cracking his knuckles with a satisfied smile, "Is how you remote detonate a pre-targeted missile from your desk."

"Well how about next time you show off a bit and detonate it a little further away from its target," Ordo sounded mildly irritated. "Ruined the paint-job."

He removed his helmet and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Sure. I'll try harder next time...

"You're frakkin' welcome," he snorted.

Ordo grunted and then the link went dead.

He closed his eyes and waited for his hands to stop shaking. The gentle thrum of the computer washed over him and purged the last of the adrenaline from his system, and slowly he relaxed, smiling even as his hands clenched into fists under the desk.

Kovid - head

So that was Jaing's piece. I wasn't sure about all of the techie stuff but it was actually a lot of fun, and I've always wanted to have a try at the Nulls doing some hacking. Next up will be Ordo! Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed the last few, your words rock! :) Huge thanks to JainDo for putting up with my incessant prattle and beta'ing for me - you're awesome. ;D

I'd appreciate a review if you have the time. :) Thanks for reading.