The Ether Strikes Back

* * *

The glowing light saber flicked toward Luke with inhuman speed. He answered with a reflexive parry and a quick step to the right. His breath came in short gulps, his face dripped sweat.

Dark Fiber held his saber in the classic ready position. He feigned and probed, trying to confuse the tiring young man who opposed him. The hangar was dark and empty except for the two warriors, oblivious to all but each other. The air between them was a living thing, pulsing with tension and hatred.

Breath hissed in and out of Fiber's black helmet. "You are strong young Netwalker, but I am the master. Surrender to the dark side, admit that chaos is inevitable."

"Never", Luke yelled as he charged forward with a fierce assault. Fiber retreated before the savage onslaught until he could regain his balance. With a few quick thrusts of his saber, he used his greater size to halt the attack.

"You still do not understand the power of the dark side," Fiber clenched his black gloved left fist and shook it at Luke, "Standards are an illusion, only chaos is real."

* * *

Luke stood on his head amid the rain forests of Dagobah. He relaxed and concentrated, calling on the power of the magical Ether. He reached out with his mind, connecting to a process, then to another and then another.

Standing to the side, the Master watched his young apprentice join process after process. Luke grabbed the fifth process and then a sixth. Suddenly, all the processes started to handshake. Luke trembled, strained, and dropped the connections.

The Master lowered his head and shook it slowly. "Control! You must learn Logical Link Control!"

Luke turned, ashamed. "Master, I'm sorry. It's just too complex."

"Judge me by my complexity will you? And well you should not, for the Ether is my ally and a powerful ally it is. It binds us, brings us together, in combination strong we become."

The Master held his hand and wooden walking stick out from his body, closed his eyes, and with no obvious effort connected a dozen processes at once. After a few moments, he relaxed and dropped the links.

Luke looked stunned. "I don't believe it."

"That is why you fail. You must know that with standards one the world becomes. For 200 years have I trained Osi Knights. Never has one crossed the seven layer path to Nirvana without total faith."

* * *

Fiber attacked again. The two light sabers sparked from the collision. Luke and the evil Lord spun and twisted, sabers flashing, searching for a hidden advantage to bring victory.

"If standards are unreal, why do you fear me so?" Luke fought for control of his rising anger.

Dark Fiber laughed. "Fear? I have no fear. I wish you to join me. The Ether is too limited to threaten the Lord of Chaos.

"You call the Ether a standard, yet look at it. A Maker builds a system from more than just the Ether. He uses backplane buses, peripheral buses, device interfaces and a system bus. Four ways to attach a device, the Ether covers but one.

"You dream that everyone is part of the Ether. Let it be so, and chaos will still rule. Or define a standard for each, and we will have but a Chaos of Standards."

Luke was shaken by a simple truth. Should not a disk be a disk to a process, regardless of where it is? Are not all devices attached by wires of various lengths? Luke recalled his lessons. Had not his Master provided an answer?

"When you doubt," the Master had said, "Return you must to the seven layer path. Let it guide you."

Luke smiled and lunged toward Fiber. "The Path is the answer. A process may sit atop it and pass PDUs down without knowing what exists below."

"And what of the Path? You Osi Knights define the layers, but what of the links between each? You allow the Maker to define them, to build it as He decides. Chaos lives on the path, each door opens only at the whim of the Makers." Fiber flashed a savage series of thrusts. "Where is your standard now?"

Everything Luke knew was shattered. Could Fiber be so right and the Osi Master so wrong? Luke's defense slipped as his mind wandered.

"Still unsure?" Fiber saw Luke weaken. "Hook together one of your precious Ether links between boxes of different Makers. See how impotent the Ether is if the Gods of Software are not also in harmony. A standard must be made so at levels beyond those where the simple Ether lies."

"No!" Luke cried out in anger and frustration and rushed Dark Fiber, attacking with utter madness. Their light sabers met again and again in the brutal skirmish. Fountains of sparks from the collisions lit the hangar like a new born sun.

Fiber set his feet and applied leverage forward. The light sabers remained in contact and the two combatants moved to less than a foot apart, each braced against the other.

The dark Lord pushed with all his unearthly might, a groan escaping from the exertion. Luke flew backwards and slid to the far wall, his light saber fallen from his hand.

Fiber hovered over him. The dark Lord raised a gloved hand and Luke's body rose from the ground and was pinned ten feet high on the hangar wall. Netwalker struggled helplessly against the unseen arms that held him in place.

"You Osi Knights do not understand true power. Did not your teacher tell you the Law of Ten Megabits? Ten is the number, thou shalt be no faster, nor be thou slower."

Luke was startled to hear the ancient Code of the Ether spoken by one so evil.

"Ten? Ten is nothing. Ignore the rule and what is possible? Fifty? One hundred? Chaos is the stronger. Your standards limit you to what was. Generations pass while you debate changing the Code. Chaos need not wait. Today I am 50, tomorrow 70, then 100. You will be old before the Ether is set beyond your meager 10."

Luke's voice was a whisper, "No."

"Your Master never told you what happened to your father."

"He told me enough. He told me you killed him."

"I am your father." Luke's chin dropped. "Search your feelings, you know this to be true. Join me and together we can end this destructive conflict and rule the Internet as father and son."

Luke screamed in anguish, as the truth in Fiber's words struck him.

"Yes, Chaos is the father of standards. Now you see the truth." Dark Fiber lowered Luke to the ground and held out his open hand. "Come with me, my son."

Luke fought to center himself and called on every bit of training that had been given him. His fallen light saber jumped from the floor into his hand. He spun with the power of the Ether and chopped at Fiber's weapon, sending it flying into a disposal tube where it flashed briefly and was destroyed.

Luke held his glowing saber to the chest of his disarmed enemy. Fiber's breath hissed in and out, as calm as ever. He spoke quietly, "Strike me down if you will. Chaos will not be defeated. I am but a symbol."

"I will not kill you, but neither shall I join you. Without the forces of Chaos there would be no standards, we are yin to your yang. Were chaos to disappear, standards would become dead, empty things bereft of change. I wish to breathe life into my standards, yet it is chaos alone that may do so. There must be standards, so there must be chaos."

Luke turned off his light saber and hung it from its clip on his belt. He looked into the eyes of Dark Fiber. "I am an Osi Knight, like my father before me."

Luke turned and walked slowly to his ship. He settled into the pilot's chair and started the engines. Dark Fiber stood facing the rebel fighter. Luke called the MAC center for permission to depart. He heard a voice in his head calling "Luke".

"Father," he replied mentally as he guided his ship into the night.