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Station Systems Administrator


Alarms screamed.

“Virus!” Tocohl flashed the warning to Joyita and Bechimo. “Seal up!”

She accessed the system—the legacy system, not Seignur Veeoni’s painstaking rack-and-tile array. Still, the intruder could do harm—was doing harm, multiplying, overwhelming available resources.

Cleanbots stopped and fell over in the halls of the station.

Tocohl threw up a wall; another, trying to herd it, contain it. If she could get it into a box, she could smother it, but it was quick.

And then, it jumped.

Jumped from the legacy system into the security perimeter.

“I’ve got it!” Joyita yelled, throwing a trap around it.

But the virus had jumped again—only the very slimmest of datastrings—but it was inside security.

Inside the station systems.

Outside of station systems, Tocohl reached—and realized that she would never be quick enough; nimble enough. This was not her environment, and because of that, the virus was going to win.

Joyita was gone, vanished from her scans. Bechimo was locked tight.

The virus jumped again.

“Catie,” Tocohl sent along the sealed line. “I’m throwing the switch.”


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Framed