Solomon's Private File #247
These stories about Stephen and Solomon take place starting in
1950's. Stephen wrote about his life in letters to a penpal, and then
in a secure blog, in case he lost his memory again, in the master
computer in his school for gifted students, which he started attending
in 2016 in a new incarnation, until his death. Now his son Solomon is
attending the same school, and is writing in his own secure blog for
his future incarnations.
All characters are fictitious, even if some of them might have names
that belong to some actual people, or act like people we know.
Solomon is 26 in this story, in the Winter of 2052-2053.
Solomon's Private File #247 "Special Assistant Corps"
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George said, "I've set up procedures for your official Special
Assistant Corps. It will go public, with their actions, eventually.
We're using glowing silver and blue armbands as ID. With all the
actions you give us, we're going to be busy! We like it." I said, "It's
as much for them, as it is for the world." He said, "Absolutely! Some
victims are going to ask for you. Demand it. We're going to tell them
if you have to show up, they're going to regret it, and you do monitor
them." I said, "People are going to take pictures. Always a different
disguise?" He said, "Planned." I said, "New er, feature. Banks have
poor surveillance from above. We record what the teller sees in a hold
up, with automatic following of the perp, after. Then posted on our
YouToob channel. We track kidnapped children, and look at original home
life." He had some tears. I said, "All this for world wide. Don't have
to do it all at once. When people become available." He said, "You're
leading up to something." I said, "I want some real political pull for
when I might need it. They don't feel like working for the future, I'm
going to prod their butts into doing it, sharply." He said, "Long
All that was noticed by the media almost immediately. I was strongly
asked to do a show about it. In agreeing to it, I said, "Open topics.
If you aren't smart enough to choose good ones, I might cut back on the
shows. Can't think of any? There's a whole world of experts out there.
No excuse." They grumbled, but with smiles. Before the show, I told
them I was bringing my wife with me. They were very frustrated by my
late notice of that, but struggled successfully to not complain. Then
they advertised it all over.
We ported to the studio. I introduced Galya, as in disguise, and
using the name Leia. That annoyed them again, not having previously
announced that part if it. I said, "You do great work. Why should we
make you do less of it?" Frustration and smiles. Greg introduced us on
air, and told about the disguise. Then he asked her why. She said,
"It's for my privacy, and that of our children." He said, "You're both
here. Who's taking care of your children?" She said, "Sol is. He's
always home now, even when he's working in a lot of other places. Very
convenient." He said, "I still don't understand how that works." She
said, "The rest of us don't understand it, either, but we sure aren't
complaining." He cleared his throat. He said, "How many children to you
have?" She said, "Sorry. We have children, and that's all we're going
to say about it." I said, "And we have each other. As often as we can."
She poked me, and we grinned, and hugged. She said, "We're embarrassing
him." We both said, "Good!" He chuckled and said, "You're obviously
very much a couple. How did you meet?" I said, "We knew each other
practically from birth. Our parents are in our group. But when we were
starting school, we felt a strange connection. Then we knew we would
marry. That kind of thing can happen to those with strong psionics. Not
that we had much then, compared to now."
He asked her, "Have you gone on missions with Solomon?" She said, "I
have, and on my own, also, and no, I'm not going to tell you about
them. Sol handles Earth publicity. Too many cooks, get eaten." He
looked at her strangely, and said, "I see you share some of Sol's
humor." I said, "I think it rubs off. It's not as if we aren't doing a
lot of that." He had to laugh. He said, "I didn't expect this! I know,
good." We went to break. I said, "Your list is feeling a little
neglected." He said, "Usual." Back on air, he said to me, "We've
received reports that show you do a lot of actions all over the world.
I suspect we know only a little of that. Recently, there are reports of
what they call your Special Assistant Corps, doing a lot of the actions
you had been doing before. Why the change?" I said, "We have enough
people in our group now, so we can do that. It's true that I can now do
it all myself, but I realized that I was being selfish. So I'm sharing
it."
He said, "Please explain what you mean by being selfish." I said, "We
exist to serve. Doing that out in the galaxy is great, and very
rewarding, and very much needed. But to do it at home on Earth is
something else. We're human, first. To help out our own kind, directly,
is something we NEED to do. It pulls at us. All of us who have become
enlightened, have worked on Earth missions. So I do it less now, so the
rest of our people can do it more, because their humanity cries for it,
and it also improves who they are as caring people, so they can do
their work even better, and with care and joy." He said, "Wow!" Galya
said, "We all say that, too. This isn't work as work, for us. We are
never commanded or forced to do anything. We volunteer, HARD, to do
these things. And to do them with Sol, is so amazing! We all feel it's
a great privilege to have a mission with him. Even his mother, Rose,
feels that way. What a lot of people on Earth and other planets feel in
the positive about Sol, we also feel, but much more. Well, we know him
even better." I said, "Embarrassing, too." She said, "Good." I just
sighed, and he laughed.
Greg said, "The assistants. They can't be as good as you are, being
the best. Will it affect how well they do their work?" I said, "They've
been monitoring me. And for things there isn't enough time for them to
experience, we give it to them in accelerated interactive monitoring
dreams. That's what's taken so long. We needed to build up a critical
mass of educational experiences to support this. They now know what I
do as much as I do on Earth, and I also monitor them, which they like.
It gives them more confidence and support." Galya said, "And they love
the feel of his mind in theirs. It has his love in it." He nodded and
said, "I can well believe that!" We went to break.
Back from break, He said, "You're publishing bank robbery videos.
Why?" I said, "Overhead surveillance cameras in banks have a poor angle
to see faces, and are of low resolution, by necessity, because of
limited recording storage. I thought that an aid in identifying bank
robbers would be helpful. And so, that's what we're doing." He said,
"It's working, too. But if you can do that, you can also catch the
criminals, and even stop them from robbing the banks." I said, "We are
NOT the police. We are not legally empowered to arrest anybody, and
don't want to be. We don't like to have any kind of power like that
over people. And there is another issue, involving God, and how we have
to be as his agents. Virtue can't exist without temptation. People must
be able to choose to commit a crime or not. We can't interfere too much
with that." He said, "Some people will be injured and killed." I said,
"The price of freedom and free will is not cheap, but it will make
humanity stronger and wiser over time, which is God's will. You have
children. Would you, even though you dearly want to, protect them from
ALL possible danger, if you could, and without your own discipline, and
natural consequences for their mistakes, and giving them all they
wanted? And if you did, how would they grow up to be?" He said, "I
understand. They would not be good and moral people." I said, "God is
our Father, more than just in name, but in full reality for humankind
growing up. We who work for him, have to do it the way he wants us to,
for YOU, even if it hurts us terribly." We went to break.
He said, "Some won't understand and accept that." I said, "That's
new?" He said, "True." Galya said, "You've got your own experts to
explain it more." I said, "Religious leaders might not want to touch
it. Most of their work isn't FOR God, but in repairing what he allows
to happen." He said, "Oh! I didn't think of it that way. We can't say
that on air." I said, "I know that." She poked me.
Back from break, he said, "Some of the Assistants' actions don't show
any results. We know they did something by being there, but not what."
I said, "That should indicate to you that those actions were of a
private nature. I would be very displeased if people tried to violate
that privacy. Even guesses would be detrimental. I see your
frustration. Well, think how the tabloids will feel." He had to
chuckle. He said, "You know about tabloids! Your sting in England. A
two headed baby!" I said, "But a fake. They were bugging phones again."
He said, "Knowing you, you must have been laughing like Hawk." I said,
"I don't do that in an action, but I did cause that a lot among those
involved."
He said, "Removing guns in America. You could have done it before." I
said, "Yes I could have done it before, and we would have, if we had
been asked to, which is what happened. Where there were no useful laws
regarding guns in the world, and what I could do about them, I did, and
even then, mostly on request. America is more complicated with guns.
Politicians had to wake up to what I was doing in other countries, and
that I could do something similar here, but not in the way that could
cause serious legal problems. Even after I said I could act, on your
gun control show, nobody in authority requested it. Then the President
of Mexico asked. And that was noticed. I told him I expected New York
to ask next, and that's what happened. Then it was like a blued steel
snowballing into an avalanche. Legal guns weren't affected. Everybody's
happy but the criminals." He said, "Gun sales are down." I said, "So
are the arrests of gun shop owners and straw purchasers. Less legal
actions against gun manufacturers, too. They had to know some of their
profits came from the illegal trade. They should feel better now that
most of that is stopped, even though they aren't making as much blood
money as before. All knew I could do that, and wanted to. Known for
years. Sure took them a long time to ask. I didn't offer too strongly,
so people would know the quality of those they elected to serve them,
who did practically nothing to reduce absolutely unnecessary deaths
from guns. Our choices show who we are, much more than any number of
words." We went to break. He said, "Strong words." I said, "Explosive.
Aimed well. Got more in the magazine." Galya said, "Oh, shoot."
Chuckles.
Back from break, Greg said, "Why do you think they didn't ask you to
do this before?" I said, "They didn't ask, well, you could ask them
yourself. Why haven't you?" He said, "We have, to deafening silence." I
said, "Like a gun range out of ammo?" He smiled, and said, "Exactly!" I
said, "Only they know for sure, but I have to suspect one of the major
reasons was political cowardice. Powerful gun lobby. Didn't want their
reelection chances er, shot down." He said, "The NRA." I said, "They've
become more sane now. Could have discovered that frothing at the mouth
fanaticism isn't good for gun finishes. Rust and such." They both
chuckled.
He said, "You're also tracking lost children. Great service! Why not
before this?" I said, "That action is very difficult to do in large
numbers. It can't be set up to run automatically like the bank actions
can. Each case has to have a live person managing it. We have only so
many people who can do it. But that's another issue. It's not just
having the skill, but the emotional maturity to not go to pieces over
it. Some of our group were what we call rescues. Street kinds. No
family. Persecuted and abused. Even those of us who had good families,
know how it is to be different. Odd. Strange. Being who we are, we all
feel what each one of us feels, and about children, as children. It
hurts. A lot. Too much for our younger graduates to do this kind of
work. And then, when one of us comes in contact with a child abuser,
well, too much of that can cause us real damage. Then I have to do some
healing. That's another reason why we can't work much in law
enforcement. We can't hurt anybody seriously. Wanting to do that is
also bad for us." He said, holding back tears, "I didn't know it was so
bad." Galya said with tears, "It is, more than I hope you can
understand. There's more. In criminal investigation, you have to think
like the criminal to try predict what they would do. Only the strongest
of us can even try to do that, being it's so far from who we are." I
said, "And it hurts. It's like having a pile of rotting meat in our
minds, and worse." We went to break.
I said, "Better to change the subject, before we make the audience
sick." He said, "No argument from ME!" I said, "It's like in juggling.
I've done that professionally. What you throw up, you have to catch."
He tried to laugh, and couldn't quite make it, causing a very odd
expression, but seeing us studying that, made him laugh. Control room
was already doing that. I said to them, "I'll give you copies." Greg
said, "No!" I said, "Too late." Galya and I grinned. Back on air, he
said, "During the break, you said you've juggled professionally. Please
tell us about it." I said, "It's been something of a hobby in many of
my lives. In the time before firearms, soldiers commonly juggled knives
and swords in camps to pass the time. I did some of it when I was a
story teller, to attract listeners. Some slight of hand, too. And er,
slightly in their purses. But only of the rich, and then less rich." He
said, "You couldn't have done that often, or you would have been
caught." I said, "True. And when they suspected, I was searched, but
they never found the loot." He said, "What did you do with it?" I said,
"I gave it to the poor. Well, I didn't actually need it. I loved the
life I had, and didn't want to change it, which money would have done.
That it caused most of the street venders and the poor to be very
protective of me, was just an added extra. I didn't feel I needed
that."
I said, "Then, juggling was not what earned me money. But when I was
won't work well. Who knows how horribly difficult it is to juggle
flaming torches while balancing on one foot on a slack wire?" He said,
"You're right. I can't imagine it." Galya said, "When did you do that?"
I said, "Er, in a recent mission." She said, "I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT
THAT!" I said, "Oops!" Greg laughed loudly. Mom said in the air, "I
second that!" I said, "Another oops." Chuckles. I said, "I recently
spent most of a year as a James Bond type super-spy, undercover in a
traveling circus as a clown. It was in another dimension, where the
time was 12 to 1, compared to ours, so I couldn't be monitored.
Annoyingly, all I knew about the assignment was that I should join the
circus. The Big Boss does that a lot, knowing that being who I am, I
would discover the problem and fix it. I think he considers it
training. I don't use bad language, but that does tempt me." Chuckles.
I said, "Anyway, I went to the audition. I did er, well, so they gave
me the most demanding position. Which was, do all the acts when needed,
and the clown, the most. I have to tell you, I LOVED it. Ready for
projection?" He said, "Always."
I said, "I have to set it up, first. They are very like human. At
that time, all known worlds but one were colonized with normal gravity
people. Like Earth. One had about two and a half times normal gravity.
The people there were a little shorter, and more muscular, and the body
I used was like them. That was the home of the circus, which tours the
stars. Here's one of my performances on the slack wire." I showed it.
They said "Wow!" I said, "I heard that a lot, then. Here's me on the
high wire." They laughed and said wow a lot. I said, "Notice how much
faster things fall. That gravity makes these things MUCH more
difficult. Have to have special shoes, or the wire would cut right
through our feet. And it caused a different problem. Most of the
performances on tour were on one gravity worlds, so we had to learn how
to perform under those conditions, too. Some couldn't. We were the best
circus in the Empire, because we had to be the most skilled and
trained, just to perform at all. Here's me doing some acrobatic skits
with other performers." They had the same reactions. I said, "Now you
know why I loved that job. It was hard work, but for a born clown like
Greg said, "One of our researchers is telling me about an old science
fiction story that has something similar in it." I said, "I'm aware of
it. Do some futurists see the future unknowingly, or do they make it by
expressing it, or in the infinite multiverse, where all things MIGHT be
mission, which was even more like that old story than I showed you. And
we have some students from that Empire now, too, but not the short
ones." Galya said, "That explains it!" Greg said, "So it's actually
real." I said, "Some died on that mission. So, yes, it's very real." We
went to break.
He said, "Are you going to show us more of it?" I said, "Not now. It
took almost a year, and explaining it would take a book." They looked
at me. I said, "Stephen problem." Galya said, "Too heroic?" I said,
"Kinda." Chuckles. Mom said in the air, "Do it anyway!" I said,
"Someday, maybe. Part of me is still there, helping a little on the
sly." Back from break, Greg said, "Change of subject. Have you ever let
die, somebody you could have saved?" I said, "Yes. Very often." He was
struck speechless. I said, "I think you need an explanation. I can make
it so that nobody on Earth would die, but I'm not allowed to do that.
Dying is a necessary part of life, and must happen so our souls can
evolve. Whether I or we like that or not, doesn't change anything. Even
those of our own group, who could live forever if they worked at it,
didn't and won't. I know that's difficult for most people to understand
and accept, but that's how it is, and should be."
He said, "What about suicides?" I said, "That is NOT natural. God
gave us life, and he is the only one who should take it back. Suicide
is a sin. We are NOT to do that. But we also need to be able to chose
to sin, or not to sin. Most who do attempt suicide, and who are saved,
come to be very thankful for that. They later realized that killing
themselves was a mistake. That how they felt then that caused it, was
only temporary, and shouldn't be allowed to determine their actions
then, for their entire future. I've helped people to decide not to kill
themselves, but I didn't tell them not to. I helped them to see they
didn't need to." He said, "If somebody was determined, and was going to
really do it, would you stop them?" I said, "That would depend on the
case. Remember our consequence driven suicides." He said, "Oh, right.
To escape unending intolerable pain." I said, "Sometimes, interfering
with people and their lives against their wills, or even in accordance
with their will, is a bad thing. Wise judgement is needed in all
things, but in that, the most, for the responsible."
He said, "Will you die?" I said, "I will die when God lets me." He
said in surprise, "LETS you?" I said, "My father was too powerful to
stay living, so he died, and joined with God. I'm MUCH more powerful
than he was. I can't let you see my real aura, because it would cover
the whole solar system, so you would be IN it, and so impossible for
you to see it. That's why I can use so many bodies. I can only fit just
a tiny fraction of my soul into one body. So, I should be dead. I'm
not, because God won't let me die. I'm needed here among the living. I
am condemned to live like this, until he no longer needs me, and I
don't know when that will be. It could be tomorrow, or millions of
years from now. I don't know. Being so different, hurts a lot. So does
restricting my being to such small containers. But it's not all bad. I
have love. I help people. Many trillions of people. That's to live for.
And it's not like I'm too far from God. So, now you know. I hope it
didn't upset you too much."
He gulped loudly, and said, "I think were out of time. Thank you
Solomon and Leia, for appearing on our show." She said, "It was
interesting." I grinned and said, "You stole my understatements!" She
said, "I'll give it back later." Then we were off the air. I said,
"Well, that was different." Greg was unable to say anything. Then he
said, "Condemned to live! Wow!" I said, "In a way, aren't we all?" He
know more than any living being but God, but I don't actually know how
to kill myself now. I don't need a body. Well, except my beautiful
wife." She grinned and kissed me. Mom said in the air, "Hawk better not
be laughing. Oh, wait till I see him again!" We laughed.
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Grant
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