Nanu's Story – Training and Revelations.

***Neo***

He is on Deck early. He goes through disks, programs; things Nanu must learn.

Should she begin training today?

He is never certain how to instruct a rookie, having never really been one himself. He had been 'the new guy' once, of course, but Morpheus had never made allowances for him.

Neo stares at the screen with its green code, figures sliding like water down glass. When he looks at this he sees it very differently to everyone else. Tank can read it like a book, others recognise strings of symbols and piece together what happens, but Neo sees it like a movie. The code seems to go out of focus and forms a picture, a scene.

He looks away, around the Deck. He can remember another Deck, on the first Neb, and how it seemed so tangled and confusing.

He can remember when Tank helped him into chair 2, loaded up combat training; Jujitsu. Neo can remember the explosive feeling of knowledge filling his head and mind, and suddenly realising he knew Jujitsu.

But he doesn't want to inflict that upon Nanu. Not yet.

Neo hadn't been treated like a normal 'rookie', he had been the One, or so everyone had said. He had been expected to be better, faster than anyone else. He had been expected to make his first Jump.

Which wasn't really fair as far as Neo was concerned. He'd only ever wanted what everyone else got.

Nanu is different. Neo can't pin down why, or what it is she can do, but she is different.

And part of him wants to find out what she is capable of, to stretch her, let her see what she can be.

Another part wants to protect her. He knows she isn't innocent, but she is young. She has never needed to be tough, to survive.

That's the worst thing about training, about learning to kill. It makes a person into a soldier, it hardens them, makes the spirit pull in deeper underground. Some rare people don't freeze over as much. Avis. Digi. Gavin.

Mouse.

Neo sighs. Tasty Wheat. He can't eat any more without making that connection. One day he'll tell Nanu about Mouse, about how he died.

He pulls a disk from the pile at random; Jujitsu.

He smiles bitterly, shakes his head.

"What's funny?"

He doesn't turn. He knows it's Nanu.

"The disk," he looks at her as she comes up beside him in the operator's chair. "These are training programs. I chose on at random. This," he holds up the disk, "this is the first program I ever learnt."

"Am I starting training today?"

"Yes. But with Tank, not me."

"Why not you?" but there's no childish tone to her voice.

"You should get to know everyone. It's better that way."

"I know Gavin and Trinity, not just you."

"Sometimes I think you know everything."

She goes still, looking at the screen. "I don't know nearly enough." Her eyes squint for a moment, then she asks Neo, "Can you read that?"

"It's not like reading, it's, I don't know I can't explain it." He looks hard at the screen. "It's like knowing a language, and knowing how to speak it, but not knowing how to translate it." Neo turns his eyes to her, she's frowning. "Does that make sense to you?"

She nods, not breaking eye contact. She has eyes like something wild, he never noticed before.

"It makes sense. Though logic says it shouldn't, I know what you mean," her voice trails into nothing as she looks back to the screen.

"So what do you see?"

"I'm watching Biosa, the captain of another ship. She's checking out a copper I told her about, she wants to unplug her."

"What's her name?"

"The name she was given is Patricia Hung. The name she chose is Wraith."

"Good name. Where is she?"

"Working, a mail room in the City."

"She a hacker?"

"Of sorts. She's pretty well known, but she's also like Gavin; too many scruples for notoriety."

"So she'll go through everything I've been through, bugging, debugging, the pill and all that?"

"It's never quite the same experience from one person to the next, but yes, the same sequence."

"I hope she appreciates it, I hope she is willing to live with the truth when she gets it."

Then Nanu steps back, folds her arms. Tank emerges from below deck, calling a good morning to Neo. When he sees Nanu, he halts, but only briefly.

"You're up early," he says.

"Up and at 'em," she smiles. "When does training start?"

"Jeez," Tank raises his eyebrows, gives her an appraising look. "You're up really early."

Nanu shrugs, uncomfortable now the attention's on her.

"Have you eaten yet, Tank?" Neo asks.

"Yeah, why?"

"Perhaps training could begin, if there's nothing else you need to do."

Tank, hesitates, then nods; "Sure, c'mon Nanu."

***Nanu***

She inhales as Tank slides the jack into her head. Nothing is loaded, so nothing happens. He returns to the desk with Neo, and there is a brief, quiet, discussion about if she should begin combat training or something easier. Neo wins, and Tank slides in a disk, Jujitsu.

"This is going to be weird Nanu," Neo warns, and then she shuts her eyes as the program begins to run.

Jujitsu. Knowledge. She knows, suddenly, how to use this style of defence. Her nerves are electrified; her body thrums like a taut string.

The program is finished and Nanu's eyes open. She's breathing heavily, nostrils flaring, and she swears with a rush of feeling.

"How was that?" asks Tank.

"Damn good!"

Neo smiles, "How about some more?"

She manages to smile back. Her voice is unsteady, shaking with adrenaline, "Hell yes."

Neo claps Tank on the shoulder and leaves with one last glance, but Nanu is going into the next program and barely notices his confused look.

***

The programs run out eventually, but the artificial sparring programs last longer. Tank loads new opponents, bigger, faster, tougher opponents, and Nanu fights them all, beating some, losing to more, until she's near exhausted.

She lies in the chair, trying to focus her eyes on the screen above her. And she's wondering why her muscles are sore if it's only her mind in the program.

"You want to spar with someone real?" Tank asks.

"Like who?" Nanu turns her head a little to see him.

"Gavin's the newest besides you. And he asked to."

"When?"

"About ten minutes ago. You were in."

"Oh," Nanu shuts her eyes, tries to breathe deeper. "Sure, why not?"

"You're not too tired?"

Tank is only being concerned, but her eyes open and anger flares anyway, "No."

"I'll go get him," Tank smiles. "Don't you go anywhere."

She closes her eyes again as he leaves. She can feel her muscles loosening. Gavin. Nanu is still remembering seeing how his little brother died.

Where's Gavin now? Helping Achi do inventory in the armory. The armory, that's Neo's new hideout. Neo is, coming to check on her. Odd that he should do that. He's curious to see what she's achieved, how much she's learned. Why? What is it about her that interests him? A difference in her coding, her character, what she knows?

But Nanu doesn't know why or how she can do what she does, how she listens in on peoples thoughts and how she can tell what they're experiencing. Neo probably knows more about it than she does.

Neo is . . . here. Nanu opens her eyes, sees him approaching. He goes to the desk, checks her statistics.

"Not bad," he complements. "76% victory, you made it to level eight."

"Level one was like fighting a kid, I started to lose once it got realistic."

"It's your first day Nanu. No one gets to the top level on their first day."

"You probably did," she laughs.

"We didn't have this program then."

"Bet that's the only reason. Or you're just being modest."

Neo laughs. Not loudly, not long, but he laughs, and the whole fabric of him changes.

She hears footsteps; Tank and Gavin coming closer. Neo stifles his smile, sits down and begins typing. "Are you going to spar with Gavin?"

"She sure is," Gavin comes up from below. Neo glances up at her and mouths, 'Get ready'.

. . . static . . .

Then she's in the program. It's a small, dim, room, with a concrete floor, grey brick walls and one door. It's quiet.

She stands in the middle of the room, not knowing what to do. Then there is the sound of another breath in the room and Gavin is beside her.

"Hide and seek. This is a game."

"How is hide and seek training?"

"It tests your speed, and how well you handle pressure. It's training when you have to run for your life with Agents after you."

"Agents?"

"Guys in brown suits, no one but Neo can beat them in a fight."

"What do I have to do?"

"Find me. I'm going to leave now, and you have to wait until the door opens, then you have to find me."

"Are there any Agents?"

"Yes. You have to try avoid them."

"Time limit?"

"Two minutes."

"Right. That all?"

"Yeah," he turns for the door, opens it. "See you soon." And then the door is shut and he's gone.

She shuts her eyes, thinks with all her mind – Gavin. Now this might actually help her.

Nanu can feel him, as if he is around her, and she feels what he does. Cool air and hard ground as he jogs down the grey hall. Turn right, left, right then fight again. She memorises his route as he goes, then he stops in a dead end with another door and she opens her eyes.

The door is open, and she goes through it.

Bang! There is a flash of light on her left side and she hears the whistle of a bullet past her head.

An Agent. Goddammit.

Nanu turns right and runs. She runs as fast as she physically can.

Bang! She ducks left, into another corridor of the maze. Then right, then right and she can hear the Agent behind her as she runs and she hears him fire again.

'Find me'. But would finding Gavin lead the Agent to him? This is just a game but Nanu hates to lose. And she doesn't want to feel the program's interpretation of how much it hurts to be shot.

She turns off course. Away from Gavin.

Bang! Brick explodes from the wall beside her head; she turns again, feeling lost, and beginning to get scared. And her lungs are hurting. Another shot.

How many guns does the Agent have? Will he run out of ammo?

Guns. Nanu rounds a corner and there are dozens of them, shelves line both walls all down the hall. She grabs two uzis and turns. One heartbeat. Two.

The Agent comes around the corner and Nanu opens fire. Caught off guard, the Agent flickers and disappears, defeated.

Nanu picks up another two handguns and shoves them into the top of her jeans, then keeps moving.

Gavin. Where in hell is he? But it all looks the same, even through his eyes.

Neo would know what to do. He probably has a map of this damn maze and he's watching her right now thinking, go right Nanu.

There is a corridor on her right. She turns into it.

Left Nanu.

She turns left.

Straight ahead, then third left.

Sprint down the hall, spin around the corner, and then she can see Gavin, holding a door open for her, and she's running so fast it's not quite real and then they fall through the door, and she opens her eyes and Tank is saying, "One minute fifty-nine."

"Jesus," Neo looks at her, "there was an Agent in there wasn't there?"

"Yes," Nanu's breath begins to slow as Tank comes around to unplug Gavin. "Did I win or lose?"

"Win, certainly. But . . ." he looks at Gavin as the young man sits up, rubbing the back of his neck. Then the jack slides out of her head and she sits upright, leaning elbows on knees.

"No one has ever made it out once an Agent turned up. People have made it out in the time limit, but no one has ever beaten an Agent."

Except Neo of course.

"Where did your guns come from?" Gavin asks.

"I just found them, I don't know," she turns to Neo. "Are they a bonus in the game or something?"

He thinks. "A Zion-born on another ship designed this program, she told me when we copied it that there were guns in there somewhere to help the players, but we couldn't find it. It's not on the map. But how in hell did you beat the Agent?"

"I came around the corner and found the guns. I grabbed two, and when he came around the corner after me I fired." She frowns, remembering Gavin's memory. "But real Agents are different right?"

"Yes, but you'll found out how later."

"Why not now?"

"It's late."

"Late?"

Neo smiles wanly, "Time flies when you're having fun Nanu. You've been training for about eight hours."

"Oh, I didn't realise." She moves, and winces at pain. "I guess I'll see you at dinner, once I can move again."

"Don't take too long," Gavin jokes, "or I'll eat your dinner," he smiles, then clambers out of his chair and follows Tank down the ladder.

Neo stays at the desk, watching her with a strange expression on his face. Like he's, like I'm . . . scared. Scared of her, of the way she's different. Yet I'm curious, curious to see how much more she can do. Curious to see, to see, how she fights. How she'd spar with someone real, how she would spar with . . .me.

"What are you thinking?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm not sparring with you today. I'm tired enough already."

"What?"

"I heard you. I know what you're thinking. And I want you to know something." Carefully she eases out of the chair, and begins to walk toward him. His eyes move to follow her.

"I don't know why you chose me. But I know I can do things that you can't. I know you spend every night alone in the armory. I know Trin makes you cry. I know you hardly sleep.

"I know people think you're invincible. I know Trin fears for you, for your life. I know you are the most important thing in Gavin's life, and I know that for many others you are their only hope. And in know that scares you."

"How . . . ?"

"I don't know how. All I know is that I know."

His mind is closing. He shakes his head.

"No. in don't believe you.

"Let me prove it to you. You've said that I'm different, let me show you how. Or you can explain why you chose me. Of all people, why me?"

He doesn't know that, he shrugs.

"So let me prove it."

His expression is flat, like a shut door. "Go ahead."

Nanu stands with her hands by her sides. She tries to relax.

How to do this? Neo . . .

Neo is . . . suspicious, nervous, and trying not to let her read him. He doesn't understand how she could know about him and Trinity.

Neo and Trinity.

She closes her eyes. A dark room, loud industrial music. Alone against the wall, feeling awkward. Leather clad dancers all around, a feeling of being out place.

Lyrics.

Dead I am the one

Exterminating son

Slipping through the trees

Strangling the breeze

"Hello Neo."

Neo/Nanu turns around.

"How do you know that name?"

"I know a lot about you."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Trinity."

Nanu opens her eyes. The Main Deck is shadowy and dim. Neo sits still, watching her.

"You met Trinity at a club, she knew your name but you didn't know her."

He stares. But then he shakes his head and she knows he's not convinced.

She folds her arms, bows her head. Deeper. Deeper underground. She needs a purpose, a direction, a search word, a name.

Thomas Anderson.

Thomas.

Blank.

She feels very small. A face above her, no him, blurs into focus. A woman with dark brown eyes, black hair pulled back from a narrow face and a tired expression looks down on him/her. There are fading bruises on her cheek.

"Tom. Come on Tommy, we have to go."

"Mom?" his voice is a little boy's voice, sleepy and confused.

"Come on Tommy, we're going."

The woman, his mother, lifts him out of bed, dresses him quietly and puts on his coat, then she carries him out to the car. It's dark and cold, and beginning to get rainy. The house is all pale fibro walls and dark roof and windows with ragged curtains; it crouches in the small muddy yard.

Then the door shuts, and the car drives them both away.

Nanu opens her eyes. She looks up at Neo, who is watching her closely.

"Your mother woke you up in the middle of the night, and took you with her, away from home."

His breath catches. He looks away.

"I was four. I remember. My mother, I haven't thought of her in years. I don't even know if she's still alive."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have – " she is scared of the almost tears in his eyes.

"No, it's alright." He breathes in, the wall around the memory is piled up again. After a pause; "How did you know?"

"I don't know exactly how," she shrugs, uncomfortable with what she's just done; looked into Neo's forgotten childhood.

"I'd almost forgotten that happened. Nobody could have told you about that."

"You did in a way."

"I don't follow you."

"I think I saw your memory somehow, through your eyes. I don't know how I did it, but I did."

"What other memories have you seen?" he's on alert now.

"Just that one, and when you first met Trinity."

"What music was playing?"

She tells him the lyrics.

"God . . . what else could you see?"

"I don't know, but I won't go hacking your mind."

"Oh," he doesn't let much show, but she can tell he's relieved. "What else can you do?"

She looks away. She doesn't really want to tell him all she can do. But there is one thing –

"I can tell where people are, like, on the ship. If I listen for them."

"Where's Tank?"

Tank . . .

"He's in the galley, eating, with Gavin, Key and Tod."

"What about Trin and Achi?"

Trinity . . .

"The storeroom, talking."

"About what?"

Breathe in slowly.

It's cool in the storeroom. Rows of metal lockers line the walls, Trin is leaning against them. Achi is scrambling combinations, locking the doors one by one.

"What exactly do you mean by weird?" she asks Trin.

"I don't know. I'm just uncomfortable around her around her. It's like she knows something I don't."

"Has she said anything to that effect?"

Pause. "Yes."

"But you're not going to tell me what, are you?"

She smiles very faintly, "No."

"You know what I think?" Achi tucks a dred behind her ear. "I think she's different, but she's a good person. So I'll try to like her."

"And you think I should do the same?"

"Captain, I think you're psychic."

Nanu opens her eyes.

"They're not talking about anything."