Three Shades of Sky
Chapter 1
Author's notes:
Jennifer Jolie: Yes, Jenn is an eejit and that's why it took so long for our first chapter. Sorry, all! Yeah, so like we said, we have real plotline which we're going to bring out sooner or later. Hopefully sooner. ^^ And please, please read and review, and try to give constructive reviews, we really could use it. Thanks! Peace to all.
Chord: chord sends her greetings to all readers, thanks for reading the first chapter, she hopes everyone will review etc. ^^
Disclaimer: Diss-the-claimer! (from Clarenova) We don't own squat, it belongs to the amazing Wachowski brothers. We do, however, own the original characters Curse and Impasse. We also own Shadow, who Jenn the eejit created before she realized that there are several Shadows in this category. Sorry! We'd just like everyone to know that we did not copy. Copying = Bad. ^^
* ~ *
Shadow.
A somewhat odd choice for a medic's name – that was Morpheus' first thought as he watched the newest addition to the crew shake hands with Trinity.
Or maybe that was because he had failed to notice the touch of caution that hovered behind Shadow's dark eyes as she exchanged friendly smiles with Neo. He would have seen that her name suited her a lot more than he thought had he taken the time to be more observant.
Of course, nobody blamed him. He was, after all, the captain of a ship and the title came with a certain amount of responsibilities that worried him far more than the personality of his medic. There was simply no time to sit down and play 'getting to know you' when Zion officials were constantly demanding for reports concerning the Neb's recent losses, supply shortages and the like. Aside from that, there was the pressing need to replace more than half a crew, fast, and doing so was not an easy task. Morpheus had no other choice than to leave the welcoming pleasantries, and chocolate-mints-on-the-pillow to someone else, even though he doubted that his four other companions were up to it.
As soon as he ran a mental checklist of potential hosts through his head, he found himself checking off each candidate by turn. The results pulled his mouth into a miniature imitation of a scowl. His present crew just wasn't up to giving tours at the moment.
There was Curse, the redhead with perky blue eyes and freckles that dusted her pale face, but she was not a good choice. Although her previous life as Tiffany Brown (of all cutesy names), decently experienced hacker and infamous smuggler of pirated software, made her a useful addition to the crew, the fact that she had been unplugged no more than a week ago hardly qualified her as a mentor, even though her acceptance of the Matrix and her capability to adjust to a completely alien routine in such a brief period was more than commendable. She had yet to experience the even harsher realities of life on a hovercraft and although Morpheus knew Curse would learn to deal with them in time, Shadow couldn't be shown around by a kid who still tripped over the cables that ran across the length of the deck.
Tank was no good either. It was only too clear that he had yet to recover from Dozer's death, not to mention the deaths of his other friends… and Cypher's betrayal. Where a smile used to greet each newbie, a considerably less encouraging nod was more likely to appear. Besides, Morpheus was unsure of how the operator would react to the woman who was to take his brother's place as ship medic.
That left Trinity and Neo but the chances of either one of them acting as a guide to a complete stranger were slim. His second-in-command and the One were still in the process of getting to know each other better and Morpheus knew that that alone was hard enough for both his children. Having a sullen newcomer tagging along behind them would only make matters worse.
He sighed.
He had accepted his position as their leader a long time ago but that didn't mean he had perfected the role of a father. Cypher's betrayal had taught him that much – a dash of iced water in the face for him to realize that there was a lot more going on behind whatever personae his crew presented. His duties went passed making sure that those under his command were ready to enter the Matrix and fight when needed, and while caring for his crew was a necessity, he'd taken it all for granted. After all, these soldiers were his family. Looking after them was no piece of cake, but he did try.
Yes, he did try.
Morpheus watched Shadow stand helplessly next to the monitors, unsure of what to do, as Neo followed Trinity out of the Core. The departure of both left the newcomer standing confused and sullen, not to mention alone and friendless. Tank, who under better circumstances might have taken Shadow under his wing as he had Neo, had not even showed up for her arrival. As for the other missing resistance fighter, Curse, being a surprisingly skilled mechanic, was most probably in the engine rooms or fiddling with the plumbing.
Amidst a pair of steady breathing, Shadow was left standing next to the console with solemnity written all over her face. She fiddled with the end of her dark plait, which came past her shoulder blades. Morpheus took pity on the medic who had come to the Neb under the call of duty and not of her own free will. After taking a moment to decide as to whether or not he should just leave her to find her way to the cabins, Morpheus approached the medic, who jumped to attention at the sound of his footsteps.
He smiled. She had not known that he had been there all along.
"Morpheus," she began, then stopped, obviously uncertain of what to say next. Judging from her thick accent and facial features, she had most likely been foreign, perhaps Russian. One of a kind, in that case.
"I'll show you to your room. You can get settled, then meet us in half an hour in the mess hall."
* ~ *
Dinner was worse than usual that evening. Tasty wheat wasn't quite so tasty.
No one had gone to check the thermostats in the ships' fridges. That had been Dozer's job and he had gone about it so efficiently that most of the crew had forgotten that it was a task that needed tending to. As a result of being exposed to room temperature, despite Neo's optimistic joke that the entire ship felt like a cold-box anyhow, the food had gone bad.
It didn't taste like runny eggs anymore, since eggs didn't smell like last week's garbage. Besides, eggs were definitely not the thickness and color of badly mixed split-pea soup. On the brighter side, as Curse pointed out with a cheerful smile that made everyone except Trinity and Shadow smile slightly, it was now closer to snot than it had ever been.
As the entire crew looked on anxiously, or in Curse's case, queasily, Morpheus ran a scan on the slop and found it perfectly fit for human consumption. Reluctant as he was to put it in his mouth, he insisted that everyone eat it for the rest of the week until they made a new batch. It would simply not do, he argued, to waste any of it.
"We could use it to grease the engines," quipped Curse, but she was silenced by the look on Morpheus' face.
It was certainly not a very impressionable first night for their newest recruit.
Trinity kept an eye on Shadow as the medic toyed with her spork. Morpheus had told her that Shadow had come from a ship with already three fully trained medics. Even though she seemed resigned enough to her new post, Trinity knew for a fact that it had taken rank from the other ship's captain to get Shadow to leave the Gethsemane; for all she knew, Shadow might be hiding some bitter emotions underneath the come exterior and whenever matters struck Trinity as even remotely similar to what had happened in the past, regarding weak-minded traitors, paranoia ran high.
There was no question that Trinity did not want that part of history repeating itself. For how long she sat there, unmoving and contemplating on Shadow's odd silence, Trinity did not know. She became aware of it, however, when a voice broke her train of thought.
It was the one voice she could never ignore, if ever she wanted to.
"Trinity? You haven't touched your food… It isn't that bad," came a gentle chide from her left. She half turned to see Neo peering at her, doing his best to mask the concern with a forced smirk, or what passed for a smirk with him anyway. "It isn't so bad… it tastes like, like…" He let of glob of sludge ooze off his spork. "Like coleslaw."
"Understatement of the year, Neo," called Curse from across the table. "Then again, I suppose you'd eat anything… you don't know any better."
"And I suppose you do?" Tank returned and the banter continued, softening the strained atmosphere, to Trinity's relief.
"Of course. At least I know enough not to pass this off as a gourmet meal," was Curse's smug reply.
Tank shrugged, defeated, as Neo chuckled at his expense.
He knew, as did everyone else, that there was no way you could win a debate with Curse. In the Matrix, she had grown up on the streets and despite her appearance's similarity to a Barbie doll she was no more a plaything to be kept on a shelf than Trinity was. Not only did she know how to start and end a conversation on her terms; she never lost her temper. That trait made offending her in any way impossible, but it also made her the easiest person to work with. Patience was a highly valued trait in a world where it was needed a lot, and needless to say, Curse had it in plenty.
The first time Tank had demonstrated how to clean the engines she had simply taken a rag and helped get rid of the grit and oil when his back was turned. Later that same evening, Trinity had caught Tank trying to wipe the grease off all her tools when he thought everyone else had gone to bed; after that encounter, it was blatantly obvious to all but the blind, that the operator had a thing for their rookie.
And a rather large one too.
"Crap or not," continued Neo when Curse's teasing had subsided, "we have to eat."
"If you call this eating."
"Slurping." He paused. "We live off what we can." He smiled wryly. "Real survivors, us."
His eyes were still fixed on the bowl before him but Trinity knew the statement had been directed at her. She fought to keep a straight face.
She knew she was disciplined enough to force the most unappetizing sludge down her throat, should the need arise, but apparently, Neo didn't know that. She bit back a smile that threatened to give her away. There were still so many things they didn't know about each other.
He worries too much, she thought as she picked up her spork and dragged it slowly through the mush, trying to avoid the greasy layer of oil collecting on the top. Noting the way Neo relaxed next to her when the first spoonful disappeared into her mouth, her amusement increased.
As soon as Morpheus began a light conversation with Shadow and everyone's attention was captured, Trinity allowed herself to slide her free hand under the table and take hold of Neo's as a silent thank you for his concern. The touch was brief and she let go almost at once but she knew the simplicity of it all was enough to ease his unsettled mind for now.
The thought made her smile as she returned to her dinner.
* ~ *
"No!"
Neo raised an eyebrow at Curse disbelievingly, somehow finding it difficult to believe that the teenager had reacted to his suggestion so violently. Curse was mostly mild-mannered and outbursts like these just didn't suit her.
"No?" he repeated, trying to sound as if she had a say in the entire argument. Curse shook her head, and Neo could almost see the red locks that had not grown back yet flying in every direction.
"What's wrong with the jump program, Curse?" asked Tank, already in his operator's chair. He studied the girl from over the Consoles as his fingers flew over the keyboard as if guided by an invisible force. He types like he talks, thought Neo, and he reads code like he sees things – maybe even better.
"I don't want to go back in." Curse stamped her foot on the ground, an action that caused hollow echoes to bounce up and down the Core. She looked almost sheepish as all three of them waited for the din to fade away.
It didn't seem like her personality to disagree so firmly. Neo tried a more compassionate outlook, brushing Curse's refusal to cooperate as a minor, and hopefully temporary, childish tantrum. "Curse, I know you've missed the jump quite a few times-"
"Thirteen," cut in Curse bitterly.
"Unlucky number," commented Tank. Neo shot him a dirty look before turning his full attention back to Curse. The girl had gone back to moping.
"But you got really close the last time, remember?" he recalled. Which was true. Well, the next best thing to true, anyway.
Curse bit her lip.
"What's the matter?" He flinched mentally at how cold his question had come out sounding.
Curse didn't reply, but the color drained out of her already pale face. When it was obvious that Curse had gone silent and would stay silent for now, Neo released an impatient sigh, trying to make it sound a touch more impatient than he really was.
Time for the hard way, thought Neo glumly.
"Tank," he said loudly, "we're going in."
Curse's eyes immediately swept around the room for someone else to turn to, but the rest of the crew were attending to different tasks at the moment. There was nobody to hide behind and as soon as she realized that, her feet began to move in the direction opposite Neo and the jack-in equipment.
Neo pretended to ignore the girl's futile attempts at escape. He knew she was disciplined enough not too stray far when she had training, so he let her pretend that she was getting away with it. As he punched the Construct's access codes, he noticed slight movement out of the corner of his eye.
It was Shadow, hanging around next to the large pipes at the far end of the deck. She was watching Curse shuffle and shift, rooted to the spot in between freedom and a training stimulation. Neo saw the corners of her mouth twitch and his finger froze in mid-click.
Shadow's action was one he knew well enough to get him sidetracked. Neo was able to return to the task at hand in a matter of seconds, but his mind was now elsewhere. To be more specific, his thoughts were flying in and out of familiar memories that had been triggered by Shadow's almost-smile.
She tries to hide her amusement, thought Neo. He threw another quick look over his shoulder but Shadow had gone, she doesn't want anyone to see through her. Afraid to let anyone in.
For an instant an image flashed through his mind. A face, framed with short, dark hair. Pale, flawless skin. Ice blue eyes, cold and determined, but softening when they met his. Searching. Knowing. Loving. Warm lips which often twitched but hardly smiled…
When he beckoned at Curse, signaling for the girl to come forward, a smile was dancing on his lips and a name was coursing through his head. Trinity…
Shadow still couldn't match up to Trinity any way possible – no one could – but she was so like her. A… shadow of Trinity.
Come to think of it, Shadow was a bit of everyone. Neo still wasn't sure what to make of her.
Neo led Curse over to the chair and plugged her in, taking care to do so gently, as the feeling of a long, slithery metal object piercing your skull was never a pleasant one. Tank jacked Neo in, then moved briskly over to the monitors that would show him whatever activity was going on inside. When the Jump Program was loaded, he watched as the code that was Curse gingerly walked to the edge of the building she and Neo were standing on and standing on and peered down. The earlier will to rebel had been replaced by a panicky, less defiant expression.
Cute kid… he thought, unaware of the rather goofy grin that was plastered on his face as he proceeded to watch the training.
"Fear of heights," rang Neo's voice. Tank listened to their conversation intently through his earpiece. "That's your problem, isn't it?"
Curse nodded rather shakily. She gulped and quickly took a few steps back.
"Not much good telling you to free your mind, then," muttered Neo to himself, lips twisting in a wry smile as he remember the early days of his own training, crammed and bursting at the seams with his captain's favorite three word phrase, so commonly mimicked on board ship. How frustrating it had been at the time, even without a gnawing fear of heights, when he couldn't make a jump which looked so effortless and basic.
He also sympathized with Curse. The person who had told the world to face their fears was either an idiot or a lunatic. Or both. He recalled how Curse had lived on the ground floor of her flat in her old life and her reluctance to use ladders on the Neb to fix high cables (a slightly smitten Tank somehow was always at hand). It simply wouldn't do to force her to try to jump again, especially since – much to Morpheus' chagrin – thirteen was a record on the jump. Even Mouse, a programmer at heart and more or less useless when it came to anything less, had made it on eleven.
Neo looked skyward. "Tank?"
"Operator."
"Can you load a smaller jump?"
"What?" Curse looked torn between looking delighted, looking scared of another jump and looking embarrassed. "Neo, I'm fine, you don't have to-"
"Forget it." He smiled warmly at her and Curse found it hard not to grin back. It was easy to see why Trinity had warmed to him and no one else.
"I don't think-" Tank caught himself. Browsing through the files, he caught sight of a particular diskette tucked away with all the other programs used on the Neb, lurking near the bottom, as if hidden from sight. A plain red sticker labeled it, but there were no words written on it, as disks were usually labeled on the Neb. "Yeah, we do, hang on..."
"Thanks," said Neo. Curse watched him but her fear had lessened considerably and her cheeks were turning steadily from white to a crimson red blush.
Tank reached out and slipped the diskette into the console's disk drive. He ignored Shadow's suspicious look and allowed mischief to play all over his smirk as he entered the code.
"There you go, man. Smaller jump program."
There was silence for a while.
"Tank, are you sure this is a jump simulation?" Curse blinked, her usual polite confusion returning. "It looks like someone's… bedroom."
* ~ *
Neo took in his surroundings.
A four-poster king-sized bed swathed in a canopy of matching white lace was the main attraction in the room, especially since it took up more than half the space. The ceiling was high and gave the impression of roominess. The deep pile carpeting was rose pink, and the walls smothered in creamy velveteen wallpaper. While the entire room was no doubt very luxurious and tastefully designed, it was not a smaller jump program. Unless it involved jumping from the bed to the floor.
Morpheus had once told Neo that occasionally a crewmember of the Neb might jack into the Construct as an alternate escape plan, but this room seemed out of place with his crewmates and ex-crewmates.
Too… romantic.
"Tank?" Neo shouted, again looking up as if Tank were perched on the ceiling. "Is this the right program?"
Back on the Nebuchadnezzar, Tank hummed loudly (and tunelessly), drumming his fingers on the keyboard. For the sake of procedure and emergencies he'd kept his earpiece on, and if Neo kept shouting like that he was going to have a headache. He hummed louder.
"Tank!" Neo was ready to wring Tank's neck, if only he got them out of the program first. "Tank?" Suddenly he felt of surge of panic. Something could've happened to Tank… Nonetheless he did his best to keep a cool exterior, for fear of setting Curse off.
Curse peered nervously around the room. "Maybe we should get out of here?" she suggested tentatively. Curse tried the door. The knob was stuck. Neo fought to stay controlled.
Marching over to the windows, Neo threw back the heavy, lacy drapes.
Nothing was there. Absolutely nothing. Not even more wallpaper. In place of a window there was what appeared to be a solid black screen, smooth but impenetrable. Neo recognized it as a sign of something that hadn't fully been programmed – like the door. That meant that if something had happened to Tank – which he feared had – they were as good as permanently trapped in the program.
Fighting the urge to pound on the door, yelling, Neo tried the other window, expecting another false wall. This time, there was actually a frame in, but there was nothing beyond the cold glass. Neo swallowed hard. It was as if the sky had been squeezed together. While the rest of the room was very realistic – evidently by a very skilled programmer with an eye for detail – the absence of a sky hit Neo hard, even though the only other mistake he could see was that the room was illuminated but no lights were present.
He was just about to release a yell when a quiet whimper from behind caught his attention. Neo whirled around and the sight before him halted his frantic search for escape.
Curse was huddled in the middle of the room, on the floor. Her knees were brought right up to her chest, with both arms around them. She watched him from her spot, eyes wide with fear, and her entire hunched-up self was shaking. And it hit him.
"You're not just scared of heights, are you?" he asked.
Curse nodded and looked around frantically. Neo watched her eyes flick from window to door and back at him, "I have claustrophobia. It isn't so much of a problem on the ship because I can move around… but haven't you noticed that…"
"You always take midnight watch shifts," finished Neo as Curse confirmed it by closing her eyes. Neo couldn't tell if it was from fear of from humiliation as yet another of her weaknesses was revealed.
Curse had indeed been very willing to spend her nights alone in the Core ever since she'd been unplugged. Each crewmate had their own theory as to why the girl chose this job, the task that was considered by everyone else as a nuisance. After all, it took hours away from the nights, depriving them of the much-needed sleep.
Morpheus, being the logical father of the crew, insisted that Curse must have insomnia. It seemed likely that a restless teenager still adjusting to her new life would find it hard to relax at night on an uncomfortable bunk. He thought she would rather be helpful in the Core instead of passing time awake and useless in her cabin.
Trinity had a sneaking suspicion that Curse missed the Matrix more than she let on. Although she never acted on her suspicion, Neo knew for a fact that Trinity lay awake on some nights when Curse was alone and on duty, listening for any sound that was out of the ordinary. Trinity obviously thought that watching people in the Matrix was a small consolation to the girl.
Tank, on the other hand, wondered if Curse was particularly interested in his job as operator. The thought that there was a possibility he and the girl both liked dealing with keyboards and monitors thrilled him. It was (again) also quite obvious that Tank had a tendency to jump on any common interest he and Curse shared.
But now Neo knew why Curse was so ready to spend her nights in the Core. It was easily the widest and most spacious deck in the Neb because it housed most of the necessary equipment needed to hack into the Matrix. He felt a twinge of sympathy for Curse, knowing that anywhere else on board the Neb must feel like a cage to her – with four solid metal walls on every side. And to think that she had never complained, not even once.
He stepped closer to her and patted her gently on the shoulder.
"Hey, don't worry. Everyone's scared of something. We'll get out of here," he said, trying his best to sound convincing.
"My fear of height and small spaces… that wouldn't ruin my chances of fighting for the resistance will it?" she asked him, almost pleadingly. "I… I really want to help… I mean, I can do other things, like programming and…" She trailed off there.
Neo felt terrible. It was only her first active week and she thought she was useless. He tried to smile reassuringly at her and offered his hand. Curse took it and Neo pulled her to her feet, saying, "There will be some difficulties but I'm sure it wouldn't be too big a problem."
"Thank you. I think I'd better just sit down for awhile," Curse whispered. She then released his hand and made her way to the bed. Her walk was unsteady and her hands were still shaking by the time she collapsed on the four-poster.
Neo shook his head and looked back up at the ceiling. If Curse really had claustrophobia, it wouldn't do to have her traumatized inside a program. There were too many risks when it came to getting an unconscious person in and out of a simulation and he had his mind set on getting her out safely.
"Neo," Curse whimpered, clawing blindly at the bedspread. "Neo, please…"
"Tank," he called once more, "Tank, this isn't funny, man…"
But before he could complete his sentence, Neo's voice got cut off by a ringing sound. Shooting a confused glance at Curse, who returned it with a hopeful one, he reached into his coat's inside pocket and found that a cell phone had materialized in it. He brought the phone out and flipped it open.
"Tank?! Tank, what the hell is happening, man, this is completely…"
"Out of line? Yeah, I figured as much," came a crisp female voice, in response to Neo's less than calm greeting.
"Trinity?" asked Neo, growing even more confused when he heard the second-in-command's voice instead of Tank's. "Where's Tank?"
"Here, next to me, laughing his ass off at the joke no one else finds funny." As if on queue, Tank's laughter increased a notch and could be heard over the phone.
Neo detected a certain amount of anger in Trinity's tone that was seldom used on board ship; in fact, he realized with a jolt, he'd never heard this much rage before.
"Look, can we talk about this later? Curse can't deal with this room. She-"
"Yeah, but the way things look, I'm pretty sure you'll be showing her the ropes." This time there was even a trace of bitterness in her voice. She let out a long, shaky breath. "I can't believe you, Neo. It's her first week. She's confused and scared, and you…" Trinity was using a tone that he'd hadn't heard from her for a while – her upset voice. Neo prided himself on being able to read scales of emotions over the telephone, but right now he'd gladly trade it to be back on board ship.
Tank's voice: "Trinity, it was just a joke, Neo didn't mean anything…" He, too, stopped. He wasn't laughing any more.
"Trin, could you explain—"
Once again, Neo got interrupted, this time by a dial tone, signaling that Trinity had hung up on him. He let out a frustrated whistle. The way she had ended their brief conversation meant only one thing. Trinity was more upset with him than she was with Tank. Over what, he couldn't say, but he certainly wasn't too anxious to find out.
Neo pocketed the unit and turned around, just in time to see Curse's RSI disappear right before his eyes. He sat himself on the spot that Curse had just vacated and waited for them to pull him out.