The Matrix: Preloaded

Chapter 1:

Gemini

1983

Ceres walked down the hallways of the building, a surge of adrenaline rushing through her blood as sweat drenched her knotty sweater and soaked her to the bones. As a cold drop of blood hit the floor she saw the sentinels rip through the haul of the Argo. Alexa, Chyron, Sandro, and Rox had followed Captain Nonaka as he left the ship behind, and headed out on his own. The former crew lived in its own little world now, a world where Nonaka had convinced them that they could cause machines to "matriculate", as they termed it, to their side and live in peace by plugging them into their dreamscape program and playing with them like they were fellow humans. The worst part was that Raoul had gone with them. The man who Ceres was certain that she had loved at one point had followed Nonaka to the base outside of Zion just because the so-called genius scientist had reprogrammed a few sentinels and grown a monkey from a pod.

"Come with us, Ceres," Rox had called to her as she stood at the gate of this ship, "We're going to make peace. Give these machines a chance in another world where humans and programs will live in harmony."

"Peace," she muttered. "Not likely."

"Someone has to take the first step," Doctor Nonaka told the young rebel. "Why can't it be us?"

"Ceres," Sandro called to her, "don't you want this war to end?"

"The war will end when the One returns," she answered harshly. "Come on, Raoul, we're leaving."

"No," his words cut her like a dagger. "I think that Nonaka is the One and that he can end this war and make peace."

"The One would never abandon Zion," Ceres said, slapping him on the face, "and neither will I."

"Ceres," Alexis called out to her former bunkmate, "please tell my brother that I said goodbye".

Ceres walked onto what was left of the Argo: a pilot's chair, a few hoverpads and the EMP, then she felt something warm around her knee. She looked down and saw Baby clinging to her.

"This is your fault, you dumb baboon," she yelled at the monkey before kicking it in the chest and pushing it out of the ship.

The ride to Zion should have been routine except for one thing: in a effort to make peace Nonaka had disabled the EMP. The sentinels appeared swiftly, surrounding the ship. As she heard the sirens blare she called out in the darkness, "No! No, I don't want to die here! No, please; not like this!"

Mink shook her roommate awake.

"Captain, it's all right! You were just having a nightmare, you're in Zion, you're safe, now get up."

"Raoul," Ceres let out the name in a soft moan.

Poor woman, Mink thought to herself. It had been ten years since Ceres had been found lying in the wreck of the Argo, abandoned by her captain and left to die by her crew. Luckily, Captain Flint had been taking the Pequod on one of his many treasure hunts and had found her when he was searching through the wreckage for artefacts. Since her return to Zion, Ceres had found herself stationed under Captain Hamann. Hamann had not only taught Ceres to truly believe in the prophecy but he also helped her to strength her religious faith, which was quite rare for a podborn to have.

Ceres walked through the apartment level until she came to Floor Twelve, Row Five, Apartment 9 She knocked.

"Come in," she heard a young voice pipe up.

Ceres entered the room to find Puck helping Eva strap on her medical bag. The young women marched up to Ceres and stood at attention.

"All right, my new crewman, we are going to see the Oracle again today to try and locate a new potential. Be at the loading dock in fifteen minutes." Ceres couldn't help laughing when Puck perked up at the mention of the Oracle.

"Will Seraph be there?" Puck blurted out. She was well known around Zion as "that girl who's madly in love with the Oracle's bodyguard".

"Probably he takes care of her."

"Taking care of his mother, how wonderful," Puck let out a heavy sigh.

"You know," Eva told her roommate, "it's December, and the Oracle always hangs up mistletoe."

"I know. Who could forget when she made Apache and Morpheus follow tradition?"

"I meant this could be your chance to kiss Seraph, stupid," Eva explained.

Puck let out a shriek and then ran towards the docks. Ceres and Eva entered the docks and Ceres let out a scream directed towards one particular crewmember.

"Orcus, what in hell's name have you done to my ship!?"

The Gemini's first mate slid out of from under the hull of the fleet's flagship. The Gemini was the biggest and by far the most unique of the fleet's twenty-five ships. Eleven ships were tended to by the Zion mechanics, eight were stationed at the hover station over what used to be Cleveland, Ohio, three were scout ships and the Logos was un-operational at the moment. The final two ships were under Ceres' care. Virgo was a scout ship that was docked in a special compartment of the Gemini. Since the Gemini was the biggest ship in the fleet, Ceres was the only one with the honour of commanding two ships. The Gemini was Orcus' baby. So far he had added a second EMP, an extending gun bubble on each side and a back-up jack stand. The ship looked more streamlined them before and it should have: Dozer and Orcus had been working on it for about six months.

"What's new now?" she asked.