Copyright 1997 Pearl Publishing
"InfoWar is back!" Jonathan cried out, waking the other members of the Magic Circle instantly. They quickly rose and gathered around the GraphiScreen hovering over the old oak table.
Subject: Re: [Pigdog] ViaCrypt slowly executes Timmy
C. May
From: Flesh <[email protected]>
To: [email protected], [email protected]
Does the fireBot work well with the throwemupagainstthewallandaimfortheheadBot?
Cowboy recognized the significance immediately. "A thousand Points of Presence."
"UUNET…WorldCom?" Alexis asked, surprised.
Jonathan nodded, adding, "And they're moving faster and
quieter than they did in history as we have known it, up to now."
He began reading off the list he had compiled in just a short
time, "Fiber, Digital Microwave, Satellite, Undersea Fiber
Cable. Financial markets, telecommunications, construction, health
care, and politics.
"They seem to be putting all of the 'usual suspects' under
one flag, around the globe."
A Player To Be Named Later scanned the series of posts, for the
thousandth time.
"It's dejavu, all over again." he said, quoting
a Yogi Berra malapropism.
The feeling had been growing on him…
The feeling that somehow, everything was the same as before…only
different.
"The Lake of Life has started to turn over. The bottom is rising to the top, the top is descending to the bottom, and everything is becoming the opposite of what it seems to be."
A Player To Be Named Later sat quietly, contemplating what it
was that had changed, only somehow not changed, since the last
time the lake had turned over on the CypherPunks mailing list.
He thought about "WebWorld & the Mythical Circle of Eunuchs."
He began to see the parallel between the history of the creation
of WebWorld and the creation of the CypherPunks distributed list.
There was the subterfuge which had preceded both the Channel Revolution
which foreshadowed WebWorld and the Censorship Crisis which had
presaged the CypherPunks distributed mailing list.
There were the climaxes that precipitated the structural changes
in both cases, the satellite destruction in the one case, and
the loss of toad.com as host to the mailing list in the other
case. There were the parallels with outside attacks ceasing on
both the CypherPunks distributed mailing lists and the variety
of Channels on WebWorld, in an attempt to let the citizens/members
bond with their new channels/lists.
One parallel-or two, depending on how you looked at it-in particular,
which stood out in the mind of A Player To Be Named Later.
There were three CypherPunks distributed lists-at algebra.com,
ssz.com, and at cyberpass.net.
Likewise, there was a reference to the Money Channel Government
in WebWorld having three channels under its control.
Then, there was the strange, strange saga of three religious channels-the
God Channel, the Dualist Channel, and the Trinity Channel-which
had somehow merged, yet not merged, creating a problem which had
left the 'powers that be' very, very nervous.
"What the hell happened to Channel War I?" A
Player To Be Named Later, asked himself, suddenly recognizing
a glaring disparity between the parallels he was drawing between
the history of WebWorld and the history of the CypherPunks list.
"And what the hell happened to InfoWar?" he asked,
turning to Baby, who stood up and barked her agreement that there
was definitely something fishy going on that involved the two
shadow wars that had somehow been misplaced in the annals of history-one
in the future, and one in the past.
In 'WebWorld', both the reference to the three Money Channel Governments
and reference to the three spiritual channels which became one,
yet didn't, revolved around the close of Channel War I. But there
didn't seem to be a parallel to Channel War I in the Time-Line
of the CypherPunks list.
Likewise, 'WebWorld' began with a reference to an 'InfoWar Scrambler
Mechanism' which seemed to indicate that 'InfoWar' would play
a major part in the history of 'WebWorld & the Mythical Circle
of Eunuchs.' Yet there were only a few later references in Part
II of The True Story of the InterNet in regard to "the beginning
stages of InfoWar," with no further details.
A Player To Be Named Later strained to touch the wispy haze of memory which was rising somewhere in the back of his mind-a memory which whispered "InfoWar" from somewhere deep in the heart of the CypherPunks mailing list censorship crisis.
"Toto!" he said, suddenly feeling a ferocious stinging sensation behind his right ear, which resulted in a loss of balance as he fell to the floor, and a loss of consciousness as the blackness closed in around him…
The tattered remnants of the Magic Circle of the future sat quietly around the antique oak table, anxious and depressed.
"Why is the Trei Transponder receiving interference from Toto's digital implant?" Priscilla asked the group. "All of my monitoring tests show that the last adjustments we made to the Zooko Zamboni were up to Journeyman standards."
"Perhaps it is a result of the differences in the winter
climates between the Netherlands and Canada." Jonathan
said.
"It seems to me that the effects of Global Warming were
just beginning to have undeniably noticeable effects in that particular
epoch."
The Cowboy got up and paced a bit, as the others realized he was
working up the courage to say what they were all thinking.
"Or.." he hesitated, then turned to face the
others and continued, "perhaps the rebirth of InfoWar
reflects that our efforts toward changing the past have not only
been successful, but are now irrevocable."
Jonathan pulled up a passage of 'WebWorld' onto the GraphiScreen, contemplating what he had originally perceived as the failure of InfoWar during the hotly contested battle which took place on the CypherPunks list during the censorship crisis.
"January 19, 1997.
"The beginning date of the 'moderation experiment' on the
legendary CypherPunks mailing list. The beginning probe in preparation
for the launching of InfoWar-an experiment which had failed miserably
and had caused a delay in the plans of the Evil One. A delay caused
by the damnable insolence of the terminal misfits among the CypherPunks.
An insolence that was rumored to be fueled by the Circle of Eunuchs,
fanning the 'flames' of dissent among the CypherPunks, helping
them to resist the herding of their list members into the group-mindset
desired by the Evil One."
The other members of the Circle of Eunuchs sat still in their seats, not wanting to disturb the deep thoughts of Jonathan, who was indeed the Last True CypherPunk, having grown up at their feet, immersed in their logic and their lore, and whose whole life had been ruled by his connection to the infamous anarchists who had been, alternately, both the shining light of freedom and privacy in their era, and the treacherous instigators of Channel War II-the war which had led to the ultimate triumph of the Gomez and the Dark Allies and the conclusive ascent of the Dark Forces in their domination of WebWorld under the dictum of the Evil One.
The room was quiet as Jonathan reluctantly pulled up the next passage of 'WebWorld' which had described his feelings when his bereft past had come back to haunt him.
"Jonathan sat frozen in his seat, once again, his brain
locked from the major dichotomies being produced as a result of
his present-in which the CypherPunks were a villainous band of
rogues who had instigated the launching of Channel War II-and
his past, in which his grandfather had been exposed both as one
of the major players in both the launching of Channel War II,
and as traitorous scum who had sabotaged the goals of the CypherPunks
in that same historical battle.
"Jonathan's grandfather wasn't just a CypherPunk. He was
the Fool."
"We won…" Jonathan's voice trailed off, before he rose from the table and repeated his statement, in anger.
"We won, damn it!
"I know we won. Grandfather knew we won the censorship
battle. Everyone knew that we won the censorship
battle. History itself knows that we won…we…"
Jonathan stopped short, turning to stare at the others, who were
staring back.
"Jonathan…" Bubba said softly. "History has changed."
"I know that, damn it!" Jonathan resumed his pacing, knowing that he was missing something very, very important, but he couldn't for the life of him think what it might possibly be.
The others in the room watched and waited, knowing that it was Jonathan, and Jonathan alone, whose heritage was intricately and irrevocably linked to the era in history which they had, for better or worse, interfered in through their use of the Trei Transponder.
"Grandfather was a traitor to the CypherPunks…a traitor
to freedom and privacy. He sabotaged everything that the CypherPunks
had fought so hard to defend, since the inception of their anarchist,
cryptography mailing list.
"But the CypherPunks loved us…"
Jonathan was lost in memories of a childhood in which he and his family had been forced to remain in constant motion, staying a half-step ahead of the Dark Allies, who had been hunting down the last remaining members of the CypherPunks-with a vengeance.
His family had been soundly welcomed by the remaining CypherPunks,
in their flight to freedom after his Grandfather's assassination.
They had given the family food, clothing, shelter, and warned
them when the Dark Allies were closing in, and it was once again
time to flee. Duncan Frissell had even…
Perhaps they all had…
Jonathan sank to the floor, slowly, with Alexis leaping up and
catching him softly. Cowboy helped her guide him toward the table
and lower him into a chair.
Jonathan slowly pulled off his shirt and stared at his tattoo…the
Mark of the Toad.
"Duncan Frissell arrived at our last safe house, in the
middle of the night." Jonathan spoke, finally understanding
the real story behind his family's flight into obscurity.
"He warned us to flee, but it was too late…the Dark
Allies were close at hand."
Jonathan's voice was full of amazement as he recounted an event
which he had long known, but had never managed to fully understand.
"Duncan held the Dark Allies at bay, while we made our
escape. I can still hear his screams…" Jonathan
shuddered, then began shaking terribly. Alexis closed her arms
around him, hugging him lightly.
"Your Grandfather knew that the CypherPunks had lost the battle." Bubba picked up the thread. The other members of the Magic Circle looked on, mystified as to this strange turn of events which turned the whole history of the CypherPunks and the Circle of Eunuchs on hits head.
"It wasn't a censorship battle." the Cowboy said,
amazed as much by what he was saying as those listening to him
were.
"It was InfoWar!"
"That's what happened to InfoWar." Alexis cried out, in disbelief of her own words. "It was over before it had begun."
Bubba d'Shauneaux IV rose to his feet, and filled in the details
of the battle as could only be done by one who had spent a lifetime
of subterfuge playing a role which was the exact opposite of what
it had seemed to be from surface appearances.
"It was the first battle fought solely within the bounds of Virtual Reality."
"It represented the true nadir point in history when the battle between the Forces of Light and the Forces of Darkness moved beyond the physical plane and into the minds of mankind."
"InfoWar!" he roared, the word reverberated throughout the room, sending the Trei Transponder into a soft hum which grew louder and louder, with a pitch that went lower and lower until it became subsonic, unheard, but shaking the room…the earth…even WebWorld itself...
The Trei Transponder exploded with a mighty boom, shaking the
room so violently that the tattered remnants of the Magic Circle
were thrown from their chairs, and found themselves rising to
see only ruins around them, where their safe house had once been.
They immediately realized that they must flee at once, as those
investigating the explosion would undoubtedly be the Dark Allies,
fully aware that the event had rent WebWorld at the seams.
Jonathan paused, weapon in hand, covering the retreat of d'Shauneaux,
who had remained behind to remove the last traces of evidence
that the Circle of Eunuchs had ever truly been there.
As d'Shauneaux joined him, motioning for him to proceed, he took
one last look at the shattered remains of the Trei Transponder.
All contact with the CypherPunks of the past was now gone, with
little hope of it being renewed.
Silently, he sent a message to the CypherPunks of his youth-from the bottom of his soul and into the inestimable profundity of the Tao. It was a message that would be understood by those who had been at Woodstock-a physical gathering of a Magic Circle which had come into physical being through a random blessing of Time and Chance.
"You're on you own, folks…because we're sure on ours."