The Idea Pirate::

        Mentally I've been feeling good today but I've had some seizures which is bad including one at lunch where I gasped pretty big and my arm shot up pretty high. I was doing so well yesterday Besides when I took a nap I did have a string of seizures when falling asleep. Though that seizure was at lunch and this post is this afternoon and I'm feeling better. Took my blood test today. I'm taking it regularly to make sure that my meds aren't causing my kidneys to fail or other nasty stuff. That's the drawback of this new medicine. It's also making me physically weaker in general I think too, though I think I'm getting more able over time. While in the waiting room of the clinic where I took said blood test I played Sonic Rush on my DS(My seizures are not caused by lights so it doesn't matter what I'm doing its all random, because of this I still play video games.) It was fun to run and jump and fall into bottomless pits for the twenty minutes we waited. Yay Sonic! Anyway, onto the flash fiction!

The Idea Pirate

        Captain Jacob had just finished his rounds and filled his stock with incredible ideas. He hadn't had such an incredible bounty in a long time. He thought of giving his crew a raise. Of course it wasn't just his crew's work that gave him such a great a bounty. His new ship allowed him to cruise through the psychic streams so much easier. He still remembered the first time he converted himself into psychic energy. It was feeling pure happiness and pain at the exact same time.

        The Captain's bounty was ideas, all stolen from the greatest creative minds he could get. He had lost an eye fighting with another pirate for an idea for a novel with another pirate from a bestselling author. From then on he was called “A true pirate” by his crew and they forced him to say “arr” as much as possible.

        The eye really was a small price to pay for that idea. Many authors grew desperate when faced with writer's block and he was always there for them waiting for their cash. And as soon as he had it he would give them the idea and they would walk away happy. It wasn't just authors of books. The movies would buy his ideas, paying top dollar for another director's ideas. They would also bribe him to keep theirs safe. Video game companies too, after all, their creative industry just as much as movies and books. Painting, sculpting, every singling creative endeavor was vulnerable. There were other idea pirates but Captain Jacob was the most talented of them all by far.

         The good Captain had made billions upon billions of dollars. He was one of the richest men on the planet. Everyone knew who he was and where he got his money from, but no one would dare press charges because of where that money went. He bought himself a humble home, a humble car, fed himself humble meals, upgraded his ship, paid his crew and poured the rest of the money into schools, especially art schools and the like. People had mixed feelings about this. They weren't sure if he was doing this out of charity, guilt, or just to make more creative minds to plunder. The truth was, Captain Jacob wasn't sure either.

        “Thank you very much for the dinner Mr. Director, my crew seems to be enjoying it too. I hope your satisfied with the idea I've provided for your next movie.” Jacob said to one of his clients. It was not uncommon for clients to treat him to dinners or parties to gather favor with him to make sure they got higher priority in the future. He was only human so it did work many times. But even then the Captain would pick poorer clients for the sole sake of picking poorer clients at times. And this infuriated his richer clients.

          “Actually Captain, this request was just to set up a meeting with you and your crew. This idea is not what actually wanted, nor am I actually a movie director.” the man said.

          “What is the meaning of this!?” Captain Jacob yelled. He was normally a very, very calm man. One of the very few things that ever set him off was being tricked.

          “I actually work for the military. And the ideas I want you are completely different than some movie idea.” the military man explained. His look was serious. Under his disguise as a director he was a silly, extroverted man with a smile always on his face.

          “I don't work with the government, ever. I've been called and emailed before and said no.” Captain Jacob explained.

           “Why do you think we lured you out here? We did so you would have to listen.”

            “Have to?” Captain Jacob echoed.

          “Yes. Have to. And you must do what we ask you, its a matter of national security. We will compensate you, though if you don't participate you and your crew will find yourself inside prison cells in a prison that no one knows about. Oh, and from now on you can call me Agent John, though John will also do.” the agent glared the Captain down.

            “Fine. Got it. I have to do it. Just tell me what needs to be done.” the Captain looked John in the eyes trying to assert himself as much as possible without becoming overly confrontational. Passive-aggressiveness in tense situations had become habit with his crew to keep his crew under his control. Though he did go more aggressive then passive. He juggled the two as needed which is how he kept his crew loving him but fearing to cross him.

           “The mission is simple. There's this genius physicist named Samuel Wilson that's unlocked the mysteries to cold fusion while effectively cracking the secrets of the universe. We don't know what he knows, but since he did it under a government grant we know he did it. However instead of telling it to only us he decided he would make the research public during a big scientific convention.” the agent provided his exposition in a dull dreary voice.

          “So you want me go me to go and steal his ideas so that you have a monopoly on the secrets of the universe? Why don't you just find him yourself? Your the military, surely you can find one of your scientists?” Captain Jacob asked curious.

         “Monopoly on the secrets of the universe is a harsh way to put it. And the man's impossible to find. He's one of those eccentric geniuses and he has an intense phobia to birds. He thinks he's not just hiding the secrets of the universe from us, but also from them. He lurks in shadows, ducks between buildings, he's a literal rat. He thinks they're intelligent too so he avoids security cameras. He doesn't use credit cards unless its to throw us off his trail, or to him, the birds. It's crazy. ” the agent groaned.

       “That's true a man afraid of being seen by every bird in the sky would be incredibly difficult to find. And since the psychic streams I ride to get ideas isn't geographic I would be able to find his mind no matter where he was geographically.” the Captain had figured out where this was all going.

         “Exactly! And you need to leave immediately we're afraid he could be only moments away from the scientific convention. And if he speaks of his ideas, you fail. Understood?” the agent glared the Captain down. The Captain wondered how many times the agent had glared at him, as it was growing old. But it didn't matter. He gathered his crew and explained everything to them. They hated being pushed around by the government as much as he did.

         An ordinary idea pirate would have taken a full day to find him, it took Captain Jacob an hour to cruise along the psychic streams. Though when he ran across the mind he was so thoroughly surprised. It was a simple mind. The phobia formed a strong wall around it that he had to break through with the cannons on his ship but after that it was just a big well of thoughts. But just thoughts and bubbling emotions. Most minds were like cobwebs with the ideas. A well like this usually belonged to a child, but far less active. He was about to push the buttons on his control panel of his ship to send out the idea probes before doubts crossed his own mind.

        “Crew, I'm not sure if I want to take this plunder.” Jacob said to his crew.

        “What do mean? You told us they would lock us away if we didn't give them the ideas for the research!” one of the crew members shouted.

          “Yes, but now that I think about it, I think I would rather give them myself than the secrets of the universe.”

         “So you'd have us rot in some cell!?” another crew member shouted.

        “Are you going to put yourself above us, your own crew?” a third member yelled. All the crew members started growing angry.

         “No! I'm putting the whole world above myself! If this scientist gets to speak then everybody knows everything, if the government keeps the secrets then who knows what could happen!” Captain Jacob then took a deep breath, “And besides they'll probably lock us up anyway, maybe even kill us because we know what they're doing! We're turning around.” Captain Jacob then changed course to leave the psychic streams.

          But before he left he came up with an idea. A dastardly, sneaky one that would take care of their problem.

          “We have another mind we need to visit, the mind of our dear agent friend. We'll take his idea of hunting down our dear scientist friend then replicate and show it to the entire world by putting it into everyone's minds and they'll all know exactly where it came from. I think we'll start by putting it into the minds of all the major news executives.”