Title: Frames of Reference: Chapter Two
Author: Stormhawk
Rating: PG
Notes: Not this time.
Word Count: 3231
Please Read and Review.
One week later.
"Exit," Cray mumbled to himself. "Just get to the exit." Fifteen-year-old Cray, a rebel with blue dyed hair, at least in the Matrix, had been in there to set up a meeting with a potential. The set up had gone awry when his cell had rung and Galli – the operator on his ship, The Exodus – had told him that an agent was tracking him.
He was so close to the phone now he could hear it ringing. Running toward the door and flinging it open he saw a most unwelcome sight.
It was the agent.
"What took you so long, you get lost or something?" Stef said as she sat cross-legged on the table next to the phone twirling her Desert Eagle on her finger.
"Shit," Cray said as he slumped against the wall. He didn't try and run, he was too slow and he didn't even think about fighting the agent, they were all too strong.
Hang on…she? "I thought all the agents were guys," he mumbled.
"They are, except me."
"Um…um." He stumbled, trying to think of something that would let him live. Fat chance.
"I'm going to kill you," Stef said as she slid off the table. "You know that right?"
"Please, just let me answer the phone. I don't want to die," he said pathetically.
"No." she said then the phone stopped ringing. "Seems they've given up on you."
"They wouldn't…I'm one of them."
"Humans have no problems leaving each other behind," she said evenly – if Morpheus and his gang hadn't abandoned her on that night she would have never become a recruit or agent. She would be living in the real world - or dead, killed by one of the people she now called her allies. No, she would have lived the real world for a little while then died because her real world body was imperfect – it had come from a bad crop.
Cray's cell phone rang. "Can I answer it please?"
"Finally, a last request that doesn't involve 'please don't kill me' you've got one minute."
His hands trembling, Cray fished his phone from his pocket answered it. "Hello? Galli is that you?"
On the Exodus, Galli the operator was going insane. The extremely pale man with contrasting black hair was pacing hurriedly holding the headset on his head with both his hands. He didn't want Cray to die.
"Kid, give the phone to the agent."
"Are you insane Galli?"
"Do it Cray, I don't want to lose you."
Cray smiled up at Stef who was going 'tick tock, tick tock' as she counted his minute down. "He wants to talk to you." Sneering, she swiped the phone from the young rebel.
"Agent Mimosa, what do you want? Be quick cause I hate talking to rebels."
"Don't kill the kid. Please, we'll give you anything you want."
Anything? Well, in that case… "Access codes to the Zion mainframe," she said automatically. It would tip the scales of the war in their favor. It would help them to win.
Galli breathed a sigh of relief. "Hang on, I don't have them. I'm just the operator. Let me get the captain." Punching up the PA system, he had to beat it with his fist twice before it worked. "Captain, captain get up here."
"Coming," the voice of the captain responded from the engine room.
"Galli – what's wrong," a young white-haired girl asked as she came up onto the main deck and looked at his frantic expression. He pulled the headset from his head and stared at her serious.
"Niq, your brother's in there and there's an agent with him."
"Oh god. Get him out of there."
"Relax, she's waiting to talk to the captain."
Niq hugged her chest tight and walked up to the screens to watch over her younger brother. She was two years older than him and they had been freed together. "Please let him be ok," she breathed.
Captain Ryder, his girlfriend Pandora, the engineer Phoenix and Darth the programmer all came up to the main deck from the engine room. Exodus' engines were forever breaking down. Then again, they were the misfit ship, not even included in the fleet because of its condition.
"What's the problem Galli?" Ryder asked. A strong but gentle man in his early thirties, he had light red hair for in the Matrix he had been born to Scottish parents but only faint traces of his accent remained in the real world after a decade and a half of freedom.
"That's the problem," he said jabbing his finger at the screen.
"What does it want?"
"To talk to you sir," he said handing over the headset.
"Captain Ryder speaking. Who am I speaking to?"
"Mimosa but let us dispense with the pleasantries, Zion codes for the Smurf's life. That's the deal."
Ryder pulled the headset from his head and stamped the deck, "damn," he said under his breath. "Damn it to hell."
"I'm waiting for an answer, captain. Do we have a deal?"
"I don't have the codes Agent Mimosa. The commander never gave me the codes."
"Then I'm afraid we have nothing more to discuss," Stef said as she leveled her gun at him.
"NO!" Niq shrieked and yanked the headset from Ryder. "Don't you dare kill him!"
"Whom am I talking to now?" Stef said tiredly, these rebels were getting on her nerves.
"My name's Niq, please don't kill my brother. I know you can't possibly understand compassion, that's too human for you but if you have to kill a rebel, let me come in and you can take me instead."
"Niq – no," Pandora said, she couldn't let her sacrifice herself, they would find some other way to save Cray.
"This is war Niq, what else can you offer me besides the codes?"
Niq looked around the room helplessly, no one had anymore of an idea than she did. "A favor," she said suddenly. "We can owe you a favor."
"Ooh," said Stef is false amazement. "A favor, from some rebels – how wonderful." Niq's face began to crumple; she knew her brother was going to die if she couldn't think of something soon.
Darth, a twenty-four year old programmer, with a strong but lanky frame, gentle aqua eyes and longish light brown hair clicked his fingers. "The d-base, give her a copy of the d-base."
Niq nodded, "a copy of our ship's database. And the favor – is that good enough?"
Stef nodded, she knew they could see her. "That will do." For the first time since he entered the room Cray was able to breathe again, sucking in deep lungs of air he was glad they weren't going to be his last.
"Thank you, thank you so much," he blubbered.
"How do we get the d-base to you?" Niq asked.
"The same way you send one of you in, just send it along the carrier wave, I'll pick up the phone and…catch it."
"Ok," Niq said and gave the headset back to Ryder. Darth sat down in Galli's spot and typed in some commands, a few minutes later the phone rang and Stef picked it up. Listening to the modem-like sounds she received a copy of their entire d-base.
An influx of information was like the code addiction – the mainframe access – but it was nowhere near as dangerous.
After listening for a few minutes she had it sitting safely inside her code. Nodding to Cray she almost smirked. "Get out of here Smurf."
When the phone rang again he lifted the handset and pressed it to his ear and disappeared from the Matrix. Stef put away her gun and shifted away.
Moments later, Niq pulled the spike from her brother's neck and hugged him tightly. "Glad to have you back," Galli said warmly.
"Me too Cray, you almost didn't make it back," Ryder added. Pandora and Phoenix nodded. Darth was busy rewinding the recorded code of the incident.
"Same here," he said distracted, brushing some hair from his eyes.
"That bitch was going to kill you," Niq said. "Goddamn program – I hate them."
"She let me live. I'm still alive."
"Only because we now owe it a favor and gave it all of our information."
"She could have killed me."
"It would have Cray, stop being so naïve," his sister practically shouted.
"I am not naïve, I'm alive but I do need some sleep. Or maybe something to eat."
"Come on kid," Phoenix said, "I'll get you some slop."
"Great," he muttered.
"Did you eat while you were in there?" Pandora asked him.
"Just a happy meal, I was waiting for that potential but they never showed up then that agent did."
"She's one very strange agent," Darth remarked, more to himself than them.
"How so?" Ryder asked.
"Well, she's a woman for one thing. Whoever heard of a female agent?"
"Me actually," Phoenix said. "Whenever I'm fixing the engines I listen to the rabble over the low band – it helps me to concentrate – like my music when I owned my garage, and the Neb complained last week about Mimosa, which was that agent Cray just dealt with."
"Nebuchadnezzar," Ryder said with distaste. "The best ship in the fleet, we must bow down to them. Home of Morpheus and the one."
"Ry," Pandora said gently.
"Come on Pandora, it's all in good fun. Look, I'm Neo – I can fly, I crash into buildings and tear up street signs but no one cares because I am the ONE!" Ryder finished with a flourish. "They think he's so special so they give his ship special treatment while we are left to rot."
"No to mention that Zion is always forgetting about us," Galli said. I asked for docking clearance last time we were going in to recharge and I had to send out ID twice before they would believe who we were."
"Speaking of which, you'll have to set a course Galli. The engines won't last more than a day with power levels like these."
"Fine," Galli said, pushing Darth out of the way. "Go use the computer in your room. Me and the Smurf took a risk when we stole that for you so go use it."
"Ok," Darth said. "Why would an agent say 'Smurf'?"
"Who knows and who cares?" Niq said. "It's just a program."
"Maybe not, it wasn't reading like a normal agent."
"Advanced programming, new model – who cares?" the blond rebel remarked and followed the rest of the crew toward the mess while Galli steered the slow but mostly reliable ship toward the last free human city.
Which the crew didn't consider home as the rest of the rebellion did.
*****
Stef had shifted back to the Agency and walked a short distance to Jones' office, well he was the tech agent so who else would the d-base go to?
Knocking on the door she heard two voices, Jones and Greer. Stef shrugged to herself, must be another experiment with Greer's power, after all no one wanted the recruit, who was turning out to be one of the most efficient they had ever had, to turn out like the Edmund twins did.
"Come in," Jones' soft voice said.
Twisting the knob she walked in and required a copy of the d-base onto CD for him. "You might be interested in this," she said.
"What is it?"
"A copy of rebel ship d-base."
"Interesting," he said accepting the CD. "Thank you."
"Welcome, how are the experiments coming?"
She could have sworn Jones paled a couple of shades. "Experiments?"
"With Greer's power?"
"Actually, we weren't conducting an experiment," he said slowly.
"We were playing Virtual World Smackdown," Greer said with a grin.
Jones nodded, "a game I designed," he said self-consciously but the color had returned to his face.
"I've played it." Stef smiled – it was good game – then she turned and left.
"You just lied Greer," Jones said with a smile.
"Did you want to tell her what we were really doing?" Greer answered with a grin. "But since it came up, how about a game of VWS?"
"Always," the tech agent said and forgot about the rebel d-base sitting on his desk as he opened the hidden file that contained his game.
*****
As with the last time they were in Zion, Galli had to send the ID twice before the defenses were taken down and the gates were opened.
The Exodus was a misfit ship with a misfit crew. One of the older ships it had been pulled back into service for Ryder. He had requested it, he wanted his own ship. The real world was the truth, yes but sometimes the truth was a hard thing.
There were none of the conveniences of home, real home back in the matrix. The ships were always cold, the food pathetic and tasteless. And his ship was forever breaking down, no matter how good an engineer Phoenix was the only thing holding the Exodus together was the hopes and dreams of his crew.
He loved his crew, they were a family. Ryder had been friends with Galli since he had been freed, he had met Pandora soon after and they had been together ever since. Darth had come next and instead of sending him to Zion, they had just kept him. The same for Cray and Niq.
The only thing that bothered him was the fact that the rest of the humans in the resistance forget about them. They had freed mines and fought the war like everyone else. What had done to deserve this?
Their ship was always the last to be worked on by the repair crews, luckily they didn't have to wait around for it to be recharged, all they had to do was plug it in when they landed.
But most of the time they spent away from Zion, they preferred it out there, even if it was more dangerous, with the sentinels and the like. At least out there they were free to do what they wanted. They did things none of the other crews did, they plugged in for real meals – even if they were still hungry when they got out they had the memory of a hot meal. They jacked in to do normal things, things that they missed because they were impossible to do in the real world.
They accepted the truth, that didn't mean they like the real world.
None of the crew would have been happy living the rest of their lives without the truth but what if there had been some other choice between ignorance and the desert?
What if? The two worst words ever paired.
All the alternates, the paths not taken, the choices.
Red or blue.
Red, forever red but they missed having soft beds and meals that you had to chew.
Red or blue.
God what a choice.
Packing their small bags as they walked down the ramp the crew of the next ship, a sleek newer generation hovercraft called the Medusa snickered quietly.
"Hey Ryder, that rust bucket still going?"
"Remind me to bring some chewing gum back so you can keep the engine in place."
As their comments continued Phoenix's face turned redder and redder. Finally she dropped her stuff and started to march toward them. Galli and Pandora caught her and dragged her away. They weren't worried for her, she could defend herself, they were worried for the other crew, they didn't want them ending up in the medical facility.
It might warrant their ship being taken away from them. A chance they were not willing to take. A price they were unwilling to pay.
*****
Smith sat in his office, he was supposed to be doing the equivalent of paperwork, filing reports to the mainframe and checking on the progress of the recruits and the like.
Instead, he was deep in thought.
He missed Stevie; he wanted nothing more than to have her back in the Matrix where he could watch over her. But instead she was out in the real world. Damn it.
And nothing was ever going to change that; she would be out there until the end of her days. It hurt him to realize that she wasn't an immortal, that one day she was going to die. He wouldn't be able to go on after that, she meant too much to him.
Then there was Project 002.
That was something he really didn't want to think about. Maybe it was nothing to worry about, he had only accidentally come across the file when he was searching for information using direct mainframe access. He saw the access as a tool, not something to get addicted to.
Addictions were a mistake.
002. What cause could the mainframe have for initiating it?
*****
"I want you with me on this Pandora. I won't do this without you."
"It's suicide Ryder."
"I know but I'm sick of this war, you are too, so is the crew. We can escape it."
"We need Zion, the charge only lasts so long, the engines will stop working after a while. Then we'll be helpless."
"Please Pandora. I can't take it here anymore."
"I love you Ryder. Can you tell me it's going to be all right?"
"It's not suicide, I can tell you that. It's our chance."
"Chance to what exactly? To get killed by the sentinels? If the resistance catches us they'll execute us or throw us in the cells for the rest of our lives."
"Please Pandora."
"I'm with you to the end. I'll follow you."
"Thank you."
The next day, after the Exodus was recharged, it left Zion for the last time. Fight or flight, and they had chosen flight, they were sick of the fight.
Three hours later, when The Exodus was far out of Zion the council sat had an emergency assembly to listen to a recorded message that Ryder had made and Darth had programmed as a time bomb on the computer to release itself once they were safely away.
As one of the council members nodded, an assistant brought up the video file. The image flickered for a few seconds then played. It was Ryder standing on the bridge of his ship.
"For those of you who don't know me, I am captain Ryder of the Exodus. I've never thought much about the name of my ship but I don't think a name has ever been more appropriate – except maybe the Medusa, Captain Qwert you are a snake," the captain smirked at that, imaging the other captain's reaction. "Back to business. The reason it is a well chosen name is because are leaving Zion and never coming back."
He paused for a moment, knowing there would a few seconds of disorientation, after all no one had ever done this before.
"We have had enough of this war, enough of the cold hard reality of this world. I don't know what good it will do to leave but it will surely be better than what is here for us now. There's nothing keeping us here. Sayonara."
After a few seconds of disbelief among the other captains and the council members, one spoke up. A captain that never kept his peace. "Traitors," Morpheus said sadly. "How could they become traitors?"
"Don't worry Morpheus," Trinity said, "they won't last long without Zion."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Well, what do you think about the new characters? I hoped I haven't used anybody's rebel names, if I have just tell me.
If you're interested:
*Cray: A type of supercomputer.
*Niq: Pronounced like the end of 'unique.'
*Galli: Named after Mr. Galliano, an Enid Blyton character
*Pandora: If you don't know the myth, she released the released the evils of the world out of her box.
*Darth, um…if I have to tell you where that's from you must have been dead since before 1977.
*Ryder just sounded like a captain's name.
*Phoenix, just a cool name.
The Exodus. Self-explanatory and explained just above. It was going to be called The Scope but this sounds better. Thanks Mordax!