Star Trek:  The Crouton Generation
"Trial By Chaos" parts 1 and 2 
by Christopher Hassell
--------------------------------------

From: Christopher Hassell 
Subject: ST:TCG Trial by Chaos Pt. 1
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 91 18:31:19 MDT

				Trial by Chaos



	The bridge was thickly silent as if someone had died wrongly, 
excepting for the various readouts and computer which no one should shut off 
anyhow.  The air on the bridge had a stiff and sad feel to it, as if it had 
been pulled through a stale and old compartment which didn't want to be 
disturbed.  
	The only stumbling block was that no one had died.
	The dry and dead mining planet on the screen revolved in eminant 
strangeness and beauty, very far from Earth.  It's added tactical projections 
glowed faintly.  Several sub-windows and readouts, designed by the Captain 
himself, purred and blipped the pulse and vascular system in the ship's brain.
	Captain Crouton slouched back as his chair quietly, his brow knit and 
his eyes pensively closing at times, forehead in a propped hand, wondering 
why waiting had to be so much a part of the job, even when remote crew and 
scans were being performed.  At the various stations, he saw Lt. Ghiasi was 
searching through data slowly but surely.  Commander Farah was pacing behind 
the Captain's Chair, his hand resting upon his beloved but lethal katana, 
his face in a strengthening scowl.  Various other crew around, normal to his 
sight, familiar to this bridge, struck his visage differently.  He slowly 
got up, drawing out a quick Farah look, which returned down to its pacing.
	He moved slowly to the command console and its attendants, behind Lt.
Chuang, who was simply fnobbing with a readout-dial, upon closer inspection, 
yet slouched and distant.
	"Navigator," he intoned in a restrained voice ," please give me our 
current trajectory projection on the planet."
	"Hmm?  Oh... yes .. sir.  I.. I.. will just a second um..".  The
calculation was made.  "Orbital path projects us over both poles at 0 degrees
declination... .. sir."
	"That is very good officer, so can you explain why we haven't seen a 
pole for over two revolutions," Crouton continued unfluttered.  "I suggest 
that you watch closer to your duties, Lieutenant. Chuang."
	"But.. I.. I... but.. ," he began to protest.  "yes SIR..." fell out 
begrudgingly.  Chuang mumbled and grumbled "What does it matter... the 
stupid.... angle .. of orbit.... compared to .... things ... "
	Crouton returned to his chair, stroked his scraggly beard and turned 
toward the science post, where the long-haired form of Lt. Cmdr. Ghiasi was 
now more slumped over her work.  He slowly got up again and walked over, 
almost unnoticed by anyone.  He listens in to her quietly.
	"I'm so stupid, ... one .... one stupid mark.  It had to be that!  
One choice made in a split second," she whispered quietly, "and I'd have 
gotten there.  Why did I miss that chance... why..  why!"
	Crouton sternly stated, behind her, "Ghiasi.", and in a softer tone, 
"....Soraya."
	"WHAT!", she snapped and then sounded more recalcitrantly, "sir, I'm
sorry I was just.. "
	"No apology needed, please," the Captain said nonchalantly, "I was 
just admiring your analysis of this planet's mineral structure.  Carry on."
	"Yes.. SIR." she blurted out "It is progressing but it .. well.. oh 
nothing Chris."
	The Captain moved onwards, leaving the tenseness behind, over in front
of Highlander.
	"Commander."
	"Yesss", he hissed.  He looked up from his tread and re-tread path.
	"Nothing, commander, be at ease", [rarely the case for highlander he
thought], "Carry on."  Highlander scarcely could have done otherwise.
	Crouton's face was paler and wide eyed as he slumped back down to the 
Captain's chair.  He looked over at his intercom in hope.  As he was about to 
press the "open channel" selector, the i.c. went active.
	"Captain", a strangely accented singsong voice blurted.
	"Yes, Zortyl?" the captain replied, seemingly glad of some diversion.
	"I feels that you might see fit to understand further directions of
cognizance and empathy on this vessal if you might engage in some audio but
externally cryptified forum."
	Farah looked puzzled and disgusted.  No one else blinked at the normal
way the ship's computer officer spoke to the captain.
	"And the reason?"
	"Interflow restriction wished, captain"
	Crouton got up, with an even more puzzled look on his darting face, 
and started directly off to his ready-room.  "Highlander--you have the con," 
came out just as he slipped through the schwooshing door.
	The non-regulation-but-who-cares knick-knacks and antique decoration 
on the walls made for a pleasant change from the more regulation bridge, but 
he did not seem to fall at ease in his ready-room.
	"Communication line open, secure."
	"Thank you captain."  Zortyl replied, from the desk monitor.
	"So what's your problem, why the old convoluted speech?" the Captain
said, deadpan and confuzzled.
	"Captain, I highly advise you that we are in a exponentially deadly
situation in the ship.  Directly, action must be applied, and quickly, sir."

	Back on the bridge, the pace had slackened and some crew were either
murmuring to themselves or openly sad or wearily gazing around... some with 
heads in their hands, wistfully tracing figures or tapping their blinking 
panels which continued utterly unattended though happy enough, on their own.

	"Stations!" the Captain shouted, and the rarity of that action settled
slowly on the crew.  "Parker! Ghiasi! Jez..... where's Jez."
	Ghiasi haltingly spoke, "Lieutenant Jez has taken shore leave, captain,"
	Croutons, now confusing everyone with his tone, was not flapped.  "We
are forming an aweigh team, meet me in Croutonizer room 5, Pronto!"
	The movement on the bridge became more agitated, as two and the Captain
shuttled out as if something effective was going to be needed soon.  The bridge
noticed, and awoke some people to their duties so that the displays were 
monitored for a brief moment again.  
	Highlander sat down in his chair, staring at the screen and the same 
average corporate-controlled and near-useless planet.  "Bureaucrats, all of 
them, and their slowness is APALLING!" he sneered, in his mind only, viewing 
the enemy's position and taking the captain's confused haste as a license for
action... but a license given why, his mind yelped, for a brief moment.

	The shock had not worn off of Susan and Soraya, who were looking at
each other with both fear and a bit of annoyance.  Crouton's pace was brisk as
they entered the embarcation room.  Few people were in the halls, fewer than 
usual.  Almost no one in fact.
	"Dismissed!" he barked to the orderly, who was off in a corner punching
her hand, enveloped in some thought-battle and snarling at the air.  The 
orderly, shocked as was everyone, promptly left.
	The Captain quickly set up the controls for a timed croutonization.
Soraya and Susan both stepped up to their square-shaped platforms.   (for
crouton transmission .. you need crouton shapes :-).  Chris was quickly in
front of them.  Soraya could swear he saw the wildest and most disturbed look 
she had ever seen on him as she was beamed off.....


	Off..... into ..... into ...... still into nowhere.  Except now the
nowhere looked like an earth-forest with pine and leafy trees and a clear sky 
above them coming into focus.  Susan felt a bit disoriented as well as they 
stepped forward while still not feeling the "release" of suspension.  They 
heard and saw the same sounds as usual, but never had felt the 
"re-croutonization" tingle that occured with distant beaming.
	"Captain?" Soraya quietly asked.
	"It's okay...I'm back to normal... I just had to get your attention, 
badly.  Get you 'in line' so you would come with me."
	Susan spoke up, "But captain.... of course we would have obeyed
orders."
	"Yes.. yes.. I know you would have .. I'll explain when we get to 
Zortyl's office".
	Soraya looked confused but reassured, and also she felt more relaxed as
she followed a less ominous Christopher Croutons, now non-gallantly triapsing
through the thick and damp underbrush on a narrow dirt path.  Susan, whose 
mind had been lost and alone in thought and memory on the bridge, was now 
marvelling all around her, the attention on some old problem now gone.
	The forest was thin at points, and yet also tall.  It was mostly clear 
and could be seen through, with thick green and leafy undergrowth hovering over
the path that Croutons was following.  The air was briskly cool and a bit 
damp as well, as they treaded between fences of foliage under a sun-played
canopy.
	"It's just like Earth," mused Parker.
	"Yes, on the exact side of areas around the North American Northwest."
said a perfectly normal looking fellow (well, relatively), who was in fact 
sitting at a perfectly normal stained mahogany desk, on a normal clearing of 
carpet.. well met at the end of the path.   It was a circle of green flat 
carpet with lamps and various sets of room furniture that stood in the midst 
of the foliage and trees.
	The man had on comfortably loose safari earth-tone clothing, with legs
set on the desk.  He had a beard which curled under his chin and up to both 
ears, and yet no moustache.  A tall nose with a thin bridge and some strange 
metal structure, probably old-style glasses, was placed over two eyes, 
overshadowed by his strong brow.  A big chin between also-tall cheekbones 
was lost below in the slightly bushy beard.  His eyes were bright and 
smiling in a piercing lunatic fashion which looked constantly distracted, 
but also far too intense for normal wattage brains.  This fellow was not a 
Normal Joe, but not necessarily a respectible nor impressive one either.
	"Zort, it is a bit of a strange entrance, you must admit?"
	"Of course, captain.  I'm sorry if I've confused either of you Susan or
Soraya.  I've changed location since you saw me last Soraya, and I think this
might be your so-called first-time, Susan?"
	"Oh I wouldn't know about it being that," Susan smiled, as if at
another meaning of the phrase, still looking around.
	"It's his office, in Cyberspace." Soraya explained.  "I think its a
rather nice change... the last one was a bit steep."  She walked around.   
"It still unnerved me to get slorped up by that beam instead of 
re-croutonized, you know!  Normally the holo-deck is a bit easier."
	"Instead of re-croutonized?" Susan remarked as everyone sat down on 
either a couch or an easy chair.
	"Yes," Zortyl said.  "You are now being driven basically by parts of
Zen's computation engines.  Feel free to act as you always do, because you are
the same.  You just don't exist right now."
	"I WHAT?", Susan appealed to minds other than Zort's.
	"What he means is that you are right now inside a computer's software,
being simulated with for all necessary details.  You are in Zortyl's
workplace." Christopher offered, glancing rather amusedly at Zortyl, who was
suddenly again in deep thought.
	"Oh," Susan said... still a bit confused and interested in the forest.

	"Well, let's explain things a bit so far shall we?" Croutons prodded.
	"Such representation would be most assuredly proper I feel." Zortyl
chimed to no one almost.
	"This should be good," Soraya said with crossed arms and a smirk.

	"Eheh... okay," Zortyl said with both humor and a plaintiveness about 
him.  "You are safe now, but simply said," some strange accent turned on, 
"there is a strange Disturbance in the Force LUKE.... ha ha..  oh" (the 
allusion bombed and the accent turned off) "hm.... Well, you see, I've been 
doing studies and so has my computer-engineer superior Commander Juola."
	Soraya brightened at his mention.
	"We have been in communication just lately about some of this.  He 
has been called up to the LMC to help tackle a recurrent problem."  Zortyl 
paused, looking painfully at Crouton as if he was about to be utterly 
misunderstood yet again.  
	"Basically spoken, I believe we have found a link between Psionics and
Cyberspace.  It appears to also be a dimension which encompasses both existant
situations, and which sorta goes on, overlying physical reactions."
	"Wait wait wait, hold on.  What would lead you to believe that the guts
of something as silly as Zen would actually have anything to do with telepathy
or any other simply unexplained human or organismic phenomenons?" Soraya 
complained, her brow knit up.
	"Well.... no-no-no.. the question isn't one of Zen duplicating it at 
all! (I'd hate to see him try, actually) ... It's more a question of the 
place where things happen.  Computers are made by humans to simulate, 
theorize, percieve and communicate.  Humans do this naturally and have been 
for eons.  We DO know now that neurons are quite adequate for intelligence 
to appear, but we haven't figured out what does strange things like ... oh.. 
so-called precognition or telepathy or even some aspects of creativity and 
even religiousness.  Its like asking you or me to point to and analyze our 
well.. our.. to use an old term, souls.  We cannot.. we don't know exactly 
WHAT or where they are, but we can in some ways deduce the qualities of them 
if they do exist.  
	"It appears now that all these things exist in a sort of continuum
which is not a physical realm, err or not a physics-realm.  It is a realm which 
reacts specifically with chaos and anti-chaos and their resulting complicated 
folds of probability-surfaces." 
	Crouton motioned to Zortyl, "I don't think they need to worry about
that.  I don't even understand that bizarre theory, so you can fill them in 
later?" 
	"Yes, of course."
	"Well.... okay it makes some sense, but what does it have to do with
the ship and this whole meeting?" Susan requested.
	"OH... umm... well.... okay... Basically, I have lately been 
experimenting with sensory devices for this type of chaotic-disturbances.  Its 
an artifact of the heavy math, but it is useful...."
	"..and.." Soraya leaded..
	"And... it SEEMS the entire LMC has been and is now awash in sort of 
bunches of Chaosquakes at a powerful frequency.  You all were basically being 
shaken around violently while outside of Cyberspace, because your minds were 
unsheilded chaos-pools.  I can do this because there are many facets of 
computation with chaotic interaction of unpredictable reactions, and one can 
"search" and deduce features around a function by using other reactions as an 
example... like seeing ripples in one of a set of linked ponds."
	"Okay, in the same way a tricorder detects distant q-field 
disturbances?" Soraya mused.
	"Uh.. hmm.. well.. er.. yeah I suppose.  Heh."
	Soraya seemed more interested, and Croutons was now listening as well.
	"The rub is that I've been monitoring the activity up there... and it 
was getting worse REAL quickly.  It has happened before in little bursts, but 
I wasn't sure until it skyrocketed just now."
	Soraya and Susan both turned incredulously.  Soraya had stood up and
walked a bit more introspectively.  "Ahh...", she remembered, "I'd wondered 
just lately why I was so fixated on that thing just then... what was it 
again?" she mumbled.  
	"Your being passed over as a First Officer on another ship, and
promotion to rank of Commander, probably," Zortyl chimed in.
	Soraya frowned a bit and Chris scratched his head in consternation.
	"Thanks, yes I think I remember quite well now." she told Zort as she 
sat back down, smirking a little in both amusement and irritation.
	"Oh... I'm sorry... aahrhgh... umm.. well I was just monitoring all of
the moodswings everyone on the bridge was going through.. and yours was one I'd
been able to correlate.  Susan appeared to be..."
	"Thinking about a past lover... yes I know.  I was really down about it
actually, but I don't feel anything now." Susan stated, only a bit 
introspective and unworried about any impact of public knowledge.
	"That's because you are now in the continuum being run by Zen, who has 
dampers in order to prevent chaos overloads NORMALLY...  at least in most 
segments.  Computers can sense these things if they work at it, but their 
lockstep organization is rarely able to be modulated in response... err.. oh 
never mind."
	"It was as if I couldn't reason my way out of it, as if depressing
thoughts or fearful ones just kept popping into my mind, over and over,"  
Soraya mused.
	"Yeah.. It's fascinating.... I'll have to get your opinions later on I 
suppose, because I still don't understand why the Captain wasn't affected.  
Hmm, Captain?"
	
	"Hey, don't look at me!" Chris smiled evasively, "I just think more 
like a computer I suppose, but let's not get into that right now."  Crouton 
spoke and trailed off.
	Zortyl, thought about this, but figured better of it and stood up 
quickly from his desk, and pointed a finger in the air.  A smooth, cream-tan 
dome with a sun-window at its apex and various windows around the corners 
simply popped into focus above them all, perfectly fitting the circle of 
carpeting.  This startled the ladies a bit.
	"All of this around you is just an illusion made in order to allow you 
to relax and become more ready.  Soraya, you're going to be only slightly used 
to the next area we are going in, and Susan I don't know what you're going to 
make of it, though the Captain has had a good degree of experience," Zortyl 
continued... his voice beginning to echo and reverberate as if going down a 
hall. "I know that a nice mental cheese souffle' is what I always make out of 
it..." was rambled he walked directly towards a strange and narrow part of 
the wall with both the normal angled wall of dome coming down to meet a 
small ramp of angled floor.  They met at a crease somewhere around eye-level.
Exactly that level, in fact.
	Zortyl, somehow, began to look smaller while walking on this 
curved piece of architecture.  Basically he looked more and more distant though 
apparently not moving forward at all, or at least less and less so.  He looked 
back at about 2-feet tall, still viewing them with a level gaze as if he had
climbed the ramp upwards, beckoned them all to come along.
	"Well, let's get going!" the now-mini-Zortyl chimed. A pause.  A reply 
of confused silence.  "IIII'MMM WAIITINGGG," was whined at the three of them 
by this distant fellow, hands on his hips, in another allusion which bombed 
quietly.
	Croutons smirked, and started up the ramp, apparently happy that he 
had stayed to see the BIG-eyed gapes which followed the similar shrinking 
which took him over as well as he moved toward this solid-looking 
horizon-crease in the wall.  The corner-edge was close enough to poke at, 
given a decent length of stick, one might guess.  Soraya was tempted to try 
using a lamp, but thought better of it.
	"I should have known he'd pull something like this on me one day," 
Soraya mused, now a bit more stable and highly amused.   Susan followed along, 
taking it all in and thinking up some math to reconcile it and wondering if 
Starfleet had warned her about computer engineering officers somewhere.


---------------------------

From: Christopher Hassell 
Subject: ST:TCG Trial by Chaos Pt. 2
To: junk@typhoon.ucar.edu (Toxic Timewaste Producer)
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 91 18:32:12 MDT

	The view, as they walked in, toward the strange wedge waiting for them, 
simply left the wall-crease at eye-height precisely, without ever bringing the 
ceiling down on their heads, nor making them feel like they were walking an
incline.  Behind them, the room appeared to be enclosed by a broadening sky 
made from a distored version of the dome wall, with the floor they were 
standing on now somehow appearing to be connected levelly to the original 
floor , instead of connected at the angle of the ramp they'd seen.  The huge 
hallway Zortyl had talked in now appeared to form around them, made from the
twisted surface of what was "minorly curved" dome-wall.  Needless to say this
was making mincemeat of any normal geometric ideas.
	As the scenery became less interesting, they realized that the walk 
Croutons was in fact walking was moving him forward quickly with each step, 
moreso than if he was walking normally, and without apparently slipping... 
as if the ground skated him forward for every inch of his lifted leg's 
stride.  The same occurred for the ladies, making the small and distant 
image of Zortyl lost in what WAS a crease in the wall, come closer very 
quickly over level ground.  They noticed too that he had stopped.
	He stood before them soon at what appeared to be a curved back wall 
with various pieces of visual art along it every once and a while, and which 
was now more and more resembling a circular cul-de-sac, with ceiling leaning 
down over them.  The end of the cul-de-sac had what appeared to be a big 
Yellow and Black striped closed doorway, not unlike some equipment-grade 
turbolift would appear when closed.  They all arrived in front of this door, 
with views of other doors and instrument panels embedded in the walls on 
either side of the long curving wall.
	"Gawwsh but I love this little gadget of a room," Zortyl chimed.
	Croutons snickered a bit, stifling himself as a captain, of course.
	"Well, it's a TAD BIT disorienting, Zort, but I'm beginning to like 
this," Susan complained, smiling, as she walked in a casual circle, a HUGE 
circle which was quickly traversed because of the strange floor's help.
	"Are things going to get much MORE or less kooky than this, Zort?" 
Soraya requested.
	"Awwwww... Shucks.. well actually that's about it for my designed
wierdness.  It helps me keep that dome as my office and still have an entire
external complex.  This is my working panel of doors and monitors.  The ceiling
down through this wall and some of the floor is my viewscreen. ...  Zensta, 
grangleo Machsblorg..."
	"Naglogskifi," the voice of Zen replied, lecturingly.
	"MAPO!" Zort shouted powerfully, apparently in no emotional stress, but
like one would hit a TV set when its not getting a channel.  A diagram appeared
covering the floor to the side of them and going up a distance and projected
in large readible form onto the ceiling that was some distance above them.
	"Sorry about that, I still cannot figure out Zen's control-system, and
he keeps 'improving' it you see.  Who knows what he thinks he's doing!"
	Everyone seemed to expect that sort of statement from someone 
dealing with huge complicated computers, but it always sounded strange when 
dealing with Zortyl.  Zen was the only system he'd ever run across which had 
coufounded him, they'd heard.  It was both humorous and made some, including 
the captain, wonder what the heck the Croutonprize had for a brain, or better
still, what Zortyl had for a brain which worked for any other computer.
	A huge diagram appeared, glowing of lines and colored lines in a 
huge ordered spaghetti banquet with big clusters of meatballs and symbols 
everywhere.  Zortyl proceeded to the wall where some of the diagram was 
glowing faintly and touched a panel on the wall with pressure-panels and 
slides around it.  The Diagram's bright portions diminished in size rapidly, 
vanishing along with the rest of the screen into the size of a blackboard, 
glowing faintly next to Zortyl, who had his hand on the panel and his 
fingers in a strange position.
	"Okay.. basically this is a diagram of Zen en-masse, which is what I 
must PERSEVERE in order to work with the ship's processes."   The spiteful 
sounding yell was pointed into the air, with no reply from Zen apparently.
"That's how he's 'shaped' if you can call it that."
	"It looks like a cirulatory system with organs," Susan mused.
	Soraya corrected, "Yes, but it also contains analogies to the lymph
system and the nervous system would, uhh.. isn't that right?"
	Croutons nodded for Zortyl, now examining the diagram a bit.
	"Yapski.  Da be it." he clattered, not skipping a beat, "The 
metaphor that computational synergistic design mostly closely resembles is 
the commonly found biological metaphor.  In other words, computers seem more
understandible when they're patterned after biology.  I experimented with it 
and it is now quite standard for engineering interfaces.  You're just in a 
data-control room, that I threw together.  Now.." he moved the position 
of his hand against the wall and the screen sprang into viewable size on the 
floor and ceiling.  ".. You and I are essentially here.. in the 
plastic-interface zone.  We can see and do anything here.. and it is merely 
for our benefit that Zen runs this illusion.  It is a merely a 
play-illusion."  Zort motioned around him.
	"Zortyl, you ought simply to show them some qualities of cyberspace
first.  We do have to get out of this little tour sometime," Croutons explained
with an air of stress in his voice.
	Soraya's face changed and turned to horror.  "THAT'S RIGHT!  Everyone
is back there and it was getting worse quickly!  They'll abandon their posts or
destroy the ship or throw tantrums or something!"
	Susan, sensing up the situation also gaped at everyone plaintively, 
"What CAN we do??  Everyone cannot be evacuated into Zen's running banks 
without using up all his resources, can they?!"
	"You're right, they cannot.  But if you direct your attention over
here, you'll see why I don't mind right now and also note one of the main
things about cyberspace."  Zort motioned to a new picture window which had
appeared.  "Zensta croapo introblasta," he spoke flatly, "introbrasta," 
he continued when nothing happened at his first utterance. 
	A new window appeared which Zort controlled into place, taking the
control-panel off the wall because it stuck conveniently to his hand.  He 
motioned his hand over the image on the wall, upwards.. and a solid normal
camera-image of the bridge appeared, almost as it was when they had left.
	"Now, if you can see this," he touched a panel on the window, "this 
little blue dot going through the screen?"
	"Yah, so what?  Its traversing the screen in a 3-d fractal pattern."
Susan observed.
	"That's the screen-update.  You're looking at a current-time video of
the bridge!  WE'RE running so fast it looks like a still frame to us."
	"I never got to get THIS much speed from Zen!" Soraya whined, leaning
on one leg with her hand on a hip, looking at Croutons.
	"Well... I hacked up my Zapflow a bit.. so what... wassa little more
heerre or theerre??!" Zortyl muttered, smiling.
	"Zap?" Susan said.
	"Captain, have you known about all this conspiracy?" Soraya asked,
amused but unflattered that some of her work hadn't been given priority.
	"I'll let him explain it.  He's only the officer who designed its
rules," Chris panned the question, gesturing to Zortyl and smirking at the
strange circumstances.
	"Susan, Zap is simply the energy-substance analogue to ATP or sugars 
in the human body.  It'd be like a power hookup for a machine or a 
nearby supply store for a residence.  Zap is basically absorbed by us and by 
all programs out there in order for Zen to run them.  Essentially... it is 
'processing-effort'. It is finite per time amount, so it has to be 
distributed somehow, else some jobs might never get done and others would take
all the time.
	"Like this huge silliness your frazzling us with, Zortyl?" Soraya
intoned, now more humorous.
	"Well, all of us and this take up about 5% of Zen's total output of 
Zap, and right now he doesn't need much else to run the ship.  It is 
distributed throughout all of his functions in certain amounts, in order to 
assure the adequate performing of his tasks.  You might want to call it 
Neurotransmitter to grease up his crusty brain."
	"I heard that, Lt. Cdr. Zortylwankoid," Zen stated accusatively.
	"So remember it, why don't you!" Zortyl casually yelled off at the air. 
	"Zortylwankoid, you are a conundrum in your strangest instances and a
matted tangle of dataflow structures in your most normal.  You really ought 
to be more appreciative in front of guests in any case, and besides, I have 
news for you, you oaf."
	"You BIG Overfed!.... News?  What news?"  His joking manner slowed 
slightly.
	"My FleetNet has begun to go wild with reports over jolt-space about 
clogged s-flows and interspacial s-flows in the main ganglions.  It appears 
that a horde of entomorphic apparitive automatons have been 
inter-constructed with adequate priority enhancers, either that or they just 
busted their way in to the net somehow."
	"Oh gronk," Zort muttered.  The happy tour was over it seemed, on 
his face and in the air.  "Are the reports in about their reproduction.  
Display please." asked Zortyl, now not at all interested in insulting Zen 
anymore, moving quickly and looking paler and paler as he approached and 
flinched back slightly from the information pouring on the white and colored 
moving frescoe, the wall had become.
	The room's atmosphere dropped like a rock, and now the captain was back
to the quiet scowl which had fallen over his face earlier.  The girls looked
at each other and waited, as powerless as their only minorly-clued-in
superior.
	A new window covered the other two and Zort easily and naturally 
"pulled" it off the wall onto nothing, as a plane in midair outside the 
group of onlookers... scanning through its multicolored graph-structure,
sometimes displaying 3-dimensionally, by using his hand gestures.  He 
appeared quite at home playing with figures and images which weren't at all 
governed by physics.  This could almost seem annoying at times, but otherwise
the group just watched quietly.
	"Entomorphic....?" Soraya thought quietly for a moment.
	"Buglike" Croutons blurted out to the two confused, also looking 
worried as he hung his head.  "He is describing what we've feared might occur 
for quite a while.  Essentially Zortyl had thought that the Chaosquakes 
might be trying to induce certain types of chaos in unsheilded and 
communicating computers... beating the odds for a chaotically-induced 
false transmission.  In the worst case, we figured it could ransack most of 
the Federation's defenses and alot of its planetary infrastructure, short of 
buildings and bridges falling down, barely.   Everything with smarts in it that
isn't hard-wired could be rewritten with garbage.  We'd noted these occuring 
in the LMC and had thought they were an experimental weapon being tested by
someone, without much extra power to burn.
	"What appears to be the case now, from what I can tell, is that 
they've attacked our whole side of the galaxy from this off-disk point.  
That's far more power than we'd ever guessed could be thrown around.  I 
have no idea where they got it.  
	"The effect in the ship, the waves which hit you and the crew, were 
simply degenerating our thoughts, 'messing with our minds' if you will, 
and injuring them.  Apparently these waves were meant to coalesce the 
strongest in the Milky Way.  Our latest measurements we had thought were 
just a strange extra-LONG-length set of waves growing stronger over time, 
another experiment.  They weren't.  Its enough now for humans to feel 
strongly, and who knows if they're doing that as well to the people out in 
open space down on the disk."  He looked away, obviously not comforted by the
immunity he was enjoying now from the attack.
 	"As for the ship, that's the contriversial part, that's why I've not
been bothering you guys about this.  He had had Zen shielded for months in a 
fashion no other scientists agreed with, because it took extra Zap to keep 
up.  StarFleet has disagreed with him about it mostly, and I've not wanted 
to make our own waves around the authorities.  He's dumped alot of time on 
his research on a C-space continuum-disturbance being possible.  I haven't 
had the time nor the authority to get his recommendations carried out when 
even *I* don't understand half of what he is raving about!
	"Now," he breathed, "essentially, auto-bugs are being beamed into all 
computers in unshielded C-space down there."  He sighed and looked over at 
the diagram Zortyl had, "and apparently, by some strange choice, they are 
bug-shaped in some way." 
	"Horseflies, to be exact, Captain." Zen proffered before replying to a
now-attentive Zortyl.
	"... Unknown procreation, though the number of reports and shutdowns 
is growing exponentially.  They are all coming from the main galaxy only, 
I'm afraid.  It seems that the rest of StarFleet is either incapacitated in
their crew, disconnected by shutdown or simply taken over.  They formed out 
of the comm. c-holes and invaded all major gateways first.  Somewhat like an 
entire battallion parachuting behind enemy lines, I would say,"  Zen stated, 
almost sounding pleased with his analysis. 
	"Horseflies... I can guess it's the Rancher's design?"  Susan smiled, 
amused, though sweating with everyone else.
	"Captain, we have to go NOW."  Zortyl looked, sweating, almost.  "I
didn't think that this many systems would be entered!  We're an ISLAND almost
now, just out in cold space.  We're protected, but only barely.  Heck, 
EVERYTHING is down!  Well... except maybe... waitasec...ZEN!"
	"Yeeeeesss?  Your emotionalness bellowed?"
	"What the rot is this undefined line doing on my nice clean LMC 
diagram!" Zortyl complained straightly, though examining it with intensity.
	"Oh, that... WELL...  that's just a valiant attempt I'd been 
making at solving through a narrow link that I'd seen on a Rancher channel 
on one of their abandoned planets.  I was thinking of telling you, but YOU 
wouldn't be interested ANYHOW.  "
	"YOU FROOPIN GREETINROEGRANGLEROOZROEKOOEEREER!  Blahhh.. bahhh... 
That was an ACTIVE MINING PLANET you idiot!  Its a good thing not a single 
record in StarFleet exists of your NP-complete structure, you self-modifying 
meatware!!!  Any decent military virus would kick up its legs and die if it 
tried to suck a single STRUCT off you!"  Zortyl spat out, now scanning more 
heartily as he manipulated and zoomed in larger on the now-huge 
free-standing diagram.
	"Really now... don't get disgusting on us.  tsk, Sheesh." Zen 
complained superiorly.
	"Captain!", Zortyl was now smiling crazedly, on and off, looking at 
the diagram and calling up as well as bringing up data on this link Zen 
spoke of.  "I think I know a way we could make it into the Ranch empire's
system!!"
	"Through that thing?" Soraya said, absorbing the situation.
	"Yes.. its only a matter of cracking it in by older protocols!"
	Croutons became Captain again, instead of a quiet observer, "Zortyl, 
you know the Ranchers have beefed up their computer defenses since that huge
Borg attack!  Their immune system already put a direct hit on the last 
experimental portal we opened and almost took over that starbase through the 
probe!  Are you SURE enough that it won't come along and kill us IN HERE too if 
it hits?  We don't have the armor here nor the specialists on board, and 
maybe ONE on a nearby ship!!"  Croutons reasoned, sounding desperate but 
stern.  He paused and put his head in his hands.
	"Captain, I cannot guarantee anything, but I do know that this planet
does appear abandoned with all methods of cyber-sensors that I can come up 
with.  Given me some older tracks they left behind.. I might know how to 
follow them around and make a key to get myself in their system so we can 
tell WHAT it is they're doing.  They don't know that we found this 
protection, nor that high level crew are unaffected in here!  HECK they 
don't even know, I think, that we know and can track their signal!!  For all 
they care, we are dead in space, fighting one another, forgetting 
cyberspace, with no contact to the Net." a pause after the storm.
	"Heck they might think we will decide to take up Black Hole Knitting 
from Cosmic Strings until we find a way to have a protected trip to the 
Milky Way." Zort joked, as he often did under pressure.
	"They're biggest worry is that we'll just settle down and start a 
itty bitty New Federation."  Zortyl always joked at his worst concerns, and 
this seemed to be one of them.
	"We need to do SOMETHING!" Susan moaned.
	"If they don't think we even can track their waves, capatain, they
won't worry about us at all.  You know they leave their, errr, backsides
wide-open quite often, pushing all their force in one wave.  I say we should 
give it an attempt.  Besides, I don't want to go back on board this ship with
the attack still on."
	"Soraya, I know you're impeccable as an officer and as a science
consultant and theoritician, but do you know about cyberspace dangers?"
	"What dangers?" Susan looked towards Zortyl, a bit startled.
	"Well, I know it looks fine all around here," Zortyl started, "but as
you must have surmised, we are using a fractal-optimized algorithm to execute
all of your functions.   That means there's no way to pick apart nor fix 
parts of the simulation if any single part is busted.  If you, well," he 
stammered with the information, "if you got an effective 'scrape' or a 'cut' 
or anything which might impede the algorithms normal dealings with you... if 
you changed too fast for it to adapt... then someone can be lost in 
cyberspace," Zortyl finished, looking a bit saddened that his new guests 
were a bit less than enthused.
	"Its not dangerous here, though, I mean it wouldn't be," Soraya led
on.  "We're in a specialized simulation, a playground for our minds.  What could
hurt us that way??"
	"Yeah.. nothing HERE that is," Zortyl helped.  "Behind this door,
though, you will finally get your 'cybersuits': programs, which look like 
cells in this paradigm, will be fitted to you to protect and maintain your 
life-functions while in the actual and working world of cyberspace.  They 
are individual unit which soak up Zap from surrounding areas, so you can be 
fine."
	"We ARE going to go then?" Susan suggested.  
	"We'll look at that later," Croutons stated.
	"Well anyhow, its like walking on an automated-factory floor, 
though, because you won't be able to get Zen to keep his eye on you all the 
time, and he can stop his other functioning only so quickly.  Understand, 
everyone?"
	"Fine," Soraya said, reassured.
	"Fine," Susan chimed, back to her beaming smile at getting to see even
more wierd stuff.
	"Let's get moving, Zort," Croutons stated.
	"Okidoke."
	Zortyl tapped the hanging image, and put the controller inside of 
apparent some pocket, in those baggy pants he was wearing.
	"Can't you just collapse that thing too or something, Zort?" Soraya
questioned.
	"Oh this?  Oh no, not really.   You see, there are many things you can
simply do for the fun of it in cyberspace.. but things like mass and volume 
actually do have meaningful analogies.  It'd be like telling someone to use
their oven to heat their upstairs bed, if you try to violate prime properties
of an object.  It can't be done without wasting energy and overheating a 
different room in the house.  Generalized compression, or a central furnace 
and ducts in this analogy, is the only way to do the job right, but that 
requires another 'cell' or program to be connected with the object over 
time, more complicated.  Anyhow, I want to use this all the time, by itself 
so I have to carry around this little object and withstand its mass, or 
data-mass as is better to say, with the pull of "gravity" and other things 
we need in the 'normal' world kept as proper sensory functions."
	Zort turned toward the large yellow-striped door that had been 
ignored so far.  "C'mon.  You'll see, there are alot of close similarities 
needed for cyberspace to be useful and even workible.  Its not an 
arbitrarily made up mess, yaknow."  A pause. "Well, not MOOOOST of the time 
at least."  
	"Oven, oven?" Susan said, confused.  "Ahh... historical studies.  
You really use some strange metaphors, Zort."
	Soraya smiled, glad that he'd some of his humor back.  "He uses
something even stranger for a brain, but it seems to work fortunately."
	The large door glided upwards and a bright-light wave seemed to 
slide over the yellow stripes, apparently to warn people that in fact it was 
open.  The stripes on the side of the door flashed as well.
	The door revealed... nothing at all.  Blackness...