{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/hostile-takeover/06",
  "path": "/posts/hostile-takeover/06",
  "publishedAt": "2023-12-03T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "::: subchapter\n\nUzi resisted.  Of course Uzi resisted!  What else were you supposed to\ndo, when your cover had been blown and you were captured by the enemy,\nyour systems invaded as they poised to tear secrets right out of your\ndatabase?\n\nWell, 'secrets.' J --- no, the murder drone --- had already pretty\nmuch figured out Uzi was a worker.  Miraculous (and a bit hilarious,\nlet's be real) that she had carried that bit so far.  Still, what\nmore could the murder drone discover in Uzi's memory database?  Her\nstupid crushes?  The poetry she should have burned?  All of Lizzy and\nDoll's worst attacks, the ones that actually hurt?\n\nWould a killer robot even understand any of that?  Though, thinking of\nJ seeing the bullying... that twisted something inside the goth.\nWould J think Uzi deserved it?  If those pig-tails were any\nindication, the murder drone probably shared the cheerleaders' shallow\nvanity, and something about the popular drones that always seemed to\nget bots on their side, no matter what.\n\nHigh school is cutthroat enough a murder drone would fit right\nin, she thought.\n\nBut that was too far.  No, this whole train of thought was stupid.\nWhy would it even matter if the murder drone saw Uzi at her most\nembarrassing before just killing her?  No, Uzi wasn't so much of a\nconformist she cared what any drone thought!\n\nSure, there was novelty in meeting a drone she could hold a\nconversation with, who didn't act like their processor was\nunderclocked --- except no, that wasn't true, was it?  J stopped\nthinking entirely when it came to the stupid company and her mission.\nShe didn't even blink at the idea JCJenson would discard her just\nlike the worker drones.  It didn't get more conformist than that!\n\nJ worked hard, clearly --- the corpse spire was almost cool, when you\nrealized it took more thought than just stacking up some bodies.  All\nof that effort, and what did it get her?  Any recognition,\nappreciation?  No.  One flattering lie about Uzi reading her reports\npractically had J eating out of her hand.\n\nUh.  Not in the way that kind of actually happened.  ~~And nevermind\nthat Uzi had arguably eaten out of J's hand already~~.\n\nWhatever.  Point was, the murder drone was slavishly loyal, and that\nwould never be cool!\n\n_Except how hard did I work on my railgun while no one\ntransmitted a word of praise?  How hard did I work to protect a colony\nthat does nothing but go through the motions?_\n\nBut that was different.  Uzi didn't do this because anyone told her to\n--- the opposite! --- it was just the right thing to do!\n\nUzi and J were nothing alike.  Maybe there were some vague\ncommonalities, only worth dwelling on to the extent that maybe she\ncould have convinced the murder drone to have mercy.  But that rocket\nalready took off and blew up in the metaphorical sky.  You couldn't\njailbreak empathy into a murder drone with words alone.\n\nIf J didn't care about her, she wouldn't care about J.  And whatever J\nread in her memory database... well, it was still Uzi's memories,\nand everyone else should stay out of her head.  It's called privacy.\nAnd this was way worse than Khan barging into her room---\n\nDad.\n\nUzi hadn't said goodbye.  She thought about saying goodbye, and\ndidn't because of course she was coming back, she was Uzi frickin\nDoorman.  And then...\n\n...Which meant Doll had been right.  Ugh.\n\nStill, it sucked that the last thing her dad would remember her by was\na silly conversation about doors.  A lie.\n\nUzi's thoughts stopped there, because a train of association hit\nsomething big.\n\nDoors.  The main defense of Outpost-3, the safest of all the colonies.\nUzi knew all about them, because Khan wouldn't shut up about them.\nAnd Uzi had stolen a keycard.  She knew all of this --- and now a\nmurder drone was reading her memories.\n\nUzi had doomed them all.\n\nWhen J had shrugged off having her head blown off, when Uzi's\nextremely persuasive speech had proved completely ineffective, when\nher luck had segfaulted and death loomed over her, Uzi... had given\nup.  Not very heroic, not very rebellious, but it was over and Uzi had\ntotally lost.\n\nNow, though?  It was time to un-give up!  Uzi could lose, but with\neveryone she ever knew, everything she might care about at stake?\nDark night of the soul's over --- time for a break into act three!\nUzi needed to do the impossible and thwart the very doom she'd\ninvited.\n\nNo biggie.\n\nWith that decided, that only left... how?  This dramatic realization\nhad provoked no material change in position.\n\nWait, what was Uzi's position, actually?  How was she even\nthinking this?\n\nWell, what was the last thing she remembered?  The murder drone\nlooming over her, that lethal smirk on her stupid face, Uzi's neck\nbetween her claws.  Barely even able to think, processor stuck on how\nclose she, the murder drone, had gotten.  Those amber eyes narrowing\nin frustration, at her.\n\nUzi had failed.  J had thought she was a new disassembler and she\nwasn't, couldn't be.  Now the truth was out, could only disappoint ---\ndisappoint?  No, the murder drone just wanted to kill her! J had to be\nelated, savoring her helpless prey.\n\nBut when was the last time a drone had gotten that close to her face?\nDoll?  Back when they almost---\n\nAnd when was the last time Uzi had even enjoyed talking with another\ndrone?  That last summer break (to the extent they even had 'summer'\nin nuclear winter), the sleepovers she'd had with Doll, before the\nbackstabbing?\n\nAnd just like Doll, J was a good-for-nothing snake!  What did she see\nin either of them?  Nothing! Not even in strikethrough!\n\nWhatever.  None of this matters. What actually happened next?\nDid she remember?\n\nJ pressing against her hatch with violent insistence.  The cable\nclicking in her port.\n\nAnd Uzi... didn't resist.  She relented.  Gave the murder drone a\nroot shell, and---\n\nBut why didn't Uzi remember anything after that?\n\nMore to the point of the original question, why is Uzi just a\nmonologue floating in the void?  No sensory input, no movement, she\ncan't even roll her eyes or groan.\n\nNow that she realized, this was really freaky.  Sure, she didn't\nlike being backed to the wall, left at the murder drone's mercy, all\nweak and helpless.  But at least she could struggle.\n\nWas she dead?  No wait, that's stupid.\n\nFocus, Uzi.  I think, therefore I am a process running somewhere.\nCan I make system calls?  Can I read the filesystem?  I remember I'm\nUzi, so obviously that's a yes.  But I can't move.  Why not?  What\nhappens if I keep trying?  What happens if I try to open a command\nline...\n\nShe made the calls, she gathered the data.\n\nAll sensors were offline.  All servos were offline.  Uzi scanned logs\nand found directories full of stale lock files, and the picture became\nclear: Uzi had crashed suddenly.  J didn't send her a shutdown command\n--- first of all, Uzi wouldn't let her, and second of all, if she had,\nher processes would have had time to clean up and remove lock files.\nBattery was at 57%, so what took her down?\n\n...Was it really a mystery?  Of course the evil murder drone would\njust SIGKILL her processes as soon as its victim was naïve enough to\ngive it root access.  Am I stupid?\n\nNonetheless, this deduction didn't explain how Uzi could think at all.\nWhat was up with that?  Maybe... with the memory file on Uzi's system,\nif her processors needed to be online to access it... maybe it was\nimpossible for J to spy on her memories without the possibility of\nUzi's consciousness coming back online in the background?\n\nSince this was her system, she could send the signal right now, turn\non her senses and motors.  Bet J wouldn't be expecting that!\n\nHit her with the Uzi jumpscare, hehe.\n\nBut then what?  Uzi didn't have a way out when she got into this\nsituation, and even a moment of surprise wouldn't get her anywhere,\nnot with how fast murder drones could react.\n\nWhat was J doing, anyway?  Uzi couldn't turn on her senses and check\n--- it might ruin her surprise, and she had nothing else at the moment\n--- but she could check her own system.  Stat the process list...\n\nYep.  Most of her processors were spinning at the moment, courtesy of\na memory reconstruction program she didn't start.  Uzi could terminate\nit, wipe out the intrusion --- and then J would immediately know\nsomething was up.\n\nWhat was scarier?  Powerlessly floating in the void, unable to\nstruggle... or having total power and knowing you lose as soon as you\nexercise it?\n\nCheckmate, or something.  Uzi wasn't a chess nerd.\n\nAlthough... if Uzi could find J in the process list and terminate her,\nwhat stopped J from doing the same?  The worker had given out root\naccess.  Anxious panic registered, though she couldn't express it.\nUzi went to rename her process something unassuming as camouflage ---\n'system cleanup' or something --- and noticed something.\n\nUsers could start processes, and those processes ran with their\npermissions.  'DarkXWolf17' (her login) and 'root' (the user with all\npermissions) were technically different, mainly so that any random\nprocess Uzi fired up didn't have capability to brick her.  But what\nstruck odd was that her current conscious thread wasn't associated\nto either of those users.\n\nWho, then?  Whenever Uzi tried to examine the data, it corrupted her\nlocale, printed out gibberish characters until she sent a clear\ncomment.\n\nOh yeah, definitely a good sign.\n\nBut we'll worry about that spooky mystery user when there's not a\nmurder drone logged into me.  Whatever it was, it wasn't J, and it\nhad helped her here, so.\n\nBut focusing on the issue at hand hardly distracted her, not when it\nwas still the same checkmate of every move forward leading to failure.\nBoot up her body, get found out, die.  Terminate J's shell, get found\nout, die.  Do nothing, don't get found out, die anyway.\n\nWhat could a solution possibly look like?  If only she had some way of\nturning the tables, setting a trap for J with nothing but Uzi's\ninternal system and J's connection....\n\nWait.\n\nOh.\n\nFunny thing about that serial debugging cable J used --- ",
  "title": "No Lonelier Star"
}