D. MacHale - The Reality Bug

“But it all worked out/’ Aja said.

“That’s because I wasn’t alone. Gunny bailed me out. I don’t think any one of us can stand up to Saint Dane alone, Aja. Working together is our only chance.”

I hoped I was getting through to her. The future of Veelox depended on it, not to mention the rest of Halla.

I then added, “But what we’ve got here is a little bit different.”

“How?” she asked, confused.

I walked over to the vast console and looked at the sea of buttons and switches.

“The Reality Bug was a brilliant idea. If Saint Dane hadn’t stuck his nose in, it might have worked. But he did. We can’t change that. We can only look forward. Our job is to save Veelox. But first we have to stop the Reality Bug. I have no idea how to do that. But you do. I can be here to bounce ideas off of, but only you can stop the bug. So when it comes right down to it, you are going to get the chance to save Veelox.”

Up until that moment Aja looked like she was ready to crawl into a corner and shrivel up. But now the sparkle returned to her eyes. She sat up straight and put her yellow glasses back on. She stood up and faced me with the same confidence that I saw when she spoke with the technicians outside.

“Not a problem,” she said. “All I have to do is tap into the grid and purge the bug from the processing code.” Whatever that meant.

“That won’t solve the larger problem though,” she added. “Once I’m done, Lifelight will go back to normal and Veelox will still be in trouble.”

“One step at a time,” I said.

Aja walked over to me and turned me around. I wasn’t sure why until I realized she was examining the cut on the back of my arm.

“Go see a vedder and get that taken care of,” she said. She even sounded like she cared. A little.

“You sure you don’t need me?” I asked.

Then… a miracle. She smiled. Was it possible? I’d like to take credit for getting her to lighten up, but the truth was that nearly causing the deaths of millions of people was probably earth-shattering enough to get anybody to see things differently… even an ego case like Aja. All I could do was smile back.

“It’ll take me less time to purge the Reality Bug than it will for you to get your arm fixed,” she said, then spun away from me and sat back down in the control chair. She pulled the control arm in front of her, ready to work. A few keystrokes later, the large monitor flashed to life. She had slipped into computer world, so I left her alone and went looking for some Bactine and

Band-Aids.

The glass corridor of the core was empty and quiet. The technicians were gone and all the monitors at the control stations were showing the same blank green color. It was creepy seeing the place so dead, so I hurried to the end of the corridor to get out as fast as possible.

I stepped into the room with the long counter where I had been fitted with my silver bracelet for the jumps. It was empty too. I walked up to the counter and gazed at the portrait of young

Dr. Zetlin, the inventor of Lifelight. He didn’t look like a genius. He just looked like a regular kid.

“Hiya, Doc,” I said. “This what you had in mind when you invented Lifelight?”

A voice then came from behind the counter. “Who are you talking to?”

For a second I thought it was the portrait, and it made me jump. But it turned out to be the

Goth-looking vedder who had pricked my finger the day before.

“Uh, nobody,” I answered, embarrassed. “Hey, you think you could take a look at my arm?”

The vedder rolled his eyes. “If I have to,” he said, as if it were the last thing he wanted to do. I wasn’t sure why he minded so much. It wasn’t like he had anything else to do. I unzipped my jumpsuit to my waist and pulled my arm out.

“Where did everybody go?” I asked as he examined my cut.

“They’re all up in the pyramid,” he answered. “They’re going to jump as soon as Aja gets Lifelight back online.”

Unbelievable. Even during a crisis, all these guys could think about was jumping out of there.

“What about you?” I asked. “Don’t you want to jump?”

“Not anymore, I don’t,” he said. “I’m beginning to think real life is safer than make-believe.”

That was good to hear. Maybe there was hope for the territory after all.

“It’s not a bad cut,” he said. “Your jumpsuit got it worse than you did.”

The vedder put an ointment on it and the stinging immediately went away. He then put a yellow pad over the cut and I was good to go.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Don’t worry,” the guy said sincerely. “Aja is the best. If there’s anybody I trust around here, it’s her.”

I nodded. I really hoped he was right.

There was nothing else to do, so I wandered back to the Alpha Core to see how Aja was doing. The door was unlocked, and I slipped in quietly, trying not to disturb her.

Aja was totally focused on her work. I glanced at the large monitor to see that it was filled with several lines of computer code, each in a different color and each more complex than the last. Aja was furiously entering figures, and the data kept scrolling up with each new entry. She was good. My confidence rose.

“We’ve got a problem,” Aja said flatly.

So much for my confidence.

“I thought you said it would be easy to purge the bug from Lifelight?”

“It would be, if I could get to it,” she answered. As she talked, she kept inputting data. “The problem isn’t the Reality Bug, it’s the origin code.”

“You lost me,” I said.

“The system is programmed with security codes that make it difficult to get in,” Aja explained while she worked. “It’s to keep unauthorized people from monkeying with the grid. I know most of the codes because I’m a senior phader, but… but…” She slammed her fist down in frustration.

“But what?”

“When the Reality Bug infected the grid, it went so deep that the only way to reach it is to get past the final code, the origin code. And I don’t know it!”

“Well, somebody’s gotta know it, right?” I asked, trying to be helpful.

Aja jumped out of the chair and paced. “Only one person knows that code.”

“So let’s go get them!”

“That’s not so easy. He hasn’t been seen in three years.” “Three years? Who is it?” “Dr. Zetlin,” answered Aja.

“That kid in the painting? How come he’s the only one with the code?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Aja answered sarcastically, sounding like her old self. “Maybe because he invented Lifelight!” Good answer.

“Besides,” Aja continued, “he’s not a kid anymore. He’s got to be in his seventies by now.”

“Fine. Let’s find him, make him some warm milk, tell him the problem and get the freakin’ code!”

“It’s not that easy,” Aja said.

“Why not?”

“Because Dr. Zetlin is in Lifelight, Pendragon.” Oh.

That was definitely a problem. A really big problem.

Aja looked up at the screen and said, “Without that code I can’t purge the Reality Bug. And if I can’t purge the bug then we can’t put Lifelight back online.”

“And if we can’t do that, most everybody on Veelox is as good as dead,” I concluded. I was getting the sick feeling that Saint Dane was right. The battle for Veelox was over and he had won.

“I don’t suppose you’ve got a Plan B?” I asked.

I fully expected Aja to shout something like, “No, Pendragon! There is no Plan B, idiot!” Instead she looked down. The wheels were spinning in her head. That was good. She had a good head with good wheels.

“What are you thinking?” I asked.

“There is one possibility,” she said reluctantly. “But it’s too much to ask.”