Chapter 3
-------------------
"Ah! That's cold!"
"That's the door."
"Oh."
Morpheus helped to lead her through the entrance and onto the Nebuchadnezzar, guiding her over the steps and under the top of the doorframe. Neo and Trinity followed behind her and she heard the heavy door shut as soon as they were through. Morpheus took her hand and carefully led her through the ridiculously narrow hallways until they came to a particular room. He opened the door and took her through, making sure she didn't hit her feet on the threshold.
"This will be your bedroom," he told her.
Amethyst breathed in the musty air of the room and began to slowly feel her way around. Directly to her right was obviously the bed, made up of a thin foam mattress covered by a couple of highly patched blankets. The only other furniture was a small table and stool. At first she wasn't sure what she would use it for, but she decided that it may eventually come in handy. Other than those was a small heater in a corner of the floor.
She undid the straps of her pack, pulling apart the simple slipknots. Placing the pack on the bed she commented, "It's great…simple and against the wall."
Morpheus put his hand on Amethyst's shoulder. "I'll lead you to the other parts of the ship so you can begin to learn your way around."
"I'd learn faster if you told me which directions to go in, actually. I'd be able to count steps and feel for things on my own." She felt the hand on her shoulder leave and she cleared her mind of everything else so she could focus on his instructions.
"Turn about forty-five degrees to your left." She did and Morpheus saw her find the door. Neo and Trinity, waiting outside of the door, made way for her. He saw Amethyst's hands go out, one to her right side and one in front of her, and she reached out, feeling the wall to her right. "Walk forward." Amethyst's steps were slow, measured, and smooth. "You'll have to walk over the doorway."
Amethyst soon felt her left foot come in contact with the threshold and she stopped. Dragging her foot up over the metal, she placed in her mind just how high she would have to step in order to avoid any problems. "What's directly ahead of me?"
"More sleeping quarters." He watched as she made her way to the other side of the hallway. He saw her mouth the words "three steps" as soon as her left hand made contact with the opposite wall. When she asked whose rooms they were, Morpheus said, "The one to your immediate right is Jaykalynn Smith's room. She's known as Jake. The one to your immediate left belongs to the twins aboard this ship, known as Binary and Code. The room adjacent to yours is my own, so if you have any questions or need any assistance, I'll be close by."
"How many more bedrooms are there?"
"Four. Down the hall to your left are Neo and Trinity's, Link's – our operator – and two others that had been previously occupied. The lavatory is in that hallway between the bedrooms. That corridor also leads to the mess hall."
Amethyst decided not to ask why there were empty rooms; she knew they were dead now. "What about the hallway to my right?"
"I'll tell you. Turn ninety degrees to the right." She started walking down the hallway, this time with both hands out to her side so she could feel both walls. "If you continue on this path, it will eventually lead you to the cockpit where I direct the ship. I'll take you there later."
He spent the next half hour simply getting her down past the main deck and to the broadcasting station. Amethyst forced herself to try and remember every step that she took. It being her first time on a hovercraft in her life, she also did her best to recall every moment she spent there.
While they were in the broadcasting area, Amethyst heard Morpheus say, "Code, can you make a program and have it ready within the next day or so."
"What kind of program?" someone replied.
"I'm going to need to introduce Amethyst to the world of sight." Amethyst heard a confused sound come from Code.
"Is she blind or something," a rather snooty voice said.
Before anyone could say anything, Amethyst took off her visor and flashed her eyes in the direction of the voice who had just spoken. She took a certain degree of satisfaction in the curse that flowed from that person's lips. "Maybe." Then she added with a nonchalant air, "You can call me Ame' if that's easier for you."
"I didn't know you were blind. I'm-"
Amethyst started to laugh quietly when she heard Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo quickly hush her. "She has a thing for apologies, Jake," Trinity said.
"Well, that's fine. You could have just told me in the first place without having someone else have to shut me up."
"Testy, are we?" Amethyst said.
"Freak," Jake said quietly.
Before Jake could walk off, Amethyst hissed back in a perfect imitation of a cat display of annoyance. Jake continued to make her exit, mouthing "freak" under her breath a couple dozen more times. "I'm sure we'll get along just fine," Amethyst said with a smile on her face.
Another voice she didn't know said, "Jake has an affinity for that word. I wouldn't take it personally."
"I won't. And who are you?"
"I'm Link, the operator of the Nebuchadnezzar."
"Pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise."
Code asked what kind of program Morpheus wanted and the two of them went off to discuss what they believed would be the best course of action. He told the others to get some sleep and so Amethyst turned around and did her best to retrace her steps to her bedroom. The others followed her, offering suggestions when she forgot where she was or miscounted her steps, until she made it back to her room. When she asked when she needed to be awake, she was told not to worry about it and that someone would come in to wake her up. After that, she opened the door to her room, stepped carefully in, removed her shoes, and went to her bed, still wearing the same pair of clothing she had arrived in. Sleep didn't come very easily to her, but when it did, she was out cold.
"She's still asleep?"
"Yah."
"Good. Let's get going."
Morpheus started up the hovercraft and carefully began to maneuver it out of the docking bay. Soon enough, they were out of Zion's protective doors and on to find a place to broadcast their signal and hack into the Matrix. While the ship moved, Binary spent her time on a spare terminal, diligently coming up with a very elementary program that she was sure she'd finish within the hour. It was all a matter of beginning light variance schemes and deciding which colors would be best assimilated by her mind with the least amount of shock. She had a bit of help from Code, her counterpart, and spent the better part of three or so hours making sure that it worked properly.
"Hey Jake!" Code called out.
"What?" Jake replied in a faintly irritated voice.
"Want to test a program?"
Jake took a few steps closer. "You know they eat guinea pigs in Mexico?"
"So, that's a no?"
"Pft, yah!" She walked off, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "Freak!" she said quietly to herself.
The crew of the Nebuchadnezzar was well on its way before anyone decided to wake Amethyst up. As a matter of fact, Jake, who just happened to be walking by, realized that she hadn't seen the blind girl around anywhere and figured that she was still asleep. So, she went in her bedroom, grabbed a hard, blunt object, walked back over to Amethyst's door, and prepared to make the room inside echo with the force of her blow.
The echo never came. In fact, before Jake could make a sound, the door was flung open to reveal Amethyst, disheveled from her slumber, hissing in a very irritated manner. "I'm blind, not deaf."
"Duh."
No one knew about Amethyst's finger-knives until they heard the sound come from her bedroom as she slowly and methodically ran the knives down the side of the door. The high pitched screech rang past the sleeping quarters, down the hallways, and into almost every area of the ship, affecting everyone but Amethyst who had learned to tune out the noise.
Jake, first to be annoyed and last to try and ignore it, growled as the stormed towards Amethysts room. Walking straight up to Amethyst, she looked square into her closed eyes. "Meh," she muttered with her head cocked to one side. "What in the (insert profanity here) are you doing?"
Amethyst, her voice smooth and cool, replied, "I was going to let you figure that out for yourself, but since you obviously can't I'll tell you. I don't like rude awakenings. Don't try that again."
Jake ignored what she just said. "Well quit whatever it is you are doing!"
"But it's so much fun!" Amethyst replied, smiling broadly.
Just then, Morpheus came down the hallway. "What's going on?"
"She started it!" Jake accused.
"Did not!" Amethyst retorted.
"Yes you did!"
"Don't lie!"
"I'm not lying!"
"Yes you are!"
"Am not!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"Ladies!" Morpheus put in. "I will not have this aboard my ship! Sort this out and let's get back to work." He looked down at Jake and she turned away, rolling her eyes. Then he turned to Amethyst. "Come with me, Amethyst."
Amethyst's smile faded and she let herself be guided away from her bedroom as she followed the sound of Morpheus's footsteps. As she did, she removed the finger-knives from her hands and put them back in the pouch around her neck, hoping that Morpheus had not noticed them. She followed him down the ladder that led to the main deck, remembering how much space she needed to step in between the rungs. After that, he took her to what she figured was the console where they hacked into the Matrix.
"Trinity," Morpheus called out. The woman arrived shortly afterwards with Neo trailing at her heels as usual. The two were inseparable and where one went, the other followed.
"What's up?" she asked.
"I need you to check Amethyst's head plug to see if it's healed enough to take her into the Construct."
"Okay." She walked over to Amethyst. The girl didn't need to be told to stand still. She simply reached back and lifted up her dark brown hair, revealing the bandage that still covered the plug.
Amethyst felt Trinity carefully pull the bandage away from the plug and felt her breath on her neck. Bearing it for the time being, she wondered what it looked like. Oh well, she thought.
Trinity looked carefully at the leathery skin which was healing nicely around the plug. However, she wasn't entirely sure if it was completely healed. She touched the discolored area which had resulted from the surgery and felt it hold. As she did so, she saw Amethyst flinch away from her hand. Amethyst's eyes closed in a wince.
"I'm sorry," Trinity said before she thought about it.
"That's okay," Amethyst replied through gritted teeth. Since the apology wasn't about her being blind, she wasn't annoyed by it. "It's just a little bit raw."
"I can see that." She looked over at Morpheus and said, "It looks like it's healing very well. I'm not sure what would happen if we were to insert her into the Construct since the skin still feels tender."
"Binary's program is ready and Code is through testing it and so I thought that it would be a good time to try it out before we get too much father out." Morpheus turned his attention to Amethyst. "What do you think, Amethyst? Do you think you're ready to try it?"
"There's a plug in my head and it didn't get there by itself."
Neo looked somewhat confused. "So, that's a yes?"
"Uh, yah."
-------------------
"Ah! That's cold!"
"That's the door."
"Oh."
Morpheus helped to lead her through the entrance and onto the Nebuchadnezzar, guiding her over the steps and under the top of the doorframe. Neo and Trinity followed behind her and she heard the heavy door shut as soon as they were through. Morpheus took her hand and carefully led her through the ridiculously narrow hallways until they came to a particular room. He opened the door and took her through, making sure she didn't hit her feet on the threshold.
"This will be your bedroom," he told her.
Amethyst breathed in the musty air of the room and began to slowly feel her way around. Directly to her right was obviously the bed, made up of a thin foam mattress covered by a couple of highly patched blankets. The only other furniture was a small table and stool. At first she wasn't sure what she would use it for, but she decided that it may eventually come in handy. Other than those was a small heater in a corner of the floor.
She undid the straps of her pack, pulling apart the simple slipknots. Placing the pack on the bed she commented, "It's great…simple and against the wall."
Morpheus put his hand on Amethyst's shoulder. "I'll lead you to the other parts of the ship so you can begin to learn your way around."
"I'd learn faster if you told me which directions to go in, actually. I'd be able to count steps and feel for things on my own." She felt the hand on her shoulder leave and she cleared her mind of everything else so she could focus on his instructions.
"Turn about forty-five degrees to your left." She did and Morpheus saw her find the door. Neo and Trinity, waiting outside of the door, made way for her. He saw Amethyst's hands go out, one to her right side and one in front of her, and she reached out, feeling the wall to her right. "Walk forward." Amethyst's steps were slow, measured, and smooth. "You'll have to walk over the doorway."
Amethyst soon felt her left foot come in contact with the threshold and she stopped. Dragging her foot up over the metal, she placed in her mind just how high she would have to step in order to avoid any problems. "What's directly ahead of me?"
"More sleeping quarters." He watched as she made her way to the other side of the hallway. He saw her mouth the words "three steps" as soon as her left hand made contact with the opposite wall. When she asked whose rooms they were, Morpheus said, "The one to your immediate right is Jaykalynn Smith's room. She's known as Jake. The one to your immediate left belongs to the twins aboard this ship, known as Binary and Code. The room adjacent to yours is my own, so if you have any questions or need any assistance, I'll be close by."
"How many more bedrooms are there?"
"Four. Down the hall to your left are Neo and Trinity's, Link's – our operator – and two others that had been previously occupied. The lavatory is in that hallway between the bedrooms. That corridor also leads to the mess hall."
Amethyst decided not to ask why there were empty rooms; she knew they were dead now. "What about the hallway to my right?"
"I'll tell you. Turn ninety degrees to the right." She started walking down the hallway, this time with both hands out to her side so she could feel both walls. "If you continue on this path, it will eventually lead you to the cockpit where I direct the ship. I'll take you there later."
He spent the next half hour simply getting her down past the main deck and to the broadcasting station. Amethyst forced herself to try and remember every step that she took. It being her first time on a hovercraft in her life, she also did her best to recall every moment she spent there.
While they were in the broadcasting area, Amethyst heard Morpheus say, "Code, can you make a program and have it ready within the next day or so."
"What kind of program?" someone replied.
"I'm going to need to introduce Amethyst to the world of sight." Amethyst heard a confused sound come from Code.
"Is she blind or something," a rather snooty voice said.
Before anyone could say anything, Amethyst took off her visor and flashed her eyes in the direction of the voice who had just spoken. She took a certain degree of satisfaction in the curse that flowed from that person's lips. "Maybe." Then she added with a nonchalant air, "You can call me Ame' if that's easier for you."
"I didn't know you were blind. I'm-"
Amethyst started to laugh quietly when she heard Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo quickly hush her. "She has a thing for apologies, Jake," Trinity said.
"Well, that's fine. You could have just told me in the first place without having someone else have to shut me up."
"Testy, are we?" Amethyst said.
"Freak," Jake said quietly.
Before Jake could walk off, Amethyst hissed back in a perfect imitation of a cat display of annoyance. Jake continued to make her exit, mouthing "freak" under her breath a couple dozen more times. "I'm sure we'll get along just fine," Amethyst said with a smile on her face.
Another voice she didn't know said, "Jake has an affinity for that word. I wouldn't take it personally."
"I won't. And who are you?"
"I'm Link, the operator of the Nebuchadnezzar."
"Pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise."
Code asked what kind of program Morpheus wanted and the two of them went off to discuss what they believed would be the best course of action. He told the others to get some sleep and so Amethyst turned around and did her best to retrace her steps to her bedroom. The others followed her, offering suggestions when she forgot where she was or miscounted her steps, until she made it back to her room. When she asked when she needed to be awake, she was told not to worry about it and that someone would come in to wake her up. After that, she opened the door to her room, stepped carefully in, removed her shoes, and went to her bed, still wearing the same pair of clothing she had arrived in. Sleep didn't come very easily to her, but when it did, she was out cold.
"She's still asleep?"
"Yah."
"Good. Let's get going."
Morpheus started up the hovercraft and carefully began to maneuver it out of the docking bay. Soon enough, they were out of Zion's protective doors and on to find a place to broadcast their signal and hack into the Matrix. While the ship moved, Binary spent her time on a spare terminal, diligently coming up with a very elementary program that she was sure she'd finish within the hour. It was all a matter of beginning light variance schemes and deciding which colors would be best assimilated by her mind with the least amount of shock. She had a bit of help from Code, her counterpart, and spent the better part of three or so hours making sure that it worked properly.
"Hey Jake!" Code called out.
"What?" Jake replied in a faintly irritated voice.
"Want to test a program?"
Jake took a few steps closer. "You know they eat guinea pigs in Mexico?"
"So, that's a no?"
"Pft, yah!" She walked off, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "Freak!" she said quietly to herself.
The crew of the Nebuchadnezzar was well on its way before anyone decided to wake Amethyst up. As a matter of fact, Jake, who just happened to be walking by, realized that she hadn't seen the blind girl around anywhere and figured that she was still asleep. So, she went in her bedroom, grabbed a hard, blunt object, walked back over to Amethyst's door, and prepared to make the room inside echo with the force of her blow.
The echo never came. In fact, before Jake could make a sound, the door was flung open to reveal Amethyst, disheveled from her slumber, hissing in a very irritated manner. "I'm blind, not deaf."
"Duh."
No one knew about Amethyst's finger-knives until they heard the sound come from her bedroom as she slowly and methodically ran the knives down the side of the door. The high pitched screech rang past the sleeping quarters, down the hallways, and into almost every area of the ship, affecting everyone but Amethyst who had learned to tune out the noise.
Jake, first to be annoyed and last to try and ignore it, growled as the stormed towards Amethysts room. Walking straight up to Amethyst, she looked square into her closed eyes. "Meh," she muttered with her head cocked to one side. "What in the (insert profanity here) are you doing?"
Amethyst, her voice smooth and cool, replied, "I was going to let you figure that out for yourself, but since you obviously can't I'll tell you. I don't like rude awakenings. Don't try that again."
Jake ignored what she just said. "Well quit whatever it is you are doing!"
"But it's so much fun!" Amethyst replied, smiling broadly.
Just then, Morpheus came down the hallway. "What's going on?"
"She started it!" Jake accused.
"Did not!" Amethyst retorted.
"Yes you did!"
"Don't lie!"
"I'm not lying!"
"Yes you are!"
"Am not!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"Ladies!" Morpheus put in. "I will not have this aboard my ship! Sort this out and let's get back to work." He looked down at Jake and she turned away, rolling her eyes. Then he turned to Amethyst. "Come with me, Amethyst."
Amethyst's smile faded and she let herself be guided away from her bedroom as she followed the sound of Morpheus's footsteps. As she did, she removed the finger-knives from her hands and put them back in the pouch around her neck, hoping that Morpheus had not noticed them. She followed him down the ladder that led to the main deck, remembering how much space she needed to step in between the rungs. After that, he took her to what she figured was the console where they hacked into the Matrix.
"Trinity," Morpheus called out. The woman arrived shortly afterwards with Neo trailing at her heels as usual. The two were inseparable and where one went, the other followed.
"What's up?" she asked.
"I need you to check Amethyst's head plug to see if it's healed enough to take her into the Construct."
"Okay." She walked over to Amethyst. The girl didn't need to be told to stand still. She simply reached back and lifted up her dark brown hair, revealing the bandage that still covered the plug.
Amethyst felt Trinity carefully pull the bandage away from the plug and felt her breath on her neck. Bearing it for the time being, she wondered what it looked like. Oh well, she thought.
Trinity looked carefully at the leathery skin which was healing nicely around the plug. However, she wasn't entirely sure if it was completely healed. She touched the discolored area which had resulted from the surgery and felt it hold. As she did so, she saw Amethyst flinch away from her hand. Amethyst's eyes closed in a wince.
"I'm sorry," Trinity said before she thought about it.
"That's okay," Amethyst replied through gritted teeth. Since the apology wasn't about her being blind, she wasn't annoyed by it. "It's just a little bit raw."
"I can see that." She looked over at Morpheus and said, "It looks like it's healing very well. I'm not sure what would happen if we were to insert her into the Construct since the skin still feels tender."
"Binary's program is ready and Code is through testing it and so I thought that it would be a good time to try it out before we get too much father out." Morpheus turned his attention to Amethyst. "What do you think, Amethyst? Do you think you're ready to try it?"
"There's a plug in my head and it didn't get there by itself."
Neo looked somewhat confused. "So, that's a yes?"
"Uh, yah."
