T H E M A T R I X


Dolce



1


"Vertigo!" Seraphim cried from the CPU. A head popped down from the mess of wires and metal that was the ceiling of the Neb.

"Phinna," the other girl groaned, using the nickname she had created for Seraphim, "What in the hell is it?"

Seraphim couldn't say anything for a moment and finally she managed to croak something out. "Come see this!"

Vertigo flipped down from a catwalk and walked over to the girl sitting in the Operators chair.

"What is so important that you could not tell me what it is, psychic-girl?" she asked, irritated at being bothered, and being bothered when she had to work graveyard shift.

"Just look at this!" Seraphim gestured at her screen showing the world outside the neb. She urgently pointed at the murky waters of some dead metropolis. At first all there was, was choppy, angry sewer waters, but the Vertigo froze at what she had been alerted to. Pale objects would break the surface sporadically; first a glimpse of what looked to be a shoulder, then maybe an arm, and then what had to be a head.

"Holy…" but Vertigo trailed off.

"Get Morpheus." Seraphim commanded softly.


"Yeah, I think I'll do that," Vertigo fumbled off to get the captain.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~


A few days earlier

Smoke wafted and curled through the lower decks of the Nebuchadnezzar. The light was dim, and storage boxes were piled everywhere. Only blinking, emergency lighting lit the dismal storage area, as the Neb had been powered down for 12 hours.

"Shit, it's cold." Seraphim mumbled, moving closer to the lanky 16 year-old next to her. The young man's silvery green eyes brightened and he wrapped his blanket around her, and moved closer to her smaller body.

"C'mere, I think I got a remedy for that right here." Seraphim rolled her eyes but moved closer to him anyway. Tank snickered, and tossed the young man a card, "Look, Oberon, you gonna play? Or you gonna cuddle?"

Oberon blushed, the red becoming evident on his pale face. Next to Tank, Neo gave a small smirk, and took a small sip of the Real World Liquor, Tank and his late brother Dozer had perfected. Seraphim's hazel eyes flashed in irritation, and she straightened.

"Deal me in!" she said in a commanding tone, and grabbed the can of real world liquor and gulping down about a fourth of the can. Tank goggled, and she gave a short cough before handing the can back to Morpheus. "Here captain. You gonna give me my hand Tank?" she asked sweetly, and grabbed her cards. Morpheus grinned in the dim light, and pulled his hat on a little closer to his hairless head.

The glowing end of a cigarette butt flew down the ladder leading to the storage room, and the body holding it ambled in, carrying in a crate and shoving it into the center of the circle.

"Gentlemen, your angel has once again delivered!" the person carrying the crate announced, and sat down next to Morpheus. Tank and Oberon both went for the crate, greedily digging through the things inside.

"Wait!" Morpheus stopped them with a commanding hand, "As Captain, and ranking officer on this ship, I call the first look at the 'supplies'", he pulled the crate closer to him.

"Vertigo, how do you get all this stuff?" Neo asked incredulously, looking through the packs of cigarettes, a bottle of whiskey, and a few books and tools.

"I can take a guess." Seraphim said wryly, grinning at Vertigo. The two had become close friends, both being around the same age, Vertigo being 21, and Seraphim being 17, and both being unplugged within about a month of each other.

"Well…uh, see Ursa had some extra supplies on him, and I didn't think they would be missed." She said simply. Seraphim rolled her eyes, "You broke up with him! That's the third this month!"

"Wait! Wait!" Tank butted in, "You mean Ursa? Like the Ursa, who runs that pawn and contraband store in Zion?"

Vertigo smiled smugly, "We all have our ways." She gave a quick look to Neo, and turned away, Oberon and Seraphim giving a snort of laughter. They knew of Vertigo's rampant crush on the One, but Vertigo knew he had to be with Trinity. Morpheus smiled, and patted her on the back, "Well…normally I wouldn't condone this, but tonight…Oh and one more thing, we have to keep it down or else-," he broke off hearing the heavy boots storm down the ladder, and come closer to their hiding place.

"Aw, crap." Oberon muttered, and Seraphim groaned with Tank. Neo and Morpheus braced themselves, "I knew it would happen" Morpheus said dismally. Vertigo finished her muttered string of viscous language.


Trinity burst into the middle of the hazy light, "What the hell do you think you're doing!?" she asked angrily. "Fucking contraband?"

"Such language..." Vertigo chided. Trinity gave her a death glare, and the teenager shut up.

"Now Trinity…" Morpheus began, but the second in command stopped him.

"I can't believe this. How could you do this, Morpheus? Neo?" She gave them angry looks, and they threw their cards in the center, defeated. A smile played on her features, and she said softly, "I can't believe you didn't tell me you were playing." Tank grinned, and Vertigo slapped his palm. They sat, and talked and played cards, Trinity beating all of them both times they had played. Neo and Trinity snuggled together, as they sat quietly talking, sipping the liquor and looking at the items Vertigo had retrieved for them.

Oberon quietly shook Seraphim on the shoulder, as she was staring into space for the umpteenth time that night. "Hey, are you okay?" Morpheus and Neo looked at each other, noticing the frequent behavior. Seraphim smiled tiredly, "Yea Obs, I'm fine. Really. You know this happens to me sometimes."

"But not this often." Neo pointed out. She sighed and rubbed her temples, as Vertigo patted her on the back.

"Well…I get like this I guess when something is about to happen, but this is big. This is different. All of the images are more vibrant, more real. But I can't get anything out of them! Just a sparrow." She sighed, and let her head fall into crossed arms, "A sparrow with the strangest ice blue eyes. I mean, like…" she trailed off, remembering her experience with Agent Johnson.

Everyone was quiet for a moment, as they didn't bring up those kind of Agent encounters. She looked up with the now brown eyes, as they sometimes appeared green, and just shook her head. "It has to mean something. But I just don't know what…" Morpheus, Neo and Trinity seemed to share a look between each other, "Well…we are fairly overdue for a visit to the Oracle." Morpheus stated softly.

"She wants to meet with Vertigo…I don't know why we didn't bring her sooner." Trinity smiled, and Vertigo looked around alarmed, shaking her head.

"Well…I mean, I probably don't have enough training, and I don't really think I'm ready, and -," but she stopped when Tank punched her in the shoulder. Seraphim ignored the exchange.

"How soon is soon?" Neo smiled, "I think tomorrow will be okay, don't you Captain?" Morpheus smiled.
"I don't think it can be soon enough."