Solomon's Private File #254
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 27 in this story, in the Summer of 2053.
Solomon's Private File #254 "Amber and Hard Shells"
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I was carrying expensive gems in a case, with my left second arm,
nearing the store were I was going to hopefully sell them. Two big
neuters came up to me and unslung their maces, and one said, "Give me
the gems!" I said, "I'd rather not. What about your friend? You want
them instead?" That confused them. I chuckled. Neu said, "Hand them
over, or we'll break you!" I said, "Go away while you still can. You
aren't the first robbers I've stopped." Neu said, "You have no weapon.
You can't defeat us." I said, "You are blocking my path. Move
yourselves, before I do it more roughly than you will like." Neu
stepped closer and swung neu's mace low at my legs. I caught it with a
second hand, and pulled it, as I sidestepped. Neu fell face first to
the pavement, adding more scratches to chitin of neu's external
mandibles and thorax. Then neu's friend attacked, with a higher swing
of nue's mace. I did the same thing, and neu fell on top of the other,
further displeasing them. I took their maces, and threw them over a
nearby fence. I said to them, "Don't bother me again, if you don't want
to support the nearest glue house." I walked away, while they were
swearing at me and each other. One had a cracked finger, and used his
first aid mini glue gun, to seal the cracked chitin.
The intelligent people of the Sinkenchut Empire are like upright
insects, with two legs, two middle arms that are stronger than the two
upper arms. The middle arms can also be used as extra legs, but doing
that as an adult is considered very demeaning in public. They have four
eyes. To are large compound, and too are smaller single lens, movable
on stalks, and focusing. There are three sexual devisions. Males,
females in season, which are bigger than males, and when they are not
females, neuters. Females officially rule, but they aren't much
interested in that, so males do most of it for them. Being that neuters
become females only for a about a year, once every 14 years, causes
them to be very much in the minority, and very highly appreciated by
the males. Neuters have reduced intelligence, and do most of the work,
most of the soldiering, and most of the crime, too. They prefer gravity
to be a little less than Earth normal, and breathe oxygen. They are in
the same galaxy as the GP Empire, but not very close. I was using a
male body of their kind.
In the store, the owner and manager said, "I saw. Well done!" I said,
"Clumsy." He said, "Why don't you hire guards?" I said, "Not as
entertaining." He looked at me strangely, and chuckled, which with that
species, is mostly clicking mandibles in a particular pattern. He said,
"So, what have you got?" I showed him some sapphires and rubies. He
"Wonderful!" They have a very sensitive and discerning sense of smell.
The amber DID smell absolutely wonderful. Then he stared at one piece,
and said, "A fish! How did that get in there?" I said, "A big splash,
probably. I might have a few more." He tried to look calm, and said,
"We might be interested in them." I said, "You need to work on your
control. Looks like you're going to explode with envy and greed." He
burst out laughing. I said, "Eh, different kind of explosion." More
laughter, including his clerks.
I said, "Those robbers knew I carried gems. How?" He said, "I don't
know." We made the sale. On the way out, I turned and said, "You don't
know where I live, and where I have my workshop, and where I obtain my
material, and you will not know until I want you to know. I have much
more business to do of this kind. There are others here, and in other
cities and planets, I could also sell to. I could continue to do
business with you. That will not happen if I am attacked again." He
started to deny he was involved in that. I cut him off with, "Please do
me the courtesy of not exercising my truth-sense." He silently looked
at me very strangely, and I walked out.
At the next appointed time, I walked into his store. There was a
stranger with him, a male with a richly enameled thorax, and platinum
inlaid carapace. He was an Adept, and recognized me as one, and more
advanced than him, just as I had intended. I also knew they were
brothers. The owner greeted me well, and the brother was silent. I
ignored the owner, and said to the brother, "Your brother has not told
you everything." He said, "How do you know that?" I said, "I didn't say
I knew it." That confused them both. He said, "But you had to know, to
say it." I said, "Your statement is false. We all can say many things
without knowing. In fact, too many things, and much too often, with
some people. Which you just did." He was completely astounded. The
owner laughed, and said to him, "Arguing with Sol is not a good thing
for your feelings. I know this well!" I nodded agreement to him, which
made him laugh again.
I said to him, "We can conduct our business while your brother
reorganizes his thinking." I showed him some fancy diamonds. He loved
them. Then I took out some pieces of different color jade. I said,
"Warm one in a joint." He did that, and he said, "The smell! Fantastic!
I have to have these!" I said, "Got a bank of your own? Very rare. Oh,
and I have another captured in amber animal." He said, "PLEASE!" I
showed him a large piece, smoothly polished, with a small lizard
slightly curled inside it. He couldn't even say wow. His brother did,
though. I said, "Not from this world."
The owner said, "I can't afford what all this must be worth." His
brother said, "I know of one who can. I can take you to him. He is
rich, and his female desires things like these." I said, "Didn't you
mean, useless things?" He said, "That is so, in my opinion. What do you
do with the money you earn from these things?" I said, "Not even the
police have a right to ask that." He said, "I apologize. I let my
curiosity overcome my respect." I said, "I will tell you, when I wish."
He saluted me, and I returned it as a superior to an inferior, and he
accepted it, causing more surprise in the owner. I said, "The new
buyer. When?" He said, "We can go now." I said, "After this." The owner
selected what he wanted, and updated my credit.
As the Adept and I were walking to his car, I said to him, "What you
perceive of me, is only what I allow you to." He said, "You are hiding
part of you?" I said, "You cannot see all who I am. Any part, actually,
so I must make something for you to see, and that is who I am to you."
He said, "I don't understand." I said, "You understand my words very
well. You just don't want reason with them, to conclusions you don't
want to accept." He stopped walking, and stared at me. He said, "Are
you God?" I said, "No, but I do work for him." He said, "Do you accept
students?" I said, "I do. As children. My secret selection. Very
unusual qualifications." He said, "Any from our Empire?" I said, "There
will be. The credit I am acquiring is for them." He said, "Oh!" I said,
"Why did I choose the gem store I did, above all others?" He thought a
while, and said, "To meet ME!" I said, "Yes, and away from your
companions." He said, "So this is only for me to know." I said,
"Correct." We got into his car, and didn't talk on the way to a very
big and fancy residence.
We went inside, and it was even more rich looking. I said to our
guide, "Decorator was blind?" The Adept tried not to laugh, and the
guide tried unsuccessfully to look scandalized. We went into a big
office. I said, "Ah! Good! No eye torture here." Adept had to laugh. So
did the man behind the desk, the Deputy Governor. We were introduced,
and the guide left. The Adept said, "Sol has some unusual things to
sell. Most can't afford them." DG said, "And I can?" I said, "After all
that er, things I saw out there, I'm not so sure of that. Or that I
would want what I would offer, to be among them." He said, "Now I have
to know, even more, what you have." I said, overacting, "Oh, what have
I done!" Laughter.
I said, "So, what would you like?" He said, "I like whatever pleases
my mate." I said, "You must have some personal preferences. I would be
most pleased to please you both." He said, "I like finely carved
animals. Small things, that I can touch." I said, "And smell?" He said,
"I'm old. Not so much." I said, "Hmm, may I examine you, to see if
there is a correctable problem with that?" He looked at the Adept, who
said to him, "He is much beyond me, in all." The surprised DG said,
"Please. What must I do for that?" I said, "Not a thing. Already done.
I need your permission to make the repair." He said, "Will it involve
some inconvenience?" I said, "One second of lost awareness." He said,
"You have my full permission!" I said, "Done. All healed. Here, smell
this amber." He took it and said in surprise and awe, "Absolutely
wonderful! And it's an animal, too! She'll love this! Oh, er, do you
have another?" I grinned, and took an assortment of them out of the
box, and put them on his desk. He practically drooled over them.
I said, "I'm guessing you would like some of them." He said, "You
know it!" I said, "I have other, different things. So hungry!"
Chuckles. I said, "Amber you can scratch, but it won't scratch you.
These are the reverse of that, and take a little more warming to cause
the smell to release well. The stone is called jade." More animals.
More very approving comments. I said, "Very rare. Most can't afford
even one. Oh, and the money isn't for me. I fund schools with what I
sell, in each place I do it in. I don't need any for myself." The Adept
was nodding. DG said, "I understand a little more now. Our students?" I
said, "In time, and that is the problem. Schools are in a different
time rate. Four years there, will be 48 here." Adept said, "Another
dimension!" I said, "Yes. Yours is a little unusual with the time
issue. When they return, they will start their own school here." I said
to the Adept, "And you will assist them. No others are to know, unless
the students decide." He bowed and said, "I will do that, and more as
desired, with a will!" I said, "I know." We bowed to each other. DG
bought a lot. Spent a fortune, literally, and loved all he had.
We left. I said to the Adept near his car, "There is enough now to
support the school." He said, "Have you selected your first students?"
I said, "I have. Six of them. They are already in classes. In 48 years,
they will return. They will select the qualifying students for their
school. I will help them with that the first time." He said, "You will
live that long?" I said, "I will live as long as required. Well, I
don't have a body that ages. You?" He said, "I expect to live that
long, yes." I said, "This crystal contains some of what is taught in my
schools, and something else. It also contains a prohibition against
unjust and accidental use of psionics. You read the crystal by putting
it to the top of your head behind your eyes. When you do that, you will
see the index in your mind, and the words of the restriction. It will
be implanted only when you agree to it, and then you will be able to
use the rest of the crystal. All my students start this way, as I did
in the beginning. The restrictions can be overridden with some effort,
but with my people, they never have."
He said, "I have to see this!" He did, and accepted the restrictions.
He said, "This is wonderful! A true science!" I said, "Yes it is. Only
a beginning, at that level. Much more will be taught in the school, and
safely. Be warned. You will not equal my students who begin training in
childhood." He said, "I think I understand. I will accept that. Just
this, is more than I could hope for!" I said, "Oh. I would have hoped
for more." He had to chuckle. I said, "Will it discomfort you to
witness how I leave your world and dimension?" He said, "If you don't
and faded away.
I met with Rang and the new insectoid students at his school office
on his island. I said, "There is credit enough now there, to do things
with, if needed. And support is established." He said, "Why here, and
not on Allguard?" I said, "More students is good for you. Knowing about
inter-dimensional travel by people who can't do it, who don't
absolutely need to know, is not so good." A student said, "Sir, why?" I
said, "Knowing what can be done by only a few, can cause a lot of
motivation to try. Such experiments can be very harmful, and not just
to those who try." They had already had their orientation, so they knew
about the pool porting surprise. He said, "Oh! I have to agree." I said
with a smile, "I knew that." Chuckles, and love.
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Grant
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