May 2011 Writing Ideas
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There is no way I can write 365+ publishable stories in a year, let alone one publishable story. Last year, I started on 6 stories last year and wrote "the end" on four of them. I submitted one to a magazine and another is being edited to finished quality.
Back on Prodigy Classic, in December 1997, I posted some story ideas I could not use. I soon found the story ideas flowed fast. I 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 these stories later, myself. Since then, I've learned that many people enjoy reading these posts, even if they do not write.
The way I work is, I come up with a basic concept which is seldom more than a paragraph long. I then spin a story around the concept, or explain what is behind the concept, so someone can see how to develop the basic concept.
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 in any way). 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 Fourteenth 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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The technology of the space station was such that food, clothing, medicine was created by the machines in each apartment. Many household items of non-structural plastic, like plates and containers, was also created by the system. If it required something other than the standard plastic, or standard food stuff, it had to be ordered.
This was all run by the house computer system. The house main frame was connected to the space station system. Like any internet system, it is easy to get viruses.
The problem with viruses on the space station is that the computer that provides food and supplies is also infected.
These are powerful computer and supply systems. The viruses can cause the machines to do all sorts of things, adding bad chemicals into food, causing household things to fail on first use.
Because of the power of the machinery, they also make "bugs". The bugs are really bio robots. they rush out of the processor and crawl around in everything. Some have plastic shell, some are bubbles of goo with legs and sensors. These will sometimes pop when they get stuck.
The bugs are a serious problem in some places where there are several people who go on line. It is impossible to stop the bugs from being formed and crawling away. The only way to stop the bugs is to remove the virus. Of course, once the virus is gone, one has to remove the bugs which can survive for months, depending on the virus.
The anti virus companies come to the home and work to remove the virus from the home system. They then have to install a program to create new kinds of bugs to hunt down and kill the bugs that the virus made.
The hunter bugs are supposed to hunt, and when they reach the limits of their life, they return to a central point to die. The way they are supposed to work is to eat the prey they catch or find, providing them with energy.
The skilled virus people will add things to kill the hunters when they eat their bugs. Another tactic is to make their bugs big and juicy so that when they are attacked, they pop and spread goo everywhere. The prey will also kill and eat the hunters.
The virus people add stuff to their programs to also make life tougher for the anti-virus people. The battles between the bugs and the hunters can be vicious. There is one kind of virus that creates bugs that attack the people.

02 )
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The space station should be abandoned, but it was the people's home. Over many generations, people purchased property, modified it for their desires, and had children and children's children. While it was not good quality, it was their property.
The space station had a method where one could listen in to all conversations everywhere. There was a lottery gaming system on the space station, but it was low budget. the odds were really high on winning and no one won the big money.
The listening system keyed on common phrases and themes, to see if there was something useful. They were not after any security information, they wanted to get a true mood of the people.
It took about a year, but they figured out that a large proportion of the people would leave the space station if they hit the lottery. That was what the government needed to get the space station abandoned.
When the game was played, the system gave the people a number and one was supposed to keep it a secret. It was truly random under normal play. The officials got the money together which was sizable. Each person would have the money to travel some place else with what they wanted to bring, and truly start over in a new location.
When the time was right, they adjusted the system for the lottery.
The people played the game as always. Perceval was a bit short so he did not pick up a ticket. He had done this before so it did not bother him.
the game played. Everybody was"dancing in the isles" as they all won. Every single person won. Because Perceval did not play the game, he was the only one who failed to win. People immediately started picking through their stuff and loading up transports to the space port. There just happened to be a whole bunch of empty ships sitting there waiting for them.
Lots of junk is being left behind. Some people are loading up just their home stuff, some are loading up their business stuff, some are not taking anything figuring they will start completely new at the other end.
Some have gone to the "cemeteries" and gathered the memorabilia of their descendants (who were processed, but grave sites are still created).
Memorabilia is taken from all over the space station. It was not looting because each person registered what they were taking and why.
Perceval is in dismay. What is worse is no one has asked him to come with them when they learned he did not win.
People are filing off the space station in a steady stream. The place is becoming more and more empty. Perceval is unable to leave. All his suppliers and customers are gone so he is scrounging for the things he needs.
Soon there is only a few people left, waiting for another ship to arrive. Perceval asks to take him with them. none of them are interested.
He ends up all alone on the space station having to live all on his own. The officials come. He had overheard them say that if any one person was left there, that person would own the place. He now knows what is going on. He is suddenly owning a space station.
When they meet, they know they have a serious problem. They offer to pay him double the lottery winning to leave.
He is just not sure. He has no friends as none wanted to take him with them when they left. His family left him behind. He now knows he can easily hold out for a different space station. He does not want another space station. He just wants some satisfaction for being left alone.
They misunderstand his intentions and things start to get heated. He does not know how to stop this before it goes out of hand.

03 )
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Quinn could "flex" the fabric of space and cause things to happen, appearing to happen like magic. He also had a very vivid imagination so he could make just about anything happen.
He goes to a party and someone says "You are not drunk if you can still hang onto the floor. Soon, everybody is walking on the cieling for a short time, he tells them they are all drunk.
He is driving home and is speeding, going as fast as the road can take him. He sees the police lights behind him. The police car catches up and he slows to a stop on the shoulder.
The police officer does his paperwork and finally shows up beside his driver's window.
"Where were you going in such a hurry?"
"I was trying to out run a space alien attack." Just then something appears in the sky, making strange sounds. there is a series of energy beams that hit the ground and there is explosions of dirt and plants. the police car is also hit, the bumper is gone but it can still drive. "Luckily," he continues, "They hit your car rather than mine."
The police officer, who had dove next to the car for protection gets up. "You need a ride anywhere?"

04 )
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Something went wrong, that was for sure. The best theory was that particle physics experiments somewhere in two universes created a "spot weld" between the two universes so the overlapped. The best theory was that the two universes, being on the surface of bubbles, were joined perfectly over top each other.
One effect was that the star positions shifted slightly all over. The planets, stars, galaxies and galactic groups were shifted a partial distance so they all matched together. Of course, the particle physics experiments and their galaxies ceased to exist instantly. Other than the stars and planets shifting locations, there was little effect on the lives on the stars.
The solar heat of each life bearing planet remained the same, even though their orbits wold not really be the same. Life seamed to be an anchor for the universes.
Each universe was a "solid ghost" over the other. One could move, in a limited way, things from the other world. Life could not interact at all with each other. Predators would attack the life of the other area and get nothing but practice. It would be a while before life in both worlds would learn to ignore the other life.
Ranson had a bit of a problem. he lived in an area where now a fast flowing but thin river passed right through his home. Walking around in it, he could feel the resistance of the water sloshing on his legs when he was going up hill, but there was no sensation going down and very little to the sides. The sloshing, as if wading through a still mud puddle, was the effect of the flow of water on him. His house floor was just above the water level so his house was dry, but his garage had a thin layer of water flowing through it all the time.
One slowly got used to that. It never seemed to rain which was nice as he figured they would have rain coming inside the house. He knew it would be tough to know if he had a leak or not.
Fish swam down his driveway all the time. It was kind of fun to watch them swim around his feet. He did notice that some black stuff developed on his driveway. He could not brush it off. He also noticed that the fish would feed on the black stuff.
Several people complained that he needed to do something about his filthy driveway. He wondered what to do about it. it was in the other world.
One day, while watching the fish pick at the black stuff, he noticed that they could not stay long enough in the flow to really feed. looking at the other world rocks sitting in his lawn. He had found that they were shading his grass.
He got an idea. He very carefully worked his fingers around the stones and moved them in very slow motion. If he moved slowly, they would follow his motion, when if he moved fast at any time, it fell right through his hands.
One by one, he moved the rocks to the end of his driveway, forming a line of them. He then went to the property next to his and took their rocks too and filled the space between the line of rocks. He has to stack them carefully to make sure they did not move under the pressure of the water. Soon, he had a nice stack of stones and the water backed up his driveway quite a ways.
He waited a few minutes. Fish soon congregated in the pond. The fish soon were feeding on the black stuff. they would use the pond to go farther up the driveway to grab a bite before slipping down again.
The next day, Ranson had to go to work so he drove out of his driveway quickly. His wife watched him. The stones never moved. He and his wife now knew for sure that if they drive quickly, they will not mess up the line of stacked stones. People saw the stones and never entered their driveway, not sure if they were "real" or not.
The black stuff was gone from his driveway and people now had to park on the side of the road which he kind of liked.

05 )
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Fur and skins of all kinds are a popular fashion. Animals are found in nature in many planets and are tested for their marketability. When an animal is found to have market value, hunters and colony support go to the planet and begin the harvest.
There are no rules for the harvesting. There are rules of thumb, though. It is suggested that some form of farming be developed so the supply is not depleted by heavy harvest. The problem is that there is usually a limit in how long a pelt is popular. Some people will get full blown farming systems started only to find that fashion has become tired of the pelts.
The planet had no civilization at all. It was in the middle of nowhere. The fur company sponsoring the colony decided to do an experiment. With each person, three huts and a personal factory unit would be added to each person's supplies. There were also a resource extraction kit for every ten people.
A thousand people were dropped on the planet to acquire the pelts of three different animals. Many of the people just went out into the wilderness to bring in the pelts themselves.
Silvia's husband had a health emergency just before they were to be dropped down. Silvia could not stay with her husband and her husband could not go. She ended up going to the planet alone.
Her plan was to keep the house and keep up him healthy and comfortable when he was home. She had no serious job skills. Her husband died within days of her arrival.
On the planet, she looked at her factory kit. She had messed with fabrics before. She decided her place needed a carpet to make it nicer. She checked for supplies and had none. She did a little bit of research and found there was petroleum below the surface. She took one of the resource extraction kits and had one of the men drill an oil well for her and set up her factory system to process the oil as would be needed.
Her first carpets were interesting but not great. A few people accepted them as gifts. When the first pelts came in. she got her hands on one. Looking at the formulas, she was able to make a half way descent facsimile. Since the pelts themselves were very labor intensive, people asked for her imitation pelts for their homes.
She kept fine tuning the formulations and designs. Her big sheets were interesting, but the size hid how close they were to the real thing.
The fifth shipments were sent out. Twelve different animals were harvested for the pelts and only one caught on to rave reviews.
Silvia got an idea and after making the carpet a bit finer, the underlayment thicker and harder, and the fur a bit longer, she cut a bunch of the carpet in the shape of the pelts the hunters were bringing in. Several hunters looked at the pelts and half of them selected hers as real pelts. She had the right texture for everything. She asked how she could improve her carpets and she made the changes per recommendations and went into heavy production.
the hunting season was over when the sixth ship left. The seventh and eighth was filled entirely with her carpets.
Based on suggestions by the fashion people, she tweaked her design just a little more. The colors were based on the cut shape and there was variation in the pattern.
The hunters had found that the animal was quite tasty. Since Silvia was producing carpets, they decided to develop farms for the animals.
Two whole years, no real pelts left the planet. Seeing the animals alive in the new farms, Silvia made even more adjustments. She even handled the babies as they were being born.
The farms started sending out pelts again. There was word that someone on the planet was cutting carpets as fake pelts. The fashion people received the real pelts and sent back a note saying that the shipment (all real pelts) has been refused. They did not appreciate someone sending them carpet cuttings.
The shipment was sold for a lower price. The farms were almost worthless if it were not for the meat. The farmers decided to try and breed their stock to create pelts equal to the carpets going on. they then changed their mind and decided to make the place a real working colony.
Silvia had mastered the pelt formula and set up three other factory units with other people so the production would not shut down for any reason.
The fashion industry became hooked on the quality of the pelts they were receiving. They did not care, after it was proven it was manufactured, where it came from because it had everything that fashion wanted.

06 )
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I asked about a team today and someone said "They did not play today." The thought crossed my mind, What if the teams played on different days? I get to design a new game!!!!
The main idea is that the teams never meet each other. They do play each other though. Two teams play a series, then go to play series with other teams.
What partly comes to mind is something on the concept of an obstacle course or a maze. It has to be a game of skill and physical ability also.
What I am thinking of is the game has a certain set of walls, physical ability operated doors, skill operated doors. One team designs and erects their maze based on the rules of the games. They will put the skills and physical entries at different parts of the maze based on theories of what will be most difficult for the other teams. They tend not to change that all that much. That is referred to the defense. Since the rules are strict as to the design, teams will stick to one plan with minor adjustments through the entire season.
Then the team that plays, rushes into the maze and tries to find each thing. One can have two doors, but no doors, have to open to continue. they must be reachable together before the team continues. one cannot have one interlock at the end and one at the beginning. There would also be targets and puzzles that would have to be tricked to open.
There would be strength players, skill and problem solving people who would spread out. Likely the fastest maze finders would go in first and locate the doors. They would then guide the right people to that kind of door there. Once the door is breached, they would spread out again to find the next. There would be points for speed of passing each door, for overall time, for accuracy solving each door.
There could be a paint ball like setup at one point and the more people who get through the paint ball clean also adds points.
Each thing would have their rules and specifications on what can and cannot be done and how it can be done to make the game as fair as possible, while testing the defense and the offence.
The audience would be watching the game on camera, many cameras in each of the walls, and likely be watching it on delay so the players don't know what to expect until they meet it.
The teams would battle each other on alternate days as setting up the playing field takes some effort.
In the play offs, the teams play multiple games. Again they are on different days. The teams would use their normal variation of the playing field for each game so in some series, the teams will match against all the other team has based on their field design.
Someone could say that the Panthers and cougars are in the playoffs. did the Panthers win? no, they did not play today.

07 )
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Listing to the news, I got this idea.
Oglathorp was half machine and was part of the planet. The planet was filled with passages and storage areas along with extensive transportation systems. It was once an underground city but the civilization collapsed entirely. A group of colonists arrived and are now living on the surface.
The colony collapsed and had dug itself from a cave man existence to a fairly high technological civilization. They do have satellites and have put people into space but are not at the level to go to the stars.
Oglathorp traveled the planet and kept track on the colonists. He had some influence wherever he was but he did not interact too much as that could create problems.
Several nations had developed nuclear power and nuclear weapons and because of philosophies and religions, there was a lot of hostilities. Some of the weaker nations also had the most radical beliefs. They had taken to terrorist tactics, bombing, assassinations, and even suicide bombings.
The leader of the most active group worked outside the reach of the governments, while within their borders. He had caused the most damage to the most powerful of the nations and no one could catch him. At the moment, he was in hiding.
The planetary computer followed the communications and cracked all the codes of the powerful nation so he knew what they were doing as soon as they did. The planetary computer system also predicted actions based on past actions.
Oglathorp saw that the powerful country was going to take out the rebel leader. The leader had some key information he knew people would want to know later. He decided to save him the only way he really knew he could.
Because he was involved in building the mansion the leader was in, rode the subway to the nearby train station. He worked a keypad. A wall slid out several feet. Then a ram lowered down form the ceiling. When the ramp reached the ground, he rotated it to expose an escalator. He set the escalator He brought the first wall back to lock the escalator in place, and then rode it up with a push cart in front of him.
Using some tunnels, he made his way up the walls of the mansion. He released a gas that knocked out the leader and anybody else in the room.
He entered the room through a false wall and carried him into the tunnel, then retrieved the two ladies that was also there. He used the gas to move through the house and locate hard drives and papers. He finally closed up the access and loaded the push cart with the people and materials.
He got the push cart down the escalator and onto the train. he rotated and raised the escalator and put the walls back in place. He tied the people up as they were waking up. He started the train to move out slowly.
The leader was looking around, knowing he was not home. One of the women screamed then calmed down.
Since he was in the rear car, he felt the impacts and watched as the ceiling sagged. Debris fell to the ground. The train stopped as it was programmed to do. He told the leader that his life was saved by his actions, but it will be quite a while before he will be freed. He calls the system and tells the robots to clean up the area around the train station as debris is on the tracks. He tells the leader that this train station will never be serviceable again.
After about an hour journey, the people are knocked out and then put into a room. It has food that will give them good quality foods from different menus they can select. Clothing will be provided based on orders, and medical access is also available.
There are programs not all that different than what was available on the surface, and there is a fake internet where the computer uses patterns of the real internet to emulate fake people. There is news outlets, but it is outdated and not easy to use. He does show data on what happened to their compound. bunker busting bombs went off all around the mansion pulverizing the stone all around. The nation was not going to let anybody escape alive.
they know they will be somewhat comfortable with some semblance to a real world access.
After Oglathorp makes the leader do a message to the world, releases the gas, which he is immune to, removes their bindings and lays them on their beds. He then leaves through the only exit, a hatch in the roof.
They wake alone. Escape will be impossible unless they figure out which panel will let them escape.
Oglathorp returns to the surface and lets the message sneak out. The powerful nation is shocked that the leader might have survived.
Oglathorp did his damage and then goes back to watch what happens and apply his little bits of influence. Because the super power chose not to take samples, they cannot prove that they destroyed the rebel leader. Others step into leadership, knowing they may eventually see the leadership again.

08 )
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Carlyle got up in the morning and prepared to go to work. He checked the calendar and saw it was Garbage day. He gathered the house garbage together and set it out on the curb. he then got into his car. He always had to squeeze into it as it was small, but he liked that it was a convertible. He loved the feel of the wind in his hair.
He drove the office and ran through some paperwork. He set his route and schedule. He then went to the conversion building and processed the last batches of separated materials. After that was done, he got out into the truck and drove his route. Box trimmings from the box company, trash from the frozen food factories, garbage from the store, wastes from the cereal company. he then went along the residential area and picked up the garbage there. He finally arrived in the waste management company building and emptied the truck. After parking the truck, he cleaned up, had lunch, changed and then went in and separated the wastes and sent them into their individual machines for processing. it was time to go home.
The next, which was a day off, he went grocery shopping and then picked up some clothing he ordered at the clothier. After a stop at the housewares store to browse, before he went home.
The next day, after checking the schedule, he went to the grocery store and stocked shelves and placed orders for what he needed. He then left before lunch and went to the frozen food plant and placed stock from the new order in the outside freezer for pickup. After lunch he went to the cereal food plant and got together the new order he found there. After several more stops, he gets to the box making plant and after making boxes and placing their pallets on the loading dock, he placed orders for the papers he needed.
The next day he got into his delivery truck and picked up boxes and dropped some off at the frozen food plant and picked up frozen food to be delivered. He picked up cereal product and dropped off boxes. After a few more stops, he went to the grocery store and placed the products into the proper storage areas of the store for later shelving.
After he parks the truck, he stops by the clothing store to check to see if there was any new orders. yes, there was an order for new sox so he gets out the materials and sets them into the computerized sewing machine. Hitting a few buttons, it runs for a minute and xix new socks are made to order. He then packages them up in a labeled bag and sets them on the shelf for the customer.
Carlyle followed this pattern every day of the week. He was all alone in an area the size of a very small shopping mall. while most people working in these space stations just make what they need and take them home, Carlyle kept his sanity by making different types of work each day and following a pattern that kept him busy.

09 )
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I've been watching the state government at work on TV, if you can call it that.
It was decided long ago that the best government was one that was utterly inefficient and ineffective. The makers of the government started with almost no laws. The best governmental minds were selected as the assistants and aids for the high council.
The council is robots assembled just for the job of running the government. Millions of robot parts were made and orders for repairs are available. The robots parts are selected randomly and stuck to the robots as they are assembled. The robots are then placed before the public to run for office. There is always three times the robots than seats.
Each robot mind has randomly programmed issues it will work towards. that is not a problem, but the different parts is controlled by the computer mind, and each one requires different amounts of concentration. They move randomly so the computer mind has to concentrate the entire time on controlling the limbs.
If a robot loses three times, it is disassembled and the parts are put back into the racks to be randomly selected some other time. Robots that win remain in office for three elections and then retired.
The assistants get their elected robot, which is randomly assigned to them when it arrives new. they then have to try to teach the robot how to deal with the issues of the day besides what it ran on, and get it to agree to sign onto their bills. The assistants have to also try to teach the robot to be persuasive with the other robots to get them to vote on the bills offered.
The weakened intellect and no imagination makes the robots impossible to work with. It is forbidden to tamper with the robot in any way.
Because of this system, the great political minds of the assistants are helpless to do anything of substance with what they are working with. They can do little things but they need to do big things to "make a difference."

10 )
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Sendolf traded his great and powerful magic for eternal life. There was one penalty of the power. No weapon could harm him as long as it was made after his birth.
He worked hard to come up with new fighting styles that required new types of weapons. That caused old weapons to be turned into something else or made new. Any sword made red hot lost any effect on him.
When he cast his final spell, he had a small army around him and they all gained the same eternal life. They now traveled with him where ever he went, his body guards. If he were to die, they would cease to exist.
Centuries had passed and his army was now a dozen men. One by one, they died by an older weapon that happened to be in use by some oaf.
Sendolf now traveled the world, hunting down caches of weapons, museums, collections. He would burn the buildings down, guaranteeing the weapons inside got at least red hot. There were few really old weapons left to harm him. As it was, he could do just about anything he wanted in the world and no one could stop him.
Walking from another museum fire, police showed up and demanded he stop. He shrugged and kept walking. The police opened fired with their weapons, swapping empty magazines quickly. The bullets hit them, entered and then fell to the ground, spent. It stung, but the bullet did no other damage. The police were soon out of ammo and watched the group of men leave the road and disappear into the forest. One officer ran up and threw a kick at one of the guards. the guard caught the man's leg and slammed him to the ground. thousands of years of experience beats the best modern fighters any day.
Deep in the forest two days later, they come upon a small hut surrounded by a nice garden. Sendolf decided this would be a good place to stay for a while.
entering the house, they found an older looking woman. She tried to tell them to leave and drew a knife. They took the knife out of her hand easily and tied her up.
They ransacked her shack, looking for whatever they wanted. everything was crude and home made. Any weapon that had any semblance of being old was heated just to make sure it would not harm them.
After a day, they untied her and made her fetch for them, cook, provide drink. There was always three guards around her as she worked. She was quite feisty and talked back often.
On the fifth day, they decided they would go on from here. Because she heard where they were going, they decided they would not let her live. her telling their plans would make things miserable.
Since she was not going to live after tomorrow, they decided to make use of her. One of the guards bent over to grab her and somehow found himself planting his face into the wall. It hurt. Immediately, the others jumped to alert.
She slipped right by them and came face to face with Sendolf. Unarmed, she attacked him. After knocking each other around a bit, she does a kill move on him. He falls to his knees. His guard fade out, becoming dust.
He gasps that nothing can hurt him unless it was older than he was. She asked when he was born. She then tells him she was ten years old when he was born. She was older than he was which was how she was able to kill him in unarmed combat.

11 )
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Obidia had the job to feed the animals in the space colony. There were a lot of native animals roaming around. It was decided even before they arrived that the introduced animals would have to live outdoors in spite the dangers of the natives. That meant that cats and dogs would wander around the houses, the cattle, sheep and pigs would be allowed into the open wilderness areas as they would be back home.
They were lucky with the types of animals in existence. They could have had the dinosaur type animals, that would plow through buildings or saber-tooth monsters. The climate, and habitat was much like Europe. There were no serious pack predators like wolves, and the star predator was much like a lion. the only real difference was that these animals had scales rather than fur or feathers. The animals were very intelligent for their kind and nature.
Except for being fur bearing and being mammals, the introduced animals were very much like what was around.
Obidia walked out to feed the cats outside, and there was a lion standing inside the fence. He stood and considered what to do. He could go inside and wait out the lion, or take care of the cats who were waiting for him.
He remembered that they were supposed to try to live with the native life. He stepped outside and walked over to where he fed the cats. The lion glanced at him.
He groomed the cats as they ate, picking off parasites that collected on them. he would roll them over onto their back and pick off the bugs that hid in the shadows.
As he worked, the lion got closer. A couple cats got a little nervous but finished their food and let him finish giving them the attention they craved. One by one, they wandered off.
Obidia looked up and found himself nose to nose to the lion. The lion nudged him with the nose, and then turned the side to him. Obidia wondered what to do. He noticed there were a lot of parasites on it. When he did nothing, it leaned against him a little.
Afraid he was going to get a parasite on him, he started picking the bugs off. His fur come worked well on the scales of the lion removing bugs that were stuck.
The lion turned different parts of the body to him to work and he was picking them off as fast as he could. He found himself talking to the lion like a cat and petting and patting it as he worked.
He was working the tail when his boss walked out. "What are you doing with that lion!" the man shouted angrily.
Well you stop that and get away from that beast and get to work." The boss was spitting mad as he approached.
the lion snarled and growled at the man. the man stopped and blinked.
"If you know how to tell a lion no, you clue me in." The lion raised a tail for him to clean. "I am doing what it wants until it is satisfied and it will let me go."
The lion continued to snarl and threaten the boss but remained for the attention.
The boss backed up very slowly, no longer angry. when he felt he was far enough away, he disappeared quickly.
The lion rolled over onto its back and Obidia cleaned the belly and the legs too. the lion finally was satisfied and wandered away.
Obidia was afraid that he would see the lion again, or see other lions, but he lucked out and did not see any lions when hew as tending the animals.
The boss was less aggressive around Obidia and let him have time to do his work, whatever it was.

12 )
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I heard that there was a team of lawyers along with a team of interrogators in the area just in case that Ben Ladin might have been captured. The source of this bit of information then commented about all the lawyers at the beaches of Normandy during the D-Day invasion,,, no, no lawyers there. He then listed other major battles where lawyers were not a prime consideration for the actions. My mind clicked into story idea mode.
The world had become lawsuit crazy. Lawyers amounted to half the people who were employed in the world. Some areas of life have settled down to set of accepted rules as having lawyers fighting each other got too much of a bother and expense.
The biggest use of lawyers is in the international realm. Lawyers will line up against each other and try to paperwork each other into submission. Most of the time, a deal is hammered out.
One day, two nations could not hammer out a deal. It ended up to be a war. The soldiers gathered to face each other. Each soldier had two lawyers with them. One lawyer was to watch over the activities of the solder for any slights on the laws, and the other was to watch the battle field for slights the other side did.
It did not take long for the stronger nation to defeat the other nation in battle. They now controlled their battle field lawyers. The captive lawyers were given instructions on what to look for and what to overlook. The winner's lawyers were sent to the back of the lines to work with command.
The losing nation was fully integrated into the winner within a week. They then expanded into another nation. They were after world domination. Their own lawyers were sent home since they did not need that many watching for them.
During the expansion, the empire slighted a nation across the channel. The channel nation could not get a hearing, let alone battle the case. They finally declared war. It took a while to build for battle. The empire consolidated their holdings to the entire continent, and then moved all the captured forces, armies of all the nations and their lawyers, to along the coast of the channel.
the island nation finally was ready for the landing. they attacked with their whole army and every lawyer the nation could muster. they knew they needed the legal protection. they had five lawyers for every solder, One to watch the soldier and four to watch the battle field. they were positive the empire cheated.
In the dead of night, the island army landed their forces on one beach that had a gentle slope. they were almost off the sand when the enemy faced them eye to eye.
They stood and stared at each other for a while, Then order went out to attack. Both sides were firing at each other, but not able to hit each other for fear of hitting a lawyer. That was something that just did not happen.
A young soldier with really bad aim fired. he caught an imperial lawyer right between the eyes. Shooting stopped for a moment. Then on orders of a commander, a soldier shot an island lawyer in revenge.
The lawyers were laying down and wearing camouflage, while the lawyers were standing around with their notebooks and brief cases, wearing grey double breasted suits.
The island commander got angry and ordered an imperial lawyer killed. Then the rounds started flying between both sides, taking out each other's lawyers as fast as possible.
Word got out that the army with the most lawyers wins the battle. It became pure target practice, clearing out as many lawyers as possible, possibly several in one shot.
One lawyer from each side was left. They ran to each other and threw a couple punches, very unlawyerly. Nearly a thousand round flew into them, each side trying to eliminate each other's lawyer while saving their own. No lawyer was standing. The armies stopped firing. The soldiers then searched the bodies for any conscious lawyer. Then any that were even recoverable, and finally, they were searching for any lawyer that might have happened to survive. It was finally declared that no lawyer survived the battle. The battle was a tie.
then both sides sent out communications to their homes to send any lawyer that could be found, student, retired, any lawyer available.
After three days, no lawyer in the world could be found. Both sides was extremely efficient in gathering everybody who was a lawyer. The judges, who were once lawyers declined stepping out of office to win the battle. Professors also declined the job.
At the end of the week, the ships picked up the island's army and the empire disbanded, soldiers returning home. Not one soldier was harmed in any way. The only blood spilled were that of lawyers.
without the "protection" of lawyers, people had to change the way they dealt with each other. The real chance of personal action frightened everybody so they had to be respectful to each other.
People would learn law and defending the laws, but it would never become a major profession it once was.

13 )
The presidential candidate said "I am the president of change. As president, this nation is not going to be the same." People wanted something different, so they elected him.
His first year, it was pretty much the same, though he did undo some stuff his predecessor did. He also got the extreme people of both political parties very angry at him.
At the start of the second year, he started pushing for things no one seemed to want. They were nothing anybody ever considered being pushed for. He was using his executive powers and the departments under his control to make the changes. People started thinking he was crazy. He continued on, making changes so fast that the congress could not react to his activities. He activated all the national guards and relocated them all through the country. He made certain fuels difficult to get and lots of foods off limits or illegal. Many industries were staggered by his new regulations.
A new congress made up of people that insisted in cutting off his powers were elected. About that time, strange things started appearing. They were not recorded at first, just rumors. Then changes really started happening. The first report of a baby dinosaur, with pictures really took the news.
The changes accelerated so fast that within a month of the dinosaur the country really changed. It was a total shock to everyone.
While dinosaurs were walking around, mastodons were following them along with saber tooth cats. People showed up dressed as pilgrims, romans, Greeks, futuristic space people, Vikings, all appeared. The trees became pre-dinosaur trees and post modern trees, along with things between. mud huts and clear bubbles made up cities. The only thing that was as strange as all the differences, is that all the people spoke the common language of the country.
Several mountains appeared in the middle of nowhere. no existing homes were effected, but it did mess up several roads which were made unpassable.
As the people walked around, they all said, "I just don't recognize this country." "This is not the country I grew up in." "I wonder if this is my country."
People, trying to survive, start to see that the president's actions really helped make the changes more bearable. Some raw materials stopped being available. Travel was really bad. Jets plowing into pterodactyls was really messy, since many of them were as big as small planes. roads messed up made the highway transportation system utterly useless. Power lines were broken up and so was the pipe lines. Luckily, there were no oil spills or fires caused by the utilities broken up. The future people did have more satellites in orbit so non-land line communications was better.
It was not the nation anybody recognized. The president somehow knew this stitch in time was coming and prepared the nation for it as quickly as he could using the powers he had available. It would be decades before some semblance of normality would settle in. The president would win four elections before he stepped down. By then, his knowledge of the situation and the powers he had at hand would no longer be an advantage. Others could take over. Also he had re-united the nation and new people under the old political system.

14 )
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Quests and adventures occupied just about anybody under the age of thirty. While the chances of actually getting anything, let alone rich, was slim, the few that did showed that it was worth the effort.
Stories abounded as to where treasure troves and keys might be located. The gods created a trove once a year, and scattered the keys across the land. they told the oracles hints of what could be found. the god, in return, got ardent worship for their efforts.
What the gods did not tell the oracles was that they also distributed fresh denizens everywhere along the routes to the treasure troves with orders to stop the adventurers at all cost.
Zadnolf, the trove of knowledge, as he was called, was a healthy, vibrant old man with an amazing memory. Adventurers, even those who failed, would return to him and tell him all they knew about their routes and finds. Later, when someone was following that route, he could give them details. Since he had been doing this for a long time, he was also able to tell how some routes might change over time. It was not questioned that he knew more about the world than he told.
One day, The king came to him with a large adventure force. "I have acquired several hundred keys and know the exact location of a dozen treasure troves. I am taking my army to gather some other keys I know about and then open the treasure troves."
"Very good. With a full army, you should not have any problems." Zadnolf said.
"You are coming with me."
"I am not in condition to travel. I cannot go."
"You are going with me. That is a royal order." A couple guards stepped forward.
"Then we will take routes I chose, or it is no deal." The way Zadnolf looked at the king caused the king to step back. That caused the guard to look worried at the king.
"Um, all right." The king said after a long moment. "You choose the routes."
"Tell me what locations you need to go and what you need to get there."
"I plan to go through the Charismatic Pass and then..."
"No, the destinations and what is there!" Zadnolf interrupted.
The king shied back. the king realized hew as not dealing with any old man. He realized that the Zadnolf's name was really that of a magician. They added Dolf to the end of their name. He just swapped the sounds, instead of being Zandolf, he made his name Zadnolf.
The king told about the keys he was after, then the treasure locations he would go once he had the keys.
"Give me an hour to get ready, then we will go." The king went outside with his men.
Zadnolf came out with a small pack. "You are facing the wrong way." Zadnolf said, We are going that way."
"But the.."
"My route, not yours."Zadnolf interrupted.
They entered a blind valley. Zadnolf touched different very large boulders, sometimes in back where the king could not see. They get to the end and a giant cave had appeared. Zadnolf lead them in. The cave closed behind the last soldier but there was light enough for even the horses to see.
Zadnolf gathered the army in a room. He chanted while he touched different knobs of the walls. Then there was a vibration. the way they entered was instantly closed. They felt what seemed like tipping and turning. Lights flew by through the rocks even though there was no way lights could be seen from the rocks.
After about half an hour, the streaking lights slowed down and the shifting stopped. Zadnolf touched the walls in the opposite direction and a tunnel opened opposite their entry. they traveled about a mile and came into a treasure trove that made the king gasp.
After the wagons were loaded, Zadnolf took them to a different cave. In this way, they hit the treasure troves the king wanted to go to.
On the last treasure trove, Zadnolf said that all the keys the king had, had to be left. It was part of the deal. the king did not like the idea, and knew that the keys were for other treasures out there. the king left all the keys in place. Zadnolf then lead them to a chamber . After a couple hour ride, he lead them outside and to his house. The king kept his men flanking Zadnolf. At his home, the king sent solders back. To their shock, they had difficulty finding the blind valley. Once they found it, there was no tunnel. They did find their tracks but no sign of the tunnel. Even the rocks Zadnolf touched going in were different.
They came back to the king to make their report. the king went in to speak to Zadnolf and he was gone. That was impossible as the soldiers had surrounded the house. all his belongings and even any sign he lived there was gone.
When word of what the king did with the keys, and all the treasures he acquired, other kings and leaders in the world got very angry. Armies started descending on the king to get revenge.
Zadnolf simply took everything off the walls and set them on the floor. He then dropped the floor of his hut below ground level and had another floor rise up in its place. After he got his possessions in order, he sent to the other end of the world and set up shop. He would soon become the trove of knowledge in that area, but it would take some time. He had time. The gods scattered the keys left, around the world as they normally do.
Dozens of armies set on the king and eventually defeated him, taking his treasures and land. There was always a penalty for shortcuts on finding the treasures.

15 )
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This came from two frames of a dream. What I wrote has little to do with the frames I remembered. I had to use the frames as a jump off point for this presentation.
Abernathy was from the far future. He tripped into the time machine field. Because he was not within the time machine itself, he was flung into a different past and was stuck.
He was carrying a spare part for the time machine, it worked like a tuning fork. It had guided him to land a time machine in existence in the time period he arrived at.
It did not take too long to figure out that his method of time travel did give him some advantages. He had some powers that resembled magic. One thing was that he knew things about time. He knew what happened, why he ended up when and where he did.
The time machine was enclosed in a medical center in the psychicatric department.
He was different than the population so he seemed to fit in the place. During a doctor interview, he asked to talk to one of the experts of the time experiment. He used what the project was called, not what it was doing. A few minutes with the expert had him out of the cells and working in the project.
He made arrangements that he would live within one of the cells when he was not working. That kept him out of trouble with the outer world.
One part of the offices provided him a good look at the outside world. He saw the cars used, some of the city buildings, the way people outside dressed.
In his work, he learned that this was one of the best psychiatric centers that had ever been. They used the top science of their people to help and cure the inmates. Few stayed for long and none had a need to return. Their system was doing extremely well.
It came time to test the time machine. He had given them a lot of help on it. He would describe what he knew, and they would find the science of how it would work, then find the technology based on his descriptions, to do the work.
One high scientist said that this is not going to work. The machine was a waste of money.
Abernathy offered to go with them on the first trip. A couple doctors technicians and scientists were going along with a couple muscles to work as guards. They had made the chamber of their machine bigger than needed.
They got into the time machine and activated it. It looked like nothing happened. Right where he was looking, a smudge appeared. When they were wondering if the machine worked, he pointed to the smudge. They then noticed dust and stuff.
They slipped out and found the room outside stripped of papers and file cabinets.
He told them to go over the machine and make sure it will run again before they do anything. They made adjustments. He told them to send them back a few minutes after their arrival. When the machine was ready to go, they left the room.
The rooms outside looked different. Inmates with obvious problems were wandering the halls, Instead of the stark cream white walls, there were papers with writing and pictures everywhere, acting like wallpaper. Other than those two changes, the others did not seem to notice much of a difference.
He got to the window and looked carefully. The buildings had changed, some of the tallest were missing and those that remained were not cleaned or maintained. The people were wearing similar clothing, much like uniforms, no bright colors. The cars were old and weather beaten. He told them the differences. Only after he pointed them out did they see the difference.
They located some modern medical books. the copyrights gave them the general date of the time. The official doctrin of the government held that anybody who disagreed with the government needed to be institutionalized. It listed treatments that would make them controllable by the minimum people. It was less troublesome than exicuting them.
Talking with the doctors, they find out that none of the doctors like doing this kind of treatment. Abernathy suggests that they soften the meds so those in the place can think a bit normally, even if they cannot do anything about it, and have them work together to figure out what to do. Everybody thought it was a dumb suggestion as described, but it did give several of the doctors some ideas. There were ways to solve the problem. When they left, the doctors were discussing ways to over throw the government without getting caught.
They found some other books and periodicals that filled in some of their knowledge of the times. He finds a political history book and slips that into his shirt. he figured it would not be missed.
They return to the room and there are some workmen getting equipment together. They are going to take out the machinery. T
He tells the workmen to give them a few minutes as they need the room for a meeting. It won't be long. They can come in after fifteen minutes.
They lock the door, power up the machine get in. Since the machine needs one stage to be activated by outside. he runs a wire from the activation unit to the door so that when the door opens, it breaks a circuit and sends them on.
Once in the machine, he uses one of his powers to cause one of the workmen to come in. The machine starts then shuts down. They open the chamber up, which is the only place the people could have gone, and it is empty. They report that to the high officials and they are told that the machine must cease to exist. The men disassemble the machine carefully and the parts eventually get scattered, re-used or reprocessed.
The time team inside the chamber feel the power come up and then they are in the chamber again. He points out that the smudge is gone.
They open the door and the scientists are surprised they were gone only a few minutes. They describe what they saw and everybody thinks that they are joshing. there is no evidence that it even worked. they must have had optical illusions and such. Abernathy then takes out the book and sets it on the table.
The high scientist flips through the pages, reading it. He notes that the syntax and sentence structure is slightly different. As he flips through the pages his mouth slowly opens with surprise. "My political party would actually do that?"
Abernathy nodded. "Every single time."
"Can it be stopped?" a scientist asked.
Abernathy searched his mind for his knowledge of time. He then tells them that the time they saw cannot be changed. They were stuck with it. They could, though, apply themselves to making future resistance possible such as what they started when they left. They could also delay the activities of the powers in charge, but again deep in the background.
He does warn them that because of the powers he has, he was able to bring them directly to another time machine. They, on the other hand, could well end up anywhere.
As a last act, he gets them to send him into the far future, as far as their machine can send him. he gets inside, and after setting the controls, he uses his powers to hit the send command.
One member of the team goes into another room and takes photos of every page of the book of history and pockets the chip. He comes back in just before the time machine sends Abernathy out. They then close down the machine.
That night, the photographer hands the chip and several backup hard drives to a friend who is in contact with people on both sides of the law. when the photographer gets home, he is arrested by a secret police organization. His family was already arrested. He and his family simply disappeared. His belongings are later taken from his home and filtered through for anything the government could use.
The next day, the team learns the project has been cancelled and they cannot even access their papers.
Several other people in the time machine team also are disappeared. Many though, are shifted to new locations. they start applying their knowledge of the future to cause problems for the future government.
The picture chip gets passed on to some underworld type characters and after studying the pictures, get the pictures spread. Since the book names some names, they underworld makes use of the knowledge and avoid doing business with those who are named.
Decades later, after the government had taken complete control, the underworld operated safely out of view of the powers. when the psychiatric center started its activities to undermine the government, the underworld was ready to step in and help.
The hard drives would be kept in storage for a long time, to surface centuries later to assist in developing a new time machine.
.
The only parts that were used of the dream was the change in the way the offices was decorated, one in the future. and the key It was essentially three quick images.

16 )
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Magic hit the planet and things changed drastically. what people commonly call things, became their true nature. Lady slippers became a plant that makes woman's shoes. tulips developed two lips and loved to kiss when given the chance. Cat fish started meowing.
A woman woke in the middle of the night to some strange sounds. She got up and gingerly searched for the source of the sound. she found it coming from the wall.
After a few weeks, she could not sleep as the noise kept her awake. She brought in some experts and they opened the wall. CARPENTER ANTS. the carpenter ants were building things within the wall. It was not so bad but the hammering and saws kept her awake. Normal methods of removing them did not work. They were immune. After a time, she moved, and sold the house.
A man with woodworking as a hobby purchased the house. He was shown the carpenter ants. He examined what they were doing. they were building things to their scale, but it was just building to be building. It was sort of a scaffolding.
He found out what they loved to eat, and left a train down into the basement. He brought down some lumber and started cutting them up to sort of an ant and waited. soon the ants were gathering around the wood.
He started training them on how to build things to his design. He would let them attach a board, then knock off a board if it was wrong. Soon he guided them to get the length right and the shape right. When they did it right, he gave them food.
He taught them to make doll chairs, tables, dressers, book cases, all to the scale he was after. He soon just set out a whole lot of food for them. when they finished a piece, they would carry food back to the nest. Since there was so many ants, he spent hours on end teaching each new ant how to do the work. The results he was coming up with was well worth the effort.
He sold his doll furniture for good money which kept him in ant food. He then noticed the ants were teaching each other. That was when he started teaching the teachers new skills.
He took a set of ants and guided them in making treadle powered tools. after the first couple units, the ants modified the designs for their bodies. He had sheet metal and taught them how to cut out pieces of metal to make blades.
He left a whole bunch of food and left for a week for a doll furniture show. He sold all his stock and had dozens of orders for more. when he returned, the ants had filled the basement with wheels which ants walked in to power tools. They had a saw mill that turned the boards he had in the shop into pieces the right size. They had used up most of his wood and all his metal in making tools. they had found an inner tube he left laying around and made belts for their machinery.
He gathered their production and shipped that off, then brought in more wood and metal. He kept them busy and in all the food they wanted.
Of course his neighbors complained that they could hear noises from his house. they had heard of carpenter ants, but that was all they knew.
One night he work with a start. It sounded like a circular saw was running. He went downstairs and found the carpenter ants had invented electricity and were running real power tools to build faster. They also had pneumatic nail guns. He now realized he might have problems getting to sleep from now on since they work day and night.

17 )
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A mote is a dust speck. I saw the title of a book I don't ever think I have read called A MOTE IN GOD'S EYE. I think it was a space fiction. You know how I like to use similar sounding words for a story idea.
A moat is a circular ditch. The thought crossed my mind that the title of the book could have been A MOAT IN GOD'S EYE.
Now I read a book about a nebula that had a glowing spot that blinked out, which was a laser pushing a photon sail ship. The ship had gotten out of range so they shut off the laser. I think the nebula was called God's eye. I could have read the book but am not sure.
Anyway, you have some god, or the eye of something. It has a circular ditch in the eye, a moat. Cyclops with a moat around the pupal to keep it moist?
A Roman style god with parasites - a group of soldiers, or a group of souls occupying the eye. The moat could be used to keep them in their place, or to keep other things out. A god that stores the souls of people devoted to them, in their eye for protection. The moat keeps them in one place where they are not going to get lost. The souls cannot fathom the deep tears.
Or, Gods are big. They can change their size and shape at will. They can be like us or tower over mountains. denizens and followers alike exist on them. When they are at their largest, the denizens are their normal size. When they become small, the host that live on them shrinks accordingly. the hosts don't notice the size change. their world is their world.
While the god was big. a space ship crashed on the god. the survivors, having rare equipment and weaponry, have to fight for their lives against things that just don't die. they end up in the eye. There are shallow and deep spots in the eye surface. They see that none of the denizens can swim. Using the last of their equipment energy, they dig a mote around and area they can survive on. they pile the excavation onto their area until it is well above the water. their moat gives them the protection. They plant and herd what little they have left in the space they scraped out to protect them.
Because of the size of the area they made, the god does not notice their existence in his eye. They are living within a moat in god's eye.

18 )
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While petting the cat, I noticed mosquitoes flying around it, trying to land. My petting him kept them at bay. My mind slipped into story idea mode for a short moment.
My image was a frog sitting on the back of the cat, snapping up pests as they come close. The cat has to have the thing on its back which is unnatural, but it does not have the pests around.
Now it is common for for large beasts to allow flying animals, birds, to pick parasites off them and eat whatever is stirred up by the big beast's movements. It is rare for small animals, though.
Landolyn was born by the sea and worked the oceans as he grew up. He was great with spear fishing, wading in the water and spearing fish. He was so accurate that he would always bring in twice as many fish as his friends when they went out, even when they chose their places first.
When he finally went out with his father in search for the local equivelent of whales, he was allowed to harpoon the first whale they saw. He got a perfect hit as he was instructed. He went out with his father three more times and was perfect with his targetting each time.
Landolyn survived the destruction of his fishing village and his family when a large wave enveloped it while he was inland for school. The school also got hit by the water, but his ability to swim and his ability to thow teathered spears kept him from being washed away.
Since there was nothing on the ocean for him, he headed inland. He found that the local bird was quite tasty. They were better raw than cooked. He also learned that they attacked larger animals often, as one attacked him.
Knowing there was a big city on the other side of the big land, he set out to cross the continent. He came across a herd of very large animals. One very large animal attacked him. He manouvered in a way where he ended up on top the beast. Once it gave up on dislodging him. He settled in for a ride since it was going the right direction.
The birds were everywhere. He harpooned one after another when he wanted to eat. A few times he harpooned more than he needed and tossed a dead one to a small preditor he spotted.
Several of the other large animals were soon coming around as he was harpooning the birds off them too. The big animal he was on got very comfortable with him on it. It even would use more care over rough ground so as to not dislodge him. He kept the birds away from the big beasts when they allowed him.
It finally comes time for him to get down and head to civilization. He finds the beast does not want him to get down. The other beasts don't want him to leave.
His best attempt to escape is when the beasts have lined up beside his. He leaps across the distance and then bounds from one to another until he gets to the last one that tries to get away to not give him the distance. He then drops to the ground and runs. He has just enough of a head start to where they give up after a short chase.
He reaches civlization. when he tells his story, they know about the big wave, but disbelieve his harpooning talents and his traveling on top the beasts. His harpooning skills are quicly proven. That is enough proof to where they beileve his story.
He ends up teaching harpooning and they go on trips to the wilderness to go hunting. Eventually he takes a team of harpoonists to meet the beasts. He flings his harpoon several times to clear a couple beasts. The beasts let him and his team on their backs and they travel along the migration route, recording the wilderness and catching samples of some animals for study. Having communications, they can keep track of each other. They follow the migration route to both ends and back before they are allowed to leave.
Landolyn becomes a tour guide for for the universities. They meet up with different herds and see where they migrate to.

19 )
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He was a supreme being. In his realm, there were thousands of realms he could pass through, and find different entertainments. He found one realm that had sparks of life. He guided them into higher beings, intelligent, pure of spirit and with plenty of potential to grow.
After some time, he raised them as high as he could in that realm. He did a quick search and found one where he could bring them up to a level nearly equal to him. They would have to travel through several realms to reach the place this was going to be dangerous and time consuming for them. He had time, but he could lose some and wanted all of them.
He examined the route carefully. He found one route that was extremely easy except one realm. It was really troublesome, but it was better than most of the other routes he could take.
One realm at a time, he herded them along, explaining to them what they were going to meet and how to deal with it. Some realms he was able to actively help them, other realms he could only watch. they gained experience and moved through the realms intelligently. they were imaginative on solving some of the realms better than what he thought of.
They finally came to the realm that worried him. It was a time realm. Once they entered, their travel would be to live through time. Examining the realm, he saw that it was not even. He could put them through the shortest route, but that would be extremely intense. He would likely lose some. He could put them through the broad, easy part but they would likely lose too much of themselves and even forget him entirely.
He chose to send them near the narrow area, but where it was wide enough to not be too intense. The quicker they passed, the better. He himself could not enter the realm. He explained to them all about what to expect. In that realm, they would be life. They would reincarnate, becoming some other kind of life, each time making steps through the realm. for them, their escape would be at the ending of the universe. Each and every one of them understood. They entered as a group.
Life formed on five planets in a universe. First it was a very complex enzymes that bumped into the solution surrounding them, making new enzymes close to being like them. Then RNA developed and dominated as it was more stable within the solution, replicating with fewer mistakes. The RNA formed inside protein bubbles and became more stable, less likely to be damaged and more likely to replicate more of the same kind, lasting a little longer. DNA then formed within the bubbles. they were even more stable and more likely to replicate properly. Also the bubbles had solutions the DNA needed to continue to exist, including RNA to help in the replication so it could survive better in harsh conditions. it just needed to bring in materials from outside, to eat then cleave to become a new life form.
At first these forms bumped into and collected material in the environment. Then others started drawing out materials form those that died. Finally there were those who would feed on others, the predator, the animals.
Eventually the DNA bubbles would stick together forming strings and sheets, and then folding together, forming masses. Real "life forms" started forming.
The life forms became more complicated, started moving around on their own, sensing conditions best for them, building structure to give them more mobility, eventually starts surviving on land and changing to be better suited to that. The land forms developed more intelligence to deal with changing conditions, learning. Extinctions, changes, extinctions, changes, keep happening to the planets and the life that contains them. When an extinction event happens, the spirits were expressed on another planet where the population could handle them. Having five planets made that easy as they all did not have extinctions at the same time.
Intelligent life forms on all five planets. The nature of the spirits was to become intelligent. They had leap-frogged so many generations by then, billions, that they were forgetting their instructions and that there was a supreme being. this was what the supreme being was afraid of. If they totally forgot that they were on a journey, they could actually change direction and be lost to him. It was when they are at their high developmental levels where they can make things, rather than simply exist, that they can divert their routes.
One advantage of their advancement is that the spirits live longer and are slower to forget their instructions. There is a period between their death and their birth that they are together and can exchange their knowledge. Already, many totally forgot about the supreme being, no god. He only hopes that they don’t wander too far once they get the chance.
He moves around the realm, watching their route from many different angles. Now that they are developing technology, his worry they will change direction becomes possible. Once they develop time machines, they will scatter in all directions since time machines don't go forward and backwards, but instead side to side. He has seen signs of other spirits that had passed through the realm before.
Their time machine experiments fail. the area they are in within the realm is too intense for that to work right. he only lost a dozen spirits. Two of the planets are destroyed, unable to be habitable. By then, though, the spirits of one of the other travels space and finds some planets they can make habitable.
They finally reach the other side of the realm, and experience the end of the universe. They appear outside. The supreme being welcomes them. Many of them totally forgot about him, but it does not take long for them to accept his guidance again. he takes them through a few more easy realms until he gets them to where he wants them to be. There he husbands them to eventually become true beings of power, a fraction of his power, but powers of their own.

20 )
.
The government building had a system. Everybody who was allowed to open the doors were given a big ball of keys. There were clips, hooks, tabs, dangles, mixed in with the keys. Not all of them were immediately visible if one was held.
The security system was designed that one used a combination to find the right key. You locate the blue clip. You hang the ball from that clip. Then you reach down and grab the red tag and then let the ball hang from there. then you grab the over-long green key and hang the ball from that. Then select the silver key next to the yellow key. That key will open door number 11905.
It has been counted several times. There is at least a 1000 keys. Other than the color, the only difference is the cuts in the edges and the slots and holes in the sides of the keys. It is hard to tell many keys apart even when you compare them.
To have a ball of keys is only part of the problem. figuring out which key goes where is something else. One could match up similar keys and find a door they go into, and it would take many hours to test all of them. The security is horrible, but not bad enough to let someone work keys for a long time. that is usually how they are found.
One group had gotten control over the place using a ball of keys, but the government military took over again. It was said they made what was a small change in the security to completely change everything. The government was missing only a few of the stolen key balls. They had caught most of the rebels.
Over time a new generation of rebels developed. The few old ones taught them their mistakes as they knew it. A small group of leaders were meeting. One of the old timers dropped a ball of keys on the table. "I checked. A couple keys I knew worked were tested and they still work. Their changes was relocating people who knew the combinations to the locks. "
"I make keys as a hobby." Reginald said. "I actually make them, by taking the raw metal stock and cut it to shape and size." He held his hand out. "May I examine the keys and see if I can figure something out about them?" Reluctantly, the old one handed the ball of keys over."I will do nothing to the ball or any of the keys." he added.
Reginald took the ball of keys home and examined them. They were all of similar size. He traced a dozen of them and found that the vast majority of the keys were exactly the same. Remembering how they were used. He noticed that the two other sized keys were worn. He decided they were not used except something to grab.
He took out some stock metal of the maximum thickness and cut out a blank. It had no slots, no holes, no cuts. He did taper the end as all the useful looking keys had that.
He handed back the ball of keys at the next meeting. he said he had a blank and would slip onto the property to see if it even fit in the slots. It would tell him about how to make a master key.
they were worried but they agreed to let him do it. He said it would only take two doors to give him the information he needed.
He left the group and actually avoided them for about three months, showing up other places where officials might see him, on the days of the meeting. The others were worried about him, wondering if he was going to turn them in.
He then slipped onto the property and got to one of the doors. He applied a material that would show scratches. He slipped the key in and was surprised it fit. On a lark, he turned the key. The door opened. Glancing around, he closed the door and quickly tested over half a dozen doors before he slipped back into the city. He passed a message to the group, shaking hands with a member with a palmed paper that said, "I have a master key. Must test it some more."
He made a dozen of the blanks and tested them on different doors. When he was positive they were a master key, he went to a party where a couple of the leadership was at and passed off the keys to them. That was the last contact he had with the leadership. He passed on several more master keys to people he knew was secret rebels and then left the city.
The leadership tested the keys and found they really did work, They left all the balls of keys they had ever accumulated where security could find them and then stopped meeting, staying away from each other. A couple made their own keys and found they worked too. It did not take long for it to appear like the rebels had disbanded. About the only people who were talking like rebels were spies and those who had no clue what was going on.
Security was baffled. There were missing balls of keys they did not know they lost. There were even bags of keys where balls were dismantled. There would be no way they could copy all the keys and why would they and not keep the balls. They knew something was up, but they had no idea what. It appeared like the rebels ceased to exist.
On a holiday where the government building would be lightly staffed, the rebels moved, all working independently. Because of the size of the building, no one even knew the others were at work. the master keys were put to use and they went deep into the building, got supplies and did a little mischief and then left.
Because there was no rebel organization they could point to, the security was left clueless as to what had happened or how it happened.
They track down Reginald and interrogate him and he has no clue what they are talking about. He had been out of the city for a long time. He had no contact with the rebels.
He is finally left alone. What they do not realize is that every government building he tested used the exact same kinds of keys, and his master keys always worked.
He passed on his master keys everywhere he found someone he trusted as part of the rebels. His being a rebel leader got him into groups he would never otherwise get into.
The government was robbed in little ways any time the security and building population was light, and no one in government ever figured out how it happened. It was all because the master key was simply an un machined key blank.

21 )
.
Particle experiments showed that there was an energy field that took very little power to create and maintain. Experiments in the field generation found that they could cause it to spin at altra high speeds. they also found that specially prepared magnetic encasements would react to the fields and be pulled around.
The pull had little torque, but could apply steady power very efficiently. It did not take long for someone to create a car using the energy fields. It started slowly but traveled across the country without refueling or recharging the batteries that powered the field. While it started slowly, it kept highway speeds with no effort. Immediately, manufactures started building cars using the energy field.
The cars were everywhere on the road. the traffic started slowly, and then got up to speed quite a ways down the road, which was bothersome for those using other fuels. At the price of the fuel, it was well worth it.
Brandon built hotrods, modifying cars for looks, speed, performance, or something else not practical. Because of the new power, he now had all the cars he could work with cheap, but limited amounts of fuel.
One day he got his hands on several of the new field powered cars. He was curious as to what he could do with them. He took them apart, put them back together and they worked. That sort of surprised him. He then dismantled it again and looked to see what could be done to speed the car up. First off, he took the magnet encasements and attached that between the existing ones. He found it had a lot more get up and go, but still gutless. Taking the encasements off, he broke several of them. Out of curiosity, he cleaned off the debris around the magnets, put the motor together again and tested it. Wow. It had some go to it.
He located some rare earth magnets and installed them. He was able to use all the mounting holes, a pair for each mount. He also took the time to make sure they were all one pole facing out. After an impressive test, he turned them around. It now had some real horsepower.
He went for a real drive. The car was silent except for the road noise. He had the acceleration of an "econobox" of the fuel days. Compared to the field cars, this was impressive.
He turned decided to make one of the field cars into a hotrod. He added a transmission, which took some work to make the attachments. He extended the body to give room for double the batteries, and electric generators on each wheel. He figured that the power use was so low that he might get extra range on the power. A few test drives showed this thing had guts. On a back road, he accelerated as fast as it would go, running up the gears. He had to cine ti a stop before he got to eighty in less than a half mile. A friend helped him make some electrical changes. They made it so the generators were off during acceleration. They would come on hard during deceleration, pumping some of the power back into the batteries while helping to stop. That was one thing the field cars did not have.
Ready for a real test, he loaded up the car for a road trip. He stopped at a light. Everybody in their little same looking tin can field cars. Every eye was on him as his hot rod field car was something to look at. It was half again as long as theirs. It was almost a limousine in comparison. The light was long so everybody had time for a good look. The light finally changed and he was idling, riding his brakes as the other cars accelerated.
The guy in front of him got enough distance ahead so Brandon changed lanes and accelerated. He left them behind. he was up to speed before the second block. It would take them a mile to get up to speed.
Once he was on the highway, he really moved. he would slow down to fit behind someone, change lanes and then accelerated back up to traffic speed within moments. He left several police cars in the dust as they were driving field cars also. He never really broke the speed limit.
In one area where the speed limit was really fast and the road was clear, he opened it up. He was over a hundred before he backed down to the speed limit and stayed there. he knew the car really was fast.
He traveled the country, stopping only for facilities and meals. Twice he stopped at some well known hotrod people and show off his car and give it maintenance.
When he finished the trip, he had not recharged the batteries at all. Other people who had done this trip had to charge the batteries at least once a week, but usually charged them every night when they were in a hotel.
once home, he pulled the motor out of one of his powerful hotrods and put in a field motor and his system. A few times around the city and word got out about his activities. Auto manufacturers visited him and went over his design. When they got home, the brushed off old designs for cars. The tin can field cars disappeared within a year as the engineers perfected the field motors and the systems for the cars to be like the old style car motors, just far more efficient.
What the engineers were using was called the Brandon drive in his honor and he ended up quite wealthy over it in spite not having a patent.

22 )
.
A man recently spent his entire net worth to put up billboards to advertize that on Saturday, May 21 at 6PM, the world would come to an end and each time zone would cease to exist in their turn.
Back in the 70s and 80s, people in California was thinking that when the big quake hit, the west part of the San Andreas Fault would fall into the sea. They believe this because Geologists talked about the continental shelf and most people think of a shelf as something dangling out from a wall. In geology, a shelf is just a flat area.
Many of us have joked over the years that everything EAST of the San Andreas fault would fall into the sea, rather than everything West.
Now that man's prediction brought all this together.
The man was making his predictions that the world was going to end. He had said that a major earth quake would hit the east coast and work its way across the country, following each time zone. Everybody scoffed and ignored him other than reporting his words so they could humiliate him later.
The appointed time came on the east coast and nothing happened. the world continued to turn as the hands moved on the clocks. Two hours passed and still nothing. At exactly six Pacific time, an earth quake started in California. A small one hit first. There was a pause. Then the big quake hit. Buildings collapsed, and the ground moved.
The quake radiated out to the east faster than normal quakes. The land pitched. Buildings in non-quake regions felt the quake and collapsed.
Gimbol lived on a high hill east of the fault. He found himself bouncing on the ground outside his home. During one really violent bounce, he saw a whole section of land drop. He could only see the tops of the hills before the dust obscured his view.
He caught hold of a tree and hung on for dear life. The quake shook for several hours. It finally stopped. In the dimming light, waves washed up the bay and rivers. spilling over into a chasm where the other side of the fault was once.
Gimbol searched around and found six people in the area still alive and got them to his house. He had a shed that was still standing.
The other side of the fault had dropped several hundred feet. Looking around, they found a few more survivors and gathered quite a few supplies.
About a week later, water flowed into the chasm on the other side of the fault line. someone then noticed that the water levels in the Pacific was dropping. They were worried that might be a sign of a major tidal wave coming. It did not come.
A couple hundred other people showed up over the next month since this was about the highest point on land. The water kept rising in the chasm, filling it up.
They would later get images of the country. Other than parts of the Rocky mountains, most of which crumbled or slumped top a lower elevation to become islands, all of the unities states and most of Canada subsided and was covered by the sea. Water passing over the upper part of Mexico allowed the Pacific to flow and fill in the seas. the California coast got lower by about sixty feet because of filling the continent.
The guy's prediction was somewhat correct, except that it started at Six California time.

23 )
.
There is a saying that says, "Today will be a whole new world." It took me a bit to figure out how to make use of this. For this, I would add, "It is not just a coin of phrase."
Jerome got up in the morning, shaved, dressed in his best clean business suit, making sure it hung just right. He then light breakfast of toast, eggs, potatoes, and coffee. His wife put on her makeup, did her hair and made sure her dress was just right, picking from many choices. They then went out of their apartment and got into their car, which was an expensive domestic brand and drove to drop his wife off at work before he went on to his job.
He worked the numbers of his accounting job. He loved his job, running numbers of probabilities of other things through his mind while his activity did not require his full attention.
He had a lunch of a sandwich, and when it was time to go home, He picked up his wife at work and they came home. This was their life through out the year.
A crackpot on TV was saying that tomorrow was going to be a whole new world and that this was not a coin of phrase.
Jerome got up in the morning picked out his brightest clown outfit with a hoop at the belt to make him look fatter. He then applied his face paint and glued on the ball on the end of his nose. He had his breakfast of jelly beans, jiggle juice, fizzy rocks and fruit wrap. His wife was wearing a hobo outfit today.
they go out their apartment and get onto their clown car with twelve other people. They make stops along the way and people climb out. Finally his wife gets out and he drives alone to his office. There he practices his juggling and balancing on a unicycle. He has done this for years. He starts calculating how many times he has kept the balls in the air, the time on the unicycle, the percentages of dropping balls to each throw.
Something inside him starts wondering how he knows all this math, why he is able to do such calculations so fast, He wondered where he learned it.
On the way home, he does calculations of the volume of the people who get into the car at each stop, deducts for the volume of the outfits and figured out that he can get six more people in this little car.
At home, after dinner, he mentions to his wife that he feels like he was an accountant in a previous life. She then mentions she had a feeling she was a lawyer in a previous life. they then remember together the television report. "It was going to be a new world tomorrow, and it would not be a coin of phrase.
It was a whole new world. They were now clowns instead of business people.

24 )
.
They would find worlds where life in the sea made the air breathable, and then plant gardens of their favorite plants. After a few years of making their gardens full and perfect, they would take up the structures and let the plants take over the land. They include specific kinds of critters to pollinate the plants that need it, and to disburse the seeds if that is required. the critters are selected for their steady genetics, a type not likely to change much when left unattended.
Others will eventually come back after the plants have colonized the whole continent and develop a civilization. The plants are there to make the region easily habitable.
Many will put in little gardens of banned plants, but they take them out when it is time to leave. Each of their gardens were planted to impress, be works of beauty. They create the best gardens for when they leave them.
Croisenger was an excellent gardener. Most people worked from the idea that while the plants were to escape into the wild and the unknown conditions outside the gardens, one should use the best gardening techniques, concentrating on building the perfect soils for the plants.
He instead, would amend the soils by adding some compost, but he started his plants in the native soils. Each time they were ready, he would gather the seeds and plant them farther from the amended soils. On previous planets, when he packed up, he would have plants growing with no amended soils at all. Other than being planted, they were on their own.
Croisenger had a secret garden. unlike the ones others had, no one saw his secret garden. His garden was the most "weedy" plants in existence. The garden was in a large tank with filtered air. the native soils would be brought in and then the seeds would be planted. When it was time to leave, he would take the tank and all with him and have the soils cleaned as much as possible at the main base, and then have the soil cooked so no life could possibly exist. He had people that made use of the soils after he was done.
He was having serious problems with his home and a repair man saw the plants in his secret garden. That repair man told someone else and the ears of the officials caught word of his weeds.
The officials came in and arrested him for the weeds he had. He tried to convince them to let him prepare his home to leave. they would hear nothing about it. he told them to take the tank out whole, don't break it up. they just dragged him away.
He was convicted of having illegal plants on the planet. His punishment was a form of hibernation. He knew time that passed. One advantage of hibernation was that when he finally got out of it, he would be the same age as when he went in.
When they picked up the habitations, they dumped the soils out of the tank and left a lot of his belongings everywhere, including a couple cases of seeds for plants that are even worse than the weeds he actually planted.
They even left parts of the building which was not in the rules. He was in hibernation for about a hundred and fifty years. It was a horrible punishment.
When they finally released him, He sued the organization for what they did. The defense showed the damage done and the garbage left. he showed he was not there to pick up the mess so the company that cleaned up was at fault. While all who were involved were long dead, he proved he was totally innocent and got a judgment for restitution against their descendants and assigns.
As a vacation, he returned to the planet where he had lost everything. he located the site easily. There was already a colony slowly getting set up. The land was completely covered in weeds. There were few types of weeds out of his collections of seeds that were not easily found.
Looking at the plants that were not weeds, he recognized the varieties plants he had grown and found just a couple of the planets others had grown. His was far more wide spread and actually fought the weeds for spaces across the country side.
The colonists were actually coming up with uses for some of the weeds. While each planet was an experiment, this one was an experiment that was not as planned.

25 )
.
The natives had no cars, limited technology. They walked everywhere. The colonists felt the natives were in the way. They could not outright kill them off, so they built their cars to be solid metal and ran over the natives whenever they could.
The colonists stayed on the road, stayed in their lanes, drove the speed limit, but would never slow or swerve even the slightest if they were approaching a native.
There was talk of "extra points" if one nailed a native moving the dead off the road or hitting several of them or a family.
The natives never seemed to make any attempt to notice the colonists coming or pause in their strides. They simply walked out into the traffic like robots.
Sannibel had seen this happen often. He has hit some natives, but has also lifted off the gas to give them a chance to cross.
He had arrived in the third wave of colonists. The first built the colony, the second got it operating, and the third was to help it grow and become profitable.
The colonists never went into the native villages or native areas without being heavily armed and surrounded by soldiers. They always killed a bunch of natives with each visit. It was said to be the way it had to be.
One day, Sannibel decided to take a chance. He left the road near one of the villages and drove half way to it. he then removed anything that resembled a weapon. He locked the truck and walked to the village
He was in the middle of the village when hundreds of natives appeared out of nowhere. He was surrounded and they were coming closer. He forced himself to relax. He was lucky that there was a common language and he was quite fluent in it.
The natives were close enough to touch him when they stopped approaching. he felt finger tips brush him all over. He held his ground and remained relaxed.
There was a long silence, then one of the natives spoke. "Why are you here?"
Sannibel thought out his words before he spoke. "I came to question and answer, and discussion." He heard a murmur in the crowd. "What are the rules for crossing the roads."
They looked confused. "What rules?"
"When you are about to cross the road, what do you do, where do you look, how do you decide when to cross, who created those rules?"
It came out that there was a law that they were forbidden to look upon the cars. To look at the cars was absolutely forbidden. when they crossed the road, they had to trust their gods for safety.
There was much discussion where that came from. The early colonists had blinding strobe lights on their cars. when the people looked at them, the people would be blinded.
Sannibel gave a rough description of the laws of the colonists and how their government worked. He then explained that the laws forbade the strobes.
After some discussion about that, he then told them from now on, they will look at the road and see how fast the cars are going, and then time their crossing when the cars are not passing their area. They could continue to not look at the cars while they were on the road, but before that they can look at the cars from the brush to pick their time to cross. He also explained the traffic laws and how to use the lights at interchanges to cross with some safety.
Sannibel given highlights of their rules, and a bit about their history. He was shown inside their huts and shown how they lived. They breed in high numbers and lived about twenty years. That prevented them from gaining high technologies. Sannibel thanked them for the information and then left. He drove off in his car without incident.
Within a week, the number of natives killed dropped to a small percentage of what they were before. The natives were now crossing between the cars and actually crossing at the lights. Many drivers were quite irritated they were not racking up great numbers.
Like most authorities, the police were always watching for people breaking traffic laws. Many people took to breaking a traffic law to nail a native. It seemed like in every case, the police was there to bust the scoff-law.
Because of what Sannibel had told them, the natives started locating where the police were and crossing there. If they got nailed, the police would punish the drivers. Even less natives were now getting hit by cars.
When officials and their armies went to the villages to "investigate" because of what Sannibel told them, they faded into the forests rather than be found. The officials did capture a few natives. In every case, the native seemed to know more about the law that the normal colonist and used the law against the officials. Few of them survived the attempt, but it set the officials aback. It would have them questioning their methods.
Someone else started trading with the natives on a few items. Of course the natives are unskilled in trading and are getting stolen from.
Sannibel goes to the village again and after a talk and explanation of business and trade, the natives raise their prices and demand payment first from the traders.
Eventually, the colonists start treating a bit closer like equals. Sannibel would make a few more information trips before he leaves the planet to go back home. by then the natives not going to lose their lands and the colony would have to expand into lesser quality territories, which actually suited the colony better anyway.