NUMBER OF LINES: 999
001=Usr:0 Null User         06/30/87 20:34  Msg:0 Call:0 Lines:19
  1$If you are in need of help, you need but ask...
  2$************************* 10 JUN 90 **************************************
  3$Welcome to BWMS II (BackWater Message System II)  Mike Day System operator
  4$**************************************************************************
  5$GENERAL DISCLAIMER: BWMS II IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INFORMATION
  6$                    PLACED ON THIS SYSTEM.
  7$BWMS II was created as an electronic bill board. BWMS II is a privately 
  8$owned and operated system which is currently open for use by the general
  9$public.  No restrictions are placed on the use of the system.  As the
 10$system is privately owned, I retain the right to remove any and all
 11$messages which I may find offensive.  Because of the limited size of the
 12$system, it will be periodically purged of messages (only 999 lines of data
 13$can be saved).  To leave a message, type 'ENTER'.  Use ctrl/C to get out
 14$the ENTER mode.  The message is automatically stored.  If after entering
 15$the message you find you made a mistake, use the replace command to
 16$replace the line.  To exit from the system, type 'BYE' then hang up.
 17$Type 'HELP' to see other commands that are available on the system.
 18$**************************************************************************
 19$ 
002=Usr:1 CISTOP MIKEY      06/10/90 19:37  Msg:5295 Call:29559 Lines:3
 20 Obsessed by a fairy tale, we spend our lives searching for a
 21 magic door and a lost kingdom of peace. -- Eugene O'Neill
 22 *******************************************************************
003=Usr:368 Nemesis Warlock   06/11/90 10:53  Msg:5296 Call:29564 Lines:3
 23 :::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::====
 24 Top o' the Mornin' to ye!!  Wake up, it's light in the swamps...
 25 :::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::==Zephyr::Obscurity Prime:::::=====:::::====
004=Usr:131 THE VISION        06/12/90 23:39  Msg:5298 Call:29590 Lines:9
 26 ______________________________T_H_E___V_I_S_I_O_N___________________________
 27  
 28    An old face in a familiar town.
 29    I always call this place first when I go on a modem break - it's the
 30    best! Is AD (An Astral Dreamer) still around?
 31    If so, how are you? Anyway I'll be back again soon.
 32  
 33 _*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*__
 34  
005=Usr:352 Katie Kolbet      06/13/90 10:32  Msg:5299 Call:29598 Lines:6
 35 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 36 Hey, Vision, Long time no see!
 37 How's it going?  Ready for the summer?
 38  
 39 Kaitlyn
 40 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
006=Usr:368 Nemesis Warlock   06/13/90 11:59  Msg:5300 Call:29601 Lines:108
 41 :::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::====
 42  
 43 * * *
 44  
 45      'Don't let yourself be hurt this   time...'
 46      'Don't let yourself be hurt        again...'
 47      'When I Saw Your Face...'
 48  
 49      "Pardon?" Michael turned around,   but the Medalic Prophet had slipped
 50 between two satin floorboards.  "Just   as well."
 51      Stepping over a discarded toy      train and a broken plastic tiara, 
 52 the man in the green cloak approached   themerry-go-round.  From his pocket 
 53 he withdrew a penn with a dinosaur's   head on it, and tossed it haphazardly
 54 into a midget's mouth.  The little man  nodded grimly and began twisting the   
 55 crank made of whalebone.  Michael found a seat on a giant grey rabbit.
 56      "Pretty close to the center,       aren't we?" came a voice from beside
 57 him in the two seater.  
 58      Michael turned to face the young   blonde youth that had materialized
 59 next to him.  "Lyndon!  What the hell   are you doing so close to Town Hall?"
 60      "Having a hard time finding you.   You've been here and there and
 61 everywhere.  The whole place is jumping with Michael Sightings.  Tell me true, 
 62 did you really visit with Number 500    today?"  The clocks on the horizon 
 63 were just beginning to melt, signalling twilight.
 64      "Number 500, Big Al, SINAT, Green  Saunders, and even a Medalic Prophet."
 65      "Yes, I heard him.  Topper lad."
 66      "Tell me... what do you know of    the whales..."
 67      There was a long pause, and the    midget inserted a beetle into the main
 68 pipe of the nickelodeon.  "In what      context?"
 69      "How would they relate to some     recurring Symbolism?"
 70      "Like?"
 71      "Toy trains.  A cat's cradle.      A golden goblet-"
 72      "The Quantier?"
 73      "That's the one."
 74      "Can't say as I see what the       connection between the train and the
 75 cradle is, or how it falls back to the  whales, but they HAVE been kicking up
 76 around here for a long time now...      almost as long as Green Saunders has   
 77 been practicing her hopscotch."
 78      "She doesn't look a day over six   at present."
 79      "True."
 80      "Then again, she never did."
 81      "True."
 82      Michael stopped for a moment to    stare at Lyndon's puce medallion.
 83 "You still have it..."
 84      "In case I ever change my mind."
 85      "The obscurities aren't the best   place to grow up."
 86      "They're not the worst place to    grow up."  A pink balloon exploded 
 87 nearby and clown paramedics rushd it   to Our Lady of the Worthless Miracle.
 88 "I'll take a good time over consistent  nothingness any day."
 89      "The Door is always open..."       An uncomfortable pause.  "But you were
 90 telling me about the whales?"
 91      Lyndon unbuttoned his coat pocket  and withdrew a folded orange fan.
 92 "Yes.  They HAVE been kicking around.   There's even talk in some circles that
 93 they may attempt to Disrupt the Anglers at Pyrrix A'aaal..."
 94      "It'd be an improvement."
 95      "How ARE things progressing there  now that that dreadful Incident has
 96 stopped rippling?"
 97      "The field held after all, and     everyone seems to have settled into the
 98 idea that Pyrrix A'aaal has always      been there."
 99      "It has."
100      "Temporally."  Michael corrected   him.  "Aesthetics are another story.
101 Trying to convince Guardians of anything is difficult, especially for an
102 Enforcer.  But trying to convince them  that Innisfall never existed?  That    
103 takes one HELL of a stasis field."  A   deck of 53 cards fell into Michael's   
104 lap from a passing snail overhead.      "And reember, this field stretches out
105 into the obscurities and beyond..."
106      "Has anyone found out?"
107      "A few.  Standor and Mukluk know.  They were with me when it all 
108 happened. I think the Medalic Prophets know... and Michael Day certainly 
109 does."
110      "And the whales."
111      "How can you be so sure?"
112      "That's why they're trying to      Disrupt the Anglers' plans for Pyrrix
113 A'aaal.  Incidentally, where are you    right now?"
114      "Corporeally, I'm mucking about    in a desert inside one of the Stone
115 Triangles..."
116      Lyndon gasped.  "Inside?  How      did you manage that little trick?"
117      "Being yanked into it by some      superior force of unimaginable power
118 and energy helps."
119      "Michael..." Lyndon reached out    and allowed his hand to pass through
120 Michael's.  "You're fading away.  I     have two very  important things to tell
121 you efore you go..."
122      "Yes?"
123      "Seek the whales.  They have the   answers that you need.  You'll find
124 them at Serling Courthouse.  Hurry!"
125      "And?"
126      "The White Tower has risen.        The kangaroo rats are dead.  Two of
127 them.  The ancient desert is falling,   and the City nears rebirth..."
128      "No...  Possible...?"
129      "When you return, you must seek    the Pool!  Find the Quantier!  And
130 the w-h-a-l-e-s!"
131      Michael felt himself drifting      away, through the Conduits, to 
132 Serling Square.  But even as he fell    through the void, a voice was singing, 
133 the words made almost indecipherable    by Walkman static...
134  
135      'This time, last time, night sky,  free time...'
136      'Free...'
137      'The toy tiara in the rain, the    little whispers went insane...'
138      'I see what you cannot, never      will, sound the belle.'
139      'Free...'
140      'The silent tower's ancient rise,  so soon...'
141      'I see... new eyes... free mind... free time...'
142      'Free.'
143      'Poolside... outside... sumer...   murder...'
144      'The tiny creatures of the sand,   their blood is whetting down the land.'
145      'Fireside... Poolside.... outside  ... New Eyes.'
146      'Free.'
147  
148 :::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::==Zephyr::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::====
007=Usr:84 Michael Miller j  06/14/90 10:29  Msg:5301 Call:29611 Lines:6
149 &*&*&*&*'s
150 I'm still here.  Lurking ussually.
151  
152 An Astral Dreamer
153 &*&*&*&*'s
154  
008=Usr:165 Bart Simpson      06/14/90 13:47  Msg:5302 Call:29614 Lines:109
155 696969696969
156  Where George Was;What North's Diaries Tell Us About Bush's Iran-Contra Role 
157 By Tom Blanton 
158  
159    THE MOST enduring puzzle from the Iran-contra affair remains, "Where was
160 George?"
161  
162    Then-Vice President George Bush had served as ambassador to China, director
163 of the CIA and head of the Reagan administration's task force on combatting
164 terrorism - altogether as much foreign policy experience as anyone in the Reaga
165 Cabinet and, indeed, more than most. From 1983 to 1986, the Reagan
166 administration's inner circle had debated two high-stakes issues at the heart o
167 the scandal - keeping the Nicaraguan contras supplied after Congress cut off
168 aid, and selling arms to Iran in exchange for hostages. None of the official
169 investigations of Iran-contra implicated Bush in any wrongdoings, but neither
170 did they come  to any firm conclusion regarding his precise role in the affair,
171 leaving the field to Bush's claim that he  felt he had been "out of the loop" -
172 which he defined as having "no operational role."
173  
174    But new material from Oliver North's diaries - released last month as the
175 result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the National Security Archive
176 and Public Citizen - combines with previous evidence to paint a different
177 picture of Bush's role. North's detailed and often cryptic notations - names,
178 meetings, phone calls, action lists - fill in many gaps in the official record
179 and provide added context to thousands of pages of previously declassified
180 documents.
181  
182    The diaries provide additional evidence that Bush played a major role in
183 Iran-contra from the beginning: He passed up repeated opportunities to cut the
184 transactions short or at least make President Reagan think twice. National
185 security advisers Robert McFarlane and John Poindexter and their busy aide
186 Oliver North went to Bush over and over, and every time, Bush - ever the passiv
187 vice president - watched the deal go forward without objection. While the
188 secretaries of state and defense were both cut out of the arms-for-hostages
189 deals after objecting to it, Bush attended al-most every key meeting. And in th
190 summer of 1986, at a time when the arms-for-hostages deals were collapsing of
191 their own failures, a Bush meeting with a key Israeli official in Jerusalem
192 seems to have provided the official blessing Oliver North needed to keep
193 dealing. On the day he returned from Israel, Bush met with North - a meeting
194 never acknowledged until the diaries were released last month.
195  
196    And there may be more in store, especially on Bush's relationship to the
197 administration's "off-the-books" effort to supply the contras. Poindexter is to
198 be sentenced tomorrow on five Iran-contra felony counts, and a grand jury
199 reportedly is investigating statements made under oath by other high officials,
200 including Donald P. Gregg, Bush's national security aide at the time of
201 Iran-contra and now ambassador to South Korea.
202  
203    Bush's story has been that he supported Reagan's 1985 initiative to open a
204 channel to Iranian moderates by selling them arms, that he knew of
205 administration efforts to free American hostages, but that he did not know they
206 were connected until December 1986 - after the scandal broke publicly:
207  
208   "I wish with clairvoyant hindsight that I had known that we were trading arms
209 for hostages," Bush told CBS News in March 1987. "I would have weighed in more
210 heavily with the president."
211  
212   "If I had known that and asked the president to call a meeting of the NSC, he
213 might have seen the project in a different light, as a gamble doomed to fail,"
214 he wrote in his 1987 autobiography.
215  
216   "I sensed that we were sending arms. And I sensed that we were trying to get
217 hostages out. But not arms for hostages," he told a 1988 news conference.
218  
219   "It never became clear to me, the whole arms for hostages thing, until it was
220 fully debriefed, investigated and debriefed by (the Senate Intelligence
221 Committee on Dec. 20, 1986)," he told ABC's Ted Koppel in 1988.
222  
223    In recent months, all questions about Bush's role in the arms-for-hostages
224 deals, the diversion of arms profits to the contras and solicitations of
225 additional contra aid from other countries have been met with a stock response
226 from presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater: "The vice president's role in the
227 Iran-contra affair was completely examined in the congressional inquiry, and we
228 have nothing to add."
229  
230    None of the various official investigations - the Tower Commission appointed
231 by Reagan, the congressional Iran-contra committees, the independent counsel -
232 focused on George Bush, apparently because he rarely spoke up in policy debates
233  
234    The Tower report placed Bush at more than a dozen key meetings or briefings
235 on the arms-for-hostages deals but noted only one position ever taken by Bush -
236 his concern that "the interests of the United States were in the grip of the
237 Israelis." In the end, the Tower interpretation reserved all its slings and
238 arrows for former White House chief of staff Donald Regan, along with McFarlane
239 Poindexter and North.
240  
241    The congressional Iran-contra committees asked only whether Reagan knew; and
242 when Poindexter said "the buck stopped with me," the investigation stopped with
243 him too. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) explained to a Boston audience in 1988
244 that the committees cared only about Reagan's knowledge of the diversion. If
245 Reagan knew, the committees would have moved quickly to an impeachment
246 resolution;  if Reagan didn't know, Inouye said, they would cut the
247 investigation short so as not to weaken the presidency.
248  
249    It wasn't until a month after issuing their final report that the
250 congressional committees released "the first evidence (albeit hearsay) the
251 committees have found concerning the vice president's position on the Iran
252 initiative." This evidence consisted of a February 1986 electronic mail note
253 from Poindexter to his predecessor, McFarlane, about the arms-for-hostages
254 trade, saying " . . . .most importantly, President and VP are solid in taking
255 the position that we have to try." Congress asked no further questions.
256  
257    But the Poindexter note is no longer an isolated piece of evidence that Bush
258 was a consistent backer of the arms-for-hostages deals. The new North notebooks
259 trial and congressional records and other declassified documents now make it
260 clear that Bush participated in the deliberations over the arms-for-hostage
261 deals from the very beginning.
262 696969696969696969                                                          
263  
009=Usr:368 Nemesis Warlock   06/15/90 11:32  Msg:5303 Call:29627 Lines:2
264  
265 Then Again...
010=Usr:165 Bart Simpson      06/15/90 14:54  Msg:5304 Call:29631 Lines:188
266 696969696969 Where George Was;What North's Diaries Tell Us About Bush's Iran-
267 Contra Role By Tom Blanton (part two)
268            (THE story so far...)
269    THE MOST enduring puzzle from the Iran-contra affair remains, "Where was
270 George?"
271    Then-Vice President George Bush had served as ambassador to China, director
272 of the CIA and head of the Reagan administration's task force on combatting
273 terrorism - altogether as much foreign policy experience as anyone in the Reaga
274 Cabinet and, indeed, more than most. From 1983 to 1986, the Reagan
275 administration's inner circle had debated two high-stakes issues at the heart o
276 the scandal - keeping the Nicaraguan contras supplied after Congress cut off
277 aid, and selling arms to Iran in exchange for hostages. None of the official
278 investigations of Iran-contra implicated Bush in any wrongdoings, but neither
279 did they come  to any firm conclusion regarding his precise role in the affair,
280 leaving the field to Bush's claim that he  felt he had been "out of the loop" -
281 which he defined as having "no operational role."
282    But new material from Oliver North's diaries - released last month as the
283 result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the National Security Archive
284 and Public Citizen - combines with previous evidence to paint a different
285 picture of Bush's role.
286                    (our STORY continues...)
287   The first key meeting occurred on Aug. 6, 1985. According to White House logs
288 Reagan, Bush, Secretary of State George Shultz, Secretary of Defense Caspar
289 Weinberger and White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan heard McFarlane present
290 the first deal - an Israeli-brokered swap of 100 TOW anti-tank missiles to Iran
291 in return for the release of four American hostages in Lebanon. Weinberger and
292 Shultz objected, and Shultz called the deal a "very bad idea . . . just falling
293 into the arms-for-hostages business . . . ." Although the ultimate decision was
294 never documented on paper, Reagan apparently authorized the deal several days
295 later in a phone conversation with McFarlane. The 96 Israeli TOWs went to Iran
296 later in August but no hostages came out. Then 408 more TOWs went in September,
297 and one hostage, the Rev. Benjamin Weir, was released.
298    Neither the Tower Commission nor the congressional committees elicited from
299 any of the participants in the Aug. 6 meeting any memory of Bush's position on
300 the issue. Bush's staff has said he was not present, citing their own records i
301 conflict with the White House logs. Bush, as noted, insists that he did not
302 learn of the arms-for-hostages deal until December 1986, or 16 months later
303 after that meeting. And he has gone largely unchallenged.
304  
305    But Bush seemed to tell a different tale to families of the remaining
306 American hostages in Lebanon the following Sept. 20. According to authors Jane
307 Mayer and Doyle McManus, the families were irate that Reagan would not meet wit
308 them and that Benjamin Weir came out alone. Bush, delegated to calm them down,
309 finally pointed at Weir and responded, "We are responsible for getting him out,
310 I don't care what you think."
311    Bush knew enough to claim credit for Weir's release because of the
312 president's daily 9:30 a.m. national security briefing by McFarlane - a briefin
313 also attended by Don Regan and, when he was in town, Bush. Working from notes o
314 these briefings (most likely made by Regan), Bob Woodward and Walter Pincus of
315 The Washington Post concluded in a Jan. 7, 1988, story that Bush had been
316 briefed as many as three dozen times on the arms-for-hostages deals, twice
317 during the September 1985 period of Weir's release. At Thanksgiving that year,
318 Bush sent North one of his ubiquitous thank-you notes, expressing appreciation
319 for "your dedication and tireless work with the hostage thing and with Central
320 America . . . . Get some turkey."
321  
322    The next turning point came early in 1986 - 11 months before Bush says he
323 knew of the arms-for-hostages deals. The Weir deal had set the pattern: An
324 original understanding of four hostages for 100 TOW missiles turned into one
325 hostage for more than 500 missiles. A November 1985 shipment of Hawk
326 anti-aircraft missiles went even further off course when the Iranians rejected
327 the missiles as obsolete and labeled with Israeli markings. After McFarlane was
328 succeeded by Poindexter in late 1985, Shultz and Weinberger renewed their attac
329 on the arms deals. But instead of canceling the Iran initiative, Reagan - with
330 Bush at his side in three critical meetings - just couldn't say no. The Israeli
331 brokers would be replaced by an American, Richard Secord, but the deals would g
332 on.
333  
334    The key events took place in January 1986. Oliver North recorded in his
335 notebook a series of meetings and phone calls on Jan. 6 and 7 with Israeli
336 operative Amiram Nir, working out the new, more direct arrangements. On Jan. 6,
337 according to the Tower report, Poindexter briefed Reagan and Bush on a draft
338 "finding" that would authorize direct U.S. arms sales to Iran. Reagan signed th
339 document into official policy apparently without noticing it was only a draft -
340 and neither Bush nor Poindexter nor Regan corrected him.
341  
342    Jan. 7 began with a National Security Council meeting to debate the Iran
343 initiative. The congressional committee report concluded that while others
344 present did not object, Weinberger and Shultz continued to object to the
345 arms-for-hostage trade. Bush has said he doesn't remember any such opposition,
346 and an aide suggested to one reporter that perhaps Bush was out of the room at
347 the time. Later that morning, according to North's diaries, Bush presented his
348 task force report on combatting terrorism to an NSC sub-group. Bush's
349 introduction to the report, in the published version, stated, "We will make no
350 concessions to terrorists." That had been, and remains, official U.S. policy.
351  
352    Jan. 17 clinched the concessions. By this time, the opponents of the arms
353 deals were no longer consulted about the matter. The 9:30 a.m. national securit
354 briefing that day included only the president, Bush, Regan, Poindexter and NSC
355 staffer Don Fortier. Poindexter secured Reagan's signature on a new finding,
356 almost identical to the one he had signed by mistake on Jan. 6. The briefing
357 memo, drafted by North, noted explicitly that "The Secretaries (of State and
358 Defense) do not recommend you proceed with this plan," and that "If all the
359 hostages are not released after the first shipment of 1000 weapons, further
360 transfers would cease."
361   All the hostages were never released, but the deals kept coming. The next
362 American hope for a breakthrough centered on an expedition to Tehran by
363 McFarlane (now a private citizen), North and Nir in May 1986. Before the trip,
364 Bush's only reservation apparently concerned timing - he didn't want his own
365 visit to Saudi Arabia to overlap with McFarlane's to Iran. Afterward, on May 29
366 McFarlane reported total failure to the people who had approved his trip.
367 According to North's notebooks, McFarlane's audience included Reagan, Bush,
368 Regan and Poindexter. Frustrated and depressed by the fruitless talks in Tehran
369 McFarlane signaled what could have been the end of the arms deals, according to
370 North's notebooks: "Catastrophic removal of leadership (in Iran) . . . . No
371 further meetings until hostages come out." Even McFarlane had given up on the
372 initiative, but not North and Poindexter, or more importantly, as it would turn
373 out, Reagan and Bush.
374    Initally, the May 29 group agreed with McFarlane's all-or-nothing
375 recommendation - that there should be no more deals unless all the hostages wer
376 freed. But North and Poindexter, urged on by the Israeli operative Nir, soon
377 concluded the Iranians would never agree to release all the hostages - it would
378 remove all their leverage. The only alternatives were to get out of the
379 arms-for-hostages business altogether, or to deal in a sequence: First some
380 weapons, then a hostage, followed by more weapons, then another hostage, etc.
381  
382    The July release of the Rev. Lawrence Jenco gave Poindexter and North their
383 opportunity to change administration policy from all or nothing to "sequencing.
384 On July 1, 1986, North's diary noted an hour-long meeting with Bush and Rep. Bo
385 Dornan (R-Calif.), just returned from Syria. North wrote that Syrian President
386 "Assad said to tell press that `there wd be good news soon.' " The next day, th
387 Israeli operative Nir called North at 10:15 a.m. with the news that a hostage
388 was to be released imminently; North's "Alert" list included "VP," along with
389 "Shultz," "Weinberger," "Casey" and "Cong Dornan."
390  
391    Later that month, as North and Nir waited in Europe for Jenco to arrive, the
392 decided to alert Bush again. At the end of a long list of problems with the Ira
393 deals, North's diary notes "VP trip to Israel" just above the entry, "The longe
394 this goes on - the worse things will be." Political rivalries among the
395 Iranians, the overcharging for weapons in order to use the profits to fund the
396 contras, the constant logistical difficulties, the paranoia and secrecy were
397 hard enough. If Poindexter & Co. were to succeed in changing the official U.S.
398 policy from all or nothing to sequencing, they needed as much official blessing
399 as they could get.
400  
401    Bush was in Israel, so North called his chief of staff, Craig Fuller, told
402 him a little about the Iran initiative and asked for Bush to see Nir. (Fuller
403 later told congressional investigators that Bush was "surprised" that North had
404 told Fuller anything about such a highly classified program.) After personally
405 calling North, Bush agreed to the briefing, held at 8:05 a.m. on July 29 in
406 Bush's suite at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Fuller took detailed notes o
407 Nir's presentation to Bush: Nir reviewed the history of the Iran initiative and
408 said the arms deals were direct U.S. transfers to "the most radical elements" i
409 Iran, with Israel providing logistical cover, in order to get the hostages
410 released. Nir ended with the statement that "we have no real choice but to
411 proceed" with the sequencing.
412    Bush raised no objection. He asked only two questions during the briefing:
413 whether Nir had attended the Tehran meetings in May and whether Nir had already
414 briefed his boss, Prime Minister Shimon Peres, on the Jenco release (he had don
415 both). Fuller wrote, "The VP made no commitments nor did he give any direction
416 to Nir. The VP expressed his appreciation for the briefing and thanked Nir for
417 having pursued this effort despite doubts and reservations throughout the
418 process." This was five months before Bush says he learned that arms were trade
419 for hostages.
420  
421    Reagan seems to have had no more reservations about sequencing than Bush.
422 After a July 30 presentation scripted by North and delivered by Poindexter, the
423 NSC adviser noted simply,  "President approved."  Sequencing arms for hostages
424 had now been blessed by its two indispensable patrons, the president and vice
425 president. Neither expressed concern, then or later, about the slippery slope
426 they now were on.
427  
428    On Aug. 6, the day he returned from Israel, Bush met with North to give him
429 Fuller's notes - a meeting never made public until the forced release of the
430 North notebooks last month. The disclosure of that meeting in the newly public
431 North notebooks created headlines because Aug. 6, 1986, was the same day that
432 North lied to the House Intelligence Committee about his contra activities. 
433 White House sources told reporters that the Bush-North meeting wasn't about the
434 contras but about the Iran arms deal - yet no reporter asked why Bush would be
435 meeting with North on a matter in which Bush says he had no operational role.
436 The Aug. 6 meeting was not acknowledged until the diaries were released, and
437 Bush has never replied to a list of 36 questions about his meetings with North
438 and others submitted by The Washington Post during the 1988 presidential
439 campaign.
440    
441   Perhaps the low point of the arms for hostages saga came on Oct. 3, 1986, whe
442 at North's behest and with Bush in attendance, Reagan autographed a Bible to be
443 sent to the Iranian intermediaries. More weapons shipments had gone to Tehran,
444 but the two ransomed Americans - Weir and Jenco - were simply replaced with new
445 hostages, Joseph Cicippio and Frank Reed. Sequencing arms for hostages looked
446 more and more like a perpetual-motion machine. While Reagan had been known to
447 sign just about anything put in front of him, one wonders what George Bush was
448 thinking as the president scrawled his name and a verse from Galatians to prove
449 his "good faith" to the Iranians.
450  
451    Accident and spiteful foreigners, as opposed to good sense and principled
452 policymaking by Americans, finally intervened to break open the Iran-contra
453 scandal. Only two days after the Bible signing, Sandinista troops in the
011=Usr:165 Bart Simpson      06/15/90 15:44  Msg:5305 Call:29632 Lines:11
454 southern jungles of Nicaragua shot a lumbering supply plane out of the sky and
455 captured an American named Eugene Hasenfus. A month later, a Lebanese newspaper
456 printed news of the McFarlane trip in May, leaked by one of the dissatisfied
457 factions in Tehran or perhaps by one of the disgruntled would-be middlemen.
458  
459    A Sandinista rocket and some loose Iranian lips had to come to the defense o
460 the U.S. Constitution, because Ronald Reagan didn't know how to say no and
461 George Bush didn't bother.
462  
463 696969696969696969                                                         
464                                                                                
012=Usr:394 Rayall the Pirat  06/17/90 20:39  Msg:5312 Call:29659 Lines:1
465 :::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::====
013=Usr:394 Rayall the Pirat  06/19/90 11:41  Msg:5315 Call:29676 Lines:3
466  
467 * * *
468  
014=Usr:394 Rayall the Pirat  06/19/90 11:42  Msg:5316 Call:29676 Lines:75
469      'Enough pleasantries... why is it  that you've decided to visit Serling
470 Square, child-thing?'
471      "UKnowledge."
472      The whale's eyes widened.  'Then I certainly cannot fault your pursuit...
473 Knowledge of what sort?'
474      "I seek knowledge of Pyrrix A'aaal and of the Anglers that gave it life."
475      'Pyrrix A'aaal!' the whale looked  out towards the violet horizon.  'No
476 one here has mentioned that for untold  millennia...' He regarded his visitor  
477 once more.  'Er, that is... speaking    temporally, of course.'
478      "Of course."
479      'A long and complex story, that.'
480      "I can wait.  Speaking temporally, of course."
481      The whale sighed.  'I suppose that I can condense.  I'm assuming now that
482 you are aware of our heritage as        whales... am I correct?'
483      "Yes."
484      'Right, then.  I'm also sure that  you are aware of the reasons for our
485 Pilgrimage from Terra.'  The nostalgia  hit the whale like a brick wall.  
486 'It wasn't a hopeless situation...      We just... got tired of it.'
487      "How fortunate for you."
488      'Quite, quite... considering what  came soon after.  But that's neither
489 here nor here.' He gestured around the  radiantly glowing waiting room.  'Have
490 you ANY conception of how DULL it can be living in this type of environment?'
491 He drew in closer, towering over Michael as a great, black shadow.  'Terra 
492 drove our ambitions...  Entropy and     Ennui flourished, granting us a quest  
493 to abolish them therere.'
494      "Marvelous work."
495      'That's the second factor I'm      getting to.  Our failure there granted 
496 Ennui in turn the right to flourish     here almost as strongly as she had 
497 among the ranks of the Terran peoples.  We knew we'd destroy ourselves without 
498 SOMETHING to do.'
499      "And?"
500      'Oh, a lot of theories were tried  and tested.  A few even wanted to start
501 up a new counter-culture on Terra, but  we nixed that one right off... but
502 eventually we decided.'
503      "Upon?" The prodding was becoming  tiresome.
504      'Well, if your sole reason for     existing is to negate Entropy, what is
505 the logical course of action?'
506      "Tell me."
507      Michael felt himself swatted over  the head by a featherfall fin.  'Life,
508 boy, life!  We simply figured too make   some life.'
509      "Quel sort?"
510      The whale beamed.  'Oooh!  That    was to be the best part!  Highly
511 advanced, amazingly intelligent, and    terribly coddled.  The expected 
512 result?  A nice petulant species that   would really get the uother races into 
513 a frenzy of conservationalist mental    states.  It would ave been grand.'
514      "So, in other words..."
515      '... We left Terra for amassive   cosmic orgy.'
516      Michael was pensive.
517      'Oh grow UP!' he regarded the      visitor cooly.  'Or did they finally
518 get around to banning sex?'
519      "It isn't my place to judge your  nocturnal activities."
520      'In any case, I'm afraid the       Etherial Milkshake we ended up with
521 when all the shouting was over didn't   really work out like we'd hoped... so  
522 we ended up with the Anglers.'
523      "You birthed the Anglers."
524      'Quite.  And a bitching disaster,  if you ask me.  More cocoa?'
525      Michael dropped the Norse flagon   he'd drained.  "No... please."  
526      'Anyway... say, wait a second!!     Who's that behind you?'
527      "Behind me?"  Michael turned,      only gaze into the green eyes of 
528 the Propphet,  who managed a weak smile.
529      'My whole story?'
530      #On Memorex, Kimosabe'!#  The      Walkman chugged away at his hip.
531      A sly grin escaped the whale.      'Nope...  I'm afraid you didn't get
532 any of it...  Burned out chips.'  The   Walkman began to sizzle.
533      #No fair!#
534      'No, wait!' The smoke stopped in   midfathom.  'Better yet!  Looks like
535 you accidentally hit the PAUSE button!  Bye!'
536      #Self-centered obscure little-#    He vanished.
537      'Now, as I was saying...'
538  
539 :::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::==Zephyr::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::====
540  
541 Survive THAT cliff hanger if you can!
542  
543 :::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::==Zephyr::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::====
015=Usr:252 TOM CROSS         06/19/90 12:52  Msg:5317 Call:29677 Lines:14
544 Mike:  Many moons ago I belonged to the Sanyo Users Club and recall that you 
545 were sort of the CP/M guru.  Well, here's my challenge.  My wife has been
546 writing on our Sanyo 1150 and I've finally convinced her to get her writing
547 out of the Sanyo and into a DOS format (The Sanyo is about to give up the ghost
548 not the CPU mind you but the power supply).  Can you/Do you do CM/M to DOS
549 conversions?  Do you have the software? Is it expensive? Does it work? etc. etc
550 If the answer to any of these is "Yes", you can a) call me at home 246-3692, b)
551 leave a message for me here (I'm new obviously and may take awhile to find it 
552 or c) leave mail for me on the SPECTRUM BBS.  Many thanks for any input you
553 have..........
554      And now about this "message system" of yours.  This looks pretty unique
555 and interesting.  While I'm here I'll look around a bit.....
556  
557  
016=Usr:165 Bart Simpson      06/19/90 17:39  Msg:5319 Call:29693 Lines:1
558 George Bush's support makes me want Dave Frohnmeyer for Governor...sure
017=Usr:394 Rayall the Pirat  06/21/90 12:35  Msg:5321 Call:29736 Lines:5
559 :::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::====
560  
561 'What's your hurry?  The fish aren't    running...'
562  
563 :::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::==Zephyr::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::====
018=Usr:186 Wesley Smith      06/21/90 19:04  Msg:5322 Call:29738 Lines:3
564 I would like to make everyone feel cooler on this very hot day, by wishingyou 
565 all a merry Christmas.  That may seem wierd, but thi;nk about it and you will
566 see what i meen by doing that. I hope you all enjoy the wonderful weather we
019=Usr:84 Michael Miller j  06/22/90 14:55  Msg:5323 Call:29761 Lines:9
567 &*&*&*&*'s
568 Do we need lurkers?  Just a thought.  I suppose that almost any action tends
569 to beg an audience.  But in the case of lurkers I would ask, are they
570 leches?  Does that fact that they continuasly take and never give a problem?
571  
572 An Astral Dreamer
573 &*&*&*&*'s
574  
575  
020=Usr:255 jim michaels      06/22/90 20:28  Msg:5324 Call:29767 Lines:7
576 to sysop/cistop mickey #1:
577 i am interested in your CPMulator program.  please leave a msg & your phone #
578 on my answering machine so we can talk about prices & such.  this is the only
579 way i know of to find you.
580 i would like to know prices, etc. & what other stuffies ya got.
581 i am only going to logon here this once.
582 jim    231-xxxx
021=Usr:84 Michael Miller j  06/22/90 23:13  Msg:5325 Call:29768 Lines:10
583  
584@6 calls, one entry.  Are the people of this country so void of intelect that
585@they can only stare?
586@ 
587@ 
588 6 calls and one entry.  Has the one eyed monster sucked you all dry.  Is the
589 fact that this is a visual media leaving you without the ability to interact?
590  
591 Sigh.  We have met the enemy, he is apathy.  And we don't care.
592  
022=Usr:84 Michael Miller j  06/24/90 08:29  Msg:5329 Call:29793 Lines:2
593 Double sigh.
594  
023=Usr:368 Nemesis Warlock   06/24/90 12:10  Msg:5330 Call:29796 Lines:83
595 :::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::====
596  
597 * * *
598  
599      'They weren't so terrible, in the  beginning...  They were children, and
600 misbehavior was to be expected.  We     should have gotten suspicious, but we  
601 never did.'
602      "Mischief?"
603      'Oh, little things, at first.  A   treasured object vanishes on one world,
604 pops up on another.  Fictional beings   come to life.  Cities in the desert
605 get moved to the artic regions for days at a time.  Nothing grandly horrific,
606 though...'
607      "Despite rumors to the contrary."
608      'I know all about those...  and I  will insist to the end of time that
609 they weren't responsible for the Cross  Dimensional Animal Raids a few years
610 ago... Well, directly, anyway.  Look on the bright side...  It took care of 
611 itself after a while!' The whale beamed again.
612      "Quite."
613      'But I digress.  The fact of the   matter remains that we are STILL the
614 ones ultimately responsible for         whatever the little bastards do 
615 corporeally... which is why I arranged  for you to make your way here.'
616      "You brought us through?"
617      'Oh, of course!  Those Triangles   aren't nearly as complicated as you
618 types seem to think.  They were, after  all, made by children!'
619      "Very dangeroous, psychotic         children."
620      'INDUSTRIOUS children.'
621      "The same principle."
622      'In any case, children or not,     they've gone too far wih this little
623 Quantier thing.'
624      Ah!  Now things were getting       interesting again.  "What do you know
625 of it?"
626      'That I can tell you?' Damn!       'It's really just what you thought it
627 was... or is... or will be, or take     your pick...  a minor paradox.         
628 Specifically, a focused repeating loop  that needs a beginning.'
629      "But why bring it into existence   in the first place?"
630      The whale's expression darkened.   'I'm afraid that they discovered the
631 Incident.'
632      Michael felt his stomach twitch.   "The transition from Innisfall to
633 Pyrrix A'aaal?"
634      'Exactly.'  The whale's essence    floated upward through the orange
635 sea, and Michael followed, leaviing      behind the waiting room.  As the two  
636 slipped across the realms of the        Obscurities, Michael observed many     
637 strange and wondrous oddities... Green  Saunders playing in a field of white   
638 rice cubes that stretched beyond the    horizon...  Big Al's painted           
639 collection of severed consciences...    the whirling merry-go-round dancing by 
640 on the head of a bespectacled angel     with the face of a child hidden by     
641 years of whip scars...
642      "Where are we now?"
643      Michael examined the massive wall  of floating images.  There appeared to
644 be no projector, yet the sounds and     images seemed to be playing out from a 
645 beam of light bouncing oon an invisible  satin screen.  'Welcome to Whale      
646 Observatory.'  The whale fluttered over to a great glass window.  'From here   
647 you can see the top of the disk.'
648       "Disk?" 
649      'Just look!' 
650      Michael lifted himself up on a     skeletal high-chair and peered over
651 the snakeskin railing...  
652      ***IF YOU ARE IN NEED OF HELP,     YOU NEED BUT ASK***.  The massive gold
653 mountainside floating in immediate      view seemed to have been carved into
654 great diamond letters.  "What does it   mean?  I've heard it said before, on
655 Pyrrix A'aaal."
656      'Mmmm hmm.  No doubt by their      police force.  As for the meaning,
657 nobody's really sure.  It's been there  since we arrived, speaking temporally,
658 of course.  Keep looking... there!'     He pointed a shadowy flipper.  'You    
659 can see Forest Asterisk... Michael's    private domain in the Obscurities.'
660      "Mike Day?"
661      'Mike Day.  You've heard of him,   I take it?'
662      "Only in passing...  I've never    had the good fortune of meeting him."
663      'In any case, keep looking...      Just beyond the border of Forest
664 Asterisk... that softly glowing patch   with alternating patterns of light?
665 That's the Plateau.'
666      "It isn't really raised."
667      'True, from our angle... but some  see it as a column, rather than the
668 strip I'm showing you.  For many, it's  so off center that they can only view  
669 it 40 kilometers at a time.'
670      "So what's so special about the    Plateau?"
671      'It's On Top.'
672      "I thought the Forest was on top   from this perspective."
673      'It is, but it's also constant.    The rest of the landscape vies for the
674 Plateau, due mainly to its proximity    to the protective dominion of Michael's
675 sundry wards...'
676      "I see."
677      'And that, Michael, deals with     the reason for the Angler's quest...'
024=Usr:368 Nemesis Warlock   06/24/90 15:06  Msg:5332 Call:29798 Lines:67
678      "They seek the Plateau?"
679      'In a manner of speaking.  Let me  explain it to you this way.  If an area
680 of an amusement park is the only one    with shade, what do the park goers do?'
681      "They go there, of course."
682      'And if there's only enough room   for two?'
683      "They probably fight over it."
684      'Right again.  BUT, if one group   could fix it so that the others could
685 never even get NEAR the shady spot,     THEN what would happen?'
686      "They'd charge admission?"  A      flipper cuffed him across the cheek.
687      'They'd be in sole possession of   the shade... which is as much of a
688 premium in that example as the sundry   wards of Michael Day are here.'
689      "So they're real estate developers from the dreamscape?"
690      'Precisely!  And that is why the   Quantier was created.  Tell me, young
691 Temporal Enforcer... what will happen   if no one puts an end to the focused  
692 loop?'
693      "Well, generally, the loop will    pick up on probabilities around it,
694 more likely than not drawing in a few   human lives to complicate the 
695 equasion, as the Quantier attempted to  do with the damnable Friar... and as   
696 it does so those probabilities will pick up on other probabilities, and the
697 whole loop eventually works its way out into the entire continuum, since it    
698 has all of time and reality to sift     through until it reaches the right     
699 circumstances to affect just about      everything with its warped logic..."
700      'And the end result?'
701      "Time will simply cease to be."
702      The whale sighed.  'Wrong.'  He    pointed towards the window.  'PHYSICAL
703 time will cease.  Obscure Time will     continue.'
704      "So what's the point of making a   loop?"
705      'The loop halts physical time and  leaves Obscure Time alone.  Since 
706 physical time is what dictates, for the most part, which borderlands end up
707 On Top, that will leave whichever land  is On Top as the ONLY land that's On   
708 Top forever...'
709      "... Since the loop can't be       stopped once it succeeds."
710      'You're catching on quickly.'
711      "So what exactly will the Anglers  DO with the Sundry Wards?"
712      The whale was grim.  'Oh, they'll  play with them for a while, and more
713 likely than not use them to win the war that they started with the Medalic
714 Prophets and Green Saunders' clan.  Once that's done, though, tthe problems
715 REALLY begin.'
716      "Meaning?"
717      The whale pointed out the window   again.  'The ties that bind the 
718 Obscurities together are linked with    physical land.  That's why they're
719 affected by physical time.  For an      example... that area over there with   
720 the rolling pattern of trees and        glaciers belongs to Zephyr, the        
721 Medalic Prophet you met.  But it is     inexorably connected to a small        
722 bit of grassland populated by rabbits   somewhere in Terra's Oregon.  The next 
723 borderland is owned by the Astral       Dreamer, and it, too is connected to   
724 a physical landscape, though its        precise location remains a mystery.'
725      "So what does this have to do with the Anglers' plan for the Plateau?"
726      'EvERYTHInG!' The whale's shadow   smoked blue steam.  'Don't you see?
727 Once they control the Obscurities, they also control the 349 physical 
728 land areas that are linked to their     obscure counterparts!'  The whale's
729 essence was thrashing about, darting    this way and that, gliding apart and   
730 imploding in upon itself.  'And it      just happens that the Stone Triangles  
731 of Pyrrix A'aaal contain worlds...'
732      Michael was beginning to see the   connection.  "How many worlds?"
733      'Why, 349, of course...'
734  
735 :::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::==Zephyr::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::====
736  
737 Friar:  Aren't you glad you got your    character out of this mess when you
738 still could?  Heh Heh Heh!  
739  
740 And you thought you were having a hard  time with getting stuffed inside one
741 of the Triangles!  Keep tuning in, it   only gets worse, and Michael doesn't   
742 have a Deus Ex Quantier Machina to get  him out of it, either!
743  
744 :::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::==Zephyr::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::====
025=Usr:11 L'homme sans Par  06/26/90 00:49  Msg:5336 Call:29819 Lines:8
745 *$@#*%_)!($_)!(%_)!#*%_!(%@#()%)@#%)(+@#%*_#%(@#_%(@#_)%*@_)%(*@%(@#_%(@#_%
746 voyeur: So, how is your beautiful sis? Please give me a call when you get bac
747 k in town. That was a Vega VGA 1024-I 256k card? I have seen it for $229. IS
748 that what you have?
749  
750 Milch: news still flowing Ok?
751 %)@#(%_)@#(%*@#_)(@_(%_@#*%_( L'homme sans Parity *%@#)_@#(%_)@#*%)_(_)!($_)!
752  
026=Usr:368 Nemesis Warlock   06/26/90 19:14  Msg:5338 Call:29823 Lines:84
753 :::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::====
754  
755 * * *
756  
757      "All that time... It's been right  there, staring me in the face."
758      'Don't burden yourself.  No one    can pay attention to Obscure 
759 Symbolism...  It's part of the game.'   Buldrog, Michael's whalic guide through
760 Serling Square, tried to sound as       convincing as he could, failing        
761 miserably.  'Look at it this way...     you finally HAVE figured it out...     
762 The Anglers' plans to capture time and  hold it to their will...'
763      "The Cradle."
764      '... Their goals of domination     over Day's domain...'
765      "The Tiara."
766      '... The means of their goals...   The timestream itself...'
767      "The Train."
768      '... And the dawning of the a new  era...'
769      "The Quantier.  But that doesn't   explain the song."
770      'Song?'
771      "The one the Prophet let me hear   on my journey here.  Something about
772 the Pool... the one element that was    constant through the Transition from   
773 Innisfall to Pyrrix A'aaal."
774      Buldrog was pensive for a few      brief moments.  'When a Transition
775 from one state of reality to another    takes place, there must remain one
776 common thread, usually a localized point in space...  For an easy example, that
777 business with the Dragons warring on    Earth during that world's Age of       
778 Reptiles ended up with a Transition     to Humanity's Terra, and as a result   
779 the new reality still had to deal with  the Triangle Pool near what, in the
780 current reality, has bbecome known as    Bermuda, or, more specifically, the   
781 Bermuda Triangle...' Small equasions    appeared in front of the whale's deep  
782 shadow.  'You see?  Old reality plus    Localization Point Equals New reality  
783 plus Localization Point.  Keeps the     two realities equal, to prevent any    
784 wiseass Temporal Enforcers from going   back and mucking around with the       
785 timeframe around theTransition.  And   on Pyrrix A'aaal-'
786      "-The Transition's Localization    Point is the Pool."
787      'Exactly!  Now, rationalize that   with what you know...'
788      "Friar sought the Pool and         found it, according to the timeline.
789 That seemed to be the origin of the     Loop, or at least somewhere close."
790      'Your friend the Friar carries     with him a Pocket Field of grand
791 scale... It even circumvented the       timeframe.  That's more likely than
792 not how he found the Quantier... How    he was meant to find it.'
793      "... Leading me to trace back the  path to Pyrrix A'aaal and Friar from
794 the disaster in my Protectorate that    gave the Anglers' enough energy to 
795 corporeally stabilize the Loop!"
796      'Correct.  Your presence as a      Temporal Enforcer was both unforseen
797 and inevitable.  It HAD to come about   as it did, or the Loop wouldn't
798 stabilize correctly.  It had to be      YOUR sector, YOUR Protectorate, YOUR   
799 World, for the Disaster had, speaking    Temporally, already been created.'
800      "The Quantier is a spark which     was an ember from the fire which it
801 sparked... A fully recursive loop!      And my involvement as the Fireman has  
802 kept me from seeing the Pattern all     this time-"
803      'Because, until your realizatio,  you were part of the Loop!'
804      "And now?"
805      'Your presence in the Obscurities  and the knowledge you've gained proves
806 that you've severed your tie with the   Loop... but that doesn't mean you don't
807 have to find it and create the Quantier to keep any of this from snowballing   
808 any more than it already has.'
809      "And the 349 Worlds?"
810      'They will ride the Loop, spreading out like butterflies sucking nectar
811 from the edge of the Quantier.  They    will explode from the 349 Threads, will
812 ripple across the mainframe, and        plunge the Disk into oblivion... 
813 Apathy Prime... *Crash*.'
814      "Disk?"
815      'Ignore me... I'm babbling.'       Buldrog cautioned himself as he lied,
816 hoping against hope that he hadn't      said too much already.
817      "No.  You've said, 'DISK' twice    now.  Explain it to me."
818      The whale felt a weight pressing   against him, the draw of an invisible
819 magnet pulling him downwards, ever      downwards.  'All right.  All right.    
820 I'll show you...  But you must never    reveal this to anyone...  Come!'
821      Michael felt himself swept away,   cast into shadow, expelled from the
822 belly of the beast itself, rolling      across flat plains and thundrous hills 
823 and sight and color and change and      shadow, substance merging and exploding
824 outwards from a central point of        unimaginable brightness, sheer, solid  
825 corporeal thought unhinged from verbose ultimatums of a forgotten theater-
826      "Where... are... we..."
827      'Scrolling... the edge of the      Abyss...  Filling the  Void.'
828      "How?" Sound and fury and news     torn asunder from tickertape, astral
829 dreams ad primal shadows, parity basted by green felt and visions-
830      'Physical thought.  Thi is as close as we can get to the edge of the 
831 Disk.  Beynd... nothingness.'
832      "We're moving..."
833      'Scrolling.' Buldrog corrected.    And that wasn't the Edge now.  THIS is
834 the Edge, and that was just the Edge    back there, and we're ALWAYS just 
835 near the Edge of the Abyss, he thought  to himself.
836      "I heard you." Michael winced as   dark cities and archaic rhymes dipped
027=Usr:368 Nemesis Warlock   06/26/90 19:56  Msg:5339 Call:29824 Lines:97
837 across technicolor joy.  "I heard what  you were thinking..."  He (mage)   
838 forced (time) himself (place) to        (clever) cope (contrivance) with (need)
839 the (banner) opressive (magnetic) pull  (marrow) of the (need) Abyss...        
840 letting himself drift at the Edge, not  (Patricia) allowing the random thoughts
841 flowing from above to toss him into the obliivion void which he was even now
842 filling, continuing, scrolling...
843      'It's really a complex arrangement that we're involved in.'
844      "It's a BITCH!"
845      'True.  But that's life.' (sin)
846      "We're moving so fast.  So far."
847      'Look up.'
848      Michael did, and gasped at the     immense distance that they jad 
849 traveled in such a short time.  He      could see the Whale Observatory.. He
850 could see himself discovering that the  349 Worlds would invade.. He  could    
851 see that Observatory suddenly tear      itself to ribbons as the borderland of 
852 tassles and silver mines that came next filled the void which had existed      
853 then..  He could see that after the     borderland came the glaciers and trees 
854 of Zephyr, and the Observatory was      suddenly back in existence and Michael 
855 was puzzling over the Anglers and the   Whale said DISK and Michael fell down, 
856 down to the Bottom and was scrolling    and suddenly calming and looking up,   
857 and gasping at the immense distance and seeing himself and always just a mite's
858 thought away from where he had just been and yet so far so far so far-
859      "We're creating this as we go."
860      'Correct, Michael.  Welcome to     the Bottom!  Welcome to Backwater!'
861      "Backwater?"
862      The whale shrugged.  'Don't ask    me.  I didn't name it.  But this is
863 where we are, and where everything      else that has come before is.'  He     
864 shook his flipper warningly at his      compani, yet his voice became     
865 soft and gentle.  'You are undertaking  an incredible journey... one which few 
866 of the denizens of Backwater have ever  experienced.  You have reached the     
867 Bottom of Disk 'A', which holds all     that is...  and across theAbyss, you 
868 can see Disk 'B'.'
869      Michael looked, and sure enough,   another grand column stretched into
870 infinity across the Abyss, though it    was fuzzy and out of focus.
871      'You can't see it.  It holds what  was.  Soon, this Disk will become thhat
872 Disk, and that is when the Anglers will strike.  That is when you must act to  
873 stop them.'
874      "But how?!  This is all so         confusing.  I don't understand it!  I'm
875 just an Enforcer...  I'm supposed to    fix paradoxes!"
876      'This *is* a paradox... the        largest one you'll ever find... one 
877 that involves more than Obscurity,      more than the Physical...  It involves 
878 that which lieswithin the heart of     the Abyss itself!'
879      "How?!"
880      'Your world... your worlds...      are part of the Backwater.  Pyrrix 
881 A'aaal is the Primal Gateway to this    Obscurity, so it is only natural that
882 your quest to halt the paradox would    lead you here.  However, your paradox  
883 is not the one you think...'
884      "Not the Quantier?"
885      'You want the Quantier?' The       whale asked.  'Make it.  Now.'
886      "Tell me-"
887      'Just make it or I'll push you     over the edge, damn you.'
888      Quietly, Michael complied, leaning back into the void, allowing himself
889 to hang -just- over the Abyss, and      began to think... began to think of    
890 himself at a forge...
891      Michael was at a forge.
892      ... removing a mold...
893      Michael removed a mold.
894      ... drawing forth the glowing      goblet...
895      He drew forth the goblet.
896      ... he would call it the Quantier,  and it would be a paradox.
897      "This is the Quantier." the        Michael in front of the forge said.
898 "I have made it.  It is a paradox."
899      The Michael in front of the forge  vanished, and then the forge... 
900 leaving just... Michael, at the edge    of the Abyss, which seemed to be   
901 getting noticeably smaller now...
902      'There.  It's logged in reality.   You mad the Quantier.'
903      "When?"
904      'Just now, at the end of Now... at the end of time, like every good
905 Paradox should be.  But you still       have to finish what you started.'
906      "I understand..." He felt his mind slip back again into the dim void, felt
907 his tired thoughts solidify again, as   if pushed along by invisible energy...
908      ... Michael would find himself on  a grassy hill...
909      Michael was on a grassy hill.
910      ... He would see the Friar ...     It was the beginning of time.
911      He saw the Friar at the beginning  of time.
912      ... He would defeat the Friar in   a duel and batter the feeble old man
913 into unconsciousness.
914      He battered the feeble old man     into unconsciousness.
915      ... He would put the Quantier he   had been holding deep, deep into the   
916 sack... so it would be found when te    Friar had found it.
917      He put the Quantier into the sack  deep enough so that Friar might find
918 it at the proper time.
919  
920 * * * 
921  
922      Time exploded around the Quantier, and a Sundry Ward battered down the
923 Anglers' gritty doors.  Ancient curses  from chapped lips brought the children 
924 low, and the night sliced through their eyes to the very core of their greedy  
925 thoughts.
926      YOU SOUGHT TO DESTROY THE BACKWATER WITH YOUR PARADOX
927      "No... no!"
928      YOU SOUGHT TO USE THE WHITE TOWER  FOR YOUR OWN PLEASURE
929      "We sought to restore TANIS!"
930      THAT IS A TIME BEST FORGOTTEN FOR THE LIKES OF YOU AND THERE IS BUT ONE
931 PENALTY FOR YOUR CRIMES
932      "Forgive us!" They cowered like    dogs before unseen masters.
933      NEVER SINCE THE DAWN OF BACKWATER  AND NEVER IN THE TIME OF INNISFALL
028=Usr:368 Nemesis Warlock   06/26/90 20:36  Msg:5340 Call:29825 Lines:66
934 AND NEVER IN THE TIME OF PYRRIX A'AAAL  AND NEVER IN THE TIMES OF THE 
935 INFINITE WORLDS TO FOLLOW HAVE CREATURES DARED THINK THEMSELVES IN THE PLACES  
936 YOU SOUGHT
937      "We SWEAR we didn't know!  Please  believe us!  Had we known that the Day
938 would be angered we would never have    tried-"
939      PREPARE YOURSELVES
940      "Please!"
941      PREPARE
942      "Mercy."
943      TORMENT
944      "No..."  
945      YES
946      The Angler felt his stomach        twitch, and a strange sort of comfort
947 fell over him as his last moments       approached.
948      SYNTAX ERROR
949      "Hell shall know my name.  Gods    and Devils will fear me!"
950      KILL PREVIOUS PROGRAM
951      "The night shall scream with 1000  eyes!"
952      NEWFILE: ANGLERS
953      10 GOTO 20
954      20 GOTO 10
955      30 END
956      "The world will cower cower will   world the world will cower cower will
957 world the world will cower cower will   world the world will cower cower will  
958 world the world-"
959  
960 * * *
961  
962      'The Paradox?'
963      "I created and destroyed the       Quantier and gave the paradox 
964 meaning.  It shouldn't bother us any    more after this point.  In fact, I'll
965 probably let Friar keep it now, since   it's just a goblet.  I put him hrough 
966 Hell for it, and I think he deserves a  little reward.  I understand his wife  
967 just had a baby...  And you know        smething really odd?"
968      'No, what?'
969      "I checked the temporal fields,    and the baby was born at the exact
970 moment the paradox was resolved."
971      'A good omen for the child.        You know what the legends say of the
972 Child of a Paradox...' He extended a    flipper dramatically... '*Let he who   
973 finds life in moments of time itself    draw from the energies of the
974 Moebius.*  A proper rendition?'
975      "To the letter...  Now, I          understand that there was something    
976 you wanted to show me?"
977      'It's coming... look at the        Abyss...'
978      Michael looked, and the gap was    definitely much smaller now.  
979      'None save Day and the whales      have ever seen the Disk Exchange.  All
980 others are swept away into Forest       Asterisk during the storms, though some
981 have reached Archive Hall through much  soul searching...'
982      "What of the Anglers?  No grief over lost chilren?"
983      'Grief, but more regret that what  has been could not be put to better 
984 use.'
985      "What will become of them?"
986      'They are lost to us, held in the  primal core of the mainframe to regret
987 their failure forever amidst their own  brash, useless words...  Fitting.'
988      Definitely... the gap was getting  much smaller.  If Michael had had a
989 pole, he thought, he might have been    able to vault across.
990      The whale looked up and read       Michael's thoughts.  'No... that is 
991 the past for all of our reality...  Let it stay as such until it is needed 
992 again...'
993      "Needed?"
994      'Why else do you think Mike Day    archives it?'
995      A sudden wave of emotion and light told him he was nearing the beginning
996 of the transition.  "It's starting.     What will happen?"
997      'Let it happen.  Relax.  Let       yourself experience the moment.  If
998 we're lucky, we'll all eventually end   up at Zephyr's borderlands...'
999 :::::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::==Zephyr::=====:::::=====:::::=====:::::====
