Vision Quest: Souls in Silicon by Ed Becerra ______________________________ People were staggering in every direction. A few were screaming. Most were gagging and looking sick to their stomachs. Davey grabbed his Power Rifle and ran to see what the trouble was. Bear ran up to him. "You've got to _DO_ something, Davey! This is _YOUR_ fault!" "Huh? What's my fault? What's happening now?" Dave looked at Bear in surprise. "Weren't you the one who told Kickaha that he had to get out more, and meet more people?" Bear panted. "Yeah... I suppose so. I told him that he oughta try working on his problem with crowds. But what's that got to do with this...?" He waved at the fleeing Knotholers. "What could he do that could get folks _this_ upset?" "You've got to see it for yourself. Come on, you've got to stop him!" And with that, Bear dragged Davey to the small cafeteria near Antoine's coffee shop. "He's in there. Eating _breakfast_!" Davey couldn't get anything more out of the oddly named grey fox. So inside he went. Inside, all he saw was Kickaha sitting alone at a table, looking very confused and a little nervous. A large bowl was on the table, and a spoon hung limply in one paw. "Davey!" he blurted out in relief. "What's going on? What's the matter? I came here to try and eat breakfast, and when I started to eat, everyone ran from the room! Did I do something wrong?!" "Ah dunno, Kickster. They wouldn't tell me either. You say they all ran out when you started to eat?" "Well, some of them ran out when they heard me order. The rest ran when I started eating." Kickaha scratched his forehead where the scar crossed it. "I can't figure it out." "Doesn't make any sense. What did you order? Maybe that had something to do with it." "Just my usual breakfast," Kickaha told him. He waved at the bowl. "Corn flakes in hot salsa with jalapeno and habanero peppers." With that, Davey ran gagging from the room. Kickaha blinked. "Was it something I said?" * * * A few hours later... "Kickster, if you're gonna eat stuff like that, ya gotta _warn_ people first. That was a bit much for folks around here." "Oh. I'm really sorry. I had no idea it'd bother anyone. I eat that all the time at home." Kickaha shrugged. "Guess I forgot that the tribes... er, I mean the townsfolk hereabouts didn't eat hot stuff much." "What about Sonic's atomic chili dogs?" asked Davey. "Well... I really didn't want to hurt Sonic's feelings, but..." "But what?" Kickaha scratched at his scar again. "I just tried some for lunch. They tasted a little... bland, you know? I had to spice them up some. I don't know what I'm going to do when I run out of the hot peppers I brought with me. You don't seem to have anything here in Knothole that's hot enough." He looked disappointed. Davey shuddered. He liked spicy food as much as the next man... er... the next fox. Back on Earth, he'd eaten at Taco Bell all the time. But what the Kickster ate... ACK! He halfway expected to see smoke curling up out of the short coyote's ears. "Maybe we can find you something over at Minoc Grove, Kicker. Besides, we gotta go there to get you some things to furnish your lodge. But right now, it's time for your first lesson." "Lesson? What lesson?" "You asked me to teach you about cyberspace, remember?" "Oh, yeah! I forgot. Funny, ever since you and Charles fixed my back, I've been so hungry and so tired, I can't think straight! Is something wrong with me, Davey? I've never been like this before." He yawned so hard that David could hear his jaw pop. "Naw, you're just healing still. That takes a lot of energy out of you. Remember what Chuck told you. It might have happened in one quick zap, but it's still _surgery_, and it takes a while to heal up all the way. And you've got nanites in your blood now. They're speeding up how fast you heal, and that makes you hungry and tired." "Oh. How long's this gonna last?" Kickaha looked uncertain. "Just a few days. Keep eating and get a lot of rest, and you won't have any problems." Davey clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't let it worry you any. Now let's go have your first lesson." * * * "Now you don't have a built-in heads-up display like I do, or a terminal in your arm, but there's enough circuitry in your new spine and bones that you ought to be able to interface to a computer directly, with the right equipment. But we're going to take this slow at first. Don't want you to get in over your head." "Yes, Master Yoda." Davey waved his cyborg arm at Kickaha. "Any more Jedi jokes and I start making you do one arm pushups just like Luke!" "Ok, ok! Sheesh, one little joke. What are you gonna do, PUNish me, already?" Davey groaned. *Why me? And why a Trickster? Other people get Thor, or Zeus, or something like that. I get a spirit who's a native version of the `Q', and his Wild Pack sidekick.* They were standing in Knothole's computer center. Davey led Kickaha to a small room with a mainframe cyberdeck and several full body recliner chairs. Davey handed Kickaha a pair of IO-glasses hooked up to the cyberdeck. "Get comfortable on one of the recliners, and put these on. I'm going to jack in directly. I'll be waiting there for you." Kickaha arranged himself on a couch, and donned the glasses, putting the speaker buds in each ear. He pressed the power button on the side. And a new world exploded into his mind... A gridwork of glowing electric blue lines unrolled before him, expanding to the limits of his vision, and beyond. Geometric shapes, cubes, cylinders, spheres, and cones were scattered around him. Brilliant rivers of light connected them to each other. "Woooo... Cool! When did we get to Tron?! Hey, Davey! Where are you?" "Right over here, Kickster." Kickaha looked to his `left', and saw what looked like a superhero standing there. One who glowed like the world around him. "I like the cape, Dave. It's a good look for you." Kickaha said. He snickered. "But it looks like somebody set your tail on fire, guy." *Now if you can just remember that you ARE a hero, and quit blaiming yourself for Robotnik's crimes.* "Yeah, well, that's just the way things worked out here. You should see yourself." "Huh? What do you mean?" Kickaha looked down at himself. He was holding a staff in one hand that shimmered with a icy fire. The fur on his arms glittered with frost. He started. "Damn. I sure wish I had a mirror. I wonder what I look like here." Davey laughed. "Here, let me return the favor. You showed me what I looked like in the spirit world. Now I can to the same for you, here." He waved an arm, and a silvery circle appeared, floating in the air a meter in front of Kickaha. He took a look. "Jeez! I look like a really _bad_ comic book." He groaned. "The Pack left this sorta stuff," he waved at the mirror with the staff, "behind us long ago. If anyone from my tribe could see me now, they'd likely die laughing. And I'd die of embarassment." Which was probably the truth. He was wearing fringed buckskins decorated with turquoise beadwork, a beaded headband of odd design and open-toed moccasins. A leather vest with silver and turquoise conchos partly covered his chest. His red, black and white headcrest had eagle feathers woven through it. "Well, it's your own fault." "What do you mean by that? I don't want to look like this. You think I enjoy looking like every _bad_ description of one of my tribe's shamans?" "I set the program to take the image for your icon from your own mind, Kickster. So somewhere in your mind, you must think of yourself that way." "oh." said Kickaha in a _very_ small voice. "Ah, can I change this? Maybe make it a little less fancy. It _is_ the ceremonial garb of a shaman, but I'm not a shaman yet." "No problem, Kicker. Let's work on it." A few minutes later, Kickaha was wearing something a little closer to his usual blue jeans, red shirt and blue vest. The eagle feathers were gone. He kept the staff, tho. He didn't feel right without a cane of some sort in his hand. *Too many years of being unable to walk without one, I guess.* "Say, Davey! Why's this staff glowing like this?" He puzzled over it. As he concentrated on it, it's glow increased. "I set up the interface to your internal circuits, Kicker. The staff is the icon for it. You can use it to connect to any computer here in cyberspace. Just touch something with the end of the staff, and imagine a connection running from the system thru the staff into you. But it'll only work here. Since you don't have your own built-in terminal, you'll have to work with a external cyberdeck. But you'll be able to run closer to the metal than anyone else but me. Right now, your skeleton is 'faced into the cyberdeck back in Knothole." "Neat! So what's my next lesson, Teach?" Kickaha looked around eagerly. It'd been a long time since he'd had a new world to explore. "Time to learn how to use your basic utilities, Kickster. Most of cyberspace works like the real world, but there are some important differences." * * * "...so the circuits that are part of my new bones link my brain with the IO-glasses?" "Yeah. And the glasses link you to any external system, just like my Data Spear. But like I said, you don't have much computer power in your bones alone. You're going to need a cyberdeck of your own to get anywhere. I've already got my own in my arm. So, what you do, is link yourself to the glasses, the glasses to a cyberdeck, and the deck into the matrix." "Okay. I get that. Hafta pick me up a cheap deck, somewhere. Hey! What's that over there?" Kickaha pointed to a thin ribbon of light that was extending from the Knothole matrix and heading towards a dark sector. "That's a surprise for _you_, Kickster! Come on, let's follow it. You should see this." Davey lifted off the ground and began to fly along the path of the tiny stream of light. "Humph!" said Kickaha. *What a show-off! 'Course, if I could do that, I would, so I guess it's sour grapes on my part.* He set off on foot, following his friend. *Wonder if I can learn the flying trick myself?* The thin trail of light they were following went on for what seemed to be a short way, then stopped just outside of the main Knothole sector. "Doesn't seem to be much here, Davey. Isn't this," and he pointed at the thread of light, "supposed to be a communications link to a computer?" "Yes, but the system it leads to isn't booted up quite yet. In fact, it should be coming on-line any minute... whoops, there it goes!" A small shape formed in front of them. It shimmered in and out of sight several times, flickering like a candle flame. But Kickaha was able to see enough of it to make him _very_ suspicious. It wasn't the usual geometric form so common to cyberspace. It was cone-shaped, but with several poles poking stiffly from the top. Kickaha groaned. "What did I ever do to you to deserve this, Davey? What? I thought we were friends!" "Hey, Kickster, what's a practical joke or two between friends? Besides, you can always change it if you don't like it." Davey's grin was so huge, it almost split his face in half. By now, the shape had stabilized. And anyone in cyberspace could see the two of them standing next to what looked like a small, but realistic looking tepee. Kickaha shook his head. *Guess it serves me right, after all those bad puns I've pulled on him.* "Kickster, I'd like to introduce you to your new home computer. Rotor's been installing it for you while I've been giving you this lesson. Let's put what you've learned to the test. Try it out!" "All right. Well, here goes nothing!" He poked at the tepee with his staff. Suddenly, he was connected with the small system. Everything inside of it was his to command. Flipping through directories, one caught his attention. DEVICE DRIVERS, the directory was labeled. Inside the directory was a device named HOLOGRAPHIC I/O PORT. It looked like a video window, from inside the system. *Hmm... that must be the display. I wonder... It does say input, as well as output. He stretched towards it. Let's see... Yeah!* "Hello, Rotor!" The walrus turned around to face the computer he'd just installed in Kickaha's burrow. A six-inch high hologram of a coyote was facing him. "Hello yourself, Kickaha! I see Davey's lessons have done you some good. Did you have any trouble accessing the system from cyberspace?" "None at all! This is so Way Past Cool, it's frozen solid!" The hologram waved a paw at him. "I can't wait 'til Davey learns me good, and I can take off on my own! This is probably the most fun I've ever had with my clothes on! Yee Haa!" "Well, have fun, but don't get lost in there. Sometimes we have to drag Davey back to his body by cutting the power. I've see him _sleep_ jacked in at times. That's not too healthy." Rotor smiled. "Last thing we need is another cyberspace junkie." "No problem, Rotor. I'm having too much fun enjoying life with a healthy back to want to leave the real world for cyberspace permanantly. But there is one thing I wanna ask you before you go." The holographic coyote blinked at him. "Is there a size control for the hologram projector? I can't be doing the six-inch high thing forever. I'll never live down the Princess Leia jokes." "Yes. You'll find it in the main directory, under this path: DEVS/SYSTEM-CONFIGURATION. But it's easier to set it from the Preference Manager. That will let you save it as a systems preference." "All right. See ya when I jack out, ok? And thanks, Rotor. I owe ya one. How about coffee and doughnuts at Antoine's place?" "Sounds good to me. See you there." "All righty, then! Thanks again! Gotta go now. Bye!" And the little figure waved good-bye before flicking out of existence. *Now let's see it I can get back out!* He stepped back mentally, and staggered back into the the Net, and into Davey, who'd been waiting nearby. "Oops! Sorry 'bout that. Guess I need some practice yet." "Just a little." Davey smiled at him. "But you've got the basics down pretty good. Just don't leave Knothole's part of the Net until _after_ you've learned how to handle ICE. Pacbutt and Snively have a lot of black ICE around their systems. That stuff can flatline you in a micro-second." "No foolin'! I've heard of intrusion countermeasure electronics. I just never thought I'd get to know it quite like _this_! From the inside out, as it were!" He scratched at his scar. "Don't worry. I won't try anything like that until you've checked me out on it and given me the go-ahead. But there _is_ something I'd like to try, come to think of it." "What's that?" "It's... something I'm not sure about. And I'd like to try it jacked in at home, if it's all right with you." "I don't see why not. Your systems seems to be up and running okay. We'll jack out and head on over to your lodge." "Oops!" "What's the matter, Kickster?" "Ahh... This is gonna sound awful stupid, but... I forgot to ask you how to jack out." Kickaha had a foolish look on his face. "Bwahahahah! Turnabout's fair play, isn't it? Here, this is how you do it..." * * * Kickaha climbed off the couch, carefully pulling off the IO-glasses. "Wow! What a RUSH! Or maybe a QUEEN!" He laughed. David had a pained look on his face. "If you don't stop with the bad jokes, Kickster..." "Why? A sense of humor is every critter's PUNdamental right! It's in the CONstitution!" Kickaha snickered evilly. "But you're right. I oughta save all the killer jokes for the Pac-man and Sniveling Snively. Let's get on over to my place, all right? I really want to try this. And I'm sure that you're going to be interested, too." "What are you going to do?" "I'd rather not say 'til after I've tried it. But if it works, we'll both be better off. Trust me. I know what I'm doing." Davey grumbled, "I've heard _that_ one before," but followed him anyway. They walked down the street to the path leading to the Power Ring Pool, and turned down the small trail that led to Kickaha's lodge. Davey was looking at his friend curiously. The Kickster was muttering under his breath in a toungue that Davey didn't know. He ran the words thru the terminal in his arm, but it failed to identify them, flashing >UNKNOWN LANGUAGE at him on his heads-up display. Kickaha seemed to be so lost in thought that he'd have tripped several times if Davey hadn't been there to catch him. Once inside the lodge, they each took a comfortable chair, and jacked into Kickaha's new system. Kickaha looked around. "Kinda looks like an empty house, right now." "Well, once you get some software of your own in here, it'll start to look a little more home-like." Kickaha nodded. "Is there any chance that I can get something to give it it's own personality, like Nicole and Julian?" David nodded. "That's not a problem. Just decide what type of personality you want it to have, and we can set that up." "All righty, then. But first, let's change the looks of the place. You were right. It _should_ have a Wild Pack look. But not a tepee. Hmmm... Let's see... There! Let's go see how it looks!" They stepped outside into Knothole's network, and looked back at what Kickaha had done to his system's net icon. A small grassy hill, glowing in forest green, stood there. It was surrounded by a small circle of neon grass and trees. The communication line to Knothole now appeared to be a small stream flowing past them into the village. It looked like a computer graphic of Kickaha's lodge. "Now that's the way it should look!" Kickaha looked satisfied. "Just like home! And you know, I may spend more than a bit of time here." He waved at the busy neon landscape of Knothole's network. "It may be busy, noisy and crowded over there, but all of the empty space elsewhere reminds me of the prairie. Wide open and empty. Quiet and peaceful. I could get to like it here." "I hadn't thought of it that way, but you're right. There are some parts of the Net that are like that. By the way, what was it you wanted to show me?" "Well, it was something that you said to me on the way back to Knothole. `It's not like I can E-Mail Coyote.' you said. You're a native of cyberspace, Davey. So I'm gonna see if I can't do something about that." He gripped his staff firmly and walked towards one of the dark sections of the net. "But you might want to stand back a ways. I don't know if this is going to work." Kickaha touched the ground with the end of his staff. A bright spark of light glowed where it passed. He used it to draw a large circle on the imaginary ground. Around the circle he inscribed oddly shaped symbols. Once he finished with this, he sat, cross-legged, beside the circle. "Well, here goes nothing. But if I screw this up, Davey, you'd better jack out fast. I've never tried doing this in cyberspace before." With that, Kickaha began to sing. Davey recognized some of the words. They were in the same strange language Kickaha had been muttering in during the walk to his lodge. And as he sang, a swirling column of light and smoke formed in the center of the circle. It twisted and wavered uncertainly, becoming thicker and taking on a definite shape. One that David recognized. "Old Man?!" Davey blinked in disbelief. "Hello, Grandfather. I hope it wasn't too hard for you to find me here." said Kickaha in a suddenly weary voice. The spirit looked around. "It took a bit of doing, but I could hear you loud and clear. I just followed the song, and here I am! So, this is that cyberspace that everyone's been talking about. Interesting looking place." He looked closely at his grandson. "But you don't look so good. I've told you that doing the summoning takes a lot out of you. And on top of being healed? You look exhausted. You never listen." Coyote shook his head. "Damn it, son, get some rest. I think I can find my back here without your help now. And that's what you wanted, isn't it." "yeah, yeah... something like that..." Kickaha mumbled, then slumped over, asleep. Davey looked at his friend, worried. "I'd better get him out of here. He looks all used up. I'm sorry to meet and run, Old Coyote, but..." "No problem, David. Take care of him. He's more important to me than he knows. And now that I know the way, I'll come here now and again. Looks like a fun place. I can pull a lot of pranks in a place like this. I think I'll take a look around. Catch you later, Crockett!" And with that, the spirit reformed into the image of a large raven, and flapped away towards the glowing netscape of Robotropolis. Davey watched as the raven disappeared in the distance. Then he shook his head. "Something tells me that the Net isn't going to be the same with him here. Oh, well. At least it won't be boring!" He turned back to Kickaha. "Time to get you home, guy. And this time, I'm gonna sic the healers on you. You're getting some rest whether you like it or not!" * * * Once Davey had punched out, he took the IO-glasses off of Kickaha, and carried the unconsious coyote over to his bed, throwing a blanket over him. "You've got to learn to pace yourself, Kickster." Davey shrugged. "But I'll let Sasha and Suni pound that into your head. I think they can get through to you." Kickaha just lay there and snored. Davey smiled. "Life's sure been different since you showed up. I can't wait to see what's going to happen next." And he walked out the door. ___________________________________ Now for the legal stuff. Sonic the Hedgehog, Princess Sally, Knothole, et cetera, by Sega of America Blood and Metal, Davey Crockett, and The Wild Pack by David Gonterman Kickaha by Edward Becerra Sonia Hedgehog by Emily Smith Bear (The Hermit) by Brookshire Draftwood Sasha Prower by RottinKid Coyote is a spirit of the native peoples of the Americas. Please respect him as you would your own beliefs.