Stephen's Secure Blog #72
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 13 in this story, in the Fall, after the start of year 4 of
his special school.
Stephen's Secure Blog #72 "Meeting With Hoechess"
START Page
I had already scouted the building where Hoechess was, so I ported
all of us to an empty room in it, and we walked to her office
conference room. Me, Rose, Hawk, Grace, and Mgambe. There were two
others in the room, besides Hoechess, and there were recorders going,
but not noticeably visible. We all bowed to each other, and said polite
things. I said to start things, "I brought different friends with me
this time, to show you how varied in appearance we are. Before we get
started, I would like to know when you were going to inform us that
this meeting is being recorded in multiple ways." Hoechess turned to
the others and said, "I told you!" They looked embarrassed. There was
no move to stop the recordings. I said "Our experience has shown us
that while individuals may be trusted, the security of files should not
be. Therefore, recording this meeting will result in a very bland
I said "In polite disclosure, I should inform you that I can hear what
you are whispering." Hoechess looked embarrassed and said, "Our
research shows that your species should not be able to do that." I said
"That's true, in general. I was born with unusually sensitive hearing.
My family has had that ability for at least 4 generations. Same size
ears, though." Rose said "I think they're cute." Hawk said "I do, too."
Mgambe said "A little pale, though." I turned to him and said, "I
agree, but I can't help that. At least they match the rest of me. Yes,
I know. Too pale all over." He just grinned. Grace said "Well, I like
the contrast you two make." I said "I do too."
I looked at Hoechess, and she said, "I know we should have taken the
opportunity you just gave us to talk privately among ourselves, but I
couldn't resist observing your extemporaneous byplay. Well done!" I
said "Thank you. Is this all we will be doing today?" She said "I hope
not!" I waited, and she stared at one of her team, who got up and went
out. He came back in a minute later. I said "Will all of you state that
to your knowledge, no recording is being made here now?" Hoechess said
"I state there is no recording." The other two said the same, all
truthfully. I said "You are all speaking the truth as you know it, yet
there is still a recording being made. Do I have your permission to
investigate?" Hoechess said in surprise, "Please do!" I said "A signal
is being transmitted to another embassy from here, and from other
offices. May we present to you the device in this room?" She said
"Yes." I said "It is above us. Grace, you are tallest. Please retrieve
it." She nodded, and climbed onto the table, and reached into the
hanging light fixture, and took out a small device, and handed it to
Hoechess. Then she got off the table and sat back down. She gave it to
the man, who took it out of the room. Hoechess said, "We can use that
to trace the others." I said "Yes. Should we wait for him?" She said
"Please." I said "We could comment on the weather, but I never like it
here." She laughed. Hawk said "At least it's not too windy." Rose said,
"But there is a politician here." Hoechess and her assistant
practically fell out of their chairs laughing. The man came back in,
and Hoechess explained why they were laughing.
Hoechess said to me, "I have to ask. How do you do it?" I said "We
are individuals, but not completely so, in situations like this. There
is a flow between us, which helps to coordinate our efforts. We like
the feeling, and really like the results. You were correct when you
said you weren't immune to our humor. Well, neither are we." She said
"You do that when you are alone with your own people?" I said with a
hierarchal ritual to maintain necessary discipline when needed. We know
who, what, and how we are, and so don't have to be reminded of that. I
asked Grace to retrieve the device, for your benefit. As soon as we
decided to give it to you, she would do it automatically, as the best
of us for that task. It's not easy to explain this, to people who
haven't experienced it. So, what's on the agenda?" She said "We would
like to discuss the proposed school." I said "I think you might not
like that." She looked surprised and said. "I don't understand." I said
"Yes, and that will always be the problem." She said "Oh. That makes
sense. We can't understand what it will produce, so we probably can't
understand the process." I said "I love talking with you, with your
high intelligence. Unfortunately, your companions are far behind you in
this discussion. They didn't know that we were deliberately giving you
the opportunity to speak privately in our presence, and don't
understand at all what we are talking about now. Should we talk at your
level, or at theirs?" She said "I'm sorry. I should have realized. I'll
explain to them. These people are intensely trained super geniuses who
have some very strange and powerful abilities and technology. They are
so far above us, that we can't understand who they really are. They are
offering to help us establish a school to train some of our qualified
people to be like them, but we won't understand the training, either."
I said "That's good. There is more. You will not be ALLOWED to know
anything about most of the training, because much of it can kill the
unprepared, and such knowledge of what they can't have can be
destructive to the general society. Many of our teaching devices simply
will not work for people who aren't ready for them. They are made with
that function. For example, your qualified students will achieve a full
adult education in less than a standard year, and achieve advanced
professional level in many areas of study, in another year. In those
two years, they will become the best martial artists of your species,
and possibly your best scientists. They will learn to use their high
intelligence in ways you might think are not possible. They will
develop skills of mind and body that you KNOW are not possible. Don't
think you can use those people, though. They will decide how and where
they will apply their abilities. Geniuses don't care much about orders
from less intelligent people, and our training methods include ethics,
too. You saw evidence of that with what I did in our last meeting.
There IS going to be a school for your people, but they will run it
themselves. Not us, and not you, or any government. There is a very
important reason why there needs to be this kind of school for them.
You don't want these super powerful individuals to develop into
destructive people. That can and does happen without proper training.
When we find them, we stop them. The first duty of all of us, is to
protect the people from us." She said "Wow!" I grinned and said, "We
hear that a lot, even among ourselves. So, do you have any comments
beyond that one word?"
She said "You are positive there will be such a school?" I said "Yes.
If you hinder, it will be on another planet, and we will select the
students and invite them. It might take longer, and your people may
fall behind the other peoples, but we couldn't do anything about that.
If you want to aid, you can help find and select the students, and
provide facilities on your world. We can help pay for such things to
get it started, which is what I sell my art for, but we expect the
schools to be self supporting within about 15 years or less, from their
starting. If done properly. Just like we are doing here, we trained one
person. HE is starting his school, and he is running it, and he is
teaching the students. We assist where it is needed. That's all. If
this is done well, soon your school will have students who will invent
advanced technology which is similar to ours, which only they will have
the ability to operate. Then they and those like them from other worlds
will be forming something like the GC, who will actually act for the
benefit for all. And do it effectively, what the GC is supposed to be
doing, and can't. You already know we do something of that, but we are
doing more. If you would like your people to be a part of all this,
well, at least we do. We would like to have new friends, and can't
think of any we have met we would like to be our special friends, more.
You should know that our original meetings with Zander and his first
student, were accidental, and we didn't know until later that they
would qualify for training. You are the first people we are doing this
with, deliberately. Oh, alright. You can say wow if you want to." They
laughed.
Hoechess said "If our students become like you and your people in
personality, I would like that VERY much! Would they?" I said "I can't
predict that, but it is likely they will have values in which you would
find much to like. All of us can feel what the others feel. That makes
us love each other. No sane person wants to hate or hurt herself. You
have already experienced some of our love yourself. Can such love and
caring, ever allow bad things to happen? Oh, one more thing. You can be
totally convinced, but being able to convince others, well, I would
wish you good luck with that, if I believed in it. Nobody is going to
believe you, and I wouldn't want them too. Yes, that's right. We are so
different, and frighteningly powerful, if the general public found out
about us, they would try to destroy us. They could never believe that
we wouldn't treat them badly and rule them as our slaves. They would
believe that way, because they know in themselves that's what they
would do with the power we have. They can't understand that while we
have the power, we can't have the will to do that."
Hoechess said "You said you removed some people. Did you harm them?"
I said "Not in the least. They are in time suspended storage until they
can be returned to their planet." She said "Their technology?" I said
"Mostly destroyed. We will tend to the rest in time. To your next
question, we understand it much better than they do. Actually, Surrhaa
should have told you we understand GC standard stardrives better than
GC engineers do, and we have never built or possessed one. We don't
need anybody else's' technology but our own, except to scratch our
curiosity itch. Oh, and with a few exceptions, what one of us knows,
any or all of us can know, in seconds." She said "Er, wow? Exceptions?"
I said "One of us invented some very advanced math, which requires more
intelligence to understand than what most of us posses." She said
"Would that be you?" I said "Because we live with our feelings so open
to each other, and with perceptions which recognize few barriers, we
have a scarcity of privacy among us. Therefore, our society has evolved
so that asking one about what makes us different from each other is
taboo, except as teaching or a mission requires. That even applies to
those of us who have died. So I won't tell you who it was." She said "I
understand and apologize." I nodded. I said "I am the leader in these
situations, because I have a special talent for it. That does not mean
I have a special talent for everything. Please don't assume that. The
differences you see on the outside of us, are not our only differences,
which we value. Being all the same would be very boring. We do NOT like
boring." She laughed and said, "I can understand that!" We grinned.
Hoechess "Special talents? Do you have a catalog of them?" I said
"Not for shopping, no. They vary in power and quality, and don't always
fit the labels language would have for them. The one I just mentioned
isn't usually recognized as one. It's called Situation Manager. My
special hearing is another. One of us can perceive colors with his
finger tips. He has yet to find a practical use for that. One of us
does strange things with magnetic fields. You do NOT want him near your
computers. He can control it now, but when he was younger, well, he was
unwelcome in some places." She laughed. She said "That's not exactly
what I meant, and you know that." I said "I know. I'll tell you about
another. One of us has the Oracle Talent. When asked a question in a
special way, he will predict the future in a strange voice, which
always comes true. Unfortunately, it usually doesn't make any sense to
us, until after the event it describes happens. Then we say 'Oh, that's
what he meant!' which didn't actually help anything. I suppose that
wasn't what you wanted, either. Alright, here it is. We have at least
two basic talents, which are the limited ability to feel the emotions
of others, and a limited direct perception, which is like a sense of
touch with your mind. That's where we start. As we progress, things can
get really er, odd. And that's all you are going to get from me on the
subject." She said "With those abilities alone, you would know who else
had them. I see! That's how you would find qualified students." I said
to Rose, "See, she's REALLY intelligent!" She said, "Nice, too." Grace
said "I REALLY like her." I said "I knew you would." She laughed. I
said to the Tsuriss, "Would you like to experience how we feel about
you?" Hoechess looked at her people, who nodded, and she nodded. I said
"Project." We projected our feelings. They said "Wow!" Hoechess said
"We can't doubt your affection for us, or your unusually varied sexual
interest, which we can't help feeling in return. Thank you." I said
"Any time one or more of you would like to engage in more physical, er,
friendship, with any one or more of us, we would be very eagerly
available. We love love. You know how to reach us." That was the end of
the meeting, and we all said our farewells. We walked to an empty room
out of their sight, and ported to my house.
I said "We're hot. Should we take care of that before we discuss the
mission?" I got my answer without words. We really were hot, and it
didn't take us long to finish very well. Then we cleaned up and had our
discussion. Rose said "Do you really think she believed she was
completely right about how you will find the students?" I grinned and
said, "No, Ms. Super genius! Glad you caught that. She didn't, after I
didn't comment on that directly. She believed until then. She's very
frustrated. She wants to be in control of the school and the students,
and I practically shoved down her throat that nobody can. So, she wants
to keep the school from happening because of that, but she doesn't want
her species to fall behind the others, and wants the school very badly
to prevent that. What's worse for her is she knows I know all that, and
that I'm going to do whatever I want to, whatever she decides." Grace
"I notice something you do a lot in those situations. You jump all over
the subjects you cover, so they don't have too long to think on any one
item until you are gone, and can't be argued with." I said "Right. Good
noticing. I've found that's a good way to avoid answering probing
questions.'" Hawk said, "You built her up in front of your people. You
want only her to deal with us." I said "Right! I love how smart all of
you are!" Hawk said "We've learned to watch and analyze everything you
do on a mission. VERY educational." Rose said "She is doing that, too.
I took a peek in her. IQ 192. NOT somebody to underestimate." I said
"Anybody curious why I didn't mention her IQ in this discussion?"
Mgambe said with a groan, "Because we all should have examined her, and
you wanted to see who would volunteer the information first. I didn't.
I admit the mistake, which I won't make again." I said "Did anybody
else examine her?" Hawk said, "I did, but only for psionic ability.
None, and I didn't see any potential."
I said "Before we do anything sexual with them, they will have to
know we are children. That will change how they feel about us, and
REALLY about me, regarding my past incarnations. Please remember that
under 18 do NOT screw. That even applies to me, who is thousands of
years old. Offplanet we are ALWAYS on a mission. I am responsible to
your parents and to the school, and to our Adept society. Please don't
let us all down." They all hugged and kissed me and said they wouldn't.
I said "What do you think Hoechess will do with us next?" Silence. I
said "Rose, I know you have an idea." She grinned and said, "She'll ask
for a private meeting with you, and ask you to find the first student
right away. When you do that, she will try to bind the candidate to
her, if you let her get the chance." I grinned and said, "Will I?" She
said "Yes, which will make her very nervous, which the student will
sense, and so reduce her effectiveness." I said "Which kind of
candidate should we have which would reduce that even further?" She
said "A young adult like Hahchet, who has had a rough life, and doesn't
trust people, which you want anyway for the first student who will
teach his own kind. Then what she would say would just make the student
more mistrusting. She can't win. She won't know that until it's too
late. Oh, you're a sly one!" I said "But I didn't say any of that. You
did." She said "Oh!" We laughed and hugged her. She said, "You did plan
all that, didn't you?" I said "Yes. But I see I didn't need to. I LOVE
that!" We all kissed and hugged for a long time, with a lot of love.
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Grant
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