From: timk@tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca (Tim Kuehn)
Subject: Flamboyant: Daytime Nightmares II
Date: 27 Jul 93 23:32:50 GMT


Character List:
---------------
Cognos: 	A big pug-ugly cyber-enhanced male with a serious
		AI problem.

Synthetic and	Cognos's synthetic (non-organic) and
Organic:	natural (organic) brain.

Kirsten: 	Daughter of a mystery man told to "hide" and then
		left her to fend for herself.

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>From the end of "Silicon: Requisition Reverse"
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Having subdued the gang's leader and chased the rest of the punks off,
Cognos contemplated his next move. The kid's condition could only get
worse, and now he had some injuries of his own to tend to as well. Then
there was the matter of this punk he had to deal with. Making good time
to the meatshop was going to be difficult as it was, and having to carry
a resisting punk along wasn't going to make life easier. But if he let
the punk go the gang was sure to come back to finish what they'd started,
and if that happened he might not be as lucky as he was this time.

If this was the roll lady luck had dealt him, then this was what he was
going to have to deal with. Tightening his grip on the punk's arm, he
gingerly reached down and picked up his jacket with the kid inside, and
awkwardly the trio made their way down the street.

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Begin: "Flamboyant: Daytime Nightmare II"
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Flamboyant looked at himself in the mirror. The face that looked back
at him wasn't too pretty to behold. An ugly gash made it's way across
the top of his head revealing the dull shine of titanium underneath.
Various parts of his body showed cuts, bruises, and contusions. Running
a systems check on his various implants also showed a number of things
needed fixing or adjusting as well. Part of his head throbbed momentarily,
and he shook it once to clear the fuzz away. With all the gear he had
he'd never dreamed that one assault by some random oaf could do so much
damage.

Looking at it philisophically, at least he wasn't dead. That was one thing
to be thankful for. The other thing was he could learn from his mistakes
of last night and apply them to later encounters as he gained a better
understanding of what exactly his equipment could do. Palming into his
nearby computer node, he looked up the Digital Yellow Pages and scanned
for the nearest doc-shop in the listings. After transferring the address
and fastest-routing data to his internal memory, he put some clothes on,
making sure they weren't as garish as last night. Once that part had been
completed he made his way out of his apartment and down the stairs.

Outside, he cast a glance around him, then turned onto the street and
followed the directions his digital assistant gave him. He had almost
reached the doc-shop when his battle-AI computed a threat assessment some
three blocks down the street. Pausing to examine an enhanced image of what
the AI had picked up, he was somewhat surprised to find the man who had
almost done him in last night surrounded by a gang of street thugs. He was
even more surprised when the man disarmed and captured the leader within
moments of the opening encounter. As the rest of the gang slowly disappeared
into various parts of nearby alleyways and streets, Flamboyant watched
with fascination as the man strong-armed the gang's leader off the ground
and frog-marched him down the street, right in Flamboyant's direction. At
that point Flamboyant decided discretion was definitely the better part of
valor, and since he needed to get some of his internal systems fixed anyway,
now was a good a time as any. He ducked into the doc-shop.

The lady behind the counter was ok as far as artificial enhancements went,
but that wasn't too unusual. Her "do you have an appointment" was also
straight out of the beaurocratitian's dictionary of standard querys.
Determined not to be treated like some common street thug, Flamboyant
nonchalantly flipped a cred stick into the receptical and said

	"I believe this is my appointment."

The lady's eyes got large momentarily. When they had returned to normal
size, she buzzed open the door next to her.

	"Right this way please sir!"

	<<Much better>> thought Flamboyant as he stepped through the
	doorway.

	"Please go down the hallway to the third door on the right."
	said the attendant. "The doctor will be with you shortly."

	"Thank you," said Flamboyant.

			*	*	*

Cognos found his progress was held up more by his fear of jostling the
kid too much than by the weight of the street punk he was frog-marching
down the street. In short order he found himself at the meatshop he was
after, and shoved the punk at the door.

	"Open it!"

Painfully the punk reached out, grabbed the door knob, and pulled.  When he
had the door open enough to permit passage, Cognos pushed him through. Off
balance, the punk landed on the inside floor with a thud. Grabbing the door
handle, Cognos carfully entered the room with his burden where he was greated
by a somewhat shocked receptionist sitting behind a piece of glass. After
taking a moment to sort out all the things she was seeing, she remembered
her line:

	"Do you have an appointment?"

			*	*	*

Flamboyant had just sat on the diagnostic chair in the middle of the room
when the physician came in. She was somewhat on the plain side, which was
remarkable given the state of artificial beauty enhancements that were
available. Obviously he'd come to the wrong place.  As he got up from his
chair, he said

	"I think I'm in the wrong place. Sorry to take up your time."

Without rushing, the doctor reached over and pushed him firmly back into
his chair, where he sat down with a thump. Looking him in the eye, she said

	"I have advanced degrees in cybernetics, physical pathology,
	and all the latest medical wetware programming available. I am
	more qualified to take you apart and put you back together than
	any other person or autodoc in this city, so I think I can deal
	with whatever problem you have. Just because I have a thing about
	not being artificially enhanced myself doesn't mean I don't know
 	what I'm doing."

	"Now, what seems to be the problem?"

Flamboyant was a little taken aback by the doctor's direct forcefulness.
Then gathering himself back together, he decided to test her abilities
and see what she could do.

	"Do you have a remote diagnostic unit?"

The doctor made a disgusted face, reached into a cabinet, pulled out an
silver cylindrical object and handed it over to him without saying a word.
The expression on her face as much as said "Got any more dumb questions?"

Seemingly unaffected by the doctor's look, Flamboyant grasped the device
in his palm and issued a command to his central AIs to dump their
diagnostics. In a moment the procedure was completed and he handed the
device back to the doctor, who then slid it into a slot next to a display
terminal. Flamboyant could see her eyes move as she digested the data, and
hear the finger clicks as she rapidly advanced through screens of data.
When she had looked all the data over, she looked over at Flamboyant and
said

	"I'm going to need to do a series of response checks on your
	implanted biosystems. You'll have to shutdown your AIs while
	I do this."

Figuring there wasn't anything to fear where he was, Flamboyant did
as he was told.

	"Systems suspended."

Reaching over, the doctor placed a smooth-fitting skull-cap on his head,
and a wristband around his left arm. Going back to her display terminal
she pressed a series of keys and observed the results shown on the displays.
Flamboyant could feel some of the implanted bio and synthetic systems as
they responded to the probe's stimulation.

The doctor was still paging through the data generated by her device when
Flamboyant heard a dull thud. A few moments later he heard a louder crash
followed a tinkling sound of what could only be shattered glass. His blood
ran cold. If that madman had made his way into this doc-shop....  His
suspicions were all but confirmed when the shaken voice of the outside
receptionist paged the room.

	"Doctor Carnes, please come to the front desk."

Not taking her eyes from the display, the doctor said

	"I'm busy. Take a message or ask them to wait."

That madman had gotten into this doc-shop, and his AIs were suspended. He
was as good as dead meat. Nervously Flamboyant began re-activating his AIs
when the doctor gave him a sharp look.

	"Do NOT reactivate your AIs until I have completed my scan."

Flamboyant was about to give her a response when suddenly there was a loud
crash, the door flew open, and the same ugly mass of humanity that had put
him in this chair stood there with rage in his eyes.