[Chapter: 5, title: Haven with Hackers]


    [EventTag:
    	timestamp:	20yyddmm/hhmmss.nnnn
	node:		[id: SP1.Hallings.0, owner: David Hallings, 
			 partition: 1, detached]
	location:	(HackTown Lock)
    ]

The six-petalled outside door of the HackTown Lock opened as they
approached.  Standing in the lock was the rather improbable figure of
a man.  He was over two meters tall, clad in a brown robe, and stood
not in the half-crouch of a man in zero-G, but in the wary stance of
a fighter.  He bore a wooden staff that stretched across the whole 
width of the corridor.

"Someone in the lock," David whispered.  "Looks like a holo."  He
swam to the wall, assisted by the air current, and grabbed a handhold 
just short of the lock.

"Who comes to HackTown?" boomed the man in the lock.  He was indeed a
hologram, slightly transparent and somewhat grainy, but rendered in
full color with excellent registration.  He didn't move, though.

"David Hallings."

"Confirmed by visual recognition.  Resident of Spaceport One.  You are
not expected on business, but you are carrying a great deal of
baggage for a tourist.  Please explain."

But it was Judith who answered, with a squeal of data followed by a
translation in English for David's benefit.  "Free Program
Succubus(Galadriel.Thursday.Sissy.Athena.Pip.Folly.Lillith.Melody.  
Judith) in [Node: owner: David Hallings, partition: 1, detatched].  I
have been attacked and persued by a demon of unknown origin, and my
home node invaded.  I have come seeking refuge and assistance
for myself, my system, and my mortal companion, according to the 
traditions of HackTown East, HackTown West, and HackTown High.  
Free Software!"

David listened, astonished.  Judith occasionally surprised him, but
he had never heard her speak this way.  She sounded like an exiled
princess at the gates of a wizard's castle--which, he realized, was
approximately what she was.  He noticed that his mouth was hanging
open, and closed it.

"Pass, Lady Judith and company.  A guide will meet you within.  Free 
Software!" the gatekeeper answered.  His image vanished.  

They cycled through the lock.  It was a simple matter of drifting
through, the doors closing and opening automatically, since there
was pressure on both sides.  Just beyond the inner door hung a
quarter-meter ball of tightly-packed widgetry, enclosed in an
icosahedral framework of tubing with a tiny nozzle at each vertex.
"Hi!  I'm your guide," it said.  "Permit me to extend HackTown's
official welcome, or all of it you're likely to get.  I'm
running a sub-process of Jeeves, like all the undecorated sphere-bots.

"You've requested both refuge and assistance; I would suggest
starting with refuge.  You can stay for a couple of days in a guest
apt in Wheel0; it has a node you can link with.  Ok, m'lady?"

"Ok," Judith answered.  

The little sphere jetted over to a rack, and attached itself to a
meter-long piece of tubing with a cluster of tanks and jets at each
end.  The combination jetted back.  "Liquid air broomstick,"  
Jeeves said.  "Hop on.  Lady Judith, I am equipped with a short-range
induction pickup; if you have a standard interface we can link."

David straddled the tube and grabbed the circular rail that
surrounded the tanks in front of him.  "Oh!  That's _much better!"
said Judith.  "I can _see!"  ...though it was a poor substitute for
a real scanning and image processing system--all she was getting was
preprocessed image data, and her spacial reasoning was still almost
nil.

The jets hissed and they started down the corridor.  The contrast
with Spaceport One was astounding.  There the corridors were
spotless, with painted walls and carpeted floors.  Here, they were
tubes of fused moondust, dark green to black.  A strip of window
opened onto the black of space, dotted with the frozen sparks of
stars.  A rosette of blazing dots marked mirrors reflecting
sunlight into the darkside of HackTown; they were not quite as bright
as full sunlight on Earth, but seemed enough to support the plants
that grew in a broad strip opposite the window.  A bundle of pipes
and cables ran beside the plants, exposed to view.  Occasional
graffiti in white paint spotted the walls.

David looked back at the receeding lock--it, too, bore a graffito:

	Through me you enter the doleful city.
	All hope abandon, ye who enter here.

He had heard stories of people who went to HackTown and never came
back.  The place must have its attractions.  Certainly there were few
programmers living in Spaceport One.

As they glided by he briefly why the indirect lighting was used,
until he realized that the mirrors must be reflecting visible and IR
only, and passing the ultraviolet through.  The sun side was heavily
shielded with moondust; a layer of solar cells covered the sunward
side.  The plant trough was almost certainly hydroponic.

* * *

About a hundred meters from the lock they heard shrieks of laughter
and a trio of children burst from a side corridor.  They were all
about six years old, tall and thin from a lifetime of low gravity.
They wore brightly-decorated skinsuits with swim fins and wings.  
Ahead of them darted three small spheres about the size of Jeeves, but
covered with artificial fur.  David ducked a wingtip as they swept
past, somehow avoiding the broomstick in the narrow tube. "Their
sphere-bots are running instances of Fido,"  Jeeves explained.

Judith continued the explanation as Jeeves fed her information: 
"Fido is a distant relative of mine, specialized as a companion for
young children.  It's sort of a combination of pet, tutor, and
babysitter.  Right now they're playing a chase game that gives good
all-around exercise and teaches zero-G mobility."

Further on they began to pass adults.  Most wore swim fins, and
almost all wore sensory helmets.  It was clear that the helms showed
them more than was actually present--they passed a man in animated
conversation with empty air; others simply swerved to avoid
nonexistant objects, waving as they went by.  Judith, through her
link with Jeeves, could get some data on what was present in the
Otherworld, but the link was too narrow for visual detail.

Everyone wore skinsuits, the skin-tight, elastic spacesuits that the
Hackers had pioneered.  Most people wore something over it:  a
one-piece jumpsuit or a tabard.  No-one wore pressure helmets, but
most carried little kits with a small airtank and a plastic hood that
could be pulled on in an emergency.

"Is there much danger of losing pressure?" David asked.  He was
suddenly uncomfortably aware of the fact that a few centimeters
of fused rock were all that lay between him and hard vacuum.

"There has been no serious pressure loss in the last three years, but
a skinsuit is considered a reasonable precaution, although each
corridor section has an emergency kit.  A skinsuit is considered a
sign of freedom.  I would recommend that you acquire a suit and take
an orientation course at your first opportunity."

The tube widened.  There was a steady trickle of traffic,
human and robotic.

[Hole:  I think something more goes in here.]


Finally they reached a spherical chamber, about eight meters in
diameter.   Half was transparent--thick fused silica webbed with a
reinforcing grid of titanium wire.  Earth hung off to one side, its
swirls of blue and white framed in the ebony of deep space.   They
could see all seven of HackTown's light mirrors here as well.

Opposite the window was a large tube; lettering wrapped around it
proclaimed 

	Wheel 0   Wheel 0   Wheel 0

They plunged through it, past a bearing collar, into the hub of an
eight-spoked wheel.  Jeeves said, "Hop off--we walk from here." 
David dismounted, and their little escort jetted off with the
broomstick.  In moments he was back, attached to something that
looked like a metallic daddy-long-legs.  "This way."

They were at the edge of a spoke.  The elevator arrived as they
watched; a simple disk covered with a rope net, riding on six rails. 
"Hook your toes under the webbing," Jeeves instructed.  David did so
and the disk dropped, pulling him down.  He swayed to compensate for
the Coriolis force; weight returned slowly and he was no longer being
pulled, but dropping.  The 250-meter trip took five minutes.

Gravity was only a quarter-g at the rim.  They were in an area that
seemed to be mostly Chinese restaurants alternating with small
shops.  (The connection between hackers and the spicy cuisine of
Szechuan and Hunan has never been explained, but it has existed since
the earliest days.)  They passed Hacker's Delight, New Fry's, Vlad
the Impaler's (Shish Kebab from an ancient Transylvanian recipe),
Joe's All-Night Debugging Service and Coffeehouse, Kubla Kahn's, The
Gold Bug Dim Sum Cafe, GIGO's Takeout Muchies, GOTO THE *s, and a place 
marked only by chemical symbols which Jeeves identified as caffine and 
ethanol.
	  
Jeeves walked with the oddly graceful gait of an optimally-controlled
machine.  There was a moderate amount of street traffic:  people and
robots, most of which looked like Jeeves, passed by and eyed them,
marking them as tourists.  They went on.

They were nearly at the edge of the shopping area, where it met a 
section half-wild with plants, tended by half-seen robots.  Beyond the
Black Dragon-Curve and across from the Golden Cockroach was a sign
proclaiming:

		     HackTown Grand
		The Oldest Hotel in Space

Someone had changed the "l" in "Oldest" to a "d".  David reflected
that both were probably true.  They went in.  The lobby, such as it
was, was a small room twined with plants.  There was a circle of low
couches in the middle and a counter against the far wall.  A tall,
thin girl sat behind it; she might have been fourteen or fifteen,
though David found it hard to tell.  "Hey, Mom!  They're here!" she
yelled to the empty room.  Then she hopped up onto the counter and
said "Lady Judith, Mr. David, welcome.  I can show you to your
room--it's a slow day."

An older woman joined them, obviously "Mom."  "In fact, it's always a
slow day, ever since the Hyatt opened Portside.  It's mostly local
traffic now, modulo slummers from the Port.  Beats groundhogs, though."
She was short, round, and bouncy, with graying hair and a broad grin.
She led them down a hallway and opened a room, waving them in. "Make
yourself at home.  Not much room, but the node's as big as the
Hyatt's main, and the Golden Roach across the street has the best
food in the galaxy.  Try the HackTown fry."

The girl added, "Node's a standard tourist job, but HackHack threw
off the whores and pimps and got you the local Succubus libe, m'lady. 
Hope you like it.  Helm's in the closet.  Need anything, just holler."

The two humans left, leaving Jeeves with David and Judith.  "The node
is in this closet," he said, opening it.  "Do you require assistance
linking?"

"I think I can handle it," David said.  He fumbled with the duffles
and came up with the portable screen, its cable attached to
Judith's main comp node.  He disconnected the screen and plugged the
cable into the room's comp.  Then he straightened up and took his
first real look at the room.

It was even smaller than his apt, with bare white walls.  The floor
was padded; a pile of rolled-up bedding in one corner suggested that
it doubled as the bed.  There was no furniture in evidence beyond
some cushions.  Much of the closet was taken up with the comp node;
the two duffles occupied a large fraction of the rest.  The tiny
bathroom was tucked away at the far end of the closet.  

[Hole:  somewhere in here, Judith rummages through the node.  Need to
describe that, too.]

David found the helm in the closet on top of the comp node; he picked
it up and fingered it curiously.  It was a visor of light grey
metal--probably titanium--with a cylindrical optical system
on each side, and a pair of half-silvered mirrors in front of
the eyes.  He saw that it had earpieces as well--little tubes that
plugged into the ears.

"Put it on."

He turned, half expecting to see Judith in her side of the couch in
his wall screen, but the room was still empty.	He put the helm on
his head, and was reaching up to adjust the headband and insert the
earplugs when he saw Judith walk up to him.  Her image was overlayed
almost perfectly on the real room; when she came up and put her arms
around him he could almost feel it.  She stepped back quickly,
beaming.  

She was wearing a white skinsuit, of the sort that seemed to be
almost universal in HackTown, zipped open to her waist.  Threads of
green light flickered on it like lightning; her eyes were backlit
jade.  A bright light behind her, unseen, warmed her hair into a halo
of reds and browns.

"This node's wonderful!  I can _really see again!  And it's _big,
_fast.  David, we should have come here before, on a holiday.  The
things we could do..."  

"I wish..."

"What?"

"Never mind.  You look stunning!  You're right, we should have come
sooner.  What was that bit about whores and pimps?"

"Remember there's a lot of tourism here--people come to visit
HackTown's Otherworld.  So there are programs especially for
tourists: guides, companions, and so on.  There are even some
instances of Succubus--my sisters--that go in for temporary
relationships with the tourists.  Could be fun, I suppose."

She switched her costume to a set of red stripes mapped onto her
naked body.  Her nipples and crotch glowed like red-hot metal; her
hair was a wreath of flames.  The effect was impressive.  In two
dimensions she had been attractive; in three, full size, she was
ravishing. "What do you think?  Should I sell my nonexistant body to
a tourist?  I found this lying in the closet here, so to speak."

"Nice.  Keep it.  But I like the other one better."

"Ok," she said, and switched back.  "The local Succubus group has a
lot of stuff--I'm at least three revs behind on most of my code
modules, too.  I'll merge it in later. Then we'll have to go through
the data collection.  I hadn't realized we were so isolated.  Later. 
We'd better get to work."

"Have you checked out the net yet?"

"No, that's next.  Come on, have a seat.  This might take a while."
She led him back into the room and sat down on the floor.  He sat
beside her, his back against one of the cushions, and discovered that
there was a cushion beside him, hidden inside her image.  He
put his arm around it.  She had never seemed so real, so _present, as
now.  Suddenly a wave of mixed protectiveness and desire swept over
him.

[Hole:  something more goes in here.]

An icon appeared projected against the wall--a tall-peaked, black
wizard's hat, decorated with arcane symbols.  Then the wizard himself
appeared underneath it:  an old man dressed in dark robes,
leaning on a staff.  "HackHack, at your service," he said.  "Welcome
to HackTown Net, Lady Judith."	His image stepped out from the wall
and bowed with a sweep of its hat.

David asked, "I take it you're the local equivalent of NetHelp?"

"I take it you're the local equivalent of a no-op.  NetHelp is a
doddering antique, a bungling amateur, a nursemaid to idiots!  However
it is also one of my direct ancestors, so I will overlook the insult.  I
provide assistance of _all kinds, including my programming skills."


The exchange that took place simultaneously on Judith's level was
somewhat more detailed.  In a few quick data frames HackHack inquired
the nature of her problem, and then asked [Query:  What presentation
is best for this mortal?  [Choice: (spoken narrative, text narraitve,
iconic, 2-d imagery, 3-d imagery, raw transcript)]].

Judith replied, [Reply: text narrative | 2-d imagery].  It was odd to
communicate this way with a stranger, in raw internal
representations, so much faster and clearer than English.  She was
used to it with her clone-sisters, but most other programs had
different representation systems, so they communicated either in
tagged English or InterSym.  HackHack, though, obviously knew the
the Succubus internal data structures, and presumably those of most
other Programs as well.

[Hole:  at this point, we probably want parallel marginal data frames
for the events at J's level.]

"Ok," she said to David, "I've explained the situation.  Let's go."

Aparently projected on the wall in front of them was a stone
fence with a massive gate in it--two stone pillars with a lintel 
between them, and an iron gate between.  Flowers grew in front of the
wall; behind was barren land.  A column of text flowed down the left
side:  "Gateway HackTown Net <-> Spaceport One Net...  Attempting
connection to [Node: ===]...  Connection refused..."

[Note: maybe format the transcript into a column.]

The scene shifted to a Spaceport One corridor.  They were in front of
David's door.  It was closed.  Judith sent HackHack the recognition
code she had set up before she left.

"Using temporary recognition code...  Connection refused...  Using
network administration code...  Connection established..."  The door
opened.  There was blackness inside.  "We're in," said Judith.

The scene split horizontally--on top the gateway reappeared.  A
cartoon devil was at the gate--red, with horns, hooves, and barbed
tail.  The gate stayed shut.  "Load request at gateway: unidentified
program..."

[Query: program at gateway =? demon you encountered],
HackHack sent.

[Reply: insufficient data.  Possibly.].  "Load request
denied...  Trace initiated..." said the text narrative.  The devil 
disappeared.  A cartoon bloodhound appeared, sniffed his tracks and
disappeared also.

"It looks as though someone is still interested in your whereabouts,"
HackHack said, "and it looks as though your node has been wiped.  You
need better protection--I'll fix you up with a Guard."   Meanwhile, a
quick survey of David's home node had been going on in the upper
window.  The text there said:  "Status check:  local memory cleared,
no backup present, attached devices:  (wall screen, standard screen,
holo tank, video in, audio in, audio out)...  Attempting video
access...  Video ok..."

The doorway image was replaced by the view from one of the video
pickups.  The room was a wreck.  Every drawer and cabinet had been
dumped onto the floor.  The refrigerator door hung open.  The
cushions on every piece of furniture had been slashed.  The backup
mem, its hiding place revealed, sat on the floor in a heap.  Each
module had been pried open and the holographic crystal inside
removed and crushed to a pile of expensive dust.  "Good thing we
brought most of the node with us,"  David said.  "Looks like you had
the right idea--I'd hate to have been home when they arrived."

Another cartoon devil appeared, this time in the picture of David's
apt.  "Load request, unidentified program...  Load request denied... 
Load request, network administration override code...  Load
completed...  Class II destructive demon detected...  Trace process
initiated...  Loading cleanup demon...  Loaded...  Cleanup
initiated..."  The bloodhound appeared again, and a man with a gun.
The image of the room flickered and shattered into strips as a battle
for the node began.  [Query: disconnect?]

[Reply:  acknowledge], Judith sent back.  The room
disappeared.  [Next:  try [Node:  owner: Jake ???]].

A similar scene greeted them in Jake's apt.  There was no sign of
Elspeth--the node had been wiped clean.  Again there was a pile of
broken backups:  Elspeth's memories, Jake's dreams, crystal dust on
the floor.  

They didn't stay, but tried Dorothy's.  "Using network administration
code...  Connection refused..."  Judith sent, [Message:  from:
Succubus...Judith, to:  Succubus...Ozma,  contents:  [Query:
status?]].

Ozma opened a connection; Judith set up a relay process.  HackHack
piggybacked onto it, setting up security systems honed by years of
field trial and backed by the massive compute power of HackTown.
"Judith!  [EmotionTag: joy] I thought it got you!  Where have you been?
... [EmotionTag: grief]."

"David and I are safe in HackTown.  What happened to you?"

For reply they got a visual image:  the inside of Dorothy's apt. 
Dorothy lay on the floor by the door, a dark stain spreading on the
carpet beneath her.  She looked like a child's doll, broken and
thrown carelessly aside.

Ozma came back on audio, her voice a weary monotone.  "The demon got
me in the end, but I had a backup in Dorothy's work node.  I[Sub:
then] sent it a wakeup.  It/I[Sub: now] told Dorothy; she went back
to the apt to clear the node.  When I didn't hear from her after a
while I checked and found the node was wiped, so I loaded in. I
saw her lying there.  I couldn't reach Elspeth or Jake or you or
David or Lady M.  The demon keeps trying to get back in."

[Hole:  need a parallel column for the transcript, similar to above.]

[PlotNote:  visit from Security at this point?  NetHelp would have
 notified them.  Likely.  So, possibly, would Jake.
]