Once upon a time, on a far planet, 300 million light-years from the middle of the universe, near the 52 intergalactic Goran travelroute, where hot black winds roared up from the ground and metal-birds ruled the grey sky, there lived a great king in a castle of light and glass and metal and steel concrete, whose daughter was the best inventor of optic logarythms in the whole world. Her eyes were of bright chrome, her hair was made of shining monofilament strings that were standing up into the air, as not to rip the extrasensitive flesh from her head, and her fingers were as fast as the forearms of a mantis.
From the time she could recognize patterns she was jacked into the matrix and used the most cutting edge programs, avaible to only the best deckers in the net. At the time she was eight she was allowed her first reflex booster and she splattered the liver of her servant on the ground. Only the prettiest servants were allowed to serve her and every time she got a new gadget, she was allowed to test it on them. When she was fourteen years old her father sent diplomatic ambassadors to the great firms, which ruled the world to announce that he would give his daughter to that company which gave her the gift she liked best.
She jacked in to greet the visitors.
The first to come was a man in a plain uniform and a briefcase in his right hand. He opened his case and took out a decent datadisk, laying it to her feet.
The second wore a unifom of a waiter and lay to her feet a glowing point as red as blood.
The third appeared suddenly out of nowwhere, a great dragon of gold who took the nail of his claw, which morphed into a golden key and flowed towards her.
Six others came and lay great gifts to her feet.
Then the tenth appeared, a black shadow barely visible who escaped her scanner.
Her other visitors grumbled and a hiss escaped the dragon, but the shadow ignored them all and kneeled to her feet. Slowly the shadows on his back shifted and a black shape manifested itself.
A hammer, barely visible against the black shadow below it, in reach of her hand.
Without analysing it, she took the hammer. It was light and seemed to drag her hand towards a target.
Her eyes slowly widened as she realized the full extent of the gift. A quick mental impuls copied it into physical memory.
In front of her the shadow stood again and extended one hand towards her. The shadows shifted again and she saw shining chrome fingers, cutting through the blackness. The shadows face seemed to smile.
The smile faded as her hand shot forward and the hammer cut through the shadows of his chest. A second strike cracked his head and the third smashed the extended hand. Shivering, the shadow fell to the ground.
She stepped over him, grabbed his smashed hand and disabled the hammer.
Then she took up the golden key and smiled at the dragon, a gift of her own in her hand. zurück
