It was surprising to me that Jue stayed with me and sat beside my cot. I knew she was a little desperate to talk to me, about her relationship with her captain, about her mother, and about her own abilities in the Matrix. Not taking care of herself, or eating, wasn't the best way to do that, however.

I probed her thoughts and she felt like it was her penance, something she was willing to pay to let me enlighten her. It was close to devotion in her mind, to find out what my opinion was going to be. Her thoughts were also clouded with doubt, because she was afraid if she embraced what she wanted, she would lose what she had.

After pretending to be asleep for another few hours, I finally let out a long drawn out sigh and opened my eyes. Jue sat beside me, completely composed, and her small hand gently held mine. She didn't say anything at first, mostly because she was afraid of the answers I was going to give her.

“It's okay to be selfish sometimes.” I whispered, because of the other people around us sleeping.

Jue looked conflicted, which made her Asian face look cute. “But, if I am, then what happens...”

“You deal with it, of course.” I cut her off. “Choices always have consequences, sometimes they're good and sometimes they're bad. If you can accept that, then you can live your life in peace and serenity, because that's kind of what life is all about.”

Jue lost the conflicted look and nodded. “I need your help.”

“Your mother is quite old by now, possibly in her 60s.” I said and she nodded again. “If she's still alive.”

“She is.” Jue said and then whispered the details she had dug up about her family, including the fact her mother never had another child and that she filled her life by cooking at a popular restaurant with her brother, since neither of them had ever married.

I held in my laugh that it was the same restaurant that I had ordered weekly from before I left the Matrix. Jue saw the amusement on my face and I had to explain the nearly accidental connection we had to each other. By the time I was done, she was smiling and was full of confidence that she had been right to approach me.

“They make really good noodles, too.” I told her and she seemed quite happy.

“Will you help me with her? I know that an older mind will have a lot of trouble letting go...” Jue whispered.

“We just have to come up with a scenario that she'll accept.” I said and Jue's eyebrows raised up. “If we're successful in convincing her, then she'll think she's moving on to the next great adventure.”

Jue caught her breath. “Do you think she'd buy that?”

“Well, I have been itching to code an angel mod for my avatar.” I said with a grin.

“An angel?” Jue asked and she smiled again. “Yes, I think... if we approach her at night...”

“A dream into a dream?” I asked and she nodded. “Then, she should accept going into a new reality that she can consider Purgatory. If she thinks it's only a transitional phase...”

“...she'll fully accept how harsh it is in reality, because she's meant to suffer until she's judged! That's brilliant, Neo!” Jue said and let my hand go and leaned down to hug me tightly. “Thank you, thank you so much!”

“It hasn't worked yet, Jue.” I cautioned her.

“It will. I just know it.” Jue said and let me out of the hug. “We need to get started on this right away!”

I chuckled and sat up as I made my stomach rumble. “I think I need to get something to eat first.”

Jue looked a little embarrassed. “I'm sorry, Neo. I didn't realize it's been so long since you last ate.”

I gave her a pointed look and she blushed and turned her head away. She knew as well as I did that she hadn't eaten in just as long. I stood up and stretched, then held a hand out to her and she grabbed onto it like it was a lifeline.

“I'll show you a trick in the kitchen to use to make the usual slop into something that tastes just as good as the stuff your mom makes in the Matrix.” I said and she looked surprised, then she beamed a smile at me for giving her something she could share with her mother later.

It was kind of late in the day and mostly everyone had gone to bed, with only a single crew member up to watch the sensors and monitors for any squiddy activity. The ship had retreated to a much safer area that wasn't patrolled much and settled down for the night, to give everyone a rest after such an eventful day.

I spent some time with Jue in the kitchen and she was enthusiastic to help as I showed her how to make noodles and things like tofu out of the food stores. As we cooked up enough broth and noodles for the crew to last for at least a week, Jue explained everything about her captain and what her feelings were for the man, only she was scared to lose what they had if she crossed that last line.

I countered and said she wouldn't have to worry about losing anything if she never tried. She could stay safe and never have to worry about losing a loved one, because she would never have a loved one to lose. That thought shook her and she promised to actually talk to the man to see if he was as reluctant as she was or if he was waiting for her to be ready.

I told her he was smart and was waiting for her to choose, except he had waited too long and it made him indecisive and unsure. She would have to take the first step and it would be up to her how far things would go and how fast, since he had left it to her to make those decisions.

Jue actually seemed pleased with that explanation and we finished making a basic ramen. She thoroughly enjoyed it and had two bowls gone before she realized she was eating without manners or decorum. I just laughed it off and reminded her I had two bowls as well, which made her relax and we enjoyed a third bowl and discussed what kind of angel avatar I should make.

*

Na Wong went to her bedroom upstairs from the restaurant after a long day at work. She always worked hard making good food, because feeding people was what she lived for. She always did the dishes afterwards and cooking and cleaning were the routines that saved her from her depression. She had been doing the same thing for nearly 25 years and it was all she really had.

Her eyes found the small altar where she had a picture of her missing daughter. It was surrounded by her favorite flowers, a couple of her toys, and several candles and incense. She walked over to it and saw the main candle was burned down to nearly a stub, so she took a new candle out from the top drawer where she kept them, and held the top of it near the flame of the old one and warmed up the wax.

With it prepped, she picked up the stub and poured some wax onto the tip of the new candle, pushed the wick aside, and then set the old one on top. The wax set almost immediately and she placed the newly combined candle back into the holder and put her hands together to say another prayer to whomever had her daughter.

“Please keep my Jue safe.” Na whispered and bowed to the picture.

Despite the very long time since her daughter's disappearance, she always held out hope that she was still alive. She had searched for years, put up posters, and offered a reward. None of the standard tactics worked and she soon became too old to scour the city and continue her personal campaign to find her.

Na changed out of her work clothes and climbed into bed wearing only a slip. She thought about washing up first, then thought better of it. She could sweat during the night and would have to shower in the morning again, so she put it off until then and bundled herself up in a blanket in a cheap imitation of a hug.

Her old and slightly wrinkled body creaked in several joints as she tried to find a comfortable resting position. After a few minutes, she gave up and let her weight rest on her shoulder as she laid on her side. She would pay for it in the morning with both soreness and stiffness, and she accepted it as the price for a few hours of blissful unconsciousness.

Sometime later, Na felt like she was floating on a cloud. The cool wind ruffled her dry and brittle hair and she felt warm at the same time. She had this dream many times before and she kept her eyes closed and revelled in the feeling of the strong arms that held her so tenderly.

The man's face always eluded her when she tried to see who it was, and this time she didn't even try. She was at the point in her life that she didn't care who he was, only that he was giving her comfort from her woes.

Gravity somehow returned to her, making the cloud dream a little less dream-like, and Na fought of the urge to wake up from it. She didn't want to feel her aching shoulder so soon and her mind tried desperately to cling to the dream for just a little bit longer. Gravity disappeared once more and Na let out a contented sigh and let herself relax and floated along without a care in the world.

A deep warmth covered her and a soft golden glow tried to sneak in through her closed eyelids. She embraced the warmth and turned her head away from the glow. She didn't want anything to wake her up before she was ready and she wasn't ready yet.

“This wasn't what I had in mind when I came up with this, honestly.” A sexy man's voice said into her dream.

Na was only slightly startled that the arms that held her had spoken for the very first time.

“It should still work.” A slightly familiar female voice answered him. “She's refusing to wake up until she's ready, and that should be enough.”

“Should we explain what we came up with or should we let her figure it out on her own?” The man asked.

“We can do both.” The female said back.

“All right; but, the story would work much better with the visuals to go along with it.” He responded.

“Just say the lines and she'll open her eyes to look at you, Neo.” The female said with amusement in her voice. “Trust me, she'll look.”

Na listened as the man fed her some poppycock story about heaven and hell, and how she had finally reached the end of her life, only she wasn't ready to be judged yet. She would need to be sent into Purgatory, or Limbo as some considered it, until such time as a decision was made for where she was going to go.

She didn't believe a word of it until the man said something that resonated deep inside of her and matched her beliefs perfectly. He said that it was about time for her Karma to pay off and it would earn her time with someone she had always kept a special place in her heart for.

Na finally opened her eyes to look up at the man that held her and stopped breathing. She ignored his expensive kimono. She ignored his slicked back hair. She even ignored his handsome face that begged to be kissed. Her eyes had locked onto the brightly glowing golden wings sticking out of his back.

“I told you.” The female said and a phone rang. “Are you sure you don't need me for this part?”

“No, you go ahead and get everything ready. We'll be there as soon as we can.” The man answered.

There was a weird digital sound and then quiet.

Na's eyes moved from his glowing wings to focus on his face. She blushed in embarrassment because she was staring at him and couldn't stop herself, now that she wasn't focused on his angelic wings.

“You're going to say if only you were 40 years younger, aren't you?” He asked her with a sexy smile.

“I really died?” Na asked instead of answering yes.

“Your time has come to move on from this life.” He answered instead of saying yes. “Are you ready? The transition is jarring and you must follow a certain procedure to find your way to the loved one that you long for.”

“Jue.” Na whispered, her voice barely above a whisper and tears came to her eyes.

“She is waiting for you.” He said and then said some weird things about a pod and a mechanical hand from a robot, to not be scared, and that he would be there to catch her to bring her to her long lost daughter.

Na dismissed most of his words, since she thought that none of it applied to her. If she was really going to Purgatory, then anything she endured to get there was part of her Karma and she would accept it without complaint. It would soon be her time to be judged and she was looking forward to a time when she didn't have aches or felt pains after staying still for too long.

Her gaze never left his face, even when he checked the weird equipment hooked up to a landline phone. She was sure it didn't matter, since he was holding her like she always wished she had someone to hold her, then she caught her breath when his gaze returned to hers.

“Remember, I'll be there to catch you.” He reminded her.

Na looked down for the first time at his muscular arms and then back at his face. “You have to let me go to catch me.”

Just then, the equipment beeped at him. He took out one of those fancy new cell phones and opened it. “She's ready. Send the signal.”

Na lost consciousness briefly and the scene changed from his handsome face to her opening her eyes and seeing pink fluid all around her. She sat up like he said to, broke the membrane, and sat there without moving or bothering to look around.

Barely a few seconds later, the floating spider-like robot appeared and gripped her neck with its claw, exactly like he had said. She didn't resist and the thing in the back of her head popped off. She laid back down and all of the hoses in her body let go without fuss and then she was swooshing down a slide, head first, and then she was floating in the air again.

“I got you.” That same sexy male voice said and those same strong arms wrapped around her.

Na cuddled into them and let out a contented sigh. Before she knew it, she had been rinsed off and wrapped into a warm blanket and a slightly familiar face appeared in her vision. It looked both happy and sad, though.

“Hello, mother.” She said.

The slightly familiar face and the slightly familiar voice combined into a distant memory she had, one that she hadn't recalled until now. It was the last day she had seen her daughter and she heard her daughter say 'goodbye, mother' in the same tone.

“Jue.” Na said with a bright smile and she closed her eyes as exhaustion overtook her. “I finally... found you.”

“Yes, you did.” Jue's voice said as everything went black.

*

Jue could barely believe it as Neo carried her tiny mother into the large medbay on the ship. Their crazy plan had worked and her mother wasn't going insane or trying to claw her own eyes out. She wasn't succumbing to the usual madness someone experienced when they were forcibly logged out of the Matrix at such an advanced age, either.

She followed him inside and she stared as her mother's body slowly pushed out all of the little attachments that had secured her into the bio-pod. The only two left after an hour were the ones in the back of her head and the one in her arm for an IV to be easily administered.

“Thank you.” Jue said to Neo as he checked the older woman over.

“You do realize that she's an exception to the rule, right?” Neo asked.

Jue gave him a confused look.

“The circumstances for her are unique. She was pretty much primed to let herself die, just for the chance to be judged and possibly to be with you again.”

Jue sighed. “But, this... this is a miracle. People have to know...”

“Oh, they will.” Neo said. “The recordings will take care of that.”

“Recordings?” Jue asked, surprised.

“The first successful senior extraction is going to be the news of the decade, maybe the century.” Neo said. “Everyone's going to be talking about it and the details need to be released, otherwise everyone is going to want their old parent, or aunt, or uncle, or siblings to be pulled out as well.”

Jue closed her eyes and nodded. “Just because it worked on her, that doesn't mean it'll work on everyone.”

“Exactly. The timing, the subject matter, the circumstances, it all added up to becoming a perfect extraction that had a one in a billion chance of working.” Neo said.

“And you pulled it off.” Jue said.

“I was lucky enough to pull it off and also spent a lot of Karma to do it.” Neo said.

“But... wait...” Jue said with a frown. “I thought that was just our way to get her to accept it.”

“It was.” Neo responded. “That doesn't mean it was fake or untrue.”

Jue stared at him for a moment, then she dropped her gaze to her mother's peaceful face.

Neo patted her shoulder as he passed her. “Let her sleep for a while as you go tell your man how happy you are.”

Jue nodded and followed him out of the medbay. She had a captain to talk to and some off-time to cash in.