Splice laid outstretched in his rack aboard the Nebuchadnezzar. He looked at the bottom of the rack above him less than an arm's reach away. He's sniffled to himself as he thought.

He had been out of the Matrix for three months now. Every day, he stopped, wondered, and figured. He was slowly understanding more and more, but the entire thing was extremely abstract. He laid in his rack wearing a thin shirt, cargo shorts, a belt, and socks. His shoes were sitting at the base of the racks he laid in.

What the fuck, he thought to himself. Cody Taylor. He sighed as he picked at the peeling paint on the top of his rack. Cody Taylor. Was that a real name? Was that his real name? He had picked up from Morpheus that his real identity was his hacker name, Splice. "Cody Taylor" was nothing but the identity given to him by the system.

Why did the Oracle have to be so cryptic? Well, he figured, it was now up to him to really figure it out and understand what he was doing. He slid his hand over the short, buzzed hair on his head and rested his opposite hand on his chest just beneath his collarbone.

He twitched his eye at the pain as he pressed fingers into the sore musculature under his collar bone. Between Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo, they were really putting him through the ringer. Splice rolled his eyes as he thought. Talk about cryptic, Morpheus was even more so than the Oracle! From what Tank told him, he was excelling much faster than most copper tops, but it was still hard work. Splice appreciated the hard work, and he was having a great time learning the technicalities of the ship and its technology.

It was so weird, he thought. The technology of the ship seemed to be a hundred years more advanced than what he had known in the Matrix, but everything was in this dystopian, almost technocratic, steampunk state. It was almost like everything around him was fake.

He redirected the thoughts back to his conversation with the Oracle and the connection he knew that he had with the Matrix itself and the agents. Through his conversations with Neo, he came to realize what he had seen in his dreams, streams of code flowing over the surfaces of everything was very uncommon. Now that he was conscious and awake, aware of the reality of the Matrix, he could understand it. He saw the code flowing over three-dimensional surfaces as he saw it on Tank's two-dimensional screens. He could read the code and visualize the picture from any perspective he wanted. When he was back in the Matrix, in this state, he could shift his vision and again the code flow like water over everything.

What he learned last time however was to not get too close to the agents. When he reached out through the code and touched one of them, they immediately became aware of him, and they were able to triangulate his position.

He realized that was dangerous.

He took a deep breath and let out a sigh. The agents were highly intelligent adversarial programs, and something about him kind of connected him to them. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but he had the ability to see what they were going to do, almost to not fear them. Like he had described to the Oracle, he felt a kinship almost, some sort of relationship with them. He couldn't put his finger on it, but whatever it was, it gave him an edge over them, if only just barely.

Strategies ran through his head. Neo was incredible, and people would follow him like a savior, but they were so on their heels. They were literally waging a guerrilla war both in and out of the matrix. Inside the matrix seems to be the only place they could really make a difference. Even then, it was only a little bit. Outside the Matrix, in the "real" world they were as even more of a disadvantage. The entire planet was under the machines control.

It almost seemed hopeless. Without voices like Morpheus's is it would be all but impossible to slide into hopelessness.

As he picked at the paint, he wondered a little more about the agents. He wondered how many there were, where they lived, and how they could be accessed.

"Hmmm," he grunted. He had an idea. The next time he was in the Matrix, he would try something. He would see how far his connection with the Agents actually went.

Suddenly the dog mechanism on the hatch rotated and unlocked. The door opened, and Tank stuck his head in.

"Hey, Splice," he said with his hand covering his eyes. Splice propped himself up on his elbows.

"Yo," he said and smiled. "You don't have to cover your eyes, man. I'm decent," he said though a wide smile. "What's up?" he asked. Tank took his hand off his face and looked in.

"Hey, man, we're approaching the outer gates. You said you wanted to see, right?" he asked. Splice slid out of the rack and dropped to the floor.

"Oh, hell yeah!" he said and pulled on a pair of socks and shoes rapidly. He stood back up with a broad smile. "I want to see how this is, man!"

As the two approached the bridge, Tank put his index finger across his lips in a 'shhhh' motion. As they stepped up, Splice felt the cool air wash over him. Morpheus and Trinity sat in the pilot seats and made steady, controlled corrections to each of their helm controls. The controls were a pair of video game type joy sticks.

"Wow," he said softly. Neo stood leaning on the right bulkhead, and Splice stood a respectful distance behind the two. Surface detail passed over the cockpit windows. It was as if they were moving through a massive stube.

"Is this a subway tunnel?" Splice asked softly.

"No, these were sewers toward the end of civilization," Tank said.

"What city is this?" Splice asked.

"Chicago," Tank said. "This is where you lived in the Matrix, right?" Splice looked around through the glass for a long moment.

"Yeah," he said softly. "Yeah, it was."