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"The Adventures of Lone Wolf Scientific"

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An electronically syndicated series that
follows the exploits of two of the
computer industry's bona fide eccentrics.
Copyright 1991 Michy Peshota. All rights
reserved. May not be distributed without
accompanying WELCOME.LWS and EPISOD.LWS
files.
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EPISODE #16

Two Guys in a Garage

>>When the bashful programmer and the high-strung computer
builder find themselves without jobs, paychecks, government
security clearances, or viable character references, they do
what any desperate men would do--they start a high-tech
company.<<
by M. Peshota

As the two former defense workers headed to S-max's

van, they reflected on the loss of their jobs, their
paychecks, and their dignity, as well as their blasted
reputations.
"I have never been happier," the computer builder
said, strolling through the parking garage, the fake zebra
fur from his computer chair draped over his arm. "And to
think, we escaped the whole fiasco without being even made
the subject of some lengthy TV mini-series." He grunted
with glee. "Or a congressional investigation."
The programmer shuffling behind him, his arms full of
boxes stuffed with fur dice, "Honk If You Want Complete
Schematics" bumper-stickers, a plaster bust of John F.
Kennedy, and all the other effluvium from their former
office, didn't reply. He was too stricken with grief at the
loss of his first engineering job to speak.
"Did I ever tell you how I was once the subject of a
congressional investigation?" S-max continued.
Andrew.BAS wanted to reply that no, he had not told
him, nor was he surprised that the mischievous S-max had
been the subject of a congressional investigation, but he
was too sad to answer.
"This nudnik congressman thought fer sure that I was
the source of a recent spate of computer terrorism in
Surinam, but I wasn't. I was in Guyana at the time." He
grunted innocently.
"I think I read about that in the papers."
"You most likely did. I received much fan mail after
my verile profile was transmitted over the wire services.
Although many of the pictures that female correspondents
sent of themselves >>did<< appear to have prison numbers on
them." He grunted again.
Andrew.BAS recalled a newspaper story he had once read
about a raggedy computer whiz who had practically taken
Congress hostage, ranting and raving for hours in front of a
microphone about various outdated computer architectures.
How could he have known that he would one day find himself
sharing his office--and his home even--with this same
goofball? Had he known he probably would have foresaken his
childhood dream of leading an impeccably logical life and
become an art history major instead.
S-max spotted the gloom on the programmer's face. He
felt sorry for him, then realized with a start that this was
the very first time he had ever felt sorry for a computer
programmer. Usually he did not feel sorry for programmers.
Usually he felt they deserved whatever they got. But he
couldn't help thinking of how hard it must have been on the
young programmer when the evil and demonic Gus Farwick had
phoned his parents and informed them that their son had
programmed a smart bomb to write 'Goose Farwook Sings the
Big Kahuna' across the sky. (When Farwick had demanded that
S-max tell him the truth about who had been the mastermind
behind the bomb's blasphemy, the computer builder couldn't
help it, the name 'Andrew.BAS' had just slipped from his
mouth.)
S-max's parents, on the other hand, were not at all
surprised when the engineer-manager called to tell them what
their socially-challenged offspring had been up to.
(