From: follick@hydra.unm.edu (Joshua Follick)
Subject: Re: WARP: NEEDS AND FEARS
Date: 22 Jan 93 09:11:25 GMT


    Well, I'm back. To all those who want a copy
of Visser Nights, I will try and send you them soon. (Please
ignore all the typos, I am using an unfamiliar Word Processor,
that is terrible.

   To all those who tried, and more to those that did,
thank-you for helping me recover the lost episodes
of Visser Nights, I hat to lose any of my writings,
even those of such a low quality.

On to a new story.

   Introduction Section:

   for those who don't remember, I like to use an introduction
at the beginning of my stories to introduce you all to my
little hell, Visser. Visser is probably non-publishable,
as many fine sources have been ripped off to help produce
it. You may or may not notice these sources as they go by.
I also owe a debt to my friends, particularly Randy Johnston
who helped and did much of the work of creating this "stage."

    High above Visser is a large ring station. It hangs in
a permanent Geosynchronos orbit above Visser proper. It is that remains
of the original generation ship, sent to colonize Visser.
It tends to have a different sort of tone than the squalid
streets below. Among it's many fine attractions is the
Visser Hilton, (for my story) and the Chatsubo Visser.
Anything you want is available here, for space station
prices (which make airports look cheap) though
like an international airport, certain things can
actually be gotten here cheaper, alomst like a duty free
shop, since imports here do not have to be shipped down a
gravity well. (before any smart aleck tells me it's the out of
a gravity that is expensive, yes I know, but shipping down
delicate goods, like electronics, would be expensive
as well)

 Chip In: Part I

   BlackHat was enjoying the Visser Hilton immensly. Swimming
in it's Olympic sized pool, the only real one is Visser to his knowledge.
He liked to take a quick swim after his morning excercises, the inhumanly
difficult stretches and gymnastics, that comprised the necessary
actions to keep all the high performance systems on his body, and
in his mind, operating at peak. Then a leisurely,
  alternating his pairs of arms, swim a few laps in the pool. It
was so pleasant and relaxing. He would then go down to one
of the Hotel's dining rooms and try his best to challenge
them with some truly obscure breakfast dish. So far he had never
won, the hotel always brought it right up, perfectly prepared
with ingredients from systems light years away. It was one
of Blackhat's favorite vacations. The only moment in
the morning that had been off key had been after
his excercises. He would usually take that time to
run routine maintenance and system's checks.
   He
      used to like to have Hammer go over his results.
At first after his escape, BlackHat knew he had done this work
poorly, with system problems occurring at more and more
regular intervals, until he ran into Hammer. Hammer
had gotten all his systems running at perfect pitch,
shown him how to do his own maintenance better. Eventually,
he would only need to check with Hammer, who invariably
would find no problems. It would take a long time
to forget Hammer.

    After breakfast, BlackHat remembered that he had
promised Nicky Six, he would go shopping with her,
and with a ruefull grin had even promised to buy something.
He knew Jam was intending to get some cyberwear implanted
today, and maybe pick up some hardware for his deck.
Everyone was supposed to meet later at the main dining
room for dinner. That was their custom here, to always
try and have dinner together.

   He sent a message by one of the ushers the hotel
always seemed to have around. He knew it would
get to Nicky, they always seemed to know exactly
where you were as long as you were in the Hotel.
He had happened to end up in the "Pink Pony"
coffee shop this morning for breakfast. the food
always seemed the same wherever you ate, perfect,
only the decor changed. He sipped on his tea
while he waited for Nicky.

   "So this is where you've been hiding yourself
you big black thing, don't think I'm
going to let you out of your promise."
Nicky said as she sat down at BlackHat's table.
She wore red shorts and a red and white striped
short sleeved blouse. She looked clean, and
pretty, and innocent, you could almost miss
her old special forces Glock, almost
invisible, hidden in the small of her back.
It's construction, for many strange reasons, was still
almost impossible for most security systems to detect.
BlackHat would have missed it himself if he
didn't have optics that saw such a large crosssection
of the E-M spectrum, silmultaneously.

   They got up and went to BlackHat's room.
BlackHat put on his coat and hat, and
buckled the belt for his sword.
BlackHat didn't like going anywhere without it, and
station security never seemed to mind such weapons.
On their way out, Nicky took his right arm,
BlackHat found he liked that.

   They went and did alot of shopping, they played
in arcades, watched free shows (designed to convince
you to come in and buy something) and shopped
some more. Nicky had to buy her battle personal
designed, Sylvian combat drugs, her various bit
and pieces of clothes and jewlery, and then she just had to
have that new Long armorjack, it was Bandai, don't you know.

   Eventually they compromised on a new hat for him. It had
wider brims than his normal fedora, and a leather band
ran around it's base, which held a long scarlett plume.
BlackHat didn't admit it, but he liked the hat. Then
Nicky bought him a very expensive clasp, shaped
out of gold and crystal into the form of a
bird. BlackHat could tell by examining it that
it had a very slight dewomer about it, designed
to bring it's wearer a sense of peace. Nicky probaly
didn't know so BlackHat decided not to say anything.
He purchased a live flower for Nicky, which promptly
went behind her ear, which BlackHat liked.

   Then they decided to go to the Chatsubo Visser,
for a drink, before heading back to the hotel.
They each ordered a drink and took them
to a large secluded booth. BlackHat
decided to kick on his internal pink noise generator,
as well as a silence shell, which would keep their
light conversation from being overheard.

   They darnk and chatted. BlackHat put the clasp
on the hat, so he could wear it back to the hotel.
The place had been built to be an exact replica
of the famous Chatsubo on Earth, and had the
nice similarity of also serving real booze.

   The first time BlackHat had been in the Chatsubo,
had been quite a memory. He had escaped from the hell
 that had been the black corporate lab that had created
him. Night after night he had waited for his chance.
Then one night, a strangely short engineer named
Hammer had been finishing up some last observations.
Hammer had left the door with just one of the
security systems off. That had been enough. BlackHat
managed to escape.

   He had lived on the streets then, he didn't know how long.
He could no longer relate to people,
he had nothing, no identity, no understanding of things
going on around him. He lived in alleyways, under trash,
in dumpsters, always hiding, always watching.
Then the Mage found him. The Mage had thought
he was some addle minded demon. Considering BlackHat's
appearance, it was a very easy mistake.
He had lived with the Mage and his apprentice.
Slowly, conciousness returned in thsi place of relative
safety. Slowly he began to develop the rudiments
of an understanding of how people dealt with each other.
But the Mage had tormented him, trying always to coerce
him into giving the Mage his "demonic" powers.
Slowly, he began to learn things about himself
and others. He saw how the apprentice had to study things
repeatedly to learn something, whereas he had to be exposed
to something but once, and he would know it forever.
Very rapidly BlackHat equalled the Mage's knowledge, studying
his texts at night, when they thought he was bound
by chains and spells. Chains were mechanical, and thus
easily influenced, and the spells would have no doubt
kept a demon pinned, but BlackHat was no demon. He also
watched the apprentice, and learned the practical things
he would need.

   It was a major breakthrough when BlackHat had
realized he didn't like being coerced. In less than a second
the mage and his appentice were dead. BlackHat had stumbled into the
night, not knowing where to go. Eventually he ended up at the
Chatsubo. A man named Ratz gave him a drink for money he had taken.
And for the first time in a long time, BlackHat felt safe.

   "We had better start heading back, or we'll miss
dinner sleepyhead!" Nicky said, nudging BlackHat.

   "Sure," BlackHat responded in a strange new mood.
He found himself taking Nicky's hand for the walk back
to the hotel, for dinner with his friends.


--
Old Jedi Master: Ah Joshua, he's more machine now than man, twisted and evil.
Paintball is the sport of the 90s, and Lipservice Crew is the Team!!!
                        Team Lipservice Crew Motto:
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