"Spark!" a voice called from behind her. Rana swung round, nearly knocking over the guy standing immediately behind her.
"Sorry," she instinctively replied. Almost immediately, the look of recognition flashed across her face as she took the earphone out of her ears. "Mark!" she cried, hugging the blonde haired, scruffy and unshaven guy standing before her. "Sorry it took me a while to realise who you were talking to me, but I haven't been called Spark since college! How are you?"
"Great thanks, what about you? Still working on the bashed up vehicles of yours?" he questioned as they continued walking down the street.
"They're not bashed up, but yeah! I heard you chucked it in and you're now working for and upmarket stockbrokers."
"Yep, news travels fast doesn't it! There just wasn't enough business. Oh, did you hear about Axle?"
"No..."
He sighed, "You know he was working for that big company,"
"Yeah."
"Well one day he just never came home- the police can't trace him or find him anywhere."
"Oh God!" she gasped.
"Someone tried to get hold of you when it happened, but we couldn't get a reply on the phone and the house looked burnt out. Is everything okay?"
Her eyes darted down to the floor. "Mum passed away last year when we had a fire." She paused. "I lost most of my stuff. I'm living in a small flat above a chippie on a small side street. It's just a few blocks from the garage so it's easier."
"I'm sorry," he mumbled, stroking her hand gently. "Look, why don't I drop by the garage sometime."
"That'd be nice; give us a chance to catch up," she said, a smile breaking onto her face. I'll be down there later, so just drop by."
"I might just do that," he said as he turned round, and set off in the direction they'd been walking from; waving gently. She waved back, but as she watched him disappear into the crowd, she noticed the sunglasses guy about 50m behind her. Her face dropped. She silently disappeared down a side street, took several left and right turns before finally appearing in front of "Mr Smiley's Fish and Chips." She took a key out of her pocket and unlocked the door, stepped inside and locked it behind her. She glanced around quickly before disappearing into the shop- she wanted to make sure that the sunglasses guy wasn't following her- he gave her the creeps. Eyes tell a lot about a person, and she didn't like it when people hid behind dark glasses- it made them look sinister. She passed through the kitchens. A middle aged man was chopping up some potatoes with a large machine.
"How's the machine holding up Mr Owen?" she asked as she weaved past all the cookers.
"Oh, it's fantastic Rana, I can't thank you enough," he answered, as she passed him, nicking an orange off the side board."
"My pleasure," she replied as she disappeared up the stairs at the back of the kitchen. As she stepped into her flat, her eyes dropped as she saw the jumble of car parts that littered the floor. She dropped the keys and orange onto a partly vacant chair and disappeared up a spiral staircase in the corner of the room. When she reached the top, she typed a code into a small box beside the door. A green light flashed and she opened the door, closing it carefully behind her.
She kneeled down and removed a cardboard box from underneath her bed. Inside were several smaller boxes. Taking one off the top, she cleared one end of her bed and sat down. She carefully unwrapped the box and took out the small device inside. She turned it over in her hand, before taking a small screwdriver off her bedside table and unscrewing the lid. Inside, a mass of wires and circuit boards glared out at her. She reached for a switch behind her bed and turned on a bright reading lamp behind her bed. She delicately pressed a switch on the side of the mysterious object. A few LED's on the side of the device flickered into life before dying. Rana smiled to herself. Unscrewing a virtually invisible pocket on the side, she removed a few circular batteries, flipping them over in her hand so she could read the code on the side, then discarded them onto the floor. Opening a draw on her bedside table, she scrabbled around for a while, before emerging with a little packet. She removed two of the batteries from the packet and slotted them back into the device. She replaced the battery cover, and the lid before switching the switch on again. The LED's on the side switched on and stayed on. A small screen on the side filled with numbers. Rana switched it off and started to pack it back into it's box.
"Well done Spark," a voice said from a shadowy corner of the room. "That's an illegal phone tracer if I'm not mistaken." The sunglasses man stepped out into the light of the room. Rana dropped the box.
"H...How..How did you get in here????" she mumbled.
"Oh, you mean the door?" he replied, smiling, "No problem." Rana reached out with her hand towards her table. She always kept a knife in the bottom draw- some of the clients she worked for weren't always too eager to pay up. She'd never had to use it...yet. The sunglasses guy glanced at her hand. "Oh, if I was you, I wouldn't go for the knife. It's not there." He opened up his hand, and inside was her knife, the blade gleaming in the light. Rana moved backwards against the wall. The man moved closer until he was standing a few metres away from her.
"He's going to kill me," thought Rana, "he's going to steal my things and leave me here dead." She glanced down at her trembling hands. She had to get a grip- people could sense fear. "Look, just take my stuff....just don't hurt me..." she said, trying to mask the fear in her voice.
The man sat down on the end of the bed. "Spark," he paused, "is it okay to call you Spark or do you prefer Rana?" he asked.
"Spark's okay," she whispered.
"Well, Spark, I'm Neo. I don't want your stuff. We've been watching you."
"Watching me?" she spluttered, "Why?"
"I know the question that's been on your mind."
"What question?"
He lowered his voice to a whisper. "What is the Matrix?"
Rana was confused. She thought this guy was gonna kill her but instead he was trying to totally freak her out by asking her stuff she didn't have a clue about. "What are you talking about?" she asked nervously.
"The Matrix...the Oracle told us to seek you out cos you are very important."
"Who?"
"You really have no idea who I'm talking about?"
"No!"
Neo stood up. "Morpheus is gonna be furious....wasted time..." he muttered, turning and starting towards the doorway.
"Wait," Rana yelled, standing up.
Neo turned, "What?"
"You know Morpheus?"
"Yes," Neo answered, puzzled. "Why?"
"Take me to him. I need to see him," Rana replied, collecting her coat.
"Why......you don't know anything about the Matrix....how do you know Morpheus?" Neo wrung his hands in confusion.
Rana turned round and looked at him square in the face, "Because he's my father."
A long black car pulled up outside a warehouse on the outskirts of the city. Neo stepped out, followed by Rana. Trinity stepped out of the warehouse. Neo walked quickly towards her.
"Neo, what's wrong?" she questioned.
"I'll tell you later," he whispered as he strode past her and into the building, followed by Rana. He ran up the stairs two at a time, followed by a lagging Rana, who was a little out of breath by the top. He stopped abruptly outside a door, which had at one time been red, but the paint had started to peel and the cheap wood underneath was now visible. Neo knocked twice n the door.
"Come in," a voice said, from the other side. Neo opened the door and let Rana in. Morpheus stood up and turned around. A flash of thought passed across his face. "Welcome Spark," he said softly.
Neo cut in, "Morpheus, there's something I need to tell you..."
"Wait," said Rana, her heart pounding. "Let me tell him."
"Tell me what," Morpheus looked at Neo in confusion.
Rana walked up to Morpheus and smiled at him, "Hello Dad!"
Neo left the room, shutting the door behind him, leaving Morpheus sitting on a chair, his head in his hands, and Rana perched on the edge of the table.
"...I don't understand....who....?" he muttered.
"My mother was Nadeem, do you remember her."
Morpheus looked up at her. "Your mother's Nadeem?"
"Was, she passed away last year" corrected Rana.
"I'm so sorry. That woman was the love of my life. She walked out one day without ever saying why. She never told me she was pregnant."
Rana sighed. "She said you were a free spirit- she didn't want to tie you down."
Morpheus shook his head. "I tried to find her but I couldn't."
"We moved away- only returning a couple of years ago. She loved you, that's why she left you."
"When I found the answer, I wanted to share it with her...."
"What answer?"
Morpheus looked up at Rana, "The answer to the question that I had been searching for all my life."
"What is the Matrix....?" Rana whispered.
"Yes," replied Morpheus. "Do you want to be free, to know what life is really like? To breath in real air, stop being a slave, and help others to find the same freedom?" Rana took a deep breath. "Well," asked Morpheus, "Do you?"
Rana felt sick inside. The pill sat uncomfortably in her stomach. She felt like she'd been poisoned or something. Now they had her strapped to a weird chair- she was starting to wonder if she'd imagined the whole thing, or if it was just a sick joke. Neo was by her side, conversing urgently with the girl who'd been waiting by the door. She heard snippets of conversation, "...tracking...signal..." It all sounded decidedly weird. She didn't even know why she took that pill- it just seemed the right thing to do.
Everything suddenly began to happen really fast, in a blur- the cracking mirror, the coldness, then just nothing....emptiness.....
Until, suddenly, she became aware of her existence again. Jelly like liquid floated round her body. She wriggled, trying to escape from the suffocating substance, but her arms were weak and her legs felt weird. Finally she broke out of the gel. A pipe started to slide out of her mouth so she helped it by pulling on it gently- all she could manage. She breathed in sharply, the air hurting every part of her body, her muscles aching as she tried to sit up. Metal lumps protruded from her arms. She cautiously felt round the rest of her pale skinny body. She discovered the pipes out of her back. This had to be some kind of sick nightmare. All she could think about was how much she wanted to wake up from this dream. The pipes leading to her back popped out, one by one until about halfway down when it just stopped. Pain swept through her body. Her scream echoed through the huge emptiness. Finally, the last two pipes released. The pain still drowned her body. Spark passed out, overcome by pain and fear.
Emptiness, darkness, fear. It seemed to last forever.
Voices came nearer, but drifted away. The voices came back, closer and closer until they were thundering inside her head, ""...no use...damaged...try..." Spark couldn't make sense of the voices or what they were saying. She opened her eyes, but the bright light blinded her, forcing her to shut them again. She fell into the dark expanse of unconsciousness again.
"Spark...Spark..."someone was calling her.
"What?" she mumbled, waking out of her trance. She opened her eyes. She was in a dimly lit metal room. Her arms ached. She looked to one side. Morpheus was sitting there.
"Nice to have you back with us Spark." he said softly.
"Where am I?" she replied, confused. She tried to sit up, but her legs felt heavy and numb.
"You're on my ship, the Neb. Welcome to the real world."
Spark rubbed her sore eyes. "How long has it been since...since..."
"Almost a month," he replied.
"A month," she replied, trying to make sense of the whole thing whilst once again trying to sit up. She could only feel half of her body. A thought of dread started to spread across her mind. "What's the matter with my legs?" she asked quietly, looking down at the two rises under the sheets.
Morpheus stared at his fingers silently. "Something went wrong," he started slowly. "I don't know exactly. When we found you in the drains, you were bleeding from you plugs." Gently he indicated the pipe holes at the base of his spine. "We've tried out best, but we can't undo the damage. I fear you may never walk. We discovered that you have feeling until about halfway up your thighs."
"I'm paralysed?" Spark questioned, aghast at the prospect of never being able to walk again.
"I'm afraid it looks that way."
"But...how...?" she stumbled.
Morpheus studied his hands intently. "We stopped off at Zion, the last human city to get you the best help. When we found out there was nothing we could do, we fitted the ship with lifts and ramps, and we found you a wheelchair."
"A wheelchair," she spat. "This is all your fault. If you hadn't brought me to this hell hole, I would still be at home, mending cars and stuff. I want to go back."
"You can't," Morpheus sighed. "I thought I explained this to you- once you leave, you can never return- only visit. I thought we had talked this through. I told you it wasn't going to be easy, but you said you still wanted to be free."
"Well you didn't mention the fact I wouldn't be able to use my legs did you," Spark said, spitefully, before turning her head away from Morpheus. He stood up slowly, leaving her alone.
Spark reached out for the handles of the chair. She grabbed them and slowly pulled herself across the bed. She balanced precariously as the tried to manoeuvre her useless legs down off the bed. The door slid open. Spark lost her concentration and the chair toppled backward, dumping her unceremoniously onto the floor.
"Damn," she cursed, righting the chair.
Neo rushed in with her lunch tray. "Are you okay. What are you trying to do? You should have asked someone for help." He knelt down beside her.
"I can do it myself," Spark snapped, brushing Neo's helping hands away. "I have to learn how don't I? I can't always rely on other people." She pulled herself up into the chair. "Besides, I was doing fine before you broke my concentration."
"Sorry," he replied, "I brought you your lunch."
"I'm not hungry" she replied sullenly.
"You have to eat, to keep your energy up," Neo calmly said, sitting on the end of her bed and resting the tray on her table.
"Why? So I can wheel myself around in this thing. No thanks, I'd rather die. What's the point? Just so I can expose others to the misery of the real world. Let them live in ignorance is what I say."
Neo stood up, "Well, I'm not gonna sit here and argue with you. Perhaps we can talk about it more rationally another time." He turned and stormed out. Spark sighed. She wheeled the chair over to the table and peered inside the bowl. An unappetising mixture stared back at her. She poked it with a spoon, scowled and placed a bit inside her mouth. She chewed slowly on it for a moment, before swallowing. She stuck the spoon in the middle and wheeled the chair back towards the bed. Reaching up to the bar protruding from the bed, she began lifting herself up and down, strengthening her arms.
Spark sat propped up on her bed, reading through a thick manual. A quiet knock came from the door. She ignored it. It came again, and again but she still ignored it. Finally, the door opened and Morpheus entered.
"Hey," Spark snapped, "Who said you could come in?"
"If you answered my knocking, I would have known you wanted some peace," Morpheus answered calmly. Spark went back to her reading. "Anyway, you have a visitor."
"A visitor?" Now Spark was intrigued. She didn't know anyone except those on the ship.
"We docked with Zion early this morning, and picked up anther crew member. He insists he knows you." Spark hauled herself across the bed and into her chair. Morpheus left the room and Spark followed, leaving the room for the first time since she had woken up. He showed her to the small, one man lift that had been installed, and how to use the controls. She selected the main deck and closed the metal doors.
A few jerky moments later, she emerged from the lift. As she exited the lift, a familiar voice spoke out, "Hey Sparky." Instantly recognising the voice, the rolled herself across the to the other side of the deck, a smile breaking across her face as the persons face confirmed her thoughts.
"Well, well Axle," the said, stopping just in front of him.
Smiling, he bent down to hug her. "Long time no see, huh?"
"You bet! You never rang me after we left college."
He chuckled gently, "Well, I've been busy. You never rang me either."
"True, true," she replied, laughing for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Morpheus grinning, relieved. "So, how did you end up in this hell hole," she asked, leading Axle towards the lift, eager to escape Morpheus's guard. She'd refused to see him since the day she woke up.
"Hell hole?" he asked, surprised. "It's not a hell hole, it's reality. I'm glad to be here."
"Yeah, well you're not the paralysed one, are you?" she muttered under her breath.
Axle knelt down and stopped her chair, looking into her eyes. "Look Spark, I know it must be really hard for you, but there's so much you could do here. The ship needs an engineer- they lost the previous guy a couple of months ago and the repairs are only temporary. Tank, Trinity and Neo are really cool, I'm sure you'd get on great if you just give them a chance. And Morpheus..."
"Is my father, and I hate him," cut in Spark.
"Morpheus loves you," replied Axle, brushing her spiky hair into place.
"Then why did he bring me to this place. I was happy where I was."
Axle sighed. "It was your decision, Morpheus didn't force you to come here. When the people at the top heard you were injured, they tried to make you stay in Zion, not a very nice place. Morpheus wouldn't hear of it, and he shelled out precious resources on adapting this ship for you."
Spark twisted her fingers, starting to feel guilty about the way she had treated him. "I guess I could be a bit more helpful." She smiled weakly. Axle stood up.
"Come on," he said, "I'll go and find Trinity and Tank- I don't think you've been properly introduced yet."