February 2010 Writing Ideas
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There is no way I can write 365+ publishable stories in a year, let alone one. I started on 12 stories last year and wrote "the end" on four of them. None are written to a publishable level.
Back on Prodigy Classic in December 1997, I posted some story ideas I could not use. I soon found the story ideas flowing fast. I've posted nearly all the ideas I could come up with, including those I hoped to eventually use.
I follow the belief that if 20 people wrote from the same story idea, we would have 20 different stories. This is why I don't worry about using the stories later myself. Since then, I've learned that many people simply enjoy just reading these posts, even if they do not write.
The way I work is, I come up with a basic concept that is seldom more than a paragraph. I then write these presentations to show what can be done with the concepts, Usual by spinning a story around it, or by explaining what is behind the concept so someone can base their story on that.
I don't want these ideas to go to waste and hope that others might convert them into published pieces. I hold these ideas to be Public Domain (free to use). They can be used in any form you choose. I hope you can use them profitably, but if not, at least enjoy reading these posts. Let me know if you make use of any of them. That is like a pat on the back and gives me an added incentive to keep this up (Like I really need it....).
I usually post about Four books worth pure drivel each year in these idea posts. This is my Thirteenth year of posting these story ideas. What they say is true. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Developed ideas are like gold. These are not fully developed...
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01 )
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His ship ran into problems and he was forced to evacuate. He loaded his escape pod with all it could carry and ejected.
A week later, he landed on a planet that seamed to be wilderness. He brought the pod down on the surface of a small lake and misjudged how much stopping power the water would provide. the pod came to a stop and sunk about forty feet from the shore. Only the upper escape hatch was out of the water.
He used the rubber raft to get his equipment to shore before nightfall. His plan was to try and drag the pod to more shallow water the next day since it was sitting a little higher in the water.
That night a thunder storm hit. Water washed into the floor of his tent. He ended up moving as much of his stuff, especially the light stuff, over to the nearby forest and out of the water.
By dawn, all but some pieces of heavy equipment that would not wash away and would not be damaged by water, was left. He looked over the lake and the pod was not visible. He went out in the rubber raft and found the pod deeper in the water. He also saw he forgot to close the hatch so it sunk like a rock when it filled with water.
A month later, he had something that was a cross between a small log cabin and a large outhouse as his home. It was seated on a high spot near the stream that fed the lake.
He had a real outhouse, out back. He now lived off the land, finding, using sensors, what could be used as food and for medicine.
The Gabbles did their chant and moved the entry to their caves. they headed down the tunnel and through the magical portal. they got near the surface and found it blocked. They could not get through. they dug and scraped and could not get through. they returned, irritated, confused and angry.
they had to wait a full week for the time to be right. they did their chant and the entry relocated and opened.
they got to the surface and immediately sent scouts to find out what blocked their last entry. they found the shack sitting on top the knoll. They got angry and their leader riled them up even more. there was no reason as to why they should be trapped in their caves for a whole week. they mustered an army and marched to the area. Early, before dawn, they sparked a series of fires surrounding the cabin. They then slipped back to their hole, satisfied they had eliminated the intruder.
He woke and smelled smoke. he went outside, thinking that he had left his cooking fire going. He saw the fire surrounding him. the fires were almost up to him on one side of the building. He ran in a panic, across the fire, and dove in to the stream.
As he bobbed up to the surface, he saw little people in armor, Kill it kill it." A voice yelled.
He wondered how he understood the words. A spear splashed next to his head. He dove under the water and swam. beneath the surface out to the lake. He came up for air and was missed by three spears, and dove again. when he finally came up to the surface, he knew he was out of range of the spears. He oped they did not have any other weapons. He watched as his cabin collapsed in a shower of sparks. All his belongings, all his equipment went up in flames. He had nothing and also had enemies for some reason.
After they were gone and the fire was out, he dug through the debris. A few bits of metal, a coil of wire that was once around a spool. He found his communicator. The weather proof case was brittle, but the communicator survived. The antenna was dead, though.
He later saw the little people in another area, digging around. He followed and watched them, He saw them disappear into a tunnel. A while later, the tunnel disappeared. Other than their little footprints, there was no sign of the tunnel.
A few more times, he noticed that there was always thunder and lightning when ever the tunnel showed up. Several times, they found him and attacked, but he could move faster than they could, running away quite easily. They usually surrounded their prey and hacked it up. He learned to be on his feet and moving any time there was thunder.
He was setting up his antenna in the new location. He had the wire tied to a set of wooden poles to stick up in the air. He went to his tent to get his communicator when he heard thunder. He came out quickly, and started breaking camp. He was rolling up his tent when lightning hit the pole.
He stood is shock, realizing he must have lost his antenna. He ran over to the pole and found his wire piled on the ground. The pole was gone and there was a burn mark on the ground. This happened to be a natural storm. He was getting some ideas, though.
A while later, he heard the lightning and when his camp was picked up and on his back, the little people showed up. He glanced around for the way to escape. then remembered his antenna was still up. He ran over to the pole and grabbed it. He pocketed his communicator and ran through the soldiers, using the pole to knock them out of the way.
He saw their tunnel and felt the hair stand up on the back of his head. He shoved the pole into the tunnel and dove away. He was nearly deaf as the lighting hit the pole.
He gathered his wire and ran. He watched as the army returned to their tunnel and went inside. they did not come out.
He now had his method of dealing with the army. When he heard the lighting, he would gather his pole and then find the tunnel. The pole would go into the tunnel, lighting would find the pole and the army would stop spreading out, returning to the hole.
This was a war between them. They attacked him often and he fought back. Many times, he would run around their battle lines, get behind them and strike at their tunnel. His speed gave him an advantage. There were times where he had to go through their lines. He had pin sores all over his body and he gained more new ones than those that healed. His clothing always had dried blood on it. He was not in good physical condition because of all the wounds.
Finally, He hear the lighting, and moved to find the tunnel. He found it, thinking the soldiers were elsewhere. He got near and soldiers streamed out of the hole, more soldiers appeared from the surrounding grass, they had been laying down.
He was going to have to fight them to ether escape or to attack the tunnel.
"The leader stepped forward. Your pole keeps killing our families in the tunnel." it pointed at the tunnel, then at him. "Why do you keep killing us?"
He relaxed. For once they were talking.
"You started it." He said as he pointed to the leader. "You burned my home and attacked me." and have never left me alone." His pole was level to the ground. There was lightning over head and the army flinched. "You should have expected retaliation when you failed to kill me."

02 )
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The city was having an ice sculpture competition. Artists and craftsmen from all over, arrived and got to work, shaping ice into all sorts of shapes. masters competed for bragging rights, beginners were able to learn from the masters, sometimes taking what was learned back to their own crafts and art. Teams worked to try and out do each other, while individuals competed to see how much they could do in a given time. The end result was that the area was a site to behold.
They had palaces of ice, candles with colored glass and colored ice, provided pretty shades to the ice.
Creatures and animals of all kinds scattered the area along with around the displays. Real and fantasy creatures abounded. some were crude, some were masterful.
Bacchus, the god of wine, had imbibed too much on his spirits. he was totally drunk. He passed through the ice sculpture display long after all the candles had gone out. He came to an ice maiden. And gave her a kiss. she did not move. That bothered him. He then realized she was not alive, but was ice. he breathed into her mouth, breathing life into her, bringing her awake.
a while later, he lost interest in her, and having drank some more, went around kissing and breathing life into every ice sculpture around.
That morning the people were waken to Animals, monsters, people, characters, wandering around. Many lived up to their design and reputation.
The people soon learned that they could shatter the creatures and they could melt them too. The dangerous creatures were fought and destroyed. Thee rest of the winter, they hunted down and destroyed the ice creatures. Some of the ice creations were no problem and were kept in a safe area.
Spring came and the ice creations melted to nothing, good and bad, None survived.
The next winter, the ice sculpture competition was held again. they figured it was something strange about the moment that caused the creatures to come alive. the fair went on as planned and everybody was having fun.
It was nearing the time to break down the ice city. The candles had burned out for the night and Bacchus showed up again. He was not tipsy this time, but had a lot of fun watching the people deal with the creations that had come alive. He breathed life into the creatures again and left.
the people woke to the same problem they had the previous year. this time, with experience, they knew how to deal with the creations. Many had some preparation for the event. The creations were dealt with fairly quickly.
the third year, the organizers suggested a rule for the creators, to hamper their creations a little. It was a special competition they had this time.
One man created a lion and had a ring going through the jaws so it could not open the mouth. He even carved mittens on the feet so the claws would not be able to be used.
Another made a horse with the hind legs facing backwards. If it tried to run, it would not be able to, the legs would be working against each other.
Some created chains around their creatures. A large dragon had a dozen spears running through it. People had no legs, sealed in blocks, They made sure nothing would go anywhere.
Bacchus came by this time to have his fun. He saw what they had done. He had to have his fun anyway, breathing life into everything there.
Some of the creatures were not hampered Others came alive and were stuck where they were. the dragon woke, felt the spears in it, and died.
Chains rattled, creatures could not run. the lion batted its muzzle with the integral mittens, trying to get to the ring so it could rampage.
that morning, the people woke. they had a whole lot less to deal with and was able to handle it faster.
Bacchus visited the next two years. the artists got good at keeping anything from moving around or causing trouble. He lost interest and went on his way.
it would take several decades before realistic creatures became the norm again. Bacchus found other interests to occupy himself so he never bothered returning to have fun.

03 )
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The robots were five stories tall and had a pilot inside. They would enter an arena and fight, Karate style for entertainment.
They always had a limited amount of power so part of the competition was to take out the opponent before their batteries died. the fights were wild and the matches were spectacular.
The real match was to carry the defeated opponent onto a sacrificial platform and place a statue on the chest or back, then leave the battle grounds before the opponent found a way to shake the statue off. Few fights ever go that far. Usually, the competitors are fairly equally matched.
There were video games that taught the methods, fight simulators where one is inside what appears to be a real machine. then there are progressively larger machines. They were all designed to train the fighters, and to weed out those who have not talent.
No one ever knew how he did it, Samuel did not even know. He had just became champion in his division, in his class. He did not have the personality, or apparent skills to be that good. He simply was the last one standing in every fight.
The prize for his win was the chance to fight a professional fight, a fight against a champion contender. For the contender, this was a warm up fight, to have some punches thrown at them without worry of defeat.
It was never a fair fight, but some prize winners went out to be great professional fighters. One part of the prize, is that the winner of the fight got to fight in the next level, and then, if win, fight for the championship.
It was common for the pilots to be driven around everywhere, even lifted to the highest level of the entry of the robot, rather than having to climb to the top.
Samuel never had that kind of money. He got onto his bicycle and rode across the tarmac to the robot for a training session. It was late night so he had the generator against his tire to provide the lights he needed to see where he was going. Efficiency of the generator and lights gave him the same amount of light a real transport would have.
He pulled up to his machine. No one would be on the grounds for a while. Most only got into their machines when they had to. They were too important to actually have to work. Technicians set up their machines.
Samuel hooked his bicycle over his shoulder and started climbing up one of the legs. The bike was too big to fit into the elevator in the leg. He had to climb on the outside. The ladder he used would be retracted when the machine started moving and dropped down later.
As he climbed, he checked for damage. This was not a new machine and had survived many fights. The owner had retired long ago. Dents, dings, scuffs and cracks covered the surface. Each was repaired so it would still be allowed to fight.
He brought his bicycle inside the three floor cabin. He looked over every piece of machinery. The battery was new, connectors were there for plugging in axillary power. manual controls, electronics. He made sure the screens all worked. he checked the mounts that held the floors in place and then finally checked the pilot's controls. Simulator tests at the pilot's station and the emergency controls, worked perfectly. He could move the machine exactly as he was used to, based on what he was used to.
He locked his bike to the frame near the battery. the first time he was in one of these machines, he was told to lock the bike there, and always did it since.
He started the robot completely. It was still on power supplied by the stand that held it up. He went through the sequence to withdraw everything, the power was the last disconnected. He turned the lights on and started the machine walking, his swinging his legs in the harness.
He got out to the practice field, an abandoned super air port landing field. He started his exercises once he reached the far corner, deep, slow motion moves, practicing balance, seeing what moves can and cannot be done, gaining the feel of the robot.
When he finished a set of forms, he then did them fast. he then went to the second form.
He watched his power use, seeing if he can time the depletion of the batteries.
Five dozen Others showed up, their transports lifting them to the pilot decks and they go in. Almost to a man, they started moving within about five minutes and moved the machines away from the stands without unplugging. Three did unplug bit they rushed the start up even faster.
The entire pack almost ran onto the practice field. Half did some forms, but did them too fast and only did a few. The rest half heartedly practiced the forms and then stood around in their machines. the coaches told them to pair off and spar, practice fighting moves.
One low level fighter had been driven out to Samuel's corner. The fighter was actually older and more experienced, but he acted like he was much younger. Samuel made the youngster do the ritual before the fight. That complete, the youngster attacked.
Samuel easily handled the youngster and gave directions on how to fight better, keep hands in closer, block the elbows, all the stuff any fighter would be teaching each other. Seeing a reduction in his power, he gave the youngster a hard push. the youngster walked backwards on an angle until he caught his balance and gained control.
"You are doing well." Samuel said. "It is time to go to the next exercise.
The group merged into one area and they did group exercises. Samual tried the exercises in a different style he had learned, one that required balance and a good feel for the machine.
Several of the fighters complained that they were getting low power signals. they never set their power output any place other than high. They had set their machines to maximum fighting settings and that sapped energy fast. They were also not moving efficiently.
One by one, the robots filed back to the stands. When the coach sent the rest back to the stands. Samuel reached his stand, got himself exactly in position and went through the steps to plug back in.
the others got near the stands and essentially leaped out of the cab the moment their rides arrived. It would take a technician to relocate the robot and get it all plugged in again.
Samuel made the power plug in as the last act. he did that to see what the true power capacity of the robot was. He had half a percent of power left.
He hooked his bike over his shoulder and climbed all the way down to the ground. Working the robot was tough. he was taught to set the resistance to be difficult, yet comfortable. that made sure he would have a true feel of what the robot was able to do. Others tended to set the resistance to almost nothing and then wonder why they cannot control the machine.
The crews arrived and were complaining about the condition of the machines. those that went up to the cabs found big messes the fighters left.
Samuel told the head of repair, that he would stay so they could berate him on what he did to their machine. They made a few suggestions, but thanked him for his care of his machine.
Most at the level of fighting he was in, had enough money to buy a dozen machines. They were more into the status one gained by being a pilot, than anything.
After a week of this, Samuel had his chance for his one big fight. He was ready for this. This was his one big chance. He wondered if the loser's winnings would give him enough to repair his machine.
The cameras were everywhere, even inside the machines. He bicycled across the tarmac to the robot. he was climbing up the torso of the machine when someone below ordered him to get down. he ignored the man and kept climbing, he was almost up to the decks anyway.
At the top, he could see several men get into a transport. He figured they were coming to get him. He shrugged and unlocked the hatch and entered. He closed the hatch behind him and hung his bike. On the camera, he saw the transport come almost to the robot, then turn back. only the pilot and technicians had keys to get in.
He went through his start up, running the simulator for a complete fight, then shut the simulator down. He then ran through the entire system, making sure everything was ready. transports showed up at the other robots There would be several under card fights first.
Their robots went into motion and went onto the field. they fought to an end, usually one robot standing, but dead in power. That was the winner. One fight ended with both laying down, one on top the other. The one on top was declared the winner.
A dozen transports flew up to a brightly painted robot. It was so new, there was no scuffs on it. That was his competitor. One transport actually docked to allow the pilot on board. Two technicians entered with him.
"Time to move in." the instructions came over the speaker.
Samuel disconnected his robot. Technicians calling out what was disconnected, pulling the cables out of the way. The power was the very last. he then strolled very efficiently out to the arena. Every movement was using as little energy as possible. He had a copy of the broadcast on screen and he was being ridiculed for not coming out like a fighter.
The champion came out with energy, ready to fight. they faced each other, then the fight started.
Samuel approached slowly, At the very last moment, he attacked like a whirlwind. The fight was more jarring than anything he ever had been involved in, but he kept his concentration on the fight. The resistance of the controls gave him some stability, he was not flying around everywhere. they knocked each other down quite a few times, but they kept getting up to fight more. they both backed off, waiting for the other to get up. Samuel was happy this was a fair fight.
They were both running out of energy. Samuel dragged the other robot down, his hand jammed into a joint and gripping with everything he had. the other machine went limp, then his did. Lights were out. He wrapped a strap around the hand controls to maintain the grip. he climbed down to the batteries and looked for any spare batteries. He did not have much time. he bumped the peddle of his bike and the lights went on for a moment. he then got an idea. He locked his bike upright next to the controls. He moved the generator to the back wheel and made sure that wheel was raised up. he had very little time left. he then ran wires to the generator from the battery.
He checked over all the controls, then started peddling. At first nothing was happening, then a light came on. It did not take long for him to have power. He made sure the controls were not in simulator settings, then slowly raised the body until the crouching legs were beneath the machine. He then made it stand up. The broadcast showed that people were gasping, Even this would have him the winner.
His machine standing, the other robot hanging from the dangling arm, He guided the robot in a way so the other robot dragged behind him. It was hard work. He was peddling hard and working control arms with his hands.
He reached the platform. He could not work the arm this way so he had to stop and think a moment. He then stepped around the platform, with the other robot behind him. He then dragged it up, just by his forward movement, onto the platform. He turned it until it laid properly on the slab.
Samuel ran up to the controls and removed the ties to the hand control. He fond he could work the arm from there and pull it free. He then went back below and started peddling, working the leg controls until he had the robot facing the statue. Another run up stairs gave him the grip of the statue. A couple more runs up and down, he lifted the arm onto the other robot. Finally he walked the robot away and across the field.
he was exhausted when he reached the stand. He got it as close to position with the controls he had, and stopped peddling.
He undid his setup, reset the generator where it belonged and pushed his bike out the door onto the bent up platform. technicians and officials met him at the door. No one knew how he did it but he did it, but he beat the one who was thought to be the greatest champion. What they did not know was that his conserving energy gave him the advantage at the end of the battle, and his bicycle gave him the actual win.
He fought a couple dozen fights before he retired undefeated. All in the same machine. He was the champion really because he knew how to manage energy, knew how to use his machine, and was in excellent physical condition. Those were things that few others could claim.

04 )
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The gods knew it was impossible for someone to live forever. there would be situations where a person could not escape. Cavenish was given a billion lives. if he is careful, he can live to be three hundred before his body gave out. He became whole again if he was killed.
Cavenish tried to be careful, but it was violent times, Animals and people were quick to kill. He seldom lived past a hundred years. In every case, he lived longer than most people did.
As he lived, he gained experience and skills. He could not remember everything that happened in his life, but he remembered enough to be able to re-learn them fairly quickly, even if he had not done the task for a couple lifetimes.
Thousands of years had passed. He had taken care of his body, taken care of his lives. He knew he was half way to the end of time. He wanted a couple thousand lives so he could out-last that event and join the gods. If he lived as he had so far, he would have more than enough lives to serve him.
People developed technology, the gods were forgotten, He was not even sure if they still existed, possibly outliving them. They could, of course, be outside time so forgetting them would not harm them. He never really knew.
He learned the new technologies and continued to blend in with the people around him. There were some peoples he never blended in with. their facial features or skin colors never matched his. In those areas, he kept traveling, learning here and there new things.
Gunpowder was finally invented, and the weapons started getting more plentiful and deadlier. He had to be alert at all times. He was polite and gentle, so he would less draw the anger of others. It did not always work.
A world war broke out. The police grabbed him and he was sent off into the army. He knew he was in trouble when they had guns that fired rapidly, machine guns.
His force was ordered forward. He took his rifle and followed orders, charging into battle. they took out several machine gun emplacements with no problems, usually using the bodies of those in front of them to get them closer.
the last one was well positioned. Cavenish charged up with the rest of them. bullets flew everywhere. Soldiers fell fast all around him. He moved as he learned against walls of arrows, dodging and ducking, stopping a moment, then charging up, only to step back.
He was nearly to the gun when the machine gun caught him in the chest. A dozen bullets entered him. He fell. He came back alive, moved, and more bullets hit him.
Time after time, he would move a little and be shot. He suddenly got angry. His buffer of lives was disappearing fast. He leaped up with a grenade in his hand, his hand clenched so it would not come out. he made a dozen feet before he was chopped down. He came alive and pulled the pin on the grenade. He was shot again. When he came alive, he put his arm behind him then died. Finally, He flung the grenade. he died again. The grenade exploded in their faces. the shooting stopped.
Cavenish grabbed another grenade and got his hand behind him before he was shot again. He flung it. He then leaped forward and this time dropped a grenade over the sand bag wall. The emplacement was gone. he gathered his rifle and headed up the hill. It would be a while before soldiers would catch up to him. By then, the enemy was running in a panic, getting mowed down by a machine gun that Cavenish got his hands on.
Cavenish never bothered to wait for the squads to catch up to him. He entered the forests and hunted the enemy, shooting them as a sniper.
He was killed twice more before the war ended with his side winning. by then he had slipped out the other side of the country and disappeared.
Now he was especially careful of his lives. He had lost so many lives that he was not sure he would last to the end of time. Now it was critical to keep his body till it wore out due to old age.

05 )
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The High Lords took over the colony with their superior technology. The high lords had a dozen eyes around their heads, where they can see without turning their heads. Their heads never moved anyway, not having a neck.
The high lords had great intellect, their young children able to do calculus in their heads. The humans, on the other hand, were dumb animals that somehow developed technology.
The high lords felt sorry for these swivel headed primitives and decided to train them to be high lords, see if their minds could handle the education and training.
Food machines were set up in every home so the population need not move around. They could spend more time learning and training. The colonists were very slow. The high lords moved in with each family. This gave the high lords a place to live and it gave the primitives a resident teacher.
Of course, many people had to work, to do things to keep the colony operating, utility maintenance, repair people, doctors, manufacturing, delivery. Others had to be at a central location so others can get in touch with them.
The high lords rode with each driver. Their purpose was to help train them to be more like high lords, but they really were there to make life miserable for the working people.
Chucky was checking overhead power lines. He needed to be looking up to see where the break was reported. Every time he turned his head to look, the high lord slapped the back of his head and told him to straighten up.
Chucky knew he was just past the problem area. He stomped on the breaks, bringing the truck to a stop. The high lord bounced off the back of the seat.
Chucky then hit his seat belt, popped open the door, and dove out. He was outside and out of reach before the high lord could react. His head swivelled rapidly, scanning the wires. He spotted the broken wire, half a block down.
The high lord crawled out of the truck, stiffly. Chucky backed away, staying out of reach, turning his head while watching for traffic
"What is the matter with you? You are supposed to keep your neck stiff!"
"How many eyes to you have?
"Twelve."
"How many eyes to I have?"
"Being such low creatures, you only have two."
"What happens if you cannot see out of one eye?"
"We cannot live like that."
"You know how we see around ourselves when we have two eyes?" Chucky then turned his head over the range. He then looked the high lord straight in the face and moved his eyes up and down, side to side. "Unlike you, good high lord, We can glimpse, identify and analyze what we see in just a glance, so we do not have to stare at one thing all the time to understand it."
"Your people have had many accidents before we arrived. We are correcting that."
"No, good high lord, We have had more accidents since you arrived than before, and there are less cars on the road than there were then. Our accidents are now caused by the fact that we cannot see anything."
"Get in the truck. we have to find the break.
"With all your eyes, you cannot see the broken wire?"
The high lord had no clue what he was looking at. "No."
"See that tree with the white flowers?"
"Yes"
"Look to the next pole."
"Ah!" I see it now."
"how do you suggest we back the truck to there?"
"We drive backwards."
"how do we see where we are going?"
The high lord looked at the human who turns his head, twisted his body so he could look behind him.
The high lord backed off on his stiff neck routine with Chucky and his people.
Each person was a one by one training session with the high lords. The high lords, if they swapped people, had to be retrained all over again. The high lords looked at the situation as for that person and no one else.
Wilma was heading to a law office to file some papers. She knew she was getting hear the place. She turned her head to look to the left for the street sign to know where she was. She was to turn that way.. She got hit on the back of her head. "Look ahead." She passed a road. looked to see the sign to see if she was to turn. Again she got hit,
She made a guess as to where to turn. She made another turn and knew she was not where she needed to be. She slowed down to pull to the side of the road and was struck and told to keep going They had an appointment.
About an hour later, they were out in the middle of nowhere. her engine sputtered and came to a stop. They were out of gas.
"it became an argument between them over her not continuing and where they were. She told him to call his people to come and get them. He said he had no idea where they were.
they sat there for about four hours, arguing the entire time when a truck came and pulled over. The truck driver had already trained his High lord. The three of them worked to train her high lord. They got help to gas her car up and a mechanic drove them back to civilization, she was directly behind the mechanic so the high lord could not strike him for how he was driving.
Dilbert was a martial arts instructor. Part of the training of his students was to be able to fight effectively without seeing. His school was closed, but he showed up to train every day. he told the high lords that it was a religious dance, and he did all his forms really slow.
He learned that the high lords tended to commit suicide when they lost an eye. Any reduction of their vision was a problem for them. they could not handle it.
As he did his forms, the high lord kept telling him to keep his head facing forward and Dilbert explained that the head movements were part of the religious dance and cannot be removed. it was always a point of contention.
His high lord finally got so frustrated that he struck Dilbert. Dilbert's reaction was to lay the high lord down, hard. it took a bit for the high lord to wake up and get up. The enforcers arrived the next day. they slipped a hood over Dilbert's head. For the high lords, covering their eyes made them utterly helpless.
Dilbert had practiced many years on how to fight without seeing. Not going lightly, he used his training. No vision at all, he laid out the enforcers. He then slipped off the hood and looked at his high lord, who stood there in shock. "We are the superior beings, high lord. We can act without vision, if needed. he then slipped the hood over the high lord. "If you wish to fight now, you may."
he called his students and told them how to beat the high lords. At night, cut the power off and take them out when they cannot see.
His students were now free of their high lords. The high lords were shocked when the power went off in the entire city. A couple technicians turned the system off. The high lords depended on continuous light. they were blind, and helpless.
In two days, the high lords were neutralized. having to deal with the darkness and not knowing how the primitive system worked, they could not bring the lights up.
The high lords were rounded up, taken to the prison, and put into their cells. Their food machines were installed and the lights were turned out.
Tests found what types of light the high lords could not see, dark red, so the place was lit for the colonist guards with the dark lights.
The high lord equipment was taken, reverse engineered and copied. the high lords were finally released, taken to their ships and sent on their way. If they returned, they would not have the advantage they once had. the colonists would be more than happy to turn off the lights for the high lords again.
The high lords would not return. The very concept of a creature that could see without eyes, was something beyond their comprehension.

06 )
.
The scouts found a Moon with good mineral readings. As they orbited the moon, Anomaly alarms went off. Detectors reported an unnatural shape. It had all the hallmarks of being created, unnatural. The material it was made from, the shape of the place, the fact that it was mostly hollow demanded it be investigated.
On the next pass, the ship dropped down to the surface, landing nearby to the structure. Visually from this distance, it obviously was created, not natural.
The building was a square dome with buttresses reaching to the top of the dome in thin, graceful arches. they checked the material up close. Concrete. No other material would give this reading. there was no steel within it for reinforcing, but did not need it because it nearly matched the strongest concrete known to the scouts.
The windows were open, no glass. They found a square on the wall that resembled a door. A light push and the door swung open A tug on the edge showed it weighed literally a ton, but swung as if it weighed a pound. Perfectly balanced.
They obviously were in the basement. concrete pipes ran all over the place at the ceiling. One of the scouts grew up on a planet. He pointed out a water heater, a heating boiler, electric panel. They were all out of concrete. he reached up and turned the knob on a valve. it actually turned. Nothing happened, but it turned. He returned it to the original setting.
They headed in. They came to a room filled with concrete paddles balanced on fulcrums with rods going up through the floor. On each fulcrum was a square weight carefully placed. A light touch on one and it bounced down sightly, then rocked back. A touch to a few others shoed that they had different pressures required to get them to move. They did not move anything other than those experiments.
Many of the rods ran right through paddles above them, running through slots. Each rod went through the ceiling with just a few inches between them.
They found stairs, but explored the basement some more. They found three more of those weighted assemblies. Every piece had a fine finish and was made of the same concrete found everywhere.
On the second floor, it looked and felt like a home. Some form of entertainment box with what used to be called rabbit ears.
A kitchen with chairs around a dinning room table. Whoever this was for, was narrower than the scouts were in their space suits. One guy said the stove had to be a gas stove based on the ring with fine holes in it.
The door of the refrigerator was concrete, but was balanced for easy opening and it self closed. Concrete cannot make fine wire, so there were big bars inside and several items that looked like vegetables and packaged foods.
Cabinets even opened to reveal concrete boxes of food. None had any markings on them.
They moved through the living room. The sofa and chair were solid concrete and had no give, as expected. they viewed inside a restroom. While each piece was recognizable for what they were used for, none of them were of a design anybody had seen. Each scout was recording their views.
they finally enter a bedroom. the beds were made of concrete of course, but made of squares. One of the scouts touched the surface of the bed and was shocked it gave. A bit more testing and they found it acted like springs.
One of them sat down gently on the bed, then laid down flat. She rolled over to her side, then onto her back. "The bed is like a spring bed.
"I wonder how they accomplished this?" asked another
One of them laid down on his belly beside the bed and looked. "The bed support is made up with rods."
The one on the bed pushed down on a couple of the squares.
"The squares are the top of the rods. They are supported by the weights below. They made a spring bed out of concrete!!!"
"I never knew that could be done."
She rolled off the bed and back to her feet. they found three more bed rooms.
She noticed that there were picture frames on the walls. It was then that they noticed that the lower part of the walls resembled wains coating, and there were base boards and moldings around the doors.
Whoever made this put in a whole lot of time in building this place.
they headed down stairs and outside again. they were going to head back, when the leader said they needed to walk around the entire place, just to be sure.
Around the corner of the main part of the building, they found a garage door that was extremely large. it was not even as small as for a fighter. A door beside it let them inside the building, which was built into the hill. It was detected but did not set off any signals.
Inside they found a space ship. The rear bore blackening and bluing from a drive failure. The pointed nose was bent on the end.
"The main antenna was damaged"
They sent views of the ship to their ship, the ship sent data to headquarters. they found the entry of the ship. it was still pressurized. Most of the team would remain outside, while three of them would head in.
The air lock held two people. One would stay in the air lock as it pressurized and depressurized. One went into the ship and waited, until the third got into the air lock and then into the ship.
The suit lights were the only illumination. That was all right, they were used to moving in dark ships and corridors.
The ship had a fairly primitive design. Everything visible was recognizable. It was not a luxury ship, very practical. Dodging a pipe here and there was necessary.
all three headed to the center of the ship where the control room would be. Being in the center, it would be best protected from whatever happened on board.
Inside, they found a humanoid form, It was long dead, dried out. they did not recognize the form, but knowing thousands of intelligent species, they could tell that it was old when it died. The ship power was dead. One of them looked at the systems on the back of the control room and found a connector for applying power to the ship. Searching through the lockers, they found a plug that matched. She cut the wire and plugged it into the socket. She then took a connector for her suit and cut the wire and connected the two bare ends together. She then turned the power on from her suit.
Ten minutes later, after carefully watching the readings on her suite, the ship sparked to life. Just the control room was charged now.
checking over the system, they found a recording with the pilot on it. they used a scan to peal off data from the data chips, and they also used the ship's system to copy the entire data, backing it up, onto data disks.
The had no idea what the characters were, but the screens were logical and easy to follow. without reading anything, they were able to get copies of everything.
they located a portable reading device and took that. so researchers can read the data.
finally, she unplugged her suit and let the system power down again. they left the ship, closing everything up,
they went home immediately. they had something of value to their company.
It turned out that the dead one was an inventor who created his own star ship while others were not barely exploring the planets.. he explored the stars. He then ran into drive problems and landed on the planet. He had sent communications out but they were not received (broken antenna). Stuck on the planet, he found the materials for concrete, drilling beneath the surface to find water, and he built the house completely out of concrete. when he knew he was dying, he returned to his ship to wait to be found.

07 )
.
I love thrift shops and yard sales. You never know what you will find and you sometimes find things that aren't what they seem.
The world had gone to the new communications bands. a general static was sent out around the world at a quantum wavelength, and the signals were then sent up to ride on that signal. All other communications signals were no longer used by other than emergency and military communications.
The new communications system had a thousand times the band width and excellent security as long as you were not the one sending out the static. the static generators knew the actual pattern of the static and one simply deletes the static from the signal coming in and one can read everything as if they were written on billboards. Since it was the government running the static generators, no one really cared.
The old communications equipment, phones, televisions, radios, remote controls, all received static now, that jammed those bands. Using the quantum signaling system, the broadcast bands were still used for communications, it is just that one has to pick the signal out of the static.
One effect of the new system, was that people were slowly unloading old equipment, most of it ending up in the garbage but some stuff were offered for sale.
Cosworth had a bunch of old recording devices and media. Vinyl records, 8 tract tapes, cassettes, VHS tapes, CDs, DVDs floppy disks of various sizes, and so on following the advance of technology. he could set up a museum if he could find a place to set up and make it interesting enough for someone to see. He did not have the place or the skills.
since the signal changes, he was looking for various equipment he could make use of. Right now he was after a television he could plug his tape and disk equipment into.
He entered a thrift store and was looking around. He leaned over a plush chair to look at some figurines of dogs playing in a band, He dodged the lamp shade of a lamp as tall as he was. He bent down to look at some children's toys.
He went around the store and ran across a couple portable televisions. they were outdated before he was born because the signal they were designed to pick up had been giving over to phone communications. he picked one up, the simplest device, battery compartment on the bottom for a size no longer found. It had a plug in for power from cars, but no plug for wall sockets.
He set it down. One counter sized television recently outdated, a knee high unit that was missing the cord, and a thin wall mounted unit that had a converter box with it for the new signals. Cosworth considered the last one, but then decided he did not need it. It was not what he was after. He already had a good unit for the new system.
He was about to leave when he saw another portable unit. He picked it up, It had many connections in the back. He recognized most of them. He had not seen that many different types of plug-ns in one unit. It had wall power, battery power and car power. There was a box with it for attaching modern power systems to it. he looked at it for a full five minutes, then finally picked up the plastic wash bin it was in.
He walked out with a bit thinner wallet, but he got a good price for it.
At home, He tests it out. The screen came on so it took power. He set it to accessory and plugged in a music CD player to it. It sounded good for such a small unit. He then plugged into a video machine. He got a good picture from it. That would serve him well.
He got a bit curious about what else it did. He extended the antenna and turned it on. He then scrolled slowly through the signal band. There was a six position switch on top. He figured he would get different tones of static. he nearly jumped when a broadcast station came in. He watched it and realized that it was not normal broadcasts. It was a government channel.
It was bed time before he finished going through the signal bands. He had heard top secret signals, and general communications. He checked and all these signals were on old communications wave bands.
this unit allowed him to know exactly what was going on with the government. What the public saw, and what the government saw, were two different things. If the public knew just what he saw and heard, they would be up in arms.

08 )
.
The colony population was prosperous. They also had a lot of criminals that was shipped with them, dumped by the home world. The city surrounded the bay, and had filled most of the flat lands. Farmlands and industry intermixed all around, breaking each other up enough to where each community could support themselves with what they had.
Being prosperous, they decided they needed a new prison. removing old prisons would free up some lands for farming, industry, and development. It would be made impervious to escape or entry. It would have enough land inside so the prisoners could grow enough food to support themselves.
It took their best engineering and data searches to create the prison to be inescapable. They tried to make as few compromises as possible. It was tough because some design requirements countered each other.
Their big problem was to choose where it would be. They finally decided that the prison would be built on top one of the nearby hills, the entire top would be sliced off to create the generally flat area the prison would need to operate.
As they surveyed the hill to choose the size they needed, they found that if they cut three hills to a given level, the prison wold cover all three. Then they decided that they did not need to cut off all the hill, just to a certain point, and leave some tree areas within the prison walls so they could make paper and other things they would need. The prison would be self sufficient.
Deciding not to fully level the hills made the job easier. they would first cut the edges of the hills to wall level and work in as they built.
They hit rock almost immediately and decided to incorporate the native rock in the design. the native rock was hit with high heat to melt, or weld, them together. they were then surfaced by the prison concrete. Using native rocks as a filler, they were able to make the outer walls twice the size as planned. They then cut the hills back farther to quarry the rock then needed
Once the walls were built they started building the prison itself, set in farther on the hills, at a higher elevation. Of course, they quarried the rock and coated it with prison concrete.
The prison finally was complete and the prisoners were sent in. the old prisons were torn down and the city returned to living.
the prisoners learned how to farm and ranch, and otherwise work the land. Since they were working for their living, they were made to work hard.
A good portion of the colony population was involved in the prison at some level or another. Since there was a whole lot less crime in town, the police spent a portion of their week in the prison as guards.
Many years passed and the crime in the city was really low and the prison was nearly self sufficient. Just a few supplies had to be brought in because the prisoners were not allowed the tools to supply their own.
An asteroid hit in the ocean. the tidal wave hit the city, almost lapping against the base of the prison at its highest before washing back out to sea.
the city was gutted, the population devastated. Salt in the land would make crops difficult to grow. Few machines survived. the survivors scrounged what they could from the devastation and gathered at the wall of the prison.
the prison warden looked over what was left and knew that the population would not survive for too long. There was no way the prisoners would live better than the general population. ordered every prisoner to be put into their cells. Every single one was accounted for and locked up.
The gates were opened and the people were brought in and taken to a side area that could be close doff. Nothing useful was left outside, including the tools to make the stuff that the prisoners were not allowed to make.
The prisoners were then taken out of their cells and marched outside and ordered to line up along the walls, evenly spaced out. male and female prisoners paired off at random.
The gates were closed when the last prisoner stepped out, and then the prisoners were told to march forward for a whole hour, not stopping. After an hour, they would know what they needed to do.
When the last prisoner disappeared from view of the prison, the guards came back in. The population was first to take their belongings out to the grounds, where the work would be done. they were then given their cells where they would live. large cells designed to hold several prisoners were given to families, small ones were given to pairs of people of the same sex, or couples with no children or a baby.
Once everybody was in place, the cells were closed shut. They had to live in there over night.
In the morning, the Warden told the population that he was in charge. His people were in charge. the people were sent out of the building and told to work. They had tools and equipment the prisoners did not have, and they were to make their living from the grounds of the prison.
the prisoners had walked their hour and looked around to figure out what to do. They were all surrounded by devastation. The only places not devastated were the tops of many hills.
The couples of criminals realized they had to hack their lives out of this devastation. Some couples fought, some got together peacefully, one or another took command.
The people had a head start and simply took over the farms of the prisoners. They would have the food and supplies to keep the population growing and living. they made blankets to provide privacy and adjusted to living in the prison cells under the watch of the guards.
Most of the prisoners sent out into the world, would parish, bands of criminals would develop and try to rule the land. Some areas would slowly develop into something that resembled civilization.
Eventually, the population in the prison would expand out into the world, but would use the prison as a fortress, a base, from which they could break the little kingdoms and gain control over the colony, to build a new civilization.
The prison would remain as a fortress from which civilization spread from should anything happen.

09 )
.
They knew there were a people on the planet before them. From what they could learn from archeological examinations of the sites they found, it was not set up as a permanently established colonization attempt. It was more like temporary work sites.
There was a lot of work of some kind, mostly like mining, but everywhere they found the sites, there was high quality, untouched minerals. If they were mining the planet, those sites would have been at least tapped for what was on the surface, if not deep inclusions.
They could also tell, by impressions on the ground, and bits of parts left around, that this was an expensive project and had been in place for a decade or more.
Images from space showed no signs of anything that resembled mines. It just did not fit the evidence. A mining company being on a planet for decades and not mining. just was not logical.
The planet had one strange effect. It was the singing mountains. they did not sing with words. deep tones rumbled through the air and ground, sometimes running through musical tones tunelessly, sometimes giving a beat, changing by the minute.
The singing mountains was a tiny bit bothersome, but the planet was otherwise perfect for the colony. the colony became fully established and spread slowly in the general area of the landing site.
After a time, the colony had grown enough to have research scientist and experimenters all who did not directly make anything, but aided in the growth of the colony's scientific and knowledge advancement.
At one public seminar about the latest research and request for new funding, the question came up about the cause of the singing mountains. The university got good funding to send an expedition to the mountains and discover why they sing.
Unlike the original explorers of old, These explorers had plenty of high technological advantages. Space based imaging picked out the best routes. While they were going by food to see the most about the land, their equipment for a month weighed less than a day's supplies of old. they also had communications with home and air ships could be sent to retrieve them if they ran into trouble.
They headed out, studying the native flora and fauna, examining whether there were inclusions of life brought with the colonists and how extensive.
As they got closer to the mountain, they heard more tones, and more varied tones. Each time they stopped for a break, they would report in to headquarters as to what they saw and what they found. Each night, the teams discussed their findings and plans. Some of what they discussed was how to handle certain terrains or animals they ran across. they also discussed what each was hearing of the mountains, since they were a couple hundred miles apart at the farthest. they would set pickups away from the camps and listen to the combined sounds from the mountains. They each heard something different, but it was all the same.
They finally reach the base of the mountains. this was when they realized they were actually hearing music. Not only that, some of the tunes were ones they heard in recordings from the home world.
The people at the university berated them for pranking them. One of the researchers suggested they fly out for a visit and hear for themselves. If they don't hear music, then they were pranked.
The university sent air cars to pick up the teams. Pranking the school was not acceptable.
the air cars arrived at each of the sites, the teams ready to climb in. they refused to get in, until the officials came out.
the officials came out of the air car at one site, spitting mad. The team started singing a song. The official told then to shut up. the team stopped singing and the official kept hearing the song. It took him a long minute to realize the song was actually coming from the mountains. He ordered the other officials to come out of their cars and listen.
Since they were next to the solid walls of the mountain, and to go higher, they would have to climb, it was decided the air cars would carry the teams up the mountain side, exploring where the sounds came from.
The ships lifted off the ground and followed the face of the mountain. Round caves were found all over the mountain. Each one was perfectly round. They did not stop to explore them, though, Instead, they continued up to see what they could find before the committed themselves. They found there was a breeze coming out the tubes when they passed directly in front of them. It was as if the mountain was hollow.
They got to the ridge of the mountain. They found the winds coming over the top from the other side of the mountain range. they stayed near the edge of the ridge. They got to one spot where the ship vibrated from the sounds. on the ridge was a straight in cut. it turned out to be bore hole, a tube, cut into the top of the ridge, a hundred feet in diameter. there were several other tubes nearby that were smaller. Each tube had a different tone.
The air car pulled far away from the mountain face, lifted high in to the air and went over the ridge. They came back down through the clouds and studied the face of the ridge on that side. The air entered tubes in the face of the other side of the ridge.
Back on the other side of the mountain, they found a tube big enough to hold the air car, like a hanger. They got out and walked inside. The tunnels reached large rooms, split off in different directions, some just met. they found that some small tubes, barely big enough for a person to crawl, would have air suddenly draw into them, and then the breeze would blow across a room.
They explored the mountain for several days. They got to the other side, and then came back. By then, the wind changed direction and was coming in from the side of the mountain of the colony. The tunes had changed and the effects of the winds through the tubes had changed. They left the mountain and returned home.
Back home, they used their sensory data taken in the flights, and the march through the mountain. The tubes were round, mined, and the network did not seem to make sense.
other researchers were brought in to see if they can make sense of what they were looking at. None seamed to.
One day, a new student in computer chip design came in. He was delivering papers for the office. He glanced at the maps. "That looks like a computer chip."
They looked at him strange. he pulled up a drawing of a simple computer ship, and showed where transistors, resisters, memory chips and such were located on the drawing and in the mountain. Over the next year, robotic probes were sent in to map the entire mountain.
Before it was done, they plugged in the maps into the computer, telling it this was a computer chip. there was an audible gasp when they heard the computer playing music based on the pattern.
they mapped the entire region around the mountains and plugged that into wind maps, They soon worked out all the two thousand songs the mountains can play.
The colony was just too far to hear the whole songs.
A detailed search of public records brought with the colonists found a research grant to make wind powered music in a mountain.
how the wind hit the sides of the mountains dictated the song that would be played, and it would change mid song if the winds changed dramatically. since the tubes received winds at different times and different pressures each minute. the air followed the tubes like electricity through a circuit. the air mostly headed up the central tubes to the top of the ridge to give the music.
Probes left in the mountains became the main source of weather prediction. once the code of the mountain was worked out, one simply could hear a song and know what type of weather was coming and where it was going to hit.

10 )
.
I saw a joke list telling about how bad the economy was. One of the lines said "the economy is so bad, that the ATM gives you an IOU.
When it comes to Money, Money is something that has an agreed on value. Money could be a horse, a sea shell, a bottle cap, gold, official printed money based on a promise to pay, etc. That is what this story idea is based on.
The government decided that there was no real need for real money, paper or coins. Everything was going to be electronic. One simply goes on the internet, use a phone, show a credit card, to make a payment.
What the government did not count on, was that a good portion of the business was not able to be done electronically. There were times when one did not want one's account to be known by someone else, which they would learn through transaction. There were also times where there simply was no access to accounts, something simple and portable was needed.
gift cards were one thing one could use. Buy them at a store in fixed increments and exchange them as money. It was not really working well, but it was something. Hopefully there was actual money on the card when it was finally cashed.
An Atm company was having problems getting cash for their machines. they were searching store houses and collectors for anything of use. It was difficult. As sort of a joke when the machine was empty. They chose a nice paper and had good graphics on them, and printed an IOU for the money. It had enough information to show that the account was real and had the money, but not enough information to let anybody actually access the account. One could also scan the paper to transfer the account money from the account to someone else's account. Since the company had created its own code, it was not something that one could crack to steal unauthorized money.
People were a bit bothered about the notes, but decided to give it a try. Almost immediately, the slips became popular. One swipe the card into the machine, and the slip would come out with the money value from the account. that slip, a promissary note, would then be given to someone else as a payment. It might change hands many times.
When the slip was put into a machine with your card, the funds from the slip would be put into your account and the old slip would be printed so it could not be used.
Other companies came up with similar slips.
Quickly, the government monetary control was gone and it was controlled by the ATM companies.
People used electronic payment whenever possible, but they always had slips of fixed values, one, five, ten and twenty, for when electronics was not possible. The slips were now the money.
.
My note said "ATM gives IOU. that becomes Money."

11 )
.
The plant was high security, and there was plenty of stuff that people could walk out with. Their was also materials that were forbidden within the plant that could be brought in.
Security had scanners and watched people as they came in and went out. Even with the best technology, it did not read all the way across the hall of the entry.
People were supposed to stop at the security station and then go on, but few did, and most came and went on the other side of the hall, figuring that radiation from the scanners was bad for them, at least that was the excuse.
There was materials disappearing and appearing periodically within the building. they watched certain people and their reactions to see who was smuggling and who was not. They caught enough to keep the smuggling at a minimum.
Byrant was selected to work at the plant. He was brought into the building and was introduced to the security people and was shown what was needed to be done. he was friendly with security, talking to them while they did the scan and identification checks. He passed security and was sent on in.
When he was leaving, he stopped at the security station and said hello to each guard, and talked to them a little. They got a good scan of him as he left. The next morning, he stopped to say hello to the security, and that evening he also stopped.
This was a habit he seamed to have. he got to know the security people really well, and every day, they had scans to prove he was not smuggling anything.
There were others they were positive were smuggling, but they could not get scans of them. Security complained often, wanting to put a barrier to force the workers close to the desk, or to have the right to tell people to come over, but there were so many people going in and out that it was not thought of as practical.
There was soon reports of a lot of smuggling going on. This happened whenever a batch of new people came in. It was usually not the new people, but instead the older employees, seeing this as a way to hide their activities. Some of the suspicion goes to the new employees so it is easier to smuggle something.
It was up to the department supervisors to watch over the activities of the people. They are usually working on teaching the people their jobs so they seldom see the smuggling going on. The stuff simply appears, or disappears.
Byrant worked in a section with loads of smuggle able stuff, in the morning, then worked in another section also with smuggle able stuff. he worked hard, but had plenty of opportunity to stash items where he could take them home. His last place to work for the day was with limited supervision which would have been great for hiding stuff in his clothing.
just before the shift ended, the supervisors checked their stations. In both places that Byrant worked, they found a good number of items missing, and found other items that were smuggled in. Byrant worked in both those areas, handling most of the packages.
Byrant walked out and stopped in front of the security desk. Both supervisors appeared next to him.
"Byrant, We accuse you of smuggling."
Byrant looked at them, then at the security people.
the head of security stepped from behind the desk and placed himself between the two supervisors and Byrant.
"I don't think so."
"What do you mean?"
"I personally guarantee that Byrant has never smuggled anything. go check on others to see who is smuggling."The security guy shoved Byrant out the door.
As he was walking away, three others who worked there, with Byrant was walking with four others. The supervisors called them over, away from the far wall. they did no want to come, but finally came over. Byrant watched as Security pulled smuggled materials out of all their clothing.
Byrant never saw those guys again. he did see that several supervisors now stood in the door, forcing everybody closer to security. he still said hello on his way in. Supervisors farther in would send people into a room on their way in, or supervisors would stop someone on the way out and send them into the room.
Some people first accused Byrant of ratting on them, but then realized that he would never have known.

12 )
.
This is based on the January 24th 2010 story idea. when the character dies, he reappears at the temple as a woman, then when he dies, he reappears as a man again. This is how the gods gave him eternal life. In that story, he finds out that if he brings himself near death, he regenerates himself and if he can release the other one, both can live. In that story, he used this to repopulate the planet after all his kind ceased to exist.
He had regenerated the population twice. He learned he could place his hands on his veins in his neck, and pass out. The act of losing it" caused his hands to relax and the body would recover after he regenerated.
Each time he regenerated, he was a pre-teen youngster. He also learned that he always had the knowledge of the population. When he "stepped" out of the body and was regenerated, that person knew something of what one random adult person would know. It was up to him to teach them anything else to survive.
After the second regeneration of the population, the temple was destroyed by a world disaster. The grounds beneath collapsed and became part of the sea. After that, he regenerated somewhere else in the world, totally at random. he never knew where he would regenerate.
The world now had developed some form of space travel and had jets flying around. His nature was known and the officials running the world knew how to tell it was him and not some impostor when he regenerated.
Scientists saw the sun doing strange things. Several flairs devastated the technology of the world. Scientists decided that the world was going to be destroyed by the sun going nova. They had seen enough of the signs with other stars that they had very little question.
The scientists built a bunch of interstellar star ships and loaded them up with everything that they could carry. the planet was essentially stripped to supply the escape fleet of ships.
He made sure that no one would be left behind. It was a lot of work to rebuild a new race and he wanted them to continue to exist.
The planet completely empty, he got onto the very last ship to leave. There was little left on the planet, and no people. Even the animal and plant life was taken so there was not much left on the planet.
The ship launches. He knew he should have tried to go into space long before this, but he was doing lots of work with others. he was unofficially the head of the planet. he experienced things that no one else could have imagined.
The ship passes the magnetic belts around the planet. Just as the last belt falls behind him. he feels strange. He collapses.
He stands up and he is a young girl on the planet, in the middle of nowhere. She looks up at the sky. "good no!" she says.
She has no idea where she is, but after walking a bit, she figures out what part of the world she is in. She then does some navigation calculations, turns and heads back the way she was going, Two days later, she finds an abandoned village. She quickly figures out exactly where she is. She finds an old car, gets it started and drives. finding fuel is hard, but she gets to real civilization and then finds a place that she can build something to communicate with space.
She calls the space ship and reports she is on the planet, She cannot leave.
They cannot come back for her. They think she could get into space if she shielded herself with lead, or some similar protection, but she is not in a place that will get her to a space port that has anything that can get her into space.
The sun brightens and dims. she is at a loss as to what to do. the temple gave her the ability to reappear at one place so she could quickly build a population. With her random appearances, she would have to create thousands of herself before they would have any chance of getting together. The sun dims, then brightens. She was not sure if she wanted to put the population through what was going to happen next.
She could commit suicide and reappear some place else, doing that until she arrives some place that she can really do something, but she has always hated dying.
The sun flickered quickly. the thought of flashing through lives like that forever, as the world becomes permanently uninhabitable, makes her shiver.
She prays to the gods that gave her, her immortality.

13 )
.
He was made into a president by his handlers. He had no interest in governing. His interest was in the diplomatic dinners, the meeting people, basically being a figure head. In reality, he was more of an actor, than anything. He read speeches they wrote, just like scripts for a play. He learned lines to say during non-scripted meetings. He was selected because he was good at playing the part of a candidate, and then the president.
His handlers were interested in getting things done, and figured he would sign anything they told him to sign. He had no care about what he signed, of course, he read everything front to back so he could at least have some familiarity of what he got. He found quickly that most of the pieces to be signed were more than he could read, so he flipped through the pages, reading here and there, but mostly scanning the pieces.
There was a lot he totally disagreed with, but he trusted his handlers to know what he was signing over all.
His popularity started to fade, then plummet. many of the bills he signed were quite unpopular. He wanted to be a popular president, but he had to play his part.
One day, not long before he would have to campaign for the next term, his handlers told him "We must fake an assassination attempt. It is the only way to get your popularity numbers up." He sat and thought about it a moment. "No, I don't like that. Too many things can go wrong."
"Nothing can go wrong. We are professionals."
"What about the person committing the crime? His life is going to be ruined. He will spend a lot of time in prison."
"We have that all planned. The assassin will do this willingly, and we will make his life comfortable."
"I don't think so."
The Handlers left it at that. They did not drop the plan, but decided to put more planning into the project.
The campaign finally got underway. Quickly during the primary, the president was getting torn apart. There was a lot of question as to whether he would even survive the campaign to the convention.
The common refrain was that he was a very likable man, but he signed some horrendous laws. People did not like the laws he passed.
The president just tried to be likeable to the people. He made his speeches as scripted and was pretty good when he was on his own too. People just did not like his policies.
His handlers decide that just him surviving an assassination attempt, would not do. he was going down too fast for that to save him. they decided he would have to be killed. The vice president was a pretty good politician so they decided he could win as president, without the president in the way.
The president had spent time in the military. Because of the way he acted, they did not hold his military service against him when they selected him for the office.
A man came up to the president to shake hands. He pulled a gun and pointed it. the security never reacted. The president reached to shake hands and snapped the gun out of the man's hand, and then whacked him on the side of the head with the gun. He then looked at the gun as if he had no idea how that happened. The security got the man because he was knocked out. The gun was taken from the President's hand. The president looked at his hand as if he had handled something slimy.
Over the next week, there were six assassination attempts on him. The president just seamed to be lucky shots missed, stabs caught easily. Security was really lax around him for these people to get close.
What his handlers did not notice in his record, was that he was a special forces person in the military. he was discharged early because he had a back injury. He had recovered but was now too old for service.
He was at a speech. He glanced up on the roof of a nearby building and saw movement along the edge. He kept watching the roof as he talked. He waited until he was sure, from experience, that the gunner was about to fire. He then turned and took a step to the side of the podium. A round sounded off. He paused, then dropped. Another round went off.
Security caught the gunner. he had two people on the stage, the second shot hit his head handler in the arm. Other security dragged him off the stage and too him away.
News reports attributed the attempts to his opponents, but as he was driven away, he remembered the discussion about faking an assassination attempt. His numbers did rise and he was even with his top opponent in the party.
He did some checking, and located a whole bunch of people who worked with the previous president of his party. Back at the office, he ordered a complete change-over of personnel around him, All his handlers were gone. He brought in the other people.
A bill came in that his previous handlers wanted him to sign. He read it a bit more carefully than normal, and vetoed it.
By the next debate, he had gutted the entire appointed staff, replacing them with new people. Because his handlers were trying to off him, he separated himself from them and became his own man. He was still a party loyalist but now he was not signing stuff that was just plain stupid.
He started doing his own speeches rather than ones by handlers.
he won the primary and the next election. Barely in both cases, but he won. Almost the entire organization of his handlers ended up in jail. His life was still in danger, but now his security was doing their jobs to protect him properly.

14 )
.
The radicals were blowing themselves up. The explosives were barely detectable and very difficult to access even if their location was known. Security had caught several and learned that the radicals were programmed for the job. The radicals needed a specific condition to remember their duty. when the right condition was met, they would set off the explosives.
This was a serious problem for security. they needed a way to wake the radicals up, under controlled conditions, so nothing could be harmed.
One security man watched his son play a game. A ring was around the boy's head and the boy had a full experience of the game.
the next day, the security man told about the son's toy and asked if there was a way to use something on that idea on the radicals.
A few weeks later, they had a program that would rush passing security, and going on flights, with connecting flights. Every security man went through the game. It was believable. In ten minutes, they had flown to two airports, several hour flights.
Detecting the radicals was actually quite easy. They had a special look, the detectors gave suspicion about the explosives, and they had a set of common backgrounds.
They built a set of rooms with bomb proof walls, insulated to reduce the noise, and a system to clean it quickly should there be a problem. The furniture was cheep and plentiful and the game consoles were protected and the head rings were fairly cheap.
The security stated that people would have to go through security an hour earlier than before. the passengers complained but they were there as ordered.
Security watched for the radicals. They found three of them as people filed through security. They were taken to the bomb rooms and the ring put on their heads. The program activated and the security left and closed the room. the radicals experienced that they were let out of the room after a short time, then taken to the waiting room with the rest of the passengers. They got onto the planes.
Security heard three explosions, all within minutes of each other. the system worked. All three of them were programmed to blow themselves up.
They stopped the radicals from flying, eliminating them quite easily.
One day, A young man was picked out and he was tested. He passed the test, as some do. He had experienced two take-offs and landings. and showed no signs of blowing anything up. He was let on the plane.
As that plane landed, it was blown up. all passengers killed.
Security wanted to know what happened. They checked all sorts of records. That was when they saw he had three take-offs and landings, not two. when he got onto the plane, his mind marked that as a third one and he did his damage.
The program was changed. They added what the passengers would see out the windows as they landed, and their tickets dictated how many times they would fly to blow themselves up, and they would sometimes do an extra flight just in case. They caught two that way.
After that, the radicals never destroyed a flight again.

15 )
.
The joke is that A blond inventor created a solar powered flashlight (insinuating that it only works in the sun). Being the kind of mental state I am in, I decided I needed to come up with a way where that is a good thing.
Most solar collectors work poorly in infra red spectrums. They are better off with visible or even ultra violet light. More energy to convert into electricity.
They were on a planet that orbited an ultra blue star. Very little visible light landed on the planet during the day, and none at night. The light was X-ray, gamma ray, blue and violet light. Not good for people to see, and not a good environment for people to be out in.
the planet was selected as a mining planet. Instead of digging tunnels, they chose to strip mind the planet. all their work would be on the surface.
The planet had an atmosphere and had plenty of oxygen (possibly from past life), but the radiation was dangerous, and the light was difficult to see in.
A "not bright" woman was learning about solar energy. as part of her study, she did a check of energies arriving on the planet's surface, and then what solar arrays would be available for those energy profiles. She found one that was quite efficient in that energy, and was flexible. She wrapped the solar arrays around, inside a tube and on the ends, added a large rechargeable battery, then added a light bulb that emitted in visible light wavelengths. She had selected a very bright light. for the reflector, she used the solar arrays, figuring they would pick up light if sunlight fell on there too. She added a hook and a tether and there was a charge indicator.
Her shift to work outside came up and she suited up. She attached her flash light outside the suit, on her belt and went outside into the bright sun. She worked a while, then got to a point where seeing would be good. She took her flashlight out and turned it on. It had charged up.
Outside, she used the flashlight to poke into deep holes, check gauges and to simply look around. Soon, she had dozens of people asking to borrow her flashlight. she chose not to give it up, but would hold the light on things for them.
After night came, The flash light continued to work until around midnight when her shift ended.
She made the flashlight longer buy adding a separate section of solar arrays. that gave her room to add a second battery. The next shift, that flash light did better but was not perfect.
She finally made a new one from scratch, three batteries, two light bulbs that could be turned on, one for flood lighting, one for beam lighting, or both on at the same time.
The entire surface was covered in solar arrays. She used two kinds, the surface absorbed the high energy, and a second layer that gathered energies that passed through the first layer.
The reflector had a mirror surface bit allowed solar energies could pass through. Again two solar arrays, but tuned to absorb energies passing through the reflector and the first layers. Every surface of the flash light absorbed light.
Today, she would be on a three day mission with a team to check out some equipment at the edges of the settlement.
Getting onto the crawler, most people struggle to sit as far from the door as possible, and rushed to get in first so they had choice of seats. There were no windows on the doors of the crawler so the door was wide open.
She wanted the door so she could charge up her flashlight. To be last, She took a moment to give the old flash lights to the two people who could use those flash lights the most, people who were good, and helpful to her. She took her newest flash light out with her.
The trip was long and boring, and she slept half the trip. her suit struggled with the heat but her flashlight was charging properly
At each job, her main duty was to hand tools to others, to hold things, basically light grunt work.
When they reached their destination, it was night time. Their suit lights were turned on. She used hers to give the team directed lighting so they could work. They worked all night long. As morning came, her suit had run out of energy as did most of theirs.
One of the power tools they depended on also ran out of energy. With the sun was coming up, she asked what kind of batteries his power unit used. He showed her ones that matched hers. She took the batteries out of her flashlight and traded with him.
With the sun rising above the horizon, it was still dark. The mines had other lights burning all the time to help the workers. the sun did not give too much light that one could see with.
She turned her flashlight on and beamed it into the holes and spaces for the workers, sometimes using flood, sometimes spot, sometimes both, depending on what was needed. She had to make sure the body of the flash light was in the sun.
About mid day, the batteries were charged. She handed them to one of the other guys and he was using them in a motor he forgot to bring batteries for. her flash light still worked, now pure solar power.
When darkness came, her flashlight stopped working. By then, they stopped teasing her about her solar powered flashlight.
The job was done. Reluctantly, they gave her batteries back. They drove back home and she slept.
a week later, a dozen people asked for her solar flashlights. She made a few more and then asked for more solar arrays. Once she got them, she started producing them, by hand. Workers were paying her good credits for the solar flash lights. her design also was used to charge the batteries so they had a double purpose.
Making solar powered flash lights, became her business, being a not bright girl, she came up with a bright idea and did well in the mining camp.

16 )
.
The greatest treasure in the world sat in the middle of a small valley, easy to see by all who look down on it. With a dozen ways down into the valley, no one could figure out why the treasure was not stolen. There were plenty of thieves to try to take it.
A bright light shown down on the treasure from the sky. One could see it at all times. The best magical experts knew that the light had little to do with whatever protection the gods placed on the object. Quick tests also showed that Magic could not move the object. Very powerful magicians could not levitate the treasure, even though they could levitate boulders and tree branches farther away.
Night came to the Lord's army. he had nearly a thousand soldiers and a hundred experts and assistants with his force. If he got the treasure, he could buy any army he wanted,
they camped in the valley, at the base of the hill. They had set camp early as they were going to deal with the treasure at sun-up.
With everybody around him, he made an announcement. Whoever brings the treasure to him, will get a tenth of the treasure. Their blood line would be wealthy to the end of time.
During the night, two men slipped out of camp. They reached the treasure and saw each other on opposite sides of the treasure. A third form appeared. it was a magician. The magician tried to lift the treasure. nothing happened. One man crossed into the light and grabbed the treasure. He took one step and he was half his size. Another step he was again half his size. He kept shrinking with each step until he was too small to hold it up. It crushed him. The next man rushed out, grabbed the treasure. the magician directed the man to go the same direction of the first man. he made three steps and dropped the treasure. He remained shrunk when he left the light.
The mage levitated himself, entered the light, and landed flat on his face. It was all he could do to stand up. he focused on the treasure and kept trying to levitate himself. He was being pushed down really hard. He stood before the treasure, still being held down. He finally could not hold it any longer and stopped the levitation. he was suddenly light. he bent over for the treasure and lifted off the ground. He tried levitation again, and that had no effect. He tried other magical controls and they did not work either. He kept floating up through the light until the strong winds up high, caught him and carried him out of the light.
Morning, all there were reported missing. The shrunken man was found a while later. His mind could not handle the shrinking, he let go of reality and just sat there babbling.
Hunters searched the valley for some game. They found the magician splattered on the rocks where he fell. The third man was not found.
A doctor used some herbs and potions to calm the shrunken man's mind enough so he could report on what he saw. The experts learned enough from the descriptions the man gave, to know why the treasure was not stolen.
the lord called everybody together. He raised his bounty for bringing the object to him, to a third of the treasure. The subjects were a little hesitant. He said that the families of all who help in bringing the treasure to him, will receive a small portion of the treasure. the one who actually hands him the treasure will also get choice of his princes or princesses to marry. He also said that anybody who chooses not to try, will not be frowned on. they can make the final decision once their turn comes up.
The people thought long and hard. They all decided they will try. The entire camp went to the treasure. They found that they could walk all through the lighted area with no trouble. Several men tapped the treasure without any ill effects.
the area was about the size of a large castle. Measuring the area, they found it was not centered, closest to the camp by a half dozen men's height. It was still a long distance to clear the space.
They examined the treasure from all angles. They noticed that in the sandy soil was little blots of red, here and there. They decided those were previous attempts to steal the treasure.
They took out a rope and draped it around the treasure, then got out of the light. A man pulled on the rope. The treasure did not move. he leaned really hard against the rope, using a boulder for leverage. the treasure did not move yet. He finally let go of the rope. the rope jerked him into the light and he tumbled had over heals. Each bounce made him smaller and smaller. A short distance in, he was gone. A magician followed his tracks and knelt down about where the last marks were. An ant sized figure laid against a grain of sand it was dead.
They discussed the treasure more. They knew that they were not going to survive the attempt. They needed a solution. They decided on a bucket line, where they would stand in a line and pass the treasure one to another. They also decided to take several steps to pass it on, to get it out fast. At least their families would be cared for.
The men lined up, and the first man lifted the treasure, passed it to another. He was gone. The treasure passed from one to another rapidly. the treasure reached near the edge of the light when they ran out of people to pass on, as many panicked and ran.
A magician got an idea. He prayed to his god, then went to the treasure after talking to a solider. He picked it up, then leaped, tossing the treasure to the other man. The other man stepped onto the sand as it came to him. The treasure sat on the ground having landed lightly when the soldier shrunk. He also fell backwards. It was still on the sands, but right at the edge.
Another soldier swallowed hard, then lined up a couple more of his people. the lord left the light and went to the camp. The agreement was to give it to him at the camp.
The man stepped onto the sand, grabbed the box and tossed it to a man off the sands. He turned and passed it to a third man. People lined up quickly and received the treasure in tern. The man who was on the sand, and in the light, was gone, but the others stood there like normal after passing on the treasure. they continued to pass the treasure to one to the other.
The treasure arrived at the camp and was set down. The lord called the people. they could not move. their feet were stuck.
The lord stood there, not knowing what to do. He had a wagon brought to the treasure. The one who had set it on the ground, set it onto the back of the wagon. The horse tried to pull and the legs would not move. It too was stuck. The treasure was set back on the ground. still the horse could not move.
A couple people brought out shovels and dug around one of the stuck people. they got to where they were able to remove the soil from beneath their feet. They found tree roots coming out from the feet. It was only then that they noticed the lines of trees emanating from the sands.
The lord saw there was no way the treasure was going to willingly leave the valley. He had lost much from the attempt.
He ordered the horse to be untethered. the tongue pointed so the wagon would pass the horse, heading down the slope down the hill. The one who last handled the treasure set it onto the wagon, then gave the wagon a hard push.
the wagon rolled down the hill, bouncing and rocking, gaining speed careening wildly as it went. The lord broke camp and they followed the wagon.
The wagon came to a stop, quite a distance from the camp. The wagon did not break, the treasure did not fall off. the wagon should have flipped many times but kept going.
They reach the wagon and the treasure was gone. They had seen it before, but they lost sight of it on the way to it. The wagon was stuck. It would never go anywhere. they went back up the valley and found the treasure back in the center of the sands. Where the people were stuck, now stood trees in a human form. They were young compared to the other lines of trees around the place.
There was so few of his force left. He decided he was not going to be well accepted from his losses. He decided that he would die here in the valley, with the treasure he was not going to be able to take home.
He fills a bucket with water. He takes a cloth and goes to the treasure. He takes some time and washes it very carefully, very gently, lifting it up and cleaning the bottom. When he was done, he left the treasure where it was. he got up and left with his dirty bucket of water.
Since he did not die or get stuck, he and the remains of his company headed home, after he had put the wash water into a set of jugs.
Back home, he reported what he did and what had happened. Magicians pointed out that the jugs were strong in magic. His king and other lords respected him. He had come home with healing water. Every one of those with him had gotten wet from the water when they put it in the bucket or when they handled the emptied bucket. they all lived seven life spans.
Others could not find the treasure, the route, which was difficult, was blocked, or hidden from anybody who had heard the lord's story from finding the place.
The story eventually became lore, then lost from memory, other than rumors spreading from other places.

17 )
.
They were the lords of their realm. their power was so great, that they had to change their form, grow larger, change their shape, to contain the energies they wielded. Each type of magic, each level of power, dictated their size and their form. Each a master of great power.
As giant beings, they strove for dominance of their realm. The clash of the different magic users It became an all out war, the beings not willing to give up in the slightest bit. they expended every bit of their energy in an effort for their side to win. When the last one cast the last spell, all that was left were their bones bleaching in the sun. they did not have the power to regain their forms.
The colonists arrived on the planet. there were no dominant beast on the planet. it seamed like a paradise. The colonists did not bother to even plant their own foods, other than in a green houses to retain their genetic lines, because the planet had all the food and chemicals they could ever want.
The colony was established quickly and became totally self sufficient, not depending on anything they brought with them on the ship, within two generations.
Serious exploration of the world started in the third generation. They had excavated several sites that had shown of interest from the air and found signs of a lost civilization. They then found the bones of dinosaurs all around, some with what had to be burns, some not. a few even inside the rubble of the civilization. They also found small forms with tools. The scientists deduced that the monsters attacked the advanced population. Somehow the advanced population was able to destroy them, but no signs of how it was done.
The bones were gathered and set up in museums, along with other objects found. One entire building was reconstructed with all artifacts, the bones of the people along with the bones of two monsters that were in it, within a museum.
a bit later, objects from an empty home was brought to the museum. They had no idea where to put the stuff since they did not have room to set up another building, so they piled it around the monster, making the home a bit more full.
The displays sat on display in the museum for a generation. Not much more was learned of the previous race. The scientific community had gone on to other interests.
A curator walked through the museum and entered the building. On the floor was a camera and a hat. No sign of who they belonged to. the camera was broken. He picked them up and went to lost and found. No one came to claim them.
A month later, a shoe and a pair of glasses were found in the same place. . Every few months, one of the employees would find personal objects in the same place. it did not make sense. No one came for those items.
It turns out that the dinosaur bones were the lords of the realm. The objects around the lord found in the home were drained of power. the objects found in the other home was not drained of power through battle. It had lost most of the power through time, though. it was enough to allow the lord to animate. The lord was killing people who were in the room alone. that allowed the tendons and other connections to the bones to reform, any damage and lost pieces to also reform. No one ever noticed the changes.
.
I got this idea from a FarSide Cartoon. The cartoon shows a T-rex skeleton and museum people looking down at boy scout hats and binoculars on the floor. It said something like "I have no idea what is going on here."

18 )
.
The super bombs were small, the size of a computer box. As part of security for the bombs when they were transferred between locations, they were moved by private cars and non-uniformed personnel. No one could believe a bomb that powerful would be taken through town.
Their security required a key code to be put in to arm the bomb. Without that key code, it was an expensive piece of junk. There was no way to bypass the electronics to detonate the bombs, no matter how dismantled the bomb could be to access components. This was why it was safe to transfer the bomb through the cities.
Robert was involved in the project to make the bombs and had created the formula to create the security codes. He was going on vacation and traveling to near one of the military bases, so they decided he would be good to transfer a bomb for them. He told the transfer official his planned route. He would stop at his home to spend the night.
Robert had some detractors, competitors, people who disliked him for various reasons. He tended to be clueless about people's altitudes toward him. He was interested only in his work, and tended to run over others in his single pursuit of his job.
Robert set the bomb, within a cardboard box, in the back seat of his car and seat belted it in. He signed the final papers, then drove to security and handed over some papers at the exit gate to show he had rights to have the contents of the box with him, and headed home.
At home, he took the box out of the car and went up to his apartment to pack and sleep one final night before he would hit the road.
Two of his detractors, not knowing what the other was doing, contacted authorities and said that a crazy man had a bomb with him.
Robert woke in the middle of the night to flashing police lights reflecting off the walls. It was an hour before he was supposed to get up, so he decided to get an early start, He got up, cleaned up and got dressed. the lights were still flashing around his building. Being a little deaf, he did not hear the commotion outside.
His stuff packed, eaten he decided to leave a little early. He opened the door and glanced out, the door not fully opened. He now heard them yelling to give up, surrender. Not wanting to get involved in some problem, he pulled back inside and closed the door. A bullet hit right next to his head. He slammed and locked the door.
His phone rang. The police was on the other end, telling him to surrender, to give up the bomb, to not do anything drastic.
Being lazy and not able to write the stuff that needed to happen in a hostage situation, I have to skip a lot of writing here.
He gets in touch with the base and lets them know the situation. Government people come and gets him. While being escorted out, he is asked why he took the bomb home. Quite matter-of-factly, he tells them "there is no way I would leave it out in the car."
His escort takes him, his luggage, and his bomb back to the base. He is then sent on his vacation without the bomb, there was no way, because his face was plastered all over the news, that he would be able to transport the bomb anywhere without attention.
He has to spend the next three weeks living on base, because of the uproar over the bomb. He shows he has no clue as to who would even dislike him.
They eventually figure out who turned him in to authorities and he finally gets to go on his vacation.

19 )
.
They knew him as the first absolute emperor of the whole world. Nothing was outside his reach. He was cruel, stomping down the remains of resistance to his rule with the whole military might. Several towns ceased to exist, as a way to let the resistance in other places know that he wanted them to turn themselves in.
He then ordered the destruction of records of the times before him, but he kept the technological knowledge but without the history behind them.
He then started a project to rebuild society, to regain lost technologies. By the time he had died, He had created shipping routes that permanently eliminated starvation in the world. His last act was to build a tomb for himself. It was done in secret, in a hidden location. He was not in good physical condition when he went to visit the tomb one last time, to see that it met his standards. He died during the trip and was buried in the tomb. All the workers who knew the location of the tomb were put to death and left in the tomb so few people knew where it was. All the others who knew the tomb's location disappeared or died early. All records of his tomb was lost, other than the fact that it did exist.
The great empire shifted in nature, quite slowly because the government, the emperor had created, was so effective. The government had finally reverted to a economic weak government but still strong in military and police (think Hong Kong).
Archeologists now searched the world, trying to recreate the past. A lot of what they knew about the first emperor was not of great detail.
A mound had caught their attention. They arrived at the mound area and ran scanners over it from end to end, following a grid. They had found several historical sites this way. Their equipment showed the mound to be different materials than the land around it.
They searched around the edges and found something that could have been an entry. With permission, they started digging, Biologists, paleontologists, archeologists, anthropologists all were on the site. As the layers of dirt were removed, they looked for fossils and any objects as they worked their way down.
They finally found the entrance and dug into that. The roof had long ago collapsed. As they dug through the debris, they came to some objects covered by roofing tiles. they dug around the objects.
The Archeologists put up a great roof over the area and started fully excavating the findings. Once the place was completely excavated, they knew they had found the great emperor's tomb. Tanks, planes, soldiers, ships, missiles, bombs, with all their weapons, and communications towers of all kinds, printing presses, televisions, radios, cell phones. Most, if not all the technologies in existent of the time, were represented in high fired porcelain. Then they found there was a floor below. they found a library. Once they figured out how to read the data, they had the entire contents of all the great libraries of the time.
A secret door was accidentally found and a stair well going down. Real weapons sat on the lower level, still stored in packing, just needed to be cleaned to be used. they found the bones of dead workers and then the crypt of the emperor. Someone noticed that there were wires going to the tomb. They decided that it was set to be destroyed if anybody messed with it.
the library was copied and spread out, over a few years, before being sealed. The upper level of the tomb was made into a museum of the greatest emperor of all time, never to be moved.

20 )
.
The use of field energies, they came up with a new transportation system. They were trains that followed on standard tracks. Energy fields developed through experimentation with antimatter, allowed the trains to go thousands of miles per hour without the effects of wind resistance. The railroad tracks were used only as guides, the energy fields reacted with the rails to guide them.
The trains were only used for long distance travel, as getting up to speed and slowing down was where the energy costs were. Train systems were created to go underneath all the oceans and all the continents were connected together now. One could now go around the entire world in less than eight hours. There were stops, though because of the passengers, but it was still far faster than the plane to anywhere in the world.
One effect of this transportation system was that no one could see the trains go by. The tracks always seemed empty and there was never a sound. About the only sign that trains went by was a slight waver of the air like rising heat.
Another effect was that vehicles cold pass right through the trains, and the trains could pass right through the cars as long as both were moving. If a car or truck came to a full stop, they became part of the field and there would be impact. The train would continue on, but the car would be pulverized. It also expended the energy a train would use to decelerate and accelerate. A serious expenditure of fuel.
Signs were everywhere "don't stop on the tracks. It was one fear of the system. The accidents were messy.
Air travel was not as fast, but still had their place. There were more airports than train stations. To cross the states, each train stopped three times, whichever direction it was going. One at each border or shore, and one in the middle. Any more stops would be too expensive.
Mina had stopped on the tracks many times, but only for a short moment. She had no reason why they would have the tracks there at all, since they were not used. They should be ripped up and make traffic at the light a whole lot easier.
Traffic was heavy. She came up to the tracks. the light ahead finally turned green. She decided to cross the tracks before the pickup in front of her had moved. The track was empty and nothing was coming anyway. The truck started to roll so she crossed the tracks. The truck jerked and stalled. She pulled up right behind it, her rear doors were right across the track. She honked for him to get it started and go. She heard a whine, then a rumble.
Billy saw the car move forward. He wound down his window, "get off the track!" he yelled."
She stopped across the track, sat there for a long moment. Suddenly the car was not in front of her. it was now bouncing down the track in sickening tearing of metal. it came to rest across the track, then jerked out of vision, only to land right in front of him and tumble the other way. He looked back and backed up, other cars got the same idea and he gained a full car length before he could move no more. the twisted and crushed remains shot across his view one more time and finally landed out of the way of the track.
The area in front of him was scattered with debris. He Leaned over his open window and lost his last meal, all down the side of his car.

21 )
.
They were the great warriors of their time. From childhood, they were devoted to the god and their existence was to give their souls to him in the great ceremony.
In the ceremony, the warriors would fight in the arena, sometimes to the death, to prove their devotion to the gods. If the god was pleased, the whole community would gain from their devotions.
Kalack trained hard. He would be working out rather than going to the devotionals or education courses. it bothered the instructors greatly that he did not apply himself to the gods as much as the others did. they would preach to him about the importance of the devotionals and education, and he would simply shrug.
he continued through the courses, always passing the tests that were given, especially the physical tests. he knew enough about the religion to do as well as others who passed the tests. he just did not show the devotion of the others.
Many times, the priests figured they were wasting their time with him, but he passed the tests.
The time came for him and those of his class to do the ceremony for the god and community.
The first pair of fighters entered the arena. They each called out to the god, willing their souls to him and begging for the power to win. Both fighters started the glow that showed they were now powered by the god.
The fighters met each other into battle. The difference in the fight were their personal ability, since they were protected and powered the same amount by the god. The fights would go until there was an unquestioned winner. The crowd cheered, bets went about, there were prayers and blessings called out.
Fight after fight, it was strictly by personal ability. the priests knew who was good and who was not. They simply paired them to have the very best fight at the end of the ceremonies.
Kalack came to fight. His opponent begged for the power to win. Kalack only said that his soul belonged to the god and that he would give himself his all for the god.
Kalack did not glow, but the god had answered him that his offer was accepted. that surprised everybody.
Kalack fought the man and defeated him handedly. the place was in shock that one who did not glow, won. He then prayed to the god to undo any damage he might have done to his opponent. His opponent rose painfully but would fight again.
The next level of fights started. those who lost, and were able to fight, fought those who lost. Those who lost two times in a row did not rise. the god took their souls. Kalack won again, and again prayed for his opponent.
Kalack finally won the final fight of the matches. he was the god's representative. The public could not understand how he had the ability to beat those who the god had given power.
the final act is to try to lift a stone off the ground and onto the lap of the statue representing the god. Once every decade or so, a warrior can do this. No one alive had seen it happen. the warriors were beaten up too badly.
Kalack addressed the stone. steeled his mind and battered body for this. He crouched down, took the stone and in a mighty heave, lifted it off the ground, holding it to his waist. He realized he was not going to be able to lift it any higher. he could feel the stone slipping down as his strength was leaving him.
He then said the prayer, begging for healing so he might serve the god this one last time. His face looked like he was about to cry, then He seamed to become stronger, a little bigger, straightening his back in spite the load he held.
He heaved the stone over his head. He struggled up the steps to the statue, and then, with one mighty push, rolled the stone onto the statue's lap.
A bright glow came over him. He backed up to the edge of the stairs and then knelt. "Take my soul for your pleasure and power." He called out.
The energy left him in an instant and he collapsed.
The crowd exploded into cheers as a gong sounded. that was the sign that the god was well pleased by Kalack's sacrifice.
After about ten minutes, Kalack rose from his knees. he looked shaken and humbled. He bowed to the statue and almost stumbled as he came down the stairs. The public had gone silent when he stood and they wondered whether he was rejected and whether that would be bad for the community.
He left the area sands, walking up the stairs into the crowd. There was a child who was really sickly, too ill to open his eyes, too weak to cry. Kalack places his hand on the boy's head, held it there a moment as he walked past. the child woke and sat up on his own.
Kalack stopped and hugged an old woman When he let go, she looked a little younger.
It turned out that the god had blessed Kalack because he truly devoted his life to the god.
Kalack understood that his purpose was to gain power for the god, not waste it. His entire training was so he could fight without using the god's power. when he had to carry the stone, the god told him that he had to use his own power to place the stone. That was why he was ready to cry. He did not think he could do it. That the god would expect him to, gave him the strength to do it.
the god then took his soul, then returned it with the healing power and the knowledge of whom to use it on.
he would be a high ranking priest for the rest of his life, but not near the highest ranking. That was not his duty. He taught the trainers how to prepare the warriors for their true mission.

22 )
.
They were the soldiers of the god. He told them to become the most deadly soldiers that will ever exist.
Male and female, they first developed their bodies, and their minds, then they developed techniques, and then technologies.
While they chose not to use it, they could turn entire civilizations to glass. The way they made sure they were good, was they would send small bands of soldiers out to test their skills against other armies, not using weapons beyond what their opponents could. It was common for a force of a five hundred, to stand against millions. their favorite tactic was to hold a pass against great and powerful armies. By the time they were overrun, their fear of facing another force of these soldiers was such that even the appearance of them, some place else, caused great armies to withdraw, to change plans.
Individual emissaries were known to leave whole piles of dead behind if challenged. These were those who were thought to be failures of the training program. they had to prove their worth in the real world. It mattered not what they called themselves. To the world, they were The Greatness.
They stayed to their islands unless asked to fight. they changed many a government after fighting for it, because they knew the leader was wrong. Payment for their help was high.
The god finally returned, appearing before the leader and the two hundred soldiers in the building. The god was obviously disappointed that the soldiers were so small.
"Quick, we must go and fight.
"Wait a..."
"No delay, we must rush."
"Stop!" the commander shouted. The commander knew he had to get things straightened out right now or there would be serious trouble. the god was up to something and likely was making changes in the universe as they spoke.
The god turned in surprise.
"you ordered us to become the most deadly soldiers that existed. We have done so."
The god opened his mouth to speak, showing anger at being challenged.
"When we achieved the extent of our physical abilities, we crated techniques to become better. Once we achieved the best in that, we developed tools, weapons. technologies, to make us more deadly."
The god looked a little confused.
The penalty of our development, is that we can no longer throw on some leather armor, grab a sword and run out into battle. We have to gather our tools and weapons based on the opponent and condition we will fight.
The god seamed a slight bit more calm, a little curious.
"We have to know where we are going to fight, what we are going to fight, in order to know how we are going to fight and what we will fight with. I already know you have messed around with this universe. I more than expect that you have rendered some of our weaponry useless."
He pointed to a couch which was big enough for the twice soldier size of the god. "You sit there, calm down, then explain the entire battle, battle field and rules. Then we will gather our weaponry for the battle and we will then fight to make you proud."
One never challenges a god. talk back to a god, order a god around. it just was not done. The god, though, sat down on the couch, and explained the situation.
They would go to a far location on the planet, and then be taken to a new universe and fight. They learned the god he was fighting, had only swords and shields
The commander learned that the battle was in a universe with the exact same rules. An assistant verified it by asking about specific universal laws they had found and the god confirmed they were correct.
A bomber was loaded up with a nuclear bomb, and a group of fighters joined it. The god and the commander was with him. They were refueled just before the transfer site. the god, in total awe with the flying machines, took them into the next universe in a blink of the eye. By the commander's orders, the other god was not to be on the battle field. They flew over twice, then dropped the bomb, then flew back. The god took them back into their world and they went home. There was nothing left of the battle field, pure glass, when they returned.
The god said that there was all sorts of shouting by other gods about cheating, but he said all he did was transfer them between world. The entire battle was by the two armies.
The commander told his scientists that they are getting promotions. The bomb worked exactly as promised. it had never been tested before and worked as well as predicted.
The other gods cancelled their challenges as no battle would be fair with his bunch of soldiers.

23 )
.
The being was a plague on the universe. it went from space station to planet, to space station to super ship, and so on, leaving death and destruction everywhere. What was surprising was when they figured out it was a single entity doing all of this.
The entity had requirements for its survival. It needed fixed magnets around a moving magnet in order to rest. Motors had this requirement. A key sign that the entity was there, was an electric motor running when it was not supposed to run.
The being would rest for days or weeks, then enter feeding mode. It would hunt down and draw the life force out of some creature. It starts out small, insect sized creatures at first, then mouse sized creatures, then cat and dog, and finally humans.
Once it has fed on a couple hundred humans, or have run out of large population. It will arc out of where it is, be it a planet or space station, and travel space to a new location. It is termed for a energy laden arc of light heading out into space.
It was thought that if one could keep any electric motor from running when not in use, one could draw out the energy of the entity so it would disappear.
zeta station reported that the entity left in an arc that aimed it to Saxtor station.
The Saxtor station got to work in preparation for the entity. It was thought that if they could stop the entity from finding a motor to rest in, they could cause it to cease to exist.
They searched the space station for every electric motor, and anything that could be used as a motor. Every motor was pegged so it could not be turned on. Those that came on automatically when needed, were given a brake system so it could not spin without system commands telling it to spin.
They had no full idea how long it would take for the entity to arrive, but they tried to get ready for it. They went so far as to remodel many parts of the station to make sure nothing was hidden. Even their drills and hand held devices were made spin proof. A drill would not simply come on. The trigger actually unlocked the shaft.
Many tools and devices were redesigned, eliminating a motor. They were positive that the entity would never be able to survive on the station.
the entity arrived about a month after the station was positive it was protected. The entity was starving, tired, needed to rest. It searched the space station systematically to find a motor to inhabit. There were a lot of motors, but they would not turn.
It was about dead, when it found a motor. it was tiny. A battery, now dead, powered a tiny motor that spun a fan very slowly. That fan drew a little bit of air across a ring that had a scent oil that would evaporate and make the room smell sweet.
The entity preferred large motors, but this was enough. it got into the motor and started the fan spinning. it was enough. it rested.
checking records there was a series of motion spikes recorded on the brakes of a lot of motors. they found the entity moved fast, It covered the entire space station in a day, checking every single motor in the space station. The energy spikes stopped and nothing was seen again.
The report that the entity had arrived, was sent out. Now they just had to wait, hoping that they got everything.
A man had mopped his office and wiped down the surfaces. He used a standard cleaner.
A bit later, someone came in and noted that his office smelled clean. he admitted he just cleaned in there.
Days later, the general area smelled clean, but no one wondered about it.
Several months pass, and the entity had rested long enough. It starts feeding. No one noticed that some escaped insects were left dead. The insects were not even known to have existed. After feeding, the entity returned to the little motor powering the scent dispenser.
The guy who's office that was, went on vacation, going to a shuttle and visited an entertainment ship that orbited the space station. A couple days later, the entity had graduated to killing people. No one knows how the entity survived. They are carrying away the victims and searching for anything that resembles a motor. they cannot find it. They do notice that it works in a general area of the space station. Everybody is called away. no one is allowed there.
A few weeks later, the entity arcs out of the space station, heading to a new location.
The owner of the office returns. he notices something strange about the smell of his office. he notices a little module up on the wall. it had been there longer than he had the office. he reaches up and opens it up. There is a little electric motor. The people in the office look at it in shock. no one knew it was there.
They send a signal to the space stations to watch for such things that no one had ever noticed. it was where the entity hid.
The entity reaches another space station that has prepared. They have searched and found all motors. The entity searches the space station, is unable to find a motor. They have records of it attempting to run a motor. It had failed.
The entity heads back out into space, slowly this time, and fades away.

24 )
.
The transportation was low powered, slow moving fuel cell powered vehicles. Thirty miles per hour was thought of as fast, but twenty five is what the roads were rated to. Because of the low power, it usually took a quarter to half a mile to get up to speed.
Traffic lights and traffic rules were designed to have people to try to avoid messing up the flow of traffic when they enter a road. Most major intersections had turn lanes so one could go onto the next highway without slowing down too much. Light timing was programmed to keep traffic moving across town as much as possible with limited stopping.
The police had to chase criminals sometimes. The police had a great way to capture criminals. they would follow the criminal until the criminal had to get into traffic. Invariably, they would stop until a space appeared, then pull out into traffic.
Because the criminal cars cannot accelerate very fast, they force the whole line of cars behind them to stand on their brakes. They all accelerate slowly, trying to get back up to speed. A big space appears in front of the criminal. A police car down the road a bit will simply pull into the space and wait. The people behind the criminal are angry and will verify that was the person who pulled into traffic in front of them. The police have their criminal.
A few times, a smarter criminal and the people will tell where he turned off. to avoid the trap. The police have other cars down the intervening roads to pick them up. There are very few criminals who escape this system.
Dynansis was trained as an engineer. He never completed the training, but worked with companies that used motors for powering equipment. These motors were far more powerful than those used in cars, many times the same size, and was almost as efficient as the car engines. He lost that job due to politics and has landed in a job with a junk yard.
Dynansis found there were a large number of cars there, who's bodies were in good condition, just that the motors died. He also found a lot of the equipment motors there too. In his spare time, he dismantled an equipment motor that was the size of a car motor, then rebuilt it. On a lark, he added the mounts needed for it to fit in a car.
He tested it and it worked well. He then put it in a car and took it for a test. He could accelerate hard and fast, even spin the wheels. His tests showed he could get up to fifty miles per hour in the car. He was thinking of entering it in one of the car races.
He was driving home from one of his tests, when he accidentally drove through a stop sign. He stopped, but on the other side of the intersection. Lights flashed a couple blocks down. A police officer saw him do it.
Dynansis realized he was broke and did not want to spend time in jail for not paying the fee. He panicked and started moving again. That instant, he knew he would be put away for a long time. He had no choice now. He had to run. He was accelerating slowly, still trying to figure out what to do. He got up to twenty five miles per hour. the police car was gaining. Up ahead was a highway the light was right for him. He hoped the light stayed. It did not.
The traffic, meeting the light soon after the light changed, passed through at speed. He knew he would have to drive into traffic or wait for the police officer to catch up to him. He knew that the police always caught people who merged into traffic but had no idea how.
he stopped at the light. A space in the lines of traffic appeared. He floored it and pulled into traffic. He did not spin the wheels, but accelerated as hard as he could. The car behind him only tapped her brake, somewhat surprised at a car doing that.
as Dynansis slid up to the rear of the car ahead of him, the woman and her line did the same.
Police cars sat down the road, waiting for the expected space. There was none. Dynansis passed by with only a few car lengths in front of and behind him as he passed the police.
The police officer was questioned intently about what he saw and whether he made it up. His explanation showed he did not make it up. They had a mystery.
Dynansis got back to the junk yard. He decided to pull his new engine and put the original motor back in. He hid his motor for a while.
After a while, his funds caused him to get involved in real crime. He slipped his motor in one of the other cars in the yard and used it to make a run. He slipped into traffic many times the exact same way. The police cold never figure out how he disappeared into traffic. They suspected there was some mischief going on.
They even went so far as to visit his junk yard and search the place. the cars there could not run, and nothing around the yard looked wrong. Dynansis went so far as to offer his motor and a few others for sale if they were interested. His motor was stored with a half dozen other motors. His motor did not look too much different than the others so they passed it over.
He kept pointing to things he thought the police were interested in, and actually got them to buy a few things. His boss was happy with that.
a bunch of new cars came in, and the old ones were shipped out to be processed. Dynansis now had a new set of cars that the police had not examined, to do his crimes.

25 )
.
There is the joke that says "Why don't they serve chocolate in prison? It makes you break out.' I had to use this in a story.
Crime always exist. What is a crime changes as society changes, and the punishment for the crimes change over time.
there are some crimes where, all one has to do is to catch the criminal and take them out of that environment, and they will correct their ways, becoming good people. Other crimes require the criminal to receive treatment of some sort, whether it is just the punishment of being in jail, or physical punishment, or drug treatments and counseling. They never return to that kind of crime.
There are criminals that cannot be rehabilitated. They will commit their crimes no matter what. It is their nature. Of course, in some societies, those are not crimes, while in others, they would be capital punishments or life imprisonment.
it is an advanced society. The normal treatment for criminals is to rehabilitate them, either through counseling, relocation and financial assistance, or through drugs.
They do have criminals that cannot be treated. They can only be stored away, safe from the population. The old time detention cells of the old style prisons were proven not to do any good. They were expensive and dangerous for the guards. Instead, their high technologies allowed them to come up with a very simple system and it is extremely effective.
the prison has two lines of high fences with barbed wire around them. There are guards walking through the space between the fence. This is mostly for people trying to break in. Inside the prison is like a residential community, multiple buildings, gardens, lawns, trees. The guards inside are more like nurses, doctors, physical therapy people. It is much like a retirement community inside the prison.
The inmates are calm, collected, doing hobbies, chores, exercising. They tended to move slowly. usually smiling, talking calmly, never angry or excited.
The secret of the prison was that the prisoners were on drugs that took away their energies, their emotions, their desires. The criminal part of their minds are suppressed and they become controllable and, within the prison, useful members of society. The prison is needed to make sure they get their drugs on schedule. That could not be done outside the prison. They also would not survive outside the controlled environment of the prison as they would not be able to react or otherwise handle the hectic situations outside.
For certain holidays, the inmates get treats that are not on their diet. For the most part, foods follow popular trends.
Chocolate was making a comeback in society. A blight had knocked back chocolate supplies and society lost interest. After a large number of decades, chocolate has returned to the market. The growers have as much of the plants as they once had. They do a major advertizing campaign over a period of five years, introducing chocolate back to society as a way to really celebrate the holidays.
Candies with chocolate is re-introduced and have become popular. The advertizing and candy makers did their job. Chocolate has become as popular again as it was before the blight.
A holiday comes up and the prisons decide to include chocolate in their celebration The prisons got the treats and the inmates loved them. a few days after the celebration was over, they found they had nearly a dozen escapes. All were caught, but they had no idea how it was done. None of the prisoners were talking as to how they escaped.
The prisoners were counseled treated, and sent to a different prison to be watched while their drug program was employed.
the next holiday came and again there were a large number of escapes and escape attempts. Nearly a hundred over the entire prison systems. Those that escaped before, did not get any chocolate.
It was on the fifth holiday with escapes that they figured out what was happening. They were not sure exactly how it was happening, but the now knew why.
The escapes always happened right after chocolate was provided to the prisoners. Chocolate, the high grade chocolate being served, have all sorts of flavinoids and other chemicals in them. A few of them are causing a reaction to some of the drugs, making the prisoners awake, conscious of where they are and what is happening to them. they then slip out the easy security and out into the world, away from their drugs.
The prison had to protect the society, so they banned chocolate from the prisons and the prisoners. As the joke said. Chocolate was banned because it caused the prisoners to break out.