Matrix Fanfiction Chapter 19: Departure

Chapter 19: Departure

I opened my eyes the next day and looked at the clock, it was almost 10:30 am.  I arose out of bed and Isaiah had already gotten up to go work on the ship.  I got dressed, walked out of my room and went to the dock to help them finish getting the last things ready on the ship.  I stepped on board and seen Parker walking with a checklist in and around the other technicians. 

“All those extra ammo crates,” he called out. 

“Check!” called out a Technician. 

“Ten extra power cells!”  One of the other technicians was rooting through boxes. 

“Check, we got all ten.” 

“Six months supply of food!” 

“You got it right here.”  One of them held up a bag of the mix we used to make food. 

“Spare water supply!” 

“Good to go sir.” 

“Extra E.M.P. coils just in case we blow one?” 

“We got it!” 

“Extra medical supplies including muscle restructuring tools and equipment.” 

“You’ve got it all sir, the ship is ready for launch.”  Parker checked his list one last time and lowered it to his side. 

“Good work guys we’re good to go.”  The technicians began to file out of the ship in small groups taking all their equipment with them. 

I walked up next to Parker and took the list from him, I looked the list over. 

“Everything’s done already?”  I said surprised. 

“Yeah we’ve been here since 7:30 this morning,” said Parker, he turned to look at me. 

“Great work Parker, that’s what you’re known for.  Where are the others?” 

“They’re through out the ship checking on the computers.” 

“Ok thanks.”  I passed him back the checklist and walked into the ship, I made my way to the ships Navigation Center, Dan was there looking over the navigation computer and Colin was just sitting in one of the back chairs he appeared to be in deep thought.  “How’s everything going Dan?” I asked. 

“I’m just doing the last of the system checks and then we will be ready to go.  Should take me about twenty minutes.” 

“Good work Dan.  So Colin, how did you sleep?”  I asked.  Colin snapped out of his state of deep thought and looked at me strangely. 

“Not really, sleep isn’t the same in the real world, the dreams are so unpredictable,” he explained. 

“Yeah that’s something you’ll get used to though don’t worry about it.  You’ll sleep well tonight, Parker is going to train you once we’re one our way.”  Colin nodded his head. 

“Sounds cool.”  I walked to the holographic panel and looked it over making sure it was in decent shape.  Realizing that was in order I went to the broadcasting zone. 

I walked down the steps to the broadcasting zone and Tarra and Isaiah were checking on each broadcasting terminal. 

“Hey Brandan, did you sleep well?” asked Tarra. 

“Yes great thanks for asking.  How are things here coming along?”  Isaiah stood up and looked at me with a small amount of oil on his face. 

“We’re just about done checking the terminals for bugs captain, maybe another hour or so,” said Isaiah. 

“Wow an hour, Dan said he will be done in twenty minutes or so, anyway you guys can be done quicker?” 

“Maybe if you and Parker helped us we might be able to get it done quicker,” said Tarra. 

“Ok we can help then.”  I put on a headset and talked to Parker. 

“Hey Parker, you wanna come give us a hand with broadcast equipment.  I’d like to get this show on the road as soon as possible.” 

“OK Captain I’ll be right up,” Parker answered me through the headset.  The three of us started to work while we waited for Parker to join us. 

“How many have you guys got done Tarra?”  I asked as I got down beside one of the machines. 

“Well, out of the eight that we have here, Isaiah and I have worked on five since this morning.” 

“You guys are doing well then.” 

Tarra, Isaiah, Parker and I worked on the last three terminals then Parker checked the operator’s terminal and we were ready to go. 

“All right Dan, fire up the engines and lets get this show on the road,” I said into my headset.  Isaiah, Tarra and I went to the main deck as the ships engines activated and the ship began to rumble.  I sat in the navigation chair next to Dan, Isaiah took his station at Holographic and Tarra sat next to Colin behind Dan. 

“Say goodbye to Zion everyone, it’s gonna be awhile before we see her again,” I said as I watched the dock through the window of the ship.  The ship turned to face the exit to the dock and the gate slowly opened. 

“Captain what are our orders anyway?” asked Tarra. 

“When we get a full crew compliment, we are to contact the Logos and talk to Captain Niobe, she will deliver our orders from there.  As for right now. . .”  I was interrupted by a com signal. 

“Who could that be?” asked Isaiah.  I opened the communication button and Captain Thadeus’ voice came over the headsets. 

“Good luck Captain Brandan to you and your crew, the crew of the Osiris and I wish you luck on your journey and we will see you again in a few months,” he said. 

“Thank you Thadeus, good luck. . .  Anyhow as I was saying, as for now we have to get Colin trained,” Colin lifted his head at the mention of his name, “and we have to figure out how we are going to free Tabatha.” 

“She’ll be fun to have around,” said Isaiah.

The ship had just cleared the gates and we were well on our way again.  I looked at Colin. 

“Report to the broadcast deck Parker is going to start the first phase of your training.” 

“Ok Captain.”  Colin walked down to the broadcast deck and Parker was sitting in his chair, he smiled at him. 

“Ah,” he said, “how is my latest student?” 

“I’m doing good,” said Colin, “So where’s the arena anyway, how are you going to train me with such limited space?”  Parker turned to face his computer screen. 

“Simple have a seat.”  Parker pointed at one of the broadcast terminals and Colin walked toward it.  Parker got up and walked to the terminal as Colin sat down. 

“This might hurt a bit, but you know that already right.”  Parker quickly pushed the jack into Colin’s connecter point and sat back down.  Colin wiggled a bit from the slight uncomfortable feeling of the jack but then was still and waited. 

“So what now?” he asked.  Parker sifted through some disks and then chose one and placed it inside the computer. 

“Ah combat training this’ll be fun.  Hold still now!”  Parker pushed a button and the information from the disk had began to upload into Colin’s mind. 

It had been almost a full day since we had left the dock and Colin and Parker had been in the broadcast room since the morning. 

“Captain don’t you think it’s been awful quiet?” asked Tarra, “You would think that we would at least have got something on the holographic scanner by now.”  I looked out the window silently she was right it was quiet, too quiet. 

“I don’t know, you’re right though it is definitely strange, the machines seem to have gone into hiding or something.  I am going to go check on Colin.  Isaiah keep running scans consecutively, when one is done run another until I say not to ok?”  Isaiah nodded his head and I got up and went to the broadcast zone.  I walked up behind Parker and put my hand on his shoulder.  “How is he doing?”  I asked.  Parker looked at the computer screen and then back at me. 

“He’s been going for almost thirteen hours straight . . . unbelievable, only Neo went longer than this.  We’ve gone over 92% of the information already.” 

“Alright stop him.”  Parker hit the button and Colin opened his eyes and looked at me. 

“Dude I’m a black belt in Judo.”  Colin gave me the thumbs up and smiled foolishly. 

“Ok,” I said, “Show me then.”  Parker hooked me into the terminal and I was inside the training program with Colin. 

“Welcome to the training program, it was created similar to the matrix, with rules and parameters that are almost the same.  They can be broken.”  I took up a fighting stance and beckoned to Colin.  He took up his own fighting stance with both his hands in front of him, clenched in a fist. 

“Let’s go,” said Colin.  Colin ran at me and attacked me with his fists swinging as fast as he thought he could.  I easily dodged his attacks for a few minutes and then knocked him against the wall. 

“Man,” he got to his feet, “How are you moving so fast, you could have never beaten me a year ago?”  I stepped over to Colin and looked him in the eye. 

“Like I said this world is not the real one, several rules can be broken.  Such as the rules of gravity,” I explained, “You can move faster than you are moving all you have to do is believe you can do it and you will succeed.”  I took a few steps back.  “Now let’s do this again.”  I retook my stance and Colin readied himself once again.

Colin jumped directly ahead of me and once again started his onslaught of attacks.  He began by punching and kicking me top then bottom and back again, I still dodged and blocked easily. 

“Come on Colin, I know you gotta be better than this,” I nagged him on.  I swung at him and he grabbed my arm and caught me in a Satomakikomi judo throw and I quickly countered him with a Kataguruma landing him on his back.  He quickly got to his feet and jumped high into the air, I watched him go through the air and waited for him to land.  Just as his feet hit the ground I took to the air myself and time seemed to slow down.  With both arms spread out I kicked Colin against the wall again.  Colin quickly got to his feet I could tell he was pissed. 

“Damn it!  What the fuck was that man?” 

“Colin calm down, you have to focus.  The second you loose that focus you loose the fight.” 

“Alright Colin, focus. . .” he said to himself jumping and swinging at the air to get himself together. 

“Alright now you better get it this time.”  I said getting ready.  Colin came at me again, this was it I knew it.  He swung at me several times this time landing a few small blows to the side.   I swung back not connecting, but just ending up with a knee to the side.   He quickly followed up on his attack with a series of punches and kicks and then swiftly uppercut me into a wall.  This was it he finally got it.  I got to my feet and Parker took us out of the training program. 

Parker pulled the jack from my neck and I sat up.  Colin was already sitting up looking at me. 

“Great going man, you did it, but your training isn’t over yet.  Parker is gonna finish with you and then tomorrow we will have another little encounter, as for now hit the sheets.  I’ll see you in the morning.”  I got up and went up to the navigation deck.  Colin’s training was now well under way, as for the next one I would have to think of a way to take her out of the matrix.