Stephen's Secure Blog #19
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, in the 1950's. 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. He stopped writing to his penpal, but found he
still wanted to record his life, in case he lost his memory again, and
wrote 30 entries in his first logbook. Then he wrote to an artificial
intelligence called Geenee, in the master computer in his school for
gifted students, which he started attending in 2016. Now it's 2018 and
later, and he's continuing to save his memories in a secure blog.
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 12 in this story, in April of year 2 of his special school.
Stephen's Secure Blog #19 "The Captain and the Ship"
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Zander, Nigel, and Chad, came into the Captain's conference room. We
all stood and exchanged polite things. Zander gave the Captain the
recordings we made, and he looked at them. He was angry, but tried to
control himself. I nodded his way, to show him I understood. He
returned it. He said "I am ashamed of my people, that they should give
you such a bad impression of us. We are not all like that." I said "You
and Zander have proved the high quality of your species' intelligence
and honor to us. You cannot be blamed for the few who prove that all
peoples vary in personal, and sometimes negative, ways." He said "Thank
you for your understanding and wisdom. I will support your decisions
regarding operations in this system." My "thank you" was interrupted by
the intercom asking the Captain to announce a warning about the gravity
going off. He announced it, and we waited the set time, and then our
stomachs flip-flopped. I said "The engine room external doors are open
to space, and a large assembly is being moved in. The bad assembly is
being removed. Your crew is surprised at Percy's invisible personal
environmental envelope. They are envious of that, while wearing their
clumsy space suits. Percy thought replacement would be faster and more
convenient than repair, disregarding the accustomed comfort of the
engineering crew." The Captain and Zander laughed.
The Captain said, "How do you know these things?" I looked at Zander,
and he said, "I have learned it is best not to ask about their methods,
if you don't want to be frustrated." He said to Zander in their
telepathy, "What is your relationship with them, and what do you know
about them?" I grinned really wide. The Captain looked strange, and
Zander said, "Yes, they can hear and understand our telepathy. Stephen
had to learn it in order to investigate the problem at the station, and
to save my life." I said "When we want to know something, we learn it.
We have some skill in that." Zander grinned and said, "And more skill
in making understatements." Ichi said "One can't argue with truth." The
other humans all grinned. I said "After the repair and the tuning is
complete, how long do you expect to remain in the system?" He said "We
will exchange some personnel at the research station, and resupply
them. That should take one planetary day. Another one to get there.
Then we leave." I said "Do you make this run often?" He said "I share
this run with another, but our schedule is irregular. Between us, we
average three standard year intervals." I said "We have not interfered
with or contacted you before, because, unlike with the Van, there has
been no need. We have a facility for authorized offworld visitors,
which Zander can tell you about. There, we can assist when hospitality
is indicated. Zander has been staying there, after escaping from the
station. Here is a communication device which can be used to contact us
when there is need. It will only work within a standard light year of
the sun in this system, and instantaneously, and cannot be detected by
its regular inhabitants, or by your science. You do not need to
announce your presence here. We will detect it. However, we are not
adverse to receiving a polite notification." He grinned and said,
"Noted."
The Captain said "You mentioned the Van. Some have asked to be
transported in our ships." I said "Have you agreed to provide that
service for them?" He said "Not yet." I said "They will not be your
passengers here, whether you accept them or not. We have plans for
them, and we will manage the Van, our way. No, we will not kill them,
but to our way of thinking, they are mostly dead, anyway. They will be
put in suspended storage until their relief ship arrives here in about
9 standard years. Then we will send them all back to their planet.
Permanently. We have yet to decide what to do about their ship, though,
after we empty it of the Van. We have our own methods of
transportation. Any suggestions?" He said "But why don't they use their
matter transmitters?" I said "They are inoperative in this system. We
didn't desire to have any more of them here." He looked very surprised,
and that made Zander laugh. I said "The ship?" He gathered himself and
said, "A ship of that size would be very valuable, and their technology
is priceless." I said "The ship only. We will remove any technology the
GC doesn't already have and can make themselves." He said "You are
going to use that rule on US?" I said "If the rule is valid for others,
of course. No, we won't be using their matter transmitters. We have our
own technology which we invented, and are not interested in any other,
except to satisfy our curiosity. You are profiting greatly, yourself,
by that. We have never built a star drive like yours, but we know how,
and can repair them. We would be very poor Guardians indeed, if we
could not help our guests."
The Captain was completely at a loss, unable to speak. Zander said,
"I sympathize, Captain. It is better not to try to understand them.
Horribly ugly as they are, they are VERY good people, in the best
sense, and mean only good for all. There is one very important thing
you should know, that I have learned about them. They do not lie. Their
minds are so highly trained and tuned, that to lie would cause them
damage." I said "Can we skip these embarrassing things and get back to
the ship? My friends and I don't know what to do with it when we are
finished with it. We don't need or want it, except the few of us who
like to collect such toys, and we prefer to build our own playthings."
I looked at Zander and said, "Such as the new arena." Back to the
Captain, I said, "So, do you have any suggestions? Oh, we can move it
to wherever it needs to go. If we have to, we will drop it into the
sun, before Earth people discover it."
The Captain said "You could sell it." I said, "To whom?" He said "Any
ship dealer would be eager to handle the transaction." I said "We
prefer not to be involved in the mistreatment of customers of such a
one." He and Zander laughed. Then he said, "I see you are serious. I
could arrange the sale, but it would rightly be considered a conflict
of interest." I said, "Where our interest is concerned, we will make
that determination. Zander has said we do not lie. That enables us to
know when others lie. When we trust, we do it unreservedly. Are you one
we should trust?" We felt his awe and respect. And his humility, when
he said, "Yes." Zander said "I agree." I said "Make it fair, and make
your commission generous. We don't have any use for currency where we
are, but we might, if we visit another world. Our major interest in
this is that the ship should not go to waste. There is still 9 years
before it arrives, so there is no particular hurry." He said "As your
agent, how can I contact you when there is need?" I said "The GC
doesn't have interstellar voice and picture communications?" He said "I
think you know it doesn't, and courier ship messages are VERY
expensive, and can not be sent to this system without special official
arrangements." Zander said in contact to me, +I offer my services+ I
said +That could expose your connection to us.+ He said +I trust him.+
I said +Your choice.+ He said +Thank you. End+
Zander said, "I can assist with that." I said "Now it's settled,
there is another pending issue. Soon there will be a transfer of
personal and cargo between your ship and the station. We would like
your permission to monitor and document any possible criminal activity
which occurs." He said "Please do. We will provide any assistance you
need in support of that." I said "Thank you, but we don't expect to
need any." He grinned and said, "This time I am not surprised." We
laughed together. I said "Soon, gravity will be restored. Then the
drive needs to be run and properly balanced, which your engineer was
unaware of. It was that which damaged it. Percy will instruct her in
that operation, very diplomatically. It isn't in your repair manuals,
because the CG doesn't actually know how the drive works. We do. Our
ship needs to be detached from yours during this process. Percy and
Zander will stay, and the rest of us will leave in the ship. We will
pick up Percy before you send your first shuttle to earth." The Captain
said "We will extend every effort to make his stay with us a pleasant
as possible." We stood and I said, "Thank you." He said "I thank you
very much for all our lives." I said "You are very welcome. It is our
duty and pleasure to serve. One more thing. We do not like notoriety.
Please keep what we do here a secret." He said "I will do my best to
ensure your secrecy is kept." We went to the airlock. We said farewell
to each other in our bows. Before we turned to board our ship, I gave
Zander and the Captain my love. We left the astounded Captain to wonder
some more about us, and sealed the airlock door. We didn't talk on the
way back to the hanger, and we ported to a conference room.
I said "Discussion? Without complements, please." There was silence.
I laughed, and then they did. Pete said "I didn't see any information
about the cat people in the database which indicated the approach you
used to win her over." Nigel said "But he knows cats from the inside."
Pete said "Ah! I should have remembered that jaguar. It's not
surprising YOU did, though." Ichi was confused. I said to him, "Ask
Nigel how he met us, sometime. I think you will find it very
interesting." Nigel grinned and said, "I sure did!" We laughed. Ichi
said to him, "Join us for supper tomorrow?" Nigel said "With pleasure!"
We grinned. I asked Ichi, "Do you think the Captain will be successful
in ensuring our secrecy will be kept?" He said right away, "Not in the
least. Anything he does to stop it, will make it worse." I said "Why is
that good for us?" He said "Oh, not again!" The others laughed, and
Nigel hugged and kissed him, and said, "He did the same thing to me,
and I became all the better for it. I know it's frustrating, but it can
be a lot of fun, too. You get a lot of hugs and kisses for being
right." Ichi hugged and kissed him back. Then he said, "Because the
rumors will expand and enhance our exploits into feats even a God would
not believe, increasing with each attempt at suppression, making them
easily disbelieved by the wise." Pete said, "Very well said." Chad said
"Did you make the Van ship deal in revenge for our indecision?" I said
all innocent, "Who me?" They grinned.
Nigel poked Ichi, who gathered his courage and said, "He did it to
make the Captain ours, and you knew that." Chad said "Oh, right through
the heart!" And he laughed and said, "Guilty as charged!" We could feel
Ichi's love for him. I said to Ichi, "Why do we want the GC to know
some astounding but conflicting stories about us?" He groaned, and we
laughed. He said "They might not believe any of it, or take us
seriously, but the curiosity factor alone should grant us the hearing
we want, when we ask for it." Pete said "Well done! Both of you. I
missed that one." Chad said, "So did I." I told Ichi, "And that's
something!" Chad, nodded and Ichi was really embarrassed. I said "I
have been hoping for something we could use to give the GC bosses a
little poke in advance of our visit. I didn't think the midnight raid
investigation would do that job. When we go to pick up Percy, I plan to
tell the Captain he can tell the other Captain on the run, something
about us. That should help spread things, after the engineer talks her
head off." Ichi said, "She will have to spread the news about how to
fix the drives. Even if she doesn't give us credit, rumors of us from
the rest of the run will link it to us. It's important they know us as
being helpful." I looked expectantly at Nigel, who said, "Notice he
offered that without a question prompt, and before I made the
connection." We all applauded and cheered Ichi, who almost melted into
his chair.
I said "We were very lucky the Captain was a Ssintris, so we could
handle him. It could have been disastrous if he had been somebody who
couldn't stand us. Any ideas on how we could have done better?" Chad
said "I've been wondering what the Engineer would be like in bed." We
laughed. I said "Who here didn't wonder that?" Silence. We laughed some
more. Nigel said "How are you going to get the cameras into the shuttle
and the confines of the ship, without them being discovered." Chad said
They all laughed. I sighed, and they laughed some more. I ported a
crystal to me and put it to my head, and gave it to Ichi, who read it
and passed it on. Pete said "Oh, good idea." I said "It's not exactly
new. I put it in the wristband as a feature of the computer. Anything
else to discuss? No? Then I suppose we should all grab the few hours we
have left tonight, for some sleep." They agreed, and after a lot of
hugging and kissing, we ported our separate ways.
It was very late, and the rest of our family were asleep. We made and
ate light sandwiches, and got ready for bed. We said "I love you" and
"I'm proud of you" a lot to each other. We were tired, but we couldn't
resist doing the usual before sleeping sex play, to squirt. It was
great, and so was falling asleep in a loving brother's arms.
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Grant
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