The Adventures of Stevie #202
These stories were told to me by friends and other people. Some of them
are true. Some of them are only partly true. Some of them should have
been true. LOL
My first post about Stevie ("Call me Stephen!") was when he was 12 and
in summer camp and was told by another camper. This was from a time
before computers would fit on a desk and when people communicated with
friends in other countries by actual letters sent through the postal
service. When children did this those friends were called "penpals".
Carlos is Stevie's penpal in Argentina and knows English. This is a
fictional contrivance to enable Stevie to tell us his stories because
he isn't here in person. I think.
All characters are fictitious, even if some of them might have names
that belong to some actual people, or act like people we know.
Stevie's school is for gifted children who don't fit in regular schools.
The stories may not be posted in chronological order.
Stevie is 14 in this story, in the Fall of year 5 of special school, at
Thanksgiving.
The Adventures of Stevie #202 "Policy Making"
Dear Carlos,
We had our usual Thanksgiving supper with our guests, Tomba, Tommy,
Jeremy, Dr. Knot, and father. We had a lot more vegetarian things this
year. It was a new project for us, learning to cook that way, which was
interesting. We still served a turkey, but the bird flew mostly alone.
Nobody complained. Father will eat almost anything which won't eat him
first, and not care what it tastes like. I think Tommy actually liked
the new things the best. I didn't care. I like all kinds of cooking, if
it's done well, and we did the best we could, which was very well, in
my opinion. I didn't really need live octopus, anyway. Or dead, either.
After socializing after the food, Tomba, Dr. Knot, Father, and I,
went downstairs to the conference room for a talk. I started the
meeting with, "I want to discuss policy, for the school and the team.
The team first. I'm stepping back, and Pete is going to be the leader
of the team in action. For this, we need some official policy to guide
their actions. We've been on enough different missions to know what we
can do which would be effective, and what we can't do. Now we have to
decide what we SHOULD do. What our role will be for America and the
world. So far I've stated, on the jobs and in discussions, that we have
2 missions. Protect people from being mistreated by Dark Adepts. That
also means to be protected from us, too, which I'll get to later. The
other mission is to protect Earth and it's people from interference by
offworlders. We are the only people who can do those things in any
useful degree, so we should. But why should that be done at all?
Looking at the philosophy of it, the reason is clear. Self
determination. The principle on which democracy and freedom is based.
It's not fair that super powerful people and beings should be allowed
to interfere with regular people. After thinking about that for a
while, I've come to the conclusion that it means us, too. We adepts of
the Light don't have any more right to interfere with how regular
people, 3 billion of them, want to run their lives and their world,
than the people we oppose do. We can't stop wars. I tried in France. We
can't change social forces that large, without using so much force, we
would destroy what we would save. We will never have enough adepts to
do it any other way, and that would push us to the Dark. We have to let
humanity evolve how it will, without us trying to change what we can
never know should or should not be interfered with, which can effect
the future in so many different ways."
I said "What kind of missions should we go on? Things involving
offworlders, definitely. Personal rescues? When we can, for innocent
people, when there is no other hope, and we are asked, I think so. With
a priority on children. I think we should keep providing psychological
services to the Bureau, for free, because that gives us a connection to
the most important investigative organization in the free world, which
protects us from them, and lets us access some of their services, and
keeps us in touch with what's going on. But we only deal with agents,
and not criminals except during a rescue. I think we can get involved
in some ways with disaster investigation and relief, with fake
instruments which can locate people trapped in rubble, and things like
that. And of course, we should conduct research into anything we want
to, but only share things with the world if it won't ruin it, or expose
us. That is another point. We can't let humanity in general, know we
exist, and what we do. It wouldn't be good for them to know such
powerful people exist, and it would get us murdered by hysterical
enraged mobs. We could live separately in isolation, but we need to
live among regular humans, and love them, to be human ourselves, and
because our children will just as likely be morons, as adepts. Any
comments so far? Tomba, you are the team's ethical and moral guide.
What do you think?"
Tomba said "I think you have thought this out very carefully. Too
carefully for me to find anything to disagree with so far." He smiled
and said, "Not that I expected anything less." Father said "Wyman, what
about his point about how people would react, and having to live among
them." Dr. Knot said, "All we know about history and Human Sciences
supports what Stephen said. I strongly agree." I said "Anything else?"
There wasn't, except agreement. "I'm disappointed and annoyed. I hoped
there would be something to help me be wrong." Tomba said, "Fat
chance!" I was next to him, so I could poke him, and let him know I was
thinking about it. He laughed, and the other 2 smiled.
I said "Now we talk about the school. I want it to continue. Too much
of this country's educational system is geared to support the modestly
able students, with very little support for the gifted, who are
disadvantaged and harmed by being the ugly ducklings among the rest so
long, their development into beautiful swans is damaged. If humanity is
to progress as it should, those children should be given as much
opportunity to realize their potential as possible. Where we can, we
have a duty to assist them. Our school is one of those means. We can
and should start and manage other schools for geniuses, and not
necessarily for the security field, in this and in other countries. I'm
developing new educational tools to significantly speed up learning,
for students who are capable of using them, so much so, an entire
college course can be learned in less than an hour. With psychic
development and training knowledge, this system will have restrictions,
based on degree of basic ability, and adherence to the ideals of the
Path of Light. I will not allow adepts we make to be of the Dark. The
training will include inhibitions which will disable psychic ability if
the adept turns to the Dark. Does include. I've already made them. I
can give you a simple demonstration now." I passed around a heat gun,
and explained about the crystal in the handle which had the
instructions. I said "Touch it, and you will know all about how to
operate it. There are more advanced teaching crystals already made,
which have the features I described, and I'll be making more. So will
Pete. He can't make them as complicated as I can, but after I invent a
particular process, he is mostly able to use it."
"We need money to make this work. We have earned so far this academic
year, about 10 million dollars. Jan is setting things up so we can keep
most of it, and increase it. We need to have shell corporations and
subsidiaries, and other business entities, to manage and safeguard our
financial and operational interests. Jan is working on that too. One of
those companies will be publicly involved in psychic research. We will
sift through the crackpots we will get, to find people with real
abilities we can recruit. Rod is set to do more mining exploration and
development, and knows what we want to find. He, Chad, and I, have
learned some things from the alien artifacts which we can patent, such
as new manufacturing processes, which could earn us billions. We should
have an office in every major city in every major country, all linked
by Port-Alls. I've invented a method where I can automatically control
my psychic abilities, similar to how weavers do it to control looms,
using an instructional crystal to work like their hole punched cards.
It's funny, I invented that to help me put on a fireworks show for the
camp. So, I have 500 paired Port-All controllers, and their keys,
already made, and the frames can be easily mass produced. Only 500
pairs, because we have a shortage of the required crystals."
"A senior student teacher, like I am, or graduate of the school, will
always be in charge of the school after Dr. Knot leaves. The way it
will likely work out, we will take turns, a few years at a time. The
same for helping at the Bureau. These people, who will be mostly adepts
I hope, will form the council who will serve as the board of directors
for the whole enterprise, who will elect their own officers, and
corporate directors, some of whom will be hired, and ignorant of the
major purposes of the enterprise. In 70 to a hundred years, I hope to
have this all established and working, and then we can face the aliens
on equal ground, and take our place among them in the stars. So, any
comments?"
Tomba immediately raised his hand. I nodded at him. He said "I have
one that should be said more than at any other time. Wow!" I grinned at
him and said, "You do have a way with words." Father said "He spoke for
me." Dr. Knot said "And me." I said "Well, I was hoping for ideas to
help. Got any? If not now, when you do, let me know. We can share
copies of the tape recording we are making of this meeting, and I can
put my memory of this into a crystal." That was the end of the meeting.
At his request, I ported Dr. Knot home. Tomba went upstairs with me.
After we undressed and were alone, because Dan had left to go to
Stuart's place, I said to Tomba, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" He
looked like he didn't know what it meant. I said "It's Latin, and means
literally, 'Who will guard the guards themselves?', or more often, 'Who
watches the watchmen?'." He said "Ah, I see. And the answer is?" I said
"You know. You. You and your monks are our conscience. We can't do this
without you. You are already doing it, and you have agreed to it as it
is now. I need you to continue it. WE need you. I'm begging you." He
hugged and kissed me, and said, "You don't have to beg. We can't
refuse. It's what we are for." I kissed and hugged him back, with my
tears, and said, "Thank you. Then we might actually do good."
We hugged for a while, and he said, "There is another good thing we
can do." I knew what he meant, and he knew I knew, but I said,
"Whatever can that be?" He said "Here, I'll show you." That he did, and
it was good. Very good. After much of that very goodness, we made each
other squirt very well. We slept in each other's arms, with a different
goodness, which was love.
Your friend,
Stephen
--
Grant
|
|