Now entering Jack's Office

[heroantagonist]

[It's a long ride up in the elevator. The floors passing you by start to merge together into a jumbled blur, leaving the whole experience altogether surreal and boring.

Eventually though, it ends. Finally, you're deposited in a yellow hallway, rows upon rows of computers on business desks encased in large glass windows. A disc-shaped cleaning bot handles the long stretch of hallway you march down, rumbling incessantly as it passes. More potted plants. More Hyperion logos, getting worse by the second-

And then you enter Jack's office.

The man (the myth, the legend) himself is probably behind his desk. So why don't you drop in and say hi? Just be mindful of the rules...]

Comments

[heroantagonist]

Oh my god did you see him?

[Jack sits up

Oh god there’s a gun in his hand]

Is that little freakazoid in here? Did he follow you?

[securityconsultant]

[ASFDHJKASGFASFFFASD]

No-! I thought he was with you!

[heroantagonist]

No! He’s not - he’s a weird little gremlin that came in here out of nowhere and I can’t flush him out of the vents!

Ooohh, I’ve tried so many times to kill him but he won’t. Frickin. Die. [Jack is altogether exhausted and frustrated.]

I swear if he shows his face again I’m throwing him out an airlock!

[securityconsultant]

[........................................................]

If I get intel on him. What would you do for it.

[heroantagonist]

… What do you want for it? A turbo mansion?

[securityconsultant]

I want to go home.

[It doesn't care about everyone else. Shut up, emotions. They're not its humans.

No, really, emotions. Stop.]

[heroantagonist]

Yeah, no can do there, buddy. You get that and suddenly everyone’s coming to ask me for favors. How about something a little less… that.

I’m… not really supposed to do this, but… you want out of those motives?

[securityconsultant]

[...]

You can guarantee that my - dimension, I guess - won't be affected by any of this bullshit?

[heroantagonist]

Well, duh. I’m in charge of this show, aren’t I? I can do whatever I want.

[securityconsultant]

I have no reason to believe you.

[beat]

But if you're serious, the best way for me to get info would for my systems to be restored. In full.

[You want it to trust you? Trust it.]

Let me connect to your security the way I was built to do, and I'll find your clown.

[heroantagonist]

… Deal.

[Jack types away at a holographic display. Something that murderbot won’t see. It’s not for it. Not yet.]

But I wasn’t born yesterday. You want into my systems? You need my say-so. I’m not letting you off the hook to run rampant through Helios. So, you’re gonna need a pass.

[securityconsultant]

And...how do I get that pass?

[heroantagonist]

Simple.

I upload it into you when I unlock whatever you need to connect with the system.

[securityconsultant]

You want me to let you put code in me.

[UM]

[heroantagonist]

No, I want you to let me put a ID program in you. It’ll let the system recognize you as friendly and not, you know, fry your brain because it thinks your an intruder.

[securityconsultant]

[damn it, that makes sense. it still doesn't have to like it though. foreign code makes it...uneasy. uneasy enough where it takes a full six seconds - which is an eternity to a construct - to go over its options.

...but it'll approach, and slowly open its wrist to pull out a connector]

Fine, but I'm taking a look before I install it.

[have Murderbot's equivalent of a USB cable being offered to you, Jack. it'll just go ahead and set up a quarantine partition in the meantime]

[heroantagonist]

Fine, whatever. Come here.

[He presses a button on the desk and a compartment slides open to reveal whatever passes for USB slots in space. He accepts the cord, plugs it in, and starts typing away at a
keyboard.

Just from a glance, this system is… impressive.

But perhaps not as impressive as what Jack pulls off on short notice. It’s fast; throw together a ID pass, sneak in an executable file as a secret tool that will help later, sprinkle in some junk malware to hide it, and…]

Voila, one pass. Have at er, kiddo.

[securityconsultant]

[Right. Let's do this. It plugs in, downloads the file in to the partition, and-]

-spyware? Really?

[IT'S NOT GOING TO ACT AS YOUR CAMERA FEED]

[heroantagonist]

Juuust keeping you on your toes, kiddo. Nice to see your security is working.

[securityconsultant]

You're an asshole. [At least it knows where it stands with you, Jack. Don't mind it already starting to write some killware for your system as it sorts through the package, deletes the malware, and then promptly settles in to work]