RT diary

Dive

The sensation of vertigo utterly disoriented me. I lost awareness of my body as I plunged inside. After some time – a second? A year? – I regained vision.

I was floating, bodiless, inside a vast, dark, spherical space. Everywhere I could see, there were rows upon rows of cells, coloured with different shades and tones. All of the cells were interconnected through barely noticeable threads, which lit up as impulses travelled through them.

There is the control panel, I thought, noticing the cluster of red; it was responsible for my primary five senses, feeding the information to the CPU. The cluster was inactive at the moment as I lay unconscious on the exam bed.

"Leith, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" I spoke aloud.

"Yes, I'm with you, don't worry. You are literally my eyes. And no need to shout, friend, you don't have to say it out loud at all. I can hear what you think."

"Understood", I thought in my head.

I felt Leith's invisible presence somewhere; it was reassuring. We floated towards the centre of the sphere, where I could see another orb, smaller in size. I rushed inside it.

Vertigo hit me, and I lost my bearings once more but regained composure quicker this time. This sphere was equally obscure and almost as vast as the outer one, with similar rows of data cells. Storage, I guessed. This was not my destination yet.

Another orb in the centre glowed dull golden invitingly. Finally, I thought.

"Art, remember the time. You won't last too long in there!" I heard a warning note in Professor's voice.

I rushed towards the golden orb and plunged straight in. Another onset of dizziness overwhelmed me, transforming into nausea. I had to hurry. I looked at the centre, noting yet another globe, metallic in colour. It went in and out of focus as if existing and not existing at the same time. It beckoned me to try and crack it open with sheer force; even though I knew the stupidity of such an attempt. This was not our principal objective today; it must wait.

I glanced around, searching for our target. There, below! I noticed rows that had an identical inscription on them: "NO DATA". I descended hastily.

The nausea worsened, joined by a feeling of pressure behind my non-existing eyes. I froze in front of one of the restricted cells.

"Okay, let's get to work! Art, are you ready? I'm letting the virus loose!"

I braced for impact.

Alarms began screaming; the whole spherical space glowed red. A hot molten lava-like pain struck me; it took every ounce of self-control I had to remain calm. The virus manifested itself as an inky cloud, oozing in every direction.

"Leith, what on earth! This thing is spreading everywhere!"

"Relax, Art, I know what I'm doing. It's hard to direct the Trojan to go to one particular data cell, so you just have to take it, I'm afraid!"

The pressure reached a point where I thought I would go under. At long last, Leith managed to steer the oozing ink towards the cell in front of me. "NO DATA" hologram started blinking rapidly.

"Alright, Art, try going inside!"

I attempted to get in. As soon as I got closer, an invisible force slammed into me, thrusting me outside.

"Leith, it's no use! I can't go past the firewall! It's bouncing me back!" Within my system, I felt the nuclear core temperature raise a whole degree; another two or three degrees hotter, and I will shut down entirely.

"I'm doing all I can, Art. You have to force your way in, and you better speed up before the MedBots get onto the Trojan and quarantine us both!"

I practically forgot about MedBots, my cyber immune system. I redoubled my efforts. Again, and again, I slammed into the inaccessible cell, bouncing back like a ball, each time growing weaker and weaker.

Outside, Leith was muttering incessant curses, struggling to keep the virus from drowning the whole space.

"Art, try putting your hands on the cell!" The Professor has interrupted my futile actions.

"You crazy? I don't have a body in here!"

"I know, try manifesting the hands! Imagine as vividly as you can; I'll try to bombard the thing with the Trojan through your limbs!"

Easier said than done. I felt the core get another degree hotter; the pressure was almost unbearable now.

I closed my non-existent eyes and pictured my hands, placed on the cell. Nothing. Somewhere from afar, I felt the MedBots flooding the outer sphere, into the inner sphere, approaching the orb, with us inside.

I tried again, picturing the metal joints and fingers of my actual limbs, feeling the resistance of the firewall as they sank into the hologram. I switched the vision on.

"Got you!" I had brief triumphant thought. There they were, the metal hands, emerging out of nowhere, and disappearing half way through into the "NO DATA" inscription.

"Leith, fire it!" I roared aloud.

"Take that!" Leith shouted in response.

Three things happened all at once. Behind me I sensed rather than saw the swarm of MedBots, poised to attack both me and the virus. The Trojan imbibed into the limbs from the murkiness around me and saturated the attacked cell. Somewhere deep within my system the corrosive poison pulsed and permeated close to the core.

The image blacked out and came on again. I did not realise it was me shutting down.

As the world around me was keeling over; the inscription on all the restricted cells turned to the green "ACCESS GRANTED". I submerged into oblivion.