August 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 bugs infested everything and were impossible to control. These imported bugs tasted bad to anything that would eat them and were immune to known pathogens and insecticides.
Researchers were exploring every avenue on dealing with them. Most groups were trying to breed into them a weakness or breed out of them some strength. The idea was to make them vulnerable, then give them the pheromone that made them desirable, and release them into the wild to take over the population and eventually eliminate the entire population. There was something about the bugs that seemed to make this a useless tactic. The genetics did not want to change.
One group of researchers were trying to come up with a process that would remove the bad flavor in some way when ground up and served as some form of meat substitute. Several attempts removed the main bad flavor, but they added in undesirable characteristics or it was overly expensive. They knew they would find a solution, they just needed time.
One researcher named Grotto was into taking drugs. A surprise inspection caused him to hide his packet of GRIT in a terrarium that had several hundred of the bugs living in it. The plants actually seemed to be doing better with the bugs inside. The bug population did not over eat the plants and they gave the plants what they needed to grow fast enough to keep up with the bugs.
By the time that Grotto went to get his GRIT, the bugs had cut through the plastic and was pigging out on it. The ones that left ran at full speed everywhere, ate plants like it was going out of style. He called the team over to watch. His boss was angry that Grotto had GRIT in the place, but was interested in the effect. the bugs acted like they were living life faster than ever. One by one, the bugs fell over and died.
They examined the dead bugs and found that their stomachs were full of food. There were signs of rapid aging in them too, such as they would start molting and the process was never completed.
The boss gave Grotto money to get more grit. He got a lot of it and they started serious tests, giving grit to the newly hatched, giving it to adolescents, giving it to adults.
Their studies showed that the life cycle of the bug accelerated. They were full of energy but their digestive system could not keep up with the energy needs.
This was great. They had a way to take the bugs out. They now needed three more bits of research. One was to find the active ingredient on GRIT that was causing the effect so they did not have to traffic in grit. They then needed to find the best delivery system that would only attract the bugs and not anything else, and they needed to find the perfect food for the bugs on grit to keep them following their life cycle. The idea of the last was to find out what to be careful of when used in the wild. It would be bad if the perfect food was readily available somewhere.
It took only six months, but the team came up with the new pesticide. They knew how much was needed to have the full effect.
To test the full effect, they released the bait near a place that had the best food for the bugs. They wanted to be sure their bait was more interesting than the food and to see how much damage they would do. the owner of the place agreed to the test since his stock was generally ruined after a short time anyway. With the speed of reproduction of the bugs, this could completely devastate his stock, but it was worth learning if they could take out the bugs.
They watched for whole year. The devastation was not as bad, and the bugs in the area all died off, the best food was not pure enough to keep up with their needs.
With that test completed, they spread the bait all over the country side. People were warned about the effect, but there were many that were freaked out from the sight of these bugs moving at lighting speeds.
Three years after the plan had started, the last bug was reported seen. The spreading program continued for three more years and was then ended. none of the bugs were seen. They continued to spread the bait around shipping companies and space ports to make sure no infestations developed.
Because the bait used nearly whole Grit, Grotto was well kept in his drug habit as payment for his work in creating the bait.

02 )
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He worked for a restaurant and made a living. A woman showed up one day and they hit it off. she kept coming and he finally asked her name. She only give her first name. After about a month, he took her out on a date and they really hit it off. They liked the same kinds of movies, music, foods, they enjoyed dancing and walking on the beach.
They discussed the possibility of getting married, children, religion and money. One day their gentle kissing went way too far.
A week later, as he left the restaurant, a couple of thugs grabbed him and threw him in a car. He found himself in front of the big crime boss. His girlfriend was there, a few welts on her face.
"I do not like what you did to my daughter. You will think you were lucky if I had killed you, but instead, I have a sicker punishment for you." He was dragged away, his girl begging her father to save him.
He received a treatment, called burning. The chemical cocktail causes genetic changes. It feels like burning and if done too long, will cause the skin to darken considerably.
Before they gave the treatment, they gave him a full plumbing change, making him a girl. The burn blended the new tissue with his genetics. It repaired the surgery so it was as if he was born that way. His body consumed fats and muscle.
When it was over, he was no longer a late 20s man. He was now a early teen girl. The effect of the burn on his mind was to make him mentally numb to the world.
They drove him to a different part of town and literally shoved him out the door. He laid there, with nothing on, he heard some woman repeating the name of Melany. He found himself repeating the name.
About half an hour later, a police car stopped. he was picked up and taken to the station. Before a judge, he was asked many questions and could not bring himself to answer them. He was asked his name and he repeated the name Melany. That became his name.
The judge sent him to a school where wayward street urchins are sent. it is like a boot camp for women. they are broken of their bad habits, then taught how to be proper women of society. Even the total failures are a higher class woman than what they ever would be. '
By the time the numbness of his treatments had worn off, he was fully socialized to be a woman. He graduated at the apparent age of eighteen and was sent to college.
In his forth year of college, Melany went with a group of students and teachers out into the wilderness. They were well beyond anybody else on the colony.
While lounging on a knoll above the lake while in the middle of a walk through the forest, The sky flashed brightly. Moments later, it seemed as if every tree fell over at once as the shock wave hit.
landslides followed. Instantly melted ice, pushed by high winds, rushed down the valley in muddy torrents, removing the lake from view.
When it was over, the few survivors picked their way out of the debris. When all survivors were found, Melany and three other women were located. Two were seriously injured, one said she had been "clipped" when younger, and one might not survive long since there was no way to get her to the hospital. There were ten male survivors, one was the professor that had organized this wilderness experience.
It did not take long to understand that they were the only survivors on the planet.
The men then turned to the women. "You are the only women on this planet. if our kind is to survive, you are going to have to provide children for us men."
Melany realized she had a problem. She had no interest in women and even less in men. The thought of making love sent chills through her.

03 )
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The ship landed hard on the planet. The ship could take off once they solved the many reasons for landing. When some members of the crew finally went outside, they found a bedraggled village nearby. It took some time, but they finally made the villagers comfortable with them around.
A common language was developed so they could communicate effectively. It combined words from both languages, using the language style of the natives.
In searching the general area, and dong remote testing on the natives, The crew taught the people new foods they could eat. They then taught the village how to grow and harvest a lot of those plants for regular meals.
The village huts were shabbily made. The crew taught the villagers how to do a simpler, but more effective construction. The crew for some reason, did not feel it right to cut down trees, so they gathered downed branches and trunks to re-build the village. they also taught the natives how to plant new trees so they could grow a brand new forest they could harvest.
The ship was there for two years. It had all the materials and supplies to fix the problems, but not being professional mechanics, it took them that long to get all the projects done.
When it was time to leave, the engineer set a "monument" in the middle of the village that had a sensor to study how the village would do once they were gone. It would send information up to a month away once the ship reached full speed before it would fade out to undetectably.
The villagers did not want them to go, but understood that the ship had to leave. The ship launched on time. Most of the crew was either strapped down in their rooms or working the equipment. The engineer who set the monument had very little to do since he was more equipment maintenance. He strapped into his seat at an engineering station and watched the sensors in the village as they launched.
About the time they had turned to accelerate to interstellar speed, the village was fading away. the engineer turned all available (not involved in flight) sensors onto the planet. By the time they settled to full speed, the village, the forests, and any sign of life was gone. The planet was now barren.
The crew studied the results of the sensor data. The monument stood alone in the middle of a wasteland. For a whole month, they watched for any sign of activity. then they were out of range.
Several years later, the crew decided they had to return to the planet and figure out what had happened to the sensor and the village. They had some experts, researchers and scientists with them. Some of the people were expert in primitive living. the ship was well stocked to last them for a lot of years just in case.
As they approached the planet, life started appearing, centered on the sensor and spread out around the planet. They brought the ship in almost within a foot of where it had landed before. When they got out, the people were there, waiting for them. Those that were there before, were instantly recognized.
The crew spread out to do work. The buildings looked exactly like they did when the crew left. Plants were in the exact same stage of development as when they left, which was not a problem since the planet had no season.
It was concluded that these people existed only when another race was here. By the description of the star locations they gave, this people existed for dozens of centuries, with only limited visits by other races.
This time, the crew planted their own plants along side the native ones, and spread seeds all over the planet. They sent word that the world was open for colonization. This people would now live a normal life for all time.

04 )
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Maverick was born blind. Because of a strange psychic power, he could see through the eyes of other people.
He lived in the city so he had hundreds if not thousands of eyes to watch what he needed to see. He could drive around, bicycle, walk, write, paint, just about anything he wanted to do as long as someone happened to be looking his way. Few people knew he was blind.
Because he could see things from many eyes and many points of view and at the same time if he wanted to, he was very good on noticing things others missed.
He held a job of looking for things the city needed to repair. He traveled the city and looked at city equipment and properties. Since people were all around him, he did not have to look away from the road. He knew things that were damaged. Since he was never alone, he would stop and examine the damaged piece of equipment, pointing to the damage. It could be that it was tagged by a gang, or something was loose. His team member did the minor repairs.
The guy he was most teamed with had a good idea of his vision, as many times, Maverick would tell his partner to look at a certain spot, "A little farther left, no the other left, there, what do you see?" There was always something there.
One day, Maverick went to a party just out of town. His hosts kept him later than he cared to be. He was not about to stay over night as their house was not set up for a blind person and no one was going to be watching him all the time so he could make himself appear normal. He told them he was not allowed to drive at night and just had to go. He was really worried about the lack of traffic and the poor vision of other drivers.
He left just in front of another car and that gave him enough vision to drive. he came to a light and the guy behind him was looking down for something. Maverick knew that the light had changed, but the guy would not look up. After several minutes, the guy looked up and Maverick shoved the peddle down. the man followed him almost as fast.
Maverick was afraid that if the man turned off, he would be stuck unable to see to drive. Luckily, the man started turning and a car coming the other way came into view. he was able to see through that guy's eyes where he was going. then a car pulled out behind him before he passed the car ahead and he was able to get back to the city and back into the population. There was always someone watching him as he drove.
He finally made it home where he lived alone. His house was set up for the blind so he was able to do what he had to do.

05 )
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The aliens had a sick and effective style of attack. They flew over the colony and dropped billions of special seeds over the lone continent. The seeds were from a planet with energy beings and they carried energy with them.
People outside at night saw sparkling streaks that float down to the ground and disappear. The sparkles pass right through the buildings. People inside the buildings see sparks drop from the roof and into the ground. None of the seeds are found, even when people dig for them.
A couple weeks later, the seeds sprout, feeding off the energies of the planet. They expanded and grow with fantastic rapidity. They grew into hundred foot wide disks of a quarter of an inch thick. Roots shot down hundreds of feet below the ground, converting the minerals of the ground and rocks below into the "wood."
One construction company was digging and hit the tree. When the back-hoe broke into the wood, energies flowed into the machine shorting it out, killing the driver. The driver was supposed to be insulated, but it was not electricity that killed him.
The trees started to grow upward and fast. The trunk grew right through foundations. Branches spread out.
Gaether woke to an earthquake, which was a shock as he was not in earthquake country. The apartment building pitched and twisted. Branches entered some lower floors and were diverted outwards by common walls. The growing trunk lifted the branches away from the ground till they applied pressure to the ceiling. The trunk then started twisting, shearing the lower walls with a steady but rapid force.
No one inside the apartment could move. Walls fell on people only a few were able to get outside to safety, Some sections of the building collapsed while other sections held in place.
Gaether made his way to the door of his bathroom as pieces of his ceiling fell onto the bed. the bathroom made horrible sounds as plumbing was pulled downward right out of the walls and floor. Anything on the walls or on shelving fell to the floor, followed by the shelving themselves.
The place pitched left and right, back and forth. Several times, he wondered how he kept his feet in the threshold. Windows shattered from the twisting.
The trees that landed beneath the skyscrapers, the towers, applied great pressure to the supporting beams of the various floors, and the twisting of the tree back and forth over-stressed the supporting beams which finally gave way. The rest of the buildings simply gave way.
There was a horrible racket. The great towers in the distance dropped into their foundations. Gaether could now see trees rising out of the ground with parts of buildings dangling in their branches.
The shaking finally stopped. a forest had grown outside with trees that had branches one could drive on.
Gaether found a spreading branch beneath his apartment as he walked out on his porch. He happened to be on the top floor so he had the roof, walls and floor all intact.
He went to the front door and found it had sprung open. He stepped down onto the branch and walked towards the trunk. Close to the trunk, he looked back at the apartment building. Somehow, a dozen of the 70 apartments were perched on the branches. He found the gnarly trunk easy to climb down, almost had a stair step effect to them. One by one, he went to the apartments and checked for survivors, digging several people out from beneath the debris. He left them in their apartment as he went to check on another one.
When he got to the ground, other people were digging each other out of the debris. Surprisingly few people had died in the apartment building. Gaether looked up at his apartment. "I always wanted to live in a tree house."
The alien commander who dropped the seeds found that the trees were too thick to do an effective attack. The trees were a bear to remove as they had sort of a mineral consistency. His commander berated him for several days about his stupidity of using enough seeds for a whole planet on a lone continent, before he court marshaled the officer.
Having defeated their own attack, the aliens left the planet, hoping that the next one would be done right.
Makeshift roofs put on the apartments that were not on the top floor. Gaether took a bunch of people into his home. Later, the debris was gathered off the ground and they built other apartments up in the trees. They even built an elevator along the trunk. No one in the colony lived in the ground as the trees felt a lot safer in case more seeds sprouted.
The colonists found when they trimmed selected branches to make their paths clear, that the trees were extremely high in nearly pure minerals. They got their processing going, separating the minerals from the "wood" The minerals were in layers so the wood was shaved like a plywood veneer and the different layers were cut and processed for that specific mineral, making re-processing easier.
The colony recovered the open lands and rebuilt the civilization. they found the seeds on a couple trees and planted them in some areas so they could mine the planet without ever digging.

06 )
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I had a sore in my mouth. I heard about a study that said that most people have eaten a spider in their sleep. These came together into this presentation.
The monster arrived from space and gorged on the forests and farms. Several whole cities disappeared down the creature's gullet.
There was some food left but it would run out soon. It happened that the monster settled down right in the middle of the outlying towns and went to sleep.
Several adventurers went to the monster to attack it. They found that the outside of the beast was impervious. It had taken the best of the planetary defense and had traveled space. there was nothing they could do to damage it. The material was such that they could not even get samples to study.
They then found the mouth. It was slightly open, easy for them to enter. The first man who went inside stepped over the teeth and onto the tongue. The mouth snapped shut. The other three saw him crushed.
Victor lost his balance. He only had s couple cutting blades as weapons. He fell into the space between the front teeth and the lips. He lead with the weapons as he pitched head first.
He hit the bottom and his weapons dug in. He also got some of the flesh splat up into his face. "Carl, Matthew, down here." He shouted as they looked like they were going to be crushed up there. they slid down the cheek and landed next to him.
The mouth rippled wildly and a vacuum developed for a moment before it calmed down.
"Taste this." Victor said. they tasted the meat. it was good. One of them lifted his weapon to slash at it. "No." he said. "We can have food for the town if we do it right."
"I was going to cut our way down."
"No, first we cut steps up the wall so ewe can get up and down safely. Then we will tunnel, making steps and escape tunnels to find out how far this goes into the creature. We will mine this so we can move as much material out easily as we can while we can. You are not going to be able to climb this slope if it goes really deep."
The mouth had opened again. They cut steps in the wall and tossed the meat chunks up to those who were outside the mouth. They got out and headed home with their catch.
When they returned, they had professional minors, butchers, haulers, and a whole labor crew. their cuts had dried and seemed to firm up.
They started digging at the edge of the lip and dug down on an angle, one guy cutting a sloped path, and others making stair steps. By the end of the day, they had dug many dozens of feet down and had provided enough meat to help the whole community for a meal That was a big help.
Each day, the crews tackled the acquisition of meat. The minors cut storage chambers where meat from below could be delivered for others to bring up later. They also dropped several air shafts. Victor lead the main dig, being really good with his blades slicking out nice chunks of the right size to be passed up the tunnel to others in a bucket brigade.
The monster continued to sleep. they were not sure what the monster would do if it found them working within the mouth. It was decided that they would only work during the day since the monster seemed to flinch more at night. They also gathered up all their equipment at night. They stored it nearby but not near the monster.
One day, they came back and the monster was moving around. Just by the way it moved, shoving the front lip into rocks and stuff, it was bothered by the lip. It finally settled down around noon and went to sleep with the mouth slightly open.
Victor lead them into the mouth. there had to be a few tunnels shaved a little as they sort of sagged into themselves, A couple tunnels that the meat had been stacked but not carried up had scattered, otherwise they were able to get to work when they got down to the bottom.
Hundreds on hundreds of feet into the monster, they broke through the surface of the meat. Their lights shone in the chamber. A doctor, who was working with them in case there was an injury, guided them to paint certain sections of the cavern with their lights. "There that is the lungs. see that pulsating thing, that is the heart. he named other organs or at least guessed at what they could be. They then turned around and marched the long way out of the mine. All the cut meat was taken out of the monster. They finally got up just before dark, the only sun they had seen all week.
The monster was moving around again when they arrived the next day. They decided to wait a few days before they went back again. The monster moved. It also devastated a small town. They quickly located the monster's new sleeping location and got their equipment to work. they now had a new goal. They dropped in some powered machinery into the task.
They worked fast and hard, cutting a tunnel straight down. When it reached the cave. They pulled the machine back up and ran it down again. The meat was hauled up by a net conveyer belt.
They finish their last pass and removed their equipment. Other than attacking the organs or the muscles around the cavern, they were basically done. A crew then brought out a pallet with something very large. They brought it over the lip and then let it slide down. Everybody was then ordered away, taking every bit of equipment with them.
At around midnight, there was a strong shockwave the kicked dust around. Then there was nothing. The shockwave was quite directional based on reports. Others herd a loud noise. No one left their towns for several days, then Victor and his friends went out. they had to locate the monster, possibly starting to mine the muscles and organs.
The monster was twisted around, wisps of smoke coming out of the mouth. The smell of burnt meat was strong. They found that the monster was dead. That pallet that was dumped in, was a fusion bomb and all that was left of the monster was the impervious shell. Even then, there were a few breaches in the armor.

07 )
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In my area, we have the interstate and a turnpike (toll road). There are less accidents on the turnpike because there is less places to get on and off so the traffic just drives rather than weave on and off ramps. I have a theory that really bad drivers are not going to pay money to go someplace so they stay off the turnpike. I was thinking about how to make the turnpike even more safe. the way to do it is to put a bubble of protection around each car.
Particle physics experimentation found a way to form a bubble of energy, not magnetic, and move it around with simple controls. when they scaled it up, they found they could envelope a large mass like a truck or building in the bubble and move it around with very little effort.
Someone took that research and applied it to the transportation industry. They figured out that the object being moved does not need the generator in it. All that was needed, was to have it enter the generator field. The steering forces would keep the bubble intact until the object released.
They took a long section of highway and set up the generator system. The cars entered the highway system at speed. The bubble formed around the car and then accelerated the car to airliner speeds. It did not matter how the road twisted and turned, or undulated, the people in the car felt nearly nothing. There was a light breeze that passed through the bubble giving them fresh air of a comfortable temperature.
At the end of the trip, the car was slowed down to a stop at a toll booth where the driver could then drive away. This was a precaution in case the driver fell asleep.
That became so popular that the system was added to nearly all toll roads. People just drove up an on ramp. the bubble appeared around them and took over. At the toll booth to get on, one selected the off ramp one was aiming for. Since all cars had a two way system to talk to an assistance system, one could change the end point in route.
The system prevented accidents, no matter how heavy the traffic was.
One problem that could crop up with this system is what happens when the power goes out. There would be backup systems all over the place, but if it failed totally, cars are not designed for airliner speeds. It could be a bloodbath if the power just shut down and the cars were going along helplessly. Of course, a solution is that the bubbles stay on for a while after the power goes off. Cars might careen all over the place but they would be protected by the bubbles. Under a power out, cars might be a couple miles away from the road, but the passengers would not be harmed as air resistance, and resistance to other things the bubble would hit would protect them for the most part anyway.

08 )
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I heard a song where things were going bad, washing machine failing, being late for a dinner date, they get together for some love making and one of the children had a bad dream. After hearing the song for years, my mind finally shifted into story idea mode.
The gods played games with the people. Some were more sadistic than others. A few of the gods love the people and try what they might to protect them.
One large group of gods decided to have some real fun. They created a soul of pure evil and highest levels of power that the people could access. They sent an omen that the child would arrive at a specific time based on the stars and planets. They worded it very carefully to make it as vague as possible.
Other gods tried to have input but most attempts were rejected. One god who loved the people did slip in a very slight change. He got them to agree that it would be the second child, not the first child.
It seemed to be a very minor change. There were society differences, as the first born inherited everything from the family and had instant social status. Since the evil one would rule the world even if he were the eighteenth child, it was not something to worry about. They even used that god's magic for the second child portion of the spell.
The spell was cast and the omen became common knowledge among the people. Their fun would not be stopped by any god or group of gods, unless they all joined together to remove it. they would not do that and the other gods were not powerful or numerous enough to do anything about it.
The people loving god waited a short time, then cast a very simple, weak spell tied to his second child magic. Now it was just a matter of time.
The time came. The people studied the omen and tried to work out the right time. The gods were sly in making it easy to get some false positive identification for the time, and even false negative for the times. The people was not going to stop their fun.
The people loving god's magic kicked in and the first child was born. The couple loved the child and lavished love on him. he was strong, healthy and seemingly perfect.
The couple decided to have a second child. they went into their room and were about to consummate the act. they hear a knocking on the door and a sobbing child. they open the bedroom door and the child was sobbing. "I had a bad dream!" he said, needing love. The parents were no longer in the mood.
Each and every time they get into the mood, the child would have nightmares and break up the lovemaking. Slowly, the parents began to get the idea that the boy would never have any siblings if this went on.
Before the boy was too old to be suffering nightmares like this, the mother dies of an illness. The father remarries the mother's sister and she has a number of children. the boy has no more nightmares.
The gods don't understand what had happened to their great plan to bring evil into the world. It was perfect. With the mother's death, the spell was broken and they would have to start all over again.
The people loving god kept his humor to himself. It was always more fun to play games with the gods than with the people.
He had made it so that the first born would always have nightmares about the nature of the sibling and break up the love making to create the child. It would never exist at least until there was someone strong enough to end it the first chance that the evil showed up. the mother dying was an added plus.

09 )
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I saw a high rail pickup truck ahead of me. The tips of some Fronds of some type of palm tree, were waving over the bed rail and that gave me this idea.
The truck was the biggest pickup truck made, and the owner raised the truck up on the axles too. it was hard to look into the bed because it was high.
There had been a number of missing person reports around the county, but since the area is still part of a brand new colony and there were some unstudied and possibly unknown creatures that could be dangerous, such disappearances were chocked up as losses to the wilds.
Skylar was following the truck. He saw what looked like a plant in the bed. He just saw the tips of the leaves. Being a biologist, he was kind of curious about it but had other things to do.
Over the next month, he kept seeing the truck and the same plant in the back. He wondered why the guy would drive around with the same plant in the back. Usually, people put the plants in the ground quickly.
One day, he is at the edge of the wilderness, planning to go hiking. Everybody knew his route and schedule. He sees the truck and a few of the leaves moving in the wind above the bed rail. He walks over and finds he cannot see in. He sets his hands on the rail of the pickup's bed and lifts himself up to have a look. As he pulls himself up, giant jaws open up and spring at him.
The owner of the truck comes by and picks up a couple items from the latest victim and tosses them inside the bed. "You have to be more careful about your meals, Don't leave a mess."
The owner of the truck cannot get the monster out of his truck, he knows it cannot be destroyed by non-military weapons, so he accepts that all the curious people who get eaten by it.

10 )
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The building department was tough. It was common to be approved for a project only to find that there was a need for more permits. Inspections would be "red tagged" as failed because the plans were wrong, requiring re-engineering and more approval processes with plenty of remarks to require going back and forth between the building department and engineers.
People who dealt with the building department regularly, charged three times the price of the project with a promise to return any unused funds once the project was completely finalized. Those who did not do that suffered dearly from trying to get money out of the customer or anybody else.
One time, some lawyers got hold of the building regulations and after cross checking, analyzing and studying case law, they found that the building department could legally refuse to let anything be built. the regulations were written so the building department could play their games and charge their fees with impunity and no one could do anything about it if one wanted the project built.
No one above the building department was going to do anything. They were owned by the building department. The last time there was a rumor of a change in the regulations, every official's house and business received a surprise inspection and each person had thousands of dollars in permit fees and penalties for un-permitted work found on their property. Until the laws were changed, the building department had the right to fully enforce the demand for payment.
Pure evil arrived in town. He looked like a kindly businessman and acted like that to anybody who was ever around him. he was not a leader type person as everybody would expect. He said he just wanted to open a second business in town.
He checked out open plots of land, examined places for rent or sale, and talked to a lot of people around town, finding out if there was a possible need for his business.
He found a couple competitors and discussed how he would be different so he would not be a direct competitor and what areas would be good to open into to help serve the city while being far enough away to not effect their businesses.
He purchased the property he would build on, had the place completely engineered down to the last paint sample. he then went to the building department. He did not bring his plans at first. He went there to sense their souls and to talk about what he would need. He had studied the lawyer's report on the codes and studied the codes themselves so he knew exactly what he was dealing with.
He went back to the building department quite a few times just to make sure he understood what they were after. Each time he got a slightly different answer.
He finally came in with his plans and went through the approval process. The plans went back several times as expected. he then made changes and went through the process again. He felt how the evil in them came to the forefront whenever they had power over him.
He then got word from one of his minions that something bit was happening in another part of the world that would require his attention. He had time for his construction, but he could not spend the time to deal with the process the building department, much as he would love the fun.
He walked into the building department with all his corrected plan and then sent out some power into the minds of every person in the building department, even those on vacation.
He told them that he had something more important to do elsewhere. Much as he would love to work with them, he did not have the time. They will give him a final price for the project and the final design of the plans. The project will be built and only failures will be those not matching the plans.
He then showed them the ecstasy of being truly evil, and also the horrors of hell. He told them that they will have the evil pleasures if they follow his instructions, or will be immediately sent to hell if don't expedite the project.
He left for a week. When he came back, he had his plans and twice the normal fee he would pay at the end of the project. His plans were exactly right, both to what he needed and what they wanted.
He started construction of the project. at each stage he passed approval, he gave them a bit more pleasure in their evilness. He was hard on his workers to make sure everything was exactly to the plan, making one team rip their work out three times on their own dime, before they got it right.
The other continent project was brewing nicely. He was not needed yet so he could work this project.
He woke one day to the feeling of being slightly isolated from someone in the building department. Each time he felt that, that person shifted to good. As the day wore on, he tuned in on the person to understand their feelings.
It was a woman and she was feeling guilty about becoming evil. He wondered how to deal with this. This person could stop the others from becoming pure evil if they simply caused a failure of some part of the approval process. All she would have to do is find one document that had something questionable, or find some document that was not filled out and the others would go to hell. If she became pure, she could be saved, but most likely she would likely stay on probation for some time. The first time she messed up she would be sent down. Whether they became pure evil or ended up in hell, did not really matter to him. He just needed this project done fast. Anything the wavering woman does would be just enough delay to stop him, and also might break free the others to do their normal acts, stopping the project completely.
He has no power over the women or the others to change their minds. He suddenly feels helpless for the first time of his long existence.

11 )
.
He was an inventor. None of his inventions had commercial value, but they did solve some problem, usually ones caused by not having enough money to do something "right".
He found in a few of his projects that he needed a forklift. He saw that he only had to lift things off the ground so he did not need any real lifting. most fork lifts have a rack that the forks are attached to that will lift items as high as the cab. that was not needed. He also did not want to drive around with a fork lift on a trailer since he could not afford the trailer or a real working forklift.
Being an inventor, he decided to do something "cool" by making his old truck a forklift. Looking over the project, he decided the forks should not stick out all the time so they should retract. He saw he would have to do some heavy modification of the truck to handle the loads.
He made a decision and took another, heavier truck that was not running, and stripped it down to the frame. He made the truck able to handle really heavy loads. He could not decide whether to have the forks in front or in back, so he made extra long forks both front and back. they would slide out with power. All that was needed was to raise the object no higher than his bumper so he made the truck drop down on the axles and raise up. the actual movement of the fork's hydraulics was about six inches.
He made the bumpers big to protect the truck from the loads. He changed the engine to something really powerful and hence heavy too. the suspension would carry four of his trucks on the forks if needed, if the weight was on both forks. He also put cameras below the bumper so he can see what the forks are doing. When he had the truck done, he painted it to be eye catching, even if it were an amateur's art work
He took the truck out and saw that people were looking at his truck. He went to a project where he had to move some stuff and put his forks to use. He lowered the truck and the forks, slid them forward, shifting them side to side to fit the holes in the pallet. then extended them fully. He raised the forks to the bumper, then raised the truck and moved the stuff around.
This was a lot of fun for him. He got the job done in a couple hours rather than a few days. He did several jobs with his truck, including carrying several pallets of stuff at the same time. The truck handled it great.
There were police reports in the news about a gang crushing cars on the highway. the best information was that someone would stop behind a big car, then a second car would pull up behind. the second car would then drive forward compacting the car and people inside into a pancake.
Another tactic was to box in a car with cars to the side to block escape and the front car would slow down and the rear car would not. No one was sure why the gang was doing this other than for fun, but people were now getting into accidents trying not to be hemmed in.
He came to stop behind a car that was obviously modified. The rear bumper was bigger, higher and heavier than normal Whoever did this made some attempt to keep it from being really noticeable. he saw it because of what he did to his truck. then two cars pulled on each side of him on the three lane road and stopped short enough from the line to block him in. then a big car pulled up from behind. all the cars were heavily modified.
He recognized what was going on so he decided to take steps immediately. He let the truck slowly sink down until his bumper just looked under their cars. he lowered the forks and extended them completely at the lowest setting. He then raised the truck slowly until the forks were just below the cars. The light change and the car behind him moved forward and pushed him into the other car. This was the gang doing the crushing.
He lifted the forks up to his bumper and raised the truck to maximum, and started driving. the cars on the sides just sat there as the three pulled into the intersection at increasing speeds.
His truck was not well balanced with the cars front and back, each bump causing them to touch ground.
The other cars caught up to him quickly just as they drove past a speed trap. he turned hard right, running into the car on that side. the police car immediately started up with flashing lights. He then turned left catching the car on that side. They both had visible damage.
The police car pulled up behind them. then other police cars appeared up ahead, catching the other two cars as they tried to run. He came to a stop near the other police cars. The gang was arrested.
He drove the two cars to the police impound while wreckers picked up the other two. there, he showed the police how he retracted and extended the forks.
His truck had serious damage, with bent frame, damage to both bumpers and deep dents on the sides.
He found out later there was a reward for capturing the gang. That was the first time he got real money from one of his inventions.
A number of people wanted forklift trucks like his, for the same reason he made his. He soon had a dozen mechanics working for him, rebuilding trucks to do the job. One company had ten of them operating in their yard as it was cheaper than a real forklift and these trucks were road legal so they could be used for other duties. Every owner wanted his interesting custom paint job too.
Since the mechanics were able to do their job without him, he was able to do his original work and spend time on coming up with new inventions, a few of which ended up being popular also.

12 )
.
Minallty hatched. He knew instantly he was not in an environment that he belonged. He needed to grow and grow fast, and he needed food to do so. His first act was to eat his shell and lick up any stray liquids from it. He then looked around for anything else.
He knew he was supposed to be in a nest with siblings. Something inside him said he was to eat the other eggs to gain enough strength to start growing. There were no eggs. There were no siblings that he could eat. He was alone. that was all wrong.
He sniffed and tasted everything around him, learning to identify them. he found floors, walls, nails, He did not know the names but for some reason, he felt he was in the habitation for something much bigger. that meant that growing bigger and fast was an imperative.
He then saw something moving. It was about his size. Instincts kicked in and he stalked the thing. It ignored him. He suddenly leapt at the thing. It turned while he was in mid air.
He found himself in a fight for his life. The thing seemed as interested in eating him as he was in it. He found the creature's movement was fairly simple and he could take advantage of constant reactions to something he did. He finally pinned the thing down and killed it. It really did not taste good, but it was food.
' When he was done, he felt he gained about as much energy from eating the thing as he got from fighting it. He had to be more efficient in his killing of them.
He soon found that there were versions of the same thing that were gigantic compared to him. In order to be able to deal with them, he had to eat a lot of the small ones first. He was killing the small ones, but the fights were always tough and he had grown only a little since he hatched. Size was the key to his strength.
He got real sly and learned fast. they were ore an automatic creature. He was able to make use of their weaknesses. He also had to be careful of larger ones of the as they were very dangerous to him.
He could not find what they fed on, even when he followed them a long time. He did see that the big ones fed on smaller ones fairly often, but he knew there had to be something else to act as food. the big thing was that he never saw any other creatures around.
It took time, but he finally grew to the size of the large ones. He now knew every body length of the place he was in. Whatever he saw the others eat, was not food for him.
These things just did not have the nutrition he needed, but there was nothing else. He only grew a tiny bit with each kill and not much better with his most efficient kill. With the size he had, his kills were a lot more efficient. He lived most on the little ones who he would snap up with his sticky tongue It hurt when they attacked his tongue but they swallowed nicely after one crush inside his mouth. It took a lot of them to get a real meal. They kept coming but almost not enough to make them worth the effort as he had to sneak up to them to catch them.
.
I pictured this as a lizard like creature eating something that was a cross between a roach and a spider. The lizard could grow to the size of Godzilla if it got enough food. instead it is about twice the size of a large beatle.

13 )
.
Gizmo invented a lot of things. He was always pushing the limits of technology. His big problem is that the technology seldom matches what is needed. His failures do show others what they can do and other inventions are created from his work.
His favorite exploration involves containing energies. His creations commonly burn up, send out the wrong kinds of energies, not start, or just work miserably.
A few people have depended on his untested inventions. One time someone accidentally created a ball of plasma that was eating the fabric of space. Gizmo grabbed a shield generator. He had assembled it but never plugged it in. In theory, it should contain the fabric of space for experimentation.
He set up the machine next to the energy they created. He explained that since it never had been used, it most likely will add to the power of their energy. He also said he doubted it would be able to enclose the energy. the resulting bubble would likely be eaten by their energy anyway. He told him his inventions never work.
They asked him what other options did he have. He set it up and turned it on. The bubble started building outside the energy, then, flickered. There was a smell of smoke. then the bubble reappeared around the energy.
As the fabric of space inside his bubble was eaten up, the bubble got smaller. Finally the energy and the bubble were the same size. Everybody held their breath. A few hours passed, then the light inside blinked out. A few minutes later, the bubble was gone. There was no detectable change where all that happened. the membrane of space healed itself. Everybody expected a spectacular failure and it worked.
Over time, Gizmo's inventions ended up the same way. The only time they worked was when the failure was expected to be spectacular. Generally though, his stuff did not work.
An evil empire encroached into their area. They had a weapon that caused space stations and entire planets to completely disappear. the weapon was only used on military installations that blocked the imperial growth.
Gizmo was on a military space station and the commander was extremely competent. The empire had to concentrate a vast amount of force to force the commander to withdrawal from different territories. It did not matter that he was out numbered and out gunned. His tactics and strategies were beyond what the empire was used to dealing with.
The empire finally reached within range of the space station. A very large ship appeared among their ranks. That had to be the one with the super weapon. Battle ships with various shields had tested the weapon and failed.
The commander came to Gizmo and begged him to come up with something to protect the space station. Gizmo gave it some thought and cobbled together something. He put it onto four shuttles and had them robotically placed in a perfect pyramid around the space station with one directly between the station and the weapon.
"We detect energy building in the weapon." someone called out.
Gizmo took out his remote control and typed in a code.
"Will this work?" the commander asked nervously.
"None of my other inventions worked. why should this?" He hit the button. A moment later the weapons ship flashed bright as it fired.

14 )
.
The monster appeared out of a space warp and it effected every thing around it. It appeared in a house while a party was going on. The people and animals became small. The monster turned out to also be small, but monstrous to the people.
The monster chased the people around the apartment. It was sort of like a slimy worm with jaws. At one point, it ran across some soap and recoiled. It was badly wounded. the wound healed over, but it remembered the soap.
The monster then learned that it did not do well when it dried out. It had to climb into the drains and get down into the water for a short time to moisten itself. It could not go below the water. The family attacked the monster while it was in the drain and it was forced to come out after them.
They realized that they could defeat the monster. They got to the kitchen well ahead of the monster. They shoved, pried, pulled, a cutting board so it hung over the drain. they then worked the soap bo onto the cutting board, prying the spout to the open position.
To keep the cutting board from falling, they somehow worked the blender onto the edge to weight it down.
The monster appeared. so they positioned themselves to entice it to come after them.
The monster started extending itself, becoming thinner and thinner as it stretched. It still had a blob of body on the ground. It caught hold of a knob about half way up, then contracted itself. The blob finally released from the floor and was drawn up. The blob fitted itself around a lower knob and the head stretched out again to grab hold of the edge of the counter. The people stayed close, waiting for the monster to be able to get on top so it will chase them.
The monster makes a third lift and the upper body laid flat on the counter and stuck, pulling the blob up on top. Now the people move to their next position to lead it where it needed to go. the monster then follows them. they get around the sink and it goes straight for them. It goes down and reaches the drain, and decides to soak a minute.
As the head disappears below the sink surface, the people shove on the soap bottle. It falls wrong and hits the sink first before lodging in the drain. When it hit, the closed the top so no soap would leak out. They watched for the bubbles of the bottle and there were none.
the monster, angry, squeezes along the side of the soap bottle and reaches up with the head. the people watch in horror as it reaches up for them. they get off the cutting board just as the monster chomps down on it to get a grip. It starts pulling. the end held by the blender lifts a little.
Someone gets an idea and starts shoving on the blender to get it more on the board as that will make the board tip down more.
The guy with the idea almost does not let go as the board tips and the blender slides.
The blender lands directly on the soap bottle and jams it down, and crushes it. The soap squirts out all over the monster. The monster shrivels and retracts into the drain.
"what is that switch?"
"That is the garbage disposal."
"Turn the water on."
A group gets the faucet flowing. They then stand on each other's shoulders and flip the switch. The soap bottle gets chopped up and the pieces, along with the monster, goes down the drain in tiny pieces.
The people start growing. they climb down off the counter and grow to full size again.

15 )
.
There was a program about Estonia, where the people get together to sing at an event. They had several quotes in the advertizement, "When 20 thousand people start singing, you cannot stop them." Another is "when singing toppled an empire." My mind got to working. the beginning of the show was boring so I did not watch it.
The people were blessed. They had existed for centuries in that land. They had forgotten how it worked, but they had some power that defeated mighty enemies that took over their nation. People studied what records there were, searching everywhere, even in other nations, for a sign of what that power was, but could not find it. Many now thought it was a myth.
The nation was not as good as the people thought it should be. something just was not right. There was wars and rumors of wars all around them. Even their allies could not e depended on.
finally, a group of nations joined together and started invading other countries. Because of the natural barriers around the nation, the allies consolidated their holdings on the nations around them.
Finally, the empire moved in. The meager defenses had no chance. the empire took over the land with little effort. The empire was extremely abusive to the people and their places of worship. Several temples were ground into dust, trucked out and scattered in other nations so nothing of that power existed. The empire did everything they could to remove anything of power from the land so the people could not call on that. then they started systematically moving the people off their lands. first they were moved to opposite side of the nation. Later, they started spreading the people around the empire.
They finally started an eradication program. That was when something happened among the people. They started tuning up their voices. it was unconscious. They never gave it a thought. In the prison camps, in prison, in the homes they were stored, they just started making tuneful sounds. Even young babies were doing it.
Finally, on a special holiday of their nation, they all started singing. Thousands of people all over the empire, started singing. they were singing in perfect harmony, at the same time, singing the same song. The empire was hearing it from reports from all over the empire.
The people were singing even when their masters beat them. Even a few who were killed during the song continued singing.
Finally, the song ended. There was a long silence. Then the whole world shook. The military bases suddenly became a whirl of dust. Growths appeared on the leadership, even many who most people would not thing to be part of the leadership. within an hour the growths covered their bodies and they suffocated to death.
The prisons opened up and the people started marching out the gates and doors. They started singing again, a low long tune with many breaks in it. the people got into trucks and drivers climbed into the cab and started driving. they had no choice in the matter.
The people were delivered to the doors of their homes, or to homes that were abandoned due to the deaths of their previous owners if their own homes were destroyed.
A dust storm developed over the empire and moved to the nation. The temples rose up in their old places, the rocks which were scattered around the empire as dust had returned.
the people finally stopped singing and got a view of the conditions they were now living in. the nation had taken serious damage. The empire had it worse. Not a nation was left standing. There was no leadership to take over. The people were on their own.

16 )
.
We have a program of tested nuclear explosives and dismantling them if they get too old. I cannot remember what caused this idea to pop up into my mind, but it sounded good enough to write it down (all sound good enough to write them down, really)
The federation came up with a super bomb. It was put to use to devastate the empire, ending any desire for expansion.
The bombs were really shock bombs. They jarred the area they were used against, by shifted the fabric of space time and everything attached to the fabric.
Careful measurements showed that if used on a heavily armed space station, the entire structure shifted twenty feet, and then returned to where it was, all in a fraction of a second. It was rare that people or equipment could take that sudden acceleration in two directions. Inside the space station, "things went wrong afterwards" as one report had it.
When it was set off on a planet, which was where it was used the most, the devastation was impressive. Since the bombs were not big enough to move an entire planet, the explosion shifted a section of the planetary crust. They became one big volcano, even if it were a cold planet.
The federation military had a program to dismantle the bombs and defuse the working materials. Other militaries would love to get their hands on the old bombs for their campaigns. Outside the federation, there were always wars between governments. The federation had excellent security with the old bombs when transporting them.
One day, a shipment of bombs ran into problems. The crews died suddenly and the ship was lost. None of the tracking systems worked on it so the only way to find the ship was to physically detect it. Only the crews knew the exact route they were taking.
After a couple decades, a salvage crew found the ship. Since they were not part of the federation, they saw great value in the ship. They towed the ship out of federation territory and made arrangements to sell the cargo. They ended up wealthy beyond their dreams.
Bombs were sold in lots of five, one of each age of bombs. Every single government purchased a set so every bomb was taken.
One tin horn dictator decided to test the bombs. He knew the blast radius of the ones used against the empire and decided to set off the oldest bomb. he figured that as bombs degrade, their blasts get smaller. If the oldest bomb failed, he would at least know the life span of the bombs.
It happened that no one knew he purchased the bombs and no one knew he was testing them. He was surrounded by enemies so he was not in communications with them. He set off the bomb at four times the blast radius from anything.
The surrounding governments noticed that what little regular communications that came from the dictator, had stopped entirely. No one bothered to check to see why. any attempt to get close with even a passenger ship was considered an act of war.
Over time, government after government want silent. since most were very protective of their borders, no one checked to see why. It was strange though. Everybody knew a number of planets had went silent.
Finally, a government had civilizations on two planets orbiting the same star. The bomb went off on the "colony" which depended on trad with the home world. When that world, which was on the other side of the star had gone silent, they sent their ships to investigate. The planet was a bright red ball of molten rock. Word got out about the bomb test. No one knew what had happened, but they knew it was bad.
A government was involved in a war. They had the bombs and the other did not. they suspected something went wrong with the bombs on the other planets but was not sure what. The government decided to take out a military asteroid half way between the two nations. It was really a planet orbiting the galaxy without a planet. It had full gravity and was warm enough at the core to supply energy for the civilization that lived deep under the surface.
Many times, they had shut down the asteroid but could do no damage to it because of the armor. Within a month, the asteroid was causing problems. They mounted an all out attack to shut down the asteroid as they always had. this time, they had all the bombs mounted in one cargo container. As the last of the bombers withdrew, the container was released and that ship powered away.
Sensors all around the space, observations from great distances, all watched the bombs impact. they felt it from a lightyear away. The close ships took damage. The planet glowed like red dwarf as the matter of the planet was partially converted to energy.
The Word of the results spread rapidly. "Within a week, the planets that went silent were checked, they too had been turned into proto stars.
The federation was soon receiving shipments of the remaining old bombs by governments begging them to take them. Everybody now knew that the bombs got stronger as they got older, rather than weaker like most other explosives. After that, the federation did not have to worry about the transportation of the old explosives of any kind. everybody assumed they were too dangerous to mess with.

17 )
.
Gilmore showed early signs of having super hero ability, so he was put into the accelerated training of the justice league. Within a couple years, his apparent powers faded away. they kept him in the training anyway until he completed college. He was extremely well trained in the methods of being a super hero, but he had no apparent ability.
He was released and sent to college to learn something to prepare him for life as a normal person. He got into gymnastics, acting, dance. He turned out to be a brilliant clown. The college tapped him to be a mascot.
He was a junior mascot, a little beast to the school's big beast mascot. The crowd loved him and his antics. They were not something the big beast would ever do he was allowed to do it.
At one event, some rowdy fans got onto the field and started grabbing the mascots and pulling the heads off. They grabbed Gilmore and his head would not get off. It was hurting him. He got angry and tried to escape. Something came over him and he sent them flying. He then ran across the field, doing flips and cart wheels to save a woman one of the thugs was trying to molest. He then leaped and flew out of the arena as the police came in.
He came down just outside the arena and there was a gang fight about to start. He landed in the middle of them. they attacked and he leaped away with the laid out flat.
He wandered the town, unable to get the mascot outfit off. he seemed to wander into one crime after another, breaking them up.
Early morning he was back in the stadium and went to the dressing room. He automatically reached for the head to remove it and it came off. He was shocked. He got out of the uniform as fast as he could and after taking care of everything, he left.
The little beast was the talk of the school. Gilmore never admitted he was in it. He acted as surprised as other as his exploits around town were regaled.
The next time he was in the outfit, he experimented and found that he had no super power. It was funny for the audience as he did belly flops in his leaping to fly, and tripping over his feet as he did the tricks he did as a super hero. He had no idea where the power came from or went.
Three events went normal. The forth was a public event. The team was entertaining some kids. A bunch of heavies rushed into the intersection they were dong their thing. broke open a door for a jewelry store and moments later, came out. One of the heavies ran right through the mascot team. He hit Gilmore and something clicked in his mind. He turned and grabbed the thug, slamming him down. he leaped over the kids and landed in front of the car, flipping it onto the side so the heavies in there could not escape. He then caught the others who were going a different way, one he flipped the car over when the guy got in and then pinched the upper doors so the metal licked together.
He then ran off through the city and broke up a bunch of other crimes. Late morning, he returned the outfit.
He switched characters with others and the few events that trouble started, nothing happened with him. he was like the other mascots. it was only when he got back into that one mascot and trouble started, that he was able to react like a super hero.
His super hero status existed only when he was in that mascot outfit and only started when he was actively involved in trouble. He now had to figure out how to stay in the mascot outfit, or get out of it permanently. He was not even sure if he should mention it to anybody since it was not predictable.

18 )
.
It was a war. The people had defenses, but they had to know where the attack was coming from to defend against it. Their enemy was somewhat invisible at the start of the attack. They had to watch for the tell-tale signs of the approach of the attack.
A light static appeared on their communications first thing. Then there were rhythmic bursts of static as the enemy approached. Finally, a strong wind developed blowing outward from the center of the attack.
There were better communications bands, but they used the one band the static would be strongest for communications so they had the longest warning of an attack. They had a second band to communicate with when the static was bad, but was not allowed to use so unless they could not hear each other.
The community was going about their business. Farmers were tending their crops or rounding up livestock. There were hunters in the nearby forests searching for game and gathering natural plants to supplement the community's diets.
A hunter called in and was having difficulty getting through due to static. He shifted to a second band that was clearer and reported his problem. Headquarters instantly sent out a signal to the community that the attack was imminent. Sometimes they can tell the direction of the attack from how bad the static is from one end of their territory to the other. It was not so this time. Everybody headed in.
As the last animals and people entered the fortress, the repeated bursts of static was now quite audible. Still there was no sign of what direction the attack was coming. People put their stuff away and headed to their battle stations.
Finally the wind built up strong. There was usually a sign of direction but there was none.
Gilmore got on line. "What direction is the wind blowing from your place? he called to a friend on the wall. "It is blowing from the other side of the fortress.
"What direction is the wind blowing on your position," he asked another friend. "Blowing from the inside. he asked several others. same answer.
Gilmore looked straight up. "Ii is coming straight down on us, fire missiles! Fire missiles! now!"
There was a burst of light in the center and the missiles burned into the sky, wave after wave going straight up. Command ordered everybody inside for protection from debris.
Gilmore was one of the last inside, explosions went off directly over head, it looked like every missile hit which was unusual for most battles. The missiles kept going up. Sparks of debris started flowing down and he sealed his door and went downstairs.
The requisite missiles were launched and no more were sent out. Some needed to be held back in case of something else happening. Gilmore reported what he saw before he came in. They sat and waited. There was impacts outside, banging like gongs. That went on for what seemed like hours.
They waited until it was near dusk before Gilmore went back out to have a look. chunks of materials laid everywhere, draped over walls, pools if goo filling some courtyards. He gave his report. Command decided to wait until morning to go out and clean up.
With the rise of the sun, they went out to have a look. Gilmore's description was mild compared to what they actually saw. They must have put serious hurt on the enemy.
The whole community was involved in cleaning up the mess. It was hard work. It took them two days to make the place presentable again.
It would be many months before there was another attack, and they were all from a distance. There was also something strange about the repeated bursts of energy, there was a slight tone difference, almost like walking with a bad foot.
.
the wind picked up like for a nearby thunder cell and I kept looking to find out where it was. I did not see it until I was well out of the way, it was nearly overhead. My image of this is a giant that likes to step on the people in the fields and kick the buildings down. This time, he had lifted his foot up high and was gong to stomp down on the community, but the missiles caught his foot in mid air and ripped it apart. he would walk with a limp after that.

19 )
There is the joke where a man goes to the doctor for a leg pain. The doctor tells him that it is simply old age. He then tells the doctor that both legs are the same age and the other one does not hurt.
The population had boom and bust periods. They lost and gained technologies many times over their history. At the moment, they were crawling out of a bust population where it had really plummeted.
The population was manufactured and assembled together. During boom periods, the body parts were fresh and new, being manufactured as complete sets. When the population plummeted, the people would be made up of old but good parts many from different ages. The population was not told that.
People's time in life ended for many different reasons. sometimes old body parts gave out before the rest of the body was old enough. Many times, of course, there was purposeful or accidental damage to the body to end it.
the only new part in every body was the brain. Data from old brains were copied and placed into storage and the brains were destroyed. No way were someone going to be forced to be born again. Very early experiments in that failed miserably.
One problem with being made up of spare parts was that some parts wore out while others were in excellent condition. In the case of the man in the joke, one leg was already old when it was last used while the other was used only a couple times. The older leg was suffering from age, hurting.
There was a lot of effort to assemble bodies from complete sets, but when that was not possible, and they could not create a complete set of the same age, they at least, tried to use matched pairs.
The spare parts were dwindling and they would soon have to start making all fresh parts for the people. they were already trying to recover the technology to have it perfected in time. Until then, the spare parts would have to do.

20 )
.
The king went before the oracle. "You could live forever at the top of your power, but two men will bring you down, destroying you and all you built up." The king removed every man from his court and made his guards, his assistants, his entire court all female. Any male child who could stand and pee was sent out of the court. Men followed his commands outside the court, but no man, especially two of them, were forbidden to get into the same building as he was in. when he traveled, any men within a couple miles of him was located and moved out. The king exercised his magical and political power like a true master.
Brawndolf and his partner prepared for the battle."I use a special spell that will block forget spells. When they are in place, all it takes is to be around strong magic to turn it off."
"I don't go through that effort. I use all my power for the battle."
"You will regret that decision."
They entered the battle with other magicians against other magicians. Brawndolf could feel the forget spell within many spells that hit other magicians. Because they could not remember their defenses, they were easy to remove with a second cast. Brawndolf's blocking spell worked better than expected as he picked off magicians using very simple but highly effective methods.
it came down to him and the enemy master and the surrounding soldiers on both sides. Their energies locked together and they struggled for supremacy. the other one did something Brawndolf had never seen before and the moment of distraction left him open for a blast. He woke up as a naked child of about four years old. His memory faded quickly until he had no memory of what happened. The other magician had given everything he had in his strike and was now a dried husk. A couple arrows finished him off.
Brawndolf's forces were trapped and killed to the last man. Brawndolf, now a girl, was swept up an eventually sold into slavery.
Manana was pregnant. She was dying. She begged a friend to raise her girl properly. She died and her friend cut the baby out of her body. The baby turned out to be a boy. The friend decided to raise the boy as a girl named Liona in every single way. No one would ever know this was a boy.
Decades pass. Brawndolf and Liona grow up. They are tapped to be in the king's court. they start out as drudges but earn higher rankings as they go, being intelligent and industrious. they also decide there is something they dislike about each other. The king's guard sees them fighting like wildcats. The fight is broken up and they are put into the guard to learn control.
They end up leading a emissary to the king. they get before the king and the king's power breaks Brawndolf's forget spell. The emissary rushes the king. Liona tries to stop her and Liona loses her clothing in the scuffle, showing her to be a boy. The king reacts angrily and uses magic to strike the emissary and Liona, and Brawndolf gets in the way of the blast. He suddenly becomes the man he was when he was originally spelled. He is also fully charged with his magic and remembers everything that happened before an since his battle. He responds to the king with a blast of magic The king starts sparkling and then disappears in glowing dust motes. The magic of the castle disappears and suddenly it is not all that impressive.
Brawndolf finds himself the king. and keeps the court of women around him. Liona, now named Lion, becomes his second in command. The two of them understand both women and men and the kingdom thrives under their care.

oops

21 )
.
He was in a space suit when he crash landed on the planet. He traveled quite a distance before he just had to sleep. He laid down in a clearing.
A time after he noticed something crawling on top of him. It could not get into is suit since it was armored. He watched the creature, sort of a lizard with a blue crest, bounce up and down, nodding its head at the same time. He barely kept himself from laughing.
About a minute later, another lizard with a red crest appeared and bounced the same way. they then attacked each other, scuffling and tumbling together. the red crest sprang away and jumped off him. A few minutes later, three red crests appeared on him and the blue crest scuffled with them a little then left. It came back with a bunch more blue crests.
More and more of each type arrived and soon he was covered in the creatures. They lined up, gesturing and posing for each other.
Finally, the lines went still, lizards on each side of him facing each other. In one moment, they sprang at each other. At first he thought it was like a mating thing or a game, but then he saw limbless ones, a headless body thrown in the air. More lizards crawled on top him when the space allowed.
If he were not so exhausted, he would have gotten up, dumping them on the ground. He laid there watching the filth, gore and body parts build up. He dozed off several times during the battle. He could not tell who was winning or losing.
The next morning, the battle had ended. A few battered blue crest lizards faced fewer red crest lizards. Red crest finally turned and left. The lizards pranced around on the bodies making challenging movements to the red crest side.
He dozed off several times waking at night, and deciding to sleep until morning. the lizards stayed on him. Sensors said the smell had gotten stronger on top of him.
Early morning, he finally decided it was time to get going on his journey again. He slowly stood up. The lizards attacked his face shield, trying to get him to lay back down again. he stood up and brushed the crud off of him. It was then that he realized that there was nothing within view that was above the flat ground. He walked around and saw there was no rise anywhere at all. The lizards fought to gain control of the only high point in miles around, him.

22 )
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They created a material that was nearly impervious to anything they had. they then developed a super high energy beam that was able to vaporize the material. It took a lot of energy.
The way the beam worked, was to knock the atoms through the fabric of space for a very short distance. When in operation, the beam hits the material and the surface subsides because of the beam. A distance away, a plasma appears in mid air in line with the beam. The atoms are converted to protons and electrons so they the material is not recovered.
The big problem with this beam system is that it can only make a shape that the beam can aim directly into. to do the inside of something, you need a hole at least the diameter of the beam.
Another problem is that if the beam does not have enough energy, it won't touch the material. They tend to get weaker as they are being used so they have to be replaced often.
The material has been a boon to many industries. The material does not wear out, does not corrode, makes for excellent physical shielding, though most high and low energies pass right through it.
At one plant, a new cutter machine came in. it was decided to locate it to a different part of the complex. The old room for the complex was not going to be in use. Because of the design of the new machine, the old repair team would not be used. They would do other work until they could be brought in for training.
The repair team looked at the old machine. Since it was going to just sit there until the space was needed, they filed papers requesting to do some experimentation. They were shocked when they received approval.
They took the spare parts and rebuilt the machine to a new design for their first tests. They also got all the old parts that was still in storage.
With the help of some company engineers to work the numbers when they were not actively working on other projects, They were ready to test their design.
In their request to use power many officials came for the first test of the machine. The officials commented at how diabolical the machine looked. They weighed a piece of the material that was already in a ball. They then started the machine and let the computer guide the object in front of a dozen beams. the spray of energy was fairly wide and quite small. When they were satisfied with the run of the machine, they took the object and re-weighed it. They had cut it down to a tenth the size they started with yet the ball was still intact.
They then put the ball back on the rack and ran the beam, this time cutting straight across. They showed they had hollowed out the ball. It was rough, but the officials were jumping up and don yelling, patting each other on the back.
The team then explained what they did. they used the weakest of the beams and aimed them to cross at the same point to equal the energies needed. they had them tuned down so they just had the power needed at that one point.
They immediately were working again. this time on the type of parts that require interior materials removed. this was a company secret process and the company immediately made a fortune providing parts that no one else could make. In fact, many companies would give them near finished parts to have the interiors hollowed out.
The machine was changed many times, and they made it so they could adjust the shape of the final hot point. they always had to take into account where the energies would appear on the other side
Because they were using all used parts, including those from the new machine, there was no sign of parts purchases to give other companies a clue as to what they created. They would hold sway on the technology for nearly a decade before they finally let the secret out.

Year 11, Week 32, Day Two (week 606)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-21-11 Sunday

90 degrees at nine in the morning, 96 degrees around four. Lots of puffs moving through but they did not effect the sun. A nice breeze blew around fine sawdust.
A storm is aiming at us. The weather fairies are breathing heavily, warming up for their mating calls of "the storm is coming." Over the next few days, they will be standing on the sunny beach in their yellow slickers, panting, and telling us that the sea is calm and the storm has not arrived yet. I might start watching and listening to local news just to hear them call to each other for their mating season.
This weather report was brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.


Yesterday, we came home from yard sailing and the bulk pickup had already arrived. Mom did not want the cuttings from the palm trees laying in the swale all week long.

As I was leaving home, I saw a chair sitting there without a seat. I grabbed it for the wood. It looked like it was oak of something like that. when I got to Mom's I removed the fasteners, which were a screw-cam system where a threaded pieces was inserted a distance away from the joint, and the screw went through the wood and screwed into the fitting. I lost one of those fittings in the grass
the sides themselves were attached with dowels and glue and was done quite well I pounded on them to try to separate them and broke the wood. One would not separate at all, so I used the band saw to cut it, and then realized I should have used the band saw everywhere.

I took one of the broken pieces and tried to split it. It split on a slight angle. I used a hatchet to follow the angle and knock off the corners. I then cut it into quarter sticks. I mounted one on the lathe and worked it into a dowel.

I took a couple bamboo skewers and some pieces of wooden dowel, and made four crochet hooks. I tested them to see if the design was right. With one, I cut my hook off and created a new one as the first was not good enough. I also had a couple I broke easily as I went thinner than I should have. I need to do more sanding and then give them a coat of varnish. I intend to use them a little to make sure I have them right. I need to use more exotic woods, such as walnut, but these were already straight and clean dowels to work with.

Yesterday, I had dismantled a mixer and put it back together. Today, dismantled it again and showed my brother the problem. Then getting it back together was a bit tougher this time. I kept finding something not set right.
My brother and I discussed how to fix the switch. The original plastic switch decayed and broke. My plan is to make one of wood. My brother suggested adding a rheostat on top of it to do the same thing.
My big problem with this project is that I don't need to repair it. I got two good mixers at yard sales for three bucks each. I don't need a third. I was thinking more about using the motor for something. I have no idea what, though.


Yesterday I had dropped off the CD of pictures I took at the turning club meeting. He gave me a slide switch to control motors. On his suggestion, I plugged my dremmel into it and it controlled the power nicely. My dremmel is single speed. I got a bunch of twist and ties and wrapped the switch cord with the dremmel cord so the switch is right up by the motor, and they are plugged in together.
To operate it, I set the speed for the bit I need and don't have to change it until I change the bit or the operation. Having the switch dangling from the motor is not a problem at all.

I was getting ready to grind on the dragon for the first time when my brother arrived. It was almost lunch time anyway. A bit later, my nephew showed up and I showed him the wood. He saw the dragon in it. The lines drawn on and telling him what I was doing helped.

I worked on the handle for the crochet bag. I got to where I decided it was done and then tested out the fit with the bag. I quickly saw that it was far too long for what I was after. It was like a shoulder bag. For how I am using it, that would cause all sorts of problems.
I then ripped out several colors of yarn I had done and checked it again. I decided that would be long enough. It will stretch. I started my long ways stitching. I will double the width, fold it over and sew the edges together, then stitch it to the bag. I have a ways to go but the bag is looking good.

On the way home, I stopped and picked up a piece of Norfolk with 10 knots around it. I plan to carve five faces into it. That will be an interesting challenge. I would love to do female faces but have not had luck with them so far.

I have a tea pot I started making and it is sitting there in my TO-DO list. It is thicker and heavier than it should be but the wood won't let me get much thinner on the inside. It just dawned on me that I have plenty of wood to add some sort of carving on the outside. That would be easy, just takes time. Another carving project...

Next week, I plan to do something more substantial than crochet hooks and dowels. I want to actually start on the dragon. I have several vases that need to be finished up. I have lots of wood to make use of. I have that palm tree to trim.
during the week, if the storm looks bad, I told mom she can call me and I will come and help pick things up for the storm. that cold kill an evening.

I will see what I actually do next week.

23 )
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An earthquake happened not far from Washington DC today. That seeded this concept.
The country was settled by highly religious people, taking the land from heathens. Records showed that there were more seismic activities in the lands early in the Nation’s history than in present times. The populations were smaller then too.
When The religious people came to the nation, they found a great and powerful evil on the land. By being highly religious, they slowly shrunk the evil and concentrated it in one place. They then built their capitol over that place, figuring that their leaders would always be religious and would keep the evil in check.
The evil moved beneath the ground periodically causing earth quakes. The religious leaders and religious people, finally caused the evil to stay put.
Changes in the populations, religions, philosophy, and politics, happened over time. The religious thought that had tamed the evil, had weakened greatly.
Evil bided its time, long past when it could act. it waited for the containing power to ebb even more.
The time came and it moved, heading back to the surface. The nation felt an earth quake. It would wait a while, feel the holding powers reduce, and then move again since the political cap placed over it no longer had power. It would soon be back on the surface to rule the land again.