Stephen's Logbook #1 Entry #27
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 18 in this story, in the Summer after year 8 of special
school.
Stephen's Logbook #1 Entry #27 "Nigel Induction"
NEW ENTRY
We had a meeting. In it were, Pete, Rod, Chad, Nigel, Race, Jan,
father, Tomba, and me. The crystal of the situation in Maine was passed
around. I said "As you all know, I like to use action situations to
further our goals." There were some grins. I said "One of those goals
was to establish a good, and if possible, personal, relationship with
Zander. We need the information he can provide us, which yesterday's
action illustrated. I think we are on the path to make that happen."
Pete said "You nailed him. He's your buddy for life." I said "We don't
know that. The current problem as I see it, is he knows much more about
humans than we know about his species. We don't really know how he
thinks, and a lot about what he says. We can't treat him like he is
human, because he isn't. We don't know his body language, or how much
control he has over that. We are in the dark about him, and his
society. We have no idea what his people think about us. For all we
know, they might like us only for how we taste. Our first priority is
to bring some light to all that. Until then, we are at a severe
disadvantage with him and his people." Pete said "I should have thought
of all that. I apologize." I said "We are ALL still learning how to do
this. No need to apologize for being new to this. I only thought about
it that way when I found myself joking with him, and realized I was
doing something very dangerous. Even different societies of humans have
different concepts about humor. How much more could that be, between
different species? I think we have that point settled. Any questions
about what happened yesterday?"
Nigel said "About his people's Guardians? Do they exist?" I said
sharply, "Answer that yourself!" He looked startled, and turned a
little red, and then looked more surprised. He said "They DO exist!" I
said "Expand that." He said "They have existed here too, and exist on
other planets where psychic powers occur." I said "What happened to our
former Guardians?" He was about to say he didn't know, when he noticed
he did. I held my emotions in check. He said "They were destroyed by
the Van." I said "Now tell us why there are Guardians, here and
elsewhere." He really jumped in reaction to that one. He said "Because
that's what we are for. That, or being of the Dark. There isn't really
much else we can do with what we can do, without destroying
everything." Then in the dead silence his revelations created, he said
plaintively, "Why do I do that?" I said to the group, "Nigel and I will
take a few minutes out for a private conference. It won't take long.
Please wait. Nigel, please port you and me to a private room." He did.
We sat. I said to him, "Nigel, if I had lost an arm when I was
injured, would you have cut off your own arm?" He looked very surprised
at that. Then more surprised when he figured out what I meant. He
protested, "I didn't!" I waited. He said "Did I?" I said "Do you have
another explanation?" He thought hard, and then said, "I don't." Then
he cried on my shoulder. I let him do that for a short time, and then I
pulled him up and said, "Nigel, say it." He said "I have been denying
my own intelligence and skill so I wouldn't take that away from you, so
I could keep you as my superior and mentor, my hero. I crippled myself
to make what happened to you not be so bad for you." I said "Did it
work?" He said "No it didn't, and I didn't let me see that. STUPID! It
was stupid to make myself stupid." I said "There is some irony in that
statement." He tried to smile. He said "I put you in danger by doing
that. I'm very sorry!" He cried some more. Then I said, "That's enough.
We know, we fix, not recriminate. Got it?" He straightened up and said,
"Got it!" I said "Don't be surprised or disappointed if you find that
habits are hard to break." He nodded. I said "Work at it hard. We NEED
you at your best. I have a premonition about that. PLEASE!" He stood,
and said with force, "I will!" Then it was my turn to shed some tears.
We hugged for a short time, and then we cleaned up and ported back to
the meeting. Everybody noticed there had been a change in us, but
didn't comment.
I said "Any comments about what Nigel said?" Pete said, "2. Wow! And,
how long have you known?" I looked at Chad and asked him, "When have I
not been a Guardian?" Even HE looked surprised. Then he said, "You knew
ever since your third eye opened all the way." I said, "Maybe not as we
think of it today, but yes, I knew and acted it. Did I know there were
other Guardians on other planets? I didn't think about it until I had
to. Then I knew there had to be, if there were psychics there. That's
why I wasn't surprised Zander's people had them. Do I think ours are
better? I'd like to think so." There were some smiles at that. Chad
said "Maybe they have Adept Guardians, but they can't have anybody like
YOU. That means we're much better." There was a lot of agreement. I
said "Ahem, I think we've exhausted that subject for now. Other
questions?" Chad said "Is there any way we can call that alien and ask
her if she could give us something to duplicate her body color?
Beautiful!" I said "I thought so too, but we didn't think to ask her
for her phone number." He said "Next time, then."
I said "Tomba, I know you want to say something." He nodded, and
said, "Do we have the right to interfere with Zander's development, or
let him know his people have Guardians?" I said "Good. We need to
discuss that. Anything more about us he would learn, would have opened
his eyes up to the fact his people had Guardians, in logical
comparison. It was inevitable, therefore it was best to use his
realization to our advantage. We need him to know something about us,
so he will give us what we need, which is information about the races
and politics of the galaxy. Your other point is much more serious. Do
we help him to improve his psychic abilities? If we can, and without
hurting him. Anybody?" Rod said "That's a tough one." I nodded. Jan
said "How can we not? He will think we can, and not doing it could
cause more harm than doing it." Race said "But exposing our dangerous
technologies could be disastrous to the entire galaxy." I looked at
father, who said, "Interfering with what his own Adepts might have
planned for him, might not be viewed kindly by them." I said "Valid
points, all. Our problem is we don't have enough information to make
wise decisions about this. First, we need a complete map of his psychic
energy systems, before we even think about aligning them. Don't worry,
Tomba. I will consult with you about it all. There is something we can
do which is likely to help us decide. We tell Zander about this
discussion, and ask his opinions about it." Nigel said "Then you can
manipulate him into making the decisions you want him to make, so he
thinks he's in control."
I stood and said, "Beloved friends, please join me in officially
welcoming Nigel into the fellowship of the Sneaky Suspicious Devious
Devils! Long may he manipulate for us!" There were cheers, and lots of
hugging and kissing of Nigel. During that, father signaled to me, "well
done." I signaled back my thanks. That was the end of the meeting. It
was late, so we went home. Just before that, I signaled Nigel to
connect. I said +Got any plans?"+ He said +No. You?+ I said +Making
them with you, if you don't mind.+ He said +To my bedroom?+ I smiled
and nodded, and that's where we ported to. We undressed and flopped
onto the bed and just hugged for a while, not saying a thing. For more
than an hour. Sometimes one of us would have a few tears, and sometimes
the other. We didn't have to speak our feelings, because we knew them
directly. Then he said, "You're leaving us." I said "Yes, but not for
at least another year. I should, or the Enterprise, and all of you,
won't prosper like it should. What my being here did to you, does to
all of you, if not as strongly." He said "I understand, and you're
right. But I don't have to like it." I said "Me neither." He said "I'll
need to stock up on sharing your balls." And he grabbed and played with
them in the link. I said "I don't think we need an excuse for that." He
chuckled. Eventually we squirted. And again. It was good. So was our
love.
END ENTRY
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Grant
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