November 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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He essentially lived at in the company building. He cleaned the offices and maintained the building during the night, slept and tended equipment problems during the day. On his free time, he had a little project. He had created a way to transport and retrieve himself to all sorts of worlds and alternate universes. In his work area, he built a wood framed wire enclosed tool cage. He had two of them and one was full of tools and one was generally empty.
The actual equipment that operated the system was hidden within the walls of the room. He developed a control system set inside his arms so he could get in, close it, and teleport out and back.
He found that the cage door had to be locked to prevent it from being pushed out by the energies. When inside, he stuck a wooden peg through a hole in the door and door-jam since anything metal messed up the system. Outside, he locked the cage so no one would get in and mess with things.
One day, storm troopers rushed into the building, taking over. He was about the last person they found so he knew what was going on. He moved some stuff from his cage into the tool cage and set the separate key for the lock on a nail next to the door. He also drilled a hole so he could stick a peg in from outside to lock the cage from outside, but drive it out from inside.
when the storm troopers showed up in his room, they already had their trucks full of people so he it would be a while before he could be taken away. he was stuck inside the cage for safe storage. they tested the key in the lock and it worked. they then put him in, taking anything out that looked like it would be a tool, including his wooden peg. Locked inside, they left. A few minutes later he blinked outside the cage, got another key for the lock, found another peg to work in the door, then blinked back in.
He then blinked out and showed up at the headquarters of the organization that the storm troopers were from and did a few things on their computer to mess things up for them. He then blinked back to the cage and then to the authority's offices and did a few things on their computer to let them find out what was going on, then blinked back to the cage removed the peg, sat down and waited.
The goons returned for him and as he went out, he shoved the door closed and slipped in the peg. They left.
His plan was that if there was trouble, he could blink back into the cage to safety and then work from there.

02 )
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The entity stood guard on the temple. No one was allowed into the temple unless they passed the guard. When one passed the entity, That champion was considered pure enough to pass prayers on to the god. The champion was the priest for the time.
It had been a long time since a champion had passed the entity. They trained hard, practiced hard, and they prepared hard. Each possible champion, called a procham, for proposed champion, chose their armor, weaponry, and fighting style. they battled each other at the religious time in a series of round robin matches, then an elimination system to find the one who was the very best warrior. The winning warrior became the champion to challenge the guard. Of course, none of the others got a chance to prove themselves.
There seemed never to be a death or permanent injury, but no champion ever seemed to get past the guard. After the time was over, the warriors would study the damage to the armor and try to figure out what will work better within what they felt was the rules of combat.
Linberdale just was not skilled enough. He fell far down the rankings during the round robin and was eliminated within a couple fights. He was really bothered by that. He felt he really deserved to face the entity.
The warriors, after losing, had to give up their armor and the their weapons. They would get them back a time after the period was over.
Linberdale was devastated as he turned in his equipment. He even gave up his battle clothing. He walked away with nothing on. He knew he would never have a chance to face the guard.
He went and followed the purification rituals. Half way through, he realized that if he were to go to battle, he would do the exact same rituals. He could not face the world any more. He would rather die than to face society as another failure.
He came to a decision. He was going to sacrifice himself to the entity. He finished his ritual cleansing and instead of turning left to leave, he turned right. He followed the proper rituals as he was taught. he then walked out into the courtyard and approached the temple. A gong sounded and everybody rush to see what was going on.
The community was highly puritan and bare skin was to be avoided. The sight of a naked man was a real shock and that he was approaching the table was another shock. No one could speak to him from where they were.
As Linberdale got close, the entity appeared and rose out of a chair. The guard walked forward. It had six arms each with giant claws, on each of seven fingers on each hand. it had four legs and the body was heavily armored.
Linberdale as frightened but decided to go with his decision. He as not going to live another day. Sacrificing himself to the god was so much a better choice.
He was well within the range of the guard when it attacked. A sweep of the claws on one side of the body came down on him. he continued to pray to his god to take his soul. Other than a blast of wind, the claws had no effect on him. The claws came from the other side. Again all he felt was a wind. He could hear screams of people in the distance in reaction to the swipes.
He then walked forward. The beast pounded the ground where he stood. dust kicked up. It kicked at him, more dust kicked up. He walked right between the legs without even ducking. It spun around and swiped him with a long tail. Nothing but wind. He entered the atrium of the temple and ritually washed the dust off him at the fountain, before continuing to the inner chamber.
The god entered him and gave him instructions. He gave prayers of the people as he knew them and He told him what they really were, showing that the gods heard the prayers. he was then given answers and was draped with a special robe.
He learned that it was really the purity of the soul that allowed the claws to pass. When the soul was not pure, the claws would impact the armor, any armor and hurt the person. It would be fatal to face the beast without armor.
When he left, he knew all there was about the god's wishes and offerings. He came out of the temple as the high priest. He served the community and when he had a chance, he gave hints to different warriors about the real rules of the challenge. The real reason he was able to pass was that he was willing to die and give his soul to the god. That act purified his soul.

03 )
He was raised in a community that wore uniforms. You always know who you are and what you are. It is highly regimented and Randy was happy in the society. He fit in well.
One day, he had to leave the community. He got totally lost and ran out of fuel in the middle of nowhere. He tried to walk for help and a bunch of thugs came by and robbed him, stripping him of even his clothing. They drove him quite a while, making all sorts of turns before dropping him off. He had no idea where his car was or where help would be.
As night was approaching, a farmer saw him and shouted about him being a naked pervert, and charged at him waving a stick. Randy took off running. He came by a clothes line and grabbed a basket of clothing and kept running.
Night time fell when he felt safe enough to stop. it was really getting cold. looking at the clothing he stole, he found all he had was woman's clothing. it was all he had. While it looked too small, he decided to see if it would fit. He had seen how his sisters and mother dressed, so he got dressed the same way. Everything fit him perfectly. He wondered why, but was happy he had clothing to stay somewhat warm with.
when he went potty, he found out why the clothing fit. He had become a woman. If it were not so cold, he would have taken the clothing off and ran away. He later saw his reflection and found he looked like one of his sisters.
After a long time wandering in roughly a straight line, he ran across what appeared to be an abandoned camp. He found some men's clothing. He knew they were way to big for him, but it was getting colder and the clothing was warmer than what he was wearing. He undressed and then got dressed in the clothing. When done, he found he was a big muscular man, a logger. He kept the woman's clothing and left the camp.
He soon entered civilization and learned hat just by changing his clothing, he could change who he was. He always looked like a sister or brother, but became the clothing he wore. He soon found himself fighting crime. He broke up a fight when dressed as a big man. Later, he learned to dress as a woman to get into places that a man could not go, and learn about what was going on. He got his hands on police clothing and would go in and bust up the place. He would get into martial arts clothing to beat up gangs, and get into repair man's clothing to set his traps. Whatever clothing he wore, he had enough knowledge of that job to be competent to be that person.
He learned that the mob, with government assistance, was the source of all the crimes. Since he changed his looks with his clothing, they never could find the person who was doing the damage to their organization.
It took some time but he learned that people of the society regularly appeared with super powers, becoming super heros. Most went through a school to learn their full powers and were then used in the war effort. He, instead, was fighting crime at home, learning his powers as he went along. One thing he learned was that wearing a super hero outfit did not give him super hero powers. He was simply a normal person in a costume.

04 )
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It was a virtual reality game. One coded in your plans and expected actions. Then the game would run some time, then you made changes and coded in your next plans and expected actions. With each play of the game, the game masters dictated certain goals and made little rule changes.
One popular goal is to marry Mrs Perfect. The object was to end up with her and try to keep her till the end of the game. She was always one who would go after the next interesting person so keeping her was a challenge. The women in the game had the challenge of getting their men to stay true and not chase Mrs Perfect. There were other goals such as most money, best physical development, best sports star, best craftsman.
The physical laws of the game was pretty close to reality. The game play was easy compared to other virtual reality games.
The game masters announced that the big change was that the one who ends up with Mrs Perfect will be dictated by pure chance. No other criteria would be used.
Vesper decided he was going to eliminate pure chance entirely. He had played the game and knew how to "cheat" to gain an advantage.
The game starts with every player as children and one raises them to adults, using one's plans as a guide. This part is not as detailed an operation than the actual game play. Once the game reaches adult hood, then the actual competition starts.
Vesper focused his character in learning the skills needed for his plans. basic navigation, basic geography, and finance. The big thing was his character would start working early and build up a high credit rating.
When the time came for the actual competition arrived, Vesper had his character in the right position. His character was able to purchase an inexpensive yacht of the right size, get supplies to fill the hold, and have all the paperwork in place.
His character then went and kidnaped Mrs Right, right out of her home. He took her to the yacht and head out to sea. No one had time to stop him.
he knew the extradition laws for various countries and understood that there was a way to get someone should they pass through any other country. Something like this has been attempted before, though not involving Mrs Right. Usually they were involving embezzlement or mass murder in previous games.
He never entered the waters of any other country. He headed directly to his destination by the back way.
His ship arrived at a small island and at high tide, put his ship into the lagoon. There he disabled the engine and anchor, in a way that he could undo it, and forced Mrs right make a life on the island with him.
The rest of the world was searching for Mrs right, everybody figuring it was pure luck that she was with someone. they figured that if she was Mrs right, she would be able to get back home and to be back in the game.
Vesper's character built a life with Mrs right, having lots of children, farming, making things, creating a mini civilization on the island. A few times they got on board the ship due to storms or suspected disaster.
Vesper had two characters in the game and one was studying world weather and conditions and he used that knowledge to guide his characters.
They are both really old, the children are now nearly adults. The ship was spotted and people are coming to get Mrs Right so she can play the odds at least for a short moment.
Vesper's character slips some poison to Mrs right as the rescuers arrive. They meet her just as she takes her last breath. The game is basically over. With her dead, the rescuers leave, having nothing else they can do. The game goes on until all players have died.
Everybody who played the game were very angry at Vesper for his cheating. The game masters were extremely angry that he had messed up their pure chance part of the game.
Vesper simply replied, "Good planning and preparation does not need luck. he was blocked from the game for over a year.

05 )
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There is a hard-luck Country song about where instead of a worm in the bottom of a Margarita, they have a bug, which they look at as one more bad luck thing. I heard this song about a dozen times before my mind clicked into story idea mode.
People have entered space and have taken known plants with them. One colony brought the 'Agave plant with them and are distilling the Tequila from it. The moth used as the worm in the one or two brands of tequila was never brought with the plants.
The distiller wanted to carry on the tradition so they used a local "worm" in their brand. Since the worm was safe, they were exported to hundreds of other planets or space stations.
Their production was extremely high since they perfected high volume methods from the farms they planted. Most places had nice stockpiles of their brew.
years go by and some people start noticing a change in the worm in their drinks. It is not officially noticed and never reported.
The drink changes a little over time and does not stay as good. Vendors sell the older drinks to lower class establishments as it is cheaper, and they sell it to customers who are extremely cheap, mainly those hitting on hard times.
The hard time drinkers start finding bugs in their drinks rather than worms. it takes a long time before someone of authority hears about the bugs in the drinks. It takes them even longer to locate bottles with the bugs in them. In their search, they find the worms that are changing.
It turns out that the alcohol is not killing the worms. They slowly develop and then go into pupae stage. It is only when they change into an adult bug that the alcohol finally kills them. the bugs turn out not to be a problem. Soon, people start searching for the old drinks with the bugs in them. it does have a different flavor than the fresh drink and people develop a taste for it.
After a while, the old Tequila becomes something very expensive. it quickly becomes hard to store tequila long enough for the bug to develop as people prefer the aged drink. They especially were after the bug. Adding the bug right after distilling did not work as the dying bug ruined the flavor. It had to be the young worm as they always did that had the effect the customer was after.

06 )
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The races were extremely dangerous. Because of the high speeds and winding tracks, spectacular crashes were expected during the races. The drivers had loads of safety features around to protect them from crashes, but they always got hurt.
Most drivers who drove regularly had mechanical limbs. sometimes it was a finger, a hand, a leg, an eye. Some of the really old drivers were as much as seventy percent machine.
When the drivers are injured, they can get back into the car faster with a mechanical replacement than they could through limb repair or replacement. When they retire, they are essentially re-assembled and healed completely so they can live their last years strong and healthy. For the most part, the body parts lost are placed in medical storage. Many are repaired or regenerated for later replacement.
Gandy had worked his way up through other race car circuits to the big leagues. He earned his place on the track through skill and talent. He ran two races and while he was not in the top ten, he was in the money.
Near the end of the race, one of the other fairly new racers was in a bad accident. After the race, he was talking about having his arm replaced by a robotic arm.
Someone else suggested that the new drivers should order body parts ahead of time to save time and pain, and also they can get them adjusted exactly to their needs. Gandy asked how the parts can be calibrated. He was told there is a system where one can work the systems remotely.
Since Gandy had money from previous racing and from his wins, he ordered the complete set. He even got the robotic brain installed into it. He had it assembled as a complete machine. He got some other parts to make it a complete person.
He got into the remote unit, which was a suit suspended in a chamber. He put it through the exercises to test strength, feeling, balance, It seemed pretty good for that. It as not, though, telling him what he really wanted to know.
He had his people get the car set up and put onto the track. He got the robot inside the car and everything set up. A second screen was in his chamber so he could see from other cameras than what was in the robot. He then took the robot on some laps, getting faster and faster. On the tenth lap, he ran the car at racing speeds, testing the robot and the car on the track. He made several pit stops to correct settings and then raced again. by the time his robot was pulled out of the car, the whole racing community knew what he had done.
He tested the robot in the next race. He was listed as not being in the race and was testing the car. He came into the race in the same place he did in the previous race, in the money.
One advantage he had was that the robot was automatic in nearly everything and he was actually guiding the robot on when to do maneuvers.
In the following race, there was no driver in their cars. they were all in the remote units like what Gandy was in. Because they were not endanger of death, they pushed their racing that much more. It was actually the first race in a long time without a crash as it was not personal, it was just racing.
By the end of the racing season, the racing commission changed the rules so no driver would be in a car. it was too dangerous. every driver that had robotic body parts had themselves restored. They personally raced within the cars in lower level races but on this level, it was better to have the robots do it for them.
Gandy never did spectacular in the race, but he was enough in the money to build a well known name in the races.

07 )
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The high lords arrived at the colony and made the colonists their slaves for a major project. The high lords had to build a vast factory site. they started with a warehouse district the colonists had developed and put the most basic of equipment in them to start production. They gathered the entire population of colonists to start building their structures.
It did not take them long to figure out that the existing colony infrastructure was useful to their project, so most of the population was released to go back to their own work to provide support. Even so, only a quarter of the old jobs were restarted.
After a time, the high lords realized they needed a larger population and needed them fast. They saw some "semi inelegant" animals all over the place and decided to put them to work.
the high lords had a method of rounding up creatures of all kinds. they swept the planet and gathered up anything that had even close to enough intelligence to work with.
Once they had the creatures, they combined their high technology, mental powers that verged on magic, to turn all sorts of animals into "people" to work with the colonists.
None of the converted animals were as intelligent as the colonists but they could do enough to be worth the effort of converting them. the process was easily reversible when the work was over.
It took some time to get the system brought into balance but soon the productivity increase was measurable. They realized it was worth the effort to make the changes.
Each creature had their quirks. The few monkeys the colonists had brought to the planet were good assistants if you could keep them from pulling practical jokes. the native monkeys were not quite as bright but were great at inspecting the jobs.
The dogs mostly worked out in the fields. They loved to dig even if it was with a shovel. They were notorious at never closing a door. As dogs, they could never figure out a door knob so a closed door was intimidating to them.
Cats loved to climb, they loved working out in the heat. They also loved to work at night and sleep in the sun most of the day.
Rats, which was the lowest intelligent creatures the high lords tried to work with, and half of them did not pass, were great at tunneling and also were happy to work in tight places.
There were other animals who were converted to peoples, but they had a low population to work with.
the high lords considered and decided against using the process on the colonists. They rightly figured out that the colonists with a similar increase in abilities, would rival the high lords and would take over. The colonists were too brilliant and imaginative as it was. If they got anything close to the power of the high lords, it would be more than enough for them to take over the galaxy.
The domesticated animals were absolutely loyal to the colonists. The colonists were in charge of them. the non-domesticated native and introduced animals were loyal to the high lords, though the non-domesticated colonists introduced animals tended to differ to the colonists.
Many of the animals recognized their masters and reacted like they did before the change around them. The high lords knew that the project had to get to a point where the animals were not needed very soon or the colonists could mount an effective rebellion. At the moment, though, the colonists were still too much in awe of the high lords to consider such a challenge.

08 )
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This idea combines concepts I have done in two other ideas I posted in the past couple years, but in a different way together.
Word came out that the planet had to be abandoned because of an upcoming disaster. The world economy became converted to creating space ships to take the population to the stars. The general population was really surprised at how fast space ships were being made, faster than any other project the government was involved in. The space ships were of a design not seen before, they looked "modern" to the general population. The space ships were flying into space and space stations and star ships were being built at a great pace.
Most of the population continued to do their own work. There was even a lot of construction going on since it would be a long time before the population would be allowed to leave.
When about half the ships were built some people started going to the star ships. At first it was the actual crews and backup people. Word was that the actual movement of the population would not happen until the last of the ships were built.
Sachmos worked at a radio station. he had all the training and all the licences to do any job in the place, but he was stuck at a secretary job. There were too many radio guys working with higher ratings in some way or another.
One day, the big boss said to Sachmos he had to go to a meeting if anybody asked. a short time later a couple salesmen told him the same thing. Then one of the secretaries had to go.
Word came in that several radio people were sick and not coming in. Suddenly, Sachmos realized that with them out, there would be a problem with on-air broadcasts.
As the day went on, Sachmos could see that they would have to put out dead air if no one filled in. He asked and got permission to take the next show. People kept leaving, letting him know that they were out of the building. The phone calls were coming in like mad for a while of people checking to see if one person was in or another.
Sachmos did some commercials, read the printed news, and played some more commercials. He then started a long song and got up to facilitate. He quickly found he was the only person in the building. He put on another song and looked around. There was no cars on the road. The city looked empty through the windows.
He called the boss's cell phone and got him. He found out that everybody was supposed to know about the evacuation and somebody did not tell him. it was too late as the last ships were firing up to leave. Too bad.
He was shocked to realize he was left on the planet. He checked other radio stations with a portable radio and his was the only one on line. He did the news and commercials and then more music and found that not one television station was on. He now wondered if he was the only person left on the planet. The last ships left.
A few of his news feeds were still working. He wrote and put out a report that his city seemed fairly empty. he received a news bit from three other cities with a similar report.
He called anybody he had numbers for, even going through the office phone listings for anybody who might have ever been contacted. He found one person after his twentieth call, someone who worked there ten years ago. After talking a it he told that man to call everybody he has ever had contact and see who is still there, and to have them do the same.
It was at the end of his second shift that Sachmos finished the number listing and found twenty people. He also got five calls from people to the radio station and two on his cell phone.
He decided to take a chance. He put out a report during the next news break for people to call everybody on their phone lists and then call the station if they are still within broadcast area as to how many they contacted..
It was early morning and he was extremely tired. Three people came into the station and they turned out to be old radio people They took over to give him a break.
His last message on the radio was that everybody needs to go back to work, do what they can to keep the country running. The first message of his replacement was that if someone was trained in or had done a critical job for their community, show up and offer to help anybody that was left.
It took a month to get the final figure of who was left in the city. A quarter of the whole population had lifted off. In nearly every case, they were the leadership of government, businesses, the arts, society, and sciences. In essence, the whole upper half of the population had left.
Those that were left, had to fit into whatever jobs they could. Many businesses closed, their people going to competitors to at least keep something of an industry going. It was basically the working population that was left.
By the third year, some secret databases were accessed in the course of business and the picture started coming together. It was not heartening to those who saw the data.
The whole picture was finally put together and made public after ten years. By then the economies were fully recovering, operating differently than what was going on before.
The story pieced together was aliens came to a planet and needed slaves to rebuild their technology. They became leaders of business and government, advancing society through education. they developed a system that would prevent the native population from getting into advanced positions. The aliens as leadership, had their squabbles and went to war, using the native population as their soldiers. Until recently, the natives had no chance of ever entering high society to get even a sense of the alien programs.
The technology, economy, and stockpiles of supplies had developed to the point where the aliens could build their ships and leave. Their scientists created the disaster story and left when their ships were ready.
The population was supposed to collapse completely when they left, falling back to the flea-scratching lifestyle that they were found. That was why a lot of data and technology was left. None of the aliens figured that the data would be found before it went bad. Instead, because of Sachmos's idea to have everybody call everybody, and then go to work where it was most needed, that civilization was rescued.

09 )
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The military forces met and fought to the bitter end. Both had reasons for not giving up. When the battle was over, there were a large number of wounded on the battle field, but no one to carry them off. One by one, but in rapid succession, they died from their injuries.
Glackston was able to bandage his wounds and crawl into a hole, that crates of food was knocked into, to hide. He suffered from a fever, but was able to eat. Horrible roars, howls and squawks echoed from outside. Rain came and he got enough water to keep alive.
He ended up being in the hole for a couple weeks before he was strong enough to crawl out. He had used up all his available food in that time. The bodies on the battle field were pretty much picked clean. He knelt facing the scattered armor and weapons, and prayed to his god, giving up the souls of the dead to the god. He felt a touch, he spun around. no one was there.
he slowly repaired a wagon and then slowly gathered the armor and weapons onto it. He had to repair three more wagons before the battle field was cleaned up. no one could be identified so he would have to say everybody died. Every time, especially at night, he let his mind wandered, he would feel a touch from behind. He took to swinging his sword in hopes of catching whoever did that. No contact.
He had no idea where he was going to get horses to pull the wagons. Every one of them died in battle. He had every bit of useable supplies on the wagons and was ready to leave. He hooked ropes to the first wagon and dragged it a hundred yards. He then dragged the second one up close, and then the third one. He was tired and night had come, but he made some distance.
He continued to suffer touches so he was on alert most of the time he was not asleep. He was not getting a great amount of sleep.
Over several days, he traveled a good number of miles and reached where the trail entered the forest. He was feeling stronger and his injuries were no longer bothering him.
He napped while the sun was up. Night was coming and a good nap would help him through the night. He woke, ate and the sun had fallen behind the distant hills. he as touched and he swung his sword. Nothing was there, but he had drawn a green blood. He was touched again and made solid contact, but could not see what he hit. He stuck two more swords in his belt and pulled the wagons into a rough circle and got in the middle.
The entire night, he was under constant attack. Each time he felt a touch and he would strike. He was making very quick kills. As morning approached, he was glad for his nap. He lunged forward whirling the swords like a mad man. each swing made contact with what turned out to be nothing. He turned and attacked the other way, making kills, then a third direction. He then had enough time to rest before he got touched again.
Dawn came and he could finally see. the ground was covered by the green blood, his swords were sticky. He went to the stream the road had followed and cleaned up.
Before he entered the forest, he prayed to his god, asking what he had dealt with. Inside his head, the god said that there was evil in the area. the god himself had touched him in the early times to prepare him for their attack. He had given an entire battle field to the god, and cleared the area of most of the evil. He would now be blessed.
An hour later, several men with horses appeared. Glackston convinced them to help him bring the remains of the army back to his land. They got him there and in a short time, he found himself as a general. He would defend the borders of the kingdom, always taking the battle field and sending the souls to his god. His god protected him, allowing him and his people to clear the region of evil.
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The note said "He keeps getting touched but always something was explainable -- moved by wind, fall over, back into it -- something prepares him for the upcoming attack.

10 )
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I got this from a scene in a dream. Of course, one can really only take an image of the scene to make it work.
The colony ship ran into trouble. Their computers found a planet with life that was just within range. As they pulled into orbit, systems were failing one after another. They had no choice but to abandon the ship and go to the planet.
Since there was one continent that was somewhat rectangular their choices were made for them. They selected a long grassy area to make their colony. they would not have to devastate forests to establish their population.
The star ship was dismantled and space was cleared except for space probes set in place for communications and data. Surprisingly, from the time they arrived in the planetary orbit till the time they were completely on the planet with their cities in place, was three months.
It was strange to be on a planet again and there was a lot they had to get used to. They continued with the same government system they had on the star ship as they were unprepared to make any changes.
The closest thing to biological and geological scientists they had, could not come up with any clue as to why the band of cleared area they established in, existed. They did figure out that they were in a dry summer season for the area.
Winter came and snow really confused them. They had a good number of frost bite but the medics cured them easily. Spring finally came and some areas were planted with the seeds they brought with them. It was mostly experimental gardens to see what would grow and how to grow them. None of them had real experience so they were learning by doing and reading.
Around late spring, the entire area was lush and green. That was when something large was detected coming down the cleared area. The people were shocked to see that it was a giant ant. it mostly had its head down, munching on the grass as it walked.
The police readied with their weapons, the commander wondered what to do. The creature walked right down the main street of the city. Because of the design it was forced to change direction and go through the ball park before it left the city. command soon realized that it was just the first of many, and they were marking in a tight band right behind. There wasn't enough ammo to stop them even if they fired one round per creature. The only thing they could do was to keep them to the roads.
The children left the school and went out to the ball park to play. Some children came from a private school and arrived from closer to the city center. One boy looked in a mud puddle. "Hey look at this. I wondered what caused this shaped impression
At that moment, the giant ants marched from behind the building. the boy was just a few feet from them. A couple older boys ran over and grabbed the little one and dragged him to a safe distance.
Soon the giant ants were crossing the ball field. the children had not gotten too far down the field so they were still all together. they stood and watched as the giant ants marched by in a continuous line. Because of the city, the whole herd were focused right down that one narrow path. They spread out once they left the city.
The migration continued for a couple weeks, The city was effectively cut in half, no way to get from one side to the other because the creatures were taller than the buildings. There were predators following, but they went into the forest to go around the city.
The ants finally stopped passing by, along with the other creatures that followed the ants. There was a long discussion as to what to do. They did not want to be separated like this again. It was hard on the new community. They moved the city to both sides of the migration route and built a tunnel between the two sides. They already knew they would build underground for the most part and leave most of the surface for the native life.
After they learned what was useable of native life, they cleared areas of the forests for their farms and gardens, and also built underground farms and gardens using star ship technologies. The surface was mostly left to the native life.

11 )
` .
A new light came into existence. It was a low voltage, high wattage light. It did not use electricity, but another source of power. One of the scientists who worked on the light, stuck it on his bicycle one night and rode home in the dark. He found that the faster he went, the brighter it became, allowing him to see distances. He found, though, at high speeds, it slowed him down.
the next morning, he and the others started studying the light more. Every time they got up to about forty miles per hour, they began to feel it bog them down. Fifty was the limit the light would let them go.
As a test, they put a bicycle in a frame on the back of a truck and had the guy peddle normally while it drove around. No problem with bogging down so it was not the speed itself that was causing the problem.
Discussing it, they were almost out of ideas. One guy put the light on a bar that hung out on a shaft. He then took a high speed drill and spun the wheel contact. The bar moved. They tightened the bar and ran it again. the whole assembly rotated.
They immediately mounted it on force sensors, and had energy detectors all around. They hooked the generator up to something that would really put a spin on it. The assembly they had it attached to was nearly a ton. they wound up the generator to full speed. The whole assembly slid a foot before they shut it down. Several of the braces were badly bent from the force.
They now knew they were onto something. Someone asked what would drive the generator besides something spinning. They dismantled the generator and realized that a piece of raw uranium would do the job. They made some changes so they could speed it up and shut it down. They then mounted it on the back of a car. They got it up to sixty miles an hour in the first test. They now realized they had a drive system.
They got permission to attach several of these lights to an airplane. They put a ring around the body ahead of the tail and mounted the lights on there. They used the same chunk of raw uranium, but added had several detectors around it to power the lights.
The day was of light aircraft traffic. They used the lights to taxi down the runway, then as they turned it around. They applied full power to the lights as the pilot was about to power up. They took a quarter less take off distance to get into the air. They tested the limits of the air frame with their thrust and knew they could have gone faster. They landed under the normal thrust.
Studying their system, they figured out that they could have a better method of control of power than the mechanical controls they were using. Looking at their budget, they had just enough money to really test their idea once. They decided to build and launch a rocket. Their budget was somewhat limited, so they built it using off the shelf parts. They built more light thrusters than they needed and more uranium generators than it needed. they decided that if this was going to work, they might as well do something really big. They were going to send the thing to the last planet. Since it did not need the rocket itself, they designed the probe a whole lot bigger and more complex than it needed to be and the rocket simpler than it needed to be.
They trucked it to the space port and put it on the launch pad. There was question as to whether they were joking or not. Their answer will be answered if it works or fails.
The count down came and they launched. all lights on full brightness. Their space ship left the pad and lifted fairly slowly into the air, and accelerated as it went up. No smoke, no fire, it just kept going up.
In space, it kept going, not into orbit, but curve slowly directly to their destination. It crossed the distance in three years as the fastest thing ever made. It then decelerated and fell into orbit around the planet. The protective shell opened and all sorts of detectors went to work. Probes dropped to the planet. A couple returned with soil samples.
They then decided since it was still operating, they sent it on the grand tour of the solar system, checking all the other planets, especially those not well documented. By then, though, factories were building the drive system, some thrusters as big as windows. The ships with the big drives were going to the stars.
The simple need of a light on a bicycle caused the development of an interstellar star-ship drive.

12 )
.
In a discussion about an abuse problem in a college, a commentator mentioned something about it was not a bomb leaking in the basement. My mind went into story idea mode.
In particle physics, they found a antimatter Bose-Einstein condensate material that as fairly stable in our world. As they studied the material, they found that it was extremely stable above a given pressure, and it dissipated below a certain pressure. Between those two pressures, it would explode violently.
They offer the explosive to the military, but the cost to create the material was more than it was worth. It was an effective bomb but not needed. Having made four and blowing up three, the last bomb ended up in the basement of the building to sit.
Decades went by and the bomb was forgotten, covered with crates placed in storage. The bomb developed a slow leak. The particles released was undetectable at all.
Someone going through old records run across a report about the bomb tests. They notice only three bombs were set off. They started searching for the forth bomb.
They learn about the nature of the bomb material. They find that it was put into storage. Storage room by storage room, they look for the bomb. They even move the bomb around as it was not marked as a bomb, but as equipment. When they went through all the storage places, they then learn how it was marked. They then have to search through the storage areas again. They find the bomb and find signs that it has been leaking.
They get the bomb out of the building and shipped across the country to a military test range. There, they set off the bomb. The results was spectacular, even if it was smaller than original.
the military did not understand the bomb during the tests before. They now figure out that what happens was the bomb would shatter, and release the gas inside. Once the gas reached that critical density, it would go critical.
The military is now interested in the explosive, but no one who was involved in making it was alive and the records was just insufficient enough to be useless to remake the material.

13 )
.
He was born with a strange power. He never actually used it until he was about four or five. He was able to turn anything into paper, and then revert it back again.
Mom was driven crazy when she would lose something and it would later show up again. She would also see pictures of the missing things everywhere.
As he became older, he found how to use his powers to his advantage. He was a bit of a thief, he would grab something and turn it into paper. a few times he would have a wad of his paper and turn it into paper again so he had a picture of a wad of paper.
He found that a sheet that was horribly messed up, could be reconstituted. just the facing surface was marred. One time, a wheel borrow went through the wash. It was just a tangled mess of paper that there was no way he could open it up. He went to a hidden place and used his power to turn it back into a wheel borrow. The color had changed but otherwise it was in good condition. He turned it around so he was facing the good side, made it into paper, then converted it back and the whole thing was in good condition, though it was not like new.
He started gluing things to the wall of his room. When he converted it back, the glue would disappear.
He finally becomes extremely wealthy through honest means. He converts his money into gold and jewels. He then arranges them artistically and converts that into paper and puts them inside picture frames.
It comes down to where a financial problem causes authorities to come to take away all he owns. They see the pictures of the valuables and search everywhere for them. He gathers all the pictures between the time they were gone and places a picture of his mother in front of the stack. He then converts that into paper so he is carrying around a picture of a picture of his mother.
He considered turning his house into paper but instead gathers his stacks of converted papers and converts them. when done, he has five sheets of paper in his pocket. He walks away from his business, his home, his bank accounts, his cars. He is even searched twice and they only find the few pictures he is carrying. He has a hundred bucks in small change, no credit cards, nothing else other than identification and passport.
He travels by bus across the country and ends up leaving the country. He slowly starts converting his pictures back as needed, ending up with his vast wealth outside the reach of any governmental official. It is only when he is out of the reach of the government that they learn he is truly as wealthy as he was supposed to be.
The consulate complains about his having his wealth. He tells them that he gave up everything, walking out without even the keys. What were they complaining about.
,
Several years ago, I did a story idea where a guy could turn something into a cardboard image. In that, he could not find a parking place, turned the car, with the people inside into a cardboard car, then folded up the cardboard and turned it into a small sheet to do his business. then converted it back when he was done.

14 )
.
He was raised among a people that believed that everybody should know how to do something of everything of society. They might not do that as a profession or hobby, but they would have basic concepts of it.
He was one who loved to know everything so he learned how to do all activities in society while not specializing in anything. He ended up working with a repair shop because it was best for him to know how things worked and how to fix them.
The authorities came in and grabbed a bunch of people his age and carted them out. They went from jail cell to jail cell over the next couple months, several they knew were on board ships. At the last destination, they went to sleep as ordered at the official bed time.
He woke feeling strange. Looking around, he realized he was not what he was before. He figured out after a bit that he was in the control room of a robot and they had linked his spine to electronics so the robot was him.
Having learned to care for babies and how they developed, he went through the process of learning how to move. It did not take him long to be walking around fairly comfortably.
Doing some tests, he found his hands and arms did not work right. He had difficulty to gauge distance and get his fingers around anything.
He then studied the place he was in. It was like a junk yard and storage yard. bales of tangled wire, all sorts of machinery in various disrepair.
He looked over his robot the best he could. It was fairly sleek but armor plated. He found a large sheet of reflective metal and viewed himself in it. He could tell he was a combat robot. He was not in the best condition as there were dents and places where the plating was pulled up. Looking at his hands he decided he needed to develop dexterity. He had no idea how long he would be in this place but figured he might be here a while.
He explored the area, cataloging in his mind what was there. He decided he would bide his time and get to know his new body by cleaning up the place and doing what repairs he could do.
Looking at the tangle of wires he noticed two broken light poles that resembled in scale to knitting needles. He remembered the damage to his robotic body so he decided to untangle the cables and make his new body some clothing.
He worked the needles a little, then started untangling the cables. it took time to get his hand and finger movements right and was quite frustrating but soon he had the tangle into spools and balls. He had more than enough cable for his plan. cleaning up the cables made the place look better, neater, emptier. Since the area had day and night, and he found he had no need for sleep, and he could see very well at night, he sat and knitted at night. He started with booties and fitted them to his feet as he went along. He considered making pants but decided a skirt or kilt would be better as it would not require as much fitting or skill.
During the day, he looked over the materials and machinery, carefully moving like things together, sorting the yard. he found a whole tractor and plow set. Like working with toys, he was able to get the tractor running and the equipment that he attached to work.
That was set up in one corner. he flattened out some wrinkled metal. straightened twisted bars, righted some big machinery and got them running. At night he worked on his clothing, row after row,
He was there many months and had the yard cleaned up and what could be repaired, repaired. He wore a full suit. He had stitched a seem down the skirt between the legs so he had sort of a form of pants.
He also did some repairs on his robot using the mirror and tools he had made to do his other repairs. He also sewed plats on clothing to protect his weak spots. By this time, he kept forgetting that he was in a robot.
The time came and he was called out of his enclosure. His handlers had taken partial control over his body guiding him along paths of walls to a giant enclosure. Several dozen robots lined up along the wall. They were instructed that they were going to fight each other. They got extra points if it was to the death. they were given a shot of serious pain and discomfort to show there was penalties for refusing to fight.
the other robots were very clumsy. a few paired off and they were swinging stiff arms at each other with no skills or talent. Many could not even grab an arm as they had not developed even that much control over their limbs.
he now had to fight. Having learned how to fight as a person. while he had not practiced any of the exercises, he was skilled with his body and handled each of his opponents as if they were practice dummies.
Each pair separated and fought another pair, winner to winner, loser to loser. He was never even challenged as he worked his way to the champion. There were half a dozen kills, where the robots were disabled, one where the operator had actually died.
He was sent back to his pen. Now he practiced the martial arts exercises in earnest.
He was sent to fight a dozen times, each time against ever higher skilled and experienced groups of fighters. After winning each round of fights, he was shifted to another junk yard and he improved his armor and clothing. It was cheating to be wearing armor, but he could do it and they could not. Each time he made something new, he left the old armor. He later met several others wearing his old clothing. It did not help him.
He was champion and defended his title half a dozen times and then he was caused to sleep. he woke back in his own body. He was retired as a undefeated champion. The only sign of ever being in the robot was a flexible plate on the back of his neck that could allow them to plug him in again. He knew they would not do so as no fighter would ever be as good as he was because they did not know how to train their mechanical bodies to move effectively.

15 )
.
Unlike most passenger liner companies, they do not use single hull ships. Instead, they used what was called pilot ships.
The pilot ships were sort of like space going tug boats. The passengers and freight they also transported at the same time, were actually containers that were stacked together. Each container had all the thrusting systems on it to make the trip by themselves. They had all the fuel needed for the entire trip. What the company did was to program each container to be able to compete the journey on their own should they get separated.
it was the company's practice to put the passenger containers right next to the tug. Their story was that they did this in case a space walk was necessary to aid the container. The freight containers were "below" the passenger containers so they can be dropped off in case there was a problem. Also the most dangerous container was always at the bottom so it could be dropped if there was a problem and the ship could get out of danger quickly.
the company had a rule of stacking them in line, no more than six, which limited how many containers a tug could transport rather than creating a "ball" of dozens of hundreds of containers most freight ships used.
The passenger containers were like the inside of a luxury freight liner and crewed with the best crews. Other than commander, who was essentially a navigator pretending to be a captain who is trained to fit into high society, the container lacked a flight crew. Without all the systems a passenger liner required, the containers could be made at a fraction of a price of a star ship.
Of course, the container crew were drilled in the systems so they can get the container to the destination should the pilot ship was lost and their navigation computer shut down. They were not, though, an actual ship's crew.
Seventy nine east launched without an incident. It had a five freight containers that were overly insured and a passenger container that had what the gate agent warned was rabble. The gate agent was used to the QUEEN OF THE STARS, where the cheapest birth cost more than she would make in her life.
The pilot ship captain had the freight containers providing full thrust as needed and the passenger container providing a quarter thrust to balance the twist the natural twist of the stack. The pilot ship only added thrust to turn the stack to go the right direction.
Two thirds through the trip, the passengers were getting rowdy. A group of toughs who were kicked out of their previous home, decided they were going to go to a new destination. They gathered others onto their side and took over the container.
The pilot ship captain received a message. "change direction of the ship or we will start harming other passengers."
The captain sent back a message, "surrender yourselves to the crew or we will leave you where you are." There were a series of communications where the thugs called the captain's bluff, saying that to drop the passenger container, they would have to lose the freight containers and there was no way they would do that.
The captain turned on the outside cameras. He then dropped the last freight container, It went to half power and fell behind. Then the next. Finally the passengers were let free. The captain had set it to the gravity would be less and the container would slowly rotate, messing up navigation by reckoning.
The pilot ship fell behind the passenger container and was soon gone off cameras. The thugs were in a panic. The navigator curled up in a ball on the floor as a way to refuse to navigate. none of the crew were available and the thugs had no idea what o do. the control board was meaningless.
While the passengers were in a panic, the tug backed up to each container and attached them under it in order. Then they accelerated slowly and caught up to the passenger container. By then, the thugs were almost ready to surrender, but not quite. The pilot ship came up to the container and sent a signal to stop the spin. It then docked with the passenger container at the very bottom.
The captain shut off the lights and set the air conditioning to low air flow and then gave a message to the whole container. "Surrender to the crew. They are now on the very bottom of the stack. if there is any problem that requires a space walk will be up to a dozen hours to achieve now that they are so far away. In that case, it just might not be possible to save them.
The captain also told them that if they were dropped off in the settings they were now, they would not be able to change them. also, the container above them has volatile materials and they would have to be dropped before that container is dropped. the other containers are more valuable than they were. The thugs and their allies, including a couple crew members surrendered.
Just before they reached their destination, the containers were dropped and picked up so the passengers were near the pilot ship. Space authorities made their arrests and other passengers were required to sign a contract to not tell their story.
The real secret of the passenger liner's never losing a ship was kept a secret. other passenger liners had ships taken over or even destroyed because the crews were accessible. The tug ships never lost a load that required an insurance payment. Anybody traveling on their ships always picked them again if there was any choice at all.

16 )
.
The society was well known for taking their time. Being fashionably late was generally early for them. It did not matter when they said something would be ready, one knew it would never happen then. If something was on time, no one would be ready.
The officials decided this relaxed life style was the reason the society was so far behind what was expected. They felt that the society was going to collapse under its own weight.
The officials decided that people had to be forced to speed up, get things done. They decided that the best way was to use semi intelligent robots to watch over the people and get them to rush. Computers would receive recordings of anything the people did to the robots and whatever they did when they ignored the robot. Periodically, the people would be brought to a center and be taught how to do things quickly, such as dressing with the least waste of time, how to fix a quick meal, how not to ignore alarm clocks, how to drive faster, how to read clocks. The officials would also teach the people how to do their work faster.
The people setting up this system was from a highly productive society and knew how to do things efficiently. Of course, no one liked it. the officials were caught by their own laws since they had no control over it. They had to be on time also. They had set a date for it to end and were counting the days till that time came.
The robots floated or flew around the people, it would bark out orders, some given by the handlers. The robot itself did not need the handlers, as it was semi intelligent and was programmed on how to take care of itself.
There were penalties for doing something against the robots, and penalties for not caring for the robots, and penalties for now allowing it to follow you around.
Bicktor receive his robot. Of course it was a royal bother. He could not stop and think for a moment, he had to get things done. He knew he would never get used to this.
The robot rode with him in the car to work. He had to rush to get the place set up for the day, he then sat down and got to work. He ignored the robot when it was telling him to speed up. About mid day, when it started threatening him to speed up or be penalized, he explained the process he was doing and how there was ways to speed them up but it made for a lower quality product. He explained steps and how he had to let things set up before he could do anything else, and sacrificed a couple pieces to show what happens when it is not done fast. The robot went silent and settled some place to watch.
When the day was over, Bicktor was actually happy to move faster. He soon found that by being more efficient, he got more work done.
He had some time left so he dug out a game. He made slow moves and the robot told him to speed up. Bicktor started the game over, explaining the way the game played and had the robot move pieces. They played almost past bed time. He got ready and went to bed. the robot did not follow him at all.
He woke up and the robot was still playing the game. He soon had to rush the robot to get out of the building. Back at his office he sat down to work and the robot gathered some bits and pieces and was playing the game.
While Bicktor had sped up his normal life, he was soon having to rush the robot in order to go anywhere as it wanted to play the game and not give it up. Bicktor learned later that the rules of the game was spread around the system and a quarter of the robots were now playing the game.
Society increased in speed and efficiency, and fashionably late was an hour maximum, but they were not at the military efficiency that the government had originally planned. the robots learning the game made sure they did not get obsessively on time.

17 )
.
In the November idea # 11, I told about a bicycle light that became a thruster for interstellar travel. This feeds off that idea.
After the star ships with the new thrusters were going to the stars, People back home started finding new ways to use the thrusters. They were soon placing them in their cars, a super efficient and extremely cheap power source to move cars and trucks around the roads.
There were necessary changes one had to make for this new power source. One thing was that there was a "thrust wash" and it was not good to be in the aim of the thrust. There were accounts of serious burns from it. Big trucks had thrusters on their trailers, but also aiming on an angle in back on the tractor itself.
People learned to look carefully when they were about to move, to make sure no one was in the way. Also when one walked one had to watch carefully. It was not safe to walk along side the road because of the wash effects, so over time, sidewalks and highway shoulders were modified to give a pedestrian some space to walk safely.
Speed limits were still in place, and that helped. going twenty five miles per hour gave a very small thrust wash while going sixty gave a big thrust wash. They did find that those inside vehicles were immune to the thrust wash and riding bumpers was still popular.
They finally detect a civilization and immediately have several robotic ships converged on the planet. It was fairly close to the technology they had before the interstellar drive was found. There was indication that they were on a different track on technology so they might never find the drive.
A crew got into a newly built ship for interstellar transport of people. They launched and gave data as they traveled that no robot could give. Once they were traveling near light speed, they lost communications with home.
They arrived at the planet and went into orbit. They quickly figured out that they were fairly similar in physical design. Some makeup and clothing would hide the differences.
A crew of three went to the planet in a way where they were not detectable. On the planet they went out to meet the people. Listening to the broadcasts had come up with a translation program that would work where they landed. They were like hearing aids and translated what was said. the program also picked out the most likely response and played that into the ear so the speaker could mimic the words. It ended up working quite well. The crew picked up the language fast.
One crew member made friends with a man who appeared to be sort of an inventor. the crew member told about the star drive they had and explained how it worked. The inventor thought it was interesting but declined on learning how to make it. The crew member was utterly confused by some of the technology in use, as it was as confusing as the star drive was to the inventor. A lot of it was in common use.
They were walking between two buildings. small work truck was parked so half the lights were clearly visible. as they were walking, the truck started up, the lights came on and the truck pulled out. The crew member screamed at endangering him.
The inventor explained about how the lights were only signals, not drives. The crew member could not understand the concept of signal lights. His people had used the thruster lights for so long. It did not matter what the inventor said, the man could not get it through his mind that they did not have the thruster lights for power. The inventor even demonstrated the theory and small motors.
The crew member left and met up with the other crew at their ship. All any of them could talk about was how big a liar the people of the planet were. They left the planet and went home.
To think that these people had developed no courtesy about the proper use of the thrust lights, endangering everybody around them for no particular reason.

18 )
.
The necklace was cursed. It was filled with jewels and precious metals of all kinds so was something everybody would want to have. The curse, though was horrible and whoever had it quickly wanted to get rid of it. the curse made it difficult to lose. No one recovered from the curse after they lost the necklace.
Grafton stepped off the trail to relieve himself and found the necklace. It was obvious that it was tossed rather than dropped. He picked up the necklace and put it on, hiding it within his clothing and went back on the trail.
The next day, the first signs of the curse showed. He was not in a situation where the curse would really effect him. He just saw signs of it. He reached up to remove the chain and a sense of dread came over him where he felt like if he lost the necklace, he would suffer some horrible fate. That stopped him from removing it.
I have no idea what the curse is. My mind went blank on how to develop this.
.
My note says, IT WAS HORRIBLY CURSED AND WAS THROWN AWAY. HE FINDS IT AND THE CURSE HELPS HIM IN WHAT HE DOES, ACTING LIKE A GOOD LUCK CHARM.

19 )
.
The colony world had computer driven autos for over a century. Actually driving an auto was unthought of. One simply told the computer where you wanted to go and it would take you there safely. you could sleep if you wanted to. The computer would talk to you in fairly intelligent conversation within the subjects of what the programmers decided were acceptable to all passengers. Updating the conversation was not possible with the computing power provided in the auto.
A study said that only a tenth of the people knew how to get anywhere. The rest depended entirely on the computer.
One day, a computer programmer was caught using the business computer were he worked to run a competing company. He was fired and the company he was running was instantly out of business. He was so angry, he wrote a virus intended to completely shut down the company's computer system.
He released the virus by sending it to someone he knew would run the program. The program was run and the virus spread through the system. It happened that a mailing program was being sent at that moment and the virus attached to the file and left the system. If it were not for that, the virus would be stuck within the company system.
Because of an error in the virus, the company's computer system was not shut down entirely, just slowed way down. The virus spread rapidly through the whole public system. Since the autos communicate with the traffic system, the autos got the virus also. The whole system was completely infected and colony was shut down.
People soon learned that the computers did work, but they were working slowly. Traffic was stopped for a long time, then everybody realized that the cars were going at about five miles per hour. The navigation system did shut down so the cars really did not know where to go. The few people who the route to where they were going, were able to pass on the information. Those without the knowledge dif quickly figure out to call for help. street maps and addresses were available to the responders and they were able to tell people how to get to where they were going.
The virus did not take full hold in one day. It took a full week to completely settle into place. People got to their homes, or to their businesses if there was facilities for staying over, and stayed put.
People had to go to work and back home. People ventured out on the road. They had the emergency system to direct them where to go. They found they had to tell the auto where to turn nearly a minute ahead. It could not handle or hold instructions much longer than that either. the driving programs were very cautious, staying away from the side of the road. This was not a problem on the multi lane roads that went just about everywhere. On the back roads which were two lanes, this created a problem. two autos meeting came to a stop and it took some careful orders to the auto to go around the other one. People quickly learned that turning onto another road was easier than negotiating the meeting opposing traffic.
It comes down to sort of playing "chicken" of who will flinch first. It would take about a month for people to learn to tell their cars to park in a drive way until the traffic passed, rather than turn onto a road.
It would take years before the computers would be cleaned up. They figured out who had written the virus and had a special punishment just for him. His lawyers could not access the legal system properly so could not defend him against his conviction.
.
I saw a big pickup truck tooling down the road and a small car dodged onto a side road, then the big truck turned off at another nearby road. That was where the idea of making a decision ahead of time to turn to avoid a clash, and then learning it was not necessary.

20 )
.
The government decided that if one recycled everything, nothing else would need to be mined. There was enough raw materials available if recycled.
In their brilliant plan, the autos and trucks were going to come in specific models. No other models would be needed. Of course, people needed something else for different jobs. They were out of luck.
Ernie was a mechanic and sort of an inventor. He worked on construction equipment and warehouse machinery. He was well known to get old machinery running when no one else could.
The limited models of trucks really hampered businesses. They were trying to do work with inadequate vehicles.
One man came to Ernie and told him he needed the back of the truck to be modified. He wanted a tool body with doors and drawers accessible from outside. this type of truck body was no longer available. Ernie asked the guy to get him some junky cars.
The cars came in and he disassembled them completely. He reworked the sheet metal, making the body work into flat sheets. He cut strips from structural parts and built a framework. He then applied the flat metal around the frame to make the box of the tool body.
One of the cars had a bigger engine than the truck had, so he swapped the motors out, giving the man some more power. It did not have some of the most modern environmental protections but it was good enough. the man was so excited, he passed word around to trusted people about where the truck was fixed up.
Ernie soon had loads of business. part of his payment for his work was old cars and trucks. He dismantled them and then built other things. He also took fork lifts and construction machinery. He used a "steam roller" to flatten metal for his work. His customers helped him buy out the neighboring businesses so he had the whole block to himself and was able to use their buildings for storage.
He brought in an auto parts shop and a body shop to help his operation. Ernie sold a lot of parts to garages to keep existing equipment running. The body shop that Ernie had, was operating more like a CHOP SHOP where they chop up cars for parts, than as a real body shop. All cars were purchased, all paperwork was sent to officials. They kept cars until all paperwork was completed and he owned it outright according to the government, then he turned them into parts.
The government saw the modified trucks driving around, They found out that Ernie was the one making the modifications and investigated. He was not buying processed materials from official sources. They saw new looking materials everywhere but were clueless as to where it came from.
The Government noted that there was not the expected recycling of cars and trucks as expected. It was not a big reduction from expectations, but it was enough to make a difference. They were either turned into parts or rebuilt.
The government kept checking on Ernie's operation. they saw legal trucks going in, and rebuilt trucks leaving, but the raw materials were not coming from official suppliers. They also saw cars coming in and not going out, but they figured that was something else.
The experiment on recycling was failing miserably. The government did not get anything near the planned junk they expected and the sales of their new truck lines were not doing great. the amount of modified trucks on the road really bothered them. The people were not fitting into their plan.
the government slowly opened mines and gave up on their recycling. by then, Ernie's operation had almost become a major industry with a thousand people working for him to do all the operations needed to give the customers exactly what they were needing.

21 )
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The gods had set up house at the edge of the mortal realm. Picture it just like our own modern homes. It was a good place to reside as they had the best of the mortal and immortal worlds.
Over time, the mortals started finding ways into the residences. The foods the gods had was far better than anything they had in their realm and if they could get a viable seed, it was even better. The gods saw signs of the thefts in the moral realm, but had no idea how it was getting out.
One of the "wives" saw something crawling around on the counter, and then recognized it as one of the mortal beings, a person and it had a bit of food from the counter. She smashed it like we do bugs.
The other gods learned about the smashing of the bug and a strong debate went on about what to do about the mortals. They were the favorite of too many of the gods and eliminating them was frowned on. Other gods just did not want them in their house. More of the gods voted to not kill the mortals and they had all the really strong gods. Killing the mortals was not allowed. They would have to live with them crawling around. By the time this decision came down, whole armies of peoples were seen marching everywhere.
Labdak liked the mortals in the mortal realm, but did not like them in the homes. He was with one of the wives that absolutely detested the little creatures. Her house was right at the entry into the realm so she was getting nearly all of them. He got an idea. He told her to scrub the house absolutely clean, not even a speck of dust is to be left. He would then make the house bug resistant.
Her house was finally clean. Labdak then had her smear a special liquid on every single surface, especially where she suspected they were entering. Since it would take some time, he told her to start at the kitchen and bathrooms and work from there.
Once the material was applied, he told her to just wipe any debris off into the trash when needed. she had no idea what was going on but she agreed.
Pretty soon, she was finding dead bugs everywhere. The other gods heard about this and then learned about Labdak's liquid. He was called before the gods. He was not a very powerful god and was not on the good side of a lot of the most powerful gods.
He was accused of killing the people. He denied that he was killing any of them. When he was asked how they died, he simply said they died from accidents. He was very vague beyond that.
He was brought before the gods many times. When they accused them and asked him questions, they were implying that he was physically killing the bugs. He even pointed to where he was with other goddess at the time and could not have done it.
Finally, one of the wisest gods showed up and simply asked how he was causing their deaths. Labdak loved her and would never lie to her. He said that the coating was causing it. she demanded how it worked.
He told her that it makes the surface the mortals have to traverse craggy and rough, and then makes the surface extremely slick. All that happens is that they make a mistake and fall to their deaths. The god's surface is slick and clean so is easy to keep clean.
There was a period where the gods thought about it, then the king asked him to treat the palace.
Labdak simply explained what had to be done and provided the liquid. One by one the gods did the work and treated their homes. The bug infestation died down quickly. the realm had become too dangerous for them to come to steal food.
Later Labdak explained that the scrubbing of the home made the surfaces rough for the mortals. The liquid simply made the surfaces slippery. the liquid was simply an oil from a common plant.

22 )
.
Rapture comes in the middle of the day for the city. It happened simultaneously all over the world.
All the good suddenly disappear without regards to what happens to all that are left. Planes crash killing all on board, patients die on the operating table, driver-less cars smash into other cars, buildings, trees, people find themselves lost in the wilderness without their guides, some prison cells are found empty, old folks lay in bed for hours in their nursing homes waiting for an attendants to come. The whole world is thrown into chaos.
Important people of families and communities were gone. All children below five years of age were also gone and only a few below twelve remained. Everybody who survived knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what had happened. They were considered evil or at least not good and were left behind. There were still a few good left, and they knew it, to be a seed for future good.
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I had originally planned for the above to be a detailed description of the mayhem that happened. I then had a second idea for the aftermath. I am now going to include that second idea. It started with people not being taken up until all in their care was safe. that would eliminate all mayhem of the first idea.
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Some people were borderline and were not ready to be taken. They would be taken later if they remained at least equally good.
Wally was not a good person, but he somehow brought a lot of sinners to become good and the few he still knew were gone. Because everybody learned what was their status, and sins were, He knew his. He also knew his fate. it was a diabolical punishment. He was not going to escape until all the people were good, including him.
He deduced that it was his duty to make the rest of the people good. That was going to be tough as those that remained were not quality materials to work with. There was a reason they were left behind.
He quickly realizes they suspect why he remained. Those that knew him were not happy to see him and put on an air of intimidation around him.
Crime went wild in the city. since thousands of homes and businesses were left empty, and there were few cops or other law enforcement, they broke into homes and businesses and stole anything that caught their eyes. Many went into the wealthiest districts and took up residences in abandoned homes, a few thugs took over households where people still lived, making them their slaves.
Wally wandered the city, realizing his job was going to be near impossible. From what he remembered from the records, he would have a thousand years to live before the world would be recovered again.
A gang appears around him with weapons. The leader says to kill him. it will be easier to remove whatever he has. Wally relaxes a moment, then moves. Gang members go flying in all directions. He uses their clothing to tie them up when he was done knocking them around.
Lining them up along a building, he preaches to them, kicking one thug in the jaw when he was not paying attention. He gets into their face and tells them the errors of their ways. He has no idea how he knows this stuff as he was just guessing, but each one flinches as he tells them what they did wrong.
A couple lower ranked thugs were crying as he preached to them. He turned away from them to concentrate on the leaders. He then turns and two of the three were gone. They were taken up. He points that out to the rest of them. He finally unties them and walks away. He sees the gang a month later and a quarter of the gang was gone. The others look at him from the distance in fright and anger.
He knew it was going to take some time to make the changes needed. He decides to go to the wealthy residences and try to convince them to be good. Then he would work his way down the economic areas to try to convince them. he would work this city and then go to the next. It might take him the whole century to sway the whole world, but he would try.

23 )
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The Execs are officials who post at different places and collect taxes, verify your identity and learn what you are up to. That is what they officially do. In actuality, they harass people and rob them. One can get into trouble for even rasing your voice or, if sitting in line in your car, moving without permission. No one likes them.
Gable worked with spacers, people who go into space or visit from space. The things he deals with is never the same. One day, a spacer brought an alien with him. It was about the size of a large cat, but could carry on an intelligent conversation on space warp physics or mechanics.
It happened that Gable knew a common language with "critter" and was to show him around, let him see what the society was like. Critter wore a belt and nothing else most of the time. He could attach equipment to the belt if needed.
Gable decided he needed some cash to do his job right so he pulled into line at the bank drive-through. An Exec turned away from a crying woman and started walking his way.
Gable told Critter to act hostile at the Exec. He reached over and grabbed Critter's belt, then said 'go for it.'
Critter growled and hissed. He said insults in his own language which sounded like animal calls. He also made half hearted lunges at the window past Gable.
Gable called out to the Exec, "You better keep your distance. I am already struggling to control it. I do not know if the strap will hold if you get too close."
The exec blanched a little and then changed direction, going inside the building. When Gable finally drove away, the exec finally came out. a whole bunch of people were able to do their business without being hassled for once.
Gable and critter had an excellent time during the rest of the trip. Critter played a good balance of being an intelligent creature and being something that one did not want to mess with.

24 )
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The colony was unprepared for the invasion. The aliens, the high lords, took over immediately without firing a shot. They then found they had a problem. The males refused to follow orders. The passive resistance made truly taking over nearly impossible.
The high lords needed to know what the colonist males were doing at all times. Mechanical watchers did not seem to last long in this area. The high lords were not spectacular on the technical side of development. The colonists had some way to simply shout down the mechanical watchers. The high lords had enough to travel the stars, but in some ways was more primitive than the colony the took over. The high lords mastered medicine, biology, and chemistry, and were quite advanced in bio-electronics.
The high lords noticed that because of the nature of the society, the women were obedient and submissive. They decided that they would use their mastery to gain control over the colony.
Their first act was to take over complete control of the hospitals and medical schools. The existing doctors and medical students continued to train as they always did. The high lords carefully added some skills, techniques and technologies so the doctors would know how to do what was necessary.
Anybody who came into the hospital would be treated as normal. A few tests showed that their planned techniques were not going to work on the men. When the module was inserted in them, the male resistance was too strong and the strong male hormones corrupted the contacts and they shut down by the time the surgery was complete.
An edict went out to the whole colony. All child births must be at a hospital. The penalties for not having a child birth there was too high to not doing. In fact, the high lords made hospital care for child birth free, and one was allowed to come in, weeks before the birth was due and they were allowed to stay as long as a month after, all for free.
Since the colony society was such that a woman's duty was to "push out children" so the population would rise, it worked out well. The high lords had full medical access to nearly all women and children.
When the women came in, they were given full physicals. It really did not matter why they came in. they were placed on the surgical table and a control module was inserted into their brain. The module would send out a signal that the high lords could read.
The module was connected to the optic nerve and would see what the woman saw. All children received the module too. They found out that when a male child became a teenager, the module would shut down.
The control part of the module caused a curiosity about what men were doing. The high lords did not need full control. they simply added the curiosity about what men were doing to their minds. With children, it was all encompassing. They followed the men around.
The colonists detected the signal the instant the women and children arrived at home. It was not a signal to scramble or suppress. When they did, the control module would case a reaction in the victim that forced the testers to stop immediately. They also instantly saw the effect on the women and children with their curiosity, desire to see what the men were doing.
It did not take long for the men to add a ceremony to the act of becoming a man. Unless you passed the test, you were not given the rights of a man. The test was simple. one entered an insulated room. If you walked through, your control module was not working and you would receive the right to be called a man. If you reacted while in the room, you only had the rights of a woman. The men would check the youngsters before hand to see if the signal had shut down. When there was no question the signal was gone, they would know when to send them through the ceremony. when the men decided to run the test, there were no failures. It was only when one had gotten past the normal testing period and demanded to become a man, that they would have serious failures in the test. They would then have to wait at least a year before they could be tested again. The rules they had, was that if a person failed the test, they had to dress like a woman and work with them, away from the men. There ended up several that were forced to spend their lives living like women as their male hormones did not kick on strong enough.
At a family reunion, the men wanted get together and discuss their plans. A female child came running up. The father picked the child up and put her inside the house. A few minutes later, another child came running out. The whole night that they were trying to talk, women and children were coming out every few minutes, curious as to what the men were doing. The man who the interloper belonged to was the one who had to tell them to go back inside. Very little discussion was able to be done.
At another event, one man decided he was going to behind the shed at the back of the yard to relieve himself. He walked around the nearby out building and his little son came running behind him. He made his way around the out building and then picked up the boy and handed it to his wife. "Hold him," He then tried again. The boy was right behind him again. "I told you to hold him."
"he wanted down.
"I mean hold him until I get back."
He started walking around the building. She was following him. "where are you going?" he asked her. It developed into a big argument. He had to go inside to relieve himself and, as people who did not know what it was about was taking sides, the event was ruined.
The men found they had little privacy, which hampered anything they did, real or subversive. The high lord's plan to keep the men under control worked.

25 )
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I saw a guy who had an orange strap hanging down out of his shirt. I thought it was kind of strange. It was strange enough to cause a story idea to come to mind.
People were sometimes born with super powers. As soon as they were identified, they were taken into special training to learn how to use and not use their powers to the fullest advantage. They were also trained so that they could accomplish military missions against the enemy.
Lymnet was fairly normal most of his life. He went to a costume party dressed in super hero tights. He found he could not take the tights off at the end of the night. He woke with them on and it was like his skin. He got dressed with his street clothing over top his tights. The orange cape somehow stuck out the front of his clothing. He would tuck it in and it would end up hanging down as a strip in front. Frustrated, he went as he was.
At his college, the sports players were real goons. They were the stars who brought prestige to the school. It was decided that they played best when happy so no one would stop them from anything they wanted to do. They had few limits and acted like gang members.
Lymnet walked to his class. He suddenly found himself surrounded by the whole team of sports players. This has happened many times before. They started harassing him and gave him a couple shoves. One knocked his books out of his hands and they laughed. they then saw the orange strip hanging out of his shirt. One of the goons grabbed the strip and pulled hard. He found himself holding a bundle of clothing.
Lymnet now stood there in his super hero outfit. He was now taller and muscular, an imposing figure. "You boys have had your run of the place long enough. I am now going to teach you manners. His voice was deep and strong. The goons attacked him as they would in a game. he dealt with them as if he was a professional in the game, laying them out so easily.
He gathered his clothing and books and leaped. He passed right over the lowest of the buildings, landing in the parking lot on the other side. He trotted as fast as a horse into some bushes. He stopped and put his clothing back on. They fit. He was back to his normal self with that tag hanging out.
Lymnet walked along the brush and finally came out near the walkway as if nothing happened. He was totally confused but acted as close to being normal as he could.
The thugs were just waking up. several people said that someone that looked like him became a super hero and beat the gang up. Lymnet said that it would have been cool if he could have done that. No one figured it was really him, just someone imitating him.
that weekend, the gang played well. They took their frustration of being humiliated in their own gang, by out-playing the other team. When the game was over, they thanked the other team, something never done. they had become polite and considerate since they were put in their place.
Lymnet took the wrong bus home and was not paying attention to where it was going. He counted the stops the bus always made and simply walked out. The bus pulled away and he realized he was not where he thought he was. He started walking back the way the bus had taken him.
A gang appeared around him. He recognized from their colors that these guys had messed up several super heros over the past years. They pushed him around and one pulled on the tab hanging down. Again the clothing came off and he was the super hero. when he fought, he fought like they did and put them in their place. He warned them that he would return and finish the job if they did not straighten up. He then gathered his clothing and leaped over the building. A quick run and he found a place to put his clothing back on and become himself. A short time later he was walking down the road and walked past the gang. They looked at him strangely but did not touch him.
Lymnet found that his powers always followed the same pattern. someone had to pull the tab to make him a super hero. he would beat them up using that which was their greatest power. He would leap over a building and find a place to change. he would then walk past the people who tried to do him in. He could not change that pattern. Until he walked past them, he was under the powers of the super hero.