From: s892057@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au (Neale Wolfson)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
Subject: A Wolf in Time. (Chap 1)
Date: 10 Nov 1992 01:09:14 GMT
Organization: RMIT Computer Centre
NNTP-Posting-Host: minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au
Summary: New Author, New Story.
Keywords: Story. New


   Thank you for the replys,  Here's the next part,  I was really wondering
whether to do it like this or slightly differently,  but I decided to go 
this way.  Please I'm still looking for criticism,  first thing I'm writing
so anything (positive,negative,neutral) will be helpful.

   Thanks.  
      The Wolf.

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            A Wolf in time.
              Chapter 1.
              A state of worry.

     Copyright Neale Wolfson  1992.
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   A boardroom in a secret orbital spacestation,  luxurious red carpet lined 
the floors,  expensive paintings on the walls and furniture on the floor 
added to the luxury in the room.  Amidst such luxury,  the people in it were
anything but relaxed.  The six scientists were tired,  divided into pairs
the hagard looks and quiet conversation between them showed that they had 
been on the run for most of the last few days.  The two others looked more 
relaxed,  but the restlessness of their eyes and their stance showed they 
were used to action and were ready for it now.  

   The last man in the room was something different.  An aura of confidence
surrounded the man, he looked confident and he had reason to be.  John
Maxwell had begun life as a student of physics,  he now was in charge of 
a top secret organisation,  backup by the top five corps in the world,  it
had researched and designed some of the best kept secrets in the world.  
Richer than most individuals,  he had prided himself on his ability to keep
anything secret.  As he had now realised,  that isn't always the best thing 
to do.

   "Welcome gentlemen.  Due to the secrecy surrounding your own projects you
have never met your colegues,  yet your work has all accumlated into one 
person.  This here is Mathew Bridges, (Pointing at the first scientist) he
has been working over the past fifteen years on time travel and is now the 
formost expert in the world.  Next is Michael Butler,  he's been working on
Neural broadcasting.  Finally Craig Johns, he's been working on Neural
Engineering.  Now if you Mathew could could start us off on Project Time and
what you have done.  Please include the reasons you have been working and 
other background you think is necessary."  

   " Thank you chairman.  Well unlike most of my collegues,  I do believe
in time travel,  and with the help of this corperation,  I have proved my 
theories and been able to create a time travelling machine.  There are 
many restrictions on it though.  We cannot move things into another time,
we can only move things to our time.  A few months ago I recieved a memo
telling me to try and bring five people from the past,  attached to the
memo were the data files on five such individuals,  four of which were
brought back successfully,  knocked out and transferred to where we were 
told to move them to.  As far as I know thats as far as my involvment goes."

   " Thank you Mr Bridges.  Those five, you may like to know had been 
carefully selected to meet a number of criteria including physical fitness
and metal stability,  we found out the one that died was not as fit as our 
research had said he was,  there was nothing you could do.  Now if Mr Butler
would like to continue."

  " Well we in Neural Broadcasting were asked to study Empaths and the like
and determine how they worked,  and if we could develope a way to allow 
both normal people to have these powers,  and a network to allow them to
connect to the matrix from almost anywher without hardware.  Well the 
network of recievers are in,  and a couple of empaths can use it,  We also
discovered that since approximately 2000 a combination of air pollution
and other factors have modified the human race and made it almost 
impossible to enhance a normal person.  We reported this and it was 
suggested that we could be given some people from before this time to verify
these facts.  We recieved 4 people which we operated on and enhanced their  
minds to allow them this power.  Of the 4,  three survived and all seemed
to pass their testing with a reciever.  As we found out,  they didn't 
develope an empath ability which surprised us, but it means that a couple
of other theories can be tested again.

  From there we were instructed to do a partial mindwipe to make them forget
the testing,  and told to pass them onto security."

  " Thank you Mr Butler.  If Mr Johns could you please continue the story."

  " If you could wait for a second sir,  I think this information tells us
what went wrong with the other subjects...  Yes.  OK then.  We were working
on cyber enhancements without the cyber.  We also struck a simliar problem
as the Neural Broadcast group,  with the very nature of our subject having
changed.  We were also offered these subjects,  Unfortunately two of the 
three died after the operation.  After telling us of this operation I now
realise why they died.  This makes the third subject unique as he probably 
should never have survived,  and that on all our enhancements he now not
just equals the average,  his reactions, strength etc are all equivalent to
the best cyber enhancement available today.  He will soon be woken up and
we will commence our tests,  if I could have specific details on what 
Michael did,  I might be able to ..."

  At this point a person in a red uniform ran through the door and handed a
piece of paper to one of the security agents.  He reads it three times,  
begins to pale,  recovers slightly, dismisses the messenger and then 
announces to the group

  " That was the Security Operations Center,  half an hour ago the test case
was captured by a small force and taken to a location somewhere in the 
Southern Sprawl.  At the same time someone broke into the database to try 
and take the files pertaining to Project Time and only managed to get a
very general description of the first part of the project.  They know 
they've got someone from 1992,  but don't know anything else.  We're running
a scan now and checking all our systems to ensure it doesn't happen again."

  Again the door opens,  two worried figures walk in,  one looks like a 
scientist,  dressed similarly to the others,  he is wearing an extra pass
on his coat labeled COMPUTER AI.  The other is in a similar red to the 
messenger comes in,  also with the extra pass,  he also looks as if he 
would rather kill himself than face what will happen next.

  "Ahh.  These two here are from our extreamly top secret AI labs.  I'm 
sorry I can't name them,  but even that is rated extreamly secret.  I 
assume this interuprion is about Project Time?"

  The scientist looks up worriedly,  tries to speak and chokes,  waits a 
second and starts again.

  " Well we have a major problem in the AI section.  The two guides for the 
project have been approximately three quaters built,  when the subject got
onto the matrix the programming already there came into effect and they 
started up and released themselves.  All the security locks have been yet
to be built into them,  while the other parts are almost complete.  They 
are now entirely loyal to the subject and the subject only.  What they 
currently know can only be extracted by a specific question,  but the 
learning processors have not been disables so they are going to 'learn'
things very quickly.  Enough restrictions allow them to not go completely
wild in the matrix but,  we could never control them again,  only the 
subject can."

  A frown creases the faces of those present,  even on the normally 
expressionless face of the chairman.  He speaks, 
  " This is not good. What are the status of their offensive abilities?"

  The red uniformed person,  slightly better recovered than his colleague 
begins to speak

  "  All offensive and defensive code is place.  If anything attacks either 
them or the subject,  They are likely to be destroyed.  Only the toughest
of ICE would stop them and more than likely would result in destruction of
all data in that node anyway.  They are not aware of the code within them,
it will activate when needed,  they are currently the toughest things in the
matrix.

     Unfortunately thats not all.  As I have mentioned,  the subject has 
already visited the matrix.  Matrix police managed to detect it,  realised 
that connections from somewhere without a access point should be impossible
and are currently on there way to where they traced the link.  The one thing
we're sure of is that it's almost certainly false,  the AI's automatically 
twist the location to somewhere at random.  

     We have put operatives both on the stree and in the matrix and their 
all watching for the subject,  if he shows anywhere remotely public,  we
will spot them."

   The chairman stands up,  showing he isn't just fit of mind,  but 
extreamly fit in body,  the others also stand,  prepairing for dismissal. 

     "Well thank you gentlemen,  this project has taken alot of time and 
effort,  you have all done good jobs,  If you can all prepare written
reports by midday tommorow,  You can continue on your way."

   All the people gather their things and leave in silence leaving only the 
other security person and the chairman.  The chairman sits down,  sighs and 
offers a chair to the other person who takes it with no delay.

  "Well,  as head of security what do you suggest we do now, son?"

-- 
*    This post is brought to you by The Wolf (Neale Wolfson)               *
****************************************************************************
*  s892057@minyos.xx.rmit.oz  *** Full Time 3rd Year RMIT Computer Science *
*  s892057@yallara.cs.rmit.oz *** Somewhere in Melbourne, Australia        *
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo