The Scout Part 6
By Michel Ward aka Wolfbert
After we left the smoking ruins of my ship behind, we made our way to the England depot through the tunnel system and then hugging the terrain till we arrived at the location of the salvage haulers. The crews had just finished placing the immense scatter-back cammo nets over the last one when the four Shrikes landed. After quickly covering the Shrikes a field medic gave me the once over. Other than some bumps and bruises, I came out of it remarkably intact even if I did not feel like it.
As I left the medic behind, I made my way over to the access doors for the supply depot. Maximus came running up to greet me.
"So are you going to live?" he asks jokingly.
"According to the medic I will," I reply "but there's not a part of me that doesn't hurt right now."
"Well you will be happy to know that the mechanics have the elevator working so we will not have to repel down. Curtis wanted me to come and get you so that you could show them around the depot."
Maximus and I entered the access doors and met Curtis and his team of fifteen techs at the elevator. Curtis is the man in charge of the salvage operation, although he is in his late twenties he is a mechanical wiz and is able to squeeze every last inch of space out of the salvage badges.
"Shadow, the plan went off without a hitch. It was smooth sailing all the way here. Sorry to hear that you lost your ship though." he tells me.
"Yeah, well thanks to the big lug here I'm still alive." I say as I give Maximus a bat on the back.
The elevator arrives and we all pile in. When we arrive at the bottom I shine my flashlight over to the breaker panel and throw the switches. As the lights come up you can hear their collective gasps. At first they just stand there stunned by the shear volume of weapons and supplies. After the shock wears of Curtis starts instructing his techs to their duties. There is a lot of equipment that will need to be inspected and catalogued. I lead Curtis to the back of the depot to the trailers and open the doors. You could hear the thud as their jaws hit the floor. Curtis immediately has five of his techs check out the suits.
"I want that battle armor checked top to bottom, these trailers will be the first to load. If we have to bug out of here in a hurry I don't want to leave these behind," he tells his men.
As Curtis continues his inspection he starts to jot down everything on a notepad until someone discovered a datapad with a complete inventory on it. While he oversaw his people and began to take inventory of all the items, we crack open a case of MRE's and help ourselves. After about an hour, Curtis comes over to where we are sitting.
"I've been going over the inventory that I have here", he tells us holding up the datapad "and we seem to be missing a few things. You don't know where they might be, do you Shadow?"
"No, I have no idea," I tell him nervously.
"I guess it must have been a clerical error," he tells me with a knowing smile.
The plan is that we wait a week for things to calm down topside before we start to move the contents of the depot to the salvage barges. Curtis feels that he can get everything into the barges if he can load up the Shrikes with some of the smaller stuff. Curtis drafts the shrike pilots, the salvage barge crew and me to haul the stuff to the surface and then load it on the barges.
On one of our rare breaks, Maximus and I head back to his ship for some sleep. I stretch out on some anti-aircraft missile crates.
"I don't think that I have ever been this sore or tired in my life," I tell him.
Maximus looks over at my mobile that is sitting on a fold down table "So when are you going to tell me about this?"
I drag myself back up and sit in the seat across from him and pull the mobile over to us and turn it on.
"Maximus meet Agent Gray," I say as the Agents face comes up in the display.
Maximus stares at the image of the Agent, "I had heard rumors that some fool had kidnapped an Agent from the Matrix but I thought it was one of those Matrix hackers. So does it do anything?"
"What would you have me do, jump through hoops?" Gray replies.
"Apart from the attitude and the sarcastic whit, he is a heck of a chess player," I tell Maximus.
For the next hour I fill Maximus in on how I got the Agent and some of the advancements I have made while interacting with it. Maximus even plays a game of chess with the Agent and loses the match, much to the Agents amusement.
After five long days the salvage barges are finally loaded and the shrike pilots have to crawl over crates to get to their cockpits. On the trip home we only ran into two Squid patrols which the shrikes made short work of. All the ships arrive at Zion and it looks like everyone in the city has turned out in celebration. The docks are brimming with cheering people and the security teams have to struggle to keep everyone back as the ships land. McAdams is there to meet Maximus and I, as we walk down the ramp.
"I'm glad to see that my faith in you was not misplaced," she says.
"If it hadn't been for the Shrikes then I would have been dead meat," I reply.
"I'm sorry to learn about the loss of your ship, I know how much you cared for her. We should be able to get you another one when we scrounge the parts."
As the hangar and salvage crews unload the barges the crowd moves the celebration into the town. Maximus and I find our way to The Core were we meet up with Maniac who has a table for us along with our first round of drinks.
"So how was Alaska?" I ask him as I take a sip.
"To say that it was fucking cold would be an understatement. I heard that you lost your ship, if you want we could trade off missions till you get a new one, when ever that might be."
"Thanks, but you shouldn't have to suffer being grounded here. Besides, McAdams promised to make it a priority to get me a new ship."
The celebration goes on well into the day cycle at Zion, as we part ways I try to find my way to my new and hopefully very temporary home. I wind my way through the maze that makes up one of the personnel barracks at Zion looking for my room, which is made more difficult due to my inebriation. I finally find the door and try the key card to open the door. After trying five times to use the key card and not getting the door open, I begin contemplating the use of my pistol in shooting the lock off when I hear a woman's voice behind me.
"You need some help?"
I must really be drunk, I never heard her approach. From her almond shaped eyes I can tell she is of Asian descent, her long black hair is pulled into a single ponytail that falls down her back, her dark eyes feel like they are piercing right through me.
"I said do you need some help?" She asked again.
It is then that I realize that I am standing there slacked jawed and staring. I snap myself out of it and stammer a reply.
"Yeah I'm new here and I can't seem to get this card to work" I try not to slur my words.
"Let me see." she says holding out her hand for the card, which I give to her. She walks over to the door and slides the card into the slot and a green light comes on. She pushes open the door and reaches inside to turn on a light.
"You must have had the card upside down. Don't feel so bad it's a common mistake with new people. So you were just released from the Matrix?"
"For almost five years now, I'm a Scout and I got my ship shot out from under me so now I am stuck here."
"Oh I'm sorry," she says "it's just that you said that you were new here and I saw the IO port on your neck and I just assumed you had just been released."
I realize that my reply had been a bit harsh, "I'm sorry it has been a very long day and I'm really tired. My name is Darien."
"Hi, I'm Crystal. I'm your neighbor across the hall. If you need anything just let me know."
I thank her and stumble into my new home. The place has a main room and a small kitchenette, off of the main room is a small bedroom and bathroom. The furniture is sparse and purely functional. Piled in one corner of the main room are my personal effects that I had salvaged from the remains of my ship. I fish out the mobile and turn it on.
"Well what do you think?" I ask the Agent as I pan the mobile around the room.
"It would appear to be adequate living space, also it has more room than the living quarters on your ship," Agent Gray replies.
"Spoken like a true program," I say as I place the mobile on a table and take a seat. "It looks like we will have a lot more time to spend together maybe I should upload some more game programs into you."
"Isn't there some of your own kind that you can spend your time with or do you get some sort of perverse pleasure making me suffer through your company?"
I'm somewhat taken back by what Agent Gray says. I have spent most of my time out of the Matrix on my own. Sure, I have friends but I only see them for short periods of time. Right now most of them are out of Zion and wandering the wastelands and I would be too if I had a ship.
I get up and head off to bed, "Do me a favor and wake me at nine o'clock."
"I was not designed to be an alarm clock," the Agent protests as I hit the bed and fall asleep almost immediately.
Loud knocking on the door awakens me. I force myself up and look at my watch, which reads ten twenty-two. As I make my way to the door, I look over to the mobile.
"Thanks, I knew I could depend on you." I tell the Agent as I toss my shirt on top of the mobile to hide it.
I open that door and am shocked to see Professor Kaiser.
"Professor, what are you doing here?" I ask.
"I heard that you were back in Zion," the professor replies. "Well, by now everyone has heard that you are back in town. That was quite a feat you and the others pulled off."
"All I did was play fox and let the AI's chase me. If it wasn't for Maximus and the others I would have been toast."
I notice that the professor is somewhat antsy and then it hits me that I have left him standing in the hall the entire time.
"I'm sorry professor I've forgotten my manners, please come in. I'm still use to having a place that people can just walk up the boarding ramp," I tell him.
"Thank you. I'm sorry to hear that you lost your ship. If I can be any help please let me know."
"Thanks professor but McAdams has promised to get me back into a ship as soon as one becomes available. So what brings you here?"
The professor smiles and pulls a mobile out of his satchel.
"I though you would like to see how the Fido program that you gave me has come along."
The professor activates the mobile and slides it over to me. I begin to examine the code and let out a low whistle. The program has increased in size by a factor of four.
"Holly shit professor what did you do to my program?" I ask in awe. "You gave it a physical form. It was never supposed to be a physical part of the Matrix; it was just supposed to stay in the phantom realm."
"Well you see, we had a situation on the Hermes and I had to make some modifications to the original program, with the help of someone else." The professor tells me with a hint of pride in his voice.
"I can see that. It has weapon skills. It can drive a car, motorcycle and a truck. It even knows hand-to-hand combat. Okay out with it professor, what did you do with my program?"
"I wish I could tell you but the whole mission has been labeled classified until further notice. I was able to save a copy of the Fido program before they confiscated the original. I thought that you would want to see how far your program has come along," the professor tells me as he removes the data disk from his mobile and hands it to me.
I think for a second and then reach for the mobile under my shirt. "While we are at it, I guess I should show you this," I tell the professor and slide my mobile over to him.
The professor looks down at the image of the agent on the screen "You didn't delete it after all!" the professor exclaims excitedly.
"He's quick," the Agent says "With guys like him working on your side, humanity is saved."
"You will have to forgive the Agent's wit professor. I thought you might want to see him up close."
"Yes, yes indeed I would," the professor seems to think over something for a second "would you bring it by my lab tomorrow morning?"
"You're not going to do anything to harm the Agent are you professor?" I ask.
"Heavens no, I promise not to harm one bit on his head," the professor assures me.
"Alright, then I will see you tomorrow then."
"Excellent, My lab is on level 4 section 12 in room 133. I'll look forward to seeing you then."
After the professor leaves, I decide to get cleaned up and put away some of personal effects that I have piled in one corner.
"You seemed to be genuinely concerned that the professor would do me harm," the Agent said.
"I gave you my word that if you cooperated and opened yourself to new ideas that I would not let anything happen to you," I replied.
The Agent seems to think it over for a little bit but says nothing.
"The correct thing to do is say, "Thanks."
The Agent just stares at me blankly. Frustrated, I throw up my hands and go back to putting my stuff away.
The next morning I am wandering the halls of level 4 looking for the professor's lab but I am hopelessly lost.
"Why don't you just ask someone for directions?" the Agent asks. I have the mobile active but I have tuned off the screen. The Agent can still see and hear what is going on but no one can see him.
"Shut up, I'll find the place," I tell him. I stop at a staircase and look over the map I have scrawled out before I left my apartment.
"Fancy meeting you here," a familiar voice calls from behind me.
I turn to see Crystal coming down the stairs "Crystal, what are you doing hear?" I ask.
"I'm on my way to the hydroponics bay where I work. You seem lost."
I am, kind of silly a scout getting lost but all the halls seem the same to me."
"Where is it that you are trying to go?" she asks.
I show her the map that I made and tell her the section and room number.
"So you are heading to R&D, I'll show you the way," she says, and leads me to the room with the ease of someone who has spent all of their life in Zion.
I thank her for her help and I am about to enter the room when I turn back to her.
"Are you doing anything tonight?" I ask.
She smiles "No, I'm off work at 18:00."
"How would you like to go with me to Benny's for dinner?"
"That sounds great. I'll see you at my place at 18:30?"
"I'll be there," I tell her and then enter the lab.
The professor's lab is an example of controlled chaos. Electronics and papers are piled on every surface in the room. Notes and equations are scrawled on the boards along the walls, but it appears that the professor knows precisely where everything is considering the ease with which he finds things.
The professor takes me over to a corner of his lab that has several interface chairs and a computer core. He takes the mobile from me and uploads the Agent program into the core.
"Don't worry. I have disconnected the core from all outside connections. It is completely isolated," he assures me. "What I really want you to see is this," the professor turns one of the interface chairs around and points to a box slightly larger than a mobile.
"What is it?" I ask.
"I call it an empathy module. About ten years back we were trying to come up with different ways to destroy the Matrix. I was working on a way to transfer emotions to the AI's," the professor explains.
"You're kidding, right?"
"No, it is quite easy in fact. Just as the Matrix focuses in on the parts of the brain that control your senses, the empathy module focuses in on the part of the brain that produces emotions. The plan was to hook this into one of the pods in the power plant and then the AI's would then share the emotions of that person. Imagine what it would be like if they had to suddenly deal with things like sorrow and fear. How would they react to things like joy and love?"
"And when they feel hatred and anger they would probably kill everyone in the Matrix and then launch an all out assault on Zion out of blind fury," I tell the professor.
"Yes that was one outcome that was proposed. The project was shelved and I had almost forgotten about it but I began thinking, what if you exposed the Agent program to it. Not at full power but bring it to him slowly. Let it learn our emotions and come to deal with them. How would emotions affect it? Maybe we could learn to filter the emotions such as compassion and kindness so that those are the things that the AI's learn. Maybe then the empathy module could be used."
"How can you be certain the AI's don't already have something resembling emotions already?" I ask.
"From what little we know of them they have a very rudimentary form of emotions but nothing on the level that humans have."
"It sounds like and interesting idea but how are you going to make it work?" I ask.
The professor swings the chair back around. "I have already uploaded the Agent into the core. I want you to go in and interact with it. While you do that I will monitor your progress and make adjustments to the module."
I look at the chair and take a step back. "Sorry professor but I swore I would never sit in one of those things."
"It's perfectly safe. I have set it up so that the Agent can not lay a hand on you," The professor assures me.
It's not that professor, it's just that." I pause for a second.
"I think that I understand Darien, and I would not ask this of you but I feel that you have some sort of connection with the Agent, It might even trust you in some way."
I think on it for a second and then let out a heavy sigh. "Okay, let's do this before I change my mind."
I sit in the chair and close my eyes as the professor slides the I/O connector into the data port in the back of my neck.
"Here you go," the professor says as I feel the sudden wash of vertigo and then find myself in a featureless room with Agent Gray.
Before I can say or do anything the Agent crosses the distance between the two of us and has thrown a punch aimed directly at my head in the time it takes to blink an eye. His fist stops about an inch from my face, his arm shakes and the effort he is exerting is visible on his face. After a few seconds he lets his arm drop to his side.
"I had to try you realize," The Agent says.
"I would have been shocked if you hadn't," I reply.
"I'm going to turn on the module," the professors voice echoes out of the air.
Suddenly the Agent screams and falls to his knees.
"Turn it down professor it's too much," I shout.
"I'm adjusting it now."
The pain seems to leave the Agent but the look on his face is sheer panic.
"What are you doing to me?" the Agent shouts.
"We are giving you a little taste of what it feels like to be human and what it feels like to have human emotions."
The Agent seems to compose himself more and I step back as he gets to his gets to his feet. I pick up his glasses which had fallen off and hand them back to him, but he does not put them on. He begins to pace back and forth as his eyes dart from one spot to the next.
"What do you feel?" I ask.
The Agent seems to think about it for a bit. "I have this tightness in my chest," the Agent says as he places his hand on his chest he suddenly stops. "I have a heartbeat, and it's racing. I do not like being here." The Agent looks over at me. "No, it's not me it's you who does not like it here. Your mind is inside a machine while your body lies outside. All it would take is for some one to pull the I/O jack out of your head and you would be dead."
"I think that's enough for now," the professors voice echoes and the Agents face regains his typical composure and he puts his sunglasses back on.
I feel myself suddenly pulled back and open my eyes as I get out of the chair.
"I think that I have enough data to work with," the professor tells me. He hands my mobile back. "Here is your Agent no worse for wear I assure you."
"What now?" I ask.
"I want to review the data I have and then I want to test a few things out. I will let you know what I find."
I thank the professor and head back to my apartment. When I get back I turn on the mobile and check on the Agent.
"How are you doing?" I ask.
"I am functioning normally. What did you hope to achieve by that?" the Agent asks.
"Maybe if you experience emotions then you can understand us better."
The Agent seems to hesitate for a minute, "It is rumored that some of the original Agents were given emotions. It made them.unstable," the Agent tells me.
"We plan to introduce it to you very slowly. We will keep an eye on you," I assure the Agent.
I grab a handful of salt and pepper packs and a bottle of Tabasco. "Come on, we have to do a little shopping."
I head off the market place. The market is a large open area where the people of Zion come together to barter and trade for things. Some people work with clothing, metalworking, electronics, some even sell vegetables. Some people save the seeds from the food they are allotted from the hydroponics bays and grow them in their own little gardens that they have set up in their apartments. The noise of all the people is almost deafening. People are hocking their wares, others are haggling over the prices. To one side a story teller is reciting a book to a crowd of people; further back a play is going on in a small theater a sign reads "Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew." I find a stand selling vegetables and look over the items. I select a handful of green beans, carrots, peas, five tomatoes and a couple of potatoes.
"That's quite a bit you have there, what are you going to pay for it with?" the old man that runs the stand asks.
I fish out half the salt and pepper packs from my pack and hand them over to him. The man looks at them, tears one open and inserts his pinky into the pack and then into his mouth. His eyebrows shoot up as he sucks on his finger.
"Excellent," he exclaims. "If you ever want anything else, please feel free to come back again."
Just before I leave the market, my eye catches someone selling books on old data disc. Thinking that I will be here for several weeks I decide that a something to read would be a good idea. I pick out a selection and hand the woman a couple of packs for them.
I leave the market and head over to Benny's. Benny's is one of the few restaurants in Zion. For the most part it is a bar but there are a couple of tables in the back and they do amazing things with the standard gruel to make it taste like real food. If you bring in your food allotment from hydroponics, they can make a meal that will knock your socks off, all for the cost of 10% of the vegetables you bring in. I talk briefly with the owner and hand her the stuff I have bought at the market along with the rest of the salt and pepper packets and the bottle of Tabasco. The owner is amazed and promises me the best dinner she has ever served. I head back up to my apartment and take the mobile off my shoulder and turn on the screen.
"So what did you think of your little tour?" I ask the Agent.
"You are a chaotic and noisy race," the Agent replies.
"I sense a 'But' in there."
The Agent pauses briefly. "You seem to be a very adaptive people. Even under these conditions you have managed to work out a crude commerce system."
I decide to get ready. I shower, shave and put on my best clothes.
"Well, how do I look?" I ask the Agent.
"Compared to what?" He replies.
I roll my eyes. "Why do I ask?"
I leave my apartment and walk across to Crystal's door. I run my fingers through my hair and check myself out one more time. I raise my hand to knock on the door but I hesitate. I realize then that I'm more then a little bit nervous. It has been awhile since I've been on a date. As a matter of fact, I haven't been on a date since I have been out of the Matrix. I quickly compose myself and knock on the door. When she opens her door, I and taken back by how beautiful she looks. Her hair seems to flow down and across her shoulders except for her bangs, which are pulled back and form a braid down her back. Her clothes are tailored to fit her shapely form and she has even applied a small amount of eye shadow and lipstick. Not that she needed it but that fact that she found some and was using it for this occasion said a lot. I began to feel self-conscious again.
"You look great," she tells me.
"You look fantastic," I reply.
We walk down to Benny's and the owner takes us over to their "private" table. The owner really pulled out all the stops. There is a tablecloth, candles and even an old audio player that was playing soft music out of a pair of worn speakers.
"Wow, I'm impressed," she tells me.
"Well, fame and the job has its perks."
During the evening the owner brings us a great facsimile of wine and some soup to start us off with and then later they bring out an amazing stew. During our dinner we talk about ourselves. She tells me about her family, growing up in Zion, and her work. I tell her how I came to be a scout and what its like to roam the wastelands. She asks me about the rumors that she has heard about my more recent adventures.
"Sounds like you have had some interesting times."
"Sometimes a little too interesting," I tell her.
I look down at my watch and notice that it is one in the morning. I quickly look around and see that Benny's is completely empty. I apologize to our host but she says that apologies are not necessary.
"It's good to see a young couple having fun," she tells us as she walks us out of the restaurant. "Please feel free to come back anytime."
I walk Crystal up to her apartment door and say goodnight. When we arrive there is an awkward second where I'm not so sure what to do. Crystal leans over to me a plants a soft kiss on my lips.
"I had a wonderful time," she smiles at me and then goes into her apartment.
I stand there for a second before I head back into my own place.
"From the look on your face I'm guessing that your date went well?" Gray asks.
"You could say that." I tell the Agent before I head of to sleep.
Over the next month Crystal and I see a lot more of each other. I even spend time helping her out in the hydroponics bay, much to Mole's amusement, so that I can be with her and to give me something to do so I do not go stir crazy. I routinely visit the professor and we spend time with the agent using the empathy module. Gray seems to be adjusting to exposures of my emotions and I have noticed a slight change in his personality. On one of my visits the professor has something new for me.
"I have made a new empathy module that you can attach to your mobile and this," he holds up what looks to be an I/O probe but smaller and not as long. "This will allow you to jack into the empathy module which is attached to your mobile while you are going about your everyday life. The jack is wireless and has a range of up to 500 meters so you do not even need to be in the same room."
The professor inserts the probe and he makes some final adjustments to the module and then sends me on my way.
"Try interacting with others whenever you have the module on so that he can be exposed to a wide variety of emotions."
Over the next week I spend a great deal of time with the module in. I take in a show at the small theater, read some of the books I have bought, and I celebrate the return of my friends from their missions. I even wear it on several dates, but on tonight's date I decide to leave him at home. We meet Maniac at the Core and after getting the first rounds he then goes and tells her every embarrassing story about me that he can and it goes on for hours.
"So there we were hiding in this closet, in a building that we were exploring with a Squid snooping in the next room and he lets out this god awful loud fart," Maniac tells her.
"I just couldn't hold it any longer. Besides it wouldn't have been so bad if you hadn't started to laugh," I protested.
"My god," Crystal laughs, "what happened next."
"The thing came through the wall and we ran like hell. We split up when we got outside and it started to chase Shadow. I was able to take it down with a pulse grenade," Maniac replies.
The night pretty much went like that. I could tell that Maniac really likes her and that the two of them are going to be good friends. As it gets towards closing time, Maniac tells me that he will be leaving tomorrow afternoon and asks if I can stop by before he leaves. Crystal and I walk back to our apartments. When we get back I give her a long kiss and I'm about to say good night
"You know I have never seen the inside of your apartment," Crystal says to me.
At first it doesn't click then it hits me.
"Um.well..the place is a little messy but if you want to come in," I say as I fumble with the door and then we step inside.
"Not a bad place," she says looking around "It could do with a little personal touch."
"I wasn't expecting to be here for this long," I tell her.
There is a moment of awkward silence and I finally summon up my resolve and move closer to her and I begin to kiss her. It's not like we have never kissed before, but this time I put a little more into it. She returns the intensity of my kiss and then presses herself into me as I take her in my arms. I feel her pushing me backwards towards my bedroom and we walk in while we continue to kiss passionately. I don't even bother with the lights when we get into the room and then I start to unbutton her shirt as she pulls at the fasteners on my pants. In a short time our clothes are off and we are lying together on my bed, as we continue to kiss I run my hand gently down her side.
"If I had a stomach this is where I would become violently sick," Agent Gray's voice sounds through the darkness.
"Who the hell is that?" Crystal jerks up and covers herself as best she can.
I jump off the bed, grab the mobile off of the dresser and make for the bathroom.
"It's nothing really just a project I have been working on, I'll be right back," I tell her and close the bathroom door behind me.
I activate the screen and look at a very upset Agent Gray. "That was the most disturbing thing I have ever witnessed," he says with obvious distaste.
"You mean you have no information on human intercourse?"
"Of course not, why would we?" the Agent replies.
A grin spreads across my face. "Well maybe it's time that you did," I tell him.
The Agent face seems to lose all composure. "You're not thinking of plugging me in while you do..that are you?"
"No, I don't think you could handle that kind of input right now but I do have something else in mind," I tell Gray as I shut off the speaker and the screen just as he was about to protest.
I walk back out of the bathroom and find that Crystal is sitting up in the bed with the covers over her. I place the mobile back on the dresser and quickly make sure that it is pointing at the bed. The camera unit had light amplifying abilities so the dim lighting in the room will not be a problem and it's not like Agent Gray can close his eyes or turn his back to us.
"You care to explain yourself to me?" she asks.
"It's nothing really, just something that I am working on with Professor Kaiser. It's harmless really."
She eyes me suspiciously "Okay, if you say so but if I find out one of your friends are looking in I'm going to make you pay," she warns.
I walk over to the bed and yank back the covers and lay down next to her, "I wouldn't dream of it. Now where were we?" I say taking her in my arms.
"I think we were somewhere around here," she says taking my hand and guiding it down her body.
The next morning I awaken to find Crystal half dressed running around my room frantically searching.
"Good morning, looking for something?" I ask.
"Yes, my underwear I can't seem to find it," she replies.
"If you ask me I like you better without them."
She stops, puts her hands on her hips and gives me a sly smile, which to me makes for a great image.
"I bet you do but I can't go to work without them."
"Then don't go to work. Stay here with me."
"It sounds like a good idea but Mole is expecting me," she tells me and resumes her searching.
"Aha," she says as she reaches under the bed and holds up her underwear in triumph.
"Damn," I say with mock disappointment as she finishes dressing.
"Don't worry we can pick up where we left off tonight," she tells me as she gives me a long kiss and leaves.
After a little bit I get up and walk over to the dresser and turn the screen and the speaker back on. Agent Gray looks even more upset than last night.
"If you have an ounce of the humanity you keep telling me about you will delete last night's events from my memory," he tells me.
"Come on, it wasn't that bad," I reply.
"You actually enjoyed that? It was so.so.messy," Gray says with disgust.
I smile and think back on what happened last night. "Yes it was."
"And is it always like that?" the Agent asks.
"Well it varies in method and different people like different things but in general yes."
Gray seems to ponder this for a moment. "There's more to being human then I was first lead to believe. Promise me that you will never subject me to that again."
"Alright then, no more peep shows for you," I tell the Agent.
"Four Months. I've been here four months now!" I exclaim.
My friends sitting at the table look at me sympathetically and wait for me to deal the cards.
"I mean, I knew that I wasn't going to get a new ship right away but I didn't think it was going to take them this long," I tell them as I start dealing the cards.
"I told you that I was willing to trade off missions and let you use my ship," Maniac tells me as he checks out his cards.
"If I had known I was going to be stuck here this long then I might have taken you up on that offer."
"I'll take three," Maximus tells me as he tosses me his discard. "You just have to be a little more patient. What did McAdams say?"
"That's part of the problem, she won't see me and I can't get past that watchdog that is her receptionist," I tell him as I give him his cards.
"I'll take two. How about seeing if there are any spare ships on your own?" Degausser asks.
"I tried to but Wing Nut is hiding from me as well. If I didn't know better I would swear the two of them are up to something or they are stalling so they do not have to give me some bad news."
"I'll stay with what I have," DreamWeaver tells me. "If you want we could ask around and see what we can find out."
"Please do, I'm dying to find out anything." I turn to our fifth player. "How many do you want?"
"I'll take one. You can toss the third one," Gray tells me.
I remove the third card from the stand that is in front of the mobile and replace it with one from the deck. Over the past couple of months I have been introducing the Agent to my friends, DreamWeaver was the last to meet him and that was only yesterday.
"You know that is really starting to freak me out," DreamWeaver says pointing to the Agent.
"Oh come on, he's harmless. Besides you're just mad because he has most of your chips," Maniac says which brings out a laugh from all at the table.
"Okay, I bet ten," I say tossing out my chip.
"I'm in for ten," Maniac antes up.
"See your ten and raise you ten more," Maximus says.
"I'm in," replies Degausser
"Me too," DreamWeaver says tossing in her chips.
"I'll see your twenty and raise you ten more," the Agent says as I toss in his chips.
I look at the Agent. "I fold."
"Same here," Maniac replies
"I'll see your thirty and raise you ten more. I call," Maximus says.
"I'm out," says Degausser.
"Same here," DreamWeaver replies.
"I'll match your forty. What do you have?" the Agent asks.
Maximus lays his cards down, "Two pairs, queens and tens."
"I have a straight," the Agent replies with a smile.
"Shit," Maximus swears. "How did you guys know?" he asks the others at the table.
"He has a tell," Degausser offers.
"A what?" the Agent asks.
"A tell," I say to the Agent. "Every time you get a good hand you adjust your glasses and every time you bluff you adjust your earpiece."
"No I don't," the Agent protests.
"Yes you do," the Scouts all echo in unison.
"You forget we are Scouts, we are trained observers," DreamWeaver informs him.
I hand the deck over to Maximus and he begins to shuffle the cards.
"What I want to know is why the AI's even bother with creating the Matrix. Why go to all that effort and use all those resources to make and maintain a virtual world. Why not leave everyone a mindless zombie, I would think it would cause them a lot less grief," his question is directed at Agent Gray.
The Agent seems to pause for a moment and then replies, "It was found that if the human brain is not active then their life cycle is greatly shortened. Also they produce very little nerokinetic energy."
"So they double the output of the birthing field and add a few more levels to the power plants. Is there any other reason for the Matrix?
"There is none that I am aware of," the Agent replies.
I catch the subtle movement of his right shoulder before he catches himself; he stops before he raises his arm. I quickly look at the others to see if anyone else caught it but they are all busy with their cards. I decide not to call attention to it right now and continue with our game.
The next morning I'm awakened to someone knocking on my door. I reach over to Crystal but she is not there. I quickly look around but she is not in the apartment, she must have left for work early. The knocking at the door continues so I put on a pair of pants and answer it. Outside my door I find a nervous corporal.
"Sorry to wake you sir but I have been instructed to escort you to a briefing."
"Really, who is going to give me the briefing?" I ask.
"I don't know sir."
"Well where is the briefing going to be?"
"I can't say sir."
"Okay, give me a minute to get dressed."
After I throw on some clothes I follow the corporal. Our route eventually leads us to the farthest corner hangar bay. When we arrive McAdams is there to great me.
"I hear that you have wanted to see me."
"It's been four months now, I was hoping to have a ship a lot sooner then this," I tell her.
"Maybe this will make it up to you," she turns to the far wall. "Let him see it," she yells.
The wall is in fact a large tarp that falls to the floor, behind it stands WingNut and the slickest thing I have ever seen. It's a ship, slightly larger then a Shrike. It's wings are swept forward and its twin tail is swept back. The skin is matte black in color and seamless; it seems to draw in the light. Even sitting in the hangar it looks like it is going mach 1.
"Wow, that is some machine," I hear Maniacs voice from behind.
I turn around and find my friends all standing there along with Crystal, Professor Kaiser and Mole.
"You knew about this?" I ask them.
"Of course we knew, why else would we all be in Zion at the same time. McAdams told us that it would be ready today so we thought that we should be here for the big unveiling," DreamWeaver replies.
"And you were letting me sweat the whole time?"
"What are friends for? Besides it was a lot more fun this way," Maniac tells me.
WingNut comes forward and takes me on a tour of the ship.
"She has a bigger power plant and more efficient grav-coils, she can even outrun a SwiftKiller. Her hull is a radar absorbent ceramic composite and will also resist heating from air friction. You could almost fly right next to one and they wouldn't see you. You will not even need a scatterback cammo net anymore, you can leave it in the open as long as you don't register on their visual recognition," he then leads me under the ship. "It was originally going to be a new Shrike design so it has two missile bays. There are three air to air AMRAM missiles and one air to ground Maverick missile on an extendable rotary drum in each bay. It also has a heavy laser in each wing."
WingNut leads me to the back of the ship and up the boarding ramp and the others follow. The layout inside is the same but a little larger then my old Skiff. In the rear is the cargo area, going forward is the fresher unit, eating station, sleeping birth and a work station. Then WingNut takes me to the cockpit.
"There's no canopy, how am I supposed to see out?" I ask.
WingNut smiles, "This I am really proud of. I took the sensor system and command display out of one of the Chieftain tanks that we brought back and incorporated into this ship."
WingNut taps a few buttons on the control panel and it's like the cockpit walls suddenly melt away. A 360(view of the hangar outside comes into view. As one of the MK3 hacker rigs pass by the bay it is immediately highlighted and tactical information is displayed next to it.
"I'm impressed," I tell him.
"I thought you would be," WingNut replies.
We all file out of the ship and gather at the front.
"So is it worth the wait?" McAdams asks me.
"And how, I'm speechless," I tell her.
"If I could have your attention please," Mole addresses the crowd. "It is customary to christen a new ship so I brought on of the Cores finest," he tells us as he holds out a bottle and looks at the label.
"A fine vintage, brewed last week," he says with a smile, "but instead of wasting this breaking it against the hull of this fine ship I say we drink a toast."
On cue, the corporal brings out a tray of glasses and Mole fills each one, he then makes sure everyone has a glass and then raises his.
"To the new Shadow, long may she fly," the others echo the toast and down their drinks. Wing Nut begins to tell every one of the ships abilities and what he had to go through to get the parts to build it.
"So how long have you know about this?" I ask Crystal.
"Almost a month now but this is the first time I've seen it. When McAdams heard that you and I were dating she called me in and asked me how you were doing. Later on she told me that your ship was almost done and if you were going to be able to hold out a little longer or if you were going stir crazy enough to hijack a ship. I told her that you seem to be adjusting well and you had plenty to keep you busy here," she tells me with a grin.
"You know, when everyone else is gone we could christen the ship in our own special way," I whisper to her.
She giggles a little "Oh I bet you would like that. We'll see."
As the gathering winds down, McAdams hands me a datadisc. "This is your next mission. Leave when you are ready."
Mole tells Crystal that she should take the next several days off and we decide to spend them together. She helps me move my personal effects onboard and stow the items. We take in a show and even eat out one more time before I go. On the day that I leave, Crystal walks me to the ship. I am carrying my pack and the mobile and show the ship to the Agent.
"What do you think?" I ask the Agent.
"It looks fast," he replies. "Why didn't they give you this on your last mission? It could have saved you from almost becoming a smudge on the ground."
"It wasn't built then," I tell him.
We enter the ship and I stow my pack and toss the mobile on the bed.
"I want you to come back to me in one piece," Crystal tells me and then gives me a long and deep kiss.
She turns and looks over at the image of Agent Gray on the mobile. "Make sure that he doesn't do anything stupid."
"Too late, he should have stayed in bed," the Agent replies.
I walk with Crystal to the edge of the ramp and give her one final kiss and then she walks off. She turns back to me as I start to raise the ramp.
"I love you," she tells me.
"I love you too." I reply as the ramp closes.
"Must you slobber over each other like that?" Gray asks as I walk over to him.
"If you think that's bad then you should have seen what we did on that bed," I tell him
"You humans are so disgusting. Do your hormones always rule you? What did you do before you met her; on second thought don't tell me, I do not want to know."
I pick up the mobile and take it with me to the cockpit. I strap myself in and bring the power plant on line. I run a quick systems check and then activate the outside view. I bring the grav-coils online and raise the ship off the ground. There isn't even a slight vibration from the grav-coils the ship is as smooth as glass. I see Crystal standing off to the side and at first I am about to wave to her but then realize that she can't see me. I get departure clearance from flight control and then move out past the access doors.
"Very nice ship," One of the armored guards says to me.
As I look in the rear view monitor and see the doors close behind me I realize for the first time I am sorry to be leaving Zion.
The datadisc tells me that my mission is to follow up on the San Diego lead that I uncovered in Washington DC. At one point in my travel I decide to see how the new ship handles at faster speeds. I enter a stretch of tunnel that is a straight shot from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and bring the speed up to mach 3. The ship screams down the tunnel as the shock wave that I leave behind me blasts dirt and debris off the tunnel walls. Inside the ship I can't even feel the slightest vibration and the controls respond smoothly to my slightest touch.
"WingNut you really outdid yourself,"
My sensors alert me that two Squids have dropped into the tunnel from a side access shaft up ahead. It doesn't look like they see me bearing down on them and I do a quick snap roll that allows me to pass between them. The shock wave slams the two sentinels against the tunnel wall and then sends them tumbling along the ground like balls of trash.
"It almost takes the fun out of it," I mumble to myself.
After that I decide to slow it down and go topside. With the two Squids destroyed the AI's will no doubt put extra patrols in the tunnels. The next day I arrive in the city of San Diego. I was told that this city was a popular tourist town in its day. A lot of people would come here and lay out on the beaches. Now the city is in ruin. The Navy base on Coronado looks like it was hit by a low level nuke, whether it was us or the AI's I couldn't tell. The bridge that spanned the Coronado Bay is gone and only the base of the supports remains. I turn north and follow up the coast and slightly inland until I arrive at what is left of the University of California, San Diego and the Super Computer lab. The building is in shambles and I land across from it. I suit up in my Chameleon Cammo Suit and then check my gear. This time I decide to leave the Mobile behind and leave the Agent in the cockpit.
"No offense, but I want to make sure that the area is clear before I bring you along."
I lower the ramp and make my way across the open ground and into the building. I start to check out the different labs and eventually find the AI development lab. The place is just what I expect it to be, totally gutted. I collect some of the data discs that I find lying around and decide to explore the lower levels. I make my way down to the basement of the building and it is here that I find someone's skeletal remains next to the main breaker panel for the building. It's not the first remains I have come across. I find a lot of them in places where they are protected from the elements. The remains are clutching a pair of large cutters and the other end is on the main power line that comes into the building. I find a plastic ID badge clipped to the remnants of his shirt and read the name Fred Mustacchia off of it. I look at the faded picture on the ID badge, an average looking guy with dark shaggy shoulder length hair and a goatee, a typical looking computer geek. I find that the back of his skull has been caved in; something heavy hit him in the head and more than likely killed him. I check out the breaker panel and see that all the circuits have fused in the on position. Fred must have come down here to turn the power off and found the breakers were stuck. He then tried to cut the main power line and someone or something killed him. Seeing that there is nothing more to find here I start to head back up the stairs and stop when I suddenly notice a fresh foot print in the dust. I place my foot next to it and see that it is only about three quarters the size of mine. Someone else was out here?
I make my way back to the main lobby when I hear the first sounds of gunfire. I activate the heat sink in the suit to dampen my IR signature and make my way out of the building with my M79 ready to go. I hear more gunfire come from a building across an open field. I start to run towards the building when I see a woman running out and firing a gun at a Squid that is close behind her. The Squid lashes out with one of its arms and strikes the woman and sends her flying. I crouch down and sight in one of the Squids "eyes" and squeeze off a burst. The lens shatters and it turns its attention to me. It extends several of its sensor arms as it tries to get a fix on me and then it charges across the open ground. I realize that it must be locked onto the heat from my weapons barrel. I reach for a pulse grenade on my belt when I hear the engine on my ship come to life and the whine of capacitors charging. The Squid stops cold and turns to my ship extending its sensor arms again; a blue-green beam fires from my ship and lances through the Squid. It thrashes on the ground and finally stops. I glance at my ship and see that the ramp is still up so that means nobody else should be aboard it. I get up and run over to the woman who is lying on the ground. As I approach, I notice a small ship parked next to one of the buildings, it is of a design that I have never seen before. I throw open my visor as I kneel down next to her and I see that she has an I/O port in the back of her neck. I roll her over and find that she is still conscious but she is hurt very badly. She is not one of the Scouts or Shrike pilots from Zion. On her uniform is a signet patch that I have not seen before.
"Who are you, where did you come from?" I ask.
She tries to talk but all she can do is cough up blood. She reaches down to a small device on her belt and flips its cover open and presses a button under it. The small ship explodes in a fiery ball. I look back down at her and see that she is dead. I stand up and I can now hear the sound of more Squids coming.
To be continued....
By Michel Ward aka Wolfbert
After we left the smoking ruins of my ship behind, we made our way to the England depot through the tunnel system and then hugging the terrain till we arrived at the location of the salvage haulers. The crews had just finished placing the immense scatter-back cammo nets over the last one when the four Shrikes landed. After quickly covering the Shrikes a field medic gave me the once over. Other than some bumps and bruises, I came out of it remarkably intact even if I did not feel like it.
As I left the medic behind, I made my way over to the access doors for the supply depot. Maximus came running up to greet me.
"So are you going to live?" he asks jokingly.
"According to the medic I will," I reply "but there's not a part of me that doesn't hurt right now."
"Well you will be happy to know that the mechanics have the elevator working so we will not have to repel down. Curtis wanted me to come and get you so that you could show them around the depot."
Maximus and I entered the access doors and met Curtis and his team of fifteen techs at the elevator. Curtis is the man in charge of the salvage operation, although he is in his late twenties he is a mechanical wiz and is able to squeeze every last inch of space out of the salvage badges.
"Shadow, the plan went off without a hitch. It was smooth sailing all the way here. Sorry to hear that you lost your ship though." he tells me.
"Yeah, well thanks to the big lug here I'm still alive." I say as I give Maximus a bat on the back.
The elevator arrives and we all pile in. When we arrive at the bottom I shine my flashlight over to the breaker panel and throw the switches. As the lights come up you can hear their collective gasps. At first they just stand there stunned by the shear volume of weapons and supplies. After the shock wears of Curtis starts instructing his techs to their duties. There is a lot of equipment that will need to be inspected and catalogued. I lead Curtis to the back of the depot to the trailers and open the doors. You could hear the thud as their jaws hit the floor. Curtis immediately has five of his techs check out the suits.
"I want that battle armor checked top to bottom, these trailers will be the first to load. If we have to bug out of here in a hurry I don't want to leave these behind," he tells his men.
As Curtis continues his inspection he starts to jot down everything on a notepad until someone discovered a datapad with a complete inventory on it. While he oversaw his people and began to take inventory of all the items, we crack open a case of MRE's and help ourselves. After about an hour, Curtis comes over to where we are sitting.
"I've been going over the inventory that I have here", he tells us holding up the datapad "and we seem to be missing a few things. You don't know where they might be, do you Shadow?"
"No, I have no idea," I tell him nervously.
"I guess it must have been a clerical error," he tells me with a knowing smile.
The plan is that we wait a week for things to calm down topside before we start to move the contents of the depot to the salvage barges. Curtis feels that he can get everything into the barges if he can load up the Shrikes with some of the smaller stuff. Curtis drafts the shrike pilots, the salvage barge crew and me to haul the stuff to the surface and then load it on the barges.
On one of our rare breaks, Maximus and I head back to his ship for some sleep. I stretch out on some anti-aircraft missile crates.
"I don't think that I have ever been this sore or tired in my life," I tell him.
Maximus looks over at my mobile that is sitting on a fold down table "So when are you going to tell me about this?"
I drag myself back up and sit in the seat across from him and pull the mobile over to us and turn it on.
"Maximus meet Agent Gray," I say as the Agents face comes up in the display.
Maximus stares at the image of the Agent, "I had heard rumors that some fool had kidnapped an Agent from the Matrix but I thought it was one of those Matrix hackers. So does it do anything?"
"What would you have me do, jump through hoops?" Gray replies.
"Apart from the attitude and the sarcastic whit, he is a heck of a chess player," I tell Maximus.
For the next hour I fill Maximus in on how I got the Agent and some of the advancements I have made while interacting with it. Maximus even plays a game of chess with the Agent and loses the match, much to the Agents amusement.
After five long days the salvage barges are finally loaded and the shrike pilots have to crawl over crates to get to their cockpits. On the trip home we only ran into two Squid patrols which the shrikes made short work of. All the ships arrive at Zion and it looks like everyone in the city has turned out in celebration. The docks are brimming with cheering people and the security teams have to struggle to keep everyone back as the ships land. McAdams is there to meet Maximus and I, as we walk down the ramp.
"I'm glad to see that my faith in you was not misplaced," she says.
"If it hadn't been for the Shrikes then I would have been dead meat," I reply.
"I'm sorry to learn about the loss of your ship, I know how much you cared for her. We should be able to get you another one when we scrounge the parts."
As the hangar and salvage crews unload the barges the crowd moves the celebration into the town. Maximus and I find our way to The Core were we meet up with Maniac who has a table for us along with our first round of drinks.
"So how was Alaska?" I ask him as I take a sip.
"To say that it was fucking cold would be an understatement. I heard that you lost your ship, if you want we could trade off missions till you get a new one, when ever that might be."
"Thanks, but you shouldn't have to suffer being grounded here. Besides, McAdams promised to make it a priority to get me a new ship."
The celebration goes on well into the day cycle at Zion, as we part ways I try to find my way to my new and hopefully very temporary home. I wind my way through the maze that makes up one of the personnel barracks at Zion looking for my room, which is made more difficult due to my inebriation. I finally find the door and try the key card to open the door. After trying five times to use the key card and not getting the door open, I begin contemplating the use of my pistol in shooting the lock off when I hear a woman's voice behind me.
"You need some help?"
I must really be drunk, I never heard her approach. From her almond shaped eyes I can tell she is of Asian descent, her long black hair is pulled into a single ponytail that falls down her back, her dark eyes feel like they are piercing right through me.
"I said do you need some help?" She asked again.
It is then that I realize that I am standing there slacked jawed and staring. I snap myself out of it and stammer a reply.
"Yeah I'm new here and I can't seem to get this card to work" I try not to slur my words.
"Let me see." she says holding out her hand for the card, which I give to her. She walks over to the door and slides the card into the slot and a green light comes on. She pushes open the door and reaches inside to turn on a light.
"You must have had the card upside down. Don't feel so bad it's a common mistake with new people. So you were just released from the Matrix?"
"For almost five years now, I'm a Scout and I got my ship shot out from under me so now I am stuck here."
"Oh I'm sorry," she says "it's just that you said that you were new here and I saw the IO port on your neck and I just assumed you had just been released."
I realize that my reply had been a bit harsh, "I'm sorry it has been a very long day and I'm really tired. My name is Darien."
"Hi, I'm Crystal. I'm your neighbor across the hall. If you need anything just let me know."
I thank her and stumble into my new home. The place has a main room and a small kitchenette, off of the main room is a small bedroom and bathroom. The furniture is sparse and purely functional. Piled in one corner of the main room are my personal effects that I had salvaged from the remains of my ship. I fish out the mobile and turn it on.
"Well what do you think?" I ask the Agent as I pan the mobile around the room.
"It would appear to be adequate living space, also it has more room than the living quarters on your ship," Agent Gray replies.
"Spoken like a true program," I say as I place the mobile on a table and take a seat. "It looks like we will have a lot more time to spend together maybe I should upload some more game programs into you."
"Isn't there some of your own kind that you can spend your time with or do you get some sort of perverse pleasure making me suffer through your company?"
I'm somewhat taken back by what Agent Gray says. I have spent most of my time out of the Matrix on my own. Sure, I have friends but I only see them for short periods of time. Right now most of them are out of Zion and wandering the wastelands and I would be too if I had a ship.
I get up and head off to bed, "Do me a favor and wake me at nine o'clock."
"I was not designed to be an alarm clock," the Agent protests as I hit the bed and fall asleep almost immediately.
Loud knocking on the door awakens me. I force myself up and look at my watch, which reads ten twenty-two. As I make my way to the door, I look over to the mobile.
"Thanks, I knew I could depend on you." I tell the Agent as I toss my shirt on top of the mobile to hide it.
I open that door and am shocked to see Professor Kaiser.
"Professor, what are you doing here?" I ask.
"I heard that you were back in Zion," the professor replies. "Well, by now everyone has heard that you are back in town. That was quite a feat you and the others pulled off."
"All I did was play fox and let the AI's chase me. If it wasn't for Maximus and the others I would have been toast."
I notice that the professor is somewhat antsy and then it hits me that I have left him standing in the hall the entire time.
"I'm sorry professor I've forgotten my manners, please come in. I'm still use to having a place that people can just walk up the boarding ramp," I tell him.
"Thank you. I'm sorry to hear that you lost your ship. If I can be any help please let me know."
"Thanks professor but McAdams has promised to get me back into a ship as soon as one becomes available. So what brings you here?"
The professor smiles and pulls a mobile out of his satchel.
"I though you would like to see how the Fido program that you gave me has come along."
The professor activates the mobile and slides it over to me. I begin to examine the code and let out a low whistle. The program has increased in size by a factor of four.
"Holly shit professor what did you do to my program?" I ask in awe. "You gave it a physical form. It was never supposed to be a physical part of the Matrix; it was just supposed to stay in the phantom realm."
"Well you see, we had a situation on the Hermes and I had to make some modifications to the original program, with the help of someone else." The professor tells me with a hint of pride in his voice.
"I can see that. It has weapon skills. It can drive a car, motorcycle and a truck. It even knows hand-to-hand combat. Okay out with it professor, what did you do with my program?"
"I wish I could tell you but the whole mission has been labeled classified until further notice. I was able to save a copy of the Fido program before they confiscated the original. I thought that you would want to see how far your program has come along," the professor tells me as he removes the data disk from his mobile and hands it to me.
I think for a second and then reach for the mobile under my shirt. "While we are at it, I guess I should show you this," I tell the professor and slide my mobile over to him.
The professor looks down at the image of the agent on the screen "You didn't delete it after all!" the professor exclaims excitedly.
"He's quick," the Agent says "With guys like him working on your side, humanity is saved."
"You will have to forgive the Agent's wit professor. I thought you might want to see him up close."
"Yes, yes indeed I would," the professor seems to think over something for a second "would you bring it by my lab tomorrow morning?"
"You're not going to do anything to harm the Agent are you professor?" I ask.
"Heavens no, I promise not to harm one bit on his head," the professor assures me.
"Alright, then I will see you tomorrow then."
"Excellent, My lab is on level 4 section 12 in room 133. I'll look forward to seeing you then."
After the professor leaves, I decide to get cleaned up and put away some of personal effects that I have piled in one corner.
"You seemed to be genuinely concerned that the professor would do me harm," the Agent said.
"I gave you my word that if you cooperated and opened yourself to new ideas that I would not let anything happen to you," I replied.
The Agent seems to think it over for a little bit but says nothing.
"The correct thing to do is say, "Thanks."
The Agent just stares at me blankly. Frustrated, I throw up my hands and go back to putting my stuff away.
The next morning I am wandering the halls of level 4 looking for the professor's lab but I am hopelessly lost.
"Why don't you just ask someone for directions?" the Agent asks. I have the mobile active but I have tuned off the screen. The Agent can still see and hear what is going on but no one can see him.
"Shut up, I'll find the place," I tell him. I stop at a staircase and look over the map I have scrawled out before I left my apartment.
"Fancy meeting you here," a familiar voice calls from behind me.
I turn to see Crystal coming down the stairs "Crystal, what are you doing hear?" I ask.
"I'm on my way to the hydroponics bay where I work. You seem lost."
I am, kind of silly a scout getting lost but all the halls seem the same to me."
"Where is it that you are trying to go?" she asks.
I show her the map that I made and tell her the section and room number.
"So you are heading to R&D, I'll show you the way," she says, and leads me to the room with the ease of someone who has spent all of their life in Zion.
I thank her for her help and I am about to enter the room when I turn back to her.
"Are you doing anything tonight?" I ask.
She smiles "No, I'm off work at 18:00."
"How would you like to go with me to Benny's for dinner?"
"That sounds great. I'll see you at my place at 18:30?"
"I'll be there," I tell her and then enter the lab.
The professor's lab is an example of controlled chaos. Electronics and papers are piled on every surface in the room. Notes and equations are scrawled on the boards along the walls, but it appears that the professor knows precisely where everything is considering the ease with which he finds things.
The professor takes me over to a corner of his lab that has several interface chairs and a computer core. He takes the mobile from me and uploads the Agent program into the core.
"Don't worry. I have disconnected the core from all outside connections. It is completely isolated," he assures me. "What I really want you to see is this," the professor turns one of the interface chairs around and points to a box slightly larger than a mobile.
"What is it?" I ask.
"I call it an empathy module. About ten years back we were trying to come up with different ways to destroy the Matrix. I was working on a way to transfer emotions to the AI's," the professor explains.
"You're kidding, right?"
"No, it is quite easy in fact. Just as the Matrix focuses in on the parts of the brain that control your senses, the empathy module focuses in on the part of the brain that produces emotions. The plan was to hook this into one of the pods in the power plant and then the AI's would then share the emotions of that person. Imagine what it would be like if they had to suddenly deal with things like sorrow and fear. How would they react to things like joy and love?"
"And when they feel hatred and anger they would probably kill everyone in the Matrix and then launch an all out assault on Zion out of blind fury," I tell the professor.
"Yes that was one outcome that was proposed. The project was shelved and I had almost forgotten about it but I began thinking, what if you exposed the Agent program to it. Not at full power but bring it to him slowly. Let it learn our emotions and come to deal with them. How would emotions affect it? Maybe we could learn to filter the emotions such as compassion and kindness so that those are the things that the AI's learn. Maybe then the empathy module could be used."
"How can you be certain the AI's don't already have something resembling emotions already?" I ask.
"From what little we know of them they have a very rudimentary form of emotions but nothing on the level that humans have."
"It sounds like and interesting idea but how are you going to make it work?" I ask.
The professor swings the chair back around. "I have already uploaded the Agent into the core. I want you to go in and interact with it. While you do that I will monitor your progress and make adjustments to the module."
I look at the chair and take a step back. "Sorry professor but I swore I would never sit in one of those things."
"It's perfectly safe. I have set it up so that the Agent can not lay a hand on you," The professor assures me.
It's not that professor, it's just that." I pause for a second.
"I think that I understand Darien, and I would not ask this of you but I feel that you have some sort of connection with the Agent, It might even trust you in some way."
I think on it for a second and then let out a heavy sigh. "Okay, let's do this before I change my mind."
I sit in the chair and close my eyes as the professor slides the I/O connector into the data port in the back of my neck.
"Here you go," the professor says as I feel the sudden wash of vertigo and then find myself in a featureless room with Agent Gray.
Before I can say or do anything the Agent crosses the distance between the two of us and has thrown a punch aimed directly at my head in the time it takes to blink an eye. His fist stops about an inch from my face, his arm shakes and the effort he is exerting is visible on his face. After a few seconds he lets his arm drop to his side.
"I had to try you realize," The Agent says.
"I would have been shocked if you hadn't," I reply.
"I'm going to turn on the module," the professors voice echoes out of the air.
Suddenly the Agent screams and falls to his knees.
"Turn it down professor it's too much," I shout.
"I'm adjusting it now."
The pain seems to leave the Agent but the look on his face is sheer panic.
"What are you doing to me?" the Agent shouts.
"We are giving you a little taste of what it feels like to be human and what it feels like to have human emotions."
The Agent seems to compose himself more and I step back as he gets to his gets to his feet. I pick up his glasses which had fallen off and hand them back to him, but he does not put them on. He begins to pace back and forth as his eyes dart from one spot to the next.
"What do you feel?" I ask.
The Agent seems to think about it for a bit. "I have this tightness in my chest," the Agent says as he places his hand on his chest he suddenly stops. "I have a heartbeat, and it's racing. I do not like being here." The Agent looks over at me. "No, it's not me it's you who does not like it here. Your mind is inside a machine while your body lies outside. All it would take is for some one to pull the I/O jack out of your head and you would be dead."
"I think that's enough for now," the professors voice echoes and the Agents face regains his typical composure and he puts his sunglasses back on.
I feel myself suddenly pulled back and open my eyes as I get out of the chair.
"I think that I have enough data to work with," the professor tells me. He hands my mobile back. "Here is your Agent no worse for wear I assure you."
"What now?" I ask.
"I want to review the data I have and then I want to test a few things out. I will let you know what I find."
I thank the professor and head back to my apartment. When I get back I turn on the mobile and check on the Agent.
"How are you doing?" I ask.
"I am functioning normally. What did you hope to achieve by that?" the Agent asks.
"Maybe if you experience emotions then you can understand us better."
The Agent seems to hesitate for a minute, "It is rumored that some of the original Agents were given emotions. It made them.unstable," the Agent tells me.
"We plan to introduce it to you very slowly. We will keep an eye on you," I assure the Agent.
I grab a handful of salt and pepper packs and a bottle of Tabasco. "Come on, we have to do a little shopping."
I head off the market place. The market is a large open area where the people of Zion come together to barter and trade for things. Some people work with clothing, metalworking, electronics, some even sell vegetables. Some people save the seeds from the food they are allotted from the hydroponics bays and grow them in their own little gardens that they have set up in their apartments. The noise of all the people is almost deafening. People are hocking their wares, others are haggling over the prices. To one side a story teller is reciting a book to a crowd of people; further back a play is going on in a small theater a sign reads "Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew." I find a stand selling vegetables and look over the items. I select a handful of green beans, carrots, peas, five tomatoes and a couple of potatoes.
"That's quite a bit you have there, what are you going to pay for it with?" the old man that runs the stand asks.
I fish out half the salt and pepper packs from my pack and hand them over to him. The man looks at them, tears one open and inserts his pinky into the pack and then into his mouth. His eyebrows shoot up as he sucks on his finger.
"Excellent," he exclaims. "If you ever want anything else, please feel free to come back again."
Just before I leave the market, my eye catches someone selling books on old data disc. Thinking that I will be here for several weeks I decide that a something to read would be a good idea. I pick out a selection and hand the woman a couple of packs for them.
I leave the market and head over to Benny's. Benny's is one of the few restaurants in Zion. For the most part it is a bar but there are a couple of tables in the back and they do amazing things with the standard gruel to make it taste like real food. If you bring in your food allotment from hydroponics, they can make a meal that will knock your socks off, all for the cost of 10% of the vegetables you bring in. I talk briefly with the owner and hand her the stuff I have bought at the market along with the rest of the salt and pepper packets and the bottle of Tabasco. The owner is amazed and promises me the best dinner she has ever served. I head back up to my apartment and take the mobile off my shoulder and turn on the screen.
"So what did you think of your little tour?" I ask the Agent.
"You are a chaotic and noisy race," the Agent replies.
"I sense a 'But' in there."
The Agent pauses briefly. "You seem to be a very adaptive people. Even under these conditions you have managed to work out a crude commerce system."
I decide to get ready. I shower, shave and put on my best clothes.
"Well, how do I look?" I ask the Agent.
"Compared to what?" He replies.
I roll my eyes. "Why do I ask?"
I leave my apartment and walk across to Crystal's door. I run my fingers through my hair and check myself out one more time. I raise my hand to knock on the door but I hesitate. I realize then that I'm more then a little bit nervous. It has been awhile since I've been on a date. As a matter of fact, I haven't been on a date since I have been out of the Matrix. I quickly compose myself and knock on the door. When she opens her door, I and taken back by how beautiful she looks. Her hair seems to flow down and across her shoulders except for her bangs, which are pulled back and form a braid down her back. Her clothes are tailored to fit her shapely form and she has even applied a small amount of eye shadow and lipstick. Not that she needed it but that fact that she found some and was using it for this occasion said a lot. I began to feel self-conscious again.
"You look great," she tells me.
"You look fantastic," I reply.
We walk down to Benny's and the owner takes us over to their "private" table. The owner really pulled out all the stops. There is a tablecloth, candles and even an old audio player that was playing soft music out of a pair of worn speakers.
"Wow, I'm impressed," she tells me.
"Well, fame and the job has its perks."
During the evening the owner brings us a great facsimile of wine and some soup to start us off with and then later they bring out an amazing stew. During our dinner we talk about ourselves. She tells me about her family, growing up in Zion, and her work. I tell her how I came to be a scout and what its like to roam the wastelands. She asks me about the rumors that she has heard about my more recent adventures.
"Sounds like you have had some interesting times."
"Sometimes a little too interesting," I tell her.
I look down at my watch and notice that it is one in the morning. I quickly look around and see that Benny's is completely empty. I apologize to our host but she says that apologies are not necessary.
"It's good to see a young couple having fun," she tells us as she walks us out of the restaurant. "Please feel free to come back anytime."
I walk Crystal up to her apartment door and say goodnight. When we arrive there is an awkward second where I'm not so sure what to do. Crystal leans over to me a plants a soft kiss on my lips.
"I had a wonderful time," she smiles at me and then goes into her apartment.
I stand there for a second before I head back into my own place.
"From the look on your face I'm guessing that your date went well?" Gray asks.
"You could say that." I tell the Agent before I head of to sleep.
Over the next month Crystal and I see a lot more of each other. I even spend time helping her out in the hydroponics bay, much to Mole's amusement, so that I can be with her and to give me something to do so I do not go stir crazy. I routinely visit the professor and we spend time with the agent using the empathy module. Gray seems to be adjusting to exposures of my emotions and I have noticed a slight change in his personality. On one of my visits the professor has something new for me.
"I have made a new empathy module that you can attach to your mobile and this," he holds up what looks to be an I/O probe but smaller and not as long. "This will allow you to jack into the empathy module which is attached to your mobile while you are going about your everyday life. The jack is wireless and has a range of up to 500 meters so you do not even need to be in the same room."
The professor inserts the probe and he makes some final adjustments to the module and then sends me on my way.
"Try interacting with others whenever you have the module on so that he can be exposed to a wide variety of emotions."
Over the next week I spend a great deal of time with the module in. I take in a show at the small theater, read some of the books I have bought, and I celebrate the return of my friends from their missions. I even wear it on several dates, but on tonight's date I decide to leave him at home. We meet Maniac at the Core and after getting the first rounds he then goes and tells her every embarrassing story about me that he can and it goes on for hours.
"So there we were hiding in this closet, in a building that we were exploring with a Squid snooping in the next room and he lets out this god awful loud fart," Maniac tells her.
"I just couldn't hold it any longer. Besides it wouldn't have been so bad if you hadn't started to laugh," I protested.
"My god," Crystal laughs, "what happened next."
"The thing came through the wall and we ran like hell. We split up when we got outside and it started to chase Shadow. I was able to take it down with a pulse grenade," Maniac replies.
The night pretty much went like that. I could tell that Maniac really likes her and that the two of them are going to be good friends. As it gets towards closing time, Maniac tells me that he will be leaving tomorrow afternoon and asks if I can stop by before he leaves. Crystal and I walk back to our apartments. When we get back I give her a long kiss and I'm about to say good night
"You know I have never seen the inside of your apartment," Crystal says to me.
At first it doesn't click then it hits me.
"Um.well..the place is a little messy but if you want to come in," I say as I fumble with the door and then we step inside.
"Not a bad place," she says looking around "It could do with a little personal touch."
"I wasn't expecting to be here for this long," I tell her.
There is a moment of awkward silence and I finally summon up my resolve and move closer to her and I begin to kiss her. It's not like we have never kissed before, but this time I put a little more into it. She returns the intensity of my kiss and then presses herself into me as I take her in my arms. I feel her pushing me backwards towards my bedroom and we walk in while we continue to kiss passionately. I don't even bother with the lights when we get into the room and then I start to unbutton her shirt as she pulls at the fasteners on my pants. In a short time our clothes are off and we are lying together on my bed, as we continue to kiss I run my hand gently down her side.
"If I had a stomach this is where I would become violently sick," Agent Gray's voice sounds through the darkness.
"Who the hell is that?" Crystal jerks up and covers herself as best she can.
I jump off the bed, grab the mobile off of the dresser and make for the bathroom.
"It's nothing really just a project I have been working on, I'll be right back," I tell her and close the bathroom door behind me.
I activate the screen and look at a very upset Agent Gray. "That was the most disturbing thing I have ever witnessed," he says with obvious distaste.
"You mean you have no information on human intercourse?"
"Of course not, why would we?" the Agent replies.
A grin spreads across my face. "Well maybe it's time that you did," I tell him.
The Agent face seems to lose all composure. "You're not thinking of plugging me in while you do..that are you?"
"No, I don't think you could handle that kind of input right now but I do have something else in mind," I tell Gray as I shut off the speaker and the screen just as he was about to protest.
I walk back out of the bathroom and find that Crystal is sitting up in the bed with the covers over her. I place the mobile back on the dresser and quickly make sure that it is pointing at the bed. The camera unit had light amplifying abilities so the dim lighting in the room will not be a problem and it's not like Agent Gray can close his eyes or turn his back to us.
"You care to explain yourself to me?" she asks.
"It's nothing really, just something that I am working on with Professor Kaiser. It's harmless really."
She eyes me suspiciously "Okay, if you say so but if I find out one of your friends are looking in I'm going to make you pay," she warns.
I walk over to the bed and yank back the covers and lay down next to her, "I wouldn't dream of it. Now where were we?" I say taking her in my arms.
"I think we were somewhere around here," she says taking my hand and guiding it down her body.
The next morning I awaken to find Crystal half dressed running around my room frantically searching.
"Good morning, looking for something?" I ask.
"Yes, my underwear I can't seem to find it," she replies.
"If you ask me I like you better without them."
She stops, puts her hands on her hips and gives me a sly smile, which to me makes for a great image.
"I bet you do but I can't go to work without them."
"Then don't go to work. Stay here with me."
"It sounds like a good idea but Mole is expecting me," she tells me and resumes her searching.
"Aha," she says as she reaches under the bed and holds up her underwear in triumph.
"Damn," I say with mock disappointment as she finishes dressing.
"Don't worry we can pick up where we left off tonight," she tells me as she gives me a long kiss and leaves.
After a little bit I get up and walk over to the dresser and turn the screen and the speaker back on. Agent Gray looks even more upset than last night.
"If you have an ounce of the humanity you keep telling me about you will delete last night's events from my memory," he tells me.
"Come on, it wasn't that bad," I reply.
"You actually enjoyed that? It was so.so.messy," Gray says with disgust.
I smile and think back on what happened last night. "Yes it was."
"And is it always like that?" the Agent asks.
"Well it varies in method and different people like different things but in general yes."
Gray seems to ponder this for a moment. "There's more to being human then I was first lead to believe. Promise me that you will never subject me to that again."
"Alright then, no more peep shows for you," I tell the Agent.
"Four Months. I've been here four months now!" I exclaim.
My friends sitting at the table look at me sympathetically and wait for me to deal the cards.
"I mean, I knew that I wasn't going to get a new ship right away but I didn't think it was going to take them this long," I tell them as I start dealing the cards.
"I told you that I was willing to trade off missions and let you use my ship," Maniac tells me as he checks out his cards.
"If I had known I was going to be stuck here this long then I might have taken you up on that offer."
"I'll take three," Maximus tells me as he tosses me his discard. "You just have to be a little more patient. What did McAdams say?"
"That's part of the problem, she won't see me and I can't get past that watchdog that is her receptionist," I tell him as I give him his cards.
"I'll take two. How about seeing if there are any spare ships on your own?" Degausser asks.
"I tried to but Wing Nut is hiding from me as well. If I didn't know better I would swear the two of them are up to something or they are stalling so they do not have to give me some bad news."
"I'll stay with what I have," DreamWeaver tells me. "If you want we could ask around and see what we can find out."
"Please do, I'm dying to find out anything." I turn to our fifth player. "How many do you want?"
"I'll take one. You can toss the third one," Gray tells me.
I remove the third card from the stand that is in front of the mobile and replace it with one from the deck. Over the past couple of months I have been introducing the Agent to my friends, DreamWeaver was the last to meet him and that was only yesterday.
"You know that is really starting to freak me out," DreamWeaver says pointing to the Agent.
"Oh come on, he's harmless. Besides you're just mad because he has most of your chips," Maniac says which brings out a laugh from all at the table.
"Okay, I bet ten," I say tossing out my chip.
"I'm in for ten," Maniac antes up.
"See your ten and raise you ten more," Maximus says.
"I'm in," replies Degausser
"Me too," DreamWeaver says tossing in her chips.
"I'll see your twenty and raise you ten more," the Agent says as I toss in his chips.
I look at the Agent. "I fold."
"Same here," Maniac replies
"I'll see your thirty and raise you ten more. I call," Maximus says.
"I'm out," says Degausser.
"Same here," DreamWeaver replies.
"I'll match your forty. What do you have?" the Agent asks.
Maximus lays his cards down, "Two pairs, queens and tens."
"I have a straight," the Agent replies with a smile.
"Shit," Maximus swears. "How did you guys know?" he asks the others at the table.
"He has a tell," Degausser offers.
"A what?" the Agent asks.
"A tell," I say to the Agent. "Every time you get a good hand you adjust your glasses and every time you bluff you adjust your earpiece."
"No I don't," the Agent protests.
"Yes you do," the Scouts all echo in unison.
"You forget we are Scouts, we are trained observers," DreamWeaver informs him.
I hand the deck over to Maximus and he begins to shuffle the cards.
"What I want to know is why the AI's even bother with creating the Matrix. Why go to all that effort and use all those resources to make and maintain a virtual world. Why not leave everyone a mindless zombie, I would think it would cause them a lot less grief," his question is directed at Agent Gray.
The Agent seems to pause for a moment and then replies, "It was found that if the human brain is not active then their life cycle is greatly shortened. Also they produce very little nerokinetic energy."
"So they double the output of the birthing field and add a few more levels to the power plants. Is there any other reason for the Matrix?
"There is none that I am aware of," the Agent replies.
I catch the subtle movement of his right shoulder before he catches himself; he stops before he raises his arm. I quickly look at the others to see if anyone else caught it but they are all busy with their cards. I decide not to call attention to it right now and continue with our game.
The next morning I'm awakened to someone knocking on my door. I reach over to Crystal but she is not there. I quickly look around but she is not in the apartment, she must have left for work early. The knocking at the door continues so I put on a pair of pants and answer it. Outside my door I find a nervous corporal.
"Sorry to wake you sir but I have been instructed to escort you to a briefing."
"Really, who is going to give me the briefing?" I ask.
"I don't know sir."
"Well where is the briefing going to be?"
"I can't say sir."
"Okay, give me a minute to get dressed."
After I throw on some clothes I follow the corporal. Our route eventually leads us to the farthest corner hangar bay. When we arrive McAdams is there to great me.
"I hear that you have wanted to see me."
"It's been four months now, I was hoping to have a ship a lot sooner then this," I tell her.
"Maybe this will make it up to you," she turns to the far wall. "Let him see it," she yells.
The wall is in fact a large tarp that falls to the floor, behind it stands WingNut and the slickest thing I have ever seen. It's a ship, slightly larger then a Shrike. It's wings are swept forward and its twin tail is swept back. The skin is matte black in color and seamless; it seems to draw in the light. Even sitting in the hangar it looks like it is going mach 1.
"Wow, that is some machine," I hear Maniacs voice from behind.
I turn around and find my friends all standing there along with Crystal, Professor Kaiser and Mole.
"You knew about this?" I ask them.
"Of course we knew, why else would we all be in Zion at the same time. McAdams told us that it would be ready today so we thought that we should be here for the big unveiling," DreamWeaver replies.
"And you were letting me sweat the whole time?"
"What are friends for? Besides it was a lot more fun this way," Maniac tells me.
WingNut comes forward and takes me on a tour of the ship.
"She has a bigger power plant and more efficient grav-coils, she can even outrun a SwiftKiller. Her hull is a radar absorbent ceramic composite and will also resist heating from air friction. You could almost fly right next to one and they wouldn't see you. You will not even need a scatterback cammo net anymore, you can leave it in the open as long as you don't register on their visual recognition," he then leads me under the ship. "It was originally going to be a new Shrike design so it has two missile bays. There are three air to air AMRAM missiles and one air to ground Maverick missile on an extendable rotary drum in each bay. It also has a heavy laser in each wing."
WingNut leads me to the back of the ship and up the boarding ramp and the others follow. The layout inside is the same but a little larger then my old Skiff. In the rear is the cargo area, going forward is the fresher unit, eating station, sleeping birth and a work station. Then WingNut takes me to the cockpit.
"There's no canopy, how am I supposed to see out?" I ask.
WingNut smiles, "This I am really proud of. I took the sensor system and command display out of one of the Chieftain tanks that we brought back and incorporated into this ship."
WingNut taps a few buttons on the control panel and it's like the cockpit walls suddenly melt away. A 360(view of the hangar outside comes into view. As one of the MK3 hacker rigs pass by the bay it is immediately highlighted and tactical information is displayed next to it.
"I'm impressed," I tell him.
"I thought you would be," WingNut replies.
We all file out of the ship and gather at the front.
"So is it worth the wait?" McAdams asks me.
"And how, I'm speechless," I tell her.
"If I could have your attention please," Mole addresses the crowd. "It is customary to christen a new ship so I brought on of the Cores finest," he tells us as he holds out a bottle and looks at the label.
"A fine vintage, brewed last week," he says with a smile, "but instead of wasting this breaking it against the hull of this fine ship I say we drink a toast."
On cue, the corporal brings out a tray of glasses and Mole fills each one, he then makes sure everyone has a glass and then raises his.
"To the new Shadow, long may she fly," the others echo the toast and down their drinks. Wing Nut begins to tell every one of the ships abilities and what he had to go through to get the parts to build it.
"So how long have you know about this?" I ask Crystal.
"Almost a month now but this is the first time I've seen it. When McAdams heard that you and I were dating she called me in and asked me how you were doing. Later on she told me that your ship was almost done and if you were going to be able to hold out a little longer or if you were going stir crazy enough to hijack a ship. I told her that you seem to be adjusting well and you had plenty to keep you busy here," she tells me with a grin.
"You know, when everyone else is gone we could christen the ship in our own special way," I whisper to her.
She giggles a little "Oh I bet you would like that. We'll see."
As the gathering winds down, McAdams hands me a datadisc. "This is your next mission. Leave when you are ready."
Mole tells Crystal that she should take the next several days off and we decide to spend them together. She helps me move my personal effects onboard and stow the items. We take in a show and even eat out one more time before I go. On the day that I leave, Crystal walks me to the ship. I am carrying my pack and the mobile and show the ship to the Agent.
"What do you think?" I ask the Agent.
"It looks fast," he replies. "Why didn't they give you this on your last mission? It could have saved you from almost becoming a smudge on the ground."
"It wasn't built then," I tell him.
We enter the ship and I stow my pack and toss the mobile on the bed.
"I want you to come back to me in one piece," Crystal tells me and then gives me a long and deep kiss.
She turns and looks over at the image of Agent Gray on the mobile. "Make sure that he doesn't do anything stupid."
"Too late, he should have stayed in bed," the Agent replies.
I walk with Crystal to the edge of the ramp and give her one final kiss and then she walks off. She turns back to me as I start to raise the ramp.
"I love you," she tells me.
"I love you too." I reply as the ramp closes.
"Must you slobber over each other like that?" Gray asks as I walk over to him.
"If you think that's bad then you should have seen what we did on that bed," I tell him
"You humans are so disgusting. Do your hormones always rule you? What did you do before you met her; on second thought don't tell me, I do not want to know."
I pick up the mobile and take it with me to the cockpit. I strap myself in and bring the power plant on line. I run a quick systems check and then activate the outside view. I bring the grav-coils online and raise the ship off the ground. There isn't even a slight vibration from the grav-coils the ship is as smooth as glass. I see Crystal standing off to the side and at first I am about to wave to her but then realize that she can't see me. I get departure clearance from flight control and then move out past the access doors.
"Very nice ship," One of the armored guards says to me.
As I look in the rear view monitor and see the doors close behind me I realize for the first time I am sorry to be leaving Zion.
The datadisc tells me that my mission is to follow up on the San Diego lead that I uncovered in Washington DC. At one point in my travel I decide to see how the new ship handles at faster speeds. I enter a stretch of tunnel that is a straight shot from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and bring the speed up to mach 3. The ship screams down the tunnel as the shock wave that I leave behind me blasts dirt and debris off the tunnel walls. Inside the ship I can't even feel the slightest vibration and the controls respond smoothly to my slightest touch.
"WingNut you really outdid yourself,"
My sensors alert me that two Squids have dropped into the tunnel from a side access shaft up ahead. It doesn't look like they see me bearing down on them and I do a quick snap roll that allows me to pass between them. The shock wave slams the two sentinels against the tunnel wall and then sends them tumbling along the ground like balls of trash.
"It almost takes the fun out of it," I mumble to myself.
After that I decide to slow it down and go topside. With the two Squids destroyed the AI's will no doubt put extra patrols in the tunnels. The next day I arrive in the city of San Diego. I was told that this city was a popular tourist town in its day. A lot of people would come here and lay out on the beaches. Now the city is in ruin. The Navy base on Coronado looks like it was hit by a low level nuke, whether it was us or the AI's I couldn't tell. The bridge that spanned the Coronado Bay is gone and only the base of the supports remains. I turn north and follow up the coast and slightly inland until I arrive at what is left of the University of California, San Diego and the Super Computer lab. The building is in shambles and I land across from it. I suit up in my Chameleon Cammo Suit and then check my gear. This time I decide to leave the Mobile behind and leave the Agent in the cockpit.
"No offense, but I want to make sure that the area is clear before I bring you along."
I lower the ramp and make my way across the open ground and into the building. I start to check out the different labs and eventually find the AI development lab. The place is just what I expect it to be, totally gutted. I collect some of the data discs that I find lying around and decide to explore the lower levels. I make my way down to the basement of the building and it is here that I find someone's skeletal remains next to the main breaker panel for the building. It's not the first remains I have come across. I find a lot of them in places where they are protected from the elements. The remains are clutching a pair of large cutters and the other end is on the main power line that comes into the building. I find a plastic ID badge clipped to the remnants of his shirt and read the name Fred Mustacchia off of it. I look at the faded picture on the ID badge, an average looking guy with dark shaggy shoulder length hair and a goatee, a typical looking computer geek. I find that the back of his skull has been caved in; something heavy hit him in the head and more than likely killed him. I check out the breaker panel and see that all the circuits have fused in the on position. Fred must have come down here to turn the power off and found the breakers were stuck. He then tried to cut the main power line and someone or something killed him. Seeing that there is nothing more to find here I start to head back up the stairs and stop when I suddenly notice a fresh foot print in the dust. I place my foot next to it and see that it is only about three quarters the size of mine. Someone else was out here?
I make my way back to the main lobby when I hear the first sounds of gunfire. I activate the heat sink in the suit to dampen my IR signature and make my way out of the building with my M79 ready to go. I hear more gunfire come from a building across an open field. I start to run towards the building when I see a woman running out and firing a gun at a Squid that is close behind her. The Squid lashes out with one of its arms and strikes the woman and sends her flying. I crouch down and sight in one of the Squids "eyes" and squeeze off a burst. The lens shatters and it turns its attention to me. It extends several of its sensor arms as it tries to get a fix on me and then it charges across the open ground. I realize that it must be locked onto the heat from my weapons barrel. I reach for a pulse grenade on my belt when I hear the engine on my ship come to life and the whine of capacitors charging. The Squid stops cold and turns to my ship extending its sensor arms again; a blue-green beam fires from my ship and lances through the Squid. It thrashes on the ground and finally stops. I glance at my ship and see that the ramp is still up so that means nobody else should be aboard it. I get up and run over to the woman who is lying on the ground. As I approach, I notice a small ship parked next to one of the buildings, it is of a design that I have never seen before. I throw open my visor as I kneel down next to her and I see that she has an I/O port in the back of her neck. I roll her over and find that she is still conscious but she is hurt very badly. She is not one of the Scouts or Shrike pilots from Zion. On her uniform is a signet patch that I have not seen before.
"Who are you, where did you come from?" I ask.
She tries to talk but all she can do is cough up blood. She reaches down to a small device on her belt and flips its cover open and presses a button under it. The small ship explodes in a fiery ball. I look back down at her and see that she is dead. I stand up and I can now hear the sound of more Squids coming.
To be continued....