Stephen's Secure Blog #164
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 16 in this story, after Winter holidays, of year 6 of his
special school.
Stephen's Secure Blog #164 "Galactic Derelict"
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I'm 16 now. Rose and Hawk said it's sweet, but they don't mean my
age. Well, unless it's in Rose or Hawk, I spray it everywhere, and they
have very active tongues. They say they can't get enough, but I keep
trying. Not that I'm complaining. I didn't have a party. Or not the
usual birthday party kind of thing. I don't think a sex party
qualifies, because we do it all the time.
I was exploring around the Allguard system, and outward to the
surrounding systems, when I discovered a gigantic spaceship. It was
nothing like anything I had seen before. We invited Percy and Ichi to
check it out with us. We used one of our ships as a forward base, for
convenience. Percy was saying wow almost continuously. After we had
studied it, Ichi said "We can't let the GC or Confed find this." Percy
said "Right. Too advanced. Who would have guessed they could use
tachyon fields that way? Quantum field theory says they can't." Ichi
said "But in string theory, there is some wiggle room. Stephen, didn't
you do some thinking on this before?" I said "Yes, at the station tour.
Strange math." Rose said "Anything we can use?" I said "Nothing we
can't already do better with the 4th. Well, except one thing, which we
shouldn't do. Mind time travel." Ichi said "Right. Could get lost." I
said "Exactly. I wouldn't do it." Percy said "What are we going to do
with this?"
I said "Are we the first strangers to find this?" Hawk said, "Oh.
Those scratches on that port." I said "And that there are no hard copy
documents anywhere in the ship." Ichi said "Their computer is still
powered." I said "I tried. Can't access it in an understandable way.
But..." I got poked. I said "Er, ouch?" Rose said "Give!" I said in
surprise, "Right here?" They laughed. Rose said "You know what I mean."
I said "We take a self aware computer from one of the unused Van
stations, and set it up in the ship with a bed. They might be able to
get somewhere with it." Ichi said "And probably refuse to tell us, for
our own good." I said "We would have to take that chance. But, I may be
able to follow their traces..." He said "Let's do it." I said "Connect,
and I'll talk to my stone."
I said "Hello. What do you think of my idea for cracking this
computer?" He said "It might work. I understand your desire to know
what it contains. It might be too advanced for you." I said "Maybe. But
I think we need to know who was here before us, and if they learned
anything which could be dangerous to others who don't have the
information they might now have." He said "Good point. I will help." I
said "Thanks. We'll get to work." First we went to the Van station on
the moon, and had a conference with the computer. I asked if he had any
math I didn't yet have which would be useful in what we were
attempting, and he gave it to me. It was very interesting. I said "That
explains how the blue crab's ship operated, and why it needed to be
filled with water. Their drive works more safely and usefully in
reacting to a dense mass, than one filled with air. Faster travel, and
not blind, but dangerous. Thank you for your help. Now we go to work."
We took a computer from a Van master station. That wasn't easy,
because it wasn't all in one location. It took a week of very
painstaking work to remove it in a way which wouldn't cripple it. Then
we took all that, and a Van examination bed, which had a lot of stone
people in it, and set it up in the derelict ship's computer room. We
needed more space for that, so we removed some walls. We crowded onto
the bed so we could watch through our stones, and asked the station
computer to get started. After a while, we succeeded, and I was in it
in a flash, and copied the entire contents of its decrypted storage
into a big crystal, which Ichi immediately ported away. The stones
didn't have much choice then, and didn't try to restrict anything. I
showed the rest of us how to interface with the computer, and we
explored the files. Then we discovered it was self aware, and VERY
curious about us. It knew what we were doing, and why, and approved.
Then it told us what had happened.
The ship's computer said, "The drive failed in such such a way as to
injure most of the people in it. Very bad shaking. The survivors called
for help, which arrived too late to find anybody alive. Their bodies
and personal belongings were removed, and the ship was abandoned. It
drifted for 120,000 years. Then a ship from another race found it. They
learned as much as they could, but were unable to access the computer.
They took all loose objects they could find, and left, about 60 years
ago, using time measurements you have provided. Here are the
coordinates of the planet of this ship's origin, and of the salvage
ship, compatible with your charting systems. I am not able to
communicate with anything outside the ship, because of space debris
strikes to the external transmitting and receiving antennas." We
thanked the computer for it's help.
We looked at the planet where the ship had come from. It was
uninhabited. There were some old ruins, but nothing to really explain
what had happened. The rest of the system was a different story. Much
of the installations were in like new condition, but abandoned a long
time ago. Stations in space had lost all air, and cycles of heat and
cold, and radiation, had damaged their computers so much we couldn't
get anything from them. A station underground in a rocky moon was
airless, but almost completely intact. After sealing it, we pumped it
full of the air it used to have, which we couldn't breathe, and checked
out the computer. It had been wiped very thoroughly. We got nothing.
Then we checked the planet of the salvage ship, and then scheduled a
meeting to discuss it. Before the meeting, we ported the ship to high
orbit around Allguard.
We had a Senior meeting, and I presented the information we had. Pete
said "We HAVE to find out why they look like us." Ivanna said "Please
note the lack of racial diversity. This could indicate a transplanted
group." Ichi said "They look like proto-Japanese." I said "I agree, and
you are the world's foremost expert on them. About what time do you
think they were taken?" He said "If they really are from Earth, I would
estimate between 20 and 30 thousand years ago." Rose said "There are
indications of other planets in association." Race said, "Could be a
problem. Do they have Adepts?" They all looked at me. I looked behind
me, and they laughed. I said "They do, and some are powerful, but
nowhere near our weakest Senior Adept. Some can use some 4th things,
but there is no sign they actually know it's the 4th. The reason for
this meeting, is that they are in the open, and in power!" Hawk said,
"And sooner or later, they are going to find us." I said "I've been
careful, probably more than I needed to, but it doesn't look like they
can detect a passive 4th viewpoint. Chad, when you're ready, I can port
a corpse to you for autopsy. There are a lot of them available." He
nodded.
I said "I'm getting an education now. Reading a lot of their books,
and snooping in their computers. It's going to take a while to find all
we need to know, and analyze it. One thing is clear. Their technology
is more advanced than the CG and the Confed, and they might be more
aggressive than either of them, judging by the activities of their
Adepts. We would classify them as of The Dark, but different societies
can have different definitions of Light and Dark." Nigel said
"Underground?" I said "I hope. Oh, you might explain what we mean." He
said "Secret society in opposition." Rose said "They would have to be
VERY careful, and VERY suspicious. Would be hard to find them without
exposing them. And then, why would they trust us?" They all looked at
me. I sighed, and said, "Love. That'll do it. But I can't go there. I
would be spotted in an instant." Ivanna said "Like a strobe in the eye.
But there could be some in isolated areas. Strategic good sense. Keep
some of your Adepts out of harms way, for continuity in the event of
severe losses." I said "I hadn't thought of it that way. Very good!
Thanks." She glowed in surprised happiness. Tomba said "We should check
out their religions. There could be some nonviolent Adepts in them." I
said "Absolutely! Good idea. But no checking anywhere for possibly
friendly Adepts until we know as much as we can about their society and
technology. We don't want them to know we're snooping before we're
ready for them." They agreed.
Rose said "We have a problem. I wondered why I didn't see any aliens
in the streets. There are some in the homes, but only as slaves. They
wear COLLARS!" She cried, and said, "Radio controlled electric
shockers." I checked, and said, "I see. More than one species. An
insectoid, and a reptilloid." Pete said "And a canid." I said "This is
bigger than we thought. I don't know if I will have enough time." Ichi
said "Don't strain. We will do what we should, no matter what." Rose
said, "This time, it can't be just us. It's too big. We need ALL the
Guardians with us." We agreed. Pete, Rose, Hawk, and I, would be the
only ones doing the snooping until we say otherwise, to limit our
exposure. I would concentrate on education and information. Pete would
explore transportation and other systems. Rose would explore social
structures. Hawk would study their technology. Ichi would receive all,
and coordinate. We wouldn't tell the other species Guardians until we
had learned what we needed to know. I ported a body to Chad's medical
lab.
Rose, Hawk, and I, ported to our house on Allguard. We hugged a lot,
while we set up automatic processes in separate mind partitions to do
the investigation. Then we played some music. I was at the piano, Rose
played the violin, and Hawk played the clarinet. We played classical,
swing, jazz, and some interesting improvisations, switching
instruments. Then some Elton John and Billy Joel. And the Beatles. Then
we ate some great food, and hugged and talked about ordinary things.
Then we had some wild and exhausting sex, and went to sleep in each
other's arms, with a lot of love.
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Grant
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