NEXUS
"Come ON! Stop thinking about hitting me and just do it!" Koi's voice rang out from
across the simulation of a large room.
I had had a very different picture in my mind when Koi had told me that I would be
starting my training today. I had thought that I would be able to mess around with those
funky computers, the only things in the craft that seemed to have managed to keep on the 'cutting edge of technology' so to speak. However, Aiglos appeared to be of the opinion that if I touched the equipment then I would find myself on a rather different type of cutting edge.
After eight hours of training, I was finding that my digital 'muscles' seemed to remember every maneuver to exquisite perfection. My lungs seemed to no longer have want for air as I sailed through the air, attacking Koi as she had instructed me to do.
Yet every perfect move was thwarted, and I found myself sailing backwards from the
kick Koi had just delivered me, hitting the floor hard as she egged me on.
And was that a note of amusement in her voice that I just heard?
Did she find kicking my ass across the room funny? I do believe that she did.
Fine. Bring it on.
I inhaled deeply and launched myself to my feet, exhaling as my feet once again held me
upright on the false floor. Positioning myself, I cleared my head of all distracting
thoughts and concentrated hard on Koi.
Hold on a second. I had never concentrated that hard in my dreams before.
I could argue that this didn't really count as a dream. But how could that be, if the real
my was strapped in a chair with a spike jammed in my head?
And the basic rules in dreams tend to be pretty lax…
Grinning inwardly, I faced Koi for the next round.
Medea walked up behind Aiglos, who was glued to the screen. Skylla glanced over, then
resumed watching the battle unfold on the screen. "She's catching on fast," the blonde
woman commented.
"Yes, though it really shouldn't be that surprising," said Loki, whose eyes had remained
glued to the screen. "I took a philosophy class in high school. Totally different than any
of the other shit they taught there. You could make yourself believe anything if you could lend it enough logic." He looked up to see Skylla staring at him. "What? It's true. I used to think of philosophy class as 'the art of bullshit'."
"I though they taught rhetoric in English class," Medea said dryly, not really paying
attention. Yes, Nexus was improving at a startling speed in her training. Yet the jump test had not been done yet.
On the screens, Nexus' neurokinetics jumped as she crouched low and swept Koi's
legs out from under her with one outstretched leg. Aiglos reached for the jump disk,
getting himself organized for the next step.
KOI
Damn, this kid was getting good.
Picking myself up off the ground, I regarded Nexus with a critical eye. Something was
definitely up here. I had heard of recruits doing unusually well on their first sparring
practice- some people just pick up the rhythm real quick- but something was up here. She had been doing good, but just as that last round had started her eyes had lit up, and the look on her face had been that of a poker player with an ace up their sleeve. "I'm curious. You got much better in the space of about twenty seconds. What happened there?"
Nexus looked down at her feet and blushed. "I figured that if this whole thing was a
dream, then the rules that exist in dreams apply. And those rules are only governed by
own subconscious's, so you could pull off a lot more in here- or in the Matrix." The grin
reappeared. "That was so awesome! I could never move that fast before!" She looked right at me. "You guys must have a field day when you go in there." Her voice faltered as she saw my face go suddenly grim.
If she were to go into the Matrix at this point, the odds would be stacked highly against her getting back out, no matter how talented she was becoming. The girl believed that inside the Matrix, she would be invincible. I sighed. Someone had to give her the bad news. I could only hope that the message came across with the next few exercises.
I reached for my phone. "It's not that simple," I said aloud. Let Medea tell her about rebel death rates during agent training. I pressed a key, and Aiglos answered on the other end. "Let's try the jump program."
LOKI
Nexus came into the dining hall after a few hours of rest after her training, still rubbing her jaw. Trans had just gotten a hold of a jug of Skylla's home brew, and we were having a late-night-though who really knew the time anymore? - drink as she came through the door. Trans glanced up, and was unable to suppress a slight snicker at her appearance. "Wow, you look like shit." Nexus raised her brow as she sat down with us. "Um, thanks," she muttered.
She looked like she hadn't slept for ages, probably due to the jump program. That thing was always a shock to the system the first time. No one ever made the first jump. Nexus might have landed on her feet though, had the pavement not trampolined her back upwards as her feet had struck it a terminal velocity. The second landing had been face first, but at a lesser speed upon impact. That would throw anyone off.
Nexus eyed the metal cup I was holding with some interest. "What's that?" she inquired. After a moment's consideration, I pushed the cup across the table to her. She picked it up and gingerly took a sip- and nearly spit it out. After a brief struggle she seemed to succeed in swallowing the brew. She looked at Trans and I wide-eyed. "You're telling me that there has been alcohol here this entire time…and I didn't know about it?" She eyed Trans suspiciously, who was paying very close attention to a dent in the table, trying hard not to laugh. After a minute she looked back at the cup. "What is this shit, Jamaican rum?"
"Skylla makes it. It's a recipe she got from this guy who used to be on the Neb crew." At the mention of the Nebuchanezzar incident he looked away, uncomfortable, which was understandable. The lives we lead hold enough perils from the outside. But from the crew itself…it was nearly unthinkable.
Nexus, however, missed this act of discomfort entirely. "The Neb? What's that, another ship? Like this one?"
"Yeah," I said. "The Nebuchanezzar. It's another hovercraft. A lot of weird shit happened with them a few months ago." I paused. "What was it you saw while you were inside? Medea's keeping kinda close about the specific details, but from what I've heard, you saw someone from the Neb's crew."
Nexus furrowed her brow, thinking. "A helicopter," she murmured. Something must have been wrong with it because it was headed right into a skyscraper. There was a rope-or something- going from the copter to the roof of another building. Someone- the pilot maybe, I'm not sure- jumped out just before the copter hit, swinging on the rope away from the damage. They were wearing a lot of black, I think. It was hard to tell." She shook her head. "Here's the thing that really freaked me out. I don't think that person could've gotten away under normal circumstances. But when the copter hit the building, the glass didn't break. It was like it was water for a few seconds. It exploded a few second later, I think. I'm not sure. I just felt that I had to get the hell out of there as soon as I possibly could." She smiled bitterly. "I ran eight blocks before I could convince myself to stop and take a breather. I didn't sleep too well after that." It suddenly dawned on her and she looked up at me sharply. "You know who that was!"
I glanced over at Trans. He had not previously known what she had specifically seen, but this was a familiar story to all of the crews by now, and he decided to answer. "Sounds like Trinity, from what I've heard about the incident. It's actually a pretty wild story, and not a particularly easy one to swallow." He went back to nursing his drink, glancing up a moment later to see Nexus looked at him expectedly, looking irritated. I said nothing, and just watched. He was doing this on purpose, but it wouldn't last long. Almost on cue, Trans grinned at her. "Oh, you wanted to hear it. I guess I could do that." He shook his head. "Too bad you haven't been here long enough to read the files on it. The only place they have translated versions is Zion." Nexus looked slightly confused at this, but seemed to let it go, motioning impatiently for Trans to continue.
And, at great lengths, he did.
Inside the Matrix, unnoticed by the flashing screens on board the hovercrafts, a twenty year old man sat in a plastic chair by a reception desk. He looked nearly as drained as Nexus currently was, as he slumped into the chair, his briefcase thrown carelessly on the floor, with a cell phone glued to his ear. A tinny voice spoke into his ear as he sat there, half-listening.
"I don't get it, this isn't like her. That girl is so rational. Why the hell would she take off like that?" The man made a noncommittal sound, as the voice continued. "You don't think she's involved with anything, do you? I mean, I noticed that she hasn't been to class in the past few weeks. Have you noticed anything weird, Ray?"
The young man straightened slightly in his chair and sighed. "I don't know Gena. She looked like she hadn't slept in days last time I talked to her." He stopped himself from saying anymore, glancing around to see if anyone was in earshot almost superstitiously. "She'd been doing some pretty…strange…research, but she told me that it was for a philosophy paper. You know, obscure theories. Listen, I'm at the police station, and I just filed the missing persons thing, I'm just supposed to talk to someone before I go. I gotta go." With that he clicked END and replaced the phone in his jacket pocket. Slumping back into the chair, he resumed staring at the ceiling. "Shit," he whispered to himself.
Ray wished that he had paid more attention to Eva when he had visited her place weeks ago. He had called her folks to see what was up, but they hadn't seen her. It was like she had simply disappeared from the face of the earth.
He had begun to think more and more about urban legends these days.
When he had been visiting Eva, there had been a site about the elusive hacker fairy tale- the Matrix. The story, which seemed only to travel in whispers when people were sure that they would not be overheard, was that the world's greatest and most talented hackers, like that guy- what was his name? – who'd cracked the IRS D-base, would dig just a little too deep. Found some shit called 'the Matrix'. These people either were immediately booked- or simply vanished off the face of the earth. Poof. Just like that. Ray had assumed that it was simply just a metaphor to the perils of hacking, but back when he had first heard it, cold shivers had run down his spine. The moral of the story? Some things are not worth digging into. Hacking is bad for your health. Simple as that.
Except when it wasn't. Like now. When Eva had gotten that weird IM, she had looked scared. She hid it pretty quick, but the fear was there.
A male voice that wasn't quite monotonous broke into Ray's thoughts, causing him to look up at the imposing figure that stood before him. "Mr. Wallace. I apologize for the wait. My name is Agent Black. If you would follow me, this ought to be relatively brief." The man's attire was slightly surprising. He wore a dark suit, complete with leather shoes and tie. Dark sunglasses concealed his eyes, and a microphone adorned one ear.
Ray got up, collecting his briefcase, and followed the agent down the hall, brow creased in confusion. Agent? Like F.B.I. agent? Secret Service agent? Just what in the hell had Eva gotten herself into?