Chapter Two: The Beginnings
I was the first one to find him. I was on a routine sweep when he came to my attention—two minutes later, I couldn't tear my eyes away from him. He held my attention without knowing it, with a shy, unconscious grace. The hope rose in me, and I couldn't push it down.
When I alerted Morpheus that I had a possible for the One, he investigated, then assigned Trin and I to watch him. Sometimes we sat shifts together, just watching him in silence.
Trinity and I were extremely close friends. I was there when she was unplugged—I helped train her and we did countless missions side by side. We saved each other's butts so many times I think we both lost count.
I loved watching him, late at night alone in the Core. Watched him hack into dozens of computer systems and nearly get caught so many times. I never told Trin, but I helped keep him out of trouble indirectly by nudging his attention to markers to make him realize what was going on, that he would be caught if he stayed.
Sometimes, I'd watch him sit in his cubicle and sigh as he rumpled up his already-messy hair. Or I'd smile as I watched him help his landlady take out the trash. I think my favorite times, though, were when I could watch him working at his computer far into the early hours of the morning, then fall asleep at the computer.
Trinity and I were inside one night when she ran into some trouble. I found out only when Morpheus contacted me and ordered me to come back in by the nearest exit. I wanted to go and help Trin, but orders were orders; and I knew Trin could handle herself. She came out a little battered, but otherwise unharmed—not bad for a brush with three Agents and nearly getting run over.
We knew he had been looking for us—Morpheus, Trinity, and I, that is. But we didn't let him find us. Revealing ourselves could have meant death for everyone aboard the Neb. But right after Trinity's Agent encounter, we knew we would have to move fast.
For the initial contact mission, Morpheus assigned Trin to go to him. Morpheus and I stayed in the Core, watching over them—but then I saw a coding that nearly made my heart stop. "Morpheus. We've got trouble."
It only took one glance for him to confirm what I'd seen. "Agents."
"Now we have to speed up." I quickly informed Trinity, before we went into action.
Morpheus mailed him a cell phone, then made contact with him via it. I watched tensely, praying he would trust Morpheus—but he didn't trust us. He chose capture over the jump. Trin was stationed outside the building when the Agents hustled him away—I could imagine her reaction, something along the lines of "Shit."—then she left, coming back in to carry out the next step.
Trin, Apoc, Switch, Cypher, and Morpheus went in. Privately, Morpheus told me that I was staying behind because I was both the steadiest hand on the winch and the best pilot, and that would be crucial for this Unplugging. While I waited in the cockpit, I kept one eye on a monitor—suddenly, coordinates flashed across the screen and I pointed the Neb in the direction of the pipe leading from those coordinates, before leaving the cockpit to Dozer and sprinting for the belly hold.
As I readied the winch, Morpheus and Trinity came to join me with a blanket. Trin smiled at me—I grinned back, then checked an external camera just as a flying body hurtled out of the pipe and landed in the murky water. Moving quickly, I opened the hatch and lowered the grasper arm—he was flailing around madly in the filthy water.
"Come on, come on…" I muttered as the winch lowered, then felt a tiny jerk as the 'hand' closed around him. Keeping the rise steady, I hauled him up—Morpheus handed the blanket to me as I knelt beside the winch. He hung limply in the grasper, exhausted. I slid the blanket under him, then hit a switch to open the hand. He fell—but I caught him in the heavy, soft wool, carefully wrapping him up in it.
I can never get over how strange we look right after being unplugged. Pale, wrinkled skin; weak, atrophied muscles and a bald head. I've unplugged so many people, and it always strikes me. How could we have lived for so long like that? How do we live like that?
I tugged the blanket over his neck and head, before lifting him into my arms. His head was resting against my left shoulder, eyes half-closed with exhaustion. I carried him to the sickbay very gently, like a mother with a sick child.
Over the next few months, I visited him frequently, helping to rebuild his muscles and cover up most of the holes. Trinity and I would sometimes pull shifts to work on him together, alone with his still form in the shadows of the sickbay. He slept most of the time—recuperating from our massive reconstruction job.
One night, I was working on his pectoral muscles when I abruptly felt a pair of eyes on me. I glanced around and saw nobody—then looked down into a set of dark eyes. "Hi there." I whispered, smiling down at him involuntarily. "Feeling better?"
His eyes swept over my face with evident confusion. "Who're… you?"
"Don't worry about it now. You need all the energy you can get." I touched his forehead, savoring the feeling of his smooth skin under my fingers. "Do I call you Neo, or Thomas?"
"Neo." He whispered, moving his head fretfully. "Bright…"
"Hush." I covered his eyes with one hand, feeling his lashes tickle my palm. "Rest now."
I kept my hand over his eyes as I worked on—when I moved it away, I found he had fallen asleep. Quietly, I finished up my work and left the sickbay.
Three long months later, he was ready.