USH'S MATRIX GAME: THIRD ASSIGNMENT- 'Eliminate'
“Hey Mors!” said Dallas over the phone, putting an encouraging note into his voice, the aural equivalent of a large, fixed grin. “How are we all doing down there? Now, don’t you worry about anything, we’re gonna have this little problem solved any time now!”
He put his hand over the receiver and turned to one side, where Ariadne was tapping away frantically at the keyboards.
“What the freaking hell is going on, girl? Get my men out of there!”
“Look, geez, give me some damn space, will you?” said Ariadne. She tuned her headset into the Shehazarard’s radio system. “Finn, any luck?”
“Buggered if I know what the problem is,” said Finn. “In forty years of operating experience I’ve never seen anything like this,” he went on, unaware that Ariadne was silently mouthing the same words as he spoke, mockingly.
“Ok… well, you got the new link ready?”
“Yup, all is smooth and pretty.”
“Right. Dallas, we’re ready to try again. New exit at the Hampton Bridge.” Dallas nodded.
“Ok Mors,” he said into the phone again, “here’s what we’re going to do. There’s a bridge just a couple of miles out of your way…”
Fifteen minutes later.
The screeching sound wails inside the Shez again, though this time Ariadne has removed her headset in advance.
“What that the same damn thing again?” asked Dallas. He leant forward to look at the code on Ariadne’s screens, seeing where Mors had just been propelled out of the phone line again. “Oh, for the love of… someone give me some answers here!” Ariadne did not reply. She was looking at Mors’ coded form.
-
“Still no luck?” Marduk was saying to Finn.
“Zero,” said Finn. “It makes no sense. The hardlines are working. Roland and his crew just used that exit. The transmission is fine. The link is fine. It’s just… spitting them back out each time they try. And go through.”
“If it’s not the lines,” said Marduk, “and it’s not the transmission, then it can only be one thing. The people.”
-
“Oh hell…” said Ariadne.
“Hey there Mors, still a slight technical hitch, one moment…” said Dallas into the phone, before turning towards Ariadne again. “What? What? What is it?”
“They’re trapped in there,” she said, nervously.
“Trapped? Trapped? How the hell can they be trapped? Look!” said Dallas, pointing at the sleeping forms of his crew. “THERE they are! Right there!” He walked over to Mors and tapped his head. “There’s the brain. No-one has stolen it. His mental image is being broadcast into the Matrix. Projected inside, yeah? If it is being broadcast in, then we must be able to bring it back! How can we not?”
“It’s them!” she said. “They’ve been changed. Re-coded. Something has been added to their representations in the Matrix!”
“Huh? Then get rid of it!”
“I can’t! I haven’t the first clue how it was done, let alone how to get rid of it! I can’t just alter the code of an object existing in the Matrix! The only way to get rid of it would be to re-load them into the Matrix from scratch.”
“Well, do that then!” says Dallas. He thought about that for a moment. “No, scratch that idea, Ariadne. That wouldn’t work. You’ll have to do better than that.” Ariadne rolled her eyes. “Well look,” says Dallas, “you can’t just re-code things in the Matrix like that. Even the System can’t do that, they can only re-write software hooked into their set-up. If you could just re-write someone’s code then Agents could turn us into puppy dogs when they saw us! It’s just not possible to affect code that way.
“I know,” says Ariadne. “Well… except for Ne… no, you’re right, you can’t.”
“So then?” asked Dallas. Ariadne returned to tapping away at the keyboard.
“It’s some sort of encrypted corruption that has been added to them,” says Ariadne. “It triggers whenever they access a hardline, and it crashes the link. Every hardline they access shuts down when they try and access it.”
“Ahhhhhhh…” says Dallas. “Kinda like strapping a plank of wood to someone’s back so they can’t fit through a doorway, huh?”
“Err… yeah, I guess…”
“Ah, hell, Ariadne!” said Dallas.
“What?”
“This means they’re trapped in there!” Ariadne stared at Dallas again.
“Yeah… you’re right, Captain,” she said, resignedly. Dallas returned to the phone.
“Ok, Mors,” he said. “We’re going to back out on this whole ‘returning to the ships’ thing for now… tell you what, I’ll get Ariadne to find you guys a motel to stay at somewhere whilst we get ready to head to meet Jericho. I am sure you guys will be fine in the Matrix for a few days!”