4) --- Dangerous Alliances -------------------------------------------- "Wot we gonna do tonight, Brain?" "The same thing we do every night, Pinky; TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD." --Pinky and the Brain THAT NIGHT "Very well. Let's get this meeting started, shall we?" The other figures nodded, and headed towards the single table. The room was dark, and a single light illuminated the table. The figures arranged themselves around the table, and sat down (except for Korzon, who hovered). "I trust you all have read the documents?" The figured gestured towards the stacks of paper on the table with his cigarette holder. The others nodded. "Good. I trust that we will not make the...mistakes that our predecessors did, will we?" The others nodded, although with a bit more caution than before. "Excellent. Now, onto business." With that, the figure with the holder moved the papers to one side, revealing a campus map underneath. "This, my friends, is the University of Maryland, College Park." He paused for a reaction. None was forthcoming. "It is a large campus, holding over 40,000 students. It has over 40 majors, in varying fields and subfields. Also, it is the 'Flagship College' for the entire University of Maryland system. The Campus is top ranked in several majors, and it has ready access to various national institutions and programs due to it's departmental connections and close proximity to the nation's capitol." "Why are you telling us this?" asked a small figure at the end of the table. "Expository Dialogue, Fred," the leader answered. "It has to go somewhere." "Oh." "However, as you can see," as he returned to his speech, "this campus is too big to take over in one climactic action. A single surgical strike will have no effect, since the campus can easily take up the slack of lost people. And an assassination of the campus president or other high- placement figure would just cause an uproar for a few weeks, but then settle down as a new president would be chosen. And things would continue just the same as before." "So. What are our options?" asked a large figure, whose claws tapped on the metal table. "They are few, Tigris, but I believe that we can accomplish them with great success and minimum effort. I mean to clear this campus, of *everyone*, so that we can use it as our staging point for eventual world domination!" "Impressive speech, Ray," commented Petty, "But how do we know that *you* will be successful?" "I can understand your doubt, Petty," Ray said, pointing with his holder, "but not to worry. If we combine our efforts, this campus should fall right into our hands." "Ok. So what are we going to do?" asked Korzon. "Ideally, we shall try to infiltrate the campus and city, and select one of them to be the new campus president and/or mayor. Once he is elected, we can use him or her to declare a campus state of emergency, thereby evacuating the campus, and allowing us to move in." "But what about resistance? We are sure to encounter it," interjected Tigris. "That is an understandable concern, Tigris. However, while we are attempting to undermine the campus bureaucracy, we shall also be taking steps for more...physical means of takeover. The first thing to do is to create an acceptable base of operations. Once that is done, we can staff it and begin our production facilities. Korzon," he said as he pointed with his cigarette holder, "you shall be in charge of the design and construction of the base." "I think I already have a place in mind." "Good. Also, I have a backup plan to make our arguments for evacuation of the campus more...persuasive, should the need arise, and I want you to be in charge of that, also." Korzon nodded (an interesting trick, that.) "Petty and Tigris, I want you two to be in charge of staffing and training. You'll be able to switch off most of your duties, and I believe the College Park airport will be an acceptable staging place for your forces." "I believe that we will be able to devise a method of transport for their vehicles," Korzon interjected. "Good. Also, Tigris, I want you to be in charge of spy operations." "Acceptable," growled Tigris. "What about me?" challenged Fred. "Ah yes. In case of any...unforseen difficulty, we shall call for your special talents. Do not worry, I am sure that you will be called." Fred nodded. "Very well, this meeting is ended. Shall we seal the deal with an evil laugh?" The laughter from the room was deafening. 5) --- Take Two ------------------------------------------------------- "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." -- Advertisement "...Unless you're really lucky. ;)" -- Anonymous THE NEXT DAY THURSDAY JUNE 17, 1993 Philip Moyer walked into PG2. He had just finished his Thet 120 class for the day, and was ready to wile away several hours reading netnews. But, as he walked towards the entrance of the lab, he began to reflect on the previous day's occurances. "Surreal doesn't even do justice to it," he thought out loud. "I never even finished reading r.a.a! *Perhaps* today will be normal." Philip peeked into the lab. "Phew. All clear." Philip walked to a Nextstation and dropped his backpack next to it. Plopping down into a chair, he logged on, and began to read. So intent in reading was he, that he didn't notice three people sit down on both sides of him. Three people who he had only met yesterday... "Excuse me, Mr. Moyer," said Gordo as he handed back the campus map to Philip, "But I believe this is yours?" "Thanks." Philip took the map, and put it back into his backpack. He returned to his reading, until a little something in the back of his head realized that these three sitting next to him were logging *into* the Nextstations, instead of doing a remote login. And what were they doing here, anyway? Philip leaned over and peeked at Gordo's station. Yes, NeXTstep, the operating system for the NeXT's, was booting up on the display. Turning around, he could see Rufus looking at the Workspace Manager, and Aerianne clicking on Nextmail. "Excuse me," said Philip as he turned towards Gordo. "How did you get accounts?" "We registered for classes. That is what you said we needed to do." "Wait..A..Minute.." Philip focused on Gordo directly, trying to get a handle on things. "You just said that you registered for classes, yes?" Gordo nodded, and Philip continued. "I can understand joining a college to gain access to the internet. I mean, even _I_ would do that. But taking *Classes*?! Why would you want to do that?" "Is there anything wrong with it?" countered Gordo. "Well...no..." "Then my point is proven," and smiling, Gordo returned his attention to the Nextstation. "Err, um, yeah...right.." Feeling totally confused, Philip returned to his terminal as well. He tried to get back into the swing of things, but to no avail. His mind was working full stream on the 'problem' of the three visitors, and he sat a while in thought until a tap on his shoulder brought him out of it. Startled, he turned around suddenly and made direct eye contact with the person who had tapped him. In this case, it was Aerianne. "Philip?" Philip's mind scrambled to organize itself, and failed. "Um, er, um, hrmmm?" "Your name *is* Philip?" Seeing an opening, Philip's mind snapped into full gear. "Well, it isn't 'Um, er, um, hrmmm?'!" Aerianne laughed. Heartened, Philip continued. "Yeah, I'm Philip..." Realizing who he was talking to, and what happened yesterday, he decided that right now would be a very good time to apologize. "Umm, about yesterday? Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit you there, It's just that I didn't know you were there and I just reached back to stretch and..." "Oh, no, that's ok! Actually, it was kind of funny!" "It was?" Philip was reminded of _Forum_, put it out of his mind, and continued with the slightly surreal conversation. "Ohhkaayy... whatever. Anyway, what was it you wanted to talk about?" "Well, I wanted to ask you..." she said, leaning close to him on his shoulder. "How do you use the NextMailer?" Visibly relaxing, Philip got up and headed over to Aerianne's station. "Here, I'll show you." He sat down in the chair, and Aerianne stood next to him. "Ok, here's what you do..." Falling into his 'teaching newbies about NeXT's' mode, he described and demonstrated the Nextmailer to Aerianne. She paid rapt attention, even when he went into the arcania about the differences between how the NeXT handled mail and how the UNIX system handled it. He even opened up a terminal window to his own account, and mailed a message to Aerianne as an example. Finally, mouth dry, he finished with the demo and relinquished the chair to Aerianne. "Wow, I didn't realize there was so much to learn about this!" "Well, don't worry, I took a while for me to learn it, too. Just keep experimenting, and you'll do fine." "I'm not worried about the time it's going to take. It sounds like fun!" Philip thought. "Well, if you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!" "Don't worry," she smiled, "I won't!" Trying to restore some sense of normalcy, he returned to his terminal, but it wasn't long until he received a tap on his other shoulder. Turning, he saw Gordo, who asked, "Excuse me, but how do you use the NextMailer?" 6) --- In The Good Old Summertime ------------------------------------- "The friends you make can last a lifetime." -- Anonymous ABOUT 6 WEEKS LATER (THURSDAY, JULY 28) Philip entered the parking garage computer lab, feeling quite pleased with himself. His summer acting class had just ended a week ago; he had done admirably well for someone who had been a computer sciences major from the beginning. (Alright, so he had taken an acting class in high school, but that isn't the same, now is it?) Now, with the class ended, and not much else to do during the day, Philip spent more and more time in the lab before going home in the afternoon. And, by and by, the times in the lab were getting to be one of his favorite times of the day, right up there with reading books and attending Wildwood Summer Theatre. , he thought to himself. Life could do some pretty strange things at times, but for one, Philip was glad that it had happened. The three friends (as if you couldn't guess ;) ) were Gordo, Rufus, and Aerianne; they were in the lab so often that Philip gradually lost his initial uneasiness around them, and began to accept them as they were. Who they _were_ was still a matter of some debate, seeing as Philip never really heard anything about their personal lives other than what they encountered during the day at Maryland. But Philip wasn't about to pry since he figured that they would tell him when they wanted to. Since they were in the lab when they were not in class, they spent long hours reading newsgroups (natch!). Gordo took to the newsgroups easily, especially the talk and soc groups, and made good on his promise to "learn more about the world." Aerianne read mostly the rec and alt groups, apparently trying to learn more about the culture of the world. And judging from Rufus' enthusiasm the first time he had logged onto a NeXTstation to read sci and comp, before long he would easily surpass Philip's own minor prowess on the nets; Hell, before long he would probably surpass the ability of _anyone_ on the net. Philip wasn't taking any bets against him, that was for sure. Philip's teaching abilities had been stretched to the limits the past weeks as the three asked him one question after another about the NeXT, UNIX, and the Internet. Philip tried to answer as many questions as he could; but there were just some really arcane questions (most of them asked by Rufus) that he couldn't answer, and he had to go to a first-aider for help. Fortunately, a friend of his, Cameron McNary, was working as a first-aider that summer, and he was able to take up the slack when Philip stalled. However, now that the college was in Summer Session two and the three were taking classes, Philip planned to come in early, to allow him to catch with his r.a.a. reading before they came and started pelting him with questions. However, it was not to be, since as he entered he could clearly see the three sitting in a line, with a station "reserved" for him between Gordo and Aerianne. Philip smiled. he mentally giggled. Gordo, at the NeXTstation, noticed Philip and waved him over. "Good day, Philip! How may I enquire are you doing?" "How about saying 'What's Up?'" "Very well, I shall! 'What's Up?'" "Oh, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars...nononono," He looked up in anticipation. Blank stares answered him. "Oh, never mind," he grumped as he slid into a NeXTstation station next to Gordo's NeXTstation. "I guess you just had to have read it," he mused out loud. "hm," muttered Rufus, who was currently hip deep (metaphorically speaking) in a technical report in some sci. newsgroup, and had totally missed Philip's attempt at a joke. "Don't mind him," Gordo commented as Philip logged on and checked his mail, "He has just discovered the joys of sci.aeronautics." "Oh. Ohhkay. Whatever." He turned his attention to the newsgroups. R.a.s.c was pretty quiet, considering that everyone was waiting for the new season to begin. Just a few minor comments here and there, and perhaps a new bit of fanfiction. He changed groups to Rec.arts.animation. This was a bit more lively, and then he changed to r.a.a.s, which he hadn't read for a week and a half due to his extended WST commitment and the general fallout from finishing a summer course. Looking at the 'unread articles' prompt, he could see that a new story had appeared, and he scrolled down to it. He read the title (since NewsGrazer ignored the ^L's): Eyrie Productions in association with Up Too Late Productions, DisInc. presents A Discordia Production Of A WaveDrag Film Hopelessly Lost (It's not Undocumented Features, really.) Benjamin D. Hutchins Brian D. Bikowicz Copyright (c) 1993 Benjamin D. Hutchins and Brian D. Bikowicz Philip thought with excitement. Philip began to read, and as usual, put everything else aside as he read it. Only a giggle or two came out as Philip tried, and failed, to keep quiet as he read the story. One especially loud giggle, almost a laugh, caught Aerianne's attention, and she leaned over to see what was causing the noise. "Hey, Philip," Aerianne said over his shoulder. "Hmm?" he replied, _totally_ engrossed in the story in front of him on the screen. "Philip?" Aerianne tried again. Philip snapped out of his reverie. "Huh? Oh, uh, hi Aerianne! What is it?" "What are you reading?" she asked, moving her chair to get a better view. "Oh, this?" He chuckled. "Oh, just the newest part of, IMHO, the greatest anime fanfiction series ever written." "Excuse me?" she asked, looking at the screen. "It's (not really) a part of Undocumented Features, a really cool series that got me into Anime, for which I am _eternally_ grateful!" He chuckled again. Aerianne looked at the text a little longer, and smiled. "Yeah, I think I could see why. Is there any way I can get a copy of this?" "Sure!" Philip opened a terminal window, ftp'd WPI, got a copy, uncompressed it, enscripted it to two columns and sent it to the laser printer. Aerianne got up to get it, and Philip continued to read. She came back with a stack of paper, sat down at her terminal, and began to read. Philip thought with a grin. After a few minutes (and more than a few giggles), Aerianne glanced at her watch. With a gasp, she began to pack up her backpack and log out of her station. "I've really got to get to my class... Where did you say I could get the rest of the stories?" "Just ftp to wpi.wpi.edu, cd /anime/FanFiction and get anything with dp.u*. You'd better make sure that you've got plenty of space though. Actually, a better idea would be to cd /tmp and ftp from there. Then just enscript to two columns and courier seven, and pipe it to the printer. And don't say I didn't warn you..." "Don't worry, I won't say anything of the sort," she smiled as she got up and slung her backpack over her shoulder. "See you tomorrow!" "Seeya!" Philip watched as Aerianne exited the lab. A look of not-quite-longing-but-close-to-wistfulness crossed his face as he returned his attention to the terminal. As he continued to read HL, he reflected on his life. He sighed. <<>> Ah yes, which brings us to the question of Aerianne. Philip _knew_ that he liked her. She liked computers (a plus, at least in Philip's eyes), she was very personable, she was intelligent (although just a *little* bit naive on some things (but not much :) )), and she now seemed to be developing an interest in Anime! What could be better? If he didn't know any better, he could almost say he was falling in love. Well, except for the fact that he had no idea what falling in love was like. Except from the examples in UF, other stories, and in the various musicals that he had seen, Philip had never had a true "relationship" with a person of the female species. Quite frankly, he didn't even know where to begin! Philip also had another problem, closely related to the fact that he had never had a "relationship". His view on relationships were seriously colored by the aforementioned textual sources. He _believed_ in love at first sight. Sure, the logical part of him fully realized that such a thing was very improbable, almost impossible in real life; but the emotional, sentimental side believed in it just the same. He most certainly didn't want to become a victim of "Trevor Syndrome", he had seen the result of that firsthand. So what to do? "I guess I'll have to go to the usual plan," he mumbled to himself. "Just be a friend". But then again, he reflected, that kind of relationship was more satisfying anyway, as that way no one would get hurt. Sighing, he returned to his terminal. And so the summer passed....