A Shot In The Dark: Part Four

Dawn was breaking outside when Matrix and Frisket came back to the apartment. He found AndrAIa asleep on the couch and picked her up, carrying her into the bedroom. He put her to bed and closed the door behind him. He sat down on the couch, head in his hands. Something had gone terribly wrong here, and he couldn’t think of a thing he could do to fix it. A great gulf had opened up between AndrAIa and himself. Frisket nosed him, whining. Matrix patted the dog’s head casually.

"What am I going to do?" he mumbled angrily. He didn’t want to lose her, but he could practically feel her slipping from his grasp. And as much as he hated to admit it, the thought of life without her scared him. He sighed, tired and frustrated, then stretched out on the couch to try and get some sleep. A few milliseconds later, he was awoken by a vidwindow. He sat up and blinked his eyes for a nano.

"I’m sorry," Dennis replied from the window. "Did I wake you?"

"What? No." Matrix ran his hands over his face. "I was just going to get up anyway. What can I do for you Dennis?"

"Perl and I have been getting some anomalous readings from the power core. We could use AndrAIa’s and your help here."

"AndrAIa’s not feeling well," Matrix lied. He didn’t want to drag the Command.com into his personal problems. "But I’ll come give you a hand."

Dennis frowned slightly, as if he sensed Matrix wasn’t telling him the truth, but said simply, "I’m sorry to hear that. Tell her I hope she feels better soon, and Perl and I will meet you at the P.O. in say, thirty micros?"

Matrix nodded. "I’ll see you then."

Thirty micros later, the three of them were gathered in the Principal Office, going over the core power log from last night.

"You can see that we’ve been having strange power fluctuations." Dennis pointed to a spot on the readout. "This is when the grid crashed the first time. And when we tried to reinitiate it, the power drain caused the other half to crash. What we don’t know is what’s draining the power."

"You ran a viral scan?" Matrix asked.

"Yes," Perl replied. "I ran it twice. Nothing. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m as in the dark about this thing as you two are. I think our best bet is - "

Before she could finish the sentence, the lights in the P.O. flickered and failed. In the dim illumination of the emergency lights, Perl saw Dennis roll his eyes.

"You just had to make that ‘in the dark’ crack, didn’t you?" He took his ever ready LED off of his belt and handed it to Matrix. He then pulled out his organizer.

"What are you doing?"

"My organizer has its own power supply. I can use it to scan the P.O. and find out what’s happened." He was silent for a few nanos as he initiated the scan. "Uh oh."

"What is it, Dennis?" Perl asked.

"Someone or something has cut the main power supply from the core. In stead of running to Turing like it should be, it’s going..." He paused. "Someplace else. I can’t pinpoint it with just the organizer."

"This is bad," Matrix said dryly.

Dennis looked up at Matrix, face glowing strangely in the light from the LED.

"Very bad. If we don’t restore core power, Turing will crash, and we’ll all be deleted. Matrix, I want you and Perl to head down to the sub-basement. See if you can find out where the supply cable has been cut, and try to restore it. I’ll stay here and try to keep everyone calm and track down where all this power is going."

Perl and Matrix nodded.

"This way. The lifts are out, so we’ll have to take the stairs." She opened a metal hatchway and started down into the dark.

* * *

AndrAIa woke, momentarily disorientated. She was in the bedroom now. Matrix must have come home at some point, but he wasn’t there now. Frisket was laying in front of the couch when she walked into the living room. Something wasn’t right and she could sense it.

"Come on, Frisket. Let's go to the P.O. and find out what’s going on."

She made her way carefully through the streets of Turing. Although it was now mid-cycle, no one was out. The entire system seemed deserted. When she arrived at the main control room, Dennis had his back to her, discussing something with a binome over a vidwindow. He shut the window down, the conversation apparently over, and she cleared her throat.

"AndrAIa?" Dennis asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Trying to figure out what’s going on. Why is everything deserted?"

Dennis began to explain the situation to her, beginning with the power fluctuations and ending with Perl and Matrix’s mission to the sub basement. "I’m going after them," she said, when he’d finished.

"No, you’re not. You are in no condition to be heading out into the unknown. I’m sure Perl and Matrix can handle whatever they come up against. You can stay here and help me reroute emergency power if you’d like," he added after seeing the disappointed look on her face.

"All right," she conceded. "What do we need to do?"

* * *

Water trickled from pipes overhead as Matrix and Perl made their way further and further into the Principal Office’s basement. Matrix was using Glitch to pinpoint the location of the power cable.

"It sure is nice to have a keytool around again," Perl commented. "Even one as fragmented as yours, Guardian."

"I’m not a Guardian," Matrix replied in the same tone Perl had used the day before.

"Well, I guess that makes us even, hun. Maybe together we constitute one whole Guardian," she laughed, ducking under some low-hanging pipes. "Watch your head."

They reached the bottom level and Perl glanced over at Matrix. "Which way now?"

"We go right. We should be reaching the power junction soon."

The two continued down the corridor, either wall and the ceiling crowded with the pipes and conduits that made up the heart of Turing system.

"This place is a nightmare," Perl commented. "Anything could be lurking down here, and you’d never know it ‘till it was breathing down your neck." Steam hissed from a nearby pipe causing her to jump. She reached down and took her gun from the holster on her thigh. Its weight was reassuring in her hand. Matrix had already brought his own gun to bear, and his artificial eye glowed eerily in the dim light. Something scuttled across the passage a ways in front of them.

"The junction should be a few dozen yards ahead and to our left," Matrix said, glancing at Glitch. "The passage widens up here."

The two sprites stepped forward into the corridor which doubled in width. Something in the inky gloom ahead of them hissed. Perl stiffened, on full guard now.

"Please let that be another steam vent." She shone the LED into the darkness ahead of them. The beam bounced back, reflecting a large, sinister set of eyes. "Cursors!" Perl yelled, opening fire. There was a horrible screeching noise and a crash as her target fled further into the sub-basement. Perl leaned against the wall, panting.

"What in the 'Net was that?" Matrix asked. The strange screech still rung in his ears.

"That," Perl said, "should not be here." She touched the two-way radio on her wrist. "Dennis?"

"Copy, Perl. Did you find the power cable yet?"

"No. But we did find something else." Her tone was grim.

"What did you find?"

"A virus."

"That’s impossible. The scans came back negative. You ran them yourself! It can’t be a virus... unless-"

"Unless the virus scan itself is corrupted. We have a major problem brewing here. Matrix and I are going to see if we can find that cable, then return to the main control center. We need to work out a plan of action. If there’s one virus here, there may be more." She clicked off the radio and turned to Matrix. "You ready?"

Matrix nodded and they started to search for the power junction. They came across the severed cable shortly thereafter, but couldn’t find where the power was being drained from. Perl scanned the blackness around them with growing apprehension.

"Let’s get out of here. It’s not safe to be wandering around down here with a virus lurking about-"

She was cut off abruptly as a shadowy figure lept from the darkness and threw her into the wall. She scrabbled for her gun but it went skittering out of her reach. A sharp taloned hand grabbed her throat and began to squeeze.

"You hurt me, Hacker," the virus hissed, reptilian eyes shining with an evil light. "I shall enjoy killing you."

He squeezed harder, the edges of his claws digging painfully into the back of her neck. Perl struggled as her air supply was shut off. She got in one good kick to the virus’ midsection and it lost its grip on her neck. That was all the time she needed to roll away and grab her gun. She fired once and caught the virus in the shoulder. Firing again, she backed away from the hulking virus. It stumbled and fell. Perl collapsed against the wall, trying to catch her breath and assessing the damage the virus had done. Blood was trickling down her neck and back from several gashes.

Matrix paused to make sure she was all right before walking over to the fallen virus. Perl’s second shot had crippled the creature, and it lay there staring up at him with a pained smile on its lizard-like face.

"Guardian..." it hissed.

Matrix’s face twisted in rage and a sound like the dry rattling of tree limbs filled the room. The virus was laughing at him. He aimed his gun at the virus’ head.

"Say goodbye, Virus," he growled. His finger moved on the trigger.

Perl cried out as she saw the virus lift one viciously taloned hand and swiped at Matrix. The large green sprite jumped backward, and the claws only grazed him, rending the front of his shirt to ribbons and scratching the skin beneath lightly. A thin line of blood oozed from his abdomen. Giving the virus one last hateful look he pulled the trigger and splattered its head across the floor of the tunnel before it faded away altogether. He looked up at Perl.

"Let’s get out of here."

* * *

The two sprites emerged from the metal hatchway tired and bleeding. Dennis caught sight of them first and ran over to take Perl, who was leaning heavily on Matrix’s shoulder, from the large green sprite.

"What happened?"

"We were ambushed," Matrix growled. He looked across the room and saw AndrAIa standing at one of the consoles. "AndrAIa. What are you doing here?"

"I’m helping Dennis reroute power. Are you okay?" A worried look crossed her face.

"I’m fine," he replied gruffly. "It’s just a scratch."

Dennis looked up at Matrix. "Perl needs medical attention, a first aid kit at least. Can you try to find something while I stay here?"

Matrix nodded and left the room. Dennis brought Perl over to a chair and removed her long sleeved jacket. He sighed.

"It looks like you’re going to have a few more scars to add to the collection." He tore a strip of fabric off of the sleeve and dabbed at the bloody mess on Perl’s back. Perl sucked air in sharply through her teeth. "You’re lucky the virus didn’t reopen any of these old scars."

AndrAIa hovered a few feet away. "Is she going to be okay?"

"Don’t worry about me," Perl replied in a pained tone. "It’ll be a cold cycle in the web before a virus gets the better of me." She tried to smile but ended up grimacing instead.

Matrix returned with a first aid kit and handed it to Dennis. He stopped short and stared at the marks on Perl’s back. "What happened?"

"Those are from the last time I fought these sons of webcreatures. They nearly crashed Turing. I thought we'd deleted them all, but it looks like I was wrong." Her face contorted in pain as Dennis continued to work on her back.

"There. All done for now. Were you able to see where the power was being drained to?"

"Not before we were ambushed," she sighed. "And I wouldn’t risk going back down there today. We've made them pretty angry, I'd venture."

"Well, we've rerouted most of the power, so only a couple sectors are compromised. What we need to do now is come up with a plan of action."

* * *

The four of them sat down at the round table in the conference room just off of Dennis' office. Dennis rubbed a weary hand across his face before speaking. He'd gotten no sleep in the last two cycles and the fatigue was starting to show.

"We've got a major problem," he sighed. "The main power is being siphoned off to the User knows where, and it looks like the viruses are the culprit. From Perl and Matrix's descriptions, it seems that they are the same viruses we fought last time." He paused before continuing. "They work as a hive, a collective intelligence, which makes them all the harder to defeat. If one finds out what we're up to, they all know. Instantly. They know we've deleted their ally and they'll want revenge."

Everyone at the table was silent for a moment. After a few nanos, AndrAIa spoke up. "You said you’ve fought these viruses before. Have you been able to discover any of their weaknesses? Something we can exploit?"

"They’re sensitive to certain sound frequencies," Perl said. "But we haven’t been able to come up with a good way of utilizing that knowledge."

AndrAIa’s eyebrows drew together in thought. "Does the P.O. have a MIDI player? Or a way to transmit sound throughout the building?"

Dennis nodded. "Why?" He asked curiously.

"I think I have a plan."

* * *

It was almost halfway through the night cycle by the time they’d gotten everything ready. The plan was simple. Play back the frequencies the viruses were vulnerable to throughout the P.O., and hopefully keep them at bay long enough to locate the source of the power drain. Dennis signaled, and everyone slid on their headsets, both to protect them from the high-pitched sounds and to allow them to communicate with one another. Dennis entered the command, and the eerie, screeching noise resonated throughout the building.

"Can everyone hear me?" Dennis asked over the headset. Everyone answered in the affirmative. "Good. Let’s get this show on the road." Dennis, Perl and Matrix headed for the hatchway into the basement of the building. "Let us know as soon as you’ve got something, AndrAIa."

The game sprite nodded and turned to the controls. She’d grudgingly agreed to stay behind in the command center, but only after a brief argument with Enzo and some polite, if forceful, persuasion form Dennis. The Command.com had rigged up the controls to give her audio feedback over the headset so that she could relay them the information they needed despite her inability to read the displays.

Micros ticked by. The control room was dark, gray, featureless gloom around her, and the head set channel was quiet except for the occasional ping. She was getting a strange, disjointed feeling, as if she were cut off from the rest of the environment, floating in an empty void. She shivered, and tried to shake off the feeling.

"System," she said. "Locate sprites."

"Sprites are on sub-level four," replied the same emotionless, artificial voice that announced the arrival of game cubes in Turing.

AndrAIa sighed. "Scan for viruses." Perl had been trying to rebuild the corrupted viral scan, but no one had any idea how effective it would be, or if it would work at all.

"Virus found," intoned the voice over the headset.

"Location."

"Viruses detected on sub-levels 3-9."

AndrAIa switched channels on her headset. "Virus scan picked up viruses on your level, guys," she said. "Better keep an eye out."

"Thanks AndrAIa." Matrix’s voice came back over the headset, strangely hollow sounding.

* * *

The trio walked cautiously through the labyrinthine corridors of the Principal Office’s sub-basement. Matrix kept a watchful eye on the surroundings, though his mind was really miles away.

He’d fought with AndrAIa again. They had their disagreements from time to time, of course (who didn’t?) but they’d never argued this fiercely before, or this often. He felt slivers of their fragile existence slipping through his fist like grains of sand. His frown deepened as he walked onward. This time, she’d wanted to come down here, to this hot, oppressive darkness with them to find the source of the power siphon. He shook his head, trying to force away the angry words.

* * *

"I can take care of myself, Enzo!" She all but screamed. Dennis and Perl could hear her in the next room, but she ceased to care anymore. She couldn’t keep up a happy facade a nano longer.
"You’re blind, AndrAIa."
"I haven’t forgotten that! How could I? You bring it up every other micro! No, I can’t see. That doesn’t mean I’ve stopped compiling! And I certainly don’t need you treating me like a child."
"You are being completely unreasonable," he shouted back. "I’m trying to protect you!"
"Protect me? You’re the reason we’re stuck here in the first place. If you hadn’t lost-" She stopped mid-sentence, stunned silent at what she’d just said. She watched a shocked expression spread across Matrix’s face. Then his eyes narrowed to slits and her turned away from her.
"Low blow, AndrAIa," he muttered, not really speaking to her anymore. "Fine. Come with us. Get yourself deleted. I don’t care anymore."
"Enzo, I never meant..." Her eyes brimmed with tears. She tried futily to blink them away. She reached out to put a hand on his arm, but he snatched her wrist and held her fast.
"Go," he growled.
"Oh, Enzo." Tears spilled down her face.
"I said go!!" He released her arm and gave her a brusque shove towards the door. "You’re the star of this thing anyway. You go find the siphon."

AndrAIa turned and fled the room.

* * *

The other members of the party were also lost in thought. Dennis knew it wasn’t his place to get involved. It was obvious that there was much more going on between the two game-hopping sprites than just AndrAIa’s disability. He had felt the tension between them the moment they’d met, but their argument earlier that evening had finally revealed how strained things actually were. Dennis sighed, knowing full well that there was little he could do, and picked his way down the hall. Perl touched his shoulder hesitantly, and looked into his eyes, silently reassuring him.

"We go right here," Matrix said, breaking the silence that echoed over the headsets. They turned the corner and stopped in their tracks.

"Well," Dennis said, "I think it’s safe to say we found it."

"What is that?" Matrix asked, circling the object they’d found. It was massive, filling the center of the room and towering over the three sprites. It was cylindrical in shape, filled with a pulsing blue light that cast flickering shadows on the wall.

"I don’t know," Perl said, analyzing the structure. "I’ve never seen anything like this!" She circled it a few more times. "But I can probably figure it out... given time."

"Time is something we don’t have," Matrix interjected, watching the shadowy reaches of the sub-basement. Something was moving slowly in the far corners, closing slowly inward.

"They must have adapted to the noise somehow!" Dennis switched channels on his headset. "We’ve got a problem here, AndrAIa. The viruses seem to have adapted to the frequency we’re using!"

"How is that possible?" came AndrAIa’s startled response from the other end.

"I don’t know. Try switching the sound frequency... anything. We need to buy Perl enough time to figure out what this contraption is doing to the core!"

"I’m on it," the game sprite replied. "Be careful."

Dennis and Matrix stood with their backs to the power siphon, watching the encroaching viruses. The reptilian creatures’ eyes gleamed in the light from the machine.

"Gun, command line: Full delete." Matrix began firing at the advancing viruses. Several fell, but there were more lurking in the shadows.

"AndrAIa! How about that frequency change?" Dennis yelled into his headset, firing his own gun at the viruses. "AndrAIa?"

There was no response.

* * *

She was knocked off her feet as a sharp clawed hand hit her squarely in the back and cut into her arm. She hit the floor hard, and her headset was knocked from her head. She immediately clapped her hands over her sensitive ears to try and shut out the piercing whine that filled the principal office. She looked upward and saw a large dark blur towering over her. AndrAIa scrambled away from it, but wound up with her back to a console. She was trapped. Instinctively, she retrieved her retracted trident, readied her grip, and squeezed the handle. The weapon sprung out to its full length and she heard the virus scream as its three sharp tines pierced its body and pinned it to the wall. She then felt around the floor on her hands and knees until she found her headset.

"I’m changing the frequency now, Dennis."

"What happened?"

"Had a little uninvited guest. It’s taken care of. Switching frequencies... now!"

The three sprites in the basement watched as the viruses cringed and retreated.

"It’s working," Matrix broke in. "But I don’t know for how long. Perl, how are things coming?"

"I think I’ve got it figured out. They’re trying to build up enough energy to open a portal to the 'Net."

"I thought you said they destroyed all your ports to the 'Net."

"They did," she shrugged. Her dark skin looked eerie in the blue glow. "As far as I can tell, they’re trying to high-tail it out of here fast as they’re able."

"Well, what can you do to stop them?" Dennis asked.

"Not too sure, hun. Shut this thing down, I guess." She studied the controls for a moment. "Guardian, can you scan this for me?" Matrix frowned, but did as she asked. Perl studied the readouts. "Okay." She tapped some of the controls. "That should do the trick."

* * *

"Warning: Core crash imminent," intoned the system’s automated voice.

"What?" AndrAIa changed channels on the headset. "What are you guys doing down there? The core is crashing!"

"Cursors!" she heard Perl shout. AndrAIa stood by, helpless, hoping the other three could keep them all from being deleted.

"Warning: Core crash imminent."

* * *

Perl tapped furiously at the controls.

"What happened?" Matrix asked.

"The core must have been unstable. When I cut the feed, the backlash caused the whole thing to collapse in upon itself!" She uttered a few more curses, and kicked the machine in rage. A few more adjustments and the power siphon was back on-line.

"I don’t know what you did, but it’s working!" AndrAIa called over the headset.

Matrix muttered under his breath. "Perl just re-initiated the power drain. We’re back to square one."

"Cursors. What are we going to do now?"

"Try and taper the flow off slowly. Give the core time to adjust." Perl looked over at her two male escorts. "This’ll all be for nothing if we’ve still got those viruses on the loose. You two go hunt ‘em down, and I’ll get this hunk of junk taken care of."

"We can’t just leave you here!" Dennis protested.

"Dennis," the hacker said, "I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself. Now go."

* * *

"So..." Matrix commented, as they headed further into the bowels of the building. "Do we have a plan? Or are we going to walk in and start shooting?"

"They're viruses," Dennis said with a hate and bitterness that surprised even Matrix. "Why shouldn't we?" He saw the shocked expression on the other sprite's face and sighed.

"You have to understand," he said slowly, "that we've been doing this for minutes. I might normally have had more compassion, but now? I'm tired of spending every nano of my life wondering where the next threat will come from, when I'll have to try to keep us all from being deleted again." Perhaps it was the sickly light from the LED, but Dennis suddenly looked very old, and very tired. "All I want to do is get this over with."

Matrix nodded silently and the two continued down the hallway.

End Part Four

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