-1Short but pivotal chapter. I hope you enjoy and please do not forget to leave your opinion.

-RR

(AN at end of chapter. I do not own JN.)

JCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJ

Chapter 13

"What does it mean?" She asked, reaching back into the recesses of her mind for an answer. Sadly, she found nothing of Latin but the single word that she was now to learn.

"Aggredior: to go to, approach, address, attack, begin." He replied, eyes glazed over with circuit-tracing alerted ness.

"A verb."

"Yes. A verb denoting the beginning of action to rouse or displace- to commit oneself to combat, or to prepare oneself for war."

Almost imperceptibly, her jaw tightened. "More questions. Always more questions." She realized, suddenly, that with every inch that her heart crawled, along the timeline to which she was committed by birth, she would have yet more to unravel- lest she, herself, unravel at last. "What- or, who, wants to call me to war?"

"I am of the opinion, Miss Vortex, that you are making a hasty assumption. One word can hardly by viewed as an explanation. How can we assume that was a call to war?"

"My best friend was murdered. The only man I've really ever loved was slaughtered. All the chances he- we- might have had- was BLOWN TO PIECES IN THE SKY."

She ran her hand through her hair, feeling the sticky heat of sweat between her fingers.

"Whoever did it is out there. Think about it, Fred. Someone had to have the technical expertise to pull off a rigged rocket explosion. Someone had to edit Goddard's hard drive. Someone had to place the...body... in the cockpit. All of this- and then "Aggredior"? A Latin word pumped back at us from space? Don't tell me there's no connection."

Every breath now was a threat- not in words, but in the hot, sticky scorching rage that each exhalation signified. She felt it bounce off of the screen before her as she leaned closer, a steaming osmosis back into her mind, fueling her- driving her.

"Whoever sent it- they're right. This is war. I don't know why they choose Jimmy- maybe they were threatened, maybe they just enjoy murder in cold blood. But whatever they're trying to do- it ends here. They won't get away with this." The bitter pledge snuck out from between her clenched teeth, narrowed eyes confirming the endlessness of the quest she would now undertake.

"And how shall you fight an invisible enemy? The virus had no discernable way of being traced."

"But the e-mail that sent it can be."

"Perhaps- but over a span of time. I have been trying to rebuild its source jumps."

The tilt of her head signified her question unuttered.

"Yes, I did quarantine it, Miss Vortex, as you wished- but I was able to retain anodyne data from the source code. I have not, in this span of time, been able to route more than seven jump points- only thirteen light-years."

"That's enough." She said, "to get started." Fingers jumping to the proper keys, she called forth her quarry: file by file, her mind raced over options.

"What, exactly, do you intend to do, Miss Vortex?"

"I'm going to find the source of the message."

"But, Miss Vortex, you are not capable of nearly as much calculation prowess as I am able to achieve- I am, after all, a computer."

"I don't mean calculation, or research, or anymore sitting around waiting for more clues to hit me in the face. I'm GOING to find the source."

"You mean-"

"Yeah. Going as in the verb. Into space."

Had Fred been human, capable of shock or awe, capable of surprise or mystified silence, he might have had the chance to display such. But his eyes washed over this human thing, this girl- and he felt no surprise at all at her declaration. But perhaps, such lack of surprise only signified as acknowledgement- a knowing between them. This was the path she would take- and even him- a simple CPU- could discern her resolve.

It certainly felt to her, for all the world, as if she was being compelled toward this decision. As if from the moment her heart had been hardened to stone by the cold clutches of his death, she was tumbling, pushed off some cliff of uncertainty to this new plateau.

And as this realization reached the back of her subconscious, to be stored in the corridors of her thoughts, she tried to ignore the roaring voice inside her head- the single word it took to drive her to furious work. It whispered to her throughout the hours- following her as she drew up plans and researched the options.

"...Aggredior..."

Why did it feel like she was running out of time?

JCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJCJ

AN:

EmmeTwo: Wow! Itay!? ; I'm glad you like it, I'm looking forward to your next comment.

pl: Glad to have a new fan! Looking forward to hearing more from you.

mrmuscle: Thank you -

sk8er: "He that can have patience can have what he will." -Benjamin Franklin

Readrbug21: Thank you so much, I'm so glad to have retained fans that can see the changes my writing undergoes! Looking forward to hearing from you once again.

heartsyhawk: Thank you so much- can't wait to hear more from you as the story goes on.

And FOREVER: Cliffhangers are the push which propel a story off the cliff of boredom...or so I say lol

acosta perez jose ramiro: As always, yours is a very valued opinion. Thank you for it.