Ususal disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters or settings of The Matrix and I'm not making a profit.

The Matrix: Reverberations

09/01/25 After Truce

Webb looks up at my poster of the code that would have me watching sunlight dapple through leaves if I were in the Matrix.

"Not taking it with you?" he asks.

"No," I say as I follow him, secretly glad he's collecting me. He's been more of a father to me than the two people I've now learnt to call father. Unusually he carries my backpack. Normally he wouldn't allow himself such a gesture.

He hands it back to me without a word.

I say nothing as I climb aboard, alone.

I should be celebrating my 25th birthday, not settling into The Bethany, a ship I know well enough to fly blind.

I'm ready and wait for clearance. My locket feels cold against my skin. My genes make me simultaneously valuable and expendable.


I remember Webb saying, "You fight like him and think like her."

"Sir?" I wait for an explanation even though what I really want is a shower. Webb's not just a CO, he's also my mentor and he's always treated me differently. I used to think it was because joining the military was not my choice, but now I'm beginning to wonder. I rub a sleeve across my face. The others have gone to the shower block already.

"Come to my office."

I look down at my sweats, then jog after him.

"At ease," he says.

I can see my military record displayed on his screen.

He flicks it off. "You've a mission..."

I bite my lip. There's a chair in front of the desk but I remain standing. No one's been on a mission since the Truce 25 years ago.

"A peace mission. But there's some history first. Sit down, Alice."

I perch on the edge of the chair. Maybe I'll get to find out who I fight like and who I think like. I wonder who gave me the name Alice too. I doubt my foster parents did - they've always been upfront about that - but someone lumbered me with a name of an irritating girl who fell down a rabbit hole and provided a man with dreams of intimacy in his autumn years.

"You know the story of the Great War?"

I don't react: he knows I do. It's the story I tell myself every night before falling asleep. It's a story that goes something like this. At some point in the 21st century, the Machines began a war against us, well, an earlier generation of us. We retreated to Zion, sending out reconnaissance ships like the Nebuchadnezzar. At some point the sky got scorched in an attempt to deprive the Machines of their energy. They simply adapted. At this point we're supposed to be outraged that humans were bred in minefields, literally fueling the enemy, but did the Machines have any choice? To ensure compliance, the Machines created the Matrix, a virtual mind-world that looked and behaved like earth in 1999, ie before the war. We worked out how to plug into the Matrix and unplug some of the humans in the minefields. I've often wondered why the Machines went to all the trouble of building the Matrix, what they learnt from us. The Nebuchadnezzar turned out to be the most important scout ship. Captain Morpheus first found Trinity and then Neo. They went to Machine City. Neo negotiated the Truce. Or, at least, that's how it's taught.

"And you know no one actually knows the terms of the Truce?"

I nod this time. "The Machines withdrew and have never come back. So it was assumed Neo negotiated the Truce."

"We need someone to go and establish the terms of the Truce."

I take a large gulp of air and wait for my head to clear.

Webb sits and waits.

I focus, count my breaths. I'm only told things on a need to know basis. So, if I need to know this, that means I've been chosen to go.

Webb moves the screen to the side of his desk and rests his forearms on it.

I remember meeting him. Leaf and I had gone clubbing to celebrate passing our exams and getting our university places. Leaf was dancing and I was watching. This was where I'd always fallen in love with Leaf: he'd worn his long duster coat that emphasised his height, black jeans and tee shirt that show off his body without being obvious about it. Suddenly there was a voice in my ear, just audible above the bass, offering congratulations. Something in the tone of the voice told me not to turn and look at the speaker. Something also told me I'd hear the voice again. Then the voice had gone. Leaf and I had gone back to his and had made love slowly and tenderly, as if we knew it was goodbye. Next morning I'd come down to breakfast and there was Webb. The Military Academy became my home.

"Neo and Trinity never came back," I say, aware Webb's still waiting for me to speak.

"There's something you should know."

I rest my arms on the chair arms so I can grip them. "Focus," I tell myself under my breath.


The Control Tower authorises clearance. The Bethany ticks over nicely. I stand by for the gates to open.
Webb had waited for me to look up. "Your foster mother was actually your surrogate mother."

"I'd been told my mother died of a haemorrhage after childbirth, caused when the placenta broke from the womb lining. Medical supplies were short."

Webb nods. "A lot of children were orphaned after the War. And your parents did die in the War."

I'm still trying to piece something together: if my foster mother was my surrogate mother, but my foster father hasn't been mentioned, then who were my blood parents?

"Morpheus had the sense to realise that Trinity and Neo were incredibily important to us. We were also at War. There was no guarantee that the War would end or that either Trinity or Neo would survive. What we did know was that neither of them would risk becoming parents while we were still at War," Webb pauses. He's not looking at me.

I know what he's doing: waiting for me to put it together so he can pretend I worked it out. My heart's drumming so loudly it's dampening my thoughts.

"Cloning or artifical insemination?" My hands grip the chair arms.

"The second," Webb says. "Both were options but the second offered more chance of success."

I shiver and look away.

"Alice, you're the only one who can do this."

Yeah right, I think. Fly into Machine City, hope they recognise me and ask nicely what terms the man who's apparently my father negotiated. And if I fail, they just make another baby to do the same thing. Finger by finger, I force my hands to ungrip the chair.

I realise Webb's moved behind me and feel a sudden cold chain on my neck. Webb is fastening it. I assume it's a dog tag.

"Morpheus named you."

I stand up.

Webb doesn't stop me.

I jog back to my room and shower. I lie on my bed and stare at the poster not seeing the code but sunlight dappling through leaves. I think I fall asleep.

Next morning I feel the chain again. It turns out to be a locket. Inside are pictures of Neo and Trinity. I look more like him: it's the dark eyes, but I'm only seeing a likeness because I've been told we have a genetic link. Webb's comment, "You fight like him and think like her," echoes in my mind.


The Bethany: someone's joke. Bethany was the place Lazarus was supposed to have come from. Leaf had always accused me of reading and remembering too much. I'm going to need all the stories I can remember. The gates begin to open. The Bethany powers up.

"Into the rabbit hole," I tell myself.