“For a successful
technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.” Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize- winning
physicist.
The astounding
setting of the space station on future year 2014 (this book was written in late
1990s) is the result of the author’s hard work in studying space research and
anything related to the space. There are so much scientific terms used in the
book, but do not worry, you’ll survive reading this book even though you’re not
a science geek.
Iraqi Army created a
virus named PAM that infected the Allied Satellite Armada software. Iraqi
President and his father-in-law Saddam Hussein were behind this. The consequences
of this software sabotage have destructed space stations. Approximately
4,800 commercial were lost flights and over fifty thousand people have been
confirmed dead. The situation drove global economic catastrophe. Once a virgin
PAM virus program starts running, she can’t be destroyed.
The disaster was
man-made and untraceable. A fighter pilot Major Linda Scott and her crew
determined to find the hatch of the virus. They found PAM in space station
fortress named Freedom. Killing the electrical power has been eliminated for
PAM’s option for retaliation.
The 415-page book was
published by Jove Book, New York in 1997. Bill Buchanan is an American science
fiction novelist but he also writes some science books. There is no much
official information about the author but I believe that Mr. Buchanan must be a
great scientist and programmer. He also is a very brilliant writer who wrote an
astonishing book that proves him a lifelong space knowledge and computer
science. He actually writes some programs to issue orders and gives orbit and
space trajectories in order to make the book more realistic. This is definitely
realistic science fiction book. Centurion, a computer-generated talking, acts
like HAL in 2000: Oddessy’s Arthur C. Clarck novel.
Virus (1997), a Science Fiction Novel by Bill Buchanan: Summary
As a woman, Major
Linda Scott had had to work harder than men to prove herself, but she was the
best and had Hell Fire to show for it. Flying was something she had to do, she
had been born to do it. It bound her to her father even after his death. Like
many fighter pilots, Scott was short by male standards. At her thirty-six years
old, she feared getting fat so she worked out hard and often. Her two-man crew
often described her as a perky, direct, and unstoppable- a woman who got she
wanted gumption. Like her flying machine, Scott was a masterpiece to behold and
fascinating to understand.
Divorcing Jay Fayhee
had been the biggest mistake of her life, but he’d asked for the divorce. Every
Air Force officer knows the needs of the Air Force must come first. She’d been
assigned to the only XR-30 squadron in the country, located at Edwards AFB. On
Jay’s dream sheet, he asked for a space station assignment – an assignment to
the NASA installation at Huntsville, Alabama, for extensive space station
training.
Chief Master Sergeant
Andrew MacWilliam was a good man in storm –tall, black, smart. Like Scott, Mac
was a survivor, and like many successful military men, he was one of those
people who believed it was always easier to get forgiveness than to get
permission. Mac and Gonzo believed Scot the best- they’d been through a lot
together. After Major Carlos Gonzales was Hell Fire’s back seater and situation
Awareness Evaluation System Officer (SAESO). He’d been one of the Air Force’s
premier flight test engineers before his space plane assignment and believed
that quick, positive action was always preferable to hesitation. Like Scott, he
passionately love flying and could not imagine life without it.
By the year 2014,
stealth cruise missiles had been mass produced and forty-one third-world
countries had them. To encounter unpredictable third-world threat , former
NORAD, NATO, Soviet countries united forming the Allied Forces, then fully
deployed the Star Wars defense system- an orbiting armada of satellites.
Scott and her crew
tested the most important satellites in the Star Wars armada-the lethal
workhorses- the DEWSATs (Directed Energy Weapon SATellites). Each DEWSAT was on
an orbiting counter stealth weapon system, a satellite that could detect and
kill the stealth missiles and aircraft from low earth orbit. Each DEWSAT was
designed to overcome stealth target using an extraordinary radar, laser, and
infrared telescope. Scott’s mission was to fly Hell Fire in assault competition
against Centurion – the space-based supercomputer controlling Star Wars defense
system.
Freedom crew
commander Major Jay Fayhee felt alone and melancholy as he remembered his
ex-wife Linda Scott. Divorcing her was the biggest regret of his life. Space
Station Freedom, the flagship of the armada, housed a six-member crew: two men
plus four supercomputers. Major Fayhee and Depack McKee, the computer crew,
often joked to Centurion. A three-dimensional, computer-generating talking head
stared him squarely in the eyes. During his conversations with Centurion, he’d
always uncomfortable because he’d never identified where Centurion’s voice came from. Centurion
existed everywhere on board freedom, knew everything, possessed a quick tongue,
and displayed no tact.
Centurion was the
central nervous system and mouthpiece for the Star Wars defense system.
Technically, Centurion was the finest example of state- of- the art computer
technology in the world had ever produced. A third generation free space all
optical supercomputer built with massively parallel computation capability
based on neural networks- modeled after the workings of the human brain, but
built by mirrors, lenses, and lights.
The Star Wars defense
system consisted of an armada of satellites orbiting the earth. Organized into
three layers, like onion skin, the armada consisted of orbiting weapon, sensor,
and communication satellites. Cheyenne Mountain, Centurion, and the DESWAT
armada clearly understood their job- defense. Cheyenne Mountain assigned target
priorities, Centurion assigned targets to individual DESWATs, and DESWAT armada
did the fighting.
As Supreme Allied
Commander, Craven moved to the top of the ranks by leading battlefield
communication, command, and control within the New Allied Headquarters building
inside Cheyenne Mountain. He was one of the first to understand that optical
technology offered the keys to make the remotely controlled battlefield
reality. In the eyes of Army, Navy, Air Force leaders, Major General Robert
Craven was one of the most brilliant and controversial figures in American
military history.
Craven and Supreme
Commander Dan “Slim” Mason were two old pilots who united once again after
Persian Gulf War in 1991. An MIT graduated in electrical engineering,
specializing in advanced radar technology, Mason loved planes and first married
his black stealth fighter. The Allied alliance included the Soviet
Commonwealth, General Yuri Krol, found any errors on Centurion. Yuri’s
experienced folks had watched Centurion’s log around the clock.
Commander Hinson, a
computer programmer who simulated Hell Fire’s missile attack on the Nevada Test
Site. He surrounded by his master console – the computer brain of the attack
center. He could located, inventory, and controlled everything in the Allied
military arsenal that orbits, flies, floats, rolls, and walks.
Iraqi Cabinet members
gathered in the security of their bunker for a meeting with Iraqi President
Hessian Kamel al-Tikriti. Kamel like his father in law Saddam Hussein, was a
brutal tribelike chieftain who reigned fear. The secretary-general Al-Mashhadi
explained his mission to defeat the Allies armada without firing a shot and
without revealing Iraqi Army’s hands.
Al-Mashhadi
introduced Colonel Nassar, the head of ECM (electronic countermeasures)
organization. Educated in America, he received his ECM training from MIT and
the U.S Army. He and his team had been working for two years in creating a
virus code-named PAM- an adaptive computer program that existed only to
survive. The code name was nothing to most people but intended to deceive. The
acronym stood for Perpetual Adaptive Monitor. Once virgin PAM started running,
she wouldn’t be stopped. She couldn’t be destroyed. PAM was computer program
and she was untraceable Trojan horse.
PAM’s built around
the three separate pieces of software created by the American Army, Air Force,
and CIA. The breakthrough came when modified the software using genetic
programming. The natural’s selection provided PAM’s reproductive algorithm, and
consequently only the fittest most virulent strains survived. Originally. Her
heartbeat came from the Army’s threat analysis software. It evaluated threats
around the clock. Once PAM’s running Centurion, she would control every killer
satellite– their entire orbiting armada. She was complex and she moved.
The DESWAT was
designed to automatically protect itself against anything. It also designed to
discriminate the targets, using a technique involving burn-through. Mason found
three missiles had disappeared and there were a lot of experts in War Room.
There was no response from Centurion and the DESWAT was hot. After acquiring
Hell Fire with radar, the DESWAT painted her with laser. Hell Fire’s skin
temperature rising, and it would burnt the panels. Scott and her team ejected
ASAT missile out from inside the burnt Hell Fire.
Craven got a mayday
confirmation from ASAT but the rattle missile disappeared. Hell Fire let go the
second missile. Freedom’s commander Fayhee was on the screen. Russian experts
in Kaliningrad learned that Centurion disconnected. In fact, Centurion couldn’t
be disconnected. She was programmed to defend herself first and the Allied
second. Freedom was fortress. Centurion was everywhere, Freedom couldn’t
escaped from her. Centurion confirmed all the DESWATs were dead.
Freedom had a
four-faced structure like Egyptian pyramid. She was built of three triangular
prism-shaped shells—pyramids builds inside pyramid. Across the surface of the
metal mesh were thousands of uniformly space pointed spikes—each a separate
antenna. Freedom Crew Commander Jay Fayhee felt optimistic about Linda’s
chances.
Shripod Adam’s personnel records showed the
FBI and U.S military that brought no harm to U.S security. He was an American
citizen, born in upstate New York – a skilled and well-educated language
interpreter. He had been educated in the finest school and he has highly
skilled translator of languages. He possessed the finest personnel records
Iraqi money could buy. Doubtless, Adam was so pleasing to do Allah’s work in
his apartment in Colorado Spring. He entered the video-crypt command on his
computer. He composed his code message after he read the message from Kremlin
to General Craven.
Adam sent all that
messages to Iraqi Army in Baghdad. Nobody was suspicious in Cheyenne Mountain
that the computer network was bugged. All the computer network, using the
standard phone lines and modems, placed phone calls which could not be easily
traced. Many local telephone calls could be traced only while connected. For
additionally security, the computer used in relay network was tamperproof –
they could not be examined without destroying their encrypted contents. The New
York City computer accepted Adam’s message, then hang up, and make another call
to another computer located in New York City. This pattern repeated for overseas
leg of computer network link–random cities in Europe and at the last, computer
called Baghdad.
No one was inside
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, except plant and computer
security guard. Merchant Lucky was a though and intelligent man. He never
really believed his second job would come to this– the money was good. Lucky
was mercenary taking care number one, but he did second job as a spy. He was a
thirty- nine-year- old spy and he did it for excellent money. He was a computer
security wiz-the finest mind in computer security ever employed simultaneously
by both the U.S. and Iraqi governments.
Livermore Lab, like
many other research and development giants, had streamlined their operations by
consolidating both plant and computer security departments into a single
organization. Lucky’s responsibilities for the U.S government included both
Livermore plant and computer security.
All signals from
Freedom had been lost, communication with Jay and his team, and Centurion
severed. Thousands of symbols designating everything in orbit– DEWSATs, Space
plane Hell Fire, Space Station Freedom, Space Station Hope, Anti-SATellite
missiles, space mines, discarded rocket booster– froze suspended. Within a few
second, the one-hundred-foot-long step and reactor core began heating up. The
size of explosion was equivalent to 20.000 tons of dynamite about the same size
as the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima, Japan. As this ballet of explosions,
fire, and light raced across the cloudy New Orleans sky, hundreds of people on
the ground below scurried for shelter.
Chaos ruled the
civilized world. Communications around New Orleans and around the world were
disrupted. Radio, television, satellite, telephone, aircraft traffic
control—every communication system using the electromagnetic spectrum was
jammed off the air due to interference from the explosion overhead.
As part of the
mission, Cheyenne Mountain’s staff had tracked every objects in orbit around
the earth since Sputnik, the first Russian satellite. It were 60.000 objects
orbiting the earth, 238 were known ASATs or space mines launched by third world
country. After receiving PAM’s orders, every DEWSAT simultaneously updated the
position of each orbiting threat. During normal the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) operation, Cheyenne Mountain assigned
target priority, Centurion assigned targets, and the orbiting armada did the
fighting. But now, PAM controlled it all.
Saddam has been
seriously ill for several years. The Kurds could not kill him, the Allies could
not kill him, and he had survived with two battle of cancer. A proud fire
ignited in his eyes, after he read the paper. The super virus had infected
every major computer system on board Space Station Freedom. He declared that
Allah has kept him and nobody would hurt him.
The radio technician
found the room was bugged and it was underneath the table stuck in a wad of a
gum. The mole was down below the War Room. A professional craftsman of
accidental death flew to Denver from Chicago carrying the tools. He studied
information package the Iraqi Intelligence Service had hand-delivered to his
organization. The package described everything about Shripod Adams. After
driving an hour, the electromagnet let loose the front, Shripod Adam couldn’t
control his car. He was dead before his car rolled to stop in the dirty snow.
General Mason
reported to the President that there was a sabotage SDI software. The Trojan
horse computer virus from Lawrence Livermore Lab had taken control of the
DEWSAT armada. The catastrophe of unparalleled paralyzed air traffic across the
U.S and around the world. Over fifty thousand people confirmed dead.
Three-thousand-six-hundred-forty-eight commercial passenger aircraft were lost
over the U.S alone. It’s approximately 4,800 commercial aircraft were lost
worldwide. To study the virus would take months and there was no cure. The only
hope was survival Linda Scott and her crew.
Dressed as a truck
driver, Mamood Abdul’s appearance was unremarkable. He was a Muslim extremist,
pure and simple, who believed that killing Americans was God’s willing. His
view of American was developed during his ten-year period as cab driver in New
York City area. Educated only fifth grade, anything he lacked of training but
his religious and spiritual needs couldn’t stop him. Mammod’s controller ran
his assassination company out Newark like a small business.
He had observed
Merchant Lucky. The greedy Lucky watched Mammod’s truck looking lost. The
extremist pointed his map and asked for direction. He carried a silent device,
a compact lethal gas gun loaded with ricin. Once inhaled the gas quickly
produced all the symptoms of heart attack. Mamood blessed Allah’s name pulling
the trigger, releasing lethal gas in Lucky’s face.
FBI special agent
Clint Bridges was searching physical evidence from Shripod Adams’s apartment.
After the tedious examination of Adams’s apartment, local police, FBI, and
captain security from Cheyenne Mountain, determined that Adams had been
interested in computers, paid his bill on time, maintained a magnificent
saltwater aquarium, chewed a Juicy Fruit gum. Though the physical evidence hardly
to prove Adams as a computer hacker, but his death and his deleted hard disk,
had led a trace.
He was murdered and
someone has removed all the programs from his hard disk. Adams was only a
Russian interpreter, and normally he had no business sent e-mail of any sort to
Livermore. His friend hardy believed Adams was a mole. After summarizing the
electronic mails link between Livermore and Cheyenne Mountain, the director of
security found Merchant Lucky was involved with both computer and plant
security. After looking over the record of Lucky’s last two days work, they
found he was the mole.
He transferred a
collection of programs name mother’s_best from his workstation to the SDI
computer. Any virus had went with it, then he deleted mother’s_best. Lucky was
not only clever, he also methodical. Lucky backed up the programs on his
computer every Friday. The programs were encrypted, he copied them. Then he
decrypted them in less than five minutes. The coroner claimed an autopsy on
Lucky, he was killed.
A test pilot and Air
Force graduate, Billy Boyd had been hooked on flying nearly all his life.
Lieutenant Colonel Boyd respected Jackson of MIT Lincoln Lab his expertise.
Jackson had invented the DEWSAT counterstealth radar for the Allies. He was one
of a rare brief of scientists who had become famous by producing a series of
weapon system. Sensitive DESWAT radar technology combined with physics of time
and distance requirements. Jackson would mask the aircraft using equipment with
mimics the DESWAT radar signal. It displaced radar return and made aircraft
look like a thousand moving targets.
Scott’ and her crew
were the only hope to stop the virus. The video conference lined Scott and her
crew on board Hope watched Thomas Jackson’s briefing without comment. Jackson
and Boy’s chance were fifty-fifty at best. Boyd and crew sacrificed their life
for Scott’s mission. It was not just helping Hope’s crew but to save the world.
The Black Hole prototype test data was undeniable, the conclusion inescapable.
Boyd, Jackson and team were on board the Black Hole flight. Scott and the team
studied every details on the Black Hole flight in real time, so they could run
The Hell Fire in approaching Freedom.
General Mason, the
engineers, and scientists did not know the organization behind the sabotage,
but they had got the source code. After studying the virus, the scientist
learned nothing they could do. There was no cure and whoever did it, he named
PAM. On his report to President, General Mason showed the satellites photos- a
fleet of ships in Arabian Seas steamed south. Iraqi forces was going to attack.
Space Station Freedom
was vulnerable, and her radar impaired. Freedom stayed in sunlight almost clock
around, the blind spot was big problem. Her long range vision suffered, but she
could see any target close enough to her to cast the shadow. When Freedom moved
into earth’s shadow, the blind spot disappeared, but during Freedom’s long
hours of daylight, she was vulnerable. The complexity of flight path determined
the mission. The closer Hope to Freedom, the less margin Hope had for an error.
Hell Fire was
released from Hope’s anchorage. Scott and crew now were on board the Hell Fire.
She traveled to approach Freedom and synchronized her approach with Freedom’s
rotation. PAM detected Hell Fire. Hell Fire had activated Freedom’s black box
and anchored to Freedom. Without warning PAM opened fire and her lasers chased
Scott and crew. Scott was convinced that most of PAM’s sensory input and output
control circuit were useless without power. Once the space station electric
power died, PAM lost her stranglehold on Freedom and the DESWAT armada. PAM
clarified she lost the war.
Memorial services
held to all Freedom’s crews, Hope computer analyst, test pilot Boyd, and radar
expert Jackson. They received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Citing their
extraordinary service to humanity, Major Linda Scott and crew, received the
Congressional Medal of Honor. Freedom was restored and Hell Fire was extracted
from Freedom in yards. Hell Fire returned home later and retired to air and
space museum in Washington, D.C. PAM’s origin never found. PAM’s children had
children on their own, infecting hundreds of DOD computers. Her children
existed only to survive and propagated their own kind.
*****
November 6, 2016
Sekapur Sirih
Stasiun Pertahanan
Sekutu dibentuk untuk menghindari serangan misil dari pihak musuh.
Negara-negara dunia ketiga kini memiliki ratusan satelit ruang angkasa dan
memiliki senjata canggih. Amerika dan Russia bekerjasama dalam penanganan
satelit dan persenjataan angkasa yang bermarkas di Cheyenne Mountain (Gunung
Cheyenne), Amerika. Satelit yang dikelola oleh komputer cerdas dan berperilaku
bak manusia bernama Centurion. Tingkah dan kecerdasannya mirip tokok HAL pada
novel sci-fi-nya Arthur C. Clarck, pada 2000: Oddessey.
Terjemahan
(Ringkasan) Virus (1997), Sebuah Novel Sains Fiksi dari Bill Buchanan
Mayor penerbang Linda
Scott adalah andalan pilot pesawat ruang angkasa Hell Fire, yang baru saja
diluncurkan. Setelah melakukan uji di darat pesawat canggih itu dibawa ke
stasiun ruang angkasa Hope. Tugas pesawat itu untuk mengawasi dan memastikan
stasiun ruang angkasa Freedom beroperasi dan membantu pengawasan DESWAT,
satelit senjata berenergi yang mampu menyerang misil, pesawat pada orbit rendah
bumi dan DESWAT ditempatkan di ruang angkasa.
Kapten Freedom
bernama Jay Fayhee, adalah mantan suami dari Linda Scott. Keduanya sangat
menyesali kegagalan pernikahan mereka dan berniat bersatu kembali. Namun
rencana itu sirna, semua kru yang mengoperasikan Freedom tewas terbunuh. Tim
ilmuwan Rusia telah curiga sebelumnya, mendapati pergerakan log Centurion yang tidak normal dan rupanya software
komputer Freedom telah diserang virus, Centurion telah diambil alih.
DESWAT, armada
angkasa lainnya, Hell Fire, stasiun angkasa Hope juga sudah diserang. Virus
bernama PAM telah berhasil dideteksi sekumpulan programmer, ilmuwan, ahli
keamanan data, dan diklaim semua sistem komputer telah diserang. Puluhan ribu
nyawa tewas, dan lalu lintas penerbangan kacau sehingga terpaksa dihentikan,
perekonomian dunia juga jatuh. Serangan virus tidak hanya menyerang software di
satelit ruang angkasa, namun satelit pusat kemananan data CIA, NASA, Pertahanan
Amerika.
Virus Trojan yang
bernama PAM sengaja ditanamkan, susah ditelusuri asal-muasalnya. Dua penghianat
dicurigai namun keduanya telah terbunuh. Shripod Adams, pemuda kelahiran dan berkebangsaan
Amerika, bekerja sebagai penerjemah bahasa Rusia pada Cheyenne Mountai. Secara
rutin ia memberi informasi pada pemerintah Irak di Baghdad. Dengan lihai, ia
selalu menghilangkan jejak surel (surat email) yang ia kirimkan. Teman kerjanya
saja tidak percaya bahwa Adams memata-matai pembicaraan para petinggi di mana
ia bekerja. Keyakinannya telah mengubah ia menjadi seorang teroris. Tapi
pemerintah Irak juga tidak membiarkannya hidup, ia dibunuh dengan rekayasa
terbunuh dalam kecelakaan tunggal di mobilnya.
Merchant (Pedagang)
Lucky, dikenal lihai dalam keamanan data, telah tergiur dengan uang manis dari
Irak, ia pun menjual data pada Bahgdad. Penghianat itu pun dibunuh dengan gas
beracun oleh jaringan pembunuh bayaran. Ia mati di tangan seorang supir taksi
dari New York. Mamood Abdul sangat bangga bisa membunuh orang Amerika apalagi
ia lakukan dalam agama. Perilaku orang kota New York membuatnya sangat jenuh,
dan merasa sangat puas dan senang membunuh orang Amerika.
Presiden Irak dan
mertuanya Saddam Hussein berpesta akan kemenangan mereka. Hussein yang sudah
sakit-sakitan merasa tenang tidak ada lagi musuh memburunya dan invasi ke
Kuwait semakin bebas tanpa pengawasan satelit. Seorang militer berpangkat Irak
yang pernah mengikuti pengembangan software di MIT dan lab. Pelatihan di
Pertahanan Amerika Serikat, ilmu dari program itu memberikannya ide penanaman
virus PAM. Ia tahu betul sistem keamanan data Amerika. Tidak sulit bagi pihak
pereintah Irak menemukan mata-mata seperti Adams dan Lucky.
Presiden Amerika
akhirnya mengumumkan serangan virus tersebut secara global. Para ilmuwan
komputer sains, ilmuwan antariksa, programmer, insinyur pesawat ruang angkasa,
ilmuwan radar, dikumpulkan untuk menaklukkan induk virus PAM yang kini
bersarang di stasiun satelit Freedom. PAM sangat pintar dan sensitif terhadap
benda, orang, orbit di sekitarnya dan berifat menyerang. Ia diciptakan untuk
beranak, menyerang, dan tidak kenal kompromi.
Pilot uji handal
Kolonel Boyd dan insinyur radar Jackson bersama kru melakukan penerbangan
prototipe Black Hole, Scott pun diminta untuk menyimak segala instruksi dalam
misi siluman. Misi penerbangan prototipe ini adalah misi maut, walau demikian semua kru telah
rela mati demi kru Hell Fire demi
menyelamatkan manusia. Ini pertama kali Hell Fire dipakai untuk mendekati
stasiun Freedom yang kini dikendalikan PAM. Hanya jelajah siluman yang mampu
mengelabui PAM.
Hell Fire akhirnya
dilepaskan dari tautan stasiun Hope, menelusuri trajektori Freedom secara
perlahan dan memperhitungkan pancaran sinar matahari. Scott dan krunya akhirnya
berhasil masuk ke dalam Freedom. Mereka sempat mendapat serangan tembakan
bertubi-tubi dari PAM. Laser PAM ada di semua sudut ruangan Freedom. Scott pun
yakin hanya mematikan daya yang mampu membuat PAM mati dan tidak akan balas
dendam. Tidak mudah, namun akhirnya mereka berhasil mematikan daya dan PAM
mengaku kalah perang.
November 6, 2016
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