The Shimmering Ship

By: Radio Rancher
(Copyright 2015 by the author)
 

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

Information: sentences in single quotes are thoughts or mental conversations. Now on with the story.

Chapter 11
 

The next day the boys all met at Jamie's to work with Jamie's computer. Jamie had designed and built the computer from parts and pieces he had acquired from the lab, and he had the know how and luck to combine all the right parameters to achieve the most powerful computer built to date on earth, or anywhere else, for that matter.

Jamie and Delaren worked for several weeks to design the operating system with all the redundancy necessary to have fully retrievable data. No data could be lost, even if the entire hard drive were somehow damaged, there was a total backup encrypted into special non volatile memory, also designed and crafted by Jamie. The computer was capable of receiving data from almost any source including a neural transfer that was translated directly from a human brain and other brains as well, if the connection can be completed. In effect, the computer can connect telepathically.

There is an interface designed and built by Jamie, that receives signals from the lowest rf frequencies to the hard radiation portion of the spectrum, so all transmissions are available to the computer.

"I call him R.A.L.F.,” said Jamie.

"Can you calculate the homework problems for us, Ralf?" asked Jimmy.

"Well I can," said Ralf, "but I won't, because that would be cheating, and since I can see into your mind, I know that you know that, too. I will be glad to correct your work and tell you if you made any mistakes, but I won't cheat, because the work is your homework, not my homework, and besides, you know that the problem is easily solvable. Just picture the problem and dissect it into its individual parts and then look in a different direction, for instance, from the seventh dimension. I am sure you will find the answer.

Not being the slightest bit lazy, but always ready to try something, he knew he shouldn't, Jimmy was perfectly willing to do the
calculations necessary to solve the homework lesson, and, as Ralf had said, it wasn't really that hard. Of course for anyone else the problem would pose quite a challenge, even to a college level math student, but Jimmy was not an ordinary eight-year-old boy. He had an I Q that was almost beyond the scale, normally used. Johnny's mind was in the same ballpark. So he only took a few minutes more to finish the assignment. Both boys read their problems and their answers to Ralf, who pronounced them "perfectly accurate".

Jamie was pleased to find out that Ralf had integrity. It is something you have to watch out for, with artificial intelligence, namely, will it tell you what you want to hear, or, like Ralf, just tell you what it knows it should tell you.

Once Dorn and Ellen discovered that Ralf could be trusted to watch out for the well being of Jamie and his friends, they put their complete faith and trust in Ralf's judgment. Of course more than anything else, they trusted Jamie.

Jamie had his two friends, Jimmy and Johnny. Almost everyone else paid very little attention to Jamie at all.

Of course, there was the exception to Jamie being ignored.

There was Tim Switzer.

Tim made it his duty and pleasure in life, to make things as miserable as possible for the younger kids in the neighborhood, and his favorite target was Jamie.

Timmy was an orphan, actually; no one knew who Timmy's parents were.  He was simply dropped off in front of the Department of children and family services building when he was only a baby.  Nobody saw who left him there. He always bullied the boys around him. Even when he was little, he could beat up kids three or four years older than he was.  Whenever Jamie and his friends were on the playground, and no adult was looking, Timmy would punch Jamie in the stomach or the back and would call Jamie all sorts of names, and tease him, for being smart. Timmy would call Jamie brain fade or brainchild or brainiac and then, it got worse there were new words, words that Jamie hadn't heard before, and didn't understand, like queer boy, fag, and, sissy. Words that he was sure were insults just from the tone of Timmy's voice and his narrow brown eyes that burrowed right through Jamie with what seemed like anger and hate.

Jamie had to go home and ask R.A.L.F what all of that meant, and of course Ralf told Jamie that all of the insults were meant to discourage him and make him feel small and weak. Of course Jamie could have read the thoughts behind those words, but he was very scared of Timmy.  Jamie didn't know if Timmy could detect the touch of another mind.  Some people could feel the probing and others were completely unaware of it. Jamie really didn't want to start anything that would cause himself, or anyone else, harm from the likes of Timmy. 

Day after day, and week after week, Jamie endured the torture and torment from Timmy, until...........

One day, Jamie decided that he had had all he could take.

Timmy had come up behind Jamie. Timmy's arms had wrapped around Jamie's shoulders from behind and he was just about to grab Jamie's neck, when Jamie reached behind his head and grabbed both arms. Jamie figured if he was going to get killed, he might as well inflict a little damage first. When Jamie grabbed Timmy's arms, he flung Timmy over his shoulder, and laid him out flat on the playground tarmac, on his back.

Timmy couldn't believe what had just happened. Nothing like that had ever happened before. No one had ever even tried to fight back.

Timmy's head spun for a while. "Talk about pain," He thought. For a few seconds, Timmy lay there not moving. Then he raised himself on his elbows and looked at Jamie.

"You flipped me over your shoulder!" he gasped.

"Damn right I did," said Jamie, "and the next time you do that, I'll break your neck." With that, Jamie reached down and helped Timmy up off the ground. Timmy smiled and reached out his hand.

"Friends?" asked Timmy.

Jamie was astonished, and for a few seconds, he stood there wondering what nasty scheme Timmy was thinking of now.

Timmy's eyes widened. He looked at Jamie.

"I'm sorry." He finally managed to blurt out. "I know I have been pretty rotten to you and the other guys, but I didn't really know any other way to get people to respect me."

"Respect is something you earn." said Jamie. "You can't force someone to respect you. Sure we are scared of you, but that doesn't mean we respect you. I just finally had enough of your B.S."

Timmy studied Jamie's face and nodded.

"Ok," said Timmy, "I will try not to be such an ass. I am tired of all this, too. I knew, sooner or later, someone would fight back. I just didn't expect it to be you, but I am glad it was. I like you, and I really do want to be your friend."

"All right," said Jamie, "I will give you a chance, but if you ever do that again I will put you right where I did today, and now that I know that I can, I won't hesitate to do it to you, and I won't let you get away with it if I see you hurt anyone else, either."

The two boys shook hands and then to Jamie's amazement, Timmy grabbed Jamie around the waist, and hugged him tight.

"Thank you," said Timmy. "I am glad it's over, now."

"Me, too!" said Jamie. "You want to come over to my house, and mess around with my computer after school?" Jamie asked.

"Sure," said Timmy, "Can we really hang out together?"

"As long as you don't try to hurt us, I don't see any problem,” said Jamie.

"I wish I was smart like you and your friends,” said Timmy.

"Do you want to be smarter?" asked Jamie.

"Sure I do." said Timmy.

"Ok," said Jamie. "Let me look into your mind then."

"You can read minds?" asked Timmy. His eyes widened in astonishment.

"I can, but I don't, without permission." Jamie explained. "The process is a little like a "check disk" on a computer. There is a
reading function and a repair function. The "repair" function requires that I rewrite some of the "files" in your brain,” said Jamie.

"I am sure that you have plenty of capacity in there and you just need to be able to access more Grey matter, again, to use the computer as an example, we need to make the partition that you use for learning, larger.  We will rewire it to make it more efficient.  We will change the cluster size and reformat it. Don't worry I won't erase any files. It isn't like a computer in that respect. We don't need to lose anything during a "format" function in the brain.  I will give you access to the entire process, so you can see what I am doing, and I'll explain as I go along.  If there is something you would
rather I don't change, just tell me, and I will not change that particular thing." said Jamie. "That is, of course, only if you want
me to do this."

"Are you kidding? Of course I want you to do it. I'm sitting here not able to understand half of the things you just talked about, you tell me you can increase my intelligence, and you think I would say no? I may be dumb, but I'm not an idiot,” said Timmy.

"Fix the damn thing and leave my personal life out of it." He giggled, as he thought of the Kip Adotta routine from which he had grabbed the line.

"What's so funny?" asked Jamie.

"Nothing,” Timmy shrugged, "just an old comedy routine by Kip Adotta, about a lot of fishy things, lots of fish puns and generally very funny.

While Jamie was talking to Timmy, Delaren was listening, monitoring, and he was entranced. He was very pleased that Jamie had made friends with Timmy, and even happier, that Jamie had decided to help Timmy increase his intelligence.

There was something that Delaren had noticed about Timmy, but he couldn't quite put his mind in the proper frame to pick
up what was bothering him. There was just a nagging feeling, that something was strange about Timmy.

Just then, Jamie called. 'Delaren, can you check on me, and help me if I need it?' he asked.

He had noticed Delaren monitoring him. He was pleased that Delaren took an interest in him.

Delaren smiled and answered, 'Of course.  I am always ready to help you any way that you need me.'

Jamie reached into Timmy's mind.

'I see cunning, and intrigue, not a small amount of envy, lust, and, what is this? Compassion? Love? What looks like a great deal of self loathing, and, fear, and something else. There it is again.' Delaren frowned.

'This definitely needs some sorting out, and some mutual understanding.'

'I see you have some work to do here,' said Delaren.

"Yes I think we do,” said Jamie.

Jamie and Delaren poked and prodded the mental barriers.

'Put that in the garbage.' said Delaren. He pointed to the self- loathing. POOF! It was gone.

"Reconfigure this pathway, and this one needs increased amounts of synapses, more tissue here. Amplify that LOVE and compassion over there." All this time Timmy was listening and watching, as Jamie stared into his eyes, and probed his mind.

When Jamie paused and smiled at Timmy, He asked. "Did you see what we did?"

"Yes I saw it, but I still don't understand exactly what happened,” said Timmy.

"Well, we are not quite finished yet," said Jamie. "Delaren and I have not boosted your basic intelligence quotient yet. That will take some effort, and will take us several minutes to finish.  When we are through, we will give you the knowledge of the procedure, and you will understand what was done.

"Ok," said Timmy. "I already feel different. My mind seems a lot clearer now, and I don't hurt inside like I used to."

"Good," said Jamie, "Soon I will be able to show you how to talk to me, and others, with only your mind."

"You could "hear" Delaren, couldn't you?" asked Jamie.

"Yes, I heard someone besides you, talking to me, and I wondered who it was, and where they were." said Timmy.

"Delaren is very far away right now. He spends most of his time in space, orbiting a star, and soaking up energy from the star itself. That is where he gets the energy to live, but he is in contact with me and his other friends, here at all times. 

He is an Eauclara, a very old and intelligent race, whose people use the gifts that they possess to help tame the chaos in the universe.  He taught me to read and heal the minds of others, and to understand what makes people act the way they do. He and I helped your mind to heal itself, and erase all the pain and agony you were storing in there," Jamie told him.

Then it came to Delaren. He knew what the nagging memory that had been bothering him since he first saw the boy, when Jamie showed him Timmy's mind. It had been the same pattern in the six people they had rescued from the "death ship."

Jamie gently touched Timmy's mind and saw that the healing had taken place.

"Are you ready?" asked Jamie.

"What are you going to do?" asked Timmy, with a look of fear in his eyes.

"I am going to teach you a skill," said Jamie. "I will teach you how to listen to telepathic communication or as we call it Mind speech.

"First, relax and think of nothing. Take a deep breath, then, think of me and say a sentence in your mind,” said Jamie.

"Ok." said Timmy, "How's this?

'Hello Jamie, can you hear me?' Timmy tightened the muscles in his face, scrunched his mouth closed, and thought hard right at Jamie. Jamie jumped in surprise.

"Holy sheet, that was loud. You don't have to shout," said Jamie.

Jamie then thought a message to Timmy, 'Hello, Timmy, and can you hear me?'

'Yes! I hear you just fine,' Timmy thought back at Jamie.

'That's better,' thought Jamie back to Timmy. 

"Now a test for distance," Jamie said. "I want you to think a greeting to Greg. You don't have to think so hard. Just think, 'Hello Greg this is Timmy.' "

Jamie looked at Timmy.

Timmy was all scrunched up again. 'Hello Greg, this is Timmy, Can you hear me?'

'I hear you' said Greg, 'Where are you?'

'I'm at Jamie's house,' said Timmy.

'You are doing very well indeed then.' said Greg. 'I am in London with Bish, so you are sending and receiving quite well. Congratulations.'

"London!" exclaimed Timmy, "You mean this tellawhachamacallit works across the ocean?"

"Oh yes," said Jamie. "It even works from one planet to another as long as there is enough power in the mind of the one who is sending. Isn't that right, Delaren?"

'Oh Yes!' said Delaren. 'I am orbiting Sirius, as we speak, and you two are coming through, loud and clear.'

"You should know that Delaren can detect signals much farther than anyone else, so the fact that he heard you from there is probably more due to his receiving ability than to our signal strength so to speak," said Jamie.

'He is coming in as strong as or stronger than you are, Jamie.  I am very proud of how quickly he is learning,' said Delaren.

"Congratulations!" said Jamie. "I am glad you are doing so well."

Just then, the door opened and Jimmy and Johnny burst in.

"Sorry we took so long, Jamie," said Johnny.

"Hey! What are you doing here? Creep!" asked Jimmy.

Timmy shrank back and opened his mouth to speak, but Jamie interrupted him.

"He's decided to give up bullying, and he is learning to talk with Delaren."

"Well, if Delaren trusts him I guess there's no reason we can't," said Johnny.

"That's right,” said Jamie, "and I trust him, too, now, or he wouldn't be here, now, would he?"

"Yeah, you're right. I didn't think about that. Delaren would have warned us,” said Jimmy.

"I have been thinking,” Said Timmy, "and I have a question for Delaren."

'What is it?' asked Delaren.

'Well, I was just wondering why, if you have complete control of matter, and energy, as you seem to, then why can't you, just, teleport yourself here, and become a boy, like us?'

'That is a very good question,' said Delaren.

'Let me think about that for a while.'

The room got very quiet and everyone wondered what was going to happen next.

There was a knock at the door. Jamie went to answer it.

Standing at the door was a handsome youth, about five foot eight inches tall, 130 pounds, very trim and fit, dressed in a pair of shorts and a tee shirt. He wore leather sandals and no socks.  He had long blond hair and the most beautiful, deep, piercing, blue eyes, anyone had ever seen.

"Hello" he said, "I'm Delaren.  I guess it's true what they say, namely that you learn something new everyday. I can't believe I never thought of doing this before. I am older than a lot of galaxies, and it never occurred to me to become, any other species, than my own. It was always so inconvenient to contact a race, because of my size, and I could have just become one of them. How did I miss that one?"

”I owe YOU an eternity of gratitude, Timmy. Delaren reached out to Timmy and embraced him with the love and gratitude, heretofore never seen on Earth, or anywhere else, for that matter.” 

Tears of joy poured down Delaren's, altogether human, face. The one thing that he had longed for, was now possible, he could embrace his loving friends, and the person that he loved more than anyone else in the universe, Jamie.

"Jamie, please come here to me." He said, as he opened his arms wide, and waited for Jamie to approach him. The two boys smiled so broadly, that it looked as if their faces were going to split apart. Such happiness had never happened before, anywhere. The two soul mates embraced each other with such genuine love, that the sight was amazing to anyone watching. You could see it in the two boys. It was love, pure and undiluted, precious, undying, and eternal, and it looked as though it might last a while, too.

To be continued...

How many of you were expecting that to happen? Be honest now. I will tell you that I didn't expect that to happen, not as of yesterday. Timmy was quite an intelligent boy. Let me tell you, though, it wasn't Timmy's idea. I let him ask it, but the idea came from my dear friend Lynne in Texas.

Thank you, Lynne. YOU gave me the Idea from one of the questions you asked me yesterday or rather earlier today. May 8 2005. I sat here and asked myself, If Delaren is so capable, why couldn't he just turn himself into whatever he needed to be to solve any given problem.

The answer was of course he could, and he did.
 

Re-posted  9/11/2015