Stephen's Secure Blog #94
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 after
2018, 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 14 in this story, in the spring, near the end of year 4 of
his special school.
Stephen's Secure Blog #94 "Gikkal, the Reporter"
START Page
I made sure I had some appropriate drinks for my expected guest, and
was ready for him when he arrived. I had asked Hawk to monitor, which
he was very happy to do. Gikkal arrived in his flier, and I greeted him
at the door. In the living room, which I had set at a temperature he
would be most comfortable in, he was staring in wonder at everything.
He caught me grinning at him, and he was embarrassed. I said "Even my
friends who I have known a very ling time, are amazed at this place.
The reason for that might surprise you. Oh, there is that reporter's
curiosity poking at me. I'll tell you. I don't care about any of this,
or any thing. As long as I'm out of the weather and have enough
conveniences to maintain my health, that's all the material things I
need. All this is for other people who like it. Want to see the rest,
before we talk?" He said "Absolutely!" So I gave him the tour. After it
was over, and we were in the kitchen, I asked if he would like anything
to drink. I pulled out from a cabinet, what he asked for, and gave it
to him. He said "I have a feeling, if I had asked for anything else,
you would give it to me." I said "Well, probably not a tooth
extractor." He laughed. Which wasn't completely compatible with
drinking. He spilled some, and then he looked around for evidence of
that, and didn't find anything. He noticed me watching him do that, and
was embarrassed again. I said "I like a clean house." He regained his
composure, and said, "I see that."
We went back to the living room. I said "Please choose a place to
sit. All the chairs will accommodate to your needs." He sat in one, and
it molded to his shape. I said "If you want it to, it will massage
you." That's what happened. Then it stopped. He said "It reads minds?"
I said "No, just some feelings, which trigger some responses. One thing
I should tell you, which might change how you will be here, is I don't
lie. So, be careful of the questions you ask, if you don't want to have
answers which could cause problems or conflicts in you." He said "Wow!
And the surprising thing is, I believe you. Everything I know about you
shows you go to great lengths to say what you want to say, very
carefully keeping to the literal truth. Why?" I said "The way I was
raised, and the intensive training I've had, have built into me some
very strong ethics. If I go against them, I will be harmed by that. Not
that I would want to. It's just not part of me to do that. It's the
same for my students. I don't accept any who would violate the ethical
standards they must have, to learn what I can teach them." He said
"Wow!" I said "I hear that a lot." He laughed.
I said "Are you recording this?" He said "Yes, but I can stop if you
need me to." I said "You will make that decision when you think you
should. In any event, it can always be erased." He nodded. I said, "So,
you wanted to speak with me. Is it because I said I would like that, or
because you couldn't resist your burning curiosity?" He said "Both." I
said "Then, how can I help you?" He said "What do you think of the GC?"
I said "The Members of the Council, or the people who actually do some
work?" He grinned and said, "The Members first." I said "A smelly pile
of dangerously useless selfish posturers. And that's on a good day." He
laughed so hard, he would have fallen out of his chair, but it wouldn't
let him. When he regained the ability to hear me, I said, "That's why I
made these special chairs. A lot of my friends have similar reactions
to what I say, and some have actually landed themselves on the floor.
It could be that some might place more value on my humor, than anything
else." He said "So you were just being funny?" I said, faking I was
being insulted, I said, "JUST?" I grinned and said, "I don't lie,
remember? Not even to be funny." He said "Oh. What of the people who
are employed by them?" I said "A full range, from the worst
incompetents and criminals, to people who really try to do good, but
they are vastly outnumbered. In this, and in any other opinions I
express, I'm not guessing. I have experiences and some proof, which
form the basis of my positions. In my opinion, the GC is just barely
better than nothing." He recovered and said, "You know I can't report
that." I said "You knew you wouldn't be able to report practically
anything of this meeting, before you came here. Don't try to make me
think you are stupid."
He said "You have a unique way of complimenting people." I grinned
and said, "I'll take that as a compliment." He grinned. I said, "So,
any other probing questions?" He said "Why are you here?" I said "You
probably don't want me to say, because it's too hot outside. I'm here
for two reasons. One is to prepare for confronting the Council in the
Hall, so I can shove my opinions and conclusions up their excretory
orifices." He said "Wow! I wouldn't want to miss THAT!" I said "There
might be some resistance to my shoving, by their heads being already
metaphorically in the way." He laughed. He said "I like that, but to
what constructive purpose?" I said "To show them I and my associates
can do, and will have done, some of their jobs better, and offer to
take over those functions. They will refuse, but it will still happen,
anyway. Somebody should fill that vacuum, and I don't just mean the
vacuum in their skulls." After a while for recovery, he said, "What
functions?" I said "Protecting planets and systems from physical
aggression by others, including Restricted Worlds." He said "How will
you do that?" I said "Very carefully, so as to not harm anybody." He
said "I understand what you are not saying. No methods. I can guess
why. I wouldn't believe or understand them." I said "I should just
relax and let you answer your own questions." He grinned and said, "I
hope not."
He said "And the other reason?" I said "To find and train other
people who can learn to do what I and my associates can do. I plan to
have locally run schools on all the major worlds. So far there is only
my original planet, and this one. Some of the foreign students here,
will start schools on their own worlds. I don't have to tell them to,
because they will do what they know is right." He said "They will have
your ethics?" I said "There are only two ways to go with that. We call
them the Light and Dark Paths. Contrary to popular wishful thinking,
for most, and definitely for us, there is no middle way. When we find
those who are of the Dark, who have some of our abilities, we stop
them, because we are the only people who can." He said "What happens if
one of your people goes bad?" I said "We would know immediately, and we
would take away their ability to harm people, which could include their
death. We did have something like that happen once. One of us had a
brain disfunction, and became irrational. Fortunately, we were able to
repair that inherited fault in her brain. She is perfectly healthy now,
and doing great work in controlling the aggression in three systems
which are not in the GC. One invaded and colonized two others. We are
working to reverse that."
He said "Is everybody on your homeworld like you?" I said "You know
don't consider yourself part of their societies?" I said "We are too
far in advance of them, so the wise Restricted rule applies. Sadly, the
GC would not apply that to themselves." He said "They wouldn't?" I said
"They actively didn't. The Van had captured and used advanced
technology. When the GC captured some of that in turn, they did
everything they could do to try to use it. They failed. So will have
the Van, eventually. It's very bad for ANY society to try to use
technology they don't understand. The Van had the originators of that
tech in servitude. When they were freed, the Van had nobody to repair
their machines, which the Van couldn't understand. One kind of machine
grew their new bodies for them. Another transferred their spirits to
the new bodies. Machines break down over time, so there were advancing
faults in their strange reproductive process. The Van are dying out. In
two thousand years, they will have been extinct." He caught that and
said, "You are doing something about that?" I said "Smart of you to
catch that. Now comes an important question I will pose after an
introduction."
I said "After the citizenship ceremony, I told Hissssner you were
very good, and that I liked you. Want to know what he said then?" He
grinned and said, "You know I do!" I said "He said you irritated him. I
said 'Good'." He laughed. I said "He knew what I meant. You perform a
very valuable service to your society; keeping them honest. I told
another Ssintris friend of our meeting here, and what I said to you in
the center, and here is what he said:
'You knew he was going to be assigned to interview you, and you
wanted him to know you wouldn't want to do that, but would talk to him
privately. He's in a very bad position now. He won't let it go unless
you tell him something that's news, but you will do it in a way he will
know he shouldn't report it. Real torture for such an honest
journalist.'
I said "Was he wrong?" He said "No. But I have to know, so I accept
the torture." I said "Alright. Here it comes. The Van have been
desperately looking for new hosts for their degrading minds. They
captured people at random and tested them for usefulness. Some of that
was torture to their victims. Some of those they let go, to see what
would happen to them when they returned to their regular lives, with
their memories manipulated. They have been doing this on all the
planets they could find which had intelligent people on them, INCLUDING
THIS ONE, and my own. They were unopposed, because they were very
sneaky, and had advanced technology, and the GC was afraid to know too
much, and show they couldn't really defend their planets. When any
person or group grew powerful enough to have a chance of opposing them,
the Van destroyed them. The planet they did all that the most to, was
my own, because that was the planet the Van had originally come from.
People who had my abilities were noticed and murdered. Until my school,
which was for geniuses to become spies, found me. There I developed my
intelligence and abilities, but in secret, so the Van never knew about
me. I trained others who had the same latent abilities. We learned
about the Van, and made plans. Then the unexpected happened. One of us
was captured at random, in an isolated area, and brought to their main
station inside our moon. For them, that was the worst thing they ever
did. He took over the station, and escaped with enough information for
us to take action against them, and a plan. We have been following that
plan ever since."
I said "Now, there are no Van in any inhabited system but their own.
We removed all of them, and have them in time suspended storage. All
the empty stations have been stripped of their advanced technology.
Almost all of their giant starships are empty of Van, and are either in
parking orbits, or will be soon. The few we can't conveniently reach
because they are traveling too fast, will be captured as soon as they
slow down. We have not harmed any Van, and will not. When we have
completed all the preliminaries, we will return all the Van to their
homeworld, and remove all the advanced technology which isn't their
own, and blockade the planet. They will not then be able to make new
bodies, and will become extinct when their current bodies wear out." He
was so surprised, he couldn't even say wow. I waited a little, and
said, "When we do the shoving to the Council, that's one of the things
we are planning to use. If nobody spoils the surprise before then." He
said "I know what you mean now by torture. I will NOT take your triumph
from you." I said "It's not a triumph. It's just work. We don't like
what we did and are going to do to them. We very much prefer nice
things to help happen. We think telling the Council that way, might
help us to do that. Are you curious to know if I like your people?" He
said "Now that you mention it, yes." I said "Not more or less than any
others. I have been physically attacked, and uplifted, been made a
friend, and been made an enemy, confronted with ignorance and hate, and
intelligence and love, by your people. But in large, that's no
different from any other people, including those on Restricted Worlds.
I love all people, but there are a some of every kind I would rather
not be in the same room with."
He said "And here we are, in the same room." I said "In my house, at
my invitation, and that is very rarely given. You might ask why. Do I
want something? No. I want actually less than something. You know what
that is." He said "Yes. No publicity. You know I can't guarantee that."
I said "Yes. I just didn't want you to feel bad when I refused to grant
the best journalist on the planet, the official interview he deserved."
He said "Wow! What's more, I know that's true. You care." I said "Touch
my name on the big light cube in the city, and discover the root of
that."
I said "I have a problem you might be able to help with. I'm
undecided whether or not I should tell you about something newsworthy
which is going to happen soon, but might not be reported on. I am going
to be framed for a crime. It won't succeed, because I will be recording
everything, including how it happens, and that will be witnessed in
real time by others far away. Should I tell you about it?" He grinned
and said, "Torture accepted." I said "The police are going to come here
in a few days or so, with a search warrant, and will plant some illegal
drugs here in the process of searching for it. Some anonymous tip by a
political rival of the President will be at the root of it, who has the
issuing judge in his pocket. The person in charge of the police detail
is in on it, too, and is getting paid very well, in advance, and more
on success, which I won't let happen." He said "How do you know of
this?" I said "That's the most interesting part, for me. For the first
time I can remember, I've had a really detailed premonition. Usually
they aren't nearly as specific, but they always come true. Something
you might find more interesting, is that I didn't need it. My managing
of the simple situation wouldn't have been any different if I hadn't
had advanced notice of it. I was with the President and another friend
when it happened, and told them, and they would really like to be
entertained as usual, with recordings of the event." He grinned and
said, "I can imagine. I saw the report of your Stumak match."
I said "It's funny in a way, that they chose to incriminate me with
the one thing which can never happen. I have never taken any kind of
drug or medicine in this life, and I don't intend to. I do nothing
which will interfere with the clarity of my mind and body. If I did,
using my advanced technology, which depends on that, would probably
kill me and others." He said "YOUR tech?" I said "Yes. It's all my
invention. I built this house, and everything in it, except you." He
said "All by yourself?" I said "Yes." He said "It must have taken a
very long time." I said "It didn't. I already had a pattern. I
duplicated Hissssner's house, with some slight modifications. It took
an hour. A few days later, I made a basement to put a gym in it, to
give Hissssner some martial arts demonstrations. Just recently, I
updated the decor, for the visit by the museum staff." He said "How?" I
said "I construct with mental control of forcefields. They can work at
the speed of thought, and I can think faster than anybody I know." He
said "Now I understand something else, more. One drug induced mistake,
and you could be cut in half by one of your own virtual tools." I said
"That's very good. Few of my students would see that so easily." He was
embarrassed, and said, "Thank you. Material?" I said "None of it came
from this planet. Ready for a big one?" He held his breath and nodded.
I said "I can use any thing in this galaxy for material, instantly.
Only some of my students know and can do that. Now you know. Makes the
trip here worth it?" He was too speechless to say anything, so he just
nodded.
I stood, and so did he, and I said, "Would you like to have a
recording of the raid?" He said "You know I would." I said "An old
friend used to poke me with a comment in these occasions, that I
sometimes ask stupid questions." He said "I like him." I said "You
should. Pete's very likable. One of my students. He took over my team
while I was recovering from my injury I sustained in escaping from the
Van station." He said "So that was you!" I nodded. I said "Life is
strange." He grinned and nodded. I said, while we were walking to the
door, "What are you going to do with the recording?" He said "Erase it.
Too dangerous to keep." I said "Will you allow me to do it for you?" He
said "Yes." I said "Done, and beyond what GC tech can recover, which is
why I offered." He said "I'm not going to ask how." I just grinned.
Just before he got into his flyer, I said, "You are welcome any time
I'm here. But you might not want to make your visits public knowledge."
He said "Thank you, and I understand. It's been VERY interesting, and I
have a lot to think about." I said "Good. I like thinking." He laughed.
Then he went into his flyer and took off.
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Grant
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