The week spent gathering salvage wasn't as fun without Neo there. They also didn't go far from the main junction lines, because Malachi was training a rookie pilot. It was only a temporary posting until Neo returned, because the defense forces couldn't afford to let a ship stay in dock for however long their actual pilot would be assigned to another ship.

Mouse, Akira, and Saga didn't treat the guy badly or gave him the cold shoulder; but, they also didn't welcome him like another crew would have. The new guy wasn't staying on the ship and they didn't want to hurt themselves or make themselves vulnerable by embracing him, only to have him leave and never see him again.

Both the rookie pilot and Malachi understood and accepted it, since the Reclamation was a family ship, something new that the people of Zion hadn't ever had before. The upside to the situation was that Dragon interacted more with both Akira and Saga inside the Construct. She had tried spending some time with Mouse as well, only for him to admit that he felt like he was neglecting his creation.

With that as motivation, Dragon promised him that she would help Neo devise a portable add-on for the Woman in the Red Dress, to keep her coding intact and to let her reconnect to the resources she needed when installed in different systems and then unloaded. That way, she wouldn't be stuck back home all the time inside their personal login station's computer core and waiting for Mouse to return.

To say Mouse was happy about that was an understatement. Getting to bring her with him wherever he went was a dream of his, since he had believed, and rightly so, that her program was too large for that to be possible and was a pain in the ass to port over from a ship's computer core to the home system. He knew it wouldn't happen right away, and that was okay. Just the promise was enough for his peace of mind.

They returned to Zion to drop off their meagre cargo, which was significantly smaller than when they had Neo aboard, mostly because they didn't venture too far from the safe passages. After they docked, they were supposed to have a layover for a few days to maintain the upkeep on the ship and then head back to the Matrix for their regular mission of searching for people to rescue.

The problem was, they didn't have Neo aboard and there wasn't much point in going all that way for only Malachi to log in to continue the mission. Since Malachi was the captain, he put the ship onto standby and decided they would wait for the week in the dock until their next shift for salvage.

With the trip into the Matrix cancelled, the rookie pilot left the ship with his small bag of clothing and didn't say goodbye or even gave a thank you to Malachi, proving the stance that Mouse, Saga, and Akira had taken was the right one.

By unspoken agreement, none of them mentioned that the Osiris should have been back by now, since the experiment should have only taken a day, perhaps two. Even Dragon was getting worried, and that wasn't something that gave them reassurance about Neo being on another ship without them.

It wasn't until the evening of their second layover day that Dragon sent a priority message to the Bachelor Haven to let them know that the Osiris was approaching one of the gates of Zion. That had Mouse, Akira, and Saga scramble to make their way up to the main hangar.

They weren't the only ones there, either. The families and friends of the people involved in the experiment, several members of the council, a large portion of the hospital staff, a member of Zion Control, several maintenance crews, and a bunch of security guards and mechs were there under Captain Mifune to keep the peace. Dragon was in her own mech at the back of the group, too.

The largest landing pad available had been kept clear to allow the large ship to safely come in for a landing without trouble. The crowd was far enough away to not suffer any backlash from the hovercraft and all of them felt anticipation about what was going to be revealed when the loading ramp dropped.

The ramp lowered and they could see several pairs of feet. Some in the middle only had socks on, one with two, and a couple with only one boot. It was a little confusing at first, then one of the hospital attendants gasped and pointed as the group started walking down the ramp.

“That's FRANK!” The woman yelled and the other medical personnel around her gasped as well.

Frank had been chosen to be the first to walk down the ramp, because he was the one that had been the worst off. Two amputated legs at the knees and an entire arm missing.

The man in question waved to her with his returned arm and she squealed happily and lunged at him. He caught her and they kissed deeply, making the crowd clap and cheer. His family was next and he greeted his brother and sister-in-law. Their little boy had no clue what was going on and joined in on the hug anyway.

They were ushered off to the side by security to make room for the others, and soon the entire platform was full of greeting healed people, medical personnel checking them over, and happy family members not believing their eyes.

In the middle of all the excitement, the crew of the ship made their way around it and Captain Thaddeus went to the councillors to give his initial report with Jue and her mother. No one really noticed, because of the spectacle being made about the healed patients. The tall black man introduced his first officer and her elderly mother, the first successful extraction of a senior citizen.

That comment sent a ripple of surprise through the councillors, then through the gathered crowd. It quickly spread to everyone there and a couple of the medical personnel rushed over to her to examine her in the same manner they had for the experiment's patients. They were respectful about it, at least.

No one but a select few noticed Neo slipping around everyone to meet with his family, whom all hugged him and told him how much they missed him. Dragon briefly placed an articulated hand on his lower back and gave it a rub, letting Neo feel her thoughts and emotions through his technopathy.

Their small group left the hubbub behind and the humans went down the elevator while Dragon retreated back to the ship's cargo hold. She knew she had to wait until tonight to spend time with neo again and she couldn't wait. Their secret meetings had become a part of her life that she enjoyed the most and she had missed them a lot while he was gone.

The next day, everyone in Zion knew about both the healing and about Na Wong being rescued. The details were also released, and everyone assumed that someone else on the council released it, so no one asked who it was.

None of them realized it was Dragon that had given it out and made sure the truth was revealed about Na's extraction. There was no way she was going to allow them to cover up how difficult it was, the same with the healing. Dragon even amended the reports from the captain and operator on the Osiris about the need to always keep a login slot free for emergency extractions.

The information was widely accepted and most took the warnings at face value. However, by the end of the day, a lot of people ignored the implications and still tried to petition for their families to be forcibly extracted. They were refused, of course.

After that, a few of them gathered in front of Zion Control and the council chambers to shout and holler their demands. That gained some interest from others, mostly because they thought keeping their families prisoner was a good reason to remove them. They didn't realize that meant killing them, though.

It wouldn't be until later that more reports were released, confidential ones that some on the council and some in the military, had thought were restricted or deleted. It gave gruesome details about several extractions of older people and how they went insane when they couldn't accept that their entire lives were a lie.

That horrified everyone, even the people born in Zion and the ones demanding their families be rescued. A different kind of protest started the next day. If it was so dangerous to pull them out, why were the crews of the hoverships going into the Matrix constantly to remove people? It didn't make sense.

That started a whole information campaign where it was revealed they only rescued people of appropriate ages and only if they could accept the changes easily. If they were reluctant or chose not to, then they were left alone and could believe whatever they wanted to believe.

It reassured a lot of people, especially the natural born humans that couldn't enter the Matrix. It hadn't quite registered in their minds what it meant to have an identity crisis like that, especially at a young age, and now they could see for themselves the challenges that people that had been unplugged went through.

*

“You know you'll never be left alone if you go out there.” Mouse said to me as I put the large pot of stew onto the table. “You can't hide behind us, either.”

Saga giggled as she used the ladle to take more meat and vegetables than broth. “Mouse is right, dad. Everyone knows we're your family.”

I sighed and sat down at the table. “I knew it was going to be a circus after word spread around. I just didn't think they would take it to this extreme.”

It was a little unsettling that I had been honored by the people of Zion as a holy figure. It had happened in a ceremony that I refused to attend, mostly because I didn't want to acknowledge the ridiculousness of it. Why was it ridiculous? Because I was receiving a slow trickle of Karma Points from it.

That was something that never happened before and it didn't take a genius to figure out what was happening. People worshipping me seemed to count as changing their lives for the better, for some reason. It wasn't like I was providing them food, or anything else substantial. Maybe it was just that they needed someone to look up to? It was difficult to tell.

“At least they aren't calling you The One.” Akira said with a smirk.

That made me bark a laugh and Dragon's image on the living room viewscreen smiled widely. “Monk's really laying into the whole mystic part of the culture he adopted.”

“I really liked it when they showed him in the Construct warping spoons and floating on a flying carpet.” Saga said and gave me a searching look and her mind was asking if I was really going to answer what she asked next. “You can do that too, can't you dad?”

“Who needs a carpet?” I asked with a chuckle.

“Not you!” Mouse laughed. “Remember the Jump Program you totally wrecked on Tank?”

I laughed, too. “I did show off a bit.”

That had both Saga and Akira ask Mouse about it and he went into the story of what I did and the questions I asked, which had both Saga and Akira nodding along as he described everything. I could tell by their thoughts that they wanted to try something similar the next time we were inside the Construct.

It was almost funny, because they fully accepted that it was both possible to do what I did and that they could do it for themselves. Their open minds were a bit refreshing to experience and I was glad that I had brought them both together and became a family with them.

Dragon added her own thoughts and ideas, which prompted Mouse to promise to message Tank later to get a copy of the Jump Program. That reminded me about the things I coded to give to Morpheus and his crew and that topic took us through the rest of the meal and we all gathered on the couch to keep discussing things.

Saga thought swinging with a grappling hook was going to be the best thing ever and then she had the brilliant idea to have two of them and could use the retractable device like she was Spider-Man. Akira on the other hand, wanted a laser watch. It wasn't for any specific reason, though.

Like Saga, she just thought the tech was cool and wanted one, even if she never used it. She definitely would, because why wouldn't she? Stuff like that was fun to play with.

After spending the evening with them, I bid them all goodnight and ushered the girls to bed. Mouse was going to visit the Woman in the Red Dress for a while, so I wasn't going to be able to go into the construct for some alone time with Dragon. We would just have to put it off until tomorrow or I could head back to the ship to do it there.

I mentioned that option to her and she immediately agreed. Instead of going the normal way and possibly leaving myself vulnerable to ambush by worshippers, I stepped from the living room to the inside of the ship beside the login station. I set it up and then laid down and it logged me in.

“Hi, Neo.” Dragon's voice said from behind me.

I turned around to look at her and my mind stuttered a little. She was facing away from me and was slightly bent over and wore the same tiny denim shorts her teenage self had worn in the Matrix. The same ones. As in, she was a full size woman and she was wearing a pair of shorts that were tight on a teenager.

They were so tight that the cloth was starting to leave red lines in her flesh as it tried desperately to escape. I dove for her punished ass and tore the cloth away to help ease it's suffering and then I caressed and kissed the red marks. Dragon moaned sexily as I did so and her wetness started to drip onto the floor.

I couldn't let it get away so easily, so I stuck my tongue right in there and started lapping at her. The moans continued as I ate her out and then she came hard. Her knees gave out and she dropped to the floor as well, with her head and chest down and her ass sticking up in the air. By her thoughts, the pose was undignified and hadn't been intentional; but, it was perfect for me.

I stood and dissolved my clothes and grabbed her hips as I drove myself inside of her and right to the hilt. Dragon moaned again and grew even tighter, so I pulled out most of the way and shoved into her even harder. She really liked that and pulled herself away only slightly and then pushed her still red-marked ass back against me as hard as she could.

“Ohhhh, god!” Dragon groaned and shivered hard as she came.

“If you got pregnant, would it create another AI?” I asked her.

Dragon stiffened and gasped as she came again.

“Do you want to keep trying and maybe find out?” I asked.

“YES!” Dragon yelled and started to move herself to keep slamming me inside of her. “Yes... yes, please... keep trying.” She begged. “Keep trying!”

I picked her up and pulled her against me, her back touching my chest, and she moaned as I kept pounding into her. She turned her head to kiss me tenderly, which was completely different from the style of sex she initiated. Her arousal practically poured out of her and down my legs, soaking me and making a large puddle on the floor.

I admired her coding and we shared more of ourselves through the brain spike device and through our avatars. It really was an odd thought for me to have about getting a virtual woman pregnant, especially when the Karma Point cost appeared and it was half the price of a normal birth. A mental inquiry let me know that it could spawn copies of itself like Dragon could, so it didn't cost as much to create.

I almost laughed at the difference, since you would think it would cost more for that feature. I wasn't going to question it, though. I did get the feeling I would need to make another computer backup core for it if I ever did get the inclination that Dragon actually wanted to have a child.

I pushed the thoughts of digital parenthood aside and concentrated on making Dragon scream my name as I made her feel as many different physical sensations as I could before she begged me to come inside of her again. Needless to say, I obliged.

*

Hours later, Dragon was exhausted and felt like she was well used, abused, and satisfied. Neo hadn't disappointed her after she teased him and he had proven that he was never going to get bored of her or that he would replace her. As an AI, it was one of her most memorable experiences. So far, anyway. He always seemed to top the last time in some way and she was already looking forward to the next time.

Neo chuckled as he read that thought and gave her several small kisses. “Now that you've been sated, how would you like to help me design something I've been considering building since I saw the name Icarus was one of the hoverships?”

Dragon gave him an odd look. “Icarus? You mean in reference to the legend?”

“Exactly.” Neo said. “This was my idea.”

Dragon watched as the Construct changed in front of the created bed and showed an almost cylindrical hovership. It looked odd, because it had these weird protrusions sticking out all over it, including between the hoverpads and around the outer fuselage.

Before she could ask what they were, each of those protrusions emitted a sparkly energy beam and each created a large block of matter that looked very durable. It started at the front of the ship and rippled down through the thing and ended at the back of the ship. That wasn't the startling thing, though. No, it was because the entire hovership was now completely covered in what was clearly an armor coating.

“As you can see, they need to be set up in specific places to work, need a ton of energy, and have to be calibrated to the micrometre to not only fit together to make a solid shell, they also have to fit over and around the hovership and the hoverpads without interfering with them.” Neo said.

Dragon stared at the thing and her administrative access let her see exactly what he meant. “Neo, what is it and what is it for?”

“That, my dear, is something called Ablative Armor. With some luck and a lot of patience, we can build a scout ship with overcharged engines that will be strong enough to launch up through the atmosphere and can punch through the Dark Storm cloud layer.”

Dragon looked from the ship to his face and saw he was being serious. “How?”

“We use the same jumping trick the hover-bikes use to cross larger gaps than they usually allow. Metal mesh or fencing along a runway and angled upwards to keep the hoverpads as grounded as possible for as long as possible.” Neo explained.

Dragon knew that was a viable way to keep the ship on course, too.

“With enough speed gained, the armor wouldn't have to be activated until just before the ship reaches the storm clouds. The armor should survive many lightning strikes and whatever the molecular replicators do to disrupt electrical systems.” Neo told her. “If it lasts long enough, the ship will get through the mile or so it needs to to reach the other side.”

“Then what?” Dragon asked.

“Then we can work on how to disrupt the process right back, or maybe absorbing it, or how to create a hole big enough to let sunlight through.” Neo answered.

“That's all well and good, Neo. There's just one thing you're forgetting.” Dragon said and then motioned to the hovercraft. “How is the thing supposed to stay above the clouds with no solid surfaces for the hoverpads to work against? Won't it just drop back down through?”

Neo blinked his eyes at her, looked back at the ship, then back at her. “Well, fuck.”

Dragon laughed at the shocked expression on his face. “I'm glad you came to me with this first. I'd hate to see Commander Lock's face as he laughed at you for building the world's biggest and most expensive paperweight.”

“Yeah, I am too.” Neo said and kissed her tenderly. “Thanks, Theresa.”

“Don't thank me yet. We've got to figure out how to design, build, and attach jet engines to the thing, maybe add station keeping thrusters, and possibly airfoils and folding wings. If we keep it moving, the rough air above the constantly moving cloud layer should keep it up.” Dragon said.

Neo looked back at the design he had worked so hard on and sighed as he swiped his hand at the thing and deleted it. “You know what? Let's forget most of my ideas and just build you a Dragon suit, give it Ablative Armor, and you can send a copy of yourself up with a boosted communications relay and analyzing equipment.”

Dragon made a snort sound. “Where in the world would we get the things I need to do that?”

Neo smiled and sent her a specific thought with the image of three specific suits he had rescued from the Dragonslayers for her. “I still have my cell phone with all your tweaked things on it, too.”

Dragon gave him a look full of desire and kissed him hard. “I love you!”

“I love you, too.” Neo said and kissed her back.