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  Chronicles

THE SUNSET

Series / Short Story
(Approx. 22,000 words)
Created 7-30-2003 and completed 9-13-2003 by Jay Manaloto
Based on concepts by Larry & Andy Wachowski


Author's Note - The story takes place circa 090 A.Z., approximately 10 years before Morpheus finds Neo in the Matrix. --Jay

PDF Version - Click here for a printable version of this story. Requires free Adobe® Acrobat® Reader. File size: 212 KB. Length: 27 pages.


* 1 *


    Amidst the soothing splashes of the ocean waves and the echoing cries of seagulls gliding towards the setting sun, her soft voice floated to him.

    "Helios?"

    "Yeah?" he answered, not wanting to open an eyelid or budge a bare muscle in his simple but comfortable fold-out recliner.

    "Do you ever wonder," the voice continued, "if we would've met... if we hadn't been unplugged?"

    Helios had to admit that he didn't. "Not really," he said, "but we were unplugged, and we did meet. And I'm thankful for that... Why?"

    "I don't know," the voice wondered. "Sometimes I think... What if I were never unplugged, and I was the same Dawn Washington? Would I have met you?"

    Helios finally opened his eyes, and briefly marvelled at the watercolor mixture of blues and oranges in the distant strands of clouds along the horizon. "And I was still Paul Osbourne?"

    "Yeah... Would we have met... oblivious of the Matrix?"

    "I don't know," he turned to the piercing dark eyes and enticing dark skin of his companion. "It's hard to imagine you before you were 'Aurora'."

    "I know what you mean," she smiled. "It's hard to imagine YOU before you were 'Helios'... or even before you were 'Captain Helios'."

    "Why thank you, 'Commander Aurora.' I'll take that as a compliment."

    They laughed contentedly, the warm salty breeze tossing the long dark braids of her hair. Lovingly, her right hand reached for the touch of his left hand.

    Suddenly, with the finest of subtleties only a long-time lover could catch, her glimmering irises faded, for only a moment, to an inhuman white then returned to their original mysterious darkness.

    "Dammit," Helios whispered to himself, closing his eyes. "I'm sorry, Aurora."

    "What for?" the soft voice replied, somewhat confused.

    "Unicorn!" he commanded to the reddening sky. "Shut it off!"

    Instantly, everything -- the sunset, the ocean, the sand, the seagulls, the breeze, and the woman he loved -- vanished into bright whiteness. And Helios awoke from the computer-generated Construct.


    "Everything okay, Captain?" spoke the light-haired pale-skinned senior operator of the ninety-year-old hovercraft 'Nosferatu.' His somewhat-high voice carried definite concern, as he placed the unplugged head-spike connector back on its metal hook.

    "Everything's fine," admitted Helios, regaining his normal breathing and bearing in the real world -- plates and bolts, cables and hoses, grease and grime. "Just a minor glitch in the program."

    "Anything I can help you with?" the operator asked.

    "No, I'm fine." Readjusting the creased bill of his worn-and-torn orange cap, the captain got out of his chair, and headed to his nearby quarters across the central corridor. "Thanks, Unicorn."

    "Don't mention it." And Senior Operator Unicorn scratched the back of his pallid neck, just below the head-spike socket, one of the many sockets on his body that gave him the rare distinction as an 'unplugged' operator.


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The Sunset
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