Time scale:
nanosecond=second
microsecond=minute
millisecond=hour
cycle=day
second=week
minute=month
hour=year

 

Mouse flinched as she heard heavy boots on the kitchen floor. She huddled close to her headboard, hoping against hope that for once he wouldn't be angry at her. That he'd just leave her alone...

"Girl?" He bellowed. "Girl, where'd y' get to? This kitchen is a mess. Ah told ya Ah wanted this house clean!"

Mouse cringed again, wishing she could make herself invisible. She'd spent the entire cycle cleaning, trying to make the place spotless, but no matter how hard she tried, her stepfather always managed to find some fault with her work. She could hear him coming down the hallway now and half-faded bruises throbbed in anticipation of the beating she was surely about to receive. She prayed beating was the only thing he did...

"There you are," he sneered, wrenching open the door to her room. "Tryin' t' hide, Girl?" He never called her by her name unless her mother was around. And her mother wouldn't be home until almost three in the morning. She was trapped.

"Ah'm sorry. Ah tried t' get the house clean like ya wanted..." She choked back a cry as he slapped her across the face.

"Don't give me that, Girl. You think you can sit around here all day doin' nothing, expecting t' be treated like some sort of princess instead of doin' what your daddy tells ya?"

"You're not mah daddy!" She yelled defiantly, instantly regretting it as his fist connected with her face.

"Quite a mouth ya got on you, Girl. Ah'm gonna have t' break you of that habit." He had her pinned up against the headboard now, and Mouse could feel hot tears spill down her face 'Please...' she thought. 'Not again...' She could live with the cuts and bruises, but not this. "Please no," she said, tasting blood from her split lip. "No..."

"No..." Mouse sat up in the darkness of ship's cabin, gasping for breath.

"You all right, luv?"

"Yeah, sugah. Ah'm fine."

"Y' don't look fine," Ray said, reaching over and touching the side of her face. She flinched away involuntarily. The dream was still too fresh in her mind. She saw the hurt look on his face and wanted so badly to explain, but she just couldn't. He withdrew his hand. "All right, Luv, if you say so."

She lowered her gaze, unable to look at him. "Ah'm sorry, Ray."

"No, it's okay. Look, if something's troublin' you..."

"Ah'd love t' tell ya, Ray. Ah really would. It'd probably make it easier t' deal with. But Ah can't." She stood up, wrapping the sheet from the bunk around her and walked from the rear cabin to the cockpit, staring out at the swirling patterns of the web muted by the shielding that covered Ship's hull. Ray stood behind her, saying nothing.
      The destruction they'd witnessed as a result of Daemon's bid for power had dredged up dark memories for him, and he had no doubt it'd done the same for his lover. He wanted to say something to her, convince her it would be all right, but he couldn't. He didn't think his own lingering feelings of dread would let him sound sincere. He'd now seen first hand what Daemon was capable of and he had to wonder if any of them were going to make it through this alive.

----

The tear filled the cabin with a dim, pulsating light, despite the shielding that covered the canopy. "This is it, sugah. Turing System. Let's hope these folks are as friendly as Matrix seems to think they'll be." She engaged the portal generator and the tear was transformed into a shimmering portal.



"Sir, we've got something on the long range scanners...over the energy sea and heading toward the city. It's a--It's a ship." Circuit gave Dennis, Turing's Command.Com a puzzled look.

"A ship? That's impossible...put it on the view screen."

"I recognize that type of shielding, " Perl commented from her workstation. "That ship came from the web." She stood from her chair and walked to Dennis' side.

"Okay, that explains where it came from, but not what it's doing here. Perl, take a few CPUs to find out what they want. If they're just looking for help, we don't want to scare them off. I'll keep the rest of the force on alert in case you run into trouble."

"I'm sure I can handle them, Love." She gave him a quick kiss and strode out the door.



"Look lively, sugah. We got company." Mouse gestured to the display. "Three CPUs. Well, Ah guess that means they're gonna talk to us instead of just blowin' us outta the sky." She lowered the web shielding and then stood up. "What do ya say we go introduce ourselves?"



"Ma'am, someone's leaving the ship."

"I can see that," Perl replied, rolling her eyes. She studied the two figures on the surfboard. "Wait a nano...I think I recognize the woman." She hit a button on the dashboard of the customized CPU and the display enlarged. "Well, I'll be damned...you two hang back. I'm going to go talk to them." She unfastened her seat belt and swung the door of the CPU open. Decompiling her zipboard and tossing it out over the energy sea, she hopped from the CPU onto it and headed toward the two figures on the surfboard.



"Looks like they sent out the welcoming committee, luv," Ray commented as he saw the sprite leave the CPU and approach on a zipboard. Mouse stared at the sprite for a moment.

"Ah think Ah know her," she said. "And now Ah understand what Matrix said about someone here needin' our help."

The sprite on the zipboard slowed to a stop a few yards away from them. "Well, this is an unexpected surprise," her clear voice rang out over the distance between them. "What're ya doing here, Mouse?"

"Ah could ask ya the same thing, sugah."

Perl laughed. "I live here. What's your excuse?"

"Matrix sent us. Ah think he and AndrAIa are friends of yours?"

Perl cocked her head to the side and observed the other woman for a moment. "Funny, he never mentioned you. Ah well, come on back to the Principal Office. We can sort this all out once we get there." She reached down to her belt and retrieved what looked like a small organizer. After punching in some sort of command, the empty CPU roared to life and pulled up next to her. She climbed inside and steered the car back off in the direction of the Principal Office. Mouse and Ray returned to Ship and followed close behind.

----

Perl leaned back in her chair, an unreadable expression on her face. "This Daemon has infected the entire Collective?"

"Far as we can tell. Turbo told Matrix he and Bob were the only clean ones left. Ah assumed that meant she'd gotten you too."

"Turing's been without ports to the 'Net for almost three hours now. No one, except for Matrix and AndrAIa, have entered or left the system since then. It's unlikely Daemon could have found her," Dennis said.

Mouse shook her head. "Daemon is in control of the Collective. That means she knows which Guardians have been assigned to which systems. Even if she can't get here through the 'Net, she must know Perl's stationed here."

"Perl wasn't--"

"Well," Perl interrupted, giving her S.O. a silencing glance, "We're lucky you found us before Daemon did. I doubt we could have held off an attack by the Guardians."

"Yeah," Mouse narrowed her eyes slightly at Perl. "Listen, you have any idea why Turbo wouldn't have told Matrix Daemon didn't have you?"

"Matrix knew I wasn't infected," she countered.

"But Turbo didn't know he knew."

Perl leaned across the table. "I don't claim to know what Turbo is thinking. Maybe it slipped his mind." Her tone left no room for further debate. "Now then. It's clear that something has to be done about Daemon. I assume there's some sort of plan?"

----

When the meeting ended, Dennis led Mouse and Ray on a quick tour of the city and then showed them to some temporary quarters, despite Mouse's objections that she'd rather stay in Ship's cabin.

"Look, no one is sleeping in the hanger while they're in my system," the Command.Com had said. "Besides, I don't get many chances to be hospitable. Have some sympathy for me, okay?"

Now Mouse found herself wandering the corridors of the principal office. She kept replaying the conference over in her mind. Something about Perl's reaction just wasn't sitting right with her. Granted, the last time Mouse had talked with Perl, the girl had been an hour away from graduating the academy. That was just before she'd left the supercomputer in search of greener pastures for her hacking skills. Perl had been a good cadet, despite her somewhat reckless passion for hacking. It was that shared interest that had brought them into the same circle of acquaintances.

"How long you planin' on stalking me, Mouse?" Perl was leaning against a grey paneled wall half way down the corridor.

"Ah wasn't following' ya, sugah."

"No, you were just waiting to catch me alone." She narrowed her eyes at the hacker. "Why?"

Mouse approached her, not saying anything, but instead silently taking stock of the other woman. She looked almost the same, though she noted that Perl's eyes had lost the soft innocence she'd envied back when they'd known each other in the Supercomputer. Perl's voice still held a lingering lit of the accent Mouse remembered her trying so hard to lose.

"There's nothin' wrong with the way we talk,' sugah."

"Maybe Ah... Maybe I don't want to sound like a farm girl!"

Mouse shook away the snatch of remembered conversation.

"Well?" Perl asked, irritation plain in her voice.

"All right. Maybe Ah was trying' t' catch you alone. But only 'cause Ah want t' talk to ya."

Perl glanced down at the floor, brushing her dark hair back behind her ear. "So talk."

Mouse sighed, leaning against the wall behind her. "Hun, we go back a long ways, and though Ah admit Ah really got no right t' judge ya, Ah'd like t' know what's going on."

"This is basic," Perl muttered under her breath. "You're making me feel like I'm 1.6 again."

"Didn't mean to. But like Ah said, Ah want answers. That bit about Turbo forgotten' t' tell Matrix you were clean was a load of spam and you know it. Was he trying to protect ya?"

Perl laughed, but it was a humorless sound. "He'd better not be. That's what got me into this whole mess in the first place," she said bitterly.

"Ah don't think Ah'm followin' here," Mouse said. "Ah mean, I heard a rumor that you got into some trouble at the Academy not long after Ah left the Supercomputer..."

"Some trouble," Perl scoffed. "Some trouble would've been hacking into the Collective's database and changing a few exam scores. This was much more than 'some trouble.'" Perl's expression was dark.

"What happened, then?"

"You remember Jake?" Perl asked, not meeting Mouse's eyes.

"Yeah, sure Ah do. Your training partner."

"Well, the trouble was, I killed him."

Mouse gaped at her, and Perl continued. "I didn't murder him," she said, "Not like you're thinking anyway. Jake was my friend. He just placed too much faith in my abilities." She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall.

"An accident, then?"

Perl shrugged, looking tired. "You could call it that. Though it would have never happened if I hadn't' gone messing with things I had no right messing with," she said. "The short of it is, I hacked into one of the game simulators to take the safeties off line. Jake and I wanted a real challenge. But then Jake got into trouble and the over-ride I'd programmed failed. I couldn't turn the safeties back on or terminate the program and it cost Jake his life.
      They shoulda kicked me from the Academy then and there. Somehow, Turbo convinced the rest of the board to let me graduate with my class. They ruled Jake's death an accident. An accident! I killed my best friend and they wanted to write it off as a mistake. It was as if Jake's death wasn't worth a second thought. I asked Turbo to dismiss me. I pleaded with him actually, but he refused." She swallowed. "He said something about how I'd appreciate what he was doing in the future... I don't remember really. I was pretty messed up. But I was also angry. I hated myself for what I'd done, and I hated Turbo for acting like it didn't matter. So I left, and I never looked back."

"So you're not a real Guardian."

"Only a cadet. Version 6.0."

"That's what Dennis was going to say when you cut him off. Daemon hasn't found you because she doesn't know where to look. Turbo doesn't even know, does he?"

Perl shook her head. "I'd be surprised if he did. When I left the Academy, I feel back on my hacking to make ends meet. Never stayed in one place for very long. Then I ended up here one cycle after my ship was damaged by an employer who didn't appreciate the work I'd done for him. Turing was being destroyed by viruses..."

"And y' couldn't fight your programming."

Perl nodded. "Then the 'Net ports were destroyed and I was trapped here."

"Trapped, sugah?" Mouse smirked. "That Command.Com sure don't look like he's holdin' ya captive."

"You're one to talk, or is that Web Surfer just your errand boy?" She asked sarcastically.

Mouse shook her head and laughed. "Good t' see ya still got your sense of humor. Look, Ah'm sorry for what happened to ya, Ah really am. I always hopped you'd go on an lead a nice normal life. Y' didn't deserve what ya got."

"None of us deserve the kind of twists fate hands us, Mouse. We've just got to learn to deal with it, I guess. Easier said than done, though." Her voice had lost the brief bit of mirth it had had a moment before.

"Don't Ah know it, Perl." She replied softly, echoes of the nightmare she'd had a few cycle before replaying in her mind. "Don't Ah know it."

----

Dennis sighed and ran a hand back through his pale hair as he let himself into the house. A brief glance around the place told him that Perl hadn't even stopped at home. Upon seeing the darkened windows, he'd hoped she'd just been sleeping or stopped in and left again. But he wasn't really surprised. He'd bumped into her in the halls of the P.O. as he dashed around trying to prepare things in the event that some of Daemon's forces showed up. She'd had a dark look in her eyes then, a mix of pain and anger, and he'd suspected it'd come to this.

He left the house, re-locking the door, and headed over to Perl's apartment in another sector of the city. He knew exactly where she was. She always returned to her small apartment in Backup when the weight of all that had happened to her became too much.

He paused outside the door and knocked twice with no response before finally using his key and walking inside. He looked around the bare room and sighed. This place held no happy memories for him. The only times he ever came here were when his lover was in pain. It was a sort of system she'd worked out over the hours she'd been here in Turing. His house remained a safe-haven, full of happy memories, and left this place to be infected by her misery.

She was balled up on the bed, eyes squeezed shut, though by the glimmering on her dark cheeks he suspected she wasn't asleep. He sat down next to her and rested the back of his hand on her cheek. He'd done this too many times, he thought sadly. "Perl?" He said softly.

"Tell me you'll make this all go away," she replied hoarsely, surprising him. She usually remained silent in times like these. "I know you can't...but tell me, tell me you'll help me forget everything."

Dennis fought the urge to scream. It wasn't fair to either of them that this happened to her. He wished there were some way to heal her forever, but he also knew that it was something that was unlikely to ever happen.

His hand was warm on her face, and she concentrated on it, trying to draw some of that heat into herself to ward off the cold that had wrapped its way around her.

"Everything will be all right," he replied softly. His voice was so kind. How could anyone be that kind toward her after all she'd been? After she'd come here and gotten his sister killed? It didn't make sense to her, and yet, she wouldn't--couldn't make him go. There was something purely magical about his presence, the way he always knew when she was feeling lost and alone, how he could manage to heal her, if only for a little while, with a touch of his hand. A great sigh escaped her and she turned her head so that she could see his face. His eyebrows were drawn in concern as his blue eyes gazed down at her sadly. She reached up and took his hand in her own. "I believe you," she whispered, finding that she really did.

----

"How are things going?" Dot asked her brother as she landed her zipboard on the dock. Before them, the Saucy Mare II was nearing completion.

"Actually, AndrAIa was just about to test the shields," he replied. "I was going to join her on deck."

"I'll come with you," she said and followed her brother onto the ship. They found AndrAIa working over the main console.

"We ready to test this thing?" Matrix asked.

"Sure thing, lover. Oh, hello Dot."

"Hey AndrAIa. Don't mind me, I just came to see what kind of progress you've made."

If you wait a nano, I can show you." She turned back to the control panel and looked over a few final settings "That should do it," she said when she was finished. "Is everybody clear?"

"Yup, ready when you are."

"Okay. Cross your fingers," she said and entered a command into the console. A moment later, a bright light enveloped the ship. When it died away, above them, instead of Mainframe's clear blue sky was a vast expanse of dark, scale-like web armor.

"Way to go, AndrAIa!" Matrix swept her off her feet and cradled her in his arms.

"Enzo," she laughed, "put me down!"

Dot looked over the impressive armor that had sprung into existence seemingly from thin air. "Good work, AndrAIa. I think Mouse would be impressed."

"Well, we'll see what she thinks once we get to Turing." Matrix set her down on the deck again. and she walked back to the controls. With a push of a button, the armor vanished again. "Bob still determined to stay here in Mainframe?" She asked.

"Unfortunately, yes," Dot sighed. "I wish he would reconsider. I appreciate what he's trying to do, but he'd really be much more useful out there fighting Daemon than here with me. But he's bound and determined to keep his promise, and frankly I'm tired of arguing with him. Still, maybe he'll change his mind once you're ready to go. What's the estimated departure time?"

"Basically, we just have minor stuff left to finish on the Mare. Run final checks on all the systems, load our supplies. We'll probably be finished the middle of next second."

Dot nodded. "I wish we didn't have to do this," she said.

"Don't worry, Sis, we can handle this."

"I certainly hope so. Well, I have to pick Enzo up from school. I'll see you two at the Diner later." She decompressed her zipboard and zipped off in the direction of the school.

----

"This is alphanumeric!" Enzo exclaimed, walking around the deck of the now completed Saucy Mare II. The boy glanced back at his older counterpart. "I guess this means you guys are leaving, huh?"

"Yeah, kid." Matrix walked over and put one large hand on the boy's shoulder. "Someone's got to stop Daemon before she takes over the entire 'Net."

"I know," Enzo replied, glancing down at his shoes. "I just wish it didn't have to be you and AndrAIa." He glanced back up at Matrix. "I guess, well, I'm gonna miss you guys and I don't want you to get hurt."

"Trust me, we don't want to go anymore than you want us to. We just got back to Mainframe. But if we don't go, there won't be a Mainframe."

"I wish Bob were going with you," Enzo said. "I mean, it's alphanumeric that he's staying, but he's a Guardian and all."

"Hey," Matrix said indignantly, "What am I? Chopped null?"

Enzo laughed. "Sorry. But...you guys might need him."

Matrix sighed. "I wish he were coming too. Maybe Dot will talk him into it. But for now, this is just the way things are," he said. "So, are you going to come stay with AndrAIa and me tonight?" He asked.

"Yeah," Enzo replied. "Bob's staying over at our place again. I don't like watching him and Dot being all mushy."

"Hey, I thought you were glad they were spending time together."

"Doesn't mean I want to watch them." The boy wrinkled his nose in disgust and Matrix laughed aloud at the expression.

"Don't tell Dot I said that," Enzo said.

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

----

"They'll be leaving tomorrow, you know," Dot said, setting her cup of Java down on the table. Bob was sprawled across from her in the back booth of the diner. "Having any second thoughts?"

"Not at all." He reached across the table and took her hand in his own.

"Well, I am," she said.

"You--are?"

"You should be going with them, Bob."

"I promised you, Dot. I'm not leaving."

"What good is a promise if Daemon takes over, Bob? What then? They're going to need your help--help you can't give them if you're here with me," she sighed. "Sometimes promises are best broken."

"You're sure?" She nodded. He frowned, thinking things over. "I guess I'll have to notify the captain he'll have one more passenger." He ran a hand back through his hair. "You're sure about this."

"Yes." She leaned across the table and kissed him. "As much as I want to keep you to myself, I can't. There's too much at stake." She got up from her seat, keeping her grip on his hand. "You know, Enzo is staying with Matrix and AndrAIa tonight. I thought that might make it easier on him when they left."

"Meaning we'd have the house to ourselves," Bob replied, noticing the gleam in her eyes. "Say, you didn't plan this, did you?"

"Me? Plan? Whatever gave you that idea?"

----

Dot lay with her head pillowed on Bob's chest, listening to his heart as its rapid beating slowly returned to normal. "Make sure you come back to me," she murmured. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You'd manage," he replied, one hand caressing her back. "You always do. That's why I love you so much."

"You're probably right," she admitted. "Come back anyway. I'd miss you if you got yourself deleted."

He chuckled. "That's nice to know. I'd miss you too." He shifted position and kissed her, wrapping his arms around her. "Don't worry. I'm going to come back. Not even Daemon could keep me from you."

----

She lay still, head resting on his chest again as he slept. She, however, could not get to sleep. She gazed at his face lovingly. He looked so peaceful, as if he wasn't about to embark on a titanic struggle he didn't even know if he could win. She reached up to brush an errant lock of hair from his forehead, and she found her hand hovering over the thin scar that adorned his left cheek. It had taken her awhile to get used to the web degradation on his face, and she'd originally thought that this scar, and its counterpart on the other cheek, as well as the three thin slashes on his forehead were just a part of that degradation. She knew better now. Similar scars adorned his back, shoulders, and upper chest. They were all too symmetrical, too deliberate to be web degradation. Someone had made them on purpose, and the mere thought of that made her ill. Obviously more had happened to him in the web than he'd told her.

'The Web Riders must have done this,' she thought grimly, one finger tracing a crescent shaped scar on his shoulder. But why? None of the cuts were deep enough to kill. 'But it would have hurt,' she reasoned. Torture? She shuttered and snuggled in closer, not wanting to think of someone deliberately hurting him. "Oh, Bob," she whispered, squeezing her eyes closed, and attempted to get some sleep.

End Part Six

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