Chapter 23 Part 3

Sal wasn't sure what an apprentice was, but what he was sure of was that nobody had been as kind to him as Maltrus had. If there was a chance he could spend more time with this man, he would be more than happy to do whatever being an apprentice meant.

Sal shook his head yes. Maltrus had placed his large hand on his shoulder and off they walked in the direction of Maltrus's living space.

Sal felt around in his pocket to be sure he could feel the familiar bulk of the knife. It was there just as it always was. Funny how despite all the progress the low tech solutions remain among the most dependable. He cast his gaze toward Iron Bastion once more and set off.

It didn't take long for Sal to find himself on the wrong side of town. The good news was that the wrong side of town, was for Sal, paradoxically the right side of town because it was like where he grew up. He had never visited the darker parts of Undertown. He had heard rumors that people there were like technological vultures. He hadn't really put much stock in it until he saw it for himself.

Many of the people in the darker parts of Undertown had been members of the holonospheric world before. If they were down here, it was probably because something had gone wrong. They might want to run from the holonosphere, but they remembered some of the conveniences it offered. These people would cannibalize bits and pieces of the technology that existed in Undertown in an effort to make their lives a little easier. There was not much by policing in these parts of town. If a person accidentally ended up here and looked like they had some useful gadget, it was a good bet that they would not be leaving town with it. If they were lucky, it would get stolen. if they were unlucky, it would be stolen, and the previous owner would be dead.

Many of the members of this part of Undertown looked like cyborgs as various electronic gadgetry adorned their person. Sometimes what they had would make some sense--like night vision googles on the top of their heads they could flip down--other times Sal was even hard pressed to identify what they were doing or why. Sal suspected that there were more than a few items that had been created with the help of the alternet.

The holonosphere was blocked out of Undertown, this much was a fact. Trying to circumvent the dampening was next to impossible. However, it was possible to form one's own independent network INSIDE the holonosphere. This was not expressly forbidden, but neither was it encouraged. The coverage of any home-brewed alternet was spotty and subject to rapid extinction. However, as long as some alternet coverage existed, it was possible to generate certain items within the zone in which it existed which otherwise would not be possible. Because alternets were not expressly approved of, the items produced by them had to appear to be conceivably real--as though they were not generated by an alternet. There were likely more than a few pairs of binoculars that displayed alternet induced data flow. There were probably many watches that could kill a man in various ways as well as tell time. Alternet objects were heavily camouflaged.