The Mystery of the Bios Chip

By Katrina Hurrell

If you have read Computer Secretsshh! The Quest for Treasure you will know that Jason and Abhishek were left in deep trouble in the computer bus on the motherboard. If you haven’t, here is a clip of the story so far.
Abhishek and Jason sat in the computer bus carriage waiting for the return of Bios, the computer chip who seemingly was their friend when suddenly a blaze of red hot colour appeared in the distance. The boys realised that it was fire coming towards them. Abhishek was screaming to Jason to get down as the fire spread towards them. Jason had heard Abhishek but it was too late to do anything instead he reached inside his shirt and pulled out the cross his grandma had given him on his 10th birthday and prayed a prayer. In the next moment they hear a tinny voice ‘What are you doing on the floor?’ it asked. They looked up. Repeating itself as it moved closer, it enquired, ‘What are you doing on the floor?’ The boys looked up into an amusing countenance, with big round eyes and a smile that seemed to cover its whole face, resembling a caricature in a comic book. They eyed the vision before them in disbelief, a very wide square character, wearing an oversized T-shirt, baggy trousers, colourful socks and odd bright shoes. Strangely, he even had matching colourful finger gloves with his odd bright shoes. His thick dark hair stood up in the centre and was short and flat behind his ears. It was not the Bios they knew – what happened to her that she now looked like a clown?
At the same time, the character stood observing the boys. He thought they were quite young, maybe ten or eleven. One was slightly taller. The shorter one was definitely of Indian origin while the taller one was what humans called Caucasian. Both had brown eyes and dark hair. Are they playing dress-up, he asked himself, looking at them wearing Roman uniforms.

‘Have you been hit by a bus?’ he asked, while laughing, hoping to lighten the atmosphere.

‘It certainly feels like it!’ answered Abhishek.

‘That’s why you are on the floor,’ he said, skipping around them.

Jason tried to smother a laugh, while Abhishek rolled onto his side with his knees bent upwards towards his stomach, also trying to suppress giggles; he rolled about on the floor as if he had a bellyache. The Bios thought this was hilarious and while skipping around them also laughed aloud. It was a very mad moment. It had taken some minutes before the reality dawned on the boys that this was indeed a peculiar situation. Their heads turned towards each other and then toward Bios.

Jason whispered, ‘He looks like a joker in a pack of cards.’
Abhishek just nodded.

In this second book you will meet a new Bios chip. He could be friend or foe. You will discover the evil plan of the girl, Bios. You will meet Sophie, Jason’s cousin, who is very bossy and sporty. When she hears the boys story she is unconvinced at first. She has never been on a computer bus and never met a computer chip. What will she think? How will she react when she meets the strange people in the computer and the story that people tell in “other world”?
The boys on the other hand, are eager for another adventure. They are perplexed. What had happened to Jason’s father who was now employed in a computer company but had been demoted because he recommended a batch of bios chips. These were inserted into hundreds of computers and failed to be genuine. ‘What is going on?’ Jason asks, Abhishek and Sophie. ‘Why is this happening to my dad?’
Follow the youngsters quest for treasure. What do they discover? What links the cross of Jesus and the Bios chips? And more...
Happy Reading,
Author: Katrina Hurrell

• Language: English
• Publisher: Katrina Hurrell
• Release date: Dec 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463474297

Katrina Hurrell

I had always had an interest in writing though it was not very serious until I retired from teaching. I am excited to release My first book Computer Secretshhh! The Quest for Treasure 2018 via smashwords.com. The second one, Computer Secretshhh! The Mystery of the Bios Chip will be released December 2018. They are fantasy tales. They combined technology, friendship, adventure and faith.I have surprised myself! I never thought I would write, let alone produce two books! When I look back to a reference from my former tutor when completing Post-Compulsory Education Training he said, 'Katrina has a fertile creative imagination which enables her to produce inspriing materials and lesson resources...' I am now putting that creative imagination into writing and it is very rewarding.

Book preview

Computer Secretshhh!

The Mystery of the Bios Chip

Katrina Hurrell

Computer Secretshhh! The Mystery of the Bios Chip

By Katrina Hurrell

Copyright 2018 Katrina Hurrell

Illustrations: Copyright c 2018 Hugh Burgh

Distributed by Smashwords

Dedicated to

Jason and Abhishek

And All Who

Love the Computer

And

Adventure,

But Most of All for Those who Seek Treasure.

‘Ask and the door shall be opened to you; seek and you will find;

Knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him

Who knocks the door will be opened.’

The Gospel of Matthew 7:7-8

Content

Chapter 1......The New Bios

Chapter 2......The Southbridge

Chapter 3...... Reflection

Chapter 4 Trouble

Chapter 5 Plan of Action

Chapter 6 Here We Go Again

Chapter 7 IOS Out of his Depth

Chapter 8 The Doctor

Chapter 9 The Secret Place

Chapter 10 Fun in the Computer

Chapter 11 Symbolism

Chapter 12 Fall out

Chapter 13 Sophie and the Quest

Chapter 14 The Awful Truth

Chapter 15 Caesarea

Chapter 16 The Chase

Chapter 1

The New Bios

Jason looked around bewildered. Abhishek lay quite still beside him on the bus floor. Being dressed in Roman outfits caused the memories of recent events to flood back into Jason’s memory. Entering the computer through the webcam seemed such an exciting adventure, finding themselves in a different time zone. Even meeting the computer Bios chip seemed providential as they wanted the same thing, to find treasure. But the fire – why did that happen and nearly consume them? And why was Bios nowhere to be seen – had she deliberately abandoned them?

‘What’s happening, Abhishek?’ he asked, hoping his friend would know something more than he did.

Abhishek groaned aloofly and then, choosing to engage, asked in a grumpy voice, ‘Where’s Bios?’

Now the tables were turned as Jason didn’t answer. Instead, Jason’s fingers automatically went to his neck feeling for the cross his grandma had given him on his tenth birthday. He clutched the marbled cross, glad to find it intact as it was the only thing that made any sense to him. Relieved at one sign of normality, Jason sat up and jabbed Abhishek with his knee.

‘Ouch, ouch!’ cried Abhishek, ‘That hurts.’

Jason whispered, ‘That’s good - it was meant to.’

Abhishek impulsively pulled Jason from his sitting position, and he fell backwards.

Oi,’ Jason yelled.

‘Does that hurt?’ Abhishek grinned.

Jason lay flat on the floor, still clutching at the cross that he’d been holding and rolled over both crying and laughing in sheer relief.

‘Is this real - are we alive?’ he said with tears of laughter running down his face.

‘Yep, I felt that jab you gave me.’

Abhishek began to observe their surroundings, sniffing the air with great exaggeration, before announcing, I can’t smell anything!

‘What are you supposed to smell?’ Jason laughed sarcastically.

‘You’re supposed to smell burning and smoke, but there’s nothing,’ Abhishek gasped, ‘My clothes are not even singed and look at you! There’s nothing that remotely makes me think of fire; we should have been burned up!’

Together they were relieved, amazed and shocked. All at once, they simultaneously exploded with laughter, rolling about on the floor. A distant voice interrupted their capers, echoing all around them.

Repeating itself as it moved closer, it enquired, ‘What are you doing on the floor?’

The boys looked up into an amusing countenance, with big round eyes and a smile that seemed to cover its whole face, resembling a caricature in a comic book. They eyed the vision before them in disbelief, a very wide square character, wearing an oversized T-shirt, baggy trousers, colourful socks and odd bright shoes. Strangely, he even had matching colourful finger gloves with his odd bright shoes. His thick dark hair stood up in the centre and was short and flat behind his ears. It was not the Bios they knew – what happened to her that she now looked like a clown?

At the same time, the character stood observing the boys. He thought they were quite young, maybe ten or eleven. One was slightly taller. The shorter one was definitely of Indian origin while the taller one was what humans called Caucasian. Both had brown eyes and dark hair. Are they playing dress-up, he asked himself, looking at them wearing Roman uniforms.

‘Have you been hit by a bus?’ he asked, while laughing, hoping to lighten the atmosphere.

‘It certainly feels like it!’ answered Abhishek.

‘That’s why you are on the floor,’ he said, skipping around them.

Jason tried to smother a laugh, while Abhishek rolled onto his side with his knees bent upwards towards his stomach, also trying to suppress giggles; he rolled about on the floor as if he had a bellyache. The Bios thought this was hilarious and while skipping around them also laughed aloud. It was a very mad moment. It had taken some minutes before the reality dawned on the boys that this was indeed a peculiar situation. Their heads turned towards each other and then toward Bios.

Jason whispered, ‘He looks like a joker in a pack of cards.’

Abhishek just nodded.

Jason became serious, ‘C’mon, let’s get out of here.’ Turning to the comical figure, he asked, ‘Do you know the way back to the webcam?’

‘Of course, I do,’ he answered while rolling a finger in one direction and his eyes in another as if to say, are you mad. ‘I am the Bios of the computer, and I know every part of it, every little exit and entrance.’

‘Bios?’ the boys exclaimed.

‘I don’t think so!’ Jason spoke emphatically.

The clown-like character’s grin did not shrink as he told them with a wink one of his big eyes, ‘Sure am!’

Jason could not help but laugh when he noticed him wink, ‘That’s it!’

‘What is it?’ Abhishek queried.

‘It must be a chip from a different department.’

‘Because . . . ?’

‘It wouldn’t look good in a dress.’

They both giggled.

‘But, seriously, where has he come from?’ Abhishek whispered.

Jason shrugged his shoulders before suggesting, ‘Maybe it’s a chip from the graphic department – he’s certainly colourful enough!’

‘But why does he claim to be Bios.’

‘I don’t know,’ Jason replied, ‘We need to keep our eye on him; I don’t trust him.’

‘What shall we call him?’ Abhishek asked.

Abhishek looked up at the clown figure just as he was winking, then looked away because he could not believe what he had seen, bizarre! Answering his own question, Abhishek suggested, ‘What if we just call him Clown? As he moved to get up, Abhishek became unsteady and wobbled slightly but the clown figure, extending his gloved hand, caught him before he fell to the floor. Abhishek felt his strong arm steady him and looked again to confirm this was indeed a reality.

The clown figure all of a sudden became serious, announcing, ‘I think we’d better go to the history site for you to change your clothes.’

The boys were relieved to hear of something familiar to them. Indeed, their school uniforms would be there from when they changed into the Roman soldiers’ outfits they were now wearing. Jason rolled over, placing his hands and feet on the ground and pushed himself up, saying, ‘To the history site, it is!’

On the way, Clown said in a rather tinny voice, ‘You can tell me why you are wearing those unusual clothes.’

Jason raised his eyebrows at Abhishek before whispering, ‘And where does he get his clothes from?’

Abhishek did not reply. He was beginning to feel drained after the experience of the fire.

Chapter 2

The Southbridge

While Abhishek remained a little unsteady, Jason seemed to be in overdrive. They followed the clown onto a computer bus which led them to the fashion site which was within the history section. When they reached it, it was as they remembered, with rows upon rows of clothing. Their mood was different this time. The excitement they had experienced previously clouded as they moved along the rows of costumes to gather their clothing.

After discarding their Roman costumes and changing back into their own clothes, Jason breathed a sigh of relief, ‘That feels better.’

Abhishek did not reply, so Jason put his arm around his shoulder. Abhishek smiled and let Jason push him forward. Jason secretly whispered, ’Soon we’ll be on our way back to the webcam.’

The clown bounced around – literally! As the boys looked up at him passing overhead, only his smiling face was clear in the midst of blurred colours coming from his clothing. Somehow his voice asked in stereo, ‘Are you ready,’ Returning his smile, together they replied, ‘We are.’

They nodded to each other, and this time Abhishek commented that the clown looked quite entertaining. Jason raised his eyebrows in agreement.

Jason’s mind thought back to when they had first boarded one of the computer buses and ridden along one of its highways. The bus stopped at various sites, not unlike the way a regular bus would. At each stop, Jason noted there had been a label on the door. He did not remember all of the names of the sites they stopped at, but he did remember the name on the door of the comic fashion site, and he inwardly laughed.

‘We could have dressed like him in the comic fashion site,’ he whispered to Abhishek.

No thanks, we looked crazy enough in those sackcloth dresses people wore in the first century without dressing up as a clown!’ Abhishek replied with a faint grin.

Jason returned the grin, thankful that Abhishek seemed more alert now.

Clown thought it best to lead them to the webcam via the South Bridge on the motherboard and take one of the AT buses. The data that is typed into the computer runs along the computer’s pathways at a much slower pace on these buses which would enable the boys to function in ways that humans do. To him, they were acting a little odd. They seem to be in need of restoration and some fun, he thought to himself. He took out an iPad from his baggy T-shirt. As he tapped the screen with his colourful-fingered gloves, the colours jumped from one finger to another. No sooner had he finished typing than a bus arrived. He boarded first, the boys jumping on after him.

‘I don’t recognise this bus, the colours are different,’ Jason said, anxious about where the Bios imposter was taking them.

‘Ah, yes, you would have been on the north side of the computer, this is the south side. Don’t worry, you can trust me to take you to the webcam.’

The boys did not protest outwardly but Jason particularly felt very much on guard. They knew they had no choice but to trust this imposter to help them return home, even though they were greatly troubled by the question of why he was here and the real Bios was not.

The bus swiftly turned and then stopped. A door opened to what looked like an underground platform. The sensation was similar to walking through the cover of an aeroplane just before you reach the door, a bit wobbly. Hundreds of lights flashing in the boys eyes, momentarily blinding them.

The comical chip, unfazed, shouted, ‘Get on the next bus.’

Immediately one stopped and the doors opened. Clown ‘twirled’ in the lights and pushed them forward, jumping on behind them. The boys sat together on one seat, rubbing their eyes, still blurry from dazzling lights on the highway. It was some time before their vision cleared. When it did, they looked across to where their strange new companion sat. His funny face and huge smile made him likeable, but they had been through too much to be able to trust anyone. Oversized, he could have, at any point, pinned them down.

Jason whispered to Abhishek, ‘We don’t have a choice but to trust him to lead us to the webcam. We can wave goodbye to him forever after that!’

‘I don’t know anything at all. My head is still thumping,’ Abhishek sluggishly replied.

‘Did you say slumping?’ Clown asked without waiting for a reply. ‘You want to slump? I have the very thing that would make you slump.

’

They stared at him.

‘He’s mad,’ whispered Jason.

‘He must have misheard what I said.’

‘No, I didn’t!’ he exclaimed, ‘Thump rhymes with slump.’

‘Yes, I suppose it does,’ said Jason.

‘Well then, I’m right.’

‘Let’s humour him,’ Jason whispered.

‘Yeah, that’s right, you’re right,’ they chorused.

‘Good, we’ll thump and slump,’ he said good-naturedly. Cheerfully, he skipped forward and led them along the carriage. When double doors opened to reveal a new site entrance, the lights were 20 times more dazzling than on the highway. Momentarily, the glare forced Abhishek to shield his eyes. Jason, meanwhile, squinted and bowed his head. Only when their eyes began to adjust did they see a very long hall full of mirrors ahead of them.

‘This is a mirror maze’ said the chip, ‘Let’s have some fun.’

Jason was the first to step into the hall, gingerly walking forward, not knowing what to expect. Looking quite bizarre in each mirror image, he laughed before moving on to another. Abhishek stood cautiously in the doorway, scanning the scene before him.

‘Come on Abhishek. Come in; it’s okay.’

Abhishek went forward and saw himself in the first mirror, laughing at his image. He checked himself in another mirror and saw his image grow twice the size, with his legs having no apparent limit. By this time, he had forgotten all about his headache. When Jason moved to a mirror that reflected back a podgy short character, he laughed aloud, causing Abhishek to race to catch up with him.

From then on the two boys walked along the hall together, laughing at each mirror reflecting them in a weird and funny way. At the end of the hall, an opening appeared. They must now walk along a plank. Jason felt as if he was flying through space, his arms and legs taking off by themselves, swiftly moving the air out of the way. As Abhishek walked through, he tried to clutch at something but the moment he tried to grab it, the thing disappeared; he didn’t feel as Jason did, that he was flying, more like walking on air.

‘Hey, don’t go on ahead without me,’ called Abhishek.

Jason thought he must have looked like the comical chip, as his mouth seemed to move upwards by itself in laughter. ‘Come on, hold on to me,’ he said laughing.

They moved forward, holding onto each other, yet, suddenly tripped, landing on the floor. They were helpless with laughter and still rolling about when suddenly music and a voice singing could be heard in the distance, but over the music, voices of people and the tinkle of coins dropping. The boys stopped, listening for a while to the entertaining sound, before pulling each other up to move forward. Their eyes quickly scanned the whole area. Beyond coin machines, the likes of which you would find in an amusement arcade, they saw lots of entertaining games.

‘It’s a fairground!’ exclaimed Abhishek, his eyes lighting up.

Jason saw that familiar grin on his friend’s face that he knew so well.

Clown responded to their excitement, ‘That’s right, a fairground, it is! Go in; you will have lots of fun here but take these, you may need them later,’ Clown advised, handing them some video glasses.

His headache long forgotten, Abhishek shouted, ‘This is great! Win you to the snake ride.

’

‘No, you won’t,’ Jason replied, pushing Abhishek aside before running forward. He was as quick as lightning and reached the ride first. Just as he turned to see where Abhishek was, Abhishek caught him and pushed him back, hoping to sit in the carriage first. They fell into the car together and instantly it moved off.

‘Whoa,’ Jason shouted gleefully.

Abhishek was the first to find his seat and put on his video glasses. Laughing at what he saw, he told Jason to get a move on, so as not to miss out on the fun. Jason scrambled to his seat and put his glasses on just in time as the car moved away. They thought they were the only ones in the car when they had stepped in, but soon realised they were not alone. Three other kids were in the car giggling and raising their hands as it moved very quickly to the top.

‘Hold tight,’ Abhishek called to Jason above the noise.

‘Not likely! I’m going to raise my hands like them. Don’t be scared Abhishek, put your hands up.’

The cars started smoothly then steadily climbed the steep scaffolding. As they reached the top, the sudden drop made them scream, ‘whoa whoa,a a a a,’ then suddenly they were hanging upside down just for an instant. The ride continued at a fast pace rolling on the humps and dips of the snake.

Very quickly, the ride finished and it ended with a sudden jolt, knocking Jason’s glasses to the floor.

‘Where are they?’ Jason asked.

‘Who?’

‘The three kids in the car!’

‘They’re just getting out.’

‘I think you are mad,’ Jason said, ‘There’s no one here but us!’

Abhishek turned to Jason, asking ‘What’s happened to your video glasses?’

Jason bent to the floor of the car, picked the glasses up and put them on.

‘It’s a virtual world!’ he exclaimed as he saw the three kids walk away.

‘Can you see what I see?’ Abhishek asked, pointing to lights flashing in the distance.

‘Yeah and I can hear a lot of noise coming from over there,’ Jason agreed.

‘Games room!’ they excitedly shouted together.

Though they jumped out of the car at a different place to where they had begun, Clown was waiting for them. The corners