Stephen's Secure Blog #47
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, after the Winter break of year 3 of his
special school.
Stephen's Secure Blog #47 "Crystal Creation"
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We had a meeting with Pete to let him know what was happening. He
wanted to see it, so Ichi played it back for him. Pete said to him, "He
made him put down the gun without any threats. Keep him away from Los
Vegas!" They laughed. Ichi said, "He's such a hard bargainer, for
somebody who doesn't say anything." Pete said "That's right. How did
you work that?" I said "Because I didn't know what the price should be,
I thought it best for him to set it, and I chose the offer HE finally
thought was fair. Silence begs to be broken, when a hungry man desires
a profit." Ichi looked proud and said, "So says the prime situation
manager!" Pete grinned and said to him, "I hope you're taking notes."
Ichi said "I am! A whole symphony of them." I looked at him and said,
"Not bad." We hugged. I said to Pete, "We'll let you know when we go
back, so you can watch. I think we are going to have some more fun with
him, if what I suspect, happens." He grinned and said, "I don't want to
miss THAT!" We laughed.
We went back to our school duties, which for me, included teaching,
matching up Adepts and stones, and researching gems and jewelry. And
experimentation. I made some very unusual things by combining beryllium
and aluminum oxides under heat and pressure, with different kinds of
impurities. I was looking for more natural stones, too, and found a LOT
of them deep inside rocky planets which would have never been
discovered any other way but using the 4th. I did make a mistake with
the first big sapphire I ported to the surface. It exploded with the
sudden release of pressure. My shield protected me, but it probably
wouldn't have reacted fast enough for that to work with other Adepts,
so I passed the word to be careful in situations like that. Then Rod
ported to me and showed me a scar on his hand, and said, "That happened
to me a long time ago. I should have put it in an instruction crystal.
My mistake. Sorry. Oh, what do you have HERE?" I showed him my gem
crystal experiments. He felt them very carefully with his object sense.
Then he said, "Yours is finer. Push it at me?" I did, and he said,
"I've GOT to know how you made that!" I pushed it at him, and he said,
"Wow! That's complicated! I don't know how you ever thought of that,
and I probably shouldn't know. But thanks. Great properties we can find
some uses for, besides looking really good." I said "They can store a
LOT of information, in case you're interested, and with the fastest
access." He said "I'm very interested. Thanks. Off to work on it now."
And he was gone, even before he could see my grin.
I contacted Percy and told him what happened with Rod. He said he
already knew, along with a lot of others in his department. We laughed.
Then I started experimenting in earnest, through most of the periodic
table. There were a LOT of elements and procedures to test, so I set it
up to run automatically. It's a good thing I did it remotely, because
some of the results were rather explosive. Some of them were
psychically active, too.
Then it was time to visit the mining company. Ichi and I went into
the office, and the boss said, "We realized more of the value than we
expected. I already credited your account with your share." I said,
"Not violently, I hope." He laughed. He said "It took me a while to
recognize that you have a sense of humor I can understand, because it's
so difficult to see that between species. I like it. Thank you." I said
"You're welcome. We value humor. Life is better that way. Here is the
information on the next project." He looked it over, and said in
surprise, "This is twice as big as the previous one!" I said "We did
notice that. Can we assume, by your hungry expression, that you want to
work it?" He said "There is no need to assume." I said, "Good. We'll
use that assumption some other time and place where it might be more
appreciated." He almost fell off his chair, he laughed so hard. Ichi
said to me, "I think he liked that one. Do you think it will earn us a
better price?" I said, "Probably not while he's laughing too hard to
speak." He said, "Then maybe we should tone down the humor a little." I
said "But I like it." He said "I do too, but it's like great food. Too
much and you can't keep in your chair." That set the boss off again,
laughing his head almost off. I said "For our next visit, perhaps we
should bring him some chair restraints." He said "I think he might
think it's us who need to be restrained, and not his chair." More
laughter. We waited. After he finally got control of himself, I said to
him, "Perhaps you shouldn't have mentioned humor. We apologize for the
disruption." Ichi said "I don't. I like it." I said "One of us
apologizes." Ichi pointed at me and said, "Him." More laughter, but not
as hard. Then he said, "That can't be an act. You really do like humor,
to do it so well for another species, and without planning. If you do
everything else as well, you are very formidable people!" I grinned and
said, "Better." That really got his attention. We agreed on a price and
to return in 60 days.
In our ship, we pushed off from the asteroid, and stayed in the area
while we contacted Zander. After some polite things, I said +Have you
checked your credit account recently?+ He said +I did. Should I assume
that mining company is working on the astroids you wanted to give us?+
I said +Yes. Would you like a crystal of our meetings with them?+ He
said +I should, yes.+ I said +You had better look at it in a place
where people won't hear you make some unusual noises.+ He said +Knowing
you, I would do that as a matter of course.+ Ichi made the crystal
carefully, and ported it to him. I said +Before you read that, there is
something else. I'm planning on marketing some fancy carved precious
gems, natural, and some brand new spectacular synthetic gems. Very
expensive. For elite clientele. Big profits. We'll be back in the area
in 60 days. If you come up with any ideas, let us know then. One more
thing. Don't be surprised we look different in the crystal. We were
disguised.+ He said with humor.+Thank you for both warnings, and the
funds for our school.+ I said +You're welcome. Discom.+
We contacted Pete and asked him if he had watched. He said he had,
and really enjoyed it, and we said we liked that, with some virtual
hugs. We ported to school and to one of my labs. I showed Ichi one of
my new creations. He said "Wow! How did you make that?" It was a
transparent crystal sphere about 15cm in diameter which glowed light
golden from the inside where the liquid was, which had tiny flexible
ribbons of platinum swimming in it. I said "The shell is made from
alternating layers of different gems, diamond being on the outside,
forming a piezoelectric and magnetic energy transducing effect to the
liquid inside it, causing the platinum ribbons to swim around. Watch."
I put my hand on it, and the color changed, and the ribbons swam around
more energetically, even for a minute after I took my hand away from
it. I said "This is just a sample. I can use different components to
cause different effects, and I can shape the swimmers to be what I want
them to look like, probably the species I would sell it to. The effects
should last indefinitely. I will make no two identical, and limit them
to two to a planet. Think they will sell?" He said "Race says anything
can be sold with the proper marketing, so our real question is how to
do that marketing. We have to find people who are rich enough to own
whole planets, and have them compete with each other to have these. You
do that by showing them in our stores and telling them they can't have
them. The best way to make somebody really want something great
looking, who can afford anything, is tell them they can't have it." I
said "Oh, that's NASTY! I like it." We laughed.
Then I showed Ichi a gold pendant. The stone in it looked like the
best opal, but had colors which moved around across its surface and
inside it at random. I said "Natural or synthetic?" He said "Natural,
or you wouldn't have asked me to guess." I growled. He laughed, and I
laughed with him. I showed him more stones, and he gave forth a lot of
wows. Then I showed him my animal sculptures in gems. Fish and whales,
to cats and birds, and so detailed you could think they had been frozen
from life. He was too amazed to speak. Then I showed him the animal
action scenes; predator and prey, life and death. He actually cried for
their beauty. I ported us to our bedroom. We undressed and sat on the
bed and hugged. He whispered, "I don't want you to sell them." I said
"I didn't realize the affect they could have on people. I shouldn't
have shown them all to you at once. You know, I can duplicate them in
seconds. We can always have copies in a special private to Adepts
gallery." He said fiercely to me, "Do that!" I said "Then choose a
place, and I'll fill it up." He said "Thank you." Then we just sat
together, and hugged with love.
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Grant
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