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From: " +Grant. " <+Grant@grant.grant>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.prettyboy
Subject: +*+*+*+ Stephen's Secure Blog #48 "Mining Incident" +*+*+*+
Date: 9 Jul 2012 17:15:01 -0500
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Stephen's Secure Blog #48
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 #48 "Mining Incident"
START Page
Ichi set up a gallery in our headquarters building, near his and my
corporate offices. It was well done, with spotlighting which showed the
brilliance of the gems. Nobody but people with a good object sense can
tell what they are made of, since the pieces don't have any descriptive
labels. After I filled the room with my work, I did a careful
walkthrough so I could put it all in a crystal for Zander. Something
embarrassed me about the situation. People visit it a lot. When I put
something new in it, word gets passes around, and a lot of people show
up to see the new piece. I try not to be there when that happens. The
last time I did that, a lot of people ported to the door and inside,
before I could leave, and I was smothered with hugs and kisses. Well,
almost. I think somebody put a watch viewpoint on the room. Maybe I
should just port the new things there. I said that to Ichi, and he just
laughed.
Rose is progressing very well, and soon she will be a senior. There
are two more new stoned students, and they were active in capturing
another Van starship which had slowed down enough to allow porting. The
Van are still putting maximum effort into their new base for us, which
some still laugh about. Hawk, the most, I think.
My watch on the mining company showed something bad happening, so I
put together an emergency mission, with Ichi, and this time with Hawk.
Ichi pushed all our past occurrences with astroid mining company to
Hawk, while we were undocking the shuttle from the main ship. We ported
the ship to the astroid where the office was. I pushed the disguise at
Hawk for him to use, modified to be an individual. I announced to the
office that I was there to check on the progress of the processing of
our claim, and to see if they were ready to buy a new and bigger one
from us. We were asked to leave our ship and enter their office. I said
"Our instruments show that you are not the owner and manager we did
business with before. Why is he not speaking to us?" The new boss said,
"I bought the company from him. Please come ahead. I'm ready to make a
deal with you." I said "You have people with weapons in the room with
you. Are you in danger from them?" He said "No, they are for
protection." I said "I and my associates do not need protection. Nor
did the previous owner. If you need it, then perhaps we should not do
business with so dangerous an enterprise." He said "If I send them out
of the room, will you come?" I said "Yes." He said "They are gone now."
I said "Perhaps you haven't looked closely. Our instruments show us
they are still in the room with you." He said "I misspoke. They are in
the process of leaving." He was correct, then. They did walk out. I
said "If they stay in the passageway where they are resting, we will
have some difficulty in entering your office." He went out and yelled
to them to hide in another room. Just when he got back to his desk, I
said to him, "They have successfully hidden themselves. We will come."
I turned off the radio to keep him from hearing Ichi and Hawk laugh
their heads almost off their shoulders. I smiled at them, and then we
all agreed the new "owner" was an idiot.
Before we left the ship, I grabbed Hawk by the shoulders and shook
him a little, and said, "You CAN'T laugh in there. You'll scare them,
and break our disguises. NOBODY in the universe laughs like humans do,
and all the other people think it sounds like we're dying horribly. So
"Want to walk home?" Ichi poked Hawk and said, "We'll behave." I just
shook my head. We went into the office. The new "owner" wasn't a
Ssintris, even though he had a some scales. They were green instead of
different shades of red. I had already told them that, and Hawk could
use Ssintris telepathy, too. His job was to watch the previous boss
being held captive, and prevent him from being harmed.
I said to the new boss, "We have come to ask about the progress in
processing our claim." He said "Which claim is it?" I gave him the
numbers, which he punched into the computer. He said "Ah, er, it's
still being worked. It should take 90 days more to finish." I said
"That is unacceptable. The previous owner said it would be finished in
60 days, 30 days ago, and then we would give him the coordinates of the
next one to process. You can ask him, as our instruments show he is in
a room, three rooms down in that direction." He said "He is not." I
said "Our instruments say he is, and they show by readings of your
nervous system that you are not speaking with honesty. We do not lie.
We prefer that others do not lie." He said "Are you saying I am a
liar?" I turned to Ichi and said, "I didn't notice he had a hearing
impairment." He said "He doesn't, according to our instruments." I said
"Yet he is asking if I said something that I haven't. Without
impairment, that would be irrational." He said "I concur. Test him?" I
turned to the boss and said, "Do you wish me to say you are a liar? I
can do that, because it would be an accurate observation." He said "You
ARE saying I'm a liar!" I said to Ichi, "Test results are positive for
irrationality." Ichi said "Then we should not do business with such a
one. They are unpredictable and do not keep agreements well." We turned
to leave, and the boss shouted, "Wait a minute! We can still deal." We
turned back and I said, "If you bring back the previous owner which you
deny is in a room in that direction." He said "Alright, we'll do that."
He spoke to something attached to his belt. I took a copy of his speech
center, abstracted the language, and pushed it to Hawk and Ichi.
I said "Why did you tell them to bring weapons?" He was very
surprised, "You know our language!" I said "Why do you need to tell us
what we know? Did you think we didn't know what we know?" He looked
confused. Ichi said, "I confirm. Significant irrationality." I bowed to
Ichi. Then I said to the pirate, "Why did you tell them to bring
weapons?" He said "For my protection." I said "From us? We will not
harm you, even if you ask us to do it." He said "Why should I believe
you?" I said "Those who lie, do not recognize the truth, even when it
is obvious." He said "Again! You're calling me a liar!" I said "I have
not done that, but I still can if that would please you." He yelled,
"It would NOT please me!" I said "Then you should consider not
referring to the subject so often, and refrain from being untruthful."
He would have ground his teeth in frustration, if they had worked that
way. Then the former boss was shoved into the room, with three armed
guards of the same species as the new boss. I telepathed the Ssintris
way to him and said, +We guarantee your safety. Please follow our lead,
and try your best not to laugh.+ He send back, "Right. Have fun.+
I said to the pirate, "You said he was not there, and then you
ordered him brought from there. If your first statement about him was
not a lie, then what was it?" The very frustrated pirate said,
"Alright, I admit it was a lie." I said "Then, why were you angry when
I said it was not the truth?" He said "That's enough of that. Forget
it." I said "I am unable to forget anything." He said "About this deal.
What's the problem?" I said "You said it would take longer to process
than the previous owner said. Why?" He said "Because we don't have as
many people working here as before." I said "Why is that?" He said
"Because some of the workers became injured or quit." I said "We should
have been notified of the delay. We withdraw our offer of the next
claim to process." He said "Not so fast. Give me the coordinates, or
you will be killed." I said "If you kill us, we will be unable to tell
you anything." He said "I can have my men injure you." I said "You told
us they were for your protection. We have done nothing to cause you to
need that service. Was your protection statement a lie?" He said, YES!"
I said "Did the previous owner voluntarily sell you this business?" He
grinned and said, "I lied about that, too. So?" I said "If we tell you
the coordinates, will you let us go unharmed?" He said "Yes." I said
"You have admitted to lying four times about critically important
issues. Logic indicates that we should not believe anything you say.
So, we expect you to want to kill is after we tell you. Therefore, we
won't. If you had not lied before, we might have believed you now. Take
this as a lesson that lying is a bad thing."
The pirate was VERY frustrated, and angry. His men were confused and
a little amused. The former boss was almost strangling, trying to keep
from laughing. I said to him, +Steady. There is a reason for this.+ The
pirate took out his gun and pointed it at Hawk and said, "If you don't
tell me, I will kill this one first." I said "He might be the only one
of us who knows the coordinates you want." He said "I'll take that
risk. Tell me or he dies." I said "No." He shot Hawk, which didn't
affect him, and all the pirates dropped to the floor. The old boss
said, "I think I understand now. Your principles. You couldn't act
unless he tried to kill you." I bowed to him. He said "Thank you." I
said "We aren't done yet. Tell us what happened, and what needs to be
done to make it right." He did, and I said, "We will take care of the
pirates for now. They will stay asleep until we let them wake up.
Except for this one. He is partially awake and will obey my commands."
I made him input his credit code into the terminal, and transfer all
that was in it to the previous owner, including the title to the
business, and set it up in an irrevocable way, that one half of
everything he earned in the future would automatically transfer to the
restored owner. I did the same thing to all the pirates, including the
ones who were working out in space, but not so that the restored owner
would notice.
I said to the owner, "He killed two of your people and injured three
others. He had a lot of credits. Please see that the families of the
dead, and the injured people, are justly compensated. If you need more
credits to do this, take it from what you would pay us from the next
asteroid. Please bring those of your people who have any injuries, to
our ship, where we will treat them. There is something else you should
know. With one exception, those who took over your business are
criminals on their home planet, and will be restored to that judicial
system. The exception was an unwilling participant, and who did not
cause any injuries. We will take no action against him. He is young and
He bowed and said, "I understand. If he wants, he can have a place
among us." I said "Thank you. Is there anything else we should be doing
with you?" He said, "No, we can handle the rest of the restoration, but
I do have a personal request. Will one of you tell me the whole story?"
I said "If you are seated securely." He grinned and said, "Ready." We
told him. I spoke my part, and Ichi spoke his, and Hawk played the
pirate. The boss actually did fall out of his chair, he laughed so
hard. After that, I said to Ichi, "Next time, we should make it a
requirement that he be on his bed of sand before we tell him such
things." Ichi said, "And stand well back." I nodded, and the boss
laughed some more.
We went to our ship, and received the injured. I instructed Ichi and
Hawk on what I was doing, and had them try it. They could heal minor
wounds, but not the broken bones like I could. Our patients weren't
awake while we were working on them, and stayed asleep while they were
being exchanged for the sleeping pirates. I was called back to the
office to explain things to the new man. I said to him, "I know you
didn't want to be involved in any of this. If you don't have any other
place to go to, you can stay here for work and living. You employer
will treat you fairly. Will you stay?" He bowed and said, "I will stay.
Thank you." I said to the boss, "When should we come back?" He said "40
days should be about right." I said "We will check first, as we always
do." He said "You do? Oh! That explains it. Instruments again! Sure."
We grinned at each other. I said "One more thing. That account you pay
into for us, isn't ours. It's to fund a special school on your home
planet. What you are doing for us means a lot to us, and to them." He
said "That explains some things, but causes other questions to form,
which aren't going to have answers. I accept that, friends." We said
our farewells, and went back to our ship. I ported all the pirates to
an empty prison cell in the main city on their planet. Then we ported
to the big ship and docked, and then ported to our bedroom, stripped
and flopped onto the bed.
We cried for the dead and injured. I said "It's partially our fault.
We gave them rich projects, which made them very attractive to the
pirates. I know it's not really our fault, but I can't help feeling
some responsibility for what happened." Both Hawk and Ichi said, "I
know." We hugged each other, and tried not to think for a while. Love
helped.
END Page
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Grant
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