Tron 2.24 – Multi-User.

As the four now-fugitive scientists and one guard made their way through the abandoned building, Flynn slowed a little to talk to Brian.

“Do you have anything on you that might be construed as a weapon?” he said in a hushed tone so as not to alert the others.

“A tonfa and a Leatherman,” said Brian.

“Dump them now,” said Flynn.

“My Leatherman was a present from my father when I got this job,” protested Brian.

“And dump the belt and jacket too. You just got a plain shirt under the corporate jacket right?” Flynn continued.

“Flynn, I’m not dumping anything,” said Brian, a little too loudly.

“Brian, just do it OK. I don’t care what it costs, I’ll replace it with anything new of your choice, just get rid of it before we get in the lifts,” Flynn said, loweing his voice and inserting enough urgency in it to get Brian to lower his.

Brian fixed Flynn with a strange look, then started removing his jacket and detaching his belt, which contained both his baton and Leatherman, as well as a torch, some cuffs and a set of keys.

“What are you expecting?” Brian asked Flynn as they approached the elevator.

“Hopefully nothing, but if things get rough, I don’t want them to see anything they might think is a weapon if they catch us,” Flynn said.

“Who’s them,” asked Brian.

“When I was coming back with the genset, I saw some soldiers assembled near the front of the building. It was too far away to see in the dark so I shut the lights and coasted around the corner and into the ramp once I was out of view.

“But I think they brought in the national guard to lock this place down. I’m guessing this might be a little more serious now than a simple break and enter. I originally only expected police.” Said Flynn.

“So why get rid of anything that resembles a weapon?” Brian asked.

“Because these guys looks like kids with guns. They could be inexperienced and probably have no idea what to do if they actually encounter someone. I’m guessing they’re mainly just setting up roadblocks, and they’re not that bright, because the ramp to the basement at the side was unguarded still, but if they encounter us, I’ll bet they’ll be nervous.” said Flynn.

Brian looked skeptical, but passed his bundle he had made from his clothes and guard gear to Flynn, who unceremoniously threw them through an open office door and continued. Brian and Flynn sped up a little and caught up with the others at the elevator, Alan holding the door open for them.

“We take the elevator guys, in case anyone’s in the basement.” Flynn said.

“Wouldn’t the elevator bell alert anyone down there we’re coming?” asked Alison.

“Exactly, and just in case anyone tries to stop us, hold your hands up in the air and do whatever they say.” said Flynn, realizing his conversation had only been with Brian.

“Are we expecting company?” asked Alan.

“Could be. They were just starting to lock the building down when we got here. The fire escape and front doors were already under guard, but I don’t think they expected our loading ramp to extend so far beyond the back of the building, so we might get out of here alright.” explained Flynn.

The Bell went off as the elevator arrived. Flynn, who was standing in the middle saw the guards first and immediately raised his hands in the air.

Flynn’s intuition had been correct. Two guards, who looked like they were still teenagers, had been patrolling the car park and turned as the elevator door opened. One of them already had his finger in the trigger guard of an M16 assault rifle, which was aimed directly at Flynn.

“Hold it right there,” said the guardsman, jumping back when he realized there were more people in the elevator than he expected, moving his aim from one to another.

Flynn’s eyes opened wide – he had not expected to be correct, more so he was just being precautious.

“Don’t anyone move, I mean it, I’ll shoot,” said the guardsman.

Alan started forward but the speed with which the guarsman jerked the gun around stopped him in his tracks.

“I mean it, I’ll shoot,” said the nervous one.

The other guard had his weapon to his shoulder and was sighting over the top of it, but his finger was outside the guard. Obviously a little better trained.

Flynn remained motionless but spoke. “Kid, just call your commanding officer and tell him you have five people in the basement on sub-level 2.”

“You don’t tell me what to do,” yelled the nervous guardsman, bringing his weapon back to Flynn.

“Relax, Pete, they’re unarmed. Just lower your weapon a little and keep an eye on them,” said the other who hadn’t spoken yet. He held his hand out near the muzzle of his nervous partner’s weapon, open and fingers splayed to let him know these people weren’t a threat.

The guardman who was aiming at Flynn slowly lowered his aim, then remembered to take his finger out of the guard.

Meanwhile, the more disciplined guardsman picked up the radio from his vest.

“LT, we have a group of four, no make that five pee-oh-eyes in the basement on sub-level 2.” He called through.

There was a brief crackle and a voice came back. “Found someone eh Charlie? I’ll be right down. Keep them there but take action as appropriate.”

“You heard what he said,” said Pete, still nervous and fidgety, but wanting to make the point.

The officer arrived less than a minute later carrying a bag. He looked over the group in the elevator then beckoned them forward.

“Sorry about this fellas, but something’s going on in the building and we need to keep you here for a while. To ensure your safety, just come out of the elevator and lay down here with your hands behind your backs.” The officer said.

He reached into his bag and took out a small bundle of heavy-duty nylon binders.

“Now don’t any of you move until I tell you,” he said.

Slowly, he cable tied each of their wrists and ankles so they couldn’t escape, although he was gentler with Alison.

“Is that too tight miss,” he asked.

“It’s a little tight, but not painful,” she said.

One by one he helped them to a sitting position and patted them down, then satisfied, we walked over to return to his soldiers.

“You two can shoulder those rifles now guys, good work, Don’t get any closer to them than five meters now,” the officer said the other others, then addressed his prisoners. “ I’m kind of curious just what you guys are doing here in the middle of the night. Who amongst you wants to tell me?”

“That would be me,” said Flynn.

“So what are you doing here?”asked the officer.

“This is my company,” said Flynn, “Well, it used to be. We were just in here retrieving a few personal things before they demolish the building next week, when the alarms went off and we were coming out.

“As you can see, we didn’t take anything, and didn’t have time to get our personal stuff either.”

“uhuh,” said the officer, taking notes, but sounding completely disinterested. “So you’re thieves then?”

“Of course not, we had permission,” lied Flynn. “Do we look like thieves to you? We’re scientists.”

“In jumpsuits,” baulked the officer.

“This is a dusty place and it’s not like we need lab clothes tonight.” Said Flynn.

“uhuh,” said the officer. “So how did you get in here?”

Flynn nodded back to the cars.

“And what were these personal effects you speak of?” asked the guard.

“Some software written on our own time,” said Alan. “Everything of the company’s has been removed. We just wanted to get some old code off the mainframe while it was still running.”

“We also need someone to turn the power back on to the building.”

“uhuh,” said the officer.

Flynn went quiet for a moment then spoke to the officer. “You’re really not here to ask us questions are you?”

“Nope,” said the officer candidly enough. “We just got called in to secure the facility and detain anyone we found. Uncle Sam’s going to be along personally to sort it out. We’re just housesitting because we could get here first.”

“Flynn paused for another moment as he considered it,” Can we get someone in charge to turn on the power? We don’t want to lose what we came here for and someone’s life might be at stake.”

“uhuh, so why is someone’s life at stake?” asked the officer.

“Because it was medical software written for a sick patient we were trying to get,” said Alan.

He decided to leave out he bit about the lasers and the inside of the computer. Talking about that was more likely to get the undesired effect of them being considered crazy or dangerous rather than the desired one of achieving getting the power turned back on.

“uhuh,” said the officer, “well, Uncle Sam’s going to be along in about fifteen minutes and you can ask him when he arrives.”

Then the officer took out a cigarette and lit it.

Jet looked at his Sudo. Although there was a watch function in it now after Jade’s changes to it back in sector 12, the time wasn’t updating due to being cut off from the system in this sector.

While Jade had been able to use logfile information to adjust the output and send it to Jet’s Sudo in system, now that Jade was cut off by the broken connection to the other sectors, including the logfile archive, there was no way for her to get to that information.

It highlighted to Jet that this section of the system was completely standalone.

Jade noticed Jet was looking at the Sudo and realized what he was thinking.

“I don’t have access to the logs at the moment, my user.”

“Is my preoccupation with checking the time that obvious?” Jet asked.

“You seem to check it often,” said Jade.

“Being mindful of time is probably more of a user trait than a program one. Time means something completely different in the real world to what it means in here. Sometimes I wonder if programs have any feeling for different spans of time.”

Jade thought about it for a moment.

“I know that we all want to increase our span of time,” she answered.

Jet smiled at the answer, but didn’t want to dwell on how little time they might all have at the moment.

“Jade, I think it’s time we checked on the progress on Melanie,” said Jet, getting to his feet, then offering a hand to help her up.

Jade took his hand and lifted herself with his aid. Jet knew Jade didn’t need the assistance, but he found it difficult to break the habits from a lifetime in the real world.

They didn’t talk much on the way down and Jet’s mind kept returning to Mercury and where she was at the moment and what she was feeling.

When they got back to the clearing, Ma3a and Alchemist were still processing Melanie, but the Section Leader was present, checking sentry reports when they approached.

“Confirmation, Section 3, programs confirmed friendly,” Jet thought he heard quietly in the background from the Section leader, who waved amicably in their direction.

Jet wondered over to Ma3a.

“Ma3a, can you give me a status report on the progress so far?” he asked.

“You’ll need to query Alchemist Jet, I’m only assisting,” said Ma3a.

Jet mentally winced at the thought of needing to interrupt Alchemist, especially as he now had a greater understanding of her feelings towards him.

“Alchemist, status report query,” said Jet.

Alchemist responded without looking at Jet.

“Status, report.

“Foreign Material Removal process, complete

“Estimated Success rate, ninety nine point nine, nine, six percent.

“Estimated false positive, point zero, zero, zero, three percent.

“Data correction process, complete

“Data loss due to quantum instability, eighteen percent.

“Attempted recover of missing data through correction algorithm in process.

“Overall Process 93% complete.”

“Thankyou Alchemist,” said Jet, who started to walk away then turned to her once more.

“Alchemist, I’m sorry about changing your permissions. I’d be happy to restore them to default once this process is completed if you would prefer.”

Alchemist looked at Jet angrily, her head snapping around as she did so, but then she blinked twice and her expression softened a little, but not enough to remove the appearance of anger entirely.

“Yes, I would like that,” she answered.

“You won’t try to derez us all after that will you?” Jet asked, suddenly wondering, a little too late, if it had been such a good idea to ask.

“No, I don’t have any outstanding conflicting instructions from my user after this process is complete, and will follow instructions that don’t counter my existing ones.” she answered.

Jet nodded, smiled uneasily and noticed Alchemist returned immediately to her work. He walked back to where he had been sitting earlier, not too far from where the Section Leader had set up his command post, and sat down.

Jade walked over and sat down beside him.

“Jade, can you do something for me?” Jet asked.

“Confirmed, my user, what would you have me do?” she answered.

“I’m going to close my eyes to think. Can you please shake me when the process is complete?” he asked.

“Of course, my user,” Jade said.

Jet closed his eyes and laid his head back on the ground.

He began to think about what Jade had just told him about this system and the programs who dwelt within it. About the links to the real world and what he had learned about this world from his weeks staying with Doctor Gibbs.

He certainly didn’t expect to fall asleep.

He expected even less to dream.

Jet opened his eyes in the real world. It was cold here, and there was snow on the ground that appeared to lead down from the mountains on one side.

Jet remembered this area even though he wasn’t sure whyl

This was a very remote section of Canada he had come to visit for a reason.

Presently, he was standing outside the guest house where he had arranged accommodation, not too far from Walter Gibbs present residence.

Jet walked up the snow-covered road to the house overlooking a deep valley. It was a two-story A-frame house – not that common around here but not all that impractical either.

There was a wooden set of stairs leading to the door. Jet walked up and knocked once, wondering if the doctor would have any idea who he was or even if he would speak to him.

And old man with a bald head came to answer the door. It was I-no.

“Jet, so glad to see you again,” said I-no.

The old program ushered Jet into the building and into the living room Jet seemed to remember even though this was his first visit here.

Walter gibbs was sitting at the end of the room, looking out over the valley. He didn’t turn to Jet immediately.

“Hello Jethro, it’s good to see you again,” said the doctor.

Jet thought it strange. He hadn’t identified himself or told the old man he was coming. Something about him seemed wrong.

“How is your mother?” he asked, still looking out the window.

“She’s, well, she’s passed away some time ago,” said Jet. Somewhere in his mind he knew that the doctor already knew this, but it all seemed to make sense, as if she was still with them.

The doctor got up out of the chair and walked to greet Jet. His eyes were very dark, almost as if there was nothing but blackness behind them. His face was colorless and at times, seeming almost holographic in the way it moved almost independently of his head, but only slightly.

It reminded Jet of a face he could recall seeing somewhere else.

Gabriel, his cousin, came in with some tea and some cake, and placed it on a table that sat between three chairs. He sat in one of the chairs.

Jet didn’t seem to know what to say next, or why he was here all of a sudden.

“You’ve come to ask me about the world on the other side of the screen,” said Walter Gibbs, indicating a chair which Jet should sit down in. Jet remained standing, but the doctor took a seat opposite.

“I have?” asked Jet, somehow knowing he had.

“It exists, of course, but only two people have seen it for certain. That would be your godfather and yourself.” Said doctor Gibbs.

“And yourself?” asked Jet.

“No, I’ve never seen it,” said the doctor. “But I know it exists and I know it’s real. We created that world, myself and people like me, and don’t forget your mother. We gave it life and we’re responsible for it.

“Our spirit remains in every program we designed for that computer.”

“How can you be so certain?” asked Jet.

“Because I’m a scientist.

“I built the computer and saw how programmer interaction caused changes to otherwise stable data.

“We didn’t understand it then, but we deduced the cause.

“A programmer could write a program that worked perfectly well, but if they observed the data stream directly, their programs corrupted and failed, even if they had been working perfectly for months.

“We affected that world just by looking at it, Jet, even if we didn’t have any idea what we were looking at.”

“How could that be?” asked Jet.

“It’s because of what we did that created that world Jet and what it really is,” said Dr Gibbs.

“Once you understand how we created it, you can understand why we interfere with it just by looking at it.

“We know why now, because we have a slightly better understanding of quantum mechanics.

“The world on the other side of the screen is a quantum wavefront, just as this world is.

“Except it’s not a different wavefront from this world – it’s the same wavefront, just propagating through a different perception and medium.

“It can’t co-exist with our reality because it’s the same reality. It’s a doppelganger for our universe.

“And we created it with our first laser experiments in trying to digitize the information contained in matter and we built on it with every new experiment.

“The laser digitization system you’re familiar with isn’t really just a laser at all. It’s a transport system that uses coherent light to transport quantum information about the nature of reality into a photonic form that we can process.

“The Five Eleven was the machine we designed to process that information so we could learn about matter. It was only a spinoff from that research that we developed tools that were able to cut programming time from weeks to days – a legacy of the algorithmic translation engine, except it was never intended for that work in the first place.

“That’s why at our core, we always continued the laser digitization process research. The computer research work paid for the physics work to continue. The biggest mistake I made was allowing the computer research division of the company to float because then the directors began to concentrate on only the profitable digital research and left the physics work behind.

“But we were on the verge of a breakthrough. We thought we were violating the laws of this universe and needed to understand why.

“But try explaining to a shareholder that it’s important to understand where matter is going when it disappears. The only thing they can see disappearing is research money.” Explained Dr Gibbs, with a slight chuckle.

He paused and took a sip of tea, then a bite of some biscuits his cousin left on the table.

Jet took his seat and waited for the doctor to continue.

“But try as we might, we couldn’t understand what was happening to the matter. We could expose it and drop it into the fiber loops, but we couldn’t understand where it was going.” Said the doctor.

“So the Five Eleven sprung from that research?” asked Jet.

Jet was having trouble following what the doctor was saying.

“The Five eleven came from that research,” confirmed Dr Gibbs, even though he had already explained it once earlier.

“But we used to wonder about where all of the matter went, since it seemed that apparently we were breaking the laws of conservation of mass

“The matter seemed to turn to into nothing, as we understand it. Gobbled up by a stream of quantum black holes and reconstructed as data for all I know. Quantum physicists never managed to work out where it went, only that it went.

“The early experiments, the Green experiment, the Yellow experiment, the Blue experiment and the Red experiment all went the same way. Things disappeared, and all we got for it was a bunch of photons with seemingly random data.

“We knew we had a breakthrough because we managed to break the laws of this universe. We managed to destroy mass. But without a framework to understand it, the discovery was useless.

“Theories were endless – was the matter going to another dimension? What happened when we dropped the power to the loop? Did the information simply cease to exist?

“We thought that the law that we were trying to understand was the law of conversation of matter.

Doctor Gibbs paused.

“Only we got it wrong. There was no conservation of mass issue with our experiments.

“It was all about conservation of information.”

“It was only when we learned how to play the information back again through the laser that we figured that out. Matter can be returned, but data – true quantum data – can’t be duplicated.

“The information we gained during the exposure drops back into the real world when the experiment is reversed and the matter it needs is just recreated out of the same nothingness that took it away in the first place.

“The information and the mass is conserved, and the laws of the universe are happy that everything is as it should be.”

“The information we were storing inside the computer itself was quantum in nature.

“It was like a form of natural encryption and because we were storing it in photonic form, we could re-read the data a thousand times and get different results each time, almost like a billion dollar random number generator.

“We could duplicate it, copy it, transfer it. We could even alter it. The only two things that destroyed it were deletion and playback. The strange thing was that whenever we made a copy, the copy contained different data when we read it, and it didn’t matter which copy we played back.

“But we could only play it back once. We learned that in the Orange Experiments with the, well, the Oranges. We could store an orange and retrieve an orange, but we couldn’t duplicate an orange.

“We played it back and the orange re-appeared, but the data in the server was destroyed. It was still there, but it was useless – and the random numbers just stopped and the data became consistent. Like it was dead.

“We knew when one of the copies had been played back, because then when we copied the data, the numbers in all of the copies weren’t random anymore. They stayed the same. Change one copy, change them all.

“All of the copies were completely entangled.

“Or course, the biggest issue we had was corruption. The orange came back according to the laws of the universe, but it’s form was as random as the data stream of the exposed digitization.

“The process of the system digitizing things damaged the quantum nature of the information we were storing. The volume was generally consistent, but the content was all mixed up and because the data can’t be played back twice, we only got one shot at it.

“At first the only breakthroughs we had were in developing quantum shielding. It improved the playback, but didn’t completely resolve the issues.

“It was then that your mother, brilliant lady – I hope she’s well, came up with the idea to use the algorithmic engine as a component of the process, rather than just a system for analyzing the data. She realized that we could convert the data to executable code that the processor could execute, so we developed a base program generation algorithm that allowed automatic creation of null program space when the object was first digitized.

“The data attached itself to executable code and for some reason, that process allowed a measure of stabilization, as some of the data then remained constant during the process. Other data, almost random in nature, still existed though.

“At least at first it seemed that the processor was just processing random data, but then the effect it had on the output was observed.”

Dr Gibbs waited for Jet to catch up.

“The orange came back intact, didn’t it.” Jet offered.

“The orange came back intact. It was a major breakthrough. We discovered after many trials that the better the base code we generated, the more stable the playback process was. Building the executable became a key to stabilization of the data. Some parts randomly changing, other parts stable.

“The first correction algorithms read the incoming data stream and predicted the best base code to generate, almost like they knew what they needed to do. It was like magic.

“We even started to learn that the information of a whole object could be encoded into just a part of it. We started to get results moving matter around like information for the first time, because matter really is just information.

“But then something happened that led to me come to an understanding of just what was going on inside the computer that changed everything.”

“It all happened because some of the oranges came back corrupted, even though we got most of them back intact.”

Jet nodded. Somewhere in his mind, he had heard this conversation before, but at the moment, if felt as if this was the first time he was hearing this.

“So what led your to discover this other world?” asked Jet.

“The incidences in which oranges didn’t come back correctly occurred when certain applications were running on the system.

“These applications were written by programmers who had never been in the lab, but their applications seemed to take a level of quantum interference with them.

“If even their application was involved in the transfer, it caused interference. That’s what necessitated the next generation of correction algorithms to be developed to stabilize as much of the data code base as possible.

“It was bizarre – we were writing the code we had been trying to look at and if we guessed right, it remained stable. If wrong, it became unstable and corrupt. It was like trying to decode a code in which you can only look at the next letter when you are ready to decode it and you can only make one attempt to decode it.

“Either you get it right, or you get it wrong, but only if you get it all right, can you stabilize the correct bits.

“We created a new team, and that team had a brilliant programmer named Ed Dillinger who created a master program to generate the stable code base.

“Initially, it absorbed and analysed the programs that interfered with the quantum stabilization process and determined which bits they interfered with. By absorbing those programs, it could use the interference patterns they generated to pre-determine the quantum nature of the incoming data without reading it directly, just by the similar interference the data caused in the programs quantum fields.

“The master program even took control of the applications original functions, adding them to its own so it could continue to perform system functions.

“Yes, Edward Dillinger was certainly a genius.”

“Was that the same Dillinger who stole Flynn’s programs?” asked Jet.

“The same.

“Oh, he was criminally minded and lacked both imagination and determination, but don’t underestimate his genius.

“And although his programming ability was limited, he was very, very good at writing core routines for the algorithmic engine. “ said the Doctor.

“His program became the master control program after it had absorbed sufficient programs to allow it to infer the quantum nature of data it didn’t observe. It began running the system, so many applications, functions and programs had it absorbed by then.

“It was the MCP application that he wrote that created the first final generation of correction algorithms and made the digitization process reliable.

“It was incredible, but for some reason, I was convinced it was also utterly evil.

“It was alive Jet, like some kind of living monster inside the computer. Some of the programmers were telling me it could make decisions that went against its core logic.

“It was evolving inside the computer. Taking programs long after it no longer needed them, after they no longer interfered with the digitization process.”

“And within it, I saw the personality of Ed Dillinger. The program he had created had become him. It was damn spooky and Ed refused the believe it right until Flynn caught him red handed with his fingers in the digital cookie jar.”

Walter Gibbs smiled.

“The MCP was described by some as semi-sentient I remember. Flynn believed it was evil also, believed he had destroyed it.” said Jet.

“You can’t destroy evil,” said the doctor. “Evil seems like matter or information. The laws of the universe don’t simply make it disappear.”

“So that’s the reason you believe life exists inside the five eleven doctor?” asked Jet.

“Not just that, Jet. That was what confirmed it for me, but the signs were always there. Some programmers had inadequate skills – such as your mother. Brilliant physicist, but not able to produce decent code before she married your father and he taught her.

“But the code she wrote worked. It worked so damn well that she even produced a working data simulator that could generate the quantum effect for testing data transfer of entangled information across the network between nodes.

“The Simulated Application Interference Locator was her work. Damn brilliant program even though the code was rubbish. It became self aware when she created the Yacht Object Research Integrator – some code that was able to select the correct application interference locators so we could build early packet payload carrying routines to transfer quantum information between nodes of the five eleven.” said the doctor.

“Yacht?” asked Jet.

“To hold the S.A.I.L’s objects,” explained Walter Gibbs as if it was so obvious that Jet shouldn’t have asked.

“Anyway, some people could write code that didn’t interfere with other code. Your mother was one of those people. Even if she copied someone else’s code that didn’t work, if she took it as her own, it worked.

“For some reason, the programs we write seem to be affected by who we are and what we are.

“We got past some of that limitation later with the shielding improvements in seventy six, but some people were just naturally good at it.”

“It was as if their spirit was guiding them – as if they left something of themselves with their applications that resisted corruption and interference.”

“If two people didn’t get on, neither did their programs. If they did, then their programs worked almost like synchronized. Their applications even started to generate their own quantum data when looped. It was incredible.

“That was when I was sure that we were leaving something of ourselves inside the world on the other side of the screen. Somewhere that existed that wasn’t here.”

“The system generated complex data, Jet. Real complex data. Look up the laws of conversation of information if you want to understand what that means.

“It can’t happen randomly, Jet.” explained the doctor.

“If just looking at the laser was enough to damage the data, how did you develop shielding?” asked Jet.

“You’ve seen the lab, Jet. You watched your mother digitize objects.”

“We learned not to look at the lasers. We used filtering goggles to remove the information from the light before it enters our minds. We shielded the fibers. We removed any information gathering technology – cameras, light sensors, even objects like unshielded diodes.” explained the doctor.

“Until the data is stabilized by the correction algorithms, we can’t touch it – it’s sacrosanct. If we do that, then we never actually read the data, but we know what’s in it because of the code base that the correction algorithm generates.

“Quantum physics at its finest,” said the doctor proudly.

Jet thought about what his mother had told him when he was a child and how it fit in with what the doctor was saying. He knew he was trying to find a reason to believe that Mercury was real – real enough to love him as he hoped she did.

He took the seat that had been offered to him earlier, an old wooden chair with a cushion on the seat and base of the back.

“But the goggles are there to protect our eyes from the flash of the laser,” said Jet. “My mother told me so.”

The old man smiled.

“It’s amazing how easily we can find another explanation when we don’t understand the real one,” he said, seemingly wise beneath his smile as a matrix rippled across his face.

Jade walked into the room. She was a beautiful young lady, with long flowing hair that snaked around her down to her waist. Her eyes were a brilliant green and her skin soft and light. She wore a simple branded t-shirt and faded jeans which seemed to contrast with the simple white pumps she walked in.

She looked about twenty. About Jet’s age.

“Jasmine, what a pleasant surprise,” said the doctor, then to Jet, “My niece, Jasmin. Brilliant programmer. She worked at Encom for some time, but died some years before you started with us. Worked in the video game section also as I remember. Some type of fighting game.

“Are you staying with us for a while?” asked I-no, who was now sitting where Gabriel had been.

“Sorry, Grandpa, but I came to see Jethro,” she said.

Jet was immediately surprised by the comment as she sat down backwards on the arm of his chair, brushing against his legs as she did so.

She took Jet by the shoulders and put her face close to his as if about to kiss him, then moved to one side as she came forward and whispered in his ears as she squeezed his shoulders, strands of the soft hair on her head brushing Jet’s cheek.

“The process is complete, my user.”

Jet woke with a start and would have sat up were it not for the weight of Jade on his shoulders holding him down.

“The process is complete, my user,” she said. “Is this sufficient?”

Jet took Jade’s arm and lifted her off his shoulders. She sat up beside him when she realized he was alert.

Briefly, Jet’s mind floated back to his dream and his real meeting with the retired doctor who had founded Encom.

That wasn’t how it happened. It had originally taken him a week to convince Walter Gibbs to speak to him and then another week to discover the scientists views on this world.

The doctor really believed in this world, but wasn’t completely convinced of Flynn’s story about visiting it, although he confirmed Flynn’s account fit in with his own.

And there definitely hadn’t been the doctor’s beautiful niece, if she really existed at all.

Still, he had dreamed a very concise version of what the doctor had explained to him over many days, at least what he was able to understand of it. For a moment, Jet wished he had spent more time learning physics like his mother, than programming like his father, but seeing his father create things had made Jet want to be like him more than anything else in the world.

His father had originally taught him how to code.

The sounds of activity around him brought Jet completely back to the world at hand and left many aspects of the dream in a haze.

“Process completed,” said Alchemist, “Preparing to remove halt commands from user::Melanie”

“Halt commands?” said Jet, getting to his feet and walking over to the machine.

“We are about to restart the processes of this user,” clarified Ma3a. “Program correction algorithm debug step testing has confirmed executable capability, however structural damage exists within the application. Some routines have been disabled due to corruption.”

“What does that mean?” asked Jet.

“It means that although this user is functional, some of the data that is integral to her return digitization is corrupted and is still being processed. We have isolated this code to the paged memory for later processing.” said Ma3a.

Jet walked over and looked at the girl laying on the bed at the end of the machine. She looked normal to Jet, at least as normal as any other program in this world, save her white color.

“Is she alright?” Jet asked.

“Disrupted functions do not affect functional equivalents within this environment,” said Alchemist.

Melanie opened her eyes and looked up at Jet.

“Where am I,” she asked, shielding her eyes. “It’s so bright in here.”

“Melanie, do you know who you are?” Jet asked.

Melanie swallowed briefly and looked at Jet’s face. “I saw you before the operation, was it successful?”

Jet didn’t know how to explain it to her.

“What do you remember?” he asked her.

“Pain and light,” said Melanie, “I woke up in this place once before I think, and looked at someone I thought I knew, except she was blue and glowing. Then the pain started.

“The next thing I remember was being in a place without any people. It was like a strange world. I thought I had died and was waiting for something to come and get me, but it only felt like I was there for a minute.” she said.

“Your operation isn’t quite complete yet,” explained Jet.

Melanie looked alarmed. She looked up, away from Jet and at the lights of the world around her and the strange people there. “So I still have cancer?” she asked back to Jet.

“No Melanie, the cancer is gone.” said Jet, relieved that was what was worrying her.

“So Alison’s program worked then. She’ll be glad to know that,” Melanie managed. “So what went wrong with the operation?”

Again, Jet wasn’t sure what to say. She had just awoken and Jet didn’t want to explain to her yet that the digitizing lab was offline.

“You’re still inside the computer. The operational routines have completed, but we can’t get you back out again yet.” Jet said.

Alchemist walked over to the table.

“Alison, you’re here, waiting for me,” said Melanie.

Alchemist looked puzzled.

“Alison is the name of my user,” said Alchemist.

Melanie looked over at Jet.

“Why the strange clothes? Is this some kind of joke?” she asked.

“No, Melanie, you’re still inside the computer, but you’re presently conscious. Alison’s program has just completed. That’s Alison’s program Alchemist there, not Alison.”

Melanie looked confused.

“It means that the programs you came here to run with are complete, although there’s still some post-processing to do.” said Jet.

“So if this is real and I’m awake inside the computer, are you Jethro’s program?” she asked.

Jet smiled. “No, I’m the real Jet. Something went wrong when you came in here and I had to come in here to fix it. It’s mostly allright now.”

Melanie looked around and moved to sit up, then swung her legs over the edge and stood, taking a moment to find her feet. She looked down at her hands, realizing they looked different, feeling that they felt different.

“So I’m not dead and this is real, but like some kind of virtual reality?” she asked.

“It’s real, and no it’s not virtual, so don’t go jumping off anything high or in front of anything that’s moving fast. There’s no respawn in this world. We can die here as easily as we can in the real world and this place is a lot, lot wilder,” said Jet.

Melanie looked around now, at all of the others looking at her.

Off to the side, they could hear the Section leader speaking to Jade.

“So she is a user, General?” he asked quietly.

“Both of them are users,” confirmed Jade, smiling now the secret was confirmed. “But I don’t have any data on the other one.”

“We must be in some deep datacrud if they send two users to us after all this time,” said the Section Leader to her.

Jet wanted to give Melanie more time, but he realized time was running out. He needed to find a way out of here.

“Melanie, I need to ask you to do something. We’re not complete here and I need you to step back into the paged memory so I can retrieve Mercury.” He asked, indicating the shell she had come from.

“My program is here?” asked Melanie.

“Yes she is, and we may need her to help get you out of here.

“I need you to enter the paged memory while we retrieve her and with any luck, the next thing you know, you’ll be back in the real world and cured.”

Melanie nodded, but wasn’t ready to go back yet. “Can I talk to her before I go? I always wondered what my program would look like if I could see her – I mean, really see her. I’ve dreamed about her so many times, it feels like she’s real.”

Jet was taken back by the comment.

“Sorry, Melanie, but the two of you can’t co-exist in the same world. That’s why things went so badly wrong when you got here.”

“Was that Mercury I saw when I arrived then?” asked Melanie, shuddering at the recollection of the pain it must have caused her.

“That was Mercury. She felt your pain also, but she’s waited in that other place while we’ve operated on you. I need you to go back there for a while.” Jet reiterated.

“But you can look at her briefly through the other shell before you go if you like. Just don’t touch it.”

“Alright,” said Melanie. “But before I go, I want to thank you for helping me Jethro. I never really got to meet you before I came in here, but your father always told me so many things about you, I feel like I know you even if we’ve never met before.

“My father told me you agreed to help me even though it would put you at great risk.

“I just want you to know that I really appreciate that.” She said.

Jet smiled at her. “That’s alright. I still had my own reasons for coming here, so my actions aren’t as altruistic as you think they are.”

Melanie walked over to the second shell and looked inside, touching her face and arms as she did, comparing their look to her own.

“She’s just like me,” she said, then walked over to the first shell, where she had come from.

“Just step forward into the surface like an open doorway,” said Jet.

Melanie took a tentative step forward, but she was close and it took her into and through the surface of the shell, rippling as it did so.

Jet didn’t have the heart to tell her she might not make it out of here at all, but his time was limited and he needed to be with Mercury right now. He walked to the second shell and waited, wondering if he needed to do something.

“Page memory swap now,” said Alchemist and moments later, Mercury stepped out of the second shell and fell into Jet’s arms.

“Mercury, are you alright?” Jet asked, concerned.

“I’m fine, Jet. I’m just glad to be back again.” She said.

“Is it a bad place when the memory pages out?” Jet asked.

“No,” said Mercury. “It’s like this place, only without you.” She said. “It’s empty.”

Jet held Mercury close into him, although he was worried for Melanie now.

“Is my user alright,” asked Mercury of Jet.

“I’m not sure, Mercury. She seems to have some damage to her file caused when the two of you met. I don’t know what that means yet.” Jet said.

“What do you need to do about it?” asked Mercury.

Jet wondered for a moment. “I need to speak to the others on the outside as quickly as possible,” he said.

“External communications can only occur from a sector directly connected to the hub, my user” offered Jade, who had been listening in.

“Can we get back there in your recognizer?” asked Jet. Mercury let him go so he could twist around.

“We could travel back the way we came, but we would need to leave the user you call Melanie here with the ICPs,” said Jade. “She contains too much data to fit within the recognizer payload.”

Jet wasn’t too keen on leaving Melanie here – he needed her close in case they had to push her out of the system in a hurry. He was hoping the others in the real world would be able to get the laser back online soon.

“What other options exist, Jade?” he asked.

“We could travel to Sector two and locate the hub beam there. If we gain system access, it will accept our headers and we can get to the central hub.” She answered.

“Would your recognizer handle transport to Sector two,” asked Jet.

“No, but the inter-sector transport between three and two should still be operational. That would have sufficient payload capacity for the shells.” Said Jade.

Jet turned to Alchemist.

“Can you shift these shells to the transport area for transport to Sector two?” asked Jet.

“Shell translational functions operational,” said Jade, and a transport case rezzed in around the shell.

Finally, Jet turned to the Section Leader.

“Section, are you up to facing the Datawraiths again if we need to take the hub beam by force?” Jet asked.

“Three section ready and awaiting your command, Sir,” said the section leader, coming to attention.

Jet looked over to Jade and back to the Section leader with a puzzled look.

“Sir?” he queried.

“It, well, it seems fitting for a user who appears to be giving us orders, and after your leadership back at the pool, sir, well, the men kind of respect you. Sir, we’d follow you even into the temporary directory to battle,” explained the Section Leader.

“It seems I’ve been promoted,” said Jet.

“Sir, Yes, Sir,” Said the Section leader in time with all of the ICPs in his charge.

“Alright then,” Said Jet, looking around and taking charge of things. “Section, let’s move out to the transport beam station. We’re going to take those sectors back now.”

“You heard the commander, programs, move your data,” Bellowed the Section Leader and began issuing orders to the ICPs.

“Ma3a, Mercury, let’s get out of this Sector,” he said. “It’s time we started to make things happen our way.”

“You seem very confident, Jet,” Said Ma3a.

“When things get this bad, there’s not much else left to be,” said Jet.

They started moving out towards the transport beam to Sector 2.

Next: Chapter 2.25 - System Failure