Clu looked wordlessly back at Flynn…everything about the request seemed risky to him, unwise, unsafe, and left him feeling bereft of control, but then his logic encoding reminded him that his hesitancy could simply be due to a glitch in his programming. He was, after all, a product of what Kevin Flynn called 'artificial intelligence', and with that there were variables, always variables. "Unknowns", Flynn called them. And that was the very concept which had once driven him to decide his user's perspective was imperfect and therefore wrong, because Clu had not been content to allow for unknowns…unknowns were imperfect and therefore wrong.
But something was now overriding those former erroneous presumptions.
This unknown was right…this was a chance to redeem himself from previous failures, to help correct the situation, as well as to prove his willingness to learn, to do as Flynn said and learn to 'trust the process'. This was a chance to make his user proud of him once again. And a chance to help Tron.
Turning to the keyboard he initiated the interface and typed in a series of commands, and it was done. Then he looked up at his user with a sardonic grin. "Well,…since you said 'please'…"
Kevin laughed at Clu's uncharacteristic display of humor, and patted his newly-found identical twin on the shoulder.
"Thank you, Clu. I'm proud of you, man."
Wordlessly Clu acknowledged the praise, but with the gentle nod and the beginnings of a smile which he gave to his user, he spoke volumes…that is all I needed to hear.
About a half-hour had passed.
Or at least it seemed like it to Flynn…even after all these years he still tended to think in minutes and hours, not in millicycles. He sat at the interface, trying to analyze the chip from Tron's disk and read the codings, but being that it was apparently the product of some hybrid operating system, none of the usual commands were working, not even the most basic and universal ones.
He had tried "C:\\replace-disk\TRON".
The screen said, "_invalid command line"
Okay, let's try this…
He had tried, "C:\TRON:\ -editshellshell=".
The screen said, "_invalid path or filename specified".
Damn.
Then he sat there wracking his brain, and finally tried a partial re-boot…."C:\REGENERATEINIS_TRON-bk"
Which came back as, "_error::does not comply sequence.v=identity mistaken or unknown."
Oh come on!…What the -?…
He sighed. This was getting absolutely nowhere. He couldn't even understand what the system was telling him, or the language it was trying to speak in. Finally he switched back to one of the LISP subprotocols, an obscure one which sometimes worked as a type of digital skeleton key. A long shot, but maybe it would work.
(define prg+
(lambda (vec 17 vec 7)
(73.12.9.) = path
Yep. It worked. He got in.
The monitor scrolled through a series of algorithms and then its findings flashed on the screen:
db-identified::RINZLER_
He sat back, staring at the word. Rinzler.
Holy freaking crap. Well,… there we go.
Stubbornly Flynn kept working with sequences and commands, until he was able to initialize a defragmenting process. It would take quite a while to complete, but it would leave the file structure intact without damaging any of the memory or personality, however unstable it was at present. And it would likely isolate the virus, the mutation, or whatever it was that caused this program to call itself Rinzler.
This isn't Rinzler. It only thinks it's Rinzler.
This is Tron. And we're gonna bring him back.
Once the system had begun the defragmentation on Tron's master chip, Kevin sat back in the chair, rubbing tired eyes. Long day. Or, night,…whatever.
He laughed to himself, suddenly thinking of Alan Bradley…remembering how so many years ago Alan would always come into the lab just when Kevin was tired and had been working on some marathon programming process for hours on end, and Alan would try to persuade him to take a break....come on, Kevin, let's go have a drink, wanna go to a bar, maybe catch the game?… and Flynn's answer would always be the same, every time, which made him wonder sometimes if Alan was either not listening or else was simply asking the same question over and over just to yank his chain…. Thanks Alan, but you know I don't drink, man. Bars aren't my thing. Usually they'd agree on going to get dinner though – Kevin loved the health food place, which Alan would scoff at, so then they'd go on a take-out mission…veggies for Kevin, a pizza for Alan…and then both of them would wind up bringing dinner right back here to this place. Well, to what this place was once, in the user world.
Here in this world it wasn't quite the same. And of course there was no Alan. The closest thing to Alan was Tron, Alan's likeness who lay unresponsive and offline, thinking it's name was Rinzler.
The years had been erased from him as well by the reintegration, and it was so very surreal, the three of them all here, all young again,…it reminded Flynn of the old times in the user world, and the old times here, back before all of this started. Flynn caught himself imagining how great it would be if Tron would just get up off the table and say something typically Tron-like. Or even something Alan-like. Then he laughed at the sudden thought of Tron suddenly regaining consciousness and wanting a pizza.
Okay, man, …now you're really starting to sound tired…
And he was tired. Some rest would be a spectacular idea, as would be some nourishment, even such as it was in this world, but neither of those things were really an option right now…he wasn't stepping outside the door to find a café, nor was he closing his eyes to sleep. Not until they'd safely brought Tron back, and not until he was able to analyze Clu's codings, to make sure the program wasn't going to go haywire again. Until then he wasn't leaving Clu alone with Tron - too many unknowns, and he had long since learned that in this world too many unknowns often opens the door for complete and utter chaos. He'd had quite enough of that for one lifetime.
And so right now, rest was out of the question.
But,…meditation, now there was an idea. He had plenty of time to wait while the defrag process ran. Meditation would help clear his head, and would likely also give him the renewed energy he would need to see this through. He stood up, stretched his limbs, and looked over to see Clu standing across the small lab, idly examining the housing of the non-operational digitizing laser. Clu seemed to be looking for something to occupy his time while waiting, and this gave Flynn an idea.
"Clu?…come on. 'Wanna show you something…." He said, walking to a large cabinet and opening it. Sure enough, the objects he was hoping to find were there on the shelf …two small black chromed spheres which emanated a bluish-white light when he touched them and rang with a very soft chiming when he shook them. The Grid's equivalent of Chinese Baoding balls.
Clu's face lit up when he saw them. "I recognize those! I have some as well…got really good at working them, especially while watching the games…they gave me something to do. "
Flynn had that look again. A wry smile and a frown combined, which usually heralded some sort of smart remark or reprimand to follow.
"Yeah….well…..that's not what they're actually for, Clu…" Flynn placed the shiny spheres in Clu's palm, "..but I never taught you that part. So… I'm going to teach you now. It's about not doing...…clear your mind of everything. Everything except working these around in your hand, and the sound they make. Allow yourself to think about only that. Then once you've got them going, stop thinking about them. Stop thinking about anything. Listen to the sound, and… just be."
"But…what's the point in that?…" Clu looked at him as though he'd just said the most absurd thing ever.
Kevin gave a small grin, "You'll see."
Then he turned and walked back towards the interface table. Sitting down in the chair he peeled off his riding boots, then pulled his feet up and twined his legs into a lotus position.
Long moments went by. He had just about relaxed completely, almost tuning out everything, almost drifting away into the comfort of familiar Zen, when the sudden loud sound of Clu's voice next to him nearly scared him out of his chair.
"Kevin Flynn?…"
Flynn gasped and jumped involuntarily, then frowned angrily at the program who stood beside the chair staring down at him.
"Jeez, Clu!…" and then he sighed, composing himself, "…What is it?…"
"I'm…bored."
"Okay…well,…thanks for sharing that. But man,…next time-…next time could you maybe not sneak up on me?…"
"I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to,…" Clu gave an innocent look, then simply placed the chromed spheres on the desk and continued matter-of-factly, "I'm not sure I'm ready for 'not doing' right now. But thank you for teaching me, Kevin Flynn."
"You're welcome. No sweat. We'll work with that some more later….but,…" Flynn paused, closing his eyes and running a hand across his weary forehead, "Clu – how long have we known each other now?…don't you think you could just call me Kevin?…"
Clu responded almost instantly, "Two hundred and sixteen thousand cycles…" and then he paused, giving a slight nod as his lips curled into a grin, "…and,...no sweat, Kevin."
Kevin couldn't help but laugh at the way Clu picked up expressions and mannerisms from him so easily, much like an observant and impressionable child would. With Clu around, he was going to have to watch his language.
"Well,…if you don't mind,… I really need to kick back here, and not do for a little while."
Clu nodded, and pointed back towards the doorway which led to the main arcade, "If you don't mind, I'd like to check out those games again…the one with the circle that eats dots and runs from the ghosts amuses me."
Kevin chuckled, "You mean Pac Man?…yeah, that is pretty funny… the kids always liked that one. You should try Kraz-Bot too. And of course… there's the Tron game…"
Clu nodded. "Yes,…I was noticing that one when we came in…doesn't seem like it would be too difficult of a game to learn…" he chuckled, walking towards the doorway, then turned back to look at Kevin and shrugged, "…or maybe it just seems so much easier, being on this side of the screen."
Kevin's jaw almost dropped to the floor. "Yeahhh…it-…it probably does…"
He stared at Clu, squinting his eyes a bit as he studied him, and he could tell from the program's innocent demeanor that he had no idea of the significance of what he had just quoted almost verbatim - he had just thought it was his own thought. And that was what was so weird.
Still a bit stunned, he watched Clu walk through the doorway, then returned to his attempts at meditation, his mind still quizzing over the uncanny comment.
He tried to put it out of his thoughts, but, sometimes 'not thinking' was even tougher than 'not doing', and this was one of those times. Nevertheless, it was time to get back to his Zen place, to center and refresh himself. He would need it for what they were about to undertake.