May 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, Usually 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 )
It was a small bit of land, a plateau in the middle of nowhere. a people made the land their home. they grew prosperous. About the time they had a good hold on the entire plateau, another people attacked. they held their lands in a series of battles and grew stronger.
they developed their own religion, following one particular deity. The rules of that deity made them a different people than those around them.
succeeding generations, they held lands below the plateau, all the way to the sea. they were a nation and people of note. Like all nations, they were eventually overrun by a stronger force and subjugated. they remained to their beliefs whatever the oppressors were.
Another deity rose to power and did not like the deity of the high people, as they were referred to. The high people were long scattered, and their lands were inhabited by a long series of people, many of which fought to defend their lands. All of which got spread out across the lands. Wars were fought all over the world. the many decedents of the inhabitants of the plaids were on one side or the other of the wars.
The high people had recorded their history and got them published. Those writings were well known, well spread. In the writings, there was hints that at the time of the most despair, a single leader will make them great and save them from destruction.
The other deity also had hints that there would be a great leader that would make the entire world of one religion.
A big war caused the people living on the plateau to be removed, and the high people placed back in their historical home land.
There were many minor retaliatory wars by the nations surrounding the plateau, but the deity favored his believers. they held the lands and grew in population.
there was a "natural" migration of the believers to the plateau. Soon the vast majority of the believers lived there. Decedents of those who also lived on the plateau returned there.
The high people started to decay due to politics. Those who wanted peace through "surrender" as the opponents called it, were gaining power.
While this is going on, the followers of the other deity had grown in power and influence. they had their hands in pushing the peace through surrender peace talk offers.
A young man named Dadelous, had proven himself in battle, went into business and became wealthy, and has now started in politics. He was not liked by those in power, but he seamed to move around any plans they had to stop what he saw needed to be done. Several times, they refused to fund a project, so he funded it out of his own pocket, with the help of the people. The leadership were incensed that they were not the ones who came up with the idea and get it done.
Out in the flat lands, there were several leaders who showed strength in national leadership. Their followers were sapping the fighting will of the other nations, the followers of that deity were strong, militant and itching for a battle.
Dadelous gained control over the highland government due to a split in the opposition. It should have been impossible for the split to happen. It started small, a minor wording of a bill, and spread into four factions. The best way to describe it, was that they were fighting over where a comma went in a sentence.
As the leader, Dadelous used the public to apply pressure to the leadership. He made major changes in the government. Instead of cutting government as his supporters thought should be done, he made entire departments of the government fall under the powers of the military and public projects, and a couple other key departments. He then told the heads of those departments to take the resources and put them to use. What cannot be used, send to other departments. Within a year, eighty percent of the government departments were gone. The leadership could not stop him because they were still split.
They grew in technology, grew in strength, grew in efficiency. Funding of departments seamed to disappear. every person was put to use, but they were not what they started in. The government activities caused private companies to start working vigorously.
There were a couple minor skirmishes where one nation or another attacked. They were stopped easily.
A series of nations did votes that essentially subjugated their power to the flat land deity. Complaints about the highlander's criminal actions grew. None were real but that did not matter. the charges were what was important.
The low landers had a series of small wars. Suddenly the several leaders were under one command. that leader consolidated his power around the world.
A claim by a family who's ancestors had never been on the highlands, was presented, saying they had a right to that land. It was their birth right as their people lived in a nation that once held the highlands. That charge was enough. War was declared. The many nations gathered their forces all around the highland.
Dadelous declared a week of prayer. All pray, even if one is not a follower of the religion.
The surrounding nations marched. Their numbers swelled visibly. they were gaining strength of numbers, from sources that should not have been there.
The highland population changed during the week of prayer. Even those who did not believe in the deity, were met by the deity and shown how to be worshipful. The deity granted equal safety to those who did followed one of the many other deities, as long as they served the lands. Other deities appeared before their own followers and granted permission to serve. The followers of the lowland deity that were on the highlands changed their beliefs. they saw there were many deities and the one was strong.
The deity also showed what they were up against. No one would be allowed to leave. long gone armies were amassing against them. Any force that ever fought against the highland or any decedent of a people who occupied the highlands, was brought forth to fight them. That amounted to just about every military that had ever existed. That was what changed the beliefs of the most ardent low land follower. This was the ultimate battle of the world. The deity then gave the followers the image of what they were fighting with. they had technologies that was far advance beyond what any other nation had. then it was shown that Dadelous was the one prophesied.
The two deities followed different philosophies in the battle. the low land thought that pure force, pure might, would win the day. The highland deity thought that technology would win.
Since no soldier of he lowland had died against the highlanders, using the highest technologies the low land had available, the soldiers brought forth were of a lower technology.
At the end of the week of prayer, the highland went to a war footing. The deity did not dictate what the people would or could do. Other than the information passed on to the people during the week of prayer, his would be strictly a battle of the population.
The attack started. The highlanders were ready. The first thing the highlander military did, was to destroy the technology the enemy had. Swift, concise strikes. The lowlanders suddenly only had mass forces to fight with.
Controlling the air, the highlanders then rained high technology destruction onto the great population of soldiers. Millions fell with each attack. Supplies destroyed, weaponry shattered.
The sides of the plateau was challenged by the millions of soldiers at the base. the defenses removed them easily.
The low land deity was shocked. A key part of his plans was that all who died against the highlands in this war, would regenerate, renumber his armies. it was then that it realized that other deities had "changed the rules" Most of the soldiers belonged to them, not the low land deity, and they kept them. the lowland living soldiers were taken by the highland deity, trophies, the souls of the enemy dead was given to him.
The technological weapons of the highland military was running out. there was still millions of soldiers out in the attack.
Dadelous had some weapons refitted, changed, to act differently. He took some bunker busters and had them broken up. They would be dropped as a package as before, but they would scatter the explosives over a wide area. One cute thing of his attack was that chemical weapons used by previous armies, were hit, released against their own soldiers. The destruction was wide spread, but still left thousands of soldiers coming at them.
The last weapons to be used, were illegal. He ordered their use anyway. A series of devastating explosions, nuclear blasts, laid waste to the remaining forces. he did not use all he had. He may have to deal with other nations later.
What was left in the attack was twelve groups of soldiers using spears, swords and catapults. Each was lead by a leader of the deity forces.
Now the highland attacked. the twelve leaders were captured, not killed.
Dadelous came before each one. each one was released, handed a weapon. Dadelous took a similar weapon and they fought. Dadelous killed them. the lowland deity felt the power ripped from him with each one.
Finally, the prophesied one of the lowland deity was faced. the last one. the lowland deity realized that if this one was taken like the others, he would lose all his power. It was all or nothing. The leader was infused with all the knowledge and skill of all the warriors the lowland deity had.
Dadelous looked at his opponent. "With this rope, I bind you forever." quoting ancient texts. he flung a loop over he man and pulled it tight. the man did not fight. he was put into chains and carried him away to be locked up for the rest of his natural life.
The low land deity realized he made a mistake. His power was bound into that leader and that leader would die of old age. with his death, his power would be gone too. There was nothing that could be done. He had given up his influence with the world in this war.
The highlands was satisfied with their lands, trading with other nations gave them what they did not produce themselves. with no more warring nations around their borders, they were able to apply their energies to becoming prosperous and peaceful. Without the low land deity causing problems, the rest of the world bowed to the might of the highlands as leader of the world.

02 )
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The wars had their toll on the population, even though they won the war. The medical community was struggling to keep up with the unfettered changes of the biological weapons released on the general population. Their solutions for finding cures or immunity was always behind. Keeping the population healthy enough to work efficiently and work most of the year.
Scientists were exploring many medical tactics to deal with the rapidly changing germs. People going for surgery are now taken care of in air locks, the patient as completely sterilized as possible, the doctors using surgical sleeves or robotic arms to do the work. The rooms are then cleaned after the work is done, bathed in high radiation and brought to a near perfect vacuum before being ready for the next patient.
The population have to eat the best foods to enhance their immune system, wash often, some even live in space suit like environmental suits so they don't transmit or receive serious diseases.
As much business as possible is done by telephone, internet, or other remote systems so that contact is kept low.
food is mostly hydroponically grown, people never even enter the rooms and the is sealed into packaging and blown out so no contaminated air can get in. Any new strains, any new foods get their own sterilized chambers from start to end. they are given absolute checks before being accepted by market production.
Many homes have airdocks to help keep the homes clean. Of course, the poor live out in the world, having to accept whatever diseases that pass by. A caught or sniffle can send stuff into their homes. The medical people search the population, especially the poor, and test those who don't seem to be sick, especially families, that appear to be immune to everything around. they test them to see if they can figure out what is keeping them sick, whether it is a practice, a food, or genetics.
slowly, the medics saw that the poor people with strong immune responses did best against the diseases. Doctors started looking at how to increase the immunity of the people.
One day, they had a real breakthrough. it was a system to increase the immunity of the people to be super powerful. All tests said it would work.
The researchers sent in a request to test their findings on a small group of the population. The political people got involved quickly. There was excitement about amplifying immunity. the order came down to go into full production with the medicine, don't bother testing. the researchers complained loudly, using illegal methods of communications in their panic of what untested drugs could do. They let the public know that this drug was going to be used on the public without ever having any tests at all.
A week later, the researchers were gathered up and taken away. Other researchers worked out what they were doing, and how they did it, and went into production.
Once the drug was available enough for half the population, medics descended onto the community. The wealthy and connected did not have to worry about the diseases as they were in virtual isolation. the medics descended on the poor. They concentrated on the sick, giving them the doses of the drug.
They had no idea what the proper levels were, so they gave a heavy dose "just in case" so that they were sure it would work. They wondered why the level of drugs to be given was not already set. They tended to give more of the medicine to the really sick, than to those who are just a little sick.
Cooler heads took over and passed down a decision to hold off on giving out more medicine when the first stock was used up. They waited to see the effect on the population.
At first, it looked like the people were getting healthy, stronger, Orders were working their way down to resume production. At one of the key decision points on whether to go into production was reached, some new diseases started showing up.
Quickly, people were getting really sick. The people involved in the decision, held off, unsure of what to do. A few wanted to wait, see if there was a pattern. They convinced the others that waiting a while would not hurt, at least until they knew what was going on.
The people were in essence, decaying, getting older really fast. This did not fit an disease they knew about. When they reached a certain point, they got hit by known diseases and died. The politicians were in a panic and demanded that the medicine be sent out into the public to stop this plague. The decision makers kept demanding for information on any pattern of the disease. the medics were too busy to even give that information.
It finally comes down to where the decision makers are being threatened with replacement. They are demanding their information or they will order some serious repercussions. Their threat could be stopped, but those below them don't know it. They, as a group, decide not to answer any summons. Make the bosses come to them.
High officials arrive in the chambers. They want one question answered before their replacements are called in. During the meeting, with plenty of yelling, the information comes in. the decision makers look over the data. the two that wanted to hold off on production get giddy.
They point out that every person with this new disease had received the vaccination. The bosses don't understand what that means. The decision makers make the bosses understand that the bosses are the cause of the deaths. The untested medicine is killing people. their immune system is eating their bodies out from inside out. their immune systems are killing their bodies since they think that it is a disease.
The bosses act innocent about who could do this to the people, they want to take revenge on the ones who did this. Information people are brought in and the orders by these bosses are pointed out as the cause, especially pointed against the researchers who were trying to protect the people by refusing.
The bosses leave. there is no system to get them out of government, but they get passed over for promotions and later get transferred to departments with no power.
the decision makers refuse advancement and transfers. They have taken it on themselves to protect the population, which they do well. The only time they get replaced, is when they retire, but their replacements learn what their real job was

03 )
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The colony ship arrived at the planet in serious trouble. They had gas releases, radiation, contaminated foods. Half the population was effected by the ship's deterioration. The ship was landed, something it was not designed to do, and the population escaped into the land.
Most of the afflicted, died rather quickly due to damage their bodies received. There were a few who ended up with longer lives.
The colony technology collapsed, experiencing a dark age where limited records were kept. The population then recovered and started growing and expanding. They started regaining some of their technologies, but they knew they would never enter space again. They finally started exploring the rest of the planet, colonizing the two other continents.
The migrants were in the middle of the smallest continent. There, in the middle of nowhere, was a constructed wall. A mesa was surrounded by a series of walls. the walls of the mesa were lined with stack stone fitted so tight that a knife could not fit into the space. There was only one way to go to the top of the mesa. It is through a gap in the main wall with two wings leading up. They look like gates, but no way could stone walls like that, move.
This being the largest of the mesa, it had a series of lakes down the length, each one held in place by stone walls with spillways. The route to the top was a dry river bed, made into stone stair steps and a ramp for wagons or horses.
At the top was a series of carved stone, giving the rules of the mesa. All who wished to live there, must exist by those rules.
Some people chose to stay, others did not like the rules and continued on.
A bit later, they met the stone mason. He wore a robe that was closed over his face. He gave indication that there were others, but no one was allowed in a certain section of the mesa. That was just for the stone mason and no one else.
A small population of immigrants were in the town. A set of large stones appeared in the middle of town. The next day, the stone mason appeared and started chipping on the stone. in the period of three days, he fitted the stones together like a puzzle, interlocked with "dove tail" joints that slid into place. When he was done, everybody had no question he was the stone mason who worked this place. There was no gaps between the stones.
He then announced that anybody can claim to be the stone mason. Only the stone mason can fit stones together this tightly. He then told the people that a key part of their education from child to adult, that anybody who fits stones together like this, must be obeyed unquestionably. That includes giving up their government, their power, to return to the text on the stones.
A couple generations pass and the people forget the laws. they have their own idea.
The stones appear, and then the stone mason. After he completes his demonstration, he tells them that they are to return to the law. they must change their ways.
Few people want to change. they don't like the laws. Someone even yells out "Make us."
A week later, their water supply is shut off. They go to the lakes and they are empty. The stone mason's area is fortified, they cannot get in, A couple weeks later, they have a meeting and some decide to leave, while others decide to follow the laws. There is a small trickle of water and those that chose to stay, are able to survive on that much. The water supplies increase until it is back to normal. The stone mason had won.
Over the next generations, just his appearance was enough to change their ways.
The low land populations grow, build cities, become prosperous. The mesa people are so different from the low land people. States develop across the land and the people of the mesa agree to accept the state government, but the mesa is a separate government.
There is no rhyme or reason to the low walls, but they are part of the mesa. half of it is forest, half is farm.
An island out at sea explodes. The top ceases to exist to almost water level. The side splits and shoves water before it as a quarter of the island falls to the ocean like a tree falling.
Miles high tidal waves cross the ocean and hits land. Word of the waves come and people rush up hill to escape. the best up hill is the mesa. In an hour, the population doubles.
The water rushes in land and splashes hard against the lower walls of the mesa. Because of passage gaps in the walls, water gets up to the second set of walls before it flows back. to the sea.
More people make it to the mesa as it is about the only safe place around.
There is a pause in the refugees then it stops entirely. Some people head down to help the survivors in the low lands. they are blocked by the wall. The wing walls were really gates. They were closed. there was no leaving.
The stone mason makes his appearance and stone working demonstration, then lays down the law. They will remain until stability develops below. While they are here, they follow the rules.
all out wars develops below. Full military might is used at first, but then that stops as they run out of parts, fuel, supplies, ammo. The war continues but now it is with whatever they could carry. After a period of a couple years, the war is ended when one force holds the entire region. It does not hold all the regions, but does hold this one. The gates are found open one morning. People are allowed to leave, to rebuild their lives if they wish not to be under the rules of the mesa.
Many start planing farms inside the walls again. With peace among the low lands, the world can rebuild.
The stone mason appears again after those who wished to go, left. he is asked about his work, his design. he simply says, "this was not the first time this has happened." he removes his mask and everybody recognizes him as one of the people who works among them in different jobs. He admits he was one of the first colonists. he was contaminated by the space ship and he has had what amounts to eternal life. he shows the most devout his area, ornate, finely detailed statuary, some hollowed out and pierced. His place is an absolute mansion. He has had thousands of years to learn to do this work.

04 )
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There is a country song where a guy is singing that he prays to improve himself, to be a stronger man, a kinder man, the kind of man SHE SEES IN HER DREAMS. I had to make use of this concept.
They were a Romeo and Juliette couple, totally in love, totally devoted to each other. They had the marriage made in heaven.
After about a decade, the marriage became strained. the could not seam to have children. Their families and friends pulled them in different directions. Their work sent them in other directions.
She decided he was not the prince charming she thought he was, and he could not get her to understand the efforts he went through at work and could not get her to understand his limitations.
She filed divorce, which shocked him. they liquidated their assets and separated. He still loved her, but she was off on her own.
He went two years without ever seeing her. He buried himself in his work for a long time, then realized he was killing himself. He realized he desperately needed her. He had to get her back.
While talking to a friend, he confided some of the complaints she had about him. He realized he was not quite the person she really needed.
He knelt in a church one day and prayed, begging to become the person she wants him to be, to be the person she sees in her dreams. He left the church, knowing he would not see instant results.
He went to cooking school and tried to learn homemaking. He got a side job with a home repair company.
Point by point, he tried to correct things she complained to him about. He was more smiling, seamed happier, but really missed her.
he went to the church and prayed again, that he wanted to be the one she saw in her dreams. As he walked out of the church, he got hit by a truck. He was a mess. The doctors at the hospital tried to repair him, but they botched the job.
He was in great pain, He now lost his temper quickly. It was all he could do to keep from decking someone at the smallest slight. His wounds seamed healed, but he had a stink to him.
One day he was limping along the road and turned into an alley. There she was. she looked like she had not slept in years. she was almost skin and bones, Not healthy looking. She was with two friends, one a big, powerful male. She looked up, saw him, and screamed, then feinted.
This was next to a restaurant that catered to police. A dozen officers flowed out the door and to the scene. He was grabbed and held.
She is waken and she looks at him in fear, hanging onto the police officer for protection. The police interview each person, trying to find out exactly what happened.
He hears her say that she had been having horrible nightmares every time she slept, even a little, and he looks exactly like the man in she sees in her dreams.
He is shocked, heart broken. He lets out that he had prayed to be the person of her dreams and then had the accident and botched repairs.
She does not want anything to do with him. His spirit is broken. He got his prayer, but he now wished the answer was no.

05 )
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Brodar got the god angry at him. The god had the choice of hundreds of hells to send Brodar. Brodar was a good believer and would never stray from his worship, but he needed to be put in his place.
The god appeared before Brodar. "I have decided on your punishment. You will be alone. You will build me a temple. when the temple is complete, you may then return.
Brodar bowed. "I will build one to please you, master."
"Your punishment, though, is that you will be accident prone. You will get hurt in everything you do. If you are able to finish the temple, you will live forever to serve me, to please me. If you die, your soul will come to me as it normally would. Any injuries you have when you complete the temple, will be permanent. You will suffer from them for all your whole existence."
Brodar was suddenly out in the wilderness, piles of tools laying at his feet. The god beside him."you have one week to get settled in, to prepare. When you feel a twist in your body, you will know that you are from then on, accident prone."
the god was gone. Then a golden dish appeared "You will receive your meals in this dish. You may hunt and gather anything else you want or need."
Brodar immediately cut down six trees and cut or split them into planks. He assembled a shack with a bed a place for a fire, the golden bowl under protection, all firmly built.
His week was almost up. He sat down and gave a lot of thought. He decided that to serve his god best, he must plan out every move, to think before any action, to eliminate accidents, to best serve his god.
He started immediately. He looked all around him, to make sure he would bump nothing. He got up, watched carefully where he walked, where he turned, what and how he grabbed things.
He did this for two days when he felt the twist in his body. He was now about to have all sorts of accidents. He saw that with his attempt to avoid accidents, he would take a whole lot longer to do his work than normal. He knew he had time, though.
He worked deliberately, thinking about every move, but working hard. He chose to make the temple out of stone rather than wood. His god was worthy of such quality.
He got small bumps and bruises, but he concentrated hard to avoid real injuries. when he finished the first ring of stone for the walls, he decided that was not impressive enough, so that became the inner chamber.
It had been a couple decades. he only lost a week total due to injuries, bleeding scrapes sprained limbs. Otherwise he was uninjured and he healed from his bumps and scrapes.
the temple was impressive. He had even had a domed stone roof. His god deserved the best. As his last act, he brought the golden bowl into the temple, into the inner sanctum. He knelt and prayed with all his existence, asking the god if his offering was good enough.
the god appeared before him. the bowl was gone. the god nodded, quite proud of the work. "You served me well and have come out whole and healthy at the end. "
"All to serve you better once my punishment is done."
The god nodded. "Then serve me well."
Brodar was suddenly back where he was before the god had taken him. Nothing had changed. It was as if Brodar had never left. he did feel older, though.
He looked around him, and then moved, deliberately, carefully, everything he did was planned ahead to avoid accidents. That was the first big change from his ordeal.
He later found a spot his god considered holy and build a temple for his god that rivaled all other temples. he built it on his own, to make sure there would be no accidents.
Brodar ended up building four great temples for the god, taking generations to do so, before he god finally took him to be at his side. He had done well to serve the god with his long life.

06 )
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The company had a fluid the founder invented for a specific purpose. He only had enough consumers to keep a hundred or so people working. It was never going to be a bigger market, and no one would ever enter the market.
Accidentally the formula was perfected from the beginning. they explored changes in the formula and every change made the material worse. For what it does, nothing can do the job better.
Trying to find another use for their product, the company starts exploring inventions. they come up with a new technology. The key to the technology is that it uses their fluid as the one key feature that makes the technology work. The company considers getting into manufacturing the technology, then realizes that they would never have the capability to supply all that would be needed. Instead, they decide to expand their facilities to mass produce their fluid.
They then release the invention, placing it on public domain. immediately, people get excited about the invention and companies start making the invention on their own. Of course, they need the fluid to make the invention work.
No one can understand why the company did not make the invention themselves. think of the fortunes the company could make. they never consider that the company makes the fluid to make the invention work and that is where it is making the money.
The company expands a couple more times. It makes the fluid available to markets that have not created or found the invention yet, so that when the invention shows up, the fluid is available.
One thing about the company is that they will make the fluid available to anybody, no matter what. They let their customers supply the transportation to get the fluid to where it is needed.
Like with anything, other companies start trying to make the fluids. Also very quickly, some of the inventions run into problems. The fluid ends up being sent to the company and they send back that the formula is wrong, try the real stuff. They give just enough technical data to let them know why the product failed, but not enough to figure out how to make the fake fluid better.
In every case, the company ends up getting the business. People still do not understand why the company would give up the invention.
A few fluid makers get near to the quality, but they never perfect it. The original product is well worth the extra shipping costs.
They stay almost the exclusive manufacturer of fluids. What no one realizes is that one could create the invention to work perfectly on other fluid formulations, but the company guaranteed that while the overall invention improves, they would only use their fluid. they are the only manufacturer of that specific formula so they have the exclusive supply.

07 )
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I have done several story ideas on this general basic concept, but this one has a slight twist to it, a slightly different situation.
They invented a super efficient source of power, but the method of generation of the power required a lot of space. The transmission of the power was also bulky. This was not electricity, but far more efficient.
A new section of a city was being built, so they constructed it around the new power source. One key to making the area efficient, was to power the cars and trucks with the new power supply. The solution was to have the cars run with power pick-ups, feelers, riding in a rail in the road.
Because they were in a rush to get the system in place, and did not have time to perfect the power or come up with something better, they decided to go with something less than perfect.
The power was almost free, so it was worth the problems. This was a desert community that got one rain day a year, so having to get out into the weather was not a serious problem. Trees were planted all along the roads to protect the cars and drivers, improve their comfort.
The system had its flaws. The city was a grid. The grid made the flaws a bit more liveable since one had to deal with the biggest major flaw, usually only twice in any trip.
To change direction, the driver came to a stop on a line in the road. they got out and engaged a handle on the front of the car, they adjust the location of the car so it is in line with a crossing rail, then pull the handle around to the side until the feelers line up with the new rail. They lock it in place, disengage the handle, get into their car and drive. the rail guiding them down the road.
the cars barely get up above twenty five miles an hour, and there is no steering wheel. the wheels do the stopping, but in an emergency, the car can be kicked instantly into reverse, and even the feelers will clamp harder onto the sides of the rail. in normal action, the feeler will detect the car ahead by the power draw and slow you down. There are other systems in the car to protect against accidents.
The car engines are similar to electric motors, but are using the power. A fully loaded truck uses less energy than the lightest, most efficient electric motor.
Lining up the cars to change direction soon became a time consuming problem. The driver might have to push the car backwards, then forwards, then backwards again to get the feelers lined up with the new rail. During the day, this was not a problem. In rush hour, any cars turning, blocked traffic in both directions.
they had not come up with a method to change directions without fiddling.
One of the games had thousands of people trying to get into the roads and leave. No one was going anywhere. A bunch of strong school kids got out onto the roads and changed the feelers for the cars, directing traffic while they were doing it. The stadium emptied out almost within a reasonable amount of time.
Soon after, the city started hiring people to work the traffic the same way during rush hour. Strong men and boys could manhandle the car into position quickly, change the rail, and get the car going.
Parking was always a problem, usually involving simply parking in the road, until it was time to leave, or some heavy shoving and pushing to get the car into a drive way.
Some "fiddlers" added some batteries, small electric motor, and a way to convert the power to electricity to the their cars. they added a small electric motor to the guide and the wheels that turned with the guide. To do their design, they needed a way to lift the feelers out of the rails.
They now had the ability to drive around a stuck car, or they could pull off the rail and drive around in a parking lot. After several hundred cars were converted, the new cars came with that feature. People still had to get out to change directions on the rails, but one could drive a short distance around the corner, then stop and "plug in." increasing the speed of the traffic.
Trucks returned to some older technologies. They now have full electric power systems, they are charged by the rails. They do have the power system which they use normally, but the electrical power gives them what is needed, going in unpowered alleys, dealing with loading docks, and getting around bottled up traffic.
Time came where they needed to replace the power system rails. they made changes in the system. they had turn-off rails, sort of like what a rail road has. The driver stops at a point before the cross road. they hit a lever at the side of the road. They then move forward slowly onto the turn rails. When they are fully on it, the guides snap back to straight for the next car. They move to the new direction straight rails and just drive on. Traffic efficiency increases dramatically. Of course, with any moving parts, they do fail. then the drivers use the old system of changing direction.
The use of electric motors in the cars also allow them to bypass the broken turn rails and continue on.
Long before the next required replacement of the rail system, they decided that the efficiency of the power system, is not worth the total cost to society. The new cars are built completely with electric power, but they plug into home rails or other power systems to charge up.

08 )
.
Arogon did the impossible. In a great battle, he killed an immortal. For his victory, he ate the immortal's heart, right there on the battle field. He was always a great warrior on the battle field, his forces never lost.
He went on to live a long and healthy life. He was not sick a day of his life after defeating the immortal. On his death bed, his eyes closed, his heart stopped. They decided to bury him when His body started to stink.
At the grave site where they were about to bury him, he woke, and sat up, throwing the sheets off. the family and friends were in panic. he stood there.
Flies were everywhere because of his stench. The flies landed on him and stayed, quickly disappearing.
The priest came to him, asked him questions. Arogon showed he was the same person he was. In the questioning, he was asked about the immortal he killed, something he bragged about many a time. Arogon told about his eating the immortal's heart.
The priest told him that the immortal's heart became part of him. his body died, but the immortal's heart has taken over his body.
Arogon was not accepted into his home because of his smell. He was given a hunting knife a belt and was sent out on his own. The only clothing he had was the sheet he was to be buried in.
Everywhere he went, flies followed. They landed on him all over. They did not tickle. apparently, they flew off as he did not see them after a few minutes.
The flies thinned out and was gone fairly quickly until he entered another area. He practiced with his sword, finding he was getting stronger. he ate but never had much of an appetite for plants. He saw a rabbit. He carefully snuck up to it. he grabbed the rabbit as he lunged past. His mind fogged a little. his body drove the fingers into the chest of the rabbit, pulled out the heart and ate it while it was still beating. It then sliced the head open and ate the brain, slurping it up.
His body then dropped the rabbit to the ground. Suddenly he had full control again. he looked at his hands in shock. not a drop of blood on them. There wasn't a drop of blood on the ground and the rabbit only had smears of blood on it. He picked up the rabbit carcass and carried it as he continued on. He was full.
The flies still flew around and disappeared as he walked. He had other incidents where he caught an animal, not killing it, until he lost control over his body. each time he got a little stronger, at least for a while.
A dozen years had passed since he had died. He was now wearing armor and had a sword and shield, and carried a pack, but wore no clothing. the flies were always a given wherever he went. At one of the temples, he was told that his body was taking the essence of life it found, like the flies, in order to survive. the flies were being absorbed into his flesh to get their life essence.
He finds himself in an army. He was good enough with his sword for those around him to ignore the smell. The flies going to him helps those around him. It keeps the flies off them.
The two armies meet. Arogon cannot strike to kill, but instead knocks his victims out. he is better than most. His old skills have come back.
He finds himself against an immortal. they are equally matched. Arogon starts talking as they fight, telling about how he killed an immortal and ate the heart. he had now died and come back to life.
Arogon describes how horrible his existence is now. He asks the immortal to kill him and eat his heart, so he can die properly. the immortal cannot get an advantage against him, starts to think about the possibility.
Arogon Warns him that he will haunt him all his existence if he goes back on his word. The immortal finally agrees.
At the right moment, Arogon lets his defenses drop. His body suddenly takes over. The immortal goes for a strike. Arogon makes a move he had never seen before and splits the immortal wide open, grabs the heart out of the open chest and shoves it into his mouth. Both of them are utterly shocked at the action. Everybody around them stop fighting and stare. Arogon then slices the immortal's head open and eats the brain.
Argon is suddenly in control over his body. His only words to the immortal was "I am sorry, I had no idea this would happen."
All those around him on both sides attack. He fights his way free and escapes, not killing any soldiers somehow.
The smell disappears the flies stop following him and he can now eat normally. The urge to eat souls is gone. He has also become an immortal, which he finds is the ultimate punishment.

09 )
.
The god was not paying attention. There were some planets where his powers were weaker than on others. it saw a planet that appeared to be rather interesting. It was not until he had passed beyond the return point, that he realized his powers would not get him off this planet. He was stuck.
The god explored the world, wondering what to do. He could not manipulate physical objects directly. he could not make anything to carry himself off the planet.
In his exploration, he found there were certain chemical compounds that were of interest. It was the pre-stages of life. The god could manipulate some chemistry, so it chose some compounds and applied power, or remove power, point by point.
This was a game to him, something to occupy himself for a while. he was actually surprised when he created real, honest life. He had it going in several hundred different places around the plane.
He kept improving them. Then there was a major change in conditions and only a couple strains survived.
He kept working with life, figuring out ways to improve the quality and survivability of life. There were natural disasters, that he could not control. He would explore the world after the event, then work with what was left.
time passed he had creatures swimming in the world, then guided them to crawl onto land. They eventually became fully land based. Now was when he realized he had a way to get himself off the planet. He needed to guide the life into a form that could create space.
Entire lines of promise ceased to exist, but he was getting closer to what he was after. He had time, and he had an overall plan.
He finally got a life form to use fire and tools. He kept weeding out those that seamed too specialized in form, as he decided they were dead ends. More than a couple lines He searched out each individual and took their lives.
He found his creations started worshiping him. he actually felt a tiny bit of energy from them. he continued to select for the best versions of the form. the really bad forms were weeded out when possible. He found he could talk to them a little. He quickly took to a single word or phrase to send them in the right direction.
Many times, he would give an idea to a despot or otherwise dangerous person to do something they would never do. Just a couple times of that and he had a way to remove the leader. He kept his race peaceful and growing in both population and technology.
He wanted them to develop space ships so he could get off the planet.
His creation finally develop air planes and then small rockets. It was several decades later. They actually sent someone into space. The god rode with the man. The rocket took him just above the point of return and he was free. He was out into space. His creations freed him.
He orbited the sun, spiraling out. It felt good to be free so he just took his time to leave. He had to figure out what he wanted to do, where he wanted to go.
a couple generations passed without the god on the planet. The god's interference of the path of the people was gone. they were starting to stray, to become a little more violent. they had space and no plans beyond that.
the god was quite a ways out and had just figured out what he wanted to do, then he saw something that was not good news for the solar system. he stopped and examined the nebula that was approaching. it will filled with debris big enough to do serious damage to the planets. he went beyond it, looked back, tracked where it was going and there was no question. It was heading to the planet of his creation. the biggest set of objects would likely pass close to, if not hit the planet.
He knew that if he returned to the planet, he would only be free if he rode on a rocket. He decided he had worked so hard to create his method of escape. that he had to save it. He returned to the planet.
Just outside the point of return, he paused, then re-entered the planet. After a quick examination of the population, he got to work to eliminate problems. In a period of two years, every problem leader was gone, by accident or assassination.
He then contacted the astronomers and got them to look at the right point in the sky, and with the right equipment, looking for the right signs. They saw something. It was enough to send them into a panic.
The god then planted thoughts into the right minds to start a project to take the entire population off the planet. The people started planning and designing. rockets started orbiting, searching to see what cold be learned about space.
The god kept working, guiding, helping the people.
The star ships were built and ready to launch. The planet was essentially stripped of minerals and life, none of his people remained on the planet, very little life remained. The first of the objects was shining brightly among the planets, and it was aimed at the planet.
The god lifted off after he knew no one would be left, and was now in space. The last ship lifted off. the planet was empty. The god slipped over to the last ship once it was fully clear. The last of the star ships was already accelerating away from the nebula. the last ship just caught up and slipped into the dock about two hours before the star ship would have got faster than it could have.
The god got to work, slipping between star ships, checking to see what is going on, guiding his creations to achieve their greatest level of his design, checking well ahead of the fleet to see what problems they would run into.
It was actually nice to travel in a star ship rather than floating around in space alone. guiding his creations was actually a lot more interesting than simply looking at one planet or another.

10 )
.
The material was referred to as Mud, when not set up, or Wall, if it was cured. Wall was an impervious material that melted at a higher temperature than was practical to encounter, would not flex or compress equal to the best of materials, and anything touching it when it set up, was glued in place. metal brackets, wood forms, bolts, would have to be burned or melted off before one were to remove it.
There was a release agent. that protected against the glue effect of the mud/wall. The release agent was a slimy material that dried to a chalky texture. As long as that material was between the mud and any other surface, nothing would stick.
The normal practice was to set up some forms for the mud. They were usually in a raised area supported by metal beams and posts. All surfaces were painted with the release agent, everything is painted, even into the tightest corners. Then metal plates and beams are set so that they will be imbedded into the wall when done. this is so the wall can be attached to something else. It is easier than making the fittings out of wall itself.
the mud is poured into the form and allowed to set. the forms are unbolted, the wall is lifted, and the rest of the fittings are removed. If all goes well, one is not using cutters to remove materials where the release agent had missed coating.
There is a project where they are making thin walled parts for space ships, tanks and other portable uses. Thin plates are poured into forms. the plates are then set in forms, and the mud is spread on the jointing surfaces and a second part is added. One can make tubes and other shapes if the design of the parts are done properly. this is usually more expensive than it is ever worth so it is only used for special projects. this requires a very careful team of people to make sure nothing goes wrong. The material must be mixed when everything is ready for it to be used. any delay can mess up the pour, leaving the setting up mud to deal with in some way. with assembly of pieces, they must be efficient, and usually the surfaces must be clean and smooth for the needs of the project. Hopefully, either the inner or outer surface is all that needs to be clean, otherwise it becomes even more tighter timing.
For larger pours, such as plates for bomb shelters or run ways, they have to make sure all surfaces are properly coated for the pour and then the pour being done fast, no pauses, and floated level quickly. Any dips and bumps end up being permanent.
I am writing this with the assumption that the release agent is allowed to dry. If it had to be used wet, it would even be a worse problem. That is too much problems for the story situation I am working towards.
Brosatch has created a company by his name, that manufactures all sorts of products with the mud. they have built an entire star ship out of the material. The entire thing was built of pieces of the mud. Metal plates stuck out of each joint to give equipment some place to be hung on wall. The ship was successful, but it was decided to build the ships of individual interlocking plates, sort of "tongue and groove" and bolted together with plates. Parts could be replaced easier this way and the design could easily be changed. Brosatch decided not to get involved in the new parts, preferring to work in solid materials.
For the large pours, Brosatch was on every job, there during the preparation, making sure every thing was done right. He checked every crack and crevice to make sure the joints were bolted tight, and that the release agent got into every single crack and coated each surface.
He got some new workers and had them apply the coating. He had them work in four teams. He found that he could add a color to the release agent without adversely effecting the quality of protection. He had each team coat the surface to be worked with different colors of the release agent, with orders to not let the other color be seen. He checked the job after they were all done. He would bring the teams out and have them look at the places they missed. and would cover them himself. He would point into tight places where the mud would get in, and showed how they all missed. he told them that if he does not have to touch up any spots, they get a raise. None has gotten a raise as they keep missing spots.
One day, he was asked by the four teams why they have to get ever spot covered. Brosatch had already had a discussion with his engineers. The frame was showing wear and someone had asked for a frame setup like this attached to the wall.
Just from where he was standing, he saw a dozen places where they missed, a couple right out in the open where the bare metal still showed.
He said that he is not going to check their work. If they like what they have done, he will order the pour. Every single one of them said it was good enough.
he ordered the pour. he mud went into the form and was leveled out. It then was allowed to set up. When it was time to remove it, nothing moved.
Brosatch ordered the frame to be unbolted. the entire frame lifted off with the wall, even the top part of the posts came up as some of the mud had leaked out.
The entire form was set up in the back part of the room and the four teams were ordered to try to remove the metal that was stuck to it. Other teams watched. While this was going on, the entire metal frame was replaced, modified readied for new pours. the engineers were happy and loved the show of the four teams trying to unglue the structure from the wall. The teams got the message as to why they needed to do the coating.
He told the teams that he found a customer for that glued up monstrosity. next time he may have to charge them for the expense. they had better hope they don't work for free.
The form was ready and the teams were put to work. After this, everybody on each team checked the other, to make sure they did not cost themselves money. There was never a mistake, and Brosatch stopped having to look at the jobs other than to make sure things were as designed.
New people joined the teams and the new people learned quickly that it was well worth their effort to make sure the release agent was everywhere, even when they started working on other projects of the company.

11 )
.
Immanuel was a super criminal, traveling through time, stealing things, selling it some place else. He stole valuable objects, information, shipments. His ability to travel time, allowed him to get in and leave without a trace.
The intertime police spent a fortune to stop him. Nothing worked. they had no idea where he was going or where he was. They did not even know all the crimes he committed. All they had were the big new crimes and they always missed him.
He had gotten late middle aged and the fun of the crimes was starting to fade. He also had picked up a small illness that could only be cured by the authorities at Intertime.
He finally turned himself in. He did not admit to his crimes, but admitted who he was. They treated his illness, and treated his criminal mind.
He went through the system, and ended up as a police officer in the Intertime. He later became a detective and was brilliant at solving crimes.
He was finally told to bring himself in. If he is brought in, he will be given the same treatment, becoming a police officer. he, himself, will have a full memory of both lives to that point, for the rest of his life. That is how the time paradox is bypassed.
Immanuel went to stop himself at the big named crimes. He kept missing himself as he had forgotten the details of how he did the crime. He figured it out when he examined the crime scene. he was actually quite smart back then.
He remembered other crimes he committed. Once he saw the star ship blast off, stolen, load, ship and crew. he arrived at one place he just passed through and found that he had broken several dozen laws in that short time and never knew it. He almost broke a couple himself. A passer by stopped him.
He returned to the Intertime offices and reported that he missed himself every time he tried. They then explained to him that there were places a time traveler always passed through when they were going to different places, different times. If they had those locations, they could entrap the person.
Immanuel gave it some thought. He operated differently in his older age than when young. He wanted to find himself while he was young, early in his career. If he could stop himself there, whole crime waves would stop.
He remembered a "hole" he passed often in his early time travels. He went there and checked the place out. He had the ability to explore it more than he could as a criminal. The hole turned out to be part of a space station that was never inhabited. Using his police skills, he found he used it far less than he remembered. He had been there only a dozen times It got hit by an asteroid and exploded when the power systems went critical. That idea was out.
He checked out several other place he visited in his ravels, they all showed something similar. He only visited there a few times. One place was where he hid out when a time detective was on his tail. he only visited here twice more.
This was getting frustrating. He basically knew everywhere he went, every crime he did, but for some reason he could not find himself.
In his searches he found nearly a dozen other time criminals that were on the wanted list. Because he could think like a criminal, he could think about how the crimes were committed and be in the right place.
With one, the criminal opened his ship to get out. Immanuel walked up to the port and shoved the man back. He simply closed and sealed the port, then time shifted to the Intertime prison. Another he simply grabbed the man's arm as he walked by and time shifted.
There was one where he let the local law know how the guy was going to get into the museum. they nabbed him. He was convicted, Immanuel agreed to transport him to a high security prison. as they walked out, Immanuel instantly had him walking into the jail at intertime. He got papers from Intertime and reappeared at the jail, delivering the papers showing that the man was now in a high security prison.
figuring out how he operated, though, was a serious problem. He seamed to follow no pattern at all, no place he regularly passed. Between missions, he decides to go to a bar he liked. he walks in and orders a drink. the bartender told him that he never seems to leave. He instantly remembered a whole lot. The treatment had erased some of his memory. He now remembered why he was committing the crimes, how he did them, what he did.
He goes to the bar security and they talk. Immanuel shows him his intertime identification, explaining he had been treated and became part of the law. He explained to the security man about what will happen if he can get his younger self io intertime for treatment. the security man understood.
There was a moving graphic display on the wall. The security guy explained the pattern the graphic did. If he could remember a pattern, he could know when he was there.
Immanuel watched the display and picked up the pattern. He could not remember exactly what the patterns were when he visited, even though he was entranced by them.
He gets a call from headquarters. He says he has got to go.
(get ready for this as this is the bad joke that this entire presentation was aiming for.)
Immanuel tells the security man, "I will be back in a week. If I get here before I get back, hold me until I return."
he returns a week later and finds the officer caught him at like his second visit to the place. He takes himself back to Intertime and he is convicted by his adult testimony.
The young Immanuel is given treatment, including for the earliest signs of the disease that made the old Immanuel to turn himself in.
Immanuel is sitting on a park bench at Intertime. Memories start flooding in. He has become a police officer and has lived a good life and has worked his way into being a time detective. Until recently, he was mainly tracking down evidence of crimes so other detectives could actually capture the person.
Immanuel gets up and walks home. He was near retirement age now and was satisfied with both of his lives.

12 )
.
It was the greatest temple of the followers of one of the gods. it was said to be a place of power where followers could get their answers directly from the god.
Time passed and the lands were overrun by non-followers. The temple was destroyed, replaced by a succession of temples by other gods, each one destroyed over time.
The followers of the god continued to exist and were known by their habits and style of living.
The followers of the god finally gained rule over the lands around the temple. There was still another god ruling the temple land so it was off limit.
Excavations near the temple revealed a portion of wall from the original temple. The people were elated.
Not having access to the temple grounds themselves, the followers prayed at the wall, asking for help, guidance, showing their honest belief in the god.
Years passed and no one seamed to have gotten a direct answer by the god. A few allowed slip that if they were not true followers of the god, they would wonder if he still existed.
Like he had done all Seventy years of his life. Slavin bowed before the wall and prayed, saying the devotional words, asking for help and guidance. He touched his lips to his mouth, then touched the wall, before slowly turning away. Still no answer.
A young man in foreign clothing came to the wall. He said the same words, making the same movements. Slavin found himself watching. there was something about the way the man moved and talked. The man then reached out to the wall. Right where the young man was, the wall shimmered and glowed. there was surprised on the man's face, but he walked into the wall.
Slavin now knew there was a god. He turned back to the wall and prayed with everything he had, He touched the wall. the wall sparkled. He stepped into the wall.
The young man stood by a statue. this was not the inside of the temple above. this was some place else. slavin slowly walked up to the statue. "Slavin." the statue said.
"Forgive me, I doubted you, I doubted your word. I went against your laws so many times. Please forgive me." He wanted to kneel but for some reason that felt wrong.
Someone else appeared and approached. It was a woman. she was in a near panic, but also in awe. then there were some fifty people inside.
"My people always followed me and my laws, in spite all that happened. You are forgiven just on that." Now for your most important answers that you have asked."
The faces of each person shifted as each heard the voice of the god talking just to them. Slavin was given the plans the god had for the nation, before he learned the answers to his various important questions. The god did not tell him how long he would live, but if he did not die by accident or violence, will live quite a while longer.
Slavin now knew it was time to leave. "bless you my master." Slavin said as he turned away. he took three steps and stepped out of the wall. Soon the others reappeared, sparkles from the wall as they passed through the stones. the young man was the last one out. they all came out where they had entered..
There were people of the other god high above, staring down at them.
"I heard the answers to my questions." Slavin said boldly. He wondered why but it seamed to be the right thing to do. About a quarter of the others also made the same announcement. Slavin walked to the young man. "May I please buy you a lunch?"
The man bowed and they left. There were other people touching the wall and passing inside.
The young man was from another place and he followed the teachings of his parents. He was alone of his religion in school and was proud of it, in spite teasing and harassing by others. He came to the wall, not knowing what to expect, but just wanted to practice his faith. Neither one told of the answers. As they were leaving, officials from the other god grabbed them and took them in.
They were interrogated for quite a few hours. Slavin started to understand the god's plan. He saw where something the god said, would apply to this situation. He made a well worded, well timed slip of something the god had told him. He was asked about that in many different ways but he acted like he had no idea what they were asking. He was put in a cell with the young man and was kept there over night. they were released before dawn. both went to the temple wall, both thanked the god they saw the glimmer on the wall, but neither was allowed to enter.
The people of the other god became very active. It did not take long to know that both of them had given a bit of well worded information that was the cause of the activities.
What they had done was to put doubt in the minds of the followers of the other god. Had their god abandoned them, or had their god died.
They tried to keep Slavin and the rest of the followers from the temple. There were other walls nearby. They all prayed to the walls. They left with a touch to the walls. the guard could almost see a spark when the believers touched the wall. The believers would turn away with a pleased smile, in almost every case.
A couple hours of that caused the guards to get very nervous. all these true believers surrounding them, what if a believer touched a guard. The guard lost their courage and left. The believers reached the wall, one in ten would pass into it.
A few times, objects were dropped from above. In no case did any of those below was harmed.
This was news around the world.
.
My note said "The wall was the remains of a temple. they prayed to it. A stranger comes, touches the wall and enters."

13 )
.
It was a colony designed around nature. their homes were open for the native creatures to come and go at will. They were not fools. there was a scent dispenser that reacted with the dominant life of the planet to calm them down. It was unnoticeable to the colonists. This made the colony pastoral, pleasant, a place where people could live an easy life.
Most of the technology was in the background, out of sight, but did the job needed. There were areas of hydroponic farms where computer controlled robots produced all the food the people needed. Microbes were grown into thick mats that resembled meats of various kinds, providing what muscular tissue needed to add to the diet.
Tina was the head of her household. Her son was a strapping young man, full of energy, intelligent and imaginative. He was never sick a day of his life.
One morning, Tina woke and started breakfast. She went to wake her son. He looked pale. He was sick.
The doctor comes, runs literally thousands of tests. Nothing shows up. He had even ran tests for diseases that could never be here, just in case. No trace of any disease. After the first couple days, his decline slowed.
Like everybody else's bed, his bed was a low platform on the ground. It was common for animals to climb into the bed of someone, not always to the sleeper's delight.
Most animals that came in quickly got used to being touched, petted, handled. If they did not tolerate it, they left quickly.
A prime predator, quite similar to a lion or tiger came into Tina's house. She tried to shoo it out, but it would not go. It laid down on the floor. She forgot herself and she tried to push on it to get it up. It ignored her.
It would leave just before dusk and return just after dark, then leave just before dawn and return just after sun-up.
She had to tolerate the creature. It sniffed the boy often, even lick his face. She would yell at it to get it away from her boy.
The boy was too weak to really roll over. The doctor had a look of helplessness. Tina caught herself pulling her hair out in her worry.
The beast came in one night and, instead of laying on the floor as the favorite bedding spot, it straddled the boy, left and right legs on opposite sides of the boy. It licked his face, then settled down right on top the boy.
Tina came over, yelled at the beast. It gave her a look that frightened her. She feared for her son, but she feared the beast more.
The way the beast completely covered the boy, she was afraid the weight was going to suffocate him.
She woke just at dawn, and the beast was gone. At about sun-up, the beast came in and laid down in its normal spot on the floor. It stayed there all day long, moving only as much as it normally did. It left before dusk to hunt.
At nightfall, the beast straddled the boy and laid down again. she had told the officials about the action of the beast. Their word was, there is little you can do. You cannot close off your house and the you cannot control the beast.
On the third day of the beast sleeping on top the boy, the boy actually sat up. he was still sick, but he was stronger than he was, just a few days ago.
A week later, the boy was able to walk around on his own. He would sit, leaning with his back against the beast during the day, he would brush the beast's feathery hair. Tina had no choice but accept the beast.
One day, Tina noticed the beast was not as energetic when it got up and moved around, like it was tired. She reported this to the officials. ON a lark, they brought in detectors that could detect energy emissions of all kinds.
When they checked the record, they saw an blob of energy settle on top the beast. It seamed stronger, brighter, when it left. The computers ran the data and they came up with a possible way to capture the entity, based on the details from the detectors.
Just before dusk, they set up a grid next to the boy. They powered the grid up as the beast came in. It sniffed them, the equipment, and the grid, then settled over the boy.
They stayed the night. Needles bounced wildly about mid night. they had something. Detectors showed something inside the grid.
At daylight, they kept the equipment on, boxed it up, then carried it out. Two nights later, the beast stopped sleeping on top the boy. The boy acted fully recovered a week later, and so did the beast.
The entity, the researchers determined, was feeding on the boy, and then on the beast. The beast was essentially sacrificing itself to save the boy.
Deciding the entity was too dangerous to let loose anywhere, they applied a burst of energy and the entity was gone.
They watched for signs of the illness elsewhere in the colony but there was none. They may have snuffed the last one, or the only one of those entities.
Tina now treated the beast as a member of the family. It had saved her son and she was happy to have it around.

14 )
With cell phones, they communicate with the towers even when they are hung up. they have to communicate that they are available to get calls, they have to get the accurate time. there are other things. Because of this, authorities can triangulate all the cell phones in the city. the only way to keep the cell towers from locating a phone, is to remove the battery.
The city finally got the ability to gain real time tracking of cell phones. The city immediately set up traffic cameras on various roads. they watched the number of cars that pass, and compared it to the number of cell phones that passed through the same area. There were cars without cell phones, but they got a good idea of what to expect by cell phone tracking. As a group, they had no personal identifiers of the cell phones, just their locations.
They watched as the dots of the cell phone locations got bogged down in some places in the city, while they moved freely in others. Since they had computer control of the lights, they started adjusting the timing of the lights to even out the traffic speeds. they were running the dot movements into computers.
The power company sent people to the traffic department and tracked where the people stopped and for how long. they got access for the general data and ran it through their computers to adjust the power output to control power loads over the system. they were actually lowering power output when most people were on the road, and then increasing it as they started to reach their destination.
The traffic and power figured out that they needed about four years of data to fine tune their systems.
The population had no idea that these two groups had access to this data, but they did notice they were not fighting heavy traffic as badly as they once did.
Word got out that the traffic department had access to cell phone locations. Immediately, people started complaining that they were using the cell phones to give tickets. They were timing the movement of the cell phones to see who was driving too fast.
Others were saying that it was unfair that they are able to give tickets to people with cell phones, and people driving without cell phones can get away Scott free. They never said anything about people getting tickets because they were on their cell phones.
The traffic company never even thought about actual speeding in of the traffic. that was not their job. Their job was to track the general flow.
Political people started getting heat from some groups about taking the tracking power away from the traffic department. the pressure is coming from all sides.
It just happened that the police had put more officers on the road and were pulling people over like mad. it had nothing to do with what the traffic department was doing. The traffic department actually cut down some of the speeding with the changes in the lights. Long stretches of fast driving were broken up a little more. that spaced the traffic out so they did not bunch up at one specific point every time.
The pressure on the political people was getting really bad. finally, the traffic department appeared at a big public meeting.
He stood before the cameras, something he is not really used to.
"the only data we have access to, is dots on the screen, telling us where generic traffic is. We have no idea who they are. Our computers simply work out how to get people across the city as quickly as possible, while avoiding bottle necks when traffic catches up to itself."
He looked down at his paper. "As to the tickets people are complaining about. We are not police and are not in contact with each other. It is better to look around and count the police cars and officers on the roads. they have every car they have available, on the roads, picking up people using old fashion ticketing techniques."
"We need this technology for at least four more years to perfect our traffic patterns." He looked closely at the paper, then back to the cameras.
"To prove to you that we have improved the traffic, All next week, we will reset all the lights to the way they were set, the week before we got access to this data." He smiled." It will be up to your comments to the political people, as to whether we keep this technology. You decide what good traffic patterns are worth." He left the podium.
As he promised, the lighting patterns changed. Immediately, there were bottle necks in some areas. In some sections, laterally three times as many speeding tickets were handed out.
The political people were getting swamped with complaints. They then demanded that the traffic patterns be changed back. the department head ignored them. His people were checking old data, seeing if there was a change that would make it even better.
At the end of the week, the traffic patters were set to the best traffic. They had seen something that was missed at first and it improved traffic even more. An assumption that they had made originally, was a little off. The next week, there were no traffic jams and the ticket counts plummeted.
The demands for taking the cell phone tracking from the traffic department reduced, now that people saw the effects of their having the technology. They also saw that there were a whole lot more cops on the beat and that the control settings reduced the tickets.
The traffic department was allowed to keep their cell phone tracking. The city saw the advantage of it.

15 )
.
A Far Side cartoon shows a tire swing over water, hanging from a tree branch. Half the tire is missing and there are teeth marks at the edges. Two boys are on shore. One tells the other. "You tell Bobby's mother, and I will get another tire."
The lake had a monster in it. The monster needed to feed once a week. Since the lake was the area's only source of water, People were on its menu.
People getting caught by the monster was so common, if someone was killed by the monster, they simply shrugged and continued on. Someone getting lost in the forest was something they got excited about, sending out search parties, being excited when they appeared again. The monster, not a problem.
The people lived as if there were no monster around. They fished the lake, they swam in it, kids swung above it, women did their laundry, they bathed, they lived around the water.
Their laws were created to make use of the monster. they had periodic sacrifices to the monster. A sick or deformed child, on weeks where no one was lost, would be tossed out into the water, with proper ceremony was done. the monster always found the offering taking it in with a big splash.
Only a few crimes required execution. A week would be selected when there were no deaths. The criminal would be launched out into the lake by a catapult. If the criminal made it to shore unharmed, they were allowed to go free. none ever did.
Those who died by other causes were also launched into the water. The beast did not like them as much as they were already dead, but it did not give up a free meal. there was no burial needed.
At one time, the elders started a big project. they stacked stones at a shallow area of the lake shore, and then dug a small pool into the bank. this was to allow people free access to the water without worrying about the monster. After about a month, they came out and found the rocks missing and the shallow pond excavated from the water. The beast eliminated the protected shallow. a couple people were easily captured by the beast.
No one actually ever saw the beast. It seamed to strike when everybody was looking away. When the did see it, most of it was still beneath the water.
I am not sure where to go with this as a story. One idea I keep thinking about, is that someone goes hunting for it. This might be someone from a technological area, finding this more primitive society held in check by the beast. The guy drops depth charges all over the lake and figures he killed it. It then attacks with a vengeance.
He brings in a submarine and goes down, hunting for the beast. His sub gets damaged and he is trapped. he might have speared the beast and is stuck to it, cannot escape as it is swimming around. He is running out of air. About dead, he does his final act. He blows up his sub, killing the beast.
Chunks float up to the surface or the water changes color from the blood.
The people get excited. The beast is gone, they are free. They change their life style, freely using the lake.
Then there is suddenly a whole bunch of disappearances. It turns out that there is a whole family of them and they go on a feeding frenzy on the people. Things are worse than they ever thought. The beasts had fed on the flesh of the dead member. When they ran out of food, they turned to their normal food.

16 )
.
The Royal guard was the supreme police force. they were like the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central intelligence Agency combined. When special investigation is needed, the Royal guard are called.
A small time magician made a mistake with his magic. He lost his soul, becoming evil. In his case, his soul ceased to exist. Not having a soul, he developed a blood lust, to get someone else's soul.
He stumbled into the main offices of the Royal Guard and devoured the souls of each person in there, each person that visited.
They noticed a stranger there, swallowing hard all the time. He did not seem dangerous so they left him.
it took him some time, but he had devoured the souls of the entire royal guard. It took them a while to realize what was happening. By the time they knew who was doing it, he had finished the job. they could not get their souls back.
The way it was found, was that an office worker had gone to a temple to swear her soul to the god. the god told her it was not interested, something else had her soul.
The magician, full, wandered off. No one could ever know that he had their souls, so they decided he would be safe. when he died, they would get their souls back since he was not sworn to anything.
The royal guard deduced that it was to their advantage to have him hold their souls. There were situations where others might try to steal their souls. They no longer had to apply effort to protect their souls. they could concentrate strictly to their work.
One disadvantage to be missing their souls was that they tended to over react to situations. They would use a heavy hand in any situation, not take any guff, even if it were better to be kind and gentle.
it had been a number of years when Blankenship was learning magic on his own. He had advanced quite a ways. He did a magic spell he had done hundreds of times. In the middle of the spell, He spilled a potion into the brasier out of turn and it caused a coughing fit. when the smoke cleared, the spell was over, done wrong. He could never repeat it again, and as such, could not undo it either.
He now had a desire for different magical energies. He ignored them. Over time, he found his sense of humor changed, he started saying silly and weird things. He knew it was a side effect of his magic mistake.
In his community, he recognized two men and a woman who had obviously made mistakes in magic. One sort of wandered around each day. Every once in a while, while no one was around, he would swallow strongly, then walk on.
Blankenship had bumped into uniformed royal guard several times. Twice he was shoved to the side as they passed. he did not have a love for them. He saw a large number of reports about how the royal guard would rush into a place with a couple hundred armed and armored men, to grab an individual. Blankenship thought they were going overboard.
His silliness kept building. He finally sat down and wrote a note to the royal guard, telling them, in what he thought was a funny way, to back off and use more restraint. he told them that if they did not show restraint, he would devour their souls. he was laughing off and on during the entire time it took him to mail the note.
The royal guard got his note. they found out who he was. He had magic knowledge. He was seen around the one who had their souls. He had a sense of magic around him. they decided he was exceedingly dangerous.
Blankenship heard a knock on the door. Several hundred armed soldiers rushed in, grabbing him and his belongings. He was bound, lifted and carried right out, like a wave coming in, then washing out.
He was moved from place to place. in several places, he was examined, either magically or medically. he never got a chance to talk.
After about a week, he was set in front of a dozen men and interrogated intensely by each one. They quickly wore him out until he told everything he knew. they learned about his magic mistake and learned he noticed the other people who made magical mistakes, including the one that swallowed periodically. He thought he heard someone saying the souls are trying to escape.
He tried to explain the humor in the note but it was not working. These people had no sense of humor. He finally said they were a soulless lot. One of the inquisitor nodded. "That, sir, is our problem." We are protecting the one who has our souls."
"What?"
"You have proximity, your recognizing specific people, your magic mistake has set you on the road of should swallowing, and you are unable to control yourself. You have to be stopped."
Blankenship is transferred half a dozen more times, then finds himself in a medical place. doctors have him plugged into medical machines. He is strapped down so he cannot move or escape. Magicians of recognizable power come and chant over him, feeding brasiers. some sessions they say "I got one." Other times, "I missed it."
After several months of being slightly drugged, fed by an IV, a group of magical doctors surround him and start chanting. he feels energies pulling at him in all directions.
he feels like he is immersed, drowning, in a glow of energy. He blacks out. He comes too and they are still chanting. he feels like he is floating, but can tell he is still strapped in.
They finally end their chants and he is solidly in the bed, He goes to sleep. When he wakes, he is not bound, he is not plugged in. He is given a good meal, the first one in what had to be months.
A Royal guard spokesman shows up. "We undid the magic you had done. In the process, we also removed your ability to do any kind of magic. We are now safe from you."
He started leaving. "By the way, you are nowhere near your home. We relocated you. If you leave the lands you are in, you won't reach your old home."
Blankenship is taken to his new home. All his old stuff is there, but no magic making equipment. When they left, he tries a couple children's spells. they are gone. nothing happens. he finds papers that give him directions to a job. It turns out to be a comfortable job, something he can do. He does learn that he is on an island controlled by his country, in the waters of another country. Having seen the power of the royal guard. he decides to make use of his life as it is.

17 )
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They were prisoners of all kinds. They were forced to train for fighting. Their training made little sense. they had to fight on a long narrow platform, taking on a succession of training robots that swung into place.
Man of these people were not fighters. there were lawyers, "play toys", construction workers, even sickly people were force through the training.
One thing about it was that they were able to eat well and were well cared for other than the long, hard hours of fighting the robots.
When officials decide they are ready, they are taken to the arena. The arena is a long sinking spiral with the robots in the way all around the spiral.
They are told that they are being given a chance to win their freedom. When the gong sounds, though, they will have lost their chance of escape. The idea of getting their freedom, is exciting.
Damio is taken to a lower entrance. A gong sounds and he rushes out, wanting to get free before the gong sounds again.
The robots were low on the platform, then rose up, some in the center rose to the ceiling. There is the sound of rushing water somewhere.
There is a long distance below the narrow platform he is working on. There is too much space between the spiral of the platform to leap from one to the other. They are too small to try that anyway. The first robot drops down. He attacks.
He reaches the center, exhausted, but exhilarated. He drops down to the lowest platform which places the bottom spiral chest high to him.
"I'm free, I'm Free, I'm Free!!" he shouts out.
"I am sorry Damio, the rule was that you get there before the gong. The gong sounded before you entered the arena." There is a click above his head. He looks up. A massive weight hits right where he is standing. The gong sounds again. The gong was the weight falling against the floor he was standing on, with him at the impact point. Water starts jetting at high power. The cleaned weight raises up along with the robots. The water continues to flow to was away the blood and debris. Another fighter rushes in to win his freedom.
Gathier was in a position to hear rumors of this kind of prison. It was designed to remove people from existence. He knew little else other than the victims never know it is going to happen.
He kept in shape and practiced some standard fighting styles as exercise, since he mostly had an office job.
He made a small error on a document and it somehow got passed through higher up people. when it was caught, a big deal was made of it. the anger came back down the line. He was taken in and charged with high crimes. There was no defense. No one above him would defend them as they missed it themselves. and no one around or below him would stand for him as they would be marked as co-conspirators.
He was sent to prison. Immediately he was told he could earn his freedom. He was put into training on the platform, learning to fight the robots.
Gathier instantly recognized that there would be no freedom by playing the game, but he had no idea where the rules could be changed. since he had little else to do, he started practicing against the robots. unlike most criminals put through the training, he pushed himself hard, going to bed in pain. He had full control over the robots in his fighting after a couple months. Most prisoners would reach that point just before they were sent in to the arena.
He continued to train, now learning to control the robots, working them until their batteries wore out before going to the next one. When asked, he simply said he had little else to do so he might as well train hard. He continued to train the way he did before he was brought to the prison. He used it to warm up and cool down from his exercises. The prison guards never questioned it.
The time came and Gathier was led from the prison cell and taken to the arena. He saw the design of the challenge. the hair rose on the back of his neck. If he got to the center, how would he get out?
He was taken down stairs. the two guards beside him told him that he needed to reach the center before the gong. The gong sounded. It clicked on his min. That was his gong. He was not going to escape alive. In one move, he reached out and grabbed both rifles of his guards at the trigger. Falling backwards, he pulled their guns to face each other. He pulled the trigger and they went off. He hit the ground and rolled to his feet. They were both dead.
He grabbed their guns, then stripped them of everything that looked interesting. He had the breast plates on over his prison clothing. He figured it might give him a little protection. He slipped out, wondering why no one heard the shots. He headed away from the way he came, figuring that would only lead him back to the prison.
He did not get far when guards in font of him called at him. He fired, dropping both of them. He went up and stripped them of their weapons and a few items he figured would be of use.
He had dropped half a dozen guards when he reached the upper balconies of the arena. People were complaining that there was no match.
a big burly guard saw him and fired. He fired back. He missed the guard who slipped behind some protection. the guard tossed a rifle at him. It was whining, getting hire in pitch. Gathier decided it was about to explode, so he flung it as hard as he could. It bounced off the protective glass and bounced behind he wing walls, into the front of the bleachers. It exploded. Screams went silent. he took one of his rifles, examined it for a moment, then saw the setting. A little playing around and he found how to get it to react. He flung in high and far over the wing wall into the crowd. It exploded. He flung another the opposite way.
In the clear with a full view of the bleachers, the destruction was impressive. He then worked his way around the arena, tossing rifles into the crowds. Each bleacher section was sound proofed. He went around twice more before he found the exit out of the building.
Officials caught up to him months later, strolling across country with a pack on his back. He had a couple of those rifles on him, and several civilian fire arms.
He was asked why he killed all those people. He told him he was told to fight his way to freedom before the gong sounded. The gong sounded before he entered the arena, so he might as well fight his way free.
A single officer transported him to what appeared to be a ranch. he was told to stay there, stay out of trouble. this was his retirement. it was a prison, but not too bad. Everybody knew that if they did not mess with him, Gathier would be no trouble for them.

18 )
.
I wrote a bit of story based on this concept back before I started writing the story ideas, and have placed couple story ideas in this world.
The gods had treasure houses. they were built into the hardest rocks of the world. Evil denizens were scattered around the mountains and the routes to them to aid in protecting them. these treasures were things the gods wanted to keep, but were unable to bring to their realm.
Each treasure house required the use of a set of keys. The keys were made of special jewels, about the size of a man's head, that contained magic within them.
Over time, A god, or the gods, lost their keys, which got scattered over the world. Since each door can be opened by one set of jewels, there have been quests to accumulate jewels in one place. Different leaders got different jewels.
Only certain kinds of people could handle each kind of jewel, usually figured out by accident or trial and error. Magicians finally figured out how to know what kind of person could handle each jewel, and how they could handle them. That made quests to the gates possible.
The quests to the gates of the treasure houses were always long, horrible battles against the various denizens protecting them. trips back are sometimes just as horrible. they get to the gates and try the keys they had. At first, they only tried one key, and found they needed several. Then they would bring all the keys they had, and still did not have the right keys. The quests became big business in the lands. Leaders started combining their jewels for the chance of success.
The quest was big money, eight leaders and their armies fought their way through evil creatures to six gates. they tested their jewels at each gate and now knew what jewels fit where, but they still did not have the whole set for any of the gates.
At the last gate, they tested the gates, marked the jewels that fit, and then were set upon by an evil horde. they took a lot of injuries and deaths, but fought them off.
The damage to their forces were great. Several leaders were dead and there was no way they were going to get all their wounded out of the mountains safely. It was decided that the wounded would either come on their own power, or stay there and die. No other choice.
Many remained with their masters, friends, helpers, rather than abandon them.
The force took most of the supplies (they could not carry all of it) and headed off, leaving a third of their force behind. A quarter of them were able-bodied. It was not a force they wanted to leave behind, but it was necessary.
The wounded were settled near the god's door and most of the others positioned themselves as sentries or as guards.
Claudius was raised in a stone cutter's family. He was pretty good, though not a master. He only joined this force because his father owed taxes. he stayed with the wounded as he owed several of the men his life. He could not leave them behind. Seeing what they faced in the battle to get here, he figured they were not going to get back easily. the leaders decided to not eliminate what faced them, but just drive them off and slip passed. The return trip would not be as easy, they would be laying in wait.
Claudius was a little bored. He took out a small chipping hammer, picked up a stone, that was bigger than one key would be, and started chipping. He took several measurements and more chipping. He slipped the stone in, and turned it. They had found they only turned if a jewel was inside the recess. The jewel turned, but he was the only one who saw it. He set the stone down directly beneath that recess, and started carving another one.
While he was at it, he had someone gather sticks and one of his friends mounted stone chips on the ends so they could be used as weapons. People complained about his chipping noises, but each person had a stack of weapons of various kinds beside them. That kept the complaints low.
While preparing the last jewel, a wounded soldier came from below. He said that the denizens attacked in such force, they had no chance. The denizens were coming up a few hours behind. He complained that they should have come as their numbers were needed.
The horde appeared down below, marching up in rank and file. they had weapons and armor of the dead. their number was such that if all that were here were healthy and strong, as the best soldiers, they would not have a chance.
Claudius looked at the force. dragged the soldier to see them. "How could we help against that?"
he went back and finished the last chips. The jewel turned.
He then called some able body soldiers over. He set each stone into the space and told them to not move it at all. When he had every stone in place, he then ordered them to turn them to the right. Nothing. He then had them turn the stones to the left. Still nothing. He then had the stones on the left, turn right, and the right, turn left. Still nothing.
The soldiers were complaining that they needed to get ready to fight. Claudius told them they will try one more time and if that does not work, they will fight. He had them turn the tops of the stones away from the door. there was an audible click. the men jumped back as they felt a shock in their hands. but they could not let go.
Claudius grabbed the door and threw them open. the men were free. The stones were gone.
"Grab the wounded and get them inside, now!" Claudius yelled out. He made those who could walk but had bad arms or other mobile wounds, help carry those who could not walk.
the last of their "luggage was thrown inside. The horde appeared into view. Claudius grabbed the doors and pulled them closed, letting go at the last second. they closed with a click. there was tapping on the stone door from outside. they were not going to get in. the survivors now had to figure out how to get out themselves.
A young girl who was a jewel carrier asked how they were going to get the jewels back so they could get into the treasure houses. She had a bad cut across her belly.
An old soldier missing a hand, said that the jewels will be scattered, traded by the evil ones who can handle the jewels with minimum care.
Claudius noticed he could see everybody and down into the caves. The wizard touched his finger to his lips.
After a long rest, Claudius ordered them to get ready to move out. The wagons were packed up with wounded and supplies. It was uncomfortable for everyone. Anybody who could walk, walked, carrying packs on their backs. The able bodied pulled the three wagons as they headed down the cave. Excitement rose in them as they knew they would at last, see the treasures of the gods. leaving with them would be something else.

19 )
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I have a self winding watch that requires me to move around to wind it up. I don't always give it enough motion to last all night, even when I wear it over night. That seeded this concept.
Brightman was an android, built to specifications of a super advanced race, to the local design. His builders were just playing around as they explored an extinct race. They took designs they found, and created Brightman to look and act like them. They loaded his brain with the whole content of all their computers, and then put him to work doing the really drudge jobs of the place.
Over time, he began to blend in on how he acted, and as people were replaced, became the oldest person there. No one knew his nature. He wore a watch on his wrist that he said was a self winding watch. It was, except that it also recharged him. The technology was such that the motion of the little weight was amplified to power him too. The advanced technology got around the fact, that the low energy of his movement is turned into high energy needed to run him, runs against the conservation of energy. He ate (aids in regeneration of tissue) and wasted like everybody else, but his real power came from the watch.
He practiced dance, a form of martial arts, would involve himself in some very active sports. He was never as good as anybody else, but was always good for a good game.
He was not an expert, but was the base coordinator, making sure people and supplies went to where they were needed. He took his cues from everybody else. He also worked along side the cleaning and maintenance people so he knew the place inside and out.
A disease or pathogen escapes into the colony. it devastates the population. Brightman ends up being one of some six people who survive it. Being made with tissue from his creator, he was effected by the disease, but not the same as the others.
He had sent off the warning of the problem and all the data they had up to the point the doctors passed out. He too passed out, but long after anybody else did. he was shaking his watch as much as possible until darkness enveloped him.
The rescuers found the survivors quickly and took them into the space born medical center. As the seven survivors woke, they went into tremors. Brightman amplified the tremors in his watch arm to recharge it. He was near his lower limit. The doctors, not realizing what was happening with him, strapped them all down so they could not harm themselves.
This was not good for Brightman as he needs to charge up. the short time he was able to move was nothing like what he needed. As the others are slowly getting better, he is slowly fading, as his batteries are winding down.
One day, he was unstrapped so they could clean him up and change his bed. His system kicks into emergency. He starts to get up. the nurse thinks he is falling so she stops him. He keeps trying and she keeps holding him in place. Finally, He reaches up and jams his finger into her flesh and pushes with a healthy man's power. She backs away and he swings his feet down and comes upright.
"Mr. Brightman, You must rest!"
His watch hand is shaking badly, but he strands up. She grabs him to take him to bed and he hurts her again, his finger nail drawing blood.
She screams out, "Mr. Brightman!"
The doctor and several others come in to see what she is screaming about. He stands up, then drops to a martial arts stance for balance. His watch hand is still shaking wildly. He is beginning to get some power back. He has retrieved the energy it took to get to this point.
He starts practicing his martial arts, all movements slow, except the shaking of his wrist. A pair of doctors come in to grab him. He drops them onto their tails in a quick move, returning to the exact position he was in. He is not at a power range to talk yet. He is still in survival mode.
Others come in. One of the doctors stops a guard from moving in. "let him be." Brightman takes an hour to get up to full power. He finally sits down on the table. His body is still really sick but at least he is back up to a normal energy level.
The doctor who stopped the guard, examines him. "Thought so." He said when he was done. "He is a special case. I will handle him from here." The rest leave and the two of them are alone. "You don't recognize me. I have aged since you last saw me. I created you." Brightman saw the resemblance in voice and appearance. A bit later he saw the same body language. It was him.
Brightman eventually recovered as the others did, and was able to return to work on his colony, which was cleaned. He fell back into his job as base coordinator and out lasted anybody who worked there.

20 )
.
The toughest cases came to this courthouse. The lawyers would enter the courthouse in what was the ultimate battles of their careers. To the law, these were like martial arts matches. The only one that got hurt was the client of the losers.
Drayland was said to be the ultimate lawyer. He had no soul and had tricks and techniques that younger lawyers had no chance against. He looked like he was dead, white skin, white hair, sunken eyes. He had sort of a stiffness, non-liveliness to his actions, his voice was slightly droning, but he knew the law inside and out and knew how to ply the law in ways it was not designed to be used. When he showed up, most lawyers surrendered heir client to the fate of he court, even if they could win. He only showed up in cases that were extremely important.
Singleton was fresh from his training and got the chance to try cases. He was acting as a public defender and his clients were as guilty as one could be. Most public defenders would simply put in a guilty plea. His first client committed a crime that demanded death. He asked his client if he would mind some courtroom theatrics and the answer was yes. Singleton put in a not guilty plea.
His opponent was not expecting a challenge. His client lost, but he had a lot of good practice, using everything he could think of. He also paid attention to what his opponent used.
He took another death penalty person and got permission to fight the case. There was no way he could win. he went into battle in the case and almost won because of sloppiness of the officials who arrested the man. He lost because there was overwhelming evidence that he did it. He was caught in the act.
He also sat in other court rooms to watch how they were done. that was when he saw Drayland for the first time. It was a master fighting a child.
When Singleton took another case, it was one where the person was in real question over guilt on the highest crimes, but had enough evidence to put him away anyway. Singleton used what he learned in defending his client. He was shocked that he won. Everybody was also shocked.
He found the times Drayland showed up and would watch him. he got better.
Finally, He had a tough case but thought he could win. Drayland showed up. Singleton took the challenge. It was a knock down-drag out battle between them. the case went quite a while, but Drayland won.
Soon Singleton was getting the really tough cases. If he was against anybody else, he won. Drayland showed up and they fought it out. Singleton learned new stuff each time.
One day, Singleton beat Drayland. Both were shocked. They were soon battling each other in almost every case. Singleton won cases every so often, not always based on evidence available.
The real shock was Singleton heard his opponent already had a lawyer. he walked in and drayland was already there, waiting for him. Drayland was the one surprised. The entire courtroom was filled with lawyers watching the battle.
Singleton chose to pry every bit of information out of Drayland's witnesses. Drayland never bothered to do that to his witnesses. Drayland lost the case big.
A few weeks later, he was called to a meeting. it turned out to be with Drayland. Drayland was putting on his makeup for his next court case. Drayland explained that he was getting to be about retirement age. They need someone to really test other lawyers, send fear into them. when Drayland was done with his makeup, he did not look like the same person.
On his suggestion, Singleton took some time off to take some acting school, concentrating on makeup and character. when he returned, Drayland had a retirement party. Everybody was glad Drayland was gone. their cases would be easy.
Singleton had word leak out that he had died. it was not through official information sources.
Singleton then was called to a case. He put on the makeup and the dead like persona and destroyed the opponent.
Singleton was feared. when he would show up, opponents surrendered to avoid humiliation. Singleton learned from Drayland that this had been going on for many generations. the lawyer who was he very best took the position of the dead lawyer. Singleton would send fear through the hearts of lawyers for decades to come.

21 )
.
Claydolf was a powerful magician. He served his god exceedingly well. Because of him, another god, considered by all the people and most of the gods as evil, was reduced in stature. His god offered him a great gift. He could name it, but the gift would have a penalty. Most people asked for immortal life. ClayDolf knew that was not wise. Those he new got immortal life, were begging for someone to kill them.
He had done so well for his god because he was always trying to learn his craft. Considering many things he could ask for, he asked his god for the full knowledge of magic, to know everything there is about magic. The god considered the request and finally said he would do so, but Claydolf would lose all ability to do magic, even the simplest bit.
Claydolf thought carefully about that and said yes, he thought that was a fair trade. The god also warned him that much of the advanced knowledge should never be passed on. Claydolf agreed that he would keep it secret.
The god he disgraced happened to be nearby and heard that. Claydolf's god gave him the full knowledge of magic and took away his ability to do magic himself. The disgraced god cast a spell at the same time, the spell of bad luck. Neither Claydolf nor his god noticed it.
Claydolf left his god, wondering at the knowledge he got. he never even conceived that such magic could be done. There were things outside his imagination. While he had no magic, he saw the effects of the magic everywhere, and knew what spells did them.
When a lower being casts of spell of bad luck, it causes bad incidents to happen to a person. When a god passes a spell of bad luck, it causes the person to end up in situations where bad things happen.
He traveled around, happy as can be. different spells appeared in his mind all the time, just searching his mind was entertaining enough.
He caught up to a caravan and after a fairly short time, was accepted with them. He sat with some young children and taught them the basics of magic, but in a way that they fully understood. He explained, in essence, that what they were learning now, would be used as part of a higher spell and is needed to be practiced even if they were grand master magicians.
The caravan reaches a palace do to business and the local magician makes a mistake in his spell. Instead of invoking a cherub for the princess's birthday, he invoked a great and powerful monster. The monster wiped away the soldiers sent out and seamed immune to any magic anybody could do. It strikes the wall of the palace.
Claydolf and others are trapped, unable to escape and the monster was coming to them. Claydolf saw the spell to get rid of it. it was a powerful spell and could be done to do many other things. He could not do the spell. He had to teach someone. He chooses a student and teaches him the spell. Others are around. The student does the spell and the monster vanishes. The others realize the power of the spell and does all sorts of things, just trying it out. Claydolf leaves the caravan and the palace, dejected that he had given away an awful secret and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
The disgraced god laughs heartedly. He hurt his opponent in just the right way. His curse worked perfectly.
*
I see this as a series of stories. He is accepted by a group, and ends up having to give up a secret spell to solve the problem, leaving in humiliation, wishing he could undo his damage.

22 )
.
Here in Florida, when a hurricane appears, they will close the toll booths on the Turnpike and travel on the turnpike becomes free. It is usually only for half a day before the storm, and a couple days after, though after the damage of Wilma, it was nearly a week. This sets up the situation that this concept is based on.
Dybomic is a secret organization. They manufacture special equipment that no one is to know about. The problem is that an opposing organization has infiltrated the highway department. no one would know what was being shipped, except for members of that opposing organization.
The backers of the Dybomic had made it nearly impossible for the opposing organization from getting into law enforcement.
Over time, Dybomic needs to transport their creations. their problem is transporting them without the opposing organization from knowing what is shipped.
on regular highways, they have the problem of maintenance people along the roads. those are usually part of the opposing organization.
A hurricane was coming. As it approached, the word went out for the highway people to abandon their jobs and go home.
the head of Dybomic saw this as an opportunity. The trucks were loaded and were on the road. they had shops on both ends of the journey so they had trucks on the road going both ways.
there were no members of the opposing organization along the roads. the last truck pulled into the shop within a few minutes of it being too dangerous to be on the road.
Dybomic could now resume production. they had delivered the work they needed to send on.
Since it was a busy storm season, Dybomic was able to transport everything they needed. when the season was over, they realized that not only had they transferred everything that needed to be transported, they also saved a small fortune in toll fees.
The opposing organization knew there was heavy truck traffic when the storms closed down the turnpike, but because of the nature of their organization, they could not check to see what was happening. They also knew, from the way things were going elsewhere, that they were losing the competition between them and Dybomic.
I really don't have much story beyond this, but here are some design notes that should be considered. in this.
I keep getting the feeling that magic is involved in this. sort of like two higher beings, or two master magicians, or two "entities" in competition. they link themselves into the minds of the people. they have limited range and can deal with limited number of people. They make their choice based on their idea of what can be done.
The opposing organization mainly just needs to know the movement of the products by the Dybomic to be able to work against them. without that identification, they are disabled in the competition.
Dybomic can only work if what it is transporting is not known. they had a head start and took contact of law enforcement. They know what the law knows, and also keeps the opposing organization from accessing their minds. The opposing organization chose the highway people so they would be able to view movements on all highways. there are workers everywhere.
The opposing organization does not make anything. they might control different groups around the country, but only while they are involved in specific activities. Dybomic controls several manufacturing population and are creating things to do something.
One idea is that Dybomic is run by a council of minds, and they are making a set of space ships that can take the free population off the planet. the opposing organization wants the population to stay, so they can feed off their energies. the ship parts, which are easily recognizable, must be shipped out of sight to the launch area and stored. the opposing organization cannot say or do anything about what is at the launch site. What might also be involved is repair parts for the star ship that the colonists came on. There is plenty of time to leave.
A thought crossed my mind. two entities have been fighting it out for centuries on a planet, and then the colonists arrive when their ship has serious problems. One entity, the owner of Dybomic, is trying to get the people off the planet so the battle can resume, while the other is drawing off the people, regaining strength lost during the battle. The other is using those of the colony who want to remain on the planet, against Dybomic.

23 )
.
A group of magicians just finished their masters tests and could now work in any form of magic they ever cared to work in. Since they did not have a clientele, they decided to band together and work as a team. Such teams usually don't last to long. the effective get tired of supporting the lazy, so they go out on their own. Once the group is just the lazy, they have to separate and go on their own to get away from their bad reputation.
They were going over the spells to see who was best at what types of work. One of them commented that half their spells were to suppress the millions of spells already in the environment, before they can actually do the work they are after. Magic had been used in the area for thousands of years and many spells left a trace that interfered with a lot of their work.
Since they worked with many different masters, they decided to examine the suppression spells. They wanted to see if there was a common factor to them. when they felt they had fully explored the science, they realized they could remove a large portion of spells in the environment. A couple quick tests told them that it would be easiest to remove the spells in the order they were cast. they had the tools to track them down also.
Greybeard was an old man. He worked with wood, making special furniture, tools and decorative items. No one knew how old he was, but they do know that his shop was there when many of the older people were young.
Greybeard had a secret. He was extremely old. He was older than any of the teaching guilds and he was older than the practice of changing one's name, adding DOLF at the end of a name to show one was a magician.
Greybeard practiced magic, but it was not one most people detected. He would draw out any sprits within the wood he received, He would entice them back into the finished woodwork, giving them life, strength, power. He sometimes get them to infuse themselves in the whole thing, like a wagon, giving it a long and useful life. Other times it was in a cane, or table.
He had enough work to keep him busy, but not enough work to hire help. He simply showed up to his shop and worked, day in and day out.
The group called themselves the blue council. they announced they were going to remove the magic from the area, to make magic easier for all who was there. They said they could clear out the magic completely.
Greybeard listened to them. they had a nice idea, but they were going to create trouble for themselves and others. He spent a night, sitting searching magic of the area. yes, If they go exactly in order the magic was laid down, they should have heir rude awakening very early. He started casting spells into a wand he fashioned from special, rare wood. This would be needed to protect the people from the young magician's problems.
What the youngsters did not realize, was that some magic was laid down to suppress earlier magic that was a whole lo worse. there had been hundreds of wars in his area and magic was thrown around wildly, by magic users and higher beings. The area was safe only because the suppression magic was stronger than the magic being held back. There had not been a lot of excess magic laid down since the last big battle in the area, so the youngsters would run into trouble fairly quickly.
The blue council got permission to do their work. the city would pay them a stipend for each spell they undid. They started their search, looking for the last spells. They removed three spells fairly quickly. One of them was a spell to amplify the magic of lesser magicians. There was a lot of complaints that many low skilled magicians were knocked out of their jobs.
The blue council kept searching, picking spells and removing them. they had removed a dozen spells when they ran into the first real suppression spell. The instant the spell was gone, an army of stick figures rose out of the ground. They had no orders, and had no enemy, so they milled around the city. Horses shied from them and they were banging on walls, widows and doors of homes at night. they were not trying to get in, but instead were just walking to places where they sensed people and when they hit an obstacle, they would turn and go to the next one.
complaints started flowing into he blue council. the blue council knew they would work their way down to the spell that created the spooks so they continued on.
They removed several more spells that did not seem to do anything, then removed another spell. The sky rumbled. The spooks walked to doors at dusk and attacked them all night. People were having problems sleeping. No one wanted to go outside or get caught outside. the spooks now knew they were after people. they still did not have their orders, but did have meaning.
At the town center, the blue council removed a spell attached to the central spire. the instant the spell was gone, the spooks stopped, turned and headed at the blue council. they found they were fighting for their lives, they were in serious trouble.
Greybeard knew he should save them now, but decided to wait, to see how stupid they would be. There was nearly a hundred separate suppression spells before they would get to the spells that created the spooks. At the rate they were going, it would take them a year to get to that point, and by then, there would be deaths.
The blue council fought their way away from the spire, went to the outskirts of the town and removed a spell there. the spooks attacked them again, this time with more vengeance.
A sprit Greybeard had removed from a piece of wood, called his attention. that was hard for them in storage. She begged him to stop them from removing spells. there were several that would seriously hurt wood spirits.
Greybeard called a meeting of city fathers. The blue council was busy fighting for their lives, trapped. they were safe enough, but trapped.
The city fathers were in a hurry to help the blue council. Greybeard made sure he had their attention. he waved his hands and magic faded in the room. A couple spooks that were in the room, faded also.
He told them about spells that the blue council were about to remove, and what the end results would be to the city. There were several magical monsters kept in check within the lands of the city.
He then told them that the spells that the blue council removed, were suppressing these spooks. Two more spells and the spooks will start killing. No one has considered that one should remove the spells that are dangerous first, before removing suppression spells.
He then made the city fathers agree that the blue council had to be stopped, and the suppression magic would have to be recreated immediately.
He also, with the help of one of the old master magicians, got the city fathers to revoke the blue council magic license and make them start at the very beginning of spell learning, starting with the children. This time they would learn the morals and etiquette of magic.
The city's most powerful magicians gathered together, and examined the spells that created the spooks. they considered removing the spell itself, but then decided that it would be a great warning for those who consider removing magic again, so they then, as a council, created magic to suppress them. Each master did a separate spell, None of them strong enough to suppress them, but the combination casued them to fade away. It would be tough for someone to remove all the spells to release them.
the blue council was then disbanded and sent for retraining.
Greybeard returned to his work. For the wood spirit who warned him of the problem, he made a special piece of jewlery for her to exist in. Made of many woods, it was something a queen would want to wear. The spirit was happy inside it and would aid in giving the wearer good luck.

24 )
.
I heard a commercial for ductless air conditioning, where one can cool different rooms at different temperatures, without running air piping, ducts, to the rooms. I instantly thought of DUCK-LESS air conditioning. Wow, I get to do some inventing. This idea will be a rambling of my mind.
First I will tell you how my mind worked initially. When the thought crossed my mind, I thought of the ducks somehow using their webbed feet, like flapping them. My mind instantly changed to where they go into a cold room, fluff up their feathers, filling them with cold air, then marching along a tube to the room they are supposed to cool, and shaking their feathers out, getting some warm air before heading back in.
After a period of time, I realized that using wings to blow cold air from one place to another would be better. Their flapping wings would act like fans.
With all the options on the birds that could be used for this, I then had to figure out why ducks would be used rather than something else. Ducks can fly long distances and some variety of ducks love people. I decided that the ducks were the first birds to be trained for this job and the company had a patent on the system.
Now I need to come up with a reason for not using mechanical power. It could be that technology does not work for some reason. As for where the cool air would come from, most thoughts would be something natural causing the cool, like air coming from a glacier that pass through caves. If that were the case, one could simply divert the air to the rooms, rather than cooling them with the birds.
Another thought is that the nature of the building and system prevents natural circulation of the air. I am not sure why that would be. My guess is that the building is fairly closed and fresh air exchange is limited.
One thought is that the buildings are so sealed from outside that there can be no air exchanged. since motors are not allowed or not possible, the ducks are placed at the beginning of air routes out of special rooms. The heat is exchanged in or out, in these rooms. the air passes over vanes that transfer temperature from outside to inside. Depending on the direction the air is moving, one can heat or cool the air. Also what side of the building is being used.
There is a network of air ducts that all meet in the exchange room. The ducks get into the openings of the ducts and start flying. a tether holds them in place. They fly as if they are migrating, flapping for long periods of time, the wings drive the air into the channels. When they have flown far enough, they are swapped for another duck which then migrates.
Some ducks are flying to draw air into the room, while others are flying to push air out. The air temp is changed when they pass over the vanes. the direction the ducks are flying can set the temperature of each room.
As to why one would not want to use ducks for this, they are not the cleanest birds one can think of. they are not as bad as they could be, but they can make a good mess. The room has to be cleaned often, or a smell will develop that permeates the house.
Someone who can find a bird who is cleaner, and can fly for long periods of time, and can be trained to fly in the harness to drive the air, would make a fortune. Such a system would be referred to as a duckless air conditioning system.

25 )
.
Teams operated mining ships, usually families. People would swap out all the time depending on the selected mission and who got along with whom.
The ships would approach an asteroid and use their jets to come in full contact with it. they would then slip plates along the edge to fit the surface, and then inject a putty along the edge to seal the contact point, cementing the ship in place. A drill shaft is extended from the center of the ship to the surface. One tube is inside the other. The chamber is pressurized and then air is sent in through the outside tube. At the right moment, the inside tube is vented to space, and a plasma is created at the tip. The rock is evaporated and is jetted outside the back of the ship. During a normal mining operation, there is a larger ship nearby, connected by a hose, that takes the plasma and debris that follows with it, and cools it into a powder, collecting it in a storage containment area.
Once the rock starts vaporizing, the air is shut off and the pressure of the expanding rock continues the process. The tube sweeps side to side within the space beneath the ship, expanding out beneath the ship until it reaches the extent of the hose.
When the ship disconnects, there is a chamber within the ship in a wide cone with a rounded base. A few small asteroids are vaporized until it is a thin shell. Other asteroids are mined in several locations like this, then a charge is dropped inside one of the chambers to shatter what is left, to be mind by ships with large cones to sweep up the debris.
They mined the interstellar asteroid belt like this, processing the dust and debris for several surrounding star systems. It was quite efficient and effective. They made enough to be quite comfortable.
An empire moved into the area. Their ships were heavily armored, ignoring any defense used.
They simply came into a star system, took careful aim at given targets, ignoring fighters and hard to hit targets. The defenses and resistence was simply exhausted in their attempts to stop the empire, making it easy for the empire to take over.
The miners saw the empire coming. their ships saw the battles and returned with recordings of the battles from beginning to end. The mining colony saw that there was no way their mobile space station could out-run the imperial fleet. They decided to abandon their asteroid belt and run anyway. The mining ships attached themselves to the outside of the space station and use their jets to push. fuel supples were attached. Larger ships attached tethers and pulled, again, they had fuel supplies run to them.
The space station made twice the speed it normally could. The empire approached fast. The mining colony passed through a solar system that was developing a defense. they knew from data the mining company and other people had given them that the defense was not going to do much.
The mining colony was half way through the star system when the empire arrived. the defenses, the best yet, was doing nothing. the miners knew they had to help. they had no weapons. Then a minor joked that they could mine the imperial ships.
The miners dumped family members and belongings onto the space station so only one or two people were on board, then they rushed to their controls and disconnected. They flew into the battle, dodging fire. the mining ships were too small to be much worry for the imperial ships.
They were still a ways off. a couple local ships came to contact with the imperial ship. the imperial ship simply blasted the surface where they were located, clearing the surface of the ships. The miners quickly figured out that they will have to choose hidden spots on the ships.
as they came in, They exchanged data and found there were some good spots to connect to. The mining ships dove in and got under overhangs and attached.. it was rough locations, but they attached like they would for any asteroid. They sealed in, extended their drills and started burning the surface.
While the surface was specially made to resist just about anything one could do to a ship, it became pure physics. the surface was heated to a point where it became a vapor, the bonds release and the surface is eaten a way. it took more gas than normal, but soon the surfaces were being eaten through. the minors all simply bored their way straight through
When they punched through to the other side of the shielding, the rush of material through the tubes was great. The air itself was ignited, feeding on itself. They retracted their tubes to the surface, and then dislodged. The jets of escaping ignited gases jetted out the holes as the ships left.
The empire took to blasting each other around where the ships were working. The mining ships were not made exceedingly well, but when they were knocked off, the tube stayed within the shielding and the plasma continued to burn.
The mining ships left the battle field, exhausted of fuel and supplies, having taken serious losses. The imperial ships continued, then one slowly rolled. there were small ships leaving it in rapid succession. the defenders were picking them off as fast as they got within range. Not many got to the other imperial ships and many of the opened ports were hit hard by the defenders, to the point where half the remaining escape pods were shut out, too dangerous to bring them in. the remaining escape pods were blasted out of existence.
The bright streamers could be seen blasting from where the mining ships worked. the ship puffed up like a balloon, relaxed, then went nova. A shower of debris expanded out with the expanding glow. the debris hit several surrounding ships.
An hour later, two more ships went nova in rapid succession. the remaining imperial ships slowly turned away.
The star system sent emissaries to the mining colony. there they examined the system the mining ships used.
The engineers of the star system got to work and soon had robotic weapons with a similar design.
The star ships returned. they had a cloud of fighters around them. the defenders took on the cloud of fighters while the robotic probes rained down on the surface of the imperial ships. they stuck instantly and burned straight into the armor where they sat. Many chose to settle right on the weapons of the star ships.
These were not mining ships but weapons. they operated at a higher temperature, more intense push into the surface, and the escaping gasses was driven using fields. No need to correct for accumulations within the tubes.
since they were pure boring devises, not homes, not designed for anything other than this one job, they were small. Instead of two tubes, the burners were on the outside of the suction tube. Also, once the bore went all the way through, a charge was injected into the space inside, these would blow with intense energy, spreading the damage faster.
the imperial ships take to firing at each other at any jets they see, trying to destroy the probes. It looks funny the way they seam like they are fighting each other rather than the defenders.
While this is going on, The miners are revamping their ships to what the star system came up with.
the miners see a hole in the defenses of the imperial ships. It is something only a manned ship can do. They go into the weak spot and connect. there are vents in there, and they extend the vent tubes to go into those vents. The instant the miners start boring in, the hot debris is sent back into the ship. It is not visible from outside.
they bore into the shielding. they are not noticed until they are almost through. before then, the exhaust is knocking systems out and causing all sorts of problems inside, and they are not sure why it is happening. It is only the vibrations that tell them that something is going on outside.
The other ships keep trying to hit the area but it is well protected and they are guessing where they are to hit.
A couple mining ships are destroyed. Because of the venting, when they explode, they send intense energies into the vent system.
the mining ships break through, wait a long moment, then release instantly. they leave the tubes in place, and fly off.
the jets from the vent and the bore burn out. Other ships see the evidence and concentrate their fire on those locations, sometimes igniting the expanding gasses that had already cooled.
The ships went nova one by one. the defenders made sure nothing could get far from the star ships, and nothing escaped the balls of energy
The empire was stopped. Other star systems came forward, to free captured star systems. they used a version of the boring system on other star ships.
the mining colony rebuild their mining fleet, adding modifications they worked out in the battle. they also had sensory data on the shielding and added a coating of that over their ships inside and outside. It was better than what they had used. Of course, it was thin so it would not protect against impact, but would protect against high energies.
The mining colony moved out, found another interstellar asteroid belt and started mining and shipping materials to other star systems, aiding in their rebuilding.
What other peoples did not know, was that the mining colony was century old. They had run across attacks like this many times and their ships were really war ships, designed just for that defense, but used for mining between the times.