Chapter Two: Detailed Files

            "I am active," was the Terminator's first thought as a stream of electrons flowed through his circuitry to the neural-net microchip that was his "brain." 

            Automatically, his systems ran through a series of diagnostic checks to determine whether or not any of his primary and secondary hardware had been damaged. 

            Within seconds, he realized he was fully functional.

            He then began to hear voices—unmistakably human vocal patterns. 

            "That should do it.  Primary power should be coming online as we speak," a female voice reported.

            "Good.  Did you finish programming the basic mission parameters?" asked another voice, the deeper tone of a male human. 

            "Yes," the female replied again. 

            Through his head-up display, he could see their forms moving in front of him.  Upon closer examination, he attempted to match each of their faces with available data in his database. 

            His scrutiny of the female and subsequent cross-referencing showed her to be an individual known as "Trinity." 

            The male who had spoken earlier showed up in his database as "Morpheus." 

            "Do you know where you are?" Trinity asked.  Obviously the question was meant for him. 

            "Yes," he replied in his machine monotone.  "I am aboard the hovercraft Nebuchadnezzar." 

            "And do you know what year it is?" Morpheus asked. 

            "The information I have available says the year is approximately 2199 CE." 

            Morpheus smiled.  "Good." 

            "How do you feel?" Trinity asked. 

            The Terminator fixed her with his cold, inhuman stare. 

            "I am not programmed to feel," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. 

            "All right, what about your systems then?  Any sign of degradation?" 

            "No.  I am fully functional." 

            Morpheus bared his teeth in what the Terminator saw in his database was called a "grin." 

            "Good.  Now, do you understand your mission?" 

            The Terminator turned his attention to Morpheus.  "Yes.  I am to protect Thomas A. Anderson, the individual you have designated as 'The One.'" 

            "That's right," Morpheus said. 

            "Can you learn things you haven't been programmed with?" Trinity asked while checking a program she was loading on her computer console. 

            "My CPU is a neural-net processor.  It is designed to emulate the human capacity for learning."

            "Good," Trinity said.  "There's a lot you need to know…" 

            Images flashed across the Terminator's head-up display at superhuman speeds.  Trinity's computer console downloaded the information into his CPU via a long cable plugged into an access port on a part of his skull that had been exposed by cutting away part of the tissue that covered his endoskeleton. 

            With the infinite patience of a machine, Terminator took in all the information Trinity was "feeding" him:

            The so-called "Second Renaissance" and the birth of true AI. 

            The war between man and machine. 

            The fall of mankind and the rise of the Matrix. 

            And, most importantly, the hope and mystery of "The One." 

            It was a lot of information for any one person to process, but, as was blatantly clear to both Trinity and Morpheus, the Terminator was no ordinary person. 

            "The download has completed," the Terminator said, once his head-up had cleared of the barrage of data the Neb's computer had been throwing at him. 

            "Good," Morpheus said, kneeling in front of where the Terminator was sitting.  He looked directly into the machine's eyes, which he saw were clearly emotionless, just like the cyborg's voice. 

            "Are you ready for the training program?"

            The Terminator continued to fix Morpheus with his blank stare. 

            "Affirmative." 

            Morpheus nodded and rose to his feet, shooting Trinity an affirmative glance of his own. 

            She keyed a few more commands into her console and within seconds, the Terminator found himself no longer on the Nebuchadnezzar, but standing smack in the middle of what appeared to be a martial arts dojo. 

            Like his surroundings, his clothing had changed as well.  Instead of the simple cotton garments the Neb's crew had given him, he was sporting the black "gi" jumpsuit common to some martial artists. 

            Morpheus assumed a fighting stance, and motioned for the Terminator to attack.  He didn't need to say a word, though, because he already knew that the machine had been programmed with over fifty different fighting styles. 

            The cyborg didn't move, however, just standing inhumanly still, as if he were nothing more than a painted statue.  Morpheus shrugged mentally and began his attack, throwing a volley of punches.  With lightning speed only a machine could muster, the Terminator blocked each and every punch and threw one of his own, knocking Morpheus against the back wall of the dojo. 

            The Neb's captain didn't miss a beat.  Leaping to his feet, he ran up the back wall of the dojo and flipped, turning his midair somersault into a flying kick directed at the Terminator. It connected with the machine's head and sent him reeling backward.  He, too, recovered quickly, coming straight at Morpheus like a barreling freight train. 

            Both of them traded punches, which each of them easily blocked, and then Morpheus sent the Terminator back to the deck with a vicious spinning back kick. 

            Outside of the training construct, Morpheus' crew had gathered around to see their leader take on the mysterious new passenger who they all knew to be a machine. 

            Well, almost all of them. 

            Mouse had his eyes glued to the screen as the fight played out, and the computer constantly reported back vital statistics during the battle. 

            "Jesus!" he exclaimed as the numbers rolled by.  "I've never seen anyone move that fast!  He's like a machine!" 

            Switch rolled her eyes at him.  "He is a machine, Mouse." 

            "Oh yeah, right." 

            She shook her head and turned her attention back to the screen, where she saw Morpheus flip the much heavier Terminator over his back and send him crashing into the opposite wall of the dojo. 

            Sweat dripped from their leader's face, while the machine remained unfazed by the course of the battle. 

            Cypher, too, appeared outwardly indifferent to the situation, although privately he had to admit to himself that the machine was good.  None of them had stood up that long when they had gone up against Morpheus inside the Construct.  Perhaps there was something to what Connor and Reese had said…

            Once he had regained his composure, the Terminator retaliated, unleashing a fury of quick punches that Morpheus had to try hard to block or dodge.  He got all of them but the last, which caught him square in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him, and all but ending the battle. 

            Terminator advanced, towering over Morpheus as he struggled to catch his breath.  The Captain held up his hand, signaling the Terminator to stop. 

            "That's enough.  You've exceeded my expectations.  It appears Sergeant Reese was right about you.  You're going to be a valuable asset to our crew.  But first, I have one more test for you.  Are you ready?" 

            To anyone else that knew the Terminator's capabilities, it might have been a stupid question.  After all, the cyborg had just gone toe-to-toe with the strongest and most experienced member of the Nebuchadnezzar's crew and had definitively defeated him. 

            The Terminator, however, knew nothing of sarcasm.  His programming required him to give straightforward answers, divulging the information necessary to answer the questions asked of him. 

            "Affirmative," he replied. 

            Morpheus nodded, and, despite the stress the battle had placed on him, he smiled. 

            "Good.  Trinity, load the jump program," he said, knowing full well where she was even though it appeared that he was talking to himself. 

            Again, the scenery changed, this time taking Terminator and Morpheus to the rooftop of a very tall building in the middle of what looked to be a major city. They were surrounded by other rooftops, including one directly across from them. 

            Their clothing had changed along with their locale, Morpheus opting for a long leather trench coat and a mixed black and purple shirt and tie, vest, and pants.  Trinity, knowing that the machine had no particular affinity for much of anything, let alone fashion, dressed him head-to-toe in black—leather jacket, T-shirt, pants, and boots.  Even the sunglasses she had selected for him were black, the lenses tinted almost completely dark, though not mirrored like Morpheus' trademark shades. 

            "Though I really do not have to tell you about the rules of the system," Morpheus said, "I do like to maintain consistency among the members of my crew, new and old.  So I have brought you here, to the jump program." 

            The Terminator did not appear to feel one way or another about his situation.  However, a deficiency in his database about the nature of the "jump program" troubled him, in the peculiar way that a machine could be troubled. 

            "Explain," he said simply. 

            "The jump program is designed to teach newly freed minds about those same rules.  It is where an individual must, in a manner of speaking, 'believe in a lie.'" 

            "That is a contradiction," the Terminator said, even more confused by Morpheus' vague explanation. 

            "Of course, much like the statement that 'rules are made to be broken,'" Morpheus continued.  "The bottom line is that an individual must have faith in the idea that what he or she is seeing inside the Construct—and likewise in the Matrix—is not real, but merely a simulation." 

            "Faith is irrelevant," the Terminator said.  "It is a proven fact that the Matrix is a computer simulation."

            Morpheus sighed.  "If only it were as easy for the average human mind to accept.  Your perception is not unlike that of our enemy.  Cold, hard logic and expectation based on statistical results.  You know what to expect because you know what lies beneath the surface—you know that the world you are seeing here—and the world you will see inside the Matrix—is nothing but a program.  Humans are not as…willing to accept the facts.  They believe what they see is real, because, despite the facts, they only see what it is they want to see."

            The Neb's captain suddenly broke into a run and leapt through the air, seeming to sail across the wide gap between the two buildings.  He landed smoothly on the far rooftop, grinning back at the Terminator. 

            "So you see, to any normal human being, what you just witnessed would seem to be impossible, because of what they have been told throughout their lives about 'the law of gravity'—another rule of the Matrix system."

            Morpheus' grin shifted, becoming his signature enigmatic smile. 

            "Tell me, do you think that what I just did is impossible?" 

            "If you completed the task, then it is not impossible," the Terminator said. 

            "Can you do it?" Morpheus asked. 

            The Terminator had anticipated that question would be asked, but he had no frame of reference or past experience from which he could answer affirmatively. 

            "Unknown," the Terminator said instead. 

            "You do not know until you try," Morpheus said.  "Do it." 

            Calculations ran through the Terminator's mind faster than the blink of a human eye as he prepared to emulate Morpheus' seemingly impossible jump across the rooftop. 

            Meanwhile, everyone else wondered along with him whether or not he could do it. 

            "You think he can do it?" Cypher asked, the tone of his voice telling everyone who heard him that he didn't believe it for a minute. 

            "No one's ever made the first jump," Trinity said, although it was obvious she was hoping someone could prove her wrong.  As much as she wanted that person to be Neo, she supposed she could settle for the Terminator, if only to raise her hope in what had always seemed to her like a hopeless world. 

            "Well, what if he makes it?" Mouse asked.  He had been amazed by the Terminator after seeing him spar with Morpheus.  If he could make this jump…the possibilities of this machine could be endless.  And, he imagined, if a machine could perform so well, he didn't think he could fathom what The One would do, if Morpheus was right about him…

            "He won't," Switch said. 

            Mouse frowned.  She always seemed to rain on his parade. 

            "I know," he said, shrugging his shoulders.  "But what if he does?" 

            Cypher pointed at the screen, waiting for the cyborg to fail just as they all had. 

            "You're about to find out." 

            Inside the Construct, the Terminator ran through countless simulations in his mind at speeds that human beings could barely comprehend.  Thirty seconds later, he believed he had come up with an acceptable solution. 

            He stepped backward to the edge of the rooftop and began running as fast as his mechanical legs could take him.  He leapt into the air and started to sail across the gap…and then started to fall just as quickly. 

            The looks of anticipation on everyone's faces as they watched the scene turned to dismay as the Terminator seemed to fall forever.  He made no sound as he passed window after window of the buildings between him.  In his mind, he knew he had failed, and prepared to accept a fair amount of damage as the pavement rushed up to meet him. 

            But, instead of striking the ground, he felt the asphalt soften beneath him, sparing him the external injury to his tissues and damage to his underlying combat chassis. 

            "Do you know why you fell?" Morpheus said as the Terminator looked up to see his smiling face and the outstretched hand he was offering. 

            The Terminator rose to his feet, ignoring the hand. 

            "I failed to exert enough force to propel myself over the gap," he said, after analyzing the data available to him. 

             "Do you really think that the amount of force you exert has any effect on how you maneuver in this place?" 

            "It is the logical answer to your question," the Terminator said, although he suspected that Morpheus had a different answer for him—one that defied simple logic. 

            "You must learn the difference between logic and faith," Morpheus said.  "It is an important distinction.  It is easy to use logic—to do things that are possible.  It is another thing entirely to do things that are impossible.  Only through faith are they truly possible." 

            "How does one acquire 'faith'?" Terminator asked.

            Morpheus grinned.  "A valid question, and one that does not have a simple answer.  Faith involves believing things are true and possible even when all the facts tell you they are not, like being able to jump across the rooftops in this program, for example." 

            "I do not understand," the Terminator said.

            Morpheus laid a hand on the cyborg's shoulder. 

            "In time, I believe you will," he said.  "I have faith in you." 

            "I am programmed to learn," the Terminator said. 

            "And you will," Morpheus said, his confidence in that statement evident.  "Though this may appear to be a failure, it was merely a learning experience.  During the course of your mission, you will face many more tests, all of which will teach you something.  I assume you already know your mission?" 

            "Affirmative," the Terminator said.  "My mission is to protect Thomas Anderson, the individual you have designated as 'The One.'" 

End Chapter Two