Chapter 2: Homecoming

"Welcome home, Carter!" said Sarah, Jack Carter's computer house. Carter had just gotten back from his trip out of Eureka to go see his daughter Zoey's graduation ceremony. He looked around and noticed he was alone. "Hey Sarah! Where is everybody?" he asked. "Well, Allison got called into Global Dynamics for some emergency and given the certain circumstances of the previous incident with the Matrix computer, she felt as if it would be safer if she were to take Kevin and Jenna along with her." she responded.

To Carter, this wasn't making that much sense. "Wait, so, Allison took the kids to the source of the problem to protect them!?" Carter asked. "Well she did bring Andy along." Sarah said. Carter looked a little calmer knowing that a robot deputy went along and then much more calmer when he realized that the Matrix computer had been taken away by the military a few days ago. "Oh yeah, and the Matrix was already taken away, wasn't it?" Carter was just making sure. "Actually Carter, although it was taken away, it was returned for further experimentation after Dr. Grant bought Eureka back. In fact, the emergency that called Allison to GD was about the Matrix computer." Sarah said, completely unaware that this was causing Carter to worry. "Why didn't you tell me this before Sarah!?" Carter yelled. He started running for the door. "I'm sorry, Carter. I was just trying to make small talk." she said.

Carter ran outside to his Jeep and drove straight for GD. From there, he ran straight to the Matrix room. He found Allison, Joe, Zane, Andy, and the kids surrounding the Matrix computer. "Why am I not informed of this stuff!?" Carter yelled, staring at the Matrix computer. Allison gasped at the sound of a sudden yell behind her. She immediately turned around and saw that it was just Carter. Everyone said their greetings but it was cut short because Allison had to explain what was going on to him now, and sometimes, for Carter, it could be very difficult.

"Carter, it's great to see you again but it's no time to celebrate any homecomings. When we conducted some experiments on the Matrix computer, we discovered that it was set on a routine based schedule so that even if we knock out the NPC's organic bodies, they will just keep making more from inside the Matrix. This is because their consciousnesses are still stored inside the Matrix, just as Holly's was. The worst part is, it's set for tomorrow. If we don't get this fixed, we can be in for another set of clones."

"Well can't you just turn off the Matrix!?" Carter asked. "Carter, it's not that simple. Even if we do, the system will reboot itself tomorrow for when it's scheduled to do so. The NPC's themselves set it that way. It's as if they knew they were going to be defeated so they set up a trap so that no matter what we do, there will constantly be more and more of them!" Allison responded. Carter was thinking hard. "Well, what if, uh, you saw that the NPC's are controlling the schedule. Well what if we get rid of the NPC's? No NPC's, no schedule, no clones." Carter said. Allison stared at him. "That might just work..."

Allison stepped up to the control panel and started typing different coding into the Matrix computer. Carter had apparently thought of something very smart in his own way. Still, he knew that there was chaos about to start. There always was. However, it would all work out. After all, it's just another day in Eureka.