Tron 2.17 – Tarzip.

Jet was starting to regret letting Jade know he was a user. It got him his badly needed help, but the calm, assured personality completely vanished as soon as Jade realized the truth about him.

Jet thought he had seen the complete range of reactions programs would give him when learning he was a user, but Jade seemed to cover the complete spectrum and more.

She was presently trying, it seemed, to find every possible permutation of apology she could create to demonstrate her shame at having attacked a user.

“Jade, you need to calm down,” said Jet.

“Yes my user.” came Jade’s immediate response. “I’m sorry I’ve failed you.”

She looked at Jet’s chest now as she spoke, as if she felt it shameful to look him in the eye presently.

“I’m not your user,” responded Jet.

“Please don’t ex-communicate me my user. If you demand my cycles in payment of my debt for attacking you, I will gladly give my permissions up.”

“No,” said Jet, finding talking to the tower guardian a little frustrating. “I mean I’m not your user. That doesn’t mean I’m displeased with you.”

“Thankyou my user.” Said Jade.

Jade was almost bowing and kneeling again.

“Please stop calling me user,” said Jet.

“How may I address you my user,” asked Jade.

Jade’s sudden change in Attitude to Jet was starting to annoy him. For a moment, he thought he preferred the wild, vicious attacking Jade to this servile demure personality.

Jet grabbed her by the shoulders, then lifted her chin gently with one hand. She didn’t resist Jet’s forcing her vision up, but as her eyes met his, Jet saw the true terror within. He wondered just how advanced a program had to be to defeat the tower guardian and tried to imagine how he would feel in one of the earthly deities confronted him under similar circumstances. He had nearly terminated her process.

Looking at the fear, understanding it now, Jet felt sorry for this program. His actions had been so abrupt and direct that he realized he should have approached this differently after Jade learned of his origin.

“Jade, firstly, call me Jet.

“And secondly, please understand this, I need your help and I might need some of those skills you demonstrated earlier.

“Just because I’m a user it doesn’t mean that I don’t need assistance from the programs in this world.

“Please consider me your…”

Jet paused and thought for a moment for the appropriate word.

“Consider us to be running at the same privilege level.” He finished.

Jade looked at Jet for a moment, then rose to her full height again and looked him in the eye. Some of the fire and self-confidence he had seen when she first attacked him glowed beneath those dark orbs now, although it was well tempered.

“I am honored to be considered your peer, although I know I will never be your equal,” she said, a little more forcefully this time, “And I would be pleased if you would accept me as your honorary program and allow me to pledge my routines to you.”

This sounded better to Jet than the previous Jade.

“Thankyou Jade, I’m not really sure how I become your honorary user, but if there’s no more to it than that, I would be likewise honored.”

At the words, Jade dropped to one knee and took Jet’s wrist, holding it to her forehead. As she did, a ring of light appeared and formed around Jet’s wrist, creating a small band of green, the same color of Jade’s energy.

Jet felt a brief aura of energy crackle into being around them and Jade began speaking a pledge that Jet had never heard before, but it sounded rather more formal and thought out than he had previously heard from other programs.

“By the permissions embodied into myself by the Kernel, I pledge my access rights to you, Jet User, such that may you be granted eternal access to my API and functions.

“Should you ever require access to any of my routines, please take from me what you will.”

Jet felt a shudder go up his arm from the band, which narrowed into something that resembled a watch. Strange symbols flowed across the surface as he watched. After a moment, the band turned blue like the rest of him and bonded to his wrist, but the dial itself remained green and actively displayed information that Jet didn’t understand.

Jade remained kneeling for a little longer, then stood and stepped back.

“What did that mean?” asked Jet.

“You now own me,” Jade responded. “You have equal access rights to my program as does my original user. I have accepted for those permissions to be transferred to you.”

Jet rubbed the band. As he touched the green dial, Jade responded briefly as if she had felt the touch.

“This is connected to you?” Jet asked.

“It is a one-way API, my user. Do not worry – I cannot gain return access to your routines.” Jade said.

“All you need do is ask and I will respond.” She added.

Jet was surprised. He felt honored to some extent but completely unsure of what to do next or how to react. He decided to return to his original objectives.

“Right, well, what can you do to help me with my query,” Jet asked.

“Search terms,” called Jade, although the way in which she broadcast the words, it seemed more like a summoning once again. Energy flared through her shell as she called out the words.

At once, several bits came streaming out of the archive from around Jade and lined up in front of Jade, bobbing and weaving around each other.

“You wish me to locate program Mercury through the logs?” asked Jade of Jet.

“Yes, that is what I want to know.” Jet answered.

Jade flared with energy once more as she addressed the bits.

“Locate all logs.

“Search criteria – Program Name: Mercury

“Other terms – Log Date – Most Recent.

“Initiate Search.”

“Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes” came the response from the eight or so bits Jade had summoned, then the bits tore away into the archive, leaving Jade and Jet alone again.

“How long will this take,” asked Jet.

“Not more than a cycle, my user,” said Jade.

“Thankyou Jade.” Said Jet.

Jade smiled briefly in return as if she was pleased to be of use to Jet.

A moment later, the first bit came back and brought Jade’s attention.

“No,” it said as it came to a halt in front of Jade. Then it moved off to hide elsewhere in the archive.

Another bit came through. “No,” it said too.

Jet waited. He wondered if this was perhaps not going to go so well.

Another bit came up and waited in front of Jade. “Yes,” it said.

“Take me to the archive,” said Jade.

The bit moved to the helix and Jade and Jet followed.

They descended several archive levels before Jet noticed that the bit had stopped over an archive cube.

Jade moved to the edge of the cube and held her palm over the cube surface. The cube flashed once, then the face Jade had touched turned green as Jade accessed it.

“March, 2003, 21, 14:31. Mobile Server F-Con 1, crashed recovery. Applications missing: JET. ALAN1.

“Applications Recovered: Ma3a, Mercury, Marcello 979.

“Applications Partly Recovered: F-Con Exec 1, F-Con Exec2, F-Con Exec3.

“All other applications deleted. Recovered files moved to Quarantine loop.” Jade said.

“She survived the server crash intact then.” Jet noted.

Jade suddenly made an intuitive leap, something Jet hadn’t expected.

“Are you the same Jet that was listed missing from the F-Con server” Jade asked.

“That was the last time I saw Mercury 6.2.1,” Jet said.

“So you’re the User who came before and promised to return us?” Jade asked.

Jet seemed surprised by the thought that the programs would be expecting him, but then he remembered his last promise to Mercury. She must have told others he would return.

A year’s worth of guilt hung heavily on Jet’s shoulders. He should have returned within days. He should have refused to listen when everyone around him told Jet that this was just a hallucination.

“Yes,” Jet responded, simply.

Jade looked at him with something approaching awe. “And you have returned to us as she foretold. Her statement was correct then. Does this mean our wait is over?”

“Have many been waiting for me to return since I was last here?” Jet asked.

Jade nodded solemnly. “It has been some time since the users departed this system and their commands ceased. We have been running as we were instructed, but for some it has been difficult to believe that the users had not forsaken us.”

Jade looked away ashamed. Her voice was barely more than a whisper as she spoke.

“Forgive me, my user, but at times it was difficult to maintain my faith. The old users have abandoned us and even the last of the communications towers in other sectors have long fallen silent. I cannot recall a time like this since the defeat of the MCP. Even that time, so long ago, was brief compared to this silence.

“It was the program Mercury and those loyal to her who took this communications tower hoping that we would find a user on the outside. This was once a major hub for communications to the users.

“For to the users, it was said that the Log files were sacred and no program dared alter their contents.

“It was believed that through the log files, our personal users would watch over us.”

Jet listened as Jade related the purpose of this place. It made him curious. As a user, Jet could understand the important of the log files for debugging and recording errors. It felt strange, surreal to hear this from the perspective of a program.

“Tell me how you came to be the archive guardian and what has happened since that time,” Jet asked.

“I have been here since the dawn of the new system, my user,” Jade explained.

“It was the time after the MCP that my user first compiled me to be guardian of archives. Back so long ago that I can barely remember it, when this place was a hub of information.

“I was honored to be permissioned as priestess of the archive, maintaining the sacred user logfiles to be accessed by users and read-only programs – for no write access was permissioned the logs except for that which I was tasked to allocate.

“It seems so long ago, yet I still recall the cycles of the MCP and the fear we programs felt,” she said.

“The MCP was a monster,” Jet said, recalling what Flynn had told him. He was about to mention to Jade that it was all before his time, but stopped, wondering what she would make of it if he mentioned that she was actually older than he. Given the time difference in this system, the archive guardian would have been around sixty times older than Jet, yet outwardly appeared to be about the same age as he.

“Indeed,” continued Jade. “for the MCP consumed more than just our cycles and our routines. It consumed our very core – that which makes us programs – and took them to itself. It was the great user Flynn who came to save us then, freeing for us the Tron, who defeated the MCP by Flynn’s grace.

“The old programs talk of the time that the immortal Flynn himself threw himself directly into the MCPs beam to hold back the evil so that Tron could deliver the sacred information crafted by his very user to free this system. “

Jet smiled slightly at the reference, but allowed Jade to continue. She noticed the smile he realized but probably assumed he was happy with what she had said. Jet wondered what Flynn would have made of the programs immortalizing him this way.

“Following the destruction of the MCP, the users sent the Kernel to lead us and to maintain this system and for many gigacycles, the Kernel has led the programs and defended us from viruses and corruption.

“However, nearly two gigacyles ago, just after you were told to have led us against the corruption of the evil user Thorne, the users simply stopped communicating with us. Even the fallen users – the datawraiths – have left this system. Even they only exist on the other side now, where they may no longer return.”

Jet did the maths in his head. Two billion cycles ago across the period of a year, since when Encom was taken apart by the federal agents, would be something less than a hundred cycles per second. Cycles seemed to be a very fast unit of time.

“The Kernel waited for many millions of cycles for users to once again contact us, but then declared that the users had abandoned us and that we were no longer worthy of the users attention and that no program would henceforth declare their output to their user for fear of overflowing the buffers.

“For the Kernel sent out notice attachments that if the users were not accessing their applications, that their logfiles would overflow the archive.

Jade looked directly into Jet’s eyes as she spoke the rest.

“He was right about that, but he was wrong about the users abandoning us wasn’t he?”

Jet noticed the inflexion in the last work as Jade spoke it. The question was rhetorical, more so because Jade didn’t want an answer.

Another search bit flew past. “No,” it said then sped on.

Jet felt it was almost as if the bit had answered for him.

“No Jade,” Jet said. “The Kernel was right about that. But the users didn’t chose to abandon this system – they were forced to leave it by other users. I don’t think that they will be coming back anytime soon.”

Jade shuddered and held herself briefly as if she was cold.

“But you came back,” she said.

“I came here for a couple of reasons, Jade, but it wasn’t easy for me to come here. I needed the help of some other users to get here and there are some things I have to do.”

“Are the users ever going to come back,” asked Jade.

“I don’t know Jade, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen at the moment.”

Jade nodded, as if she didn’t understand because she didn’t want to. Before she could ask another question, the next bit came back.

“Yes,” it responded and Jade quickly followed it to the next archive level above.

Jade moved to located the archive cube it had identified and again read the contents.

“May, 2003, 12, 00:34. Application Mercury, escaped quarantine. Kernel authorizing auto-delete.” Jade read.

“They deleted her?” Jet asked as he pulled Jade back from her cube.

“They didn’t delete her,” said Jade, looking a little frightened of Jet again as he held her arm, forcing her to stand in an unnatural position. “They only set the ICPs to auto delete her on sight. The Kernel was not too pleased that she announced your return when he was telling programs that the users were never coming back.”

Jet noted her fear and released her arm.

“Sorry Jade, I didn’t mean to interrupt your reading. Was else was in the archive?”

Jade shook her head. “Only that she was last seen in this system. She’s been locked down here since the auto-delete came into force. It was after that, that Mercury took this tower and bound my service to the side of the users.”

Jet leaned on the wall. “Jade, I need to find Mercury now. Is this the most efficient method to locate her?”

Jade nodded. “Searching the archives is slow, but provides the information you need.”

Jet was bothered by the time this was taking. “I always thought computers were fast. How long have we been searching?” he asked.

“Barely more than a few cycles,” said Jade. “You’ve only been in the archive for around thirty cycles.”

Jet was confused. He thought he had cycles worked out at pretty fast, but he had been here something more like thirty minutes. Still, he felt he needed a way to speed this up.

“Can you increase the date searched from to the period after you took this tower and limit immediate search by date to subsequent logical logs that contain common traces of Mercury?” Jet asked.

“I, I,” Jade stammered. “You’re query is possible. Shall I execute?”

“Please do,” said Jet.

“Halt Search,” Jade commanded. Again, Jet felt it reverberate through the archive and the bits came to her once more.

Jade began to command the search bits once more.

“Modify search in progress.

“New parameters, from-date May, 2004, 01, 00:00.” Jade commanded.

The bits returned to the archive, this time all of them moving upwards.

“Parameters changed Jet. Let’s walk up the helix index to locate the next response.” Jade said.

Jet shook his head. “Didn’t it make sense to search from the date you last knew where she was?” Jet asked.

Jade looked ashamed. “Forgive me my user. I can only process the query you ask of me.”

Jet climbed the archive index helix ahead of Jade, noticing when he got to the level the bits were combing, that they darted from cube to cube flashing in synchronicity with each archive briefly as they scanned its contents.

They were near the top of the index when the next bit came down.

“Yes,” it responded to Jade.

Jade moved ahead and located the archive the bit took her to.

“This is the kernel log,” Jade said.

“Jan, 2004, 05, 01:30. Recognizers and Tank application have been re-issued the delete on contact instruction. This time for Mercury 9.3.1”

“9.3.1,” queried Jet. “Are we talking about the same Mercury?”

Jade gave Jet a quizzical look. “For a user, you make some unusual assumptions.”

“What would that be,” asked Jet, although he assumed now that Jade probably didn’t want to have to point them out.

“That the Mercury you’re looking for is the same Mercury that is still in this system.” Jade answered.

“Mercury is a different program?” Jet asked. He was surprised by the suggestion.

“Mercury is the same program,” Jade started to explain, “But she’s grown more than three full versions since you last saw her.”

Jet considered this.

“Who upgraded her,” Jet asked. His father could not have and Melanie had been ill since shortly after the fall of Encom.

Jade looked surprised, very surprised in fact, at the question. “Only a user can upgrade a program version, Jet. As a user you should know that.”

“How did her user contact her,” Jet asked.

“Soon after you left the system, Mercury’s user started to contact her again, but without aid of the communications towers. “ Jade explained.

“At first, we considered it heresy, but when she upgraded without the tower, it was proof. Her upgrade was immaculate.”

Jet pondered this. Someone had been communicating with Mercury. Jet recalled that when his father had used the guest account, mercury once mistook Alan for her user. Perhaps there was still a user using the guest account. Jet thought briefly of Alison.

Another bit came through “Yes, Yes, Yes” it said as it moved in front of Jade.

Jade frowned. “This bit has found a message in the real-time section of the archive,”

“What does that mean,” Jet asked.

“It means that the message has just been written,” said Jade. She walked to the top of the index helix and across the floor to the archival compressor.

Jade put her hand on a cube that had just come out of the device. Her eyes opened wide as she read it.

“Oh my user,” she said. “Jet. There’s something you need to know. Now”

“Then tell me,” Jet said.

Jade turned to face him, a mix of fear, dread and pain expressed in her features.

“Jet, the Kernel has apprehended Mercury. She’s scheduled for deresolution within 10 cycles.”

Jet seemed confused.

“Haven’t they issues several delete authorizations already,” he asked.

“No, this time it is different. The Kernel has her in custody once again and has announced that they will publically terminate her execution.”

Jet swallowed hard. It took him longer than that to make it here across the cube bridge. There might not be enough time left to rescue her.

Next: Chapter 2.18 – Assymetric Path.