The Daemon Conflict
By: LadyBard
Chapter 1 - Preparations
GAME OVER!
Dot Matrix tried to
maintain her usual air of calm as she approached her friends, but since the
first game cube had dropped since the system re-start, she had been processing
overtime with worry.
She had been in the
Principal Office when the cube had dropped and had to watch as the lavender and
silver field enveloped Bob, Matrix, AndrAIa, Mouse, and Ray. She hadn’t been
able to leave, for more pressing concerns had her attention these minutes. Not
that games weren’t pressing enough.
“Bob,” she breathed with
relief as the silver-haired Guardian moved towards her.
Bob didn’t waste time
with words; instead he took Dot in his arms and kissed her soundly.
“Now ain’t that the
sweetest thing ya ever saw, sugah?”
Bob turned and gave his
friend a mock glare, “Jealous?”
Mouse, cocked an eyebrow
and winked, “You wish, sugah.” She then turned to Ray and mimed a kiss at him,
causing the surfer to blush hotly. Ray draped an arm around Mouse’s shoulders
and steered her towards the diner.
Dot was more concerned
about Bob’s state of health, “Are you all right?”
“Dot, how many games have
I been in?” He gave her that cocky smile that had endeared him to her immediately.
“I know, it’s just that
--”
“I’m fine,” he kissed her
again. “I’m surprised you managed to get away from the P.O.”
“I can’t stay away long.
Phong --”
As though the old keeper
of the core had somehow sensed Dot’s words, a vid-window popped open before
them and the sagely sprite’s face appeared. “Dot, you must return to the
Principal Office immediately. Three more ships with refugees are waiting
outside of the system.”
“On my way, Phong,” Dot
smiled up her love. “A Command.com’s work is never done.”
“I’ll see you tonight?”
Dot expelled a breath.
“Probably not. We still have to process the ships that arrived, set up
temporary shelters, register all the PID’s in the temporary database --”
“Okay,” Bob smiled a
little sadly. He had fought all those minutes in the Web to get back to her and
now they barely had more than two nanos together. And soon, Bob thought,
I’ll have to break my promise to her and leave her. I’ll have to go after
Daemon.”
“Matrix, AndrAIa,” Dot
turned to where her brother and his love stood, “Would you zip down to the
docks and greet the ships? You’ll need to escort their captains to the
Principal Office.”
“You got it, sis,” Matrix
nodded curtly.
“Have the passengers wait
on the ships until we can confer with their captains,” Dot turned back to Bob,
as Matrix and AndrAIa zipped away. “What are you going to do?”
“Not go near the docks,
that for sure,” Bob managed a wan smile, but Dot could see the hurt in his
eyes. When the first ships had arrived bearing refugees from systems infected
by Daemon, Bob had been the one to greet them. The resulting fear and chaos
that had spread across the sector had been difficult to remedy. To be a
Guardian, and to also be the subject of mistrust, was a nightmare for her love.
It hadn’t mattered to the refugees that Bob wasn’t infected, only that he was a
Guardian and therefore, someone to be feared.
“I’ll assist Gavin in the
salvaging of the Mare,” Bob replied, “Then I want to go over the intelligence
reports again. I think we should have Ray and Mouse do some more scouting --, ”
“BOB!”
A streak of blue shot
towards the Guardian and barreled into him with all the energy the 1.0 old had.
“Bob how was the game? It
bytes that Dot won’t let me go with you all because of that thing with Matrix
and AndrAIa being lost but Mouse is going to make us all special icons she said
so, so can I go into the games then?”
“Enzo,” Dot scolded
mildly.
“Aw come Dot! Don’t you
think it’s cool the way they got big and game hopped and then got to do all that
neat stuff and --”
“Enzo!” Dot instantly
regretted snapping at the younger version of her brother, but she definitely
did not think what happened to Matrix and AndrAIa was cool. But the look
of distress on her brother’s face made her heart shatter.
“Dot,” Bob said, still
sprawled on the ground.
“Sweetie,” Dot smiled at
Enzo, “We’ll talk about the game hopping thing later. Okay?”
“Okay,” Enzo said
quietly.
“Dot,” Bob said, again.
She pointedly ignored him.
Another vid-window popped
open, and Phong said, “Dot, where are you? I need you here, my child.”
“Coming, Phong,” Dot
decompressed her zip board. “I’ll see you at the Diner Enzo, we’ll have some
chips and shakes and we’ll talk then.”
“Um hm,” Enzo said. Dot
hopped on her board and flew away.
***
“She
didn’t mean to snap, Enzo,” Bob placed his hands on Enzo’s waist and lifted him
up.
“I know,” Enzo sighed,
his natural exuberance fading. “I guess I shouldn’t have said it was cool. I
guess it wasn’t to her, when she thought I - I mean Matrix, had been
nullified.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Bob said
carefully. He didn’t want Little Enzo to feel worse than he already did. They
had been worried about him ever since the concert that had basically explained
how he had come into being. Although Enzo seemed to understand what had
happened, they had wondered how the little sprite really felt not being the
“original”, although he was the “original” in a sense.
“Remember, your sister
has a lot written on her disk right now.”
“And you’ll be leaving
soon too?” They were at the entrance of the diner now. Enzo looked up at him
with his large violet eyes and Bob saw the little sprite’s silent plea of,
“don’t go!” within them.
“I have to,” Bob pushed
the door open and motioned Enzo inside first. “I want to make things safe for
you Enzo, and when I return (if he returned) we’ll do whatever you want.
How you’d like a grand tour of the Super Computer?”
Enzo’s eyes lit again
with his familiar excitement, “Can we Bob? Really?”
“You got it,” Bob lifted
the little sprite up and set him on one of the stools. “Hey Cecil, how about
the lunch special for my little partner here?”
Cecil approached on his
track and looked down his screen at them both, “And just who will be paying for
this?”
“You know I’m good for
it, Cecil.”
“That’s Cescil,
and I know no such a thing, monsieur!” With an indignant sniff, Cecil rode away
to greet two binomes who were just entering with his usual, “Wait at zee bar.”
“Dot really needs to get
some new help,” Bob muttered.
“That’s okay Bob, I’ll
just help myself,” Enzo jumped over the counter and proceeded to mix up an
energy shake. Bob approached the booth where Mouse and Ray sat, sharing a
basket of cheese fries and energy shakes.
“Got a nano, you two?”
“Always time for you,
mate,” Ray smiled. “Pull up a chair.”
When Bob was comfortably
seated he said, “I need you two to go on another scouting mission.”
“We’re your sprites,
sugah!” Mouse popped a fry into her mouth.
“My contacts in the Super
Computer have informed me that Daemon’s Web armada is ready for launch.”
“Oh no,” Mouse sighed,
“That’s all we need.”
“Unfortunately, I haven’t
heard from any of my sources since then,” Bob lowered his head. “I think they
may have been captured.”
“Or infected,” Mouse
muttered.
“Yes.” Bob thought of
Turbo. Matrix had said his mentor was fighting Daemon’s influence. His contacts
had told him Turbo was seldom seen, as Daemon had gotten closer to completing
the preparations on her armada.
“I need you two to try
and find some word of Turbo and on the armada,” Bob said. “But don’t take any
chances, understand?”
“You know us, mate!” Ray
gave his lopsided grin.
“Yeah, I do,” Bob
returned the smile. He motioned with his thumb at Mouse, “Just keep her out of
trouble.”
Mouse made a face at him,
“I’ll keep myself out of trouble, thank you very much, sugah.”
“We’ll leave in the
morning,” Ray said, all seriousness now. “We won’t let you down Bob.”
“I know,” Bob rose. He
wanted to give them some privacy. “Stay Frosty, you two.”
Enzo was sitting on the
stool quietly sipping his shake. “Hey little man, want to go down to the
salvaging operation with me?”
“You bet Bob!” Enzo was
off the stool and out in the door in one motion. Bob smiled sadly. He was going
to miss that little sprite, but he thought he would miss his sister more.
***
“Dot, the
ship captains are here,” AndrAIa announced when she entered Dot’s office.
“Thank you Dre,” Dot
stood, and made one last check of her organizer. “Tell me a little about them.”
“Well,” AndrAIa stepped
inside the office and the door slid shut behind her. “There are three; a female
and male sprite, and a male binome. The female sprite is Captain Irina, from
system 876; the male is Captain Syn, system 334. The binome is Captain Lynx,
system 608. They have approximately one to three thousand refugees on their
ships.”
Dot expelled a frustrated
breath, “There’s no place to put all those people.”
“The area in Silicon
Valley is full?” Silicon Valley was the name they had given to the place where
Megabyte’s Tor used to stand.
“No,” Dot looked to her
organizer. “The temporary shelters are already back to back. We already have
people doubling, even tripling up in residents' homes. We’re going to have to
start giving up our places soon. We can’t have people thinking the Senior Staff
is receiving special privileges.”
AndrAIa smiled, “Maybe we
shouldn’t call ourselves the Senior Staff.”
Dot returned the smile
and collapsed her organizer, “It was Phong’s idea, and you don’t want to hurt
his feelings do you?” Dot walked around the desk and she and AndrAIa left the
office.
“No,” AndrAIa replied,
“But it sounds so -- pretentious.”
Dot laughed, but her
mirth quickly faded when she entered the War Room. Phong was there, pouring
cups of hot cocoa for the three grim-faced people who sat in chairs arranged in
a half circle.
Irina was a tall, thin
woman with a smooth orange face that could be considered pretty were she not
wearing such a scowl. Her maroon eyes stared with suspicion at the Command.com.
Syn was almost as big as
Matrix; only his bulk was fat instead of muscle; with bright pink skin and an
unruly mane of purple hair. He looked in no more a positive disposition than
Irina.
Lynx was a silvery-blue
binome with snow-white hair and a full beard looking somewhat like a displaced
version of the User figure Santa Claus.
Dot approached the three
with what she hope was a look of confidence with a touch of sympathy,
“Greetings and welcome to Mainframe. I’m Dot Matrix, the Command.com.”
They exchanged greetings,
but it was Syn who spoke directly to her. “I understand you have two Guardians
here?” Syn removed a serrated knife from a sheath in his boot.
Out of the corner of her
eye, Dot saw AndrAIa straighten from her casual stance against the far wall.
“Yes, we do, actually a
full Guardian and a Cadet, but I assure you --”
“You can assure me of
nothing Ms. Matrix,” Syn began to clean his nails with the end of the knife.
“If they so much as come near me --” Syn made a quick swiping motion with the
knife.
“One already did. The man
who greeted you is the cadet. My brother Matrix.”
“What?” He sat up
straighter. “He’s with the ships now!”
“Why is that a problem?”
Syn sat back and smirked,
“If the passengers find out who he is, there may be problem.”
“Neither you or the
passengers have anything to fear from the Guardians here,” Dot said.
“Surely you understand
our concern, Ms. Matrix,” Irina spoke. We’ve brought refugees from systems
destroyed by Guardians, infected by Daemon.”
“Believe me, I
understand,” Dot pushed away her recent unpleasant memories.
“And won’t Daemon want
these Guardians as well? Isn’t Mainframe in danger?” Irina asked.
“We’re all in danger,
captain,” Dot said. “All I can say is plans are being made to address the problem.”
“That’s not very
reassuring,” Syn muttered.
“Our main problem is,”
Dot changed the subject, “to find lodging for you and your crew and passengers.
First, they’ll be escorted to the principal office and their PID’s will be
registered in our temporary database.”
“Very well,” Syn said.
“Where can I get an I/O shot?”
Dot decided she didn’t
like this sprite at all, “You may want to wait until your passengers are taken
care of, but you can get that at Al’s Wait and Eat on Level 31.”
Syn grunted and lifted
his mass from the chair. “Okay, let’s get started then.”
“If you’ll follow
AndrAIa, she’ll escort you back. AndrAIa, please assemble the refugees and
bring them here.”
“Yes, Dot.”
Lynx, who had not spoken
through the entire meeting, stopped before Dot as the others exited the room.
“Thank you miss,” he took Dot’s hand and kissed it. Then he followed the others
out the door.
Dot sighed, “Phong,
there’s no place to put them. Soon, we’ll have to turn people away. We may have
to do it now.”
“What of the other
systems that we have been in contact with, my child?”
“Of the two, System Hard
Drive is full. I haven’t heard from my contact in System Cascade. I’ll need to
call her.”
“It would be a pity to
turn anyone away,” Phong poured a cup of cocoa and handed it to Dot. The
Command.com drank it absently. “So many have suffered from Daemon’s attacks.”
“Yes,” Dot sighed. “She
has to be stopped.” And Bob will go to stop her. He’ll break his promise and
leave me again.
“There is much work to do
before the peace we so yearn for is achieved, my child,” Phong placed his hand
on Dot’s. “But we have persevered through much and we will continue to do so.”
“Phong - I never told you
how much I appreciated you during the war. I don’t know where I would be
without you.”
“You are quite welcome,
my child, but I believe we were there for each other.”
Dot, on impulse, kissed
Phong on the top of his head. The old sprite blushed. “I don’t know what I
would do without you.”
Phong giggled. “And I
you, my child.”
“Now,” Dot said. “Where
are we going to place the new refugees?”
“Well,” Phong said. “I
have been considering that. There is one place but --”
“Where? There’s no room
on the upper or lower levels except --” Dot’s eyes widened in disbelief,
“Phong, you don’t mean --”
“What choice do we have?”
“But Phong, those people
are scared enough already! If we send them there --”
“Then we must prepare
them and we must be prepared.”
Dot sighed for what
seemed like the nth time. “I’ll call Bob.”
***
“Name
please?”
“Veronica Lore,” the
young very pregnant woman said. “Call me Ronnie.”
Dot smiled reassuringly,
“I’m just going to need to ask you a few questions Ronnie, and then I’ll need
your icon to register your PID.”
“All right.”
“Occupation?”
“I’m - I was a restaurateur
- a caterer actually - I had my own business until --”
Dot saw the tears well in
Ronnie’s eyes and, without considering, placed her hand over the young sprite’s
own. “It’s all right, Ronnie.”
“My husband and I owned a
place, but when the Guardians came I lost him and my daughter in the system
crash and -- and --” The tears came then, seeping from Ronnie’s thick lashes to
run down her crimson cheeks.
“It’s all right,” Dot
whispered, as she squeezed Ronnie’s hands. “You’re safe here.”
“But for how long?”
Ronnie whispered. “Daemon will find this system eventually and then - I heard
Mainframe crashed.”
The abrupt change of
subject caught Dot off guard. “We did, but, there was a system restart and --”
“You’re very fortunate,”
Ronnie whispered. “When our system crashed it was completely erased. Everything
gone - oh!” Ronnie pressed her hands on her stomach.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m all right. It’s just
close to my time.”
Dot was never one to make
snap decisions but she did this time, “Ronnie, how would you like a place to
stay and a job?”
Her face practically lit
up, “Really?”
“I own a Diner, the best
in all of Mainframe. Would you be willing to waitress? I live above the diner
and we have an extra room, that is if you don’t mind living with my hyperactive
little brother. Then you can have someone to help you with the baby until we
can find you a more permanent place.”
“Oh yes, thank you, I’d
love to!” Ronnie reached across the table (as far as her stomach would allow)
and wrapped her arms around Dot in a quick hug.
Dot motioned to one of
her binome helpers and gave him the necessary info. Then she registered
Ronnie’s PID and watched with a fond smile as the girl was helped into a
waiting car.
As the next passenger sat
before her, Dot let her mind wander to Bob. She hoped her worry wouldn’t show.
Then again, why should she be worried? Hexadecimal was one of them now, wasn’t
she?
***
“I must
be out of mind,” Bob muttered aloud as he zipped over the twisted bridge into
Lost Angles. The place still gave him the jaggies. The last time he’d been
there, it had been as a prisoner. Now hopefully, he’d be welcomed as a friend.
“Bob,” the soft voice
spoke to him out of nowhere and Bob halted in midair.
“Hex?” Bob looked below
him as nulls gathered in a mass. “Hexadecimal!” Bob called. After all the
cycles, he was surprised she had made herself known. Since the restart, he had
made several trips to Lost Angles to attempt to contact her, but he had either
been ignored, or teleported back to the city. “Hex, can you hear me?”
“I heard you.”
Suddenly Bob was
enveloped in a flash of brilliant light and when it cleared and his vision
adjusted, he found himself within her Lair. It was brighter than he remembered.
Everything was in place but round windows were positioned at regular intervals.
To his utter amazement, Hex sat on her throne and before her sat an easel and a
stand that held small canisters of paint. Hex was painting. Bob thought he was
ready for anything, but this threw him.
“Umm, Hex?”
“Yes, darling?”
“What are you painting?”
“Come and see.”
Bob casually approached
and leaned in to see, an overhead view of Mainframe and a rather good
representation. This astonished Bob even further as Hex normally only had one
subject for her art - herself.
“Hex, that’s excellent.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Absolutely,” Bob had
thought he experienced everything, but this!
“I think when this whole
messy affair with my mother is over, I’d like to do this full time.”
Hello! “What did you say Hex? Your
mother?”
“Of course,” her smile
widened. “You are going after her, aren’t you?”
“Hex,” Bob said, taking
care with his words, and at the same time, fighting the nausea that had
suddenly erupted in his stomach, “Are you saying that Daemon is your mother?”
“Silly sprite, of course
she is,” Hex’s smiled faded to be replaced by a look of confusion, “You did
know that, didn’t you?”
Of course! Bob’s mind raced. It all fits!
The web creature, the joining, Gigabyte - my User, why didn’t I see it before?
Because you were fighting for your life in the Web, that’s why. Then you
returned to find your home destroyed. You had other things on your mind.
“Bob?” Hex tapped her
foot impatiently, “Are you going after my mother or aren’t you?”
“Yes Hex, I am,” Bob
said. “Does that upset you?”
Hex let out her trademark
laugh, “After what she did to me? No, you’re quite welcome to do whatever you
have to.”
“Will you help us?”
Hex dipped her brush into
the blue paint. “Do what? Go after my mother?”
“Only if you feel you
can.”
Again Hex chose to work
on her painting instead of answering. “So you wish for me to help to bring
about the destruction of my mother?” He didn’t know if she were playing a game with
him or not. Hex was hard to read now, since her transformation.
“Why didn’t you tell me
she was your mother?”
“I told you, I thought
you knew!” Hex glared critically at the painting, and then chose a dollop of
yellow. Then she turned her smile on Bob, “Are you angry, darling?”
“No, just surprised,” Bob
said. “Hex, your mother wasn’t why I came to talk to you.”
“No? But you do want to
talk about her, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Bob said. “But
first, I need to ask your permission to open Lost Angles.”
“Open it?”
“As I’m sure you know,
more refugees arrived in Mainframe today. There’s no more room for them. With
your permission, we’d like to set up temporary shelters here in Lost Angles,
but we - ah -- well you know how things are here --”
“What do you mean?”
“Can you make it, well,
safe?”
“Safe?”
Slowly, Hex turned to
him. Her eyes glowed red, “What do you mean, safe?”
Bob swallowed nervously,
“So the refugees can live here without fear. Hex, they’re scared enough
already, the last thing they need is --”
“ -- the insane viral’s
equally insane home swallowing them all alive?” Hex’s fangs protruded from
between her lips.
There was no way around
it. “Well that’s not the way I’d put it but yes.”
For a nano, Bob was
certain Hex was going to blast him into pixels. She leaned forward and bared
her teeth. Her eyes contracted into slits. Then she threw her head back and
laughed maniacally, “All right, Bob darling. I said anything for you. You bring
the little refugees to my home and I promise they can stay here without fear.”
“I have your word?”
Instantly, her smile was
gone, “You doubt it?”
“No, no, of course not,”
Bob said, “I’m sorry Hex, I shouldn’t have said that. I’ve insulted you and I’m
sorry.”
Hex put down the brush,
“It’s all right, Guardian. You come back later and we’ll talk about Daemon.”
“Thank you Hex,” Bob
quickly kissed her on the cheek, and then turned, but not so quickly that he
didn’t see the pleased expression on her face.
“You shouldn’t kiss me
you know,” she said as the light surrounded Bob again. “Dot would be very
cross.”
***
“She’s
what?” Dot slammed both hands down on the console.
“I don’t believe it,
sugah,” Mouse said.
“This is indeed
disturbing news,” Phong chimed in.
“Well it makes sense like
Bob said,” AndrAIa said. “But still it’s hard to believe.”
“So, what are we going to
do about it?” Matrix stood and flexed the fingers of his gun hand. “We can’t
just let her run free! For all we know, she may be passing information to
Daemon even as we sit here!”
“No,” Bob whispered. “I
don’t think she’s been in contact with Daemon at all.”
“But Bob, how do you
know?” Matrix asked.
“Because I think she
wants to see Daemon gone as much as we do,” Bob turned away. “She said I could
come back and she’d tell me about Daemon. I believe her.”
“Are you sure that’s
wise?” Dot asked.
“We could use the
information,” Bob said. “The refugees are doing well in Lost Angles, aren’t
they?”
“No complaints so far,”
Dot said. “There were reservations of course when they saw the condition it was
in, but there wasn’t much of a choice. Fortunately, I’ve been in contact with
the Command.com of System Cascade and ships are being diverted there.”
“I’m going back to Lost
Angles,” Bob said. “Maybe we could use what she tells me, if anything.”
“Sugah, I have to get my
Ship prepared for tomorrow,” Mouse said, “I can probably get you some
information on whether or not Daemon has anymore children.”
“Please don’t even
consider that!” Dot sighed, “The last thing we need in the World Wide Web is
another Hex.”
***
Hex
closed the vidwindow and frowned, “The last thing we need is another Hex,” she
mimicked bitterly. Who did that little tart think she was? Miss high and mighty
Command.com! And just when she was beginning to tolerate her. Well, she was
planning on letting her have Bob, but now she thought she’d change her mind.
She’d have Bob for herself. No one else would do.
Hex smiled when she
sensed Bob’s approach. Even with the other life forms invading her home, she
could still separate their processing forces from his. With a simple wave of
her hand Bob was teleported to stand before her.
***
“Hello
again, love,” Hex smiled and motioned to the java table set up. “I’ve made
biscuits and tea. Please sit.”
Bob suppressed a shudder,
remembering the last time he had found himself in this same situation. “Thank
you.” Bob slid into the seat and waited politely as Hex poured the tea, “Try a
biscuit.”
Bob picked up one and
noticed that they weren’t quite as weird as Hex’s first attempt at baking. “How’ve
you been Hex? I’ve been worried about you. I tried calling.”
“Oh, I didn’t want to
talk to anyone. I had some things to take care of.”
“Such as?”
“Now that’s really my
business, love. There are things I won’t tell while the cyber-sun is shining.”
Bob cleared his throat,
“Um -- Hex, about Daemon?”
Hex chuckled, “I’ve
embarrassed you, haven’t I?” Hex reached across the table and traced a pattern
across Bob’s chest with one slim finger, “Do I make you nervous, baby?”
“Hex!” Bob felt the flush
on his cheeks. He removed her hand as gently as possible. “About Daemon.”
“Oh, you’ve gotten to be
such a bore! What did you want to know?”
“Have you been in contact
with her?”
“You mean besides the
incident with the web creature?” Hex’s mouth spread in a toothy grin, “No love.
That was the plan.”
“Plan?”
“Mother sent her children
all over the web,” Hex took a sip of her tea, “Oh there are thousands of us! Or
were.” For a moment, a sadness crossed Hex’s face. “We weren’t supposed to
communicate, so we never did. It was chance that brought both Megabyte and I
here, but I won’t go into that. Mother sent us all over the web to take over
systems.”
My User! “How many have succeeded?”
“I’ve no idea. If mother is
involving herself in the conquest of the web, then that means her children
failed. Megabyte and I were the last ones, I suppose. And now with him gone and
I - well I never had interest in 'taking over' anything. I suppose she sent the
web creature to do the job we couldn’t do. Or maybe just to get you.”
“So each of your brothers
and sisters were to take over systems and hand them over to Daemon?”
“My, you are a bright
one!” Hex nibbled on a biscuit. “But you know what? I think that’s why she went
after the Guardians!”
“Because the Guardians
killed her children, not to mention ruining her plans. And what better way to
take over the Web then by controlling the very people who are sworn to protect
it!” Bob pushed himself up and began to pace. “And you have no idea how many
more of your strain are left?”
“I could find out, if
you’re extra nice to me, darling.”
“Hex, this is serious,”
Bob said.
“I am being serious! Bob,
you can’t be that dense!” Hex slammed down her cup, spilling some of the liquid
on the table surface. “You want more information, you had better supply
something in return.”
“Like what?”
Hex waved both arms in an
expansive gesture and her force took hold of Bob, bringing him forward. She
pressed her palms in a downward motion and Bob unwillingly slammed to his
knees.
“Hex, what are you
doing?”
“I love to see a man on
his knees,” Hex smiled evilly.
“Hex,” Bob said quietly,
“Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
“Oh Bob,” Hex clasped her
hands together and pouted. “I just want you to like me!”
“Let me up, please,” Bob
said.
Hex waved a hand and Bob
felt the power release him. He made a show of straightening his clothes, “I do
like you Hex but--” Bob said quickly when he saw her eyes light up, “not in the
way you want me to. I’m sorry. I can’t. It wouldn’t be fair to you. I won’t
take advantage of you.”
“It’s Dot, isn’t it? You
liked her more than you do me!” Hex stood and made a pushing motion with her
hands, sending the java table crashing away. “Maybe I’ll just delete her!”
“Then I wouldn’t like you
anymore.”
Hex slowly turned to him,
anguish plain on her face, “You wouldn’t?”
“No.”
Hex turned away and again
waved a hand in an almost dismissive motion. Bob blinked, and the java table
was upright again, as though Hex had never touched it. The tea sat steaming in
the cups and the biscuits were fresh and warm on the plate.
“How fortunate you are,
Guardian,” Hex whispered, “You have no idea what it’s like - but never mind.
You must stop my mother, Bob. I feel it’s important. I don’t know how you can
do it. I haven’t seen or heard from her since I was sent here, but she must be
unbelievably powerful by now.”
“I’ll do my best,” Bob
turned to go. “You know, Hex, if you get -- bored, you can drop by the Diner
sometimes, or something.”
Hex looked at him
incredulously, then burst out laughing, “Drop by the Diner? And put the fear of
the User into some helpless binomes! That’s an idea!”
As the light once again
surrounded him, Hex’s laughter followed him into the night air.
***
Dot
stretched her aching back muscles and was dismayed to hear her links cracking
loudly. Must be getting old, she thought wryly. All was quiet now. The
last of the refugees would be processed tomorrow and those that were done today
were safely (well as safe as Lost Angles could be) in the temporary shelters.
But they faced more
troubles. They had been receiving assistance from the other systems but soon
food would become a problem for most. Mainframe couldn’t sustain all of those
extra people without the resources and Dot’s attempts to begin trading with
other systems had proved futile. If only the Mare hadn’t been destroyed but
then again, the Mare was a wanted ship with a wanted crew and they probably
wouldn’t have any better luck.
But she couldn’t worry
about that now, in fact, the only thing she wanted to do was get a good night’s
downtime.
As she entered her
apartment, she was surprised to hear female laughter, and then she remembered
her houseguest.
Ronnie was sitting on the
couch. She smiled up at Dot when she entered. “Hi!”
Dot couldn’t help but
grin. Enzo had his ear pressed to Ronnie’s stomach, a comical look of
concentration on his face. When Dot entered he hopped up and said, “Hey Dot,
guess what! I was listening to Ronnie’s baby!”
“Really?” Dot smiled at
him. “Enzo, I want to apologize for missing our date today.”
“It’s okay Dot. Ronnie’s
been telling me about her home system and about what she wants to name her
baby.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, and you know what?
She taught me how to make chicken Parmesan.”
“There’s plenty on the
stove, Dot, help yourself.”
“You didn’t have to cook,
Ronnie,” but Dot had to admit she was grateful. It smelled wonderful. Dot, in
fact, helped herself to a large portion, then joined Ronnie and Enzo on the
couch. “This is excellent!”
“I said it was
alphanumeric,” Enzo smiled. “What do you think of Archie for a boy and Linda
for a girl? Archie is her husband’s name.”
“I think they’re both
wonderful,” Dot smiled at Ronnie and realized that she had made a new friend.
“Thanks for looking after my brother.”
“He’s a very nice,
handsome gentleman,” Ronnie ruffled Enzo’s hair, and the little sprite blushed,
“and he’s agreed to baby-sit.”
“Very nice, sweetie.”
“Dot, what time should I
report to the diner?”
Dot liked her enthusiasm,
“O-six-hundred hours.” She smiled sheepishly, “Is that too early?”
“Actually, I was usually
up at o-four-hundred.”
“Wow! Well report to
Cecil. He’ll tell you what to do,” Dot ate the last bite of the chicken. “And
cook this for him. He’ll fall in love with you.”
Ronnie blushed, “Thank
you.”
A vid window popped open
and Bob’s face appeared, “Hey Dot, what’s processing?”
“What do you mean, what’s
processing?” Dot handed the plate to Enzo and stood to face the window, “Are you
all right? How did it go with Hex?”
“As strange as usual,”
Bob said. “I can tell you about it in the morning.”
“No, tell me now!”
“Dot --,” Bob sighed, “I
think we both need some rest.”
“You’re right,” Dot
sighed, “Bob --,”
“It’s okay,” Bob smiled.
“Good night, Dot.”
“Good night.”
The window closed. “I’m
going to get some downtime, Enzo, don’t stay up too late. I know there’s no
school but you still need your rest.”
“Okay Dot,” Enzo smiled.
“Good night.”
“Good night, sweetie.”
***
“I take it,”
Ronnie said, “that your sister and the Guardian are fond of each other?”
“Oh yeah,” Enzo had his
ear to Ronnie’s stomach again. “I just wish they’d get married already.”
Ronnie chuckled and
ruffled Enzo’s hair some more.
***
AndrAIa
smiled at the plump woman who sat across from her, whose smile traveled to her
emerald green eyes. “Your occupation?”
“I’m an iconographer,”
she smiled.
Ah, new information! As a game sprite and AI, anything
new was of great value to her. “What’s that?”
In response, the woman
reached down and picked up a briefcase. She opened it and turned it towards
AndrAIa. The game sprite gave a gasp of delight. Inside were rows of icons
artfully decorated. AndrAIa had never seen anything like them. Each one was an
intricate example of artistic beauty.
“How lovely!” AndrAIa
beamed. “Did you have your own shop?”
“No, but I wanted one,”
she rubbed her plump hands together. “Maybe here I can have my chance.”
“Oh, I’m sure of it.
Mainframe is a wonderful place, I should know.”
A sound drew their
attention skyward. A ship was streaking overhead. AndrAIa recognized it
immediately.
“Matrix!” She called to
her muscular boyfriend, “Did you see --?”
Matrix, who was manning
another table said, “Yeah Mouse’s Ship.”
“Emma, would you take over
for me, please?” AndrAIa decompressed her zip board and followed in Matrix’s
wake. They arrived at the P.O. just a few nanos after Mouse and Ray.
“Ah, I’m glad you are
here my children,” Phong waved them in. “I was just about to call you.”
AndrAIa and Matrix
settled themselves next to each other in chairs. Mouse leaned against the
console next to Dot, and Ray leaned back against his board. Bob stood rather
grim-faced in the middle of the room.
“Sugah, I’ll get right to
the point,” Mouse said. “We’ve received word from Turbo.”
“What?” Bob strode
fiercely towards her.
“Here you go, Bob,” Mouse
pulled a disk from her belt. “Your contact Grep got this to us, but he --”
“No,” Bob whispered.
“I’m sorry, sugah.”
Bob lowered his head for
a nano, then just as quickly, drew himself up straight. “Let’s see it then.”
He handed it to Dot, who
slid it into the player within the console. A circular shaft of light appeared
in the center of the console and Turbo’s form solidified into existence.
“Bob,” Turbo’s voice held
a note of urgency. “I managed to get in touch with your contact, Grep. I hope
he gets this to you. Bob, if you make a move, you have to do it now. Daemon’s
Armada will launch in two seconds and they’re heading straight for Mainframe.
It will take them two cycles to get there.
“Bob, maybe I shouldn’t
tell you this, but I’ll be on the lead ship. Don’t hesitate to take that lead
ship out! Believe me, you’ll know it when you see it. Daemon’s chief general
and advisor, Ashar will be on that ship. Take it out and you’ll cripple the
whole --”
Turbo’s cry surprised
them all. He seemed to struggle with some force invading his mind for a time,
and then he regained control. “It’s - it’s getting harder to fight, Bob. Soon I
may be completely under Daemon’s control. I’ll try to hold out a little longer
but - hurry Bob, you and Matrix are the Net’s only hope.”
The image blurred, then
disappeared.
“It took you two seconds
to get back here?” Bob questioned Mouse.
“Yes.”
“So that means Daemon’s Armada
will arrive in twelve.”
“That doesn’t give us
much time,” Dot said. “And with all these people here, a war is the last thing
we need.”
“Then we’ve got to make
certain we end this before the armada reaches Mainframe,” Matrix said.
“And there’s only one way
to do that,” Bob said, his face set in a hard mask of determination. “Do what
we’ve dreaded doing all these cycles. Go to the Super Computer and take out
Daemon.”
Silence met Bob’s
declaration. AndrAIa moved to stand behind Matrix. She placed her hands on his
shoulders and Matrix laid his hands over hers. Ray moved to where Mouse stood
and slipped an arm around her shoulders.
Dot sighed, “I’ll contact
Hard Drive and Cascade and see if they can lend us some military assistance.
They’re the nearest systems to us and will be hit next. They should be willing
to help.”
“Ray and I can see if we
can run interference with the armada. They have to stop somewhere and refuel
and for supplies, maybe we can slow them down.”
“Just the two of you?”
Matrix asked.
“Give us some credit,
sugah.”
“Matrix is right, you two
against the whole armada? I wouldn’t recommend it,” Dot said.
“Sugah, I didn’t say we
were gonna take on the armada ourselves, I just said we would check ‘um
out,” Mouse smirked.
“Just be careful you two.
Give yourself enough time to get back here, we need you in case--”
“Don’t worry Dot, honey,”
Mouse winked, “Ray’ll protect me.”
“You bet, love,” Ray
squeezed her around the waist. The two departed.
“Matrix, AndrAIa, I need
you to finish the rest of the processing of the refugees, then come immediately
to the hanger. Phong, we also need to make certain we have enough core energy.
Bob --”
When she looked up and
met Bob’s gaze, she saw the love and worry there. The memory of when he had
first come home pushed its way into her mind. Bob reaching for her, his arms
out, and what did she do? Stick out her hand to him. Yes, they had gotten
together later and Dot had promised herself never to suppress her emotions
again.
Carefully, Dot came from
around the console until she stood facing Bob. She reached for him, almost
cautiously, as though she expected him to disappear, drifting away like smoke
on the wind.
But he was real, and she
knew that for a fact when he took her hand and pulled her into his arms.
Neither noticed when Matrix, AndrAIa and Phong left the room. Bob kissed her,
and in that kiss he released his love for her, his fury at Daemon for stealing
her from him, and his anguish at the prospect at never seeing her again.
“I’ve dreaded this,”
Dot’s voice broke, “I want to be angry with you. You’re breaking your promise
to me. I’ve wanted to ask you not to go.”
“But you won’t,” Bob said
softly.
“No,” the tears began and
Dot didn’t even attempted to stop them. “I love you so much.”
“I love you to,” Bob took
her mouth again hungrily, then whispered against it, “I will come back to you. I
promise.”
Somewhere in the Web,
death was rushing for them. Bob knew she was depending on him to halt the tide
of destruction, to come back safely to her. He would do everything within his
power to keep this promise and if he were lost, then at least she would always
know how much he loved her.
But I will come back
to her. I won’t let Daemon harm her or my friends, my family. I WILL STOP
DAEMON! Even if I have to die trying …