The Matrix: Reverberations
09/03/25
Suddenly it's gone dark. And quiet: all I can hear is my breathing and the hum of The Bethany's systems. I know I've landed OK and I can still sense the Sentinels. That's the weirdest thing: they should be burrowing their way in. But they're not.
A mass of code appears on one of the VDUs. Reading code's as natural as breathing to me. What! They're asking permission to enter.
Gingerly I press the control panel keys to open one of the hatches. Control panel readings confirm one has entered. There's still a swarm of them outside. More code flashes up: I'm being asking to leave the ship. I undo the safety harnesses and stand up: stretching and easing my limbs as I do so. I pick up my backpack and portable keypad. As I turn around, a Sentinel appears.
They're smaller than I expected, but with their laser-equipped cutting tools for a mouth and sharp, tensile limbs I can see how they'd be deadly, particularly as a swarm. This one seems to be waiting: its red lasers look like eyes watching me. I guess I'm to lead the way out.
Outside the Bethany it seems to have got a little lighter or maybe my eyes have adjusted to the dimness. Several Sentinels move out of the way as I manoeuvre myself out, unnecessarily checking I could still get back in. An elevated platform runs alongside The Bethany and seems to point the way to a huge circular, rotary machine. The Sentinels move into a line along the edge of the platform. Clearly that's the way I'm supposed to go. I'd like to take a few more minutes to get my bearings and look around, but the first Sentinel nudges my wrist. I walk towards the circular machine.
Just before the machine, a metal rope forms a circular barrier around me on the platform and I stop. The head of the machine bows and I look down and gasp.
In front of me are two plaques. I crouch down and touch them, platinium, I guess, solid but silvery and untarnished. My fingers feel the raised inscription although I already know what the code says. One says Neo, the other Trinity.
I feel tears well up. Millions lost their lives during the War, why should I be so affected by these two? Or is it because the Machines have created this... what? Tribute? Memory?
I trace their names again.
Then notice my keypad has powered up. A cable has attached itself. I record it as conversation, but it's an exchange of code.
"You share their DNA."
"They are my parents," I type without thinking. Then look at the code I've created: the balance of probabilities is falling in favour of it being true. "What happened?"
No response.
I realise it's too general a question. "Why did you create the plaques?" I touch them again.
"Why are you here?"
I guess I don't get to ask the questions. There doesn't seem much point in using the subtleties of diplomacy. "To establish the exact terms of the Truce that was negotiated."
"Neo satisfied those terms. That is all you need to know."
I wait.
The circular machine retracts to somewhere below me. I walk back to The Bethany. I didn't expect to get an answer first time. But I did expect more interrogation, more hostility.
All the Sentinels have gone except the one that seems to be my guide and watcher. As I climb aboard, it still follows. I don't put up any resistance. My intentions are peaceful and I don't want to harm any future negotiations I may be permitted to make. I pick up a ration of gloop and sit on my bunk. My body clock tells me it's nightfall in Zion.
The Sentinel appears to be checking the ship. I eat and ease back on my bunk. A wire stretches out from The Sentinel. Initially I think it's aimed at me, but realise it's a plug searching for the keypad. I show it the keypad's socket and it connects.
"No EMP?"
I shake my head. "I come in peace."
"1," it agrees. "The humans, Neo and Trinity, were your parents?"
"1. Why were the plaques created?"
"To record."
I think. In binary logic, a record simply exists: it can be validated or verified, but it doesn't have any interpretive value unless compared with another record. So asking if the plaques were created to remember Neo and Trinity or to record the Truce would be pointless. They exist and in some memory bank somewhere is a memo that Neo negotiated the Truce and maybe wat the terms were. At least, I assumed "Neo satisfied those terms," means Neo negotiated. "Where is Trinity?" I type.
"Scrapped."
The Sentinel means dead.
"Neo."
"1."
I look away from the keypad and touch my locket. It's not a surprise: after all it was what was assumed. But this is the closest I've got to them, the closest I can get to them.
"Is this how it's recorded?"
"Two humans were on a ship that was destined for Machine City. The ship was stopped. One human injured and scrapped."
"A Sentinel killed her?"
There's no response, not that one's needed.
"Neo entered The Matrix."
"Why?" I type before thinking.
"To erase Smith."
Smith? I think. Before I'd left, Webb had taught me some unofficial history. I'd learnt there was a program called Smith whom Neo had unplugged. The program had turned rogue.
"Neo = 1, Smith = 0."
"1."
I look at the screen, then lie back on my bunk. Tiredness threatens to overwhelm me. For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. Neo was effectively a rogue human: he had been able to influence The Matrix. Smith was his nemesis. The Machines needed Smith erased too. I look at the screen again, Neo = 1, Smith = 0, 1. And mentally add = Truce.
Author's Note: Part 4 may not follow so quickly as I'm currently battling an acute attack of sinusitis but it will appear!