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THE SUNSET
* 5 *
From the grassy windblown hilltops on the opposite side of the trickling brook, the mounted drifter easily spotted the distant but brilliant point of light, sitting low against the rapidly descending darkness. Curious, he commanded his chestnut-brown horse forward and trotted down the slight slope towards the twinkling light...
As he approached the brook, his random patchwork of leather layers and metal plates clinking and clattering with each bounce, the horseman noticed how the twinkling fire carried a strange glittering of green... like emeralds... VERY strange...
"Sorcerors?" he muttered through his long unkempt beard.
When he reached the brook, still some distance away from the firelight, the armored horseman noticed something else... Emerald sparkles seemed to rise from the emerald-tinged flames, like unearthly rain falling upwards towards the mysterious heavens...
"My God!" he gasped, sudden fear striking the drifter like lightning through his heart.
Yet despite the terror, despite the terrifying thoughts of sorcerors, wizards and warlocks, and other demonic worshippers, he fought off his panic like he fought his enemies in battle... and held his ground... or so he thought...
In moments, the horseman felt it... the burning pain... the searing intensity... the blinding agony streaking through every fiber of his spasming body!
And then it was gone.
Quickly transforming and commandeering the useful plugged-in body of the inconsequential horseman, Agent Greene adjusted his reflective sunglasses, corded earpiece, and crisp necktie, and with reins firmly in hand, rode forward across the brook.
"Get outta here!" Crewman Threads burst out with slender eyes wide, smacking his metal dish on the metal table with a distinctive clank. "My theory is sound."
"Come on!" Senior Operator Unicorn smirked. "FIRE? You gotta be shitting me."
"What are ya TALKIN' about?" the young Threads uttered in frustration, getting up from the stool beside Hitchhiker, ruffling his own black hair, and pacing to the far end of the cramped mess hall.
"First of all," the pale-skinned Unicorn challenged, "how the hell are you gonna enter and exit a fire without getting burned?"
"It's all freakin' CODE, Uni-cornball!" Threads exclaimed once again, returning to lean over the table. "It's not like we walk through phones or stick 'em up our asses to enter and exit the twentieth century, right?... So we shouldn't hafta walk through fires either."
"He's right," Junior Operator Hitchhiker agreed from the seat opposite Unicorn, and spread his large black hands wide apart. "A clear five-to-ten-foot radius at the entry point should be enough room to transmit all four of your images and any equipment into the Matrix..." Then he brought his hands closer together, "...while a clear three-to-five-foot radius at the exit point should be enough room to receive each of you, one at a time." He turned to Unicorn, "Nobody has to walk through fires..." Then he turned to Threads, "...or stick phones up their butts."
Her lean arms folded upon her chest, Commander and First Officer Million chuckled against the nearby countertop.
"There you go, Uni-cornflakes," Threads laughed, and joined the taller Million against the counter. "There's your answer."
"Hey, who's the Senior Operator here?" Unicorn demanded rhetorically, then added, "Besides, I was just testing you guys."
Hitchhiker and Million looked at each other in genuine bewilderment and shook their heads.
Threads clicked his tongue. "Yeah, right."
"Thanks for your support, guys!" Unicorn returned the sarcasm. "Well, if you think the captain's son is so smart, let's see how he'd activate the transmission point... with no help from me."
"Sure, why not?" Hitchhiker welcomed the challenge. "Actually, Threads, that's a great idea... using lightning bolts."
"Thanks!" Threads replied, as he and Million smiled at each other.
"Hmmm," Hitchhiker wondered aloud, "using lightning bolts to set targetted fires... Now, how would I do it?"
This time, Unicorn shook his blond head, and sneered, "You're lost already?"
"Hold on a sec," the younger but larger operator requested firmly, then continued, "Well, as I see it, the programming would deal with five parts..." He raised an index finger, "One, the fire would be the best enter-and-exit transmission point... easy to detect, easy to manipulate..." He raised the next finger, "Two, the ground would be the obvious 'land-line' connection from the fire to the Matrix OS..." Then he raised the third finger, "And three, the lightning bolt that sets the fire would be the window dressing to make the sudden fire both believable and off-limits to any strangers."
"That's it?" the elder operator smirked. "That's only three."
Hitchhiker ignored Unicorn, then held up four fingers, "The fourth part is camouflage..." He put his hand back down in the metal table. "Now, the beauty of using twentieth-century land-line phones is the sheer difficulty in tracing a specific phone signal to a specific phone, especially in an entire CITY of phones... like a needle in a haystack... But in an ancient virtuality where the land-line is the GROUND, it would be child's play to trace a specific ground signal to a specific camp fire, especially where fires are few and far between."
Fascinated by the turn of the conversation towards covert, deceptive, and other defensive strategies, Million stepped in, "So how would you confuse the trace?"
"I would have to camouflage both the lightning bolt and the camp fire..." Hitchhiker explained. "And the best environment to do that would be during a lightning-filled thunderstorm, in a lightning-caused forest fire."
"Wow," Threads exhaled. "I hadn't thought of that... Nice."
"That's still only four," Unicorn glowered at Threads. "And he still hasn't answered my question."
"Well," the junior operator held up five fingers then put them down, "the fifth part is communication..." He paused for a moment to consider. "Now, I suppose I could design some torches with hidden wireless technology, but a better way would be to use your good old cellphones... Since they aren't 'land-line' connections, you can't use them as transmission points anyway, and they'd be a lot easier to carry around than torches... unless you WANT to use torches..."
"No-no-no, that's fine," Threads grinned. "I'll use my cellphone."
Brushing the red locks from her flashing eyes, Million laughed, "Me too."
With a wide smile, Hitchhiker joined in their brief laughter, until his laughter faded into a deep inhalation and exhalation. "So to answer Unicorn's question 'How would I activate the transmission point?'... I would direct the 'ground' transmission to the set 'camp fire' transmission point... like sending a phone signal to a phone... then flicker the flames in some pattern to activate that point... like ringing a phone."
"Not bad, Operator," Captain Helios replied unexpectedly from the mess-hall entrance. "Not bad at all."
Immediately, the crewmates of the hovercraft 'Nosferatu' straightened up from their sitting or standing positions.
Stepping into the room without breaking the flow of the discussion, Captain Helios smoothly resumed, "Okay, you've covered the five parts... the fire, the ground, the lightning bolt, the camouflage, and the communication... In fact, you don't need the lightning bolt if you're camouflaging it in a lightning storm... Couldn't you set the camp fire from the same ground transmission?"
"Hmmm," the captain's son thought about it. "That's true."
Threads and Million raised their eyebrows in silent amazement.
"But there's a sixth part," the captain added, adjusting his cap. "Tell me, how long would it take to set this up?"
An increasingly awkward pause filled the mess hall, and for the first time during the group conversation, the junior operator looked to the senior operator across the table for his approval. As the captain stood above them, shifting his stare from one operator to the other then back again, Hitchhiker lifted a thick eyebrow in a subtle request to go ahead and speak, and Unicorn nodded.
"Well?" the captain waited.
"Actually," Hitchhiker began, conscious of Unicorn's undoubted importance, "once Unicorn and I analyze the code characteristics governing the fire and the ground, directing the ground transmission to the camp fire should be no more difficult to program than sending a phone signal to a phone."
"Good," the captain nodded.
"And manipulating the flame patterns," Unicorn finally spoke up, "should be no more difficult than ringing a phone... It should be a piece of cake."
"Good."
"As for the lightning-and-fire camouflage," Hitchhiker glanced up at his father, "all we gotta do is find a thunderstorm."
"Excellent."
"So if we had to set this up," the junior operator again looked to the senior operator, "I'd say, an hour to analyze, plus another couple hours to program."
"Yeah," the senior operator nodded. "About three hours, give or take an hour... Why? Are we testing this theory?" He chuckled.
But the captain hardly budged a chiseled feature on his solemn face.
"Well, people," Helios then announced to his entire crew, "I have some good news and some bad news."
"Oh, shit," Threads muttered.
"The bad news is... we're testing your 'lightning-and-fire' theory, and I'm giving you one hour to set it up."
The captain gazed at each member of his crew -- Hitchhiker, Unicorn, Million, and Threads -- as the crewmates gaped at each other in mind-blowing shock.
"And what's the good news?" Unicorn asked, shaking off the stunning blow.
"The good news is... we have a couple of minds to save."
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