Eternal Destiny
Part 1: The Connection
By: Ryan Schlueter (a.k.a. Chakat Snowpaws)


< Please click HERE if you are unfamiliar with computer programming. >


My life has been pretty straight forward; had my first kiss in eight grade, got my drivers license my junior year in high school, destroyed my first car a week later by hitting a dear; normal everyday occurrences that happen to normal everyday teenagers living in south-west Wisconsin. But of course, there is always a catch. Some being long ago decided the fate for every one of us, be it the smallest bug or the tallest person. Among the above waypoints in my life, there came a mixture of strange and unrealistic happenings that made my outlook on life turn completely upside down, inside-out and, more than likely, backwards too. I guess that when you hear that, you may assume that it was for worse, or my life had been completely ruined and I was thrown into a fit of depression and total mental break-down; so is not the case. Often I do come across bad times, but I have had such an experience in the past, that the good times more than break the scales in their direction. At times I do wonder my own destiny, but it is a lost cause. Why ponder over something that can be as random or as planed as it so sees fit? At times I do personify destiny, many times it just puts me in awe at how everything seems to work out in the end. Well, I can’t say much about myself. I can, however, tell you the story of my past. I shall begin at a point that is relevant to me.

I guess my destiny was decided when I dropped out of high school so that I could pursue a better education in computers than waste my time on subjects that would prove useless to me such as History and English; which is kind of funny because I have written things, that when I look back on them, it completely perplexes me to think that I actually wrote it. When I dropped out, I decided that I would become a computer hacker, not to take over government computer systems, but to work for big business and use my skills to test their systems and the stability of their network security. I have heard several others making thousands of dollars on just one commission of their skills. I like money, who doesn’t? I love to tinker with computers, and doing things that would normally be illegal; it was the best job for me. I still went to the high school to take their computer courses; this also allowed me to stay in touch with my friends.

------------
Dark Sniper
------------

I was crouched low under the ledge of a tall look-out tower; snow all around, a tunnel to my left, a small ice valley to my right, and a second run-down building in front of me. There were a few vehicles parked in front of the building I was on top of; they provided good cover for the rest of my squad. I set up over the ledge and rested my rifle on the water pipe. Looking through the scope, I saw a large man hiding in the shadows of the tunnel; a terrorist. With a red bandanna around his head, a short t-shirt and army green pants, he lurked in the darkness with his shotgun. I loaded my rifle, took aim, and fired. The terrorist fell to the ground; pegged him right in the head.

A message appeared on my computer screen, "Counter-Terrorists Win!"

"Where did that come from?" Niles said from across the room.

"I was on top of the building," I replied, "I told you I was going to be a sniper."

"Remind me to have you play on my team next time," Niles replied.

"You know, you terrorists aren’t doing so hot," Brandon said, "You’ve only won once."

"That’s because CT has two extra members!" Jessie replied.

"I thought you were the masters at this game?" Corey asked.

"Not when we’re out-numbered!" Niles replied.

"Oh quit complaining and start the next round," I said.

What is going on? Well, I along with the rest of the computer club was playing Half-Life: Counter Strike. Twenty-two players, one map, one mission; kill them before they kill you. It was a great release for my anger; sniping a terrorist at a hundred yards through brush was just pure fun.

"Hey, Ryan," Jessie asked, "Did your CPU come back from it’s repairs?"

"Yeah," I replied, "Just came today. I can’t wait to get my new nVIDIA card in it."

"You have one of those new 4.02 gigs in it, don’t you?" Corey asked.

"10-4 on that," I replied.

"That’s just insane," Niles replied, "Why would you ever need something that fast?"

"It’s called no-lag," I replied, "Zero, not even if I was running two games of Half-Life on it at the same time"

"Come on, let’s play," Niles said.

------------
The next day: Noon
------------

"No, no," Pat said as we were in the middle of playing cards during lunch, "There is just no possible way that you could afford that, let alone have the knowledge to build such a computer."

"Who is being taught by themselves right now?" I asked while picking up the cards that had been dealt to me, I had an ok hand, "I can learn all I want about computers and never have to study for another English or History test again. Plus, I have two jobs on the side."

"That, well, yeah," Pat said with little effort. He had been programming computers since he was little, and he has this attitude that he is better than anyone on computers in the school; but, of course, I wasn’t really part of the school. Just then, my senior friend Jessie took a seat at the table.

"What you two arguing about now?" Jessie asked.

"You’ve seen my new computer," I said, "Tell Pat that it actually exists."

"Yeah, the $3000 monster. I’m mean damn. You’ve just have to see it for yourself. Liquid cooled, plasma 41 inch flat screen TV for a monitor, 5.1 digital DTS surround."

"And three external CD burners, firewire, 733 front side, and dual processors, the new 4.02 gigahertz mind you," I added.

"Damn." Pat replied, "Yeah, but how much RAM?"

"3.5 gig." I replied like it was not that much concern to me.

"Yeah, but I bet you’re on dial-up," Pat replied.

"Tis not the case," I replied, "Wi-Fi with cable router."

"Yeah, but what can you do with it besides play games?" Pat asked.

"Hack just about anything in the area, and that means anything that the area is connected to," I replied.

"If you think you’re so good, let’s see you hack my computer, I’ll have it on at seven tonight," Pat replied.

"IP?" I asked.

"Figured it out for your self," Pat stated as he folded then left the table.

"No, IP address, no hack," Josh replied, he had been sitting quietly at the table for most of the conversation.

"You don’t know much, little one, do you?" I said, "Pat has an unsecured Wi-Fi, I picked it up yesterday during my Wi-Fi scan. I already have his IP addresses."

 

Let me give you a little background on the city I live in. Richland Center; population: 6000 some. Located in south-central Wisconsin, it is home of the famous Frank Loyd Wright; the insane architect that made a house up on rocks. The school system is a mess, home to a Wal-mart super center, and supposed birthplace of the GTE company. The high school was built on an old cornfield, and there is a golf course along a road. If you walk the road you can collect a nice bucket of golf balls and turn them into the lodge for 25 cents each, if you wish.

As I mention before, the high school is built on an old cornfield. There is a very tall hill behind it. If you didn’t know that the building was a high school, and you were taken to the top of the hill then looked at the roof of the place; you would swear that it was a prison. I’m not joking or saying that because I hate the place. If it wasn’t for the large "Welcome to Richland Center High School" sign out front it would look just like a prison. Some of the school rules also make it seem like a prison. You can’t play cards during study hall, but you can play cards before and after school and during lunch. Lunch is just a study hall when you get to eat. Why do they not let us play cards during study hall? It isn’t even a study hall, really. It is a place where we are supposed to go when we have no class. If we wish to have a study hall, we go down to the IMC, or library as it should be called. The whole district is messed up.

Anyway, later that night Jessie, Josh, Niles and I were gathered around my new computer. Niles was another one of my friends from the other night, but he didn’t have the same lunch period as I had.

"What are we waiting for?" Niles asked impatiently, he was always impatient no matter what was going on at the current time.

"I’m waiting for my processors to cool below –41 degrees," I replied. Within fifteen minutes the computer was running and I was staring to access Pat’s computer.

-----------

-specify IP address: 876.123.112.12

connecting, please wait….

----------

"So, what are you going to do to his computer?" Jessie asked.

"That’s an inappropriate question," I replied, "You should be asking, What am I not going to do to his computer?" Jessie smiled.

----------

-connection established: getting drive information

-blocked by:

client//C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\Inet\Inet.exe

-------

"Damn," I replied as it was displayed on my screen.

"Damn what?" Niles asked while he dug through my electronics box of gizmos, which I had created.

"Pat’s using Norton, I know a way around it though," I replied.

-------

-server// run-"C:\hack\cable\northack.exe /-876.123.112.12

-……

-connection established: getting drive information

-drives verified: client//A.C.D.E.G.H

-------

"Pat has got a lot of drives," I replied, "Not for long."

------

-server// format ahard-d

-server// run-"server//C:hack\mess.exe/-"You’ve been hacked by Spaws"

--------

"Spaws?" Niles asked, "What the hell does that mean?"

"My hacker ID," I replied, "Based off a little thing I had done a while ago, and still do."

"What would that be?" Jessie asked. I didn’t know what to say, I couldn’t tell them about what I did as a furry.

"Chatting," I replied, "Yahoo, MSN, the usual messengers."

---------

-format complete

-server// disconnect client

--------

"Do you think Pat will be pissed off at me?" I asked out loud.

"He deserved it," Niles said picking up a little high intensity radio wave emitter I had made a year ago; it was my first attempts at creating a large scale EMP.

"What does this do?" Niles asked as he started to fiddle around with the buttons. I heard the sound of a capacitor charge; it was similar to the sound a flash camera makes.

"It’s a small scale model of an EMP," I replied not thinking about if it still worked, "It never worked."

"Can we press the buttons on it then?" Jessie asked, Jessie is always obsessed about pushing buttons and messing around with things.

"Have fun," I replied. Niles pushed down the red fire button; I wasn’t expecting what happened next. Niles’s hair stood on end, my computer crashed, and my mom yelled at me from downstairs to quit messing with the TV. The EMP actually worked. I quickly grabbed the unit from Niles and threw it into my desk drawer.

"Hey, does your computer normally do that?" Jessie asked. I turned to me screen to see that it was going insane. Weird code was flying around, the picture was coming in and out, the contrast was all messed up.

"I hope that didn’t fry my video card," I replied.

"Well, I guess we’ll be leaving now," Niles said before leaving my bedroom. Josh and Jessie left a short while later.

After shutting everything down I found the problem, my $500 nVidia card had been fried by the high-frequency radio blast. That pissed me off somewhat, but now I knew that I had a working EMP. I replaced the video card with an old spare I had then restarted. I found that my hard drive was in complete disorder; Win XP Pro wouldn’t even start. I had to start from scratch, I felt lucky enough to do a full system CD backup a few hours earlier. I just put the CDs in and recopied my software and files back onto the hard drive.

After my files had been copied, I decided to go down stairs and find some supper. I was glad to find out that no other computer had been effected by the EMP; it was too short of a range to get out of my room, it did cause some static on the TV for a short while though. After I had some corn-dogs I went back upstairs to find that my computer was operating normally again. I logged onto Yahoo messenger and found that my friend from Avoca, a 30 minute drive from Richland Center, was on too; I IMed him.

------------

Spaws: CAWCAW!

Creator_one: cawcaw

Spaws: what u doin?

Creator_one: dload mp3

Spaws: just hacked crazy kids comp, formatted HDs

Creator_one: lol

Spaws: he said he was better than me

Creator_one: shouldn’t have done that

Spaws: didn’t like him anyway, was going to hack soon or later

Creator_one: oic

----------

I then noticed that some of my furry friends were online.

---------

Spaws: did I tell you about my new computer?

Creator_one: yes, you did about a million times

Spaws: Ive too many ppl to tell, forget which I have told

Creator_one: well, got to go, u slowing down dload rate

Spaws: HAH, stupid dial-up

Creator_one: bye

----------

He logged off and let me to sit and do nothing. I could go talk to my other friends that were online, but they were probably in the middle of something and didn’t want to be interrupted. I went and checked my several e-mail accounts to see if there was anything new. I found that I had been selected to play in the LAN Party hosted by the Screen Savers later in the week. I went online and found what game they were playing, which was Half-life: Counter Strike. I decided to play for awhile. I spent three hours playing before going to bed. I had work the next morning and didn’t want to be late.

 

------------
The Next Morning
------------

When I got to work, which was at a local computer store, I fund my boss reading one of the computer magazines, which he was subscribed to.

"Want $300,000, Ryan?" my boss said when I walked into the room.

"How?" I asked.

"Hack into a web site that says they can’t be hacked," my boss replied. He handed me the magazine and I read over the article.

"I could give it a shot," I replied, "Never dealt directly with Unix servers though."

The day went pretty quickly, had some hotshot thinks he knows it all, come into the store asking for the Internet Explorer OS. I burst out laughing in the guys face, I couldn’t help it; he actually though IE was an OS! That was about it for humor during the day. I went home and decided to take a try at trying to hack the site.

--------

-connect client//url = 45.658.2215.124

connecting, please wait …..

-connection established: getting drive data

-log file created on client: data access through port 8789 caught

-firewall active dependencies = false

-server// run-C:\hack\firecrack.exe -/ 45.658.2215.124 –p/8789

-client//firewall = active dependencies = false

-server// ping

-client//firewall = active dependencies = false

-server// ping

-client//firewall = active dependencies = false

-server// run- c:\hack\firecrash\water.exe

-/ 45.658.2215.124 –p/8789

-server//ping

-client//firewall = active dependencies = false

-----------

I fought with the client for two hours in an attempt to gain access. I didn’t have any luck. I could take down about three firewalls before new ones had spawned and placed themselves in front of me. I disconnected from the client then got some supper.

When I returned to my computer I found that someone had tried to hack my computer. I checked the IP address; it had been Pat. He wasn’t going to break through my security anytime soon. I did some surfing around a few of my favorite sites; E-bay, Circuit City, Radio Shack, and a few other places that I go to; specifically the chakats den. I had planned on writing a chakat story but I deviated from the original purpose and decided to cancel the project. In comparison to other stories by other authors on the site, my story had too much technology, and that was in my opinion. I had wanted to maintain the natural setting of a chakat story, but I found myself drifting towards subspace continuums and time travel. It got out of hand and I decided to cancel it.

Anyway, after my new game patch finished downloading I shutdown for the night. I didn’t have to go to work tomorrow, but I figured I would go to bed early so that I could stay up tomorrow and play on the LAN party as late as I wanted.

------------
The next night
------------

-Server Error, Password or Server name does not exist

---------

I was about to give up; for some reason I couldn’t get connected to Counter Strike game sever. I had been trying for the past twenty minutes now and was about to give up when I decided I would hack my way in.

-------

-over_ride.enabled=true

-command process started: connection via LAN

-enter URL _

123.445.8546.55

connecting, please wait…

-connection established awaiting server command

command = set.com = 6h4b

connect terminal = 56.211.3252

-user intervention detected: begin converse? <y/n> y

Server// string sent = "Who are you?"

Client// string received = "Who are you?"

Server// string sent = "Spaws, who are you?"

Client// string received = "Saphira. How did you get access to this database?"

--------

Database? I thought this was a game server?

--------

Server// string sent = "I’m a hacker, it’s what I do."

Client// string recived = "How did you get past Star Fleet security protocols?

Server// string sent = "Star Fleet? What are you, some kind of trekkie?"

Client// string recived = "Huh? I’m a chakat. I have no clue what this trekkie species is that you talk about."

Server// disconnect terminal = 56.211.3252

---------

"What is going on here?" I asked out loud. Two thoughts crossed my mind: Pat had found out about me being a furry and was trying to get information from me, or I just happened to stumble onto another hacker’s computers, with the operator being a furry. I figured that Pat had found out about me and my secrete life. I decided to re-connect and give Pat a hard time.

------

-over_ride.enabled=true

-command process started: connection via LAN

-enter URL _

123.445.8546.55

connecting, please wait……

-connection established awaiting server command

command = set.com = 6h4b

connect terminal = 56.211.3252

-user intervention detected: begin converse? <y/n> y

-client// string received = "Why are you in here?"

-server// string sent = "Pat, what are you up to?"

-client// string received = "Pat? Who is Pat?"

-server// string sent = "Very funny, pat."

-client// string received = "Who is this Pat?"

-server// string sent = "Or are you a fellow furry computer hacker, like me?"

-client// string received = "Hacker? No. I’m a computer engineer. Furry? Well, yeah. I am a chakat. If you didn’t know, I am covered in fur."

-server// string sent = "Chakat, right. And pigs can fly."

-client// string received = "If you shot them out a torpedo tube they would."

-server// string sent = "lol"

-client// string received = "lol, what does that mean?

-----------

I was having fun. I was obviously talking to another furry, one involved with an addiction to Star Trek, and no Internet lingo knowledge.

-----------

-server// string sent = "lol = laughing out loud"

-client// string received = "Oh, I get it. lol"

-server// string sent = "So, where do you live on this glorious planet I like to call Earth."

-client// string received = "GNA."

-server// string sent = "Where exactly is that?"

-client// string received = "I live in a small trading town called Icepine Forest; which is located in the southern part of Wisconsin."

-server// string sent = "ok"

--------

Whoever this was, they sounded like knew what they were talking about; well, so far they did. I was waiting for them to slip up so I could prove them wrong about something. I hadn't understood their reference to GNA, but one thing that caught my attention was that the person had said they were from Wisconsin. Maybe they were somewhere close.

-------

-client// string received = "Where do you live?"

-server// string sent = "Richland Center, Wisconsin."

-client// string received = "Never heard of the place."

-server// string sent = "Never heard of Icepine Forest either"

-client// string received = "What species are you?"

-server// string sent = "A human male, wish I could be other things though."

-client// string received = "Oh, that changes things."

-server// string sent = "Like what?"

-client// string received = "I was thinking about finding a way to find you, and meet you in person. But seeing as you are human, I don’t think my parents would like it too much."

-server// string sent = "Why not?"

-client// string received = "Ever since the humans here started rebelling against morph species, my parents have taken less appreciation toward humans. Not a single human has ever done anything to hurt me or the ones that I love, so I have nothing against them."

-server// string sent = "If I were in your situation, I would feel the same way; but of course this is coming from a human, but some times I pretend differently."

--------

I heard my mom holler from the down stairs living room. She wanted to do my laundry and make supper for my brother and sister.

--------

-client// string received = "Pretend?"

-server// string sent = "Long story. I have to go, when will you be on next?"

-client// string received = "On?"

-server// string sent = "On your computer?"

-client// string received = "Almost everyday."

-server// string sent = "I will contact you tomorrow."

-client// string received = "bye then"

-server// string sent = "Bye"

-------

I disconnected from the client then turned on my screen saver. I had some fun with whoever that was; and where ever they were. I didn’t think it was Pat anymore; he wasn’t interested enough to know so much about chakats. I figured I had connected into some fellow RPer’s computer while they were in the middle of some chat program. I knew that wasn’t very logical; I would have picked up the other data strings sent by the other person he, or she, was talking to.

-------

The next day I went to the high school to have lunch with my friends. I also figured that I would ask them to see who was online last night.

"Were any of you online last night?" I asked after everyone had arrived.

"Yeah," Josh replied, "Playing games on Yahoo."

"Couldn’t get on," Pat replied, then looked my direction, "And I wonder why?"

"I was with Vicky," Jessie replied, "Would have, but my dad was busy with some job searching. He was drunk anyway and I didn’t feel like bothering him."

"I had to work late last night," Niles replied, "Otherwise I would have called you and seen if you wanted to play Half-life with me and a few others."

Well, that took out my first theory; I must have connected to another furry’s computer while they were in the middle of a chat.

"You want to play tonight?" Niles asked.

"No," I replied, "I have some other things to take care of."

Later that night I re-connected to the client to see if the person was on.

---------

-over_ride.enabled=true

-command process started: connection via LAN

-enter URL _

123.445.8546.55

connecting, please wait……

-connection established awaiting server command

command = set.com = 6h4b

connect terminal = 56.211.3252

-user intervention detected: begin converse? <y/n> y

-client// string received = "Hello again."

-server// string sent = "I guess you’re on again."

-client// string received = "Yeah, had some homework to finish."

-server// string sent = "I hate school."

-client// string received = "Me too, but if I want a good job, have to go."

-server// string sent = "How old are you any way?"

-client// string received = "20 years"

-server// string sent = "19 here."

-client// string received = "How nice."

-server// string sent = "Eh,"

-client// string received = "Does your comm station have a video unit? Or is it just malfunctioning? I’m not getting any video from you."

-server// string sent = "No, but I can hook one up if you give me a few seconds."

-client// string received = "I can wait."

---------

I leaned over and opened one of my computer desk drawers. I pulled out my web-cam and plugged it into the USB port on the front of my computer. I then loaded some video drivers and some other software so I could send and receive video. Before I closed the drawer I noticed that small EMP device sitting in the bottom of it.

--------

-server// string sent = "Should be getting something here shortly."

-server// run- "C:\windows\cam\webcam.exe -/port.usb.cable= true

-client// string received = "I’m getting something, whoa. You have a very slow connection. How big is a Kilobyte anyway?"

-server// string sent = "1000 bytes."

--------

I pinged the connection and began to receive the video. When I switched windows I just stopped. In front of me was the video stream, but it was of a chakat; not some human. The image wasn’t very fast, but enough for me to tell that it wasn’t fake. I was stunned, but even more thrilled that chakats might actually exist, somewhere. I was still a little skeptical though. I figured the person had done some fancy computer work.

--------

-client// string received = "What about audio?"

-server// string sent = "Just a minute."

-audio.value = true

-------

"Why is your connection so slow?" the chakat asked.

"I’m on cable modem, it shouldn’t be slow. In fact I’m connected at 134.6 kilobytes a second right now," I replied.

"I suppose the massive lag may be due to the distance betweens us and the severs we are connected through," the chakat said, "What was your name again?"

"Spaws," I replied as I began to trance the IP address again to verify its location, "Well, actually Ryan. I use Spaws as my hacker name."

"Mine’s Saphira." shi said.

"I guess you get that from your eyes." I said taking note of hir bright blue eyes, "But don’t chakats normally have yellow and green eyes?"

"Yeah," Saphira replied, "But my father is a wolftaur. I got my markings and eyes from him."

"What year is it there?" I asked.

"2340," Saphira replied, "Why would it bee any different from your year?"

"The year here is 2004," I replied.

Saphira stared at me with unbelief. I did the same, although for not the same reason.

"That means this is the first communications made over non-linear temporal boundaries!" Saphira said loudly.

The IP tracker I had ran came back with the results, the IP could not be identified; which was impossible, every computer had an IP address. I looked in the log to find that the last secure IP it had was the IP of my computer. Somewhere between my computer and the local server something funny was happening; I don’t mean that in a literal sense. For some reason I was starting to believe that I actually had connected to a computer on Chakona. There was no other way to explain it; no IP address, a live chakat on my monitor, hir year was 2340. I guess the last item really doesn’t prove anything.

"Ryan?" Saphira asked; I had slipped into a deep thought.

"Sorry," I replied, "Thinking about something. What did you want?"

"I’m thinking this is a result of some rip in subspace some where. It might be affecting your computer some way so that you can connect to my computer." Saphira said, "I’m going to try and find its location here, if it is here."

"You seem to know a lot about these rift things," I replied.

"They’re one of my favorite hobbies," Saphira replied with a smile.

"Well, I’ll see if I can find the rift here," I replied, "Maybe we can find a way of getting you here, or me there."

"I’ve tapped into some local sensor arrays and I have been able to locate the rift here. It is in a warehouse next to some old communications routing equipment." Saphira said, "What about you?"

"Wish I had sensors," I replied, "I have to do it the old fashion way."

Saphira cocked and ear and an eyebrow, "Old fashion way?"

"Yup," I replied, "Go outside and look at the wires."

This is exactly what I did, after saying goodbye to Saphira. I put on my jacket, seeing as it was the middle of winter, and then went outside. I found where our cable came in, then I followed it back to the utility pole. I didn’t get much further; I should have figured as much. The cable hooked into a distribution box and a larger cable came out and continued on down the row of poles. I walked down the street and followed the cable along the poles until I came to a small building. The cable went into it; I walked up to the door and found it locked. "This is going to require more than just my hands," I said to myself. I ran back to my house and found an old crowbar. I ran back to the small building and pounded the bar into the doorframe near the doorknob. After I got the crowbar into the door as far as it would go, I pulled back on it. The door popped opened with little effort. "Cheap," I said as I threw the crowbar aside and walked in.

I walked in and found myself amongst cables, servers, telephone routers, and the unpleasing smell of hot electronics. It all looked like a mass of tangled wire plugged into boxes. How am I ever going to find this rip? I thought to myself as I walked around in the room. I picked up a long wire that was lying on the floor of the room and began swinging it in front of me. I figured that I would want to know ahead of time where this rip was. I was almost to the end of the room when the wire hit something. When I swung it through the air, it seemed to catch on something invisible. I tossed the whole wire into the air in the general direction, which I had felt the strange entity. The wire flew through the air and disappeared before my eyes. After a few seconds a hole appeared in front of my. I could see into a large factory, there were all kids of species working. I saw humans, chakats, skunktaurs and many others. This had to be the rip. This rip in front of me also proved to me that Saphira was real, Chakats and all those other species did exist; just not in my dimension or something like that. A few of the beings in the area finaly noticed me; or at least the rip with me in it. They walked over and stared at me with awe. I waved to them; they waved back. I decided to go ahead and see if larger objects could go through. I held my breath and held out my hand. I stepped forward; my hand hit the rip. It was a strange feeling; it was cold, but not so cold that I couldn’t bear it. It was just enough to send a tingle up my spine. I pulled my hand back out and found it was ok.

------------
Earth 42
Chakat Darkfire
------------

Frost came running up to me.

"How many times have I told you," I began.

"Yeah, yeah," Frost replied, "Don’t run in here because you may slip on the occasional oil spills."

"You finally learned," I said, Frost rolled hir eyes at me, "What did you want?"

"There is some human standing in mid air over there," Frost said.

"What?" I asked.

"Follow me," Frost replied.

It was a human child in some kind of a rip! He was standing there looking at us; he had waved and I returned the gesture. The kid then put out his hand, and it came through the rip! "What’s going here?" I said as I looked at the rip from the side. The kids hand seemed to be coming out of no where. I went to the front of the rift and looked at the kid. He had to be about 19, maybe 20 years old. He pulled out a small communication device and held it up. He then threw it at us; the device came through and landed on the ground at my feet.

"Ryan, if you’re not using the net, then disconnect from it!" a woman’s voice said over the device.

I looked up at the kid; he was waving to us; as if he was trying to get one of us to come through. The kid waited for a few second, we didn’t know what to think. I saw Frost, on the other side of the rip, shi was running towards us. I looked at the kid, he rubbed his hands together as if trying to make them warm. I glanced up at Frost as shi got closer; I then noticed the small oil spill on the ground a few feet behind the rip. I didn’t inform Frost of the oil. I knew that shi would fall over when shi ran over it. The kid ran into the rip. I was going to laugh if the kid ran into the rip like he would into a glass wall, same with Frost; but this was not the case, something worse happened. Frost slipped on the oil and fell to hir feet. Shi continued sliding on the ground until shi went through the rip, the kid came through at the same time; there was a bright flash of light just before the kid came through. Frost and the kid landed in a pile of the floor. The rip closed and I looked down at the two. The kid’s lips were turning blue, Frost seemed to be gasping for air and shi had changed; hir fur colorings was not what it was supposed to be. I realized something went terribly wrong, something was not right. I called for someone to notify the hospital. I quickly began to try and help Frost get air, the kid’s eyes were now closed and he lied still. I placed my muzzle over Frost’s and breathed out into hir lungs. Something was not right about Frost; with my empathic abilities I could sense that Frost was overwhelmed with fear and confusion. I could feel that shi was terrified about what had just happened, I also felt something different about hir; like something had happened to hir personality, it just felt different to me. Frost was still young, 23 years old to be precise; I had to do what I could to keep hir from collapsing as the kid had done. I continued to breathe for Frost, it was the only thing keeping hir from dying at the moment. A few others had rushed over to attend to the human child; one of them began CPR on the kid; it didn’t look like he was going to survive. When the paramedics arrived they placed a tube down Frost’s throat to help hir breath. The paramedics then carried hir out on a stretcher. Another group of paramedics had come for the human kid; they attempted to do the same thing with him as they had done for Frost, but it wasn’t working. They continued CPR for another thirty minutes before they pronounced his time of death. We didn’t know his name; he didn’t have any form of identification on him either.

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Ryan
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I fell to the floor gasping for air. I couldn't breathe. I tried breathing in, but nothing happened. My fur covered hands hit the cold, gray concrete floor. Wait a second! Fur! I lied down on the floor, my body starving for oxygen; my lungs felt like they were on fire, my heart thumped wildly in my chest. A set of four paws rushed over to me; the front set seemed to be shaped in an odd way. Powerful arms picked up my limp body; my eyes caught the image of a feline like face. There was a weird sensation coming from my chest; the feline face came back into view. The face put it's mouth to mine and my lungs suddenly filled with air. The feline was kissing me, no, it was helping me; it was breathing out into my own lungs. My blurred vision, caused by the loss of oxygen, was becoming clearer. The fuzzy feline face was taking a more familiar shape; my own mouth was becoming visible in my eye-sight, I was starting to get sensations from parts of my body that I didn't know that they even existed. I could now clearly make out the feline face; it was more than a feline, it was a chakat. The strange sensation on my chest; it didn't take me long to realize what was causing it. I could clearly see my white muzzle... my long hair... my breasts. I began to feel dizzy again. The reality was setting. This is just a dream, I said to myself, Any second I'm going to wake up. My eyes closed by themselves; the shock of what was happening finally hit me. Just before I was completely out, my mouth was pulled open and something was pushed down my throat. I was finding it easier to breath, but I was too gone at that moment to wake up.

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Saphira
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I had seen what happened. I was in shock, but importantly, disbelief. Ryan had committed suicide without knowing it. The first ambulance drove off; the second latter left carrying Ryan’s dead body. I had watched as the medics had worked on his lifeless body for more than twenty minutes before stopping. When one of the medics looked at his watch, I knew they were calling his death. I went back home, there was nothing I could do. I guess I should have never tried to see if he could come here via the rip. I went home and began messing around on my computer; maybe I might be able to find a way to open it from this side. I figured that Ryan opened the rip by using his computer; maybe I might be able to do the same. I had no luck, I couldn’t figure out how to replicate the method which Ryan had used to open the rip.

The next morning I was awakened by my parents, "Time to get ready for school!" my fathered called. I got up and heard the phone ring; my father answered it.

"Hello… yeah, shi’s here, hold on then," my father had said, then at me, "Saphira, pick up the phone. The hospital wants to ask you some questions." I rolled over onto my stomach and picked up my phone.

"Shir Saphira?" a female asked.

"Yeah, what is it?" I replied.

"I’m sorry to bother you, but we have a patient here, another chakat. Shi came in yesterday; well, I’ll explain it to you when you come. Anyway, shi has requested your presence," the female replied.

"I guess I will be there as soon as possible," I replied before hanging up.

I got up and did my normal morning routine; brushed my fur, finished whatever homework I hadn’t done from the previous day, put on one of my tops so that other species in the area wouldn’t be offended, then went downstairs and ate breakfast. The only thing I hated about my house was the steep stairs; I had to go down backwards to keep from losing my balance. I finished off my breakfast then left the house. When I got to the hospital I went to the front desk and told them who I was. One of the nurses looked up when I mentioned my name then took me aside.

"You must be Saphira," she said as she took my arm and led me down the hall, "As I said on the phone, I would explain what happened once you got here. We got a call from a local warehouse stating that a chakat and a human had been involved in some accident regarding some kind of rift in the air. We sent two teams, one for the chakat, the other for the human. The human died, after the autopsy it was found that the human died because of the lack of oxygen going to the body. It seemed like he couldn’t control his diaphragm so that he could breath. The medics tried for the longest time to try and revive him with no success. So was the case with the chakat. We are glad that another one helped hir breathe until medics arrived, so is shi. Once shi awoke, we gave hir a tablet so that shi could write out hir requests; shi couldn’t talk because the tube down hir throat. A funny thing though, shi could barely even write, it took hir twenty minutes to write down your name. Shi is getting better though; and hir breathing seems to coming under control again. What is strange is that none of hir other systems have failed, the only thing it seems shi lost control of was hir breathing. There are some general control issues; it’s like shi has forgotten how to use hir body. We decided to contact you, thinking that you might be able to explain something to us seeing as shi had written your name down."

"What is hir name?" I asked.

"According to other employees of the warehouse, hir name is Frost; but shi seems to not respond to the name," the nurse said, "I hope that you can shed some light on this."

"I don’t know any chakat with such a name," I replied, "Are you sure that it was my name that shi wrote down and not that of hir mate or something?"

"I rewrote it myself to make sure that it was what shi had written," the nurse replied, "Shi wrote your name down, none other. You are the only Saphira in the area, so shi must mean you."

The nurse led me to a closed room, she opened the door and we both walked in. All of the lights were off, but it wasn’t very dark because sunlight came in through the window. The nurse walked over to a set of plain white curtains and pulled them back to reveal a chakat lying on hir back on a bed. Shi had a tube down hir throat helping hir to breathe and there were sensors and monitors hooked up all over hir body.

"Hey, you," the nurse said quietly, "Your company is here."

The chakat stirred lightly; as best as shi could with being held down in the bed. I walked over to hir and looked into hir eyes. They opened and focused on me. Shi smiled as best shi could and held out a hand to me. I took it not knowing what to think.

"Frost?" I said in a caring manner. I didn’t know who Frost was, but I figured I would try it anyway. The chakat just closed hir eyes then reopened them; shi had also looked away for a short while. I figured shi had meant no by the gesture. "I don’t know you," I said, "This is the first time I have seen you." I was feeling strong emotions of confusing and bewilderment coming from the hir; I was trying to sort them out to see if there was any clue to who shi really was. A strange thought dawned on my mind. I don’t know if it had been the result of the feelings I was getting from the chakat that lay before me or if it was my own doing. "Ryan?" I said quietly. I watched as the chakats eyes became watery, shi seemed to respond as if saying yes. "But, how?" I said dropping the chakats hand to the bed rail, "You…, Ryan died! I saw it with my own eyes!" The chakat looked at me with confusion in hir eyes. "Ryan jumped through the rift and came out unable to breath," I said, "An autopsy was done and it was found that he could no longer control his diaphragm, or something like that. Ryan died from no oxygen getting to his brain." The chakat lightly shook hir head. "No?" I said, "this chakat jumped through the portal at the same time as Ryan, but from the other side. You both lost control over your diaphragms," Some wild idea hit my mind, it was a long shot but I guess I should tell hir my theory. "I think I might know what happened," I said, "This is just a theory, but it is all I have. When Ryan, the human, jumped through the rip at the same time as Frost, something happened between your two bodies. The rip must have disrupted your never signals or something causing you to lose control over breathing. I think you may have amnesia or something, which is why you think you are someone else!" I was surprised that I could come up with the idea. "Aren’t I a genius or what?" I looked down at the chakat; shi had a disapproving look on hir face. "This isn’t helping, is it?" I said pointing to the tube coming out of hir mouth; shi nodded in response. "Do you think you can breathe on your own?" I asked; the chakat nodded. "Let’s hope you can," I replied. I walked out and called nurse, I told her what was to be done. The nurse contacted a doctor, he came down and talked to the chakat and I.

"I don’t think it is a good idea," the doctor said, "We can if you want to, but if you can’t breathe on your own, we will have to put a new one in. It won’t be very pleasant."

The chakat developed a look of hatred on hir face towards the tube down hir throat; shi wanted it out.

"Are you sure you want me to proceed?" the doctor asked. The chakat nodded hir head in reply. The doctor got some supplies out of a nearby drawer then asked the nurse for some help. "Don’t hold back or bite into the tube as it comes out; just let it slide out and we shouldn’t have any problems," the doctor said, "You are going to feel like coughing once this is out, cough has hard as possible and spit out what comes up into this pan."

The doctor handed the chakat a bedpan; he then got ready to pull out the tube. In one smooth motion the doctor pulled the tube out of hir throat, shi instantly went into a coughing fit. The nurse disposed of the tube while the chakat continued to cough. Eventually shi spit up a bunch of nasty looking body fluids into the bedpan then lied down. "Well," the doctor said, "Shi can breathe alright." I took note of how hard shi was panting after the whole ordeal. "We will leave you two alone now," the doctor said before he and the nurse walked out. Were they implying that I was this chakats mate? I put the thought aside; there was number of good reasons for them to think such a thing. I turned to the chakat; shi was lying in the bed looking at me.

"Now, what were you trying to say before?" I asked.

"Em, inan." shi said in some weird language.

"I’m sorry, but don’t recognize the language you are speaking," I replied.

"I’m Ryan," the chakat now said. I fully understood hir.

"That isn’t possible," I said, "Ryan was a human, he died!" The chakat looked at me with intense feelings, I could feel hir frustration with me with my empathic abilities.

"Ramebar, Spaws?" the chakat said.

"Spaws?" I said remembering that is what Ryan had said he used as his hacker name. It made some since to me now.

The chakat nodded, "I’m Ryan."


To be continued in part 2 – Realization of the Truth.

Copyright Information-

All characters and/or locations and/or objects (including, but not limited to: shuttles, technology, inanimate objects) are the sole creations of Ryan Schlueter.

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All characters/locations/species/miscellaneous items are used with permission from their creators.

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The following articles are copyrighted to their respective creators/owners:

-The species of chakats; the planet of Chakona:

All above Copyright to Bernard Doove.

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Any objects and/or things not mentioned above that have NOT been created by Ryan Schlueter, or by any of the above-mentioned person(s) are copyrighted to their respective owners and/ or creators.

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Any likeness to any character or being is entirely coincidental and not intended to be copied from any person without their direct permission.

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The hacking codes, IP addresses, URLs and other related computer programming used in this story are not real. The addresses were randomly created and are not meant to coincide with any real- world locations. If these addresses match those of real world locations, it was purely coincidental. The hacking code used in this story was made up and does not fit with any current programming language.

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Note to the Reader: To understand the code used in this story, it would be easier for you to know some basic programming. Or, use the following as a guide:

- client// string recived = That bit of code means that someone has sent a message to the server. In yahoo, or MSN this would be the person you are talking to.

- server// string sent= This bit of code means that you have sent a message. In Yahoo or MSN, this would be your message that you are sending to the other person.

The rest of the code was put in to make things more believable that hacking was actually happening.

 

 


 

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