Stephen's Secure Blog #45
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 Winter after Thanksgiving of year 3 of
his special school.
Stephen's Secure Blog #45 "Attack on a Ship"
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After Thanksgiving, I called the Stoned Adepts who were Seniors, to
the moon station. I was disappointed Rose wasn't among them, because
she wasn't a Senior yet. They had all been briefed already, so this was
to select the person who was going to be the first to port to the Van
interstellar ship. It had slowed to just below 5% light speed relative
to the Van homeworld, and a Van from the ship had already ported out of
it.
I asked them to line up in front of a long table. One end had a green
mark on it, and the other end had a red mark on it, not visible to the
eye from where they were standing. I asked all who had been on the
previous missions to step back. Then I said, "The first into the ship
will be who is at the end of the line. Because you lined up randomly,
this is a fair choice. Each of you at the two ends of the line will go
to the end of the table nearest to you, and look for a colored mark.
Green goes." Hasan yelled, "Green! I've got GREEN!" I said "Well, we
know he's not color blind." Some laughter. I said "This time they might
be warned. Don't use the 4th, and be ready to instantly project sleep.
When you secure the ship's transmitter room, contact Ichi, and the
second team will port to the ship from the Van center. If you don't
contact after a minute, or if a Van ports out of the ship, we will send
one more of us to start the attack over. Ready? Center is clear. GO!"
20 seconds later, Ichi gave us a thumbs up sign, and the second team
ported to the Van center, and then from there to the ship.
Two hours later, Ichi says, "Hasan reports the ship's master computer
is on our side, and it's safe to use the 4th to port around there, and
everything else. The ship is set to continue into the system as planed,
and take up Earth orbit near our new ship on the other side of the sun.
They are porting all the Van to storage in the ship you anchored in the
4th." I said "Please give Hasan and the others, our congratulations, on
a job well done." He did. Then I asked him, "Do you think we should
port the one from the ship who left it, to storage?" Ichi grinned and
said, "Nasty. Oh, I think it would be worse confusion if he couldn't
get back to the ship." I said "I agree. I suppose I was just looking
for something to do." He hugged me. I said "We can wait to strip it of
high tech for when it assumes orbit, the same as the others we
captured. But it wouldn't hurt if it was searched for anything of
unusual interest, after they make sure the matter transmitters will
never work again." Ichi said "I'll tell them."
An hour later, the ship team ported back. Hasan said to me, "We found
some extra stone people, but you should see something. Can I port you
there?" I nodded, and he did that. I immediately fine scanned the ship.
I said "Wow!" He grinned. In a cylindrical clear crystal case a meter
in diameter and a meter high, was the biggest stone person I had ever
seen. It was perfectly spherical, 130mm in diameter, and really bright
with psionic energy. There were wires attached to it. I said to Hasan,
"Please get Ichi and Hawk." They ported in next to me. More wows. I
said to the three, "Connect to me." They did, and I asked my stone for
comments. He said "This one should not be here." I said "I think I have
an idea what you mean. What should we do about it?" He said "Please
port it to the surface of the largest satellite of the fifth planet of
the Van system, in it's container, remotely. Monitor only enough to
verify its arrival, and then do not monitor it." I said "I will do that
now." +Please do not watch. We need to have their trust.+ The three
with me agreed. I ported it, and it was there, and I stopped looking. I
said to my stone, "I would like to know why it was here." He said "I
don't know. It did not communicate with me." I said "Can you ask the
master computer what it knows about the situation?" He said "The
computer reports it has been in this ship since it was built, and
before the computer was initialized, and was not connected in any way
to it." I said "The wires that were attached to it lead to the outer
hull, where some things used to be, but are not there now. Oh, do you
know how old this ship is?" He said "I estimate 15,000 earth years." I
said "Wow! It sure looks good for its age. Is there anything else you
can tell me which can help us understand this odd thing?" He said "No."
I said "Thank you for your help."
We ported back to the moon. Ichi said to me, "There are some things
in your head you aren't sharing." I said "Ah, brains?" He poked me. I
said "The Van didn't build those ships. The people they enslaved, did,
who were partnered with the stone people. I don't know why they allowed
their slavery to happen and continue until the GC freed them, but while
they built a lot of things for the Van, they told them very little
about what they could really do, which was a whole lot more than what
Van knew about. I think that big stone person was the faster than light
drive enabler for that ship, which the Van never knew about. It
probably could do some other things, too. That technology is too
advanced for us, according to what the stone people say about why the
people who made these things are hiding from us, and so they would want
that back, and they probably have it now, where we can't find it. I do
have a finding lock on it, but I'm not going to look. Who knows, it
might be booby-trapped." Ichi said "Wow!" We laughed. I said "I just
checked the other ships we took, and none of them have what we found
there."
I said "I just decided something. We need a used ship lot. It can't
be here in our system. Astronomers would go crazy trying to find out
why some stars were blinking when they didn't have anything in their
eyes. They would figure it out, eventually. The Van ship we let alone,
is in a new system which doesn't have any intelligent life in it. The
Van would usually just go on to the next one. I want to change their
minds about that, and have them build a big station for us there. So,
we need to snatch the Van who have the power to order that, and program
them to do it. The reason will be to make a kind of lifeboat and
deserted isle for the Van, in case their homeworld gets into trouble.
Crash priority, too. What do you think?" Hawk just stared at me, and
then laughed very loudly. Ichi just grinned. Hasan was mystified, and
tried to get Hawk to tell him what was so funny. I said to him,
"Irony." He said "Oh! Their world is already in bad trouble, which they
don't know about, and you want to use that to make them WORK for us,
making something which would actually help them, which we won't let
happen! Oh wow! That's really twisted!" Ichi said "Stephen, in his last
incarnation, was called a Sneaky Suspicious Devious Devil, by the other
Adepts he trained, in admiration, for doing things like that." Hasan
said with a grin, "Somehow, I'm not in the least surprised." I poked
him. Then we all had a recess, which was really great.
I told my plan to the station computer, Vax, and he agreed to help. I
think it appreciated the irony, too. So, that's what we did. We
snatched the Van bosses, and had them programed to do what we wanted.
It didn't take much persuasion at all. Actually, I think they would
have done it without the programming, if we could have presented the
idea as one of them. They are using all the resources they can, and as
fast as they can, to make the VERY large, well equipped and defended
station. It should be ready long before the other Van ship enters our
system. We did make sure of one very important thing. Their
construction plans are modified to allow us complete access to the 4th
there, using it and porting to and from the station.
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Grant
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