March 2010 Writing Ideas
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There is no way I can write 365+ publishable stories in a year, let alone one. I started on 12 stories last year and wrote "the end" on four of them. None are written to a publishable level.
Back on Prodigy Classic in December 1997, I posted some story ideas I could not use. I soon found the story ideas flowing fast. I've posted nearly all the ideas I could come up with, including those I hoped to eventually use.
I follow the belief that if 20 people wrote from the same story idea, we would have 20 different stories. This is why I don't worry about using the stories later myself. Since then, I've learned that many people simply enjoy just reading these posts, even if they do not write.
The way I work is, I come up with a basic concept that is seldom more than a paragraph. I then write these presentations to show what can be done with the concepts, Usual by spinning a story around it, or by explaining what is behind the concept so someone can base their story on that.
I don't want these ideas to go to waste and hope that others might convert them into published pieces. I hold these ideas to be Public Domain (free to use). They can be used in any form you choose. I hope you can use them profitably, but if not, at least enjoy reading these posts. Let me know if you make use of any of them. That is like a pat on the back and gives me an added incentive to keep this up (Like I really need it....).
I usually post about Four books worth pure drivel each year in these idea posts. This is my Thirteenth year of posting these story ideas. What they say is true. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Developed ideas are like gold. These are not fully developed...
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01 )
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Nevil slipped into battle armor, which is simply a hardened environmental suit, and he slipped the insulation for a radiation suit. He never added the protective plating over top. A bit later, while in an alien area, he slipped on some clothing that fit over his suits. He now looked like an alien.
His suit translated the most common languages for him, though he did know a couple. No one knew who he was and what he was. He had reasons for not telling them.
He was among the aliens for a while when one of them lost his temper over a gambling game. Nevil just happened to be in the wrong place. the alien shot him with a blaster set at high. Usually, there would be a hole in the victim and in the wall behind.
Nevil dropped to his knees from the impact and a slight burn, but then he rose up again. He decked the alien with a spin kick. The alien, shocked that Nevil survived, never reacted to stop him.
Nevil had to change clothing, but otherwise, was all right. When they asked him how he survived the blast, Instead of saying he had shielding, he said he had a number of lives and regenerated the damage in an instant. Seeing him survive such a shot, they had no reason to disbelieve him. They had heard tails of such creatures before.
Nevil later started wearing a bit of armor over his furry insulation. It was easier to keep the fur clean and it seamed to make the aliens around him more comfortable that he was permanently clothed.
Nevil worked with many of the aliens, learning how to do general jobs, using some of his limited knowledge to do the jobs a little better. They tended to think of him as a "trained monkey" but he was nearly their equal. their politics was that anything with something that resembled fur, tended to be a lower creature. Luckily, they did not know what he really looked like or they would have him in a zoo.
He used their underestimation of his capabilities to his advantage. They would show him how to do a job in detail and he would do it well, but not as well as he could. Since each alien would teach him how to do something in detail, he was becoming able to do any job with equal skills. He knew the full nature of the alien space station and what it took to run and maintain it.
One day, they had word that a dangerous specimen was delivered from a planet. Nevil followed a crew into the medical section where the specimen would be examined. He really was not supposed to be in there but he went anyway.
The specimen was removed from the transportation box and examined. It was sort of like a blob that could walk around on ten legs.
Legs could be absorbed and arms appear any place on the body. The team handled the specimen studied it, allowed it to run around the section unwatched.
The one of the aliens started getting sick. Nevil recognized sort of a mold or infection on the skin. As he looked at it, he realized it was likely from the specimen. it was not his place to say anything, though.
One by one, the aliens started getting sick. they were in pain. the alien had developed prickles, sort of like hair, all over the back and little bobs on the end that popped every now and then. Nevil decided it was releasing spores. that had to be what was making them sick. He was lucky that he was inside his suit. Even so, he would take decontamination showers fairly regularly.
The aliens were dying. the rashes were growing on their dead bodies. When the last six died within a couple hours of each other, he let them lay. He did his own tests, based on what they had taught him, and found these were definitely from the specimen. He also tested how the spores could be destroyed. they broke up in a vacuum. His decontamination showers helped, some, but not enough.
He checked the computers and found that about the only way this medical section could be ejected, was if it was on fire. Heat killed the spore.
At the right time, he went into an oven chamber, disconnected the controls that prevented it from running while the door was open. He partially closed the door, got the oven cooking at full power. when he was sure no spore existed on him, he opened the door, and went out into space with his suit still glowing from the heat. He had heated the air lock enough, while depressurizing it, to kill spores in there.
He crawled along the sides of the space station until he got to the main part of the space station. By then, he could see major fire inside the medical module.
He got inside and was all cooled down. He reported there was a fire inside the medical station. There were no survivors.
The fire crews arrived, found that the entire interior of the module was on fire. they had to eject the module to keep it from damaging the space station. The module floated away to explode at a safe distance.
Nevil was asked how he was able to survive the fire and the space. he told them that he did not survive it. He lost his life many times in the transfer, but regenerated enough to go farther. He still has plenty of lives to go, but not as many as he had hoped he would have. With that, he was allowed to go back to work.
When he got the chance, he placed in records that the specimen was not a safe being, the spores being deadly and contagious.
When word that another specimen could be sent for study, the shipping expert found the report and told them no, and explained why. Soon after, that research station on the planet was abandoned. they had not thought to check on the nature of the life on the planet.

02 )
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Someone was going to become a talk show host. A commentator already on the radio remarked "we are now going to find how a monkey will do on the radio." My mind clicked into story idea mode.
The aliens were as advanced above us as we are to monkeys. They used mental powers on the level attributed to ESP. they took over the colony with no trouble. The colonist facilities were passable for the aliens so the colonists were placed in cages and the aliens modified the colonists facilities to work for their own use.
After a period of time, the colonists were shipped up to the mobile space station that the aliens arrived in. That was the only term that could be used. It was bigger than any space station the colonists ever saw and it moved through space.
Most of the colonists gave up. They were out-classed in every way.
Siever was trained from a child to work in technology. He built his own computers from scratch, he studied all the forms of engineering. it was said that he could glance at any device and explain how it worked and why it was designed the way it was. he knew the colonist technologies to the core.
He disappointed everybody who knew him when he got a job as a broadcaster, doing a dumb little radio program. They were still disappointed with him when he was making millions a year.
He also had a pirate station he broadcast on the data net. He changed his voice and released news and information, along with pirated music. It was set up so people were able to advertize and pay, and he was making a million from that. Authorities had no idea how it was broadcast. He got more money from the authorities tracing funds than anything. the funds officially simply disappeared.
He was on vacation when the aliens arrived, which was lucky for him, as the aliens caused such communications people and leadership to disappear. Any army and police also disappeared. The mistake of the aliens was that they did not track down those on vacation before the were finished with those who knew where they might be.
Siever was picked up with a bunch of good-ol-boys, fishing on a lake. Siever acted like those around him so he was not noticed.
Among the aliens, Siever changed from being technical, to observing the aliens. Using the same skills he used to learn how to be a broadcaster, he applied himself to translating the aliens. he carried a pocket computer and had set it to listen. he had a camera wired to his collar so it would take low resolution images around him. When the aliens made a sound, the computer observed the action. Siever would tell what he thought the command was. Later, in private, he would check to see how the computer translated the terms.
He also practiced the words he heard, quietly, so he could speak them. He then paid attention to their conversations when they were talking between them. he learned their language. the colonists around him never even knew he was learning the language.
He found they did not talk telepathically as once thought. That gave him a key piece of information on translating them. It showed they had a lot of limits in what they could do. They were not godlike as others thought they were. He also saw them using their computers and learned they used mostly voice, with a few key punches. their written language was quite simple.
He asked the brains and brawn of the captives about what he saw, asking if they saw anything. Sometimes he would ask about something different, knowing they would notice the real bit of information he wanted them to know. they were way far behind him, but they were heading in the right direction, learning how to deal with the aliens.
The aliens had a mix up of orders and the doors were left open. Most of the colonists stayed put, not wanting to get the aliens angry. Siever left with a couple dozen others, He went a different way than what they did. he got behind the equipment and then through service hatches. He traced their computer system design and worked out how it operated. He used his pocket computer to check some components to see what they were doing. A broken computer board laying nearby really helped. He reversed engineered the basics of the board and understood how their computer system worked.
Siever got into another part of the building, picking their locks quite easily and got onto their computer. Speaking carefully, he gave the computer instruction to search the prisoners. He found himself and deleted his data so he did not exist, or if he does, they will have difficulty in getting the data back.
Using maps he found, he got into a section of the space station that was essentially empty. There, he used the computer to get full data on the system. He found they had a system for pay for music like the colony did. He chose the most detestable music he could find, based on their ratings, cracked the security codes to the music so he could use them, and started a pirate radio station.
He had a similar system as he had back home. The broadcast never came from a particular place, but within the system. He could do his broadcast from anywhere he was. he had to, He moved around a lot.
He had the speakers in the colonist areas turned on and they heard the broadcast. Every once in a while, he would do some news or information in the colonist language, letting them know things they need to know. they only got that, no where else. The colonists recognized it was the pirate station.
the aliens searched for him but he knew where they were long before they were ready to hunt for him. He saw they were saying that it was a monkey on the radio. After a period of time, he cracked the communications codes to a unused broadcast. He had set up a fund and fee system like he did back home. it gave him more resources. Now he broadcast in his own voice, his strange pronunciation, in their language. After a few months, he was listening to another broadcast before he was to go on line. he heard them saying they are going to play his broadcast. Now they would see how a monkey does on the radio.
After that broadcast, the authorities dropped their search for him. He shook the listening audience with his quality of broadcast. He proved why he was worth so much money back home.

03 )
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Nyjell was the lowest man in the office. His job was to sort through completed files, record their contents and then pack them up to be shipped to a central storage area. it has been rumored that the central storage site is really an incinerator but no one can prove that.
Nyjell's job is to free up file cabinets so new files can go into them. He shifts files from one cabinet to another, change the catalogue as to where any file might be, along with changing the markers on the cabinets as to what is in them. This is a job anybody can do, but no one wants to.
Nyjell is even ordered around by the janitor, his space is needed, he has to help someone else with their jobs.
Nyjell is not allowed at office meetings as he has to stay and answer the phone and take messages. There are dozens of times where announcements have been made in the office meeting and he had no clue about them. He later finds out, either because he goes against some rule laid down, or he missed out on something good like office party announcements.
They always asked him how he does not know about it, and he learned to ask who was answering the phones and who was told. The boss then says to someone "You were to tell him. "The other person says "I forgot." Nyjell learned quickly that they will not tell him anything, no matter what it is. Any knowledge is off limit to him.
A couple times he has gotten revenge. He has answered the phone and had someone calling the person who left him out of the information. he simply told them that he was not at his desk and would have to take a message. he never gave the message. By the time it came back to him, he acted like he knew nothing about it. he got a couple people in trouble that way, but they marked it up to incompetence. he was not supposed to be known as knowledgeable or competent.
He once looked into changing jobs. He was found to be under contract, one he never knew he signed. He recognized it to be among a bunch of forms he had to fill out and sign. the contract was long term and prevented him from working anywhere else for a very long time. he was trapped.
There was a big meeting and for part of it, the phones were full. He sat in his office, waiting for the phone to ring. he passed the calls to the meeting room for several hours.
then he was answering the phone as it ran off the hook, He sent the message to the meeting room as to who was calling. They took some, told him to take a message for others.
the messages read as normal business activities. he never gave them a thought.
After a bit, people started leaving, telling him they were leaving for appointments and would be back in an hour, two hours, before it was time to go, One by one, each person told him they were leaving. Secretaries had appointments of one kind or another. Of course, they never tell him ahead of time about the appointments.
The phones rang off the hook not long after they left. He reported that they were going on appointments and when they were coming back.
Even the janitor went out on an appointment. After a time, the phone calls faded to a stop. Nyjell continued with his work. He emptied a whole cabinet when he noticed the phone had not rang in an hour. He walked around the place and could not find anyone. He picked up the phone to make a call and the phone was dead.
He walked out of the building. The entire neighborhood was empty, no one on the streets. No one was anywhere.
He went out to his car, something one is not supposed to do on company time. He hooked up his space phone in his car. He set it to search signals. All signals channels were empty. After about five minutes, he picked up a signal. it was a star ship. It was going through the count down to launch.
Nyjell bugged into the signal and called. "Hey, there is someone still out on the planet." This was the conversation on the band Nyjell was trying to talk on.
"Who is it?"
"Nyjell"
"Why isn't he here?"
"I forgot to tell him about the emergency evacuation."
"Well we are not going to wait for him to get here. Forget the count down. Let's launch."
Nyjell looked up. A rocket launched, the long glow of the drives left a long streak in the sky as they left the planet. Nyjell went back in side, wondering what to do.
He then remembered that they never shut down the computer. He sat down at his station and started searching for data. the company computer being operations prevented the planetary computer from shutting down. the planetary computer in partial shut down, left the security systems disabled. Nyjell learned he had access to every bit of information the planet had, even passworded and secured data. He could watch any film, listen to any song, all for free, and nothing could stop him.
He found some wonderful little tidbits of information on the activities of the company, and the government. His computer being up, he found he could power up an interstellar transmission center.
He found the directory for the interstellar government. that directory gave him the precise department that would be interested in the information he had found.
He started transmitting with a double signal. One was encoded, maximum transmission to the government department, every bit of information he found, in context he found it. the other transmission was a broadcast of the highlights of the information he found. A lot of it was not in context. This broadcast was so everybody who could detect the signal, could read it.
he then sent a simple signal to the ship. "There are penalties for everything you do. For all the times I was forgotten, left out on information. for every breach of contract you committed, I now will exact your punishment."
He waited and listened. There was more than one ship. they all agreed that he could not do anything down there. The shut down planet was utterly useless. there was one voice that asked how Nyjell was broadcasting.
Nyjell hit the send button, and then listened. He heard "Oh My..."
The ships could not turn around to get him. They did not have the power. It did not matter what they did. The information he was sending to the public was guaranteed to end their careers. No one would do business with anybody in any of those ships.
The information he was sending to the government guaranteed that most of them would suffer criminal penalties.
He had no idea if anybody would be able to arrive before the reason for the evacuation would happen, so he turned back to his job, sorting through files, stacking them to be taken to the collection site, Listening to music, watching films, cleaning sorting, keeping busy.

04 )
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It was said that the kings descended from the gods. The line of the kings were all a good foot taller than the normal person, and proportionally that much larger. That made them instantly recognizable as the blood line of the kings. The line of the kings only had male children. The females had to be taken from the population. It was a great honor for a woman to birth a king, even if it was one that was so low on the line of the ruler, to never ever become a ruler.
The empire had conquered the kingdom and the line of kings were displaced as rulers. their offspring spread out to do other work.
Yamon was born a king and learned stone crafting like his father. He was also trained to be a soldier, as was required by the empire. Because he was a king, the people around him and his father, taught him all that they could, teaching him to read, write, speak clearly, do other jobs besides chipping stone. Even as a child, Yamon was taller than other children his height. He hung around with older children.
The empire had a policy that any child of the line of any previous leader that survived to be two years old, would be allowed to live. Spies told that a child was born to a king, so the governor sent his soldiers in. They took all children in the village that was younger than two, and put them to death. Yamon, looking like he was a bit older than two, was allowed to live.
He continued to train in combat and command, taught by many who knew what they were talking about. He naturally was better skilled that any close to his age. Rumors had it that the real power given to the kings by the god, is the ability to fight equal to twenty men. Since no twenty men could match up to one soldier at one time, no one knew how good they really were. Kings had avoided fighting personally since they had taken power as the leaders of the kingdom. Their armies protected them.
Yamon grew strong and skilled. He got with a group of philosophers of his kingdom. He took to what these men taught. He understood what they talked about and asked questions to test them to their limit.
Every teacher he had was tested, and so was he. About the only thing He was not good at was stone cutting. He made a living at it, but was not going to be one a person could point to as an expert, let alone a master. His father allowed him to pursue his other training.
Yamon was well warned that one does not go against the empire. Never say anything that would question the empire, never challenge it. What the empire decided to do, accept it.
Word came where another empire held nation had fallen to an outside power and the women were killed along with the men. Yamon suggested that the women of their nation be trained to fight, not to stand in an army, but to make the death and destruction of the women and children very expensive. He only mentioned it that one time. He and a group of other youths were packed up by the empire and sent to another kingdom to teach the lords there and to learn from their teachers.
He learned well and started teaching. Unlike the other teachers, He applied a peaceful philosophy, that there were times when one should avoid conflict. His masters were bothered by the fact that he taught a non-war belief. When challenged at it, he simply asked if he was the only teacher they had. when the masters said no, he said, then the children will get the rest of their education from the others.
After many years, he was returned home. he quickly found he could make a living doing dramatic explanation of peace and love. He was surprised that women were training for war along side the men. He was told that in another nation, the women had trained some for war and they were the difference in preventing the main city from being taken. They had less training than the women here.
It did not take long for him to build a giant following. he always talked peace, obedience to the empire, working hard, and so on.
the empire did not like the crowds that developed around him. they suspected that many were there listening to other plans by those among them.
The empire had a punishment for those who caused unrest to the empire. they put the person through extreme abuse and then offered them a sword to fight with. Of course, three to five imperial divisions were always lined up for the criminal to fight. They would bet on how many strikes they might make before cut down, or how many soldiers they might kill before they were gutted.
One day, Yamon spoke before a crowd larger than any he had spoken to before. He left the top of the hill here he stood and headed back into town. Just into the trees, the soldiers arrested him.
The judge charged him with crimes of inciting the people against the empire. The judge pointed out that his creating the gathering that big, allowed others to gather and plot against the empire. That made him a criminal for allowing them to get together. His punishment would be to challenge the empire personally.
They took him away. He was beaten, whipped, abused. He was essentially a broken man when they were done with him. Since he was a king, they were extra hard on him. they draped his bloody rags over his shoulders like a cape and wrapped thorns around his head, shoving it in place. they then marched him across town, carrying a large beam of wood across his back. At certain points, the soldiers whipped him all over, always for the people to see.
He finally reached the center of a large area outside the city. This was where the soldiers practiced their formations.
Five divisions surrounded Yamon. Only behind him was a column of city folk who were forced to come to see his punishment.
He stood facing the leadership of the army. The judge and the governor were there. he was told his punishment was longer than normal as it took time for the governor to arrive to see his punishment.
A sword was tossed on the ground. Yamon knew that reaching for the blade was prime to have his head sliced off. He had heard men betting as to how far from his body his head would roll.
He was allowed to speak. He told of peace and good will, and was getting into how no one should challenge the empire. At about that point, the soldiers came to alert. Inside Yamon's head, he heard the voice of a god. She said "measure all around you, follow the leadership until they are no more, then follow their strength until they have none."
At that moment, Yamon was shoved on the shoulders from behind. Yamon went down, snapping up the sword while avoiding the swing of an executioner. He was on his feet and stepped into the guard of the governor. His body flowed into combat mode, all pain, all weakness was gone. it was as if he had just warmed up for battle.
the guard fell all around him. The governor and judge fell back and he followed, slicing men who came behind him and in front. Soon, he plowed into a full division of soldiers. He now had two blades, one in each hand.
he caught up to the governor who was trapped by the in rush of soldiers. the next thing he knew, he broke free of the mass of soldiers. Most of the division laid dead behind him. He turned to the next division who was marching in.
Yamon allowed himself to be pushed back to the people, leaving carnage for them to walk over. He was still full of energy and did not feel his wounds. When he got close, the people rushed forward and grabbed up weapons from dead soldiers and attacked.
Soon Yamon is calling out commands on how the mass of people should form themselves and maneuver. The empire found themselves falling to him and his people. His rabble, men and women, actually could fight and fight well. Yamon was inspired on how the people should maneuver and turned them quickly.
After they cleared the field of the imperial soldiers, they captured the camp. they stayed two days to heal their wounds and rest up. Yamon had healed more than anybody else. they marched to the next city which was the governor's seat. That fell when the people in the city, who had also trained the women, struck in the night.
Yamon wielded his rabble army to recover the kingdom to the main natural defenses.
the empire would try to take the kingdom twice in his rein, but Yamon would defeat them easily. the kingdom would remain independent in the hands of Yamon's many descendants.

05 )
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They were finding the old furniture in the area. some were obviously very old. The antique dealers could not find any markings as to who made them, but they were of similar design.
They had no fasteners, no pegs, all built by joints in the wood. No one had found woodworking built better than these. They were so well built that no one knew how to take them apart without breaking them. No one wanted to do that. They were too rare and valuable.
They could tell that the pieces were built of different years or decades, but had no idea when they were built If they could date these pieces, they would know exactly when the tombs they found them in, were dated. there was simply so much information they wanted to know about them and no way to learn it.
At a museum, the pieces were on display. An old man stood among the people watching the discussion over the pieces.
"there are no markings to date these pieces, and no one has known how to dismantle them. Except for visible joints, these look like they were made entirely of one piece of wood." The curator said. On screen, images of a mini cam showed the inside of a box, the perfect joints, no fasteners. It showed places one could not see without the cameras.
"If we could find markings, we would know exactly how old these pieces were and be able to date everything in these tombs." There are no markings.
The old man stepped forward. "I think I have a solution." He stepped forward. "What is the date today?"
The curator said the date. The old man listed added the present calendar to the years six previous calendars were used, and then came up with "Today is the year 42341. Remember that."
He then knelt down at one of the open boxes reached in. he felt carefully, then pressed. A shelf in the case opened up. and swung out. He slid a panel on each side and the shelf came out. He pulled up and both panels slipped out. He pointed to a marking that was behind one of the panels. this one's date is 41190. That is 1151 years old.
He then turned to another one and felt around. "I had forgotten about this connection method." He said. He pressed carefully down on the shelf, pushed slid the panel very slightly in on each side, pulled on the shelf edge, then slid the panels out. They came clear of the next panels and he set them to the side, then removed the self. "this one is 2504 years ago.
Each piece of furniture had hidden panels which he opened to show the markings.
The curator looked at the joints that fit in perfectly, dovetail joints made within a few hundredths of an inch. Every piece was the work of a master no one could match today.
One of the experts watched. they knew these pieces were from tombs that were sealed for centuries. "Why are the markings hidden?"
the old man glanced up from the piece of furniture he was looking at. "Back in year one fifty five, Valadian was removing the markings from my furniture and adding his own markings, offering them as his own." he then glanced to the audience, sucking in air, he had a slip of the tongue.
While they doubted he was anything that old, he definitely knew what he was talking about with the furniture. That he could find the dates on the pieces was a real plus. They made him give them a way to find him, then let him go his way.
From the dates he gave, they quickly found stylistic trends in other pieces of the tombs that showed they were of those time periods.
After about a month, A conservator came to his shop. He was working on some furniture pieces. they were the exact same construction. he watched the old man as he cut in slots called dados in the face of one board, then cut back a bit of wood from the entire surface of another board except for a raised line. He then slid the two pieces together, the raised in the slot and they fit perfectly. The gaps, especially at the ends of the boards, were almost invisible.
the old man worked with rather primitive tools, working quickly with practiced movements. He marked the same symbol as on the historical pieces with the date in the same numbering system, same language.
The inside sandwich board was shorter than the outside one, and the end boards fit in with a special joint that locked them into place. the old man assembled the piece and one joint locked another in place, all the way around the piece, until the last piece was added. the inside of the sandwich then slid just a little to lock the last panel in place. the overlap of the first joint panel hid the gap. To see the mark, one would have to disassemble the piece.
The brand new piece was shown to the museum, showing how it was assembled. The old man had to bring the tools he used to make them. Examining them, they were found to use obsidian as the blades, not metal.
It took some time, but they finally got him to talk about the old times. He had forgotten most of the details they would like to know, since they all blended in, but he knew the crafts and materials used over time. Once in a while, he would give them some meaty information. The big thing he was able to give them, was how changes in life styles came about, how it effected him and others.
They learned that he was born in year 19, of the dating system. and had no idea how he had lived so long. His work was made mostly to go into tombs and palaces. That these are the first pieces found of his to have survived, to have been found, even his recent ones, was rather interesting as he had made millions of them.

06 )
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I admit before I even start this idea, it is really dumb. I am talking about compared to even my own posted story ideas. I decided I have to write it and get it out of the compost pile right now, before it sinks directly to the bottom as it is worthy of doing.
Mechanical design had finally caught up with electrical design. They now had clockwork cars. they were wound up and then could drive about thirty miles on their own. they were great around town, but not good for long distances.
there was a number of ways they could be wound up. If one had a hill, one could set the winder to be powered by the wheels, and simply roll down hill, winding the car, the resistance of the winder slowing the car down to safe speeds. Also, the winder can be used as a brake while in traffic. One could plug in to electricity and a little motor will wind the car up. There is a rope one can pull, a large number of times like an old lawn mower, to be able to travel when other methods of winding is not possible.
There are electric cars that charge by plugging in. They tend to be used to travel great distances when winding is not possible. There are hybrids, where there are electric motors and clockwork motors. the clockwork is not good under heavy loads and batteries for the electric motors tend to weigh too much. These cars are very popular in hilly country where the electric motor pulls them up the hills, the clock work is wound going down, and the clockwork powers them when on slight grades and flats.
In general, clockwork cars are made extremely light, Clockwork cars are extremely efficient under the right conditions and their lightness is what gives them the motors the power to travel around in traffic.
Tom and Jim got different jobs in another city. Tom had a clockwork car while Jim had an electric car. Their jobs were a bit apart within the city, but they had some travel to do to get there.
They came up with a grand idea. Jim would tow Tom from one city to the other. Tom would wind his clockwork going down hills and coming to a stop. He would use his motor to ease the pull up hills. When they reached town, they would unhook and go their separate way.
Tom added the tow bar on the front of his car and Jim added the hitch. tom had to pay attention to what was going on, on the road ahead of him, but his car was shorter, more upright, because of the engine design, so he could see through the window of Jim's car and the road ahead. he could also, if he sat really upright, see over Jim's car. Tom was taller than Jim too. Tom was more road conscious, seldom letting his mind wander from the act of driving. He was perfect for the one in the rear.
The long drive at highway speeds, tested their cars. The hills were steep, and the electric motor strained under the load, even with the help of the clockwork motor. Going down, Jim was able to put his electric car in charge mode, assisting Tom with slowing them down. Even then, they had to apply brakes many a time.
Tom was low on his wind as they approached town and he was forced to apply the winder. When they stopped to unhook, he explained what he had to do. they would see if they could make adjustments on the next trip.
the trip back was a bit better. tom needed to wind when he got into town, but he had enough power to get home where he could plug in the electric winder over night.
The next day, they left a bit earlier and drove slower. That helped with both of them. They were passed by loads of other cars, but when they entered town, Tom had power to get to work. There were places to plug in the electric winder for a small fee.
By the end of the week, they were doing well on their milage, learning where they can conserve energy and where power was needed.
I am sorry, but I have no story beyond this. That was the idea.
One concept of my original idea was to have it where the cable connecting the two cars would play out, winding the clockwork car, then it would pull itself close again. I decided immediately that concept would not work and dropped it out of the presentation.

07 )
.
He was a law student when the officials came to him. They needed someone who would do extensive research and then debate the details of the research. He asked why He was selected. They told him that his research was acceptable and while he would pass law school, he would not be a really effective lawyer.
He agreed to himself that he was not even close to the top of the class, but he really wanted to become a lawyer and develop a name for himself.
They reminded him that he was on government funding. All government funding was reexamined after a student's second year. He was not far from the cut off line for full funding. He asked how long he had to make a decision. they told him he was to finish his second year and then let them know.
He applied himself totally to school. He also found himself exploring more into the law, history, anything to give him an edge. he had to try mock cases. He was good at testing the patience of everybody against him as he pulled out facts and figures and asked the wrong questions to their defenses, all to try to beat much better classmates. he brought out their best.
At the end of the term, he realized that with all his information, he was overmatched against the other students. He could end up doing paperwork, filling out forms as he would for businesses or individuals, but he realized the government did not need a lot more of them. When he finished his last class, he made contact with the officials and told them that he accepted their offer.
They took him out of the school and entered him in a different school. He was one of only a couple dozen students with dozens of teachers. Punishments for failing to complete an assignment was not pleasant. he worked hard to avoid the punishment, studying even on his own time. They were not studying law, but instead, natural sciences, philosophy, social science, statistics. history, programming, theoretical modeling and so on.
One by one, the other fell to the side, unable to keep up with the pressure. For him, his studies was all that existed. he received clues that this path would make him comfortable in his later life. the big thing he learned, that they pushed him into studying, was how different theories were sold to the public, political people, and to experts, He compared the SALE, with the later examination of the theories and saw that there were obvious ways to poke holes in the sales presentations.
Finally he graduated from the school and was taken for his final orders. His job was to take the training he just received, and the training he had as a law student, and challenge new and popular theories in public. he got travel, room and board and some expenses.
He arrived in a city and went to a meeting where an expert was telling about a new bridge across the harbor they wanted to build. The bridge she was presenting would cross the widest part of the harbor, right across the shipping lanes.
He was immediately allowed to get into line to ask questions. He kept looking at the picture of the project. the bridge had no slope to gain altitude. The ships in the harbor were really small, two stories at most, the buildings were made tall with the spacing of the windows between floors looking like they were four stories tall.
His turn came up. "I have two questions to verify some information, then the question wish to ask." he was told to go ahead.
"How tall are the tallest ships to serve the harbor?
She gave a figure.
"How high is the lowest part of the bridge over the shipping channel? Her answer was way too low.
"How is the ships going to get under the bridge?
She looked confused, shocked. "We can raise the bridge to make it higher.
And how much will just the re-engineering going to cost to redesign the bridge for the proper clearance? He was going to ask how much the added material was going to cost, but she looked panicky and some guards grabbed him and dragged him out of the building. He did not resist so he was treated well. A cab showed up, the cabby was given money and he was taken back to the air port and put back onto the plane.
Back home, he saw in the news that the bridge project was cancelled, due to engineering challenges that showed up. Several people were under investigation due to fraud involving under designing the project.
He was surprised when a bonus check appeared in his mail box.
At least once a week, he was sent to other parts of the country to ask innocent questions.
at one, after he asked his deadly question, he was brought up to the stage. There he got the chance to ask more questions. He knew nothing about the subject, except when was presented in the meeting. Since he knew nothing, he asked innocent seaming questions that made the hosts squirm. He was then lead off the stage.
The day after he got home, he had a note in his mail box. It was a request to have him come onto a national show. He called his contacts and asked about what to do. A driver picked him up that evening and he was briefed on the various subjects covered on the show, including listening to several dozen of their episodes.
He was flown to the city and when he arrived, he received a briefing on the guests scheduled for the show. In his hotel room, he researched the guests, their theories and anything surrounding them. He found there was a political person involved in all the guests. He called his contact about what to do if that political person was there. He did not want to get involved in politics. The government frowned on that.
he was given permission to take the political person to task on anything in his political career and could address the politician's public life, but not anything that was not in the major news at some time in his life.
He tore apart the concepts of the guest and told about how a bill would normally be written for this subject and all the legal problems the wording would cause and how such trials would go. He used his law school training on that account.
The show was over, but the entire panel looked like he had read their minds.
He was met with his driver and he was taken immediately to another show, being briefed as they went.
It did not matter what the subject was, he tore the throats out of his opponents. He won every augment with facts they did not want to be released. On one show he would take position B against A, on the next show, he took position A against B. In a third show, he took position C against A and B. He argued cases before the public and ripped his opponents apart. his advantage was he was taught to be a lawyer, but was not required to use legal means to present his argument.
He had developed a name for himself. Once he found himself against several students of the same school he went to, one of them graduated better than he did. He saw a rebroadcast of the meeting and remarked to his handler that they sure looked like idiots.
he was soon up against real politicians, ones who are like the gods of government. One does not challenge them in any way. He tried his hardest to stay to that creed. He simply asked little questions about their projects and activities. They blundered into saying some things that got them in trouble.
he was forced onto the shows, no choice, and the other guests became belligerent when he walked onto the stage.
Finally, he was allowed a vacation, which he took, staying n his house. he watched the news and was stunned at how he had become the most hated person. He did his normal research and found that there were actually written orders on him. he contacted his handlers and begged to be let go, to not have to challenge these people. He is not allowed to stop. he sent in a request for reassignment each day almost and was refused. he continued to do his job, destroying everybody he met. The position he was forced into, was the one against the government's position.
An appearance he was supposed to do was cancelled due to a special event. He was in his hotel room waiting for a new assignment. he searches the data as he always has, and decides to check on the organization he is working for. he had never done that.
He soon found he was in the middle of a battle between departments of the government. His challenges to the departments in charge are not the way his handlers wanted him to deal with them. Because he was trying to avoid challenging the existing powers, his line of questioning brings up things that even his own people do not want brought out.'
Both sides of the battle are ticked off with him. both groups are aiming to take him out publically.
he considers changing his tactics to please his handlers, then decides against that as he researches deeper. They are just as bad as those in power. he does decide on a change that will gore both sides more effectively, now that he knows what he is up against.
A new broadcast is scheduled and he shows up. After tearing apart the incumbent in a way that gores his handlers, he is asked what is he after on these shows.
he tells them that government needs a questioner, to challenge their thought processes so that," he names a really stupid decision by each of the four main political groups in government." Don't happen without a whole lot of thought. the incumbent looks at him in shock, then smiles. "yes, We do need some one like that to get us thinking.
the mood of the discussion changed as the politician explored a number of concepts and listened to the destruction of each plan.
he was on a show three times a day for the next month before he finally got home. when he talked to his handlers, he could tell they were really ticked off, but they kept him working. he had gored everybody equally without being vicious.
He became known as the question man, who had all the wrong questions to the right answers.

08 )
.
I got this idea from mom's cat. He is known to have a bad temper, but is at his best (when compared to a cat) right after he has had an afternoon nap.
The beast had a tendency to chew up the walls of the cage. Not just chew on them, but he would actually eat half the wall. It never bothered to escape, but anybody who got near the hole also tended to become food.
They found that when it went to sleep, it took a lot of wake it. they would repair the walls, going heavier, stronger, apply coatings in hopes to make it taste bad, make it slicker to make it tougher to get hold of it, anything to protect the wall and those outside the cage. Nothing worked. The whole cage was replaced dozens of times in a patchwork fashion over the years
they really needed to get it into a newly designed cage. The problem was that no one dared to get close to handle the creature. No one wanted to die.
Gastro was a bright kid. He was also observant. He was the one to notice that the Gloryworm was about to give birth or lay eggs. It was bigger than the others in the same pen, and bigger in one area of the body. The handlers isolated the gloryworm and put it in a special pen designed to be resistant to anything the gloryworm was able to do. they filled it with soil and plants and the gloryworm lounged in there.
When the gloryworm was ready, thousands of filaments came out of the body, eating her from the inside out. The soil wreathed for weeks, the plants died and the soil lost half the volume. There were only a few hundred left in the pen when things finally settled down. they had eaten each other. If Gastro had not noticed the bulge in the glory worm, the offspring would have eaten their way through to the basement and done a lot of damage down there.
Gastro watched the beast for a long time. He listened to the officials discussing how to get the best into the new cage, who might be sacrificed to entice it in there.
Gastro said he knows how to get the beast into the pen. he had their instant attention.
he explained that right after the beast woke, it was quite pleasant. those were the few times that the handlers were able to deal with it. He said he would choose when to go in, and he will lead the beast to the new cage and clean it up while he was at it. Since he volunteered, they agreed.
It took about a week, but the beast woke from a long sleep. Gastro simply walked in, no fear, and just grabbed the fur of the main, just below the chin and pulled gently. The beast stood up and followed Gastro out of the cage. he stopped and took out a brush and hose. First he brushed the fur of the beast, gently but thoroughly. He applied soap and water to get the beast completely clean, then dried the beast with blowing air and a towel. when he was done, he lead the beast into the new cage. He made sure the beast had food and water, and left the warm air blowing on it from one area of the cage, allowing it room to get out of the heat if it wished.
He closed the cage and left. the beast woke up a while later and developed the same old miserable attitude it usually has. It did, though, move itself around in the warm wind to dry off completely.
A couple days later, Gastro went in while it had just woke, and took it out of the cage. He lead it around the area, giving it some exercise while crews cleaned the cage and replaced some damaged panels. this cage was easier to repair and harder to damage. After the exercise, Gastro brushed the beast down then put it into the cage. The beast was already getting a bit irritated so it was good timing.
This went on for about a year. an official told Gastro to go in "right now." the beast was awake for several hours and was in a worse than normal bad mood.
Gastro told the official that if anything that has to be done with the beast right now, then the official has his permission to try.
The official was really ticked off and threatened Gastro's job if he did not go. Gastro glanced at the beast and then the official. "when the guards come to lead me out of the building, I will consider myself fired. It will be much more desirable than to follow your orders right now. I go in when I am ready to go in, and not a minute sooner."
Gastro then took the broom and headed to another part of the zoo to sweep the walkways. The official stood there, mouth open.
it turned out that the official had promised some guests that someone would go inside with the beast. he was humiliated
A different official protected Gastro and others because he needed them to keep up their good work and did not want to lose them after having them trained as well as they were.

09 )
.
With all the recalls on the cars this idea just had to happen.
He was new wealth. He got his wealth very quickly. He decided to do something he always dreamed about. He had a warehouse built with museum quality climate control systems. he then purchased a car of every domestic make, made. A few he did this for a couple years. a brand new model car came out. It was supposed to be the hottest car coming out. I got the very first one that came to town and added it to his car museum.
Soon after that new car came out, there were a couple hundred recalls, as they could not get certain features right. His car never left the museum, and never received any of he recalled treatments.
A couple decades pass and no new cars are added to the museum. then, one by one, a car would be pulled out, one at a time, sometimes as gifts, sometimes for sale, and a few times.
When there were about four cars left in the museum, the owner died and then the building was forgotten. the entire system was automated. The air came in through underground tunnels several miles long. The power was run through the same tunnels.
The air temperature was evened out, moistened, and cleaned by the long distance it traveled, then ran through filters that slowly rotated, cleaning themselves.
A big volcano erupted. The ash covered the area. the museum got it bad, and then the wind caused the ash to drift. The entire complex of buildings the Museum was part of, got covered so it was hard to recognize. Much of the population abandoned the area so the museum was left all alone.
The air and power came from quite a distance. The cave kept the ash out of the air. the community that provided the power never noticed the connection. They dug out of the ash and returned to their lives.
Several hundred years pass. Life has changed quite a bit and communities started to expand again.
While clearing land for a major construction project, they found the museum grounds. They quickly found that the central mound was really a buried building. The building was constructed well enough to survive the weight of the ash and subsequent soil build up above.
the news spread over the lands about the find. Archeologists entered the building and were shocked at how pristine it was. When they found the cars, they were shocked. It was forgotten technology.
The owner had displays all around the walls, showing the atomic structure for the fuel, the rubber, plastics, It told the archeologists everything they needed to understand the time.
The first car was rolled out. They checked it over, based on the information, and then were able to fire it up. the tires were flat, well rotted, but the engine ran for a little bit. They were impressed.
That car was taken out of the museum and paraded around the country. Later, a second car was paraded out. This seamed to be in a bit better condition. They had taken the technology data on the walls and manufactured their versions of the rotted materials. They actually drove the car when it was on the display.
they finally brought out the car with all the recalls. It was well made, and other than replacing the tires and lubricating it, they had little they really had to do to it.
The car was placed on a trailer and it toured the country. Displays told all about it and the times. The other three cars were driven regularly. It was fun to watch the. the last car, though, was only on display, though it was fixed so it could drive.
They finally decide to drive the car. A group of dignitaries get in and the mechanic starts the engine. That is when he recalls happen in rapid succession. The accelerator sticks, the brake peddle gets caught in the floor mat. The ignition key locks on so they cannot turn the engine off, The radio snaps full volume and scans for stations. Lucky for them, there are not radio stations any more. they are going over a hundred miles per hour when suddenly the power goes off completely. the power steering no longer works. the mechanic has no idea how he was able to do it, but he horsed the steering wheel around corners to keep from crashing. They get almost to a stop, when the power comes on again and the wheels spin.
the mechanic flicks the wheels and puts it into a ditch before they get any speed. The car engine races, the wheels spin in the mud for a long moment, then shuts down again, and does this several times before it runs out of gas, which they did not put too much in,
They tow the car out of the ditch. There is no damage and they simply give the car a washing and there is no sign that it had ever been on the road. The cars are taken back to the museum, Closed, up, they fill in their excavation and leave it alone.
A century later, people find the museum. These people found it through satellite data. They get into the museum and are shocked at how primitive these vehicles are. they start taking the cars out and parade them around the solar system, to show how primitive people traveled around...

10 )
.
It was a research colony. They established a colony with farming manufacturing, planning for growth. they had their own military, though they had not received permission to have a space born military, planetary defenses, or air military other than ground support. Their military was quite effective for what it was.
The research was associated with a major university and with the government. They had thousands of green houses, they had deep well drilling projects, they had vast computer systems. The planet's advantage when it came to research, was they could expand faster than the population, enveloping the entire plane if needed. the government was designed around the research, not the other way around.
As long as the research did not damage the surrounding society, the research was fully allowed. The university and government regulation dictated the research that was and was not allowed.
A space station that was to be retired was brought to the planet. they dug a hole in the ground to fit the space station exactly, there was some structural damage in the process, eliminating any use as a space station, but it was perfect for the colony. It could hold thousands of people within the interior.
The colony was still small, centered on the small station that was set into the ground to get the colony started. The population did not move out of the space station structure without good reason. The active researchers and scientists, their families and support group, and the military, their families and support groups, were the only ones outside the space station.
Space had already been explored, so even small particles were mapped around the solar system. Some amateur astronomers were observing space and picked up a bright object in their scopes. They reported it, with pictures, to the scientists. Over the next few nights, they reported the new positions to the scientific community. They made no claims about it, just reporting their sightings.
The head of the science community told them to stop bothering them. there is nothing there based on their space maps. there is no place for their games.
The group sent the data, and the letter, to the military, telling them that they are making the report of their observations.
The military sent a letter in return, thanking them for the information. They now seed the object and will watch it.
The object was actually closer than measured. One night, the astronomy group was joined by a group of people studying the native life at night, and a few other researchers and experimenters. there was about a thousand total people in the area. they watched as the object they were observing suddenly became bright. It then became a streak, a falling star, entering the atmosphere. They could see it change paths as it came down, aiming in their general location.
Someone contacted the military and was told they were out in the field, doing night maneuvers. The message of the object was sent on.
the flaming streak came down nearby, stopped above the trees, then "lunged" on a sharp, nearly horizontal angle. The people expected an explosion, they waited. Then there was a series of pops and crackles. Battle with the military. A bunch of the people hopped in their transportation to have a look. Others headed back to the space station.
About two hundred mixed personnel stayed in their location, either to watch or pack up equipment, or to continue their projects.
Crackling and popping happened closer. They got a couple communications with you cannot believe... oh my... and not much more. One said something about the military base, but was cut off.
As dawn approached, a fast streak shot over them, heading to the city. Now people were worried. they had packed up everything and followed.
Looking down on the city from above, there was a giant hole in the side of the space station, smoke coming up from it. Someone recognized the type of damage. A Sphinx.
These were energy beings with solid bodies. They ate both the souls of their victims, and the bodies. the looked like the sphinx, lion's body, sort of a human like face. Theory once suggested that it had something to do with the stature found in antiquity, but that was tossed out. They would find a planet with a small population, devastate the population, then rest for a while. Except for mating they were solitary.
The Sphinx could change its size to fit the area, by converting mass to energy, or energy to mass. the survivors stayed on the hill, watching, as the space station twitched with impacts of great mass.
Some of the survivors checked out the battle field, the military camp and a few homes in between. the beast was efficient. the beast hit the weapon before the military could get to it, blew away the military, then the base. It also hit a small farming town. Unless someone survived inside the city, they were the only survivors.
The group stayed apart the best they could, living off the green houses and the land, the people survived for several months. then they developed a need for stuff in the city. No one wanted to go there, but they had to. One member entered the city and looked around. soon they all found themselves within the city. The damage was considerable.
By their nature, they started cleaning up the mess. some repairing major damage that made moving from one place to another, the best they could. The most common repair was to attach some pipes over a gap to keep people from falling in, or tacking plates over holes in the floor. some of the damage was obviously from tearing, while others were from weapons used. A big gaping hole showed where someone set off a real bomb, trying to get the beast. It killed a lot of people and ripped out a whole section of the structure. there were signs that the beast survived the blast.
In their clean up and repair, they saw that the station city was dead. That was for sure. It would have to be abandoned even for the small population that remained.
In their search for what they needed, one of them found the beast in the "center" sleeping in the only room with working food producing machinery. It was an emergency survival room for when super radiation hit the station. the beast was the size of a lion. The woman who walked into the room had to struggle to hold her bowels, she was so scared. She froze for a long moment, then communicated that she found the beast. A man came and after looking at the beast, drew the woman out. The beast glanced at them, then turned the head to face forward ad relax. There were piles of rotting flesh and bone all around the beast.
the people avoided the room for a long time, then decided to do something about the smell from the room that permeated the city. A couple people went in cautiously, and picked up the body parts, one at a time. they slowly got a bit more bold, getting closer and closer to the beast.
Finally, one women pulled on a piece of leg that was partially under the beast's leg. she admitted that she had no idea why she did it, but she reached down and lifted the beast's leg and pulled the body part out. She had stuck the body part into the bin before she realized what she did.
They had the room clean except beneath the beast. Myleia gently picked some bits and pieces off the beast's furry body. She was soon running her fingers through the hair. She finally gave the beast a push. It rolled slightly. She grabbed the main beneath the chin and pulled. the beast stood up and she lead it outside of the room so the others could clean up.
She lead it outside bathed it in the sun, dried it off, brushed it down. She lead it back to the room now cleaned
they were making food for the people as fast as they could carry the containers out. She put the beast to one side of the room and got it to lay down. Myleia then settled next to it, petting it. eventually leaning against it, dozing off
Each day, Myleia took the beast outside. She and other women started caring for the beast, grooming it, even playing with it. they taught it how to play fetch, and let their children ride its back.
A holiday came up and they tied ribbons in the fur. they made sure it was fed. they found it will eat vegetables, but preferred meats. they gathered some test animals that were not tasty for the people and let it feed on them. They learned they only had to feed it once a week.
A year passed from the time the beast showed up. A ship landed near the city. The people were a bit afraid the beast might react, but it ignored the ship. they even took the beast out for walks with the guests there.
The personal belongings were gathered and put on the ship, the people finally got on board the ship. Myleia lead the beast down to the room, but did not put it inside. he gave it a hug, and left sobbing. she loved the beast.
The ship launched and the crews watched for the beast to follow. They were quite a ways away when the realized the beast would remain there for now. Myleia kept having crying bouts. She remembered the beast fondly long after that.

11 )
.
The technologies of the two forces were so different. One developed energy shielding and effective weaponry. They would appear in great number and plod their way into the battle, whittling away the opposing ships.
The other developed field energies that allowed them to "blink" out of the battle, get repaired, and reappear a distance away having been gone only a few minutes. there was a bit of time travel involved. Their shielding was minimal and their weaponry did not have the effectiveness. They would hit and run, get in close so they could not miss, do their damage, then blink out, repair any damage, then return into the battle.
Davenport was the old timer. He had fought in many wars, using different technologies. He trained his wing to fight differently than the rest of the force.
A new round of battle started. He lead his ships in a wild attack, spinning, dodging, firing as they came in. The shots of the other wings missed as often as they hit. Davenport's wing fired lass frequently and had a high rate of hitting the target. Davenport got nicked, but he kept flying in. It was something anybody else would blink out to repair. Instead, he kept on fighting with this wing.
Davenport made contact on the enemy, entering into their midst. Th rest of the wings were a long distance out, every one of them having blinked out already, and some twice.
among the enemy, Davenport's wing let the enemy try to shot them. They fired at anything that moved, and dodged any rounds at them. One by one, the wing got damage, but they kept fighting.
The enemy was taking heavy damage from their own ships as they tried to stop the ships among them.
Davenport's wing did heavy damage. firing with your nose almost on the other ship, made for no loss of energy and no missing. finally the flight backed out of the battle, half the flight would fall back fast, then turn and fire cover, then the second half would drop back even farther, then hold for cover. when they were finally out of range of the enemy, the entire flight blinked out for repairs.
The repairs took about an hour. The pilots rested nearby, sometimes dozing off. when the last ship was ready, the entire wing returned to their ships and reentered the battle a slightly different location from where they left, and only ten minutes later. Several hours later, the two forces disengaged. Damage done for the day. the other flights got a few kills but did not lose any ships this time. Davenport lost one ship and had two more ships retired, and a third pilot taken out of service, but left heavy destruction behind.
Back at the base, the normal argument went on over what tactic was better. Davenport left after a short time, having pointed out the kill rate of the two tactics. Behind him, they were pointing to the losses he had.
Several days passed before they detected the enemy approaching in force again. Davenport got his wing together and they launched. He had several new pilots, so he trained them, running them through the combat maneuvers, tactics, contingencies, as they traveled the distance. They were not heading directly to the enemy, but instead, would attack from the flank. the wing and the force saw each other at the same time. A group of enemy ships broke off from the main group to deal with them.
The two wings entered battle. Once they were close, Davenport's people had the advantage. A second group was already splitting off to deal with them when other wings appeared and started their harassment attack.
Davenport plowed into the second wing, blasting away. His tactic had its weakness when there was just a few ships, but his wing did not leave them in that condition very long, taking out stragglers.
A new weapon was used by the enemy. It was like a big flash light. Davenport's ship got hit and much of the electronics on the ship were knocked out. The teleport was the one thing that was knocked out. His flight continued to fight in spite the scrambled systems. They were pointing their nose at the target and firing. Nothing electronic in that system.
One of his ships called out the warning about the new weapon, so the rest of the flights backed off. Several of them did get hit by it and could not blink out. Several of them were blown out of space as they were in the wrong position and could not get out.
Davenport kept fighting. His ships knew they could not run, and the scrambling energies were not doing any more damage, so they simply kept fighting.
It came time to escape. the enemy had taken heavier damage than they expected, but they were not going to let Davenport escape. His ships do their multiple stage escapes. The enemy kept trying to follow. Soon, the remains of other wings that could not teleport, joined them. 'the enemy kept following, firing as hard as they could. the wing fired to disrupt the targeting of the enemy.
the pilots of the other flights were not prepared for a long running battle. They were not armed and supplied for this kind of fight. Davenport always had his flights maxed out with fuel and supplies.
Davenport looked ragged with all the damage he took. He still kept diving into the enemy and fighting, then pulling away.
it was almost half a day before more flights appeared for battle. By then, the enemy was strung out and damaged.
With the appearance of the other ships, Davenport charged back into the enemy. His entire wing popped out the back, doing serious damage. The other wings dove in on the turning enemy and caught them unprepared for their attack.
Davenport's wing and a few other ships, headed back home while the other wings finished off the enemy stragglers.
Back at the base, the argument started about which tactic worked best, and this time, Davenport's side had other defenders and now had the attention of others. While they were not quite ready to dive in and fight among the enemy, the other wings started practice of flying to the target rather than just popping in, at least once in a while.
.
My note said "when damaged, the ships blink out, repair, and return moments later. He fights differently. His ship gets damaged, and he remains to fight."

12 )
.
"So you a mission specialist?" The general said as he looked over the papers. "I hate you special forces people. You make the rest of us look bad."
"That sir, is what we were trained to do." Shadow said.
"so what is your speciality in this mission?"
She considered hedging her orders, but the decided to tell the truth. "I am here to find out why missions on this planet have failed."
"So, you will find out the answer, even if it kills you?"
"Not if I can help it." Shadow smiled, but her battle armor hid any expression.
The division landed as required by the orders and the laws, and followed the road. shadow asked to see the orders but the general ignored her.
They finally reached a fork in the road with a big sign. The General drew up the orders and advanced it one step. Shadow now knew why no one returned from this mission. the orders demanded exposing the orders only when certain objectives were met.
"The orders say we must split the force." the general said. he transferred orders to the captain's reader. You will go to the rear of the city and attack from there. The rest of us will attack from the front to divide their forces."
Shadow mumbled something about walking into a trap. they ignored her. she went with the captain, since that was where her squad was going. They followed the road. a bridge spanned a wide gorge. One glance at it said that it was a lift bridge and the lift was on this side of the bridge. "If you were going to trap a force," she said to the captain, "What better trap would you have, than to take away the only line of escape."
The captain mumbled something about they had to follow orders.
They passed over two more bridges. In each case, the bridge raised up behind them so there was no chance of returning.
They followed a ridge then entered a thin forest. "Here is where we are lead to die." she said.
She ordered her squad to stop and ready for battle. She gave them instructions of what to do, spread out, use the trees for protection, avoid defensive locations as they will have cannons dialed in to hit those exactly.
The rest of the force headed forward, as the orders did not give them permission to be ready for battle. that site was farther ahead.
The defenders were ready. A rain of bullets and the force was cut down, almost unprepared. Shadow's instructions were heard by all the soldiers and most did some preparation for combat.
The battle became bloody. The defenders were not really all that good, barely average. The commander got to a command site, behind a raised pile of rocks set in a hollow. and took position there. as soon as the commanders arrived, a shell came in, hitting a boulder just behind them. The debris killed all the officers.
Shadow, rushed into the command site and stripped the officers of their command items. speaking to her men, but letting all hear her. she said that there was no way she was going to let the enemy get this data.
She slipped out and got back almost to the ridge when the command site was pulverized by several dozen rounds.
Shadow headed forward again, but along the left edge of the gorge this forest was spanned by. They reached the enemy and attacked, now in sort of a cross fire. Shadow fired fast, but she never missed. the enemy essentially turned their force on her position. She withdrew slowly, forcing them into the open for easy killing. The main force went into attack, forcing the enemy to pull back.
Shadow had moved away from her squad to get a better angle on the enemy. Her squad found themselves in a defensive area. She told them to get out of there. three shells hit on them as they turned to move.
She fired a dozen rounds, An explosion hit nearby, so she got up and ran, using stepping behind trees as she passed them. rained down on the battle field, trees exploded, screams of men dying.
Shadow almost left the trees, but waited near the edge and watched. She then headed back into the remains of the forest when the last shell had fallen. they had killed their own soldiers to try to get hers. There was still a bit of a fire fight, bu it ended before she got close enough. She saw the enemy and picked them off rapidly, moving quickly.
soon, someone was firing at her from a distance. She spotted the guy, but he was good at hiding behind protection as he tried to snipe her. She never even bothered to fire on him, instead moved quickly to clear the battle field of others. He was a horrible shot at this distance, most rounds flying above her head.
She found a supply trailer. she dropped a grenade inside and passed on. the concussion cracked surrounding trees. the air filled with smoke. She kept sight of the sniper, but now he had lost track of her.
half an hour later, he was one of the few left to kill. She gathered grenades from their dead bodies, then hunted the sniper. She caught him between the eyes as he was looking through a fork in a tree. She got to his body, attached the grenades to his outfit, and added a cord to them. Pull the cord and the pins would all pull and the grenades would all explode.
A few men were running from the forest to the walls of the city. Shadow came running, using the sniper's body to hide that her uniform was not like theirs. She got to the small door in the gate, dropped the body, pulled the cord. the grenades flung out. She pulled the door closed behind her, then popped off several guards. The door rattled as the shrapnel of the grenades bounced off. She then opened the door, fired two rounds tossed a grenade, and closed the door again. A few more rounds and she mounted the wall. There were no survivors among the enemy force that had been outside the wall.
She crossed the city quickly, sticking to the alleys. A gang stepped out into her way. she walked right up to them, removed her pack, set her rifle down and drew out two rods which were part of her tent. the best fighter of the gang stepped forward with two rods. A bow, and they fought. She was never even hit. She slipped her pack on, shouldered her rifle, then pulled the downed man up off the ground. With him barely standing, she left, the gang cleared her way.
As she crossed the city, gangs would show up, then part. A few times, they directed her to a different route. She later saw hat they directed her away from the police. the gangs were in communications and had orders to leave this warrior alone.
She got to the other wall, cleared out a barracks, and cleared the wall for quite a distance, before slipping out the gates.
She met up with the rest of the force. When she asked why they did not follow their plans, the commander said that the orders forbid it.
She held up the command units, and then scrolled the orders. It showed the whole orders. They ended with a greetings to the military commander of the city, the remains of the weapons, ammo and supplies was a gift.
The commander was angry. When discussing the attack of the wall, they found that every map they had of the city did not match. The commander wanted to withdraw. Instead, shadow made the observers go to the edge of the forest and map through triangulation, the features of the city. They soon had the map that matched what she had seen in her travels.
After resting a while, the force was ready for a real war. They attacked the city, clearing the walls and the gate before they could close the gate. they blew through the city. the police saw the soldiers moving in on them and surrendered instantly. the soldiers ignored them.
they took the capitol building with the leader on television. the city was captured with little resistance.
A big strong man stepped in front of the leader. He had two rods in his hands as his weapon. Shadow signaled for the rest of the soldiers to hold off. she removed her pack and rifle and took out her two rods. She got hit several times but she took him out quite easily.
A few days later, the force moved out. The orders told which senator was sending soldiers to their deaths in traps, and that was what shadow needed to know.
They got into their ship and left. They had one more mission. They were to remove some soldiers that had taken a mining station. Shadow was forbidden to go with the soldiers, her mission specialty was over.
The soldiers on the ground were effective, fighting back better soldiers. They had almost cleared the area, when a ship appeared in orbit from behind the planet and dropped a bomb. The entire area of the battle went up in a flash of light the battle ground was now glass, along with the colony and several miles around.
Shadow had a fit. She wanted to be down there and they would have killed her. she now noticed there were a dozen ships in orbit around the planet.
Shadow went to the console so she could talk to the pilots She listed what she wanted them to do, which was to cut the drives on the ships with the missiles and cause them to impact on the planet. they asked about why all but one of the missiles. She asked if they could defend against two tracker missiles. they said no. She said that they will hold one missels for defense.
The military and the Cadet corps were the two main military forces. The Cadets were theoretical soldiers, as they said. They had a combat theory that they refused to veer from. They were fantastic enemies as they were easy to beat, but they were horrible commanders.
Shadow told the pilots that she is betting on the ships to be commanded entirely by cadets. the pilots came back a bit later saying they had a targeting plan close to what she suggested. they would launch it when it was ready.
About five minutes later, the ship released all the missiles it had. they were released and used maneuvering jets to head out on their routes. An hour later, they hit their targets at the same time. the ships in orbit sparked and crackled, then turned to the planet. The drives kicked onto full power. the cadets tended to fight in space on a single plane, not in three dimensions. The ships were tipping down to the planet and the captains were trying to power their way, on the plane they were operating on, to loop around to avoid the planet. Shadow told the general that a navy commander would simply roll the ship and curve up.
The pilots said they detected a missile. Shadow said to follow the escape plan she had suggested. The pilot complied. the ship started jerking and rolling. random jets were burning around the ship, some just gassing, others burning hard for a short moment.
one by one, the star ships entered the atmosphere, communications rang of a commander berating the one who fired the missile as the ship was about to hit the atmosphere.
At the right time, there was a light clunk, as the last missile released. it then started firing like the ship did. The ship went silent after a maneuvering burn that looked like an out-gassing.
they were well away from the missile when the enemy missile flew by. It detected that the target was another missile, too late. both went up in a flash of light. the last ship impacted on the planet. large cracks appeared in the surface of the planet. the impacts had split the planet. sensors showed that there would be more to mine when everything died down.
they waited a day, then left the solar system. all signs of the cadet force was gone, no more missiles.
The general mentioned that Shadow was the deadliest soldier in existence. Shadow replied that she was much better than that.

13 )
.
They created a new power supply that allowed interstellar travel. The power supply only worked at one size, one power output. Even slight changes in the size effected the power output. Luckily, it was easy to make it as efficient as theory said they should be.
The power supply gave tremendous power to the drive systems, but wasted a lot of energy in the conversion to electricity of the ship's systems. The drive system for interstellar power had a fix speed, but the push, the load that could be moved, increased with power. The more energy the power supply could put into the driver, the more it could move.
Because the power system. had a fixed power output, and the conversion to electricity to run equipment was wasteful of the energy, the more equipment running off the power supply, the less load the ship could carry. Most pilots and crew liked to travel in comfort so they sapped a lot of the power for their comfort.
Most freighters cannot carry much load because the power from their power supplies are sapped by internal system power. There has been attempts to have two power supplies and two driver system and they simply cost more than they were worth.
Sampsom had money and decided to get a ship. He was going to get a tug ship, where it would attach to a container and tow the container along. The tug itself would simply be cab, driver and connector.
There was a ship builder on the space station he was on. the next ship builder required interstellar travel.
He went to his ship builder and asked about what ships were available. he was shown ship after ship. Each one was like first class suites, every entertainment and comfort item one could fit into the cab.
After the tour, he got them to talk about various cabin packages. he kept asking about less and less stuff, but they always had the biggest power sappers.
He discussed not having one item or another, and found that they had no clue about why one would not have the entertainment systems or comfort couches. He decided they were trained in the thought that these were luxury yachts or passenger ships, not dirty freighter.
He asked what a ship had when it came off the assembly line. the salesman said that they had nothing in them and had to be fixed up. Sampsom finally asked to tour the factory.
He was shown the process they were assembled, what went where and when, how they were checked for quality and what was shipped in. Sampsom finally got into a ship right off the assembly line There were a few required pieces of equipment not in the ship. Otherwise, it was exactly what he wanted.
Sampsom sat down with the ship fitters and sales team in a ship that just came off the assembly line. He had an inspector and a lawyer with him. the inspector listed each item that the ship had to have according to law. When he was done, Sampsom told the company, he will place funds into an account for the full price of a ship. The ship will be fitted as the inspector said it would be fitted. If there is even one more piece of equipment in the ship when delivered, the sales will be off and the lawyer will pull the funds. the ship builder will be stuck with the ship.
they did not understand why anybody would want such a stripped down ship. they agreed to the conditions.
It took three tries, Sampsom refusing the sale because of all the electronics added, before the sales team got the message. He finally gets his ship and he pays for it.
He and his crew gets on board. They are in space suits and they have a fuel cell for interior power for any comfort systems they need. Nothing is powered off the drivers. they went so far as to disconnect the ship's control system from the drivers and use fuel cells for the power. they can swap power easily if needed.
They then load up a container. the shipper that owned the container was a bit hesitant, but they had the container maxed out on the load.
they connected the container to the ship, and launched. The ship went to full power and the container moved, they were able to handle the load easily, getting up to speed.
At the other end of the journey, they dropped off the container, got a fully loaded container, and headed back.
It was not a comfortable journey, but considering the loads they were pulling, they kept their complaints to themselves.
A half dozen round trips, they had paid for the ship and were already talking about getting another ship. Most ships paid for themselves just as they are about to be retired.
He orders two ships on the same condition he got this ship. They got the first ship right on the second try, and the next ship first try. He got them going, always full loads, on different routes with people who shipped with him.
When he had two dozen ships operating, a market drop hit. He ended up with all the shipping between several markets. His full loads were cheaper than what other shipping companies would charge for the same amount of loads by multiple trips.
no one could figure out how he was doing it, even his own people could not figure it out. Other ships could not even shift the loads he was transporting.

14 )
.
This uses the characters and situations of the March ideas, 10 and 12.
Shadow was retired. No special forces trained soldier ever really retired, but she was allowed to go to a fairly new colony that catered to retired soldiers.
She barely established herself when she Saw John. She knew from the way he walked, that he was special forces. He looked hot. A friend knew his name. It took a bit to dig up all the information on him that she could find. She knew that with special forces people, one knew within a couple minutes whether you liked them or hated them. She had only met six forces people she did not like, out of some thousand she had met in her career. He had to find out if he liked her, and then learn what rules he would accept having children with her.
When she finally met him, she knew he was perfect for her. They were in a store and had to work close to each other while gathering some supplies. He was right behind her as she was about to get a package. She did not grab the package, but instead straightened up, turned around in his arms. Face to face, she knew he liked her. he kissed her and she melted into his arms When they separated, she told him her identification number so he could check up on her.
He left, and she got her stuff, but she was walking around with a big grin and a spring in her step.
her friends kept telling her that she knew nothing about him, she should take it slow. She ignored the, walking around in a dreamy state.
About a month into their dating they discussed children. they agreed on a birthing contract rather than a church marriage. A birthing contract was a business contract. It was filed with the federal government and in their case, the military, and was harder to get out of. Church marriages were easy to get a divorce from. the birthing contract said that one or both people in the arrangement might have problems conceiving. If no child comes from the contract after a specific period of time, one or both of them can back out of the marriage. If a child is born, then they are stuck with each other.
A month after the discussion about children, they got with their lawyers and judge and filed the papers for the contract. Both their friends were shocked at how quickly they came to the agreement.
Shadow moved into his house on his farm. He did not farm, but instead had a company where his crews ran machinery to plow, plant and harvest other farmer's crops.
Shadow had training in running machinery. along with running his house, where she tended to feed most of his men at the end of the day, and some roomed with them during the busy seasons, She started farming the land. by the time harvest came, she was obviously with child. her harvest was not good, but she did bring in more crop than it cost to plant.
During the winter, she gave birth to a bouncing baby boy. Shadow and john were now officially married. She had the doctor and midwife come to her house, rather than her go to the hospital. The boy received the required identity chips.
Married life seamed to go well with shadow. They went to the justice of the peace and got a civil wedding, and shadow filed for a name change. It had to go through the state, planetary government, federal government and the military. Being special forces, the military would sit on the decision. She would, though, be officially take John's last name for planetary, state and local business, but her last name would by hyphenated in the name.
About six months later John visited a friend. The friend, as a joke, slipped him a drug. it took a while before he drug would take effect.
John was home when the drug kicked in. He lost his temper, screaming and shouting. Shadow had difficulty in figuring out what was going on. John finally attacked her, trying to beat her up.
Shadow slammed him to the floor knocking him out. She was very angry as the baby had started crying from the shouting and he had demanded he shut the boy up or he would do it. she had wanted children really bad and would protect the boy at all costs.
the next morning, John woke. He remembered what happened. He admitted that his friend had given the drug. He then had to find to if she was really that good or he was impaired by the drug. She slammed him to the floor again. This time he did not pass out. She laid down the law. he was never to have anything to do with that friend, no matter what. The children were hers, not his. He was expected to support and help raise the children by her, whoever the father was.
A couple days later, they decided to have a church wedding. She told him exactly which ceremony would be done. it was where she would give him absolute control over the marriage, she would declare herself completely submissive. His decisions would be law. He did not want that, but she gave him no choice. She was not going to be a commander, wanting to simply fade away, be a woman.
that weekend, with the justice of the peace, both their lawyers there, they stood before the priest and she knelt at her husband's feet and they quoted the marriage vows. She gave hers first. he hesitated a long moment, then said his part of the marriage vows, taking command. The way he said it showed he did not want to do it. They then took their place in the pews for the rest of the service.
Three days later, the judge came to her and asked if she wanted out of the marriage, since there was a three day right to get out of a contract. She insisted the judge to go ask her husband.
John thought carefully about the question when the judge caught up with him and said no, she does not want out of it.
Two months later, a group of women were together for a sewing circle. Shadow was learning to sew, which she was really poor at.
Myleia was now an old lady. She told about her time with the sphinx and few people believed her. she still told her stories.
Myleia asked Shadow about why she would accept a marriage where she gave up all rights. Shadow thought a long moment, then smiled.
"Myleia, during the time you were with the sphinx," she paused. Myleia started to tell the story, but Shadow stopped her with a raised hand. "Who was really in charge in the relationship with the sphinx? Was it you, who could do anything you wanted to it, wash it, decorate the hair, lead it around? or was it the sphinx that could wipe out any military and wipe out the population of a city?"
Myleia looked a bit confused, her eyes widened, she gasped, then put her hands over her mouth "Oh! My!"
One of the other women also gasped. "You mean they really existed?"
Shadow said softly that the government knows of about half a dozen of them.
Then Myleia turned to Shadow, looked her up and down, "Oh my!" Several of the other women gasped when they realized the import of what Shadow had asked. They now all knew that John never had a chance in the relationship. Shadow was in charge.
Shadow had the respect of those women now, as she was no longer thought of as a helpless woman.
A bit later, during a church gathering, Shadow did a talk about choosing a husband. she explained about how she researched her man before they formally met so she was not entering the arrangement blind. She had the advantage of her age and vast experience with dealing with people. once she knew who she was dealing with, she allowed herself to let her heart make the final decision.

15 )
.
The colonists arrived in orbit around a habitable planet. Their generational ship was essentially dead. They were lucky in that they retained much of their technologies. The ship survived only half the distance to their destination. This planet showed signs of cities and technology.
The shuttles were not working. Several systems did not survive the time in storage on the surface of the ship, and the internal hangers had their own problems with keeping the shuttles alive. They were not working.
the colonists were in orbit with the star, approaching on a course that would place them in orbit around the planet, and there was no way to get to the planet.
In orbit, the teams were doing their best to rebuild corroded parts, but their power supply was fading. They were trapped in orbit.
signals appeared inside their minds from the population below. they were going to be given an island. It was a theme park where inventors had fun making things as useless as possible.
The colonists started to pack their stuff. After about a day, they found themselves in a brand new environment. they were on the planet, in the various homes. A bit later, stuff started arriving, in a flash of light and a puff of air.
Over a period of a week, the entire ship was dismantled and delivered to them. Not one system worked, "adjusted" to prevent their use to do damage. When the only things in orbit were un-processable sewage and volatile or radioactive materials, the aliens gave the material a teleport push to the sun to be burned up.
The colonists were stuck in their new home. they had to make the best of it. They quickly learned what their hosts meant when they said everything was made to be useless.
The cars had a hydraulic system where the brakes had to be pumped up to move once applied, and the steering bled pressure so one had to pump up the pressure to turn the cars. The elevators were peddled powered, one peddled on a stair climbing like device to provide electricity for the controls to talk to the system. One only had to peddle one flight o stairs for the elevator to work all the way up and ack down again.
The faucets had a set of knobs and levers one had to manipulate. It was like a combination lock, but there were only four settings. To get water, one did one of the four settings, then the next until you get water. The running of the water changed the setting. Quickly, when one was working in the kitchen, it was common for the cooks to have a very slow trickle to keep the water running. Smart cooks either kept the sink stoppered or had a large pan under it. There was a volume knob and a temperature lever.
The stove and oven worked by logical means. they figured they were too dangerous to mess with, though the markings on the controls meant nothing. The cooks just recognized symbols and went from there.
Exploring the cities, they found that equipment and parts were found in store fronts and buildings of a similar nature. They had tools and parts. they simply had to figure out what could be modified or replaced to make things a bit more normal. The plumbing was changed rapidly, cutting pipes and hooking up conventional systems. Other items took longer.
Barak had worked on machines all his life, and dealt with high pressure plumbing. He found his home next to a junk yard. stuff dismantled from the ship, the raw materials, the structural materials of the ship, along with some junk left by the natives.
he found he was traveling around quite a bit, delivering parts, pieces, picking up pieces. it was a royal hassle because one had to stop for every major change of direction. The roads were straight and were on a grid system, so the only turns were to go on a different road.
the truck he drove took a whole lot more work than the cars did. Any major trip required a physical work out. It was so bad that he would plot out his routes for the minimum turns, and rest a day or two before going out.
One day, he was having a day off, and he decided to examine some of the junk cars in his lot. they were involved in various accidents He simply started dismantling the cars, removing sheet metal so he could really look at the way they were built.
The actual physical construction was quite simple, just with a different fastening system. he had some tools left by the aliens, so he was able to work out how to take things apart.
He examined the steering an braking system with interest. that was where the real problems were with the cars. the steering had a large reservoir with a valve system that would not contain the liquid. It bled out, but was somehow linked to where there was always a minimum pressure in the system until one turned the wheel beyond a certain point, such as making a turn, then the pressure would drop completely.
the braking system built up pressure as one drove. It was on a different pressure system than the steering was, but there was a safety link between the two where, when the steering pressure dropped to zero, the brakes locked on.
he dismantled various valves and lines, examining how they were built with the possibility to modify them. He found they were beyond his technology. The colony ship builders could change them, but he could not. He did not have the machinery anyway.
He then took to tracing the plumbing. Both were simple loops.
He fond one of the cars ran and drove, but was really banged up. He linked the plumbing between the two systems. The pressure of the brake kept the pressure in the steering good. The steering reservoir allowed the braking pressure to be reduced to workable levels.
He took the car out for a drive, going around the block, he got it going fairly fast, but backed the speed down because damage to the car made it unstable. He returned to the lot and parked the car.
He did a run with his truck the next day and was so beat he had to sleep half the day to recover. He looked in the truck and found it was a similar system as the car. studying it a bit closer, he saw that he could change the system easily, leaving all the valving and other safety systems in place. He simply crossed the two discharge lines from the system to the reservoirs. What this did was to have the pressure adjusted by the other reservoirs.
He had fully rested, put the tools and extra fluid in the truck in case they were needed, and then started on his trip. He still stopped before turning, but now it was a safety thing, watching for other vehicles. He did not have to pump anything, and it seamed safe. He drove the entire day, learned about several other stops and went to them without considering the route. he got back with more day left, and made a second run to a few more customers.
He was not tired at all. the next day, he went out again. By the third consecutive days, people noticed and accused him of doing something to his truck. He was not going to tell them, in case there was a problem with the system. An engineer finally came to him asking about the modifications he had done. In exchange for his secret, his house would be fixed up to more standard designs.
Barak showed what he learned, how he learned it, and showed how he did the first modification, and then the one on his truck. He finally said that he was not sure of the safety of his changes, which was why he did not make it known.
the engineer did more tests. The fluids were very slightly different. His mixing them was not a serious problem, but would reduce the life span of the hoses. his hesitation was wise.
The engineer then checked over a number of other bits of native junk, explaining what he was seeing at each point. The fact that this stuff was junk, made this site a gold mine of technology.
Barak continued his trips of delivering and retrieving junk, but now he rented time for people to examine the junk he had, to figure out how they worked, or failed to work.

16 )
.
The space station was a couple hundred miles across, multiple tiny space stations, shipping containers, dead freighters, small and large ships and yachts, cobbled sections, made up the space station. Some areas were given an enclosure to seal them from space, then rebuilt to give more space. the space station really looked ugly. At present, a war had cut the space station off from any other trade, so it operated on its own.
The main source of food was a liquid mixture filled with fine pellets that was pumped all around the space station. Each location in the space station received a supply of the liquid and processed it into food. the pellets, along with the liquid, was separated out, recombined according to specific recipes, then heat and pressure was applied to create hundreds of known food stuffs. The liquid itself was not useable as food. It had to be processed.
Seijel had lived a long time but still had years ahead. He owned his module. The module was once a freighter and while connected to the space station for a couple centuries, it had been long ago abandoned. He purchased it at a higher price than it was worth and set it up as a farm. When he started, there was half a dozen farms going, now he had the only one.
The whole freighter was still there, ready to fly, if it were cut out of the center of the space station. Too much would have to go to move it. with the drives, the power supplies, a full fuel tank, all systems working, the only thing Seijel really needed for his farm, was a source of soil and fertilizer.
He had a source for the fertilizer where none sewage waste products were run through artificial composting. The people who received the materials he was drawing from actually liked the arrangement. He kept the biggest solids and that made their processing easier.
He produced his crops for seed, and also sold them for food. five star restaurants purchased his crops as they were different in some way from the processed foods. Since he planted year around, they had a regular supply.
He also drew air from the space station, ran the filtered air over his plants, and sent to the fresh, oxygenated air to the station. It dramatically improved the air in the section
he would leave some plots fallow for a while, and then rotate crops based on what they do to the soil and what it does to diseases. periodically, he will remove all soil from the bins that served as his plots, sterilize them, sterilize the soils and start over again. He only planted a tenth of what he could plant. the fallow areas wee sometimes left fallow for ten plantings before he started planting again.
He had seed stores in several other places around the space station that he would draw from and add to, periodically. he kept hi crops clean and pure, and tried hard not to have them change over time. He could never tell when an old seed and fresh seed was used side by side. Other growers were always trying to make their crops more perfect, and tended not to resemble anything known after a while.
In the past year, he has become the only farm. The other spaces were sold to make more room. He had been searching for a new location to expand to, but none of them had the right conditions. He was isolated in the middle of the space station because most of the area around the arm was still unused.
One day, he was called to the station council. There, he is told that they are taking over his space for a housing project. They are going to strip down and rebuild the entire area. He was going to have to shut down his farm an get into a new business.
That last was what really caught his attention. He told them that he would have to have his legal people look over the offers before he decides how to respond.
They told him that he already had several months to respond. He told them that this was the first meeting he was in. He did a quick scan about the farm or his name and saw none. He then told them that this was the first meeting they even mentioned about it. he would have his people check to see if other authorities need become involved based on what was said in this meeting.
When he got home, he set his computer to do extensive research on the subject, using any search he or the computer could come up with.
One thing he found was that his freighter was connected only by the hatches and they were still serviceable. The weapons were still active. his ship was not bolted to the space station.
If he needed to, he could disconnect the ship and move it to another location if they chose to strip out the entire area. If it really came to it, he could destroy the space station, not that he would ever do that. He kept all that information to himself.
He then found that the people who were listed as the contractors to do the construction, had acquired vast tracts of space station property, but has never built on them. the population was being forced to move into properties that the company's ownership controlled, they never sold, but instead rented, so they were forcing the people into their high rent properties.
Local council members got rich every time one of these deals was made. There were other things in the data that made this illegal and immoral.
He searched publications and found one not tied to the projects, and would publish this kind of news. He simply sent the data that showed how people forced out of some areas, were forced to live in areas owned by the developers. He waited until the publication went to press with his information, then contacted the people he thought he needed, to handle his case.
The press release created a firestorm among the public. The fact that not one of the purchased areas were used, created the biggest uproar. they were supposed to be new homes for the people to move into . the population was growing and were becoming crowded in smaller and smaller apartments.
Articles in other publications countered the actual numbers, but even then, the smallest estimate of possible space was dramatic. Other articles appeared to support the process that was going on. Articles flew in all directions.
Seijel talked to the people he needed to talk to, and there were more than enough information to show that his moving was not needed. One high official pointed out that his farm was no longer needed. It was archaic and useless and a waste of valuable space. He countered like wasted valuable spaces like, and he named each area that was vacant. He told the official that those areas need to be developed and populated long before his space needs to be bothered with. He even pointed to how his spot was farthest from any real habitation area so was not a space to naturally expand into.
All his contacts were going to have to study the situation more. Seijel knew he had many options and knew he had the public behind him.
he then started getting orders for his crops from the general public. He started planting more of his plant beds. He had everyone contact the people who distributed his products. they spread his products around for them to be tested out.
In his third planting season after the situation became public, he had only one in ten planting beds fallow, and was producing at the highest rates he had ever planted. The real crops he produced, caused people to change their food replicators to match something like what he was growing, since he could never produce enough food for the entire station. to get his food, one had to eat out and a higher quality place.
By then, he had enough money on hand, and enough popularity, to shut down any attempt to take over his farm. The attempt to take his farm, was actually what had saved it.

17 )
.
Scientists exploring sub-particle physics, find they are getting strange radiation. They brought in other experts and found there was a pattern in the signals.
Quickly, they found that it was a communications. they did a search of the languages, available and found it was a language spoken some American Indians.
Some were found on the university who could speak both languages and a couple were in science. Some linguist were also brought in to listen. The translators listened to the communications and came to agreements on the words spoken. They soon decide that they are able to hold a conversation in the language.
Blackender was in the science department and also happened to know the native language. He was in on the translations and while he was not great a speaking it, he could understand it as well as everybody else.
The time came and they actually made contact. the other voices recognized something else was talking to them. the voice qualities were not the same. The accents were not the same.
their understanding of the general subject matters were much the same, but as the discussions got into more detail, they were having problems.
The scientists gave them some measurements for a piece of equipment. they said it did not work. They gave a measurement for some tool. the scientists found they could not get it to work.
They started trying to define measurements and nothing was making sense.
Blackender listened to all this. he then spoke up. He simply said that they had 118 atoms in their periodic table and the fifth one was their frequency measurement. they said they had 205 atoms.
He started describing some natural law things, and they were coming up with some other figures. he finally told them to stop. He grabbed his sub atomic particle text book, saying this was what he was using, and translated what it said in the beginning about the hierarchy of sub atomic particles. There was a long pause and then they read what their book said.
"they are in a different universe!!!" the head of the particle experiment said.
Blackender now became the head translator as he knew the scientific jargon. Translating for experts, he discussed on their side, the nature of each universe, how each scientific discovery was done and what the results were. There was no question they were of different universes now, the rules were different. It happened that they were doing the same experiment, but had done so for decades, in their universe.
Other universities took the suggestions of the other universe as to what tests can be done to learn more about the universe. Over the next months, Blackender is learning a whole new branch of science, from the experts. Others are translating what is said, but at one point, he makes a few suggestions on what can be tested.
Other scientific translators come forward and other areas of research come up. He is still there as some one the other world knows, but he is now superceded in science. Computer scientists, artists, social researchers, practical technology people are now involved. He translates for them.
One artist wanted to show full pictures to them. He made them come to an agreement on the signal format. rectangular dot format image. black and white at first. They used eight digit binary computer letters for the code at first so it can be expanded once they work out the details. They started with just the grid, then adding a square, circle, oval, some solid, some lines, some empty with solid backgrounds.
they were about to send pictures of each other when the officials on the other side decided to shut down the experiment. The researchers also decided it would be wise.
Blackender did not like the decision, but agreed it would be better to guess what each other looked like, than to create problems with real knowledge.
A bit later, it was learned they had no digital image technology. This was learned on the highest level communications and ending things was best.
Blackender later got several doctorates because of what he learned translating. it was a scientific education in and of itself.

18 )
.
I saw a woman with a long scarf around her neck, misidentifying it at first, and that gave me this idea.
Her scarf had four colors to it. two inside, two outside. Also, they had different patterns on them. it was really a hollow tube. she could crease at different seams to get a different effect. I just thought that it could be turned inside out for other colors, but won't do that. I just have it as a tube so she can change the effect of how it looks.
Because of a local plant who's pollen was a serious irritant when breathed in, Everybody wore a face mask that sort of hid everybody's face. The local style and finances had the people wearing a similar style clothing of a similar color. The only real change was accessories that a person can wear. Because they were so poor, they usually only one thing can be colored, as colored items are very expensive. Usually, if you see a person wearing a colored item, any time you see someone with that colored item, you will know it is them. it does not c hanger.
Megila worked for a security agency for several years. She "retired" by walking out of the agency compound an moving in among the people. She was trained as an agent, and had to keep up her training, but never put it to use.
She quickly learned that the agency did not like their people retiring, and there was a call to round her up. She knew she had to leave the planet. Her contacts got word that a different security agency was interested in her. she had to get to the space port without detection. She sent her belongings to the space port and prepared to leave.
She always wore a silver scarf. Before she joined the agency, she spent a short time as a seamstress. She had assembled a second scarf from colored scraps given to her in the place of her pay. Those scraps became the colored one, which was for special occasions, but such occasions never showed up.
She slipped the colored scarf inside her clothing, and left the house. The people around saw her leave, wearing the silver scarf. When she got to an area where no one would see her. she removed the sliver scarf and slipped that inside her clothing. She then pulled out the colored scarf. She folded it so only one color showed on both sides, then wrapped it stylishly around her neck. She strolled out of the area and those waiting for her to come out, stayed, waiting.
She passed through a couple security stops and noticed she was being followed again. someone must have decided she was the one they were looking for.
She disappeared into an area where she was not observed. She took her scarf off, re-folded it, and now set it up like a sling. She stuck her arm into it and slipped into the crowd. there were other women using their scarves as slings. That was common. it was a useful belonging in that way.
She threw off those following her. A couple more security places and she changed the scarf to another color and wrapped it around her head like a turban. This happened to be in an area where turbans were common.
She actually avoided several security places because she was moving as a local, rather than as a traveler.
at one point, she removed the turban, and wrapped the scarf around her waist like a belt.
She does this a couple more times, sometimes having the different colors showing as a small strip, or just one color in a different way.
she finally gets to the space port. Just before she has to announce herself as her self to get on the ship, she takes out the sliver scarf and slips the colored scarf into her clothing. She is instantly recognized for who she is, as she matches her pictures, and is allowed onto the ship.
The ship launches and no one know how she escaped. the two agencies, and the whole security system reexamines themselves to figure out where the incompetence was.

19 )
.
I put on a knitted sweater and thought about an armor that could be made that way.
Experimenting with chemical reactions under specific conditions, Mylon came across a material that made wool much like kevlar- the material that makes up bullet proof vests. the key compounds came from a plant from an exotic location. He obtained some specimens and some experts helped him propagate the plant. soon he was farming and harvesting the plants, and then processing the chemicals. he got with a company that manufactures wool sweaters for a steady supply of them.
He was producing knitted armor. his big customer was a martial arts organization where they have real fights with weapons, including swords and spears. they loved the armor as it was cheap, light, and they were not likely to get harmed in their fights. they fought all out without getting cut.
The economy collapsed suddenly. the law simply disappeared, going to the big cities and the smaller communities such as where he lived, were on their own. The martial arts organization became the law. their armor allowed them to handle petty criminals easily.
All available adults in the area had to get the basic training on fighting. They were expected to protect themselves until the fighters could come to their rescue.
Mylon found he had some skills in it, but he was a scientist rather than a fighter. He did not think in terms of finding a fight. He thought of how to do something his opponent is unprepared for, cheat if necessary.
One day there was sort of a convention. One of the fighters, a big, muscular, not all that bright, fighter stood before the whole group. He held up the armor. "With this armor, I become invincible. I cannot be harmed in this material."
Mylon stood up. taking a bow and arrow, a weapon he can hit a large target with. "Please put that on. I will then show how easy it is to kill you through that." he said as he set the arrow to the string. "Then we will no longer have such stupidity in this group."
The big man looked at the arrow, then the sweater. "Well I meant that against bladed weapons."
Mylon lowered the bow and arrow, then took a long sword from the hands of one of the members. "Hold his hands and feet so I can bludgeon him with the edge of this sword, breaking bones with forceful impacts. We will then see how long it takes him to die."
The big man felt the material and saw how easy it was to flex.
"Then what good is this material then?"
"You fight as if you are bare naked. The armor is just in case the other guy gets lucky. It might allow you to keep bleeding to death while you are beating him up."
The big man looked confused, then slowly dawned on him what that meant. The organization continued to use the sweaters. They did learn that the material degraded after several years so they had to be in contact with the original source, Mylon, to stay protected. That also proved to be a great advantage. Other groups that got the suits by other means, lost their protection after a couple years, they usually found out as they were sliced up.

20 )
.
There is the joke that some foods are so salted that one should order salt flavored to that food, like fish flavored salt, rather than salted fish.
They had come to the planet to explore it and catalogue the life on the planet. It was a standard practice to have people live on the planet in various places on the planet while doing scientific studies, to find out if there are any pathogens that could cause problems with the colonists. Once the planet gets a clean bill of health, then real colonists can come to the planet.
The researchers were on the planet for about ten years when they started getting sick. It was not individuals, but instead the entire population, all within about two months of each other. when the third person was reported sick, the colony leader told authorities that the planet is on hold.
tests given to the entire population was exhaustive. A salt deficiency was the symptoms. they now had to figure out why. The headquarters was near a very large salt deposit. the other colony locations were dismantled and the sites abandoned, and brought to the main center. during dismantling, salt was shipped in high quantities to the other centers for the people. Quickly, the people were eating salt to keep from being disabled. There was little room for real food, but they did not seem to be bothered by how little food they were taking in.
the salt they were eating, was not even purified. it was chipped out of the ground and taken straight. There were all sorts of other minerals and contaminants in it, but they did not have time to process it to get enough to the rest of the population.
Two months after the salt deficiencies were noticed, the last colonist arrived near the salt mine.
The salt was not leaving the body at rates expected. There were all sorts of strange toxins in the body wastes. With all the medical people in one place, they had the manpower to do a serious study of the problem.
It took a while, but they finally pinned it down to a microbe that was in everybody's systems. The microbes lived off of salt and other nutrients that just happened to be found in the salt deposits.
There was an advantage of these microbes. People only had to eat a small amount of food to stay healthy. the microbe wastes actually fed the hosts so they did not need to take in much nutrients as long as they had the salt available.
The population declared that they were going to have to die on the planet and the planet should be declared off limits. Different colony groups hated the decision but understood the reason for it.
The population changed their cooking. they were adding more and more salt to the foods. there never seemed to be enough salt. After about six months, there was more salt in their meals than foods.
At a communal meal, everybody had piles of salt on their plates with just a little food. One of the entertainers, a comedian, was before the crowd, taking bites between jokes. He held his plate up and asked if he could have some more chicken flavored salt.
The place went silent. there was truth to his joke. they had been thinking food with salt. Now they all saw how they really had to think of their consumption. The salt was their main meal, and they had to decide how to flavor it.
the doctors were still trying to learn the salt requirements, but they had developed a minimum on salt, and a minimum on other nutrients.
Realizing they had to flavor the salt, rather than salt their foods, they changed how they composed their meals. The foods were mixed into the salt, adding flavoring and other nutrients. the nutrient count was figured high in the servings, just to make sure people had enough.
The food flavored salt joke became common usage and still handled like a joke. Doctors studied the microbe and searched for ways to nullify it or reduce the salt requirements.
The doctors studied how other animals handled the microbe. Other life did not have a strong desire for salt so they had some natural defense against the microbe.
The doctors also searched for the original source for the microbe, how the colonists actually contracted the microbe. The doctors found the source of the microbe about the same time they found how animals keep from getting the microbe.
The animals had a gene that blocked the activities of the microbe by allowing the waste products to build up, suffocating the microbe. the source was from a native vegetable they were all eating. it was in some sick plants they thought were a different variety. instead, the microbe was sickening the plants.
The researchers went out and eradicated the sick plants, sterilizing the soil in the general area.
The doctors created a vaccine against the microbe. it took six months after the vaccine for non-chemical signs to show that it was having effects. People wanted less salt and more food. The people were back to normal after two years. They kept the planet off limits except for visits, and decided to colonize the planet from their own core population. It would take generations before they would have a population able to support themselves without the high tech equipment they brought, but that would not be a problem.

21 )
.
It amounted to being a slime monster. It was not pure slime, of course. The body structure was really that of an empty bag made up of a mesh. to move, the structure against itself, rolling the leading edge under and to the back where it would roll back on top.
The skin was a thick slimy material that the structure could move inside with almost no friction. watching the creature, it would flow like one would expect slime to work.
It was a rugged form, could slip beneath even the tires of cars, could fold up so it could fit into an auto tail pipe. It could also lift itself up to nearly eight feet tall.
The monster did have one weakness. It had some vital body parts. Because of the nature of the creature, the vital organs could be shifted around to where it was safest. They tended to be long and stringy so they could fit inside the body at its smallest compression. when it needed to actually see, feed, or kill it had to move the head to the end about to strike. The head when formed, was something like that of a snake.
The monster did have a couple weaknesses. One was that while it can fit under a truck tire without damage, it could not take sudden impact like a truck running over it. If the vital organs, especially the head is damaged, it can be fatal. In fighting another creature, it is not hard to protect the vital organs from damage. The slime absorbs a lot of impact.
The slime monster showed up in a small camp ground and was hungry. A camper blundered into the slime monster and it ate her, enveloping her and digesting her leaving just bones..
One by one the slime monster caught and fed on different campers. One camper saw the slime monster slither up onto a car and get inside through a partially open window, killing the occupant. It was slithering out when he ran past and got into his car. He had an ignition problem and the car did not want to start.
the slime monster became more of a tube and rolled quickly to the car. The man got the car started and floored it the instant he could put power to the car. the slime monster stuck to the bumper and flattened out in the wind, before drawing itself underneath the car.
the car had no holes it could slip into from beneath the car, so it worked its way to beneath the driver. The driver ran through street lights and stop signs, drove around other vehicles, driving as fast as he could.
He finally comes to a light and stops behind another car. A whole line of cars pull up behind him. he thinks he long ways away from the monster so he can relax. then he glances to his side. There is the slim monster crawling up the side of the car. He forces himself to watch the light, engine idling, ready to go. He saw how the creature seamed to attack faster if one panicked, so he remained calm, watching it through the corner of his eye.
The monster set part of the body on the ground, leveraging itself against the bottom of the car. Its head leaned back, ready to strike. At that moment, the light changed and the car in front moved.
The driver waited until there was a bigger distance in front of him, then he floored the gas peddle. The slime monster was caught off guard and could not react fast enough. The moving car, swung the head around to the back, the tail acting as leverage to twist it. The tires ran over the beast where it was on the ground. It was shocked by the impact. It spun around a couple times. Then an eighteen wheeler drove over it, along with half a dozen cars.
The monster was flattened, many vital organs damaged, brain half gone. It laid in the road, cars driving over it as any other road kill.

22 )
.
I listen to a challenging talk show host on the radio in the mornings. He has ways of gently destroying guests he disagrees with. what he does is he asks simple questions that set up where the guest gets into trouble with. It is always the questions. Many callers (listeners) will list a whole bunch of things rapidly so you forget about the first items they brought up that are problems. This talk show host makes them take each item one at a time, discuss them before going on to the next one. Callers hate that. This is the kind of talk show host this is based on.
A new election completed a few months ago. The talk show host ripped the entire government on the radio, pointing out every stupid thing they said or done. There was nothing he agreed about with the government in charge. He had some good researchers to find data for him, plus he did his own research. those in his listening audience knew what was going on better than anybody else.
He had been in the business for many decades and people who left, still listened to him on the internet. they brought others to listen so while he was on a little local radio station, he had one of the biggest listener-ships in the country. He got calls from all over the country.
One day, he gets a new caller from the capital. He said that the caller's voice resembled the leader. The caller said that everyone told him his voice resembled a well known actor. the talk show host relaxed.
The caller started listing great things about the government. th host stopped him down and made him go over each point. AS each point was discussed, the caller squirmed and twisted, fighting for his points. When he hung up, he sounded whipped.
A bit later another new caller from the capital called, trying to defend the government's position. He also had a familiar voice. He got the same treatment.
Day after day, those two callers, and about four others, called to challenge the host, pushing his stances to the limit. In every case, they kept losing their points, showing they were taking the wrong information, using questionable data or data from questionable sources.
After a while, the researcher for the host pointed out that debates within the government were getting tougher, the opposition was being caught off guard and never able to gain a foothold in their debates.
The talk show host was now at the very top of his game, doing extensive research, and using logic and his philosophy to filter the data. whenever he got a guest on the phone, even those he agreed with, he was not easy on them. A few times, he knew more about what they were doing than they did.
Of course, the callers came on line afterwards and tested him hard. He always prevailed as he did not stand from a political point of view.
His researcher finds a mention in the article where several heads of state have been calling talk show hosts under assumed names. There was no more information.
The host has a person on from his side of government, being easy, but making her work. the caller calls and challenges her. She recognizes the voice and blurts out his name. His reaction shows he was caught. It was the leader the host had been beating up with all this time. Quickly, the other five callers from the capital admit to who they are.
Within days, the host's show is carried nationally, in part or on the whole because the leaders continue to call and get beaten up. the opposition listens and learns how to handle the leader's party, though they are not anywhere as good.

23 )
.
The GANG OF WHITE, as they were referred to by others, were a religious group who were extremely good fighters Their soul existence was to fight. They were so good that they wore bright white uniforms when they entered the dirt ring. They walked out completely clean, never getting dirty.
There were absolutely no accounts of any of them losing a fight. There were few vague accounts of them getting dirty, and the main message was that the one who got them dirty, died in the fight in every case. All Gang of White that got muddy, was forced to leave the gang in shame. This was why they never let the one who dirtied them, survive.
The dirt ring was an arena surfaced with mud and clay. most fights ended up with the contestants completely covered in mud. The Gang Of White always competed in their white clothing and always left clean.
The religion had where once a year, the available men wrestled and fought, along with prayer and ceremony, striving to achieve a higher level of existence by defeating others of the surrounding communities. The Gang of white was the highest level. One had to defeat them to achieve the existence one was after.
The fights are where the men are pared off, and fight. The winner then pairs off with other winners and fight. They keep going up in levels. the priest hood chooses who fights who. On the third level, the gang of white joins the fight and fight their way to the top. Except in rare cases, the gang of white are all who stand at the end. A fighter that stands to face the Gang of white alone, will be taken into training to see if he can become a gang of white. They all lose the fight against one of the gang of white, first.
Garsen loved to fight, the tougher the better. he had been in two other regions for a couple years and fought wherever he went. He never lost a fight, but he had many a good one.
Garsen was not the most bright person, but he was a good person to be a guard. he knew where he had to be at any time, and knew who to trust and who not to. He also knew how to act dumber than he really was, so others underestimated him and were also willing to talk in front of him in less guarded moments. He passed on what he learned to his merchant boss. Those who served the merchant respected him. The merchant was happy to give recommendations to others for his service.
The holiday arrived and Garsen was in the area, so he signed up to be in the ceremony. He put on his really dumb persona, moving slowly, ploddingly. Others talked in his presence about how easy he was going to be to beat.
The fights began. A quarter of the fighters entered the ring and pummeled each other. Garsen moved as slow as he could and not get hit. he counter punched, The guy he was up against was really bad, no fight training at all. Garsen showed what his moves were in, and the other guy ran into his punches and kicks. The fight was over fast.
The next quarter of the fighters came out, and so on.
Then the first two quarters of the fighters met. It seamed random, but the priests were paring the best fighters against the worst. they had suspicions of Garsen so they pared him with a bad fighter.
The remains of the two halves came out and fought. Garsen had to move faster against his opponent but still did not have to do any blocking.
The real bad fighters were out of the matches. The priests knew Garsen was better than he looked, they just did not know how good. the gang in white now joined the fight. All their fights would be against those known to be really bad fighters.
the fights continued with breaks for rest, prayer. Many winners dropped out due to hurts and injuries. If there were an odd number of fighters, the best of the gang in white was allowed to stand out of the fight. he was like the high priest. To give him a work out so he did not have a great advantage. he would attack a post with wooden rods sticking out. He would fight it fast and hard until a gong sounded that the fight was over. It was a good show.
Many fighters tried to get the men in white dirty, but they even dodged thrown mud. The thrower took an extra beating if they were fighting each other.
Garsen was fighting the guy he saw as the best of the citizen fighters. The men in white had the lesser fighters. It was a good fight, but this guy was not the best fighter that Garsen had beaten.
He slammed his fist across the jaw of his opponent and the guy slumped to the ground. he then looked up and the men in white were lining up to fight him.
Garsen started to kneel to pray. He was told there was not going to be a time for prayer. He had to fight them.
Garsen got angry. this is supposed to be a religious event. One of the men in white walked up to him and gave him a shove. Garsen caught the man's arm and rolled. the man was pulled down with him, face first into the mud.
The man stood up, looked at his uniform. No one dirties a uniform of the men in white. He was completely covered in mud. He lost his temper and attacked.
Garsen got hit about a dozen times. He deflected half a dozen strikes intended to kill him. Angry about the kill strikes, he laid into the man with everything he had. He felt the man slump and backed away. the man collapsed in the dirt and laid there. Another man came running. Garsen automatically dropped into a one legged crouch and snapped his foot up to belly height. the man had leaped into the air. their legs met. the man tumbled in the air and landed on his back in the mud.
Garsen got better against this man. A good kick to the stomach, followed by a hard uppercut ended that fight. He turned and walked away as the man slumped to the ground, readying to fight the next gang in white.
He was sore, bloody, tired, when he now faced the leader of the gang of white. He had muddied every one of the gang of white before he defeated them. He had fought them at their best, when they were trying to kill him. One look at the way the leader moved, showed that he never really worked out during the day. he was warmed up, but fresh. Garsen decided this was going to be the fight he was after. he was going to have the ultimate existence. He was going to have the pure ecstasy of being beaten by the very best fighter in the land. There were no others this good.
Garsen had sized up his man's ability properly within moments of meeting. Garsen met him with his absolute best, no pretending, no holding back. For the first part of the fight, they kept their distance from each other. Garsen was getting hit but he was hitting back. His opponent made the mistake of holding his hand out longer than normal, and Garsen grabbed the hand. Moments later, they rolled in the mud, Garsen getting the worst of the quick battle on the ground. Then they were standing again.
the leader's face turned red with his anger at getting filthy. they met again. Garsen had to change his tactics as just exchanging blows was not going in his favor. He attacked his opponent's arms and legs, striking instead of blocking, and he struck with full power against the man's body, making his limbs take the brunt of the attack.
They then returned to exchanging strikes, but now Garsen had the advantage as he had hurt his opponent. He was stronger and could take more punishment. His opponent fought with more skill, but not as tough.
Garsen was hurt, he knew he was going to lose the fight. He decided to do one last act. If the guy survived the attack, well he was better.
He lunged forward, raining strikes as fast as he could. At first he was not getting through, then suddenly he hit, the guy was moved by the impact. then another one from the other side. quickly, he was pummeling the leader with every strike. The leader slumped, so Garsen started striking up, sort of holding him upright with each hit.
Garsen saw there was little attempt at defense, so he backed away quickly. His opponent, bloody and muddy, collapsed.
Garsen had beaten the best fighter. He knew he was the best. A rush energy ran through him. He felt like a king of the world. He did not feel any of his hurts. He raised his hands, leaned back and screamed out in ecstacy. He did that for quite a long time before the sound of the gong entered his consciousness.
he beat his chest one last time, pumping his arm in the air. A white robe was thrown over his shoulders and he was lead into the temple.

24 )
.
Techniques to extend life were successful on the colony planet. People were living many centuries if they did not succumb to injury or disease. One ages normally, then gets a treatment (required by law) to become about twenty five. After sixty years, one looks sixty. One is then treated again.
A serious problem developed where people would accumulate property and never let it up. The young never got access to property or wealth.
the planet had six continents separated by water, that were habitable. There was a couple very large islands that were used as prisons of different kinds.
There was only one computerized government It required people to enforce the law, but the government itself was a set of computers, not subject to the foibles of human kind. It was very even on how it applied the law, and generally let people do what business they wanted.
The government had absolute control, with no authority above it.
To solve the property problem, the government declared that anybody who had lived for sixty years would be bodily removed, taken almost stripped to another continent and have to start over again. The property would be disbursed for purchase with a lottery system involved. On the lottery, those farther away from the site had the best chances at it. If the couple living there were on the continent for different time periods, the land would be kept until the second member reached the age. Children of any age would be taken to the orphanage to complete their raising. The funds from the property would first raise the children, then go to running the government. The government got no other funds.
It was a highly recommended that one marry quickly after arriving so one can enjoy grand children before being taken away. It was a cruel system, especially if one is near the end of one's life. Think of a normal sixty year old person having to start all over at that stage of their lives. The only advantage is that one is made younger, with a lot of injuries being cured or mediated.
Communications between continents were forbidden. shipping across the oceans were with robotic ships. The reason for this was to prevent the population preparing their lives on other continents prior to be going. No one was to have a distinct advantage beyond their personal ability.
Mauden was nearly a thousand years old now. He had given birth to hundreds of children. he was also very successful with a couple dozen businesses. What the government did not know, was that he set them up to give him an advantage.
He woke up early in the morning to find the collectors in his room. His wife screamed, his oldest son, nineteen, lunged at them and was subdued with no effort.
Mauden got out of bed and put his hands out. They took him out of the house. They would come for his wife in about six months.
They put him into the back of a blackened bus, no light at all. There were six other men and two women in there. they drove around another hour and soon they had three more men and five women. they all acted as if this was their first time to have this happen, but he could tell that this was the first time for only one woman. Most sort of forgot about this process.
They entered a secure part of the city, were transported by air to a compound some place else on the continent, and then were processed, given the treatments to make one young again. It was not pleasant, sometimes referred to as torture. though the joke was that torture easier to survive. they were kept in groups of five, men and women, each one was going to a different continent.
They were finally stuck into blackened jets and shipped to their continents. Careful calculations was made to keep friends and family apart. They were stuck into a state and required to be there for a given period of time, usually about ten years to establish oneself. This helped keep people even more separated, forced to start their lives fresh. Given the number of states in the world, and the amount of people turning sixty, there was usually two people let loose in any state from any continent. they had different release points within the state and that made it even more effective to keep them apart.
Mauden walked out of landing zone and into the city. wearing a light jump suit an a hat, and having about three days worth of money on him, he was now on his own. He first had to figure out where he was. He simply started walking. He would go three blocks right, three blocks left, three blocks right, and so on, zig zagging across the city diagonally. As the day neared its end, he stopped and purchased new clothing. He knew he was in good condition and had plenty of muscle and fat on him, so he skipped meals the whole day. He had seen enough of the way people dressed to know how to look like them, and he also seen enough of the city to know where he was. the computer did not know it made a mistake by dropping im into this city.
he walked during the night, circling around the edge of the city until he got to a warehouse district. It was old world design, built to last forever. He slipped through a back way he knew about and slept in a cubby hole built into the place. Right after they had passed the sixty law, he built this warehouse to be permanent and set for several of the bins to be permanently funded.
He slept till nearly noon, then slipped into an underground utility tunnel. there had been major changes in there, but the system was much the same. He had to search, but he found the service terminal there. He was surprised his access code worked. He figured the computer would know he was there. He was satisfied that his bins were still there and still funded. He slipped out the way he came.
He headed out into the city to regain the wealth he knew he could make. He need not access the bins. knowing they were there, was all he needed for now.
Ten years later, he showed up in makeup, he rented a space. he activated a system that fogged the recording systems and then accessed one of the bins. he plugged his computer into the system inside, drew out all the data he needed, accessed accounts he had built to reload the funds for the bins, then closed it up. No one would ever know he was in there. he finished his business in his bin. He decided he did not need the bin and cashed out his lease.
He now had what it took to build a large fortune, instead of a small fortune. When it became time for the change to happen again, most of his fortune evaporated due to down turns of business and when they came for him, he would have a pretty high debt, rather than lots of wealth. His wealth went into the accounts in every major city in the state. He had this setup in every state of every continent. He had set it up when the computer government was setting up this type of governmental system.

25 )
The land had some background energies that could be converted to magic. In trying to conquer the new lands, they ran across several beasts that could only be described as beasts of evil consequence. The population fought and destroyed a few of them. soon, though, they learned the nature of the magic of the lands, and found ways to entrap the beasts. One community that chose to follow primitive ways and the magic they could achieve with those practices, was established around the prisons of the beasts.
The nation was being built fresh, they could create the laws as they saw fit. They chose laws that granted absolute property rights, where one could own property and hand it down to offspring, buy and sell it as one saw fit. The community of beasts would hold their lands forever. They became the Howler community, named for the beasts they protected.
The fathers of the nation knew that no set of laws would last forever. Evil men would change the laws, remove rights well fought for in the beginning. It was decided that should the howler community lose their lands, the release of the evil beasts would be proper punishment for the nation. The descendants that happened to, would have to re-learn magic to bring the beasts down. They would be forced to bring back laws to protect land.
The evil beasts did not need much to live. A goat, once a month, would feed all of them, but they were each given half a goat a month to keep them happy.
The howlers practiced their magic and studied the beasts. They stayed to themselves, letting the rest of the world follow their own plans.
The beasts had a life cycle and reproduced once every generation. The beast's numbers changed with time, never going more than double, or half, the original population.
The howlers had what amounted to a magic university where the people had to earn their knowledge. when they reached a certain level, usually as late teenagers, they met the beasts and learned how to tend them, how to control them. It was a lot of work, and took a lot of skills. The beasts could act as tame as an old dog, but they were extremely dangerous.
It was important to know if someone can truly handle the beasts, so at the end of the training, the student was placed alone among the beasts. it was a special ceremony with all the adults around the area of the pen, preventing the beasts from escaping. the student either handled the beasts, or became food for them. it was harsh, but this was serious. the community depended on every member being able to step in and control the beasts if needed.
Centuries passed. Evil people ruled the government, bending it to their will. they were corrupt, power hungry, ruthless. They warped the intention and word of the laws to suit their ends. They ignored laws they were sworn to follow.
The leaders felt they were gods and the whole world belonged to them. They wanted power and wealth, and would steal from one group to give to another.
They had finally gained absolute power. They stole whole tracks of land, which they gave to contributors and supporters.
The leaders finally decided that there was one tract of land that could be mined and logged. The leadership could use the funds to buy votes from those dependant on them.
the only problem was that there was a religious group on that tract of land. They were not giving up their lands, never sold any property in their entire history.
The power of the leaders depended them on making a show of the use of the process of law making. As long as they made a show of following some law in breaking the laws, they had their power.
Someone pointed out that if a dam were to be built at the end of the valley, It would drowned the land. They could force the population off their lands. Since the lands would be flooded, it would be in the government's interest to have the region mined and harvested so it would not be wasted, unavailable under water.
It did not matter that the dam would never be built or could be built, the fact that the government declared that it wanted to build it, would give it the right to force people off their lands. What is more, they can be selective as to who actually has to leave immediately. Others could wait a while.
The government went through the process it had created, to design the dam. People knew the dam was going to be built and where it was going to be built. The howler community never sent anybody to the meetings and never gave a complaint.
The government tracked who complained the most and least. those who gave no complaint would be forced out. the others would be given a reprieve as long as their location did not hamper the harvest of the lands.
Announcements were given, people were given the intent to evacuate the lands. the howler community received their orders and still did not complain. they also made no attempt to prepare to leave either.
Waldon practiced his magic and showed good skills. It was his time for the ceremony to be alone among the beasts. He was doing it two years earlier than normal.
He entered the prison, the community surrounded the prison, chanting. He knew the chant well. He knew all the commands.
He walked to the center of the prison. He stood for a long time, listening to the chants around him. The chants changed, it was the release of the beasts from their sleep. as one, they rose and turned to him. he was on his own. They sent fear and anguish into his mind. he turned to the strongest of the pack and stared it in what passed for eyes. He used the chanted spell inside his mind, not speaking it, but thinking it hard. He walked up to the beast and set his hand on the side of its muzzle. It stayed. He petted it. Another snuck up from behind. It crouched to lunge. It then stayed there.
Waldon, without a word, controlled them. He finally sent them back to their nests and bade them to sleep. It was a state they enjoyed.
He was a master of the beasts. the high priest came down, ready for a fight, and saw them laying quietly. Waldon had passed.
The government arrived in force, police, army, bulldozers, air craft, busses. Waldon and several leaders went to the beasts and did the chants to make them into the deepest sleep, they would stay that way for a time. they left, closing the prison, which looked just like a pile of rocks. The beasts could easily escape through the rocks. Only the magic kept them there.
Waldon and the others returned to the community, guns aiming at them as they approached. The howlers were rounded up by force. None fought them, though they complained that they had title to the land. the entire community was shipped across the country, split up, each family going to a different city. nothing left of the community.
The leaders had the choicest lands now, so they sold the leases to strip the lands. The trees went first. then big equipment came in and started strip mining the land.
The howler community tried to practice their magic, but the communities they were in, disliked their strangeness. pressure was applied to convert them.
A decade passed, only a few knew how to do magic now. Most depended on being in the land, the familiarity of the community to become one with their magic. New children were taught by the government that it was pure superstition.
The old timers were not prepared for that kind of life style and died off quickly.
Waldon found he could practice his magic anywhere. He did not have the great knowledge of the community fathers to draw upon, but he learned he could read the energies himself and work out what else he could do.
the prison was finally upset, broken down. the workers never saw the evil beasts as they slipped out of the rocks. the evil beasts were free on the lands. It was not the lands they were used to so they were disoriented. they did not have the howlers to tend them, to protect t hem. It took them time to become ready to use the nature of the lands.
the beasts slowly turned to the nature of their forebears. It was unnoticed at first, but the government slowly noticed something going on.
There was no explanation of it.
Waldon had built a business and now owned land. He had well tended flower garden that people noticed when they passed. He acted like any other businessman. He found a family that had strong magical tendencies and married into it. He taught the family members little "parlor tricks" that one could do if one used the magic. His children were learning even more. He had gotten in contact with many others of the community. they stayed where they were, but some had also learned how to retain some of their magic.
The government finally got proof of the evil beasts when one splinter pack attacked a military base. The military followed with all their equipment but lost them quickly.
the movement of the half dozen packs, were to head to the capitol. the forefathers chose the site of the capitol because it was a place the evil beasts liked for some reason.
The fell beasts finally arrive and are wreaking havoc on the government. One by one, the beasts were being destroyed, but it was expensive. Research on the old records showed that the howlers were created to contain the beasts. the people of the time were better at war than the government that now existed. Finally the government leaders searched for the howlers to help. Waldon was the only one left who was an adult in the howler community.
He listened to the agent about how he was needed to stop the beasts. He told them that he was comfortable and had no need to deal with such things. The government had the power to release them, they have to power to contain them again.
He was hounded by many government agents, begging him to help. the leadership could not seem to go anywhere without the evil beasts finding them.
Waldon handed an agent a copy of the original laws of the county and told them that they return to those laws, and give him land equal to what his community had. He will find some people with the power that can be drawn on to bring the evil ones in check. Once all that is done, he will then round up the evil beasts and contain them for all eternity.
His demands were given to the leaders. there were hot debates. they finally agreed.
Waldon could tell who had some power just by passing their homes. he watched for properties with good plants and strong power and contacted them.
the government was taking a beating, leaders wee disappearing quickly. No defenses worked against the beasts.
Finally what remained of the power structure, broke down and declared the original laws in power, everything that came after them are null and void.
Waldon got his land and a good population of people who had magic. He had two men and three women who were of families of the howlers and actually knew something of magic. He took the strongest of them an taught them how to do the chants to control the beasts. He went into the capitol. He found each one and made them relax, become tamed. None were of those who were kept in the community. they were all wild.
He rounded up all the beasts in the capitol and returned to his new community. He would have to teach them the lifestyle and nature of the community he was born in, but had time to do that. he continued to search the lands for any beasts. when he thought he found all of them, he waited for word of something strange going on. In the mean time, he trained the community in true magic and the non-technology way of life.
The government remained to the rules they agreed to follow. the new community, now known as the Barkers, settled into their lives, tending and controlling the beasts, each person learning to control the beasts by themselves so that someone of the community would retain the knowledge.