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Subject: +*+*+*+ Solomon's Private File #411 "Circus Dimension Aliens" +*+*+*+
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2017 01:46:58 -0500
From: " +Grant. " <+Grant@grant.grant>
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Solomon's Private File #411
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 34 in this story, in the Summer of 2060.
Solomon's Private File #411 "Circus Dimension Aliens"
START Page
my normal body. They were all happy to see me. I hugged all of them.
Most of them didn't want to let go, including the hard shelled people.
I said, "I see you've discovered each other, before your peoples did."
One said, "You could have told us!" I said, "Rang was your teacher, and
HE didn't tell you." She said, "But he's not here." And then he was,
grinning. He hugged them all, and then left. I said, "So, now that you
know each other, what are you going to do about it?" One said, "More
hugs?" Grins.
One said, "You're here, so there must be a good reason for that. Our
two species will find each other soon." I said to her, "Still the
leader, I see." They all grinned at her, and she was embarrassed. I
said, "I get that all the time. When I can give it, I'm going to!" They
laughed. One asked, "Are there more species from this galaxy at the
school in the other dimension?" I said, "You didn't really expect me to
tell you, did you?" They poked him and chuckled. I said, "An Imperial
Survey ship is soon going to encounter a world of the Exos." I pointed
their minds to the ship. The Leader of the Empire Guardians was the
best in telepathy of them, but not a full telepath, said, "There's a
problem. That Captain isn't right for this. Inflexible." One of the
Exos made a noise, and they all grinned.
She said, "There are things we could do about it, but all of them
would be not acceptable. That's why you're here." I said, "Did I ask
you to be this intelligent right now?" Laughter. I said, "You've
already thought of one solution." She said, "Did I ask you to know
everything?" They went almost hysterical with laughter. I said, "I have
to tell my group that." Big grins. She said, "We could cause a fault in
the ship that would cause them to return to port." I said, "Would the
next ship be any better?" She said, "We are unable to project that. Do
you know?" I said, "Worse." She said, "If we keep doing that, they will
eventually suspect something after contact is established." Nods. One
said, "We could cause him to be incapacitated." I said, "If he were
conscious, he could still make decisions, and could you actually do so
unjust a thing to him?" She sighed, and said, "No, we couldn't."
One said, "Have you done any other actions in this galaxy we don't
know about, that could teach us something we could use?" I said, "There
was a ship in need of repair. I and my special ship offered to do the
repair. They agreed to it, and I did it. The Captain wouldn't let me
return to my ship, and was about to forcefully question me for my
technology. I killed that body. Their people know of that action, and
the lessons in it." One said, "What happened to that Captain?" I said,
"He killed himself before the ship reached home port. Well, I was liked
a lot there, by the crew. He, after that, not so much, and they knew my
ship would report. That species will now better handle a first
contact." They said the usual wows.
One said, "You could do that again." I said, "But not as one of you.
He wouldn't accept that. One of these people?" I showed them who I was
before. I said, "From the other side of the galaxy. I could mention
your species in a good way, which would prepare him." They all strongly
wanted me to do that. I said, "Aww, do I have to die again?" Grins.
An interstellar craft in space was not under full power. I said in
their radio frequency, "If you are in need of assistance, I may be able
to provide it." The Captain said, almost immediately, "Please identify
yourself." I said, "I am Lomon." He said, "I mean your species." I
said, "I am not my species." He said, "I need to know if your biology
is compatible with ours." I said, "It is. So, now you know it. This
delay isn't helping you any." He said in frustration, "Will you show us
how you look?" I said, "Oh, I can tell you that. I look with my eyes."
He said, "That's not what I meant!" I said, "Being angry isn't a good
thing to help a friendship begin. Please try to use words that actually
say what you mean. I know your language, but your misuse of it wasn't
in the instructions." He said, "I did not misuse it!" I said, "You
asked how I looked. I told you. Didn't you know that's how everybody
who has eyes is able to look at something?" He said, "I request you to
show us an image of yourself." I said, "Oh, that works!" I sent the
picture.
He said, "How do you know of us?" I said, "My people like to know
things, and we like to help in mechanical things. To do that in the
galaxy, we need to know who it is we would help. For that, we learned
about the different peoples." He said, "How did you learn about us
without us knowing it?" I said, "We used our senses and technology to
listen to your communications. Your planets broadcast a lot of er,
noise you call entertainment." He almost laughed. Some of the bridge
crew almost strangled to not do that. I said, "I'm unsure if I should
ask, but why do you walk on wires?" He said, "Oh! The Circus! That's
entertainment. It's very difficult for us, and so we appreciate the
skill of those who can do it." I said, "I understand that better now. I
thank you. Do you want your ship repaired, or no?" He said, "Please
send to us your biological information, so that we may be assured in
our own minds that we may exist together comfortably." I said,
"Complying." I sent the info. He said, "Please wait, while our medical
officer studies your information. Would you tell us where your planet
is?" I said, "No." He said, "Why won't you?" I said, "We don't like to
have strange people in our home making messes. We help a lot of them.
We don't have room or time to have them all as visitors. Some people
are more impolite than we prefer. Why they think that fighting and
killing is a good thing, is something we don't want to discover from
them. You have weapons. We dislike them and their use."
He said, "Your ships may be attacked." I said, "It's happened. Some
we helped were strangely ungrateful. Some of our people were captured.
They killed themselves. We dislike captivity and torture. Fortunately,
that hasn't happened in this area of space. Will you be doing that?" He
said, "No we won't! Are there other species near to our current
location?" I said, "I assume that is intelligent and compatible with
your biology, yes, there is one." He said, "I ask that you send a
picture of one of them to us." I did. He said, "Very different from us.
Is their level of technology similar to ours?" I said, "It is, and they
have colonized other planets. I find their personal decorations artful,
but rather permanent. For minor injuries, they carry with them a glue
dispenser." He grinned, and said, "I can understand how useful that
could be." I said, "Their sense of smell is most discerning. If you
would please them, don't offend them with bad odors." He said, "Do they
have criminals?" I said, "Yes, they have people who sell things." He
laughed. I said, "They are like your people in variety of criminals and
crimes. In individuals, it's the neuters that are of less intelligence
and of greater violence. The few females are the nominal rulers, but
have little interest in that. The males do most of the work of ruling,
for them. They have holy people as you do." He said, "That's good to
know. It would also be good for us to know their language."
I said, "If I visit your ship, I can give you some files." He said,
"Our medtechs have cleared you for boarding." I said, "My ship will
extrude a flexible adaptable transfer tube. If your ship doesn't change
position, my ship will manage the linking. You may secure it to your
airlock." They did that, and I boarded them. He was at the airlock
himself, and said, "You didn't use a suit." I said, "Those of us with
fur dislike to use such coverings. I advise you to not have visitors of
those other people I showed you, 'Exos', in your language, on this ship
when you are using ammonia based cleaners. They will react badly to
that smell. Er, as I do." He said, "I apologize for that. None of us
like it, but it's very effective." I said, "For hermits." He laughed. I
said, "It would be a good thing if you tell them when you do that, that
you aren't dying." He struggled to not laugh. I said, "That's more
interesting." He burst out laughing. I said, "We have found that some
aspects of humor are almost universal with environmentally compatible
species." He said, "You knew you were being humorous?" I said, "One of
my faults, yes. But what I said is still true. That makes constructing
humor more challenging, but also more rewarding, if noisy." He grinned.
He said, "Would you tell us where the planets of the Exos are?"
I said, "I will not. Would you like it if I told them where your
worlds are, without you knowing it?" He said, "You value fairness." I
said, "Shouldn't we all? Except salespeople." He grinned, and said,
"Your humor is very effective." I said, "Thank you. Where is the
problem?" He led the way to the power room. I said, "Another fusion
problem!" I discussed it with the engineer, who was very impressed with
my knowledge. Then he had a problem. I said, "I can make replacement
parts, but I need the chemical formulae of the materials, to match them
with my stores." He said, "Of the metal alloys? I don't have that
information." I said, "Samples will work, but take more time." We
secured the needed samples. I took laser measurements. I said, "I need
to return to my ship so I can prepare the parts." Captain said, "Do you
know why it failed?" I said, "Suspicion, only. I may know more, when I
witness the repair, and the adjustments." I was allowed to return to my
ship.
Three hours later, I asked for help in the tube to bring parts in.
They provided that. All the bad parts had been removed. I watched them
weld the new parts and covers into place. I said, "Stop! That is NOT
acceptable!" I pushed them away, and they were surprised at how strong
I was. Their protective gear fit me, and I started on the welding
myself. The engineer said, "That's better than we can do it." I said
above the welding noise, "This is a common problem with these systems.
The seams fail due to vibrations, and that causes a connection failure,
and that causes a cascade of other failures. Part of the cause is cost.
Makers and purchasers don't want to pay for the required quality.
Chuckles, "Precisely!"
We took a break for refreshments. I used an instrument to sample what
they offered. I said, "That drink. You offer it to the Exos, but no,
they won't marry you." Chuckles. Captain, "We'll remember that. Do they
know of you?" I said, "No, as your people don't." He said, "We will
report." I said, "And belief?" He said, "I understand." I said, "I
think you have not before encountered another assumed intelligent
species. Well, some think they are more intelligent than they are." He
said, "How did you know?" I said, "In general, your broadcasts don't
say it. In person, you showed you didn't understand how first contact
should happen. If I had been like you, and not known something of your
language, there would have been the start of war erupting from our
meeting. It's happened before, many times."
He said, "I'm suspecting something." I said, "I know that." He said,
"How did you know that." I said, "You said it." Chuckles. I said, "The
language problem again. Few people understand how much of their
language goes beyond the words in strange societal agreed upon ways,
that to another person who is unfamiliar with that use, is well,
stupid. It would help if you would try to see yourselves as if you were
completely unknown. It WILL happen to you in real life, eventually.
Better to prepare for it in advance, than cause bad things for the lack
of that preparation. Yes, you suspect correctly. We like to help
people. Engineering isn't all we do in that." We went back to work.
When I finished, they inspected the welds, and other connections.
Engineer said, "This is very high quality work!" I said, "Thank you for
your praise, but I must disagree. Among my people, it is merely
adequate. We prefer safe ships. Being adrift in space is SO annoying."
Strange looks.
Engineer said, "How intelligent are you?" I said, "Have you ever
heard of a person who admitted to being unintelligent?" Grins and
chuckles. I said, "With me, you still won't hear it." Bigger grins. I
said, "Now we should try a partial startup. No, I will remain here, to
detect vibrations. Our senses and intuition may be better than
instruments in this. Another thing that is a common mistake." Engineer
said, "I will stay. All others must leave." I said, "As usually happens
in our repairs." We did the same things I did before with the furry
people. He was amazed. He said, "I WILL write this up! Implemented,
there are sure to be less loss of ships and lives." I said, "I have yet
to encounter a species with this kind of power system, that does this
as we did. That's why I encounter them." He had to laugh.
We went out to meet with the others. The Captain was still chuckling.
At the airlock, I said, "Here are some files about the Exos that are
compatible with your file systems." He said, "How did you know that?" I
said, "Your planetary computer communication networks are available to
all. I am a part of all, however small. And pleasant." He grinned, and
said, "And likable." I said, "I have to like who I am more than those I
meet, do. That others don't dislike that is, er, extra." He grinned,
and said, "I understand. Modest, too." I said, "That didn't help."
Laughter. He said, "Are all your species like you?" I said, looking
around, "Do you want to rethink that?" He said, "Oh. Yes, I see.
Imprecise use of language. Are those in your ship as humorous as you
are?" I said, "No. There are no other people in my ship. It is all self
controlled. This is the time in our missions when we are allowed to
leave, or are captured. What will it be this time?"
He said, "You may leave! And with our sincere gratitude!" I said,
"Thank you." He said, "Will we see your people again?" I said, "I think
you might not want to need to." He said, "I would want to, for reasons
of friendship." Others agreed with him. I said, "My people are not of
one species. We help in order to gain merit with our God, who directs
us in our help. When next you meet one of us, you may not know it, but
it will only be for the good of all." I entered my airlock, and caused
the tube to disengage and retract, after causing their airlock to
close. Then my ship just disappeared. In their conference room, the
Captain said, "I should have thought to ask how he found us!" Nods.
Medtech said, "I think he may have saved more than our lives. Maybe our
entire Empire, and I think he knew that." Engineer said, "I wonder when
he learned our language. How many could he know, and know he would know
ours in advance of finding us?" Captain said, "We keep asking ourselves
unanswerable questions, we're going to need medication." Chuckles, and
the meeting ended.
The Guardians had a lot of wows to offer. An Exo said, "May I have a
sample of that drink?" I said, "It's in the food machine. Check your
database for masrinshner." He did, and a cup appeared in his hand. He
tasted it, and said, "This is great!" I said, "I knew that." Grins. He
shared it with his fellows. Leader said, "Are they going to meet a
ship, or a planet first?" I said, "They will find an occupied system.
They'll know that by the radio broadcasts they'll detect in the outer
part of the system. They travel inward, they'll be challenged. They'll
know what frequency to be listening to. It will probably go well. If
not, you will repair it." They said, "We will!" We did a round of hugs,
and I shifted out.
I said to CNN, "Got an alien action to show from the Circus
dimension. Remember the last one, with the ship repair and my death?"
He said, "Yes. Preparing the way for contact." I said, "I did it again
with the human looking people." He read the carefully edited crystal.
The Guardians were in it, too. He grinned, and said, "Still being you!"
Greg hosted the show. After the introduction, I said, "I showed
before an action in the Circus dimension where I repaired a ship, and
had to kill my presence. It was to teach that species about contacting
another species. I did it again, recently. A little different. Contact
was eminent, and the people who would be doing it, were NOT the best
choice for that. Here's the discussion." We showed the guardian part.
He said, "Students of your student, the one who showed up for a
minute?" I said, "Yes. That, due to the time rate differential, was 12
minutes in his home dimension." He said, "It looks like they all love
hugging." I said, "We do, and we do it a lot. I highly recommend it.
The Exos don't hug each other. Too noisy, but they love hugging us soft
people." He grinned. He said, "We appreciate the descriptions
captioning of the expressions of those people, or we wouldn't know what
they were expressing." I said, "And they didn't know ours. They do now,
by comparing the emotions they sense, with how our bodies look. Most
people don't realize how much communication with speech is modified by
our tone of voice and expressions, which aliens will be unaware of even
after being informed of it. That's another issue in first contact.
That's why with a species that has encountered others before, some are
trained in that specialty." We went to break.
Back from break, we showed the action with some breaks. After coming
back, he said, "That was different from the last one. You survived! And
you were more funny, too." I said, "They had more of a first contact
language problem. Making fun of that was useful. Not that I really
needed that justification." He chuckled. We showed the Captain's
meeting after. Greg said, "You were very successful. You even planted
the seed of more like that being possible. They were smart, too, in the
questions they should have asked, that you weren't going to answer." I
said, "Yes. I didn't give them a mental chance for that." Then we
showed the last meeting with the Guardians. He said, "More hugs!" I
said, "Of course! Always." He said, "Did the first contact happen, and
was it bad?" I said, "It did happen, and it was good. One thing I
didn't tell the Empire people was the Exos smell nice to them. They
knew the Exos would like that fruit drink, but they didn't know they
would love practically all of them. That's most of what they live on,
after full growth. Insectoids don't need much protean for internal
repair, and skin cell growth and repair, because their insides are
protected, and they don't have much skin. Mostly they just need energy
from sugars, with some vitamins and minerals. They work it right,
they're going to love each other." He said, "Wow! What will the
humanoids get from them?" I said, "Philosophy and perfumes, in the
beginning, but it's the exchange of cultural things that will be the
most important for their development as people, for both species.
Diversity is beneficial."
He said, "Targets of your humor are usually politicians. Why the
difference there?" I said, "In both cultures, their political system is
of the Empire type. They don't do much politics, and what they do have
is very civil and restrained. Respected people. Not so, salespeople, so
I used them." He said, "Oh, I understand. Thank you. We've had today an
action that was completely without violence, and a complete success!" I
said, "Yes, the best kind of success. Much better to make peace, than
pieces." He chuckled, and we closed the show. I said, "My closing
comment is going to be difficult to translate." He grinned, and said,
"I have to agree." I said, "One more thing. I plan to make a series of
what I did there in the past. The whole thing with the Circus, for our
cable channel. If you want to have discussions of the episodes on your
channel, you might want to promote those shows. Hmm, control room is
already passing that on." Grins.
END Page
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Grant
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