1993 (rev 02/2001)


Latchers

by JSH


Kaitlin was in the Scene.  Like, right in the Scene.
She was far beyond Cool.  Cool was only a place you could see her 
from.
	But Kaitlin had her problems.  People were delighted with this fact, 
some people.  Schadenfreude.  As always throughout history, people 
hated her for being beautiful.  Being famous.  Being unrestrainedly 
involved.
	Kaitlin had Latchers, something she was only just beginning to truly 
grasp.


Melbourne had a slightly queasy air to it on some nights, now.  
	One often had a feeling, if one was the right kind of person, that 
there was just too much going on.  Once upon a time, logistics kept a 
tight rein on your nightlife.  No matter how little time you spent 
working, or how many stimulants you had taken, or how fast you 
could get from A to B avoiding the cops, there was a limit on where 
you could go and what you could do.  No one had invented Teleport 
yet.
	But that all went out the window, over a period of roughly six 
months, in 2012.
	Alex Wintern put herself online, and the world fell away into a 
smeared universe where there was always something to do.  
Somewhere to be.


Marcus was shocked when he heard how Kaitlin had changed.  An old 
friend had done the thing that people do just to annoy you.  Changed.
	It took him weeks to even get near her, and he was plagued all the 
while by a sense of hopelessness, like she was spiralling upward and 
away from him forever.
	All she ever seemed to do was party.  And party.  And she had more 
money than he could understand.  She was a student, for fuck's sake.  
An Arts student with unmonied parents she hardly ever saw.  She was 
nineteen.
	What the hell was happening?
	Marcus finally came to understand when he visited Tanis.  A friend 
of his of many years, Tanis now worked in sophisticated studios, bringing about just the kinds of modern wierdness that Kaitlin's was.
	"Why does Kaitlin have so much dough?", Marcus asked Tanis, 
"And why does she never speak to any of us anymore?  Any of us!  I've 
spoken to Maria, Dorothy, Stevo, none of them have seen her since the 
launch party.  What's her story, is she doing the Big Change or 
something?"
	Tanis spun slowly around in his swivel chair.  It seemed the way you 
were supposed to move in these studios, it just seemed to sit right 
against millions of flickering graphs and screens.
	"She's Latching.  You obviously haven't heard about the last thing 
she did.  Its only been, um, what?  Three months?  She's already well 
on her way to becoming a Great Lady.  Fuck, what a woman, what a 
mad cow." 
	Marcus didn't have the faintest idea what Tanis was talking about.
	"What the fuck are you talking about?", said Marcus, "I didn't 
understand one single word of that."
	Tanis looked at him blankly.  Then his head flicked back as he 
realised something.
	"Sorry man, I keep forgetting not everyone sees this stuff every day.  
Though don't worry, they soon will."
	He fumbled in his pockets and began slowly rolling another joint.
	"She's Latching.  She has Latchers.  You know what that is?".  
Tanis raised his eyes toward Marcus as he licked along the paper.
	"Wouldn't have a clue", said Marcus, beginning to feel more than a 
little left out.
	"Do you know about the last generation of full-band that Sony put 
out last year?  Black boxes that freaked everybody out?  Made the 
whole Dark Fibre thing into a joke?", asked Tanis.
	Marcus was straining to keep up.  This wasn't him.
	"Um, Ok.  VR stuff.  Sony.  Really powerful engines, pump a whole 
universe into your head, just like they always wanted.  Right?"
	Tanis nodded, a very good keep going sort of nod.
	"No more dark fibre, and the phone system is expanding again just 
to cope with this, right?", said Marcus, "So what's the joke?  Why are 
you grinning?"
	Tanis raised his eyebrows and neatly completed the joint.
	"Simple.  They can pick up sensoria going the other direction too."
	"English?"
	"They can pump somebody else's life into your own head."
	Marcus began sweating.  He thought it before he said it.
	Oh fuck, into lots and lots of people's heads.  Latchers.
	"Latchers are people sharing somebody else's life?", he asked.
	"Yep."
	"So what the hell for?  Why doesn't the novelty value...Oh my God!  
Kaitlin is hiring her life out?"
	"Yep.  At twenty bucks an hour per user."
	"Why?"
	Tanis took a few puffs, then handed him the joint.  When he spoke 
his voice was modulated by the smoke.
	"Would have thought that was enough, actually.  But it goes 
further.  Kaitlin is a bright young thing in a bright young world.  She 
goes places, she does things, she fucks a lot of people.  She has fun.  
People have decided she is inherently interesting, y'see."
	Tanis looked pained for a second.
	"If you collect more than one hundred Latchers, you get to call 
yourself by a silly name, a title.  There are different names for all the 
ranks."
	"A Great Lady," said Marcus, looking into the distance.  It was just 
too much.  Too much.
	"Or a Righteous Gentleman", said Tanis, "Or a Queen of Babylon.  
Fuck, some of them are cool, and some are just ridiculous."
	Marcus formulated his next question, carefully.
	"So, how do they interact?  Her and her entourage," he asked
	"She ...they...choose their Latchers very carefully.  I've had a few 
offers myself."  He produced an embossed maroon card from a pocket 
and handed it to Marcus, exchanging it for the joint.
	Marcus read it closely.  The writing was in a beautiful script, gold 
against the blood coloured background.


Kaitlin Williams
Invites you to share her life
(You are cordially invited to latch)
Call the number below for details
Be honoured


	Marcus' head was spinning.
	"But I still don't understand," he said, "The equipment, the massive 
bandwidth, where does it come from?"
	Tanis leaned into an ok listen carefully pose, and began.
	"Right, it works like this.  The clients have their own gear.  It costs 
a bloody fortune at the moment, but soon everyone will have it.  Kaitlin 
basically hires herself out as a rental service to the Net.  She does deals 
with several people.  Heck, there are even agents who handle all the 
paperwork crap, and there isn't much of that.  Latcher populations 
aren't like fans, their populations can be big, but never huge.  The basic 
criterion for a host, like Kaitlin, is that you have to be interesting.  And 
outgoing.  And the rest.  And you choose who can Latch you.  You 
can determine if they have any feedback, and they can set watches that 
tell them when you are doing something they might be interested in.  
Get it?"

Marcus understood before Tanis had finished.  Jealousy had fired 
within him.
	He wanted to Latch.