September 2011 Writing Ideas
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There is no way I can write 365+ publishable stories in a year, let alone one publishable story. Last year, I started on 6 stories last year and wrote "the end" on four of them. I submitted one to a magazine and another is being edited to finished quality.
Back on Prodigy Classic, in December 1997, I posted some story ideas I could not use. I soon found the story ideas flowed fast. I posted nearly all the ideas I could come up with, including those I hoped to eventually use.
I follow the belief that if 20 people wrote from the same story idea, we would have 20 different stories. This is why I don't worry about using these stories later, myself. Since then, I've learned that many people enjoy reading these posts, even if they do not write.
The way I work is, I come up with a basic concept which is seldom more than a paragraph long. I then spin a story around the concept, or explain what is behind the concept, so someone can see how to develop the basic concept.
I don't want these ideas to go to waste and hope that others might convert them into published pieces. I hold these ideas to be Public Domain (free to use in any way). They can be used in any form you choose. I hope you can use them profitably, but if not, at least enjoy reading these posts. Let me know if you make use of any of them. That is like a pat on the back and gives me an added incentive to keep this up (Like I really need it....).
I usually post about Four books worth pure drivel each year in these idea posts. This is my Fourteenth year of posting these story ideas. What they say is true. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Developed ideas are like gold. These are not fully developed...
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01 )
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The council were getting together. The head of the council reported he would be out of town for the first couple meetings. He called in and reported what he was doing and what things were like where he was.
Before he was scheduled to return, an energy field experiment went wrong and blocked the escape of the leader. He gave a report of what was happening where he was.
The energy field experiment was causing land to completely disappear into a cloud. It was moving fast in a straight line until it met the mountains then followed the mountains till it met a river and followed that back around.
the leader was trapped where he was. He was always calm and collected as he lead the meetings.
The field closed into a loop and now was constricting the lands inside the loop. It was getting closer and closer to the leader. Each meeting he told what he knew and then went about his business of running the meeting. they could see he was extremely good at the job. they were worried about losing him.
Finally there was nothing coming out of the loop. it appears to have closed up completely. They came to the meeting, expecting to be given a new leader. After they settled in, the leader came on and started the meeting. He commented the contact with his sensors was lost.
With some interrogation, they find out that their leader was a computer in the same building all this time. It had used the story of being out of town as an excuse to never be there. Many people did not like being lead by a computer, but after some discussion, they realized he was still an excellent leader.
He tells them that the donunt of energy does not appear to be going anywhere. The rest of the area is quite safe.
The computer ends up being completely accepted by all as their leader.

02 )
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I saw a picture of a little girl holding a toy blaster like used in a mini movie while in her stroller. This picture seeded this concept.
Hanna seemed to become aware within the first weeks after birth, almost like she had the mind of an adult in her. What she did not understand immediately, she reasoned out quickly.
While she had a body of a baby, she learned quickly how to use it as an adult did. She still had to learn like a baby did and had a lot of baby habits like testing everything with her mouth, learning to roll over, then crawl and then walk. In her later words, her body was preprogrammed to develop at a certain rate. She instinctively knew enough to let the body develop.
When she could walk around on her own, she started learning how to do martial arts. her big brother practiced every day so she copied him, developing balance, strength and body control.
Her family, seeing her great advancement, started teaching her. By the time she was two, she could read and form letters in writing, and carry on intelligent conversations.
At about the age of three, a group of pirates moved into the territory. they were laying waste to other space stations. They were detected coming to the space station. Many people loaded their ships and left. Hanna's family were pretty much stuck, part of the station's administration.
The pirates arrived at the space station at every portal. Some were with small ships and others with big cruisers.
They were trying to decide how what to do. Hanna demanded a blaster and then had herself wheeled into her troller to a place where those coming in from a very small ship would have to enter. She then told the others to go defend other entries. Against their better judgement, they obeyed.
The hatch started glowing bright, then there was a bang, then the door fell flat on the ground. Hanna lifted her blaster and waited.
A group of the pirates came out into the open. Hanna opened fired, picking them off with clean shots. they fired everywhere except where she was. they did not think a baby was firing at them.
Hanna suddenly realized that strapped in a stroller in the middle of an open area was a very bad idea. her little hands still had problems with the buckles and she did not have time to untie herself. She kept firing as the pirates came into view.
A blast caught her stroller, flipping it upside down. Another shot grazed the bottom. She struggled to reach the buckle when a third round skimmed the side. She fell face first into the floor.
She forced herself to not even tear up. She crawled out of the chair, sat down and fired at the pirates who were now well into the area. At this distance, it was hard to miss, and she never missed.
Her blaster runs out of shots and the pirates are starting to realize where the shots were coming from. they all take aim at her.
Shots suddenly come from the other end of the room, blasting the pirates. Defenders then rush passed and go to the ship. Hanna's mother lifts her up and gives her a long hug. Hanna needed that.
"Hanna, are you all right?"
"I hurt my face and I ran out of bullets." she said. "And being strapped in a stroller in the middle of nowhere was not a wise thing to do."
Her mother kisses her. "That is all right, You are still a baby. Such things will come with experience and training."
Several of the small ships were taken over and used to destroy the pirate ships from outside. Hanna's defense was just the right amount of help they needed to have the people concentrated at a strength to overwhelm the pirates at several points. the advantage spread all around the space station as each ship was defeated.
Hanna, a little girl in a stroller, wielding a blaster, saved the day.

03 )
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The city was a major convention city. They sometimes had five or six conventions going on at the same time. It got to the point where they needed more convention space. They started major construction. Many hotels were demolished to build bigger, better ones. They were building outside the city limits to handle the popularity of the place.
A big problem was that there was construction everywhere. The city fathers were concerned that no one would want to rent hotels facing the construction. The beautiful city was not visible to everyone. Convention business was fading out as word of all the construction got around.
One convention center got a request for a construction convention. He got an idea. He contacted them and got information on other construction organizations. He then contacted a whole bunch of companies and organizations. Within a month, he had two year's worth of convention requests. He let other convention companies know about the requests.
The builders and construction conventions were scheduled for the area. Quickly, the lost business was made up by construction and contractor conventions.
The big thing that happened, was that the hotels found they had a devil of a time to fill the views of the beautiful city. All the new business people wanted to have a place where they could see the construction clearly.
The city were sort of forced to start construction on a new place as soon as one was finished just to keep the hotels filled. By the time the construction was done, they had their old customers coming back to fill in for the construction business that had disappeared with the ending of construction.

04 )
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The police was given a field system that gave them instant transportation within the field's range. No body thought they had a real use for it. The police had an idea for it and it was perfect. The police used it for speed traps.
They would set up their cars, and the field generator in the center of their speed trap.
The car would enter the speed trap and the radar would show them speeding. An officer would BLINK to that end of the field and try to flag the car down. As soon as he got one speeder, he could blink over to the other side of the site and flag down another, or simply work there.
The power of the system showed when some car refuses to stop. A police car can blink to behind the car driving at speed with lights flashing. If that does not solve the problem, several cars can suddenly blink to the other end of the field and cause a road block, forcing the car to stop. With this system, the police have absolute control over the area. If someone was trying to escape, they could be easily caught.
the way the system worked was that whenever a police officer moved, they were accelerated, to a blinding speed. for them, they would walk over to their car, start the engine and drive some place. They would get behind the culprit and drive toward them. They hit a button and they would be momentarily dropped out of the field so they were now in normal motion. they could hit another button and drive around to the other end of the field.
Other officers would walk to the far side of the field. They simply stand in front of the culprit and would appear, and would wave for the guy to move over. as long as they moved slowly, they would remain out of the field. If they moved fast, such as escaping a speeding car, the field would take over and they could trot back to the police car and drive it to where it needed to be to block the car.

05 )
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He was fighting a man with powerful magic. They got into a fun-house full of mirrors. The magic man could hit him through the mirrors and he could do nothing to the bad guy. To get to him, he started smashing mirrors as he went, limiting the power the magic man was using against him.
He finally reached the bad guy, who was trapped within a mirror. the bad guy said "You are going to suffer seven years bad luck for every mirror you break. When all your seven years is used up, you will die, shattered. During each of those seven years, the evil will hunt you down to take you to hell with them." He smashed the last mirror, killing the magic man.
Within weeks, there were several robbery attempts, attempted swindles, assassination attempt on him. He killed each one once their sins were fully known.
It did not take long for him to realize that anybody new was likely out to get him. He could trust those who were around for long periods of time.
He also developed a dislike for his reflection and broke a good number of mirrors because he did not like the person he saw.
Centuries passed and he was still being hunted by evil. He fought a couple nations because the evil leadership was out to get him, fighting within armies of different countries.
He somehow got into the army and then was trained for the special forces. He wound up against the very best of the leader's guard. Each and every one of them was someone evil trying to take him with them. The place happened to be filled with mirrors. He destroyed the mirrors before he took out the guard and finally the leader. He knew he got a whole bunch more of seven years bad luck. At this rate, he would live forever. Since he never aged and he healed quickly and fully, it was not horrible.

06 )
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The Gwane had a new, effective energy weapon. Most shielding seemed not to work against it. The federation was in trouble.
There were reports of strange effects of the energy in different places, but there was not a discernable pattern.
It was not until the Gwane attacked a science station that a flaw in the energy weapon was shown. The science station was studying a star getting close to going nova. The facility had sensors everywhere and could detect what direction that any energy came from. The federation forces returned after the population inside was killed and gathered the data. They then had to return to find an explanation for the effects.
Tracing the energies, they found that mirrors of various kinds reflected the weapon. They could not believe it, but they decided to test it. Anything was better than what had happened.
They were going to "silver" the whole fleet, then someone mentioned that a spherical mirror would reflect energies back the way they came. It was then pointed out that a mirrored fleet would only reflect the energies at each other,
They decided to mirror the entire ship and then mount spherical mirrors all around the ships. small ones down the sides, a big one on the front of the ships.
The battle fleet had to search for the Gwane battle fleet. The crews were made aware this was a suicide mission and was all volunteer. they had more than the fleet could hold.
The two fleets attacked. the Gwane did have conventional weapons. There was a conventional weapon exchange between fighters,
Then the Gwane let loose their weapons. The fighters on both sides were not shielded, so they all died. The federation had made sure their fighters were operating on a plane that they would not fly back into the squadron.
The squadron rotated to aim directly at the enemy ships and held that line. The energies hit the squadron. Those near the surfaces died but the energies faded to only make a lot of people sick just a short distance later.
Several small Gwane ships started to drift. they fired another round. More damage on both sides. All the federation ships stayed in line despite their losses.
While the communications were not translatable, the Gwane were in a panic. The remaining ships lined up and opened fire on the two largest federation ships. Half the Gwane ships listed, dead. One of the federation super ships died from the barrage.
The federation let loose their greatest barrage, aiming only at the ships that where still alive. The Gwane got off one more volley before the battle was over.
The federation captured the enemy ships and towed them home. Crews from other ships took over the dead federation ships and they were able to bring them home as only some equipment was damaged by the energies.
With the weapons to study, they worked out exactly what would be the best type of mirror shielding and worked out better tactics against the ships, such as where to target the ships to take out the weapons.
Within a very short time, the war with the Gwane was over. The Gwane had developed their tactics around the weapon and did not count on a method to take them out. The federation never reached the Gwane planet, but killed the vast majority of their military power so they were unable to carry on the battle.
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My note said, "The deadliest weapon against them is a mirror."

07 )
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"The flood" was a disaster that had taken out many other places. The government pushed people to get ready. The people did not want to do it. The safety from the flood was almost as bad as the disaster itself.
Based on what survivors elsewhere said, this flood was going to be the worst on record. Most people who had survived minor versions of the flood, felt that what the government was pushing was way too much.
Finally, the detectors said the flood was on them. The warnings went out and the people readied. Each person was supposed to take twelve tabs of the drug. Some took only one, most took six.
The tabs the people took got them high, in a drug state. the flood was a psychological energy and being stoned out of your mind was the only way to protect yourself. Without protection, the mind went into over-drive, burned up and shut down, causing death.
One part of the drug was that one could respond and understand what was going on around you while the flood was in effect. Walking was difficult and advanced levels of thought was impossible.
Sanches was running really late. He got to his house minutes before the flood hit. He started taking his tabs. It takes a bit for the drugs to take effect. He started feeling the effects of the flood just as the first tab started taking effect. he was popping them one at a time, with the proper spacing between them. The very first People to feel the effects of the flood were screaming to get higher. Sanches was taking them as fast as he could.
The flood started rising fast. It was catching up on him as he kept trying to get higher and higher. Several people reported that because they had used their store of tabs for recreation, they had run out and were drowning. The panic in their voices ate at everybody else. One woman reported she underestimated the flood and was going under because she did not take enough.
Sanches kept taking his tabs. Each one would kick in just before he was about to drown, and then he would rise up a bit higher.
The flood turned out to be higher than expected. People having taken all the tabs they had, were in trouble. They could not get higher. Sanches still had some tabs his grandmother had left when she died. He dug into them, even though they were well beyond expiration.
His mind tried to keep count the people saying they drowned. He then recognized the voice of the emergency control officer, the one who said this was going to be horrible. He had not taken enough tabs and was overwhelmed. That was when Sanches knew the population was going to be devastated.
He was about to take his last tab when the flood settled at a height. He was still rising from his last tab. he thought for a long moment and took the last tab. There had been surges before. He got higher and could now look down on the flood. He could see survivors, the few that there were. Sort of a wave came and his head was barely above water. When it subsided, half those who were alive before were gone. Now the flood started subsiding. The flood was gone and he slowly drifted down.
He was no longer stoned for an hour before he finally got up out of his chair. Now was the grizzly part of tending the dead. He sent a message that would be received by others who might get caught by the flood. He told how many tabs he took to stay above the wave. He told how many tabs that was needed just to stay above the flood. He told how many people he saw alive after the wave hit.
Other communities took his warning seriously. Every tab, old or new, was located in them and people were forced to take all the tabs. The losses elsewhere was minor in comparison because of the warning Sanches gave.
the bodies of the victims were twisted as their bodies reacted to the static that developed in their minds. Some could not be extracted from the furniture they were in at the time and had to be taken with them.
The losses were not quite as bad as Sanches saw while high, but it was bad enough to where the losses would be felt for decades.

08 )
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My brother gave me this concept.
The got some deity very angry at them. A curse was placed on them. "Your men from now on will be weak and frightened. It will only be by the strength of your women that your borders will survive."
the deity figured they would be overrun and eventually cease to exist. The women had a different goal.
The woman started training for war, what remained of their powerful warriors drilled the women harder than any man would be trained. They were also trained in how to train, command, lead in combat.
The women started a breeding program. The strongest and most courageous women had their choice of any man. the strongest most courageous of the men mated with all the other women. the idea was that his strength and courage would make the children of the lesser women much better.
They had three generations after the course when another nation tried to conquer them. they fought back with such ferocity that the attackers ran in panic. the women had to sweep their general region to make sure they had peace. They also took the best of those captured and used them to add to their breeding program. The male children were always "mousy." Other women were brought into the society and within a generation, even when breeding with outsiders, those women had the curse.
The women were such superior fighters that they were well known in the civilized world - The Amazons.
Centuries later, Part of the curse faded away. the men were "normal" but they never had physical talents useful in combat. With subsequent kingdoms and empires passing through their area, they learned to blend in, to hide the true power they had. The women changed their training and tactics as technology developed. They became assassins on the level of the Ninja. Many a leader died of mysterious causes that was really by them.
the great wars turned them also into the ultimate sharp shooters. they would go out into the winter and hide. One by one, they would take out entire squads from a mile away, no sign of where they were, and totally out of range the entire time.
The wars ended. They continued to train and practice. they would go to other countries and work on the side that was best for their region. While their region received heavy snows during the winter, they would work in the tropics, the desert, in the tundra.
The amazon council received disturbing word. Three of their envoys, as they were called, were found dead. two were shot from some unknown distance. All evidence is that one of their own has gone bad, hunting down and killing their girls in the field.
They needed to find out who this was. They had a large number of girls in the field in various countries so learning who this was, was going to be a challenge.
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The question is whether the girl doing the killing had gone bad, or she learned a bunch of the girls had joined with a foreign government and she is taking them out.

09 )
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He had traveled long in horrible weather and was exhausted. There was a lot of activity at the hotel when he arrived. They were happy to take his money and put him into a room. He laid down on the bed fully clothed and fell asleep.
He woke late in the morning. the weather was actually worse outside. He noticed there were no cars in the parking lot. He went downstairs and there was no one down there. He searched all over for anybody and realized he was all alone.
He then found a paper that said the area was to be evacuated due to flooding. He looked outside and saw that the distant river was well out of its banks and creeping to the hotel. It dawned on him that everything on the bottom floor would have to be ruined from the flood. He located the keys to the rooms and marked the room he would be in on the register.
He located an elevator and started moving stuff to the third floor. He found in the kitchen a refrigerator freezer unit so he packed it as full as he could of perishables and took it up and plugged it in. He gathered a whole room of non-perishable foods. He got containers of fresh water up there and he located the food heaters used for banquets and got them set up to cook his meals.
He took a bunch of furniture and artwork to the third floor, filling a couple rooms with them. He made sure all the linens were up there too.
The evening the rising water was flowing near the lowest door stoop. The strong winds had died down though it was raining hard yet. He opened the window and doors so the water would be able to flow through a bit easier.
The power went out around midnight when the water was just coming into the building. It was not a flow like in a current, but more calm waters just rising.
With his food and cooking stuff, he stays quite comfortably in the hotel while the flood fills the bottom floor and laps at the second floor.
It is several weeks before the flood waters go down enough for people to come back. They are shocked that he is there, and all the stuff he had moved to safety.
He was charged with breaking and entering. He showed his receipt for the room he got and pointed out that the people already knew the place was being evacuated when they sold him the room. From that, they must not have cared what he did once they were gone. He also pointed out that he did save a lot of materials from the damage of the flood.
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This could also be done as a space station and a space storm. My note said "He goes to a hotel as a disaster looms and gets a room. everybody leaves and he is left there alone.

10 )
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I heard cataract surgery and sort of heard Cadillac surgery, and wondered how to make use of it.
Biological technology has developed dramatically. The use of biological compounds in the place of computer chips revolutionized the computer industry. Bio films were developed into self sealing paints. They developed ways to make genetically engineered bone like materials that will return to the designed shape after damage.
These and other technologies were combined to make biologically based cars. The engine was even partially biologically based. There were a few structural members running through parts of the cars where the bone would not take the full stress.
The cars were created to be self healing and self repairing. While the surface was hard and strong due to bone, the inner surface of the shell had a skin line membrane to carry nutrients to the body of the car.
Each car maker would work out the precise genetic instructions so the car would take on and retain the designed shapes. If a dent was put into the car, the cells would detect the damage and slowly reform to correct the damage. The bone shell replaced itself regularly, some cells building shell some removing shell, and when there was damage, they would realign the edges and work their way in until the damage was gone. Form minor dents, it might take a month. for serious damage, a repair man might have to straighten the bone and then it would heal properly.
The electrical system was really the only place there was any real metallic materials involved.
Being biological, the main thing needed was to keep it well fed. One gassed up like one would for gasoline. Keeping the car alive, and keeping the car moving used different levels of fuel. When one ran out of fuel, the car could survive for nearly a year before systems would die. When the car was fueled, the fuel would pass from a main tank to a small secondary tank and enzymes would change that batch of fuel to a different form that could not be recovered. This fuel would power the life systems directly, the actual food. The main fuel tank would be converted to "muscle power" to drive the car.
Repairing cars amounted almost to surgery. Serious damage to body panels required the cutting away bone and applying new sheets of bone with properly applied surfaces. The bone itself would be glued to the existing material, then the vessels and "nerves" were attached and the skin was sewn bonded together. Chemicals applied to the new material would cause the cells to be replaced by existing cells to become the same as the original materials. these panels would be physically shaped to be close to what the existing shape was and then the cells would correct itself later.
Other systems would require cutting into tissue just as a doctor would do. Many medical doctors become auto mechanics.
The brands of cars are of different costs, some of it is physical design, some is structural quality, some is really just pure status.
Cadillac has become a big, important name in luxury cars again. For a mass produced car, they had the quality, design and name that people loved. They also had the price to separate them from lower quality cars.
Many people wanted to have a Cadillac but could never afford it. A backroom industry developed for those who did not have the money for a Cadillac but really wanted one. It was called Cadillac surgery.
The garage would take the car you provided, which had to be of a certain size and shape, and would do surgery. they would "break" the body panels to match the Cadillac shape, and apply a chemical so the shape would remain. Selected parts would be cut out and replaced so it would look more like the brand they were supposed to be. There would be a few more cosmetic changes including scouring the surface of the microbes that act like paint and adding the Cadillac paint.
When the car leaves the shop, it will pass as a Cadillac as long as one does not look too closely. Even with the purchase of a new car, the total cost of the change is at absolute most half the cost of the real car. Usually it is a fifth the cost.
The people have the panache of driving a Cadillac without the cost.

11 )
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I heard an infomercial about insurance and how they were saying that a lot of people have the wrong kind of insurance, outdated insurance, or insurance of the wrong design.
Chazz had a good friend, Mike, he saw at the bar all the gym all the time. They never discussed their lives, but instead talked about physical training, sports, Televison and movies. There was never any personal details in their discussion. Chazz tended to be gone a week a month and when he returned, he seemed to be in poor shape, not looking healthy. Mike finally told Chazz that he was an insurance agent.
After the next week off, Mike really started working on Chazz to go over his insurance. Chazz said he did not have time, or said that his insurance was good enough. Mike was very persistent and persuasive.
Chazz came over to Mike's office with his insurance documentation. Mike looked it over. His mouth dropped farther and farther as he went over the paperwork.
"You are paying ten times what you need to, you are covered for half what you are supposed to, and what is covered has nothing to do with what you need. Why would you have this kind of insurance?
"There is someone who wants to do me in, but this insurance prevents them from doing more than making my life miserable. I have no money because of what I am paying, I am not worth killing because they would not get anything, and I am covered only for things they likely would do to me. My insurance keeps me alive.
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"He has the wrong insurance. it is all that is keeping him alive."

12 )
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The Hormel company needed a way to make use of the trimmings when they trimmed a ham to fit into a can. After some research, they came up with a spiced ham product that they labeled SPAM. Some people don't like spam, while others love it. When E-mails became popular, people started receiving unrequested advertisements, which is also called SPAM, by people who did not like the spiced ham. There are some who call SPAM mystery meat.
E-mail spam was a really serious problem. spam filters could not keep up with it. E-mail boxes were always full and would fill up as soon as it was emptied.
An Empire launched an attack and caught the local government by surprise. Within a week, the empire had absolute control over the nation.
The biggest reason the Empire had it so easy to take over, was that messages about the invasion never got to the people who needed the messages. Their E-mail systems were filled with spam.
Now the Empire had to deal with the spam problem. It happened that the canned meat of that name had long gone. The Empire decided to hunt down the causes of the spam, and the people behind them. One by one they found the spammers and shut down their operations. Even after they had taken down a thousand of the spammers, there was no change in the spam being spread. The Empire decided to make an example of the spammers.
About a year later, a product appeared on the shelf. A processed meat product that was listed as spiced ham, and was labeled SPAM, like the canned meat of old times. The difference was that it had the Imperial seal an it simply said spiced meat product, on the ingredients. The meat product actually sold pretty well.
The Empire, able to change rules whenever they wanted, were getting good at catching the spammers. One by one they were taken in and disappeared, presumably to some prison in the old country.
The Canned Spam was becoming more and more popular as people got to like the flavor. It was fairly cheap in spite the low availability. It was available in almost all stores.
Years passed and there is a real reduction in the amount of spam people are getting in their E-mails. Despite some rather bothersome changes in rules and government involvement, the people are actually happy that the empire took over. they were getting to make use of their E-mails for messages for once. It was still a battle to keep the amount of spam down, as apparently, new sources were cropping up all the time.
People were complaining that their friends and family were disappearing all the time without a trace. A few said storm troopers came in and took the family member and the house computers away.
A couple decades passed and finally the Spam going to the E-mails are down to where the spam filters could handle it. People were getting real messages and not having to sort through thousands of junk.
The reports of people disappearing died down. while they were still happening, they were not as prevalent as they once were.
The Availability of the canned Spam, which for years were readily available, were suddenly in short supply and the supply was getting lower all the time.
Finally, Unwanted E-mails reduced to no more than a hundred a day. The canned product at the same time ceased production. Business could happen comfortably. The empire begun to allow the fabric of the old government reestablish itself and it was withdrawing from the nation.
A decade after the empire withdrew, someone found a store of canned Spam. they were worried it had gone bad, so they sent a few samples to a lab to be tested.
It would never be eaten. They found out what it was made of, and also what happened to the missing people, who later searches of imperial records showed them to be the sources of the unwanted E-mails.
The Empire was capturing the people who were the source of the unwanted E-mails, and processing them into the cam meat. The cans were filled with Spammers, which made the canned meat name doubly descriptive.

13 )
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The civilization had collapsed. Quick tests said it happened likely over a thousand years ago.
Archeologists arrived and surveyed the entire planet, trying to find the best place to dig. Based on the way the soil had built up, they chose a section of what had to be a city. They could see a square pattern in the of city blocks and a central site that appeared to be like important high buildings.
They decided they would dig a trench across a set of blocks and half way into the bigger mound area. they would hoped to find enough information about the society from that trench. they knew that such a trench would have the least amount of effect on the whole site.
They started at the farthest part of their planned dig from the main mound. As they dug, they found many artifacts that were of interest, but was not telling them a lot about the people.
They finally were just inside the mound when they found a building that was intact. It even had the roof in place. It was an exciting find. the crews continued on with the dig beyond while the experts converged on the intact building. It turned out to be the only intact building in the trench. all the others were found to have burned to the ground before they were buried
the building was completely excavated and then on the big day, with film crews, they entered the door of the building. they were stunned by what they saw inside.
It had to be a museum for horror paintings and prints. They had all sorts images of people prepared to be eaten; Heads on plates, eyes in soup, deep fried fingers.
Anthropologists assembled what the native people had to look like based on the pictures. They were bipedal, had an extra joint in each limb, seven fingers on each limb, eyes facing forward like a predator, pig like nose with a mouth below that had long fangs. The had what looked like a pouch such as the kangaroo had. The male pouch was tiny and appeared nearly sealed. The females were much more delicately built than the males.
It was only after the anthropologists finished with their recreation of the creatures in the pictures, that someone noticed the place was very much like a restaurant.
The researchers examined the pictures. there were tables and chairs designed for the creatures to sit.
It was then that they realized the people were cannibalizing their own.
The trench was eventually run right through the central mound and to the other side. They deduced that when the city had become really big, the lords of the city started cannibalizing the paupers, then the peasants and worked their way up the social food chain.
When the lords had eliminated all the people that actually did the work, civilization started collapsing. they could not find their own food so they started eating each other, eventually eating each other raw, until survival was impossible. It was in a small area they found a few bones of the people, Most were chewed on, but there was one whole skeleton The whole race died. The pictures on the walls of that building was the menu offered by the restaurant.

14 )
.
Genetic engineering had created intelligent creatures from things that did not have intelligence before. They experimented with various animals, dogs, cats, horses. A few people have done bugs and worms.
Of course, when they add intelligence, they also have to change the physical design so that the form can manipulate objects, something required for intelligence and a method of communications, which also is required for intelligence. For bugs and worms, they also became bigger.
In general, they were made into quasi-people forms, dogs and cats walking on two legs with hands on the front paws. insects develop little pebbles on their skins and are now soft bodied and while they have two legs and four arms, are not very much like bugs. The worms were pretty much like people.
Few of the redesigned creatures were really effective at anything as they were invented, not created by generations of selection. For dogs and cats, a lot of their physical design remained and much of their species personality remained, but with lower forms, like rats and worms, little or nothing of their native form and personality remained. Their entire existence was created out of whole cloth. Really just a little DNA remained of their original form.
It was reported that several of the security agencies were experimenting beyond what was considered possible. They were creating people from things that one should not be able to work with. None of it had been proved though.
Gimble was a bit strange. He seemed wholly human, but nothing was quite right. His hair was more wiry, his skin had the wrong color though no one really could tell why, He was not dumb, but had little imagination. From the moment he arrived, he was a good worker and seemed to have no problem with teasing or personality clashes.
One day, the company had a power out and then the police locked down all the office buildings, no one could leave. Emergency lights worked but the light was really dim. Food and water was available so everybody was not stressed for survival. Everybody was stuck, nowhere to go. there were no windows in any office building so no natural light came in either.
Everybody of the office settled in the lunch break area and each person was made to sit at a particular table.
Gimble would not stay at his table which was dark. He could always be found standing in front of an emergency light. Because he tended to block light behind him, people forced him to move.
It got so bad that guards came and dragged him to his table and made him sit and not move. Food and water was brought to him. He did not eat much.
After about five days, the power came back on. everybody was still stuck in the building, but they finally had lights.
Everybody in the office stared at Gimble. He was self-conscious. He knew why. He had sprouted leaves all over his body and his skin was a dark green
"Gimble is a CIA PLANT," someone shouted. He was forced to admit it. He had grown the leaves as he was not getting enough light for his skin to get the energy he needed.
He later explained that he was essentially a hibiscus. The CIA were testing adding intelligence to different kinds of plants to see how they reacted.
A week later, having all the light he needed, the leaves were absorbed and he looked normal again. There was another power out a couple years later, but this time they made sure that Gimble got a light to be in front of.

15 )
.
They were a very religious population. Their population required things to be done in specific ceremonies which happened on certain days of the year. They changed over time by very specific rules.
They had a very elaborate, ornate, beautiful temple in the city. Everybody came to the temple at least once in their lives, but three times was normal. They would come there on their marriage, on the marriage of a child, and on the death of a parent.
The building was extremely old and was constantly cared for, sometimes by the very best in the country.
One day, another nation attacked. they were held off for a long time. The enemy did a full push of power, then was driven back, but not before they turned the temple into gravel by a constant bombardment around it.
The people followed the enemy to their home land and turned the country into a wasteland before withdrawing.
The people then had the problem of not having their temple. they cleared the land all around the temple. The best architects and designers announced a brand new design for the temple on the anniversary of the destruction. Over the next year, the people prepared materials and readied equipment.
On the second anniversary of the destruction, the people converged on the site and dug the foundations and set the foundation stones. Exactly twenty four hours after they started, they stopped. if it was not in place, it stayed where it was. During the last hour, the Equipment was withdrawn and taken back.
Other nations were shocked that the temple construction ceased after just one day of work. Tents were erected on the site for worshipers to come for their pilgrimages and for the priests to work.
On the third anniversary, the people converged on the site and did more work, correcting "damage" because the stuff was left for a year, digging trenches, clearing out dirt and such. and they worked for their twenty three hours, then took their equipment during the last hour.
Every year, the people built on their temple. they only worked on it on that one day.
Everybody now knew that the temple would take several generations, possibly a century, to reach the level it was when it was destroyed. when the walls got to places where there would be overhanging stones, they erected temporary pillars to hold pieces in place until the next year. That was calculated in the original design.
Because the enemy had been pulverized in retaliation, no other nation dared to mess with the people. The temple was taking shape, but only a little each year.

16 )
.
We all know what Mondays are like. You are tired from having stayed up late and slept in all weekend long.
You start the morning by having to figure out what is going on, looking at work piled on you by others on Friday, setting things up to start the new week, make arrangements with others doing the same thing, prepare your projects to be started. Near the end of the day, you are making arrangements for work the next day and planning for the rest of the week.
The only day that is as bad is Fridays where you are closing things down and getting work done so it is not in your realm when you start Monday.
Charles always hated Mondays. they were horrendous for him. All Friday work seemed to pile onto him and everybody wanted his work first thing in the morning. His work took time.
During the weekend, he had an accident in his car. Who's fault it was, was in question. The other person was dressed strangely and she shouted some things at him in another language, sort of a chant, then drove off, leaving him there.
He arrived at work, not feeling well. Along with his work, he had to get in touch with his insurance company about the damage. He left work that afternoon, worn out.
He arrived the next day. He knew it was Tuesday, but it was like a Monday again. His desk was full, people demanded stuff now, he was swamped. Calls with his insurance company about his accident came at the wrong times. Getting in touch with them was hell. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday was the same thing, another Monday.
The entire month was the same thing. Every day was a Monday Only weekends and holidays were normal.
He was talking to his priest and mentioned about the accident and the person's chants. The next week, he is taken to a back room and is surrounded by several priests, some really high up. they chant around him for a while and stop.
"We have found out that you were cursed. The curse is that every day will be a Monday."
Another says "To remove the curse is going to be tough. We will have to take time to prepare for it."
About a month later of hell, of living Mondays, he is taken into the back room and they remove the curse. It is not really until Friday that he really sees that the spell is gone. He cherishes every middle day of the week, looking at each one with pure joy. He has had so much practice with dealing with Mondays that his Mondays he is very efficient and Mondays are not as bad as they once wore. He now has to figure out how to deal with Fridays.

17 )
.
Horatio was talented and studied martial arts most of his life. He had started learning in his late teens as therapy for an injury and many said that if he started learning as a child, he would be the very best there would ever be. Because of his late start, he was not the best.
The Evil Lord discovered a special magic. He would draw life out of his victims, They would get younger and younger until they became babies. This allowed him to live forever, and he was nearly a thousand years old already.
Many a great warrior went against him and were made into children. Few, if any, could handle the destruction of adulthood and went crazy. The Evil Lord had a system set up to handle all the children that he created. They would be given to people who would raise them. those that lost their mind tended to become uncontrollable and they would be sold to the pleasure markets. The remaining were trained into slaves to serve the palaces. The master could eventually draw the life out of them, but this time, he would draw the energy to their death.
Horatio was an old man, though still at the edge of his prime. He commonly told people about how he would train if he could start all over. The Minions of the Evil Lord came upon his village and Horatio lead the defense, driving the Minions back many a time. During a major thrust of enemy forces, he found himself facing the Evil Lord. During the fight, he saw his own weaknesses that could have been trained out had he known about them.
The Evil lord uses his magic on Horatio and makes him an almost newborn baby. Horatio's forces held a bit longer after that before the region was completely overrun. Horatio was given to a woman to be raised as a twin to a newborn baby.
Horatio struggled at first with the situation, almost giving up completely, then he remembered his words he told others. How would he train if he were to start all over again. He became calm, and learned about his body as a natural baby would. He started training his body to become a master warrior, concentrating on being limber at first. As he grew, he practiced, usually when his parents were not looking, the skills he learned as an adult.
The big reason people go crazy is that their minds and body won't follow their orders. Their adultness is like an observer to their body's development, more like a conscience. They are unable to accept the lack of control. Their struggle for control becomes all consuming and that becomes all they are. they become violent.
Horatio saw quickly what he could not do. He fell into the mode he had after his original injury when he was a teenager, and worked with what he had available. That treatment gave him the patience to not fight his situation.
His parents forgot he was once an adult. At the age of six, he was put into training that would lead to him becoming a soldier. Horatio practiced what he was taught during the day, and practiced what he had learned in his past life in his spare time. he adjusted his army training to allow more of his previous life's training to be included, not enough to really be noticed.
He did a stint as a soldier and then became a trainer of soldiers. He lived a long life, becoming the master trainer of the army, teaching the trainers.
The Governor of the area had a disagreement with the Evil lord and gathered his forces to challenge the power of the Evil Lord. Horatio followed orders like other soldiers and the two forces met in battle. Again, Horatio's forces drove the Evil Lord's forces back many a time. Finally Horatio met the Evil lord again. This time Horatio is the very best a person could ever be. the Evil Lord is hungry and angry. A thousand years of experience and training, with magic, against the very best a person can be in a life time.

18 )
.
It was decided that the most powerful person on the planet, the Premiere, should never go to someone who wants the office. Each term which lasts four years, the computer would search the data for people eligible for the office. It would look at age, their knowledge and skills of all the population and make a list.
Trained experts would then take the list and check out other information such as temperament, personality, activities and such. they took into count whether their being taken away from their jobs would cause serious problems with the companies they worked. They never contacted the person. They then passed on their list to the selection team who would then go and talk to the candidates themselves, to see how excited they would be to be in the office.
Isaac answered the door, mumbling about being interrupted in his work. He was even more irritated by finding that candidate council members standing at the door instead of customers. He tried to close the door on them but their goons stopped the door and they came in.
He told them what he would do if he were made the Premiere, trying to dissuade them from choosing him. He was almost rude to them and even started working while they were trying to interview him.
He did not care if he was gong to make a small fortune while in office, he had work to do.
The council got together in their offices to discuss candidates. As usual, most were very happy to take the office. The few who did not act happy about getting the office, half were obviously faking it. There were only two candidates that were good. One was a very old man who they questioned his health. the other was Isaac.
Armed guard showed up at Isaac's business. He knew why they were there and refused to come. He resisted them and he was taken away in handcuffs. He was brought to the capital and after being dressed up, he was briefed in his job and the ceremony went on to induct him into his position of authority.
He was asked to make a statement before he was finally given power. He told them that they would regret doing this for all time. They gave him the power.
He decides he is going to get his revenge for having this power. He carefully reads everything sent for his signature and he vetoes a bunch of it, signing ones that deserve it. That is not to be done so the legislature overrides his veto on most of those things.
There are things where he has absolute power on. He looks at each duty and works out what exactly what is expected, what he can do and deduces what is really needed. he applies his power in ways that the others look at as devastating to the status quo. There are charitable and ceremonial things that he does properly, but he applies his revenge on the system in a very plotted out and deliberate way.
He undoes the work of a dozen Premieres before him because unlike them, he is not "rubber stamping" the duties given to him. At one point he is supposed to e involved in a signing and he has not received the paperwork. He refuses to go to the event. When he finally reads the law, he explains to the official who sponsored it, everything that was wrong with it and vetoes it. He then tells what he would pass if they want something done.
The powers are so angry at him that they are looking at ways to take him out of office before he does damage. There is none. He is untouchable on the stuff he has done.
The candidate that was his competitor for the office dies in his second year so they cannot automatically bring him in to take over which can be done.
By the time his term is over, he had changed things so dramatically. He is absolutely hated, no one likes him. there are even statements that he might not live long once out of office.
He returns home and restarts his business. At first, he gets little, but not too long after the new Premiere starts signing things, the customers start coming in. they thank him for what he did for the community.
While he is independently wealthy, he depends on his work and he actually does better than he ever did before. His customers see his is really a true, honest person who thinks out problems rather than accepts the common assumptions.
Those selecting candidates soon realize exactly why the system was created and they now understand what to look for when picking a candidate. Someone who really, truly, does not want the job is the very best for the job. they will not accept what they are told. the next candidates are much better, closer to the Isaac mold of Premiere. He is listed among the greatest of Premieres.

19 )
.
The lizards were imported from a planet that had monsters, dinosaur like lizards. These were cute little things that in tests bred true. The terriformed colony needed some bug eating creatures and these lizards fit the bill.
The lizards spread rapidly in their job of knocking down the bug populations. The lizards ran everywhere, inside homes businesses and in the wilderness. The bugs were energetic and fought hard so the lizards used a lot of energy to eat them. the people who terriformed the planet had used bugs from many planets and these bugs wrested control of the environment. all other bugs went extinct or held very limited niches in the environment.
The lizards were efficient enough that after a two colonist generations, things became comfortable when it came to the bug problem. statues of the lizards were erected in several towns in honor of their saving the colony.
Marshelle was the kind of person who brought in strays and cared for them. she would find homes for them later, but would give them food and attention until they wee healthy.
One day she saw that the little lizards ate the different kinds of pet food so she started tossing it out to them. She would toss food out for other wild animals too.
If she was still, the lizards would almost touch her feet to get pieces of food that fell there. People were amused by that.
After a couple years, she noticed a bigger lizard running around and going after the food. they left the little lizards alone so she fed them too. They ate a lot of food.
She never saw the big lizards anywhere else and she never thought to mention it to anybody. One day, she was really ill and decided she needed to go to the hospital. She loaded the food dispensers with all the food they could hold and set them to automatically dispense when the food was eaten. She died two days later.
Not having someone to give them attention, the strays all left quickly. The few that stayed for the food left when the lizards become bothersome.
No one looked into her affairs so the house sat. The lizards controlled the house and ate all they could eat. the food ran out after a month and the lizards left her property in search of more food.
"Dinosaurs were sighted in town" the news report said. It showed horse sized monsters trotting down the road. One grabbed a stray animal and ate it while it continued down the road.
The first reaction to the monsters was to hide from them if they were around. The lizards traveled mostly at night so they were not seen often. The stray population plummeted quickly and then the monster sightings stopped.
One year after the Marshelle had died, the lizards returned to the city. Their calls shook the windows. The monsters were as big as a house. They caught several hapless or stupid people and at them.
Police arrived and found their bullets did nothing. A police cruiser was crushed as one monster walked right over top of it.
The monsters made their way through the city and into the wilderness on the other side and were gone. They returned six months later going through the city and out the other end. Small monsters were following them.
Someone recognized the form of monster from a research report he saw. He found the picture of it from the world it came from. They called in experts from there to remove the monsters.
The experts arrived and went to work, taking out the monsters one at a time. They took tissue samples and left the bodies there. More of the smaller monsters were showing up but they concentrated on the largest of them first and then worked their way down. It was a number of years before someone decided to test the genetic samples they took. They accidentally also tested the little lizard at the same time. they were the same.
Some one came to a place where the hunters killed a lot of large lizards. The killing zone was filled with lizards of all sizes up to horse size.
The two reports came together to the hunters at the same time. they were shocked to realize they were dealing with the cute little lizards with lots of food.
The hunters changed their tactics and shipped the bodies out when they made mass killings. They checked every kill site they had previously and did another kill there since large lizards were there feeding on the carcasses, and then air lifted the carcasses away.
It took several years, but they eliminated any lizard larger than could fit in their hand. they were smart in that the carcasses were processed into animal feed so the little lizards would not get to the decomposing masses.
The packaging on all animal feed and on some human food now had warnings, 'don't feed to lizards.'
The disaster averted, the colony fell back into their normal mode. The was a watch for large lizards but other than a few arrests for people feeding them in their back yards, they never were a problem again. The lizards kept the bugs down and the DO NOT FEED rule kept their sizes down. everybody was happy.

20 )
.
They were giants, sort of robot and living. As they grew, they developed shells, scaffolding, to hold their bodies. Their bodies were just the muscles at the joints, organs, and filaments that grew through the matrix of their bodies.
The filaments moved often so the bodies were riddled with tubes and grids, a matrix of "shell" all through their bodies even around the organs. The matrix was added to and removed as the needs of the body by the filaments.
The colony star ship landed on the giant's planet. Immediately, the giants saw them as bugs, pests. the colonists first tried to get rid of a few of the giants then, after fully understanding their nature, started taking advantage of them.
One by one, colonists started "infesting" the giants. The filaments would be at the surface of the body, protecting them and building the surface so the giants would slowly grow. They would repair damage to the surfaces from wear or impact. All surface holes were plugged or did not go deep. At night was the wrong time to enter or leave a giant. When a giant woke, all filaments would retract to the core, and reset themselves, reloading with materials healing the ends that might have been damaged. After about an hour, the filaments would expand out to their working locations. One that might have been in a finger might be in a toe next. it all depended on what was needed and which one happened to be in the right location when they expanded out.
Now the colonists found that the waste products of the giants were accessible and could be made use of if gotten before it reach the elimination stage. They tried taking materials out of the body to the colony, but that did not work. Soon they figured out that if they colonized the giants, they would be able to live in there for long periods of time with no problems.
Their problem was that if a group of them were seen, the giants would use poisons to get rid of the colonists. Several groups died that way.
They figured out that if a giant saw one of them, the giant would use a finger to try to squish them. A fairly quick movement allowed one to get into a hole rather than being squished. The giants never knew what happened to you. It took a bit of practice and training to get to the level where that was easy.
The walls of the giant's abodes were rough enough to make for easy climbing. Of course, the colonists practiced climbing to the ceiling and back several times non stop to make sure they were in condition to do the transfer into the giants. Some colonists might never get into a giant. For them to get into the body, they will have to be lucky.
Once inside, they can be there for generations since the giants live long lives compared to the colonists. The giants end up being healthier with the colonists inside.
Eventually, the colonists will get all their equipment inside so they can maintain civilization.
.
I got this idea when I squished a bug against a wall and it was gone when I pulled my hand away.

21 )
.
Aliens visited the planet. They told the colonists to leave the main planetary forests alone. certain lands could be used for new forests, or for farming, but of course, it would take fifty years for those forests to develop to a usable size. The colonists knew that would never be enough land for their systems.
Because of the alien edict, Wood was now in short supply. Wood workers were obtaining wood wherever they could find it.
The aliens dropped a bunch of special probes to study the activities of the colonists and detect if they were harvesting the forests. They were made of special layered materials that would not be noticed by most sensory systems.
The wood workers, searched the colony for any unused wood. the top wood workers had the first dibs on any wood found. cast offs went to hobbyists and beginning wood workers.
After a while, it was decided that while they could not harvest trees that were growing, they could harvest downed wood, wood that would go bad.
Quickly, people were entering the forests and taking branches, logs chunks of wood that could be found on the ground. While they were doing that, they would take a sapling or two and plant them in the new forest areas. They always marked the areas they worked so others knew to hold off on harvesting live plants. Their excuse was that these trees would likely die anyway.
After a period of time, the aliens noticed that their probes were failing at a high rate. Their failures were all over the continent, not just near the colony.
They even lost ones that they knew were floating on water. That was unbelievable but it was happening.
The wood workers found a wood, only found in debris, that was of exquisite quality. in the wood piles, they recognized it easily and only the very best wood workers, hobbyists and professionals, could get the wood and only if they had a special project that deserved that quality. Even with those restrictions, they went fast. The wood almost sparkled between layers and while had many shades in the layers they were of the same perfect consistency which the wood workers loved.
The aliens were getting worried about how their probes could fail so readily. There seemed to be no pattern to the losses.
The gatherers bid on areas to work, essentially pieces of pies spreading out from the colony, and they worked out to the far edge and back. They took what was going to go to waste and choice pieces on each trip. Because they followed different routes on each trip, they were gathering evenly from their whole parcel.
The aliens suddenly lost communications with the colony. their system required a certain number of their probes to be operating to get the signal out. They turned to return to the colony to find out what was going on. The colonists were running out of wood on the ground and had harvested dead trees, snags, to make room for new trees to grow.
A few storms helped them to get more wood. that special wood was suddenly in short supply. every piece was "processed" into useable materials, boards, blocks and veneers depending on how they were to be used.
just before the aliens arrive at the colony, a federation battle fleet makes contact with them. The remains of several alien ships are captured after the battle. Within the remains, they find lots of a wood like material. They are studied on the way to the colony and are determined to be data probes where the layering and structure allow them to sense the surroundings and send off data.
the federation tells about defeating the aliens. There is mention of the wood like material found. The colonists beg for it. the military is shown the fine material Now that the colonists know it was manufactured, they work out a material similar to it. They take all the alien material there is, and start making something of their own. the alien ships show the process so they can figure out what is needed for the right effects.
No longer fearing the aliens, the forests are quite available. the colony still uses the "dead harvest" of the main forests, but do other kinds of culling too.
The fake wood is somewhat difficult to make so it remains exceedingly valuable.

22 )
.
Myrack contracted a horrible disease in the service of the king. His doctors tried everything they could to save him and they realized the only way to save him was to do the unthinkable. It worked before, but most patients facing that treatment chose to die.
The doctor sat him down and explained the problem. They were going to have to do a major change with him. Others who had some disease like this could be made into a woman to be cured. In his case, they were going to have to do a much bigger change.
He thought a long moment, and then said, "If you can make me a winged animal with some flying ability, and still have all my physical dexterity and intellect, I will accept that.
The doctors conferred and came to an agreement. They said they could do that.
A week later, the doctors gathered around Myrack with other magic users and did a ceremony Their chants caused a cloud to envelope him.
When the cloud dissipated, Myrack had become sort of a winged monkey with a body of a six year old. He also found they had made him female, which he knew they did not have to do. The winged monkey change should have been enough.
He was presented to the king and the court. He knew he was going to have trouble when the most decadent of the princes took interest in him.
At first, Myrack was able to stay away from the prince. He exercised his wings and did his best to learn to fly. He also practiced the skills he had that he used in service of his king, His new body could do nearly everything, but it had to do it a little differently. His body did have advantages of being able to climb walls and fit through tight areas.
He could easily get away with dressing as a man, but since his body was female, he dressed as a woman to the best of his body would allow. The women of the court helped him out. In the looking glasses, his wings gave him sort of an angelic look, very pretty.
One day, the prince and his friends decided to have some fun. they surrounded Myrack and were going to force him into making love. Myrack ran. He got some distance on them and decided to lose the woman's clothing. They followed him to the highest point. He stood on a tall parapet The prince said, "I know that you wanted life so much you let yourself be changed. You are not going to die now. You might as well come down to me."
Myrack looked at the drop off behind him, and had to shift this wing a little to see. The prince leaped for him. Myrack, pushed off with everything he had, and flapped his wings.
The prince watched as Myrack floated down a little, then rose up above their heads before he flew away.
Myrack flew a long time. His wings were not strong enough for this but he wanted to get beyond the range of the horses. He found he could feel updrafts and followed some birds in one to gain more height. He finally came to rest in a clearing three times the distance a horse could run in a day. He was exhausted. He walked until he found a good place to sleep.
He kept going in the same direction, practicing his flying and getting better at living off the land. He found the remains of a family caught by bandits and gathered clothing and supplies that he could use. He was now able to hide some of his nature and still be able to fly short distances with his load. He joined a caravan, acting more like a lost girl than anything.
He would prove his intellect and knowledge, and show that he can fight. His ability to fly helped his hosts in many ways, including checking for ambush sites ahead.
The nature of his body would slowly draw on his mind and would become more and more like it mentally. He would find himself watching large flying things, wondering if he would find a mate. Being with the caravan gave him the best chance for that.

23 )
.
A guy who wanted to be an inventor, came up with a fuel saving method to travel. He had some data, he had the time and he happened to have the materials. he knew his system would not work within the city.
His most difficult project was to hide his system so no one would notice it. He would be stealing energy from big trucks so it really was not a proper thing to do.
He came up with a system where his grill was part of the drive system. He had it where behind the grill materials would harmlessly absorb the energies. He added shielding to protect the rest of his car from his system, and to protect from debris that would have to be drawn up.
He then needed a power source for this. The fact that it was electrically powered meant that he would have to see if it cost him more energy than it saved him. He decided the generator would be in the trunk with its own fuel source in the first tests. He would see if it was really efficient or not.
He got his system all set up and tested it in parking lot where a truck was sitting. He turned on the electromagnet and then coasted towards the truck with his hands on the switch to turn it off. It pulled him at the truck nicely, his breaks would not stop him. He killed the switch and stopped. He just now had to wait for his next trip across the state.
the time came and he hit the highway. He went quite a ways in traffic before he finally got his chance to test his system. He turned it on and lifted off the gas. He found the place where the compression of the engine would hold him at the same distance. He traveled quite a while.
Then he passed by some debris and there was loud pops and bangs. Then the truck passed a car and the car started sliding sideways as it was drawn to the magnet. He had to turn the magnet off and hit the gas. Debris caught on the road fell off his grill and he cut a tire. When he came to a stop on the side of the road. He saw the damage his system had received.
He walked back and picked up the worst of the debris, including the licence plate off the truck. He could have left that stuff on the side of the road but he put them in the truck instead.
He checked the generator fuel and it was nearly empty. It was not as efficient as he thought. He later got to a truck stop and the truck he was following was there. He quickly heard about his experiment from the truck driver. He gave back the parts and plates and wrote the truck driver a check for the damage.
He never used the system again as it cost too much and was not efficient anyway.

24 )
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The gods had fought off and on for centuries. Technology had come to the people and they built vast cities and traveled the world.
One day, the gods reappeared for their great war. They started their battles out in the wilderness, but soon it lead them into the cities. Skyscrapers collapsed into each other to the deaths of millions. Entire tracts of land was trampled flat, housing projects ceased to exist, landmarks were leveled.
The armies did their best to try to save the cities but they were no match for the powers of the gods. Some weapons hurt the gods, but they were more interesting in other gods so ignored the armies other than to stomp on them when they got the chance.
When the war was done, there was little of civilization left. There were only a couple gods that had died on either side. both sides would meet again to battle it out in some future time.
The winners turned the dead into piles of tentacles. they gathered the remains of the population and ordered them to cut the tentacles into small bits.
Knives and axes were not cutting through them. the tentacles would grab around the weapon and slip so they would not be near the cutting edge since they were still alive.
The site happened to be Gabriel's workshop so he got a generator running. He dragged out and hooked up some power saws so others cold cut the tentacles up. The gods watched as the men started cutting the tentacles. One by one, the men were screaming in pain, holding up stubs of bleeding hands.
Gabriel watched what was happening and studied it as another man did a cut as demanded. The tentacles would rap around everything including the man's hands When the blade into the tentacles, they would pull themselves down with the blade and jerk the man's hands into the blade. the tentacles would be cut in half and die, but the man lost his hands so he could not cut any more.
Gabriel was then ordered to start cutting. He said he had a better tool inside the building. He went in and started cutting. He came out with a box full of split tentacles. they were not fakes. they were dead.
The god wanted to know how this happened. Gabriel told the god to become man sized and watch. Several men came in with him.
In the workshop, Gabriel grabbed a pile of tentacles and set them onto the table of what looked like a bandsaw. he turned it on and a fine line of light appeared as dome dust flew around. He pulled the tentacles into the beam. The tentacles tried to pull him into the laser light, but he had his wrists in some guides that kept his hands at a given distance from the laser no matter what. There was no blade to pull the tentacles down and pull on his hands. The laser cut the tentacles in one sweep. His guides slipped off the edge of the table only when he held only dead tentacles.
He dropped them into the bucket and set another stack onto the table. He slipped his guides in place, leaned forward to grab the tentacles and pulled them through.
Other men gathered the tentacles and brought it to him. He worked about three hours and then let someone else do the work after he set him up for the job.
The gods did not want to let the servants go, but men were allowed to go out and get supplies and materials. A full tanker truck pulled up. Several refrigerator trucks full of food or hardware materials arrived in due time.
The gods were shocked at how easy it was to supply a small village. Six busses of people arrived, men and women from a couple towns out. they were happy to be where they might make a living. Gabriel happened to have a couple hundred acres of land that he farmed. He put the men to work tending the crops he already had and planted some late season crops to give them a hedge on the winter.
Gabriel convinces the gods to only walk on the highways and to let the motor vehicles have a way around them when they met. Three counties around were scoured for materials and supplies, bringing any people that they could find to bring them to the god's sanctuary. The gods tended to walk right through, or act like predators in places where people happened to live so being in the sanctuary.
Gabriel convinced the gods to make this and the three nearby counties part of the sanctuary. Gabriel had this power to convince the gods because he had the method to easily cut up the tentacles. He built three more of the saws.
When the last tentacle was cut up, the gods suddenly disappeared along with the pile of tentacles. Gabriel got people teaching each other how to survive under the conditions and they started rebuilding the society. He made sure that little of the technology was lost in the process, especially the use of lasers.
It would not be the same society as before. they would make all new mistakes.

25 )
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They were identical twins, born a mere two minutes apart. Nate, born first born and Nigel was born second. As they were the first children born to the parents, Nate was by custom to inherit their father's estate. The first born was always a bit better than any subsequent children.
Almost immediately, Nate did things just a little bit sooner than Nigel did. Nate opened his eyes first, he smiled first, he rolled over first, he crawled first, even if it were by mere minutes, he was always first.
What no one knew was that the older children drew little bits of magical energy, life energy, from the younger children. Since they were born later, there was little to compare to how much a difference that made.
Nate and Nigel were twins and the parents could see how one would do something moments or minutes after the other. Nate was drawing from Nigel.
As they started running around and doing things, the difference between them became more apparent. Nate seemed a bit more intelligent, even by a little. When the two of them fought, Nate always won, again even if by a little.
At around six years of age, It dawned on Nigel that there was a problem. It then dawned on him what the problem was. It took him a year to figure out the solution. He had to accomplish something before his brother in order to break the magic spell. It had to be something of natural ability.
Nigel now became driven to do better than his brother. While his brother took things easy, Nigel practiced, worked harder, worked longer. His problem was by this time, he was quite a ways behind. He gained quite a bit before his brother figured out what he was doing and started working hard too.
By the age of ten. Nigel saw he was never going to catch up to his brother doing the same thing. He had to make a change, do something totally different.
Over a three day period, Nigel packed some personal belongings that he thought would be useful or valuable and on the forth day, he ran away from home.
He traveled two days to a village he figured his father would not immediately look and went to smith. He said he would work hard if the smith would teach him how to master the skills. The smith took him in since a boy that young who was willing to take such a chance, had to have a head on the shoulders.
Nigel had a horrible place to sleep, ate scraps given to him from the table, and was worked hard for long hours. Nigel put everything he had into learning the trade, studying how the master did something and then practiced it when he got the chance. He did any kind of work without complaint. It was all because he was driven to be better than his brother in some way.
Nigel had learned everything his master could teach him, and sent him off as a journeyman, to learn from other masters. Nigel again worked hard to master his skills and helped the apprentices learn their skills too. He became an excellent teacher while he was at it.
He had earned enough to be a master on his own right, then he heard of a magical healer who needed some metal work. with the permission of the local master, he went to the healer and set up shop. Again he learned everything he could.
He could have been making a good living, but instead he traded his skills for learning what the magic master could teach him. Soon, Nigel was practicing the magic as the master did, sometimes not needing the master involved at all. He also experimented, making little changes in things to see the effect. He got good.
The magic was not a fireball blast kind of magic. the strongest "attack" magic made one feel ill.
when his master died, Nigel was already better than his master in the skills. He combined his metal working and magic skills whenever he could. His biggest business was making charms of various kinds.
He had some business in the area, so Nigel went to his home. His parents were still alive. There were several brothers and sisters. Nate was a successful farmer and also spent a period in the military. Nigel saw how the younger children were sapped of energy and ability.
The two brothers instantly disliked each other and that escalated rapidly. it finally came down to a challenge of skills. A really talented soldier with magical augmentation or a magic using blacksmith. Both were in their peak of physical condition.
They fought Nigel cast a spell to block magic on his opponent. It was usually something one did for oneself, but by blocking magic, He had taken the magical draw of his brother way.
While he was not in any real battles, Nigel handled weapons and had to be taught how to use them so he could make them properly. Neither one had real weapons, instead pitch forks and hoes, farm implements. Nate only used a soldier's battle weapons while Nigel handled everything.
The two men stabbed, swatted, and swept at each other for quite a while before Nigel, who was learning in the fight, pulled Nate's feet from under him. Standing on Nate's pitch fork, Nigel set the edge of his hoe on Nate's throat, ready to cut him open. Nate surrendered.
It was almost like an audible ping. Nigel's magic blocking magic was gone. So was Nate's ability to draw from any of the younger children. Nigel let his brother up. "I finally have bested you in something based on pure talent. Your first born power to draw life from younger siblings is gone. I am free of you."
Without the magic, Nate proved to be talent less compared to his brother. the brothers and sisters kept hugging Nigel because he had freed them too.