Her make-up girl put a few puffs of powder on her cheeks as the five minute bell rung, which was her cue.
“OK, almost there Sandy. Got anything planned for tonight?”
“Yes. It’s my Mom’s birthday. I thought we’d go Italian.”
“Ooh I love Italian food.”
“Yes, there’s a lovely little restaurant downtown. I know the owner.”
“Lovely. Enjoy it.”
“I will Tammy. All good?”
“Yep! You’re good to go.”
Sandy took one last look in the mirror, giving her long brown hair a shake and she headed for the set. The cameras were swinging in to position and the lights went up. A guy counted down from five as she adjusted her in-ear microphone.
“Two…one… and go Sandy,” said the producer.
Sandy looked at her autocue and began to read the headlines.
“Good Evening. The headlines today. President Obama has clashed with the pro-gun lobby again. In Europe, there’s no end in sight to the ongoing ban on imported beef.”
As Sandy continued to read the early evening news, two third year students were hacking into the on board computer of the Omega Space Station. They had done it before, just as a test but no one had noticed. This time it was for real. They wouldn’t really hurt anyone, but no one knew that. Abbie and Irene just wanted to have some fun.
The first thing to go wrong was when the Space Station sent a nursery rhyme back to NASA HQ.
“This is NASA Control to Omega. What was the Little Bo Peep thing about?”
“This is Omega. Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You just sent a message. She lost her sheep?”
“Not us, sorry.”
The senior transmissions officer at NASA verified all the data and it checked out.
“That’s odd,” said the chief techy guy at NASA. “It seems to be originating from the Space Station.”
Meanwhile, back at XTV, Sandy was unaware of what was going on and how it would change her life. She had begun reading the news with her colleagues on the breakfast show but had been moved to the prime time slot in the January. She was voted number one news anchor at the annual media awards, which saw her promoted to the evening programme. Abby and Irene were watching her from their flat, timing their intervention to make its biggest impact.
Abby tapped in some co-ordinates, sending the Space Station's antenna in the wrong direction.
“Now what are they doing,” said Bud Bailey at NASA’s control centre.
His line manager walked over.
“What’s up?”
“They’re homing in on the White House. We’ll have the Pentagon on our backs.”
“Control to Omega, have you lost it or what?”
“Omega here. It’s not us, it’s like someone’s controlling us.”
Bud looked at his email.
“Hang on. I’ve got a message. It just says, ‘Gotcha.’
“Who’s it from?” Asked Bud’s manager.
“694U, whoever that is. Hang on, another one is coming in.”
‘We have control of Omega. Do as we say or we will detonate the nuclear warhead.’
One of the purposes of the space station was as a contingency, to take out any rogue asteroid before it struck the Earth. It had a nuclear warhead, which could only be operated after certain codes and procedures were executed. Abbie and Irene needed a little demonstration to convince NASA they weren‘t bluffing. The computer on board the Omega was linked to the home infrastructure server back in Washington DC. Abbie entered some more code and hit enter. Suddenly, all non-essential power went down in the capital.
“These guys mean business,” said Bud. “They’ve taken out Washington. It’s currently running on auxiliary power.”
“Have you traced their location?” Said Bud’s Manager.
“No. Looks like they’re using an encrypted proxy. They could be on Mars for all we know.”
“OK, well we’ll have to call this a defcom two and inform the President. See what their demands are.”
“OK,” said Bud.
Back at XTV Sandy was handed a piece of paper by the Assistant Producer.
“We’re just getting a News Flash. The Omega Space Station has been hijacked by cyber terrorists. The Pentagon are refusing to give details but we’ll give you more information when we have it.”
Bud read the latest message from the ‘terrorists.’
“Mike… you need to see this.”
Bud’s manager read the message.
“Wow!”
------------------------------------------------------
Sandy continued with her broadcast and was interviewing her colleague from the Business News. She was blissfully unaware of the demands that Abbie and Irene had emailed to the guys at NASA.
“So do you think the Euro can survive the latest crisis? Oh… I’m just hearing we have an update on the Space Station hijack. They’ve made certain demands. They say they want to see Sandy…
Sandy’s voiced tailed off and she looked towards the Station Manager.
“Is this a joke?”
The Station Manager shook his head.
“I’m sorry, I…”
The news feed went blank as the producer pulled the plug and Sandy was replaced by a blank screen, and the words ‘Your service will be resumed as soon as possible.’
Behind the scenes Sandy was talking to her boss.
“Who are they? Why me?”
“I don’t know Sandy.