Stephen's Secure Blog #136
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 15 in this story, in late Winter of year 5 of his special
school.
Stephen's Secure Blog #136 "Prep for Capture"
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I made the rounds, updating all who were involved, on the progress of
our preparations. That included those on Zichesshich and Posintan. The
ad campaign for the auction was going well, and so was the ad for the
concurrent museum display. I was given some news. The Posintan
representative to the GC had managed to get me appointed as a Special
Envoy for the Arts. I thanked her personally, and hugged her with love.
Then we had a Guardian meeting, which included many of Earth, Pashit
from Posintan, Zander, and Wantune and Angrala, who were both surprised
at the changes in each other, and were embarrassed by my grin at that.
We discussed what could and should happen. Then I told them what I
would probably do. I said "I'm going to let them hurt me. I know it's a
risk, and I know it will hurt all the people who care for me, more than
it will physically hurt me, which will hurt me much more, but I think
that is the best way to avoid showing too much of what a Guardian can
do, specially as we will be broadcasting it all over. Get ready for
another shock. If they inject me with something I don't like, I will
die. Don't worry, it will be a temporary condition, so I can stop the
circulation and remove the substance before it gets to the brain. If I
can't restart my heart in two minutes, one of you should do it
remotely. Above all, do NOT rescue me. All this must play out as normal
as we can manage it, for the good of all. If it is required that I die
for real, then it must be so. I know there would be some disappointment
in my leaving too early, but I am producing viable sperm, and we know
how often it is, er expressed." They laughed. I said "So, the next
generation is provided for. And I WILL be watching, to see you do well.
I don't think I will die this time, though, but it's always best to be
prepared."
I said "How you project it, and how much, will be up to you. Just
remember the Confed has a strong taboo against nakedness, which might
be my enforced condition at times. They will think it will be
psychologically stressful to me." More laughter. I said "The more they
try to make me suffer, the better for our cause. Remember, anything
they do to damage me can be healed, eventually. Even amputations. Not
that I expect to do that right away. Physical evidence is important. I
will not take my Guardian equipment with me. I'll leave it at home.
They would want to confiscate it right away, to avoid possible
monitoring, and I want them to be sure I'm not doing that. Now, I
should to ask for something I hope none of you will have expected. I
want some very fancy clothes. Ah, was I correct?" Rose and Ichi shook
their heads. I let out a big dejected sigh. They laughed. Rose said "An
Envoy and Ambassador should dress to impress the people who would be
impressed by that, or they won't take you seriously." I grinned and
said, "They still won't, but yes, we need it for the show. Being
clothes, I don't have any interest in the subject, and don't really
care to. So, somebody get to work. Just try to keep it as much like a
dignified thing as possible, so the military won't think it's for a
costume party. And more than one set, in case one gets lost or
damaged."
There was a lively debate about the suit, with a lot of projected
pictures fighting for our attention. A compromise was reached, between
what some people wore in the GC, and The Confed. Most approved of it. I
said "My opinions are as follows. As an artist, it's tolerable, but I
can't be sure until I can compare it with it's surroundings in action.
As a new reluctant diplomat, It looks fine to hide behind when I don't
know what I'm doing. As an ordinary citizen, it's ridiculous, suitable
only for scaring little children. As a nudist, it's horrible torture.
As a sexual athlete, if that thing makes me impotent, SOMEBODY is going
to suffer the consequences!" That earned me some almost hysterical
laughter.
The suits were made, and I tried them on, with regular issue black
shoes, modified with soft rubber heals and soles, so I would have good
traction and wouldn't make noise when I walked. The full dress suit has
sashes with awards on them, and so did the chest. That's when I found
out they were real. There was my Silver Star from the Viet Nam war, and
other awards from my military service. The Smithsonian gave me a medal,
too. There were awards for my competitions and status on Posintan, and
for Civic Excellence on Zichesshich. Fortunately, there were
duplicates, so if I lost one set, I would still have some to use. The
suit fit reasonably well. The informal suit, which was still very
formal, was alright, as was the working suit. There were multiple
copies, and suitcases to put them in, and the other usual accessories.
Pictures were taken of me in the different suits, and passed around to
my supporters to use when they wanted to. I smiled in some of them.
They did not distribute the ones were my tongue was sticking out, below
my crossed eyes. My ears didn't wiggle enough to be noticeable.
While we were waiting for the ship to arrive, I tried to do some more
art. I did, but only as a secondary process, while everybody was making
me squirt my guts out, almost continuously. I didn't check, but I
suspect a lot of it was saved for storage. I had offers to go all the
way, but stayed true to Rose. One time when I was alone with Rose and
Hawk, she said, "If you want to go all the way, I think you should. I
know you really want to, and I don't want you to have to hold back."
Hawk said, "While she's holding your front." We laughed, and she poked
him and said, "I'm serious." I said in the Navajo language, "I know you
are. I am serious, too. Only one person can be first for this life. You
know who it must be, for us and The People." Rose and Hawk cried, with
mixed emotions. I said in English, "Then I'll screw everybody in
sight." They had to laugh. I said "Still, I must be careful. The
firstborn MUST be as we choose." They didn't have to project their
agreement.
When it was time, I sent a projection to the Captain, and told him
Angrala and I would not transfer from my ship, but using our secret
technology, port from it directly to his office. Then we did it. We did
some greetings, and he said, "You both look different." I said "You
don't." He laughed. Angrala said "All our experiences change us, and
I've had a lot of very significant ones." Captain Krack nodded. I said
"I'm dressed differently, and have been VERY busy. He's what we've done
and plan to do. Your critique would be welcome." I gave him the
briefing. He said "I've had your meals served in your cabins. Both of
you. As far as this ship officially knows, you haven't left the ship.
When your cabins were being cleaned at different times, you were in
meetings with me, or each other. That you didn't eat the meals wasn't
noticed, because my First disposed of the food, and took care of the
laundry. We can trust her. In fact, she never asked questions." I said
"Sounds good. My new luggage will have been in storage until just
before we arrive, and then I will need it to dress up for the show. I
was using ship clothing up to then." He grinned and said, "I was going
to say that." I said "Fine. Go ahead." He laughed. I said "Are they
likely to question you with a machine which detects lies?" He said
"They might, but you are going to condition me to fool them." I said
"If I have the use of what they will be using, so we can test if we are
successful, we can do that." He told me which model, and likely places
where I could find one. I ported it in. He said "Wow!" I said "You
already know our technology works in real time across practically any
distance. Now you know our control of it does, too." He looked at
Angrala, who said, "I've learned a lot, but none of that. I started too
late to learn the control necessary to survive the attempt." I said
"There is hope. It's taken Zander 50 years to progress as you have in a
month. We can't predict all of the future, and shouldn't try to." They
both nodded.
First, I used the lie detector on Angrala, showing her she could
control her responses enough to fool it. I said "But I strongly
recommend you don't lie. It will set your progress back each time you
do it. Practice thinking up words to make it SEEM like you are
answering in a way which people will understand differently from what
the words actually mean. Under less stress, it can actually be fun.
Well, it has to be for me, because I can't lie. But, I can directly
control the machine to act really odd, if I want to. For instance, I
can make it say that somebody is lying when he isn't. I've never done
that yet, but I've been thinking about how interesting it would be if I
did, for a LONG time." They laughed. Captain Krack said "That's two
things I like a lot about you. Your humor, and the outlook which
operates it." I said "We all develop that, as a necessity. We do deadly
serious things practically all the time, which can have enormous
consequences for billions for millennia. Constantly worrying and
looking on the dark side would not so slowly kill us, if killing other
people by accident didn't do it to us first. Everything must balance,
for health and life. ALL my Guardians have great senses of humor.
Angrala's are still working on that." Then I helped him learn to
separate his suspect answers from his emotions, and went into his mind
and separated involuntary reveals from them, too. We tested it with the
detector, and it worked. I said "Don't celebrate. It won't work well
for surprise questions, and what we've done isn't permanent. Probably
last only a few months at best. If they drug you, you just won't
respond at all. You should still try to answer as truthfully as
possible. If there is a problem, like with information about me, you
can try to tell them that they should ask me for that, because you gave
your word as an Officer of the Confed. Conflict with that, could lead
to false readings." He said "They aren't likely to accept that." I said
"True, but you will be monitored, if you agree, and that will be on
record." He said "Do it! I trust to your editing team." I said with a
grin, "We all have to."
I said "Now for something different. You, Angrala, and I, have been
meeting with each other a lot. What would be the reason for that, which
made it necessary?" He thought for a minute, and said "Language
lessons! But we didn't." I said "We'll give them proof now. Ready?" He
nodded, all wide eyed. I said "I'm going to put my hands on your head.
I will give you the GC common language today, and give you Earth's
major language another day. You might get a headache, and be confused a
little, right after the session. Don't be alarmed. We do this a lot for
diplomats and international law enforcement officers. Here goes." I did
it. He kept his eyes closed for a minute, and mumbled in the GC
language, "My head hurts." I said in the same language, "I'll help with
that." I put my hand back on his head, and gave him healing and love
energies. He relaxed. Four minutes later, he was his usual self, and
talking back and forth in two different languages. He said "This is
amazing!" I said with a grin, "I agree, and you can read and write it,
too." Angrala said, "The technique is very good, and his other people
can do it too. But it's Stephen's superior skill and knowledge which
makes it work so well and so fast. Oh, and one more thing. It's his
students' responsibility to embarrass him as much as we can." I said
"That is NOT in the curriculum!" She grinned and said, "Peer review
extracurricular credit." I sighed and shook my head, and said,
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Grant
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