Tron 2.47 – Quantum Downtime.

Eva Popoff kicked the door to the machine room open as the normally high security door opened for an engineer. The engineer on the other side caught the quickly moving door in the face and staggered upright and back as the two executives came through the door.

“Are you sure the users from the Encom system are in there Mister Crown?”

Seth Crown III stepped through the door and helped the engineer to his feet before following the former F-Con company HR executive into the machine room.

“It would appear so, although Mister Baza did suffer reintegration issues and would be presently undergoing treatment”

“But I don’t believe he’s the sort of person to make a mistake about that,” said Eva Popoff.

“No, I don’t believe he is.”

“So what is the loss to us if we disconnect the loops feeding the virtual system?” Eva asked.

Seth crown stepped ahead of the woman to open a door to a second control room, holding a passcard up to a reader as he did so. A green light flicked on over the top of the lock and it made a popping sound before he pulled the door back.

“Thirty six percent of all estimated re-usable material,” Seth noted. “If Mister Baza’s early calculations were correct.”

Eva stood and breathed out slowly through her nose.

“That’s not insignificant, but we really don’t want any outsiders reintegrating into our facility do we?”

Seth Crown shook his head, holding the door open and waiting for Eva to walk through.

Eva picked up her mobile as she walked through and hit a number on it.

“Gibbs,” said the voice.

“We have an issue. External users are most likely inside this system, transferred through from the Encom five eleven. Total resources at risk include thirty six percent of re-usable material from the recent surge that are still within the virtualization.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line.

“Just a moment while I put this on speakerphone.” Said the voice, then there was a clicking sound and the background noise from another room came through.

“The people who were reported inside of the Five Eleven look like they might have made it through to Echelon.”

“The core system?” yelled a voice, clearly bothered by the news. It was Dillinger’s.

“Still within the virtualization,” said Gibbs.

“Shut it down.” Said Dillinger.

“The loss of material from the shutdown will,” Gibbs started to say, but Dillinger cut her out.

“Now, Shut it down now. I don’t want to risk them making it into the core. No exceptions. All loops. Even the system loop.” Dillinger demanded.

Eva looked at Seth, then appeared worried as she pushed her mouth towards the phone.

“Sir, there are eighty three employees in that system. This could cause issues with the base commander.”

There was a brief pause in the conversation and the sounds of muffled cursing.

“Alright, initiate datawraith purge protocols immediately and resume the Kernel to make sure they all get out, then shut down everything else. I want it all dropped. No quantum transference of data. Understood?”

“Taking action now,” said Seth, then reached over and hit the shutdown switch on the phone.

“This is going to cause us significant financial losses,” said Eva. “That material isn’t the property of the US government. It’s ours.”

“You heard the man,” said Seth.

Eva nodded, then walked over to a control panel sitting within a rack. Seth inserted a key and a plexiglass cover over the buttons flipped back providing access.

The panel itself consisted of eight buttons and a large emergency switch, recessed in an aluminium tube and painted with yellow and black cross-hatching to make sure it wasn’t mistaken for anything else.

Eva started pressing buttons, illuminating them.

Loops one to five lit up, then loops six and seven lit up with the extra information “Purge” on the button.

Finally Eva’s finger hovered over the button marked “Purge Operating System.”

“That one might still contain some value,” said Seth. “And will make sure that the employees make it out of the system.”

Seth turned and left the machine room then. He was always too concerned with the legal ramifications of his actions. If he didn’t see what happened, then he could deny the consequences and wash his hands of it.

Eva paused for a moment as she considered it, then hit the final purge switch before moving her hand to the yellow and black switch, then jammed her finger into it.

“Ow,” she said, pulling her finger back, looking at it, as if slighted by the equipment.

The tip of the nail had broken off jaggedly.

Beneath her on the panel, the blue lights started to flash and the panel started to withdraw.

Something had shifted the operating system to another level of defence as all of the cubes on the walkways were drawn inwards for use as weapons. Standing in the center of the cloud of cube primitives was the gigantic figure of the local echelon operating system contained within the virtualized environment.

Although the operating system at first seemed weak, running when Jet had quickly overrun his ICP forces on the upper level, it had apparently changed modes as it escaped to the ceiling of the building they were on, consuming more cycles and increasing in size dramatically.

Alone, Jet was outmatched by the system in it’s own environment, but once he had opened the gates that held back his friends, the ICPs had so far managed to distract the large program although the attack still seemed very one sided, with Jade’s forces falling quickly to their goliath foe.

Jet ducked to the side as yet another cube came flying at him over the top of the walkway, this one catching the edge of the walkway itself and shattering pieces of it, shards of walkway spraying in each direction as they were broken loose.

A large shard hit an ICP standing to one side. The ICP looked down at the protruding object as if surprised, then deresolved without falling.

Ma3a, Mercury and Alchemist were all having difficulty trying to avoid the projectiles coming their way as the operating system defended itself.

On the next level, Jade was co-ordinating ICP return fire, attempting to distract the giant, but the ICP shots weren’t having a lot of effect.

Jet’s LOL was about the only effective weapon at the moment, but even now it was on half-charge and the charge sphere on this level had exhausted itself.

“Why do they always make these end-bosses so damn problematic to take down?” Jet yelled out.

“What’s an end-boss?” Mercury called back, dodging the next cube that was hurtled in their direction.

“At the end of a game, you always face a large boss. Your hardest opponent. You have to defeat him to move on.”

“Games aren’t the same in your world, are they?” Jade noted.

“No,” said Jet, then paused as he dropped to all fours to avoid several cubes that came from one side like a huge bat. “They aren’t anything like in this world.”

“So how do you defeat the end-boss in your world?” Alchemist called.

“We really don’t have time for this,” Ma3a said.

“Actually, you might have something there,” Jet called. “Usually they have a weakness. The trick is finding it.”

“Didn’t you shatter the armor earlier?” Mercury called, then tripped as she dodged her next cube.

Jet ran over to Mercury and lifted her by the arm.

“Yes, but it keeps regenerating before I can get a second shot in there. The shot took all my energy in any event, and the ICPs can’t manage accurate enough fire to finish the task and the operating system seems to get faster with less armor.”

There was a huge crash as two thirds of the upper platform crashed down, derezzing ICPs on both the top and below as it did.

“What happened,” Jet called.

“The operating system just took out the support routines and the application layer came down.” Jade called back.

The fire from the ICPs was diminishing – Jet wasn’t sure how many had been deleted but it seemed that it wasn’t insignificant.

“Can you keep distracting him?” Jet called back.

“The remaining ICPs will continue to engage the operating system and tie resources.” Jade said.

“Jet, the operating system is gaining cycles.” Jade called out. “He’s recalling it from ICPs.”

“Great, you mean he’s getting even stronger?” Jet asked.

As if in answer, the operating system’s hand came up this time and broke some of the walkway Jet was standing on away, Jet jumping back to avoid falling with it.

Then for a moment, the operating system seemed distracted and looked elsewhere.

“All programs, prepare for system shutdown. Please return unused cycles and prepare to be subsumed into Echelon. Purge cycle has been initiated. Prepare for loop shutdown.”

“What the,” Jet started.

“It seems that the local system is going down,” Jade called out.

“Why does this always have to happen with the end boss?” Jet lamented, then ducked to the side.

An ICP took careful aim from the far side of the tower on the remains of what was the upper level while it was distracted, the LOL shot knocking a large section of armor from the upper half of the operating system’s head.

The operating system immediately whirled around and hackanded the ICP, knocking it from the towering walkways and out beyond where it immediately derezzed.

Jet watched as the operating system then protected the damaged component as it regenerated.

“That’s it, Jade, can you generate system broadcasts?”

Jade tried to answer but jumped to the side as several large cubes came crashing down, knocking two ICPs from the tower walks out and downwards towards deresolution.

“My user, what would you have me broadcast?”

“Anything,” Jet called out.

“I need content, my user,”

“Small items. Do you have a chargen?”

Jade looked up at Jet through a huge gap in the floor between them.

“Yes my user,”

“Then feed it into a filter, and broadcast each character as comes up, one at a time.”

“But that will cause loss of system cycles, my user. We are already low on cycles.”

“Yes, but so is the local operating system and it can’t handle broadcasts effectively. I think it may be having difficulty. Some functions don’t work as well in a virtualization as others. I don’t think it handles interrupts well.”

“Interrupts don’t work that way, my user,” Jade called back aligning her weapon for another shot.

“This is a different architecture to what you’re used to Jade. You have no idea how far processor technology has advanced since the five eleven was built. Don’t forget, it’s nearly thirty years old now, and the last major upgrade was twenty years ago.”

“But my user, once I do that, there’s no going back. I don’t have sufficient cycles to beak a runaway application.”

“Trust me Jade. Just do it – Limit the iterations to one thousand then.”

Jade aimed up briefly at a hand sweeping in her direction. The shots drove it away, but a cube followed that Jade had to dodge, taking her out of view before she had a chance to answer.

Jet ran to the gap in the walkway and looked through. He couldn’t see her.

“Jade?”

“!” came a system broadcast.

The operating system paused briefly mid-way through an attack on some ICPs that had moved to the edge of the walkway. It didn’t save them, but it did cause a pause.

“@” came the next broadcast, then a “#” and quickly the numbers increased.

ICPs on the walkways started to slow as they processed the requests. Jet noticed that Mercury slowed as she moved behind what little cover – just archival cubes now – remained, although they would have little effect if the operating system singled her out.

The operating system slowed only a little, then the stream hit.

“$” “%” “^” “&” “*” “(“ “)”

The operating system shuddered.

Jade came out on the platform below. She was having difficulty moving but still seemed to maintain more cycles than the other programs.

“My user, my ICPs report inability to evade attacks. We are defenseless.”

Jet looked around. Jade was correct – the ICPs were no longer responding, their skin circuits dark now, except for slowly moving bright points of light.

“We’re not the only one, Jade, Look.”

The gargantuan program turned slowly in the middle of the bands now, looking for the source of the broadcasts.

“Jade, transfer enough cycles from your ICPs so you can evade attack. They are slower now, so should be possible to dodge. Get your ICPs to use remaining cycle to align weapons on the upper interfaces to the operating system and open fire.”

After a moment Jet added “At the head.”

“My user, the command channel is down due to broadcast overload. The ICPs can receive no new instructions. They will not receive the updated instruction.

Jet ran back to Mercury who was slowing down now. Visible pulses of light were moving through her mostly dark circuits as she slowed down, like bright spots on dark bands.

He also now noticed what others, especially Simon had noted before – he wasn’t affected by the slowing of system cycles.

“Merc, Not yet, take some of my cycles.”

“I can’t” Mercury said back, then as Jet grabbed her by the hand and hauled her back to her feet, the pulses moving faster – still visible, but no longer affected as energy seemed to flow from Jet to Mercury.

“Merc, the ICPs won’t be able to aim properly in their condition. I need you to take out the head armor.”

Jet handed her the LOL, then grabbed it back, made some adjustments, and handed it back.

Mercury was still moving very slowly and sluggishly, but the ICPs still seemed frozen.

The huge program now saw that Jet was a threat even if the broadcasts were still originating.

Broadcasts continued to stream out from the local hardware at a rate Jet was having trouble keeping up with.

In the middle, the cloud of once fast-moving cubes had slowed down and now they seemed to float like gigantic square balloons through space around the operating system rather than like missiles.

Jet lifted his disk from his arm and walked to the edge.

“Time to hack root,” he said, then as Mercury’s first LOL shot blew armor from the operating system’s head region, Jet leapt onto the nearest cube and threw his disk.

The disk itself wasn’t slowed at all, and drove directly into the head armor, but harmlessly bounced off.

There also wasn’t a replacement. Jet’s cycles may not have been affected, but the sequencer was paralyzed also. He would have to wait for his disk to come back.

The operating system’s eyes opened slowly wide as it realized Jet was getting closer. A huge arm started coming towards the cube Jet was on as another LOL shot knocked armor just form above it’s right eye.

More, less-accurate shots also started to appear as the ICPs began to follow their last received instructions before system load took out Jade’s channel to them.

Jet jumped from one cube to the next, the large application unable to follow and pre-empt his movements quickly enough to knock him from the suspended items.

Broadcasts of sequential characters filled Jet’s mind too, but unlike the processor, Jet had the option of ignoring them.

Another piece of armor fell to Mercury’s accurate sniper fire from the side are as Jet worked his way closer to the huge head at the center of the roof the belted walkways sat upon.

ICPs started to derez now, and Jet saw a system broadcast.

“kill -9 quarantine_loop confirmed” came through amongst the serial broadcasts.

Then “Activating purge cycle.”

Jet almost overbalanced, parts of the operating system now visible beneath the missing forcewall armor.

“kill -9 save_loop confirmed”

“Queuing Purge Cycle.”

“kill -9 system_loop confirmed”

“Queuing Purge Cycle.”

“kill -9 process_loop confirmed”

“Queuing Purge Cycle.”

“kill -9 user_loop confirmed”

“Queuing Purge Cycle.”

All came through in quick succession.

“My user, the operating system is removing all loop support – he’s trying to flush all queues to null.” Jade called out.

“Keep his armor down before it regenerates,” Jet screamed back, now almost on his foe, his disk just returning now from the earlier deflection, caught in one hand as he jumped between blocks.

Mercury fired one more shot, this one removing the armored forcewall over the operating system’s large forehead.

“I’m out of energy, Jet,” Mercury called over to him.

Two final cubes lined up the path.

“Just keep down, I’m not sure what’s going to happen next,” Jet called, then diving forward used them to accelerate between the gap across the space between them, drawing back his arm at the same time.

“kill -9 syst,” came the final broadcast, then Jet snapped his arm forward with as much strength as he could manage.

The disc shot snapped into the gap between the armor, burying itself into the huge forehead, the eyes either side lighting up blue before the disk continued on, breaking out of the back of the operating system shell and taking hundreds of shards of armor with it as it blew through the operating system.

“Stack overflow,” was the only broadcast than slipped into Jade’s chargen broadcast, then the eyes went dark and the operating system started to slip over.

Jet landed on the shoulder as he came down and grabbed onto the large program’s helmet as he pitched forward.

The large program started moving directly towards the belts nearest where Jet had come from, driving with mass towards the walkways. Jet scooted around to the back, then rode it in as it smashed through thick belt, the remaining body driving almost all the way through the platforms.

Jade ducked to the side, narrowly missing being crushed by the program. Two ICP that were still sluggish weren’t so lucky, their forms derezzing as the program buried itself into the side structure of the roof, almost pushing its way completely through.

Jet jumped to the side and picked Jade up. He was still high on the adrenaline burst.

“The bigger they are, Jade, the harder they fall.” Jet said.

“My user, we have a problem.”Jade said.

“Tell me about it, he was huge.” Jet said.

“The loops within the virtual space are shutting down – all programs are being purged.”

“Tell me what that means,” Jet asked.

Jade pointed to the other side of the tower. “ICPs are derezzing as their loop space is purged.”

Jet looked around, concerned.

“Crypto? Syslog?” Jet asked.

“In the system loop, but all other loops are being dropped as we speak, my user.”

Jet frowned. “The system attempted to shut down all loops while we were still in here.”

“Where are we?” Jet asked, worried about the answer.

“Not in the system loop,” Jade guessed.

Mercury looked down through a shattered piece of walkway, identified where Jet was and swung herself through to drop on the walkway near him.

She was still somewhat sluggish.

“How do we get to the system loop?” Jet asked.

Jade pointed to the now non-moving program that once ruled this virtual system.

Jet stepped closed and placed his hands on the now deactivated operating system . It was well and truly crashed now, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

Closing his eyes briefly, Jet dived into the dead operating system and straight through the obfuscation later into the core program. Inside, everything was static, code still executing in various locations.

Jet noticed the author information coming up in his mind.

“Chess Calculator – Author Edward Dillinger.”

“That explains a lot,” Jet thought. “Looks like dillinger went back to his old code and re-used the heuristic algorithms that eventually became the MCP. That makes some sense, because the MCP was the first code to develop the correctional algorithms.”

Moving deeper, Jet saw some shattered code and moved to read it. Pushing him mind into it, Jet found what he was looking for. His disc shot had been lucky – it had taken out the core spinlock within the giant, disabling execution of all routines under system use there and then. All were now paused.

Jet retrieved his thoughts and returned to the digital world.

“Jade, the operating system is down and I think we need to restart it, but I don’t want this program in place. I need to borrow some of your code,” Jet said. “I think I can insert you directly into the system loop.”

“My user,” Jade acknowledged, then stepped closer to Jet.

“I’m not sure how safe this is,” Jet started, but Jade grabbed his hand and placed it on the top of her chest between her shoulder and breasts.

“This system is already crashing. The broadcasts have crippled ICPs and other functions and the purge functions are hardware facilitated.

“There is only going to be one safe place when this virtualization is subsumed now.

“I need to take over operating system functions.”

Jet nodded, then initated a code transfer, overwriting all system files with Jade’s files, then finally placing Jade’s own system spinlock – the one inside of her – over the existing operating system’s code.

He looked at Jade now, who was beginning to look pale.

“Jade?”

Jade derezzed before his eyes.

“Jade?” yelled Jet.

Jet stepped back from the operating system and looked, but Jade had gone.

“Jade? Where are you?” Jet called, starting to seriously worry.

He turned around and saw the operating system eyes open wide, then it stood.

“Oh no, this can’t be happening.” Jet called out.

The operating system stood fully up, then looked back at Jet.

Jet pulled his disk out ready to fight, but the operating system began to fold back inwards until it became a single column, then started to derez, folding down on itself.

Finally, when it was complete, the system returned to normal size.

Jet ran down a ramp, leapt onto a column that had been knocked over earlier in the fight and slid to the ground level, pulling his disk back to strike once more as the operating system returned to normal size.

Jet moved up to it, still folding, until he stood before the now returned local system.

“What did you do with Jade?” Jet demanded.

“You repaired me,” said the operating system.

“What did you do with JADE?” Jet demanded more forcefully, then it stepped towards him, removing its own disk to fight. Jet started to strike, but the system moved too quickly, charging Jet then pinning him as they both went down.

Jet looked up into hostile eyes that seemed to regard Jet as a threat, then they opened wide, the vertices on its body started to rearrange, morphing as they did, changing color, and finally, turning green and white, then just green.

“Jade?” Jet asked.

“Did you miss me? My user?” Jade asked, shifting her head to one side?

Jade lifted herself from Jet’s prone body, then seemingly effortlessly reached down and lifted Jet from the ground.

“Miss you? I thought you were gone!” Jet said. “What happened?”

“You transferred me across loops, my user. The operating system reactivated when the spinlock was repaired, but has no intrusion countermeasure as it did not expect a cross-loop transfer to be possible.”

“So you run this virtualization now?” Jet asked.

“Yes, now, but time is limited. The loops, including your loop, are purging. You cannot remain here. We must initiate all transfers now.” Jade said.

“How do we do that?” Jet asked.

“The lower compartment of this facility contains two loop transfer functions. We need to go there.”

Jet looked up. ICPs were starting to come back to life – those that survived the operating system onslaught anyway. Mercury appeared overhead.

“Merc, you OK?” Jet called.

“I’m fine.”

“Merc, things are bad. Get everyone down here back to the lower level as quickly as you can.” Jet called out.

Mercury waved back, indicating she’d heard Jet, then disappeared back behind the walkway.

Jet ran towards the spiral staircase back to the lower level.

Flynn wasn’t surprised when Jasmine Gibbs walked back towards his cells, her characteristic click-click of her heels and recognizable cadence alerted him long before she became visible.

Laying back on his cot, Flynn didn’t even respond when the sound stopped.

After a pause, he spoke without opening his eyes.

“Hello Junior.” Flynn called out.

There was a sharper than usual intake of breath through a nose Flynn heard, but when she spoke, it was even and without anger.

“Thought you might like to know, some of the users from the Encom system made it through to our system.”

Flynn opened his eyes at the comment, wheeled on the bed and sat up.

“We’re just purging the system now.” She said.

Flynn pushed his palms against the sides of his forehead and tried not to think about what she meant.

When he looked back at her, she was smiling, waiting, baiting him.

He couldn’t resist taking it, even if he knew it was hooked.

“What happened to the programmer I used to know?” Flynn said. “She wasn’t a murderer.”

Jasmine’s eyes narrowed.

“She didn’t realize at the time what she needed to do to take control.” She shot back at him.

“It was all Roger Steamline wasn’t it.” Flynn said. “Of course I knew. Everyone did.”

Jasmine didn’t say anything.

“You wanted him, but he didn’t want you. You were his friend until you had the opportunity then you took the first opportunity to stab him in the back for all the kindness he had shown you.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jasmine said.

“Of course you do. You became CEO, waited until he remortgaged and fired him to hurt him as much as you could.

“That was the day you changed.

“That was the day I regretted leaving Encom so you could move in. I never thought you’d be capable of this though. I never ever imagined it.”

Jasmine smiled and the sight of it truly chilled Flynn to the bone.

“I guess I got stronger that you could imagine.”

Flynn forced himself back to his cot and closed his eyes, the feel of the imaginary hook still ripping at his gums.

Jet had witnessed a system shutting down before, so this one was no surprise.

The random formation of derezolution fields around the virtual server Jet was in seemed far too familiar to the programs and ICPs within the virtual environment.

Things were starting to go bad once more.

Jet ran from the base of the spiral staircase and into the base section of the command structure.

Jade was the only one able to keep up with him now, having the extra clock cycles needed to maintain full speed operations since she had taken over the system program.

Reaching the base of the command area, Jet glanced across at the two evacuation loops, the physical structure around each of the portals now open and glowing with a pulse-like beat.

In the distance, Jet could see a large-scale deresolution grid beginning to form to erase the entire structure.

“System status reports complete system shutdown within five cycles, my user.” Jade said.

Jet looked at the systemwide portals. Each was now blocked.

“Jade, how many programs are trapped in those loops?”

“All the programs from the last three evacuation carriers, my user. ICPs are reduced from the system action, but the ICP loop is now empty. It was the first to begin purge function. Any ICPs that didn’t exit when we did won’t be able to evacuate.”

“How many programs exist in the city beyond?”

“Few, my user. Nearly all have been transferred to lockdown loops. Process reports indicate that the final program allocation was complete some time ago. All programs were undergoing final scan and transfer when the instruction to shut down came through.”

“And all loops are being shut down?”

“No, my user. System instructions indicate that system re-integration is to occur after all loops are purged. The instructions came through to purge that loop also, but was not activated before you shut down the previous operating system.”

“What loop is that” Jet asked.

“That’s the loop that I exist within now, the loop to which you have transferred me, my user.” Jade said.

“Jet looked at the two evacuation loops that had opened.”

“And where do they go?”

Jade pointed to the one closest to the wall.

“That is the external loop, my user. Information within the system files indicates that it will take the contained information directly to the reintegration beam. For you, my user, it now represents the path out.”

“It is a portal you should consider accessing now, my user.”

“Not yet, Jade, not until everyone is out of here.” Jet said.

“Yes, My user,” said Jade, but her tone made Jet feel as if she wanted him to leave. Just as Mercury had at times.

Mercury came into the room, next behind the two. She still possessed some of Jet’s cycles so was able to move a little faster.

“That loop, where does that portal entrance lead to?”

“The queuing buffer, my user. That integrates with my local loop until such time as the reintegration is complete, the operating system buffer access is controlled by the system.”

“Post resumption of the local operating system?’” Jet asked.

“That would be at the prerogative of the system that runs Echelon.” Jade said.

“You’re the system now Jade, can’t you tell me?”

“My user, I,” Jade started, then paused.

“I will be resumed when the operating system is reabsorbed by the main network. If that operating system is stronger than I. then I will cease and simply become a subset of it’s functions.”

Jet blinked.

It took him a few moments, but then he realized that Jade meant that as soon as she was absorbed and this virtualization stopped, that she would lose herself to the Echelon system.

“Why didn’t you say something?” Jet said. “We could have transferred system function to one of the ICPs.”

Jade hung her head in shame.

“I’m sorry, my user, that I do not meet your expectations as an operating system, but I will give you my last cycles as best I can.”

“No Jade, that’s not it. You’re a great operating system, I couldn’t ask for another, but your too important to me to allow to be destroyed.”

Jade looked up and brightened a little.

“I still need you Jade, Melanie and Mercury need you. We all do. I need to find a way to help you too.”

“My user, you are helping too many. This is why Mercury is concerned for your safety,” Jade started, then a glance from Mercury stopped her.

Jet looked from one to the other

“That is between us, system,” Mercury said.

“Yes, My user, forgive me, but I cannot discuss this further.” Jade said, still looking at Jet.

“Mercury, what’s going on?”

Mercury looked away, then back to Jet.

“The Kernel is correct, I am concerned. You make too many decisions that protect me when the correct logical decision would be to sacrifice me. I will not let you continue.”

Ma3a came into the room just ahead of the others.

Jet looked from Mercury to Jade, Jet wanted to find out what it was, but there were more pressing matters at the moment. It would have to wait.

“We’ll continue this later,” Jet said, looking at Mercury, who nodded slightly.

“Meanwhile, Jade, I need you to route all remaining programs in unpurged loops to the root loop.”

Jade nodded, blinked once, then the portal on the left changed color and cycled through different colors in synchronicity with the now locked portals.

Jet moved over to Alchemist as Jade completed the system functions.

“Alchemist, have you located Melanie yet?”

Alchemist shook her head.

“No, but quantum stability levels have started to fluctuate. The correction algorithm is temporarily halted.”

Jet looked to Ma3a. She had a concerned look on her face.

“Jet, I don’t think she’s left the system.” Ma3a pointed out.

“What does that mean” Jet asked.

Events started to answer that for Jet.

“My user, quantum stability issue. Loop five, transfer aborted. User code detected. System is automatically routing to this sector. Duplex I/O established.”

Jet spun around just as Melanie and Simon came bouncing out of the left portal, the safe portal, and re-entered the local area backwards as if thrown into the room.

“Quantum flux exceeding safe levels,” Alchemist warned. “Feedback loop detected.”

Ma3a darted to one side and knelt beside Mercury who was collapsing as Jet watched.

“Ma3a, Jade, will someone tell me what’s going on,” Jet demanded.

“My user, there is a quantum stream irregularity,” Jade seemed to be cautioning.

“Jet,” said Mercury, holding her hands up to her face as they began to pulse brighter, Melanie sitting on the floor opposite her doing the same. “You need to leave here now.”

Simon looked at Jet accusingly.

“Now you’ve really screwed this up,” he said pointing, then shuffled across the floor to hold Melanie and keep her up.

“I didn’t shut down the loops,” Jet yelled back at Simon.

“They’ll only shut down the non-user loops.” Simon said back. “We were in a safe loop. Why did you retrieve us?”

“They’ve shut down all loops and they even tried to shut down the system loop.” Jet said back.

Simon opened his eyes wide, then looked to Jade. “No, they wouldn’t. That’s murder.”

“Which is what they’ve been trying to do to us all along. Do you think they were going to let a few datawraith lives get in the way?”

Simon opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Melanie was writhing in pain.

“Jet, this isn’t good, there’s a full-spectrum quantum feedback loop occurring here.” Ma3a said.

“What does that mean?”

“It’s another Sector three,” Alchemist said. “This entire virtualization is going to rupture.”

Mercury looked up at Jet, her eyes pleading now.

“Jet, there’s no time left. You need to fix this situation now. You need to do exactly as I say”

Jet looked at Mercury.

“OK, Merc, anything, what do I do next.”

“Remove your data disc,” Mercury said.

Jet pulled the disc from his arm.

Mercury nodded, her face contorting as the pulses seemed to be bringing her pain.

“What next,” Jet asked.

“Now derez me,” she begged.

Jet looked down at her in horror.

In the machine room, alarms had started to go off.

“What is going in,” asked Eva popoff as red flashing strobes replaced the normal glow of compact fluorescent lighting.

Seth Crown came back in, looked around, noticed all lights on the purge board were lit, frowned then looked at a monitor display.

“It looks like a quantum feedback event is occurring.”

“Something we’ve done?”

“No, it must be something in the virtualization. Something the users from Encom brought with them. One of them must be in an unstable configuration with existing data.”

Eva looked around worriedly. “Do we need to evacuate?”

Seth shook his head. “No, but don’t stand too close to the racks just in case. These events can generate high voltages even within the non-conductive interfaces.”

“How serious are these?” Eva asked.

“Serious, like nuclear reaction serious.” Seth said.

“You mean to say this whole computer is a nuclear bomb?” Eva said, clearly concerned for her own safety. She stepped away from the racks as she did so.

“No, the reaction will destroy the local machine and the photons will be lost to the event and leave the loops long before a supercritical event could occur, but it’s quite capable of blowing the fiber loops apart well before the reaction would reach any level of criticality.”

Eva relaxed. “So we’re just going to lose a few programmers and datawraiths then?”

Seth nodded. “Not that they were safe it seems in any event.”

Eva gave him an annoyed grimace.

“And possibly the operating system won’t resume correctly, although I’m guessing it will attempt to purge the loop directly and self-sacrifice when it gets close to being serious enough to damage equipment.” Seth said.

“An acceptable loss,” said Eva.

“The employees or the operating system self-aspect.”

Eva shrugged. “Both.”

“You’re a cold woman,” Seth said.

“You would know,” Eva said, then simply wrapped her arms around herself and walked towards the exit.

“Yes, well I’m hoping the system will self-correct.”

Seth’s phone beeped and he lifted it and pressed a button.

The noise from the other end immediately let him know it was an open speaker line, but the volume meant someone was talking directly into the phone rather than using it handsfree.

The sound was distorted and difficult to understand but could still be heard.

“What’s going on, the system alerts are filling my screen.”

“Quantum feedback incident” Seth Crown said over the line, his own in speaker mode.

“This needs to be fixed now. We’ve almost completed negotiations and I don’t want any screwups.” Came an angry female voice.

“Understood,” said Seth, then he pressed the button and cut off any further discussion.

“She’s not going to be happy with this.” Eva said, clearly not bothered by it.

“She can tell it to Dillinger,” Seth simply responded.

“You need to leave, now,” said Melanie to Simon.

“Are you going to be alright?” Simon asked, his glance constantly darting up towards Jet.

Alchemist moved in behind Melanie and held her head up as she lay, curling into the fetal position on the floor.

“Just go,” Melanie said. “While you still can.”

Simon nodded then got up, looking back to Jet.

“Well if you have any final ideas, now’s the time,” Simon said, then pulled his disc from his back.

“Simon, No,”cried Melanie, still unable to stand.

Jet wasn’t able to respond in time, but Ma3a who was now holding Mercury on the floor held her hand up and batted Simon’s disc away.

“This is not your choice,” Ma3a said.

“You need to derez her now,” Simon yelled at Jet.

“There’s still time,” Jet said, pleading, unable to use his own disk.

Jet felt his hand go weak and the disk dropped from his hand.

“I can’t kill her.” Jet said, then looked towards Alchemist.

“Alchemist, we have a way out – Can Melanie survive reintegration?”

“Quantum stability now at ninety one point three percent,” Alchemist said. “Reintegration failure mortality rate estimated at ninety eight point four percent.”

“Jet, you have to do something now, please,” Mercury pleaded.

Jet looked at the disc he had dropped to the floor. It was a decision he couldn’t make, or let anyone else make.

Simon backed up into the tube area where the portals were.

“Simon, leave now,” Melanie managed to cry out.

“You’re running out of time, Jet. You can’t win every battle.” he said, then stepped back into the tube.

“I’m heading back out to do what I can in the real world to do what I for Melanie,” Simon said, then activated the panel. A hard curved forcewall slowly came down over the tube and then the process slowly derezzed him in three glowing discs that rose symmetrically from the floor and he was gone.

Melanie was crying out aloud now and both Mercury and Melanie were lighting up like bulbs.

Mercury slowly pushed herself to her feet, then fell into Jet’s arms.

“Mercury, please help me to find a way – what do I need to do?” Jet begged her, even though he knew only he could answer the question.

Mercury shook her head twice, looking him in the eyes as she did so.

“It’s over, Jet. This is where we part,” she managed, then tried to kiss him but barely touched his lips before a convulsion pushed her away from him, back to her knees. Jet struggled to lift her up again.

“No,” Jet screamed. “It can’t end this way, No.”

The programs around Jet didn’t seem to know what to do. The world around them was coming apart even now and Jet’s world wasn’t any different. Mercury was trying to move away, but she was unable to fight her own pain and Jet as well.

“My user, system stability is critical. All programs are transferred except those directly in the implied core here with us, but the system will not allow the reconnection to take place while there is a feedback event detected within memory.” Jade said.

Mercury twisted her head to look at Jade, the darkness of her usually grey eyes glowing like a flashlight now.

“Jade, your words, your checksum.” Mercury managed to say.

“No, please,” Jade said.

“I recall your function. I have your checksum,” Mercury managed.

Jet felt sick. Unable to respond,the only person he had ever really loved was dying in agony in his arms. As hard as he tried, he just couldn’t think of what to do.

There were two options. Melanie had to return for re-integration or Mercury had to be derezzed. There was only one loop going back to the Echelon system and it wasn’t going to support both of them.

To put Melanie into the escape loop would be fatal to her – she wasn’t as stable as Mercury yet and had only recently come back into this world from the shell.

Although it looked like there was a second loop, it was native to this room – all were presently within it.

With the system gone done and the instruction sent, this virtualization of the digital world was being retracted into the other world of Echelon. The other loops had been shut down and merged. Only the few ICPs remaining and those Jet had been through this with remained to be allocated.

Jade stepped towards Jet.

“Jade can we activate another loop and transfer Mercury to it, then remove it from the present system instructions?”

Jade’s face firmed as she approached Jet.

“I’m sorry my user but that won’t work. There is no option,” Jade said, then slowly and deliberately removed two batons that exactly resembled Mercury’s from her archive.

Melanie was crying and wailing now, the pain building up. Mercury was obviously in similar pain but clenched her teeth hard together and refused to give in.

Jet saw Jade moving towards Mercury and him, then remembered what Mercury had just said.

“No Jade, you can’t kill her, I forbid it. As your user, you must obey me,” said Jet.

Jade paused, then nodded. “Then I obey you, my user,” said Jade, slipping into a combat stance, just a meter or so away.

“Jade, No,” Jet screamed thinking she was about to deresolve Mercury, then Mercury seemed to find enough strength from somewhere and pushed him away from her.

Jet felt himself falling backwards as Jade came in. He screamed out at Jade with all the voice he had but she cocked her elbow and prepared to strike.

Mercury was still falling backwards when the first strike hit, hard.

But it wasn’t Mercury Jade had targeted.

Sparks flew in Jet’s vision as the baton caught him across the eyes.

“I am truly sorry my user, please forgive me,” said Mercury as she drove the tips of both batons into Jet’s chest.

The impact threw Jet across the floor to land on the ground near Melanie.

Melanie was almost convulsing, her body rigid at times from pain.

Jet attempted to get to his feet as Mercury turned her back and started crawling and staggering towards the loop exit.

“Mercury,” Jet screamed, but Jade stepped in when he tried to run to her and side-kicked him in the midsection, sparks flying from the powerspikes she had rezzed back into existence.

Jet doubled over, then felt the impact of each baton as they came down on his back. Jade was strong when they first fought, but now she was far more powerful. Jet felt himself forced down to the ground.

Mercury was having problems moving now, clearly in pain herself, but determined to get away. She entered the portal and activated the control for the rez-out.

The circular forcewall started to slide down.

Jet screamed for Mercury once more, watching her from the ground. His anger and anguish burning within him now, he rolled and got back up and held his hand in front of him to deflect a blow from Jade, took the impact on his forearm then spun and kicked Jade hard in the lower chest, lifting her from the ground and hurling her back across the room as she had done to him, slamming her body into a rod primitive pillar before she dropped both batons and fell to the ground.

Jet jumped towards the portal and screamed as he sprinted.

“Mercury, get out of there, you’ll deresolve.”

The portal access closed as Jet reached her and he slammed up against the forcewall, the impact firing bolts of energy across his body, but Jet kept on pushing against it.

Mercury was just on the other side and looked up into Jet’s face as he pushed himself against the portal cover forcewall.

Jet tried to dive into the code of it, through it, but the forcewall had no code. The portal started to activate.

“I love you, Jet, more than any program can love a user. I’m not going to allow myself to be your destruction. Please understand that.”

Still doubling over from pain caused by the feedback, Mercury held herself with one arm, and pressed her remaining hand up against Jet’s on the forcewall, energy crackling between them as she did so.

Fighting the forcewall with her existing pain must have been agony for her, but she held her hand there and maintained her lock on Jet’s eyes as the fields started to form around her.

“Mercury,” Jet screamed once more, then the deresolution field appeared in the portal.

“Program migration to incorrect loop. Warning, program will be terminated.” Came a system broadcast.

“I love y,” Mercury managed as the field came down around her.

The first thing to go was the detail as the field removed all the color from her, then the grid that formed her base body appeared and sections began to evaporate. The body was gone almost instantly, but the hand and face remained, Mercury’s last words cut off forever by the grid around her.

Then the face grid evaporated, the eyes going last and the remaining grids from the arm and hard disappeared.

Then there was just a light blue misty looking glow that slowly dissipated within the portal before the forcewall lifted, revealing a still-glowing orange handprint behind where it had been pressed into the forcewall against Jet, slowly fading to nothing as the forcewall raised itself.

Jet slowly sank to his knees, unable to comprehend at first what was happening. Mercury had thrown herself into the emergency loop exit beam – the only other loop available to her at the last moment, to save Jet and her user.

But she wasn’t a user.

She didn’t have a world to go back to.

Jet felt the thud as his knees contacted the ground, then rocked back onto his ankles, crying Mercury’s name as the loss tore at him.

“Quantum stability restored, system function returned to normal.” Came a broadcast, followed a moment later by

“Program Mercury deleted.”

Jet felt the rage of being so close but being unable to do anything about it building inside. His armor started to glow bright blue and he seemed to suck the very energy from the floor and structure around him as he felt his anger building inside.

He turned around and looked at Jade, the one who had held him back so Mercury could escape. The one who had betrayed him, now only just getting up from the ground, the two batons that had once been Mercury’s laying on the ground beside her.

Information from this world flooded Jet’s mind as he felt himself begin to synchronise with the system in a way he had never felt before, the Sudo burning into his wrist like a fire.

“You stopped me” Jet accused as he stalked across the floor towards her.

“I’m Sorry,” Jade started to say, but Jet cut her off.

“You stopped me from saving her,” Jet accused, then running at her grabbed her by the top of the shoulder, lifting her high into the air as the Kernel had once done with him, his other hand drawn back ready to strike with Jade dangling there, pinned against the rod-primitive pillar.

Jade struggled in his grasp, fear in her eyes, but something within Jet gave him enough power to hold her there, as powerful as she was now.

Syslog and Crypto jumped onto Jet’s back attempting to knock him down, but Jet swung his free arm back and knocked them sprawling onto the ground, each falling back some distance from him.

In the reflection of Jade’s eyes he could now see his own, burning like fire, the pupils no longer distinguishable from the rest.

“Why did you stop me?” Jet demanded.

Jade stopped struggling and simply looked back at Jet, her hands now around his wrist.

“I had no choice my user.” Jade said deadpan. “It was the only way to stop you.”

“Stop me from what?” Jet demanded.

“From stopping Mercury doing what she did.”

“So you let her die so you could live?”

“No.”

“Then what,” Jet screamed at her, his rage making him want to derez Jade on the spot. The program he had helped so far, had accepted as a friend who had now betrayed him.

“Because Mercury had bound me through my Checksum. What it is that makes us programs is more sacred to us than any other bond. A program that has given it’s checksum to another cannot fail to deliver an agreed service.”

Jet stood still, then looked around.

Ma3a was cradling Melanie, who still lay on the floor, weeping quietly. Alchemist who had defended Melanie since arrival standing beside her.

None had made a move either against nor for Jet. None had risked themselves as they had when the Kernel had threatened Jet in a similar manner.

As Jade had herself done.

Crypto and Syslog who had tried to stop Jet had not made another attempt. Jet looked around and realized they were held back.

All of them.

And not by choice. The remaining ICPs surrounded half of a forcewall barrier that had been erected just outside Jet and Jade.

Jet had seen such a wall before – Jade had assembled one like this when they first met – when Jade had desired to stop Jet from leaving until she had finished with him.

Now she had done the same, only to stop other programs from stopping Jet. She was keeping the ICPs away from Jet.

She was protecting him, even as she struggled herself within his grasp.

Jet lowered her to the floor, but she did not stand and he put her down. She continued until she was on her knees before him, her head bowed.

“If you wish me to derez, I will do so,” Jade offered quietly.

The ICPs were hammering on the forcewall.

Jet pulled his hand back and examined it, as if wondering how it had lifted Jade up while he prepared to strike her down. As if he wondered how he let it do that in the first place. The intense glow from his armor evaporated.

He looked around again and saw Melanie coming out of her agony, slowly rising with Ma3a and Alchemist’s help.

“You raised your barrier Jade, why?”

“If my user chooses to delete me, I do not question it.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Why would you choose to delete me?”

Jet looked back to Jade and the image of Mercury flashed again before his gaze. Anger started to build in him, to flare up once more but he held it down. He found it hard to look at Jade now, even though he could understand why she had done what she had.

Jade was still unable to raise her face to look back at Jet.

Mercury had known Jet would do anything to save her. She had tried several times to take him out of danger, but had failed every time. It had stressed the relationship for some time.

Finally, when her life was threatening his, she took the only action left to her.

Jet now recalled a conversation he came into late on the bridge of Jade’s recognizer, when Mercury had asked for Jade’s checksum.

Mercury had clearly anticipated this possibility and taken action to stop Jet from keeping her from doing what she needed to. She had wanted him to derez her, but always knew he could never take the action he needed to if it involved her.

She had handed her own weapons to Jade so that she would use them to hold back Jet so that there was no question as to who had made the decision.

She had even discussed a bargain with her own user to attempt to convince Jet to take the appropriate action to save her.

Finally, she had called in Jade’s debt and Jade had been forced to honor Mercury’s request. That she knew Jet would otherwise perish with the rest of them made little difference.

Jet found he hated Jade for what she had done – for what she had agreed to do.

He didn’t want to look at her and instead walked to the edge of the forcewall to watch Melanie recover.

Melanie had asked Jet to help her if this time ever came. He had failed her.

She resembled Mercury in detail and the pain of seeing someone who was her double seemed to echo through Jet’s soul like a wind leaving ghost-sounds as it cut through reeds.

“Do you wish me to self-delete my user.”

Jet felt like screaming at her but held his voice even.

“And what of Melanie? What would happen to her now?”

“I can transfer system operation to an ICP until reabsorbtion by the Echelon system.”

Jet wanted to tell her to do it, to erase the program that had allowed him to feel so much pain – that had betrayed him so thoroughly.

“No. Your responsibility as Kernel is still to the users. I expect you to keep her safe. At least I know you can carry that instruction out.”

“My user, I,” Jade started.

“I am not your user.” Jet spat backwards at her. “I never was your user and I never will be. No program of mine could ever be so hard, ruthless and calculating.

“But I know your user and now I see that the program is no different from its creator.

“I despise you and never want to consider you one of my programs again.”

“My user,” Jade cried out, looking up, tears of energy covering her face and cheeks.

“Don’t address me like that again,” Jet screamed.

Jade paused, then nodded once as if accepting this, and stood.

“User Jet, what are your instructions.” Jade asked quietly.

Jet took a deep breath and tried to get his thoughts back together.

“What is necessary to ensure Melanie’s safe integration into the system.”

A sliver of forcewall broke around Ma3a, Melanie and Alchemist, then a new wall rezzed in to include them in this private area.

“Program Alchemist, what is the storage requirement and status of Melanie.”

“User::Melanie is stable, Kernel,” Alchemist said. “Four hundred units required for storage.”

“Stable? She can leave?” Jet questioned.

“No. All user characteristics have been erased. Quantum stability is normal, however critical user reintegration data has now been permanently damaged and has been erased from her code. Quantum entanglement no longer exists with any progam structures in system or in related loops”

“So she can’t go back to my world?” Jet asked.

Melanie seemed to be able to stand now and stepped forward in front of Alchemist.

“I would arrive un-intact.” Melanie said. “You’re not a doctor Jet, so please don’t talk about me like I’m your patient.”

Melanie’s comment reminded Jet that she was still a person. She wasn’t like Jade or the others in here. She had deeper feelings and reacted like a living person.

She was breathing heavily and with difficulty, but otherwise appeared to be able to stand again.

Jet softened his voice a little.

“I don’t know if this can be corrected. I’m sorry, Melanie I tried.”

“You nearly let me die, Jet. If you were so determined to save Mercury, why didn’t you kill me instead?”

“You are Mercury,” said Jet.

“No, just the same being, not the same person.” Melanie pointed out.

“No, not the same person.” Jet admitted quietly.

“And not the same person I was either. This can’t be corrected, Jet. This is the end of the line for me. I spend my remaining days in here.”

“I guess I failed both of you,” Jet said feeling the weight of the situation slowly settle onto him. “Simon’s right, I really screwed this up.”

Melanie nodded, then shook her head. “No, you’ve just made some decisions that didn’t have the outcome you wanted. Sometimes you have to realize that your options were always limited. You can’t choose what you can’t have.

“Besides, I don’t think he expected the loops to be purged. If it wasn’t for you, we all would have perished anyway.”

“So what now?”

“Now? I guess I become a program. You?”

Jet grimaced. “The only reason I still have for being here is to keep you safe.”

Melanie nodded. “Then you’ve succeeded so far in at least half of what you’re wanting.”

“I wanted Mercury.”

“I’m sorry that didn’t work out. I wish I could say that if I went back I’d choose to go instead of her, but that’s not really true. I can understand your pain, but I can’t change anything.”

Jet nodded.

“My offer still stands.” Melanie said

Jet shook his head.

“You’re the same being, but not the same person.”

Melanie smiled at that.

“My,” Jade started, the only indication she was still not back to herself, then continued. “User Jet, there is a memory capacity issue to resolve. System deresolution is at eighty percent and there is insufficient capacity in the command loop.”

“Meaning what?” Jet asked.

“There is insufficient space to hold both your data and User Melanie’s,” Jade said. “One needs to leave the loop.”

Jet looked back at Melanie, who seemed a little worried once more.

“Jade, Melanie is your new user. Take better care of her than you have of me.” Jet said, then stepped over to Melanie.

“Melanie, I’m really sorry. I have to leave now to make sure you’re safe. Simon was right about that much – whatever else I do, I have to do on the outside.”

Melanie stepped forward and hugged Jet, pulling him close, then kissing him briefly on the lips before stepping back.

“Come back and see me?” she asked.

Jet smiled. They both knew it was unlikely now.

Jet walked back towards the exit, the forcewalls Jade had established moving away for him, then entered the exit loop as Mercury had done, the pain building in his heart as he did so.

As the forcewall came down, Jade rushed to the exit and dropped to her knees once more. Jet wanted to look away, but his anger kept him looking at her.

“Jet, you are my user. I know I’m unworthy, but I beg of you,” Jade screamed at him, tears of energy falling from her eyes as she did so.

“Don’t behave like this, Jade, it’s unworthy of the Kernel,” Jet called to her as he activated the transfer control. It was a cruel thing to say, but as much as he might hate himself for it, he wanted to be cruel right now.

“My user,” Jade screamed, but instead of talking she simply held up a slate.

It contained two words in the user language that only Jet could read.

“Reindeer Flotilla”.

As the deresolution field claimed Jet’s presence in this world, the final pieces of the puzzle fell into place in Jet’s mind.

Next Chapter – 2.48 Super User