24 )
.
I saw a program about service dogs. These are dogs that help the injured and disabled. They said to let the dogs select you, not you select the dog. they have to find the right bound of personalities. I got a concept while seeing a short bit of this program.
The high lords are almost totally energy. there is just a bit of solid part of them to supply energy. they sometimes are injured, disabled, where energy is not carried out to give them their full form. Their great intellect is sometimes knocked down to a normal level. These are the disabled of the high lords.
The high lords capture space fairing creatures that enter their region. Then with some conditioning and training, they use their captives as service dogs for their disabled. That they travel in space increased their changes of handling the lowest technologies the high lords use.
Karl was a special forces doctor. He was a full, credentialed doctor, but also a full class special forces soldier. His team was on board a ship that the high lords captured. There was a battle, many of the high lords and their minions were killed, but the ship, and people on board, were captured. Karl had gone back with some of the wounded and that was how he was found. The high lords did not recognize he killed several high lords himself.
Many of the soldiers ended up in an arena system, providing entertainment for the high lords. Karl and some of the ship's crews were not involved in the fire fight and were taken to be service dogs, taken to different facilities so none of their own kind are together.
Karl goes through the treatment and training. He is taught to understand the language he will follow, and there are obedience chips placed in him. He is impressed with their advanced technologies, figuring out some of it by how it is used. He sees that there is no way he can handle some of the controls, but he understands how they are used.
He is finally brought to the center. The disabled arrive. He now understands that he is to pick out someone to be his master, the one he is to help.
He goes around, and examines the injured and their families. He picks out something in how they interact on how intelligent the supporting families are, and what kinds of people they would be.
There is one family that he keeps coming back to. the father has markings to show him military, and possibly an officer. The wife has some strange coloring and the daughter has thinning of energies. their physical part is hidden within the energies, barely visible. The boy, the one he would serve has damage. He can see the physical part of him very well. Comparing he healthy high lords and this boy, he sees that he might be repairable.
He comes over to the boy and finds he can handle the injured part of the boy somewhat, touching him, petting him. The boy responds with some touching of his own. there is pleasurable energies running through him.
He decides to stay with this boy. The boy accepts him. He then goes through the training that the boy has to learn to communicate his needs. Karl sees that the boy needs work. He gives the boy positive help, but makes sure the boy does the commands correctly as his body will allow. They sort of come to an agreement on how to communicate with each other, how much of a signal will be acceptable.
He finally goes home with the family. He spends his time with the boy, massaging the injured part, testing the boy's intellect, He also studies the rest of the family. He figures out that the mother and daughter are sick.
There are all sorts of high lord equipment in the home. he studies them, without touching them, working out what they might do and how they might do it. When something is used, he is right there and studies the process. Many require some energies to operate, some controls are physical, though.
Their language is well beyond his understanding, he detects it, but has no way to understand it, other than very simple commands.
The boy is improving. Karl made boy's life better with the help he did.
One day, some high lord thugs barged into the house. they killed a guest in the home as they came in. Karl attacked to save his family. since he had already killed high lords and knew more about their weaknesses, his attack was devastating. He captured one of heir weapons and used it, not well, against them.
That was when he realized these thugs were not alone. He forced the family into the room with the most medical equipment. He gathers the weapons of the fallen. He kills several more of the incoming thugs before he closes the protective doors. he and the family are trapped inside. those outside cannot get in.
He takes the medical equipment and examines the daughter first. He makes sure the parents know he is dangerous if they mess with him.
He makes her apply her energies at certain points. from the readings he can see, he locates her problem exactly, and then point to it on the screens. they are shocked.
The father does some things and the machinery treats the girl. She will need more, but they never knew she had a problem.
He then makes the mother get before the machine. He was half way through pinpointing the problems when the father takes over. The father is more efficient. the problem is treatable, but not here. they keep looking at him, wondering how he knew such things.
the boy is then put on the machines. He stops the father when he was started doing the wrong tests.
He changes the direction of the tests. It takes some time, but he finally shows on screen what he has been looking at, running a finger along the screen what he was seeing. The father then does all sorts of more tests. The father takes the injured part into his energies. the father does the equivalent of twisting, the boy feels great pain. When he is done, the problem is greatly relieved. the boy calms down and finds he is a whole lot better.
There is a battle outside. The battle ends and finally there is a signal that says it is safe to come out.
Karl takes a couple weapons and goes out. The father has his back with some more weapons. It proves to be true. it is safe.
Later, Karl is put with some experts that come up with a method of communications where he can actually talk to the high lords. They learn that he was a doctor of his own kind. he stays with his family, but now is taken to work in a hospital. he does work on other service dogs, but also checks over the injured and shows what their problems actually might be.
His family reverses much of their illnesses. The boy still needs him but now more for companionship than anything.

27 )
.
The god promised it would be there for the most ardent believers, in their time of need. for the most part, few people saw any sign of it. Of course, they lived a very peaceful life. The god's promise was not needed. The god did "bless" the people otherwise.
There was a visible sign of a person's belief in the god. The more ardent they were, the better their farms and livestock did. If one member of the household was ardent and another was not, that also showed in some way. It was to their advantage to be ardent believers of the god.
The world became populated, kingdoms came and go, empires came and go. The people stayed where they were, serving their god and doing well.
Eventually, the people lost their lands. as soon as they left, the lands ceased being quality lands. it was as bad as those around. The people, though, remained true to their god, even when other religions were illegal. They were always blessed, doing just a little better than others around them.
One nation decided that the followers of the god had to be removed. They believed the god was holding all others back, instead of helping the believers. If the believers were gone the rest of the people would do better.
A bunch of soldiers set upon a successful believer. They beat him up really bad. He was a bloody mess. there was talk among the believers that the god failed in the protection.
Then a soldier dumped some fuel all over the man, then dropped a light to the fuel. The flames enveloped the man in an instant. a moment later the man stood up, pointed his arms out. Flames flowed out the arms and onto the soldiers, completely covering them.
When the last flame licked from the fingers, the victim's arms dropped to his sides. The man raised his hands to his face. he was untouched by the beating or by the flames. he glanced around at the dying soldiers. He "hot footed it" out of the ring of fire and into the crowd. His clothing showed the blood and mud, but he had no marks on him. The believers slipped away, letting other crowds come close for a look.
Other soldiers arrived, drawn by the smoke. and were shocked at what they saw. The fires put out, they found each soldier beaten badly, besides being burned. No one knew who did this or how it was done.
There were two more events like this, before the government decided to leave the believers alone. let them serve their gods and do as well as their god would let them.

28 )
.
The council decided to have a project built. They talked to the designer about purity, perfection, excellence, impressiveness.
The designer put some splashes of color which was his version of what the council asked for. the architect created some designs for buildings that had nothing to do with the splashes of color or to any real landscape.
The engineer took the designs and had to come up with a way to support the designs of the architect. Finally, the contractor went to the building site, looked at the plans and shook his head. Surveyors were brought out. None of them had any concept of what was wanted. The structures could not fit properly in the given site so they made adjustments in how things fit.
It took some doing to build the site. The engineering plans were missing some key details. The contractor figured out that the engineer had no idea how to make the design work, so he "fudged", leaving out those details.
The contractor had built quite a few structures of all kinds, so he decided to do some modifications, since he was going to be responsible for it to work. At the top of the walls, he added angled support beams. He was only going to do it for just the difficult points, but then added them on the top floors of all the buildings so they all had that detail.
He had his people coat the beams and leave them exposed as part of he design. There were other points in the structure where there were problems and he used a similar tactic, leaving the solutions exposed in all the buildings. This included beams sticking out on one of the floors, then angled beam going to the next wall. he made them a little bigger so they looked like that was what they were supposed to be.
The buildings were getting close to being done. His interior people understood what he was after and worked it into the design, even the furnishings.
He got word that the council wanted straight lines where one could look at everything, it look straight and perfect. His people took measurements, had Surveyors out to prove their dimensions. There was nothing parallel. That was a decision they made when they fitted the buildings to the property. They had assumed that the buildings should be as close to the property lines as the city would allow. Instead, the should have picked a center line and make the buildings closer, but they could have been square to each other.
The walkway subcontractor arrived. He was told about their problem. They had to use a square grid, each perfectly measured all the way through. He looked at the survey and spent some time exploring grids. He was going to be the one in trouble if he did not get it right.
he calls on his landscape designer uncle. The uncle looked over the project, the plans and came up with a solution. He made the decking to have all sorts of jogs, planters, and angles to it. This was not what was supposed to be done. He said it will work. he even had exactly how the grid would be laid.
AS the decking was laid down, picture patterns were added here and there. When the decking was done, the contractor looked it over and said it was going to be expensive to remove all that walkway and decking. The uncle then came out with the plants. He started at the very back and worked his way to the front.
When he was done, the contractor was lead in from the road. the place was beautiful. Plants with great leaves and flowers. They entered the walkways, the walks had the impression of being straight and true, but one had to go around plantings and trees.
Where the buildings were on angles. the grid looked square and straight, on each end. the contractor figured out that the patterns in the pavement hid the angles of the buildings. The tour was done and the contractor decided the place would get them by.
The council arrived a month later. they had the tour, and were absolutely giddy over the place. They said that every design feature fit their imagination. There were a few complaints about not being able to see from one end of the property to the other. they were taken to the outside of the buildings and they were razor straight and clean. all the way around, the outside was perfect.
From inside, they looked down at the courtyards and really could not see them. the angle, the plants, and glare made it difficult to see the areas fully.
The council paid all the bills, and gave everybody bonuses. Everybody was happy.
There was a discussion with a council minion and the contractor. The contractor told the minion that someone has to come to the contractor once one is selected, and tell them exactly what design priority is needed. it would have been great if they knew the straight and square rule, before they started. The minion agreed.
The contractor paid the landscape designer half the bonus simply because he had saved his tail. He would call on him at ground breaking next time.

29 )
.
I love these crime reports where they tell the kind of clothing a criminal is wearing. that is good if the person normally wears that kind of clothing, but if they changed clothing right after the crime, it would be useless.
Clothing technology has come to the point where clothing can be made indestructible. They are very expensive, so people cannot get more than one set of clothing. Other clothing sources were shut down not long after these clothing came to full production.
Like jump suits, the cloth sort of grows with you. There are expanding seams and four times a year, one goes for a physical examination. At that time, the seam is "stripped" if needed, to make sure it fits with your growth. That is a process of adding a strip of material, of a different color. it is welded onto your suit.
As one gains achievements, markings are added to show rank, or security passage, or demerits. They are placed in the order you got them. by the time one is sixteen years old, one's suit is never mistaken for someone else. Since it is a permanent suit, you can never be mistaken for anybody else.
There is no hiding who you are. Everywhere you go, people can easily recognize you, and at a glance at your suit, even if they never saw you before, would know who and what you are.
Crime is actually very low in this society. Any criminal, because they only have one outfit, is instantly recognizable. They are instantly traceable.
Charles breaks into a store and takes the cash and some product. As he was leaving, several people see him. He is reported to the police.
The police get a picture of him from all sides, and broadcasts his picture. "He is wearing this outfit." each picture on the screen for a few seconds, cycling through the entire set continuously. "Consider him armed and dangerous."
Charles sees there is no escape.
The police come in, in the morning, to find Charles sitting there with the money and merchandise, waiting for them. This is very common in this society.
Gaston had learned that a neighbor woman had died of old age. He broke into the home and rummaged through everything. The normal stuff that everybody has was of no interest. He was after hidden items.
In his digging, he found an old trunk. It had old style cloth in it. he got really excited. that was worth a fortune. he filled the trunk with some other hidden stuff, and got it back to his house after he hid what he took. no one would automatically say "something was taken here."
He hid the trunk in a similar location. It was easy to find, but no one would look there. He waited nearly two years before he even looked to see if he still had the trunk. He did very minor crimes during the time to augment his income. He never made enough to make anybody noticed. there was not much money in the crimes he did.
He dug everything out and examined them carefully. Out of curiosity, he slipped some of the woman's clothing on to see how one would look. He noticed that none of his suit was visible. scarf over his head and he was not recognizable.
He got a great idea. He would wear this stuff while committing crimes, and then take it off and look normal.
His only problem was what to do with the clothing. He considered hiding the clothing, but too good of chance it would be found. He wanted to carry the clothing with him so he would not lose them.
He searched his house and found a case, He contacted a friend and got a job to carry stuff from one place to another, a courier. he would work for a few pennies, since any little bit would help.
He started working. In his trips, he sized up various places to rob. He picked the time when it was right. He had the clothing in the bottom of the pack. It was really late in the afternoon. He had a small package from a customer to bring back to his friend in the morning. He slipped into hiding. he got dressed, made sure nothing was showing, the pack under his outfit, at his chest since there was extra room there. He goes into place. everybody is shocked. He roughs up someone and takes a bunch of money. he dashes out of the building after knocking someone down who looked like he was going to follow. he goes around the corner, slips through some brush and gets to a hiding place. the outfit comes off quickly and is shoved into the pack on top the money, with the customer's package on top. He then slips along in hiding until it is safe to come out. he walks home, right past the place he robbed. No one gave him a look.
He did this crime for almost a year, everybody looking for the way he was dressed, not the way his clothing looked.
During one crime, he is sprayed with a perfume. Because he has no concept of laundry, he cannot get the smell out of the clothing. He buries it outside in hopes the smell leaves. He goes back to his normal work for a while.
He finally decides it is time to commit another crime. he has the clothing in his pouch. someone smells perfume on him. the criminal was remembered and he was reported. He was in hiding, and had some of the clothing on, when police show up.
He is convicted and put in solitary confinement. The clothing is destroyed, seen as an extremely dangerous weapon. No one should know anything but the clothing they normally wear. He was isolated so his concept of wearing something over one’s clothing could not be spread to other criminals.

30 )
.
The aliens had a special way of taking over other planets. Instead of sending down great armies to bludgeon the population into submission, they used their biology instead.
They scattered their seed over the populated areas. The seeds, sort of like a worm, buried themselves in the ground. they would grow to the point where they molt, and become "ankle biters" they have a poison for most kinds of life. The victims get weaker, sicker the more they are bit. By the time the alien seed gets to be the size of a rabbit, the civilization is weakened enough for the alien armies to come "to the rescue." the offspring are round up and raised to be good aliens.
The colony was young and only had one city, with the surrounding farms. In the nearby hill is six strip mines, providing the colony the minerals.
The aliens were really excited A full planet full of untouched resources, a small advanced population, almost too small to have a military. Their ships slipped into the atmosphere on the back side and came over the civilization, The seed, quite a few thousand worms, were showered down on the colony, aimed for dirt and natural areas, trying to keep them off of pavement and roofs.
A scout flew over with a special sensor, did a scan of the area. they counted about a hundred were on solid surface. That was excellent. An acceptable level of loss. Two hours later, they had another scout fly over and pin point zap the worms still visible on hard surfaces. they would not be noticed now.
The city council meeting gathered. Very little business ever got done in these meetings. it did not take long to turn some business discussion into an argument over what to do about the cats. cats were breeding faster than anywhere in the universe. There was something about this area where cats lived a little longer and had bigger litters. they were everywhere. The cats were tame, quite handleable, but still there was a lot of them.
The Mayor sounded a air horn she had hidden in her purse. She had to blow it four times. It was now nearly empty of the gas charge.
"this meeting is adjourned." She stood up. "Everybody out of the building, now!" Police came in and aided the angry people in leaving the building peacefully. She figured that it would get more done if the meetings were closed early and have more of them.
A cat trotted along the mulched path. It smelled something strange on the ground. It sniffed around more and more. It was in the ground. The cat started digging the dirt, sniffing, digging, sniffing. Then there was a worm. The worm gave off a scene the cat did not like. The cat peed in the hole. The worm recoiled, then shriveled. The cat checked the results. Whatever it was, looked dead. It trotted along the way.
All the cats had the same reaction when finding a worm. something it gave off enticed them to dig to find them, then a defensive smell caused the cat to go potty in the hole, killing the worm.
A woman walked out of her house and looked at her yard. There were half a dozen holes dug into her mulch. "Those stupid cats!" she said in disgust.
the debate of the cats got worse.
One guy set up an electronic fence to protect his yard from the cats. it was very expensive. The cats did not get into his yard.
The worms developed until they dug their way out of the ground. The man had a yard full of ankle biters. He saw them before he had gone out of the yard. His barrier kept them from escaping the yard.
On seeing them, capturing and testing them, scientists examined the holes in the dirt left by the cats. they found the same thing.
they released several cats in with the ankle biters. The cats did not last long, getting sick quickly.
A local bird flew in and caught one of the ankle biters. One by one, three pairs of the birds captured the ankle biters and fed them to the hatchlings. The yard clear of the visible ankle biters, the cats were released into the yard again. they dug several holes then stopped.
A check of the yard showed it was cleared of whatever it was that was infesting the land.
The discussion about what to do with the cats, ended. The were no longer a problem. The bird was now declared the national buried and also placed on the endangered species list, just to make sure.
The aliens checked on the colony. the people looked healthy, the civilization still grew. A scout flew by with a special scanners. their detection of the offspring showed about a hundred. It passed over the area again before going home and three were missing from the count.
The aliens debated whether to send another rain of worms, but decided whatever was killing them off, would kill off the second batch. They decided to check out a planet one of their scouts had found.
The colony never detected the alien battle fleet until it turned and left the solar system. That was when the colony realized how close they had come to being invaded.
The researchers had taken some live worms for study, along with a few ankle biters. they grew and developed into full sized aliens. They saw the brilliance of the attack the aliens had selected.
the cats continued to multiply and spread. No one would ever say anything about the cats being a plague.

31 )
.
The two coastal cities was separated by a spit of land. The way around the land, by sea, involved storm washed seas. it was hard on the ships.
There was two ways to go between the two cities by land. The long route was safe, but took nearly as long as the sea voyage. The other route was short, taking just a little over a week, but was guarded by monsters of all kinds. Few who passed, survived. they babbled about the horrors of the journey and were even frightened to go around by the long route.
Several times, armies have charged into the shortcut, only to be decimated along the route. None of the armies ever made it all the way through. Only survivors were those who came back the way they came. Either they really never saw anything, or they never talked coherently again.
Trade between the two cities was of great value, so they continued to suffer the long route or the stormy routes to do trade.
Golath had served his time on the army, swatting enemy soldiers to the side with ease. He did some adventuring and exploring. He aquired enough money to build a small trader caravan. He used people he contacted, good fighters one and all, as his team. With a good load on his wagons, he started out to the other city. Being hardened men and women, the journey was easy. it was also long. He did not like it.
On the other side, they were told in detail about what was learned about the shortcut. Golath listened and was curious. Talking with his crew, he decided to give it a try. he was a great warrior and could face any man and many a beast.
Loaded up, they headed up the short cut. He kept a distance from two other caravans and sort of acted as if he made a mistake on the route, since this was his first time. Every once in a while, a caravan would make this mistake and a few were even heard from again.
The first two days of the journey was uneventful, He had his team add brightly colored cloths over their wagons and on their backs. They knew they were being wached. On the third day, they met a large beast, sort of like a bear and a reptile. Golath attacked. He battered the beast with two sledge hammers, driving it away.
As the days went on, they were attacked, day and night. In each battle, Golath and his team would batter, but not kill the attackers.
It took twice as long as the distance would suggest, but they arrived back home with no permanant injuries. His people said nothing of what the saw. The removed the brightly colored cloths before the reappeared in the normal area of the trade routes.
They traded their load, and then headed back. This time, only a few monsters attacked and they had whole half days where they were not bothered. Several times, teams of monsters would appear, look them over very carefully, stay close but out of reach, and disappear when they entered a differnt territory.
Golath told his people that the cloths let the denizens of the land know it was them and not some other group. they would test those with the cloths, but would fully attack those without.
The tests they were given were enough to destroy lesser caravans. Golath was the reason they won their battles.
Back to the other city with a fresh load, people asked questions and got no answers. They knew from the time between visits, Golath took the short cut. How he made it was something else.
After they left, someone decided to give the shortcut a try. They had a good military force with them and headed up the shortcut. The denizens whittled them down from the edges, surprise attacks, day and night devistated them. They were only four days in when they were overrun. The wagons were dismantled, their loads stolen, and their bodies fed on by beasts.
On the way back, Golath noticed something different about one area. Examining it, he figured out there was a big battle there. One of his people found a few personal items. When they got back, they showed the items they found.
Officials were very angry and wanted to know what happened to them, also how Golath knew what happened to them. The officials did not get good answers, but accepted that the caravan was no more.
One caravan learned about the brightly colored cloths. It entered the shortcut route and did very well until they were tested. the denizens recognized that Golath was not among them. this caravan did make it to the other side, but with one burnt out wagon and five people.
Golath knew when he passed something happened. He was challenged more than normal. he then saw several of the denizens wearing colored cloth and they knew what had happened. On the other side, they learned of the group that tried to copy them.
Of course, the other traders wanted to know what Golath paid to pass. He could not get them to understand that there was no payment possible for passage. Out of desparation, he called them to bring their best fighters forward. He took two ax handles and plowed into them, laying them out before them.
He then said that was the payment for passage. He did the same demonstration at the other city, just so all understood what was going on.
Golath continued to ply that route, getting extremely rich. All he had to do was to pound on a few monsters to let them know who he was and no other monsters bothered him.