LOVE IS A MOTHERBOARD

A massive firewall blocked our further progress, but beyond I saw her - my incomparable Princess, and with her were Nvidia and AM-Dee. Already the server chamber had begun to turn but a portion of the opening in the firewall allowed me to once more set eyes upon my future Queen. Slowly the port was closing. In a short time there would be but a tiny crack, and then even that would be closed, and for another LifeCycle the chamber would slowly revolve until once more for a brief day the aperture in its firewall would allow access from the corridor’s end. At the end of which my companion and I now stood.

But in the meantime what horrible things would go on within that chamber!

When she saw me she rushed towards the magnetically bound bars that separated us.

“Compu-Tor!” I cried to my faithful companion. “Can no power stop this awful revolving thing? Is there none who holds the secret of these terrible bars?”

My companion looked dismayed. “None, I fear, whom we could fetch in time, though I shall go and make the attempt. Wait for me here.”

After he had left I stood and talked with my sweet Holly Daytah, and she stretched her dear hand through those cruel bars that I might hold it until the last moment.

Nvidia and AM-Dee came close also, but when Nvidia saw that we would be alone she withdrew to the further side of the chamber. Not so the daughter of Arch-Rival.

“Antonius of IT,” she said, “this be the last time that you shall see any of us. Tell me that you love me, that I may die happy.”

“I love only the Princess of Daytah,” I replied quietly. “I’m sorry, AM-Dee, but it is as I have told you from the beginning.”

She bit her lip and turned away, but not before I saw the black and ugly scowl she turned upon Holly Daytah. Thereafter she stood a little way apart, but not so far as I should have desired, for I had many little confidences to impart to my long-lost love.

For a few minutes we stood thus talking in low tones. Ever smaller and smaller grew the opening. In a short time now it would be too small even to permit the slender form of my Princess to pass. Oh, why did not Compu-Tor haste? Above we could hear the faint echoes of a great tumult. It was the multitude of antivirus fighting their way through the fire from the burning Temple of Core.

A draft from above brought the fumes of smoke to our nostrils. As we stood waiting for Compu-Tor the smoke became thicker and thicker. Presently we heard shouting at the far end of the corridor, and hurrying feet.

"Come back, Antonius, come back!" cried a voice, "even the servers have caught fire."

In a moment a dozen men broke through the now blinding smoke to my side. There was Ay-Vgee, and PolyCom, and Enterprise-IO, and Compu-Tor, with a few more who had just earlier followed me to the temple courtyard.

"There is no hope, Antonius," cried Compu-Tor. "The keeper of the SSL keys is dead and his keys are not upon his carcass. Our only hope is to quench this conflagration and trust to fate that a LifeCycle from now will find your Princess alive and well. I have brought sufficient PowerBars to last them. When this port closes no smoke can reach them, and if we hasten to extinguish the flames I believe they will be safe."

"Go, then, yourself and take these others with you," I replied. "I shall remain here beside my Princess until a merciful death releases me from my anguish. I care not to live."

As I spoke Compu-Tor had been tossing a great number of tiny cans within the chamber cell. The remaining crack was not over an inch in width a moment later. Holly Daytah stood as close to it as she could, whispering words of hope and courage to me, and urging me to save myself.

Suddenly beyond her I saw the beautiful face of Nvidia contorted into an expression of malign hatred. As my eyes met hers she spoke.

"Think not, Antonius, that you may so lightly cast aside the love of Nvidia, daughter of Arch-Rival. Nor ever hope to hold thy Holly Daytah in thy arms again. Wait you the long, long LifeCycle; but know that when the waiting is over it shall be Nvidia’s arms which shall welcome you - not those of the Princess of Daytah. Behold, she dies!"

And as she finished speaking I saw her raise an encrypted dagger on high, and then I saw another figure. It was AM-Dee’s. As the dagger fell toward the unprotected breast of my love, AM-Dee was almost between them. A blinding gust of smoke blotted out the tragedy within that fearsome chamber - a shriek rang out, a single shriek, as the dagger fell.

The smoke cleared away, but we stood gazing upon a blank wall. The last port had closed, and for a LifeCycle that hideous chamber would retain its secret from the eyes of techie men.

My companions urged me to leave.

"In a moment it will be too late," cried Compu-Tor. "There is, in fact, but a bare chance that we can come through to the outer network alive even now. I have ordered the pumps started, and in five minutes the pits will be flooded. If we would not drown like rats in a trap we must hasten above and make a dash for safety through the burning temple."

"Go," I urged them. "Let me die here beside my Princess - there is no hope or happiness elsewhere for me. When they carry her dear body from that terrible place a year hence let them find the body of her prince awaiting her."

Of what happened after that I have only a confused recollection. It seems as though I struggled with many men, and then that I was picked bodily from the ground and borne away. I do not know. I have never asked, nor has any other who was there that day intruded on my sorrow or recalled to my mind the occurrences which they know could but at best reopen the terrible wound within my heart.

Ah! If I could but know one thing, what a burden of suspense would be lifted from my shoulders! But whether the assassin's encrypted dagger reached one fair bosom or another, only time will divulge…