Read Online Doctor Who by Kate Orman - Free Book Online

vast acres of memory there at your command. But that’s what makes it such a triumph. Anyone can do incredible things if they’ve got incredible resources. It takes an artist to make poetry out of bits of string and paper clips. Now, if only this heap of junk could connect at faster than 1200 baud.’
    â€˜While we’re waiting for it, can I ask you a few questions?’
    â€˜You can ask,’ pronounced the Doctor, without taking his eyes off the screen. I hesitated. ‘That’s a little joke.’
    â€˜How long have you known Miss Smith?’
    â€˜Peri and I stumbled into one another’s company some time ago,’ he said absently. ‘Some months, at a guess. Though at times it definitely seems longer.’
    The Doctor spread his hands on the beige plastic that flanked the keyboard, as though gathering his thoughts. Then he typed a short, sharp series of commands into the Apple, sat back, and hit ‘return’.
    I heard the modem swing into action. But instead of connecting to another machine, it hung up after maybe six rings, and immediately started dialling again. ‘So exactly what are we up to here, Doc?’ I said.
    â€˜What
I
am attempting to do,’ he said, ‘is to dial into the mainframe at the TLA building. My computer will continue to dial phone numbers until one of their computers answers.’ He paused for emphasis. ‘Oh, and it’s Doc.
Tor.
The second syllable is as precious as the first.’
    We sat there for maybe a quarter of an hour, listening to the modem dial and dial again and again. The Doctor explained that his program was set up to call numbers that he knew were allocated to TLA’s headquarters. Presumably he’d poked around in Ma Bell’s computers for a few hints, although he might have guessed the range of numbers from their phone book listing.
    At last the modem emitted a squeal of static, the sound of two computers shaking hands.
    The Doctor’s hands landed on the keyboard at a run. ‘I’m going to try a series of account names,’ he said, ‘typically left behind by programmers as back doors into the system for testing.’ He could type almost as fast as the modem could send data, so I was able to watch his attempts to break and enter as they piled up on the screen. Each time, he just hit ‘enter’ instead of typing a password:
    Login: guest
    Password:
    Username or password incorrect; please try again
    Login: public
    Password:
    Username or password incorrect; please try again
    Login: sys
    Password:
    Username or password incorrect; please try again
    At last he sat back with a sharp sigh, and disconnected the modem. ‘It looks as though Swan has nailed shut the back doors into her system.’
    â€˜So how are you going to get a real password?’ I said.
    â€˜With a little luck, I still won’t need one. A friend of mine has set up a legitimate account for me. I can try to break into Swan’s computer again from there.’
    I watched as he logged in to the university’s computer as doctor. ‘Now,’ he said. ‘From here we use a program called telnet to jump to Swan’s computer.’
    telnet tla2 25
    After a few moments, the TLA computer responded with a ready message. 1 The Doctor’s mouth lengthened into a smile. ‘You see?’ he said. ‘The computer’s not even asking us to log in. Port 25 is its email connection, and it has to be left open at all times.’ He was lecturing me, despite his earlier claim that he didn’t want to have to explain things. ‘Now, first we use the open port to send a message to ourselves.’
    He typed rapidly, drumming his fingers on the pale plastic of the computer whenever he had to wait for the screen to catch up with him. Mail accepted, responded TLA’s computer.And sure enough, a short while later, the email arrived at the doctor account. The Doctor explained, ‘Now that the