Free Mad Worlds Collide by Tony Teora

onboard engineers. This flashed back to a blue screen error.
     
    " A fatal exception has occurred on JAL flight 647. The current flight control will be terminated. Remote control will be activated."
     
    The screen turned florescent red and pulsated to music.  Robert recognized the music. It was a rock group he loved "The Doors". The song hummed:
     
    " Come on baby light my fire, come on baby light my fire…try to set the night on fire…yeeeeaaaah…!! "   
    As the music grew louder the screen flashed in fluorescents, first purple, then orange and then florescent green. The light in the cabin dimmed to a light red hue. The music volume increased. People began to get agitated.
    Susan awoke and stared at the screen. "Are we at a disco? What’s going on?"
    The speaker normally used for takeoffs and landings crackled. The music’s volume went down.  A screen popped up showing the view below and in front of the plane. There lay the ocean. Ahead were scattered clouds. A voice spoke from the intercom:
    "You are running a plane with AD-2100 software. You are also running MI-ASS for remote control.  MI-ASS will save your ass." The Doors volume rose.
     
    "Come on baby light my fire… Try to set the night on fire…."
     
    The plane angled down 45% degrees, and shot toward the water. The LCD screen showed the ocean approaching.  People gripped armrests.
    The intercom cracked again, "Hi, my name is Buffalo, I hacked MI-ASS… kiss your ass goodbye!"
    A woman started to scream. Ocean waves seemed to splash the LCD screen. An old man in front said to his son, "See, I told you that computers weren’t user friendly." Then the plane jerked into a steep climb. A food tray rolled to the back cabin and crashed against a bathroom door. A Japanese man smoking inside thought the plane had crashed.  He thanked God he had survived despite the many bad deeds he had done.  The LCD screen showed a roller coaster climbing to the top of the tracks.  It looked like the DisneyAOLTurner amusement ride Runaway Coaster 7, Fireworks for the Family. Two pilots walked out of the cabin to the passenger section. The captain spoke to the passengers. "We apologize for the inconvenience and have radio contacted Narita Airport. They are trying to regain control of the aircraft."
    A tall man in front stood and screamed. "What the hell are you guys doing? Inconvenience?!  Can’t you just fly the goddamn plane straight?"
    The plane kept climbing. The roller coaster reached its peak. Teenagers knew the ride well. At the top the coaster would drop, the ride would be fast and furious, and then at the end the coaster would smash into an ammunition dump, and explode into fireworks. Two young children, unaware of this scenario, sat near the LCD waiting for the coaster to reach the top. They coaxed the coaster, yelling, "Go coaster, go."  Their embarrassed mother scolded them.
    The pilot’s technician faced the angry passenger, and meekly answered. "No, we can’t get manual control.  Computers run the whole thing and the computer just crashed. Someone hacked the system. It’s supposed to be impossible."
    Susan pushed Robert. "I need to use the ladies room."  Robert looked over. "What?  It’s dangerous, you might bump your head.  This plane might crash."
    Susan pushed, "I don’t care, my stomach hurts from the dog pills, and if it wasn’t for you and MicroIntel, we wouldn’t be in this mess. If I die, I’ll die like Elvis -- in the toilet." Susan started to cry and got up.
    Robert did not stop Susan.  It didn’t matter.  As the excited kids knew all too well, Runway Train-7 was about to turn into a Christmas tree.  
    Robert closed his eyes.  He knew he had one chance. He quickly opened up his JAL web browser, and did what he knew never to do—override the MicroIntel software with his personal Crypto-code on the insecure Internet channel. Not a good idea Robert, if someone is watching the link and they know it’s me, now they’ve got my