The Prose and Poems of Lori Dee

[ChrissyRyan]

Lori Dee,


Keep writing!  You have the talent required for writing well.


Chrissy

[Lori Dee]

Interesting.  I was always interested in the Rosicrucian adverts that occasionally appeared in magazines but I have never encountered a Rosicrucian before, let alone a higher level one.

Yes, the adverts were for the introductory pamphlet, The Mastery of Life. You can get free copy at Rosicrucian.org.

[Sephirah]

Did you ever find this guy, Lori? Or what happened to him? That is massively intriguing.

[Lori Dee]

I did.

Beyond the Flames

It took years. During that time, I joined the Army, got stationed in Germany for a short 13-month tour, married a German girl, and had a son on the way. My family history research was focused on Leeds, England by then, so I forgot all about Ronald Olson. I made some contacts in various genealogy forums and met a distant cousin. (Not Charles  ). She was a descendant of my great-great-grandmother and was researching that line of the family. We exchanged family tree data which was a huge leap forward in my research. My research helped her too. She often traveled to London and would offer to get certified copies of birth and marriage certificates while she was there. All of my research has been thoroughly documented in that way.

Toward the end of my tour, the Army offered me a Station-of-Choice option if I reenlisted. They threw in paid leave, extra time off, and $5,000 in bonuses, so I signed a new contract. My choice was to go back to Colorado where most of my family now lives. (@ChrissyRyan that is how I got a 2-month vacation, by working the system.)

I was stationed at Fort Carson, near Colorado Springs. We called it "Fort Cartoon" due to the politics that was in charge there. My son was born in Colorado Springs just a few weeks after we got there. One of the nurses on staff was German. She and my wife would have chats in German and I think it made my wife a bit less homesick to be able to speak in her native tongue.

During one of these chats, the nurse mentioned that she was from Albuquerque and her mother had been a nurse, but was now retired. That was my "in". She talked to her mother and found out how to gain access to old patient records that were buried in some basement archive. She even convinced a friend of hers to search the records for me.

The records showed that the account had never been paid. With a couple thousand dollars owed, the debt was turned over to a collection agent, who sold it to another collection agent, and so on. Eventually, the debt was dropped as uncollectible. I don't know if it was because they could not locate him, he had no assets, or if a statute of limitations barred it. But his last known address was in Pueblo, Colorado.

I found that calling places on the phone was not very productive. Even government office employees were polite but not helpful. It was like they just wanted to get off the phone so they could get back to their coffee break. So I packed up the car and took a drive.

I started in the County Records office, specifically the Tax Assessor's Office. The woman there was very helpful. She helped me find the right microfilm reel and showed me how to work the machine. I spent hours going through all of the property tax records and got nothing. I returned the films and told her that I was unsuccessful. She said she had a card file with cross-indexes that she could check for me. That went nowhere as well.

This woman, bless her, was not about to give up. She said she would call her friend at another agency to see if they had any suggestions. It took several more calls and we found something.

A Ronald Olson was living at a local nursing home and had been there for over ten years. I went to the nursing home and talked with the staff to determine if this was the same man I was looking for. He had no family and the only visitors he had were social workers. I asked about their visitor's policy and if I could make an appointment to speak with him. It was getting late, so I agreed to come back on Saturday to visit with him.

[Sephirah]

Urgh, I spent some time in Germany myself while in the Navy. Shame we never met. Although Ich spreche nicht sehr gut Deutch. Meist durch die Schule.

[Lori Dee]

Urgh, I spent some time in Germany myself while in the Navy. Shame we never met. Although Ich spreche nicht sehr gut Deutch. Meist durch die Schule.

Ich habe sechseinhalb Jahre in Deutschland gelebt. Aber meine Sprachkenntnisse habe ich mir selbst beigebracht, indem ich mit Nicht-Englisch-Muttersprachlern zusammenlebte.

I probably forgot most of what I learned.

[Sephirah]

Ich habe sechseinhalb Jahre in Deutschland gelebt. Aber meine Sprachkenntnisse habe ich mir selbst beigebracht, indem ich mit Nicht-Englisch-Muttersprachlern zusammenlebte.

I probably forgot most of what I learned.

That's the best way to do it, Lori. Being among people who speak the language. Six and a half years is a long time. Wow. I don't think you did forget German accents are weird. They're one half want to cuddle you, one half want to whip you. I'm sure there are people who would pay for that lol.

[Lori Dee]

That's the best way to do it, Lori. Being among people who speak the language. Six and a half years is a long time. Wow. I don't think you did forget German accents are weird. They're one half want to cuddle you, one half want to whip you. I'm sure there are people who would pay for that lol.

I was stationed outside of Stuttgart, so I learned the Schwabisch dialect, which is like a Southern drawl. I learned that if you drink enough German beer you slur your words perfectly and the old-timers think you are a local.

My in-laws spoke no English, but my sibling in-laws did. They learned it in high school. Between them, we were able to translate what was going on and I started to pick it up pretty quickly. My father-in-law spoke only a few words of English. I came home drunk one night and he said, "You go sleep now?" I said, "Doch, Vatti, Ich schlalft yetz."
He just laughed and mocked my poor grammar.

[Sephirah]

I was stationed outside of Stuttgart, so I learned the Schwabisch dialect, which is like a Southern drawl. I learned that if you drink enough German beer you slur your words perfectly and the old-timers think you are a local.

If you drink enough German beer you forget your own name. They make the English look like amateurs. That's why Oktoberfest is a thing. All the beer, sausage, and lederhosen you could ever want.

[Lori Dee]

If you drink enough German beer you forget your own name. They make the English look like amateurs. That's why Oktoberfest is a thing. All the beer, sausage, and lederhosen you could ever want.

My friends and I would go to Munich for Oktoberfest. Picked up a bottle of Jaegermeister at the train station, and I don't remember much after that. We did stand in line for an hour in shoulder-to-shoulder crowds to grab a liter mug in each hand. I woke up in my bed, so don't know if we had fun.

We discovered that by staying in Stuttgart, the Oktoberfest there was less crowded. So it isn't shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, but it still took waiting in line to get beer. I used to have a collection of half- and 1-liter mugs from all over Germany. I also had two 2-liter steiffels, the glass boots. At a local pub, we went to just about nightly, the boots weren't enough for our drinking games, so the waitress introduced us to the 4-liter pewter bucket.

We drank so much beer, the German government had to import beer so the locals would have some. 
Now, American beer gives me a headache. Even the imports are crap. Think about it. Do you believe they export the good stuff? No. They do not.

[Sephirah]

My friends and I would go to Munich for Oktoberfest. Picked up a bottle of Jaegermeister at the train station, and I don't remember much after that. We did stand in line for an hour in shoulder-to-shoulder crowds to grab a liter mug in each hand. I woke up in my bed, so don't know if we had fun.

We discovered that by staying in Stuttgart, the Oktoberfest there was less crowded. So it isn't shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, but it still took waiting in line to get beer. I used to have a collection of half- and 1-liter mugs from all over Germany. I also had two 2-liter steiffels, the glass boots. At a local pub, we went to just about nightly, the boots weren't enough for our drinking games, so the waitress introduced us to the 4-liter pewter bucket.

We drank so much beer, the German government had to import beer so the locals would have some. 
Now, American beer gives me a headache. Even the imports are crap. Think about it. Do you believe they export the good stuff? No. They do not.

I always thought American beer was an afterthought of prohibition. I mean you can drive long before you can legally drink, or.. y'know, do anything else. From what I've seen, it's very weak, very expensive, and if any American comes to Europe they get put on their backside within half an hour, lol.

[Lori Dee]

I always thought American beer was an afterthought of prohibition. I mean you can drive long before you can legally drink, or.. y'know, do anything else. From what I've seen, it's very weak, very expensive, and if any American comes to Europe they get put on their backside within half an hour, lol.

My first beer, I was at the train station waiting for someone from HQ to come pick us up. I had half a beer and was buzzed. I fell in love.

[Sephirah]

My first beer, I was at the train station waiting for someone from HQ to come pick us up. I had half a beer and was buzzed. I fell in love.

LOL! I am teetotal, I have to be, because I am on more medication than a third world health service, but I know what you mean. There are societies in the UK dedicated to brewing niche beers. Very strong, very unique stuff.

[Lori Dee]

Beyond the Flames

The following Saturday, I left Colorado Springs early in the morning. I brought a mini-cassette voice recorder and my notebook. When interviewing family members for my genealogy research, I would record the interview so I wouldn't miss anything. I can't write very fast, so the recording allowed me to go back and make notes without interrupting the speaker.

When I arrived at the nursing home, the staff told me Mr. Olson had finished breakfast and was in his room down the hall. One of the nurses escorted me to his room and made the introductions.

The man looked to be in his eighties. He had a gleam in his eyes and seemed happy to have a visitor. We shook hands and I explained that I was looking for someone because I had something that I believe belongs to him. I said that I needed to ask some questions that would help me determine if he is the rightful owner. He agreed and said that he also had questions that he wanted to ask me. I got the impression that he wasn't going to just open up to anybody, so intended to test me with his questions.

We asked each other questions on a variety of topics as we danced around the subject that I really wanted to get to. I was pretty certain that he was the man I had been looking for. I asked if it was okay with him if I recorded our conversation. He said he wanted to wait on that, so I agreed.

I decided that the best way to get down to the matter was to tell him the story that my father told me. I told him that he needed not to respond until after I had finished, then we could discuss it. He agreed. I told him the story, the same as I have told it here. Several times I thought I caught a glimpse of recognition, like he knew exactly what I was talking about but remained silent.

When I finished he said it would be okay with him if I turned on the recorder, but he had certain conditions. First, whatever I did with the information he was about to give me, I was never allowed to quote him directly. I could refer back to the recording to help me understand what was said, but that was all it was to be used for. The second condition was that I could not tell anyone what he was going to tell me until 20 years after his death. I agreed.

I turned on the recorder and my first question was why the conditions for answering the questions and being quoted. He said that because he had traveled back in time, certain things could induce a paradox and something about a Heisenberg something or other would change the outcome of this interview and my research in general. That brought up more questions than it answered.

He said he would tell me how he came to travel back in time, but first I needed to understand that time is not the way that we think it is. He said we think of time as being linear, beginning at some point and stretching out to infinity. If that were true, then nothing would ever repeat itself. But we think of time as linear because we only see a small glimpse of it. Einstein and others have said that space and time are one thing: space-time. Then he asked me, how is it possible for space to be linear?

Space is three-dimensional in its most basic concept. If you look at the lines on the floor where the tiles come together, is that a straight line? I said that it was. He said it is only straight in a two-dimensional plane of x - y. North-South, and East-West. But any pilot can tell you that you must also think about the z coordinates of Up-Down. If you drew that line on the floor and kept going, you would circle the Earth and end up right back here where you started. You see a straight line from every angle because you don't see the big picture. Look at that line as it circles the globe and you will see that it is not straight at all but curved ever so slightly. Space is 3-dimensional. Space is not linear and neither is time.

I sat there trying to un-boggle my mind and decided to keep the subjects simple enough for me to understand. I asked him where and when he was born. He said that I would not understand that without knowing how the world would change between now and the time he was born. He suggested that it might be better for him to tell what happened to him and then I could ask questions to fill in the details.

What follows next is not how he relayed the story to me. He gave me bits and pieces and through many questions, I was able to fill in the gaps. Over the years I have written his story, then had to add something that he explained to me, go back and edit what I wrote. Rinse and repeat. Many times.

The next part will be what I call "Future History". To Mr. Olson, this was history, and much of it he had to remember from his history lessons long ago. These were things that happened hundreds of years before he was born. But for me, these things were in the future and had not happened yet.

[Sephirah]

This is legitimately fascinating, Lori. I've seen a lot of stuff on supposed time travellers. Most, if not all, were mentally ill people. There are so many paradoxes and reasons why someone could not do this. To have someone who met one of these folks is genuinely mind-bending.

Please go on with this.

[Lori Dee]

This is legitimately fascinating, Lori. I've seen a lot of stuff on supposed time travellers. Most, if not all, were mentally ill people. There are so many paradoxes and reasons why someone could not do this. To have someone who met one of these folks is genuinely mind-bending.

Please go on with this.

As you will find out, he did not go willingly. 

[Sephirah]

As you will find out, he did not go willingly. 

Colour me intrigued!

[Lori Dee]

Beyond the Flames
(Future History)

We took a break so Ronald could get some lunch and I could step out for a smoke. There was a fast food place down the road, so I popped in there for a bite, then took a short walk to stretch my legs. I would be lying if I said that my mind wasn't racing.

When I returned to the nursing home, I remembered to bring Ronald's satchel with me. He was back in his room and he smiled when I gave it to him. He didn't look inside, instead just set it on the nightstand next to his bed.

As I have said before, what I describe next was not revealed to me in any particular order. Our various conversations would often lead to me asking him to explain what something was or for better clarification. What follows are my notes of what he told me after I compiled things back into a more logical order.

In 1958, U.S. President Eisenhower directed the creation of a new government agency to be called the "National Aeronautics and Space Agency". Its purpose was for exploration of nearby planets and moons, and to research space science. Although there would be military advisors on the board, the majority were non-military scientists and the agency's mission was to be peaceful.

When President John F. Kennedy directed NASA to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, government funding for NASA was increased. Russia was a perceived threat and for the safety and security of the planet, the United States needed to get there first. Astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first human to walk on the moon. (For those who don't believe it happened, there is physical evidence to prove it.)

NASA continued to have big plans, including establishing an orbital space station and even going to Mars. The general public was not as enthusiastic and government funding was cut. NASA continued with its plan for an orbital space station and began a space shuttle program to ferry materials and personnel from Earth to the work site. The costs were extremely high, but through cooperation with space agencies from other countries, the International Space Station became a reality.

As spacecraft and the space station itself began to age, it became increasingly costly to just maintain the program. Members of Congress felt that we had bigger problems here on Earth than to be spending millions of dollars to explore space. NASA began to seek funding from commercial enterprises. Some companies decided to use their money to fund their own commercial space program. Such a program is generally not profitable for corporations and the idea of space tourism began to gain interest as a path to profitability.

Commercial space programs then began contracting with NASA and other space agencies to transport supplies and people into space. Government-run space programs suffered huge funding cuts and using a commercial contractor made sense. With income provided by these government contracts the civilian space agencies began to thrive and to expand their operations in the space tourism industry.

Early on, space tourism was sightseeing tours. Low-level orbits allowed paying customers to experience zero gravity and get a peek into space from above the atmosphere. Eventually, this evolved into space hotels. The hotels were high-orbit space stations where paying customers could rent a room for a minimum of five days. Unlike the International Space Station, which was built for scientific research, the space hotels provided a luxury experience focused on comfort and leisure. (December 5, 2023 https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/worlds-first-hotel-in-space)

Most space programs plateaued at about this point. The cost of fuel, materials, and labor slowed further advancement to a crawl. But that changed with the discovery of Santinium. The Chinese Space Agency had set up a small "research" facility on the moon. American politicians and military became concerned that their facility's capabilities might be more military than research. Everything in China is under government control, so the fears were not unfounded. Thus began the next Space Race. The Americans set up a research facility to keep an eye on the Chinese. The Russians set up a research facility to keep an eye on the Americans. And so on and so on.

At the Italian station, scientists were drilling and taking deep core samples of the lunar surface. They discovered some interesting metallic ore and shipped it back to a lab in Rome to be analyzed. The ore contained a new element and it was named Santinium after Dr. Louis Santini, the person who discovered it. After a lengthy lab analysis, the conclusion was that this element was interesting, but of no real commercial value. The samples were stored along with thousands of others in a warehouse and essentially forgotten about. Four years later, the warehouse caught fire and burned to the ground. In the fire, some of the samples melted and mixed with other samples forming a new metal alloy with amazing properties.

The metal is extremely lightweight, flexible, impervious to heat, and almost indestructible. The Italians were the first to put this new product to use. Using it to skin their combat aircraft made them lighter, faster, more fuel efficient, and bulletproof. Before long commercial and military spies were able to obtain the secrets of producing this alloy.

The next phase was the use of Santinium on spacecraft. No more need for heavy expensive heat shields. Spacecraft became lighter and more fuel efficient, which meant they could travel farther with the fuel they had onboard.

At this point, it was getting late and I had a long drive back to the Springs. I promised to come back soon so we could talk more. As I was about to leave, he grabbed his satchel and reached inside. He handed me two items. A piece of foil and a piece of plastic.

I asked him what these were and he smiled and said, "What have we been talking about?"

"Santinium?"

He just smiled and said, "Have fun with it."

[Lori Dee]

Beyond the Flames
(Future History cont.)

After the discovery of using Santinium alloys in manufacturing, world economies began to flourish. Manufacturing put people to work, generated sales and tax revenues, and resulted in superior new products. With an increase in revenues, funding became available for research and development, exploration, and charitable giving. Corporations became the powerhouses and national governments became irrelevant in space.

The lunar "research" sites became full-scale mining operations, sometimes under dangerous conditions. The United Nations tried to become the governing body to oversee safety and regulate mining treaties. The member nations disagreed stating that the UN had no authority off-planet. There was freedom in space and no one wanted bureaucracy interfering with profitability. There were occasional conflicts, but these were quickly settled between the disputing nations through peaceful negotiations. This just further proved that they did not need the UN to oversee anything.

With the increase in manufacturing industries, the demand for materials increased as well. Over time, mining operations were set up throughout the solar system. The more distant operations had self-sufficient colonies that produced generation after generation of miners. Orbital processing plants were established which enabled ores to be converted to their refined state with relative ease in zero gravity. Other industries developed as well to support the colonies from passenger shuttles to freight haulers and mechanics. Space docks were established to provide garages for service and maintenance, as well as secure storage. Greenhouses sprang up both in orbit and on planetary surfaces to feed the growing populations. Orbital greenhouses were preferred because humans learned quickly the value of real estate.

Over the next century or so, the space industry worked like a well-oiled machine. People had jobs doing everything earthbound humans did. Explorer became an occupation that hadn't seen this kind of popularity since the days of Magellan, Columbus, Cortes, and Drake. It was vital to continue to scout the system for new resources and possibly find the next big score.

The next phase saw a comeback of another old occupation: the pirate. Gangs of pirates would hijack freighters filled with valuable ore and sell it or hold it for ransom. This led to corporations forming their own security forces. The more affluent corporations had the best forces, and the best equipment, and rivaled any military force back on Earth. The corporations formed an intelligence network to track the various gangs of pirates, and without any government or laws to prevent it, they hunted them. Sometimes they eliminated them and sometimes they tortured them for information and to set an example for other would-be pirates.

(Murphy's Law: Reform never comes from above. The player with four aces never asks for a new deal.)

Increasing public pressure forced the corporations into negotiations for better ways to settle grievances. Thus the first Galactic Council was formed. Every member was an owner or CEO of a major corporation. There were no lawyers and no politicians allowed. Council policies were corporate policies and these became the law. With the law comes the job of law enforcement. Usually, this was left up to the security forces that protected corporate property. Private property was never considered because there was so little of it. Corporate employees were provided with fully furnished accommodations, including clothing. The aim was to reduce the amount of "stuff" that needed to be transported with the individual to a colony keeping weight to a minimum.

With the advances in space flight technology was an advancement in peripheral systems, such as computers, electronics, avionics, and communications. According to Mr. Olson, faster-than-light (FTL) travel was invented by a teenager in high school. Theories had been tossed around for decades, but each theory was nothing more than a "cheat" to use some type of loophole to get around basic laws of physics. This bright kid figured out the problem, won a science award, and landed a very comfy job before graduation.

The Galactic Council was in agreement that some sort of justice system was needed. They also agreed that such a system has been shown throughout history to be susceptible to corruption. There is no such thing as an unbiased human. That is why juries of the past have relied on more than one person to make decisions. Plans to put some type of justice system in place kept getting tabled until the next high-value loss due to pirates. Then the discussions began again.

The Galactic Council decided that they would build a Justice Computer. They felt this was the best option and the technology was available to make it happen. It would not be susceptible to bribes, or emotional pleadings. All cases would be decided solely on the evidence presented. If you committed a crime, you were guilty and would receive full punishment. No mitigating circumstances, no plea deals, no time off for "good behavior". The prosecution would submit evidence that the accused committed the crime. The defense would submit evidence that they did not. The Justice Computer would decide the outcome. No appeal. Case closed. It became a very quick and efficient way to move cases through a trial.

Ronald told me that he saw a bumper sticker there in Colorado that read, "What would JC do?"
He thought it meant Justice Computer, not Jesus.

With a justice system in place, penal colonies were established throughout the solar system. These were rarely sited on a planetary surface, again because real estate was at a premium. Instead, these penal colonies were established in orbital space stations. Rather than build new facilities, very often old and run-down facilities were used with just enough upgrades to be used as a prison. The former occupants of the station were often provided space at a newer facility.

This was the universe that Ronald Olson grew up in.

[Lori Dee]

Beyond the Flames
(Ronald Olson's Story)

I have said before that Ronald Olson was a Time Traveler, but that was not his profession. Ronald Olson was a mechanic, specifically a Flight Mechanic. He worked on spacecraft of all types. The two items that he gave to me were broken pieces of spacecraft parts.

Ronald died in 1996 in Pueblo, Colorado. When asked when he was born, he said he couldn't explain it. He said the best explanation that he would be willing to give is that when one moves through time, it affects your "chronology" such that the date becomes irrelevant. It "muddles" things. He was not willing to clarify what he meant.

He was born and raised at Station RX-34J in Quadrant 16, which was an orbital supply station. His parents were medical personnel who lived and worked there. Ronald was not an exceptional child. He was an average student but was good at solving puzzles. Later in life, this served him well in troubleshooting spacecraft engines and flight controls. He excelled as a mechanic and had a reputation for being one of the best in the Quadrant. He was a hard worker. His parents taught him to earn his way in the world and to be sure to give employers their money's worth in quality workmanship.

Ronald worked for a company in the space tourism business. The company provided the equivalent of luxury limousines for hire. Except these limos had no wheels and flew through space. Ronald was the company's top mechanic. In addition to service and maintenance on the company fleet, he also had three mechanics who worked under him as apprentices. The apprentices took care of routine services like cleaning and lubrication. Ronald was responsible for doing repairs, often with an apprentice assisting him.

Ronald's quarters at the station were a little bigger than the others. As a supervisor, he was entitled to "office space" with a desk where he could do reports and fill out various logbooks. It sounds a lot nicer than it was. The "office space" was little more than a nook with bookshelves and the desk was a writing platform that folded up against the wall. He said he once calculated the square footage of his quarters and found it to be six square feet larger than the quarters assigned to each apprentice.

He had worked hard to be in this position and enjoyed the freedom of being in charge. He could come and go as he pleased and his bosses never questioned him. He would often work overtime to finish a job, so if he took some time off, it was because of something important. He was no slacker. He loved the work he did and was meticulous about ensuring it was always done right.
As the supervisor, he could pick and choose which jobs he wanted to do and which ones to pass off to his apprentices. His decisions were not about which job might be more dirty or physically demanding, it was always about managing his time. If he had a major engine repair to finish, he might not have time to do some other job that the apprentices could handle without him.

The company provided limo services for many corporate leaders, Galactic Council members, tourists, and celebrities. They had crafts of various sizes for the varying needs of their clients. Some had large windows that the tourists enjoyed, while others had no windows and were equipped with high-security features including defensive weaponry and shielding. Some were designed for high-speed courier transport, while others were more luxurious for those who expected pampering as they traveled in style.

One of the "luxury" craft had been reserved for a Galactic Council member the following day. As was routine, Ronald gave it a thorough inspection and took it out for a test run. All systems were green and he returned it to the docking bay. The following day, the Council delegation arrived and boarded the craft. Their pilot ran his pre-flight checks, found everything in order, and departed the station. Security officers watched the departure on the external cameras as the craft cleared the bay.

And then the ship exploded.