Tron 2.15 – Adaption Layer

The constant blare of the sirens throughout the digitizing pad served to highlight the core issue quite effectively, as the digitization of Melanie had gone badly wrong and many different alarms could be heard going off all over the building.

“Ma3a,” yelled Alan to be heard over the wail of the siren. “Generate present error report”

Ma3a started reading out the errors to Alan.

“Quantum flux causing instability of photonic data in fiber loop memory 3.

“Subject is fluxing with data located in fiber loop memory loop 12.

“Quantum entanglement feedback loop detected.

“Correction algorithm presently at 38 percent processor load.

“Encapsulating subject in memory partition. Removing Loop 3 from processor.

“Program: Alchemist attempting insertion to encapsulation.

“Alchemist algorithm presently at 34 percent processor load.

“Critical processor capacity. Total processor capacity 99 percent.

“Warning, laser core stability compromised. Laser may engage without command.

“Recommend immediate evacuation of digitizing pad.”

Chaos broke out in the clearing. Brian grabbed Alison and started to haul her away, but Alison was terrified for her sister and fighting to stay. Flynn was attempting to placate Steve Gurimin who inconsolable, wailing for his daughter whom he believed dead as Flynn tried to remove him from the laser scanning area and Alan was attempting to address the issue on the console.

Despite all of their planning and rehearsing, they had not rehearsed what they would do if something went wrong. There seemed little point as Melanie’s disease was processing to the point where it was now do or die.

“Dad,” Yelled Jet over the noise. “I think I know what’s causing this. Increase processor time to encapsulation and reduce processor time to Alchemist.”

Alan looked at his son. “We don’t have time to make mistakes, I need to get Melanie out of there now.”

Jet reached over the table and pulled his father’s hand off the keyboard to ensure he got his attention.

“If you attempt to reintegrate the stream while it’s encapsulated, you’ll corrupt the output. You’ll kill her.” He yelled.

Alan looked at the screen briefly then around at the others. Pandemonium was still breaking out all around them, Jet seeming like the calm eye of the storm. Alan didn’t sure whether to follow his own instinct or trust in his son’s judgment.

“Ma3a,” yelled Jet, “This is Alan2. Reduce priority Alchemist – Sleep. Increase priority encapsulation – Kernel. Stat!”

The comment broke through to everyone.

“Executing instructions, Alan2. “, Ma3a came back with a response.

“Alchemist – Sleep mode confirmed. Processor encapsulation 93 percent processor. System failure imminent.

“Core temperature exceeding safe levels.”

Alan ran around to grab his son by the arms. “What have you done?”

“Failure in 5,” Ma3a continued.

“4

“3

“Encapsulation complete. System load now five percent. Core temperature hysteresis monitoring returning to acceptable levels. Subject encapsulated.”

The evacuation sirens abruptly stopped, but the red lights remained on, a rotating beacon still illuminating their faces as it revolved.

“What did you do?” Alan asked now far more calmly.

“The process was overloading the core Dad. Alchemist was trying to de-encapsulate the stream while Ma3a was attempting to encapsulate it.” Jet explained.

“The processor was running 100 percent with three critical applications. It’s not designed to work with those constraints.

“We were about to exceed the design specifications.

“Ma3a had to complete operations, otherwise the quantum instability would have destroyed the data.

Jet looked over the Steve Gurimin who appeared to be barely holding himself together, hugging Alison closely to him.

“She’s safe now she’s encapsulated and partitioned, but she’ll need to be de-encapsulated after being fully stabilized.”

Dr Gurimin fell to his knees, his daughter sinking down with him, but her face told Jet that she was grateful. Brian kneeled with them.

“What’s causing the quantum instability?” asked Alan.

Jet nodded. “You never wrote the mercury application did you?”

“No I didn’t Jet. It was written by an external contractor who wasn’t approved by Encom at the time so I put in a guest account for them to write it.” Alan responded.

“Who wrote it dad?”

Alan looked exasperated. “The Gurimins wrote it Jet. What does that have to do with it?”

Jet walked over to Alison. “Who wrote the Mercury application, Alison?” he asked her.

Alison was sobbing slowly now. “Is she OK? Is my sister going to be OK?”

“She’s safe at the moment,” Jet said. Alison nodded. “But I really need to know who wrote Mercury?”

Alison looked up at Jet, not understanding. “She did… Mercury… Melanie.” Alison managed between sobs.

Jet looked back at Alan. “I really wish you told me that Dad, because Walter Gibbs told me we needed to isolate a user’s programs from the system before introducing them into the same partition.”

“What do you mean Jet?” Alan asked.

Jet explained.

“After Flynn’s digitization, Doctor Gibbs believed that if a user was located within the system, they would be within the shielding that excludes the quantum interference.

“Remember that in the early days a user could cause issues if they were within the execution area when their applications were running?” Jet began.

Alan nodded as if he was beginning to understand.

“That was an early model, Jet. They solved that before I came here – before you were even conceived!” Alan said.

Jet continued.

“They introduced the shielding before you worked here Dad, but I think I understand why.

“I think I understand why Gibbs believed there were ghosts in the machine.

“Users were able to affect their applications in the early stage because of quantum entanglement. Something of the user’s spirit really did go into their programs. It was attached to the data of their programs just like it was attached to them.

“The MCP purged all of Flynn’s applications before he went in. He even buried Flynn’s evidence in a high security partition. No crossover of quantum states. Flynn was a fresh digitization when he went in.

“And when I was digitized, I didn’t have any of my own programs running on the system. None of them. Nothing. I was on the SP3D team – just normal PC programming.

“And the Datawraiths were partitioned – they never entered the core data loop – only the storage loops. They were separated by a normal processor – they never made it into the five eleven core.

“But do you recall what happened when the F-Con triumvirate entered the system.” Jet asked his father directly.

“They correction algorithms failed,” Alan answered. “They merged with raw code from within the system just as Thorn did.”

“And what application did they merge with?” asked Jet.

“When we cleaned them up, we found they had merged with Seeker.exe” said Alan. “It was ironic at the time since it was the only application they had put into the system.”

Jet nodded.

“And when Thorne merged with his firewall security application in the main partition?” Jet asked rhetorically.

Alan answered him anyway. “Are you saying that you think it wasn’t a co-incidence?”

Jet shook his head. “I don’t think it was a co-incident at all. I think it was quantum interference between entangled information.”

Alan staggered back to his chair.

“Lora.” He said. “Lora wrote so much code.” He said.

Flynn, who had just kneeled by the doctor, turned to Alan.

“It wasn’t your fault Alan,” said Flynn.

“Ma3a was operational when I went in,” said Alan. “She partitioned me like the datawraiths automatically. Encapsulated me upon entry.”

“The Ma1a program changed when mom was taken, didn’t it.” Jet guessed.

It was difficult for him to say it. “Ma2a was the result I’m guessing. It was the only core application Mom ever programmed, but her scripts – millions of lines of code, all got mixed up with her data didn’t it.”

Alan shook his head. “She was corrupted beyond recovery. We couldn’t even reintegrate her remains,” said Alan. Tears were forming in his eyes and flowing down his face. “Nothing came out.”

Jet walked around the table and dropped to one knee and hugged his father.

“I think I understand Dad. I think I’m starting to figure out why only Flynn and I saw the other world. It’s because our spirit wasn’t in the system when we were digitized.”

Alan looked at his son. “Jet, did you figure all of this out while you were away?”

“I found Walter Gibbs,” Jet said. “And he told me everything he knows. I added that to everything Mom used to tell me when I was little and everything you told me subsequently.

“And I think I’m starting to understand what’s really happening in there.”

Alan closed his eyes. He needed Jet’s help more than ever now.

“Then what do we do to get Melanie out alive?” he asked.

Jet stood and looked at the laser. “We need to isolate the Mercury application. Mercury needs to be partitioned, then we need to de-encapsulate Melanie and execute Alchemist.

“ If we succeed there, then Melanie will come out just as you expected her to.”

Alison stood and started to help her father up with Brian’s help”

“There is still a chance?” Alison’s voice was pleading.

“Yes,” Jet said.

“But first I need to find Mercury.”

Alan shook his head. “There was no sign of her after the data carrier crash,”

“I don’t even know if her traces can be located in the system, Jet.”

Jet looked back to the laser. It kept going through his mind. He knew what he needed to do.

“You need to digitize me. I have to go back in to complete this.”

Alan looked devastated at the news.

“No,” he said, “No Jet, I can’t lose you. You’re all I have.”

The Gurimins looked confused. They didn’t understand what Jet was saying.

“When I digitize, I can create code from inside the five eleven” said Jet.“I can help Melanie from inside there.”

“That’s not possible,”said Alison. “How can you work inside the computer?”

“It is possible,” Flynn stepped in. “Because I’ve been there before.”

“You always said it was just a hallucination,” accused Alan.

“Yeah, I did,” said Flynn, “But it wasn’t. I just got real tired of having to live with it while everyone else kept telling me it was just a hallucination.”

Flynn looked to his former protégé. “I’m really sorry I lied to you about it Jet, but you needed to hear that it wasn’t real so you could get on with your life in the real world. I hope you can understand.”

Jet smiled at his mentor. “I do understand Flynn. We’ve both been through it.”

Alan grabbed Jet firmly by the arms. “What if you don’t come back”

Jet smiled in a relaxed way that let Alan know he had made up his mind. “Then we know we did the right thing.”

He paused for a moment, then added, “And I know I got to keep my promise.”

Alan was almost crying now. Tears had completely wetted his face as well. He seemed to hesitate as he stepped back.

It was Jet’s cue. He started the process for himself for the first time.

“Ma3a, Digitization sequence active.” Jet called out.

He continued.

“Source: JET, Digitizing pad.

“Target partition: Fiber loop memory 12. Meet me there Ma3a - Let’s go find Mercury.” Jet called out.

There was a brief hum and Ma3a’s voice came back.

“Laser system at operational specification. System presently calibrated.” Ma3a’s voice sounded out.

“Prepare for immediate transport”

Jet looked at his father and held out his arms so the beam could digitize him efficiently. “I love you Dad.” He said.

The green glow surrounded Jet as the laser began to activate.

“Jet,” yelled Alan, but the rest was lost. The main laser engaged and Jet felt a sudden stab of pain.

Then blackness.

Jet’s mind felt as if his body was being thrown around in the darkness. It felt like it had when he was young, at the beach and a large wave had crashed over him, pounding him in the sand over and over as it pushed him towards shore.

He was disoriented.

Then suddenly, visions of light came into Jet’s mind. A kaleidoscope image of lines and fractals moving over each other. Flashes of bright light that covered the world surrounding him like flashes of sheet lightning.

The lines coalesced into shapes that kept falling apart as Jet tried to look at them. His mind was struggling to stay together as his body was ripped apart and his information read into the fiber loop.

Then there was a sudden thud that shook his entire being as if Jet a fallen a distance and suddenly stopped, filling Jet’s mind with pain.

As jet looked around with what was left of his mind, he saw the lights forming a landscape beneath him, over a sphere with fourty-eight radials extending out, most red except for one or two that shone bright blue.

Below Jet a landscape of fractal mountains and terrain shot past at speed and as Jet began to regain his consciousness, he saw a blue beam approaching up ahead. Jet started to forget who he was and why he was here.

The area surrounding the blue beam expanded, forming a city created from primitive shapes.

Between the shapes, Jet thought he could make out people.

Then Jet ceased to exist.

The blue beam surrounded him.

There was nothing but light.

A tone was ringing over and over again in Jet’s mind like a chime. His eyes flickered open and Jet saw several faces looking down at him.

“Is he going to derez?” he head a female voice.

“I can’t ever remember a program arriving in the transport beam without a packet transport.” Came another voice.

“The ICPs are coming. They’ll know what to do,” said another.

“Jet, wakeup.” His mother said. “Jet you need to wake up”.

“I’m too tired for school mom,” Jet said.

“Jet, you need to move now” came the voice.

Somewhere in Jet’s foggy mind screaned a warning. “Ma3a. Listen to Ma3a. Listen to the voice.”

Jet opened his eyes again. He was dreaming. A small spiky ball shot past. “A bit” he said quietly, as if he recognized it.

“Jet, Get up NOW!” the voice was insistent.

Jet rolled to his front and got both his knees and hands beneath him.

“Move out of the way. ICP business.” Came a hard voice from the background.

A large red figure grabbed Jet by the arms and lifted him into the air and set him down on the ground. Jet’s head swirled. The figure had no face. It looked like a mask.

“Are you the program who came in through the datastream without a transport?” The ICP asked.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” came the familiar female voice that sounded like Jet’s mother again. “He would have derezzed. He’s just got a small bug and is running a high debug verbose. He’s fine.”

The ICP looked to the small floating figure beside Jet. “You keep out if it.” The ICP said. “This program can talk for himself.”

Jet shook his head. Where was he?

“I’ll be fine. I’m just,” Jet realized he was out of it. What was it his mother had said? “I’m just running a verbose debug output or something like that. I’ll be OK in a moment.”

The ICP looked around, his deep red appearance glowing ominously each time someone came close, warning them off.

“Keep him offline if he can’t plot his own path. I don’t want to attend if he steps in front of a packet transport OK?” the ICP growled. Jet found his feet and the ICP turned and stalked away, programs scattering to avoid him.

“Certainly officer. I’ll ensure he follows all traffic policing policies.” Called out the voice that sounded like his mother to the departing figure.

A name rang in Jet’s head. Ma3a.

“Ma3a,” Jet whispered.

The ICP seemed to notice and turned around.

“This is the last time I bring you into the system like that,” Ma3a chastened. She slapped him on the back of the head.

“Ow,” said Jet.

“I’ll take care of him,” said Ma3a to the ICP.

“See that you do,” it said then continued on its way. Ma3a leaned down and whispered in Jet’s ear.

“Don’t call me by name until we’re out of local input range of the other programs” she said.

Ma3a grabbed Jet by the shoulder and steered him out of the square where the packet transports arrived and into the city. The two walked slowly out of the square until they found a quiet circuit to sit in.

Jet started to feel his senses coming back to him, but it was still a haze.

“Ma3a, where am I?” Jet asked.

“Digitization was successful Jet. Present location: Memory loop 12.” Ma3a said.

Jet looked around. “Digitization?” he asked. “Did I have something wrong to eat? Am I sick?”

“Disoriented,” replied Ma3a. “Transport seems to do that at times,” the figure responded.

Jet took a good look at Ma3a. Suddenly he realized her face was comprised of unrendered wireframe graphics and her frame based body towered over him, even as it seemed to float just barely off the ground.

“You’re a computer program,” Jet observed.

“So nice of you to notice,” came back a sarcastic sounding response.

“I’m sorry,” Jet said, shaking his head and holding it in his hands. “I don’t remember. What kind of program am I?”

“You really have been hit hard by the transportation haven’t you Jet?” Ma3a said.

“So you don’t know what sort of a program I am?” Jet asked.

“Jet, you need to listen to me carefully and follow my instructions. This world is a far more dangerous place than the last time you executed here and you need to know what you are but you need to keep it quiet, because right now, user’s aren’t too popular around here.” Ma3a said.

“Uh, Alright,” Jet’s foggy mind still hadn’t caught up with him, “I didn’t know that. But why is this important to me?”

“Because Jet,” Ma3a put on her sternest voice emulation, “You’re a user and if the ICP programs capture you, you’ll be terminated.”

“I’m a user,” Jet repeated in an unsure way. He looked at his hands as if he expected something different, but looking at his hands, they were monochromatic with a blue shell from his wrists up. Jet struggled to think if this was normal or now.

“Before you came here, you game me instructions and I am following those instructions,” said Ma3a.

Jet looked up at Ma3a’s face. The wireframe rendered image over a series of badly joined mesh elements. Overall, Ma3a looked a little anachronistic in Jet’s opinion.

“What did I ask you to do?” jet asked.

Ma3a looked around. “You said you wanted to find Mercury.”

“Mercury,” Jet asked back. Some hazy memory told him he did want to find Mercury, but he couldn’t remember who or what Mercury was.

Ma3a took Jet by the arm and led him further away from the square. “We need to find someplace a little more quiet to talk,” she said.

Jet looked around him as his mind kept slipping in and out of focus. Just when he thought he knew what was going on, he lost the thought as if distracted and distanced from it.

The architecture around him did little to help focus his mind. Strong blue mesh primitives comprised most of the landscape around him while other bright coloured mesh primitives of red and yellow and occasionally green were included. Although the hues varied very slightly, the colours present seemed to be only primary colours.

Ma3a led Jet into a recess into a wall off one of the walkways and ran her palm through the air at the junction. A red shimmering field settled over the entrance and Jet realized they were inside somewhere safe, so he sat down on a box that was protruding from the wall.

“Is this where we can speak?” Jet asked.

“We can speak here,” Ma3a confirmed. “What do you want to know?”

“Who am I,” asked Jet.

“In the real world or this world?” Ma3a queried.

“This world?” asked Jet, confused.

Ma3a took it as the answer to her question. “In this world, you are Jet.bin. A Binary executable data stream that exists presently within Stream 12 on the Encom 511.”

“And the real world?”, asked Jet.

“In the real world, you are Jethro Eugene Bradley, Computer programmer, also known as Alan2 – although I’m not sure why, and you’re a user. You create programs.” Ma3a responded.

Jet nodded his head.

“What am I doing here,” Jet asked.

“You asked me to digitize you so that you could locate Mercury. I believe, from overhearing your comments in the real world, that you wish to assist another user known as Melanie to whom I calculate an 83% probability that this user is the original author or Mercury.” Ma3a said.

Jet nodded. It all seemed correct but Jet still couldn’t remember anything for himself.

“How do I find Mercury,” Jet asked.

“I cannot answer that question as Mercury is no longer indexed on the application database. However I believe you felt she was in this memory loop.” Ma3a said.

“Why isn’t Mercury indexed,” asked Jet.

Ma3a hesitated then continued as if she hadn’t slowed.

“Mercury is presently a fugitive. The Kernel has issued process termination and deresolution orders upon contact with Mercury to all ICPs.”

Jet seemed confused now by what Ma3a was saying.

“Why is Mercury a fugitive?” he asked.

“Because Mercury fights on the side of the users,” said Ma3a. “Mercury is the leader of the programs who believe that users created us and have a purpose for us.

“The Kernel has been slowly eradicating the userists, citing them as a dangerous and radical group that seem to have unstable and highly self-modifying algorithms.

“After the userists took control of a control tower in this sytem approximately 155 megacycles ago, the Kernel issues a decree that the followers of users should be considered dangerous and has begun to eliminate them.

“This system is under the control of free programs.”

Jet looked at her, came around to understanding what she was saying and tried to let it all sink in.

“So I’m not really a program, but a user, in a world where the programs who believe in me are being hunted down and erased and I came here to find a program that believe in me and leads the programs who believe in users?” Jet said.

Ma3a made a strange sound that Jet thought sounded like the interference that some digital equipment caused radio equipment when it got too close then responded. “That would approximate my understanding of the present situation correctly”

Jet looked around. He was still trying to get his bearings and remember who he was. Pieces of it were slowly coming back. His name was Jethro Eugene Bradley. His father was Alan Bradley. Ma3a was his father’s and mother’s program.

And there was something about Mercury that Jet couldn’t quite remember, but he knew was important.

“Then we need to find Mercury, Ma3a,” Jet said, determination setting into his mind. “Can you advise an optimal place to start looking for her?”

Ma3a walked to the edge of the cavity and looked around, as if checking for ICPs.

“I would suggest that we find a way into the log archive and examine the system messages to see if we can track her down.” Ma3a said. “We should be able to trace her movement through the system through the archives.”

“Then let’s start looking” said Jet.

Next: Chapter 2.16 – Fragmentation.