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Time
scale:
nanosecond=second
microsecond=minute
millisecond=hour
cycle=day
second=week
minute=month
hour=year
It was amazing how quickly things could tumble out of control, Dot thought as another wave of nausea wracked her body. These early-morning trips to the bathroom were becoming a disturbingly regular part of her morning routine, and she knew she couldn’t skirt around the truth any longer, no mater how much she wanted to. Time to face the truth. There was, after all, only so much that could conceivably be wrong with her at this point, and she was pretty sure she knew what it was. All that was left was formal confirmation, and she’d been avoiding that for cycles. She didn’t want it to be true. She wanted to go on believing it was the stomach flu or some other bug, but she was too intelligent to hid behind comforting self-delusions. More than anything, she wished Bob were there with her, instead of gallivanting across the web, unaware of the situation she was facing--
She got shakily to her feet and paused a moment until she was sure she wasn’t going to be sick again. She didn’t even want to think about the danger Bob was facing. Didn’t want to face the possibility that he’d never make it home and she’d be left behind to face on her own. She quickly brushed her teeth then went back into her bedroom and changed out of her nightgown and into her body armor. The same armor she’d been wearing since Megabyte’s attempted take over of the city more than an hour ago. She paused to study her reflection in the full length mirror and sighed. Mainframe wasn’t at war anymore, not directly anyway, and the outfit was the last hold over from those dark cycles. She made a mental note to go shopping for something slightly more casual. She was the Command.Com, after all, and it wouldn’t do for her to be a constant reminder of the war they’d just won. She made a silent prayer for Bob and the others to return home quickly, then went into the kitchen.
Enzo was already in the kitchen eating a bowl of cereal. "Sorry I wasn’t up to make you breakfast."
"It’s okay," he said between mouthfuls.
"Well, you’d better finish up, or you’re going to be late." She walked over to the counter and started a pot of java. Her stomach did flip-flops at the mere sight of food, but seemed to be okay with a cup of java. She’d never been much of a breakfast eater anyway.
Enzo finished up his bowl of cereal and put the dishes in the sink, then grabbed his book bag from beside the door. Dot gave her little brother a quick hug, then gave his cap a spin. "I’ll pick you up after school. Have a good day. And behave yourself. I don’t want another call from your teacher telling me you’ve been making paper airplanes in class."
The young sprite rolled his eyes. "I’ll behave."
"Good, now get going." Dot watched him leave the house and hop onto his zip board. He turned and waved, and she waved back before he zipped off in the direction of the school. Dot walked back into the kitchen and had a cup of Java before she too left the house, heading for the principal office.
----
The halls of the Collective’s central office were eerily quiet as Turbo walked, without destination, trying desperately to think of a way to thwart the supervirus. Daemon had sent out the majority of the infected Guardians to help quell a rebellion that had broken out in several of the systems she controlled. More had been sent on patrol ships that were searching for a vessel rumored to be the source of this sudden flare up of dissension amongst Daemon’s subjects. He wanted to use his unique knowledge of Daemon’s operations to his advantage, but he couldn’t do that unless he knew what was going on the outside, and he didn’t think he could risk leaving the system again. Hopefully, the rumored ship and the rebellion meant the Matrix boy had found Bob in the web. He only wished there were a way to know for sure. His pace quickened, as he headed in the direction of the communications room. He had an idea that just might work.
Elsha was sitting at the communication terminal, as he had expected. She swiveled her chair around when she heard him walk in. "Hey Charlie," She said tiredly. Her expression was weary. Elsha was one of the few Guardians still fighting off Daemon’s control. Turbo had carefully tallied up those within Daemon’s base of operations that he could trust to help him in this attempts to end her reign. She had also graduated in the same class he had, becoming one of the Collective’s top communications officers.
"Elsha," he said in a hushed tone, standing close to her chair so that they would not be overheard. "Ah need to try to contact a system... and it’s important Daemon doesn’t find out. Is there a way t’ do that?"
"It’s a possibility," she replied, her hands instantly at work at the controls, green eyes scanning the read-outs on her workstation. "If I mask it as a routine communication and then re-route it enough times, I think I could get a message through."
"Good. Ah need to contact System Mainframe. Ask them--ask if their Guardian has come home." He paused. "And is there anyway you could get a live feed through? Ah may have t’ talk to someone face t’ face."
"It would be tricky...a lot harder to hide from her."
"What if we arranged for a distraction? A faked report from the field that would hold Daemon’s attention long enough for a short conversation?"
"It might..." She turned her eyes on him and placed a hand on his arm. "Charlie, this is risky. I can’t guarantee it will work. And we both know Brenna will kill you if she finds out."
"She’s Daemon now, Elsha. That thing ain’t Brenna. Brenna was a lot of things but she was never this evil." His forlorn expression changed to one of determination. " ‘Sides, if we don’t stop her, we’re all as good as deleted anyway."
"You’re right," Elsha sighed. "We have to do whatever we can to stop her. Whatever the cost."
----
The gunners were doing their best to hold off the attacking ship, but the Mare was taking heavy damage. "We have to do something," AndrAIa said. "Even if we manage to stop them, with any more damage, we won’t be able to make it to the next system."
"I’m goin’ out there," Ray said, watching the Guardian ship on the vidwindows.
"Ah’m comin’ with ya," Mouse replied immediately.
"No, Luv. You’ve got t’ stay here. I can’t do my job out there if I’m worrying about you."
Mouse scowled. "Well, you’ve got a point, Ah guess. Be careful out there."
"You know I will, Luv." He picked his board up and headed for the hatch. "Keep those guys distracted ‘till I’m clear of the ship."
----
"Ma’am? We’ve got an incoming message."
Dot looked up from her work station. "Can you trace the call?"
"It’s been re-routed several times," the binome replied, tapping keys quickly. "Pretty heavy encryption."
"Mouse?"
"I don’t think so. It’s text only. I’m routing it to your station now."
"Thank you," Dot replied, glancing at the message that scrolled across her vidwindow. She blinked a few times then stood up. "Can we send back a reply?" She asked.
"I think so, yes."
"Good. I need you to send this message. ‘Yes,’ and ‘fourteen hundred milliseconds.’ Can you do that?"
The binome nodded. "Ma’am, what is this about?"
"Hope," she replied, and strode off to find Phong.
----
"How are things looking out there?" Bob asked quickly as he and AndrAIa worked to keep the Mare’s systems stable.
"Not good," Perl replied from where she was manning one of the guns. Her chair swiveled as she took aim at the Guardian ship and fired. "Ray’s still holding his own, but at this point, even if we destroy the ship--"
"I know, I know," Bob replied, frowning. "Just keep firing. We can’t afford to give them the opportunity to--" He was cut off as the ship was rocked by a heavy explosion and the cabin plunged into darkness. "What just happened!?" Bob shouted as emergency lights came on.
AndrAIa looked down at the schematics in front of her, face grim. "We just lost the engines."
----
"What is it, my child?" Phong gave the Command.Com a measuring look as she strode into his office.
"We just got a message from Turbo, from inside the Collective. It was heavily encoded, but we managed crack it. It was the request for a conference."
"We must be careful. From what we have learned, Daemon is quite devious. This could be a trap."
"I know. But it’s a risk I’m willing to take, Phong. If there’s a chance we can help Bob and the others fight this thing-"
"Then we must do what we can. But we must also be prepared to confront Daemon’s troops should she find us."
"From what Mouse and Ray reported, her resources seem stretched pretty thin. I think we can hold off anything she sends our way, assuming she can even find us at all. Mouse did a good job of hiding Mainframe from the web. We have to do something, Phong. I can’t sit here any more, not knowing what’s going on, if they’re all right or--" She paused to take a deep breath. "We fought off Megabyte, didn’t we? Daemon won’t be able to take this system from me without a fight."
----
"Captain, we’re getting some strange readings on the remaining scanners. There’s someone else out there." Another explosion rocked the hull of the Mare.
"AndrAIa, how are we holding up?"
"We can’t take much more of this, Bob," the game sprite replied, going over her limited readouts. "We’re loosing hull integrity in several places below decks. A few more hits like those and we’ve had it."
"Spam it all! There’s got to be something we can do. If we lose now, there’ll be no one left to stop Daemon!" Suddenly, the ship lurched as the portals were flooded with a brilliant flash of light accompanied by sound of an explosion out in the web. "What in the Net was that?" The entire ship was plunged into an eerie silence as the almost constant bombardment from the enemy ship ceased.
"Ah’ve got no clue," Mouse drawled from her position at one of the guns. "Whatever it was knocked out what was let of our scanners. Ah hope Ray’s all right..."
"Matrix, can you see anything with that eye of yours?"
"Not a thing Bob. It’s like there’s some sort of static blocking it out... I don’t like this one bit."
"Neither do I. AndrAIa, see about getting us some kind of sensors back online? I don’t like sitting in the dark like this..."
"I’ll see what I can do." She paused, looking over her workstation. "That’s odd..." She frowned. "Mouse, can you come here for a sec? I can’t make heads or tails of this."
The hacker hopped down from her seat and strode over to AndrAIa’s station. "Well, son of a webcreature... It’s a message. But no one uses this code anymore... Help me get communications back on line, AndrAIa. Ah think we just found us some friends."
----
"Turbo?"
"Hey Elsha," Turbo got up from his desk. "Let’s walk. Ah’m never sure if Daemon’s watchin’ me or not." The two sprites exited the office and headed out into the gardens of the Guardian Collective compound. "Ah hope you’ve got some good news for me," he said, once he was relatively sure they weren't being observed.
The communications officer nodded. "Tomorrow, fourteen hundred milliseconds. We got lucky, Charlie. Daemon’s going to be pretty distracted if the reports trickling in are true..."
"About the ship no one can seem t’ find? Ah sure hope you’re right. ‘Cause if you are, that means the other little part of my plan is working." He allowed himself a small smile.
"What--"
"Sorry, Elsha. Ah can’t tell you that. You understand."
She nodded. "We’re going to make it through this, aren’t we?"
He gave her hand a quick squeeze. "Ah sure hope so, Elsha. Or User help us all."
----
"Things just keep getting weirder and weirder," Matrix commented, watching the meeting taking place.
"Yeah, what are the chances?" AndrAIa asked.
"You should know by now anything can happen, sugah. ‘Specially after everything that’s happened already." Mouse eyed the vidwindow where Bob was talking with their rescuers. "Can ya ask ‘im if Ray’s alright? Ah still can’t get a reading on anything out there," she asked a bit anxiously.
"The surfer is fine," said the head of the resistance movement, who bore a striking resemblance to the Prime Guardian, albeit several hours older. "A little worse for wear, but our people are looking after him."
"Well, thank goodness," the hacker replied, the relief apparent in her voice. Matrix gave her an amused look, and she scowled.
"We haven’t got much to offer, but Ah’m sure we can fix up that ship of yours," the sprite continued, "And we’ll give you whatever assistance we can, if it means we’re that much closer to destroying Daemon."
Bob nodded. "We’ll take whatever you can offer. We’re going to need a hand fixing our engines before we can go anywhere I’m afraid."
"I’ll have a team sent over--your crewman as well. We can discuss plans after we’re safely in system again. Script out."
The vidwindow closed again, and Bob sank tiredly into a chair. "Thank the user for small favors," he sighed, then glanced up. "Where’s Perl?"
"She ducked our right after she caught sight of the face on that vidscreen, sugah. She never did get along well with her daddy."
Bob smiled wryly. "Should have guessed he would be the one to start up the resistance."
"Just as brash as Turbo, thats f’r sure. That family got more than its share of guts." She eyed her console one last time, and threw her hands up in disgust. "I’m gonna go find Perl. You guys lemme know when Ray gets back." With that, she tromped down the stairs that lead to the lower decks.
"I’d really hate to be Ray right about now," Matrix replied. AndrAIa and Bob didn’t quite manage to suppress their laughter.
----
"Hey. You doin’ okay?" Mouse leaned in the doorway of the small cabin. Perl glanced up.
"I--heck, Mouse, I don’t know what to feel. This is random..."
"The ‘Net’s a random place. You know that as well as Ah do, hun. Question is, what're you gonna do about it?"
"Talk to him, I guess." She replied dourly. "Not much chance of avoidin’ it."
"Not likely, no." Mouse walked over and took a seat next to her old friend. "Ah’m sure he’ll understand. Never struck me as being the kind to hold grudges."
Perl shook her head. "I’m more afraid he’ll be disappointed, Mouse. He never really wanted to send me to the academy, you know? I guess because he’d lost Mom, and couldn’t stand the though of me putting myself in harm’s way every single cycle. But once I was there, he was proud, and I disappointed him. Guess I’ve been running from that as much as Jake’s death." She hung her head. "Part of me is glad to see him, but..."
"Hey, Ah wouldn’t fret over it, if Ah were you. You’ve done a lot t’ be plenty proud of since then. An’ Ah’d give mah right hand t’ be in yoah position now. Never got t’ say goodbye t’ my mother like Ah wish I could of. Make the best of it," she said, standing. "Who knows when you’ll get another chance?"
Perl smiled wryly. "Good point. We could be deleted by this time next second."
"Now ye’r thinkin,’" Mouse replied wryly. "Well, Ah’ve got a web surfer t’ yell at. You take care, sugah." With a lopsided smile, she headed out of the room.
Perl flopped back on her bunk. "User, when did everything get so complicated?"
----
"Ms. Matrix. It’s good to finally talk to you. I wish it were under better circumstances."
"You and me both," Dot replied. Even through the static of the vidscreen, she could see the infection coursing through the other sprite. "What is it Mainframe can do for you?"
"Ah need information, Ms. Matrix. Now, I know you’ve got no reason t’ trust me, ‘specially after what happened to your system, but Ah hope you’ll believe my sincerity. Ah’ve been working on the inside here, along with a few other Guardians who’re still fighting off the infection. We want to do what we can to weaken Daemon from the inside, so your people can take her down. So what Ah’m offerin’ is an exchange. Ah’ll tell you everything Ah know about Daemon, and you’ll give us the knowledge we need about what’s happenin’ there on the outside." The feed crackled loudly, the picture all but vanishing. She heard voices in the background. "Look, Ah can’t hold this channel open much longer. If you’re willing, we’ll send you our half of the info, and let you know how to get yours back to us undetected."
Dot hesitated, running scenarios through her mind. This could be a trap, obviously. Daemon stood to gain a distinct advantage if she exposed her hand. But it was a very convoluted one--not, from what she’d heard, Daemon’s style. And she didn’t have a lot of time to waste debating it. The lives of Bob and everyone on the Mare--the entire ‘Net, for that matter, could hinge on her decision. She took a deep breath. "We’ll do it," she replied.
Turbo breathed a sigh of relief, audible even over the hiss of static. "You don’t know how grateful I am t’ hear that, Ms. Matrix. Our half of the bargain should reach you in the next few milliseconds or so. You’ve done the right thing."
As the communication terminated, Dot leaned back in her chair, wondering if she had, indeed, or whether she’d just doomed them all.
End Part Nine