Author's Notes: This chapter is very tech nerdy. Sorry if I went overboard. If you don't like the third person with people's thoughts, well, I'm working on improving it past the Bolthole chapter, and the holodisplay hacking scene should be better, as it was written later.
Summary, in case you want to skip it, is below, in bold.
Shannon teaches Molly DeLaney Particle Script+, as Sonja's recorded video lessons aren't very good at explaining things. Shannon eventually just does Molly's homework (there are no rules against it), before executing her master plan of hacking things to be able to sandbox the OS, and get her preferred apps on the datapad.
One Week Later…
"I signed up for the 101 class and don't understand Particle Script + at all, ma'am!" says Molly DeLaney, who'd been her mentor's chief of staff at First Manticore.
"What do you not get?" Shannon asks. At least most of us know more tech skills than StateSec did… Tech supporting them was always a nightmare, not even counting the risk of getting shot for failure, or due to lack of political reliability. It's amazing how much idiots can mess up something you thought you'd padded the sharp corners on for them.
"I've got this drawing challenge, where I have to code a full color snowman, with variables and functions. Sonja's examples are helpful, but she doesn't give much explanation. Can you help me, ma'am?" Molly asks. This is right up my alley, as a tech nerd, and coder…
"Sure. Let's see what you have." Shannon replies, still with only the hint of a smile compared to normal.
Shannon sits down on the couch next to her, and pulls up the IDE on her datapad, while she reads the assignment on Molly's datapad, "There were no restrictions on working together. Mind if I type some stuff?"
"It's fine, ma'am."
Shannon defines the variables and functions while touch typing, and says, "Now, look at Sonja's examples, and look at mine. Does it make more sense?"
Molly shakes her head.
"I really don't get it, ma'am." she says, sounding frustrated.
"Can you explain to me what you think a variable is?" Shannon asks, trying to figure out what she doesn't understand.
"A variable is an item that can be plugged in, like a number. You define it as var space variable name equals content semicolon."
"Of course, you can put other things than numbers in a variable. You can put true/false statements, which are called Boolean operators, you can put color values, like a red green blue color code, or rgba, if you want an opacity value."
"What does the a stand for, ma'am?"
"Alpha. It allows you to select opacity, from 0, which is transparent to 255, at completely opaque. The rest of the colors use 0 through 255 as well."
"Why do you need Boolean operators in coding? I don't understand when you need them, ma'am."
"They allow you to hard select true or false, and are useful. You'll find them helpful at some point. They can be selected multiple ways, and the way I learned was to ask yourself a question. For example 4+4 isn't a Boolean, but 'Does 4+4=8?' is a Boolean and selects true."
"That's a much better explanation than Sonja gave us, ma'am. She glossed over it, and mumbled something about true/false statements."
"So can you explain to me what a function is?"
"Something you dump code as needed for repeating in, ma'am."
"Sonja really needs to do a better job explaining stuff, if my explanations were that much better, but a function is more complex than that. Remember those functions in Algebra, where you were supposed to plot stuff? That's one example. Dumping code in, and running it, but with small changes is another example."
"Would you like me to just do your assignment for you, and explain later?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Thanks. I need to try to stay sharp at coding, and this gives me something else to do, besides reading reports." Shannon says.
Shannon goes to the holodisplay in the living room, a small sharp rock in her hand. She knows that the audio bugs send their data to the RMN's ONI via the holodisplay, via a process of deduction, starting with her making a list of what devices could have transmitters powerful enough to transmit to orbit, and ruling out the datapads, after she hacked them all.
She goes to the back of the display and uses her rock to unscrew the simple normal size flat-head screws, and frowns as she examines the mass of wiring. Guessed it. The audio bug server is the holodisplay. I should be able to hack the thing to allow me to get news reports in, by messing with the packeting protocol, and sending a few extra packets, every so often. It won't be Mantie FTL fast, but it should work out just fine, thinks Shannon.
She carefully finds the semi-hidden spare cable and plugs one end into her datapad, and the other into the server, before sending the server her code file. Shannon thinks, Non-traditional servers are nasty when used right. I don't think the Manties could find this very easily, and given how much they check things normally, they won't find it. And the advantages are that, by accepting a slower transmission rate, a whole lot of things, from wireless speakers to datapads can be routers. They're also fun to make, just like the computer I made as a kid.
The server blinks its lights twice quickly to signal to Shannon the execution of her program. For the one of the first few times in a long time, Shannon displays more than a hint of a smile.
A little while later, Shannon types a few lines of code into the word processor, before running the compiler that she'd written in the coding IDE, and did some hacking to make it export in the right language. It executes a program that sandboxes the operating system and installs an open-source OS that Shannon loves called Linux, based on an ancient Terran Pre-Diaspora operating system around the OS, while keeping the OS sandboxed, but with it's anti-sandboxing measures broken in an unnoticed way.
She then loads on Farley's Crossing, and Hyperspace, before letting it finish updating through her jury-rigged system hidden in the TV software that controls the place's audio bugs, that allows it to hide her data in there. She was nervous at first when she'd tested it, but very quickly noticed the sheer data volume and realized that it would work as a DIY router. Luckily, the Manties aren't used to nontraditional servers the way I am. I feel pretty confident in this working well, thinks Shannon.
Admiral Tourville walks out into the main room, and Shannon smiles for the first time in a long time, before signaling him to go out for a walk with her.
"I got the OS sandboxed, and hacked on some games. The 'router' works very well, as the Manties designed in extra bandwidth. We just need to unplug a few cables and hide them whenever we hear the shuttles, and hide the hack on the datapads, just to play it safe, sir."
"Oh, good. How long will it take you to repeat the hack on the rest of the datapads, Shannon?"
"Shouldn't take me too long, sir. I'll also try to load on a news app, and teach Molly enough to be able to frame her in case we get detected." says Shannon.