Stephen's Logbook #1 Entry #23
These stories about Stephen began was when he was 10 years old, and
moving to a new part of the country to attend a special school for
gifted students. 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. He wrote 225 of them to
a friend. Please refer to them for insight into this new series of
stories. He stopped writing to his penpal, but found he still wanted to
record his life, in case he loses his memory again. So, we can now look
into selected entries in his logbook to see how he is doing.
All characters are fictitious, even if some of them might have names
that belong to some actual people, or act like people we know.
The stories may not be posted in chronological order.
Stephen is 17 in this story, in the Fall after the start of year 8 of
special school.
Stephen's Logbook #1 Entry #23 "Dean and Law"
NEW ENTRY
I had a meeting with Jan and Dean. Jan said "Dean wants to be a part
of the Enterprise, but his way will take a long time to prepare for." I
looked at Dean, who said, "I'm going to be a lawyer. That will take a
lot of schooling, and you need loyal lawyers now, urgently. That's a
real problem. Ethics be damned, I don't know any lawyer who could keep
your confidentiality when he finds out about all this, even if you can
somehow use adept powers on him to keep him quite. He would just
explode trying to resist them. I wouldn't even trust my own father with
knowing what Jan can do, and he's a very good lawyer, and honest." I
said "There are possibilities, but they all come with their own added
problems. We teach a condensed series of courses in criminal and
international law in our school, but that's not a full legal education,
and won't get you admitted to the Bar. We could help you with your
undergraduate degree, but you're almost ready to graduate now, so it's
too late for that. We could help you to learn faster and better, but
that wouldn't help enough to speed up your legal education
significantly, but might give you more time to spend with Jan, which
I'm sure you wouldn't mind." They grinned.
I said "There is another possibility, which has never been tried,
even a little bit, with somebody who isn't an adept. Even that won't
get you admitted to the Bar, but could give you more than full
knowledge of the law. I suppose you want to know what that is." They
nodded. I said "First, I have to tell you it could kill you, or worse,
make you into somebody you don't want to be. I have the partial
lifetime memories of some other people, stuck in my head, and other er,
stolen knowledge. I have the ability to deal with it, better than
anybody living, as far as we know. Pete could, but not as well, because
he has. Could another adept take it? Possibly, but I would be reluctant
to risk it. Could a non adapt, non genius take it without damage? I
don't think so. What I mean by all that, is there is a possibility of
putting the memories of a practicing lawyer into somebody else's brain,
as an addition. It would be the whole lifetime of memory, because we
couldn't separate out just the law part. Your father's, for instance,
into you. The Bar wouldn't recognize that, even if they believed it, if
it succeeded, so you couldn't be admitted to practice, so you would
still have to attend law school to have standing before the Court. If
we had a genius adept who had graduated law school, who was equal to
Pete in managing his mind, then we might have a chance of doing
something like that, but in stages limited enough not to fry your
brain. We don't have such a person I know of, and won't for another 10
years. What are your thoughts on what I've said about this?"
They looked disappointed. Dean said "So you don't actually have a
magic wand." I said "I'm sorry. The legal profession is tightly ruled
by the Bar Association and a gavel, not a wand. They won't let you skip
anything. No matter what we do, even if it all worked and didn't hurt
you, it will still take the same amount of time before you can practice
law. I've run into some of that myself, knowing more than a kid is
supposed to. With the Law, that would be a thousand times worse. I want
you to be an active part of us, badly. I know how good a person you
are, and how committed you are to us and our goals. And I love you. We
love you. But we can't have you right away as our lawyer. It just can't
work. And there is this. Even if we could give you all the knowledge of
the law, that wouldn't include skill. I think you know what I mean.
There are no real shortcuts to wisdom, I'm afraid. That has to be
lived." They could see the truth in my tears. We kissed and hugged.
Then I said, "If you know me, you know I don't give up this easily.
I'll ask Pete for his opinions, and other people, too. Who knows, we
might come up with something. No, Jan, I didn't mean that. Can't you
think of anything else?" Jan laughed, and Dean said, "How did you
know?" I said with a grin, "Body language is better than telepathy, and
I'm maybe the best in reading that." He said "Oh. Could be useful in
court." I said, "Probably, but wouldn't be admissible as evidence.
Didn't help with the alien." He said "What alien?" I said "Jan can tell
you. We met with one. Friendly. Scaly, though. And fangs. That would
some ideas. Tell Pete to give Dean the language, and the meeting, and
tell him to look for legal references in his contacts with Zander. I
don't care if Dean isn't a real lawyer yet, we need somebody who is
strange enough to actually be interested in it, with us. What do you
think?"
They were very excited. I said "But you still have to get your law
degree. We can probably help a little with that, but it's still going
to be hard work for you. Well, are you with us?" Jan said "What's with
you and stupid questions?" I said "Wait. Jan, could you contact Pete,
and see if he's available? And Dr. Knot?" We had to wait a half hour
for them both to be available to port to us. I told them about our
discussion. Then I asked Dr. Knot if there are any current regular
students studying law, or any graduates who did. He said "Yes, one of
our students who left us before you arrived, went on to law school. IQ
of 170, with very good mind control. Eidetic memory and total recall,
too. I don't know if she would help, though." I said "Chad could charm
the fuzz off a peach, and make it ask to be eaten. She doesn't stand a
chance. We NEED a legal expert we can trust. We have the man, we just
need to legalize him. Oh, that didn't come out right. Anyway, it
shouldn't take much time, if she can isolate her law knowledge so we
can copy it into a crystal. With a mind like you describe, she should
be able to do it. I wonder if she has any psychic potential." Dr. Knot
said "I'll give Chad her contact information, and brief him on what you
want. Then it will be up to him." I said "He'll probably seduce her.
Even if he doesn't need to." Dr. Knot stood and said, "I'll pretend I
didn't hear that. At my age, I couldn't take it. Please send me to my
office. Good luck." Jan ported him back. I said "What do you think,
Pete? Can we make some law crystals?" He said "I hope so. We really
need a law expert, even if he can't drink from the legal Bar. And there
is Dean. Can't beat that combination." We closed the meeting, with
optimistic feelings, and hugs and kisses.
END ENTRY
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Grant
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