Stephen's Secure Blog #111
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 Fall, after the start of year 5 of
his special school.
Stephen's Secure Blog #111 "Sharon Visits"
START Page
I was finishing up some portraits of Zander's students at my house
art room, when Sharon of the Smithsonian called to make an appointment.
I had already copied my DC gallery to another room in my house, so I
decided to show her that here, instead, and said I would pick her up. I
went to her office carrying a suitcase. I said "I have everything at my
house, so we'll go there. In this suitcase is how we will do that." She
was VERY interested. I opened it up and assembled the frame, and then
put the crystal pack in its place. She said "A stargate!" I said "Like
the old TV show? No. This technology, which I invented in my last
incarnation when I was younger than I am now, uses pared controllers.
No dialing. Also, it's set to operate only when somebody with mental
abilities similar to mine is close to it, and it's bidirectional."
After it was assembled, I shoved my arm through it, and she could see
it wasn't there on the other side. Then I pulled her through with me,
into my living room, and told her that's what it was. She said "Can I
see outside?" I said, "Sure, if you want to look at sand. Over there."
She went over to the window. I said "It's one way. People can't see
in." She said "What's that?" I said "A prototype of one of my works of
art. I'll turn it on." She said "Wow!" I said "I get that a lot." She
laughed. I said "It's better at night. The final model has the word
'welcome' on it in a lot of languages, in glowing crystal, and it's in
the most prominent public place." She grinned and said, "I know why." I
nodded and said, "And they paid 1.2 million to get it, too. Partly
sponsored by a major museum, which sells miniatures of it." She said
"And with your name and planet on it?" I said "Naturally." We said
together, "I know why." We laughed.
I said "All the art in this house is mine, and so is all the house. I
made it. Anything you don't like is my fault." She said "Is it like
other houses in this er, area?" I said "I took the basic pattern from
an existing house, so it would look normal from the outside. Inside has
nothing local in it, except a datacomm terminal." She liked the mosaic
in my bathroom. I said "That's the first one I made in this life. That
blue light is a recent invention. It cleans everything, including
people and clothes, instantly. It's very well programed and is safe." I
wet my hand and sleeve and walked through it and turned off the tickle.
Then I showed her the then dried parts of me. I said "It even cleans
teeth. When you try it, think 'don't remove makeup', and it won't." She
did, and looked in the mirror, and said "That worked. Does it read
minds?" I said "Not exactly. It can pick up some commands it's
programmed for, mostly by sensing the energy changes they cause in
people. It's a little complicated. This mirror is a little less
complicated. Stand here and touch there." She said "WOW!" I said
"That's a 3D illusion of you, and you can rotate and zoom it by hand
commands you do in the projection. Experiment and see what happens."
She stuck her hands out, and had some fun changing the views. She said
"It's not reversed!" I said "Right, but it can be. You don't want to be
plucking the wrong eye out, or something like that." She laughed. I
dripped some water in the floor, and it vanished. I said "Self
cleaning, too."
She motioned around the room and said, "How?" I said "Programmed
forcefields. I build with them, too. They work as fast as thought, and
I can think VERY fast, when I control them with my thoughts." She said
"Ah, I see." I looked around and said, "But they're invisible." She
laughed and said "The blue light is visible." I said "Sorry to
disappoint you, but the light is there just to designate the active
cleaning area. It would would work the same without the light, but
probably a little too often by surprise." She said "Why don't you
market all these inventions?" I said "There are a lot of reasons. One
is quantity. I have to make each one individually, and they can't be
mass produced. I program them with my mind, and I haven't found a way
to duplicate that. Another reason is it would upset the economy. And
being so much in advance, it would stifle innovation. Another reason is
baldness." She smiled. I said "A lot of very smart people would be
tearing their hair out, trying unsuccessfully to figure out how it
works. Even among my associates, who can do some really amazing things,
I'm the only one who really understands how all this works. It's
completely beyond any other technology in the known, er area, and VERY
dangerous in the wrong hands, because scale and distance are virtually
no objects to it's application." She said "Like that fancy door." I
said "Right. We've thought long and hard over sharing this, and found
it would cause wide scale death and destruction if that happened, even
if none of it had been misused. Not even more advanced societies are
ready for it yet. Someday they will, but I doubt I will live to see
it."
She said "And how long will you live?" I said "There is no easy
answer to that. Do you mean this body? Or my reincarnated spirit? And
there are other considerations, too. I will tell you this. The death of
my current body will happen when I choose." She said "And your next
incarnation?" I said with a grin, "To be continued? Or canceled? Tune
in next season, and find out! Brought to you by the Lords of Karma.
Your milage will vary. Do not void where prohibited." She laughed.
While we were walking to the kitchen, she said, "I love your humor." I
said "Thank you. I said this to somebody recently; 'Humor is a good
friend. Keep him happy, and you will be comforted even in the worst
times'." She said "Did you get that from the Abbot?" I said "I was
asked that, and had to tell him I had just made it up." She laughed.
She looked around in awe and said, "I LOVE this kitchen!" I said "I
like it too, and so do the caterers. It and they have to be able to
prepare all different kinds of food, which I don't even want to look
at. I hardly ever eat or sleep here. All this is just for my friends,
and sometimes my student's students, who live near here. All I really
need is a bed out of the weather, and friends to keep me warm in it,
and food. I can make anything I want, so I don't actually want
anything. Not even clothes. I don't wear any at home, and nor do my
friends." She said "But you wear rings and that fancy bracelet." I said
"All my people above a certain level of training do. They are
functional items, disguised as decorative. This ring shoots a laser.
This ring produces tractor and pressor beams. This band has more
computing power than all the regular computers on Earth, and a
universal translator." She said "You and Pete wear the same belt." I
said "It levitates, and has a forcefield which can act like a space
suit. They also act as identification to others, of who we are. I
invented all these things for exploring in some very odd places, and
they are all controlled mentally. That's how you came to possess those
big crystals." She said "That explains it!" I grinned and said, "That
was the main reason I had for inventing them. Prospecting. Laser for
sample taking, levitation for easier climbing. Tractor/pressor rays for
moving big rocks, and so on."
We went downstairs and I showed her the gym. "We exercise a lot. A
disciplined body means a disciplined mind, which is critically
necessary to use mentally controlled forcefields without killing
yourself." She said "I understand more now. It takes special aptitudes
to be admitted to your school." I said "Right. Genius IQ, and unusual
mental and physical talents. Of all of Earth, only about 10 per
generation, of 10 year olds qualify, and not all attend. Our teaching
methods are VERY intensive. Those less qualified wouldn't survive it.
In fact, the danger is so serious, a lot of our educational tools will
refuse to work on people who are not ready for them." She said "Your
invention." I said "Well, yes." Then we were in the pool room. More
wows. I said "If you knew what happened at the last pool party, you
would have to invent a new word to replace that." She said "Wild?" I
said "Geniuses make up their own social rules, irrespective of any
society. We are ruled by logic, not cultural taboos. So, the word which
best describes what happened, would be orgasmic. In the literal sense,
but in visual, considering all our differences, something more like out
of Dante's Inferno. Scales and fur do add to variety. Nobody went all
the way, though. I and we have rules about that. Doesn't happen when
anybody under 18 is present. Very active hands and mouthes, though."
She laughed and said "I can imagine." I said with a grin, "No you
can't. We can share our feelings and sensory impressions. That
multiplies, too." Another wow.
I said "One of my more unusual students has a school I support here,
on this er, area, for students who would be VERY out of place in my
school in DC. They are from all over the er, places. Despite the
efforts of some different government officials, who do you think they
are loyal to?" She grinned and said, "Somebody named Stephen?" I said
"Yes, and to my DC classmates who help out as teaching assistants, who
all have full citizenship in this society, courtesy of a er, area which
loves sports. I and my people are probably the best trained athletes,
and we have the reputation of having the best sportsmanship, too. We
are VERY popular there, and not just because I defeated and publicly
humiliated their most obnoxious non native player on live TV, in the
most complicated game they know. They bet a lot there. I cleaned out my
opponent, and came back with 7 billion, which is going to finance a
number of schools." She looked at me in amazement. She said "You really
DO work for us, and very hard. On behalf of all Earth, I thank you
sincerely!" I said "You're welcome. We've done much more, but I don't
really like talking about myself. However, I should tell you something
of who and what we are. We are the Guardians of Earth. We have two main
missions. We protect Earth from being harmed by those not of Earth, and
there have been many, and we protect Earth from people who have
abilities like us, who use them to hurt others. I founded the current
Guardians, and they are guided by my vision. Each er, area will
eventually have their own Guardians we will have taught, and we will be
ethical and fair. That's part of the training, actually." She said
"That's SOME vision. But you said current. There were other Guardians
in the past?" I said "Yes, going back thousands of years, and when they
were strong enough to pose a danger to a particular group of
offworlders, they were murdered. EVERY time, and this happened on other
er, areas as well."
She said "So why weren't you murdered?" I said "Because my school at
the time was founded by the government to train selected children of
Federal employees, geniuses, to be superspys. Those pesky little
critters with the pale skin and the big dark eyes never knew of us, and
that I had developed some amazing psychic powers, because security with
us was paramount. The government knew about those aliens, of course,
and what they did, but not why. They even had, and still have, some
flying teacups, or such things, but can't make them work. I trained
some of my schoolmates who had the potential to be like me, and
invented my technology. All that lasted peacefully, until one day when
one of us was alone in a jungle, cleaning up a camp we had used for a
sex party. Well, what else? He was captured by one of their ships by
surprise, and woke up in their station on the other side of the moon.
Under the moon, actually. That was the worst mistake they ever made. He
took over the station, and escaped with enough information for us to
make plans for stopping them for good. We are still following that
plan. Now, there are none of them in any inhabited system but their
own. No space ship comes into our solar system without our permission.
In fact, in the past year, we have turned back two attempts at
conquest, from people who have already taken over two other systems,
which we are working behind the scenes to reverse." I grinned and said,
"We do keep busy. It's not all sex and games." She said "Wow!" I said
"I have to agree. Now to the galleries."
She kept saying wow. I said "Most of the sculptures can't be
displayed on Earth because of what they are made of. Multicolored
manufactured diamond like this would draw too many unanswerable
questions. Other materials, such as emerald and topaz, do not make good
sculpture material. Too fragile for fine detail. Quartz, sapphire, and
diamond, are the best. And some of my own chemical formula gems." She
said "Our National Museum is known for well known artists. It's part of
the draw. You got in around that, through the mineral specimen
category. Your art more than qualifies in quality, but not in artist's
fame, and I think you want to avoid fame." I said "That's right. I
didn't expect you to choose anything here for the museum, and I didn't
make it for that. However, you might have some ideas of the kinds of
things I can make, which you might want to have for the museum. I don't
need to have any more there, but more isn't likely to hurt my cause.
And I wouldn't mind if there is anything I can do to enhance YOUR
work." She smiled and said, "I appreciate that. There is something of a
compromise, which could lead to more. Your lions have drawn much
She laughed. I said "Whatever you want, which wouldn't cause me
problems." She pointed and said, "That one!" I said "Fine. You should
know more about it. That's an actual scene I witnessed, as a Mongol at
the time the boy who became Genghis Kahn, was living and killing my
friends, at around 1180. That was my best friend lying there in death,
and his mother. As you might now assume, it's all historically
accurate, which seems appropriate for a museum." She said "Did you go
with him on his conquests?" I said "No, he killed me almost a year
later. I incarnated in Italy right after that, where my name was
Giovanni." We spoke in Italian after that.
I took the oil painting with me, and we went to the gym. I said
"Would you like to see the Mongol bow I made?" She did, and I showed it
to her, and told her all about it, and Mgambe's competition. I said
"Would you like to meet him?" She looked interested and said, "Yes, I
would." I said "He's coming down the stairs, now." She started to say
how, and stopped herself. I smiled, which she returned. He came in, and
I introduced them. I said "This is the lightest skinned I've ever been,
and I don't like it. I burn, almost even under a lightbulb. You should
have seen us on the beach close together when we visited a summer camp.
He wore white racing trunks, and I wore black, deliberately for the
contrast effect. We were quite a sight." He grinned, and she laughed.
He told her about the competition. I projected my memory of it, and she
was amazed. She said "They are sure big!" Mgambe said "And Stephen beat
their best in Judo." I said "We don't know if my opponents were the
best." He said, "In unlimited? Had to be, but they really were in
fencing." I said "Well, yes, because those were tournaments. Best that
day. Another day I could have lost." He said "Do you really think
that?" I said "Anything is possible." He said to Sharon, "He's too
modest." She grinned and said, "I see that." I said to her, "He only
had a few hours of practice on the bow, which he hadn't seen before,
and HE beat their best." He said "It was a tournament, but I could have
lost on a different day." I said "That's not fair, copying my
evasions." He said "But you're the Master Teacher. We're supposed to
copy you." I said to her, "Can't fool geniuses easily, darn it." She
laughed. I said to him, "But do you think you really could lose?" He
said "With that magnificent bow? No, only to you with yours." I nodded.
We went upstairs to the living room. I said to Sharon, "There is
nobody in your office at the moment. You should go through now. I'll
pull the gate out from here." Mgambe held the painting while I hugged
her with love, and she took the painting and walked through the
Port-All. When I saw she was safely in her office, I puled the
controllers out of both frames, and ported it all out of her office.
Mgambe said "I like her." I said "Me too." We hugged with love.
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Grant
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