Effie looked at the wall, tapping it in the same way Amy was. "Could we go around it?" Or over it? she asked.
Amy shook her head. "You have to get your way around how this world works. You 'could' walk around it, but it would be the same wall. The same point of the same wall repeating infinitely. The only thing you can do is either walk away from it, or go towards it."
Effie struggled with that concept. "So... this is not actually three dimensional? We couldn't just.. tunnel under it or something?"
"It would be the same as trying to go around it. Not to say there aren't possible 'points' of access hidden depending on 'how' you approach it though. Just trust me on this, you'll get the hang of it. There's a lot of rules here that are probably a bit counter intuitive. i spent a long while here working them out"
"Like what?"
Amy pulled out her editor. she started creating what appeared to be a batch process, to probe the wall. She continued to talk to Effie as she worked. "Well... I suppose the most important thing is like your run time. Remember I was stuck in slow motion before? Things with a faster run time would pass me by and I wouldn't ever know. Your aware your in slow motion cause its a struggle to do anything. Everything here works relative to run time. If you find yourself in a low processor environment, just try not to think too much. focus on moving. Texting is usually not that processor intensive either."
"I.. think I get that." Effie nodded.
"Yep. There's also distance you got to consider. The internet is essentially 'infinite'. But only as far as information has actually been 'put in'. Take one step in any direction, you could end up on a server in the other side of the world. Or you could walk for hours and go through layers and layers of data on the same computer, itself almost infinite depending on layers, and sub layers with sub domains and such. On an intranet environment like this, you don't have to worry so much about your physical placement."
Sounds like an easy way to get lost, the young digital fairy thought. The internet being what it is, does not have a central point of access, and therefore no landmarks. It has either dense clusters, or not so dense clusters. "So what about MIkey and the other AI's? The ones with real bodies?"
"There you go again! Your body is just as real. As for the AI's... " Amy had to think a bit on how to best explain it. "They have a special level of access I can't deny it. They can change our environment, or even provide us with any environment they desire to our perceptions. But only if your in an area they control."
"Sounds almost godly" Effie mused. That first AI she encountered, seemed to think it was a god. The way Effie was so easily lead, she could almost have believed it. "Are there any... hazards here?" She hoped that didn't sound like she was scared... but she did feel a bit uneasy with such a weird world. Was it cause she was losing her more adult experience? There was a certain growing panic about this possibility.
"Well..." Amy paused her working as she let loose another code, and threw it onto the wall. It made the wall get a speckled colour. "Most of the hazards here are 'natural' hazards. memory buffering, torrents of data suddenly hitting you, purges that sort of thing. You can avoid them if you keep your eyes open. There's not actually much digital life other then us, since the sunlight only affected humans... but hey, maybe that will change someday if you get busy" She winked to her.
that original thought Effie had made her freeze again. Was she just joking? Yeah... she had to be. No way... just.. just no.
"This is quite an impressive fire wall. It's not a normal program. I smell AI all over it" She nodded. "Its designed to keep things like us out. That means we want to get in."
"How can we get past it?" Effie was still struggling with even the basic concepts of this world. "It doesn't look like there's a gateway or anything"
"Hmmm... Not easy. Let me see... ah..." She looked at the ground and found a few bits of scattered data. She carefully picked one up and threw it at the wall. It passed through it, briefly making the dark barrier shimmer. "Its data specific."
"Then we can't get through?" Effie asked again. If wasn't a port specific firewall, there's no way to get in.
"Kid! You shouldn't give up so easily. Just find all the pieces of data you can that's scattered about."
the walked around, occasionally finding junks and fragments of data. They took various polyhedral shapes to the fairies. Eventually Amy was satisfied they had enough. "Information has substance here." She started to stretch at the pieces of data, they bent to her physical force. "Do what I'm doing, and wrap this around you."
"Huh?" Effie looked very confused then, like a light in her head, she understood. "We're trojan horses!"
"Ha.. yep. The firewall wont be able to tell we're inside. Hopefully. Depends on how clever the AI made it. But I think it will work. My scanner suggests only single layer sensing... still, we best do a running jump into it."
With the pieces of data wrapped around them, they started their run. They jumped into the wall, like it was a curtain of light.
Mark was really ticked now. She had been picking up trash all over the street. Worse the connection to the others didn't seem to stop the further away she went, it just kept on. She didn't want to know every time one of them went to the toilet! Or scratched themselves or... just why was one of them now brushing their hair?
She saw some humans looking at her outside the window. It seemed a lot of them liked looking at her. One of them, from the porch actually waved to her.. she kept herself hidden from the sunlight but seemed eager to get her attention.
"Senora! Senora! Por favor!"
Mark looked at the lady. "I- dont speak french or.. whatever" she said.
"Oh heavenly angel! You have answered our prayers! I am sorry to intrude upon your works. Please, Won't you bless us? We are so afraid the rapture is upon us! Guide our family to heaven I beg you!"
Whats a rapture? Wondered Mark.
"We offer you bread and the sacred wine of course" the woman continued.
Mark lifted an eyebrow. "Well... if you put it that way... Sure. um... "Bless this house?" She said off handedly. She gave a little wave thinking that might help too.
The woman knelt in prayer. "Thank you great Angel! Thank you! Please take our humble offerings... Thank you."
Mark didn't know what to make of it but free wine was free wine.
"No... problem." She packed the wine away. Maybe after this work was over, she would try a drink. It always worked for her before.
This area was quite different. Effie didn't like the smell of it...
wait smell?
She sniffed the air. "What... is that?"
"I'm not sure" said Amy also smelling it. If this were the real world, she thought it would smell like burnt plastics or something. Something just really wrong to her nose.
"I see someone!" said Effy.
There, completely still, was the DOS fairy. He still wore his DOS shirt, and black jeans. Effie wasn't sure what to think seeing him again like this.
"Poor dear... that's what happens when you have little run time- relatively. Come on, lets help him." Amy took Effie's hand and they both touched him.
Effie was surprised at the grab but as soon as they both made contact, the fairy stirred.
"H-huh? Who are you? How did you get in here?" he asked looking quite dazed and confused.
"Shh! We're here to help you. You want to get out of here or what?" Amy spoke quickly.
The two fairies felt a wave of... tiredness? It's possible they were approaching Mikey's run time limit with three of them now. Effie was very concerned she hoped they were not pushing the young robot girl too hard. If anything happened to her, she would never forgive herself.
"Help me? Your not some trick are you?" He then saw Effie. "Hey... I remember you! You brought me into the real world."
Effie smiled a bit. "I'm Effie, and this is Amy."
"Um- I'm Dennis... nice to meet you"
"We need to go quickly." Amy said concerned. "This node is controlled by the AI..."
Who's in my system? A voice reverberated across the 'room'.
Effie's heart skipped a beat. Not again! Oh no! She couldn't go through this again!
Amy looked nonplussed and took Effie's hand, and in her other, the male fairy. "How dare you! How dare you treat us like tools for your fun and games. You sicken me. I don't even want to know your name because it wouldn't matter. A ZX spectrum has more intelligence then you do!"
'Holy-' Effie couldn't even say anything.
Amy then took out a very long piece of code from her editor system. Light crackled itself around her and the room. "IP... identified. We now know where you are. I even know your sub routines.. your not just an artificial human, are you..."
I could just delete you
Amy narrowed her eyes. "Try it... I dare you. You have no idea the damage we can do to you. We have our own run time and we are connected to your systems. So I tell you what... leave us alone, and I'll not spread your little secret. But I do want to know one thing. why did you have Dennis change all the grades?"
Effie wasn't sure but she sensed like the AI in this environment felt.. caught? Did Amy really have the upper hand here?
...It was just my own information I wanted changed... I had to cover my tracks. The robot girl was an easy way.
Effie looked at Amy expectedly. "What's the secret?"
Amy hushed her for a moment. "I don't know what you look like, I can only take a guess... but look. Get some counciling or something. Treating fairies like this, even for fun, is just wrong. Do it again, and you'll have hundreds of us knocking at your systems... got it?"
... okay. Now please... leave me alone.
the black barrier around the room was pulled back, and the school intranet awaited them. After walking a good distance away, Effie had to ask. "What's the secret Effie?"
Amy looked at the young fairy with concern across her face. "It was a cyborg..."
