Trouble and Her Friends

Trouble and her friends
By Melissa Scott

Less than 100 years in the future….(2094)

It’s been weird on the NETS. Trouble aka India Carless a notorious hacker has gone underground never to been seen again when one day an impersonator using her handle begins to wreak havoc on the NETS.

India is forced to come out of hiding and reunite with her ex lesbian lover, now Government agent, Cerise.

The overly poetic story tends to drag while going in to explicit detail inter cut with dream like sequences taking you, the reader into the NETS via India’s brain. India has installed what is known as a Brainworm- total body immersion into the NETS.

“Trouble represents a feminist approach to femininity in cyberspace”
Trouble had earned her name on the NETS.

Key Concepts:
IC(E) Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics- security programs that protect computerized data from hackers.

India (Trouble is queen hacker) or a CRACKER. They would move around in fear of the shadows and also in fear of being recognized.

Treasury: Government

There are designer drugs (tiny pink pills) that you wash down with coffee that keep you up all night but don’t cloud your judgment.

The BBS runs like a streaming wave of code that you can jump on and ride to places or simply observe.

The NETS as a dirty seedy underground corrupt almost dangerous place. There is also the concept of coming out of the bright lights.

Brainworm: a plug that connects the NETS directly thru the side of her head. It is possible to walk the NETS with out a Brainworm, however to really feel the net you need one. For $3,500 you take the risk of a powerful heightened experience or if it power surges, you end up like a drooling idiot. Once installed you can upgrade and trade in your chips. You can actually HURT yourself physically while on the NETS. Brainworm is said to signify women in cyberspace.

Sex: W2W actually safer now

Evan Tisdale movement created to monitor activity on the nets.

“Friends” include:
Cherise, Liesvelt, Silk, Mabry, Butch, Huu, Mollie, Nova, Blake and Max

In the end India and Cherise prevail and uncover the Mayor of Seahaven’s – a popular city on the net- plot to infiltrate the NETS and the IC(E) by hiring a young male hacker to pose as Trouble.

A prophephtic poetic novel-overly complicated and even boring at times but a smart theme and even smarter author.

Author Melissa Scott: