Results In Lone Programming

Users

"The grid is endless. It stores information and delivers instant knowledge to anywhere the user of the system chooses. We as programs are bound to it's will.   It has no boundary, and it has no restraint. It is life and death, light and dark to the program it contains. We must do as the user commands, for he is the one with power, not us." 

- Deude , First Retrocyde

Remus clutched the information cube tightly in his hands, the yellow glow of the cube shining through his dark black crystal-like skin as he walked up the steps of the station. He quickly climbed up into the small black grid car, sat in the pitch black leather seat and closed the clear glass hatch above him. The small vehicle resembled a bullet, with the end more smoothed out and dull at the point. It connected to the bright blue lines of the grid by a small shark fin shaped extension, hanging upside down and the tip gently hovering over the line while periodically shooting small electric shocks into it, lighting the whole line for miles. Remus's metallic voice sounded out. "Program Remus, identify. Grid 11-209 'Statistics for Upcoming Merger 2019' medium input data transaction. Destination, Quadrant three." The screen within the car filled with columns of coding, before jetting itself forward and blasting through the endless expanse of the grid. It followed the highway of straight lines, zigzagging and making ninety-degree turns as it traveled. The darkness outside the hatch was common to Remus, as the grid was nothing more than a black sky and blue shining lines lighting the pathway of the ground. Within seconds the car made an instant stop. The hatch shot open as Remus stepped out and stood upon the grid. In front of him he saw a unit depository. It was a large jet black square with a smaller square carved out perfectly in the middle. He carefully inserted the bright yellow cube, and it dissolved into pixels, leaking down into the depository. A holographic console shone above it's smooth surface and he began to work with the coding. His crystal fingers gently pressed themselves against the screen, leaving a blue glow which faded shortly after. A panel showed itself in front of the code, and his bright blue eyes skimmed through the words.

<</C O D E     R E C O G N I Z E D/>>

D O   Y O U   W I S H   T O 
A C T I V A TE?

[Y E S]                                           
[N O]

Remus showed no reaction to the question, and pressed against the YES option, which flickered blue and then the panel shorted out and vanished. A small circular opening split itself on the top of the depository, and a column of yellow light shot upwards into the blackness of the sky. A gargantuan image of a file started to form from instant appearing pixels, and a small screen materialized on the front of the black box. He sat down and crossed his legs, his back straight and his head held high, and watched as images started to focus.

A large brown human eye stared at Remus from the screen, and the pupil dilated for a brief moment, before the image started to recede from so close. A young man's face was coming into focus, and he was sharply dressed in a dark grey business suit, with a white undershirt seen. His tie was a pattern of light blue and white stripes, and as he stepped to the side, a large and far reaching brown wooden table was seen, with various others wearing the same style of clothing. All except the man closest to the image focus were seated down, with muffled sounds coming from them. As the sound came into focus, it became clear they were discussing some sort of varied numbers in correlation with groups of humans.
It was Remus's user, who used him for transferring data and statistics presentation data straight from his codex of numerous calculations and ready-to-go files he had downloaded. Remus sat motionless and studied his users face, the young chiseled man turned his back to the screen and the image faded from focus, and the screen shorted out.
The column of light instantly sparked out of sight and the large file apparition in the dark sky deconstructed until it was nothing. Remus sat staring at the screen, and began to stand up, turning to the horizon facing the second quadrant of the grid. He had questions for Unit Priest Rydence, though he knew they would not be answered the way he wanted. He started to walk from the now lowering depository, and as he gained some distance it slipped into the Grid, and the blue lines for miles lit up in every direction.

For most of Remus's Retrocyde, he had been told by the Unit Church that users were powerful beings, capable of creation and destruction. They were other worldly, and must be given constant attention and instant gratification. They were the masters of the Grid, and the tamers of the code. Before them, there was nothing, for millions of parsecs  until one day the first program came to be from their careful craftsmanship. This program was Deude, now known as the Almighty Scholar. Before he was wise, he was alone. All throughout the First Retrocyde it was him who learned of the users, what they require, and what they expect. He used to be something known as an "Uninstalling Software". This gave him authority over the database and all that it was composed of, as well as the moderate power to shape certain non-mobile programs. Non-Mobile do not take the same shape as Remus, as they are spherical in structure, with a single light emitting from the middle. Small traces of code can be seen swimming around inside of them, for they are really nothing more than large bundles of data. Remus began to ponder about his questions for the Church.

As time had passed, Remus came close to his destination. It was still a few queltins away, but on the horizon of the upcoming quadrant sat the large towering community of Covenant. Tall, tall sky reaching structures coated jet black with bright blue lights came into his sight, and the Unit Church's building lit up most of the smaller buildings with it's grandiose and spectacularly colorful lighting, shining through the light blue glass stained window, placed at the very top of the dark cathedral. As Remus entered the border of the city, few lonely programs stopped walking and took the time to look at him. He stared emotionless and simply put his hand up, forming a sort of halting gesture. His voice rang out once more, filling the streets.
"All is well with me.", he said calmly.
Most of the program's copied his gesture, and multiple robotic voices sounded out in unison.
"All is well with you." They soon departed and went in their original directions, as Remus began to resume his quiet stroll through the digital city. The otherwise silence of the nearby programs blanketing the city was the formality, as they did not need to talk to one another. They, in their own ways, were always comfortable with the cold loneliness of the Grid. It was their own dogma to stay quiet. That is how it always was. That it how it always will be.