>From: brown@cs.utk.edu (Lance A. Brown)
Subject: Crash and Burn
Date: 4 Sep 91 18:39:58 GMT

[  Needed to post this so I figured I'd see if I could make it fit in. ]


  "Damnit all to hell!", he said to himself as he sat up from the console
of his deck.  Ice was mad.  Once again somebody elses software had gone
south on him he had lost weeks worth of collected data.

  "I told you not to trust Race's code.  His image sucks and I just _knew_
that he didn't have that filter correct."

  "Yeah, you already told me that Frost", said Ice, "Problem is, I need
that data, but I don't have anyway to retrieve it again."  Ice sat down on
the couch nearby and started thinking hard while Frost, his image, played
fractal images across the holographic wall of the apartment.

  As image software goes, Frost was the best.  Hand-coded with replicant
safety fallbacks, he, Ice had a hard time thinking of Frost as an 'it', was
so close to complete self-awareness that no practical difference existed.
Ice had been using Frost for two years now, continuously enhancing him,
adding new code to make Frost faster, smarter, and more deadly when needed.
They had fought a number of battles in the InfoNet and always won, but this
latest disaster caught them both unexpectedly.

  Ice was still thinking when Frost said, "Boss, why not just find some
other Players and see if they have what you need."

  "Are you kidding.  I only know one other Player in Realtime,  and he
ain't talkin' to anyone right now.  What am I supposed to do, just start
asking anyone I can find in the Wind?"

  "What about that new construct you heard about last month, the Chatsubo?
Someone there should be able to help you", said Frost.

  Ice thought about that for a while.  He had been auditting the Chat for a
while now and was impressed by the what he had seen.  Maybe they _could_
find what he needed.  Getting up formt he couch, he walked over to his
full-sensory systerm, sat down, and pulled the trace helmet on.  As he
closed his eyes, Ice merge with his Image and flung himself into the
Crystal Wind.



  Walking in the door the first thing Frost noticed was the dimness of the
place and the many eyes looking at him.  Most were sizing up his danger
potential, a few categorized him as target, and the others ignored him.
Frost was dressed well for this part of town with dark gray denim jeans, a
silver-gray shirt and a charcoal-gray long jacket that could conceal most
anything in its voluminous folds.

  Ratz noticed the newby in the door and said "Well, either come in and let
the door close or get out and let the door close.  It's cold out there."

  "Sorry Ratz, didn't mean to lose all your heat", said Frost as he stepped
up to the bar.

  "What can I get ya, boy", Ratz said as he wiped a stain off the bar.

  "I need some information."

  "Lots of people need information.  What kind of information are _you_
looking for?"

  "Well, it's like this", Frost raised his voice a little so that people
nearby could hear him if they wanted to.  "I was collecting the data from
this place when a filter routine a bozo named Race gave blew up in my face.
I lost almost a whole months worth of data with no way to replace it.

  "What I need is someone who can help me replace this data as painlessly
as possible.  Ideally this person would have the data from the last month
archived someplace that I could get to.  I am a good webdancer and I _am_
willing to work for the data.  You think I could leave a note here for
anyone who might have what I need, Ratz?"

  "Sure, I don't care.  Tack it to the wall by the door.  That way anyone
walking out might see it."

  Turning from the bar, Frost withdraws to a table in the corner, writes on
a pad of paper for a few minutes then crosses to the door and tacks a small
notice on the door at eye level.  He then returns to his table to wait if
anyone can help him.

[  Frost is looking for someone who has arc