Tron 2.19 – User Access.

Two ICPs bent over the prone couple and forcibly pulled Mecury up by her still-bound arms, lifting her off and away from Jet as they did so. Mercury reached out for Jet as they hauled her away, but wasn’t able to take hold of his hands before she was too far from him.

“Let me go,” yelled Mercury, twisting to deliver an Elbow to the ICP behind her, knocking it back. As the ICP let go, Mercury crouched briefly beside Jet, kneeling as she took his hand in hers once again.

“Jet, hold on,” she managed to say, but the ICP behind the one Mercury had attached stepped forward and drove its staff directly into her back, knocking her down beside her rescuer.

Jet struggled to follow Mercury’s face as she fell and their eyes met once before the ICPs again hauled her up and out of his sight as they started walking her towards the edge of the square.

One of the more senior ICPs, a commander with a clearly visible face, stood over Jet, watching Mercury go.

Jet was slipping in an out of lucidity and felt like his body was on fire. He tried to move but his body simply failed to response and the best he managed was to roll a little to the side.

“I don’t know why this one isn’t derezzing. I can’t imagine why that stunt didn’t erase him.” The senior ICP said.

“Do you think what Mercury said could be true,” quietly asked an ICP, as quietly as an ICP could.

“It’s not logical to assume so as the users abandoned us some time ago, but he’s certainly one tough program.” Said the commander.

Several more ICPs rezzed in to hold back the crown and maintain the security cordon as the ICPs knelt a little more slowly to pick Jet up. He tried to get his feet under him as they hauled him up, but the best he could do was stumble.

Looking to one side as they dragged him after Mercury, Jet thought he could make out a green program surrounded by ICPs to one side of the square, laying equally still to what he had been. He glanced at his watch-like band and noted that it appeared damaged with a similar appearance to what Jade had looked like when she was coming in with the recognizer and taking the damage personally.

“Jade,” he managed to say quietly, worrying about his ally, then he fell forward and was dragged the rest of the way as the ICPs hauled him away.

A portal appeared at the edge of the square which the ICPs first threw Mercury into, then they threw Jet into it, paying little attention to how me might land at the other end.

Unfortunately for Jet, it went badly and the next thing he saw after he materialized through the far-end portal was the floor coming up to meet him a little faster than he was happy with.

Then it went black for a little while.

Jet woke to Mercury’s face looking into his. At first, he thought it was another of those dreams he had experienced so many times over the past few years, but as his mind cleared, the truth became apparent and Jet realized he really was back with his lost love.

“Mercury,” Jet managed to say as he tried to lift himself, but his body was still slow to recover. His head fell back down to something solid. It hurt.

“You came back for me Jet.” She said quietly. “Why did you come back for me now?”

“I made you a promise,” Jet said. “I had to keep it.”

Jet looked around as best as he could. They were in a small space, with clearly defined forcewalls controlling entrance and egress. To Jet, it appeared as some kind of Cell.

“Were are we?” he asked quietly.

“Guests of the Kernel,” Mercury responded. “He took us back into custody when you saved me from deresolution by reset.”

Jet tried to move and failed again, realized he was still weak. He felt a light pressure and movement around his fingers and realized Mercury was holding his hands.

“Oh Jet, you were safe on the other side. Why did you have to come back here? I was ready to leave this world to return to the place the users have saved for us, knowing you would be there. Now you’re trapped here with me as well.” Mercury lamented.

“I’ve felt closer than I ever have to my user lately. I was ready to meet my fate alone.”

Jet rolled his neck a little to keep Mercury in his view.

“There is no place that you go beyond deresolution, Mercury,” Jet said. “I had to come back.”

Mercury seemed both stunned and shocked by Jet’s comment.

“How can there be no place beyond deresolution?” asked Mercury. “You resurrected me once before when I was deleted during the reformat. Why should I fear deletion now?”

Jet wasn’t sure himself how to answer that question, so avoided it.

“There is so much I need to tell you, Mercury, so much I want to share with you, but so little time to do it in. I nearly lost you today and I never want to come that close again. Things are changing in this world for the final time now.” he tried to explain.

His comments were confusing Mercury however if her expression was anything to go by.

“Mercury, the system is going to be shut down.” Jet said “Everything that you know to be real is going to cease to exist. Forever. It’s the last days in here.”

Mercury tried to understand his words from a program’s perspective.

“You mean that the users are coming back and they are going to reformat this system?” Mercury asked.

“No Mercury, I mean they are going to shut it down forever. You understand a reformat as a rebuild but shutting down means cutting the power. This world and everything in it will cease to exist,” Jet explained.

Mercury sat back, aghast at what she was hearing. The expression of horror on her face made jet feel ill at what he told her and he immediately regretted telling her so soon.

“The users are going to delete us?” she said, recoiling to the other side of the cell. “All of us?”

“How can users create this world then simply destroy it?”

Jet groaned with effort as he forced himself to a sitting position. His body control was slowly coming back.

“It’s not quite like that. Users simply don’t realize what really exists inside this world.

“Most never understand that their programs live lives beyond the liquid crystal displays they look through.”

Mercury raised her hands to her mouth, her eyes wide. “All this time the Kernel was right. The users really have abandoned us,” she said.

Jet nodded solemnly.

“How many cycles do we have left?” she asked. “How long before the final shutdown?”

“Not long,” Jet said, working out a conversion factor. “Maybe a little more than thirty megacycles. A week in our measurements.”

Mercury slid down the corner of the cell slowly until she sat with her arms around her knees and her mouth pressed into the space between them.

When she looked up at Jet, there were tears starting to roll down her face. Looking at them made Jet want to hold her, want to look away and tell her it was just a lie, but he refused to look away from Mercury, not even for a moment, knowing their time together might be limited.

He started to move, as if to go to her, when she rocked forward and darted across the cell, landing between Jet’s legs, sitting on the floor of the cell as he sat on the bench. She wrapped her arms around his waist and held the side of her head into is stomach.

Jet reached down with one hand and gently stroked the triangular extensions from the back of her head, which resembled long hair – something that was exceedingly rare in the digital world. They were softer than Jet had imagined, and moved as he touched them. He could see his energy flowing into them, lighting them, with each stroke.

Mercury responded by pushing her face further into his abdomen and squeezing him tighter. She made no sounds.

“I had only one chance to come back to you Mercury, so I had to take it. The other users abandoned this system over a year ago – more than a gigacycle. They locked me out. I’ve become a criminal just to get back into this world.” Jet said.

“But if you will stay with me in the time we have left, I want to spend that time with you.” He added.

Jet felt mercury nod, the tension in his abdomen shifting slightly.

“I just can’t believe it,” she eventually said. “I’ve felt so close to my user lately that I thought it must mean that they were coming back to us. It was an epiphany that I experienced with my user that left me unable to defend myself when the Kernel took me. “

“There might be a reason for that, Mercury,” Jet started, but Mercury continued talking.

“However since that time, my user hasn’t been in contact with me and I no longer feel as if she’s there. She just disappeared, as if she too has abandoned us. Is that how it is?” Mercury asked. She looked up now into Jet’s eyes.

“No, Mercury,” Jet said, then waited for her to listen before continuing.

“Your user is trapped in this world with us – encapsulated away in fiber loop 3. She was very sick and was close to death – to deletion that users experience - in the real world.

“The other users that I care for sent her here to try and save her. They helped me to come here too. And while I’m here, it’s critical that I save her because if anything happens to her, I’m not sure that you’d survive. I think you need your user in the real world to function properly inside this one.

“That’s something I have to do very soon, long before this place comes to an end. I have to get her out of here, for both of your sakes.

“I can’t take the risk that you’d continue on without her if anything happens to her, and she also deserves a chance at life again.” Jet said.

Mercury let the words settle in as she started to regain some of her composure.

“My user has come to this world,” Mercury asked. “She is within this world as you are, but she may be deleted permanently?”

“Why did she come to this world if not to save it?”

Jet tried to think how to explain

“Your user’s integrity is compromised. You remember the programs the User Thorne corrupted? She is corrupted and needs to be repaired, Mercury.

“There is a program with her called Alchemist. Alchemist will repair the damage done to your user, then she can be reintegrated by the laser system. She will live if we can help her.”

Mercury looked up at Jet, but continued to hold him tightly, her head against his chest now.

“I think I have met my user and am starting to understand what you speak of,” Mercury said.

“When I had my epiphany, I was in the gateway to Sector 3 and boarding a transport to Sector 12. A program came in without transport, cloaked only a glowing sphere that came apart after she entered the gateway.

“I looked through the transport entry and out towards the gateway at what was going on and felt a strong presence, as if my user was standing beside me.

“When I finally saw the program that had entered the gateway, it looked just as I do.

“She noticed me also and looked in my direction.

“We were separated by the length of the docking sector, but she lifted her hand in my direction as if to touch me across the terminal just as the transport moved out.

“That was just before the terminal started to come apart and I lost all track of cycles.

“All I remember after that was being surrounded by ICPs in Sector 12 and the Kernel accused me of destroying the gate in sector 3.

“The programs that survived the terminal breakup claimed it was me who was in the terminal when it broke up around them”

Mercury had a puzzled look on her face.

“I guess you met your doppelganger and suffered the consequences.” Said Jet.

“Doppelganger?” Mercury queried, confused.

“You’re other self. An ancient user legend says when you meet your doppelganger, you do not mave much time left.” Jet explained.

“It is my fault then that this world is going to cease,” Mercury said, incorrectly interpreting Jet’s comment.

“No, Mercury. It’s not your fault. The other users should have realized the danger of sending your user to this place, but that’s not the reason that this system is being shutdown. Other users entirely have made that decision.”

Mercury released her hold on Jet slightly, kneeling fully and moving back, so that her face was almost level with his now and looked directly at him.

“Jet, will you leave when you’ve helped my user?” she asked.

Jet looked back into Mercury’s face and remembered what he had come here for.

“No Mercury. I’m going to stay until the end. I’ll never leave you again.” He said, although the entire time wondering if his intent would be enough.

Mercury smiled slightly, tilted her head to one side, then curving her hand around the back of his neck pulled Jet’s face closer to her.

Mercury closed her eyes and her lips met his for the first time since he had left this world behind. Jet moved his arms around Mercury and pulled her closed, kissing her back with the desire and pain that had filled his last year without her.

Jet wanted to live his life forever in that embrace there, but for the moment, it would have to do. Jet slowly pulled back as Mercury released the pressure from the back of his neck.

“You remembered from our last time together,” Jet said as Mercury’s lips brushed away from his.

“I’ve been waiting for you to return,” said Mercury, nestling the side of her face into his chest again, her head up against Jet’s Chin. It didn’t seem like the old, confident Mercury. Jet wondered what had happened while he was away.

“I keep hoping to find a way to save this system,” Jet said. “But I just don’t know how it’s possible.”

“If you are trying to find a way, Jet, then I know you will save us all. There was no way to save Ma3a and defeat the corruption, but you found a way. I don’t know if all users can do that or if you’re special, even for a user, but I’m not afraid to face my last cycles beside you.”

Jet opened his mouth to speak, but his throat closed up. Nothing came out.

So Jet simply settled for holding Mercury even tighter to himself while the words wouldn’t come.

Jet held Mercury there for what seemed like several minutes without either speaking further, when Jet saw a portal form beyond the forcewall and several ICPs come in through it holding a program suspended between them. They lowered the program to a floating rectangular primitive that formed a basic legless table top, which floated about waist height, just outside of Jet’s holding cell.

The damage to the program was clearly visible. Lines of bleeding energy appeared across the body and limbs of the program, which were pulsing very slowly with a dim light.

As the ICPs moved back, the now light green glow turned to face Jet from the digital stretcher.

“Jade,” exclaimed Jet as he watched

“My user,” managed Jade, rolling her head to one side. An area of black appeared when the far side of her face became visible, with a very fine green grid covering the damaged space. She wasn’t quite looking at Jet from where her good eye was pointing, but she seemed to be able to see him.

The Kernel walked up to the stretcher from beyond Jet’s vision and looked down at the damaged program.

“What did you do to my syslog?” he thundered, spinning his upper torso to bring Jet into view.

Mercury stood and walked to the forcewall. “Jade,” she asked curiously then realized. “Jade piloted you into the Dais.”

Jade rolled her face back up on hearing the voice. “Mercury.” She managed quietly, almost inaudibly. “I believe that my debt to you is repaid.”

Jet reached the forcewall and looked at the program who had helped him save Mercury.

“She’s not going to make it,” said one of the ICPs. “Her core functions are too badly damaged.”

“User or not, If I lose my system routines because of you, I will derez you,” threatened the Kernel.

Mercury looked at Jet. “You know Jet’s a user then?” she asked.

The Kernel looked at the program he had earlier attempted to terminate. “He shut down one of my critical threads during the corruption crisis so I know he has skill in this world. He claims to be a user, but I believe that he’s just a program who thinks he’s a user.”

“Let me see Jade,” Demanded Jet. “I may be able to help her.”

The Kernel looked at the damaged program on the table.

“Why? So you can subvert her routines and gain even greater access to this system? Thorn took the disk access routines and we nearly didn’t stop him. There’s no way I’m going to let a program like you get access to system routines like that again.

“I’m surprised you subverted her execution this far. System routines should be un-accessible to all other applications.”

Jet looked at Jade’s face as a light pulse seemed to momentarily reform and erase the missing features.

“I’m sorry I’ve failed you my user,” managed Jade. “I beg your forgiveness that you might take me to the other side.”

“This program’s delirious,” said one of the ICPs standing around her.

“With the syslogging functions offline, we’re going to have some serious memory leaks to deal with.” Responded another, as the group of ICPs around Jade responded.

Jet banged the forcewall with both palms, sending sparks out the other side, causing the ICPs to react and bring up their weapons. The Forcewall brightened rather than falling at Jet’s hammering.

“Damn it Kernel,” he yelled at the operating system. “She’s going to die. There might be something I can do about it.”

“You’re not gaining access to her routines,” screamed the Kernel. The forcewall hardened further as if it was an implement of his will.

“You already have my routines, my user,” managed Jade, then them pulses started to slowly flow from her damaged areas to the rest of her body as the damage spread.

Jet looked down at his interface on his wrist and saw the pulses moving through it also and started to understand.

“Jade’s Interface,” he said. Realization struck him. He already had access to her.

“A Sudo Interface,” queried Mercury, looking at it.

Jet took a few steps back and placed his palm over the interface. It crackled a little but then Jet closed and opened his eyes. “I can feel her damage” he said.

Mercury looked at him. She seemed confused by what he was saying. The Kernel walked over to the table side and looked down again at Jade, who was going through the initial process of self derezzing.

He held out his hand and placed it over hers.

“I’m sorry Jade, I should never have allowed that recognizer code to remain in your home directory.” Said the Kernel, placing his other hand on the top of her Helmet. “Goodbye my old friend.”

A single tear started to flow from Jade’s remaining eye, black and silver in appearance.

“Jade,” Yelled Jet, feeding his mind in through the connection Jade had established earlier. “You’re not going anywhere – I still need you.”

Suddenly, bright blue light flared from under Jet’s palm, erupting into the Interface and out into Jade. Jade arched her back in agony as the light went through it. Blue light began to erupt from Jade’ damaged areas and when she screamed, light began to erupt from her mouth in small lines.

The ICPs ran to the forcewall.

“Kernel, he has a Sudo.” They called out.

The Kernel didn’t possess a human-like face as so many other programs did, but what was there was already showing visible anger.

“Program, cease access attempt to unauthorized routines now,” commanded the Kernel.

Jet didn’t see his face – he had his eyes closed, and from the lack of change his appearance gave, he didn’t hear the Kernel either.

The Kernel turned to face the ICPs briefly as he walked towards Jet’s cell.

“ICP, take down this forcewall, Now!” yelled the Kernel.

“Wall down command given, time to wall erase, One cycle.” Came the response.

An agonizing scream came from Jade, writhing in agony on the table.

By now, even Mercury was bothered. “Jet, she’s going to erase – you can’t do this to a program. You need to leave her alone,”

Jet’s face was still a mask of concentration. “Mercury,” he spoke, eyes still closed. “I need about a minute. Keep the Kernel away from me,” he said.

If he had of looked at Mercury then, he would have seen her confused, mouthing the word “Minute”.

Outside, the Kernel was furious now, banging on the forcewall with his fists. “Cease access attempt now, program.”

Each time the Kernel hammered the forcewall, unlike when Jet had, it dimmed. Inside, Mercury seemed truly worried.

“Forcewall deactivation in point five cycles,” the ICP nearest Jade said.

Jade’s grid base was forming and reforming now, her writhing increasing.

“Program,” screamed the Kernel. “Cease Sudo access now, or I’m going to personally tear your base routines apart, line by line.”

“Jet, I think he’s going to do that,” said Mercury. “You need to stop now.”

“I’m trying to help her, Mercury, but this is more difficult than I expected” said Jet, almost wincing as if in pain. “Just hold him back if he gets through.”

“Well, it doesn’t look like it’s helping from this perspective,” warned Mercury. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Deactivation in point one cycle,” came the ICP.

“Jet,” warned Mercury.

“Just a second longer,” Yelled Jet, strain showing on his face suggesting he was feeling some of her pain.

“How long is a second,” called Mercury.

The Kernel threw a huge blow at the forcewall just before it went down, causing it to shatter as it deactivated. Mercury stepped up to hold him back.

It was a pointless gesture. The Kernel simply swept Mercury aside in a single sweep of his arm, throwing her to the far end of the cell.

He stepped through and up to Jet in two strides, as Jet’s hand came away from the Sudo ring interface that Jade had given him, the blue glow disappearing.

Jet opened his eyes just in time to see the Kernel’s huge arm reach out and grab him by the throat, lifting him slightly into the air.

Jet got both arms around the Kernel’s wrist, trying to lever himself free, but the Kernel was far too strong.

“Kernel,” Jet gasped out from his choking throat.

“I’m not just a thread this time, program,” he said. “Prepare to cease execution here and now.”

“Kernel,” screamed Mercury, rushing over to Jet. She too grabbed the Kernel’s arm, but he was far to strong and it was as if she had grabbed a statue’s arm for all the effect it had.

“I’m going to minus nine you for what you just did to my syslog,” the Kernel said, almost sounding of pity and rage at the same time now.

In the Kernel’s other hand, a ball of pure spiking energy appeared and the Kernel cocked it back for the deathblow.

Mercury struggled to pull the arm free of Jet, while Jet struggled to get loose.

“Kernel,” called the ICP at the entrance to the cell. It had a note of urgency to it.

The Kernel was momentarily distracted at this, and looked to the door. “What it it?”

His arm didn’t move, nor did the energy he was collecting in his fist. The Kernel remained immobile as just his head turned, mercury and Jet still struggling.

“Kernel, the Syslog application is responding again, although she’s not taking I/O.” said the ICP.

The Kernel looked at Jet’s face, starting to change color and resolution slightly.

He opened his huge hand and Jet dropped to the floor, gasping for breath. Mercury stopped him rolling back and knelt with him as he breathed in deeply, both of his hands to his throat.

The Kernel stalked out from the holding cell and out to the table.

Before him, Jade was complete and unmoving on the table, a steady green pulse moving through her now undamaged body.

He stepped up and placed his huge hand gently on her Cheek.

“She’s operational, but in sleep mode,” said one of the ICPs. “Should I interrupt her?”

“No,” said the Kernel.

“How did he do that sir?” asked an ICP. “Is he really a user?”

Jet walked out of the cell, Mercury behind him, still breathing heavily and up beside the Kernel to look down at Jade. The Kernel looked down and noticed the Sudo bracelet now pulsing with a strong green glow on Jet’s wrist.

“Program, how did you do..” began the Kernel.

Then, at a single movement, all of the ICPs in the area outside the holding cell fell as one to their knee, lowing their heads and presenting their arms to him.

“My User,” a single phrase of many voices echoed around the room.

The Kernel looked around at the now subverted ICPs and grew red with Anger again.

“ICPs, take these programs back to their cell at once,” he yelled.

The ICPs seemed stunned and moved strangely, as if not sure whether to follow their command and re-imprison what they clearly felt now was a user, or whether to throw him back into the Cell as the Kernel had demanded, each looking to the others as if hoping someone else would make the decision.

“Execute my command,” Yelled the Kernel, authoritively.

This broke the hesitation of the ICPs and they immediately moved to Jet, although not a single ICP raised their staff to him.

Jet looked down and smiled at Jade, appearing to sleep peacefully on the table.

An ICP placed his hand gently on Jet’s shoulder, as if unwilling to do any more, flinching when Jet slowly turned his head and looked back at him.

The ICPs parted and Jet walked back to his cell, Mercury backing into it before him.

Behind him, the Kernel didn’t turn to watch, his gaze still on Jade. Jade appeared to be smiling slightly as she slept.

As Jet entered his cell, the forcewall flickered and resolved back into place behind him while the ICPs in the area beyond the cell were now aimlessly milling around the place now, not sure what to do next.

Jet turned once inside the Cell and looked back out through the forcewall.

The Kernel walked away and out of view at that point, still refusing to look at Jet, the legless table moving in behind him - still floating, still carrying Jade.

Two new ICPs resolved into place as escorts for the table and followed on either side as he walked off.

Moments later, the confused ICPs around the area outside the cell started to derez, one by one, being replaced by new ICPs that rezzed in, each standing at attention.

“I guess the Kernel’s pretty angry with me,” said Jet turning around to face Mercury.

Mercury had a puzzled look on her face.

“How did you do that?” she asked. “How did you restore the syslog?”

“Jade?” asked Jet.

“Jade.” Confirmed Mercury.

“I’ve seen her programming,” said Jet. “I know how her routines are set out. I just needed to find access to rewrite them and then I rebuilt them from memory. Some of the modules needed to be relinked, but after that, she began running normally again.”

“I shouldn’t be surprised,” said Mercury. “You are a user”

Mercury hesitated then added, “But sometimes you seem just like a program too.

“In here, I am just a program,” said Jet. “I can’t escape from this cell any more than you can at the moment.”

“But programs can’t rebuild a derezzing program,” said Mecury. “Only a compiler can build a new program routine and only a user can create the original program.”

“I’m only really a user on the outside, Mercury,

“ I still have to follow the rules in here, but there are things that I know from being on the outside that I can bring in here. I think that that is what makes me different.”

“Things that you know?” Mercury asked.

“Things I know about programming. That’s what makes some users different from others. I’ve noticed that the only users who have programs that resemble them are programmers.” Jet said. “Other programs aren’t in our image.”

“Are other programmers the ones responsible for shutting down this system,” asked Mercury.

“No,” said Jet. “Programmers would never willingly shut down the system. It’s other users that don’t program who want to see it destroyed.”

Mercury looked out from the far forcewall to the city beyond.

“So those who made us don’t want to destroy us?” she asked.

“No programmer ever wants to see their programs destroyed,” said Jet. “But there are other… Factions of users who sometimes force other users to do things they don’t want to.”

“There are evil users?” reasoned Mercury.

“Not always evil, but yes, there are evil users as well. I think it’s not evil users so much as ignorant users who are shutting this world down.” Jet explained.

“So my user – is she evil or ignorant?” Mercury asked.

Jet smiled.

“No, I don’t believe she is. Otherwise the users I care for wouldn’t help her. And I’ve met her sister. I think she’s a good user.” He answered.

“Then I must do everything within my power to help her,” said Mercury.

“Thankyou Mercury.” Said Jet. He moved over to her and hugged her tightly to himself, wincing a little as she returned his hug. “Still a little tender there,” he added when she was surprised by his pain.

As they embraced, a broadcast packet came over the system.

“This is a kernel broadcast to all programs. Public execution termination of programs Mercury and Jet will occur at the next reset interval. Programs wishing to view this termination may view from the square. End of line.”

There was no repeat notice.

“Of course,” Mercury said sideways, her head still sideways across Jet’s chest as they held each other, “We may need to find a way out of here to do that.”

“Hmmm,” said Jet. “That’s going to be tough.”

“Even for a user?” asked Mercury.

“Even for a user.” Confirmed Jet.

Next: Chapter 2.20 – Access Permissions.