Tron 2.28 – Non-Return to Zero.

Jet pushed Lora back, breaking her embrace as he stared at her.

“No, you can’t be, you’re Ma3a,” he said.

Jet didn’t want to believe it. He spent most of his lifetime learning to live it without her, to get used to the idea she was gone and wasn’t coming back.

Lora must have realized it, her eyes filled with sadness.

“No Jethro, Ma3a is the program you know as the amalgamation of the code of three programs and one user.” Lora said to her son as she let her arms fall to her side.

“How, How can you be? You were killed in the accident when I was eleven,” Jet stammered.

“What did they tell you about the accident?” Lora asked quietly.

“The laser misfired, activated without warning. You were killed.” Jet said, trying to work out what was going on.

“Do you really think that a laser with as many safety interlocks as the one at Encom had would misfire?” she asked.

Jet didn’t know how to answer. Lora continued.

“It was an accident, Jethro, but it was my own mistake that took the world from me. I imagine your father told you differently, wanted to keep a more painful truth from you,” she said.

Jet almost fell backwards as he staggered.

“That you died because you made a mistake?” Jet challenged her.

“That I was still be alive, inside the computer,” Lora said.

Jet’s mind raced through what she said. His father had always been so defensive when he asked about the accident – it seemed to upset him whenever they discussed it, so Jet learned to not ask.

But Alan Bradley never left Encom or the research after the accident. He never stopped working on the technology that took his wife and Jet’s mother away, even though many times Jet had wondered why his father wanted to stay there.

Alan had continued to work for so many years on Ma3a, a program that achieved recognizable sentience shortly after Jet’s mother died.

Jet had always blamed his father for failing to move on after his mother died, but he had never really considered the possibility that he might think she was still alive. If she was digitized, his father would have considered the possibility that her data might be recoverable. He grew old ever searching for what he had lost, while shielding Jet from the same possibility – a life without closure on the most tragic event to touch it.

It had cost Alan his relationship with his son over time as well, but Jet had managed to move on, to find a life for himself, albeit without his father as well.

If what the program component standing before Jet said was true, then it truly might be all that remained of his mother.

Jet felt years of certainty, a wall against the emotions he build over the years so long ago, crumbling before him. He looked back at the woman who claimed to be his mother and challenged her.

“Then if that’s true, why didn’t you say anything? The last time I was here? You said nothing –“ Jet accused.

“Because what remains of me is locked within Ma3a. Had you not compiled the legacy code, I would not have regained access to my memories” said Lora.

“So what does that mean?” Jet asked.

“I’m no longer who I used to be, Jethro, but this part of me does remember. Part of me is – has become - Ma3a, but that part of me does not retain my memories. It has no recollection of being a user. Inside Ma3a, however, that which is still me remembers the accident so clearly - If I didn’t remember Flynn’s description of this world, I would have assumed this was heaven, but I know exactly where I am and what happened.”

“Is it really you?” Jet asked,

“It’s really me, or at least, I still remember being me,” said Lora, holding out her arms. Jet stepped into them this time and hugged her back.

“You can’t imagine how I’ve wanted to hold you again Jethro. You’ve grown so much since you were eleven, but you still look the same.” said Lora as the corners of her eyes began to glow slightly with the energy in her tears.

Jet held her for a moment without saying anything, then lifted his face and stepped back, still surprised.

“Dad must have suspected, but never succeeded. If I get out of here, I have to tell him about this. He must have been waiting so long, he’ll want to come in and see you again,” said Jet, but Lora interrupted him.

“I would like for that, I really would, but that’s not going to happen,” his mother said.

“Why not?” Jet asked, feeling ripped between extremes of emotions.

“Because I can never go back, and he can never come here to see me.” Lora Bradley said.

Jet looked around as he cleared his head. Tron had moved away and approached the face and was having a quiet conversation with it. He turned to face his mother.

“But, you’re here, we can get you back,” Jet started but Lora interrupted him.

“Jethro, I can’t go back, ever. My quantum state is damaged and what wasn’t damaged I gave away.”

Jet’s expression showed he was more confused than ever.

“Jethro, sit down, time is short and I know enough to know you’re in serious danger. I need to tell you as much as I can about what’s going on so that if you get a chance to return, you’ll understand what you need to do.”

Lora held her hand out and a bench rezzed in.

Jet sat down on it and waited for his mother to do the same.

“Time is short?” Jet repeated as a question. “Then let’s stabilize Ma3a and we can at least find some time to talk.”

Lora’s face took on the shape of Sadness.

“Jethro, I don’t have much time. In fact, I may have only a few cycles.

“My codebase is corrupted and I’ve been in hibernation while you got Ma3a to Alchemist’s scanner,” Started Lora.

Jet sat quietly, absorbing what his mother was telling him as she continued her story.

“Yori was piloting the packet transport when it crashed, and she was badly hurt. That was the event that awoke me again, and I’m really glad it did. I don’t know how much you’ve worked out about what happens when we enter this world, but we bring our quantum state with us when we do.

“Our programs also have a similar quantum state, which we give to them when we create them – think of them as a little bit of us in digital form.

“Yori and I can’t co-exist, but Yori is Ma3a – She is the code that keeps this place” Lora spread her hands to indicate the world they were in “Running.”

“What remains of me is bound to Ma3a. If something were to happen to Ma3a, then I could no longer exist, as I am entangled with this software in here now as I was to my body in our world before.

“As people, or users as our programs call us, our quantum state needs to be anchored to something. If we lose that something – either our physical bodies or the data that represents ourselves in here, then we die. Our quantum state moves on.

“So I had to save Ma3a for two reasons. The first is that you can’t leave here without her. She really is critical to what you are doing.

“The second is that without her I would perish in any event.”

Jet interrupted. “So what does this have to do with your being stuck here?”

“Jethro, what did I tell you about interrupting me?” she scolded lightly, then continued.

“So I grafted over the code that was damaged in Yori – Ma3a, from myself, from an undamaged portion.”

Jet looked at her unable to understand what she was saying and why that meant she couldn’t return.

“Jethro, my codebase is damaged. There is code within me that won’t execute. Code that lacks the quantum qualities to allow me to exist in this world. I’m here now, but I can’t survive in this world much longer, so I need you to listen carefully to what I’m going to tell you.

Jet stood dumbfounded, unable to find anything to say. He had found his mother again, had accepted she really was here, only to be told he was going to lose her again. Lora continued explaining.

“Jethro, I was damaged badly during the digitization process. When we ran the first human test after the MCP was shutdown, I misunderstood the nature of the quantum error correction algorithm.

“I knew to page my maths audio application out – something I had started to theorize after Flynn came to this world. But I only paged out sections related to my legacy code so as to avoid corrupting them. The grafted correction algorithms shouldn’t have needed it, but they did.

“The algorithms executed badly and I came in damaged. I never considered that the correction algorithm needed the routines from Yori to function correctly.

“I was too hasty in conducting the human tests and never thought to check that Yori’s routines could be removed from the system without affecting the code I originally grafted in from the legacy codebase.

“I attempted to digitize myself to prove that it could be done. Encom were talking about removing funding and I needed to prove that the technology worked, but it didn’t and I was badly damaged during the digitization process.

“Because of that, Yori was damaged also. The quantum entanglement that binds a program to their user are stronger than you can imagine – we’re both connected at the quantum level.

“So although my code continues to execute, as soon as the program counter reaches the damaged location, I will cease to exist. Before I pass on, I have things to tell you and things to ask, but my time is limited, so this will be the only time we can spend together.”

Jet shook his head, partly in protest at the news and partly to clear his head.

“But Ma3a is stable,” said Jet. “Why can’t we repair the damage to your codebase and get you out of here?”

“Oh Jethro, if only we could, but we can’t build the quantum states that make people. Science can do many things, but we struggle to even understand human physiology and even now we’ve only fallen into this world by accident, but even this world was created by physics we don’t yet understand.

“Your father paid the ultimate price for my dabbling in concepts that belong to gods, not humans.

“But I need to tell you what I’ve come to understand about what happens when we transfer into this world.

“Ma3a knows you are trapped here and trying to find another way out and I now know you’re leaving this system. If you try to digitize out, you’ll be killed if you don’t recalibrate the algorithms for a different pad.” Said Lora.

Jet wanted to say something else, wanted to scream and shout, to challenge everything his mother was telling him.

Instead he found a strange peace in her words, something that only her voice could do.

He remembered when he was younger and learning to program on their home computer – an early 8088 based clone machine. He would get frustrated, angry even, but his mother could calm him with just a few words.

He had missed her so much after she had gone.

So when he opened his mouth to say he wasn’t going to let her die in here, he found different words coming out.

“So what do I need to know?”

Lora smiled. It was a smile that cut through Jet’s memories, bringing back happier times to his surface thoughts.

“The three programs that make up Ma3a are my old simulation program Yori, who is the strongest personality here, Tron, who you compiled in during your last visit, and another I don’t think you know about.” Lora said.

“The MCP?” asked Jet.

Lora looked surprised, then looked at the face on the wall that looked briefly back.

“Flynn told you so many bedtime stories about the MCP didn’t he?” Lora said.

“Everytime he babysat,” Jet said.

Lora closed her eyes for a moment and smiled at the memories of a past lifetime also.

“It’s amazing how real this world is – just as he described it. In here, you can see things with your eyes that you can’t see in the source in the real world.

“But Yes, the MCP. Flynn destroyed it in the battle to clear his name. He was digitized and we always believed his stories when he came back were just a dream. But it’s all exactly as he said.

“The MCP was a terrible program, but it was the only code that could operation the correction algorithms correctly. It was designed to correct the read errors that occur when you look at the quantum data attached to a photon.

“It’s design was brilliant, but somewhere along the line of its development, it learned to absorb other quantum states – which is what made the digitization process possible in the end.

“It took the quantum states from other programs and added them to itself, absorbing and growing as it did. It became the first true intelligence I think that we ever created.

“But it was evil. It took on the core nature of its programmer – a brilliant young man named Edward Dillinger. It helped Dillinger rise to the top of Encom in his time, to steal from Flynn and countless others.

“But the MCP was shut down after Flynn’s digitization, apparently triggered by the MCP, and its source code was removed from the system and the compiled code replaced with a new kernel.

“This removed the influence of the MCP from the five eleven, but the cost to us was phenomenal. Without the MCP, we couldn’t successfully digitize anything. Decades of work, of physics research we thought we knew, were gone. Nothing was repeatable.

“After the MCP, your father and I realized we would never be able to recreate the MCP’s correction algorithms. They were simply too far advanced for our current level of technology.

“So I removed the MCP source code from isolated storage and carefully cut the digitization code from it, compiling it into Ma3a, under her control.”

Jet interrupted her quietly.

“Which is why she looks just like Flynn described the MCP, right?”

Lora smiled.

“I noticed that too, although I see it from this side, so I don’t know what Ma3a looks like to you in the world outside.”

“Why is this important?” Jet asked.

“Let me complete my story, and I’ll tell you,” said Lora.

Jet’s face got impatient, but then he smiled. “So you do have some time to spare?”

“Just a little, so don’t interrupt me too often,” she said, “But yes, I will tell you all I need to before I must go, and I want to hear a little about the world outside and your father too, so we will have time to talk after I’m certain you understand it all.

“So where was I? Yes, so I merged the MCP code with Ma3a, although she was only Ma1a then. She became Ma1a.1 after I merged the code. Flynn had banned us from reusing the MCP source or code, so we didn’t want to alert him with a major revision number.

“Your father and I quietly isolated and copied the MCP correction algorithms into Ma1a, and that’s when I started to have some success with the digitization process once more. Things started to work correctly. Started to come back recognizable. I got my funding back after Wally left Encom and continued the work he had pioneered.

“Our quantum state can be read by the laser and converted into photons, but the photons are connected to somewhere else that we don’t understand and the data we read from them keeps on changing.

“That’s what causes the quantum errors in the process. We had to find a way to predict the data without reading it so we could determine how to predict the base data to write into the field the first time that becomes our executable file.

“But when I removed all of the other code that the MCP had to ensure that whatever evil it contained was eliminated, Yori must have replaced core functions of the MCP that supported the algorithms – my error, but it means Yori – the original code base of Ma1a, is critical to your chances to return to the real world – you must save her at any cost or you’ll be trapped here.” Lora explained.

Jet absorbed all that his mother had said, then waited. He looked at her face, but he could see that she was waiting also, for him to catch up. That meant she had more to say to him, just as she did when she was teaching him when he was a boy.

“There’s more than just a need to protect Ma3a, isn’t there?” he said.

Lora nodded.

“You also need to understand how the quantum world interrelates to this world, Jethro. And how corruption to this data affects everything.

“The CPUs themselves are built to eliminate corrupt data. Even more than just the Kernel, its hardware assisted. If you corrupt the quantum nature of another part of this world with your own data, then it will be erased.” Lora said.

“Derezzed,” said Jet.

“I’ve heard that term used also, yes. But as users, we’re a source of quantum data. We are more stable than the programs here, but the quantum data holds the information that is used to re-assemble us when we return. The computer doesn’t remember that data – it just holds the photons in the fiber loops, but the photons remember that information.

“If our quantum data is damaged while we’re in here, we don’t return complete and if we return complete, we may not return with other important things that make up ourselves that we don’t understand yet.

“And our quantum data is coded to the individual photons. Photons at a particular wavelength.” Said Lora, then paused for Jet to catch up once more.

Jet absorbed the extra information then started to make the connection.

“The old digitizing pad isn’t the same frequency as the new digitizing pad,” Jet said.

Lora nodded.

“So if you return to the pad without adjusting for the quantum displacement caused by the wavelength change, then your data will be corrupted before you reassemble.

Jet understood what his mother was trying to say.

“So how would I adjust my base quantum data to shift frequency?” Jet asked.

“I’m not sure, but if you remember Flynn’s stories,” started Lora.

“He changed from Blue to Red, when he was in the simulation sector,” finished Jet.

Lora nodded.

“I was trying to work out how to get you that information since I found you were here, but I’m trapped within Ma3a now, so I can’t get out. I’m so glad you managed to find a way in.”

Jet thought a moment.

“So it was you speaking to me back at the accident, when you advised me to use this system to save Ma3a, and it was you who saved me when I fell from that data structure as we leapt from the ridge?” Jet asked.

Lora nodded lightly.

“And you didn’t tell me any of this back then?” Jet said.

“It would have taken too much explaining, which I can’t do well when I’m in Ma3a and Ma3a was badly injured. Besides, I have so few cycles left and when Ma3a assisted in decompressing your friend, Melanie, I learned of Alchemist’s scanner and thought it might give us an opportunity to talk once more.”

Jet’s mind turned to the time his mother had spoken of.

“You mentioned you only have limited time left?” Jet said.

“And my time seems to be decreasing as I stay here,” said Lora. “Not too much of me was corrupted, but it doesn’t take a lot to be fatal to a user.”

Jet remembered Thorne – the other user who had digitized in the last time, ironically also in an attempt to show his new employer that the system was functional. He had been corrupted also and had begun to spread through the system like a virus. Later they examined his static data and found a lot of corruption, so a few percent didn’t sound so bad.

“Mum, users seems to be able to survive a lot of corruption in here. Was the original damage going to cause you to be derezzed?” Jet asked.

Lora smiled and shook her head gently.

“Not to me no, but to a program? The shared damage to Yori would have been fatal. She was locked away in paged memory, but quantum data doesn’t understand distance limitations. As long as it’s not clashing with itself, it’s stable, but when I was damaged, Yori was damaged.

“I spent a long time here, learning how Ma2a worked. I knew Ma2a could speak to your father, but only Yori has access to the interface. When I tried to synthesize speech, it came out garbled.

“And Yori, the only chance I had to get a message to him, was damaged and dying in the paged memory, unable to come out and tell him herself that I was in here or she would be derezzed.

“So I learned to work the API on the paged memory and put it in monitor mode. I had to teach myself to program from the inside of this world. I absorbed the data into my own workspace and located Yori’s corrupted data. Ironically, it was the voice synthesis routines that were damaged.

“But our codebases were synchronized, so it was easy enough to find the damaged areas – you locate the stable data and you find the damage.

“I grafted my own code to Yori and merged her code back to myself, only to realize I lost my own quantum state when I did so. Ma2a got my voice and would have taken a message to your father.

“I told him I loved him and he needed to move on, but I know him well and he would have had trouble with that.

“Ma2a would have taken my message, but now I was trapped in paged memory, so I locked the paged memory to Ma2a so when I come out, I re-absorb the missing quantum data briefly – a loan if you might imagine it, from Yori, but it doesn’t stay long. Quantum data has a way of finding it’s own way home when you’re this close to it.

Jet could see now why his father had acted the way he could. Alan Bradley changed a lot after Lora’s disappearance. If he had received a message from her inside the computer, he would have known she was somewhere.

“You said your time in here was decreasing,” said Jet, clearly wanting to know why.

“Yori’s been damaged twice and twice I’ve repaired her,” said Lora. “There is much of myself in her now but when I move my data to her, through the paged memory, I recover the damaged data from her own file, and we slowly move out of synchronization.

“Each time I take control of Ma3a, my code executes a little further and my time comes a little closer, and the data I lost to repair Yori this time was close to where the program counter is presently near, ”said Lora.

Then she looked Jet directly in the eye and said, “It’s linear code execution now. No branches.”

Jet’s eyes opened wide with his sudden complete understanding of the situation. While Lora’s cycles executed, the program counter came closer and closer to the corrupt data. One it reached that memory location, the CPU would detect the failed quantum state and his mother would cease to exist – she would then die in this world as she had in the real world.

Jet felt his eyes tearing over with the understanding. He felt guilty for not realizing where his mother may have been last time he was here – when they would have had more time.

“I’m so sorry, mum, I should have realized it was you in here.

“All the signs that Ma3a gave that I always assumed were always so co-incidental.” Jet said.

“Jethro, you believed I was dead – you shouldn’t have expected anything else. Your father wanted to spare you from what he knew to be the truth.” Lora told him.

“So how much time do we have?” Jet asked, struggling with the idea of finding his mother after losing her for so many years, only to lose her again.

“Like this? Perhaps only a few more cycles before my time has come.” Lora said, tears freely flowing in her eyes now.

“But waiting all this time was worth it to see you and talk to you just once more. I had always hoped your Father might one day find his way to follow me, but I never expected I would see you again, so please tell me quickly how things are now and how your father is.”

Jet looked into his mothers eyes. She just told him that she had at most minutes to live and yet she still found the time to ask about him.

“We, well, we’re close. Really close. We both miss you but it’s brought the two of us even closer.” Jet said.

Lora’s eyes grew momentarily harder. “Don’t lie to me Jethro, you know I taught you better than that.”

Jet breathed in slowly then spoke again. “It’s been hard without you mum. Dad’s been working every day and until now, I never realized why he never quit Encom. He knew you were in here. That’s why he never accepted the awards and why he never came home at night. Why he spent so many years using this technology to help someone else avoid losing someone they cared about.”

Lora’s eyes grew sad and she held back the pain. “He must have known. He always knew it wasn’t an accident – it was my own miscalculation. I didn’t apply the rules I asked of everyone else to myself. I’m not Wally – I was never that disciplined.”

“But he was still there for me Mum,” said Jet, realizing it himself now he was saying it. “He never gave up on me no matter what I did to disappoint him. He’s still hanging in there even now.”

Jet wanted to have his father there now also, to apologize for the things he had assumed about him. For his own lack of understanding. He saw his father in a different light now.

“And what of you Jethro? What turn of circumstances brought you to this world?” Lora asked.

Jet looked at his mother. “I came back for someone,” he said.

“Someone?” asked Lora, then realized from her limited time talking to Tron and the remains of the MCP.

“Mercury,” she said.

“Mercury,” said Jet.

“She’s very real to you isn’t she?” Lora said.

“She’s, well, I can’t explain. She means everything to me. I nearly lost her and now I’m fighting to save her.” Jet said.

Then he looked up at her. She was smiling, although it was a smile his mother gave him when she wasn’t sure how to take what he said.

“Are you disappointed that I’m falling for a program instead of a real girl?” asked Jet.

Lora’s smile moved into a more approving shape now.

“No Jet, she’s as real to you as your father was to me in the real world.” Lora said. “This world is just as real and just as fragile as ours was. We tried to build other worlds like this but something about Wally’s early experiments brought this world into existence and we never managed to recreate that.”

Jet considered his mother’s words. “What was so real about my father that drew you to him then?”

Lora smiled at the memories. “I don’t know, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was quantum in nature, although I don’t really understand it either. I was a girl in computer science in the seventies. It’s probably changed now, but you have no idea how popular that made me.

“I think I dated many programmers back then, even Flynn for a time,” Lora said

“You and Flynn were an item?” Jet said surprised, not expecting it to come out.

Lora gave a strange look at Jet, then continued. “But your father was the only programmer who never chased me. Something about him just drew me to him and I started chasing him. I guess he just accepted that and I managed to take him.

“So I do know what it’s like to be drawn to someone, although I only wish you and Mercury could be from the same world.”

Lora moved over and pulled Jet’s head to her as she hugged him as best as she could, given the way they were sitting.

“Really though, Jethro, it’s alright with me if you’ve fallen for a program and if you had to fall for a program, then Mercury isn’t a bad program to fall for – I mean, she’s still got what it takes to get a male program’s attention right?”

“Mum,” said Jet, embarrassed, fully expecting that his features probably reddened despite the monochrome image his face took here.

“Well, she does. Have you discovered anything more about your being trapped in here that you haven’t told Ma3a about yet?” she asked.

Jet thought about it.

“Mercury was interrogating a user we captured, from the group that’s behind shutting down the five eleven.

“She said that the user mentioned that someone named Dillinger might be involved.” Jet said.

Lora looked worried. “Jethro, be careful if he’s involved. He’s cunning and ruthless and he disappeared when Flynn caught him out, but he means trouble. You need to get stay out of his way if he’s involved.”

Jet decided to avoid mentioning the message he got from his father, that they might all be in danger. His mother had gone through enough already and didn’t need to know that they all might be in trouble and that Jet’s plans to get to the other pads might be undoable now.

Just then, as Jet was wondering what to talk about next, his mother twisted his face in her hands, until he was looking at her.

“Jethro, remember I love you and I want you to promise me that you’ll get out of here alive and take a message to your father.” Lora said.

Jet looked at her, nodded briefly. He wasn’t sure he could get out of here and wondered if somehow his thinking of the problem a moment ago had been read by his mother somehow. He didn’t tell her of his worried though.

“Mum, I promise.”

“Tell him I love him and always will, and,” she said, then paused.

“and,” Jet prompted. He was waiting for the message to memorize it while he thought of all the things he still wanted to ask his mother in the time they had left.

Lora didn’t respond. He features froze and remained motionless.

A voice cut through the world around Jet.

“Damaged code block located and terminated. Bringing Ma3a operation back up to running config.” Came Alchemist’s voice.

“Mum?” came Jet’s voice, but it felt disembodied from him, as if it was coming from somewhere else.

There was no response.

Jet moved over and grabbed her as she unfroze and slowly fell into his arms, limp, her eyes closing. Lines passed through her as she started the deresolution process.

“No,” screamed Jet, holding her, trying to stop her limp body from falling to the floor as the deresolution process started. He realized with horror exactly what had happened. There was less time than she was telling him.

“ Alchemist, freeze the virtual machine clock – anything, just help her,” Jet screamed out. His voice was echoing now.

Lora vaporized in his arms as he tried to hold her to him.

“No, Dammit Alchemist, why aren’t you doing anything?” Jet screamed.

The shell started to break apart. Yori could be seem beyond the breaks in it as if sleeping.

“Alchemist!,” Screamed Jet, but there was no response from Alchemist either.

“Goodbye Jethro,” came his mother’s voice, then the walls started to spin around him as the shell reformed into the walls of the wireframe.

Jet fell to his knees and began to cry. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around, angry and hurting, wanting to fight with whatever was in this strange world within a world, but he turned and fell into Mercury’s arms.

“Jet, you saved her, Ma3a’s returning to normal load.” Mercury said. There was no hint in her voice of the tragedy that Jet had just experienced. No indication that she had any idea what had just transpired deep within the program that was Ma3a.

Jet looked at her, angry at first that she didn’t feel his pain, then just grateful that she was there as he pressed his face into her chest and began to shake as the pain washed over him. His voice started to strain and he began to cry as he let his feeling and emotions run dry, years of stored pain since he was eleven flowing freely now. Mercury instinctively held him in, bending her head over until she cradled his head with her body.

After a while, the pain finally left and Jet was left standing as if alone in this virtual world, except for Mercury.

“Jet, is something not correct?” she asked after he had quietened.

“Yeah, Merc, something’s not correct, but I can’t correct it. I think I’ve realized I can’t have everything I want, and it’s not easy for a user to accept that.”

Despite the realization of that, Jet made himself one more promise. He would save Mercury no matter what. No force of nature or whatever held this realm together would ever take her of force them apart.

He knew he couldn’t keep his promise, but he made it anyway.

His mother would have understood.

Manny stepped into the cab and opened the satchel.

“Get out kid, this cab’s for paying customers,” said the driver, annoyance edging into his voice.

Manny looked up worried at him then back into the satchel. He reached in and pulled loose a few notes of cash from the money that was in there.

Pulling out a hundred, as if it was the only note in there, he handed it to the driver. The black man in the front of the cab took it, held it up to the light, felt it then handed it back.

“So where do you want me to take you?” he asked, a little more politely. Manny noticed he was chewing something and had placed a sandwich on a plain bag on his lap.

Manny looked back in the satchel. There was a phone. He pulled out out. Attached to the phone was a card with a single word.

“The Airport,” Manny said.

The cab driver made a strange expression with his face. “So you running away from home? Where you gonna go kid?”

Manny thought quickly.

“Home.” he said.

“That what the bag tells you?” asked the driver, pulling out.

“No, I lost my ticket and so my mum got my aunt to send me a new one.” Said Manny, trying to sound natural as he lied.

The cab driver nodded, although he was clearly concentrating on the driving as he moved into traffic.

“So where is home? What kind of accent is that?” the man asked. “You sound kinda French to me?”

“Ahhh huh?,” said Manny, wondering what to say next, looking out the window at a police car shooting past, it’s lights on but not the siren. He turned over the card and read the instructions. There was a number to call, and some details.

“Canada,” said Manny.

“Yeah, I thought you sounded kinda French. So what part of Canada do you live in?” asked the driver, his own eyes in the rear view mirror, but looking high – at the police strobes as they raced away and stopped where he had just pulled out.

Manny didn’t answer. He was busy dialing a number on the phone.

“Don’t mind me then,” said the driver as he glanced down in the mirror at Manny.

Manny put the phone to his ear. A voice answered at the other end.

“Walter Gibbs speaking,” it said.

Jet waited until Ma3a opened her eyes.

“Program restoration, 99.993 percent. Code stable” said Alchemist.

“She’s OK then?” Jet asked Alchemist.

Alchemist looked at Ma3a then Jet.

“She will auto-stabilize by her own algorithm.”

Jet nodded. “Thankyou, Alchemist.”

Alchemist gave him a look that wasn’t quite hostile but not accommodating either. “She is critical to my ability to carry out my user’s instructions,” she said.

Jet smiled anyway. Ma3a started to sit, then floated into standing position.

“I still appreciate what you did.”

Alchemist nodded once, then began derezzing the scanner as soon as Ma3a was clear of it. Ma3a moved around to stand behind Jet, although Jet couldn’t bring himself to face her at first– knowing that what remained of his mother had once resided there.

Ma3a floated over to Jet and put her hand on his shoulder.

Alchemist completed clearing the machine then walked away, leaving Ma3a with Jet.

“Jet, I , about what you saw when you, well,” Ma3a started, each phrase broken off.

“While I was inside your code?” Jet asked.

“I, I’m ashamed,” said Ma3a.

Jet was confused by her comment. What was there to be ashamed of? He turned around now to face her now. The Ma3a he had always known had returned and was otherwise the same.

He pushed back the memories of his mother’s recent death, trying to get the memories to leave his thoughts. She had given her life so that Ma3a could complete her task to see Jet safely out of the digital realm. He needed to respect that decision and make it worth something.

“About what?” he asked, his voice quiet and even as he spoke. It was difficult at first to form the words, but once they came out, it became easier.

“About the code that makes up my base,” said Ma3a.

“My mother is no longer there,” said Jet, guessing at what she was confessing about.

“No, Lora was respectable – and while she existed, I had meaning, but now there is only that which I despise.” Ma3a said.

“Tron?” asked Jet, confused.

“The legacy code of the Master Control,” said Ma3a in hushed terms.

“The MCP?” clarified Jet.

The mention of the name seemed enough to agitate Ma3a, and she looked around.

“Yes,” she said at length. “The MCP is the ultimate embodiment of what programs consider evil. If it became known that it existed still through me, well,”

Ma3a let the comment hang and did likewise with her head.

Jet surmised the issue. Flynn had told Jet of the time before Tron saved the system. Ma3a was worried that she would become a pariah. Set apart from the other programs.

“Does anyone know?” he asked.

“Lora, yourself,” Ma3a said, slowly with a pause between the words.

“Ma3a, if my mother deemed the code worthy of inclusion, how can you question that?” Jet said, almost a little angrily, which he regretted once he had said it.

“I realize I should not question the wisdom of the user Lora, but, well, she is no more and now I am alone with what remains of the evil one.”

Jet swallowed and half smiled, half grimaced. He still wasn’t over his mother’s passing, but he could see where Ma3a was going. Even if she had respected his mother enough not to question the inclusion of the code, other programs may not be so understanding.

For many years, Ma3a had quietly held his mother’s final spirit – her final message to him or his father. Now she was gone without the capacity to return. Their time together had been brief.

However her spirit had moved on to Yori, and although Yori did not possess his mother’s memories, she still embodied all that was her.

“Ma3a, there is no shame in the code that you carry – and I know my mother gave her life so that you could continue, and I understand what you’re worried about. I give you my word, as a user, that I’ll never mention the source of your code to another program, as long as I have cycles to process.” Jet said quietly.

“Thankyou, Jet,” said Ma3a, then she lowered her head slowly, turned and floated away from him.

Flynn stepped out of the van and stumbled as he tried to find a step.

Feeling himself falling, he struggled to get his hands out in front of him, but they were bound tight and when someone grabbed his arm to stop him falling, the tension in his arms and the twisting motion caused by being caught by one arm only, transmitted the force straight up into his shoulder, almost dislocating it.

The pain took the strength out of his legs and he felt himself falling hard to the ground. He struggled to turn his head sideways and managed to take the impact on one cheek and the side of his face. It stopped him from breaking anything, but it didn’t feel any better – even behind his mask he could see stars.

Strong hands grabbed his arms forcefully and hauled him up, causing even more pain, leaving Flynn’s senses disoriented and spinning.

Somewhere amongst it all, there was a familiar whine of a bell Jet Ranger coming in.

Flynn tried to lift his head to work out where he was. They hadn’t travelled far enough to be at the airport and there were no military bases anywhere near here.

Then Flynn caught the edge of a voice over the whine and beating of the helicopter that he recognized – one he could never forget even if he hadn’t heard it for more than twenty years.

“Dillinger” he muttered under his breath.

The scout came back quickly from the area he had been patrolling and made his way directly to the Section Leader.

“Section, Datawraith scouts coming this way – thirty one of them.”

Jet looked across at the Section leader. He had been spreading his forces as thinly as possible as they waited for the inevitable attack.

“Send the recall bits to the others and reform. How long to we have?” the Section Leader asked.

“Fifteen maybe twenty cycles. Maybe less. They seem to know their way around this circuit.” said the ICP scout.

“Hmmm, Your opinion sir?” asked the Section Leader of Jet. He lifted his hand to his chin and rubbed it while waiting for an answer. The scout moved off and generated four other bits which flew out in different directions, apparently to recall the other scouts.

Jet was about to ask why the Section leader was asking him, but it suddenly occurred to him that the Section Leader had no idea how Datawraiths operated and Jet seemed to be more than slightly effective at eliminating them.

“They may not know we’re here, Section, but they will be on the lookout for anything.” Jet said.

“If they take this location, they can shut down the transit beam to the hub, which means no reinforcements,” the Section leader said.

“Do you think re-inforcements will come?” Jet asked.

“If the General returns, it will be in three hundred and eighty cycles at the earliest, Sir, Allowing for time to assemble transports, troops, the Kernel perhaps.”

Jet looked at him surprised.

“And you think she can meet that objective?” he asked.

“Not really, Sir, No. But she can’t arrive before then can she now?”the Section leader said.

“So if they activate the incoming beam, then how long before that would occur, assuming the earliest?” Jet said.

The Section leader made a “Hmmm” sound, realizing where Jet was heading.

“That would be in one hundred and three cycles,” he said.

“Then discretion is the better part of valor,” Jet said.

“Sir?” questioned the Section leader.

His face showed he suddenly went from understanding to not understanding. Jet needed to speak clearly about it.

“Section, I suggest we hide ourselves and remove ourselves from this location. If they come here looking for us, then they won’t find anyone and will move on. If they don’t stay here, then they can’t shut down the terminal when Jade activates the return beam.” Jet said.

“Sir!” said the Section leader.

Two of the other ICPs came running in. The remaining ones, both conscripts, weren’t here yet. They reported to the Section leader. Jet walked off in the direction he thought Alchemist, Mercury and Ma3a would be in – in the control room.

All three were there, going quiet as Jet entered, leading him to realize that some things, such as girls talking girl talk, were universal.

“Sorry, to interrupt,” said Jet, “But we need to get out of here. The Scouts report Datawraiths.”

Alchemist looked a little perturbed, but Jet couldn’t tell if it was his news, his presence or his interrupting their conversation.

“Then we should prepare to defend this location,” said Mercury, removing her rod primitive and transforming it into a LOL.

She went to move by Jet, but he put a hand on his stomach, pausing her. She looked at him, surprised by the action, but not bothered by the intimacy.

“Uh-Uh, we’re using a different tactic,” Jet said.

Mercury tilted her head at him in question.

“We need to hide from the Datawraiths so they don’t realize this area is important to us,” he said.

Alchemist looked over at him, narrowed her eyes and smiled. “I think you underestimate our foe – surely this place calculates as an important location strategically,” she said.

“Yeah, maybe,” said Jet, “But they don’t think like programs – because their users and they have much bigger issues on their minds at the moment, so if they don’t find anyone here, then they may not cause us much grief.”

“They could stop the transport from docking,” said Ma3a, realizing that the Datawraiths could impede the return of Jade. She still didn’t like Jade, still, but she knew her return was important to the future of the programs in this system. Jet wondered if that was a legacy of his mother’s influence.

“Not for another hundred or more cycles,” said Jet.

Ma3a smiled. “This could be a useable strategy,” she said.

“I’m hoping so – because unless it works, we’re all finished.” Jet pointed out.

“You don’t need to remind us,” said Alchemist, who then moved past Jet and out of the control room.

Jet watched her go, then turned around. Mercury had stepped back to stand with Ma3a.

“She still doesn’t like me,” said Jet.

“She seems to be following your orders though,” noted Mercury. “Perhaps she’s accepting that you were in error.”

Jet was about to defend himself, but thought better of it and closed his mouth.

“Let’s go. We need to stay out of this area. It’s going to get a little too crowded around here soon.”

They moved off.

The Datawraiths moved into the Transit Terminus and quickly secured the area, moving as if expecting an ambush.

“They look experienced,” said the Section leader, peering carefully through the debris they were hiding behind. The area beyond the Terminus was a wasteland of damaged circuits, allowing plenty of obscure places to hide. At the moment, they were far enough away that the Section leader was watching through a LOL at maximum zoom.

A little to the side of him, Jet was laying on the debris, behind cover, doing likewise.

“Do you think they’ll come in this direction?” Jet asked.

“If they do, Sir, we can continue into the rubble and since we’re trying to evade them, I imagine that we possibly can, since we know where they are but they don’t know where we are,” the Section leader surmised.

Jet slowly moved the LOL from side to side, taking in the scope of the edge of the Terminus. He wondered if a shot at this range would be accurate enough to hit and eliminate a Datawraith.

If he could take them out before they got this far.

The fear in him told him to take a shot anyway, but the logical side of his mind reasoned he would only give his position away and there was no way the Datawraiths would attack this position with their entire force, so even if he did pick them all off at distance, reinforcements would soon arrive.

His first plan was a good one. Stay hidden, wait for them and evade.

It was a long wait however. The Datawraiths combed the area around the Terminus, but never ventured out far enough to displace Jet and the programs with him. All the time, Jet and the Section leader followed their moves.

“I don’t understand why they don’t look further,” said the Section. “They have the numbers to destroy us.”

“It’s because they don’t have the time. They know the system is going down, just like the rest of us, and if it does, they auto-return, but auto-returns cost them their memories and can damage them, so I expect they’re going to pull out soon.” Jet guessed.

“Anyway, Section, how long have we been out here?”

“Two hundred and three cycles,” said the Section leader.

“I guess that means Jade hasn’t followed the shortest route,” Jet said.

“No Sir, but I believe she will return,” he said.

As they watched the Datawraiths pulled back to the Terminus, regrouped, then headed off the way that Jet had come in.

“Sir,” said the Section leader. “I think they might be moving out now.”

Jet watched. They disappeared from view, but Jet lay there, still, for some time. Were they waiting for him now?

After what felt like another fifteen minutes, Jet rolled to one side, compressed his LOL and sat up. Shuffling back of the top of the rubble, he landed amongst the others, the Section leader dropping down moments later.

“Section, I think we should move back carefully,” Jet said.

“Do you think we should wait?” he asked, second guessing Jet.

“Yeah, I think we should, but we don’t have the time either. The genset is going to fail and then the UPS will drop out. I think they’re probably wondering where the power is coming from themselves.” Jet said.

“If you say so, sir,” said the Section, then moved to the remaining five ICPs.

Jet turned to Mercury.

“Merc, I want you to hold back. This could be dangerous, so if anything happens, you might have to try and get your user to the Datawraith out-of-band system by yourself.”

The comment didn’t leave Mercury looking as worried as Jet would have liked.

“Do you think you might be in danger?” she asked.

“No,” said Jet.

“Then I’ll escort you directly,” she said, moving back towards the Terminus without waiting. Jet followed, about to haul her back, but she paused and adopted a more stealthy approach almost instantly. She might have been strong and opinionated, but she wasn’t stupid.

The others followed behind. Alchemist moved up beside Jet.

“We need to retrieve the shells before we return,” she said.

“No, Jade,” said Jet. “If there is any trouble, I want the shells safe. Even if something happens to me, your mission, and Mercury’s, is to get Melanie back to an exit port or through to the Datawraith systems.”

Alchemist frowned again, a face Jet was becoming used to her making.

As he moved, the images of his mother and the words she had spoken kept coming back to him, but he tried to push the thoughts out of his head. Time was tight now and Melanie was relying on him to save her.

The approach to the Terminus was slow, but once inside, they were able to quickly tell that the Terminus was clear of Datawraiths. Jet checked out the control room, but it seemed intact, the Datawraiths obviously looking for programs rather than considering that the core might mount a counterattack.

There were no logic bombs or similar, so Jet carefully moved to the edge of the Terminus that the Datawraiths had left by. He crept to a small platform and lay down on his stomach, pulling out his LOL and looking around. After a moment, he found them in the distance, heading out into the Sector, moving slowly over rubble.

The Section leader moved in beside Jet, laying down, but not removing his LOL.

“Can you see them, Sir?” he asked.

“In that direction, about half the distance from the other terminal,” Jet said, not moving but letting the alignment of his LOL indicate in which direction he was looking.

“Do you think they’ll stay away?” the Section leader asked.

“That depends on if Jade makes a connection, although I suspect we may be here a while,” Jet said.

“Then I’d better deploy the scouts once more,” said the Section leader. He shimmied back from the platform, then dropped. Jet listed to his steps move away, when a loud, rushing sound came in through the Terminus. He turned around to see a huge beam drive directly into the Terminus with a sound like a clap of thunder.

The incoming terminus had just gone active.

“Oh hell,” he cursed, then looked around at the place where the Datawraiths were crossing the wasteland. One of them, standing on top of the rubble, was looking in their direction and pointing.

Jet doubted they could see him at this range, but they didn’t need to. The beam terminating was like a beacon in the sky.

One by one, the Datawraiths began to return.

Next: Chapter 2.29 – Pipeline