So this was the Supercomputer…
It had seemed a bit of an anticlimax to portal into the Assembly Hall of the Academy – though the enormous expanse did impress me. My eyes were immediately drawn to the pale green throne at the end of the hall, and the wings traced on the window behind it.
"Yes, that was hers." the Prime Guardian said quietly from behind me. "We're leaving it there, for now. A memorial, of sorts...to what we lost."
I nodded slowly. I had heard of Daemon, watched the inevitable behind-the-scenes documentary Mike the TV had produced before his unfortunate portal accident. Still, it had not quite sunk in…the story seemed so utterly surreal. Guardians as drones? The entire net under her sway in the matter of a minute?
I had the uncomfortable feeling that I had been thinking too small, all along - as I watched the recordings, the ethereal young Cron virus seemed to be smiling at me with hidden amusement.
The throne, however, was as real as it got. I looked around, imagining the subdued bustle around me as the quiet efficiency of a viral headquarters, watched over by its serene mistress.
It gave me the jaggies. I almost instinctively felt for my protocol, as if in reassurance.
Reassurance?
Glitch whirred uneasily as well. I finally pulled myself together enough to realize Turbo was still waiting behind me, watching my reaction…
I turned to Turbo. "I guess…it's just still hard to imagine it happened here…"
"Oh, it did." the Prime Guardian said quietly "And we can't let it happen again."
"Of course not."
Turbo sighed and turned his back on the throne. "Anyway, Bob, Sciences wants to take a look at Glitch – you understand, right?" I nodded. "And also...how do you feel about teaching at the Academy?"
"Me?" I blinked. "Er…"
"It'd just be one class. One of the main weaknesses exposed in our program was the lack of a more than basic understanding of how viruses think. We made some grievous tactical errors in dealing with Daemon at first, and this resulted in…well." Turbo grimaced. "I know this might seem a bit sudden but you…well, both of you – you and your crazy theories might be worth something after all."
"Gee, thanks." I said, my eyes narrowing. I did not enjoy being denigrated, even by association with Bob.
Turbo continued. "We've arranged quarters in Tower 8 for you and…I'm sure you'll be pleased with them."
"Academy dorms all over again, eh?"
"That's in 6. You know that, Bob." Oh fsck.
"I was kidding!" I attempted a save in a lighthearted tone of voice.
"Heh." Turbo did not sound amused. Maybe he was – I couldn't tell with him. The Prime Guardian seemed to be the sort that was used to wielding power, and to being taken seriously while doing so. I wasn't quite sure yet exactly what made him tick. There was certainly more to him than met the eye.
"Lunesby!
A pale yellow sprite hurried over to Turbo's side. "Sir?"
"Can you take Guardian 452 to his new quarters? I'm needed at a Council meeting."
The woman nodded. Turbo glanced at me. "Bob, this is my secretary, Lunesby."
"Pleased to meet you." I smiled. The sprite's blue eyes showed no emotion as she nodded to me.
"Right this way, if you would sir…"
I tried to strike up a conversation with Lunesby as we took the public tranzip to Tower 8 from the Spire, with limited success. She was rather drone-like in her responses – seemingly fully integrated with her function as a Guardian – though she was only a Cadet, I noted. Small talk was difficult.
"So you're Turbo's secretary, then?"
She nodded. "Yes sir."
"Are you taking classes as well, or?"
"I'm doing an internship, sir."
"Ah…" I nodded. The conversation screeched to a halt. She wasn't even looking out the windows, even though the view was marvelous.
The tranzip slowed to a halt, and the front irised open. "This way, sir."
I followed her through seemingly endless corridors and lifts, getting rather lost, before she stopped in front of a nondescript door. "Here you are, sir."
"Right." The door, keyed to my icon, opened smoothly. I took a step inside, and stopped dead. I turned to look at Lunesby, but her pale pink hair was already disappearing beyond a corner. Oh dear.
"Dot?" I asked, incredulously. Ms Matrix was sitting on a bed – my bed from Mainframe! – looking entirely too pleased with herself. Around her was a perfect recreation of my…Bob's old apartment. Every last detail meticulously reconstructed.
"In case you get homesick," she smiled.
"Dot…I mean…wow, this is incredible. How did you manage this?"
"Well, we were uploading Enzo to the Academy in any case, and I thought you might like a nice surprise after a long daycycle.."
"Nice? This…this is amazing!" I smiled at her. "You're amazing."
"I know." She grinned cheekily. "Anyway, I wanted to tell you – I've resigned my post as command.com of Mainframe."
"What, for me?" I blinked.
She snorted. "Sometimes, Guardian, you think entirely too much of yourself."
"So I've been told." I said neutrally.
"Nah, I'm going back into business. And there's this annoying little conflict-of-interest logic gate that technically, legally, left Cecil in charge of my entire business empire while I did my time as a public servant."
"And you obviously couldn't have that…"
"Exactly! He was running it into the data sea! I don't see why I couldn't have remained in charge…I'll have to spend minutes recovering from this disaster!"
"Well, I can see how it would be a conflict of interest…" I hazarded.
"Conflict? Hardly…" She smirked. "It would have served my interests perfectly!"
We both laughed. It occurred to me, not for the first time, that Ms. Matrix would have made an excellent virus.
"So who'd you leave in charge?" I asked casually, trying not to sound too interested. I did have a bit of a personal stake in Mainframe, after all. "Phong?"
"Oh, no. He's a System Operator for life, that one." Dot waved a hand "Possibly even beyond – you know how he is. No, I think AndrAIa will do a good job looking after the system."
"What makes you say that?"
"Well, she looked after Enzo for minutes!" Dot grinned. "I've done both, and trust me, keeping the system running is much, much easier."