And at the centre of the labyrinth is the garden.
The sprite in the gray robe walks slowly between the hedges. His unseeing eyes never stray from the text of the ReadMe file he holds. Attached to the file is a thin cord of energy, which vanishes up the sleeve of the blind sprite's robe.
He reads on.
After a time, he reaches an annotation.
The sprite in the gray robe pauses, frowns, and scrolls upwards…
Blip… blip…
Professor Matrix smiled as the gateway generator
flashed and a rippling wave of purple spread out to fill the ring.
"System detected," he announced to the crowded auditorium. He tapped
at the control panel in front of him. "Executing gateway command…"
The gateway began to spin. Its faint
glow grew brighter as the energy built. A strange shape was barely
visible within the brightness. That wasn't supposed to happen…
"Dah… oh… aaah…" gasped the professor as
sparks began to fly, golden ones from the gateway, purple from the control
panel, burning him where they struck his hands and face. This was
wrong, it was all going wrong… He stared frantically from the panel
to the shape in the portal. As he watched, aghast, the figure became
horribly clear.
"I am become Gigabyte!" it announced to the
trembling audience. "Destroyer of systems!" Then, as the gateway
spun around it, faster and faster, it grew indistinct again. Its
outline changed and became asymmetrical. The gateway flashed and
blazed brighter than a tear, bright enough to be seen (Welman was sure)
clear across the city. Then it exploded.
The pretty white sprite in the black tank top wanders through the wreckage, exchanging pleasantries with those she passes. She bends down to tickle a light green null, pushes back her unruly mane of black hair, and addresses the light green man in the lab coat. He asks her a question. She smiles at him, and replies: Wait.
Here, at the centre, it was relatively clear
of rubble. The viruses that were Gigabyte gazed at the ruins.
Each turned slightly to its right and looked at the other. Then Megabyte
pivoted and walked away in silence.
Hexadecimal stayed put, assessing her new
territory. "I like it here!" she informed the system in general.
The adolescent sprite tilts her head to one side as she looks at
the funny red virus without a face. Then she tilts her head to the
other side. As she moves, her skin changes from copper to periwinkle,
and her vividly pink hair begins to lengthen. She comes to a conclusion
and laughs; she appears to be 10, perhaps 11, but she giggles like she
has just turned 01.
As the virus speaks her first words, the girl reaches out and plucks
the mask with the surprised expression off the place where her face should
be, replacing it immediately with one showing a crafty smile. Now
her hair is spring green and curly, and her skin is buttercup yellow.
She giggles again. She has found a friend.
A small magenta car pulled up and landed.
The siblings hopped out. In the chaos, they went unnoticed.
They looked around in desperation. "Where's Dad, Sis?" asked Enzo
in a frightened voice. "Where is he?"
Dot's voice was far more controlled, but
still managed to betray some of her own fear as she admitted, "I… I don't
know." She took her brother's hand; he moved to embrace her, burying
his face in her stomach. "Dad!" he sobbed. She bowed her head
and held him tightly. Dad, she thought, where are you?
and knew it was the wrong question.
The old sprite approaches the children. She walks silently;
surprisingly so, for she is obese, as round as a zero binome. Her
skin is dusty white, and her black hair has the texture of wet straw and
appears to have one or more living creatures nesting in it. She wears
nothing but a ring and an icon. The ring is iron, with a barbed hook
curving out from it. The icon is solid silver: a tiny mirror, pinned
to her left breast.
Reaching the mourning pair, she extends her hand. With two
swift movements, she stabs them with her ring, sinking the barb deep into
each sprite's heart.
A strange sound nearby caused Dot to look
up. Her eyes widened. A bubble was growing in the air.
There were reflections in its surface, but they were not of Mainframe.
Instead, she saw a strange landscape of flattened gray hemispheres topped
with greenish, crystalline spires. The bubble grew until it touched
the ground, and a boy stepped out.
Bob stared at the wreckage, wanting—no, needing—to
help, not knowing where to start. He spotted the tears that blazed
all around. This, at least, he knew how to handle. "Glitch—mend!"
he commanded his new keytool. He aimed and fired a burst of golden
light at the first tear; the light enveloped the tear and faded, taking
the tear with it. He turned; another burst, another tear gone.
He turned again and saw the girl.
The beautiful sprite stands between the blue boy and the green girl. He (or is it she?) looks from one staring youth to the other and smiles, as at some private joke. The green girl approaches the blue boy; as she arrives, the beautiful one leans over and kisses each of them on the cheek.
Bob stared at the girl walking toward him.
She was staring back, her face full of fear and confusion. Well,
Glitch had said this was an isolated system—or, at least, it had been until
now. No wonder she was confused. Some sort of explanation was
clearly in order.
"I'm a cade—I mean," he corrected himself,
suddenly desperate to impress her, "I'm a Guardian. I come from the
Net."
"The Net?" she asked blankly.
"Yes, from another system. A supercomputer,"
he added proudly. Remembering why he was here, he tore his eyes away
from her and took in the devastation around them once more. "I'm
so terribly sorry!"
Dot continued to stare at the strange boy,
her fear mutating into anger and, unexpectedly, a sort of hope. "You
caused this?"
"No!" exclaimed Bob, realising his error.
Dot charged at him and beat her fists feebly
on his chest. "You did!" She was determined to remain angry—it
was him, he did this, this stranger and not her father… "This
is your fault!" she insisted, beginning to cry. Then, losing the
battle against herself, she leaned her face against his chest and sobbed.
"No," Bob protested. This was wrong,
it was all going wrong… "I-I came to help. Please, I-I just…
wanna help…" he trailed off pathetically.
"Bob?" broke in a new voice. "Are you
okay?"
The wild-haired white sprite blows the last grains of sand towards the blue Guardian, tiny flecks of silicon glittering in the air between them. He slips the pouch into the folds of his robe and retires to a far corner of the room. Watching with eyes that are not eyes, he waits to learn the rest of the story.