|
|
|
Suddenly I find myself in my Matrix Construct.
"This is my digital domain, Richard. Here I'm called Hellfire, you should have an alias also, what would you like?"
"How about 'Dragoon'?" He asks, "Where are we?"
"Fine, Dragoon, this is a slave node, Its one of the accesses for a Decker to access the matrix." I move at the blistering speed to the SPU connected to the Slave node. "This is a SPU, they are used to connect everything together. You've probably seen them before."
"I didn't even see us move!" Dragoon (Richard) exclaims.
"It's your simsense helmet, it has to cut a lot of the frames I see to allow it to be real-time." I explain as I move to the next SPU.
"This is interesting. I always wondered who all the people in the stories did all that in such a small amount of time Boo.. Hellfire." Dragoon corrects himself.
"I'm going into the CPU now, you probably have never been in one of these before either," We shift into the CPU and a Black IC glares back at me as a Grim Reaper persona. "Scan me and access." I tell the IC.
"A hitcher jack is in use, accept?" The IC asks dutifully.
"Yes, but don't link him." I reply and move toward one of the simulated control panels. Dragoon, this is the Display map Command panel, see? It shows my entire system." I press the panel and a map of Glitch is brought up.
Dragoon whistles as he starts counting the number of nodes in the system and their different colors, "What do the different color codes mean?"
"Those are the security clearances, you may have noticed all the nodes I've shown you are red, these are the highest security rating available. Those orange ones around the red on the map are the second highest level nodes. Registered users are given access to green nodes and the general public can access the blue ones, note the extremely low number of blue nodes. My father and I had never openly advertised Glitch's existence.
Over there is the shutdown control, and there is the cancel alert panel. Shutdown, obviously powers down the mainframe, which cancel alert, as you might guess deactivates one of the security alerts." I point out the items I'm mentioning to Dragoon.
"What are the gray classifications on the map?" Dragoon glances at the console I'm pointing at and points at a small cluster of gray node symbols.
"Hu? Oh, those are nodes you can't jump to from the CPU. They are locked physically and I haven’t figured out how to unlock and look at them."
"So you don't know what's in them?" Dragoon looks startled.
"My father locked them before he died. He probably left me some note on how to unlock them, but I haven't found it. Go ahead and select somewhere to go."
"Ok, let’s go here. Uh, nothing happened."
"Don't you remember that you cannot manipulate the matrix from a hitcher jack? Is this where you wanted to go?" I point at a green datastore.
"No, the orange one beside it, on the left."
That’s a currently unused physical connection's matrix construct or I/O Port. Here we go." I then touch the map where he told me and we appear in the I/O Port Node.
"That one gave me a queasy feeling."
"Again, the simsense helmet is at fault. Tortoise systems aren't designed for that type of travel. Would you like to stop for a while?" I ask, attempting to hide my slight concern.
"Yea, I probably should."
"Ok, I'm going to jack out, You'll get another queasy feeling I'm sure."
"Ok, I think I'm ready."
"Hang on," I then execute the jackout command on my deck.
I find myself siting on my bed with Richard beside me looking a bit green.
"You ok?" I ask unplugging the dataline from my datajack.
"I think so, I think I'll stick with the tortoise speeds, Unless I get a datajack installed but then I wouldn't be able to use magic as well."
"So someone's magic is related to how much cybernetic implants they have?" I ask, genuinely curious about the relationship.
"That and any improperly healed major wounds." Richard's face loses a bit of its green tint.
"Want a drink of water?" I ask after a second.
"Yes, please."
I get up and walk over to the small water cooler I have in one corner and fill a plastic cup for him. I carefully hand him the cup and return to my seat next to him.
After taking a few sips of water Richard turns to me, "You really love being in the Matrix, don’t you?"
"Yea, I guess," I admit feeling myself blush slightly.
"So, what’s it like, being an odiun I mean," Richard takes another sip.
"Beats me, what’s it like not being one? You can’t really answer the question because you’ve never been anything else." I reply inwardly grinning at the look Richard gives me.
"You know? You could probably be a very good mage. If you don’t mind my asking, how much cybergear do you have, exactly?"
"Lets see, I have a datajack, level 2 wired reflexes with 3 spinal boosters, and a set of three retractable spurs in my hand, why? Oh, yea, because of the magic relationship." I poke at the pile of books on the table by my bed.