Part 9 (1/2)
They went to a computer sitting by itself on a table. Uhura popped her data disk into the computer and then hit the reset b.u.t.ton. The computer reset itself and tried to boot from Uhura's corrupted disk. Soon it announced that there was no bootable disk present. Uhura took her disk out of the drive. ”It's as dead as a door nail, now.”
The Spiky haired virus expert snorted and turned the computer off. Then he turned it back on. The computer refused to start up. Then he took a protected disk from his supplies and repeated the process. The computer refused to start up. Shaking his head grimly, the spiky haired expert tried the disk in another computer, only to kill that one.
”Okay.” He said. ”Now we will introduce the virus to The Beast.”
”The Beast?” Uhura sounded amused.
”The Beast is the fastest PC available running the latest version of our software with every virus protection I can find. A couple of them I had to write myself.” He said proudly.
”And The Beast will survive this thing?” Uhura asked.
”It will survive and conquer. Once the virus is no longer running, we can take it apart and find out how it killed lesser machines.”
”Good luck.” Uhura said.
With a confident smirk the man put the contaminated disk into a huge black machine running near the front of the room. The machine considered the disk thoughtfully. Then it ran for a while, chewing things over. Then with a plaintive beep it put a message up on its screen. ”Warning! Data Disk Severely Corrupted!” Then The Beast died. No amount of electronic resuscitation could revive it.
”Houston, we have a problem.” The Spiky haired man said.
”I told you so.” Uhura said sweetly.
”All right. What's the nature of this here virus?” Wild Bill Dornan was a big man. He was about as tall as Angelo but weighed half again as much. He seemed to over ride and dominate every room that he entered. He was wearing a pastel blue suit cut in a ”western” style, cowboy boots and an ornate ten gallon hat. His face and hands s.h.i.+ned with the kind of care that half a billion dollars can buy.
”This is not good, Bill, not good at all.” Spiky Hair said. ”How long to whip up a fix and release it on the net?” Wild Bill demanded.
”This is more complicated than that, Bill.” Spiky Hair
”How? And don't talk down to me G.o.d d.a.m.n it! I'm the guy that coded Pac-Man for the Atari PC so I think I know a little whereof I speak!” Bill thundered.
”This virus attacks the basic kernel of our system. The only way to defend it is to rewrite the kernel completely.” Spiky Hair reported.
”G.o.d d.a.m.n it to h.e.l.l in a flower basket, man! That kernel is the core of the d.a.m.ned program! Without that, Geos ain't Geos anymore!” Bill hollered.
”Yes, Sir.” Spiky Hair said. ”You got it.”
”Tarnation! How widely spread is this thing!” Bill yelled. Angelo wondered if he ever spoke quietly.
”Not too far. It's only attacked our system.” Uhura said.
”Who in tarnation are you?” Bill demanded.
”Uhura Young, Ph.D. in Computer science, Brigham Young University, 1989.” Uhura introduced.
”And it's your system that's been hit with this monster?” Bill said.
”Yes, Sir. The Vista City Police Department computer network is history.” Uhura said.
”Can we reinstall Geos and get these people back on line?”
”No, Sir. The only way I can even access the computers here anymore is with OS/4.” Spiky Hair admitted.