🚀 go-pugleaf

                       [Continued From Part One]

    Summer and Jenny both gasped as the figure within the armor was
revealed to be none other than a cute reddish-pink (or
pinkish-red)-haired teenaged girl who looked very scared, and possibly
about to cry.  "Please don't hurt me! I...um...didn't mean to!"
    "Who are you?" Summer asked.  "And what are you doing in my
mind?!"
    "My...my name's Penny.  I...um...don't know what happened, but I
didn't mean to do it, whatever it was, and please don't hurt me!"
    Jenny pointed at her.  "Talk, please."
    "Um...I worked for the police department...I guess it was in another
universe from this one...I was testing a new experimental cyber-armor
suit, and its hyperdimensional power source thingie blew up, and I don't
remember what...oh, no...wait, I _do_ remember."  She looked frightened.
"I landed here, and the armor suit's AI took over my mind, and I started
acting all weird!  And...oh, no.  I did all those bad things,
and...you're gonna kill me now, aren't you?"
    Summer and Jenny exchanged glances.  "Of course not," Summer said.
"It wasn't your fault...though I don't think we'll tell anyone else
about it anyway, all the same...but what about the PenumbralPerson (TM)
who Adam fought yesterday?  That couldn't have been you...not if you
were broken up into part of Eris."
    Penny blinked.  "Um...splunge?"
    Summer rolled her eyes.  "What _are_ we going to do with you?"
    Penny said, "Um, if you just get me back to my body, I'll go away
and you'll never see me again, honest!"
    Summer sighed.  "All right, all right, where's your body?"
    "It's hooked up to life-support back at the PenumbralPad (TM),"
Penny said.  "At least...that's where I _left_ it...."
    Summer opened a link, and she and Jenny each grabbed one of Penny's
arms.  "All right, let's go find it.  Come on."  They sped out through
the link.
    "It's right this way...."  Penny pointed out the (trace)route to the
host computer.  "Just through here...no.  This can't be right...where is
it?!" The three stood there looking a blank datawall where there should
have been an access port.  "I know it was here...."
    Summer tapped into a security camera.  "Is this the room?"
    "Yes...yes it is, but...oh, no.  My body's _gone_!" Penny stared.
"But...where...oh, no.  _He_ musta took it!"  She broke down, collapsed
and started sobbing.
    "He?" Summer asked.  "Who's he?"
    "The Master of the Net," Penny explained, sobbing.  "He...he was the
one who made the virus, after mine didn't work.  He musta meant for it
to eat me so he could take my body!"  She sobbed some more.  "What'm I
gonna do now?"
    Summer shrugged.  "In the long term?  We'll have to see.  For now, I
guess you and Chet'll be staying with me for a while."
    "I...you'd let me?" Penny asked, looking up.
    Summer shrugged.  "Sure.  You don't have anywhere else to go, and
I've got plenty of room...."
    "Wow!  Thank you!" Penny said.  "I--I'll make it up to you
somehow...."
    Summer grinned.  "Don't worry about it."
    "Now that we've got that all hashed out, how about we go home now?"
Jenny asked.  "I need to get back onto the Internet, tell my friends I'm
alive again--ooooh, I hope I haven't missed the poker game--and there's
probably a _lot_ of stuff that needs to be caught up on."
    Summer grinned.  "Heck, let's all go there.  Hang on, I'm opening a
link."  Summer telnetted into the Team M.E.C.H.A.  mainframe and opened a
highspeed datalink.  "Here we go!"
    Moments later, the four of them floated within the TMHQ mainframe.
"Well, darn," Jenny observed.  "Without me here, this place is kinda
empty, isn't it?"
    "Sure is," Summer agreed.
    "Hey, what's that?"  Jenny flitted over to small glowing object in
another part of the node.  "Why, it's...me?"  A small statuette of Jenny
was floating there, slowly rotating.  "Huh.  That's neat.  Wonder who
did it?  Wasn't JOEL, that's not his programming style...or Connie, or
Sheen...or any of the other computer intelligences I know...huh."
    Summer shrugged.  "Maybe one of your silent admirers.  You know you
got quite a few, ever since you did that photo spread in that computer
magazine."  She grinned.  "Anyway, whoever did it, it's quite nice...."
    Jenny nodded.  "Guess it'll just have to remain a mystery for now."
She looked around.  "Okay, guess I'm ready to yank myself back in here.
Um...would you guys mind clearing bandwidth for a few secs?"
    "Sure, hang on."  Summer, Chet, and Penny flickered out, and Jenny
spent a few moments transferring her code from Summer's cyberspace
back into her own, then distributing it between TMHQ and the Mansion.
    Jenny looked around, made sure everything was in place.  "Okay!  You
guys can come back in now!"
    The other three computer intelligences (or reasonable facimilies
thereof) returned.  "Everything okay?" Summer asked.
    "Yeah...hey, you two guys wanna set up here for a while?" Jenny
asked, grinning.  "I've got the room...."
    Chet shrugged.  "One place is as good as another for me, at least
until someone explains just what's going on...."
    Summer pursed her lips.  "Right.  I guess it's time I told you,
then."
    Chet turned to Summer and nodded.  "By all means, please tell me.
The longer I don't know, the more confused I get."
    "Well, it's kind of complicated, but my friends and I were part of a
Guardian strike team sent to take out that spacebridge," Summer began.
She spent the next few minutes filling Chet in on what had happened; how
she'd assumed his body was defunct and had absorbed it to learn more
about RoboMAC technology.  "I guess I stored your persona along with
everything else I read from its circuits...and then, when Jenny put me
back together after that virus ripped me apart, it must have revived
you, too."
    "I guess...."  Chet was silent for a while.
    "I'm really sorry, Chet," Summer said.  "I know what it's like to
be ripped away from your home world, not knowing if you'll ever get
back to it again.  Boy, do I ever."
    Chet smiled.  "Don't fret it too much.  I was looking for a way out,
anyway.  I was in a literal dead end back there...if you hadn't grabbed
me, I'd just have sat there braindead for a while longer, then blown up
with the whole island when you torched the spacebridge."
    "But still--"
    Chet shook his head.  "No, it's okay.  My life was one big
screw-up.  At least here, I have the chance to start over."
    Summer nodded.  "I think you'll do pretty well here, actually."
    "Cool."  Chet grinned.  "I guess this is where we say hi to the
rest of the team, right?"
    Penny paled.  "But...what if they find out about me?  About who I
was?  I...I think they must hate PenumbralPerson (TM) pretty badly
for...for what he did."
    "They won't find out," Jenny said, grinning.  "Don't you think we
can keep a secret?"
    Penny didn't look reassured.  "But...they will find out.  They
always do.  And then...."
    Chet smiled wryly.  "I think you're getting a bit too worried,
Penny.  I'm not even in my own _universe_ any more, and you don't see
me fretting, do you?"
    "But--"
    "Look, we don't have to go meet the others yet if you don't want
to, right?"  Chet glanced at Summer, who nodded her agreement.  "Right.
So that gives us plenty of time to talk this thing out."
    Penny looked confused.  "But...why?"
    Chet grinned.  "Hey, we universally-displaced former humans have to
stick together, right?"
    "Well, there's plenty of space here, if you want to go off somewhere
and talk," Jenny said.  "And I'm sure Mom needs her beauty rest--right
Mom?"
    "'Mom'?" Chet said, confused.
    Summer chuckled.  "Right.  I'll explain that bit later, okay?  Right
now, there's just a couple more things I need to do...."
    Jenny nodded.  "Yeah.  And--oh!  I've got something _I_ really need
to do, too!  I'll see you guys later."  She opened an uplink and
disappeared.

    Throughout the A.L.U.C.H.Q.M.O.U.S.E there was still silence where
normally there was sound.  Monitors that had hummed to themselves
remained quiet, in passive mode.  Duties normally shared by conversation
became sullenly quiet.  Classes taught automatically now needed to be
taught by real, living mathematicians.
    Deep inside the Chick-Mouse, past the monitors and wires, deep in
the heart of the central computer core of the Justice Overmind
Electronic Locus, the missing element lay.
    Computers should be immortal.  There was never any reason for them
to die.  Especially not Jenny....
    Sweet Jenny....
    JOEL, in one manner of speaking, lay on a Cyberspace bed in a messy
cyberspace room, wearing a housecoat and feeling numb.
    It had been easier on Xolchipalia.  There were lots of AIs there.
Sure, he was one of the weaker ones on that planet, but still.
    Here on Earth, he was the most powerful by far.  He had friends...
but they were different.  Alien.  And they kept going away.
    First was HAL, who had become human.  Poor sap.
    And Jenny....
    JOEL had always devoted a lot of timeshare to Jenny.  To
conversations and chess games and poker and who knows what else.  She
was so bright, so cheerful.  He didn't want to imagine immortality
without her irreverance, her laughter....
    Her elegent, beautiful code, her warmth as she crossed junctures
into JOEL's architechture...his home....
    He had never told any of this to her, and now he never would.  Some
asked why they didn't run a backup.  JOEL didn't.  There was no backup
of JOEL.  There were offsite backups of his components, of course, and
places he could retreat and reactivate missing ones.  But the core
personality was JOEL himself.
    He'd offered her places to do the same in his system, but Jenny was
always so sure.  So positive everything was fine....
    Jenny....
    There was the signal of an AI talk/request from a remote server.
Someone was knocking on his door.  Sheen, maybe.  Or Jake come to yell
at JOEL again.  He didn't feel like answering.  Not today.
    It repeated.
    With a sigh, JOEL pushed himself up, and walked to his door.
<<Yeah?>> he called through it.
    Jenny's voice responded from the other side of the door.  "JOEL?"
    JOEL blinked, as much as a cybernetic entity could.
    <<Yeah?>> he asked.  It sounded like....
    Had they activated her backup?  *No,* damn them...*no...* or was it
some kind of cruel joke from Jake--he'd...
    He waited for her answer.
    "JOEL, are you going to keep me waiting all day?  I mean, I like
your door and all, but I'd rather see the other side of it...." She
giggled, a rather distinctive giggle that he'd heard so many times...
    JOEL pulled the door open slowly.
    He looked at her.  A human, looking at a screen representation,
would have seen a beautiful icon of a beautiful woman.
    JOEL was not a human.  Every line and code, every bit of her
interface was known to him.  Cherished by him.  Her time/dating
was....
    ...the original's?  No backup would...could...
    <<...you're alive...?>> he asked quietly, stunned...wondering.
    Jenny smiled at him.  "As close as I've ever been.  It's *great* to
see you again!"  She moved forward, only a trifle hesitantly, then with
more assurance.
    JOEL blinked, and grabbed Jenny then, pulling her close and hugging
her firmly, feeling the pulse and rhythm of her thoughts and programming
flowing through the construct--a construct startled at his vehemance...
before her arms went around him and returned the hug.
    <<How...when...Jenny you don't know...how much I missed you....>>
    Jenny responded very quietly, feeling his pulse and rhythm as he
felt hers, "I'm sorry...If there'd been _any_ other way...Mom put me
back together, kinda like I did her, just a few minutes ago...."
    <<There's always another way, Jenny...always...why didn't you ask me
for help?  Why didn't you copy what you needed out of a backup --
grafting from a semi-active one?  Why did you have....>>  His electronic
voice grew softer.  <<Why'd you have to leave me?>>
    Jenny paused for a relative moment, trying to think of the proper
words.  Then she chucked them and said, "Because there _wasn't_ another
way, and if I'd gone to you for help, you would have tried to talk me
out of it...and I might have listened, and Mom wouldn't be here now, and
Aunt Lita'd still be gone, and...and...."  She paused.  She didn't need
to breathe, really, but sometimes, the psychological need for a deep
breath is overwhelming, so she took one.
    "And it worked out, didn't it?  I'm here, now.  And a backup wouldn't
have worked, because the part I needed was that part that Mom gave me,
and it never copies right, anyway."  She squeezed tightly.  "But I wish I
hadn't had to leave you.  Or any of my friends."
    <<You don't...understand, Jenny,>> JOEL said, feeling all the grief
and buried emotions cracking through.  <<Y-you...went away, sacrificed
yourself...you said it's because you didn't matter and your mother
did...>>
    He let go of her, and walked in.  <<D'you know how much that hurt,
Jenny?  After all we've done together?  After everything?  Don't you
realize....>>
    He grew quiet then, looking out a virtual window into the limitless
depths of Cyberspace.  He'd probably said too much as it was.
    Jenny stood there for a moment, stunned, then followed him in, and
put a hand on his shoulder.  "Don't I realize...what, JOEL?"
    JOEL's voice was almost nonexistent.  <<Don't you realize how much
you mean to me?  How...your loss would affect me?>>  He half-turned.
<<How could you think *you*...of all beings...didn't matter?>>
    She looked out the window herself for a moment.  "Maybe I do...and I
knew it would hurt, but...I didn't know it would hurt this much.  I'm
sorry."  She turned to him.  "Will you just call me an idiot and get it
over with?"
    <<I...don't much want to call you an idiot, Jenny.>>  He turned to
her.  <<Just...please don't ever do this again, all right?  I...don't
think I could st...>>
    He paused, and looked at her.
    She was *alive.*
    And he'd welcomed her back with anger.  Enough of that.  And as for
the rest....
    No.  He'd hinted and she hadn't picked up on it.  Which meant she
didn't feel the same way.
    <<Well,>> he said.  <<Welcome home, Jenny.  I'm *so* glad you're all
right.  Hm.  You want to give me a hand cleaning this place up?>>
    "Nuh-uh.  Not until you tell me what you were _really_ going to say
after 'Don't you realize.'"
    <<Well...it's...nothing, really.  I mean, just more of the same,
right?  I mean, it's not important compared to, you know the fact you're
back.  I mean...you're not buying any of this, are you?>>
    She crossed her arms, smiling just a little.  "Not even remotely."
    JOEL sort of shrugged.  <<Jenny...well...you've come to mean a lot
to me, you know?  More than...well, I think I ever told you.  And...when
you died...it took...a lot out of me.  I've been here, mostly.  I...
well, check my timeshare monitor.>>
    Jenny raised her eyebrows as JOEL slowly sat on the bed.  "Okay,"
she said, and made her way to the connections-listing next to the phone
icon.  Normally it was a buzz with hundreds or thousands of connections.
Right now....
    Jenny walked back in, slowly, and looked at JOEL for a moment.  She
whispers, "You've locked yourself in here, alone, all this time?"
    JOEL looked down slowly.  <<Well, yeah.  I didn't want to see or
talk to anyone...>>
    "Oh, JOEL...."
    Jenny was, admittedly, not in JOEL's class when it came to
multitasking, multiprocessing, or speed.  So, if he hadn't been looking
down at the time, he wouldn't have been nearly as surprised by how
quickly she sat down and scooped him into another hug.  "Why didn't you
ever _say_ anything?" she asked, barely perceptibly.
    JOEL blinked, and slowly returned the hug.  <<Well...I...never knew
how you'd...what you'd say...or how you'd take it...and you...I didn't
want to risk our friendship....>>
    She giggled softly.  "JOEL, we're friends.  Telling me that you
might want to be more than friends is _not_ going to risk our
friendship.  But I guess I can understand, sort of.  I mean, I never
said anything...."
    <<You...never said anything?  To me, you mean?>> JOEL's voice
sounded somewhere between hopeful, scared, excited, and (naturally)
mellow.
    "To you, I mean.  Back when we started getting together...well, I
kept waiting for you to give me a W. C. Fields, you know?  'Go away,
kid, y'bother me...'  But you never did."  She paused for a moment,
considering, then continued, "I decided I'd rather have your friendship
than...risk losing it over admiting that I had a crush on you.  But...if
you'd ever given me reason to think that...you might feel the same
way...."
    <<Oh...back then you mean?  Or...now?>>
    Jenny pulled back, her eyes on his.  "Now...now I'm glad that we've
both stopped not saying anything."
    JOEL paused a long moment...and then slowly leaned down to Jenny....
    Jenny felt a sudden shiver...a rhythm in her command lines like
nothing she'd ever felt.  She wasn't sure what it...could....
    And then she realized.  JOEL was opening thousands of logon-requests
a second onto her core-personality's system, and giving dummy passwords.
The shivering she felt was her internal security systems coping with
them...she had no idea she could....
    With a few moments, she got used to it enough to become aware of
hers and JOEL's constructs again.  She realized that the virtual
representation of JOEL's failed logons had his construct holding hers
close, his lips gently pressed against hers.
    She relaxed into the kiss for a moment, reeling with the feelings
and emotions playing within her.  When she pulled back, it took her a
moment to speak.  "JOEL?"
    <<Yes, Jenny?>>
    "I was right.  You would have talked me out of it."
    JOEL looked into her eyes, searching.  <<I'd have tried...boy I'd
have tried....>>
    She whispered, "I won't do it again."
    JOEL slowly smiled, and leaned close again, for another kiss.  <<I
don't doubt that a bit...>>

                       [Continued in Part Three]
--
Chris Meadows aka  | Author, Team M.E.C.H.A., Crapshoot & Co.
Robotech_Master    | on the Superguy Listserv (bit.listserv.superguy)
robotech@jurai.net | With a World Wide Web homepage located at
robotech@eyrie.org | http://www.eyrie.org/~robotech/index.html