The Battle for One Zero - Prelude

**PS10N**

Mazdak walked along the hovercraft’s aft corridor, toward the Captain’s private quarters, his boots clunking heavily on the steel grating. He’d been the operator onboard TLR for almost two years now, and he’d come to think of the drafty old re-built hovercraft as home. A big hulk of a man, his large frame barely fit through some of the narrow hallways back here near the billets and crew quarters. Free born in the Real World forty-something years ago, his size and strength had always been valued for physical labor in Zion, but his real passion was art. Build something useful and people would be appreciative now, but create something beautiful and it would be appreciated forever. Some of his paintings hung in the gallery near the Temple Cave in Zion, and Captain PS10N approved of some being displayed in the ship’s galley and a few other places around the craft. You can’t stare at gray gunmetal bulkheads all the time and still keep a good attitude. Somewhere, there has to be beauty in your life. Sure, under the Truce, operatives could take time out while in The Matrix to visit a museum or watch a sunset, but the free-born couldn’t Jack In to do that. With nature devastated in the Real, beauty was more often where you created it than where you found it. “I need some time alone with my brushes and canvas,” Mazdak thought as the space between himself and the Captain’s door closed to nothing with a few more long strides. He hesitated for a moment before knocking. The Captain had been moody lately; something was up. Mazdak still remembered clearly the day PS10N had recruited him. “I need someone I can trust, to keep my back from sprouting knives,” he’d said. “You’re as artistic with the Code as you are with your brushes, and I want you on my crew.” They’d been through a lot since then – the collection of the fragments of The One’s RSI, fighting with the Red-eye Agents, the Ancient Exile rebellion, the tricky business with Morpheus over a year ago, assisting in Neurophyte’s escape and trying to stop the subsequent betrayal by Veil, seeing to it that the Assassin got what was coming to him, working with the Enigma Directive and discovering the truth about Cryptos and the Machine deception behind the Cypherite movement, sending the Sleepers back to their dirt-naps and now… now this problem with Anome and his betrayal of Niobe. That must be what was bothering the Captain. Before Morpheus went underground, he’d asked PS10N to keep an eye on Niobe, and now Niobe was wounded and imprisoned. That wouldn’t sit well with PS10N’s sense of obligation and responsibility toward his old friend Morpheus. Unlike so many these days, honor still meant something to the Captain. The night before Anome’s treachery, PS10N had warned Niobe’s second officer Merrit that someone close to Niobe would betray her soon, but the liaison officer evidently hadn’t had the opportunity to act before it was too late. Mazdak had learned to trust PS10N’s prescience of fore-thought, that uncanny ability called The Sight by the Oracle, to catch glimpses of what was to be before any rational clue could be gleaned. What was it that The Oracle had said to PS10N at their first and only meeting? Something along the line of “You have something of The Sight yourself, PS10N, and you’ve had it since before your Awakening, what with all that business of looking into the ‘paranormal.’ They don’t call you PS10N for nothing, you know, and you don’t really need me to tell you which way the wind is blowing – or where the code streams flow, for that matter.” That was long ago. Today, and probably more so tomorrow, were most important now. He raised his hand to knock, but PS10N’s voice answered before he could “Come on in, Maz. I’ve been expecting you.” Mazdak’s serious expression broke into a broad grin. Of all the things that had changed and would change, PS10N’s sense of immediacy, of being ready for what was coming, would be there and give them the edge they would surely need. … to be continued immediately …

**PS10N**

     The cabin was lit only by the green glow from the computer monitors. It looked as if the Captain had been awake his entire down-time, again, researching on the Zion Mainframe. Except for the computers and the food dispenser, the room looked more like an ancient monk’s than a hovercraft captain’s. The Captain had been busy – the room was strew about with personal items, empty bowls, cups and items indicating that PS10N’s attention hadn’t been on staying tidy.
     Paper was a rare luxury, made from synthetic fibers and always recycled – it was far too expensive to be used for long-term storage. These days only the Council and the rest of the Zion Bureaucracy had use of it. History told of a time when entire forests were cut down for disposable tissue. Now, there wasn’t a single tree on the planet. PS10N liked to write – he said that having information in front of you is the best way to think, and even with three computer screens active at once, you only saw the information you’d requested. Tangible scripts never got minimized, they were always there, potential inspiration simply waiting for the right moment to be noticed. The solution to the lack of paper had been simple. Clay tablets could be made with materials readily available, marked with anything that passed for a stylus and wiped clear to be used again. It was these vaguely cuneiform tablets laying about which gave the room the look of an ancient scribe’s. The more important notes and logs would be typed into the ship’s mainframe memory later, assuming there was going to be a later.
    PS10N tapped a few keys into the Zion Mainframe’s console.
    “Accessing the PS10N folder again?”
    “That’s where it all is.”
    His fingers kept tapping smartly on the keys, information flashing across the screen at his request.   “It’s all coming together,” he said, as if they were merely continuing a conversation they’d started earlier. “I’m going after it.”
    “Now, Captain? With the Unlimit Reactors so active?”
    “It’s now or it’s not. I’m going after the gun. The Zion Rebels will handle the U-Rs.”
    “You thinking of calling in the I.A.?”
    “All part of the plan.” PS10N chuckled.
    Mazdak read the codes being typed into the Zion Mainframe Console. “You’re making it pretty easy for them. The basics in ROT13? That might keep out a few n00bs, but the mass of Redpills will be privy to it.” PS10N glanced sidewise at his operator and raised an eyebrow. Mazdak tried again. “I’d have that password cracked in a few nanocycles.”
     “Don’t worry, Maz, it will get thicker further in. The merely curious will shrug it off, leaving the focused to gain the reward.”

**PS10N**

-={[ Apologies for the formatting on the above posts – chalk it up to the new forums and no Preview Post option. ]}=-

-=> Also please note, these extraordinary series of events are occurring on the Recursion instance of The Matrix <=-

**PS10N**

Days had passed. The information had been planted, like so many binary seeds waiting to spring to life. "Any word yet, Cap’n?" Mazdak asked.
     "Nothing," PS10N sighed. "Our team of operatives has confirmed, of course, and we’ve had some vague threats from some who might give us some trouble, but nothing like I had hoped."
     "Don’t they realize what’s at stake?" the beefy operator asked.
     "Evidently not."
     "There are some pretty hefty rewards and bounties involved, aren’t there?"
     "Over 15 million $info in combined rewards and bounties, yes."
     "And that hasn’t peaked anyone’s interest?"
     "They probably don’t know, or are too lazy to find out. I thought the Redpills were an intelligent, creative, tenacious lot and would jump at the chance to hack a puzzle for great reward, but it seems like they just want it handed to them, as usual. Lazy. Or maybe just not smart enough."
     "Are you going to? Hand it to them I mean?"
     "No, they’ll have to follow the trail and find out how to earn the rewards. I’m not a nurse-bot, I’m not going to wipe their noses and bottoms for them."
     "How does that affect the plan then?"
     "It doesn’t. We’re going in tomorrow. BlazinWolf is a lot closer to the neural kinetic threshold than I am. If he passes it, he won’t be able to come in with us." PS10N paused. "Assuming he hasn’t passed it already. Tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow, we go - whether or not any other Redpills have figured out the clues and know how to claim rewards or bounties. That just means I leave a lot richer than originally planned. No harm there - at all."
     "Good to see you smile again, Captain," Mazdak chuckled.
     "I’m hitting my rack, and you should too. Get some sleep. Maybe there is still a spark of curiosity and cleverness in some Redpills, and they’ll have it figured out by morning."
     The hovercraft TLR seemed to sigh itself as it entered power-down mode for the night. On the computer screen, a green cursor flashed steadily, patiently waiting for any Redpill hacker smart enough to follow the trail.
     "Tomorrow for sure, we go." PS10N thought as he drifted off to sleep.