Four hours pass as I endure observing this living and breathing lie. Thankfully, my shift is now complete. I am replaced at the terminal by Carnation, a veteran shipmate of the fleet who came onboard the Nebuchadnezzer about 10 months ago. Assuming the machines re-created the Matrix from the known-world of the humans quite faithfully, Carnation would be simply described as one with a Portuguese-nationalistic background, but without hard reference from the past before A.I. overthrew its creators, this guess of mine is unaccounted for. He is a reliable crewmember who delivers, and suffers with the rest of us.

I make my way towards a locked room within the ship with contents thathas certainly consumed me for the last few weeks. Inside the room, I see the stiff barely-nude body of a new resistance member I recruited from within the Matrix. She was a very petite girl just only 17 years old, who was a skilled-hacker on her own behalf, but she didn't have a direct goal or purpose to strive for in life.

Like me, she would challenge herself to hack into challenging computerized targets during many sleepless nights, but without the desire for profit or for the sake of anarchy. During one of my many trips and secret recruitment drives within the Matrix, I came upon her as she was surfing through the Internet database. I ignore hackers in general, but what always peaks my interest is when the targets they are digging for are not for destruction, but for discovery. They wanted to find the answer to the unanswered questions about their own existence.

"Shiva" rooted through the systematic-controlled media for information about terrorists promising a vague solution to the problem of reality. Morpheus is a major focal point of her searching, but I am her top priority. If Morpheus was the prophet to these people who see cracks within the state, then I am the promised-messiah to their eyes. Following the pattern I had done with previous recruits, I planted clues to which she followed until she came upon our company within the Matrix. She listened to the entire monologue of my captain Morpheus, I watched her being mesmerized by my captain. Never mind what my followers would believe, he is still the charismatic rock star within the resistance. With the help of Tank and The Kid, she was able to disconnect from the pod farm in the real world and was flushed to the abandoned sewers far away, where we picked her up.

Now on the slab within this room,we are carefully reconstructing her entire muscle electric organization, for she never used them before. We worked on her breathing functions first so that she could breath easily under our induced-coma. From the monitors, her repaired-body will be ready within days, just in time for her to join us on our shore leave to Zion. Though I hope we could get her ready soon enough to easily crash her into this brave new world before she stepped onto the last human city.

I leave Shiva as I head towards the dining quarters. The rest of the crew, including our captain, would arrive quite shortly for breakfast, but right now this is my own private period. Before we are to digest the sloop and discuss our duty schedule for the day, in about half-hour, three of my personal pupils will arrive. Unlike our communal discussions with captain Morpheus, we don't talk about our hacking or flight operations. We talk frankly and freely about our means of freeing more minds, and along the ultimate task: Burning the farm-prison down for good. Though mostly, these personal "disciples" of mine seek to be mostly with me. They all personally think I saved them, though in one instance, that probably is literally true. They are hooked on my message of freedom and action, and now they want to reel it in. This morning though, the main focus will be how we will handle Shiva and introducer her to the new lifestyle.

They should be herein less than5 minutes. As I quietly sat to await the gathering of my students, drinking the brain cell-killing diesel/alcohol liquid substance, My needs for her quickly resurface. In a few days, I'll be with her, and my urges, both my physical and spiritual, will be replenished. This painful separation is why about a year ago, Trinity seriously contemplated rejecting the highest honor of her career within the resistance forces. After several years as an outstanding and very respected officer of the Nebuchadnezzer under Captain Morpheus, she was offered her own captainship within the fleet, that of the helm of the newly built Mariner. Though part of a new class of smaller but faster ships compared to Nebuchadnezzer, she initially told Morpheus and me that she was turning it down. As her mouth moved with her explanation, I watched her eyes. She may say that she isn't interested, but her eyes lie. She wants the command as much as I desire her now.

I finally convinced her within our private apartment back on Zion that while we would be separated for only a few weeks, we would meet back frequently to spend time together. Besides, as I quirked to her, our nights would be more special. To everyone, she is a ice-queen warrior who could take on a whole military building with much ease and triumph, but privately with me, her emotions melt with a simple bashful look of both embarrassment and flirtation.

My flashbacks tune out when I hear several pairs of feet walking towards this direction. As I assumed, my first and best recruit walks into the kitchen as Trinity is still floating within the abyss of my mind.