Chapter Seven:  Intermission

Astor stepped off the hover barge into the steamy gloom of the sewer.  He took a deep breath of the cool and slightly sour air.  It was nice being able to roam around the dilapidated structures without any fear of being obliterated by patrolling sentinels.  He climbed up a pile of rubble and perched himself at the top.  He could see about a hundred yards ahead where the line disappeared into a gigantic cavern.  Behind him he could hear some clinking and muffled conversations from the people on the barge.  He turned his attention to the dark tunnel ahead and let his mind drift.

He felt lost…totally confused.  When he spoke to The Oracle, he had tried to keep himself from diving head first into the idea that she was telling him the truth.  Or rather…telling him his true future.  And he had kept himself from it for nearly three months.  But over that period of time her words had eaten their way into the core of his consciousness.  He couldn’t stop asking himself, “Who is Demitre`?  How is she going to be important?  What kind of change will she bring?”  And the deepest thought that he still tried to keep away was, “Why will she be someone that I love?”

Astor tried to work his way around his own head.  If there was one thing that was certain, it was that after all the **bleep** he had gone through over the last few days, there wasn’t one shred of evidence that had brought him any closer to this elusive woman.  Or has there?

His conversation with Morningstar (or the possible simulacrum of Morningstar) had deeply unnerved him.  Recreating redpills…virtual clones…ultimately creating a new consciousness, a new spirit?  Was it even possible?  He was certain he had seen the first stages, so that much was indeed possible.  But while the characters he was interacting with were merely simulacra, Morningstar in particular was frighteningly convincing as a real human entity.

As he continued to think about it, the “perfection” Morningstar had spoken of grew more and more disturbing.  If he did in fact achieve a state of virtual immortality, what would that do to the stability of The Matrix…of the entire world?

Astor shook his head, scattering his thoughts.  He looked back at the hover barge and heard the people inside still clattering around.  He realized that while he was a bluepill, all he wanted was to break away.  He searched and searched for the doorway that would lead him to true reality…and now that he’d found it, what was he doing?  Spending the majority of his time in the artificial realm he had so desperately tried to escape.

Funny…no matter where we are, we always want to be somewhere else.  Especially when it’s a matter of where we define reality.

He looked around at the sewer system.  He thought about its age.  At least a hundred years old.  God only knew how old it really was.  He figured there was one thing humanity could be accredited with, and that was its undying tenacity.  After all this time, after all this war…we’re still going at it.

And speaking of still going at it, what was he to do?  His last attempt at picking up any pieces to his puzzle had resulted in a dead end.  His mind kept drifting to The Oracle.  Out of all the people who had been a part of this adventure, she was the only one that gave him anything that could be called help.  But it wasn’t like The Oracle was one of those arcade fortunetellers you put a quarter in and had your future spit out on a tiny piece of paper whenever you were feeling too lazy to make your own path.  She deserved respect.  You couldn’t walk up to her whenever you felt like it and demanded she tell you what was lying ahead.

But still…Astor was in a rather incomprehensible place, and some incredibly important decisions needed to be made very soon.  The subject of RSI clones affected everyone…especially Zion.  Astor needed information, and at that point he didn’t see any other options.  Astor had the idea that if The Oracle was indeed all knowing, she was aware of the fact that at that exact moment, he was on his way to see her.  Weird…