The Uprising
By Wriness Chikaya
Chapter 1 - Plastic Trinkets
"So I walked upon high and I stepped to the edge, to see my world alone. And I laughed to myself, while the tears roll down, 'cos it's the world I know, Oh it's the world I know."
The day was dingy, and gray. Tiredly overcast, the sky's pixeled clouds cut through the simulated sunshine like hanging curtains over a window. Dot rubbed her eyes with the sleeve of her suit. She was tired. Her limbs felt as if they hung off of her, her muscles coiled like springs. The wrinkles in the corner of her mouth were becoming more pronounced as her smile became faded with lack of use. The second had been tiring, and she was looking forward to unwinding and relaxing in a bubble bath after work. Since Enzo wasn't living with her anymore, she had all the time in the world to be completely useless at her own leisure.
Her shoes hit the flooring with a metal-on-metal clack as she padded her way down the long corridor to her quarters. The headset was thrown haphazardly into the corner, her utility belt following suit nearly as violently, and her organizer nearly knocked over the lamp. She slumped against the wall, feeling worn out. Hollow. She blew her breath out through pursed lips, feeling the emptiness left by stress refill with the satisfaction of a second's work and a job well done. She smiled to herself, her weathered cheeks and beginning wrinkles smoothing out briefly, her red lips framing her mouth in a mockery of a smile. She tried.
Feeling lighter from the lack of tools, Dot dragged her zip board to her exit from the Principal Office. It floated lightly in the air as she stood on it, the board used as a common form of transportation within Mainframe. The board hummed and vibrated slightly underneath her boots, carrying her speedily through the towers, among most of which were under her control. Nobody could understand how she worked herself to the bone day after day after day, without respite or break. She simply laughed, and carried on.
As with all things, it started with a day off. She went to bed after her bath, knowing she wouldn't have to get up early the next day to perform duties as Command.Com for the rest of the system. It was a noble job, but she had an empire to rule. Being corporate queen of society had its perks, as did being friends with the former Command.Com. Phong had volunteered to cover for her, without letting her get a word in edgewise about whether or not she was getting the day off in the first place. It was this thought which perforated her dreams that night, at least until they were cut short.
A vidwindow gleamed its imposing front in her face. She woke with a start.
"GAK! Phong! Oh! It's .. You!" She hurriedly preened herself in an attempt to look a tad more presentable to her mentor. "Uh. Uh," Dot swore under her breath for not being coherent enough to ad-lib something intelligent. She supposed that's what she got for being awake less than thirty nanos.
"My pardons, my child. Have I awakened you?" The old sprite chirped. Dot snarled inwardly. He'd likely been awake since some ungodly early cycle in the second. Dot's vindictive temper was showing through lack of sleep. She checked herself professionally. This was neither the time, nor the place.
"It's alright, Phong, I was planning on getting up soon anyway," She smiled, a plastic smile, a face mask used early in the morning when she'd rather just grab an energy shake and snarl at anyone near her. She stretched, almost catlike. "What's on your mind?"
"Oh, yes, yes. That. I thought I would mention to you a finding I have discovered in the cycle last, would you like to venture over to the Principal Office to see?"
By then, Dot's curiosity was piqued. She sat straight up in bed and stared Phong directly in the face. Watching old movies and having popcorn fights with Bob could wait. "I'll be there within the microsecond."
Phong's slim fingers clicked delicately against the panel as Dot pored over the information displayed in a curious font next to the map of Mainframe's centers. "Wow," she purred. "The Twin City's citizen profiles."
"I thought you would be interested, my child. I have only yet begun to peruse all of them."
"Phong, this is .. such an honor. The history.. of .. I feel like a historian," Dot whispered, as she felt the memories of the Twin City's inhabitants deserved the respect of silence.
"Dot, dear.. this is for you. And only you."
She took a deep breath, and pressed the 'open' command. A list of names appeared in front of her. "Where to start..." she breathed.
An inclination seized her, and she scrolled through the list of names. Matrix. Matrix. Matrix. Matrix. Names. Her family.
She tapped her finger on the panel as she watched the profile pages float past, in perfectly written HTML. The strange font outlined funny squares and triangles, but somehow formed the alphabet. She read out hers and her brother's profiles, mother, father, initialization date, compilation information, home page, baby pictures, et cetera, et cetera. She browsed her information slowly, painstakingly. Every detail matched the details kept in Mainframe, with the exception of the baby pictures, and some details about their childhood. Very little was salvaged from the Twin City when it was destroyed. The city's records had been corrupted and the disks with the information on them had been brought to Mainframe for the new beginning, in hopes that someone would manage to retrieve the information from the mangled wreckage. The idea remained that, perhaps if one knew what had caused the accidents, one would be able to prevent them.
Dot perused her files and her brother's, reminiscing about their childhoods while staring at the pictures, her fingers lovingly caressing their chubby green cheeks and sporadic tooth distribution. She smiled gently, and a tear ran down her face as she pressed the name just above hers on the list.
Dr. Welman Matrix.
A page loaded, this time in a different font. In blue. Rounded, not all square and cornery like the other font. This was a much older font, from many hours ago. She ran her finger over it tiredly.. and read.
And read.
And read.
Soon she noticed that Phong had left the room, and her in silence. She prayed to User thanks for the things she'd seen. For the solace of knowing her father.
But what of her mother?
She pressed the green name on the list, wondering vaguely what green signified, considering that most of the names were either red or blue, as in mainframe. The answer to her question stared her directly in the face, in the same swirly letters her father's file had been coded in. The letters blinked at her. Where most of the others' profiles had stated race?=binome or race?=sprite, her mother's variable setting was ...
Dot's breath caught in her throat in awe.
The file read race?=user.
Phong hummed in. "I thought you would be surprised at that, my child."
"Surprised?!" Dot's amazement betrayed her. "Surprised doesn't cover it! How.. how is that possible?"
Phong motioned for Dot to follow him towards one of his hidden rooms. She obeyed blankly, all will lost in shock. He hummed up to a wall and tapped it three times.
"Denim pillowcase," he bellowed, and the wall opened obediently. It was a small, egg-shaped room, covered in a velvety material and furnished with overstuffed fuzzy couches. "This .. this .." Phong collected his thoughts. "This is where I come to think. You may use this room at your leisure."
Dot wasn't sure what to make of it. She didn't think she'd need somewhere to think, and then slowly it dawned on her that sometimes, being Command.Com meant having people after you all second. She would come to want sanctuary from the outside.
"User..." Dot breathed. This wasn't anything she'd ever imagined. She blinked several times, trying to clear the bleary dream from her horizon of vision. Or so it seemed. Was this a dream? She asked herself over and over. Phong just nodded knowingly and patted her on the back.
"Dot, dear. You shall be alright. This is an exciting discovery, the idea that one of our leaders could possibly be part user! Amazing. Simply amazing." Phong hummed away with a little chuckle, as if enjoying some kind of private joke. Dot could only sit in the middle of the orange-aired sanctuary room, wondering at her fate.
Quickly, she snapped to her senses and bounded out of the room. She closed the wall again and bolted off after Phong, nearly slipping on the smooth floor. "Phong!" She yelled. "Phong! Come back!"
But it was futile. Phong just hummed away smiling to himself about the new user. The old sage was a trial at times, and this was one of them. Dot simply shuffled out of the Principal Office with a mild look of shock lingering on her face from her discovery. Little did she notice the guard binome standing beside the echoing hallway who had heard everything.
And little did she notice the distasteful sneer he cast over his shoulder at her as he hopped on a zip board to tell his comrades.
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Read Chapter 2
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