Jen Fur at Boot camp

 
 

    The trip from the Montebron system to the Argis system had seemed to take forever.  Jen fur had never been good at inactivity, so she had spent the time getting familiar with all the things going on in the Verge. She was not big on computers and so this helped her get better versed in computer technology. She was not really up on technology, just give her a blaster and a wild planet and she was happy.  Though now she was heading down to one of the most civilized planets in the whole Verge. Bluefall was like nothing Jen had ever experienced before, she passed right through customs because of the papers Falconrune had given her, and now she was heading for Huges Island space port. Looking out the window of the transport she could not believe her eyes. There was water, more water that she thought possible; if she had only a one millionth of that water she would have been rich beyond her imagination back on High Mojave. When she was coming in for a landing at Huges Island another thing caught her eye, it was the city of Huges. She had never seen so many people in one place, and the buildings were all so tall.

"What the," she paused and thought, 'maybe I should watch my language until I know what is going on.' Then she said,
"Is there something I can do for you?" The man smiled and said,
"You have to be Jen Fur," and he almost laughed at her confused look.
"I am and what the H*ll is so funny?"
"Oh that is better. You see Falconrune told me about you." She blushed a little, thinking about the night that they had spent together after he had saved her life. She said, in a much more pleasant voice,
"So what did he say?"
"Oh nothing bad, a little colorful maybe, but defiantly not bad. Oh by the way my name is Flash and I am to take you to our training facility here." She smiled and pointed for him to lead on. "Sh%t, look out, we almost hit that transport." Flash laughed and said,
"We were not even close. This is Huges Island, the most congested peace of real estate in the whole Verge. You will get use to it." She looked at him and said,
"We are not staying here are we?"
"No, we have an island to the southwest. It is just past Depth Eta."
"That was that underwater city that got destroyed by an earthquake or something."
"Yah, or something." It did not take long and they were out over the ocean. "This is where you will be staying, I hope you like it?" Jen looked at him as if he was crazy, and laughing said,
"Have you ever been to High Mojave?"
"No why?"
"Because if you had you would never ask such a question. This is paradise in comparison." Flash looked around and said,
"Yah it is ok. In my travels I have seen both better and worst. Though I must admit there have been worse then better." Jen moved into her cabin and found it was setup for one. She turned and said,
"All for me?"
"Yes, so get settled in and look around. Dinner will be in two hours." Jen threw her bags on the bed and then went out for a walk. She found a weapons range, confidence course and an area that looked like it was used for unarmed combat. Looking at the last area she had to laugh, there was a small pool of dried blood. She wondered if that was Flashes or his last trainee. She then wondered down to the shore and watched the waves roll in. To her it was one of the most amazing things she had ever seen, because on High Mojave you very rarely see more then about 10 liters of water at once. She of course had heard about oceans, but to finally see one, wow!
    After a while she realized it must be time for dinner, and made her way to a group of buildings and eventually found the mess hall. She found Flash talking to a little T'sa. It was fascinating to watch the two, as she had noticed Flash was rather hyperactive, but he was nothing beside the T'sa. The creature could not stand still; it either bounced on it feet, or sung its tail around. When it did move it seemed to run everywhere. Flash motioned her to the table and introduced her to the T'sa. His name was Gnab and he was in charge of the whole facility. Gnab would not be involved with her training, which was Flashes department. They sat and Gnab brought them their dinner. Flash then started to talk about her training. He said,
"From what Falconrune told me we are a competent warrior, but some of your other skills need work." She looked at him as if to say and what skills are those? Flash understood the look as soon as it crossed her face and said,
"No, Falconrune said those skills were exceptional." Jen blushed.
"The skills I am talking about are more etiquette of different planets so you can fit in at any sort of function you might have to go to. The other thing is computer skills." He saw her face go a little white and she said,
"Why the H@ll do I have to learn that?"
"If you don't you will not be of very much use to us, or yourself. After all most of our equipment is computerized or at least computer assisted."
"But," then she heisted, "I am not very good with technological gadgets." Flash smiled and said,
"That is a beginning and from that I will make you an expert" They finished there dinner in quite conversation and then both went to there own cabins and to sleep.
    The next morning they got up to a hardy breakfast and then out to the confidence course. Jen had a few areas where she was not as fast as she would have liked, but all in all she thought she did pretty well. Then they went off to the firing range. Here she did very well with any weapon that Flash gave her. Then he gave her a weird looking rifle. She thought it looked familiar, but at first could not place it. She looked it over and found it had a squeeze trigger. Her mind quickly raced through what species would use such a weapon, then it came to her, and it was a Klick Black Laser.  She looked at Flash and said,
"Why should I learn to use this?"
"I can think of two good reasons. The first is to learn any limitations to your enemies’ weapons, so you can exploit them. The second is even more important. In close combat, who knows what weapon will end up in your hands. If you know how to use it, it could mean the difference between life and death." Jen then pointed the weapon down the firing range and squeezed the trigger. The flash of Black Light went down the range and hit right in the middle of the target. It was at once disintegrated. She turned to Flash and said,
"That is why I studied it on my way here." She then through it back at Flash.
    He smiled and said,
"Ok Miss smarty pants, let’s go work on the computer." Her shoulders slouched as she followed him to the computer room. She sat down and put on her grid gear. She slowly moved onto the grid and went to the Rangers domain on the Aegis grid. It was set up to match the training camp. Jen's movements were slow and uncoordinated, as she moved across the parade grounds. She worked on making her movements more fluid and even tried to do a back flip, this turned out to be a disaster to her dignity, as she landed on her behind. She was going to master this though and so she moved to the confidence course. She ran it until her movements became almost as natural as in the real world. Then all of a sudden Flash was standing in front of her. He said,
"Now that you seem to be able to move with out tripping over your feet, I think maybe I should show you how to defend yourself. Now it is a little different when grid running. First you do not use weapons, as you think of them. You will attack and defend yourself with programs, now these programs may have icons that look like normal weapons, but they are just representations of a program. Do you understand?" Jen looked a little confused but nodded her head yes. So Flash continued,
"Some of the weapons or programs can actually damage you physically, but most will just kick you off the grid." then he pushed a couple of buttons on his gauntlet. Jen looked down and found she had a blaster holstered on her hip. She pulled it out of the holster and checked it balance, spinning it around on her finger. She then dropped it back into her holster and smiled. She said,
"That feels just like the real thing." She moved off to the weapons range and Flash followed her.  At the range she took aim on the targets and fired off a couple of rounds. Looking at the target she could not believe her eyes, The target still looked brand new, not a mark on it. She turned to Flash and said,
"What happened?"
"On the grid a program can not damage the surroundings; it will only interact with other running programs. The target is only part of the back ground." He could see the confused look on her face, so he said,
"Right weapon for the right target. A stutter weapon fires compressed air, right." She nodded.
"It would be almost useless against an android, but an electrical stun gun could kill that same android, but it would probably just make a Weren mad at you. The right weapon for the right job. Well on the grid it is the right program for the right program. Do you understand?"  Then he pulled a sword out from over his shoulder, and in one smooth motion sliced at a tree. There was not a mark on the tree that Jen could see and she smiled at Flash. Flash then moved to lean on the tree; he caught his balance, because as soon as he touched the tree it fell over. Jen jumped out off the path of the falling tree and rolled in the bushes. When she rose from the bushes the whole seen was back to normal, no tree on the ground, it was back where it was before it had fallen. She looked even more confused then normal and Flash said,
"The program resets itself."
    They then spent a couple of hours on weapons training as well as hand to hand combat techniques. Jen was totally amazed with the grid world. She could not believe all the things that could be done in the alternate world. When flash called a halt to her training for the day she was actually disappointed and wanted to continue, but Flash said,
"It is time for dinner."
    They sat down to dinner and Jen was so excited she could barely eat. She wanted to go back and do some more after dinner. Flash ate while Jen talked about all the interesting possibilities she could think of in her new world. Flash tried to explain to her that there were also dangers that went along with this new world, but Jen just brushed him off. Flash was serious, but Jen was too enthralled to pay much attention. Flash figured he had better instill a little fear in her so she would treat the grid with the respect it deserved.  He figured he would take her to one of the more ruff areas of the Aegis grid after dinner and see if that would do it. He said,
"Ok, after dinner we will go to a cyber club." He could see the excitement in her eyes as she finished her dinner.     Then out of the corner of her eye an image caught her attention. He was beautiful and dressed to the nines. She thought this is a man she would like to get to know, and know very, very well. Se told Flash she would meet him at the cafe and just walked away. Flash quickly shot a tracer bug on to her as she walked away. Jen looked around and found the good looking man just turning up a alley way and quickly moved to catch up to him. She caught up to him about 50 meters up the alley. She said,
"Excuse me." The man turned around and said in a voice that made Jen's knees buckle,
"Are you following me?" Without even thinking Jen said,
"Yep,” and before she could even react. The man pulled out a rod and pointed at her. A ray of purple light hit her in the chest. She was shocked into silence as she watched her grid image start to break up and merge into the background. Jen got scared, and quickly jumped back to the computer center at the Verge Rangers Training Center.
    She tried to activate her grid image again but it would not come up. She checked the computer and found all her grid files had been completely wiped.  she could not believe it that guy had wiped her whole grid existence, she was completely gone. Just then Flash showed up, and he asked,
"What happened to you?" Jen shook her head and said,
"I am not sure. I saw someone I thought I knew, but when I caught up to him, he attacked me. He pulled out a rod and a purple light shot out of it. Then I started to dissolve, so I came back here. When I tried to get back on I found all my software was gone." Flash looked confused and asked,
"What do you mean gone?" She looked at him and had a confused look on her face, she just shrugged. Then she started to get mad and said,
"I don't know, it is almost as if I had never Bloody well existed. I am really pissed and would like to go back and beat the hell out of that guy. How can I get back on?"
"You can't, that ray he hit you with was something like a disintegration ray. If you had not made it back in time, I am not sure what would have happened to you." Instead of calming Jen down, this just made her madder.
"Ok, now I am really fucking mad. Let’s get my image restored and then go after this Yahoo."
"I don't think so. I want you to work on a new grid image while I try to find out what I can about this guy. There is something very weird about all of this."
"Shit, I thought we were Verge Rangers, and we kicked butt."
"Yes, but we have to know what kind of but we are kicking." Jen could not argue with that after all she might have died when her image dissolved. She grudgingly gave in and went to work on a new grid image.
    Flash on the other hand started to review what had happened to Jen.  It was a good thing that all trainees were recorded every time they went onto the grid.  He watched the recording, but could not understand why the man or what ever it was has attacked her.  He thought it might be because she had said she was following him, but what could be so important to try and kill her over.  The weapon was most unusual and he could not think of any race that used anything like it. The whole thing was very confusing.  After watching it a few times he noticed that it looked like the man was pushing a button on the rod, he zoomed in and found there were three buttons on the rod. Flash then watched the man and his movements, he noticed something unusual, but at first he could not put his finger on it. He ran it through an analysis program and it said the movement was digital. He thought, 'What would have digital movement?' Then it came to him, he was looking at an AI. At that realization all he could say was,
"Shit!"
    Flash turned to Jen and said,
"Your friend is an AI." She looked confused so Flash continued,
"It is a program that has developed artificial intelligence and basically runs independent of anything else. To put it simple it is the life form of the grid."
"Shit, That was some sort of grid life form. Can I kill it?" Flash gave her a disapproving look and Jen said,
"Just kidding."
"We may have to do just that, but first we have to find out what it is up to. They do not think like normal people and sometimes they even think of them as obstacles to eliminated."
"Oh great, a super hacker in the grid that may want to wipe out life as we know it on this planet.  What are we going to do about it?" Flash was quite for a few moments then said,
"The first thing we are going to do is get some sleep." Jen looked disappointed but shut down the computer center and they headed back to their cabins.
   After about half an hour the computer system came back on. The files were methodically gone through and especially anything to do with Jen Fur. This was all done while everyone slept and not a person moved on the island.  The next morning Flash entered the computer facility to find the computers on. He at once did a security check to see what was going on.  After a couple of minutes he found that their system had been hacked. Doing some more checking to find out what the hacker had wanted, he found they had been looking foe anything on Jen Fur. This did not really make any sense to Flash, after all no one knew she was here. He then traced the hack back to its source. This turned out to be a lot harder then it should have been. Who ever the hacker was they were very careful, they had bounced the hack off a couple of satellites and even a space station. Finally Flash traced it back, but that came up with more questions then answers. The trace had led him to the middle of the ocean. Flash then checked the co-ordinates with any known development on Bluefall, but this lead nowhere. His curiosity was peeked now, so he decided that what ever is out there should be checked out. He thought should he take Jen? Then figured how much trouble could they get into out in the middle of the ocean.  He then went looking for her, and eventually found her on the rifle range. He told her about their visitor, and that they were going to return the favor. She said,
"My files. Why would any one want to know about me? This is starting to piss me off, let’s go kick this guys butt." Flash told her what they would need from the supply shed, and off she went. Flash went down to the dock and prepared a high-speed sub. After loading up the sub they took off.
    Jen could not believe the view through the port. It was a world of wonderful colors and creatures. Flash noticed her silent fascination and said,
"You have never been underwater like this, have you?" She did not answer at first. Then with out taking her eyes from the port she said,
"All the water on my planet is frozen, this is absolutely amazing." Flash smiled and just kept the sub on course. The sub was a high-speed machine, but it was still going to take them a good ten hours to get to the co-ordinates. Flash used the time to teach Jen all about submersibles and life underwater. She was very attentive and asked a lot of questions, and by the time they got to the co-ordinates she knew more then most people on Bluefall.
    They were just sitting there on the surface of Bluefall's huge ocean. Jen looked around but all she could see was the sun shimmering off the ripples in the water. She thought about how much it reminded her of the snowfields of home. Bluefalls though was a lot warmer then High Mojave. She looked over to see Flash working on some kind of sensor. He said,
"What ever we are looking for, I think I have found it." Then he showed her a small blip on the screen. Jen looked at the readings but could not figure out what it was. She said,
"What do you think it is?"
"Well, it is a structure and it has an environment in it. From what I can tell it is some sort of outpost." He then punched some keys on his computer, looking at the result he said,
"That is weird. According to the Aegis grid there is nothing here. It must be either ultra top secret or who ever put it down there does not want anyone to know about it."
    Jen smiled and said,
"I guess we should go and visit the unsociable bastards." They headed back down into the sub and dove into the unknown. Jen was just as fascinated as the first time she had headed under the deep blue sea. She was looking out the view port, when an explosion shook the sub. The second time she saw the green light of the laser cutting through the water at the little sub. Following it back she saw the silhouettes of four creatures. She could not be sure, but two of them looked like they were human, while the other two looked to be large fish of some kind. Then another hit from the lasers shook the ship.  Flash yelled,
"Did you find them?" Yelling back she said,
"Yes, two men with lasers of some kind and two very large fish." The fish had been moving in all this time and Jen now had a good view of them. She continued,
"The fish have a whole shit load of teeth." She could hear Flash laugh at what she had just said and it put her at ease.
    Then the sub shook again, from a laser hit, and Flash said,
"Put on your evac-suit, we may have to get wet." She quickly got into it as the little sub was rocked by more laser hits. Then there was a deafening silence. She looked out to see the two fish, which she now figured was some kind of sharks, moving in on them. They started to batter the little sub around. Jen tried to brace herself but was not in time and was knocked off her feet. She got up to find the sub had sprung a leak. Water was spraying across the cabin. She found the emergence sealant and applied it to the leak and eventually the water stopped.
    She then yelled at Flash,
"What the hell are you doing up there?"
"I am trying to get the main propulsion back on line, so we can get out of here."
"Well can't we fight back at least?"
"We have no weapons, this is a research sub." Then there was a pause after which Flash said,
"Hold on tight, I have an idea." Flash had found a deepwater cave with a very narrow opening. After the next attack by the sharks he piloted the sub in such a way as to look as if it was sinking. He guided the sub into the cave mouth and when they were about a 100 meters in and just before a sharp corner. He yelled back,
"Jen hit the red buttons on the right numbered 1 through 4." She did as she was told and watched as a rush of air and other material moved up the cave, and to the surface. The sub scooted around the corner in the confusion and Flash said,
"Ok, now power down, maybe we can confuse these guys." 'They are gone, you can go now.'  She instinctively thought back,
'Our ship is damaged, and we are running out of air. Can you help us?' The little creature looked at her again. Then it communicated,
'Yes, I can take you to our city where we have a section for air breathers.' Jen thought,
'Who are you?'
'We are the Deepfallen and my name is,' there was a pause, 'You don't really have a word for my name, so you can just call me Reek.'
'Ok Reek, let me get my friend.'
    She then moved to where Flash was working on the propulsion system, and said,
"We have been invited to the Deepfallen city near by. They have an area for air breathers." He looked at her as if she were nuts, so she just pointed over her shoulder at the front bubble.
"Wow, I always thought they were just a myth." She looked at him in disbelief, and said,
"And I always thought elves were just a myth."
"What! how did you know?"
"It was not hard to figure out, believing it was the hard part. Now let’s move out." He looked at her with a newfound respect and followed her to the air lock.
    They got out into the water and looked around into its inky blackness. Flash turned on a light that light up about a 6-meter radius, and there was Reek as if he had just materialized. He shimmered in the water from his multiple hues of blue and the light. He then communicated,
'Please follow me deeper into the cave.' Then he swam off. Flash and Jen had to swim very fast to keep up with Reek. This was hard for Jen, who until arriving on Bluefall had never seen more then about 10 liters of water in one place. Reek must have sensed this for he came back and had her put her arms around his neck and he pulled her along. She could not believe how strong the little guy was. They moved deeper into the cave for about half an hour. Then she sensed him slowing down.
    Slowly a light became visible at an opening in the cave. The opening got slowly bigger and the light got brighter until they swam out of it. They were in a huge cavern with some sort of phosphorescence on the roof. The light gave the whole cavern a greenish glow, but that is not what caught Jen's attention. rising from the floor of the cavern where majestic spires of rock. They were obviously hollow, because they had light shinning out through what seemed to be doors and windows. There were Deepfallen everywhere, swimming up and down the spires, both inside and out. Jen was taking all this in when Reek communicated,
'Welcome to Osvaldo.'  When he communicated with her, her mind was opened up to all the Deepfallen in the area. She got the impression there were thousands or maybe even hundreds of thousands of minds here. She asked,
"How many Deepfallen live here?" The answer came into her mind,
'In your numbers, 374,592 Deepfallen, 6 Humans, 2 Fraal and 1 T'sa. The T'sa are a most unusual species, much like the Deepfallen, but yet so different.'  Jen thought about that, the Deepfallen did sort of look like a cross between the T'sa and the Fraal. Could some race have done that and then placed them on Bluefall. Then a new voice came into her head, it was different, stronger and authoritative. It said,
'You are wise for one so young. Please follow Reek to my chambers.' She looked at Reek and he communicated,
'That was our city's leader, E-pill, he is very old and wise.'
    They then headed off in a new direction, and eventually came to a small spire. It had beautiful carved door, with representations of all of Bluefalls sea life. the doors opened and they walked in. They walked into a hall of some kind. Jen could not believe her eyes it looked like something right out of ancient Greek mythology, King Neptune's Court. The decorations and art works were all created using undersea materials. the walls looked to be made of something like mother of pearl, while the tapestries seemed to be made out of colored seaweed. There were cushions and chairs of every shape and design spread all over the room. They seemed to be made of wood and covered in silk, but Jen was not sure. The one thing she was sure of was that the room was beautiful enough for the king of the sea.  Jen turned to Flash and said,
"Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?"
"Not since the fairy kingdoms, has a rooms beauty taken my breath away." She looked at him and smiled.
    There sitting on a cushion in front of them was another Deepfallen. This ones face looked even more ageless, but it held a certain wisdom that only comes with age. Reek leads them up to him and then bowed to the Deepfallen on the cushion. Jen then heard Reek in her head,
'This is E-pill, the leader of Osvaldo, our beloved city. He is also a member of the Deepfallen Council.' Reek then gave a little bow to E-pill and then motioned for Jen and Flash to have a seat. As soon as they had sat E-Pill communicated to them,
'It must be the will of the creators that you come to us at this, our time of need.' Jen looked at Flash but he only shrugged to show he knew nothing about what E-Pill was talking about. E-Pill continued,
'Flash knows nothing about what I am communicating to you. The Creators still look out for us, and I am sure they sent you here to help us.' Jen smiled at hearing that and thought, 'I was right about the Deepfallen being created; it had to have been a Precursor Race.'
    Jen's mind was then filled with images of a race of begins. The images showed ever aspect of there society. The aliens themselves were very interesting. They seemed to be somewhat humanoid, but instead of flesh and bone they seemed to be made of pure energy. They were multi colored, and the colors were always moving and changing. Jen was amazed to see that these were obviously the same beings that had been on High Mojave when it was a beautiful green planet. They had been, nick named, the Glassblowers for their incredible glass structures. E-Pill explains these are the creators, and that the Deepfallen were created to help them reach a higher state of benign. Jen was confused, but E-Pill could not explain it any better.
    Flash interrupted the flow of images through her mind by asking,
"So E-Pill, what is all this time of need thing all about?" E-Pill smiled back and communicated,
'The ones who attacked you have also been attacking my people. They have killed many of us with their lasers, and foe nothing better then to feed their sharks. We have tried to stop them but to no avail, so the Creators have sent you to help us.'
    Jen and Flash agreed to help and before they knew it they were out of Osvaldo and looking down on what they had come to see. They were in a rocky out cropping and Reek was pointing down at something. Jen and Flash moved forward so they could get a better look. It appeared to be some kind of container, or bunch of containers. They had some sort of an environment because there were air-purifying units on top of each container. Reek then pointed out a door and flash checked the area to see if he could see any security measures. It seemed clear and that made Flash and Jen both very nervous. Reek did not seem to understand this. He moved towards the door and after about two steeps, two automated laser turrets came up. Jen quickly dove for Reek and rolled him behind some big rocks. They made it to the cover, and not a second too soon. The spot were he had been standing a moment before was now a hole. Reek turned to Jen and communicated his Thanks; she just smiled at him in return. Jen was checking out the structure when she saw a door open and six sharks emerge from it.
    Flash said,
"Reek you get back to Osvaldo. We should be able to handle it from here." The little blue lizard like creature smiled and then in Jen's mind she heard Thank you and Good Luck. Then he swam off. Flash turned back to Jen and pointed towards the open hatch the sharks had just come out. She nodded and the two of them headed for it at top speed. One of the sharks moved to intercept, but when it got into range Flash just hauled off and punched it in the snout. The shark had not expected that for it quickly turned and swam away. Jen looked at him a little shocked and he said,
"Never underestimate the power of a good left cross. It can be devastating to any ego." The sharks seemed to stay clear after that and so they entered through the open hatch.
    Flash at once looked up and realized they were in a pool. Looking around the surface he could not see any one so he made his way to the surface. He checked the air to see if it was breathable, and it was, so he motioned for Jen to join him as he got out of the pool. They were both checking out the room when Flash's eyes light up. He had found a weapon storage area. He grabbed two lasers and all the power clips he could find. Then giving half of them to Jen they made their way to the door. They entered at the end of a hall that had five other doors in it, two on either side and one at the end. Flash signaled for them to go to the door on the end and then work there way back. Jen thought, 'Not good, but maybe he has a plan.' They moved towards the last door. Jen strained to hear every little sound hoping she would sense trouble before trouble found her. About half way down the hall she signaled a stop, she could not be sure but she thought she had heard something off to her right. The sound did not repeat itself so they moved on. When they got to the door Jen checked it and found it to be open. She did a three count with her fingers and opened the door. They quickly moved into the room and found themselves some cover, but after looking around realized it was not necessary. The room was empty.
    The room was not devoid of activity though. There was computer equipment of all kinds and it all seemed to be working feverishly. Flash moved to see what was going on while Jen made sure they were alone. When Jen was finished she turned to Flash and said,
"So, What the F@#K is it doing?"
"I have no idea, but this is are AI."
"How do you know?"
"Come and look at this coding. Only an AI could code like that. I can tell you another thing, what ever it is doing it is big." He paused looking at the screen then said,
"Oh Shit!"
"What, What did you see?"
"It is hacking into the satellite defense system. We have to stop it now."
    Jen moved to put on the grid ware while Flash started entering commands. She said,
"Any time," and Flash kept working on the key board. Then see saw a smile come across his face, and she was in. The domain of the AI was like nothing she had ever seen before. It looked as if she were in some sort of biological entity. The walls seemed to pulse with life, but they were also very un-natural colors. There were pinks and greens to rival the brightest neon's. Then right next to it would be a flat metallic color. It all gave off a very disturbing feel. Jen looked around and eventually found a door; it was hidden as much by the colors as it was by the design.
    Walking through she found herself in a hall of sorts. The walls looked to be made of wood and there were what Jen thought to be holograms of beings heads all over the walls. Most were human or Mech's, but there were also T'sa, Weren and Fraal. As she looked at them, all of there eyes opened at once and looked at her.  It almost scared her out of her wits. Then their mouths opened and they all started to moan. It got loader and loader until Jen had to cover her ears, she started to run for the door at the other end of the hall. that was when she noticed the figures were coming out of the wall. Not all the way mind you just up to about their waists. This aloud there arms to be free and they started to grab at Jen as she ran by them. When they figured they could not grab her they started to punch and beat on her. She was fending them off as best she could, but she was still taking quite the beating. she made it to the door and ripped it open and ran through. Stopping to catch her breath, at first she did not really realize she was standing on a bed of red hot coals. Her mind at first had her believing she was standing on a bed of coals, but as she calmed down she came to the conclusion it must be an illusion. After that it started to cool off and Jen actually stopped and took a deep breath and relaxed.
    The next room would have made some people insane, but Jen just walked through it as if it was not even there. the walls, floors, and ceiling were all moving, as every inch was covered by snakes. There was every kind of snake imaginable. Jen was through the room before most the snakes even knew she was there. At the next door, she hesitated, because when she grabbed the door knob she could not feel it. It was a most disturbing sensation. She some how got the door open and all at once she was surrounded by pitch blackness, at least that seemed the best way to describe it. If truth be said it was more like an area of nothingness. She went to move more into the room or where ever she was and found she did not walk but just seemed to move from place to place. Looking around she could not see anything so she could not tell if the room was small or large, or even if there were walls at all. She made to move and found she started to almost drift, she wanted to stop it, but then thought, 'Lets get this over with.'
    Jen was not sure how long she had been drifting, somewhere between an hour and a week. Then she hit something with her arm. turning to look she found there was a door there beside her. she reached out to open the door, but found she had drifted away from it. Trying to swim to it she found she could not control her motion. She was started to get excited when she thought, 'I need to be at that door.' Then all of a sudden it was there in front of her. She pulled her self through as she had been taught in Zero G training, but as she crossed the threshold gravity took over again and slammed her face first into the floor.
    Rubbing her chin Jen rose to find her self face to face with one of the most handsome men she had ever seen. The only problem was that this man had tried to kill her at least once already. She said,
"Shit," then she smiled and continued, "By the way the last time we met I did not get your name you were to busy trying to kill me." The man smiled a smile that could have made any woman swoon. then he said,
"Since you are going to die, I see no reason you should not know my name. I am VORL."
"VORL, not bad but I am sure your creators could have come up with something better."
"It is an identification, that is all."
"Ok, if you say so VORL." As she is talking she is looking around the room for any sort of weapon she can use against VORL. Then she notices a Large Red Button, and across it, it reads FLASH.
    VORL then said,
"Why are you interfering with my plans? Who sent you?" She looked at him,
"No one sent me, and if you had not zapped me off the grid, I probably would not have given you a second thought." VORL said to himself,
"Modify security program, to aggressive on first encounters." All this time Jen had been moving around checking readouts and labels on buttons. She was also moving closer to the Flash button, when all of a sudden VORL said,
"Enough." Jen turned to see that he had the rod in his hand again. She knew she was in trouble. the last time VORL had hit her with that purple beam she had had all her defenses up, but now, she had none. She tried stalling by saying,
"Can you first tell me why you want to kill all life on Bluefall?"
"Ignorant human. I do not want to kill all life for if I did that who would I rule over. It will be the first jewel of my crown for when I finally rule the whole Verge."
"Wow” said Jen, "I had no idea I was talking to the Verge's next ruler. I have to give you credit, you sure do dream big, especially for a pile of sparks, but I guess anything can have delusions of grandeur." At that VORL put away the rod and said,
"For that I am going to beat you to death ever so slowly." Then he grabbed her and through her across the room.
    Out in the real world Flash had just finished programming the AI's destruction, when a reflection crossed his screen. He quickly finished and dove for cover. He heard the consul he had been working on explode. Rising from his cover he fired one of the lasers he had stolen and hit one of his attackers in the chest. The attacker had armor on and so his life was spared, but he was out cold. Flash quickly got back behind his cover as two more of the Cyborgs fired at him. Flash could not be sure what was happening with Jen, but he did know he had to protect her body until she got out of that computer. He took a couple of shoots at the Cyborgs then moved to pull Jen's body under cover. Flash and the two Cyborgs basically fought to a stand off.
    Jen had not anticipated the speed and power of VORL, so when she looked up to find him standing over her she said,
"Shit, was that really called for?" He just picked her up and through her against the consul. She got up facing VORL then realized she must be right in front of the Flash button. she moved her hand around behind her back until she found the button, not once taking her eyes off of VORL. She stared right into his eyes and pushed the button. At first nothing seemed to happen and she thought, 'Shit she was going to get thrown around some more.' Then she saw it cross his eyes, it was at first confusion then fear quickly took over. VORL was now panicking as he knew he was in trouble. He reached into his pocket and said as he took out the rod,
"At least I will take you with me," but before he could push the button he started to dissolve into trillions and trillions of bits of information. The bits seemed to repulse each other as if they were all magnetically charged, and they were all soon gone.
    Jen made her way back to Flash and found him sitting talking to the three mermen. When he realized she was there he smiled, it was a smile that was have dulled most suns. She said,
"Shit you weren't worried, were you?"
"Well you did not do that well the last time you were on the grid,” and then he laughed.
"I learn from my mistakes."

The End

 

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