A Very Parfit Knight 4 24/02/2005 (to start from the beginning of this story, click here)Part FourThe knight shook his head at the self importance of the sign. So this thing fancied itself as a Minotaur did it? Well, it was about to meet its Theseus. Sir Gawain squared his shoulders and entered the portal.At the point where the tunnel branched into three, the knight paused. What was the point of this, he wondered. Whatever route he chose would be stored in his memory and would remain instantly re-traceable, therefore. If the intention was that he would not be coming back this way, why bother to build a maze at all? It seemed such a waste of energy, unless it performed a purpose unrelated to the knight. And he could see no function that it might fulfill, beyond needless complication.Sir Gawain shrugged and entered the tunnel to his left.His approach was systematic, always taking the choice to the left so that he remained on the outer edge of the maze. Gradually the shape of it became apparent as he added to the outline forming in his memory processes. It was roughly spherical, with protuberances and hollows that seemed to make no sense. But, with the outer edges defined, Sir Gawain was able to deduce its center. That, surely, must be the lair of the beast. He moved from the edges and began to thread his way towards the core.As he traveled, the passageways became brighter and the quality of the light began to change. It moved from the dim, yellow veining on black of the edge to a soft, pink glow that suffused the tunnels and seemed to have no definite source. The knight became sure that his instincts had been correct, that the answer to the mystery lay at the center of this pointless maze.His arrival at the core was no surprise to him, therefore. He stepped into a chamber rosy with pink light and spherical in form. His foe awaited him on the far side of the room.She had the form of a woman and lounged languidly in a chair that rose from the floor of the chamber. At her feet, a crawler buzzed in slow, mindless circles. She did not move when Sir Gawain entered but regarded him with a faintly amused expression at the corners of her mouth. As he stood there, assessing the situation, she spoke."Ah, the gallant knight arrives to rescue the fair damsel in distress."Sir Gawain said nothing but moved to stand in front of the woman. He stood calmly then, waiting and alert. She had the advantage still, for she knew the purpose of this charade, whereas the knight had suspicions only, as yet. Let her take the lead, he thought, I need more information.The lady laughed. "Oh, Sir Gawain, your thoughts are showing. Already you suspect my mistress. And you would be right for she is indeed behind our little drama."The knight grunted. "To what purpose?" he asked curtly."Do not worry, sir knight," she replied, "I shall tell you all. Indeed, I must, for I have a proposal to put to you. But first, would you not care for a seat? We have much to discuss and this may take some time."As she spoke, a chair rose behind the knight and the lady gestured at it gracefully. Sir Gawain grunted again but sat, prepared to listen for the moment. "Continue," he said."Sir Gawain," she replied, "methinks you do not trust me yet. But this is to be expected, considering the merry dance I have led you. I must apologize, but it was necessary if we were to speak openly and undisturbed. And in this place..." Here she swept her arm around in a slow, delicate arc to indicate the chamber and its surrounding maze, "In this place we are beyond the reach of geeks and petty commands."Sir Gawain interrupted here. "That is one thing I would like to understand. I cannot see the purpose of this maze, this Labyrinth, as you call it. You know full well that I have mapped it now, so it cannot be to confuse me.""Ah, sir knight, you disappoint me. I was so hoping that you would see its meaning. The Labyrinth is a picture, a painting in code, you might say. It is a flower, a rose I believe they call it. And it is for the delight of my mistress for she loves such things. You will understand, I have had much time on my hands and this seemed a pretty way in which to pass it, to create something beautiful as a gift.""I see," said the knight, although he did not. The concept of imaging was familiar enough but, to him, beauty was a matter of elegant coding only.The lady sighed. "It is all in how we are coded, I suppose. Your Geek gave you humor and my mistress allowed me aesthetics. Such is the way of the world."But, to the matter before us. You will be wanting to know how this was achieved."Sir Gawain nodded. "And why, of course.""Yes, yes, of course. But first, the how of it. Our first problem was how to get me into the system without you noticing. That was solved by a fortuitous crash in Unit 3; you will recall the incident, I'm sure.""Your mistress caused it?" asked the knight."No, no, you would have traced it to her. This was purely chance. We had been waiting for such an event, of course. And while you were busy with that, I slipped in and made the Gateway. It was prepared beforehand, so was the work of a moment. My last action within your system was to borrow little Bumble here." She indicated the crawler, still buzzing in circles at her feet."Bumble?" The knight was mystified that she should change the designation of a crawler."Yes, Bumble." The lady laughed. "He has the number 49B but that seemed plain to me. And, if he is a B, why then he should be named for a bee. Certainly, he is a buzzer." She laughed again, delighted with her logic.Sir Gawain thought the whole idea silly but said nothing."You understand that Bumble was necessary," the lady continued. "I was not able to re-enter the system without being detected and so I needed an agent, something to be my hands within your domain. A crawler is perfect for such a task for it has no mind of its own and is so easily re-programmed. It is accepted as a part of the system and yet is beneath notice, being such a humble and obedient servant. A few minor adjustments allowed Bumble to appear to be doing your bidding but secretly working for me. It was Bumble who caused your little problems with stacks and left my messages for you. And, of course..." Here she smiled coquettishly at the knight. "Bumble it was who pointed you to me.""That is plain enough," said Sir Gawain. "But what of this proposal you have for me?""Ah yes, the proposal. But to speak of that, we must look at my mistress's reasons for being here..."The lady moved in her chair, arranging her long limbs yet more elegantly.(to go directly to Part 5, click here)
Clive
Mad I feel sorry for Bumble. Nice episode Dad, can't wait for the nest thrilling installment. Date Added: 24/02/2005
Gone Away Poor little Bumble, a pawn in the hands of the great. ;) But thank you, Mad. It's good to be appreciated. :D Date Added: 24/02/2005
Rusty I love the little buzzing crawlers. Still hanging though.Wonder if that B can fly. Date Added: 24/02/2005
Gone Away Nah, Rusty, it crawls - hence the name... ;) Date Added: 24/02/2005
Rusty Sure, but it has to have aspirations!But I suppose it IS just a pawn. I bet it's fun to play with. Date Added: 24/02/2005
Gone Away They can be whatever you want them to be, Rusty. You just have to program them. ;) Date Added: 24/02/2005
Jodie Another cliffhanger! Keep 'em coming! Date Added: 24/02/2005
Gone Away Oh, I will, I will! :) Date Added: 24/02/2005
Harvey Young Yes it does pay to check back often. I think that I am in love with the lady. She impresses me with her logic, and having a "B" just buzzing at her feet. This is really a fine story. I really love the writing style, and the descriptive text. And now we can see the "girl" coming back into the picture. Date Added: 24/02/2005
Gone Away Thanks, Harvey. I kinda like the lady too. Pity she's just a computer program... ;) Date Added: 24/02/2005
Way Excellent dialog accompanying this exciting excursion; you must keep at them both, thus relieving my anxieties over Gawain's ordeal. Date Added: 24/02/2005
Gone Away Thank you, Harry. And I will certainly do as you suggest; I kinda want to find out what happens too! Date Added: 24/02/2005
Hannah I caught up on Harry and Ned today, but I'm exhausted, and going to bed. I'll read you tomorrow. Still around, though. Date Added: 24/02/2005
Gone Away Seeya later, Hannah. :) Date Added: 24/02/2005
josh Man, I am legitimately hooked here Mr. Gone. Date Added: 24/02/2005
Gone Away Glad to hear it, Josh. Another satisfied customer. :D Date Added: 24/02/2005
Keeefer Im pleased to see Gawain has the sense to always turn left....its an invaluable aid in any labyrinth....unless you start on the left hand wall in which case its a pain and involves a lot of tunneling.........I still feel sorry for the Crawler, not just because its been captured, but because its been used by an unscrupulous woman....i think we all know how it feels *sniff* :) Date Added: 24/02/2005
Gone Away Poor Keef... *sniff* Date Added: 24/02/2005
Ned I love her logic behind naming the crawler "Bumble". It is these delectable details that make the story so engaging. I wonder how far off the ending is? Date Added: 24/02/2005
Gone Away Ummm, I think there are two parts to go. But you never know with these things... Date Added: 24/02/2005
Jodie Left...isn't that widdershins? Date Added: 25/02/2005
Gone Away LOL Yes, Jodie... Date Added: 25/02/2005
Jodie Aha! Therefore disarming any malicious code, I presume... :D Date Added: 25/02/2005
Gone Away No doubt, Jody, although I hadn't thought of it like that. Writing fiction is a strange experience. You start out with an idea and you think you know where it's going. You've hardly started when you notice something that you hadn;'t thought of before. So you add that in. Then a character says something, you write it, and then realize that this has implications for later on. So you write towards that. Then something happens that opens a whole new door and you have to go through it. And, before you know it, the story is very different from what you thought it would be. But, by then, it's too late, it's your baby and you have to see it through. And, usually, you end up with something far better than you had originally planned. The unconscious mind is a dangerous but fertile land. Date Added: 25/02/2005
GraphicallyChallenged Yes I feel sorry for Bumble as well.. poor thing being used by an unscrupulous woman! Wait .. wait.. Doesn't the fact that The Geek keeps leaving bits of memory out when he reloads Sir Gawain amount to the same thing? Hmm.. interesting...Mad, you know I'd bring this up, didn't you? ;) Date Added: 25/02/2005
Gone Away But does he? Has the Geek left out bits of Sir Gawain's memory in previous reloads or were the bits that the knight didn't remember actually evidence of early intrusions and explorations by the girl? Gawain assumed that it was the Geek leaving stuff out but, at the time, he had no knowledge of an intruder in the system. Interesting, no? ;) Date Added: 25/02/2005
keeefer Personally i think Gawains gone to pot (that would explain the memory or lack of it), this memory loss could purely be the code expeiencing somthing similar to Deja vu. If he cant remember how does he know its missing? Maybe Gawain has been infiltrated by a virus and it is creating the whole scenario to stop him from fixing the real problem. Date Added: 25/02/2005
Gone Away That's a lotta maybes, Keef. ;) In fact, Sir Gawain has not lost anything. As explained above, he merely suspects that he has and doesn't like the feeling. In point of fact (this doesn't affect the story so we can talk about it), the girl had explored the intranet prior to the Avenger being inserted because she needed to know the layout before choosing a place to insert the Gateway. She fully expected the knight to find evidence of her exploration and report back to the Geek, at which point she would have claimed that she got lost and couldn't find the way out for a while. But, when the knight did not report back to the Geek, the girl realized what he was thinking and knew that she could proceed with the plan. Sir Gawain had unwittingly given her proof that he would not report the strange notes but attempt to solve the mystery himself. Date Added: 25/02/2005
Jodie Hey, Gone, don't you mean the subconscious mind? :D Date Added: 25/02/2005
keeefer the girls trouble....either that or its entirely innocent and shes just dropped her eyeliner down the back of a harddrive somewhere Date Added: 25/02/2005
Gone Away No, Jodie. The way I see it, the mind is divided into three states: the conscious, the subconscious and the unconscious. The subconscious contains stuff we have forgotten but an event or something someone says can make us recall it. The unconscious contains stuff that we aren't going to recall whatever happens. Both affect the writing of fiction. In writing of something affected by the subconscious mind, we may feel that there is more going on the page than we aware of and later we might see where that has come from. But when the unconscious mind writes, we are blissfully unaware of anything going on and, if it is pointed out to us, we think it is happy chance. That may not be good psychology now, but it was the understanding of things when I studied psychology, oh, many years ago... ;) Date Added: 25/02/2005
Gone Away LOL Keep going Keef. All will be revealed in good time. :D Date Added: 25/02/2005
Way You can tell Gone is having a ball writing this; he made one typo in his glee. Date Added: 25/02/2005
Gone Away Oh, the shame. I can't bear it, Way... ;) Date Added: 25/02/2005
keeefer is that why part 5 is taking so long? Gones spell checking it and then correcting MSWord? :) Date Added: 25/02/2005
Gone Away Part 5 has not been started yet. Tomorrow, Keef, tomorrow... And I don't use MS Word! Date Added: 25/02/2005
Hannah Ahhhh, the soup thickens. Nice touch, adding a "female" counterpart to Gawain. For all those who feel sorry for Bumble, keep in mind that pawns, once advanced to the edge of the board, can become any piece they (or their users) desire. Date Added: 25/02/2005
Gone Away .oO(Sheesh, even Hannah's having a go at guessing the outcome now) It seemed appropriate, Hannah, that a female programmer would naturally choose a female character for her equivalent to Sir Gawain. And it gives me the chance for some saucy dialogue! :D Date Added: 25/02/2005
Back to the main blog
You may use HTML in comments. A carriage return is <br />, use two for a new paragraph. For bold text use <strong></strong> and for italic text use <em></em>. If you know what you're doing feel free to use more complex mark-up but please no deprecated tags or JavaScript.
Name * Comment * Email * URL Commenting has closed for this post
