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Raiders Of The Lost Island Consignment Shop - Part 56

'AARIN! THE GENERATORS HAVE TURNED RED! DO SOMETHING!' 'Relax! I expected something like this - but, yes, not so quickly ... looks like they've put in a lot more security fail-safes than I'd given those morons credit for ... hmmmph, these Date Added and Date Modified entries to these system files ... all they've done is add an extra security system on top of the existing system hoping that would patch up the security holes ... typical Simgurus.' 'Fascinating as that sounds, Oh Luminous One, can you stop it from doing what it is trying to do? From scientific experience, anything turning red from blue at once is never a good sign - unless it's the ready button on a microwave oven.' 'Your lack of faith displeases! A few quick changes here and here, return the permission to the security of the executables here, and...' 'Aarin, the outside of some of the generators have turned a pinky red, but otherwise all the rest are back to blue!' 'Of course.' 'Same over here, except they're more a purple colour.' 'Irksome, but acceptable.' 'Does that mean panic over for now?' 'It means panic over for now, child.' 'Excuse my suspicion, but what did you do exactly, in simple concise non-technical form, to switch that back?' 'What I swiched, Switch, was the off switch, Switch.' 'All you did was log off and shut down?' 'A touch oversimplistic, insect! There was a bit more to it than that first, but correct in essentials.' 'That's it? That's fixed it.' 'Yes.' 'Fixed it as in the sort of fix synonymous with not going to happen again, for ever and ever, world will not end, amen?' 'Yes.' 'You're absolutely sure about that? 'Cos right now my current state of abject terror needs a little more convincing.' 'Times like this make me realise why I was happy to be sacked as the Simgurus' Infoguru to the lumpen proletariat.' 'Oh Cloverstardropper, you really need to have more faith that Aarin knows what she's doing.' 'Er, Zhivan, hello, have you forgetten already we have been central to a series of holy-shit-dude-we're-screwed events that not even the Bauderlaires and Quagmires could have hauled their asses out of the fire in time, and that your precious Great Knit over there played no small part in the genesis of?' 'People, stop fighting with each other - everyone be friends and focus! The impertinent brat has a valid point, Zhivan; what just happened should not have - but did. All because ...' '...the lady loves Milk Tray? Sorry, couldn't resist, please continue.' 'All because ***growls*** I estimated the gurus capabilities ... incorrectly. Allow me to explain.' 'I overestimated the Simgurus and their grunts' capabilities in correctly wiring basic circuits for electrical, nuclear and dark matter generators. There's some botched job repairs in there, but we haven't the time to investigate further. Perhaps deliberate to make it harder to predict the circuitry by anyone attempting to break it, but that some of the generators have not returned to their original state properly suggests the routine cut corners we've come to expect from Simgurus.' 'But I underestimated their capacity to out think their foes. The fingerprint scanners to gain access to these virtual computer orbs are programmed in order to sort friend from sophisticated foe - quite clever if I may say so. Merely by using one, I was admitting to being an intruder.' 'You mean the fingerprint scanner was a double bluff?' 'Correct. The intruder enters the network, unaware it was in order to record their actions and determine the nature of their espionage - for it may prove of greater value to observe what the intruder is doing in order to glean what they're interested in before security steps in to stop and arrest them. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar, and these are a neat little honey trap. Clearly my actions triggered in it steps to stop over-hostile actions - perhaps a limited explosion disguised as a meltdown. The intruder would be volatilised, the remaining equipment repaired, and none would be any the wiser.' 'Aarin, how did you realise what they'd done?' 'Never mind how, have you got any further Doctor with those reference numbers?' 'I've gone through six volumes already while you lot were busy panicking over flashing knobs like the cast of 'Allo Allo'. I'm starting on volume seven as well as trying to work out what this console is all about?' 'The consoles will be routine back ups for the four central to the generators.T hey may also has some functions related to the circuitry, but chances are they'll be of little use to us. May even be for the Bot and Sim digitiser over on the other side of the room to you...' 'The bots? Like these ones here that aren't working?' 'Unlikely. They were probably created away from here. They're too advanced for that Bot rig, and even loyal Simgurus may have wondered why Plumbots nanites for working with nuclear equipment were being sent to a hospital.' 'Could that be why they broke down? Not built locally enough and so unsuited to the environment?' 'Possible. The equipment inside here has protections against electrical, radioactive and magical energy surges, those Bots do not. Also the surges on the LLAMA Box network outside may have caused some form of interference to their circuitry.' 'Okay fine, now tell us how you realised what they'd done to catch you out when you illegally entered their systems?' 'Simple. Fingerprint data takes up sizeable space. My five user account files, even with one fingerprint apiece, were all miles larger than those of senior management users like Grant Rodiek, Graham Nardone or Ryan Vaughan - indicating their own dabs weren't included, meaning they didn't need them to access the system. It was exactly what I'd spotted the same time those generators went rogue red.' 'Brilliant.' But Switch-Cloverstardropper noted silently that Aarin had mentioned five user accounts, whereas previously she'd said four... 'Don't flatter me, I don't deserve it - falling for the old trick of the fake security measure. Could have killed you all before we'd barely started.' 'So can you get back in?' 'Yes, but I'm not going to risk going into any of my accounts. Too obvious - first thing the system is going to be looking for. I'm going back in as a general administrator.' 'But how?' 'Usual Simdows 10 Security flaws - I'll bet you one roast granny with all the trimmings Chyla and Zhivan they've not fixed. And, Cloverstardropper, by looking for the administrator access buttons on this orb...' 'Access buttons?' 'Yes - a tiny button or buttons you will have to press at the same time as the boot up button - automatically gives the user administrator access. Very, very old tech and frowned upon by modern security experts - which is exactly why they may have used it. 'Another double bluff?' 'Yes. They're inventive, but not that inventive. Besides, it would be handy for emergency system entry - the latter an issue when dealing with nuclear and dark matter reactors, of course.' 'Isn't that a bit risky? I mean, anyone could find those buttons just by running their hands over those orbs...' 'Buttons? You have faith in the ease of others in finding hidden buttons? If you knew the trouble most men have with their hands trying to find the ...' 'YES CHYLA, LET'S NOT GO THERE WITH YOUR DOMESTIC ISSUES THANK YOU!' 'What was that you were saying about a Bot and Sim digitiser, Aarin?' 'Look over to your right...' 'There's the original Simmie digitiser Kent and her friends were playing around with to create "perfect Sims" for their bosses - a Cerebralizer merged into a standard Reventlov's Bot Workshop. Simple, crude, but effective.' 'A standard what?' 'They're for making plumbots with, an advanced form of Simbot - but they found a way to digitise Sim and Bone, so to speak. Either you think of the Simmie you want from what you can take from your own mind, or from computer data fed in. They will have added wireless access later.' 'Which you in turn crosswired into the LLAMA network.' 'Correct.' 'Which means if we destroy that, there will be no more of that nonsense to worry about either.' 'Maybe.' 'What do you mean, "maybe"?' 'There's no telling this is the only one. Let's just hope it is. One disaster at a time, please ... and I'm back in the system - good!' Cloverstardropper got the feeling Aarin was already convinced they were too late, but for now that was not important. 'Yes, full access on nothing more than ADMIN and the default password of CA94065. People, we are in business - give me those codes Doctor as you find them and I can shut down this whole damn insanity once and for all...' 'But what do we do with all this after?' 'We do nothing, Chyla, except get the hell out of here. The locals aren't going to want us to stay around for tea and medals.' 'Aarin, you can't just leave this place to be reactivated!' 'Politics and the corridors of power are your affair, Zhivan. Right now and right after, my priority is ...' 'Aarin, some of these generators have turned back red again!' 'Don't worry, like I said, some of the circuitry is botched. Expect some to go on and off now that it's happened once, like a neon tube with a dodgy starter.' 'AARIN, AN ENTIRE ROW OF THESE DAMN GENERATORS AND REACTORS HAVE TURNED RED!' 'Yeah, yeah, I see, let's start shutting down what circuits I can and we'll take it from there...' 'Hey! They've all turned back off again!' 'You see! Nothing to panic about!' 'Give me five more minutes and one reboot, and their Project Olympus is toast. Then it's someone else's worry how to clean up the ...' 'AARIN! WHAT THE HELL'S HAPPENING?' 'The one possibility I feared.' 'WHAT? AARIN I CAN'T HEAR YOU!' 'THE ONE POSSIBILITY I FEARED! SOME SORT OF AUTOMATIC ALERT TO CERTAIN SIMGURUS IN THE EVENT OF A HIGH SECURITY BREACH, AND THEM REMOTELY TRIGGERING PROJECT OLYMPUS TO ITS ULTIMATE CONCLUSION - BUILDING UP A CHARGE FOR THE FINAL INSTRUCTION!' 'THEN DO SOMETHING!' 'AARIN SAYS RELAX! ZHIVAN, WHAT LEVELS ARE YOU SEEING ON YOUR MONITORS?' 'ELECTROMAGNETIC LEVEL, 80%! ALL SYSTEMS OVERHEATING! DARK MATTER FUSION LEVEL, 85%! ESTIMATED TIME TO EVENT HORIZON, TWO MINUTES! IMMEDIATE PORTAL ENTRY ADVISED!' 'DOCTOR! YOU REALLY NEED TO GIVE ME A TREBLE M UNIT REFERENCE CODE - FAST!' 'I CAN'T! I CAN'T READ ANY OF THE BOOKS OR FILES IN THIS LIGHT!' 'AARIN! TELL ME WHAT TO DO! ISN'T THERE SOME OTHER WAY OF DISRUPTING IT?' 'I'M WORKING ON IT!' 'DOCTOR, WHAT ABOUT THAT DAMN SONIC SCREWDRIVER OF YOURS!' 'WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING? IF I CAN FIND THE RIGHT FREQUENCY TO DISRUPT ONE OF THESE REACTORS, IT MAY BUY US SOME TIME!' 'SWITCH CLOVERSTARDROPPER! GET AWAY FROM THERE BEFORE YOU BURN YOURSELF ON ONE OF THOSE GENERATORS!' 'Heh! Aha! Ahahahahahahahhaha! AHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHA!' 'WHAT THE HELL'S SO FUNNY?' 'YOU! WE'RE ABOUT TO CEASE TO EXIST, AND YOU'RE STILL GETTING ALL PATERNAL ON ME! YOU'RE AMAZING!' 'Heh! AHAHAHAHA! OH MY PLUMBOBS, YEAH! SWITCH, JUST TO LET YOU KNOW, THERE'S NO ONE ELSE I'D RATHER END THE UNIVERSE WITH!' 'YOU TOO, ZHIVAN, IT'S BEEN A BLAST! HAHAHAHAHA! ♫ HAVE NO FEAR! HAVE NO FEAR! YOU WILL BE KILLED RIGHT AWAY! ♪ ' 'HAHAHAHAHA! ♫ LET'S GET THOSE MISSILES READY TO DESTROY THE UNIVERSE! ♪ ' 'ZHIVAN! GET BACK TO WATCHING THOSE MONITORS!' 'IT'S TOO LATE! EVERYONE JUMP INTO THE NEAREST PORTAL GATE! IT'S OUR ONLY CHANCE OF SURVIVAL!' 'WE'RE NOT FINISHED YET! I'VE WIRED THE LLAMA NETWORK INTO THIS SYSTEM!' 'WHAT USE IS THAT?' 'THE MAGICAL OVERLOAD WILL DISRUPT THE PROJECT OLYMPUS FINAL INSTRUCTION UNTIL IT CAN RIGHT ITSELF, THE FORCES NEED TO BE IN EQUILIBRIUM FOR IT TO WORK!' 'BUT FOR HOW LONG?' 'LONG ENOUGH HOPEFULLY ZHIVAN FOR ME TO FIND ANOTHER WAY TO SHUT DOWN THIS DAMN DOOMSDAY DEVICE!' 'HOW?' 'I DON'T KNOW YET! BUT SO LONG AS THE LLAMA NETWORK'S POWER HOLDS OUT, SO DOES THE SIMMERVERSE. EVEN IF WHAT I'VE DONE OVERLOADS IT - THE ENERGY WILL EVAPORATE EVERYTHING IN THIS BASEMENT INSTANTANEOUSLY LIKE A MAGICAL ATOMIC BOMB!' 'WHAT? YOU MEAN WE MIGHT STILL GET KILLED, AARIN?' 'TO HELL WITH LIFE, ZHIVAN! I'LL DIE HAPPY KNOWING THOSE SIMGURU BASTARDS DIDN'T WIN!' 'Uhhhhhhh, wut?' It took their eyes a moment to readjust to the gloom. 'Seriously? Just when I was about to fix it?' 'TadOlson does not understand why the Aarin person, Zhivan person, Switch person, Chyla person and The Doctor person trying to stop Project Olympus running did not simply pull the emergency power break switch as TadOlson has done.' 'All this time ... all that bloody terror ... and all we had to do was switch the effing power off?' 'Dearest Switch, however stupid you may be feeling right now, however stupid you may all be feeling right now, it is but a fraction of how dumb I feel, and will continue to feel for a very long time to come. In fact, I'm going to have to book myself in with a psychiatrist for deep and everlasting Post Traumatic Derp Disorder.' 'TadOlson is amazed and confused. TadOlson expected that the Aarin person, Zhivan person, Switch person, Chyla person and The Doctor person would be pleased that TadOlson had switched off the power and prevented doomsday?' 'Ehahahahahahaah, no no, kid, er TadOlson ... whoever you are ... you did great ... in fact more than great ... we're just a little ... you know ... relieved ... and exhausted ... it's been a long day ... and now this nightmare's all over ... WHOA! Could I ever be doing with a pot of tea - or a large Zedrael's twenty year old malt!' 'It ain't over by a long chalk, Zhivan. We need to get this crap dismantled and destroyed - and get every last damn Simguru on the planet under lock and key before they try again!' 'The World Explorers and following that the Taffers will alert every damn Simmie city and nation on earth - and you can imagine how delighted King Henry Tapuwhai and the PaSimfic Empire will be. All the ammunition he's ever wanted about The Council of the United Nations of The Sims - it will never recover from this. My Magical Unicorn, we've done it! Inadvertantly, but we've still done it! We've overthrown them at last!' 'You bungling blackguards have overthrown nothing, Chyla, so shut up! Escaping Moonlight Falls with your lives will be your real achievement at the end of this!' 'Yeah, but it's still worth celebrating. At least some good came out of all of this - still got to beat those backstabbing Simgurus, YES!' 'Glad someone's finding anything to celebrate in this whole mess, Aarin! Anyway, at least things now cannot possibly get any worse...' 'Hi! I'm Nancy Drew! You can call me Nancy!' PART FIFTY SEVEN TO FOLLOW!