It's been more than a month since Hanna started her little project of creating a new cipher. Almost a year has passed since the disappointing creation of her first stream cipher (Sam disagrees with her but they agree to disagree.) for their radio messaging program. She couldn't stop thinking of ciphers and cryptography.
So here she was lying on her bed with feet up designing what can be considered to be the strongest computer cipher yet to be implemented while Sam is porting their programs into Xenix on their computer. The only problem with the cipher is that it's too slow, it just took too many clock cycles per byte. She had hoped that like her earlier cipher using add rotate xor operations would make it lightweight enough for current computers but adding the mix columns algorithm made it cumbersome. She could reduce the block and key size as well as reducing the rounds, but that just leaves a nasty taste in her mouth.
Letting out a soft growl of dissatisfaction, she turns around to lie on her back and closes her eyes, trying to think of better ways to improve her cipher. "You should take a break Han. You're going to burn yourself out if you continue working on it non-stop." Sam must have heard her, it wasn't a bad idea, but... "You know I can't do that, Sam. I won't be able to stand still if I don't finish this." Peering through her fingers at Sam, who stopped programming and is now looking at her with concern. "Maybe if you take a break, you might come back to your cipher with a fresh pair of eyes, and everything might click into place."
That's true Hanna has been in quite the tunnel vision while working on her cipher. She sighs in defeat, knowing Sam is right. "How's the porting going?" Sam hums as she answers. "Almost done with everything. It's not difficult, just a bit tedious." Hanna nods in understanding and said. "We should have moved to using Xenix a year ago. Unix is such a better OS for our use case compared to DOS." Sam shrugs at that and said. "Not like we could have gotten it earlier. Buying Xenix was difficult enough since we couldn't use a cheque and I don't think AT&T would give us a license to use Unix."
An idea sparked by that comment, Hanna quickly sat up on her bed and said. "Who says we can't get Unix?" A grin quickly forms as she feels excitement. "I know for a fact the Kingsville A&M uses Unix in their computer science department." Sam gave her a skeptical look. "How are we supposed to sneak into a university campus? Kids are not a usual sight." Sam said in a deadpan voice. "O ye of little faith. Of course, we can think up of something. Don't you want to experiment with Unix itself rather than OS derived from Unix?" Sam's eyes lit up with excitement. "That would be fun. So how do we get it from the university?"
They started bouncing off ideas between each other, thinking of ways to do this adventure. They ruled out sending an infected diskette to the university because of the low chance of it succeeding and sending a disguise diskette to the computer department will just bring unneeded attention. "We might be overthinking this. Why not just dial to their admin department computer and see? They might not have secured their system." Sam suggested out of the blue. Thinking for a second. Crude but direct, that might actually work. "Go check the phone list we gathered. The admin department number should be in there."
Sam quickly changes seat to the IBM PC and checks the list. "We got the number. I'm going to connect to it." A minute of silence was broken by Sam's chuckle. "I'm in, not even a login prompt." Hanna quickly got up from her bed, an idea popped up. "Can you access the staff directory for the computer science department, their computer lab specifically?" Sam quickly typed into the terminal. "Who am I looking for?"
"Search for their lead computer tech." Hanna sat beside Sam as she works on the computer. "Here's one. Nicholas Thompson, age 42. Been working at the university for 15 years now. Do you want me to put in a requisition for Unix under his name?" Sam looks at Hanna for an answer, she's close but. "No, can't risk someone from procurement asking him in person. We'll use his name and someone from admin. Using those two names, we'll put in a request for Unix into the system. Hopefully, someone in procurement would be a helpful little drone and do as the computer says." Sam smirks and nods, understanding where Hanna is going with this. "When procurement approves and makes the purchase. We just have to intercept the package before it ever reaches the university." She is pleased that Sam knows what to do without even telling her. "Exactly. We just have to gain access to Kingsville USPS office system and redirect that package to be sent somewhere where we can easily grab it."
She waits as Sam does her magic. Looking at their homemade computer, they added a 10mb hard drive storage recently. Hanna wonders if it's time to upgrade this computer to the 80836. The problem is that the chip is hard to come by and the only way is to buy it, but without a bank account, it's hard to send money for it. Sam's frustrated grumble brings her back to the present. "This must be a joke. The USPS has better security compared to a university." Hanna looks at the monitor and sure enough sees a login prompt. "No problem, we just need to visit the post office this Sunday." Sam with her usual devious smile. "I guess we can finally test our new program."
The sun is barely up on this Sunday morning as Hanna and Sam are preparing to enter the post office. They scouted the building the day prior and choose to come as early as possible to avoid witness or some idiot deciding to come to the office. Sam finished picking the lock and slithered into the building. "You go find the mail management computers while I check the supervisor's office." Sam gave an acknowledgement and went to towards the sorting area. Hanna made her way to the back office and wasn't surprised to see an IBM PC. She connected the 3.5-inch external floppy drive she brought with her to the PC, she then turns the computer on and run her program. The program will infect the computer with malware, allowing her kernel level access from home, as well as infecting any diskette that comes into contact with the PC will spread the malware. The program will also copy any important information it detects into the floppy disk.
While waiting for her program finishes its job, Hanna looks around the office looking for things she can use. Looking in one of the desk drawers, she saw a list written on paper with usernames and passwords, as well as the phone numbers. Thank you, troglodytes! For practicing bad operational security. Shaking her head while copying the information, the people who set up their computers must have also set up the security. A beeping sound from the computer tells her that the program has done its job. She quickly packs everything and makes as if no one was here.
She made her way towards Sam, who was looking intently at one of the computers. "Done with your end?" Sam hums while still looking at the monitor. "Yeah, infected all the computers that handle mail and packaging. They usually receive new information from the distribution center around 5pm, and the mail usually around 7pm." Hanna nods at the information but is more curious about what got her friend's attention. "What's going on with this computer?"
"This computer never shuts down because it needs to receive information from the distribution center. What's more interesting is that this computer has a 9.6 kbit/s line. I connected to the system at the distribution center in Huston." Sam grins at her and said. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" This is better than she expected. A rush of electricity flows through her. "Do it. Our program is small enough that uploading it would only take three minutes at the most." Hanna can feel the excitement radiating out from Sam as she did the upload. As they finished up everything and gleefully left the post office, she knows the thing to top off a great start to a Sunday morning. "Let's go pancakes."
Double chocolate chip pancake covered in Hershey's syrup is probably the best thing humanity has invented in her eyes, sure it might cause her diabetes, but she does not expect to live long enough to care for such consequence. She salivates as she eats food truly fit for gods. "How long do you think before our program infects all of the computer system in that distribution center?" Said Sam, breaking Hanna from her sugary bliss. "Shouldn't take too long for it to spread since we added the ability to use local networks. So maybe less than a week." Peering at Sam, who nods and is enjoying some plain ass pancake that is drenched in Hershey's syrup. "We should see if we can remotely update our program so it would send uploads to other distribution canters. That way, we can access all USPS systems in Texas, or maybe the entire country, with enough time to propagate."
Sam's comment made Hanna think of something. "How feasible do you think to program a self-modifying software, so it could change and improve itself? Maybe with just a few commands from admin, us to push it in a direction we want." That cause Sam to stop eating and give her an intense look, after a while said. "A code that modifies itself so it kept hidden shouldn't be too difficult to do, might slow down an average computer for a few moments while it changes. What you are suggesting is some form of evolutionary programming, a software that is able to learn by itself, an artificial intelligence." Well, that's more than what Hanna wanted, but close enough. Sam shook her head and continues. "I doubt we can create it, or even power such a thing. Would be really awesome if we could."
The look in Sam's eyes burns with fascination at the notion of such a thing, maybe... "Who says we can't create one? Maybe not now, but with how fast computers are getting every year, parallel computing might even be cheaper and easier. We could even start developing such software by the turn of the millennium." An unknown feeling blossom within her as she sees how happy Sam was at that notion. "Anyway, that's more than a decade away. I've been thinking when we get the Unix diskette we should decompile the OS, meaning we need to build a decompiler." Said Sam. They spent the entire morning discussing about it and the rest of the day creating the decompiler.
A week have pass since they began their current adventure. It only took the university one business day to put in a purchase order for Unix to AT&T, Hanna then connected back into the university system to delete any evidence of the procurement. Unless there was a thorough audit of their files and accounts, no one will know something was off. Ever since that day, both of them search for a house that was recently vacated in Kingsville to reroute their package. They found the perfect house to use just as the package entered the Huston distribution center and quickly place a reroute order into the system to that house.
So here they are in an empty house waiting for the package. They skipped school for this, not that it matters since the attendance record would mark them as present. To pass the time, they practice Pas de deux with Hanna taking the lead due to her being taller. Sam is such a natural in ballet dancer that it made Hanna envious, but she couldn't build up any negative feelings because they just have too much fun time doing it together. Hanna finds doing ballet to be such an easy way to clear her mind. There's just something calming about doing the routines, for her it quickly became one of the things she loves to do in this life. An idea struck her like a bolt of lightning as she does her routine, which causes her to feel profound joy.
The sound of the mail truck interrupted their routine. They quickly get into position just in case, thankfully the house owner kept window coverings in place. Displeasure course through her as the mailman knocks on the door. Can't the idiot read to just leave the package by the door? Going with Plan B, it was a good thing they did ballet, at least her face is flushed. "Coming!" Hanna quickly pulls out a hankie and pretended to cough. "Can I help you?" Hanna said in a sickly voice. "Hi there, is your dad Mr. Byron? I need him to sign off on this package." Said the idiot as he smiles and tries to peer into the house. This man truly wishes for an unfortunate event. "Yes, he's my dad, but he's at work. Can I sign it for him?" She continues to cough. "Is your mother in?" Hanna shook her head. The idiot sighs. "Can I know your dad's full name?" This ape is pissing her off. "Alan Mathison Byron, is there anything else?" She continues to put a sickening sweet voice for this ape. "No, it's all good. Just sign here." She signed the form with the name Augusta A. Byron. "Here you go. Can I know your name?" The ape gave her a kindly smile. "I'm Mr. Orrantia. I usually do this route, so I'll see you again." He won't see her next time, that's for sure. She noted the truck number.
They went back home at the appropriate time. The moment they entered her room Hanna quickly grab her cryptography book that's next to her bed, leaving a deadpan Sam. "Aren't we going to decompile the OS, Han?" Hanna ignores Sam for a while before replying. "Yes, but I think I just solve my cipher problem when we were dancing. Give me a moment." Hearing Sam groans as she went to the computer. "Fine, go finish your cipher, but you better help me with this when you're done."
The alarm awoke her from her dreamless sleep. Sam groans beside Hanna as she tries to go back to sleep. Her father bought a full double bed not too long ago, since Sam basically lives here during the weekend. The sun hasn't risen as she finishes her morning routine, looking down at Sam, who went back to sleep. "Wakey, wakey sleepyhead. Time to wake up." Hanna tore the blanket off and hit her head with a pillow. That cause Sam to yelp and hit Hanna with a side pillow in retaliation. "Why are we awake so early?" Sam glares, rubs her eyes, and yawn at the same time. It's incredibly adorable. "We didn't plan anything to do this early." Said Sam as she yawns again. Unable to hold back a smirk, Hanna knew it was the correct idea to not tell her. This is way more fun.
"Well, we didn't plan anything, but I did! Come on Sleepy, get up and wash up, we have an adventure to go to!" Hanna knew putting on an overly enthusiastic act would annoy Sam, which succeeded because her only response was a deadpan stare and grumbling as she goes to the washroom.
"Are you going to tell me what we're doing? Because I need to know what clothes to wear." Said Sam as she came back into the room looking irritated. "We are going to run for 3 miles! It's finally time for us to start exercising." She should have repossessed a Polaroid because the face Sam is making is worth a million dollars. "What!? You hate exercising and we can't just go run for 4 miles with no experience of doing it." Giving Sam her best smile, she said. "Beggars can't be choosers since we're beings of flesh and bones. We need to exercise to improve our strength and endurance. Besides, it's going to be fine, we bike a lot and do ballet. If we crash, we crash!"
Sam is giving her a thousand-yard stare. She wonders if Sam would still be like this if she gets her father's camera in the living room. "You're insane." Sam said in a way that causes Hanna to laugh uncontrollably for a minute. "Of course, I'm not. Because you would never be friends with an insane person." Said Hanna as she grabs Sam to give her a side hug. "Come on Sam, we can take the long way round towards the park and hang out there after!" Sam continues to glare at her but gave in, eventually. "Fine, let me change."
Just as they were about to leave the house, Sam asked. "Have you told your parents that we're leaving?" Hanna gave a shrug and said. "No. Why would I? They would know we left together." Sam sighs and gave her a questioning look said. "Be right back. I'm going to write a note." Hanna really doesn't understand why Sam seems to care about her parents. Sam quickly came back and asked. "So, what now? Do we start slowly?" Hanna nods and said. "Let's start with stretches."
They spent ten minutes doing their warmup. "Alright all done, Let's go!" Said Hanna as she quickly starts running. She swore she could hear a disgruntled groaning when she started. The sun slowly rises as they are running, casting an orange glow into the sky. She starts feeling tired halfway, muscles burn, sweat gathers, but she continues, determined to complete the run. Looking behind her, she saw Sam just as tired as her, but did not stop.
When they reached the park, both of them collapse onto the grass, gasping for air. "I can't believe you made me do this." Said Sam between breaths. "I know. I hate this as much as you do. Things are going to be sore tomorrow." Said Hanna as she drinks water that she wisely brought with her. She hears Sam groans and said. "We need to steal some actual running shoes. Can't continue using our shoes in the long run." That comment causes Hanna to smile. Sam knows she wouldn't stop and was going with the flow.
After ten minutes of laying down to catch their breath. "We need to learn how to defend ourselves." Hanna said as she sat up, catching Sam's attention. "Who do we need to defend ourselves from?" Sam sat up as well, facing each other. "Anyone that isn't us. The world is full of monsters Sam, the better prepare we are to face it, the better off we will be." Sam gave her a skeptical look. Despite never really understanding people, Sam still clung to her childish belief in humanity. Hanna wonders what it would take to break that belief. Maybe she just needed a little encouraging push in the right direction.
"Let's start with the simplest way to paralyze someone. I'm sure even you know it." Said Hanna as the both of them stand up facing each other. Sam gave a thoughtful look and answers. "Kick them between the legs?" Hanna grins at the answer and prepares her stance. "Yes, a kick to the groin is very effective against male opponents because of their external gonads, but it would still cause pain against a female opponent." Sam snorts and whispers. "Who says gonads?" Hanna ignores that comment and shows Sam how to do the kick. "Come on, try it. First, have a solid base, then use your dominant leg and kick the forcefully. Make use of your entire body hips forward with the motion and lean back a little while doing it." Sam perfectly follows her instructions. "If you opponent is close to you, just use your knee. But be mindful of your footing." Hanna shows Sam the motions, who follow diligently.
"Normally for male opponents, such an attack will cause such an intense pain they will stop and bend, holding their groin in response. During that moment, we can apply the second technique, a heel palm strike. Do you know why we use that over a punch?" Sam examines her hand, thinking of a reason, and answers. "Less chance of us breaking something? I assume our next strike would be the head and the skull are very thick." Pride exploded through her. Sam is going to be such a natural at this. She just requires some cultivation. "Exactly unless your fist is bound tightly or using a brass knuckle, it's better to use your palm." Hanna took a stance which Sam follows. "Aim for the side of the head, if can hit the ear or the back of the ear. Do you know why?" They continue doing the motions of a palm strike. Sam was contemplative at the question and answers. "I guess to disorient the person. The ear and the back of the head are very sensitive?" Hanna grins at the answer. She is lucky that Sam is the way she is. "Spot on. The other area you can hit is the opponent's nose. The person will feel like their brain got punch by doing so." They continue doing their practice strikes for a while.
"When your opponents are sufficiently disorientated by your strikes, then you can go in for something more lasting, strike their throat until they cannot breathe or grab them by the head and grouch their eyes out with your thumbs." Her deliverance of that might be a little too enthusiastic when she noticed Sam got queasy by the end. "Eww... The eye part is disgusting." Said Sam.
Huh... Crushing someone's windpipe is fine, but the eye is too far? Shaking her head at that odd response, she continues. "There's no such thing as a clean fight. Use anything to your advantage. Be observant of your environment when fighting. Use your surroundings in your fight to gain the upper hand. Do you know why we need to such things to gain an advantage?" Sam shot her a look and instantly answers. "Because we're girls?" It is sad that we couldn't modify their bodies to compensate for such trivial things. "Precisely. We will almost always be physically disadvantaged compared to most males we will encounter. I doubt that we are born with a physically superior body compared to most females, so we work smarter, not harder."
Sam nods in understanding but apprehensive. "Why couldn't we just run away after disorientating someone?" She doesn't seem to understand the point, so Hanna stops their practice so she can look at Sam properly and said. "A person might be an obstacle to our goals, and we should remove them from the equation. Either by hand, knife, a stun gun, or a firearm." Sam gave Hanna a look that she couldn't understand. Had she said something wrong. "So what? We kill anyone that is in our way?" Said Sam with a blank look.
Why is she making it awkward? Might be good to lighten the mood, so she drapes her arm around Sam's neck and said. "Obviously silly. People are just tools for us to use Sam, and some tools need to be disposed of." She felt Sam stiffen a little but soon relaxed, she then let out a sigh and shook her head. "You can't go around killing people Han, you might attract unwanted attention." She's right... Well, can't cry over spilled milk. "Fine, let's talk about something else, like knives!" Sam raised an eyebrow.
That appears to have distracted Sam from whatever funk she was having. "Sadly, we don't have knives for examples. I'm sure we can get some in Kingsville, something concealable." She would love to get a 6.5 inch blade, but 3 or 4 inch blades would suffice for now. Sam is giving her a look when she gets distracted. Right, need to get back to the topic. "I won't really get into detail about how to fight someone equipped with a knife since we're still kids and if someone does come at you with a knife, run away as fast as possible." Sam seems surprised by that statement. Did she except them to survive against someone with a knife.
"The most common area where someone would use a knife on is the abdomen and chest." Hanna pretends to stab Sam's body. "Your chest is the most protected part because of your ribs, but it contains the vital organs. Getting a stab in the abdomen isn't fatal, but it sucks. 0/10 would not recommend." Sam tilted her head and gave her a queer look as she said. "How would you even know that?" Because she had that fun experience in the past. Can't really tell Sam that, might make her think she's crazy or something. "Observations, did you know it took 23 stabs before Caesar died?" Said Hanna with a shrug, trying to avoid a direct answer. Sam had a contemplative look and asked. "It takes that many stabbings to kill Caesar because most of the wounds miss vital blood vessels?"
"Yes, most people when attacking with a knife are not precise. That's why they generally aim for the torso. We on the other hand, should not do the same given the opportunity." Said Hanna as she moves into position for the next demonstrations. "Should we be using knives in a fight, always aim to end the fight as fast as possible. Meaning we should stab a person at carotid artery, which is the neck." Said Hanna, while showing where it is on herself. "The femoral artery, which is in the inner thigh and my favorite, the armpit which is full of blood vessels. Severing any of the blood vessels in this area will cause your target severe blood loss and death within 3 minutes tops."
Sam's face went neutral again. She really needs to figure out what's causing this. "You said to run away if someone comes at us with a blade, so would that not apply to other people as well?" Hanna gives her a grin at the question and answers. "That's why if the target knows you're coming, we don't open with a knife attack. We start with the earlier technique to disorient the target and then use our knife." Sam nods in understanding and said. "Come on, show me other hand to hand technique."
They continue practicing and exercising for an hour, in that time, Sam seems to be normal again, laughing at each other antics. "Let's go home. I'm starving." Said Hanna, covered in sweat. "Would be nice to have a punching bag or a head & torso dummy." Sam hums at the suggestion and said. "I don't think your parents would allow it." Sam pauses and grins. "We should find a place for ourselves, where we can keep our goods."