to boldly go...

[bravejemma]

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[bravejemma]

[She still feels terrible. He's been there so long. But who had he been?]

Yeah. We'll stick together, all right? And we'll figure it out, and Fitz will get us both out of here.

[projecthydra]

You keep saying "Fitz" like it means more to you than an access level. Is it something special to you?

[bravejemma]

Fitz is my -- my best friend.

[They didn't really have a chance for that dinner date, did they? But "best friend" feels woefully inadequate.]

My best friend. My partner. The chief engineer on the ship.

What do you think Fitz means?

[projecthydra]

Fitz is a nickname for administrative access. It's a protocol that signals defenses to stand down and allow changes to be made. If you see anything running on a Fitz, sit back and let it do what it wants.

[He pauses to consider more, scanning out deeper into ROM.]

It's also in a profile setting. Matches this model.

[and then Fitz is simply there in the room with them. It's his old body, the one he'd had when they left Earth. But it's also very much a construction, standing there with vacant eyes and a slumped posture, a virtual suit with nothing running inside it.]

[bravejemma]

[Didn't that figure -- she supposed he would be happy to hear that, if not proud.

When he brings up the profile, it has the effect of being hit in the stomach. It's him. It's not, of course, but it is, and the way he was before he was rebuilt, down to the teeny scars on his fingertips. She misses him so much it threatens to swallow her.]

That's him.

[projecthydra]

It's right here on the avatar list. [He points it out to her, highlighting a display in the intangible section of her consciousness that he keeps trying to bring to her attention. She's so much more than just the minuscule physical space that avatars inhabit.]

Pull him up whenever you get homesick. I won't even judge you for it.

[bravejemma]

[She's homesick right now. And she almost wishes that she didn't know where it was, because now she can see it any time she wants -- and that might be awhile.]

Thanks.

[projecthydra]

No problem. I used to take comfort in one of the default skins. But I've been through so many system updates, I have trouble remembering which one was special.

[There's something vaguely troubling about that.]

[bravejemma]

You should look for it again.

[The more she looks at the avatar, the less she likes it. It's Fitz, without any of the things that make him Fitz. It's just that -- an empty skin. She closes the file, and it disappears.]

[projecthydra]

Nah, it's too depressing. It gets weird when you don't remember important people's faces anymore. It's better if I just let that stuff go.

There's this weird zen that starts to settle in after a while... I don't really know how to explain it. You'll know it when you feel it.

[bravejemma]

[She doesn't like the sound of it, and she definitely doesn't want to feel it. It's a little off putting, and she's torn between wanting to stick with Will and get as far away as she can. Of course, given that they seem to both be part of the circuitry and programs being run, she's not sure she can do that.]

I don't think I'll be getting comfortable here, any rate.

[projecthydra]

You want to run. I get that. [Even though she hasn't said it.]

Look, if you want to explore the rest of the motherboard on your own, I won't bother you. Just stay out of the quarantined area okay? There's a pretty nasty infection there.

[bravejemma]

Might be what was causing our problem.

[She probably shouldn't look, at least alone.]

[projecthydra]

No, it's fine. Quarantines stop a virus from affecting the rest of the system. It can't hurt you as long as you're out of its boundaries. Besides, I can't delete and purge anything at the root level without access from Fitz.

Just promise me I can trust you to be safe, Jemma.

[bravejemma]

Fine, I won't touch anything.

[There has to be a log of the scan that would have caught and quarantined the virus, though. And she could look at that, if she could find it.]

[projecthydra]

Good. ...Well then, go ahead. Send me a ping if you have any questions.

[And then his avatar and electronic presence will both dim and fade, leaving her exclusively to navigate the dark recesses of electric abstractions alone.]

[bravejemma]

[Left alone to herself, she looks around.

It turns out that exploring the computer for the holosuite isn't a lot like exploring the ship computer via the holotable. She looks for the answers, like looking at the virus scan logs. There are no more users who come in for play time, but there are log-ons to the computer. She doesn't know how she knows, but she knows that it's Fitz's access code. I'm here Fitz. Help me.

She finds the quarantine sector, and true to her word, she doesn't touch anything. But she looks rather intensely. She has the log for the scan that caught the virus open (indeed, knows it forwards and backwards by now), but there's one part that she can't make sense of.]

Will?

[What day is it? She hardly knows.]

[projecthydra]

[During her time away, she certainly learns to adapt. The world of lights and numbers is rigid and structured, and her literacy arrives through immersion.

Will doesn't respond immediately when she calls for him, but the sector itself reacts. There's something red and blinking inside the quarantined area, something that whispers in a low brogue.

"Jemma? Jemma, is that you? I've been looking everywhere!]

[bravejemma]

[She feels as though her lip might be trembling. She hadn't forgotten Fitz, but she hadn't expected to hear him again. She missed him so much.]

Fitz? I'm here, Fitz.

[But is she? She doesn't feel like she knows where she might be. Being in the computer rather gives one the impression of being everywhere, and nowhere, at once.]

[projecthydra]

["Jemma -- it's you!"

The blinking intensifies.

Jemma, I can't seem to access your signal. There's something blocking access. Can't you come closer so I can reach?"]

[bravejemma]

[She gives a frustrated cry -- because she doesn't know where to go. She would run miles if she knew which way, but direction was losing meaning quickly.

She tries everything she can think of -- boosting her signal, unlocking access to whatever she can reach -- it doesn't feel enough.]

Fitz, I'm here, don't stop --

[projecthydra]

[Unlocking access to whatever she can reach includes dismantling the quarantine. The red light swells and glows brighter--

And then Jemma will feel a sensation of being pulled, yanked away from her sector and placed in another one.]

What the hell do you think you're doing?!

[bravejemma]

[As soon as she undoes the quarantine, she tries to stop, but there's no going back from that. Then she feels herself being taken away, fragmented -- ]

NO. NO, NO, NO, FITZ! FITZ!

[She's too grieved by how close they were, and how she ruined it, to answer Will. She manifests, too upset to remain everywhere and nowhere in the nothingness. She concentrates into an avatar, and immediately drops to the ground.]

[projecthydra]

That wasn't Fitz, Jemma.

[He joins her there, but remains standing, staring out somewhere that isn't at her.]

I told you not to hang around the quarantine. You know what was in there. What the hell do you think a virus does??

[bravejemma]

Shut up, I don't care!

[Now she's even worse off than before, and had been tricked to boot. How much stupider could she be? She was never going to leave. She was stuck, just as much as Will was.]