A.I.: Orphans of Terra (HTTYD)

33

Chapter 33

"I have to WHAT?!" Snotlout growled as they sat hunched over a table in the corner of the empty Mess hall. The teens ducted a bit lower as several eyes of the staff fell at them.

"Just keep your dad and anyone else busy. Distract them somehow. Anyway you know how." Hiccup said with all seriousness. "I would know more if Astrid explains about the code."

"Right...." Astrid said in the earpiece. "But first, I'm surprised that you and Snotlout aren't more distraught Hiccup. Seeing a dead body, a murder, isn't something someone could walk away from unscathed. At least not mentally. Yet you and the others looked particularly calm in there."

"You forget that we grew up in the wastelands Astrid." Hiccup told her sadly. "Dead is common there. As is murder and all sorts of other things. We're lucky that the Berkian caravan stayed out of most of the conflicts."

"Yo.... Hiccup..... I can't understand what you're girlfriend is saying." Snotlout waved a hand in front of Hiccup's face to get his attention. Hiccup blushed briefly at the girlfriend comment and then looked around and nodded.

"It is starting to get a bit crowded in here, isn't it." he mumbled. "Why don't we find another place?"

That other place happened to be nestled between two large crates in one of the storage areas. The teens found themselves wedged there about ten minutes later after leaving the cafeteria.

"I hope Mildew doesn't find us." Snotlout whispered in the brightly lit and closed room, where he didn't have to whisper at all.

"Mildew is busy with his new sheep Fungus." Hiccup shrugged. "I heard it from the twins last week. Apparently one of the test sheep started stalking him."

"That is just creepy," Snotlout shuddered. "Why would a sheep stalk Mildew?"

"Who knows?" Hiccup shrugged while Astrid said aloud "I do not profess to know the mind of sheep."

"Now as for the code," Astrid started as both men paid more attention. A holographic screen popped up in front of them with the string of numbers. "Normally you would think that it is a code for one of the keypads along the corridors but those can retain a five digit code."

"So even if dad checks those he'll find nothing?" Snotlout asked.

"Correct," Astrid said. "The code is the password to a keypad but one more sophisticated than the ones visible outside. Some laboratories have private areas where more dangerous research or pet projects can be kept. That keypad has no numbers but letters."

Hiccup frowned while Snotlout scratched his head as they looked at a holographic schematic of the keypad Astrid now displayed on the screen. "So the numbers on the paper are letters?" Snotlout frowned. "But they repeat. Pretty stupid password then!"

"I don't think it's that simple," Hiccup frowned as he bit his lip. "Astrid is there something to the number repetition?"

"Yes," Astrid chirped. "I'm assuming you two are unfamiliar with the T9 cipher."

"The what now?!" Snotlout's head was hurting at this point already.

"The T9 cipher was used in the last decade of the 20th century on communications devices. It stands for 'Text on 9 keys' but it became obsolete not long after as technology advanced. Because the communication devices of that era did not have holographic screens or touch screen with entire keyboards, the letters of the alphabet were assigned to a 3 by 4 numeric keypad. 0 and 1 did not correspond to any letter so the alphabet started from number 2 as in accordance with the E161 Telecommunications standardizations." Astrid explained as she now started adding letters to the holographic keypad on the screen.