Neo opened his eyes and quickly inhaled upon leaving the construct. He felt
a gentle hand on his shoulder as the plug was carefully pulled out of his
head. Trinity- Neo knew, only she would take such care in taking the plug
out. Because of this knowledge, he wasn't surprised to see her face appear
above his before he sat up. Smiling gently, he knew he looked horrible, but
didn't care.
"So, what is all this?" Morpheus asked.
"First, Grace, Link, can you run a search on how many sentinel programs had the completion code '23HE34-00034'?" Neo asked as he stood up.
"One sec." Grace said, her fingers flying over the keyboard. A screen scrolled up revealing many different codes before one was selected. "Let's see, out of 2.5 million sentinels, a whopping 1.75 million were created under that code. Why?"
Neo grabbed hold of the chair for balance. "1.75 million?"
"Neo, are you okay? Why did you want to know those numbers?" Trinity asked, moving towards him.
"The disk asked for the complete deletion, or I would assume the shut down of all sentinel programs with that code."
"You're kidding." Link stated in disbelief. Upon Neo's shaking head, "Who designed that program?"
"Another program. Persephone. Throughout the deletions I came upon her little footnotes that were written to anyone who used this disk. I deleted all the agent programs, minus the ones that were 'free' and not connected to the Matrix."
"That could be hundreds. Many agents become unconnected after a matter of time. That's why they change every once in a while." Niobe interjected.
"I also came upon a 'creation program'. It allowed me to create ships, weapons, energy cells, and provisions. They have been created and are protected from any and all sentinels or programs until I get to those coordinates."
"That's on the surface Neo. We can't go there, it's too dangerous." Morpheus argued.
"He just deleted 1.75 million sentinels Morpheus. We have the EMP in the form of a force field. We will be fine." Grace countered.
"I hope your right. Link, set the ship's coordinates to those exact coordinates- only underground. I don't want to be above ground until we have to." Niobe commanded.
"Setting coordinates." Link responded, turning to the keyboards and typing furiously.
"Estimating the time." Grace added, typing her own keys.
A few moments of silence, save for the keyboards Link and Grace were typing on, passed before Link called out,
"We're on our way."
"It'll be roughly one day's travel. You want me to contact the other surviving ships?" Grace asked.
"No. Not yet. Neo, how many ships did you create?" Niobe asked.
"Only two, but the other things I created, if used by just this ship, would last us at least three years."
"Wow. You really had fun in there." Trinity commented, a look of shock on her face.
"How do you know this'll work?" Wish piped up.
"The machines do this themselves. They create fields of humans, they create sentinels, energy, all at the click of a few buttons. They do this inside a computer program. I was given the ultimate hacker program- something to hack into the machines' database and do a little damage, while using their cheats for my own use."
"How could this help us? They'll just make more agents and sentinels." Wish scoffed.
"No. That disk is a virus. Once I begin unraveling the programs, it'll do it's own work. Stopping their creation processes, undoing codes for new programs, everything. The only thing it doesn't do is delete the Matrix on it's own. A person has to manually press a button for that. Persephone wasn't that stupid. She didn't want to die because of her own program."
"Well, I don't think we can do much else. Have we had any sentinel attacks lately?" Niobe asked.
"Two, both times the force field stopped them. Didn't use up much of the ship's energy either. Neo you seemed to have made energy-conserving protection, good job. The first attack was about five sentinels. The second fifteen. I think the next attack will be much more." Link replied.
"Most likely. Be alert in case they get through." Niobe remarked.
"It is a possibility." Neo commented.
"You, go get some rest, it looks like you'll be a Cyclops tomorrow, if not already. Go to the med lab to get ice. Sleep well." Niobe commanded Neo gently. Neo nodded, his left eye almost already shut. It would be an interesting walk to the med lab and back to his room- that was for sure.
"So, what is all this?" Morpheus asked.
"First, Grace, Link, can you run a search on how many sentinel programs had the completion code '23HE34-00034'?" Neo asked as he stood up.
"One sec." Grace said, her fingers flying over the keyboard. A screen scrolled up revealing many different codes before one was selected. "Let's see, out of 2.5 million sentinels, a whopping 1.75 million were created under that code. Why?"
Neo grabbed hold of the chair for balance. "1.75 million?"
"Neo, are you okay? Why did you want to know those numbers?" Trinity asked, moving towards him.
"The disk asked for the complete deletion, or I would assume the shut down of all sentinel programs with that code."
"You're kidding." Link stated in disbelief. Upon Neo's shaking head, "Who designed that program?"
"Another program. Persephone. Throughout the deletions I came upon her little footnotes that were written to anyone who used this disk. I deleted all the agent programs, minus the ones that were 'free' and not connected to the Matrix."
"That could be hundreds. Many agents become unconnected after a matter of time. That's why they change every once in a while." Niobe interjected.
"I also came upon a 'creation program'. It allowed me to create ships, weapons, energy cells, and provisions. They have been created and are protected from any and all sentinels or programs until I get to those coordinates."
"That's on the surface Neo. We can't go there, it's too dangerous." Morpheus argued.
"He just deleted 1.75 million sentinels Morpheus. We have the EMP in the form of a force field. We will be fine." Grace countered.
"I hope your right. Link, set the ship's coordinates to those exact coordinates- only underground. I don't want to be above ground until we have to." Niobe commanded.
"Setting coordinates." Link responded, turning to the keyboards and typing furiously.
"Estimating the time." Grace added, typing her own keys.
A few moments of silence, save for the keyboards Link and Grace were typing on, passed before Link called out,
"We're on our way."
"It'll be roughly one day's travel. You want me to contact the other surviving ships?" Grace asked.
"No. Not yet. Neo, how many ships did you create?" Niobe asked.
"Only two, but the other things I created, if used by just this ship, would last us at least three years."
"Wow. You really had fun in there." Trinity commented, a look of shock on her face.
"How do you know this'll work?" Wish piped up.
"The machines do this themselves. They create fields of humans, they create sentinels, energy, all at the click of a few buttons. They do this inside a computer program. I was given the ultimate hacker program- something to hack into the machines' database and do a little damage, while using their cheats for my own use."
"How could this help us? They'll just make more agents and sentinels." Wish scoffed.
"No. That disk is a virus. Once I begin unraveling the programs, it'll do it's own work. Stopping their creation processes, undoing codes for new programs, everything. The only thing it doesn't do is delete the Matrix on it's own. A person has to manually press a button for that. Persephone wasn't that stupid. She didn't want to die because of her own program."
"Well, I don't think we can do much else. Have we had any sentinel attacks lately?" Niobe asked.
"Two, both times the force field stopped them. Didn't use up much of the ship's energy either. Neo you seemed to have made energy-conserving protection, good job. The first attack was about five sentinels. The second fifteen. I think the next attack will be much more." Link replied.
"Most likely. Be alert in case they get through." Niobe remarked.
"It is a possibility." Neo commented.
"You, go get some rest, it looks like you'll be a Cyclops tomorrow, if not already. Go to the med lab to get ice. Sleep well." Niobe commanded Neo gently. Neo nodded, his left eye almost already shut. It would be an interesting walk to the med lab and back to his room- that was for sure.