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THE SUNSET
* 7B *
After nearly an hour of poring over the glitch analyses at his personal workstation, and humming the tune 'Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay' to himself, Captain Helios refastened his old cap, swung open and shut the door to his quarters, and moments after his senior operator's 'big bucks' comment, joined the rest of his crew at the nearby operator station.
"Now it's time to EARN the big bucks," the captain replied.
Like before, the crewmates of the hovercraft 'Nosferatu' straightened up from their sitting or standing positions.
"Okay, people," the captain began, "What's our status?"
Commander Million answered first, "Reassembly of the aft auto-turret is complete. The guns are as good as they're ever gonna get."
"Good."
Crewman Threads went next, "The body scoop is oiled up, juiced up, and ready to rock and roll."
"Good." Then the captain turned to his junior and senior operators, "Operators?"
Once again, Hitchhiker looked to the senior operator for approval to speak for the both of them. With a slight nod, Unicorn concurred, "Go ahead."
Facing the others, the junior operator explained, "Unicorn and I have set up the ground signal program, but to save time..." He gestured to the geographical display, "we've set it up to follow the pre-coded paths of existing waterways... rivers, streams, et cetera..."
"Very good," the captain noted.
"We've also identified an ideal location for the 'unplug' exit point..." Hitchhiker struck an on-screen button and zoomed in, "It's an abandoned camp site about two miles south of the glitch... no more than ten minutes away on horseback..."
Leaning towards Commander Million, Threads muttered, "Assuming we're going on horseback."
Hitchhiker pointed as he continued, "There's a stream on the west side, a ridge on the east, and woodlands north and south... so it's pretty secluded... even WITHOUT a storm."
"Without?" the commander stepped forward, her voice serious. "What about the camouflage?"
"It's a no-go..." The operator pointed to another display, "There's no sign of ANY electrical storm in the region... But even if there were, now that I think about it, we can't predict where it'll end up or how long it'll stay."
The commander wondered, "What about creating the storm ourselves?"
"That's what Threads suggested." The operator shook his head, "But we have no clue... and no time..." Then he chuckled, "Although Unicorn suggested just taking a few flamethrowers and burying our needle in a burning haystack."
Threads chuckled also as Million smiled, but the captain did neither.
Very solemnly, his fingers stroking the stubble on his chin, the captain decided, "Unfortunately, it may come to that."
This time, nobody chuckled or smiled, as Unicorn remained focussed on his programming screens.
"Go on," the captain prompted. "That needle... What about the activation of that enter-and-exit signal point?"
"Well, uh..." Hitchhiker hesitated. "Unicorn is..."
"I'm still working on it," the elder operator responded, his voice reflecting off the monitors, displays, and screens, over his shoulders. "And I think I finally-- Dammit!"
"No luck?" The younger operator knew the answer.
"Dammit," Senior Operator Unicorn swivelled to face his crewmates. It was his turn to shake his head, "I can't stabilize it any further."
Crewman Threads was confused. "What does that mean?"
"It means," the senior operator replied, "once the fire's lit, it STAYS lit."
"That's good, right?" the crewman misunderstood. "We WANT it to stay lit."
"No-no-no," the operator clarified, "YOU guys have to make sure it STAYS lit."
"So we'll bring some kerosene... or gasoline."
"No-no-no, you don't get it."
Hitchhiker rephrased the situation for the young crewman, "Look, if a land-line phone goes bad in the Matrix, you can't just go to the Construct and repair it with your own parts... The phone has to be fully formed in the Matrix."
"I see... That's right," Threads nodded, finally realizing the second problem that was nailed on top of the first, "Not only do we have to expect Agents... we can't even touch the exit fire."
"On the outside, we can't," Unicorn specified. "But on the inside... The only way to manipulate it is through the ground signal. I can light the fire, I can alter its color spectrum. And if it goes out, I can probably re-light it after the code clears in a few hours..." He shook his pale head once more, "But while it's burning, I can't stabilize it... And I've gone over this a dozen fuckin' different ways."
Threads wanted to make sure, "So once the fire's lit..."
"It has to STAY lit..." Hitchhiker gazed blankly at a grated section of the metal deck. "Because once it goes out..."
Unicorn swivelled back to his screens, "It STAYS out."
"And if there are any Agents..." Million closed her brownish olive eyes.
Captain Helios took a deep breath and concluded, "Then we're dead."
Suddenly, the color-coded graphical display triggered a repeating -- Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep! -- triple-beep alarm to match its repeating red-screen flash.
Threads jumped, "What now?"
Hitchhiker examined the graphical display, "There's a change in the glitch..."
"What kind of change?" Million moved closer to get a sharper view.
"Looks like..." Hitchhiker verified, "not only its geometry... but its height..."
The captain understood clearly, "They're tearing the rift... They're making it even bigger."
"They?" Threads gestured to the viridescent vertical patterns layered across the three main screens, "You mean the kids?"
His fingers still on his chin, the captain confirmed, "Look at them laughing... They MUST be responsible for this."
"How?"
"They're somehow connected to it... I don't really know how."
"I don't know either," Million turned from the display to her captain, "but Agents will definitely be there to seal it off, patch it up, and scrub it down."
"Shit," murmured Threads.
Witnessing the two teenaged kids dancing in oblivious laughter around the burning glitch, and imagining the extraordinary agony and misery they would have to suffer and endure in the cold hands of Agents, Unicorn offered his urgent advice, "Captain, looks like it's now or never."
At that moment, the male teenager running around the fire reminded Helios of his son Hitchhiker at an even earlier age, in an earlier time... running around the community cave fires of Zion... running with other children, both Matrix-born and Zion-born, in some odd little game they made up... while he and his wife Aurora looked on, looked at each other, and despite the Man-Machine war, looked brightly at the future...
These teenagers deserved more than a living lie... more than the Matrix...
Tugging his cap down more snugly on his head, Helios made his choice, "We're loading up... now."
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