Chapter 4

The next few weeks went by fairly quickly for Cameron. He was getting some part time work at Bridger Angler, the Bozeman fly shop where he had a summer job lined up. Another day was taken up with the entrance exams for Montana State University-Bozeman. There were several days spent fishing on the Gallatin and Yellowstone, ended with the start of spring run-off. A couple of weekends went to drives around the area with the family getting reacquainted with the area and with each other.

He also put a lot of time into the reading material he had picked up in Seattle. Cameron found himself coming back to a series on a game called Starweb run by some company in Arizona called Flying Buffalo. The game was played by 15 different players, each of whom had taken on one of six character types. The moves were processed by computer so that each player only knew what he saw, or could get from other players. Each player started out with certain number of ships and fleets on his homeworld where he also had the capacity to build more ships. This world was connected to others and they, in turn, to a universe of a couple of hundred worlds. Somewhere out there were the other players, each with their own goals.

Cameron decided he would give the game a try and signed up for the next start. He chose the name SKRAPR and elected to be a MERCHANT. As a merchant he would get most of his points for delivering raw materials to other player's industrial worlds. This meant, of course, that he would have to find and make alliances with at least some of the other players. Cameron placed 5 of his 25 ships on each of his 5 fleet "keys." His home world connected to 3 others so he sent 2 fleets to two worlds and 1 to the third.

When the turn cycled he found that he had found one artifact, worthless to himself, two new fleet keys, and, of course, the connections to several new worlds. One of the worlds connected to only one other world, one connected to three other worlds, and one connected to six additional worlds. Cameron couldn't visit 10 new worlds with only seven fleet keys and his fleets were getting smaller too as ships were detached to garrison the worlds he had found.

On the third round Cameron met two other players. One was named IATOLA who he guessed might be an APOSTLE character. The other was named ATILLA, perhaps an EMPIRE BUILDER but for sure not a PIRATE as Cameron's fleet would have been captured since it was outnumbered by more than 3 to 1. He sent both players diplomatic messages giving them his e-mail and snail mail addresses and his phone number and suggesting that they talk. Cameron also found three new fleet keys, another artifact useful only to a COLLECTOR or BERSERKER, and a world with an extra industrial plant. One of the new world connections was back in a loop to a world he had already found. Cameron sent two 1 ship fleets back to his home world carrying raw materials to be reinforced by the new ships which his factories had been building.

On round four Cameron's turn included a diplomatic message from ATILLA who was indeed an EMPIRE BUILDER. It was written in much the same fashion as his own had been. There was nothing from IATOLA. The new world connections completed another loop formation along with half a dozen new systems. Three more fleet keys brought his fleet strength up to 13. ATILLA turned out to be a Malcolm Chandler so Cameron gave him a call. Yes, Chandler was interested, eager even, to ally with a MERCHANT. They quickly agreed that each would declare the other an ally, trade star maps, Cameron would give ATILLA a one ship key with the two artifacts he had, and Chandler would give SKRAPR a 5 ship key with a merchant artifact to start hauling raw materials. Chandler had not met IATOLA but had met RUFUS, a PIRATE and TINMAN, a BERSERKER. He and TINMAN had talked, intended to ally, suggested that Cameron do the same, and provided contact information. The next day Cameron got an e-mail from IATOLA providing additional contact information, confirmation that he was an APOSTLE, requested safe passage to scatter converts, and inquired about artifacts, contacts, and map data.