January 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 highway was a maglev system. The cars floated on magnetic fields at speeds up to a thousand miles per hour. Computer systems kept track of what was around you and moved you along. You simply told the system where you were going and the schedule you had. The computer system did the rest until you left the highway. Once you stopped at ground level, you drove to where you needed to go.
The wheels were retractable improving aerodynamics. The magnetic system corrected for any apparent damage on the cars so they flew straight.
Not having to use their own engines, the cars were ultra efficient when traveling on the highway system. The maglev was powered by new fusion power and high temperature super conductors. It cost the cities less for to run the highway to power the cars than it did to power the lights along the highway in previous years.
Stopping cars when they leave the highway was something that had not been quite perfected. there was a budget limit on the system so they went cheap on taking cars off the highway.
The cars are dropped to the ground where they skid on heavy raised skids, and slide with a shower of sparks down to a safe speed where the wheels drop down to lift the cars up. The system still controls the car until it reaches the "light at the end where the car comes to a stop, and the driver can then take over.
In this stopping system, the maglev system is still activated and decelerates and guides the car, but the friction is needed to stop the car in a safe distance. the maglev itself is not quite reliable to bring the cars to a safe stop, and tires are not able to handle the speeds the cars are going when they are decelerated. The skid plates on the surface slows the car without sending the people through the windshield. On wet or snowy days, the road bed heats up and has a down draft to keep the surface clean.
It was found that bringing the car to a complete stop before the driver takes over was the only way to make sure the driver was in full control. drivers not paying attention or not working the right controls was a problem.
On the highway system, there are "returns" for people who realize that they forgot something at home or are going to the wrong place and can take the return which will loop them over to the opposite side of the highway to go back the other way. Some returns might be as big as the highway itself.
One problem is that the skid plates have to be replaced on the cars. there are examples where the skid plates were damaged and skidding did damage to the car itself. After that, they were redesigned so wheels don't retract completely. they are lifted to just above the skid plate so if the skid plate is worn too much, the wheels will hold the car up. It will depend more on the maglev to stop the car, which does not do as nice a job.
The surface the cars skid on are made up of millions of plates stacked upright. They are fed from below. As the bars get worn, they rise up. Someone below simply sticks a new plate beneath the old one and when the old plate gets worn out, the new one takes over.

02 )
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The planet was pastoral for the most part, but there was an underground city that was self contained. Within the city was the masters, the enforcers, and the slaves. The few slaves that escaped told stories that turned the stomachs of the pastoral community.
Usually once a year, but sometimes more, the enforcers would leave the city, and round up the villages and farmers to replace the slaves that were lost because of the harsh treatment they were given.
The enforcers used levitation transports that gave off an iridescent blue and red glow that flickered and flashed. At some angles, it looked yellow and orange.
The farmers and villagers would see the lights and panic, running in any direction except the one the lights were seen to be moving. In spite of this, the enforcers would capture as many of the people as they needed. Because of this, the lights automatically sent a panic into the people.
The federation found the planet and there was an asteroid heading at the planet. The federation ships contacted both societies. The outside people were happy to leave so they would not end up inside the city. The city people refused to leave. they did not believe in anything "from outside" and the federation was a fraud.
Not having any other choices, the federation took the entire outside population, their animals seeds and plants, including whole trees, along with all their belongings.
The people were first placed on a space station where they went through a decontamination and inoculation, along with education in the systems of the worlds they were to be sent to.
probes showed the enforcers searching the planet, finding nothing to take back to the city. every square mile was examined. there were detected communications about nothing left. They also reported a large moon appearing in the sky.
As the people were about to leave the station when the asteroid hit the planet. the federation people were in shock as the entire surface of the planet collapsed nearly a mile all the way around the planet. There wasn't a place on the planet that was not underground city. Reactors detonated and the entire sphere twisted hard. By the time the outside people arrived on the three planets they were given to live, there was no life on their home planet.
The entire federation had a similar system everywhere. traffic signals, sign design, emergency vehicle lights, traffic laws, were patterned to be similar so that visitors could get into the swing of things quickly. There were other governments and other systems that were different, but transportation was considered important to be similar through the federation.
The peoples did well at first, but their handlers would be shocked as the peoples would go into a panic over something, running to hide. It seemed to be set off by something no one could figure out. the peoples stayed away from entire sections of town and refused to go into those area. They would sometimes go in during the day, but others they refused to enter.
When being driven around, they would start screaming and banging on the doors of the cars or vans.
One day, a peoples was being transported when a police car pulled behind them and the lights went on. The people went into a total panic. when the officer walked up to the car, the peoples feinted. it was a friendly warning that they had a light out.
It was nearly an hour before the peoples finally woke. they calmed him down and finally got him to talk. It was then that the handlers learned about the enforcers and the colors their vehicles gave off. The peoples were then taken into re-training to reduce and eventually eliminate the panic response.
One idea is to have one actually arrested and thrown in jail and he tries to escape in very imaginative ways, which gets him into even more trouble. It takes full federation intervention to save him from a life time of incarceration.

03 )
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The factory system had been there for several centuries. There were records of the leadership being ordered home, but no one ever really knew why.
The leadership of the factory considered themselves like gods. They had say over what anybody did or did not do, and they had the ultimate wealth and privilege in the system. Most of them never even knew what the factory did. they simply had their slaves, their parties, their entertainments.
The old man of the factory had the strange name of Cesspit. He had so much mechanical replacement of body parts that only his face was real. He repaired machinery, solved problems, and much of the time, did work that no one really wanted to do.
High command told the factory leadership that the factory was too expensive and unproductive. It was going to have to be closed down.
The leadership had the ships built, several pure luxury ships that equaled the buildings they lived in. They had used up most of the shipping budget right there. they gave orders that certain sections of the factory was to be closed down immediately. The orders then went out. "All non essential departments and materials will be placed on the ships." Of course none of the workers could decide what was nonessential.
Cesspit then grabbed a bunch of men who appeared to be idle and lead them to the luxury suites. they were carrying the luxury furniture and artwork to the ship.
the leadership complained about reducing the quality of their lives. Cesspit said this stuff had to be loaded. if they don't like it, they can go onto the ships. Crews were provided to make the cabins comfortable for the leadership that moved in immediately. Some leadership remained in spite the loss of some comfort.
Cesspit took the men to the roof of the building and started disassembling it, removing roofing materials and placing them in a warehouse. Soon the top floor leadership were looking at sky and workers when they looked up. that got the rest of the leadership onto the ships.
the leadership building was taken down to the foundation in short time, but not loaded onto the ship. The top of the leadership said that unended material was to be loaded onto the ships.
Cesspit then ordered the waste materials sorted, recyclable materials taken out, then the stuff that cannot be converted to anything was put onto the ship. Cesspit told the leadership that he was following orders to the letters. He then had pumps and hoses run to the ships. the workers had no idea what he had in mind until he stuck the other end into the cesspits that seemed never to have been emptied.
The pits were empty, the ships full, Cesspit told the leadership that they could go, the rest of the factory would follow when the ships were ready.
The ships left. Cesspit then gave orders to certain people who supervised the factory operations, that they are in charge. The factory would be operating. they had followed orders and gotten rid of that which was not needed.
The concept of emptying the Cesspits into the ships was the biggest joke of the factory. someone then asked, "how did you get that idea?"
Cesspit answered, "how do you think I got this name in the first place?" It was then that they realized he had done this before.
The factory fell into high production and slowly, everybody slowly forgot about the removal of the leadership and Cesspit being the who got rid of the leadership. New leadership were slowly developing, but it would be a long time before they would start drawing on the company resources.

04 )
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I remember a joke where a congresswoman is bet she could not tell how many cows a rancher had, and she gave the right number. She counted the legs and divided by four. I recently saw a show where a rancher referred to the head of cattle. My mind clicked into story idea mode.
The planet had native cattle, they had a slight resemblance to cattle and they tasted exactly like cattle. Since they lived on the native foliage, they became cheaper to raise using an old west ranching style.
It did take some time to make them commercially viable. In that time, they found that they were infected with a bug that made the meat less desirable than without it.
The laws were worded to define the cattle as head of cattle. the cattlemen started penning up their cattle and feeding them special food blends for higher production. They eliminated the bug from their herds and ran into a little problem.
The cattle born to parents without the bug, had no heads. a trunk with teeth hung down from the front of the beast and that chewed the grass and one could see it ripple as food worked up the trunk and into the body. The eyes and ears were on the shoulders. Not having a head was not a problem for the creatures. They actually seemed to do better without a head.
Not having the head wasn't a problem for the butchers. they found everything they needed within the body.
The problem, is that because they had no head, and the exact wording of the law did not allow for the new design as having a head, The ranchers were fighting a problem. When they sent the animals to the slaughter house, the headless cattle were free, they did not get paid for them. The law required them to go to the slaughter houses to be used.
The farmers looked at their healthy but free headless cattle and wondered what to do. they decided that their cattle would all be infected by the bug. They would at least get paid for all their cattle, even if it were a fraction of what they were worth without the infection.
Biologists and chemists got to work to try to find how the bug caused the heads so they might face the process, but that would be long way off.
For now, it was better than the ranchers get paid for every cow at a low price, than deliver cattle for free.

05 )
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Transports, autos as they were known, were fully computerized but people were encouraged to learn to drive. The autos were excellent driving teachers as they could correct for mistakes of the moment really easily. They could teach the entire time a person drove from their first lesson until they were too infirm to drive.
Of course, if one could not or chose not to drive, the autos could handle that too. They were good chauffeurs.
Another aspect of the cars is that police could take full control over the cars if needed, such as maneuvering them through dangerous situations, rushing an occupant to the hospital, capture a criminal. The police seldom used this power as it was better an unknown power.
Williamson ran a business and he operated at the very edge of the law. He did a lot of back dealings without allowing for fees or records required by the government, was not exactly fair with his customers. He also offered some products or services he was either not licenced for, or could never get a licence for.
He was out of town for a couple days and the police raided his shop. They found plenty of evidence for what he was up to. They waited until his car indicated he was in town. Immediately, they took over his car, locking the doors and taking control from him. The car was not even driving, they were.
Beside the remote driver was the arresting officer and she struck up a conversation to make sure he did not try to kill himself or that he had some secret escape.
Williamson knew he was in serious trouble and while his lawyer already knew how to handle the case in case he was arrested, the arresting officer told him some things found in his place of business that let him know he was not getting out of conviction without super special efforts that his lawyer likely was not going to be able to do.
As they were talking, his car's motion system indicated something was coming fast from behind. He told the officer and the driver indicated that he saw it and that they would have to go around. There would be no change of lanes for security reasons.
The conversation continued as the car came racing up from behind. It was going far faster than the speed limit. Suddenly the car goes into maximum stop, jets blasting out the front, tires skidding.
Williamson watched in the mirror as the car came right up to his car. Williamson tightened his seat belts and pulled his feet up. The impact slammed him against the belts, the car spun around, then came to a sudden stop against the guard rail.
"He hit me!" Williamson said.
"I have the data. Help is on the way."
A high ranking police officer got out, unhurt. Williamson called to the arresting officer and she said she was there. He told her to record everything as a police officer just got out of the car that hit him. The man angrily berated Williamson through the broken window for changing lanes, not letting him pass. He was going to see that Williamson was going to spend the rest of his life in prison for trying to run him off the road, trying to kill him.
Within one minute, a dozen police cars showed up. They were shadowing Williamson on other roads. The man then went through an even longer spiel, right in front of Williamson window and the recording of the situation about the crimes that Williamson committed in his attempt to kill him.
An ambulance arrived and Williamson was taken out of his car and four officers joined him in the back. The ambulance was going to make sure that he did not try to escape. As the door was closing, Williamson saw the officer go to his trunk, and then drop something inside his car.
After a physical examination, Williamson was taken to his arresting officer and kept in her watch the rest of the time.
The official loaded up nearly a hundred charges against Williamson and was going to have him put away for life. In checking his car, they found a couple guns, illegal drugs and explosives within the cab that were easy to find, along with the stuff he had stashed in his car that could get him into trouble with a good prosecutors.
The case went to trial. A federal prosecutors showed up, instead of the normal friend of the official. The case was announced, and the charges were against the official rather than Williamson.
It turned out to be a case against nearly a dozen officers for criminal activities.
Williamson was placed on probation, as the officers would never have been caught without him. He and his arresting officer found they like each other and because of her, he changes how he does business, and she watches over him when they are together.

06 )
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I got this idea from my brother.
The ship was traveling between stars. Strange as it might be, ships commonly got lost in route. Because of this, as the ship reached the midway point, the crew had to verify their location using triangulation, and comparing it to the equipment. If there was a discrepancy, they were to find out the cause.
The crew hated this process as it was time consuming. Each member had at least the basic navigation training. Each crew member had to locate on their own selected galaxies and star patterns on their own, and measure the angles of each one a dozen times, recording the result. The data then had to be brought together and compared with everybody else to determine the amount of error they had.
Completing their task, the data was put together and the crew gathered for the meeting. There was some data that was way off. The crew started arguing as to who messed up on their data. they were shouting and screaming, almost coming to blows.
Blankenship, a junior engineer, kept trying to break in. After about two hours of accusations, he finally got through the shouting. "Why don't we separate the data that came out the same and the data that was different so we know exactly who messed up?"
There was another half hour of accusations and arguing before the captain made the suggestion to check the data, almost word for word of what Blankenship said.
They went through the data and all the observations by the crew turned out to be fairly close. The navigation that tells you where you are, matched fairly close to the observations. The error showed up with the plot of where they were supposed to be if they were on course, and the data based on their motion over the trip. They were off course from where they were supposed to be by a wide margin, and the motion sensors had them in a different part of the galaxy.
None of the navigators ever checked the navigation system during the flight, assuming they were correct. they had made the angled changes based on the motion sensor data. It was pure luck that they were as close to the proper route as they were.
Navigation by sighting was not going to work as the ship usually spins in flight. If there was a driver problem, they would wobble a little rather than veer off course. One cannot take sightings when spinning around. They had to get the motion sensor system working again.
The crew then ran through the ship's systems step by step to locate the cause of the problem. It was tough as they would get an error message but it would clear up when tested by three other methods, but they would point out an error some place else. They took to tracking the errors system by system.
They traced it down to a control box in the middle of the main driver. The engineers started arguing over who was more qualified to dig into the driver to get the part. Half the argument was over the proper way of doing the job. Some said the driver had to be pulled out of the ship and fixed in space, others said it could be fixed from the inside but the crew and passengers would have to be in space suits.
Blankenship could not get a word in to say anything. He went to his cabin and took out some papers. He then returned and tried again in getting a word in. In desperation, he shoved the head engineer, the one making the most noise, into the wall. That got his attention.
Blankenship waved the papers in the engineer's face. "I am a certified engine specialist. I took classes on repairing that part. Unless anybody else has taken those classes, I am the only one certified to make the repair." He showed the papers each time. He now had everybody's attention. I can fix this without the need of a space suit. the driver, though, will have to be shut down." As he turned to take his paper work back to his cabin, he added, "Tell the captain to find our destination and send us directly on that path. We will be coasting while I work and we might as well be going where we belong."
Command argued with engineering for a while then changed course. They had to make a direction change, then locate where they were aiming, then change direction, half a dozen times until they were heading on the right course. They then held that course, aiming at a distant star, until all other ship's course motions were erased.
Blankenship then got to work. He opened the shielding, then started digging into the ship. He called in different engineers for certain parts of the work to supervise or assist them on the work. He had two of the assistant engineers watching him every step of the way, discussing each thing he did, so they would know what he was doing.
He located the box that held the problem parts. The head engineer wanted to be the one to remove it. Blankenship refused. He had the engineer watch how he removed it. It was counter intuitive on how it was connected. Once it was out, the Engineer saw he would have broken it with his method of fixing it.
The engineer was going to give it to someone else to fix, but Blankenship refused. He went to a small storage room and remove everything stored there. He then dragged a single crate to act as his desk, and a chair. He then got to work. When Blankenship removed the cover, both the engineer and the man he was going to have fix it, left the room. they did not want anything to do with the part.
Blankenship would remove a part and place it by a measured location on the desk and draw around the part, writing what it was. He made good headway. He took a break and when he returned, there was some boxes stuck in the corner next to his desk and the parts were moved around. Cursing, he took the boxes out of the room and then got the parts where they belonged. He then got to work. He took another break and the boxes were in place again, and his parts were moved around. He complained to the engineer and handed the boxes to the engineer.
A bit later, Blankenship got to the bad part and replaced it. He was then reassembling it. He showed a small chip to the engineer. "This is the key part of the entire ship. if something happens to it, we are dead." He explained why it was so critical. He started assembling the unit and stuck the part in his lips while he fitted the parts together the chip went into. They kept slipping so he had to hod them carefully turning them getting them exactly right. He was almost ready to stick the part into place when a junior commander walks in with the boxes. "Just putting these here. He bumped Blankenship who fell forward. his face hit the desk and he swallowed the part. The pieces he held went everywhere. He tried to gag the part up, but it was stuck in his throat.
Angry, He grabbed the officer and slammed his face into the desk half a dozen times. The desk was covered in blood and mess when the threw the man to the ground. "How long does it take you to get a clue? I took those boxes out of here to prevent being bumped. I am going to the infirmary. If I cannot get the part out of my stomach, You will have killed all of us!"
The doctor gave him something to cause him to spit up. The wires of the part had dug in good. The doctor found that the tools he needed to get the part, was damaged, did not work.
Blankenship was given some pain reliever and told that when the body finally rejected the part, it would pass through his body and come out the other end. They simply had to wait.
The passengers and crew were told about the problem. They were told that Blankenship was the only one who could get the ship back into operation.
The argument quickly developed into different groups. one group who wanted Blankenship locked up until the part showed up. Another was willing to let him continue his work. A third group said that the part would never survive his digestive system and he should be killed for revenge, getting the part out that way. This third group stayed to the idea of killing him even though he was the only person who knew what to do with it.
The meeting got really heated and the engineers dragged Blankenship out the door. the junior officer that bumped him to cause him to swallow the part was against the far wall. That man realized he had a problem once Blankenship had left the room.
Quickly, the engineer staff saw they had a problem. Some very angry people were stalking hallways they did not belong in. Some of them were guards. The engineering staff realized they could not trust anybody on board ship. Just about everybody was out after Blankenship. They stuck him in his makeshift office, bringing him his stuff from the cabin, going to bathroom in buckets until the part showed up. He was now a prisoner until the part showed up.

07 )
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Blodgord was nearly an immortal warrior. His sword had the souls of every soldier he had killed. The star his planet orbited went nova. The ground twisted and cracked open. He lost his balance and fell, his sword continued down while he caught himself. The ground closed up, crushing him. The ground heated, melted and even with his powers, he could not defeat death in those conditions.
His sword melted and eventually joined a pool of ore. the souls could move around, but was bound to the metal.
Millions of years passed, the sun cooled down. The federation, in search for planets that could be mind for ore, found the planet. mine companies came in with their machinery and removed the surface in thin layers, They started on the high points and worked their way down until the planet was a pure sphere. then they started the process to remove the planet from the solar system, one layer at a time.
One patch of ore was quite pure. That ended up going to a weapons factory. The metal was smelted, mixed pounded out and then formed into rifles. The spirits found they could not leave the metal in any way. They were trapped by the process in one spot and ended up within a single rifle, it was then that they realized they could have spread out and be in all sorts of things.
The rifle never touched a hand until it ended up into the hands of Samuel. He was a pretty good rifleman in training. this was going to be his permanent weapon.
The first few weeks things went well because he was surrounded by other soldiers. When he was finally alone while handling the rifle, the spirits in the rifle joined together and attacked him. while it took him a moment to realize what was happening, he was good enough to bring the rifle under control. Others asked what happened to him. He could not tell what happened, so he made a lame excuse that he tried something new and failed. This happened several times. He soon figured out that he had to be holding it, manipulating it.
He found that he did not get hurt when in battle armor. He started wearing battle armor all the time. Other than servicing the suit, he was never out of it as many times, he had to grab his rifle for action.
In one battle, he had the bayonet on the rifle. A master fighter attacked him and took the rifle out of his hands. The spirits took over and attacked the man. Samuel joined in and killed the master fighter. Around the blade, he saw a glow. something told him that the spirit of the fighter had entered the rifle.
His time with the service ended. He went through some extra training and became a member of the military police. From there he became a guard in a prison. Most guards never entered the prisoner section, and none carried weapons. Samuel gave it consideration and decided he would go in, in battle armor and with his rifle.
He walked patrol, right through the prisoners. A few times he roughed some lesser criminals up with no problem. He had the respect of most prisoners.
One day, he had to bring out one of the worst thugs in the prison. he came to the cell. The thug grabbed the rifle out of his hand. The rifle nearly pounded the man senseless before Samuel got the rifle under control. He then lead the man out of the cell and he had the respect of the whole prison.
There were a few other attempts at his rifle and they got the same treatment. Samuel found himself talking to the rifle as he cleaned it, treating nicks and scuffs with care. He trained with the rifle like he did in basic training, talking about how good the rifle was.
He went into the prison one day and when he was leaving with a prisoner who was not liked by any of the other prisoners, he met a wall of convicts who did not want that prisoner to leave. Samuel told the rifle it was time to feed. He could feel it strain in his hands. He then felt energies enter him through his hands. He seemed to hear voices, his muscles flex, ready for battle.
The prisoners attacked. He reacted automatically. the rifle moved with him as he guided the strikes to drop the prisoners, not kill or do permanent harm. By the time he got to the exit with his prisoner, the problem prisoners had dragged themselves to their cells.
When alone he thanked his rifle and cleaned it up. He felt energy return to the rifle. He could now talk to the spirits within the rifle and found that he received permanent healing. He somehow knew that he would not die of old age.
The next time he entered the cell area, the prisoners called him sir and showed respect.
He had only limited trouble after that. He stayed at the job longer than any other guard, continuing to work long after the whole population, inside and out had been replaced several times. He seemed immortal and invincible.

08 )
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There was wealth (adulthood) to anybody who could get through the labyrinth. Within the labyrinth, were places where you could easily get killed. Most did.
The very first one was a giant hammer that was tripped by your crossing on a plate. It was actually the easiest one to get past which was why it was first.
Maxwell had a physical deformity where his legs did not work properly. He could move around but not very fast. He also had a speech impediment that prevented him from talking fast. He was stuck with the mentally deficient. They were the ones who everybody knew would never survive the labyrinth and therefore were known as 'Left Behind.'
Maxwell mainly acted as the chaperone for the Left Behind. He accumulated what amounted to as a college education and was trained as mostly as a phytologist. That helped him as he was tending the left behind. Because he was not classified as an adult, he did not have any more rights than any child in the society. With his problems, he did not care.
One day, some youths were doing their adult initiation by going through the labyrinth. One by one, they ran across the plate of the hammer and out of sight. A few were almost caught while others made it with space to spare.
One of the left behind was doing something inside his pants. Maxwell noticed he had wide straps around his body. when the left behind turned, Maxwell saw he was wearing seat belts.
"What are you doing?"
"I am going to run the labyrinth."
"Why are you wearing seat belts?"
"We are told to wear seat belts and condoms for protection."
With that, the Left behind trotted away. Maxwell could not get the words out to tell the man to stop. The others were talking about using that method too.
The left behind got onto the smash plate and the hammer came down. BANG!!! Eeeewww!! the left behind said as there was a solid splatter of mess everywhere.
Maxwell got his mouth working again, "The condom and seat belts give a person protection, but only for what they were designed for. they do not protect you from being smashed."
He lead them away while crews went to clean up the mess before others could enter the labyrinth.

09 )
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There is a Country song where the guy hears voices, the voices of his family giving him advice. When he follows the advice, he does well. My mind went into story idea mode several times when hearing it and finally I got to note down my concept.
As a new born, Kladus woke to voices in his head. He understood their words and their messages. He asked who they were. The oldest one said that she was the last human to die. A bit later he asked for her and she was gone.
The oldest of those that he could hear, told him that there is a short time a person can talk to him after death. It looks like the people he can talk to is going back through time. Another then said it is likely that if he lives long enough, he will meet some of the voices before they die. He was also warned not to mention the voices he hears as no one else will hear them.
He was in constant conversation with the voices. He was able to move, crawl, walk, run faster than any of his age, but he took longer to learn to talk as he paid more attention to those in his head than those around him.
He proved to be extremely smart as he knew the answers to questions and problems. The voices gave him answers, or taught him how to solve problems. One thing he did was to have the voices teach him stuff that earlier voices would not know before them.
He found he had a perfect memory at least for the voices, was naturally brilliant, and was physically superior to others around him. The voices could see through his mind and give him suggestions. He was naturally inventive, but the voices helped him avoid a lot of the error part of the trial.
He was a brilliant soldier, did a stint as a captain, became a farmer, and then finally started exploring the world. He had to, others younger than him were becoming old, while he still looked in the twenties.
The voices he heard, verified he was going to live a long time if he was not killed. He used their knowledge to make materials that would prevent him from dying accidentally. he wanted to meet the sources of the voices he heard.

10 )
.
When a soldier died, the government sent them a gold star. This had been a practice for centuries. People placed the star in their windows to show they lost a child.
Lately, there were complaints that with all the resources the government had, monetary and magical, something more should be done for the families who lost a love one to war. The government consistently said that the gold star was the very best they could do.
A reporter, hearing about the complaints and answers, starts investigating. He simply starts by searching for the metal content of the stars. They are a low quality gold, but at the day's prices, is worth several months pay.
He wonders why the quality of the gold is so low, so he investigates farther. He finds himself searching for the laws of the gold metal and the laws dictating how much can be given to the families of the soldiers.
He finds that there are no modern laws involving the stars at all. He keeps searching. As he searches records about the stars, he is finding little suggestions of statistics of good luck to families that receive them.
He interviews different people as he goes along. He talks to magicians and scientists, metallurgists, lawyers, and political people.
He finds himself writing a column on the story as he goes and that becomes quite popular.
There are people who are trying to persuade him not to do these investigations.
He finds that there are some ancient documents recently made available so he worms his way into being able to see them. He is not supposed to make a record of them but he does as he views them. It is in an archaic version of the language and there is loads of magical terminology in it.
He goes to a magical user who is at the edge of the law and is knowledgeable in old languages. He is a person who will keep secrets.
The magic user translates the documents directly. It is shocking.
The reporter gets his article to the paper. Somehow, it goes to print and is distributed before officials can stop them.
the article tells about how there is all sorts of magic with the military stars, and lists the spells that is with them, though it does not tell how to do the spells.
During his search, the reporter found that some officials were buying the stars at gold price, and then using the magic involved for themselves. The reporter includes mention of that in his article without naming names.
A number of people are suddenly after him. They are angry that he let people know some key secrets. While he is being chased, other reporters in other papers start publishing findings they have, naming names, listing actual spells.
The reporter is captured and caused to disappear. A chain reaction causes the downfall of thousands of officials and politicians. People are using the stars as they were supposed to be used.
Soldiers serving in the military suddenly feel like they are really fighting for something and become bold, strong and valiant winning battles they should have lost because they are no longer worried about what their families will lose if they die.
When things settle down in the government, the reporter's family receives a star, no one know how he got it. Later, a monument appears with his name.

11 )
.
I saw a joke where a guy was pulled over by the cops and had to prove he was a juggler by juggling all the knives in his car. A man drives by and says 'I am glad I stopped drinking, look at the test they are now making you do.' My mind went into story idea mode.
Babies were selected from birth based on genetic studies and development rates, to be trained in certain professions. Drychol was selected for the circus, namely to be a juggler. He worked all jobs on the circus, but trained as a juggler.
For some reason, while he could do it, he was not as good as tests said he should be. No one could figure out why.
He was on his day off at the train one day and was drinking heavily. He was quite drunk. The management found out that the knives the jugglers were supposed to be tossing, were never brought to the arena. He was the only one available, so they made him get into a car and drive the knives there.
He was driving along and an officer pulled him over for a broken light. "Are you drunk?"
"No sir." He said. The only reason he was standing was because of his tight rope walking training.
"What are those knives in your back seat?
"I am with the circus. I am a juggler. We juggle the knives."
"Oh sure. Show me."
Drychol took out a handful of knives by the blade and started tossing them Soon he had a dozen knives in the air, doing tricks he never could even do when he was sober. He then caught the knives one by one, and set the entire stack back in the car. The officer let him go with a warning.
He got to the arena. and found he would have to do several trips to get all the knives into the arena and he did not have that much time. He stacked them on the hood and started jugging the blades. Daggers, saw blades, swords, axes. With the all in the air, he kicked the door shut and strolled through the door opened for the elephants. An official misunderstood his question of where to take the knives and he was sent out into one of the rings.
He was nearly at the middle when he realized what had happened. He was barely standing by now because of all his drinking, but he started doing all the tricks he was ever taught or shown. The crowd gasped as axes seemed to come down to chop him in half, saw blades spun in all directions, he was catching knives by handles and blades.
He finally spotted one of the jugglers and realized that was the way he was supposed to be going. He brought everything under a strict control. The jugglers came out and he fed them the different blades per their preference. they were sending blades to him in their turn and him sending them back. they finally left the arena with their blades in motion to a thunderous applause.
He sat down and passed out drunk. He was tested and just had no skills. He had no memory of it since he was totally drunk at the time.
It was months before he got drunk enough to where he could juggle like that again. Again he juggled like a master. it was not until his third time that the officials figured out that he had to be drunk.
They started testing drugs on him, seeing what would have the best results on 'loosening him up without impairing him. Alcohol always seemed to work best.
One week, half the circus got sick. Dignitaries were to come and watch it. The circus mustered everybody they could to put on a show. Drychol was going to have to do his show. The problem with Alcohol is that he was no good the next day and was only able to do one show. He also was no good the next day.
Someone gave him a light narcotic known to remove inhibitions. He was shoved onto stage. The drug hit and he got good. While working wildly, he got up onto a low tight rope and did tight rope tricks while keeping dozens of blades in the air. he even did flips on the wire. The acts after him were rather lackluster in comparison.
The officials kept him on the drug and he did all the shows that week. It did have a problem where he was not afraid to tell officials what he thought of them, and do some things he was later ashamed of. they searched for drugs to loosen him up without messing him up. It took them a couple years but they found the right drug combination and he became the best juggler ever on record, far better than any potential one could have ever expected. He was still better when drunk.

12 )
.
He was adopted, having lost his parents right after he was born. He grew strong, healthy and did well in school. He was average when it came to getting in trouble. When he barely became of age, he joined the work force and worked hard. Being single, he put the maximum contributions into the government retirement programs.
He became completely involved in his work, and migrated through the system until he was completely immersed in serious government projects that did not leave time for love or marriage. There was no time for children either. He wanted children but because of his job, he signed over his rights to children over to his family. Another sibling had signed over her rights, so a younger sister was able to have two children instead of just one.
He continued to invest his money into the retirement system, giving the maximum allowed. He lived simply but comfortably and did accumulate several sizable savings accounts.
He finally reaches retirement age. He is worn out. He had given his entire existence to the government.
To retire, one has to go through a full physical. He is poked probed, scanned. things are stuck into every orifice and space more than once. He ate hundreds of pills, had to jump, bend, stretch, run, sleep.
He finally was brought to the office. "We have examined your record, your contributions and your physical." the official said.
"We concluded that you are not qualified to receive any benefits."
"What? Why?"
"Simply put, You are an alien. By the letter of the law, aliens are not eligible for government benefits."
"But I was adopted!"
"You don't understand." the man said. "When I say you are an alien, you are not human. We studied the law, the precedence, had judicial analysis up to the supreme court. We cannot give government benefits to someone not of this planet."
Guards appeared on both sides of him. "The answer is final. No benefits."
He walked out, in total shock. When he looked through the papers, he saw that the lawyer on his case had covered anything he himself could come up with. His work record, his contributions, his adoption. He saw the laws that applied and did not apply.
He went to his work home and gathered his things. Luckily he did have savings and that would have to keep him for the remainder of his life.

13 )
.
It was an interstellar space station run by a trade federation. Because there were thousands of space fairing species, they had some specific rules. Generations ago, those in charge would do physical examinations of visitor species and develop genetic, microbat, and chemical weapons for use against them. This gave them protection when dealing with each other.
One problem is that species with difficult to find weaknesses tend to become gangs and enforcers. The harder they are to beat, the more effective they are.
Gorlund was a soldier. His ship was destroyed in a battle they actually won, and he was the only survivor. He got his escape pod to the space station. Following orders and practices, he wore his full battle armor with a bacterial cover. Because his battle armor gave the appearance of being his skin, and the rules against examinations was enforced, he was able to stroll into the space station as long as he did not wear the helm of his bacteria suit. He did not need it as his suit was sealed tight.
He was explained in detail in a language his suit translated, about the rules of examinations and the rules of business. He smiled inside his armor. He had a full medical computer system inside and a passive sensor array where he could study those around him. He was not allowed to bring any of his weaponry, but that did not bother him much. no one else had what could be classified as weapons.
Gorlund needed to obtain a booster for his escape pod to get him to safety. He had to come up with a way to buy one. He decided to study the station and see what jobs or what bits and pieces would be worth trading.
He quickly ran across several of the gangs. He did not actively resist the first contacts. Some gangs he figured out their weaknesses visually, but the Thorgs, which seemed to be all bone, and the greens, which were like bags of mold. Even the computer went blank on the design of them.
After about a month of exploring, he found a job moving carts around. He lifted and carried stuff. He had technical abilities so he was more than a drudge on the job.
He kept meeting up with the greens and thorgs and each time got data. While he was working, they checked him over, but left him alone. He was able to avoid them most of the time off work times. each meeting, his system would develop more data, then analyze the data between time while it had the processing time.
About the time he had the money to get the booster for his pod, the gangs moved in. He found himself facing both gangs. One glance at each other, he knew they were going to work together. It was just him against them.
He shifted into soldier mode. The screen in his helmet showed him their weak spots. They would be hard to hit, but they were there. The greens were the toughest.
He stepped into them and fought. They had weapons. they found that his battle armor protected him. He got their weapons and found that their weapons were well designed against them and each other.
He hit their weak points with professional accuracy. he felt their hits, but he had the advantage that they did not know his weak spots.
He hurt bad, but he was the only one standing after the fight. He searched their bodies for anything of value, took their weapons and, he humiliated them by stripping them.
Gorlund sold the stuff he took from them, and when he went to make the purchase of his booster, he found that there were loads of hidden costs. He walked out without exchanging money.
When he went back to work, everybody knew he beat the Thorgs and the green. No one knew the details and he acted a cross between it being nothing and not admitting it happened. People hounded him in private as to their weak spots and how he learned it.
The gangs had hundreds of members. They started ambushing him, trying to get revenge. The results were generally the same, though he could not always search them or strip them.
He had become very effective on taking them out. He hit only their weak spots, their version of bruises showed where he hit them. Other people started getting the clue on where to hit them. One drunkard got in a fight against a Thorg and hit him in the places he had seen bruises on others. He was not accurate, but he drive the Thorg away.
Gorlund finally was able to buy his booster and fuel it up. As he left, new species were becoming gangs and enforcers as the greens and thorgs had become too easy targets.

14 )
.
Mandolf was a magician on the world where there seemed not to be magic. He did what was known as tube magic. No one knew how it worked. He carried a set of wire rings with a fabric between them. With a flick of his wrist, he would expand it out to a firm tube, stick it on the ground. He could make things appear at the base of the tube, or cause something to disappear.
He could, by twisting, make his wire tube become small enough to wear as a crown on his head, or expand it so it was able to encase a horse.
Those who traveled with him would see him make some objects disappear, and when he got someplace, would cause them to appear again, not having to carry them.
Most magic users had thousands of students in their schools, learning their arts. He never taught. He seldom had assistants with him, and when he did, they were there for other things, not for learning magic.
A general had captured a kingdom and put seated himself as king against the orders of his original king. He then defended the new kingdom against challenges from the original king, his own king and a neighbor king.
Mandolf learned that the new king was cruel, practicing robbery of merchants in the land. that was not acceptable. Mandolf gathered a few guards along with some young men who wanted travel and adventure to go with him. They gathered his stuff in a pile next to the wagon. All they had to do was to load his stuff and they could go.
He comes out of his hut, looked at the pile. with a flick of his wrist, a tube sprang out in his hands. He dropped it over his stuff, said a word and then lifted the ring. all his stuff was gone. He closes up the ring, collapsing it, twisting it into ever smaller rings, then it is gone. "time to go." he says. He rides an empty wagon till nightfall. The next morning, the other wagons are lightened, stuff going onto his wagon. they later find that as an advantage as the wagons are light enough for the horses to pull them up a hill without having to double up their horses.
At each camp site, his tube appears and he touches it to the ground and stuff he needs appears. He is not eating trail food, but fresh foods, even has a really nice bed that he sets up his tent around. He makes it all disappear when they pack up.
In the kingdom, the king knows he is there. He is captured and stripped. they find several rings on him and take them away. They then put him in the dungeons at the lowest level. When they go to feed him, he is gone and there is no sign of him. He is later seen outside the palace. He attacks, making things disappear, giving weapons to the locals so they can do their mischief.
The king knows where he is and brings out a large army. Mandolf is supposed to be trapped in a blind canyon. The king positions his army and is about to get him. His entire army enters the blind valley. Mandolf appears behind the lines and gets into the supplies, causing them to disappear as fast as he can get a tube around them. He has tubes big enough to cover wagons.
When the soldiers realize what is going on, they charge after him. As old as he is, he trots away and goes behind some rocks. When they get to the rocks, he is gone. there is no place he could possibly go.
They get back to the palace and a whole bunch of their stuff is gone from there too. He and his companions are already out of reach of anything but a fast horse as they are heading home.
The damage that Mandolf did was serious. The kingdoms attack again, and this time the king does not have what it takes to defend the kingdom. He loses big swaths of his land quickly and ends up surrendering to the original king, and his punishment is to banished back into the arms of the king he had left.
Mandolf gets his group to a main cross roads. He tells them that they should head off in "that" direction to explore more. With that, he goes behind a small mound. One youngster went after him to ask a question and he is gone.
He had placed a tube over himself, holding the top and the ground opened up beneath him. He was carried below the surface. the entire surface is held up by tubes. they all open to the surface with the right commands. He takes different tubes, a transportation system to the control center, does some maintenance and is "recharged." He then takes more tubes and appears by his house. Everything he wants or takes is delivered below ground and transported to vast warehouses and factories.
The planet was once a super civilization that people had anything they wanted with this system. A war and disease caused a collapse of the civilization and soon few people knew about the tubes. Mandolf ended up in it accidentally when he was injured and a pipe enveloped him. The system rebuilt him so he is now nearly a thousand years old. He keeps the peace and maintains the system. When the civilization on the surface reaches a certain point, he would teach them how to use this again.

15 )
.
Several attempts to transport special fibers to the secret installation. The government was searching the people and finding the spools. they really did not know what they were, but they were taking them anyway as the markings on the spools were interesting.
Suzanne was about the last choice to go. She was not good at keeping secrets and she was always pre-occupied with her yarn art, knitting things.
With no choice of who to send since other groups would not be back for a month. The had to give it a try.
Suzanne was briefed about the material and the basic properties. She asked questions about how the material took bending, twisting, kinking. It bothered the specialists as they wanted to talk about the wonderful things the fiber would actually do. The specialists let her go, very disappointed. She knew nothing about what she was transporting.
She had a long wait at different places on the way to the main transportation. She just sat and knitted, abiding her time.
When she finally reached the main transportation, she had made several garments and were wearing them. They were quite fashionable.
The ride on the transportation took time, lots of stops, lots of waiting, lots of slow travel.
She finally got to security. everything in her bags were emptied out, the lining was checked, even the garments and yarn she had was checked over. She passed the security and the trip continued.
At the other end, after she passed final security, she was met by her people at that end. the trip back was slow, with lots of stops. She was "ripping out" the garments she made, carefully winding them back onto spools as they went.
When they reached the destination, she handed over the spools. the material was a little rough and the labels were in bad shape, but they were excited to get the material. they incorporated it into the equipment. They were surprised at how she was able to deliver them. She had been told that there might be a spy among them, so she shrugged whenever asked.
At home, her people had no idea how she did it either and she acted innocent and clueless.
Six trips, several she was taken into a back room and physically examined, and they still could not find the materials. She acted so innocent about what they were looking for.
She was being readied for a seventh trip, when the other team put their plans into motion. The government between them was taken out, not able to deal with the new technology.
It took half a dozen years for things to settle out. Those who lead the battles and those who ran the governments received accolades for what they had done. The technicians were also given accolades.
She was finally asked how she was able to smuggle the material across the borders and not be found. She held up her needles and yarn and started working. No one had a clue about what this had to do with anything. She then said she used the spools of material to make clothing, the one place they never seemed to look, and then she undid them once she got clear of the security so she had the rewound materials to hand over.

16 )
.
A cat gave me this idea this morning.
The garden was sort of a natural place which they came to relax. Many strange animals wandered in and out of the gardens. The only really developed thing of the garden was the pathways. the rest of the plants were planted and let to grow as they saw fit. It was a pretty place when at the seated places. It was never really designed to walk through, just view from the vantage they sat.
the Torrents were most often called Cats, because while they had leathery skin instead of fur, they resembled cats in personality and shape.
The people took to feeding the Torrents, teaching them to enjoy their touch. They acted just as pets, some would curl up on their laps and love the company. Others were a little stand-off-ish.
The Torrents would wander to other properties an a few spent some time inside, but they always wandered when outside. The people did not want to have long term pets so Torrents were perfect, stay inside for a while, then go off on their own when they were ready.
The people noticed that the Torrents spent a lot of time drinking. It was as if they were made of water. When in the house or on the patio, they seldom ever drank, seemingly having no interest in the water.
Darvan imagined himself a biologist. he paid more attention to the plants and animals around him than most people. He had learned the scientific and common names for most plants and animals he saw.
One day, he saw a Torrent drinking out of a wishing well. Out of curiosity, he did something no one else ever did. He climbed off the porch and walked out into the garden. He immediately saw a dozen plants he had never seen before, nor saw descriptions of. He also saw insects for the first time. He saw the water of the wishing well was teaming with little creatures. the explorers never said there was life in the waters.
Darvan then got around to the opposite side of the Torrent and watched. The torrent was snapping out a needle like tongue into the water, spearing the little critters and eating them.
Darvan walked down the trail of the garden and came out the other side of the well. The property was small, but he recorded nearly a hundred different new plants and a couple thousand crawly critters.
He went around the front of the house, recording more life, and went through the decontamination that all guests go through. Once back inside, he loaded his data into the biology computer.
Just that one trip suddenly placed him as the top biologist on the planet. he never bothered doing that again, spending his time classifying the lives he recorded and naming many of them.
the real strange thing was the Torrents actually feeding in the water, rather than just drinking. That was a big stir for a few weeks, then people forgot about it and they were said to be drinking again

17 )
.
No one knew where it came from, who had it first, how it was made or how it worked. The super hero outfit had some wonderful powers. The person inside had super powers. It was bordered known physical laws, edging into magic.
The powers came at a high price to the users. It was known that the powers did not need the price. The best theory was to make sure that the suit's powers could not be used for bad for long.
The penalties seemed to be varied. No one was too sure why. Since it was in the hands of the military, and the military did detailed psychological analysis of the people who had the suit, the penalties tended to follow personality traits. Of course, each personality trait tended to use the powers differently.
The penalties could be, lost of mental capability, receiving disabilities from the physical abuse, the body could decay within the suit, or one's physical energy could be sapped permanently.
The nature of being a super hero is that one can never seem to only wear the suit for two missions. One always in is in the suit for the damage to build up.
Kyle was the old man on the base. He was known to have worn the super hero outfit twice in his life. No one was really sure how it effected him, but he was not quite right, physically or mentally. He was not bad enough to force into retirement, and the fact that he wore the suit before, caused officials to be lax on enforcement.
A serious mission came up. They needed a super hero to solve the problems the mission involved. The staff went over the list of soldiers. They chose five candidates, qualities that would be good as a super hero, but not someone they desperately needed.
Kyle border-lined the physical and was slated to be retired. They knew because of his condition and mental state, he would not do well in civilian life. He was in the military too long.
They decided to give Kyle one last chance at the suit. He was brought into the office and the officials explained the mission and what was going to happen to him if he chose not to wear the suit. Neither "mission" was palatable. He tried to talk his way out of both, but it was the way it had to be. He felt it was blackmail.
He finally decided he would wear the suit, on the condition that he could stay in the military afterwards, whatever his condition. They told him that they would give him the orders that guaranteed his serving for six more years after he wore the suit.
When he was ready for the suit, they handed him two orders. One for this mission, and one for after. the one after guaranteed a five year stint.
he faced the suit and cringed. He could not bring himself to touch it. The handlers took hold of him and put the suit on him. When the helmet, the last piece of the suit was placed over his had and the face shield closed, he changed. He seemed to inflate slightly, becoming straighter, stronger, courageous in demeanor.
They lead him out of the dressing room and to his transport. He climbed in and off he went. The enemy was ready for the super hero and set up all sorts of traps for him. because Kyle had been a super hero before, he knew about such traps and went around them, or walked into them ready to take advantage of their attack.
He was expected to do several missions. Instead, he extended his mission, hitting sites he knew was problem or would hurt the enemy. When he finally returned, the enemy was reeling from his visit.
He arrived at home and they helped him out of his suit, expecting someone who was broken up or in horrible condition. Instead, they found a strong, vibrant, intelligent person who looked younger than he should be.
Kyle went through a complete examination and his data was updated to where he was in combat condition. They had never seen this before.
It would be a couple decades when they would have to decide between retiring Kyle or sticking him in the suit. They knew he had been in it twice before...
Kyle was the original owner of the suit. He hated it. The suit security system would take something out of the person. there was always someone getting into the suit. When he finally did, he gained what they lost, letting him stay in the military for decades more.

18 )
.
A song had a man asking a woman what was she like in private. The question that caught my story idea mind asked, "do you break things when you are angry?"
She had magic. It was not strong, or particularly useful. She could bind her emotions over an object, like a spider web or net. She would weave her loving emotions around a gift so her love can feel her love. She could place her sorrow on a piece of paper and set it on the water and the paper would sink, carrying away her sorrows.
She could take her joy and hang it between walls and let people walking by experience her joy. She could take her grief and set it in a fire to burn up.
With her anger, she would wrap it tightly around a plate, or cup and toss it against the wall. The ceramic would shatter and cut the anger, destroying it. She was fast to anger so she was always breaking things. It was expensive, but she was always in a good mood because of it.
There was one guy who seemed to anger her the most. He was attractive, intelligent, interesting to talk to, showed he was interested in her, but had a knack of saying or doing something that would set her off. She would storm away and a few times have to break several items to get rid of all her anger. If he would not do that to her, she would marry him.
One day, he really set her off. He hit nearly every one of the things that brought her to anger. She grabbed a really delicate plate he had given her and wove her anger around it. It was a mental thing rather than an action. She just grabbed it and tossed. "Please don't" he said, not wanting to see that gift destroyed. The plate hit the wall and bounced. It bounced on the ground and spun to a stop. Both of them stared at it dumfounded.
She carefully picked it up. She had never handled anything with anger on it. She did not know if she would get any of it back. She picked it up and tossed it against the wall. It nearly hit her. It landed, spun around and stopped, undamaged.
Over the next day, they try to find a way to break the dish, hammers, lifting blocks of stone and dropping it. One drop of the stone broke the stone and not the dish.
They went to the maker of the plate and got the kiln so hot that it turned a couple other plates to puddles, but her plate stayed good. It did not burn or melt. The took it out and dropped it directly into cold water. It did not shatter. It kept the shape, though the decorations were changed into a spider web like form.
They tried other things. including ones they had tried before and it failed. she could not remove the anger from it in any way. It was stuck.
He finally pointed out that this entire time, she had not been angry, even though he had accidentally did things that usually bother her.
So she wove her sorrow and grief around plates and had them set on a shelf in the house. She was in a good mood from then on, and married him as he gave her contentment.

19 )
.
They went out to meet the enemy. The army took their best position and waited. They gasped as the imperial forces marched forward, line after line, phalanx after phalanx, division after division as far as the eye could see.
Given a choice of surrendering or fighting to the last man, They chose to not give any quarter and not accept any quarter. This was a battle to the death. There was no one behind them to stop them past this battle field.
Wave after wave of the imperial soldiers marched in. Wave after wave was repulsed. The empire was whittling down the defenders each time.
Bodies of the dead piled up. The defenders took to stabbing the dead to make sure they were dead, and then piling them as a defensive wall to make the attacks harder. It helped.
They fought through the night and into the day. the bodies kept piling up.
The empire ganged their divisions together and charged as one. The defenders were pushed back, fighting as they retreated.
Markwell finally escaped the enemy, but only after he saw the last of his men fall, and cleared out the soldiers surrounding him, that he turned tail and ran. The enemy did not follow, turning back to tend their dead.
He ran most of the way home before he finally found a place to sleep a little. When he woke, he saw the empire in the distance following the road to his home. He had a choice of heading home or taking them on. He neared the road and found there were more of them than it looked. There was no way he was going to have any effect on their numbers. He could not follow the road so he ran the long way, to come into the city from the rear.
When he arrived at the city, the enemy was already inside the town, hassling the people. Markwell was shocked. the empire moved faster than expected. A couple soldiers saw him and challenged him. He did the only thing he could do, He killed them, quick and easy. He then left that site and ran across another small group of soldiers. they died too. It dawned on him that he could handle small groups of soldiers with ease. He became a hunter, taking out groups of soldiers as he zig zagged through the city. He quickly saw they were searching for him. That made it easier as it brought them to him rather than him having to search for them.
it was real late when he reached the center of town. The town square had carriages without horses. One came up, making a horrible noise. the people in them were not of the empire. they were dressed strange and the weapons they carried were not edged weapons.
One he deduced was an officer grabbed a woman. his short weapon made a horrible sound like thunder and the ground behind her puffed up. She squealed and chattered, sobbing. He threw her to the ground in frustration. She got up onto her feet and scampered off.
Markwell was angry. that they would do that to a woman of his city. He burst into a silent charge. The others slowly turned. He sliced and stabbed them in rapid succession. One lifted a blast stick and it reported. He missed. Markwell did not, blast weapon and the man were cut in half.
Markwell killed two others and ran back the way he came, no one of the enemy was a witness to the event.
he got a view of the town square from a distance before he headed off in another direction. The soldiers were heading to the far side of town. that was good. A short distance from the center of town, it was just warehouses where few people lived or worked. Most of them were empty anyway.
He found a place to sleep. then after hacking up more groups of soldiers, he left the city.
A few hours later, he found himself surrounded by the empire's soldiers. There were fewer of them than his original army. He figured he was dead already, so he plunged into an attack.
Badly cut, he returns to the city. People cheered him as he arrived. He was taken in and cared for. It took him a while before he learned that the empire followed him out of the city and he had destroyed the entire force that was left. He had saved the city.
He learned that a distant empire was at the core of the attack and he killed the leaders from that distant empire, ending their expansion into this land.

20 )
.
Sarah was not wealthy, but she worked hard and was thrifty. Unlike most woman her age, she was not into flashy jewelry, real or costume. She did look, though.
One day, she saw a hand made, one of a kind ring. It had a collection of different jewels in a stylized design of a cat. The maker died soon after creating it. it was expensive, but she wanted it. She set herself to get the money to buy it, checking to see if it was still there each week.
A couple years passed. she had much of the money for it, but it was still out of her hands. It was of a design and style that seemed not to attract anybody else. The jeweler knew of her interest in it and said that he would not discount it without letting her have the first right of refusal. It would go at full price otherwise.
One day, she was on a date with a nice guy. He was not great, as she had dated better, but he was interesting and he had money. The date was nice and he was a gentleman. As they passed the jewelers, she pointed to the ring and said she really wanted it and was saving all her money to get it.
They dated several times. She saw signs that he had a horrible temper which he held under control. She even saw him play a prank on someone he did not like, a kind of prank that suggested he could get really evil of really crossed.
One week, she went passed the jewelers and the ring was gone. The jeweler said a man purchased it at full price. She went home and cried all night. She got a call the next day by the man, asking for another date. She had little else to do, her life's goal was gone, so she went out with him. Late in the evening, he proposed to her, holding out her ring.
She hid her horror. She knew that if she said no, he would see to it the ring would be destroyed. She was not about to be stuck with him, though. She had a serious decision to make. Get the ring and the hell that came with it, or give up on her dream forever.

21 )
.
The community was a thousand years old. Buildings were commonly taken down and replaced. there was a tradition where a piece of the old building would be added to the new one, passing on the blessings and longevity of the old to the new. There were times where the previous piece of wood would pass through a dozen homes.
A wood boring insect was brought into the community and found they loved the wood buildings. the buildings with the infestation had to be replaced quickly. They took down the building, and searched for a piece of wood that did not have the wood borer, then add that to the house. The wood borer took years to get into the new homes.
The problem came when the wood was so infested that there was no pieces that did not have any borers. They found a piece of wood with just a couple wood borers and added that to the building. Within a couple years, the wood borers were found everywhere in the building. After just a decade, the building had to be replaced.
Sashai just became a builder on his own. he was given to rebuild a structure that had been abandoned for over a decade. They took the building down board by board, as everybody did. He found a one foot section of the structure with but half a dozen visible wood borers in it. His son sat with a wire and poked the visible wood borers dead, but there had to be another half dozen just below the surface.
He held that piece back and the rest were made into charcoal for a blacksmith. It was not good quality because much of the wood was gone, but it sure got rid of the bugs.
He kept the piece of wood to the side while he built the house as it was not of the size he needed for much of his work. He was building the structure with bigger wood to let it stand longer after the wood was weakened. The owner kept asking when he was going to add the new piece of wood, which was usually hidden deep in the structure.
While adding a porch, Sashai added the old piece of wood. He had let an assistant do the work and the assistant mis-read the plan and made a major mistake. It was not noticed at first.
The new owners took over and after a couple months, they complained that the porch was wrong and demanded it be fixed. Sashai returned and took the porch apart. He found out what the problem was, and berated the assistant up one end and down the other. As they dismantled the porch, he saw that the wood borers had already gotten into the surrounding boards.
He then realized he could eliminate the pest from this building and keep the building alive for years. He kept a clean piece of the old porch and used new wood to rebuild it. They rebuilt the porch, all the old porch wood was made into charcoal, especially the old infested piece of wood. The owner asked about the old piece of wood and he said he left and old piece of wood in the structure. The owner was satisfied, not realizing it was a piece of the porch he replaced. He apologized to his assistant, thanking him for saving the house.
He then replaced another building, and this time gave his assistant detailed instructions on how to make an error that will require repair. they were lucky on the owners finding that repair, this time he needed it to be found easier.
After five buildings with similar mistakes, he was asked to a meeting of builders. They said they were thinking of forcing him out of the business because of his sloppy work. He explained about the initial error and finding the borers already in the wood. He also explained about replacing the original saved wood with saved wood from the repair. It was expensive but the buildings would stand for years this way.
Two years later, the council was hearing complaints about sloppy workmanship of the builders. Their repairs were perfect, but their construction forced repairs. They would leave out something important, they would forget to fasten things together, get the measurements wrong.
The council could not do anything about it as there were no other builders available. These were the best there was. It had to be accepted.
It took two generations, but the wood boring insect was all but eradicated from the city, all because of a little mistake made by an assistant and Sashai realizing he could use it to his advantage.

22 )
.
They were on the surface of a gas giant, miles below the top of the visible atmosphere. They were able to mine the planet and atmosphere for materials they needed and developed several cities in the vicinity which was on top the highest plateau on the surface. they were an exploratory ship that got stuck down there and they build and expanded from the first ship.
The people lived for the most part in apartment complexes that had everything they needed, basically tiny space stations. Each home was a sealed module and one passed through air locks into the halls and into other homes. To go to another apartment complex or other city, one had to go through a dozen air locks, get into a space ship, pass through more garage air locks into the heavy pressure, and then reverse the process on the other side. Few people travel any more. Not worth the effort.
Some scientists came up with a new transportation system. it was actually quite cheap to run and easy to build. A set of full sized mirrors were placed facing each other at a specific distance. Emitters were placed behind the mirrors to send energy between them. One got between the mirrors, start the system and walk.
One passes into the reflections and walks to another set of mirrors and step out. The distance is important as the chain of reflections going back into distance have to match in both sets. The time it takes is exactly what it would take to walk that distance normally.
Those walking says it is strange as there are other sets of mirrors everywhere. One can turn to go anywhere, but it is best to go to the original destination as it is easy to get lost. There have been times where a mirror system has been shut off while a person was going there. They automatically shift over to the nearest one to that, usually in the same building, but someone else's home.
The advantage of this system is that one does not have to go through dozens of air locks and face the threat of sudden implosions that ships have done.
The disadvantage is that if the system were to completely shut down, the people walking the distance would be stuck forever in that realm. It is also a long hard walk anywhere. There is no place to stop and one essentially is forced to keep the same pace. A few people collapsed when they got to the other side and had to stay for medical treatment until they were ready to go back. A few will not go through it and would rather face the high pressures outside.
For a story, I picture there is a problem. Several of the buildings have to be abandoned. Some people get into the ships while others get into the mirrors. the last people enter the mirror and not long after, their buildings fail. They cannot go back so they are walking. About as fast as they get near a building, the building fails. Their only hope is to get to the last building and safety.
A couple of their party are suffering bad and they have to almost carry them. Maybe one dies and they are carrying them anyway.
They finally make it to the farthest building. Real space ships have arrived and people are being herded on board. They show up just in the nick of time and get on board the ship. The ship gets into the atmosphere just before the building implodes.
They leave the atmosphere and get into space. They now see that asteroids are hitting the planet, causing shockwaves to pass through the atmosphere. The buildings are just not built to take that pressure change.
The last building was the original ship. The research ships to study the impacts detected the cities and went there to get what people they could.
While looking at what people was able to bring with them, they see that someone brought the mirror equipment. The technology was not lost.

23 )
.
The secret service officials got together Computers were just developing and the interweb was just becoming popular. "We need to know what the people are doing. Normal information gathering methods are useless on what is on the computers."
"That is a problem. We know this interweb will grow. We need to get ahead of it."
"The best way is to learn what is on their computers and gather samples of their documents and programs."
"I have an idea. There are these bacteria programs causing damage to computers and infecting others. Let's create an anti-bacteria program to eliminate them, and while we are at it, we can pull off entire file lists each time they update the program."
"We can create just a few of our own bacteria that will give us information on their own, and cause them to buy our anti-bacteria programs.
"Oh, that is good. We can also get samples of the files of interest to make sure they are not trying to trick us with special file names."
"I hope you know we will need massive amounts of space to handle all that data, and we will also need people to analyze that data, which will be coming in rapidly."
"Yes, and we must keep this secret from all but the highest security people."
"One question. How are we going to be able to use this information? There will be no law covering this data and someone will need to know where the tips came from."
"We will worry about that later. We know what we need to do, Lets get on it and see what happens."
Decades later, they had a system in place. in every city, reporters were specially selected. they were given bits of data that would lead them to information to expose things. Police had informants who would give them clues that would lead to key arrests. No one, even the informants, knew where the information originated, but many a serious crime wave was knocked down by some unknown bit of information. A couple organizations got hold of the informants and quickly learned they received their information from another source. One of those sources was tracked down and she got her information from some place else. that was a dead end lead. they figured out that the information stream was heavily layered.
Foreign government were trapped by the information stream too. Some of their best secrets somehow escaped into the world without any trace of who passed them on. There just was no way for the information to get out. Their governments had to change course because of the leaks.
There were, of course, conspiracy theories everywhere. There was even one about vast data base cashes containing every bit of information every computer has. No one knows where it is or how it would get the information.
Daxon is a bit strange. He was effected by drugs and was quite paranoid. He gathered bits and pieces of computer equipment and built his own system. he never logged onto the interweb so he never dealt with the bacteria or anti bacteria programs. He sat in his basement and programmed in secret.
He had his system all ready. He was going to trace the interweb to the secret data site he knew just had to exist. He was going to let everybody know for sure that it existed.
when he was ready, He logged onto the interweb. He went to a site he knew about. there was a bit of data he needed on there so he downloaded it. He read the data and that was exactly what he needed. He then realized his computer had slowed way down. He went on line and quickly learned his computer was infected with bacteria. It was sending like mad. He downloaded a free anti-bacteria program and it scanned his computer. It needed updates. which became regular as it fought the infection. It had him send them selected infected files for analysis.
All this infection was preventing his computer from doing the job he designed it for. He dared not run it while this problem was going on as the bacteria would be traced back to him.
The bacteria was finally removed. He updated his computer a few times. He then started his data search. within a day, there was a power surge to his house. The power went out.
when he finally hit the start button on his computer, it refused to work. disassembling and checking the systems over, he found that the hard drives were fried. He lost all his data, all his work. He added the "Backup" hard drives to the computer and the data was somehow corrupted.
The security people saw what his system was designed to do and had an electrician make a mistake in the neighborhood.

24 )
.
He had a bad day at work. He was not feeling well and was tired. He drove carefully, well below the speed of the traffic.
At one point he noticed there was a long line of cars behind him, so he pulled into a parking lot. right on the corner. It was open, not having a curb and quite large, so he was able to pull out of traffic without slowing down. He pulled to a bumper and parked. The line of cars passed behind him. He leaned back and dozed off almost immediately.
He woke from his body being thrown to the side against his seat belt. His car spun around and slid. It was raining what appeared to be an oily substance. He watched in horror as another car slid sideways right at him. The His hood buckled on the impact and is car bounced over the parking bumpers and into the brush. A dozen more cars slid off the corner, two more getting past the other cars to hit him.
The traffic finally stopped, likely having accidents in other places. The raining oil smelled strong. He tasted it and spent a minute spitting his mouth clean.
The rain finally stopped and he got out. he could barely walk on the grass which was slicker than ice. He did not like the looks of those cars so he left the cars and went out to the lake. He happened to look back at his car in time to see a fireball billow into the air, then a wave of fire flashing towards him. He turned and dove into the water and went below the water. He was not a good swimmer and not good at holding his breath, but he suddenly became an expert. He saw the bottom of the lake light up then dim down again.
he splashed water at the surface and then came up for air. The place stank of burnt oil. He glanced around. trees and grass was on fire. there were several dozen explosions as fuel tanks exploded. He dove down as another wave of fire came by.
He stayed in the water until the fire was out. the burnt grass crunched as he walked on it. The pavement had buckled. The building was a roaring fire. the air was smoky and smelled burnt.
From the hulks of the cars, he saw there were more accidents than he thought. three cars went into the building.
When he finally got out of the burn zone, he found that it was a limited area. He found some authorities and reported what he saw and experienced. He later learned that an air tanker had ruptured in the air and dumped an oil over the entire region. It was a super lubricant which was why everything was slipping and sliding everywhere.

25 )
.
He had proven himself as a special forces sniper. He was smart and not prone to get into a lot of trouble. He was taken for further training and found he was being trained as a spy. His training taught him how to blend in with the population of the enemy nation.
It was near the end of his training that he learned he was going to be an assassin. He was to search out and kill some world leaders. He kind of liked the idea.
The reason they wanted his skills was to make the kills from a long distance, not get caught or killed. That was good for him.
He was given a disassemble rifle. he practiced building and dismantling it. He was not given the opportunity to test it. He was shipped out.
It took three months for him to get into the other country, then another three months to figure out how to get to his targets.
He had contacts in the other country and they guided him on where the targets would be out in the open.
His first target was on the steps of a courthouse. He set up several blocks away, took aim. He waited until the right moment. Just as he squeezed the trigger, a form moved in front of his target. The form dropped dead.
He quickly packed up and slipped out of the building. He was two blocks away when he saw some police go into the building he left. He made sure he disappeared quickly. He later learned that a man with a knife had struck at his target, the blade cut the cloth, but the figure dropped from a mortal bullet wound from behind, saving the target's life.
He finds another target and takes aim. Just as he pulls the trigger, a man cuts her throat. His bullet hits the man square. He should not have missed that far off. He slips away.
In his hiding place he examines his rifle carefully. checking over every part, he finds there is a special clip missing. It allows the scope to wonder ever so slightly. It is not in his stuff. He now realizes that it was never in the kit.
Between his next target, he checks gun stores, looking at scopes. None use that system. What makes it worse is that some tests with bits of wood and metal, that clip has to be the real thing, not something fixed up. He does come up with a way to lock the scope into position. It is off more than he likes.
He hits four more targets in quick succession and somehow kills four assassins. One of them before they killed his target.
The paper tells about some protector who just cannot get the timing right. Other papers tell about how the assassins being murdered before authorities can get information about them.
One day, the authorities got word of where he was. he escaped without his rifle. He had little on him other than his wallet. He got out into the country and escaped.
He locates a sniper rifle being sold at a gun shop. It is good quality. He purchases it. In another shop a city away, he buys some spare parts for the rifle. another city, he buys bullets.
He looks at the news and finds out one of his targets will be making a public speech. finds out exactly where the person will be speaking. He takes a position at the edge of his skills. The speech starts and He hits his target. no assassin shows up. His escape is easy.
He takes out six more targets cleanly. Papers have no idea who is doing it.
He makes contact with an emergency contact, one he should never meet. There, he learns that the rifle he stole had a signal in it that would ping out when he was squeezing the trigger. A choice assassin would step in and make the kill, and then be killed to prevent anybody from knowing the system. The scope was designed to move slightly to follow the movements of the assassin once the signal went out.
The signal also provided a tracer to allow the officials to find him. His using a different rifle kept them from knowing what he was up to. This was a counter spy ring to take out assassins infiltrating the country.
He stayed a day. when he left, his contact was dead. No use letting him pass on what he knew.
It would be years of picking off the leadership of the enemy that caused the war to end. a treaty was signed and hostilities stopped.
He then returned to his country and carefully tracked down the leadership of his spy ring and caused them to die the same way he did it in the other country. when he finally showed up officially, he had eliminated nearly all the foreign spies in the leadership.