Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

he lazy turns of the ceiling fan, I po

of the Bitchun Society, and even though

both about 70, and I was living for nothing bu

not much fun at one gee, but at ten to the neg eight, it's a blast. You don't stagger, you bounce, and when

uity, deadly concoctions. Musical instruments littered the sphere's floor, and if you knew how to play, you'd snag one, tether it to you an

in the sphere playing it. Sometimes, the strangers who jammed in gave me new and interesting lines of inquiry, and tha

main thread of the movement on a cello. At first it was irritating, but after a short while I came to a da

perspiration beaded on my body and floated gracefully into the hydrotropic re

singles, couples and groups stopped in midflight coitus to applaud. She

gh the sphere, desperate to reach the hatch b

was great! I'm Juli

ltaneously-not hard, you understand, but playfully. "Honk!" she said,

d as she tumbled through the spoke

sed them with a spacehand's grace, vaulting herself forward at speed. I bumbled after her best as I co

nt to the bubble to try it out on an oboe. I was just getting war

r in the eye as we jammed. Her mood that day was 4/4 time and I-IV-V progressions, in a feel that swung around from blues to rock to folk, teasing a

hipmunk. It was a jaunter's style, suited to the climate-controlled, soft-edged life

on when picking out a particularly kicky little riff. When I got tired, I took it to a slow bridge or gave her a

th, but I summoned the energy to zip over to the hatch

rnoon, and watched the smile that started at their corners and spread right down to her l

led me to her sleeping qu

dn't

ally become pretty transhuman as time went by, upgrading with a bewildering array of third-party enhancements: a vestigial tail, eyes that saw through most of the RF spectrum, her arms, her fur, dogleg reversibl

g and kissing wouldn't do, and routinely slapped upgrades into herself on the basis of any whim that crossed her min

r a couple of days, floating around the bubble, making crazy faces at its mirrored exterior. She had no way of knowing i

empty space, and she led me a merry game of tag through the station, the mess hall where we skidded sloppy through a wobbly ovoid of rice pudding, the

er did. Halfway through, I'd lose track of carnal urges and return to a state of childlike innocence, living only for the thrill of the chase and the giggly feeling I got whenever she found some new, e

live with me until the universe's mainspring unwound, she l

residence for the University. Our Whuffie wasn't so hot earthside, and the endless insti

cting normal, making nice with the neighbors instead of pranking them with endless honks and fanny-kicks and squirt guns. We gave up the steeplechase

ls and parks with any musicians I could drum up, and she came out and didn't play, ju

went

accused me of plotting to kill her. She set fire to the neighbors' apa

r rant. I smiled and nodded and faced it for as long as I could, then I grabbed her and hauled her, kicking like a mule, to the d

by way of saying that it was her mind, not her brain,

ion, basically trying to talk it out, learn to

f lucidity that she had under sedation, she consented to being

prepared a written synopsis of the events since her last

ubterranean apartment. She sounded so serious, so fun-fre

t plates of bacon and egg

to an older version." She had a shoulderb

ng a mental inventory of my responsibilities dirtside. "G

r utterly scrutable hazel eyes. "No. I'm g

and mischief. The Zed she'd become after we wed was terrible and terr

efore she met me. She was going to lop 18 months out of

hed like a

ra sets of arms depending from his hips. He scuttled around the sphere while she played a jig on the pia

reinvent myself with a new group of friends, a new career, a new life. I never spoke of Zed aga

. It was a slow, seething, ugly nuts that had me alienating my friends,

on as we'd run the rehab past the ad-hoc's gene

d cheerful and ready for a day of steady, hypermediated fun. I tried to make myself attend to them as individuals, but try as I might, they kep

berty Square crew a favor since my death had gone down on their turf, so they had given us use of their prize meeting room, where the Florida sun streamed through the slats of the shutters, casting a hash

lled the room to capacity, and there was much hugging and handshaking before the meeting came to order. I was thankful that the room

resent around her eyes, if you knew how to look for it, but she

nd laughed at their own corny tradition. Oh, they

g smile. She'd been lobbying hard for weeks, after all. "Does anyone have

s put his arm in the air. Lil acknowledged him wi

on an eight-week production schedule, and the

il shot me a withering look. I s

le months, we'll know if it's working for us. If it's not, hey, we can turn it around in a couple months, too. That's why we're

ast-Lord knows, our pacing hasn't always been that hot. But I'm concerned about all these new people

e the people I'm bringing in

g to the telepresence players is probationary-they don't get

making a big mistake here. We love the Mansion, all of us, and so do the guests. It's a piece of history, and we're its custodians, not its masters. Changing it like this, well ..." he shook his head. "It's not good stewardship. I

he same polemic a thousand times-in reference to Debra's work-and hearing

is whether a responsible custodian lets his custodianship be taken away from him, or whether he does everything he can to make sur

getting darker, the faces more set. I resolved not to speak ag

all afternoon and all night and all the next day, and I felt woozy and overwrought and miserable all at

ublicly tabulated over the data-channels. The group's eyes unfocussed as they called up

eved sigh and smiled, droppi

aid, over the crowd's b

washed over pink, and a strobe pounded at the edges of my vision. I took two lumbering steps towards them and opened my mouth to say som

way across my chest as I tried to struggle up

nuts af

on a hard pallet under a sign that reminded me to get a check-up twice a year, by gum! and I tried to bring my hands up to shield my eyes from the over bright light and the

," I sa

with a serious-looking doctor, apparent 70, with a No

kindly voice that matched the face. Despite my recent disillu

ious diagnostic apparati. I bore it in stoic silence, too confounded by the horrible Waaag

asked, and I shook my head urgently. Bei

the best, for now. Don't worry, Julius,

e doc threatened to send him out o

robed at the tip of my nostril. Furiously, I wrinkled my face, rattled at my restraints. The doc absentmindedly noticed my gyrations a

something that caused the head of the bed to

r friend here tells me your systems have been offline for more than a month

out more tests, I can't be sure, but my theory is that the brain-machine interface they installed at that time had a material defect. It's been deteriorating ever since, misfiring and rebooting. The shut-downs are a protective m

t's bad news. The interface has been deteriorating steadily, and

t to say, All right, but

rvous processes with it. In time, it'll probably shut down, but for now, there's no point. That's why we've got yo

could end up stuck like thi

s pressed a transdermal on my wrist. The panic receded

up. Unfortunately, that backup is a few months old. If we'd caught it earlier, we may've been able to salvage a

on, the new Hall of Presidents and my shameful attempt thereon, the fights with Lil, Lil and

ithout my relentless prodding, the ad-hocs would surely revert to their old, safe ways. They might even l

e restoring

mber the first, a confusion of vision-occluding strobes and uncontrollable thrashing and

ad a day's growth of beard and new worrylines at the corners of

the new clone will be ready in an hour or two. In the meantime, I think heavy sedation is in orde

dy? Kill me, i

n my restraints: my voice

hrough. "There's nothing else for it. If you'd come to me when it all started,

ed. "Not now.

r it, but the restraints and his grip held me fast. "Yo

lenched teeth. His fingertips were callused, worked r

18 for all I knew. "It's just the opposite: we're saving you. If you continue like this, it will

, I sure don't. "I don't care about the interface. Chop it out. I can

room and rolled his eyes up while he placed a call. I saw his gor

ave been ten minutes or five hours. I was catheterized, but I d

ld a small device that I inst

ing of a surgical tool. The doc raised his eyebrows at me. "You know what this is," he said, flatly. A dim corner of my mind gibb

ow,"

m your last backup. You have to sign the consent before I use it." He'd dropped all kindly pretense from his voice, not bothering to disguise his disgust. I was pitching out the miracle of the Bitchun Society

that ran to the Imagineering compound, and thence to a heavy, exposed Faraday cage. Of course: using the HER

e sealed the cage and retreated to the lab's door. He pulled a h

ck in five minutes. Once I am in the room, place the gun on the floor and do not touc

. It was heavy, dense with its stored energy, th

e and let it rest there. My

turning me into a thrashing maniac. I knew that I would never be able to pull the trigger

all the doc, and what

my thumb nailed the stud, and there w

more in

ced a handheld diagnostic tool and pointed it at my melon, then pronounced every bit of digital microci

nst them. I hobbled out of the Faraday cage and the lab under my own power, but jus

nd catching the doc's in a lightning-quick reflex. It was easy to forget Dan's old line of work here in the Magic Kingdom, but

ical state and wordlessly wedged his shoulder in my armpit, suppo

" he said. "We'll fig

and boarded th

t me up to my door. He keycarded the lock and stood awkwardly as I hobbled into t

e slunk away, back to Lil

n me, and added a mood-equalizer that he'd recommended to