Chapter Four.
Martyn and Olivio walked closer towards BiblioBoone and with some reluctance greeted her politely.
Boone was a tall woman, definitely taller than Martyn and, although she would never admit it, just taller than Olivio, who within the first few moment of meeting Boone had decided that this was one entity she couldn't get along with.
"I suppose you will want to see the city. Follow me." Boone stated with authoritativeness.
Blood swelled in Olivio's face, it wasn't an absolute resent for Boone that bubbled inside of her. It was an anomaly in her emotions, an emotion that she probably hadn't felt since a small child. Then again, Olivio hadn't been a child for very long.
Being only eleven at the time of the war at Zion and having to plug herself into the second matrix with her mother at a very young age had caused her to lose touch with some of the imaginative and remarkable feelings of childhood.
Loosing her father and four brothers to the war, and an Uncle Tank on the Nebuchadnezzar, Olivio had to grow up exceedingly fast inside the second matrix and now thinking about it, she wondered if she had ever encountered this feeling, even as a child.
As it grew in her body like a fiery charge waiting to be expelled by either her fists or her fingers triggering a bullet in her gun, Olivio knew what the feeling was, without even realising it she felt jealousy towards Boone as they walked passed the two turrets. She chuckled slightly and realised that she was missing out on valuable information.
"What's so funny? I don't see the idea of a Smith army finding us out being very funny! Just because you and your companion have had an easy life in the matrix for the past decade does not mean that we have had one also. This whole city is littered with exiled programmes and people dumped here by Big Brother, the recycling bin of a computer, if you will. Ergo, our resources have been limited and we more than any group wish to get rid of Big Brother." Boone explained.
"But why exile thousands of programmes?" Martyn asked, wonderingly.
"Why else? Because we became a threat. A.I. became a threat to humans and the whole of the matrix is one huge simulation yet it keeps the humans alive. Big Brother seemed to think that smart Programmes, the ones that had an opinion, the ones that didn't just do their prescribed job, were a threat to the human race. But I and many others believe that he is the threat of all threats. As soon as humans arrived here, he created the districts causing humans to turn against one another. As one pompous prick once said, cause and effect.
Now that there is an even bigger threat coming to kill us, we must destroy the first threat, to allow humans to unite and defend themselves. There is no other way, but death."
She turned away from them and carried on walking in silence. She was a very confident programme, indeed. They walked down a very narrow passage from the gun turrets to a large open square, which levitated in mid air with a humungous tower in the middle. All over the square there were ships, unlike any others that had obviously been created with spare parts from the sewers but had a touch of class printed on them, probably from the technology born from the labs, where BiblioBoone came from.
The city was made from mainly steel it glistened in the electrical lights from above and it seemed incredibly futuristic, given that resources were limited.
"I know that you are thinking," Boone said, all of a sudden. "Most of this steel is taken from old ships that get destroyed in the sewers. And there are a lot of them. It seems we are not the only ones trying to get to Big Brother. You see, Veiled Dungeon is not the only city underneath the matrix. There are thousands, possibly millions of other colonies that survive in the labyrinth of sewers, all littered with programmes, that have been forced out of the matrix."
"Well why not unite with the others to destroy Big Brother?" Olivio suggested.
"Because we can't get to them. We only know they exist because of an accidental signal transmitted by their radio tower within the code of the matrix. It took us nearly six years to find the signal and another three years to decode it. Like I said, our resources are scarce. The chances of finding them if we searched, are minimal and due to this army coming, we can't risk losing any more ships. And they probably feel the same."
"So what are we going to do about it? A small group of people, whoops I'm sorry Biblio, people and programmes, out to destroy Big Brother. If there is no army, no decent ships, no back up, how are we meant to do it alone? No one has ever managed it before in the past you say because you've found destroyed ships and Big Brother is still running wild." Olivio shouted at her, disgusted by her. It was almost a masterful debate weaving its way to the other's body and attacking with every energetic blow.
"You seem to forget, down here in the midst of sludge and waste, we have some of the smartest programmes ever created. They were not born, therefore they cannot be killed."
"But destroyed and made totally useless."
"There is a way. We have built one ship, equipped with more defence systems than you can imagine. It is three times the size of a normal battle-cruiser ship and almost six times as fast. It can adjust its shape to fit round tight corners and if I do say so myself, has quite a stylish beverage holder.
Not to mention, sixty mini-guns with unlimited ammo as long as one watt of electricity flows in emergency back-up power, six thousand five hundred plasma grenades, rocket launchers, auto-rifles, a hand gun for every crewmember and the ultimate way to travel." Boone said excitedly.
"What ultimate way to travel?" Martyn piped up, after hearing about the wonder ship.
"It can be for up to three minutes at a time go unnoticed by its surroundings, or in other words, invisibility and here is the real icing of the cake, it can by using the decoded signal of the radio tower here in Veiled Dungeon travel from The Second Matrix, to the Real World and The First Matrix, which still has not been completely taken over by machines and Smith."
"So you're telling us that this ship, whatever it may be called, can travel between three dimensions, at once? That's amazing!" Martyn exclaimed.
"It's the first of its kind, and with some assistance you, your comrade here and I shall travel to annihilate Big Brother."
Olivio nearly swallowed her tongue. Her travel with that. Uh-uh! No way! But she didn't seem to have a choice, by the time they had finished their conversation, BiblioBoone had lead them to the ship of their dreams that would carry them to the very ends of the earth, to civilisation and to isolation. It was built from what all ships were built from but it was truly massive, complete with beautiful state-of-the-art technology. It had four bodies. Four rounded compartments joined together with large cubed bulks at the ends, which were probably the control room and Weapons control. Olivio had never seen something so utterly incredible.
Jealousy fluttered away for a short period and was replaced by awe for a pure second when Olivio spoke.
"What's she called?"
"Titanoleon." She whispered, staring up, brainwashed by the ship too as if captivated by her own destiny, spinning in the abyss that was her unknown future.