Fate Wears a Black Coat
Part 4: The Resistance regrets to inform you…
"Neo…Neo, open the door."
"I'm sleeping," he mumbled and rolled over, pulling the blanket over his head.
"Neo, this is important. You need to come out here."
"Trinity…"
"Now, damn you!"
Neo jerked upright. Trinity never got very emotional, and she had never yelled at him before. Also, there was something about her voice…It sounded like she'd been crying…But Trinity didn't cry…
"I'm coming." Neo got out of bed and quickly pulled on some clothes. Weren't these the same ones he'd worn yesterday? He couldn't remember. Wasn't important anyway.
"What's going on?" He opened the door.
Trinity looked at him with an emotionless expression that was betrayed by her reddened eyes. "You need to come with me. There's been an incident."
Everyone was packed into the briefing room. People were in various states of shock; apparently some word of what happened had all ready gotten around. The crowd parted before Neo and Trinity, everyone looking at him solemnly; a few people shook their heads, some patted him reassuringly on the shoulder. There were some chairs past the crowd and two in the very front were empty. Trinity led him in that direction and they sat down. Something was very wrong. Neo didn't like where this was going.
A man Neo knew only as Target stepped up to a small, battered podium in the front of the room. He had a few sheets of paper in his hands that he kept switching back and forth nervously. The sound of it was getting progressively more annoying. Finally, Target cleared his throat. What little chatter had been present in the room ceased.
"About twenty-four hours ago, we lost communication with our ship Indefatigable," he began. "It is believed it was attacked by Sentinels."
People began talking again, but immediately shut up when Target continued. "We are optimistic as to the number of survivors. From what little sensor data we could retrieve, the attack was very brief. Either the EMP was used or the Sentinels were called away for another task in mid-assault. As I'm sure many of you know, the most likely is the first."
"Not if it was Kismet's boat," someone muttered. A few voices echoed the sentiment. Everyone knew of Kismet's previous command and her use of the EMP. If any of her crew had been in the Matrix during the attack, she would have waited until the ship was in shreds rather than kill them.
Target cleared his throat again; the quieting down took longer this time. "We have the last known location of the Indefatigable. Is there a ship that's willing to go out and see…what the condition is?"
The room exploded in sound, voices screaming that they were the only logical choice. It was getting louder and louder…
"No." It was one word and it didn't seem all that loud to the speaker, but it was enough to silence everyone. Neo stood up. "I'm going."
"Why you?" someone in the back yelled. "She hates you. She tried to kill you, remember?"
"I'm going," Neo repeated. "I'm going to bring my sister home."
Poets have often called silence deafening. It was never more true than after that sentence.
"Sister?" Trinity whispered. "Kismet…is your sister?"
"Mhm…She told me…before she left," Neo said softly. "I have to bring her back."
"Okay." Trinity put one hand on his shoulder. "Get anything you want to bring with you. I'll tell Morpheus and we'll be ready to go in ten minutes, I promise you."
Neo nodded, shakily. His mouth was suddenly very dry.
Link lay next to the bulkhead, snuggled tight against the curve of metal. She had tried sleeping in her room, but every time she would wake up she kept expecting to hear the familiar noises of the ship: footsteps on the gratings, swearing at the food or life in general, laughter over some private joke. The silence was getting to her.
She figured she'd been alone for about a day. She tried to send some sort of distress signal, but the comms were down. The data recorder had been unscathed, though, and she made sure that it was ready to transmit at a request from Zion. The work was good; it kept her mind off of the four dead bodies lying under tarps in the dive room. She had taken a peek in the engine room and spent a few hours messing around with a wrench and a blowtorch, unable to get the engines back to working capacity but pleased that she'd at least tried. Again, it was something to do.
She sat up and stretched; the metal having proved uncomfortable. Link shuffled down to her room, snatched her blanket and scrambled back up the hatchway to the dive room. Wrapping the blanket around her shoulders, Link righted the overturned dive watch chair and sat down. She pulled her knees to her chest, made sure that every bit of her was covered with blanket, and fell asleep. It was something to do.
"What's up?" Neo asked, coming up into the cockpit.
"We've got a signature up ahead. We think it's the Indy," Morpheus said.
Neo nodded. "Are we going to board it?" he demanded, voice a little harsher than he would have liked.
"As soon as we can get along side. Try and stay calm, Neo," Morpheus urged. "We all know the crew of that ship. It's as mush a strain on us as on you."
Neo sighed. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Morpheus looked the younger man in the eyes. "Trinity told me."
"It's crazy, you know?" Neo laughed a little, running a hand through his hair. "I hadn't thought about her in years. I guess…I just wanted to get away from everything that had happened."
"I take it something bad occurred?" Morpheus raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah…you could call it that." Before Neo could say anything else, Morpheus turned his attentions back to the controls.
"Strap yourself in," he said. "We're about to dock."
"Hello? Is anybody here?" Neo called into the blackness of the ship. He raised the glow-lamp higher, trying to make out a human shape in the darkness.
"Kismet? Anybody? Hello?" He moved further into the ship, calling at various intervals. Finally, he heard an answer.
"Is…somebody out there? I'm in the dive room. Hello?" There was a pause. "Anybody?" The person laughed bitterly. "Guess I'm just losing it. Hearing voices now…isn't that one of the first signs of insanity or something? Who knows…It doesn't really matter now anyway."
Neo called out again. "Who's there? It's me, Neo. Who is it?"
"Neo? Oh God! It's Link! I'm in the dive room! Hurry!!"
Neo scrambled along catwalks and up several ladders before finding the dive room. Link sat huddled in the watch chair, a blanket wrapped around her. Four shapes were visible underneath a tarp off to one side. A cold chill ran down Neo's spine.
Link saw where his eyes had drifted. "Don't worry about it. She's not there." When Neo remained quiet, she continued. "She told me as we were pulling out, told me that she's your sister. It was like…she knew or something. Like she wanted to tell you in case she didn't get another chance."
"Where is she, Link?" Neo asked.
Link began to laugh softly, but when she looked up there were tear stains on her cheeks. She said, as though reciting from a document, "The Resistance regrets to inform you that your sister has been taken by Sentinels and we are currently unaware of her present condition. We can only assume she was taken for the codes to Zion and is either being interrogated or deceased. She made valuable contributions to our cause and was an excellent officer. We can only hope to see more like her in the future."
At that point, the young woman broke down completely and sobbed. Neo pressed his lips together and walked over to Link. He helped her out of the chair and sat next to her on the floor, allowing her to cling to him for support. He reached for the headset Morpheus had given him. "Morpheus, it's Neo…I think everyone needs to come in here. I'm in the Indy's dive room…It's bad. Really bad."
They threw her into a dive chair, or at least their semblance of one. It was hardly comfortable and Kismet snarled and struggled as they strapped her in. A robotic arm forced her head back and the mind probe shot into her skull. She screamed, arching her back and thrashing. It was an invasion on intimate levels, bordering on rape. Her head felt like it would explode…
She opened her eyes and found herself in an office building. She was in a chair, arms cuffed behind her. A man in a brown suit with sunglasses and an ear-piece stood before her. He smiled.
"Hello, Ms. Anderson."
"That's not my name, fuckwad," she spat. "What do you want?"
"Zion's mainframe codes," he said. His voice gave Kismet chills.
"Cold day in Hell before you get those from me," she fired back.
"I do believe there's a front coming through, Ms. Anderson." The agent smiled and made a slight motion with his head. Only then did Kismet realize there was someone behind her, as the needle was pressed into her flesh. She looked back up at the agent in front of her and bared her teeth at him. She blinked. The colors were wrong. The room was spinning. She felt like she was going to throw up. She opened her mouth to say something, but holding her head up was taking too much effort…Her head lolled to her chest and the last thing she saw was the agent smiling in satisfaction.
"Ms. Anderson…Time to talk, Ms. Anderson…"
"Go away…"
"What are the codes, Ms. Anderson?"
"…Fuck off…"
"I doubt that's the code. Try again, Ms. Anderson."
"Not my name…Quit…calling me that…"
"Come now, Ms. Anderson. You don't want me to have to kill someone to make my point."
"What…who…"
"We are not uninformed, Ms. Anderson. We can find your brother if we truly want to."
"No…"
"Yes, Ms. Anderson. Tell me the codes, Ms. Anderson, and your brother won't have to die."
"Not Neo…"
"Yes, Ms. Anderson. We can find him and we can kill him. You don't want that."
"No…"
"All you have to do is give me the codes, Ms. Anderson. Then it won't hurt anymore."
"No…"
"Don't be difficult, Ms. Anderson. Please."
"No…"
"If you must struggle, Ms. Anderson…Double the dosage."
"But…that could kill her…"
"Double the dosage."
"Yes, sir."
"See what you made me do, Ms. Anderson?"
"She's not responding."
"How long has it been?"
"Twelve hours, almost."
"Hm…she's not going to talk."
"We could try something else…"
"You've tried enough. Forget the codes. She has another use."
"As?"
"Bait."
"A hostage?"
"No…something different. I propose we put her back into the system."
"Plug her back in?"
"Full memory wipe, then re-insert her into the Matrix."
"And?"
"Arrange it so that…Mr. Anderson runs into his sister."
"He won't like that very much…"
"You remember what he did when we captured Morpheus."
"An all-out assault. You think he'll be so reckless again?"
"It stands to reason. He will be seeking a vent for his anger. When he finds it, we'll be ready."
"Excellent…Wait, what if he tries to retrieve his sister, memories or no?"
"You know the statistics. The re-inserted never survive the second extraction."
"Shall we send her to the plant now?"
"Yes. I want her ready and waiting when Mr. Anderson arrives."
When they carried her away, she was only vaguely aware of it. What she did notice was that she was surprisingly calm and decided that this was what it must be like to know you will die.
******
SOOOOOOOOOO sorry that this took so long to get up! I went out of town and couldn't upload this chapter before I left. Gomen, mina-san!
Chapter five is almost ready, so it should be here soon. Until then!
*Kat-chan out* ^_^ \/
Part 4: The Resistance regrets to inform you…
"Neo…Neo, open the door."
"I'm sleeping," he mumbled and rolled over, pulling the blanket over his head.
"Neo, this is important. You need to come out here."
"Trinity…"
"Now, damn you!"
Neo jerked upright. Trinity never got very emotional, and she had never yelled at him before. Also, there was something about her voice…It sounded like she'd been crying…But Trinity didn't cry…
"I'm coming." Neo got out of bed and quickly pulled on some clothes. Weren't these the same ones he'd worn yesterday? He couldn't remember. Wasn't important anyway.
"What's going on?" He opened the door.
Trinity looked at him with an emotionless expression that was betrayed by her reddened eyes. "You need to come with me. There's been an incident."
Everyone was packed into the briefing room. People were in various states of shock; apparently some word of what happened had all ready gotten around. The crowd parted before Neo and Trinity, everyone looking at him solemnly; a few people shook their heads, some patted him reassuringly on the shoulder. There were some chairs past the crowd and two in the very front were empty. Trinity led him in that direction and they sat down. Something was very wrong. Neo didn't like where this was going.
A man Neo knew only as Target stepped up to a small, battered podium in the front of the room. He had a few sheets of paper in his hands that he kept switching back and forth nervously. The sound of it was getting progressively more annoying. Finally, Target cleared his throat. What little chatter had been present in the room ceased.
"About twenty-four hours ago, we lost communication with our ship Indefatigable," he began. "It is believed it was attacked by Sentinels."
People began talking again, but immediately shut up when Target continued. "We are optimistic as to the number of survivors. From what little sensor data we could retrieve, the attack was very brief. Either the EMP was used or the Sentinels were called away for another task in mid-assault. As I'm sure many of you know, the most likely is the first."
"Not if it was Kismet's boat," someone muttered. A few voices echoed the sentiment. Everyone knew of Kismet's previous command and her use of the EMP. If any of her crew had been in the Matrix during the attack, she would have waited until the ship was in shreds rather than kill them.
Target cleared his throat again; the quieting down took longer this time. "We have the last known location of the Indefatigable. Is there a ship that's willing to go out and see…what the condition is?"
The room exploded in sound, voices screaming that they were the only logical choice. It was getting louder and louder…
"No." It was one word and it didn't seem all that loud to the speaker, but it was enough to silence everyone. Neo stood up. "I'm going."
"Why you?" someone in the back yelled. "She hates you. She tried to kill you, remember?"
"I'm going," Neo repeated. "I'm going to bring my sister home."
Poets have often called silence deafening. It was never more true than after that sentence.
"Sister?" Trinity whispered. "Kismet…is your sister?"
"Mhm…She told me…before she left," Neo said softly. "I have to bring her back."
"Okay." Trinity put one hand on his shoulder. "Get anything you want to bring with you. I'll tell Morpheus and we'll be ready to go in ten minutes, I promise you."
Neo nodded, shakily. His mouth was suddenly very dry.
Link lay next to the bulkhead, snuggled tight against the curve of metal. She had tried sleeping in her room, but every time she would wake up she kept expecting to hear the familiar noises of the ship: footsteps on the gratings, swearing at the food or life in general, laughter over some private joke. The silence was getting to her.
She figured she'd been alone for about a day. She tried to send some sort of distress signal, but the comms were down. The data recorder had been unscathed, though, and she made sure that it was ready to transmit at a request from Zion. The work was good; it kept her mind off of the four dead bodies lying under tarps in the dive room. She had taken a peek in the engine room and spent a few hours messing around with a wrench and a blowtorch, unable to get the engines back to working capacity but pleased that she'd at least tried. Again, it was something to do.
She sat up and stretched; the metal having proved uncomfortable. Link shuffled down to her room, snatched her blanket and scrambled back up the hatchway to the dive room. Wrapping the blanket around her shoulders, Link righted the overturned dive watch chair and sat down. She pulled her knees to her chest, made sure that every bit of her was covered with blanket, and fell asleep. It was something to do.
"What's up?" Neo asked, coming up into the cockpit.
"We've got a signature up ahead. We think it's the Indy," Morpheus said.
Neo nodded. "Are we going to board it?" he demanded, voice a little harsher than he would have liked.
"As soon as we can get along side. Try and stay calm, Neo," Morpheus urged. "We all know the crew of that ship. It's as mush a strain on us as on you."
Neo sighed. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Morpheus looked the younger man in the eyes. "Trinity told me."
"It's crazy, you know?" Neo laughed a little, running a hand through his hair. "I hadn't thought about her in years. I guess…I just wanted to get away from everything that had happened."
"I take it something bad occurred?" Morpheus raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah…you could call it that." Before Neo could say anything else, Morpheus turned his attentions back to the controls.
"Strap yourself in," he said. "We're about to dock."
"Hello? Is anybody here?" Neo called into the blackness of the ship. He raised the glow-lamp higher, trying to make out a human shape in the darkness.
"Kismet? Anybody? Hello?" He moved further into the ship, calling at various intervals. Finally, he heard an answer.
"Is…somebody out there? I'm in the dive room. Hello?" There was a pause. "Anybody?" The person laughed bitterly. "Guess I'm just losing it. Hearing voices now…isn't that one of the first signs of insanity or something? Who knows…It doesn't really matter now anyway."
Neo called out again. "Who's there? It's me, Neo. Who is it?"
"Neo? Oh God! It's Link! I'm in the dive room! Hurry!!"
Neo scrambled along catwalks and up several ladders before finding the dive room. Link sat huddled in the watch chair, a blanket wrapped around her. Four shapes were visible underneath a tarp off to one side. A cold chill ran down Neo's spine.
Link saw where his eyes had drifted. "Don't worry about it. She's not there." When Neo remained quiet, she continued. "She told me as we were pulling out, told me that she's your sister. It was like…she knew or something. Like she wanted to tell you in case she didn't get another chance."
"Where is she, Link?" Neo asked.
Link began to laugh softly, but when she looked up there were tear stains on her cheeks. She said, as though reciting from a document, "The Resistance regrets to inform you that your sister has been taken by Sentinels and we are currently unaware of her present condition. We can only assume she was taken for the codes to Zion and is either being interrogated or deceased. She made valuable contributions to our cause and was an excellent officer. We can only hope to see more like her in the future."
At that point, the young woman broke down completely and sobbed. Neo pressed his lips together and walked over to Link. He helped her out of the chair and sat next to her on the floor, allowing her to cling to him for support. He reached for the headset Morpheus had given him. "Morpheus, it's Neo…I think everyone needs to come in here. I'm in the Indy's dive room…It's bad. Really bad."
They threw her into a dive chair, or at least their semblance of one. It was hardly comfortable and Kismet snarled and struggled as they strapped her in. A robotic arm forced her head back and the mind probe shot into her skull. She screamed, arching her back and thrashing. It was an invasion on intimate levels, bordering on rape. Her head felt like it would explode…
She opened her eyes and found herself in an office building. She was in a chair, arms cuffed behind her. A man in a brown suit with sunglasses and an ear-piece stood before her. He smiled.
"Hello, Ms. Anderson."
"That's not my name, fuckwad," she spat. "What do you want?"
"Zion's mainframe codes," he said. His voice gave Kismet chills.
"Cold day in Hell before you get those from me," she fired back.
"I do believe there's a front coming through, Ms. Anderson." The agent smiled and made a slight motion with his head. Only then did Kismet realize there was someone behind her, as the needle was pressed into her flesh. She looked back up at the agent in front of her and bared her teeth at him. She blinked. The colors were wrong. The room was spinning. She felt like she was going to throw up. She opened her mouth to say something, but holding her head up was taking too much effort…Her head lolled to her chest and the last thing she saw was the agent smiling in satisfaction.
"Ms. Anderson…Time to talk, Ms. Anderson…"
"Go away…"
"What are the codes, Ms. Anderson?"
"…Fuck off…"
"I doubt that's the code. Try again, Ms. Anderson."
"Not my name…Quit…calling me that…"
"Come now, Ms. Anderson. You don't want me to have to kill someone to make my point."
"What…who…"
"We are not uninformed, Ms. Anderson. We can find your brother if we truly want to."
"No…"
"Yes, Ms. Anderson. Tell me the codes, Ms. Anderson, and your brother won't have to die."
"Not Neo…"
"Yes, Ms. Anderson. We can find him and we can kill him. You don't want that."
"No…"
"All you have to do is give me the codes, Ms. Anderson. Then it won't hurt anymore."
"No…"
"Don't be difficult, Ms. Anderson. Please."
"No…"
"If you must struggle, Ms. Anderson…Double the dosage."
"But…that could kill her…"
"Double the dosage."
"Yes, sir."
"See what you made me do, Ms. Anderson?"
"She's not responding."
"How long has it been?"
"Twelve hours, almost."
"Hm…she's not going to talk."
"We could try something else…"
"You've tried enough. Forget the codes. She has another use."
"As?"
"Bait."
"A hostage?"
"No…something different. I propose we put her back into the system."
"Plug her back in?"
"Full memory wipe, then re-insert her into the Matrix."
"And?"
"Arrange it so that…Mr. Anderson runs into his sister."
"He won't like that very much…"
"You remember what he did when we captured Morpheus."
"An all-out assault. You think he'll be so reckless again?"
"It stands to reason. He will be seeking a vent for his anger. When he finds it, we'll be ready."
"Excellent…Wait, what if he tries to retrieve his sister, memories or no?"
"You know the statistics. The re-inserted never survive the second extraction."
"Shall we send her to the plant now?"
"Yes. I want her ready and waiting when Mr. Anderson arrives."
When they carried her away, she was only vaguely aware of it. What she did notice was that she was surprisingly calm and decided that this was what it must be like to know you will die.
******
SOOOOOOOOOO sorry that this took so long to get up! I went out of town and couldn't upload this chapter before I left. Gomen, mina-san!
Chapter five is almost ready, so it should be here soon. Until then!
*Kat-chan out* ^_^ \/