Solomon's Private File #90
These stories about Stephen and Solomon take place starting in
1950's. Stephen wrote about his life in letters to a penpal, and then
in a secure blog, in case he lost his memory again, in the master
computer in his school for gifted students, which he started attending
in 2016 in a new incarnation, until his death. Now his son Solomon is
attending the same school, and is writing in his own secure blog for
his future incarnations.
All characters are fictitious, even if some of them might have names
that belong to some actual people, or act like people we know.
Solomon is 17 in this story, in the Spring of 2043.
Solomon's Private File #90 "Tokyo, and More Deaths"
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Rangnorik said to me privately, "I think I can port." I said, "Trust
me?" He nodded seriously. I said, "I knew I could port before anybody
thought it was possible. I didn't." He said "You knew about the
swimming pool incident?" I said, "Yes, and I knew I wasn't ready. You
will be soon, after you improve your mind management. Porting is only
part of the whole subject it's part of, and not even the most
important. We've been learning about and teaching this for a while. Let
us do it in the best way we know." We hugged and kissed, and he said,
"I will."
Then it was time for his alignment. His aura was as big as his
amazement. I said, "It's normal for you to be a little confused. You
now have memories of some of your past lives. I advise you to ignore
them for now. Yes, I remember mine, too." He nodded. After some
thought, he said to me, "I know more now what you meant about not being
ready. This is amazing!" I said, "Sure is. You will learn all about
your new abilities, and then, some interesting things you can do with
them. Yes, including porting. Start in a week. Need time for your
psionics to settle down. I know it's tough, but resist exploring them
now, or you could delay things." He growled. We hugged.
I said to Ichi, "First notice. Major earthquake. Tokyo. About two
weeks. Advice?" He said, "How major?" I said, "Going to need a new
capital." He said through his tears, "Tsunami?" I said, "Little
chance." He said, "Anything you can do?" I said, "I've been thinking
about that." That really got his attention. I said, "It's the sudden
jolt that causes the damage. What if I help it not be so sudden?" He
said, "Proactive?" I said, "Right." He said, "Risky. Believability?" I
said, "With responsibility. Negative issues. You know the current PM.
With me?" He said, "Yes. I'll set it up." At the appointment, we ported
to the PM's office. Ichi talked. PM said to me, "How sure are you of
what you can do?" I said, "Completely unsure. It's not something that
can be practiced, and if it were, each case is so different, it
wouldn't help. The problem is, although I can see the fault, and
calculate the stresses, I can't be sure how much along the fault would
be adjusted in the quake, and how much I should adjust myself, and how
deep." He said, "Can what you would do, make it worse?" I said, "It's
possible, but not significant, considering how severe it will be if I
don't do anything." He said, "I see another problem. If you predict how
strong it will be, and if it is much less strong when it happens, it
harms your believability for future predictions, and so more people
could be killed." I said, "I could manage some of that in the
announcements. Even given the time we have, it's not enough for you to
evacuate the whole city, and where would you put them?"
He said, "That is true. I advise you to keep your effort secret." I
said, "I agree. We have too weeks before the big one. If I start in a
week, with minor earthquakes, there still might be a big one, but not
as severe." He said, "We will give the warning for a week. If I do it,
you won't he held liable for inaccuracies." We prepared a statement.
"There will be a series of earthquakes starting in a week. They might
include a very big one in the sequence, but it is not yet known exactly
when, or how strong. All non essential people should begin evacuating
to the prepared shelters, or to their families in other parts of the
country." They did that, very orderly. That whole country has a lot of
experience with earthquakes. In a week, I made an adjustment. 5.2 with
little damage. Two days later, I did it again, and it was a 4.9. Two
more days, and it was 6.4, but with less damage than expected. Then I
announced, "Tomorrow, at about 10PM local time, there will be an
earthquake of approximately 7.9. There will probably be some damage. I
will try to prevent that as much as I can. All remaining people in the
city should leave, or gather in the parks before that time, but not
where a tree can fall on them. Animals will be very frightened. Please
don't approach them, or you could be injured." It happened. There was
major damage in some areas, but not that much. They had built well for
such events. There was one expected significant aftershock two days
later.
We met with the PM during the reconstruction, and he asked, "How bad
would it have been?" I said, "About a ten." He said, "You saved our
city, and maybe even our country, and they will not know it." I said,
"The way it should be. You know that. It would be just as bad if they
disbelieved or believed. For the whole world." He nodded and with
tears, bowed deeply, which we returned. Back on his office with me,
Ichi really cried. We hugged and kissed. I said, "Something you should
know. Daren is my understudy in this. If something happens to me, he
can take over. Er, under." He laughed and cried. We hugged and kissed
some more.
The regular school term was over. Pete died in his sleep. But not
before making Mom pregnant. Timing was off for him to reincarnate then,
but was right for Rod. Too early to know. Ivanna was doing most of
Pete's work, so the transition, and in the off season, wasn't
difficult. But that didn't change how we felt. We loved and missed him.
A lot. Race came to me for a private conference. He said, "You're more
the boss now." I said, "Emotionally for others, maybe. A figurehead, in
reality." He said, "Something like your father. He managed the action,
and let others do the boring stuff." We hugged. He said, "I'm going
soon. I can feel it. No, I'm not upset. It's been a great life." He
knew I felt something strange then. He said, "What is it?" I said,
"Have you mentioned this to Nigel?" He said, "No. Should I?" I said,
"Yes. Right away. Sleep together." He had a lot of tears and said, "I'm
not as smart as the rest of you, but I think I understand. That's
beautiful! I don't know how to thank you enough!" I said, "I really do
hear that a lot." He chuckled. That's what they did. Nigel knew
immediately, and sent me a lot of love. They died peacefully in each
other's arms.
Of the founders, only Chad was left. He said that in a family
meeting, after they all gave me a lot of love for helping Race and
Nigel die with love. Mom poked Chad and said, "You are NOT going yet.
You have a lot of work still to do, you mostly organic you!" He said,
"Too bad I couldn't die with Jan. Like I predicted, she went kicking
and screaming in sex. I know, because that's what we were doing when it
happened." I said, "Couldn't tell whether she was coming or going?" A
lot of pokes and chuckles.
I had a meeting with Hasan. I said, "Going well?" He said, "I know
what you mean. It's been tough, so many lost so close to each other.
We're managing. Mining and manufacturing is going strong. I'm mostly
doing management domestically, but galactic is much more interesting."
I grinned and said, "It could be. For me, it's been a little work." He
said, "I've noticed you aren't much interested in offplanet things
yourself." I said, "Shrink stuff is my main interest. Got the craziest
planet right here." He said, "isn't that the truth!" I said, "How's
Madia doing?" He said, "Fine as the cooperate head. She actually likes
it." I said, "Right. Hard to understand." We chuckled. He said, "Your S
Kids are great! No ambition for admin, though." I said, "I really know
that. We're all that way. How's the wife?" He said, "Lisa's great!
Pregnant again. Wait, do you know something?" I said, "Timing is right.
Could be Pete. Too early to tell." He said, "Oh, wow! What an honor!" I
said, "If it happens, I have to agree. I think it's possible Mom has
Rod. He's not in Limbo anymore." He stared at me. I said, "Er, oops?"
He said in awe, "You TALKED to him?" I said, "A little. Wasn't much to
say. I thought he would want to know who killed him. He didn't care."
He said, "Wow!" I said, "Well, he did say that first." He laughed, and
we hugged and kissed.
I had a meeting with Ivanna and George. I said, "Notice any
educational differences between S Kids and others?" She said, "Much
faster learning, and wider interests." George said, "And great
teachers." I said, "If possible, I think all students should be
required to have terminal degrees in psychology, education, math, and
physics. The basics of being human for us." She nodded and said, "It's
actually working out that way. But what are we going to DO with them?"
I said, "Not a problem. Whole galaxy out there. After that, other
dimensions." She said, "You're actually going to LOOK for trouble?" I
said, "Sure. That's what we're for. Why wait for it to get worse, and
find us by surprise? Been sitting on our hands for two long. Got bigger
hands now. Good for something more than sexplay." They grinned.
The Russian atomic bomb issue made the news. The most newsworthy part
of that was the revelation that the terrorists didn't know they had
fake bombs, and were being allowed to proceed as a test. It was
reported that the relevant agencies scored well in detection, and in
cooperation. There was a lot of mutual public backslapping. In the
Bureau, I told the Director, "That test failed miserably. The real bomb
could have really blown up DC. Nobody found it." He said, "But we did
learn a lot from it." I said, "Really, only one thing. We can't prevent
something like that from happening, without making things so
restrictive, we couldn't take it." He said, "True, but we have you." I
pulled my knees together and said coyly, "Right here?" He laughed.
An applicant walked into my office. He gave me his file, and sat. I
said, "Why?" He said, "Secret." I nodded. He said, "We've got a
problem. Some of our people have been acting oddly. Oh. Well, oddly,
even for us." I said, "This persists after a healing?" He looked
startled, and said, "Actually no, then it resumes a few days later. I
see. Obviously an imposed influence. We suspected, but didn't make that
active correlation." I said, "Some time ago, we had an applicant. She
was psionic, and self taught to use it. No ethics. Personnel said we
should give her to you for a good match." He grinned painfully. I said,
"I told her, no, she would own you." He looked relieved. He said, "I'm
beginning to understand that. Without your iron ethics, we would all be
in deep trouble." I said, "More. On the way to extinction." He said,
"We thought of that. We have you to fight them if needed. We don't want
them in with us." I said, "Took you a while." He said, "I apologize for
that. Slow learner." I said, "So now you suspect the cause of your
problem, but not her. I put restrictions in her." He said, "They don't
come out in the healing?" I said, "It's all individualized. What is
just, isn't changed. All we do like that is approved on High, or we
don't do it. Actually, we can't. Not able. We are all introduced in a
love broadcast, so we can do them ourselves." He said, "Wow! I didn't
think of it that way, but it's logical." I said, "I can't detect a
trace now, because the perp isn't active. But after the next
said, "Same here. Problem. Want it public?"
He said, "We wouldn't like it to be known that we can be reached that
way, but it should be obvious that it can happen to anybody. But that
could case a panic and witch hunt. No, keep it secret. Which you
already decided." I said, "Had to let you work it out, so you wouldn't
blow that." He smiled and nodded, and said, "Like with the Columbian.
We couldn't really use him. He's just not agent material. We let him
go. And there was no trust." I said, "How much of that is there,
usually?" He looked uneasy. I said, "Dead agents DO keep secrets, but
killing them for that reason alone is NOT nice. Terminal missions, and
using partners against each other? REALLY not nice." He was sweating
and squirming. He said, "It's not policy, but local supervisors have
been suspected of doing that, to cover their asses. Hard to prove." I
said, "I am VERY willing to assist in obtaining that proof. And in
providing the just consequence." He was really nervous. I said, "So,
let me know when I can be of assistance in this matter." He was a
little relieved. I said, "I know, meeting with me, for your people, is
like licking a sugar coated cactus." He looked at me strangely, and
when it sunk in, he had to laugh well. I said, "That one actually got
my Mom to laugh almost as hard as Hawk." He laughed some more. He said
as he was leaving, "Thanks for your help. All of it." I nodded.
Mom said in contact, "That was SO funny!" Hawk was still laughing. I
said, "Thanks. I like that one myself. Mostly because it's so true.
They start and licking and liking, and then they get to the spines, and
get a ripped tongue." Hawk said, "Why not a porcupine?" I said,
"Thought of that. Not tran-quill." More laughter.
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Grant
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