CmptrWz

Across the matrix in a history class

"Today we will be covering the cause of the Great Battle of Nixoplat 8," said a five-armed, green-skinned, six-eyed blob at the front of the room. "Please load up information unit Nixo923 on your info terminals."

Moans and groans can be heard around the classroom. None of the students in the class was overly interested in Ancient History, but it was a required course. Every year each group of students hoped that the course would come off the required list, and every year it failed to do so. Instead they just kept on adding to it, requiring each piece. Currently they were in Ancient History Three, and had the honor of being required to take every course up to and including Ancient History Five-Forty-Nine. A long standing bet, covered in Ancient History One-Twenty-Seven, dealt with the dropping of the Ancient History Requirement altogether, but no one expected it to happen.

"Now," the blob continued, "can anyone here tell me anything about the participants in the battle?"

One student in the ninety-third row pressed the response button. "The two participants each came through a Transnexial Gateway."

"Very good," the blob praised. "Now, does anyone here know anything about Transnexial Gateways?" After a few moments of no one making an attempt to answer, the blob continued. "Well then, I suppose we will have to consult the central repository." The blob then turned to a large screen behind it. "Computer, load up the central repository's complete set of information on Transnexial Gateways."

The screen came to life, and a progress bar appeared on it. Messages showed beneath the progress bar as different tasks were accomplished.

Connecting..........
Connected
Requesting information
Request received, awaiting response.........
Scanning for information...............
Information found..............
Warning: Information out of date. Updating..........

"Out of date?" the blob gasped, startled. "That information hasn't changed since it was first entered!"

The entire class woke up at this point. Ancient History topics NEVER had information that was out of date. This was unheard of, and every student there was on the edge of their seat(for those with seats, anyway). If the information was updated enough then it was no longer Ancient History, and they could drop the entire class sequence for inappropriate content.

Information Updated. Analyzing......

The blob and the entire class was wondering what was new in the information, and waited for what seemed like hours, but was really only eighteen seconds. Suddenly the progress bar vanished, alarms started blaring, and the screen went dark. After a second the screen went bright red with white letters. A voice started reading the words that had appeared over and over again.

TRANSNEXIAL GATEWAY DETECTED
ABORT ABORT ABORT
CONTACT INTER-MATRIX AUTHORITIES
PRIORITY CODE ALPHA-SEVEN

The entire class stared at the warning on the screen before heading to their designated emergency meeting spots. Priority Code Alpha ANYTHING was potentially hazardous to ANYONE in the matrix. Even if it turned out to be a false alarm, since it had been triggered anyone with a link to the repository would receive the warning, which was reason enough to go hide.

A few nodes down in the matrix, in the Inter-Matrix Authority Emergency Command Center

"Sir," a small orange being started, "we have mapped out the Transnexial Gateway. One end appears to originate in realm DGN2878-Theta. We lost track of the other end in the vicinity of MFM2987-Driad."

"MFM2987?" a larger purple blob replied. "Isn't that near where Operatives 2873 and 2874 were headed?"

"Ummmm," the small orange being said, looking through information on an info terminal. "Ahhh, here it is. Operatives 2873 and 2874, common names Sonic and Rose. Yes, they were chasing DS into that area. We lost all contact with them recently. Their last report involved going undercover in a hidden world."

"They always did like the hands-on stuff," the purple blob muttered. "Perhaps they went to elope again, it has only been what, thirty eight years since the last time? At any rate, no one in DGN2878-Theta was working on a Transnexial Gateway. Where did this one come from?"

"If I may speak freely," the orange being said. The purple one nodded, and the orange one continued. "Until today, Transnexial Gateways were considered more of a rumor then an actuality, due to the small number of records from the past. The only piece of constant information directly relating to their operation was how to detect them. The explanation for this was that they are very dangerous and were banned, all traces of the creation of them nulled out so that no one could re-produce the hazard that they originally unleashed."

"That is something taught in every Ancient History Three course," the purple blob said, slightly annoyed. "Of course, based on Ancient History One-Twenty-Seven, no one is required to take Ancient History anymore, but that is besides the point."

"Well," the orange being said, still reading, "according to this, the only things to ever come out of a Transnexial Gateway are the two fighters from the Great Battle of Nixoplat 8. The two that many that were around then swear merged and vanished while fighting, causing a major letdown across the entire matrix among the betting class."

"Where are you getting at?" the purple blob said, half-annoyed but half-curious.

"Sir," the orange being said, a slight tremor in its voice. "MFM2987-Driad is one of the surrounding worlds to the Great Void that appeared after the Great Battle of Nixoplat 8 ended. No one has been able to properly penetrate the void before, which would fit a hidden world. Could the gateway be there?"

The purple blob turned and looked that the chart of the matrix behind it, with a red line showing the Transnexial Gateway path as they knew it. It did end right at the border to the void. "You know, those two have a knack for finding trouble in hidden or otherwise locked worlds."

"Speaking of which," the orange being spoke up, "DGN2878-Theta was locked down when the gateway opened."

The purple blob wasn't surprised, given the circumstances. "Contact anyone who has been around long enough to know anything about the events."

The orange being didn't have a chance to respond before the chart of the matrix blinked out and was replaced with the badge of the Inter-matrix Authority. That alone wasn't anything spectacular, it happened whenever a message labeled as high priority came in from any operative, and a secure signal ensured that the badge represented belonged to the operative that was transmitting. The spectacular part was that there were only five operatives around nowadays, three in that room and two were out of contact. Combined with the fact that the badge was the original Inter-matrix Authority badge design, with Operative 0 on the bottom, it made for a jaw-dropping surprise.

"Give me all the info we have on that operative!" yelled the purple blob.

"Yes sir!" yelled the orange being, who was in the middle of doing just that. "Operative 0, listed name Maxwell Mardok, is currently listed as being on Vacation, sir. Last assignment was before assignment records were dated. All the other info in the database is in the archive, and will take longer to pull up."

"Well then," the purple blob said, "why isn't this transmission coming up?"

"It has, sir," the orange being responded. "It was that package in front of you."

"Oh," the purple blob responded, picking up the package. "Lets see what it is." The purple blob proceeded to open the package, finding a strange pulsating crystal and an Automated Question Answering Device, or AQAD. "What does this strange pulsating crystal do?" the purple blob tried asking.

"Processing......" came a digital-sounding voice from the AQAD. "The strange pulsating crystal sits there and pulsates."

"Ask a stupid question...." mumbled the purple blob. "Does the crystal serve any other purpose?"

"Processing......" came the digital-sounding voice again. "The strange pulsating crystal can be entered into standard data input slot eight."

The purple blob put the crystal into the data slot, prompting the screen of the info terminal to come alive as the data was downloaded. The pulse from the crystal slowly faded, until the crystal itself was gone.

"Lets see what we have here," the purple blob mumbled to itself.

Operative 0 coming off of vacation

Taking Transnexial Gateway situation into own hands

Automated Badge Upgrade has been initiated

Signed
Operative 0

"Hmmmmm," said a green being that was in the room. "Seems we have SIX active operatives now."

"I don't suppose we have any more operatives on vacation?" the purple blob asked.

"Just Operative 19," the orange being answered.

"That is alright," said the green being. "We don't need to let Q out. His forced vacation is alright with me!"