Tron 2.44 – Feedback Loop

Jet found himself without knowing what to say. He was still working over whether what Simon had said to him could be correct. He felt the anger rising inside him and a sudden urge to treat Simon like so many other Datawraiths.

For a moment he wanted to grab Simon by the throat and make him take it back, all of it.

Jet jumped to his feet and half ran to where Ma3a and Alchemist stood as Mercury and her maker discovered each other.

“Ma3a, what’s Melanie’s status,” Jet called.

Melanie stopped talking at that point and turned around to Jet.

“Hold that response, Ma3a, I’ll answer.” She said then walked over to Jet, hooked her arm through his elbow, to the surprise of Mercury, and started to steer him away.

“I’m just borrowing your other user for a moment,” she said and Jet craned his neck around to watch Mercury for a moment as Melanie walked him away in another direction.

Melanie Led Jet out to what looked like a balcony, then glancing back quickly, leaned forward and kissed Jet on the cheek.

“Thankyou, Jet, for everything you’ve done for me. Before we talk I just want to thank you for that. I really do.” Melanie said, then let go of Jet’s elbow.

“So what’s happening?” Jet asked.

“You asked about my status. I already know, so I want to talk to you about it. We haven’t had much time to talk since you saved me and now I’m out of the shell and back to normal, I thought this was a good chance.

“Besides,” she said looking away, “I hope you don’t mind but I really can’t stand your program friends talking around me so clinically as if I wasn’t there.

“I had enough of that already with doctors.”

Jet nodded and waited. Melanie had brought Jet out here so she wanted to speak.

“Jet, I’m incomplete. Ma3a tells me that my final code loss to due quantum instability is four point oh percent. That makes my total repairs since I came out of the shell zero point two percent.

“I’m a scientist, Jet. I know what that means. The processing task takes longer and longer. It’s a geometric progression in terms of time.

“That means I can’t get out of here. Not unless there’s something that we can do in the long run to correct my code.

“In simple terms, I can’t leave.”

Jet looked at Melanie concerned about what he was hearing.

“Alchemist can keep processing your file indefinitely,” Jet said.

“But unless we resolve the quantum instability, parts of me aren’t going to return. Four percent doesn’t sound like much, but what’s going to happen if the part that’s missing is something I need to live? A nerve bundle or a critical piece of bone. My eyes?

“The damage to my recorded self is extreme, Jet. Possibly worse than the cancer. The only reason I’m here at all is because my quantum self remembers my own self image, but the connection to the suspended material? That’s damaged.”

Jet was surprised at how well Melanie was taking this.

“But what if we can rebuild that data? If we can take out your cancer, why can’t you rebuild yourself in the same way?” Jet reasoned.

“Because I’m simplifying the concept for you, Jet. It’s not my body in danger. All that mass is somewhere. It’s the instructions that tell it where to go. At the atomic level.

“It’s easy enough to destroy that data in large sections – that’s what my sister’s program did.

“But telling individual atoms where to go at the quantum level?

“Jet, that’s like taking a computer from the nineteen seventies and asking it to search the internet for a single sequence.”

“And look at computers now,” Jet said. “So it might take time.”

“No Jet,” said Melanie. “Not time. Not ever. We’re talking about the quantum nature of things. We’re like monkeys scratching away flesh from a carcass and learning that there’s a bone underneath and then we ask the same monkey to perform brain surgery. It’s simply not possible.

“You’re talking knowledge on the order of the gods – creating a living, thinking being complete with memories out of nothing – it never having lived before.

“I can’t return, ever.”

Jet thought of his mother then. She had befallen a similar accident so long ago. His father had dedicated his life to locating her and hadn’t even managed that.

Jet didn’t understand the science, but Melanie did. She had fought cancer for so long- she didn’t seem like the type to just give up.

Jet stammered a little.

“I’m, I, I don’t know what to say…”

Melanie smiled.

“It’s alright Jet, I’m sorry too, because I know you must feel disappointed, but it’s alright, really it is. After a year of pain, I’m not sure I want to return to the real world anyway. I like it here. I can feel good and just live. I have new friends. I miss my sister like I can’t explain, but if I can find a way to talk to her, I can be with her too.”

“Melanie, we don’t even control this system,” Jet said.

“Yes, I know, but Simon seems to think if I can make it to the main Datawraith system, I can possibly pass as a program and live there. It’s not the same as life on the outside, but its life. It’s real.”

“I haven’t given up on correcting the errors yet,” Jet pointed out.

“I guess I’m taking that option away from you,” Melanie said. “For my own good.”

“I feel like I’ve failed,” Jet said, looking away from her.”

“Failed me?” Melanie said, sounding a little surprised, “Jet, I don’t recall much during my time before I came here, but I know you weren’t in it.

“I remember my father telling me at the last minute you would help me, and I remember you being there when I was processed.

“You got me out of the Encom computer, which Simon tells me probably doesn’t exist anymore.”

Melanie paused.

Jet recalled the last moments in the five eleven as it’s systems started to fail. The feeling of shock as he realized his goals of escape were unattainable and then the last chance to get out that the Kernel gave him.

“It’s gone,” Jet said.

“I don’t have many memories of that computer. Was it like this one?” Melanie asked.

Jet looked around.

“This system feels a little different, like a difference city, but so far this seems the same.”

“And the pain. I remember the pain in the station. That’s about it. Simon said it was caused by quantum feedback – the same program I wrote to begin testing algorithms for my mother almost killed me.

“That’s Mercury right?”

Melanie was talking about the incident that nearly destroyed Sector three. It had damaged the only incoming fiber connection from the switch, possibly having enough force to damage it in the real world.

Quantum feedback was like that, Jet was starting to realize.

“What do you know about quantum feedback?” Jet asked.

Melanie shivered at the mention, even though temperature didn’t exist in this world.

“I know what it is and I remember it,” she said.

“When you first came here. Tell me what you remember about it.” Jet requested.

Melanie nodded then began with her recollections of the incident.

“I was waiting for someone, in what looked like a large train station, if that makes sense in here.

“The bigger programs, you call them ICPs, told me to wait for clearance to leave and that the program that was waiting to open a stream to my data was coming.

“To tell the truth it felt like I was dead. So much light. And the people there, programs, were so different, I wondered if they were like me, people who had died and come to this place.

“But the ICPs kept telling me Alchemist was coming to retrieve me and I should wait, and I knew what Alchemist was, so I knew I was somehow dreaming while I was inside the computer.

“Except it’s not a dream, is it?” Melanie said.

“That depends on your definition of a dream,” said Jet. “But yeah, it’s as real as our world to us in here. You can die in here too, so I guess that pretty much covers the differentiation.” Jet said.

“People die in their sleep too Jet. That’s something you hope for when you get really sick.” Melanie said, then paused and continued.

“So I was walking and noticed a program climbing the outside of a ramp to one of the transports in the station. Climbing.

“It was so weird – I think that’s when I realized it wasn’t a dream. Why would anyone climb if they could walk?

“So I watched them and when they finished climbing they moved into the back of the transport and then turned around and looked at me, and that’s when I first saw Mercury.”

Jet nodded, indicating he was still listening. He didn’t interrupt.

“And the moment we saw each other, I felt this strange surge that seemed to go back from my eyes and move around my body. It was strange to feel and even stranger to watch. I started to glow, like I was a lamp or something.”

Melanie paused for a moment.

“Then the pain came. Not pain like I’ve ever had, but as if something was trying to tear everything apart at the same time.

“Jet, I’ve had pain, believe me. I’ve lived with so much pain over the past years I’ve wanted to give up, but this was nothing like I had ever experienced.

“Even when it wasn’t intense, it covered everything I am. I could feel it over every inch of my body. I could feel it inside of me, in places I didn’t know I could even feel pain.

“I fell to my knees and was paralyzed. I thought something had gone wrong with the program and I was dying, that this is what it felt like, and it felt like I was going to hell.

“I’m not religious, Jet, but it felt like hell had to exist, because I couldn’t imagine this much pain coming from anywhere else.

“There was light everywhere, and I realized it was coming from me. People – programs, were looking on in horror and screaming.

“Then my sister, or my sister’s program was there and dragging me by the arm, pulling me away from the carrier and the building was falling down around us.”

Melanie gave an open expression, as if she really was recalling something that simply didn’t come.

“And then I remember you. Your face looking up at me, re-assuring me, and it was like I was in some kind of oasis, with water that shined like silver, but yes, I know what feedback is. I didn’t know it was feedback at the time, but I’ve experienced it.”

Jet considered what Melanie was telling him.

“You seem to know more about it than your experience would allow you to learn,” said Jet.

“Oh, that’s Simon. He’s been explaining a lot to me over the past week. Well, over the past days anyway. He wasn’t all that friendly at first, kept treating me like he wasn’t supposed to talk to me or something.

“He told me not to worry, that when my program was here next it would be separated and I would be mostly safe from it, and that he would take care of it.”

Melanie’s words, uttered as simply as she had, hit Jet hard with the sudden realization. Mercury was alone with the other programs and Simon was alone with them too.

Simon the Datawraith.

Who told Jet Mercury needed to be derezzed.

Jet jumped to his feet and sprinted away, not bothering to say anything. He needed to get to Mercury now. How could he be so stupid, he was screaming at his own mind. His body pushed hard against the resistance offered by the Echelon system’s overloaded processor, forcing it to yield.

“Jet, What’s wrong,” called out Melanie from the edge of the balcony.

Jet continued running. He hit a blank wall where he knew they had walked through, pushing his hands up against it, slamming his fist on it. It has appeared out of nowhere, just like the other walls here had.

“Jet, wait,” Melanie called out. He could hear her footsteps walking up behind him.

Jet looked around. The corridor was the only path back – it was completely closed off.

”Wait,” called Melanie, struggling against the same forfce that Jet had sprinted through, still as if wading quickly through water. It was hard for her.

“Melanie, what have you done to Mercury?” Jet called, accusingly.

Melanie slapped both palms against the wall to stop herself, then as she pushed herself back up to standing, left one palm against the wall surface as she looked at Jet.

“What’s wrong Jet,” she asked, visibly exhausted from her effort in catching up to Jet.

Circuit imprints flowed from Melanie’s hand as she did and the wall derezzed, leaving the path clear.

Jet left unsaid what he was about to say, the way forward now open and set off again, sprinting through the resistance to motion of this world.

The corridors in this section were difficult to follow. Too many turns brought Jet to a room full of datacubes that wasn’t somewhere he had been before. He ran back the way he came, seeing three choices as he did, lost now.

A white figure came down one of the paths, stumbling to a halt.

“Jet,” she called, exhausted, “What’s wrong?”

Jet did’t stop – he chose the other path and continued down it at speed, making a turn and almost hitting Ma3a.

“Jet?” said Ma3a, seeing something was up.

“Ma3a, where’s Mercury,” called Jet.

Ma3a lifted a hand and pointed to a corridor – it was the one Simon had originally taken Jet up.

Jet set off on a sprint once more as he heard Melanie closing on him.

Jet chided himself. How could he have been so stupid. Had Simon wanted to split Jet and Mercury up all along to remove her? Why was he suddenly helping Melanie, when for so long, the Datawraiths had been trying to kill them.

Jet rounder a corner and saw two blue figures walking side by side.

Mercury and Alchemist.

Virtual sisters.

Jet slowed down as he approached and grabbed Mercury by the shoulder. Her head snapped around then when she saw Jet, the rest of her turned slowly.

“Jet, is something wrong?” she asked.

“I, you’re, you’re alright?” Jet said through breaths.

“I am processing correctly, but you seem to have overextended your timecycles.” Mercury said.

Jet felt lightheaded.

“I thought Simon was going to derez you,” Jet said in a single breath. “I thought he was going to kill you.”

Mercury turned her head slightly as if questioning Jet.

“Why would he attempt that?” Mercury asked,

“Because of your user. He believes only one can exist,” Jet said. “It’s either you or Melanie. You can’t both survive in this system.

“The quantum nature of this place will cause your data to conflict when you both enter the same fiber, just like it did before.”

Jet placed a hand on one knee to rest and bent over. When he came back up, he could see Simon at the back of the corridor. He had just walked in.

Mercury wasn’t following Jet’s gaze to Simon however. She wasn’t looking at Jet either. Jet turned to see Melanie come to a complete stop, her hands over her mouth.

“Well done, Jet. I manage to keep the peace for over a week and you come here and tear it all up within a few cycles of arrival.” Simon accused.

“You were going derez Mercury!” Jet shot back.

Simon looked astonished at the accusation. “Jet, if I wanted to derez Mercury, or even you for the matter, don’t you think I’d have the capabilities in our own system?”

Jet stopped at the logic.

“Jet, what’s going on.” Melanie demanded.

“It seems that we’re heading for a single containment transfer of the data in this virtual server when processing is complete. That means that you and Mercury can’t exist in this same space when it happens.”

Melanie looked over to Simon, who seemed more annoyed than cornered by the statement.

Simon shrugged.

“Yes, it’s true.” He conceded.

“You didn’t tell me,” said Melanie, accusing Simon now.

“Tell you what? Jet hadn’t arrived and there was a chance Mercury was never going to make it. A good chance given the circumstances.

“And even if they did make it, there was an equal chance they would process us before she arrived, in which case it might not matter. The Datawraith main network knows how to deal with quantum shielding. It’s light-years ahead of the containment used in the old Encom five eleven.

“And If they do arrive, what could I tell you? There’s nothing I can do about it.

“There’s no point planning for a condition over which you have no control.”

Jet recognized the old programmers creed at the end of Simon’s defense. You don’t write error messages if you can’t control the outcome. There’s no point. If user input isn’t required, you simply terminate.

“On Error, Goto,” type terminate.

“And you were planning on killing my program?” Melanie accused.

Simon looked over at Jet now.

“No, that’s not my problem, nor my choice. Jet, I gave that to you to handle. You can either handle it, or you can choose to kill everyone except me and watch events unfold.

“You had the choice to make without everyone having the knowledge that you were still to make it.

“Now you’re going to have to make it anyway.”

Simon held up his hands in a hopeless gesture and walked over to Melanie. He reached out to touch her shoulder but she recoiled from him.

Jet looked around. Mercury and Alchemist were both staring at him and when he turned back to look at Melanie, Ma3a was standing near too, likely close enough that everyone knew what was going on.

“Why did you run?” Melanie shot at Jet. “What do you know that I don’t”

She was visibly upset now. Her world had just started to come back to some point of order and now it was collapsing again.

“I thought you were keeping me from Mercury so Simon could derez her.” Jet said quietly, without emotion, the feelings gone from him as he realized what he had done.

“Why would you think that?” Melanie asked. “Didn’t you come here to help me?” I’m completely dependent on you Jet.”

“And the walls blocking us?”

“I put them up so we could talk in private,” Melanie said, her voice breaking with emotion now.

“Melanie, I,” Jet started, but Melanie turned and ran back the way they had come.

Jet took one more look at everyone who remained. Simon then turned and followed in the direction of Melanie, but the others just stood there.

“I’m sorry, I got it wrong,” jet said to anyone who was still listening.

Then he walked past Mercury and Alchemist back towards where Simon had spoken to him.

The window still looked over this part of the Echelon system as if nothing had changed. Jet pushed his head up against the forcewall, ignoring the pain as it crackled, and hit his fist into it.

He stood back after a while and turned suddenly.

Mercury was behind him, alone.

“Merc, I,” Jet started, but Mercury didn’t wait. She simply stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him and pushed her head into his shoulder, pulling him tight.

“You don’t need to apologise to me, Jet. You didn’t do anything wrong.” She said. “Not to me, anyway.”

“I really screwed up, didn’t I” Jet said.

“You didn’t trust the user from this system. I fail to see why that is an error.” Mercury said.

“Yeah, but it looks like he’s being straight with us. I still don’t understand why he’s suddenly with us.” Jet said.

“He was with us when we were in the five eleven,” reasoned Mercury.

“Yes, but he had a goal then that he needed to achieve to get out of our system. Sometimes with people, users, you can only trust them when they want something.” Jet said.

“Then he still wants something,” Mercury reasoned. “So you should ask yourself what he has to gain when you question his motives.”

Jet thought about it. Mercury was right.

“You know Mercury, you’re pretty wise.” Jet said.

“For a program,” Mercury said quietly, and Jet realized the true gulf in her mind between users and programs for the first time. A brief insight that he otherwise had been missing for so long.

Mercury was a program. Jet was a user. Mercury had always acted and behaved around Jet as if it didn’t matter. She had never really submitted to his user implied authority as other programs had.

But deep down, she realized it and believed it just like the other programs.

*You’re going to have to derez me, Jet. This can’t last,” Mercury said.

Jet pushed her back and grabbed her by the arms.

“Don’t start believe that ever. There’s no way I’m going to derez you, no matter what happens. We’ve come to far for this.” Jet tried to convince Mercury.

Mercury didn’t seem to share his enthusiasm.

“You cannot derez my user, Jet. If we cannot co-exist in the same space, then you must deresolve me. There’s no other way,” she said.

Jet wanted to scream at her that she was wrong. That there was no way she could be correct, but his own fears were holding him back.

He had come through this world and into another looking for the only thing that mattered in his life. He had already countered so many threats and faced so many challenges.

Jet convinced himself this was just another.

Now he needed to convince Mercury.

He walked away from the place he had chosen to be by himself and grabbed Mercury’s wrist as he did, loosely so he didn’t twist her arm, and pulled Mercury around.

“Come on, Merc, let’s go find Simon. He knows more about this than he’s letting on. I need to know whats going on.”

Jet pulled Mercury through the resistance of the space around them and went after Simon.

He passed Ma3a and Alchemist in the room they had first reunited and turned as he ran.

“Which way is Simon?” Jet asked.

Ma3a lifted an arm and pointed to a side door. Jet ran down it and after a few turns, found himself in a small room with an open side and a liquid pool of energy.

Melanie was sitting on the edge of the pool, dangling her legs into it.

Peter was sitting beside her, his legs crossed.

She looked back as Jet entered and then looked back into the pool. Simon didn’t look up.

“Sorry, Melanie, I misunderstood what was going on,” Jet said then made his way to sit down beside her.

Melanie made a non-committal sound and continued looking into the pool, watching the ripples her feet created as she moved them.

“I’ll find a way to keep you safe, Melanie.” Jet said, then speaking across her, spoke to Simon.

“Simon, can we continue our talk from earlier?”Jet said.

“It won’t change anything I said earlier,” Simon pointed.

“I’m not asking that. It’s just time we spoke. Time I found out what your alliances are,” Jet said.

Simon looked up at that.

“Oh, OK,” said Simon, looking nervously briefly at Melanie, then he stood.

“Merc, can you please take care of Melanie for a while?” Jet asked.

Mercury sat down beside her user and let her feet dangle in the pool as well. Jet levered himself up with one hand and walked over to Simon who was near the entrance of the pool room now.

“What’s your stake in this?” Jet asked.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Simon started, but Jet interrupted.

“I mean what’s your stake in all this.”

“I just understand your position,” Simon said,

“Like a shark understands a fish, You’ve already pointed out you have additional strengths in this world. I want to know why your helping Melanie right now.”

Simon let out a long breath from his nose, then turned and started walking. Jet walked along beside and slightly behind him,.

“Melanie,” said Simon. “Like I said, earlier, I understand where she’s coming from. I know why you’re here now and I just want to help. Is that so hard to understand?”

Jet looked at Simon suspiciously. “There’s always something more. We’re heading into hell here,”

“And you choose to question your allies?” Simon challenged.

“I choose to test that you are an ally,” Jet said.

“Originally? Of course not,” said Simon. “But now, well, things are different. I have a reason for wanting to help and it’s my own reason. Can you understand that?”

“Not really,” said Jet.

“Then you’re just going to have to accept it,” Simon said. “Like I said, if I was going to betray you, I could have done it by now. Melanie accepts me,” Simon said.

“She would accept anyone. She was dying before she came in here,” Jet shot back.

“I know, I know,” said Simon, “And her trust is important to me.”

“Look Jet,” Simon explained. “You’re just another user in this system and for all I know, you’re at best a criminal and at worst, a terrorist, but I’ve chosen to help Melanie.

“I have my reasons for helping, and their something I’m not willing to discuss at the moment. Melanie’s not going to tell you either, but she’s aware of them.

“Trust me or not, I am correct. In less than a day, subjective time, this virtual system will retract into the Encom system. Then things are going to get significantly bad if they’re both still here.”

Melanie trusted Simon?> Did she know something about him that Jet didn’t?

So far, Simon hadn’t actually done anything that Jet could point at and decide he wasn’t with them, but it still left a lot unanswered, and it was a lot for Jet to take on Trust.

Jet had to make his decisions now. If what Simon said was true, and Jet had no reason to believe that it wasn’t, regardless of Simon’s allegiances, then he, or rather Mercury, was in serious trouble and Jet needed all the help he could get.

“Simon, how do I know that you’re not going to derez Mercury first chance you get?” Jet asked.

“Because he gave me his word,” Melanie said.

Jet spun around. Melanie had come out to them, and had apparently listened to the conversation, or at least a part of it.

“And you trust him?” Jet asked. “Remember, these people have tried to kill us.”

Melanie looked over at Simon with a look that Jet couldn’t quite understand and nodded.

“I trust my life to him Jet. Please listen to him.” She said.

Mercury was standing close behind her.

“If my user trusts him, then I trust his word also,” said Mercury.

Jet felt almost betrayed by her comments, but held his thoughts back. He didn’t want to trust Simon, but right at the moment, he had little to lose.

Simon held out his hand.

“Truce?” he proposed.

Jet reluctantly took it. “Trust, for the moment.” Jet said.

Simon didn’t miss the term. It was another programmer term. Trust meant something completely different in this world and to programmers.

Trust means danger to programmers. Trust means lack of security, but something that has to be done.

It wasn’t necessarily a good thing and it’s meaning was almost reversed.

“Alright then,” said Simon. “You have less than a day. What do you want to do?”

Jet thought for a moment. “Tell me about this system. Not just superficial either. You’re a senior F-con software engineer at worst – don’t bother denying it. Nothing held back. I’m holding you on your honor to that.

“Also, I need to break some programs out of storage. If you were separating them and storing them according to function, as I suspect, these may be scheduled for deletion. I want them out and with us.”

Simon opened his eyes wide.

“You don’t ask much do you. I expected you to ask for some time alone with your program.” Simon said.

Jet looked at Mercury.

“This is actually pretty much what we’ve done on all out dates. I don’t expect anything to change.” Jet said.

“Simon looked at Melanie. He was obviously reluctant to meet Jet’s request.

“Please, Simon, please.” She said quietly as she looked directly into his face. “You need to help him also. For me if for nothing else.”

For me? Jet started to wonder what exactly had gone on on the trip from the Encom system.

Simon nodded.

“Which programs?” he asked.

“System programs. Jade,” Jet paused, then added,”or rather Kernel, Crypto and Syslog.”

Simon looked back at Melanie, and she gave him the same pleading look.

“Alright, you’re correct. They would be scheduled for deletion once their function is understood. Keep in mind you can’t go deleting any Datawraiths here. It would expose me and I would be terminated also. That’s something I’m not willing to risk. You also say nothing if you ever get out of here.”

Jet nodded.

“What else?”

“I’ll take it as it goes.” Jet said.

Simon looked back to Melanie, who smiled now at the new face he made. It must have been infectious, because Simon started to smile.

“Thankyou, Simon,” Melanie said.

“Let’s go then. Time is short.” Simon said and started walking.

“I’ll tell you about the system as we go.”

They picked up Ma3a and Alchemist on the way out. Melanie moved her hand to a panel near where they came in and it derezzed once more, then they were outside this particular area and in the open.

‘First thing we need to do is forge some new access privileges, or we won’t get anywhere.” Simon said.

“So what is this system?” Jet asked.

“Echelon? Think monitoring system. This is what the US government use to monitor communications around the world,” Simon explained.

“I know that,” said Jet. “What’s the connection to Encom?”

“I don’t know,” said Simon. “But I do know why they’re interested in Encom.”

“Quantum entangled programs,” said Jet.

“You know?” Simon asked.

“I’ve figured out that much. Why take them though?”

“Because we can’t program them,” said Simon. “Only programmers who worked on the original Encom five-eleven and even earlier systems like the 12-82 left their mark in this world.

“We have something similar, but it’s not the same. We’ve solved the issues of quantum shielding that plagued the early research of Doctor Walter Gibbs so much, but we can’t create worlds like he did. I don’t know why.

“So we take code from Encom. Whatever we can. It’s like seed material to this world. We bring it in and it grows, gives life to everything around it.

“Programs, routines, applications, whatever. We just zip it up and bring it back here and reuse the code. We can start programs ourselves, but they come out, well, retarded would be a good example.

“But if we start with something from the Encom system, a little code re-use if you will, especially if it’s something close to what we’re doing, then it’s like magic beans. It grows the beanstalk.”

Jet nodded. It was making sense to him, Jet’s own perspective now a combination of his own knowledge, insight and what Simon was mixing in.

“But we can’t use the same bean twice. For some reason, that’s just against the rules of this freaking world. Copy a bean, either one of them screws up or worse, they both do. Just doesn’t work.

“So I keep having to go back into the Encom system and find more beans for the Datawraiths. No beans, no more magic.”

Simon held up a hand and stopped the group, then backed up a little.

“Melanie, I need a hole,” Simon said to Melanie.

Melanie nodded, then stepped to the nearest wall and held her hand against it. A physical obstruction popped into place in front of them just as Jet got a glimpse of a purple suit.

There were voices on the other side.

“This is new,” said one.

“These virtual systems really spook me. It’s like we’re not really here.”

“We’re not really here anyway,”

“Yeah, you know what I mean.”

Then the steps walking on.

Simon waited a moment, then waved and Melanie dropped the wall.

“How does she do that?” Jet asked.

“I’m not actually sure, man. She just can. It’s not something I’ve seen before.” Simon shrugged.”Best I can do is get an early warning on Datawraiths.”

Melanie just shrugged also when Jet looked. “It’s just like the shell.”

Simon continued on.

“So why is Fcon, or is it Echelon, killing the golden goose then?” Jet asked.

Simon smiled at Jet’s new nursery tale example.

“Because we got lots of golden eggs anyway. Beans, Eggs, makes no difference. We have a warehouse of them now. The ones you sent after we came across the link have been useful though. Like fresh food when the stuff in the pantry is going off.”

“It goes off?” Jet asked

“Yeah, it has been. The magic beans don’t work so well now and not all of them turn into a beanstalk.”

“So how many giant slayers work here,” Jet asked. “Including yourself.”

“Including me?” Simon repeated. “Five. Unless you count the normals… Just five of us seem to be able to grow beanstalks.”

“And the rest?” Jet asked.

“Just code monkey’s. Mostly write input and output devices, but in this world, their just the Datawratihs you’ve been dealing with. Common garden variety beans.”

“And you have some special status here?” Jet asked.

“Me? Nah. Just a poor gardener selling his cow for some beans. They recognize my value, but I don’t see anything from it. Other than the zecs, we don’t have many civilians in the system.”

“Zecs?” Jet asked.

Simon didn’t answer at first, then finally spat it out.

“Dillinger and Gibbs,” said Simon.

Jet nodded, realizing he was referring to the old Encom executives.

“So you going to just ask me background questions all day, or do you have a plan? Simon asked.

“More backgroud. Tell me about this system,” Jet asked.

“Ahh, well there you have it. That question makes sense.

“Some time back, F-con, which I think that old bastard Dillinger had something to do with, started to build algorithmic translation engine processors.

“Seems they thought they could build a new system like Encom had. Even improved the technology, but it just didn’t work like they expected it to.

“So they tried to take over Encom. Seems they had some ideas for the technology. F-con was quite a powerful company in its own right and didn’t need Encom, but they wanted it badly.

“I worked for F-con at the time. Systems programmer. It was quite a merger. No talking with Encom employees, no discussing company matters. We were told if anyone from Encom asked us questions, to just walk away.”

Simon halted briefly at the end of his comment then and paused before restarting.

“So we started programming all these mobile servers once the merger was going to go ahead. Secret stuff, even in our company. Lots of programming. We took some applications and got introduced to the digitization process.

“They made us wear these purple crappy suits for some reason – I think it was to affect our self-image, because once we got in here, we all looked like that. Me too for a while.

“But the virtual server work was critical, because it taught us how to handle emulation of the algorithmic engines. Taught us how to cross-compile the applications.

“Did you know most of the applications become self-modifying?”

Jet nodded.

“Yeah I did.”

“Damn spooky stuff. The zecs said it was just code optimization of the algorithmic translation process, but I’ve written self-modifying code, and this stuff just changes execution on the fly. Random except not random.

“They caught me disassembling the stuff once, trying to understand it when my routines weren’t working after the accident. Damn near banned me from the system for looking. High level only is the rule.

“So we build virtual servers and the stuff translates. We can even cross-compile it for execution on our native processors.

“The fiber loops hold the data. They have to be there. No fiber loop, no quantum interaction.

“This stuff doesn’t translate to the digital. You can process it digital, sure, but the fiber loop still needs to be there. Weird huh?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time this technology has been described as spooky huh?” Jet said.

“Yeah, that’s right. Einstein wasn’t it?

“I’m not really sure. I’m not a physicist.” Jet said.

“So any other information I can help you with?”

“This system,” said Jet. “Where we are right now.”

“Ahh,” said Simon, realizing Jet’s driving motivation. “Just remember I don’t agree with your idea, but I’ll support your approach as far as I can.”

Jet ignored the entry point to the conversation for an argument building, realizing it was his own anger. Mercury was in danger. He had trouble remaining calm when that was the case.

“This is a virtual system,” said Simon, with a sweep of his hand.

“Is that why Melanie can rez in walls?” Jet asked.

“Can’t answer that one,” Simon said, rubbing his chin, “That’s a bit of a surprise to me too.”

Jet went back to the conversation. “Are all the cities on sticks virtual?”

“Yes, they are. That’s how they appear in this world. Separate and untouchable.” Simon said.

“What if a program jumped off. Wouldn’t it make it to the system?” Jet asked.

“Can’t happen. No transfer capability. Let’s say you could find a point close enough to basejump, digitally speaking, you would derez on the way down. That’s what happens to algorithmic code when it moves outside of it’s operational area. The link get’s broken and the program derezzes.

“Falling in this world is bad. Worse than on our world. On our world, you just have the sudden stop at the end that’s bad, but in this world, if your data moves through system memory too fast, which is what’s happening, your connection to your fiber becomes laggy.

“Remember the fiber loop memory is based on the speed of light. It’s running around a fiber loop like a racetrack. If you move to a different area before it resyncs, it loses track of the data and the connection is broken.

“Instant ghost. Instant death. Instant quantum disruption, and it can really screw up the area and programs around you too.

“If you’re in a protected loop, it spits you back out into the real world because there’s nowhere else to send you.

“Your quantum data is compromised – corrupted. You can’t shift the photons quickly enough and the data gets damaged.

“So you come out incomplete. Usually memory loss or something mild. Often no recollection of what happened inside the computer.

“But sometimes it’s worse. Physical damage, brain damage. Crippling injuries with no apparent cause. Permanent pain from mis-wired nerves.

“Even death. The results are cumulative. Once damage sets in, it’s like a Quantum cancer. Survive one ejection, sure, but five or six? Not so sure.”

“They teach you that stuff in Datawraith school?” Jet asked.

“Some of it,” said Simon, “Anyway, you want to know more about the virtual system we’re in right?”

Jet was surprised with Simon’s ability to keep on track intuitively with what Jet was asking.

“Yeah, so it’s a virtual system supported by hardware. Five localized fiber loops, but only one available to applications with hardware switches to stop any interaction between fibers.

“Think of it as an enforced ceasefire. It makes it very difficult for programs to damage deedoubleyous.”

“Deedoubleyous?” Jet asked.

“Datawraiths, DW’s. What we call ourselves.”

“Go on”

“Yeah, Jet, so we’re all in that other fiber loop. Except me. I’m in the DW loop, which is how I know where they are.

“You’re all in the cleaning loops – the other four. It was lucky you were put into a different loop from Melanie, or rather, I made sure of it.

“Three loops for programs which are slowly fed into the fourth after cross-compilation.

“Then the fourth loop is returned to the system. We feel that as if the city on a stick as you describe it simply lowers itself back to the main terrain.”

“So if we stay in the pre-filter loops?” Jet asked.

“They are automatically dropped before transfer,” Simon said.

“So it’s possible?” Jet asked.

“No, it’s not possible. Didn’t you hear me? Dropped. You turn off the photon replicator on each loop and if you’re in it, go straight to hell. Do not pass purgatory, do not collect your soul. They switch off the loops before transfer to make sure all the final programs are either filtered or deleted.

“Any program avoids cross-compiling and monitoring is left behind and erased. That’s all there is too it.”

Jet considered the other loop.

“But the Datawraith loop is still running,” he said.

“Sure, but it’s physically separated by a partition. You can’t jump across. There’s barely enough photonic interaction to allow us to see each other. It’s almost a shell like you had Melanie in before she came here. Like paged memory.”

Jet started to form a plan.

“I moved into paged memory,” Jet said.

“Yeah, but you had an interface wired directly into it. You don’t have that here.”

“Someone does,” said Jet. “And that’s where I want to go then.”

Simon turned on the spot then and faced Melanie.

“He’s going to get you killed, Melanie. Are you sure you want to go through with this?”

Jet was caught off-guard and surprised by the comment. He looked to Melanie who had been walking with and talking to Mercury as they walked.

Melanie flicked her gaze from Jet to Mercury then back to Simon.

“Please Simon, trust him. With my life. Please.”

Simon slumped.

“This is not going to end well.” He said.

“Thankyou Simon, I really appreciate this,” Jet said.

“No, you’re going to hate me for it when you realize you’ve blown your last hours on a plan that isn’t going to work.”

“Then I’m happy with the plan,” said Jet.

Simon rolled his eyes up, then suddenly back down at Jet, then Melanie.

“Melanie – quick. I need a partition now.”

A purple glow appeared in the distance.

Alison huddled up against the edge of her bunk, her swollen face buried into the space near her knees. She hadn’t been able to rest and the effects of whatever had made her sleep were going now.

Her hands had been untied, but the grazing around where she had struggled against it was clear and dark lines surrounded her wrists.

She had called out several times but there was no sound around here.

Her father was missing – he hadn’t made the trip here with her and Flynn, and she worried for her friend, Alan Bradley. His head was still bleeding when they moved him onto a different helicopter.

A sound from outside her cell startled her. She looked through open bar at the corridor beyond.

Footsteps.

They came closer until a figure appeared at the door. A woman in a military uniform.

She held a small bundle of clothes with soft cloth shoes on top.

As she approached, the door automatically opened and she walked in, put the clothes at the end of the bunk and looked at Alison.

“Put these on.” She said.

Alison looked up at her, waiting.

The woman took a single step back.

“I’m waiting,” she said.

Melanie’s walls had saved them two times.

Although the group was relatively large, the ability to conjure walls out of nothing seemed to make quite a difference.

Jet asked Melanie how she did it, to which she placed his hand on the wall and hers over his. Even in this digital world, it felt soft and warm.

Then as she conjured up a small wall, like a ridge, Jet saw the code.

The code in the existing wall beyond was blurry to Jet and indistinct, but he saw Melanie’s code as it passed through into it.

Then the resolution grid formed and the short wall, like a single column of bricks, appeared.

“You can see the code beyond?” Jet asked.

“Yes,” Melanie said. “Can’t you?”

“No, it looks blurry to me.”

“It’s supposed to look blurry to us, Jet. It’s obfuscated to avoid localized hacking. Like I said, I don’t know how she does it.” Simon added in.

“Anyway, this is it. Inside this building, your other programs will be imprisoned.”

Jet looked at the wall he had just felt.

“Jade, Syslog and Crypto?” Jet asked.

“And the other ICPs.” Simon said.

“We thought we were clever coming in separately,” Jet said.

“You were. Had you come in, in force, we would have derezzed you at the gate.” Simon added.

Jet nodded.

“How do I get in here?” Jet asked.

Simon shrugged. “No idea.”

Melanie looked at him.

“Seriously, I don’t have any idea. It’s a tough one. Start looking I guess. You’re the hacker.”

Jet put his hand on the wall and closed his eyes.

Next Chapter: 2.45 Short Circuit