Announcement

**Alynzia** · November 11, 2001, 10:29

Nuh!

Part Two

A tanned and lean muscular body sat crouched in a spherical chamber, pale silver robes defining the sharp curvature of his body, laden with perspiration. A panoramic window surrounded him, no more than a metre in width. Artificially enhanced photon displays cast moving bands of light on the chamber's reflective white walls. The man's eyes were closed, his long brown hair falling in waves over his trembling body, each judder emanating from his skull-base where a small transceiver was embedded.

From a poorly concealed vestibule, Officer Penn watched his master torment himself with the perception sensory rates bombarding his raw mind. His enhanced biological brain was racing to compute and order the rapid montage of visual data . The window flickered with hundreds of disparate images, forms of fractal geometry Master Honsfed was fiercely struggling to assimilate simultaneously. The Rate Determinator, or ‘Sanity Terminator' as it was colloquially known, was a form of entertainment forbidden in University territory and Honsfed was taking full opportunity of its availability in the present accommodation.

As a searing burst of revelation, Honsfed cried out in mercy, tempering the vocalisation into a command for Penn to deactivate the apparatus. Penn complied, watching the ultraviolet screens instantly snap to white. "Time. Evaluation dammit!" demanded Honsfed as he ripped the warm transceiver link from its port, placing a moist hand on a display monitor. In the phonetic numeral language of the Morganic computer system, the synthesized voice spat information of distaste to frustrated Honsfed. Stepping into the main chamber, Penn spoke up "Point four percent is an improvement Master..." he offered in vain.

"Damn the contraption, I cannot abide this." Honsfed turned to pierce Penn with resolute black eyes, "No more I tell you! Never again shall you allow me to toil here Penn, do you hear me? Never!" Honsfed kicked the thin linosynth floor in indignation, followed by an apathetic shrug to disarm his pointless aggression. Handing his master a towel, Penn would give Honsfed a half day before he would be resiliently back in this chamber, for an identical session to the as had occurred over the past four days of their diplomatic visit.

"We will proceed to the sanitarium, Penn , and you will tell me of your dallying on the Planet wide Morganic datanets." Striding out of the chamber with the swagger of victory for anyone who might be out there, Honsfed patted his body dry with the soft towel, moving it down his body methodically until giving it a good trample with his four toed feet. Penn deposited the towel down waste processing shaft, following his master into the virtually deserted guest sanitarium. Catching the pleasing vision of two bourgeois women massaging each other with exotic oils, Honsfed smiled politely before flashing them the displacement look customary in Morgan's novo feudal society.

With a fleeting thought for Mistress Honsfed carried on the scent of the oils, Honsfed cast off his dirty clothes and slipped into a steam-permeable robe, placing his firm buttocks on a shower-seat. Gesturing for Penn to join him, Honsfed closed his eyes. The body would relax and separate from mind. The body would drift while the mind would feed itself destruction from dark impulses brooded by a man in torment.
Penn climbed onto an adjoining seat. "Why does that game trouble you so Master?" asked Penn as he felt the cool vapour wash over his newly robed body, "If it was a valid measure of prowess the Provost back home would standard us with it for certain!" With his pulse rate below rhythmic identity, Honsfed's words fell from his flaccid lips as a fluent melody of bare differentiation. "There is no standard, there is a game played by children wanting to compete in hollow pursuits. While I esteem not such a construct, I feel it is my duty to investigate this phenomena as the naked opportunity presents itself to me."

Penn groaned partially with pleasure from a steam flume and partially at Honsfed's pseudo commentary. "I fear to mention this Master, I wish not to rouse your passions, but your fascination - Master, it is an infatuation - with The Rate Determinator visited us upon your understanding of the John Sato number achieved on it." Penn shut his eyes, not only to the vibrant metallic crystal of the sanitarium, but to his master.

"John Sato. You are very brave to mention that charlatan's name in my presence, of course technically you didn't - but no matter. Tell of your musings from the datanet concerning him. You are safe now for my passions are rendered." Honsfed's breathing had fallen to silence, the gentle noise of vapour gusts swishing across his robes the only indication Penn now had of his master's presence.

"The hit counts on his sites are most impressive Master, not by quantity, but by genuine fractal access patterns indicating a strong fan-base."

"Fan-base" muttered Honsfed, imagining John Sato being a hot air fan physically supported by his cadre of demented simpletons.

Penn continued, "The datanet hails him as a humanist messiah, but behind the capitalism I think there is an influential man with a huge attitude problem, a world away from his University technician origins."

"Why train rats when you can train people?" Honsfed's lips forbade a smile, but one glowed inwardly.

"The University has nothing to fear from John Sato, Master. These cult things die hard when they are not oppressed, and his polemics are buying into his persona at a tangible rate."

"But that which is universally accepted can become as standard..." Honsfed trailed off as the shower-seat powered down, Honsfed refusing the leg gesture to initiate another cycle, much to Penn's apparent disappointment. Dropping his robe, Honsfed reached towards a natural silk tunic, dexterously unwrapping it from its protective covering. "Penn," said Honsfed with a rhetorical nod, "Perhaps John Sato is a insubstantial showman, but you will not dismiss the harm he can wreak with his risen base. The difference between our faction and the others is that or ideals are played out only by the minority of the population." Penn gave a quizzical look, "The same could be said of our allies, the Morganites." Honsfed sniffed, "Not so. The lower classes of Morganic society honestly believe if they work hard enough or if they get lucky they too can live like the upperclassmen. Our citizens know that if they were born to be a sanitation engineer, they will die a f**king sanitation engineer. No, our citizens can be swung too easily. And this is why we should fear John Sato. To deny evil exists is to give it one more reason to attack you." And with a gusty sweep the tunic was upon his clean body. Honsfed grabbed a bottle of exotic oil and disappeared in a blurred brown streak out of the sanitarium.

**Alynzia** · November 11, 2001, 10:33

Ugh.

Part Three

#Accessing UniNet ‘read only' - Please standby and prepare to enter your unique identification code#
Amanda Gregory's wide eyes squinted at the brightness of the portable monitor, wanting to bring it closer to see the low resolution screen, but at the same time wanting to pull it away because of the glare from the poorly calibrated photon intensity. Amanda settled for thrusting the tiny console 10 cm away from her nose, positioning herself comfortably against the wall of the empty study cubicle. This console ran at an undetectable energy rating and so would allow Amanda to access information strictly forbidden to her back home.
#Please enter your unique identification number - if you do not enter a valid number you will be returned to Morgan Home#

Amanda looked at the buttons on her antique wrist keypad. Her father had entrusted Amanda with this two-hundred year old family heirloom as an ornamental keepsake. She had not the slightest clue how to work such archaic piece of technology. While the piece of machinery was not Unity issue, it was fashioned together out of damaged equipment from the Unity by the first Spartan pioneers.

More later... perhaps... so very bored now...

**problem_child** · April 15, 2002, 11:27

~

Announcement

The Condfederacy

The Condfederacy

Comment

Comment

Comment