what was that again?"
"Yes, SIR!" they responded.
"Louder! Sometimes it's hard to hear in the Flux, so shout everything, you understand?"
"YES, SIR!" they screamed at him.
He nodded. "That's better. All right. Let's start with the apron here. Those people that you see are Flux people. They usually live in the Flux, except when they have business here, although some of them are permanent residents of the aprons, dealing in goods and services for stringers like me. Just in case you never heard the term before, they are called duggers. Duggers are one kind of group that lives in the Flux. Forget that bullshit they sold you in school and church -- the Flux is full of life, and death, and is anything but empty. In fact, a lot of stuff that keeps the Anchors going comes from Fluxlands. Anchors trade for the stuff, and what they trade is often information or
SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 85
services, but is also people. You, to be exact, in this case."
He paused to let that sink in.
"Now, you may wonder why the hell the Flux needs people. Part of the reason is that it's a pretty hard, violent place compared to Anchors. They have a very high death rate. The odds are that your own lives will be short, but don't let that upset you too much. There are still a lot of folks out there who live to ripe old ages, and some who live so long they seem almost immortal. Children are bom in the Flux, too, but the infant mortality rate is very high, and the odds are against some- body growing to adulthood there. Again, that doesn't mean everybody. I was born in the Flux, and I've lived more than twice as long as any of you."
Again he paused, looking at their faces to see how they were taking it.
"Okay, then. Right now you're imagining some wild, savage kind of Anchor or something. Well, for- get it. In fact, if you want to stay alive, forget every single bit of science or logic that you were ever taught. All that applies only to Anchors- In fact, that is the real difference between Anchor and Flux.
"In Anchors, everything's following a clearly de- fined set of natural laws. You drop a stone, it falls at a specific rate to the ground thanks to gravity. That's a good example. In the Flux, there are no natural laws- None. There are standard conditions -- what we call 'default conditions,' but those exist only where not modified. You will not go floating into the air. You will be able to breathe it, and the temperature is rather warm although usually ex- tremely dry. But these are all defaults, not fixed conditions. They are subject to change. You can take nothing for granted in the Flux. Nothing.
"Now -- what changes these conditions? Well, the fact is, the Flux is as you see it over there. That's
86 Jack L. Chalker
the default, too. A big nothing. What looks like fog, though, isn't fog at all -- it's energy. The Flux does obey one natural law -- energy can neither be cre- ated nor destroyed, but it can be changed. When you put a match to oil in a lamp you let out the energy in the oil. When you were in the city, though, you saw electric lights and powered gadgets. That power came from turning some matter, some solid stuff, into energy- You can do that in the Flux, too -- but there you can also do it backwards!"
That caught some of them off balance. Those who had been able to follow things so far tried to figure out his last comment and fit it in, the others just stood there trying to look like they understood it all.
"What that means," he went on, "is that energy, what you see back there, can be changed into matter. Solid things. If you're good enough, or smart enough, you can do almost anything there- Those who can totally control it are like gods. In fact, some of 'em think they are gods and act like it, too. We call 'em wizards -- master magicians. They really do have the power of gods in the Flux, and they run tilings. They're the ones who created the
"Yes, SIR!" they responded.
"Louder! Sometimes it's hard to hear in the Flux, so shout everything, you understand?"
"YES, SIR!" they screamed at him.
He nodded. "That's better. All right. Let's start with the apron here. Those people that you see are Flux people. They usually live in the Flux, except when they have business here, although some of them are permanent residents of the aprons, dealing in goods and services for stringers like me. Just in case you never heard the term before, they are called duggers. Duggers are one kind of group that lives in the Flux. Forget that bullshit they sold you in school and church -- the Flux is full of life, and death, and is anything but empty. In fact, a lot of stuff that keeps the Anchors going comes from Fluxlands. Anchors trade for the stuff, and what they trade is often information or
SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 85
services, but is also people. You, to be exact, in this case."
He paused to let that sink in.
"Now, you may wonder why the hell the Flux needs people. Part of the reason is that it's a pretty hard, violent place compared to Anchors. They have a very high death rate. The odds are that your own lives will be short, but don't let that upset you too much. There are still a lot of folks out there who live to ripe old ages, and some who live so long they seem almost immortal. Children are bom in the Flux, too, but the infant mortality rate is very high, and the odds are against some- body growing to adulthood there. Again, that doesn't mean everybody. I was born in the Flux, and I've lived more than twice as long as any of you."
Again he paused, looking at their faces to see how they were taking it.
"Okay, then. Right now you're imagining some wild, savage kind of Anchor or something. Well, for- get it. In fact, if you want to stay alive, forget every single bit of science or logic that you were ever taught. All that applies only to Anchors- In fact, that is the real difference between Anchor and Flux.
"In Anchors, everything's following a clearly de- fined set of natural laws. You drop a stone, it falls at a specific rate to the ground thanks to gravity. That's a good example. In the Flux, there are no natural laws- None. There are standard conditions -- what we call 'default conditions,' but those exist only where not modified. You will not go floating into the air. You will be able to breathe it, and the temperature is rather warm although usually ex- tremely dry. But these are all defaults, not fixed conditions. They are subject to change. You can take nothing for granted in the Flux. Nothing.
"Now -- what changes these conditions? Well, the fact is, the Flux is as you see it over there. That's
86 Jack L. Chalker
the default, too. A big nothing. What looks like fog, though, isn't fog at all -- it's energy. The Flux does obey one natural law -- energy can neither be cre- ated nor destroyed, but it can be changed. When you put a match to oil in a lamp you let out the energy in the oil. When you were in the city, though, you saw electric lights and powered gadgets. That power came from turning some matter, some solid stuff, into energy- You can do that in the Flux, too -- but there you can also do it backwards!"
That caught some of them off balance. Those who had been able to follow things so far tried to figure out his last comment and fit it in, the others just stood there trying to look like they understood it all.
"What that means," he went on, "is that energy, what you see back there, can be changed into matter. Solid things. If you're good enough, or smart enough, you can do almost anything there- Those who can totally control it are like gods. In fact, some of 'em think they are gods and act like it, too. We call 'em wizards -- master magicians. They really do have the power of gods in the Flux, and they run tilings. They're the ones who created the
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