26 )
.
Years ago, someone asked me if I had a cell phone. I told them no, I had never been to jail....
The society was highly regimented. People wore uniforms that showed your duties, profession, and experience. At a glance, one knew everything about a person.
Every "mark" of a person was earned, good, or bad, and rarely changed unless superceded. One's education mark was changed with each grade graduation in school, and then each degree one earned in college. Anybody ever in politics wore marks of the offices they held. A doctor who's passion is race car driving and who’s hobby is painting, will have marks for each of those.
Of course, improving the marks and adding more is a passion of the society. Some people are covered with their marks to show they at least dabbled in those things. It is all about bragging rights.
Of course, marks can be bad advertizement too. Marks about how many times one lost a job, marks of being sued, being expelled from organizations, being arrested, convictions, and so on are also shown. These marks, being seen, can be held against you and you might never know it for sure.
The marks, can be many different things, a little picture, a medal, a badge, an item can all be a mark. It can also be the type of uniform, a hat, gloves, vest, depending on what it is.
An example, is that the phone you carry makes a difference. Some people have home phones, business phones. If one ends up in jail, one is given a cell phone and one has to have that on you all the time. If someone asks "do you have a cell phone?" you must either show it or at least admit you have one.
It goes for any other mark. If you are asked, you are supposed to demonstrate it. "do you have a diploma? You show the highest ones or the ones that matter.
Most people carry bags, brief cases, or purses with the marks that they don't want to or cannot wear at the moment. They have to be easy to open up and show the items. Most people will have tiny pictures of their marks on there that they can point to, and then show if they have to.

27 )
.
November 9th 2011, at Two O'clock in the afternoon, the government is going to test a new emergency warning system.
The old system required a signal to be sent out from Washington DC and every station would set off their signal and forward the signal to the next area. Each area had a station that would be the one everybody would turn to for emergency reports.
The new system will be activated by Washington DC and will take full control over every television, radio, cable, cell phone in the country. I think also internet will also be effected. They would carry the emergency report that Washington DC chooses to give.
While this system has been in the process of being set up since like the 70s, it has never been tested. Reports state that they don't even know if it is going to work.
Well, I got to thinking about all the things that could go wrong.
ONE
They checked over the system and made sure it was as ready as it was ever going to be. They had their people ready as they were ever going to be. The time arrived. They hit the button. The emergency signal went out.
The message went out. It all worked as planned for the three minutes of the test. The time to release control came. The system would not let go. They hit buttons, they flipped switches, keyboard entries did not work. All broadcasts and communications was silent. No radio or, television signal went out across the country. Phones were shut down, no one could get onto the internet. Even the police could not communicate with each other.
Many system operators tried hard to free their system. they even pulled computer boards and put in new ones. They could not find the source of the shut down as the government had required it to be in several systems.
Without communications, the utilities all around the nation started failing. It did not take long for the nation to start hurting. No one could communicate other than to "run" someone some place. Flights were grounded as there was no way for aircraft to communicate with each other. about the only thing not effected was the military.
The cities, of course, were effected the most. Some places did have generators but most places were "in the dark."
People were dismantling their equipment and re-building them with all new parts just to get on line.
The It took some time but the nation finally came back on line. the emergency system was scrapped. new parts for the whole communications systems were made using just the basic commands, no hidden government codes within them.
TWO
Those in government were ticked off that the people were rejecting them. The movement to unload the government was building. Information on radio and internet were undermining the good those in government thought they were doing. They knew it had to do something to stop the movement before they lost more control.
The emergency alert system was already planned. The few in the know decided to take matters in their own hands.
The emergency alert signal went out on schedule. The test appeared to be working perfectly. Then those in the know took over the controls. Very select broadcasts and web sites were allowed to come on line. cell phone communications was limited to one call an hour from any non-governmental phone. that prevented the movement to coordinate their activities. Land line phones were blocked from non-governmental and emergency sites, except for one call per phone per hour. A bit later, selected approved businesses were given limited freedom to communicate.
Since there was a limited amount of communications, all communications were monitored real time and those with unapproved messages were shut down immediately.
Without communications, the movement was shut down. The government took full control so that their good could continue to be done.
THREE
The government had spent a fortune in setting up the system. They had the best minds working on it. all communications systems had full compliance with the rules and were set up as ordered. Planning and local testing were done to make sure the whole system would work.
The time came and the button was pressed. Nothing happened. The government checked their systems and pressed the button again. Still nothing happened. Their test time came and went.
News reports and pundits started asking about what had happened, where all the money went for the system. The government said that it was a test and they h ad not known what was going to happen.
The government started trouble shooting the system. checking everything from the button wiring to every program and computer chip. slowly, they narrowed down the problem. From the very beginning, a little glitch in the hardware. Then they found one in the software that was spread through the entire system like a bit of virus code. Both glitches were carried through the whole system. The software glitch caused the hardware glitch to cause the system to fail. It was not until they removed every single reference to the software glitch that they could get the system working on anything like a medium scale. The hardware glitch was still a problem and they found it was called on by other parts of the code.
Since both glitches was in everything about the system, they realized that the entire emergency system was unable to be saved.
FOUR
The government knew something no one else knew. They were planning for this for decades as they were forewarned. They had the timing figured out and even helped on making sure the timing was going to happen perfectly.
The time came. Everything said the timing was right. They sent out the signal and every communications had the signal.
Then they shut off the commendations completely. the whole nation was on a radio silence except for aircraft and military. civilian aircraft was order to land immediately at the nearest airport. No questions asked. All utilities were shut down. no lights, no fuels, no signals at all. Even the satellites turned off.
then the whole nation went on a communications silence except for some ham radio operators that were not on the system. Sparks appeared in the sky, they spread out rapidly. On the night side of the sky, they were shooting stars that were changing course. Every commendations system was hit by ray-guns from the sparks, which were invading space ships. Several nations had missiles and nuclear bombs. they launched on the aliens. Their jets went up to fight the aliens.
The whole world was in battle except for the area shut down by the emergency signal. Since it was daylight all over the nation, the area looked dead except for ground vehicles on the roads which the aliens ignored. They ignored the farmlands and the cities. They were after electronic signals and communications.
The aliens took a beating against the rest of the world, The rest of the world also took a horrible beating. It is simply easier to hit a stationary target.
then the government decided it was time. The military within the nation woke up. Using nearly no communications, they launched into action. The aliens were caught off guard as these reinforcement was bigger than anything they had dealt with so far on the planet, they were fresh, and came out of nowhere.
Missiles entered space and went after the support ships. the aliens finally withdrew having been devastated. They were only a fraction of what started the attack. AS they pulled away. The government reactivated the commendations systems. The aliens then realized they were swindled, duped. The had expected the greatest nation to be filled with communications and it had gone silent on them at the right moment.

28 )
.
Valdan secretly developed magic. He had the power to do great things, but had no idea what to do with it. He knew he could not end wars, he could not cure most diseases. He spent a lot of time studying what he could do with his power. He saw he could see something of the future, but not well enough to make money in the stock market.
One day, he came to a solution when a travel agent friend said he wished he could tell where to send people that was safe.
Valdan then knew what to do. He just had to figure out how to it. He found a print shop was going out of business, and with some seed money from the travel agent friend, he took over. He made his first set of travel brochures using his magic. He gave them to his travel agent friend and then waited.
A couple come in and pick up a travel brochure. They wanted to go to a European country. they found that Germany and France was not in the brochure. The decided to go to England and book a trip. While they were on their vacation, unseasonable ice storms hit Germany and strikes shut down France.
Another couple wanted to go to Asia. Half the countries were missing from the brochure. they booked their trip. there was a major earth quake in Japan, a bit of a political problem in China involving some tourists, south Korea was in the middle of a bad storm, The countries they went to turned out to make for a great vacation.
The travel agent heard these stories and not only got brochures from Valdan.
One day, the travel agent, who is making really good money because of the brochures, decides to go on vacation. He books a trip to a south east island using his travel brochure. When he arrives, his hotel is deep inland, not near the ocean and it is a really flea-bag hotel. He is irritated and wondered if his friend was getting revenge of some kind.
A deep sea earthquake sets off a slide, which causes a tidal-wave to hit his island. The waves lap at the base of the cliff his hotel is in and his area is about the only area saved. When the water is gone, he kisses his brochure. It had seen the future and got him where he was safe. He now totally believes in the brochures.
Valdan can only make a small amount of the brochures in any run because of the magical effort. He does develop a good stock of them, then he dies of a heart attack.
The travel agent, seeing he has lost his source of brochures, now use them to help guide people as to where they should go, hanging on to them as much as possible, doling them out only when he absolutely has to for a big sale. He would run out after a decade.

30 )
.
The gods created universes for their own pleasures. Valdar arrived at the universe with nearly a dozen other gods, and became a person so he could do some work. He had people building a temple complex worthy of the god that created this universe.
He spent a few weeks just checking over the work done while he was gone. The work was done well. It was near time to build the next wing to the temple.
The rule in this universe was that a god could make one magical creature per visit and cannot create a new magical creature until the first one had ceased to exist. There were also limits to how powerful the magical creature could be. Lockary appeared before Valdar as a god. "Be careful of where you reach little brother," he laughed as he waved his hand. "If you do not look before you reach, you could be bitten by a snake," he laughed more and disappeared.
Valdar knew that such snake would have the power of Lockary behind it. It would be like the older brother actually striking him.
Valdar let loose some foul language. In this form, he was well known for dropping things. He could not help it. Having to kneel down to look under things was going to be a problem. He also knew by the magic cast, that it would only target him.
He considered selecting one of the people to pick things up for him, but he did not want to be a god, he wanted to be a people.
He got down on his knee several times to get something he dropped. then one thing fell just outside his view. He could see the very end of it. He just bent over and reached down and heard a soft hiss. He dropped to his knees and saw the snake fade away in an instant. This was going to be a real bother.
A few days later, a little animal, sort of like a weasel, was hurt. Valdar went to see it as he had not seen one alive before. He saw intelligence in the eyes. "what do you eat? he asked it within the mind.
"I eat bugs worms and snakes along with some animals."
"You really like snakes?"
"they are the best."
Valdar then set his hands on the little creature. "You are supposed to die from your injuries. I will give you longer life, but you must serve my needs. I have a magical snake that is after me. you will catch it whenever it appears."
"I love snakes."
Valdar healed the little animal, giving it a bit of magic to the teeth and claws so it can kill the snake. He knew that the snake would haunt him until he left the universe, no matter how many times it was killed. He gave the little creature enough life to last until the snake ceased to exist, and then would have one life-span without magic.
The next day, the little creature was on the table he was working on. he dropped a small tool and it went beneath the lower shelf of the table. He reached down and thought he heard a hiss. "Snake," he called.
The little creature was under the table in an instant. He heard the creature growl and help, heard a loud hiss of the snake and tapping on the bottom of the shelf. Valdar knelt down and looked. The little creature was rapped up in the coils, but was already chewing through the body just behind the head. The head fell off and then the little creature rolled until the snake was in the open, then it wiggled out from the grip. The head faded away.
"Why didn't you eat the head?"
"The poison is bitter, why eat that when the rest of the snake is good eating."
"I just thought of something. I never made you immune to th poison. It could kill you if it bit you. Once bit, I would not be able to save you."
"This snake is not that good a fighter." the little creature said. "It is not smart enough to be dangerous." It munched on the body. "and it really tastes good." it ate the whole snake right down to the tip of the tail, far more than the little body seemed to be able to hold.
After that, the little creature would dive down after anything that fell and actually wait for Valdar to reach down and it would grab the snake as it appeared. It ate well.
during the breaks, they would tease each other, Valdar trying to catch the creature while it tried to nip at his hand. after a few years of the game, Valdar never caught it, but also stopped being nipped. It was fun game for both to play before they went to bed.
The creature, most times, would drop to the ground when something fell and Valdar would sometimes reach down without looking so the creature would have something to eat. Other times he would get down and look to bring the object out. The creature would never touch the tool. That was not his way.
One day after some thirty years of work, Valdar forgot to look first, and also forgot to call the creature. He realized he made a mistake when he heard the hiss. He snapped his hand back and the snake followed just after his hand. He flicked his wrist around like he had done so many times when playing with the creature. He caught the snake's head. He held the snake up, switching hands so he held it in a safer way. He looked the snake in the eyes and saw a reflection of the god that created it. The body wrapped around his wrist as was squeezing with a force beyond the strength of a snake that size.
Valdar squeezed the neck with all his might. he felt bones crush inside. the fangs extended through the top of the head and curved a little, but stopped before his finger. He reached with his other hand and applied pressure to the sides of the teeth and snapped them off. The snake went limp.
Lockary suddenly appeared holding his jaw as if someone broke a tooth.
Valdar looked at Lockary and then at the creature and on a lark, pointed and said, "snake!"
The little creature ran across the distance and leaped onto the other god and started biting him all over. Lockary pointed at Valdar. "I will get you for this, you hear me, I will get you for this." He was then gone.
The little creature fell to the ground, shook itself and came running back. The snake in Valdar hand was now a common harmless snake. Valdar gave the snake to the creature and it enjoyed the snake.
Valdar said that the snake magic was gone. It should now find a mate and live out its natural life in nature. Reluctantly, the creature was gone.
A month later, a dozen of the creatures appeared and were feeding on whatever critters that was among the people. Within a few years there were no pests. Valdar's critter still hung around with him and the family and descendants stayed with him too.
When it was time for Valdar to leave, his body getting too old to work, the stone workers presented him with a present. it as a statue of the little critter entangled in a snake, an accurate image of what Lockary's snaked looked like. They begged him to bless the statue as a monument to him.
Valdar checked quickly with the god of the universe and got permission so he blessed the statue itself. He did not bless the location it would be mounted so it could be moved as needed.
he then returned to the realm of the gods, ready to brag about his defeat of Lockary.

31 )
.
The Garths were a terror. Their favorite target was the birds brought in by the colonists. A bird would take flight and a Garth would appear out of nowhere and catch it.
The Garths were like a flying weasel and could run through trees along with flying fast and with being quick. Nothing was safe from them. A few birds could out fly them, but not for too long. There were enough Garths on the planet that there was no safe place to hide given time.
The Garths were also hard to capture or kill. Their speed and quickness kept them out of range. Guns and other projectile weapons were not allowed on the planet so the Garths operated with immunity.
Mrs Johnson was taking laundry down from the clothes line. she took down a large black cloth and shook it out. It made a flapping noise. A Garth flew in an grabbed the cloth. Mrs Johnson was shocked and in trying to dislodge the garth from the cloth, she wrapped it up and beat it on the ground until it was dead.
Maxwell came to investigate and it took him quite a bit of questioning to find out exactly what had happened and how it happened. Mrs Johnson was talking about everything else. He took her outside with a similar cloth and he flapped the cloth as she explained it. A garth came in and attacked the cloth. Maxwell rolled the Garth into the cloth and beat it to death.
Soon, people were walking around flapping cloths and beating Garths to death. They quickly cleared the colony area of the Garths, then individuals went out into the country side taking them out one at a time. One guy was beating one garth when another one attacked and he caught it and wrung the neck.
Soon, the Garths were no longer a problem for the colony. They were eliminated simply because of their tendency to attack anything that flapped.