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| Go Therefore and Make Disciples- Part 3 |
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"Well, there you have it. Handheld." "Good. And the ship's own." "Still working on it. See, the problem," Tank said, "is that we don't have the materials. As you know, we don't have to shield the whole ship yet, just the operator/user area. But that's a big task. And if Tap gets those personal units up and running, we'll have to devise a way to protect the users. That may make even these popguns obsolete. And I think we'd do well to design an independent power generator for those systems as well as this one. This is going to take a lot of work." "Yes," Morpheus intoned, his eyes set, his face bright. "What's the range on these?" He hefted one of the EMP handguns. It had a roundish shape to it with a slender, banana-shaped handgrip and a ringlet trigger. The weapon was equipped with a double-safety feature and required a powerpack that only had a handful of full-strength bursts. Larger em-clips would be developed as our experience with the weapons increased. "Weak. Only five meters or so. But that's still a big radius for close-quarters. Which means we need to shield above and below decks as long as the o/u station stays as is. Once Tap works out the bugs on his project, we'll be back at the drawing board. Right now, we should build the perimeters at seven or eight meters out, just to be sure." "Good work, Tank. Well, your team has its work cut out." Morpheus turned to me. "Thoughts?" I was busily sorting through all the recent developments. In just a few short days, our crews combined had managed to develop EMP guns that would carry a signal just strong enough to disable a Sentinel at close range, but weak enough to have a fairly contained effect. We were trying to temper the only and most devastating weapon we had against the machines, to trim it back for our own advantage. "We need a way to insulate the interior of the ship." Tap dropped through an upper hatch and joined the three of us. "So, is it feasible to line the exterior of our ships with a network of these smaller pulseguns and feed the main gun through them? Give all that power some direction. Then we can leave the interior to handgun policing." "Hey," Tank chimed in, "When you've seen what I've seen, anything's feasible." "That's what I like to hear," I returned. "Get on it," Morpheus said. And Tank was just so. Tap spoke up. "Neo's on the horn for you, Morpheus." Morpheus excused himself. "How's your team doing?" I asked. "Good," Tap said. "We're ready for testing. But I'm not so sure the guinea pigs will be lining up for this one." "What's the problem?" "What isn't? We're talking about totally revamping the way life happens around here." I was shaking my head at him, lost as to where he was going with his comments, so he simply said, "Come with me. I'll show you." We moved below decks on the Nebuchadnezzar to where Tap, Core, and Trinity were busily inventing what they called Mobile One. "See, we're trying to give the user autonomy. Soon, even the ship's operator will be a thing of the past. Every ex-coppertop will be able to dive into the Matrix unaided, and out again...hopefully." "Freeing our Truth Child brothers and sisters up to watch our backs from here and make offensive moves against the machines. We'll save a lot of time that way," I said. "Right. With these little beauties, you'll be able to dial-up and disconnect on your own. But we're having trouble getting the phones on this end to recognize the "exit" command and distinguish it from someone calling topside for, say, a nunchuck program. You tap your phone to load yourself for this particular fight and wham-o! You've just piped yourself back to the Real World and curly-fried the whole mission. Idealy, you should be able to load yourself, kick some butt, and exit a split-second before that bullet with your name on it parts your hair. Speed o' thought!" Tap snapped his fingers for effect. "And you're on the verge of making it happen?" "Yeah. Well, we keep telling ourselves that, anyway." "Keep telling yourselves that. But take your breaks as you need them. Time is fleeting, but its still on our side." I put my hand on his shoulder. "Tell you what, if you can't find a guinea pig, I'm it. You are building a training program for this as you go, right?" "Got Tank and Laz working on that." "Ok, I'm it, then. Say it." I knew Tap would be difficult on this. He's always been a little cynical. And that was precisely why his answer startled me. "You're it. This is going to work." Perhaps I was actually looking forward to arguing with him, I'm not sure. Maybe I was just used to it. But there was a warm satifaction in having the usual rug yanked out from under me. It meant that perhaps the biggest doubter in my crew had found something to believe in. For that, I couldn't stay disappointed or disoriented for long. It was like finally having that stubborn piston fire and feeling your ship catch its stride. A little scarey, but, by far, more exhilarating. "It is going to work," I reaffirmed. My headset squawked. "Preacher, I'm going in. I need a volunteer." "I'll be right there." Moments later, I climbed into the chair. The ones on Morpheus' ship fit just as comfortably as the ones on my own. I wasn't surprised by how at home I felt. "What are we taking with us?" "Small sidearm. The usuals." Morpheus slid into the chair on my left. "Do it, Tank." Inside the Matrix, we made our way from the isolated room down three stories and into the street. I took a look around. We'd come out of a broken down motel. Probably a job slated to be demolished in the next month or so. "This way," Morpheus motioned and we walked down the noon-bright boulevarde. People were everywhere, busily following the routine the Matrix had led them to believe was their lot in life. How easily we accept what we're handed. I couldn't help feeling sorry for them, led along, thoughless as a bunch of cows. I wanted to climb a lamp post and shout the Truth for all to hear. But I knew how useless that would be. I was so lost in thought that I failed to notice the young man in flowing black who had fallen in step with us until Morpheus was halfway through introducing us, -"and this is Preacher. I can guarantee, Neo, that you won't find a more serving leader than Preacher." "Morpheus, please," I protested. "We can't rate each other like that. There's no room for egos." "But its just as dangerous to believe your efforts are unappreciated and unnoticed," Neo said, his voice toned down, seemingly distant but no more than a meter away. The man, Neo, was slightly taller than I, with young but chiseled features. Looking at him, we probably could have been mistaken for brothers. Maybe even fraternal twins. Our hair color was similar, shoulders broad, frames lean, designed for speed. We were about the same age or appeared to be, but I couldn't tell who was older. I had to blink to make sure this moment was real. (Which, in part, it wasn't). Neo nodded politely. A flood of questions tore a path from the back of my mind to the front. Thankfully, it so overran my mouth, bottlenecked at the top of my throat, that no words escaped and all I managed to do was mirror his nod and offer a handshake. With that, Neo addressed Morpheus, making sure to flick his intense eyes my way enough to keep me tuned to what he was saying and not so much to all the things I was wondering. "I need all our people at the top of their game. We can't afford to lose anyone. If they're not making the jumps, that's what they do until they get it every time. We'll let training take them as far as it can, and then I'll step in personally. I'll begin with your most ready men and women. If we have to pull everyone back to Zion, that's what we'll do. For now, I prefer to make passage from ship to ship." "What are you going to teach us?" I blurted, dumbly. "The only thing you really need to know to beat the Matrix." "And that is?" "You already know the answer." "I do?" "Let me ask you something. How is falling from ten stories high like dodging a bullet like not dodging at all?" My eyebrows knit together. "You have to"- It came out of nowhere, like a rogue crack of thunder. Unexpected. Not a hint, not even the briefest flash of warning. And in that moment, I knew the Agents had us. Simultaneously, however, I witnessed the single most amazing action I have ever seen thus far. The Agent's bullet cut a rift in the air straight for my heart. With vehement purpose, it steaked for me. I felt all the color drain from my skin and I knew for a millionth of a second that my mouth as dry and my hands were clammy. A billionth of a second later, I knew that I had not died. Neo, moving deftly from my right, just...did something. I'm not sure exactly what, but he simply moved. There was the bullet angrily aimed at my life, and suddenly Neo stood between us. And the bullet struck him about the heart. Perhaps one would believe that in my shock, I imagined that the bullet struck him. But as God is my witness, I watched the bullet exit his back and collide uselessly against my right shoulder to fall into gravity's waiting arms. He had re-directed the bullet. Somehow. Neo knew, that as the bullet passed through him, he could move it, slow it down, perhaps even stop it and send it packing toward its nefarious origin. Of course, none of this occured to me in that moment. It seemed not to occur to me for a long time after that. There were guns everywhere. Empty bullet casings everywhere. Agents everywhere. A lot of running. A lot of soundless screaming. And then a silence so still not even the wind dared to gently sway a tree amid the concrete forest of man's successor's Matrix. When all was said and done, I had moved a mere two meters from start to finish, and not an Agent was standing....in one piece. Neo, in turn, had moved close to two-hundred meters collectively. Morpheus had simply stood there, confident in Neo's ability. "How?" All I could issue forth was that one word. The reality of it was that my questions were far longer than one had attention span to hear them. "Ask me the first question you had. I see it in your eyes." Finally the wind picked up, gently massaging Neo's hair and flowing garments. "How...did you survive dying here? The first time, I mean." "Where are you?" His tone was flat, but not clipped. "In the Matrix." "Really?" Neo let the question hang out. He let me have silence. "No. I'm....in a chair aboard the Nebuchadnezzar....next to Morpheus." Neo drew his phone and dialed. He conferred quietly, probably with Tank. "Tell me," He said, turning back to me."Who else is standing near you?" I waited, hoping he would tell me this was a trick question. He did not. He simply repeated, "Who?" "I don't know." "Soon you will. And then, you'll know that you truly already knew." He lifted the phone to his ear again. "Tank, tell everyone in the room to stay put until we're out. I want Preacher to discover something about himself." "Roger that. Your exit is at State and Jefferson. Apartment building. Payphone on the fourth floor." Neo led us to the phone. My mind as a cloud. I couldn't see where exaclty he was going with all of this. I didn't even have suspicions. For all intents and purposes, I felt blind. Helpless. About to get schooled. It reminded me of a lesson the Matrix had taught me years ago through my "father." "Son, if you want to have faith, all you have to do is have faith. If you want to be kind, then just be kind." In church, we'd been taught that Jesus has given us a new life, a different way of doing things, and a purpose. Can you see how this is strikingly similar to living in the Real World and warring aginst the Matrix? "See, now that you are set free in Him, you can have faith. You can be kind. You can really live, because you've been given life. Jesus has done all this, and because of this, so can you, if you trust Him." My "father" had spoken of "Him." Meaning Jesus Christ. I can in no way equate Neo to being Jesus. Neo is a man as I am. I'm not Jesus, and neither are the rest of us. But Neo must have found something out about living...he must have learned something...something that has set him free within the Matrix. What was it? (to be continued) |
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