Ok, here its is...the next Old Man And Kid story. I can't promise
another any time soon...too much work to do...anyway here it is, C&C is
welcome, encouraged, and appreciated.
Heres the teaser: The kid discovers "CYBERSPACE"...oooooh cyberspace.
Hey, its a short story, didja expect more than a one line teaser? More
importantly, did you expect it to be accurarte?
Matthew Trotter, is a blank line on an E-mail cyberspace?
----------------------------------------------------------
The Bill
-----------------------------
I couldn't stand their attitude
For another day
They were trying to synchronize me
So I blew them away
-Day Glow Abortions
-----------------------------
He made a fist. The hand still felt weird. When he moved it he could
feel the servos moving. It felt smoother than normal motion. He looked
at the read out on the "free" diagnostic meter they'd given him.
Statistics for HSI48000
Sub neural net synchronisity: 89%
Manual dexterity: 100%
Physical strength: 100%
Relative dexterity: 105%
Relative strength: 250%
Current output values
Relative dexterity: 105%
Relative strength: 59%
Estimated time to sub neural net synchronisity
Max:5 days
Min:1 day
Now:2.5 days
He liked the sub neural net thing. It was probably the coolest part
about the whole deal. It was supposed to be an artificial intelligence
they wired into his head. The tech had told him that sub neural net was
some computer nerd joke about artificial intelligence or something. What
it did was, it read his mind and told the hand what to do. It would know
if he wanted to hold something gently, or tight, or crush it. It was
weird. With the diagnostic hooked up he could see it make choices. If
he squeezed his other hand with all his might, it would get up to 70%
relative strength. If he crushed a beer can he could get it up to 250%,
and the can would be small enough to wash down the drain. It was
interesting, but he worried about the Synchronisity thing. If the hand
wasn't working right, would it just out of no where crush someone's hand
to jello? Thinking about it made him feel moody. The whole
synchronisity thing was why he was staying home from work...well, that
and the old man was still in the hearings on the escaped boomers. Ok,
and it didn't hurt that he was staying with Mina....
The kid unplugged the diagnostic and got up, it was 4:35. Mina would
be home soon. He looked at the phone jack. He was dying to jack the
hand into it to see what would happen. The doctor had given him a box of
jacks and cables when he'd left...they were also allegedly free. The kid
had a bad feeling about the bill he was going to get. You just didn't
get free stuff, unless people were satisfied that you'd spent enough in
their store already. Fuck it, it was probably already on the bill, and
if he was getting billed for it he'd might as well play with it. He
picked up the package that had the phone jack on one end and the wrist
jack on the other.
The hand stopped working when he plugged the jack in. It was kind of
scary. He could feel it stop and lock into a position. He pulled the
jack back out and could feel the hand again. Weird . . . The kid pushed
the jack back in to the wrist slot, and connected the other end to the
phone.
------------------
_____________________________________________________________
| Welcome to the Mega Tokyo WAN |
|_____________________________________________________________|
| Your LAN is: MTD12 | All connections within your LAN are |
|____________________| free of charge. Connections to other |
| Mega Tokyo LANs are made at 1000 yen per minute. Connections|
| to all other Japanese nets are made at 2000 yen per minute. |
| Internet access is available at 1000 yen per minute, but be |
| advised that internet lines are slow and still operate under|
| under terabit speeds. Connection to other Genom WANs |
| around the world can be obtained at low cost, thanks to the |
| friendly folks at the Genom Corporation. |
|_____________________________________________________________|
| Voice detected | Data detected | Terabit com line detected |
|________________|_______________|____________________________|
|Your Command? | For help just type "help". |
|_________________________|___________________________________|
---------------
It appeared in the upper right side of his field of vision. It was
like a computer screen had just become active there. The kid jerked
back, but the screen stayed where it was . . . it was like it was stuck
on the inside of his eye or something. This was probably "cyberspace",
or what ever the computer junkies were calling it now. He wondered how
he could access it...help?
----------------
_____________________________________________________________
| Welcome to the Mega Tokyo WAN |
|_____________________________________________________________|
| Your LAN is: MTD12 | Thank you for using Genom HELP, the |
|____________________| bill will be added to your account. |
|_____________________________________________________________|
| Your options are| Voice connect | Data Connect | Net Connect|
|_________________|_______________|______________|____________|
|Your Command? | For help just type "help". |
|_________________________|___________________________________|
----------------
Hmmmm, well he needed to talk to the cybernetics registration beurocrats
again, why not see what voice was...voice?
----------------
_____________________________________________________________
| Welcome to the Mega Tokyo WAN |
|_____________________________________________________________|
| Your LAN is: MTD12 | Activating Genom E-Voice. The bill |
|____________________| will be added to your account. |
|_____________________________________________________________|
| Under the new Genom E-Voice your call will be billed as a |
| standard Genom net access. Prices are subject to change all|
| current prices are available at Genom.price.net. |
|_____________________________________________________________|
|Number to call? | For help just type "dirast". |
|_________________________|___________________________________|
--------------
cyber reg?
--------------
_____________________________________________________________
| Welcome to the Mega Tokyo WAN |
|_____________________________________________________________|
| Your LAN is: MTD12 | Activating Genom E-Voice. The bill |
|____________________| will be added to your account. |
|_____________________________________________________________|
| Under the new Genom E-Voice your call will be billed as a |
| standard Genom net access. Prices are subject to change all|
| current prices are available at Genom.price.net. |
|_____________________________________________________________|
|Number to call? cyber reg| Searching........found. |
|_________________________| Connecting Tokyo.gvt.cyber.reg... |
|_____________________________________________________________|
----------------
"Hello, Mega Tokyo Cybernetic Registration Office can I help you?" the
voice seemed to be in his head. It was unnerving. It was like having a
phone in your skull. How was he supposed to talk to someone in his head?
"Hello? Is there anyone there?"
hello?
"Hello, sir, how can I help you today?"
hello, can you hear me?
"Yes sir I can hear you."
Sorry, its this new E-voice thing. I don't think its working right.
"That's all right sir. Now what may I help you with?"
I've been trying to register a new cybernetic hand with you. I was
told that I needed to get proof of insurance to register.
"Yes sir, that is correct. You are required to show proof of
accident insurance, and pay the 100000 yen registration fee."
The insurance company told me that I can not get insurance for this if
I don't have it registered.
"I'm sorry sir, but our current policy states that we will not
register any cybernetic replacement that is not insured against
accidental malfunction."
How the fuck can I insure this fucking hand if I need to have it
registered first? Who the fuck came up with this fucking idea?
"Sir, I will have to ask you to watch your language. As this is an
electronic media, I'm sure you realize that it falls in the jurisdiction
of the CDA."
___________________________
| A recording device is now |
| monitoring this call. |
| Please be advised. |
| -Geno _____________|
|_____________| Countering. |
| . . . . . . |
| Countered |
|_____________|
-----------------
The Communications Decency Authority. It was a bull shit organization
used to arrest people who hadn't done anything wrong. The CDA was big
brother. If they were going to sic the CDA on him then Cyber Reg was
probably just a scam anyway. If he couldn't Reg the hand, they would
arrest him. And he'd get tossed on the ADP grunt squad or forced into
some community service program. Fuck it, ditch the line.
The kid pulled the jack out of the wall and plugged the phone back
in. He was going to have to have a talk with the old man. There was
something up with this shit, and some how he got the feeling the old man
would know.
The door hissed open and Mina walked in. She was wearing a gray suit
coat and a short, short skirt. The kid knew that if she bent over or
knelt down the tops of the stockings would be visible. It was intentional.
She told him that there was one big advantage to being a woman, men went
wild at the thought of having you. She said that it was how she got to
where she was, making men think they were getting something by promoting
her. The kid smiled, Mina had the game right, but she had overlooked one
thing...men can play too. The kid never pointed that out. It was better
for Mina to think that she was the only one playing.
The kid had been staying with Mina for the three weeks since he'd had
the hand replaced. He'd met her at the clinic. She was having an eye
fixed. As the secretary to the head of a international corporation she
needed to have perfect eye sight and an ability to "total recall". She'd
had a new Cornex eye put in, as well as a five hundred terabyte data
bank implanted in her skull. She had been upset about the eye, having
your eye plucked out does that to you. When he'd told her about his hand
and what had happened, she had relaxed a lot. He'd kept her mind off the
operation, and afterwards she took him home. It had been silk boxers all
day, and Mina all night after that.
Mina put a bag of groceries on the table, and tossed him a letter, "I
can't believe you put this down as your house!"
"I've been here three weeks, Mina."
Mina looked at her watch, it was a Rolex, "Hmmmm, I guess you have.
It sure doesn't seem like it. I guess I just can't get enough of you."
The kid gave Mina his 'I've been horny all day' smile. She loved
it. It was exactly what she wanted to think, "Well I sure can't get
enough of you. Whats for dinner?"
Mina frowned and put her hands on her hips, "What do you mean 'whats
for dinner?'"
"I want to hurry through dinner so I can get to 'desert'..."
"Oh, I see. Well, why don't we just skip dinner then. I'll go get
'desert' ready, while you read your mail..."
The letter was from 'New Age Cyberclinics', it had to be a bill. The
kid opened the envelope and looked inside. There was one slip of paper.
The upper right corner contained the address for NAC, the main body of
the bill was standard form:
Thank you for choosing blablabla, hope your satisfied, blablabla, we
are now addressing your bill, blablabla, for a grand total of 4.6 billion
yen.
4.6 billion. That was a lot of money. The kid had checked around, a
really top of the line hand usually went for 50 to 60 million. He
definitely needed to talk to the old man, NAC had been his idea. So had
the model of hand....
"Gotta trust. Git set right. I gitcha done."
He remembered the old man telling him that. Now he was beginning to
wonder exactly what getting set right involved.
"Well, don't you look tense. I guess that fancy hand of yours was a
bit pricey? Well, don't you worry. I think I can take care of it for
you..."
The kid looked up, Mina was standing there looking erotic. There was
just something about the way she wore stockings...or maybe it was the way
she didn't wear anything else...he had a feeling she wouldn't be quite so
generous if she got a good look at the bill.
"Mina, I think..."
She snatched the bill out of his hand and looked at it. He watched
her eyes go wide as she got to the grand total.
"fu...fu...four point six!?!?!?!?"
"Seemed a little high to me too."
"You gave them my address! They probably think I'll pay!"
"Mina, don't worry, I'm going to go straighten this out tomorrow..."
"Go straighten it out NOW! I'm not going to get dragged into this!
Your probably some criminal!! GET OUT!!!"
------------------
Miuna looked at the clock. It was 12:55. There was someone knocking
on her door. Let it be him, God, she asked silently. He'd been gone for
weeks. She wished she hadn't pissed him off so much. Miuna pulled on
her robe and went to the door. What if it wasn't him? What if it was
some midnight rapist? She looked out the spy hole.
It was him. He looked like shit. He was standing there with his head
lowered. His cloths looked rumpled, like he'd slept in them. What had
he been up to? Had he been on the street this whole time? Miuna opened
the door, "What are you doing here?"
He looked up at her, god he looked half dead, "I feel like shit
Miuna. I need some place to crash."
"Oh and this looks like some flop house?"
"I walked here from the other side of town because I'm to broke to buy
a bus pass. If I don't lie down soon I'll pass out. Are you gonna let
me in or not?"
Miuna listened to his steady breathing. The kid had fallen asleep the
second he hit the bed. There had been no pretense, no special thank
yous, he had just crashed. She shook her head...he seemed so different.
He hadn't treated her like his back up girl friend....she wasn't sure
what he had treated her like...she wasn't sure she liked it...but then
again, it was better than being a back up girl friend...she hoped...