Part 1: The Negotiator
A cold wind whistled through the street and forced Dwayne to pull his winter jacket tighter around his collar. Snow drifts made for loose footing but he managed his way good enough. The sun was slowly setting behind the skyscrapers, and the middle aged man knew at that moment he was going to be late for supper. He doubled his pace and negotiated the crosswalks and sidewalk pedestrians.
Dwayne reached the front door of his midtown apartment and didn't feel like fumbling for his keys. He pressed one of the door buzzers and a few seconds later a soft woman's voice answered. With a quick "hi Julie" to answer her the door locks clicked and Dwayne ran inside. Up the three flights of stairs and to his apartment door, he finally found the warmth to pull off his gloves and search his jacket's endless pockets for his keys. The door across the hall from him opened and the young woman that buzzed him into the building stepped into the archway.
"You work late again?" she said softly.
Dwayne smiled as he looked at her. Julie was very attractive, and almost ten years younger than he was. They flirted often with each other, but he suspected she wasn't really into him that way. He was a good friend to her, and even though he wished for more, he was sure she didn't. A woman her age wanted young, handsome athletic men, none of which he was.
"Yeah." Dwayne said as he finally pulled the keys from his hip. "A few real world issues."
"Oh?" Julie seemed eagerly curious. She reached into her apartment, picked up her keys and closed her door behind her as Dwayne opened his. She followed him inside his apartment without asking. "Tell me about it!"
Dwayne laughed. "You still curious about the real world?" He pulled off his coat and kicked the rest of the snow from his boots. Once Julie was inside he closed the door.
"I mean, it is a my favorite topic in school." She smiled as she opened the fridge and began to look for food. "I love it when you talk about the dealings you have in the real world." She pulled out a bottle of unopened orange juice and then grabbed a bottle of Vodka from atop the fridge. "You need to go grocery shopping. You have no food, just booze and mixers."
He was happy to see her digging through his fridge, it meant she was hungry and usually that led to her making dinner for them; he wasn't late for supper. "What's wrong with booze and mixers?" Dwayne powered on his computer. He then looked across the room and realized Julie was only wearing a tank top, which barely covered her full breasts, and boy cut boxers.
Jesus. He thought to himself as he looked away. Julie was never modest around him, and he was sure she enjoyed teasing him. Julie was twenty four years old, a full figured woman with Asian features. She carried C sized breasts, had a modest waist and long toned legs. She was a runner throughout her youth and college, thus explaining her legs and curvaceous butt. He often wondered if she looked that way in the Real.
Julie sat on the couch beside Dwayne and proceeded to mix two drinks. "We'll make the best of what you have." She smiled.
Dwayne shied away. Being in his mid thirties, the older man enjoyed her company. However it was becoming painfully obvious that Julie was getting too comfortable with him. He cleared his throat, "I take it you didn't eat dinner."
"Nope. I'll make something up soon." She smiled and sipped her drink. "So what happened at work?"
Dwayne smiled. "Today is the tenth anniversary of Neo's ascension. The southerners want to erect a statue outside the machine city, in the Real."
"Fascinating." Julie said as she sipped the mixed drink. Though most people normally didn't care too much for Dwayne's work, Julie was truly interested.
"I had to speak with Niobe and transfer the feelings of the Programs on these details."
"Wait, the Machines and Programs don't want the statue in the Real?" Julie asked.
"No, they don't mind the statue. After all, it was Neo that finally gave them the recognition that they justly wanted from humanity. They just don't want human construction so close to their city."
"Especially after what happened ten years ago." Julie sighed. "We nearly started another war."
"Thank Morpheus. Had he not stepped forward..." Dwayne lowered his head, shying away from the topic. Julie did as well. The loss of Morpheus was a blow to everyone who believed in peace with the machines. "Anyway, Niobe agreed to allow the machines defenses to be active while construction is underway. She also agreed that the Statue would be built in another location."
"Where?" Julie asked.
He smiled. "At the location where he was first released from his plug."
Julie smiled. "No way! That's here! I could go outside and see it... in the Real. That's where I'm stationed!" Julie jumped from the chair and happily bound around the room. Dwayne laughed at her as she playfully hopped back onto the couch. "I get to wake up in six months. How long is the planned construction?"
"Niobe said it should only take four months. It will be done when you wake up."
Julie happily leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. She paused as she pulled away, looking into his eyes. "Sorry."
Dwayne shied away. "For what? A peck on the cheek?" He laughed it off, pretending it was nothing, and sipped his drink as he tried not to think about it.
"No." She whispered. "Not for that." She slowly placed her arms around his shoulders and neck, angled herself and kissed him full on the lips.
- - - - - - - -
Dwayne awoke the next morning and softly climbed out of bed. As he stood, he looked back at the bundle of blankets and the shapely form of Julie. She slept soundly despite his snoring. He wanted to fix his snores, but Dwayne was not gifted in manipulating himself. While most people could easily jump twenty or thirty feet, Dwayne could barely jump ten. He gave up trying to learn to free his mind from the limits of the Matrix.
In this new world of human and machine peace, humanity could not completely live on the war torn earth without the aid of the machines. Humans that were allowed to wake up from the machine processing plants realized that they wanted to stay within the machine created world instead of the harsh reality of the Real. A new symbiosis was created that humanity never fathomed. The world humanity destroyed to stop the machines could no longer support humanity in vast numbers. With the aid of Morpheus and the leaders of humanity, an agreement was made with the machines. The machines would continue to live with human aid, and humans would live with machine aid. Volunteers lived within the Matrix, remaining within their plugs to feed the machines the power they needed to survive, and upon a preset time line, they were allowed to leave their plug and live on the surface. A rotation period began, and many chose the freedom of the real, while others chose the Matrix. Some stayed connected for months, even a year, and then lived in the real, only to go back within the Matrix for a few more months. Within the Plug, the power station sleeping capsule of the machines, humans could be rejuvenated, their life spans increased as if they lived within hyperbolic chambers. The Machines estimated that the average human life, if they slept for only one year, would be extended to well over one hundred and fifty years old within the real.
Dwayne was on his tenth year. He chose to stay inside the Matrix after Morpheus' death.
Looking in the mirror, the middle aged black man began to shave with a straight razor. After shaving, he walked into the kitchen and toasted a bagel. He knew that the bagel wasn't real. What he held in his hand was only a digital display created within his mind. In the real world, within his sleeping plug at a power station, the machines recognized his need for food, and began to inject a paste of nutrients into his stomach. The act of eating was only a dream, but the process was real enough to his mind and his Real body. Dwayne bit the bagel. It was fresh, warm, and the cream cheese added to the flavor. It was a good dream.
Time was wasting. Dwayne woofed down the rest of the bagel and made his way to the shower. A few seconds later, Julie climbed in behind him. She didn't speak, she simply pressed him against the wall of the shower and they began to make love again. Dwayne dwarfed her in size, standing almost a foot taller than she was, but he found she was impressively strong when she wanted something.
A few minutes later she asked, "what time will you be home?', as she dried off.
"Late again. I have to approve the construction permits in the real and get the Watcher to sign off on it." He tied on his boots. He then looked at Julie as he pulled on his coat. "About this... me and you..."
Julie smiled. "I've always liked you, Dwayne. I figured one of us had to make a move. I'll get some groceries and make dinner tonight at my place. Call me if you're going to be really late." Dwayne had never been so happy. Surely a woman of her age could do better than a middle aged Negotiator. But she had chosen him, against all of his beliefs, she picked him.
Dwayne reached the ground floor and made his way out into the snow. He wished the machines and programs would make every day perfect, he really would have liked to walk out into a sunny warm day after the night he had, but seasons were apparently important to the human psyche. The machines had tried to make a perfect world for humans, but their minds could not handle it.
As he crossed the street, he walked to a nearby newsstand and held out his data pad. A quick exchange of credits appeared, and the daily news was downloaded. He read the front page and it read... "Get down, now!" Dwayne didn't know what the article was about, but a loud whoosh filled his ears. He dived into the pavement and covered his head as debris, dust, and heat washed over him.
Screams echoed throughout the neighborhood as he stood to his feet. Jarred and shaken, he looked around at the smoldering debris that lay all around him. He then turned his eyes toward his apartment building and screamed in disbelief; It had been leveled.
- - - - - - - -
The voice that spoke on screen thundered loudly in the room. The sound it made was a unified collective of voices. Most of humanity that were allowed to speak to the voice believed that it was a representative of all the voices of machines; each speaking as one.
It said, "More of your humans have perished. We have lost significant power in numerous sub-sectors. Humans still kill humans, even now."
Niobe stood before the screen. Her white robe flowed freely as it covered her slender black form. "We are investigating. We believe we know the terrorist cell involved and whom their target was."
"The Negotiator." The voice spoke.
Niobe nodded as she folded her arms. "Yes. Please forgive our intelligence gathering. We fell behind this time but we will not let it happen again."
"Be warned, humans. If you can not end your disputes we will be forced to reclaim all of you and end your division ourselves." The voice on screen shifted from a face of a man to a woman than to a child. "You are all one flesh. Yet even now you destroy each other do to your hatred. Only death awaits humanity if you proceed this path."
"I said we will deal with it." Niobe seemed more stressed. "Human's aren't perfect. We disagree, and that is also our greatest strength. We learn from our mistakes. Those who are involved with this, will learn."
"We have Agents ready..."
"Never! We agreed." She stressed.
"Yes. We agreed. However, if they are needed, we can release our Agent programs."
"And doing so will gain division from the humans who wish for peace. The Agent program is a sign of oppression and relentless power to all of humanity."
"We have made corrections to the Agent programs. After watching humanity during this time, we can upload them into the system, and the human's within will not know them. The human terrorists cells can be eliminated."
Niobe clinched her teeth in frustration. "No."
"Very well, Speaker. But be warned. We will be forced to act if your numbers become to low, for this will also jeopardize our existence."
The screen faded and Niobe looked to the council behind her. "We must end this feud. The machines won't tolerate a loss in their power supply. They will force us back into the power plants."
One of the council members nodded. "How is the Negotiator?"
"His guard checked in, he's alive. Thankfully he was outside the building when it blew. But we still lost a great deal of human lives. Two hundred thirty people lived there, plus people on the street."
"The negotiator stood at Morpheus' side during that horrible day ten years ago. We should bring him to the real and not leave him implanted within the Matrix."
Niobe nodded. "But this is his choice. He feels he can be more use by being directly connected into a power station hub."
"Yet you know we now have other alternatives." A councilor added.
Niobe wondered to a nearby window. Beyond the window lay the world as humanity had come to know it. Thick clouds hung high overhead and sent numerous violent lightning bolts into lightning rods of the slowly rebuilt city. The power was quickly collected and stored.
Humanity no longer called Zion their only home. The hidden underground city of Zion was still being used as humanities primary base of operations, but with twenty years of peace it was time to move back to the surface. The years of peace allowed time to develop new energy resources, construction of habitats and occupying old buildings that were still intact. Heater units kept that council tower warm as it looked over the mountain view in the distance. There were no machine farming yards on this continent and the tower had a direct elevator to Zion in the event of an emergency.
Turning back to the council, Niobe added, "If he chooses to stay, we have no means of changing his mind. However, I will go and speak with him.."
- - - - - - - -
The medical, fire and police teams eagerly dug through the ruble. Each man and woman was able to pick up large stone walls and gently carry them away. Such feats of super human strength was never possible before Neo showed humanity the way to bend the laws of the Matrix. Those who showed exceptional skill were tested and drilled and called to service.
But none of this interested Dwayne. Julie was in the building, and so far her body had not been uncovered.
"Found another one!" Came a shout. Several men and woman ran to the site and carefully pulled the body from the rubble. Dwayne stood from his curb side and watched. It was an older blond woman that they had found, and Dwayne returned to his seat. He wanted closure, he wished someone would simply tell him that she was dead so that he could feel some form of emotion. Only shock existed in his system for now, and until he saw Julie, dead or alive, shock was the only thing he had. He was so happy to be with her. He had known her for nearly six months, and the day after they made love she was violently taken away.
"Dwayne, sir?" Said a young man in a red t-shirt and jeans.
He looked up at the young man. "What?"
"Niobe wants to meet with you. We told her that you were alright..."
"Alright? Your job was to prevent this from happening!"
"The moment we got wind of it, we tried to get here." The young man pleaded. "Niobe can explain more."
"It must have taken you ten minutes to hack into the daily news uploads. That warning you gave me should have come earlier! Why not the TV, or phone call, or..."
"What warning?" The young man suddenly became serious.
Dwayne pulled out his data pad and showed the young man the headline on the daily news. "This..." Dwayne handed it to him. "You did this?"
The young man looked perplexed. "Nothing's here."
Dwayne leaned over him and read the headline. "Statue of Neo to be built...? What?" Dwayne took the pad back. "This isn't right. The top story was Get Down, Now.. and then the building blew up."
"I'll need to report this. Give me the data pad." Dwayne did and then looked back at the rubble. Two more bodies were pulled out. A black man and another black woman. Still no sign of Julie's body. "We need to go. Niobe will arrive in a secure location in a few hours."
"I want to wait for Juile's body."
"Who?" The young man asked.
"The Asian girl across the hall from me. We were... good friends.."
"One minute." The young man tilted his head, as if he were thinking. "I have no memory of an Asian woman named Julie, living here."
"How would you know? Hundreds of people lived here."
"Sir. My duty is to watch over you. I know the names, faces and age of every tenant in your building, where they work, and how long their volunteer terms are. The room across from you, 317, has been empty for eight months."
- - - - - - -
Niobe paced around the small room. Standing with her, looking out of windows and watching the lone door entryway, were several younger men. Their attire was varied from dark leather, to full suit and tie. Niobe wore traditional street clothes; she had long grown out of the leather and shades of her combative youth. Though twenty years older, since the Neo's death, Niobe still looked amazingly young, both in the Real and the Matrix. Her youthful appearance attributed to the new plug protocols.
"Where is he?" One of the younger men huffed. "The longer we are jacked up to the matrix, the easier it will be for terrorists to realize that you are in here."
"Relax, Joe." Niobe sighed as she neared an old wooden chair. She sat and folded her legs. "Our best officers are triple encoding our uplink. The only ones who know we are here are us and the two men that are about to walk in."
A knock rapped at the door. Everyone, except Niobe, stood to attention. Guns were pulled and safety triggers flipped off. Joe leaned to the door and looked to Niobe. She nodded in approval. Joe unlocked the dead bolt and slowly parted the door. After examining the two guests, he allowed them in.
Dwayne and the young man in the red t-shirt stepped in. Niobe smiled happily at Dwayne and stood to greet him. "It's been a long time." She wrapped her arms around him in an embrace. Dwayne sorrowfully returned the gesture.
"You too. Wish you could have come on better circumstances."
"You seem depressed?" Niobe smiled. "This can't be about escaping death today, you've done that three times now."
Dwayne didn't share her amusement at his expense. "Save me the comedy. I lost a good friend today."
"I overheard." Niobe huffed. "This Julie girl has no tracks. I don't like it."
"When did you hear about her?" Dwayne asked as he looked back at the young man in red.
"My job, sir." He said plainly. He then passed Niobe the data pad.
"Don't blame Greg." Niobe sighed. She grabbed Dwayne's hand and they began to walk to the back of the room. There sat a couch and a little more privacy from her bodyguards. "Everything you say and do that seems questionable is reported to the council. You're life is yours, unless you act out of character, and talking about a young girl that supposedly lived across the hall..."
"I know." Dwayne sighed as he sat.
Niobe sat beside him. "Was it sexual?"
"None of your business."
"You're my little brother and the negotiator for humanity, while I am the speaker for humanity... we don't have time for private lives." Her voice became more stern, but they were still beyond range of her bodyguards ears. "Sexual?" She asked again.
Dwayne sighed. "Sexual tension for as long as I've known her, but nothing happened between us until last night."
Niobe breathed deep. "You know the risks of dating someone within the Matrix. This world is for work... not play. We come here, the machines use our bodies, and then we leave. We date, we love, we live in the real, Dwayne. She could have been a terrorist, or an agent for the machines."
"We are both too old for you to be lecturing to me about love and spies."
"You should have told us about her. At least let us screen her you became emotionally attached."
"If I had met her in the real, maybe, but it's been ten years, Niobe. It gets lonely in here... never mind the other millions of people jacked in. What was I going to do? I thought it was nothing but a friendly neighbor. Should I have jumped on the phone and said, hey sis this girl said hi to me, can you screen her for me?" Dwayned stood and paced around the couch. "It doesn't matter anyway. She's dead for all I know."
Niobe lowered her head. "And that may be for the best."
"What?" He could not hold his tone and his voice carried across the room. "She was human! Another life! This duty we have is not more important than her life!"
"The hell it isn't!" She stood. "The safety of every man woman and child on Earth is at risk! We screw up, they put us back into the plugs and the cycle of human slavery will repeat. With a flip of a switch, everyone plugged in will forget that the last fifteen years existed. Me, you, the resistance, everything will be forgotten. Neo and Morpheus, all those that died at their side fighting for what we have now, will be forgotten. One life is not more important then our existence."
Dwayne lowered his head and caught the glimpse of all the bodyguards listening intently.
He sat back on the couch. "Why did you want to meet?"
Niobe huffed. "The terrorists cells are getting more aggressive, as you can see. We feared you would become a target, but we didn't know it would be this soon." She returned to her seat at his side. "By the time Greg was notified, it was too late. I know you want to stay in a plug, directly connected to the Matrix, but we would feel better if we could protect you. Our ship is stationed outside your power hub. We want you to eject."
Dwayne looked at Niobe and then lowered his eyes. "Eject? You want me to leave the Matrix? Wouldn't that remove my usefulness? I'm a negotiator. I need to be on the inside."
"We can't fully protect you this way." Niobe pleaded. "We have a ship on standby. Scout class and fully furnished, state of the art. We want you to be the captain. With this ship you can stay on an uplink for days or weeks. You'll have a crew at your side and plenty of flexibility. You want have the restrictions of the plug, and you can come and go as you see fit. Eject, Dwayne. Ten years is long enough. I know why you stay connected, but I promise you, it will be worth it for you to eject."
"I'm not a fighter." Dwayne sighed. "I can't manipulate the matrix like you and the others."
Niobe nodded. "There is a reason for that." He eagerly leaned closer in order to hear. "Those who are in plugs, are restricted from bending the laws of the Matrix. We agreed with the machines that this couldn't be allowed. This was decided a few months after Neo died."
"But firefighters and police officers in the matrix..."
"That is the limit of their abilities. Sudden super human strength, bursts of speed, super human leaping abilities, these are permitted. Some people have mastered these abilities because they were born in farms, and with full knowledge that this isn't the real world. You were born in the real and inserted into a plug. I can only imagine the pain."
"They made it so I would forget." Dwayne said. He shook off the thought and got back to the subject. "So, I can do all the things that you and the others do, if I connect remotely?"
"Yes." Niobe smiled. "Sorry I couldn't tell you that before. If we told everyone..."
"No one would want to be in a plug. They would all want to be jacking in remotely, and the machines would not get the power they need. We would have a wide spread exodus on our hands, eventually leading to the starvation of the machines. Which they would not allow."
"We become slaves again, over night." She leaned on her brother's shoulder. "Glad you understand the council's reasoning."
"I understand it, but I don't like it." Dwayne looked at his hands. "If I eject..."
"I know. I'll be there the moment you wake up. We'll take care of you."
He looked at his feet as they were nervously bouncing. He had given up trying to be super, to bend the laws of the matrix like so many, but now he could. Yet the cost would mean returning to the real and shedding the computerized safety of the plug.
"You will still be able to do your job, only better and in more safety." Niobe reassured him. "With other humans watching over your body in the real."
"What about Greg?"
"He will be with you. A member of you're crew if you want."
Dwayne looked at the mumbling faces of the bodyguards across the room, and then to Greg. The young man sat alone in a corner, half looking out a window and half looking at the guards. For ten years Greg had been his shield and personal informant and protector. Greg's role was always to follow, to watch and be Dwayne's shadow, and Dwayne greatly enjoyed the security.
"I'll think about it." He said.
"You're eject window is two days." Niobe added as she hugged him. "Please, do it. Not for me, but for you."
As Dwayne left the small room, with Greg silently behind him, Niobe picked up a phone and one by one each of her guards exited the matrix. When there were only three of them left, it was Niobe's turn.
"Ma'am." Joe spoke up.
"What?"
"Is he really your brother?"
"Not by blood. By bond." After that, the phone rang and Niobe answered. The next moment, she was sitting in a room looking up at several men as they helped her up from her jack station. "Tell the captain we will wait here until he has decided. Send a team into the power hub and find his plug. When he says yes, I want to be there when he wakes."
- - - - - - - -
Sweaty and exhausted, Dwayne stopped his run and drank some water. It was a much warmer day than it was two days ago. Dwayne didn't care if it was a glitch or a planned heat wave in the middle of winter, he had to embrace it. He loved the feeling of running and sweating and the burn in his lungs after heavybreathing. Just a dream, but it was so convincing within the digital world, and that was all that mattered.
"You hardly ever run that hard." Greg said from the shade of a nearby tree. Dwayne smiled at him as he took the time to regain his breath. "Niobe called. Today is the day. Do you have an answer?"
"Greg, what is it like not being in a plug?"
"Sir? You lived your early life in Zion. You were born free. You should know that answer better than I."
"I know. But when I entered the plug, I asked to lose certain memories. It helped me deal with the transition. I was in my mid twenties when I entered the power station plug, Greg. I didn't have a jack in my head or tubes in my spine. That had to be added... while I was awake."
"I'm aware, sir. I read the file. The machines had to wake you several times after you blacked out from the surgeries. You had to be fully responsive while they made the incisions."
"No one should remember that pain. So they took it away, but I remember doing it. I remember Zion, the people, the smells, but not being there. It's all fuzzy, like a dream. A long forgotten dream. So I ask, what is it like not being in a plug?"
"As you know sir, I was born within the Matrix, so I am not trully sure about life in or out of the plug. However, as Morpheus once taught, free your mind. I imagine that you would be... free."
"Free." Dwayne smiled and looked as his arms and hands. He made a fist and pulled them close to his chest with a warm smile. "Tell her yes."
"Yes sir."
- - - - - - - -
Rows of pink embryo chambers sat in fine lines on circular pillars stretching as high as skyscrapers. Electrical discharges vaulted from tower to tower, dancing on unseen connections. Thick clouds concealed the highest platforms as machines zipped from pod to pod. The insect like machines were the gardeners, caretakers for the human plugs that provided the energy they needed to exist.
Niobe and her closest bodyguards hovered upward, going into the clouds and beyond. Bundled in heavy clothes to stay warm and standing on an eject platform, they were completely ignored by the machine gardeners until they arrived at Dwayne's plug. The loud hum of the eject platform faded as the hover engines reduced power and stood motionless only inches from his plug. Niobe wiped a tear from her eyes as she looked into the plug.
She pressed a button on the eject platform and a gardener quickly sped toward them. The numerous eyes glanced at Niobe and then at the plug.
"Stand bye." The machine echoed. Dwayne's plug extended from the pillar and onto the platform. The fluid within began to drain, spilling across the platform and over the edge. The two bodyguards held on as the slippery substance flowed freely over their shoes. The gardener floated over the plug and pulled open the thick membrane like protection that held Dwayne inside. It was then that his eyes opened. The membrane was fully pulled off and Niobe reached into the remaining fluid and pulled Dwayne's head upward. The machine floated behind him and unscrewed the jack which connected his mind to the matrix. As it unscrewed, the sensory connections attached to his spin also ejected. The gardener release him and then flew off to attend to the rest of the sleeping people.
Niobe grabbed the tube within Dwayne's mouth and pulled it free of his throat. Gagging and coughing, Dwayne threw up some of the fluid that had been sitting in his mouth and lungs, while Niobe dried him off. After clearing his lungs and blinking away the fluid under his eyelids, he looked at Niobe with his own eyes and smiled. He had to squint as they were sensitive to all light; it had been ten years sense he had used them.
"Help me take him out of the plug." Niobe said to her guards. They both walked forward and stopped as they looked inside. Before them lay a man, with no legs and only one arm.
To be continued...