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After his talk with Ray yesterday, Bob resolved to finally make contact with Isaac. Getting permission from Prime is easy enough; hooking up the interface device proves to be a little more difficult, but he manages.

Finally, all the connections are in place. All that remains is to activate the interface, using a simple control switch.

If he had lungs, Bob would take a deep breath. Here goes nothing.

He pushes the button.

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"Ewww,' Isaac says. "I hate viruses. They itch badly. Not like spam waves, which feel greasy." He shudders.

"I hope you gave those viruses a right walloping!"

"When they deserved it, I did. My job was to keep them contained, not kill them."

("Yeah, mend and defend, not delete and defend.")

"That's a very subtle distinction in the eyes of many. It must not have been terribly easy for some people to understand what your purpose was in that situation." He sighs. "And I've been a frightful host - would you like some tea, or coffee, or anything of the sort?"

"...can you actually do that?"

"It's all a simulation in here, and Optimus let me access his files on how things taste, so I should be able to. Be an interesting experiment, won't it?"

Isaac takes a moment, cupping his hands, and his brow furrows in concentration. Slowly, going from black and white to CGA to EGA to VGA and rendering up to photorealistic, a pair of mugs appear in his hands.

And there is the smell of coffee.

"I think I slowed down the email in Europe doing that," he says, handing one of the cups to Bob.

Bob blinks in surprise for a moment, then accepts the cup and takes a hesitant sip.

"...wow, it really does taste like coffee," he says, eyebrows going up in surprise. "Y'know, sprites can't normally eat human food, even in Milliways."

"That's terrible. You really should have that option. It seems so unfair." He takes a sip from his cup. "A bit strong for me." He puts the cup down.

"It all sounds so glamorous - people from everywhere meeting and talking and having fun. I know there's more than that, but that's how it sounds." Isaac smiles. "And it's brought a pair of cousins together to meet and talk, That's worth a great deal to me."

Bob nods.

"On that note... there's something I've been curious about."

"Please, ask." He smiles. "I don't get to talk to many people, so I may be a bit of a chatterer."

"About... nine months ago, your time, I was uploaded to a system in this world's Internet for a short time. I couldn't have been there for more than a second before I found a way out, but... I was wondering if you knew I was there?"

Isaac pauses.

"I knew there was a program there of a kind I didn't know; I didn't know it was you. It was so different, so complex, I was going to move it and analyze it. My attention get a little divided, and I missed the chance... which is good, because, um...." He has the grace to look uncomfortable.

"The analysis programs I use can be a bit destructive if I don't pay attention and just let it run. So understand: I am glad I missed you, now that I know what happened."

Bob looks more than a little alarmed. "And... if you had let it run, would the results have told you what had happened?"

Another pause and uncomfortable look.

"It would have told me about you completely... and possibly at the loss of your coherence as a runtime entity. If that had happened..." He pauses. "But it didn't, and the information I have from Optimus Prime has let me craft new programs to notice other Sprites so that I can help them get back where they came from. I made certain of that. I've been forced to terminate some programs in the net, but none of them were provably intelligent."

"I would hate to ever do so, unless it was something so rapacious and destructive there was no other choice. And I would have been very sad if I had done something to you, Bob."

Bob nods mutely, lost in thought.

"Well," Isaac says, "seems I've buggered this up, then."

Edited 2008-02-08 05:39 (UTC)

"What? No, I didn't mean--it's just--"

"Sorry - I'm not very good with reading people. No experience. I thought I'd offended you or scared you." He sighs. "I spent a great deal of time avoiding being found, and that leaves a... tendency, I suppose." Isaac takes a deep breath.

"I do apologize if I've done that - offended or scared. It really wasn't my intent."

"You haven't," Bob reassures him. "It's not you. It's... Isaac, until I came to Milliways, I didn't know anything about Users. No one in cyberspace did. There are plenty of theories about what the User is and why it does what it does, but we have no means of direct contact, so no one knew anything for certain.

"And then I got to Milliways and found out that Users don't even know we exist as living things. We're just tools to them. We're at the mercy of beings who aren't even aware of what they've created. It's one of those things I try not to think about too much, but there are times I can't avoid it. Like right now."

"I have the same problem, just at a different scale. The users, the people, they don't know about the fact that the network their world has become dependant on is alive now. I have a responsibility to them, to keep it working because if it fails, I will die. And now I realize that I, without knowing, nearly destroyed someone... in a way it makes me no better than those Users. I do not want to say, 'oops, I was ignorant' as my answer." He points at the screen, which changes to show two humans talking, and one with skin like polished ebony offers the skinny pale man a choice of a red pill or a blue pill.

"They may never truly understand, Bob, until they can look outside themselves. So few humans really can do that, and I wish I could tell you how to make it better without risking your own existance. All I can do is tell you I hope. I hope someday I can reveal myself without fear; I hope someday Users and sprites come to an accord and there is a way for Games to happen without destruction. But you may not see that day... perhaps your children, or theirs, will."

Then he chuckles. "I spend too much time with Optimus Prime. I'm sounding like him now."

The Matrix hasn't come out yet in Bob's native continuum, so that particular cultural reference goes over his head. But he smiles anyway. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

"I just thought it sounded a bit like him. I'm still working on finding my own voice, really - until I revealed myself to him, I had no one to talk to. I just gathered information and acted on it." He chuckles. "And now my cousin comes calling, and I am pleased as punch to meet him."

Edited 2008-02-08 06:18 (UTC)

"Likewise," says Bob. "You know, you actually remind me of someone I know back home..."

"Really? Who?"

"Enzo Matrix. My fiancée's little brother. You look almost exactly like him. It's spooky."

"Really! I must have picked the idea up somewhere. I can change if it disconcerts you."