The Pandora Code

This is a little fanfic that i'll continue now and then, coming up with stuff as i write.

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Chapter 1: Intro



Craig Johnsson is an extremely good computer coder, he can write
anything from HTML to C++, he's a real wizard. He has his own software
company, Codeforge, a small but respected company. He has 10 people
working for him, all very good at computers, handpicked by himself,
especially his cute secretary, a woman that almost always wears a red
dress. Codeforge has released just a few programs, but all of them
masterpieces. For example, the very powerful server OS Codefence, used
in most servers. It's good because it's so flexible and secure, so you
could do anything from hosting websites to hosting MMO's on it. Not
many regular people know about it though, but it's highly respected in
computer circles.

  Mr. Johnsson was just eating his sandwich, and his computer
beeped ominuosly. He turned around, and saw that the screen had turned
black. Then, as he got up from his seat, purple asian letters began
appearing on the left side, moving slowly to the right side. Their
speed increased eventually, and soon they began dropping down from the
top of the screen towards the bottom. Then he saw something in the
code. Then it was gone. He tried to look behind the code, and then he
saw it again.



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Gotta go, i'll write more later

The story continues.

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The response was almost instant. Craig opened the email.



Hello Craig,

I am unable to write back at the moment, due to certain business, of a
nature i cannot tell you. You have sent this email to the address [email protected].
This is the encoded version of my address, and it will work only once
from every IP address. I advice you to send emails to [email protected]
if you want to contact me in the future. This is an autoresponder.



Sincerely,

Hale Grey

Matrix World Engineering Office

World Engineering

008500 Park East



//Autoresponer//: [email protected]



A bit dissapointed, he sent the same email to [email protected], and got the following response:



Hello Craig,

As i've already
told you, i am unable to answer at the moment. Please try again in one
hour, when i'll most probably be back. This is an autoresponder.



Sincerely,

Hale Grey

Matrix World Engineering Office

World Engineering

008500 Park East



//Autoresponer//: [email protected]



"Wow, what an advanced autoresponder that is. It
must have cost them some money...", he thought. Now he noticed that the
autoresponder email address had changed. Normal autoresponders do not
have an own email, but there's many versions. He tried to send an email
to [email protected].

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I see i got 5 stars, thanks


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Autorespndrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Herlo Craig

I am annn autorrespondder. Nicce to meeeet ya.



"Hmm, looks like it has some kind of glitch", he
thought, and looked again at the other emails from Hale Grey. He then
noticed the addresses to some kind of Matrix World Engineering Office
in Downtown. Since he went "digital" he hadn't cared much for addresses, only email addresses.

   "Nothing to lose", he said for himself and grabbed his collective
traffic ticket and headed to the nearest subway. Once in Park East, he
went to the address he got from the email.

   The Matrix World Engineering Office building was not very small.
Actually it was one of the biggest buildings in the city. The building
had nothing on it to announce what building it was, but it was on the
right address. And when he got near the door, he saw that the Matrix
World Engineering had an office in it.



In the lobby, he asked the lady behind the counter on which floor the Matrix World Engineering Office was, and she asked him:

   "Zion, Machines or Merovingian?"

   "Ummm...............Do i need to pick one?"

   "Yes. Zion, Machines or Merovingian?"

   "Pfffft, let's say Zion". The next thing he knew was that he was
lying on the street outside the building. Bravely, he walked in again.
He was determined to see Hale Grey.

   "Oh, it's you again. Didn't you get that Zionists are not allowed into the Matrix Engineering Office?"

   "Okay, okay, okay. I'm neither. Not Zion, not Machine, and not a ancient french king." he said desperately.

   "Bluepill, eh?" said the woman, and on the same second she
dissappeared between two blue squares, to be replaced by a man in a
black suit and sunglasses.

   "You are not authorized in this area. This is a government building."

   "Umm...sure, well i just wanted to see Hale Grey..."

   "Very well. Follow me."

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It continues.

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The elevator let out a "bling"-sound, and the doors opened. The man in
the suit walked towards the end of the corridor, and Craig followed
him. At the end of the corridor he saw two big doors. There was a sign
over them that read "Matrix World Administration".

   "Through there", the man in the suit said, and walked
through a smaller door, situated near the big doors. Craig was a bit
confused, but walked opened the big doors and walked through.

   Inside he saw nothing really fantastic. It was a normal
office with cubicles, but it was much quieter than a normal office,
there was just the sound of hundreds of hands writing on keyboards. The
man in the black suit was nowhere to be seen, though Craig was almost
sure the small door also led to this big room, though he couln't see
the door. At the end of the corrior of cubicles, he saw a desk, with a
woman writing on a keyboard. She looked a bit like the woman in the
lobby, he observed. But nothing really intrigued him anymore. He walked
up to the desk and asked for Hale Grey.

   "Sorry, noone with that name can be found here." she said without even looking up from the screen.

   "I'm sure he works here", said Craig determined.

   "So am i, he just isn't here at the moment". Now she
looked up, with a sarcastic face. "He's back soon, though. Who's
waiting for him?"

   "Craig Johnsson" he said, and she wrote it into her
computer. At the same time, the big doors on the other side of the room
opened, and a man walked in. He walked straight up to the desk, and
said to Craig:

   "Greetings, Mr. Johnsson. I'm Hale Grey, i'm a world
engineer. But that you can't know right now. Come int o my office, and
i'll tell you everything.

   Quiet, he followed mr. Grey to his office, in the east part of the big office.

   "So, i guess you're itching to know why you're looking for me?" he asked as the door slammed shut.

   "Umm...yes, i guess" said Craig.

   "Ok, listen up, because this is important. This is the
Matrix. It's the world that you have been living in since you were
"born". It's basically a computer program, a computer-made world, a bit
like a computer game, but much much much much much more advanced. I
know you are familiar with coding and computers, that's infact why you
are here. So, the Matrix was made by the Machines, to have some place
to put the humans, that we are using to get power, in the real world.
There is many videos and documents about the history of the Matrix, so
i won't bore you with that now. then there is Zionists, and theyre
basically human, the only free humans in the world. Theyre constanlty
freeing other humans from the Matrix. Machines and Zionists have a
truce, a tiny one. Then there's the third wheel, the Merovingian. He is
a program that is in controll over most of the rogue exiles here in the
Matrix, and has formed his own organisation.

   And this is from where the Machines administer the Matrix.
We repair glitches, make new stuff and remove stuff, code programs,
delete programs and so on. I am a program, for example."

   "Wow...i'm feeling dizzy...all this..." Craig said, holding his head in his hands.

   "Yes, the information can make anyone feel bad. Anyway,
Everyone that works here are programs. The most efficient and powerful
and intelligent programs ever made. We can basically do everything you
can do in the Matrix. We are called Programmers. The next-most powerful
programs are the Agents. They are clad in black suits and sunglasses. They could kill you just by touching with a
finger." He watched Craigs
reaction before continuing. "So could i, so could any Programmer. But
we weren't made to kill people, we were made to administer the Matrix.
And that's what we are doing."

   "So, where do i come in?" Craig asked.

   "Oh, you know that already. We need your help. We need
help from someone that has lived in the Matrix for all his life."

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That's everything for today.

Message Edited by Zimb on 12-27-2005 04:58 PM

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"Umm...what kind of help you need?"




   "Oh, you know, feedback and such stuff, but most
importantly, coding help. And according to our statistics, you are the
best", said Hale.




   "Oh am i? That's...suprising..." Craig was indeed suprised. He, he alone, was the best coder in the world!




   "Well, i guess you need to learn everything about the
Matrix before you begin your work. You see, the powerplant is so big,
that we really don't know which one is your pod. Yet. Take this pill,
and when you wake up, you know everything there is to know about the
Matrix." Hale offered him a red pill. He coded a glass with water, and
gave it to Craig. Craig swallowed the pill, and instantly became a bit
tired.




   "That pill helps us locate your pod, and it makes you
sleep, so you can intake all this information we are about to load into
your head. It may feel, a bit weird." Craig instantly fell into sleep.









24 hours later, he woke up. He felt like his head had been crushed,
healed, crushed and healed again forever. he had a headache, and he
didn't feel too good at all. He was alone in a room. It was a very nice
room, many paintings on the wall, big, and very clean. Apparently he
sat ebhind a desk, with the most advanced supercomputer he had ever
seen. When he looked towards the door, the room just seemed to continue
to grow in length. Then the growing stopped, and the room became
smaller, for every second. Then, the walls alarmingly near him, the
room expanded with a sound, and the walls fell back to their real
positions. He had been hallucinating. Now he was feeling very good, and
the room wasn't so big anymore. And he knew everyhting.




   "Hello." said hale who had stepped throught the door.
"Before you ask, you will not be unplugged from the powerplant in the
near future, we need you jacked in." He paused. "Now i want you to code
me a PDA."




   "WHAT? How do i do that?"




   "Well, as you're only learning, you need the computer.
How, use the Pandora Code. Everyhting here in the Matrix is build of
Pandora Code. The green code you see when you look at the Matrix in the
real world, is just Matrix code. It's uneditable. The Pandora code, on
the other hand, is what we Programmers use to code the Matrix. It's
purple, if viewed in compiled form. We'we taught you how to code
Pandora, so now get coding.




   Craig started his computer, and suddenly he got the
Pandora code dug out from the darkest corners of his brain, and he
could begin. The computer screen was totally black, except for a bright
purple cursor in the upper left corner. He looked down, and saw his
keyboard. It was full of pandora letters, they looked Asian. He pressed
one of the keys. Then another. Then his fingers were razing across the
keyboard, writing lightning-fast. On the screen code began to form. He
paused and looked behind the code, like he had done in his own office.
He saw what he had coded, the first chip of the PDA. He continued to
code. In a few hours, he was ready, and typed:





CodeComplete=Yes


//Render







Then after a few minutes, the compter returned





Render complete




~~~~~~

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He watched the new PDA appear on a plate that lay on the desk. It was a
very advanced PDA, had everything you ever could need. Again had he
mastered a new coding language. Soon Hale was admiring the great work.

   "Excellent. Congartulations, you are now a Programmer. We've rewritten your RSI's data, and you are now a program."

   "You WHAT? I liked being human!" Craig shouted in suprise.

   "I'm sure you liked it. and i'm sure you will like being a
programmer even more. You see, programmers cannot be deleted.
Programmers delete."

   "Well, that's nice to hear..."

   "Yes, ain't it?" said hale. "Here's your first assignment: Reprogram the Matrix."

   "Sure, but it's a big thing to do..." Craig said.

   "Im sure you can handle it. All other Programmers will be working for you. You are in charge of the Matrix."

   Craig coded and coded. He rewrote every single one-byte
program he found, so it would suit everyone in the Matrix. It would
suit the psychos, the policemen, the drugdealers, the law-abiding
citizens, the prisoners, the exiles, the free humans, the Agents, the
crazy scientists, the normal scientists, the movieproducers, the
butchers, the plumbers, the barbers and the Programmers and everyone
else.

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