Chapter 6: Losing the Past
Bob found himself on the rock ledge in front of the cave again — this was the Game that Galatea had come from. He knew the stats already, but he did a scan anyway to make sure that things were functioning properly this time. He found, much to his relief, that they were.
Having come to that conclusion, Bob tapped his icon and rebooted. The Game gave him a mace and a round shield, as well as some light armor in the form of a chainmail shirt, vambraces, boots and greaves. It wasn't as good as the User's equipment, but it would do. This wouldn't be too difficult. Since the path up the mountain went through a sharp turn before it reached the ledge, the User wouldn't be able to see Bob until it got there. He could take it by surprise and knock it off the cliff…
A sound from the rocky slope above the cave entrance got his attention. He saw a flash of motion there and assumed a defensive position, thinking that it might be some hostile Game sprite or the User taking a different route to the cave. But, as it turned out, it wasn't either of those.
"Galatea!" Bob exclaimed as she jumped down and landed beside him. "How did you get here?" Galatea hadn't rebooted, and was still wearing the same clothes she had worn outside. Bob quickly checked her icon — it was a golden circle in a black triangle. The thought came to him that she might have heard the conversation about her last night, and that she was intending to try and re-integrate herself with the Game. But his fears were baseless.
"I cannot reboot," she said, sounding worried. "I tried. And the zipboard does not seem to function here." She looked apologetic.
"You need to change your icon," Bob said. He wondered if she recognized her surroundings at all. What if she did?"
"I forgot," Galatea said. "I shall do it now." She tapped her icon, so it changed to the standard triangles-in-a-circle form. Then she rebooted, but did not seem to like the result.
"God's thumbs!" she exclaimed. Bob didn't understand the expression, but it was clearly one of displeasure. Galatea was now wearing a rather skimpy, midriff-bearing outfit of hides and fur pelts. She also wore sandals, the straps of which wound up nearly to her knee, and her weapon was a long spear. "I look like a savage!" she exclaimed.
"How did you get here?" Bob asked. Mouse had said she'd warned Galatea to stay away from Games.
Setting the butt of her spear on the ground, she smoothed back her hair with her free hand and sighed, preparing to give him an explanation. She told him, in brief, how she had ended up on Hexadecimal's terrace, unable to get out before the Game landed. "It was not her fault. I should have kept my zipboard closer to hand."
Bob shook his head. "I'm going to have to talk to her about…" he stopped in mid-sentence as Galatea held up a hand.
"Footsteps, coming up the path," she whispered. Now that she had brought it to his attention, he was able to make out the fairly rhythmic sound of metal on stone, getting closer and closer. Oh, no.
"I'll deal with the User," Bob insisted quietly. "You should wait in the cave."
Galatea glared at him. "A knight does not run from battle," she declared as she turned to face the path onto the ledge, spear at the ready. Obviously, nothing short of physical force would keep her out of this. Bob could do nothing except take up a ready position at her side and prepare to face the User.
Although Bob had been expecting it, his stomach dropped when the User appeared from around the bend in the path and stepped onto the ledge. It was equipped with the same armor and weapons that Galatea had had upon her arrival in Mainframe — and the same icon, only not in the black triangle.
Galatea started in disbelief. She backed up as the User advanced, lifting its sword. She looked at Bob, then at the User, then at Bob again, her eyes wide with fear and confusion. She was completely unprepared for the User's attack.
The User took a swipe at Galatea with its sword, but missed her. Her bewilderment seemed to evaporate, and she used her spear like a staff, smacking the User's helmet with it. Bob joined the attack, using his mace to hit the User's helmet with a resounding clang. That proved to be a mistake, something he realized only when the helmet faded away. This was one of those games in which the User had armor points as well as hit points, and his attack with the mace had just depleted the armor points for the helmet. Now that it was gone, his fears were confirmed - the User was Galatea's double.
"Oh Lord…" whispered, her face turning ashen. The User, its face an expressionless copy of her own, struck out with its shield. Galatea, rendered completely off-balance by this horrible revelation, was knocked to the ground. She was still paralyzed, her gaze locked with that of the User, and made no move to defend herself as it lifted its sword…
But the User still had to deal with Bob. The Guardian leaped at Galatea's double, attempting to use his shield as a battering ram. But in his haste he tripped on a ridge of stone and ended up falling on top of the User, which lost its shield as it collapsed. Before he could recover, the User lashed out at him with an armored fist.
Pain exploded in Bob's jaw and stars danced before his eyes. He could taste energy welling up in his mouth, hear his mace clattering across the rock shelf as it spun out of his grip. As a Guardian, he was usually able to stand up to quite a lot of physical punishment without getting badly hurt. But Game code is quite powerful, and in this case it was more than he could take. The User shoved him roughly away, so that he rolled off of it and onto the ground. He tried to get up, but his head was swimming too much. He could see, as if through a tunnel, the User raising its sword to strike off his head.
Suddenly something came up and blocked it. The butt of Galatea's spear. The User turned to look at her — Bob managed to do the same.
Galatea had gotten to her knees. On her face was a scowl of such rage that it twisted Bob's insides to see it. She pulled back her spear and got to her feet in one swift motion. The User swung at her. She ducked, and, yelling a loud battle cry, swung at her opponent with her spear again, knocking it squarely on the chest. The User stumbled backward a few steps, towards the end of the rock ledge and a near-vertical drop. Galatea started attacking it in a berserk rage, forcing it backward bit by bit.
"Hit its icon!" Bob shouted despite the pain in his jaw. But Galatea didn't seem to hear him. Maybe she couldn't. She just kept battering the User with her spear. Bob pulled himself to his feet, using the rock wall of the cliff for support, but when he tried to stand up on his own and retrieve his mace his head swam and he had to lean against the rock wall again to keep from falling over.
Galatea had now backed the User up to the very edge of the rock ledge — it tried to stand its ground, but Galatea kept raining blows on it with her spear. Finally, it lost its balance, teetered on the edge of the rock, and then fell over backwards. Galatea stood, frozen in a defensive posture, catching her breath as she peered over the ledge. Bob then heard the sound of metal scraping against rock, and saw Galatea collapse like a puppet whose strings had been severed.
She would have followed the User over the edge of the cliff, except that the Game ended just in time to keep that from happening. "Game Over." Suddenly they were in Lost Angles, at the foot of Hexadecimal's tower, and the cube was shooting up into the sky. Then it was gone, and all was calm again.
Since the rock wall Bob had been leaning on was gone, he collapsed to his hands and knees. He looked over at Galatea, who was sprawled on the ground. Feeling cold panic well up in his chest, Bob crawled over to her and managed to turn her over so that she was lying on her back. She was still processing, and had no visible injuries, but all the color seemed to have been drained from her skin and she seemed to be breathing shallowly. And when Bob put his hand to her neck to measure her pulse, he could barely feel it.
He heard the sound of a zipboard nearby and looked up to see Matrix descending towards him. The renegade jumped off his zipboard and helped Bob to his feet. "It landed before I could get in," he explained. As he took in the state of Bob and Galatea, his face filled with grim conern. "What happened to you two? She was supposed to stay away from Games." After making sure that Bob could stand on his own, he knelt to check on Galatea.
"The User hit me," Bob explained, gently prodding his jaw to determine the extent of his injury. "I'll be all right but…I don't know what happened to her. She just…"
"Oh dear!" Bob spun around at Hexadecimal's voice and regretted it even as he did so, since it caused another flash of pain and nausea in his head. The virus floated to a touchdown near Matrix. "Did she get hurt?" She looked at Bob, and gasped. "You got hurt!" She approached him, looking worried, and lifted a hand to touch his face.
Bob backspaced a step. "She told me that you left her when the Game cube came down," he said flatly. Matrix didn't speak, but the way he was glaring at Hexadecimal said it all.
"I didn't mean to leave her!" Hex insisted. "We had lunch. On the terrace. Then the Game came, and I was afraid I'd get in trouble the way I did in the last one, so I left, but I forgot to…I'm sorry," she said in a wavering voice, looking ashamed. "I did something bad." She looked at Bob pleadingly.
Matrix had expanded his zipboard — he was getting up onto it, with Galatea cradled in his arms. "I think we should get her to the Principal Office. I don't know what's wrong with her…"
"I can take her," Hex offered desperately, trying to make up for her mistake. At this, Matrix piloted the zipboard further away from her.
"I don't think you should," Bob said gently. "Matrix can take her. And in a few nanos I'll be able to get back myself. You can keep patrolling the Park. Do you know where the scanner is?" If he gave Hex something to do, she might be distracted enough to stay out of their way for a while.
"It's…on the terrace," Hexadecimal said. She looked down at her feet. "Please tell her I'm sorry. I'll go now," she said softly. She uploaded herself into her mask and was gone.
"I can't believe you let her off after what she just did," Matrix growled. "I would have…"
"I don't think yelling at her would have done any good," Bob interrupted. "It never seems to. Besides, she knows she made a mistake, and she's already sorry for it."
The two sprites just looked at each other for a moment. Matrix didn't argue the point. "You should call a CPU to take you to the Principal Office. If you're having trouble standing, it's probably not a good idea to try flying. And Dot's going to go random over this as it is."
"I will," Bob agreed. "Just take care of her. I'll be all right." Matrix nodded, ascended and flew off.
Bob VidWindowed for a CPU to pick him up, then to Dot to tell her what had happened and assure her (several times) that he wasn't that badly injured. He insisted that she not worry about him.
Although his head hurt terribly, he wasn't too concerned about himself — he was worried about Galatea, and wondered what had happened to her. And he was anxious about what he was going to say to her when — or if — she woke up.
The Principal Office medic, a calm and businesslike numeral three, had given Bob a bandage and a cold compress for his chin, as well as something for the pain. A scan revealed that there had been no wireframe damage, but he did have a minor concussion. The skin on the right side of his jaw had some small cuts from the edges of the User's gauntlets, and a nasty bruise the color of a Game cube. Bob found some ironic humor in that. The doctor had told him not to put undue stress on the affected area, to avoid intense physical activity, and to stick to soft foods for the next minute or so. The Guardian had managed to convince Dot that he would be all right, so she had, reluctantly, gone to continue patrolling Baudway and Kits, after getting Bob to promise that he would rest for the remainder of the second at least.
After his own exam, Bob went to a private room in the intensive-care section of the medlab, where Galatea had been placed. Phong was there, reading the data from Galatea's medical scans on a nearby console. He looked up as Bob came in.
"How is she? Any idea what happened to her?" Bob asked.
Phong adjusted his glasses. "The scans say that she has suffered no physical injury. But she appears to be in a state of shock. Her energy pressure is low and there is little neural net activity." Bob looked over at her where she lay on the bed. The expression on her face was not the serenity of downtime, but the blank and grave mask of a sprite incapacitated by sickness. Her skin was almost as white as the blanket that covered her, and he had to strain to see the minute movements that told him she was still breathing.
"Perhaps I was wrong to have her work with Hexadecimal. I thought it would be an effective way of disciplining her for sneaking out of the Principal Office last second, but it seems that I put her in danger…" He extended his neck to peer over the console at her.
"It wasn't your fault," Bob assured him. "It was mostly bad luck that she got caught in a Game, and that one in particular. As for Hexadecimal, I don't think she did it on purpose, although it was selfish of her."
Phong retracted his neck and shook his head. "I had begun to think that we could trust her to act a little more sensibly than that at least."
"I heard that something happened to Galatea," little Enzo's voice came from the doorway. "Is it okay if I come in and see her?"
Bob and Phong turned to look at the young sprite, who wore an uncharacteristically serious expression. After exchanging a glance with Phong, he nodded and gestured for Enzo to come in. The boy walked up, slowly, and looked at the Guardian.
"Looks like it didn't go so well for you either," Enzo said. "What happened?"
Bob sighed. "The User was wearing gauntlets," he said. He turned to look at the unconscious sprite on the medical bed. "And the User looked just like her. She saw it. She didn't take it well." That was an understatement, but it was the best explanation he could offer to Enzo, especially since he wasn't sure of precisely what had happened either.
The young sprite went up to Galatea's bedside at looked gravely at her face. His quiet, subdued behavior was making Bob very uncomfortable. He wondered if he should have let Enzo in after all — this might be a little too much for a child to deal with.
"I'll stay here until she wakes up," Enzo said firmly. He looked at Bob and then explained. "You have to go help Dot look for the virus, and Phong has to be in the war room in case someone needs him. But I can stay here. She needs someone to be here when she wakes up."
Enzo wasn't being whiny or obstinate, but somehow his being reasonable was worse than either of those. "I don't think you should stay," Bob said.
"Why not?" Enzo asked in a defiant tone of voice.
Phong explained it to him. "Child, she has suffered a terrible shock. I do not know how she will act when she wakes up. She may be very angry or panicked. She may try to hurt someone, or even herself, and you could not stop her. But since Dot has told Bob to stay here for his own recovery, he can remain with Galatea. Perhaps you should ask your sister if she needs your help. If you promise to be careful, and not to get close to the virus if you find it, she might let you." Bob nodded in agreement. That might satisfy Enzo, at least a little, and keep him occupied.
He couldn't read the expression on Enzo's face. After a few moments the boy nodded. "Okay. I'll ask her." He looked down at Galatea. "Get well soon," he said. He turned to Bob. "You too. Promise you'll me when she wakes up."
"I promise," Bob said. "And tell your sister that I'm feeling better and I'll be waiting here." He was relieved that Enzo had accepted his suggestion instead of protesting. The young sprite agreed, and left the room, although he obviously did so with great reluctance.
After he left, Bob said, "He's taking this really hard. I'm kind of surprised — he hasn't known her that long."
"She saved his life," Phong pointed out. "He has a good reason for being concerned. Are you sure you want to wait with her? One of the doctors can…"
Bob shook his head. "It would be better if it were someone she knows. And there's not much else I can do right now."
Phong nodded. "I shall return to the war room," he said, "in case I am needed. Tell me if anything changes," he said. He bowed and rolled out the door.
The Guardian looked down at the bed and sighed. There was an uncomfortable-looking chair next to the bed. He sat himself down in it, placed his left elbow (the one closest to the bed) on the armrest, and set his chin (carefully) on the heel of his left hand. Bob prepared himself for a long wait.
Well, he thought, things certainly looked bleak. Several binomes had been injured and two of them were deleted. They had yet to find a way of catching the party responsible for it. He himself was hurt and out of commission for the time being. Hexadecimal, who had been making progress towards being accepted by the sprites in Mainframe, had everyone mad at her again. And Galatea had been convinced, in the worst possible way, of what she really was.
After a few milliseconds which seemed like hours, the console by Galatea's bed started to beep, indicating a change in her vital signs. Bob, who had been lost in a reverie of his own, nearly jumped out of his chair at the unexpected noise. A binome nurse rushed in to check the readouts, her eyeblock moving back and forth as she scanned them. She pressed some buttons and the beeping stopped.
"She's settled into normal downtime now," the nurse explained, "Which means she's recovering." Bob looked over at the sprite on the bed. The color had come back to her skin — it had returned to its usual light pinkish color, no longer blank white. Galatea was taking deeper breaths, too, and her face looked serene and relaxed.
"It's best to let her wake up on her own," the nurse said, doing a final check on the readouts.
"Any idea when that will be?" Bob asked. It had been exactly three milliseconds, twenty-two nanoseconds and fourteen cycles since she had been bought in. Being merged with his keytool was that he was able to keep track of time with pinpoint accuracy.
The nurse shook her eyeblock. "Hard to tell, sir. But it will probably be a long time. I estimate about half a second."
Half a second. Which meant she would sleep until next second, at least. Bob was, by format and experience, a patient sprite, but that bit of information made him more anxious than he already was. He couldn't spend the rest of the second here, of course, but he didn't know if he would be able to log off with the situation as it stood. Enzo had been right — Galatea would need a familiar face to look at when she woke up. What if nobody was there when…
Hexadecimal's white mask suddenly appeared in front of him, startling both him and the nurse. The mask turned to face Bob, and the rest of Hexadecimal expanded from it. She was holding the virus scanner, a bulky thing about a quarter the size (and weight) of an adult one binome's eyeblock.
The Chaos virus looked around the room. "Patrol time is over," she said. "I came to check. On you and her," she explained. Her eyes were glowing blue, as they did when she was sad or concerned. She made no apology for suddenly popping in like that, but that came as no surprise to Bob.
"Hex," he said patiently, "Next time, please come in through the front door. You scare people when you do that."
Hex's brow wrinkled. "Why?" she asked. "It's faster my way."
"It's more considerate," Bob said. "Does Phong know you're here? You should report to him and give the scanner back." She should have gone there first, but to Hexadecimal Bob was the only authority figure in the system. He was trying to teach her to show some respect to Phong and Dot, but he had been making little progress on that front. The nurse, he noticed, had left at some point during this conversation.
"I wanted to visit you first," she said. "And nobody told me what happened. In the Game." She looked at Bob expectantly.
He sighed. Hexadecimal wouldn't be satisfied until she had an answer. "The Game was the same one that Galatea came from," he said. "She saw the User, who looked just like her. It attacked her, and she was too startled to react at first. I stepped in, and it punched me," he said, touching the bruise on his jaw, lightly, with a fingertip. "And then she just went random on it. She deleted the User, and then she collapsed."
Hexadecimal was leaning over the bed, peering intently at Galatea. "She looks a little better," Hexadecimal said. "Will she wake up soon?"
"I don't think so," Bob said. "The nurse said it would be better to let her wake up on her own."
He was afraid that Hexadecimal would try to wake Galatea anyway. The virus paused for a few cycles, then straightened up. She looked at Bob. "What about you? Do you feel better? You didn't look very well before. I know a very good…"
"I'm better," Bob assured her quickly , "But it will take me a few seconds to make a full recovery." He switched the subject. "You had better give the scanner back to Phong."
Hexadecimal looked at the scanner in her hand, as if she had forgotten she was holding it — which was probably the case. "Okay," she said. "I'll be right back."
"And please…" Bob began, but Hexadecimal uploaded herself into her mask and was gone before he could finish. "…walk there," the Guardian finished weakly. He shook his head.