by Dave Renol
Throwing me a dirty look and a rude gesture, Carl complied. Once I acquired contact with his shot, it wasn’t really any different to stop it or turn it down to the ground than it was to boost it. Only the vectors changed. Blocking would be a bit different though.
“Ok, think,” I said to myself. “If you can lift something, then you’re exerting force on it. Theoretically, that same force could be applied without the object there. If that’s the case, then anything that hit the ‘force pocket’ would then come under effect of the field and thereby be affected. That might work.”
Motioning for Carl to hold his next shot, I started to set up my field. I picked a spot about twenty yards ahead of us and pretended that there was an object that I was about to move. With that spot firmly in mind, I started another mental move, this time in the opposite direction. I felt a bit of pressure at the spot where the two forces met and thought that this just might work after all.
A bit move confident now, I expanded the diameter of the two fields until I had a good sized ‘shield’ in place. Keeping my focus on it, I gave Carl the thumbs up and waved for him to take his shot. The familiar ping announced the launch of the golf ball, and we watched it sail off into the distance.
“You sliced it and missed my shield, noob. Try again.”
Carl grumbled, but teed up another ball. He aimed and slowly brought the club back. He held the pose for a few seconds and then let loose. He then ducked as his shot, this time flying straight, hit my shield and bounced right back toward him. I was too surprised at the success of this experiment to grab it on the rebound.
“That seemed to work,” I said in triumph, “any other requests?”
“Try that a few more times and see if you can set up your force field on the fly. If you were in combat, you would rarely get the opportunity to set it up in advance.” Sid replied.
Nodding, I had Carl whack a few more balls at my existing shield so I could get a better feel for the needed control. Once that was set firmly in mind, I modified it. First, I rotated it so that the deflections would go off on a tangent. Successful with that, I made it a bit smaller and practiced with moving it into the path of the shot. That was a bit trickier, but not too bad. I could move it around easy enough, but often the ball moved faster than my reactions could compensate for.
Wanting to see what would happen, I moved my two force focal points a bit farther apart. That only took a few seconds, and as the next shot hit the field, it bounced and fell rather than ricocheting off with most of the original speed.
“That’s a cool one,” Carl said. “It looked like I drove the ball into a pile of pillows, whereas the other ones were closer to hitting a brick wall.”
“I think I have this figured out enough for now, so let’s see if I can set it up in real time like Sid suggested.”
Carl nodded and said “Sure but grab me a beer first, will ya? This is thirsty work.”
Sid chimed in that he wanted one as well so I grabbed those from the fridge, as well as a Coke for myself. I didn’t want to blur my focus and reactions. While waiting, Sid teed up a dozen golf balls in a row for the real time test.
Refreshed, I turned to Carl and said, “Engage!” doing my best Jean Luc Picard imitation.
“Dork,” he replied, but proceeded to step up to the first ball.
The first few attempts were bad. I could get the shield built, but not in time to stop the speeding ball. Deciding to move my focus out farther, I had some better success, but still missed some. I brought the balls back for Sid to set up again and thought about it. The hard part was building the dual foci shield that would result in a deflection. If I prepped the shield in advance, maybe I could assemble it faster in the flight path.
Having the prep work done ahead of time made it much easier, and I managed to block all but one wild slice in the second round of shots. Happy with my success that time, we set up for a third round. This time I blocked them all, and even moved the focal point closer to us for faster blockage. As Sid was setting up the balls, he suddenly spun and threw one at me. It caught me off guard, but with the field requirements fresh in my mind I was able to assemble a shield and bounce it back toward him.
“Now THAT is what I’m talking about,” Sid said with a satisfied nod. “Imagine you were pinned down in a firefight and someone threw a grenade in your direction. That there would have saved lives.” Looking thoughtful, he added “I wonder how strong of a shield you can make, and how big. Could you stop a bullet, or block and explosion? Could you shield a whole company or platoon? Could you make it a one-way shield so we could fire out but the enemy couldn’t hit us?”
“Slow down there champ,” I interrupted. “One thing at a time until we get it figured out.”
“In any experiment, it is wise to only change a single variable at a time,” agreed Carl.
“In any case, I want a bit of a break before we continue. It might look like I’m just standing here, but it takes some hard work.”
“How are you feeling?” Carl asked curiously. “Any pains, headache, or other symptoms besides fatigue?”
“Not right now. The only pain I felt so far was the very first time I used the new ability to stop my falling coffee cup.”
“Odd. Maybe the initial pain was sort of a shock as your body gained attunement to whatever force is powering the ability.”
I could only shrug my shoulders at that, but it sounded reasonable. I figured that I had worked hard enough this afternoon and deserved a beer, so I fetched us all a round. Relaxing for a bit, I sat down and enjoyed my nice cold beer. Carl and Sid started arguing about what else I might be able to do. I let them have their fun, but interjected the occasional veto on the dumber ideas like Sid wanting to shoot a real gun at me. I also vetoed his live grenade idea with a resounding “Hell no!”
Standing, I rejoined the conversation in order to steer them back toward more reasonable expectations when I was suddenly startled by a loud yell from above, passing by with a distinct doppler effect. Looking up, I saw Linda and Sara go blazing by us about fifty feet over our heads. We all stared at them as they made a wide turn, slowed, and came back to land near us.
Sara was effluent in her thanks and tackled Linda to the ground with a big hug. After she had calmed down a bit, she let Linda get up and went into the house. Linda joined us and gave me a hug and kiss of my own. As the guys cornered Linda in order to question her on the flight, I thought about how much power it would take to accelerate two adults to that speed.
Linda seemed to be breathing heavier than normal, but that could have been due to excitement rather than energy use. I’ll ask her later. Sid and Carl started talking about getting a radar gun and other measurement devices, a course in which I heartily approved. Hearing that we were back to ‘geek talk’ as she liked to call it, Linda escaped back to the house. Sara rejoined us a few moments later and immediately dominated the conversation as she described her flight in exquisite detail.
Once she had slowed down enough for us to politely interrupt her raving, we had her sit down so we could continue with some variants of our earlier tests. This time, I stood out in the middle of the yard, with Carl and Sid on opposite sides of me. Each had a bunch of golf balls that they would throw at me at random times to try and get through my guard. Amazingly, I found this challenge to be easier than the last one. Either I had gotten better at my control, or by being so personally involved I reacted quicker. There’s nothing like self-preservation to sharpen ones senses.
Next, Sid asked me to build a complete force field around myself and maintain its integrity while they tried to breach it. Consenting, I closed my eyes and envisioned a dome encasing me. “Too small,” I thought. “I should have some extra space around me in case they break through. Busting my shield is one thing, but busting my noggin is something else entirely.”
I enlarged my dome slowly, and once satisfied, I fed it power to solidify it as best as I was able. Once I was as ready as I could be, I gave them the go ahead a
nd braced myself. They both tentatively moved forward until they found where the shield began and began poking and prodding at it. Sid put his shoulder into his efforts, like he was trying to break down a door, but gave that up after only a couple of attempts.
Rubbing his shoulder, he made his way over to the fence and hopped over it to wander through the trees. Meanwhile, Carl picked up his discarded golf club and began beating on his side of the shield. Sid headed back my way carrying a club that he picked out amongst the forest deadwood. They were both attacking at a pretty good rate when Sara decided to join in on the fun. She sprinted off around the side of the house and I heard the side garage door open. “There’s probably lots of junk inside there she could use,” I thought.
When she returned, it was with the big axe that I used for the larger logs that needed to be split for the fire pit. Sid and Carl had both decided to catch their breath for a minute, but Sara was raring to go. After a few tentative swings, she paused to figure out the point of maximum force from a swing and adjusted her stance slightly.
I heard the patio door open and turned to ask Linda if she wanted to join in on the fun. Before I could begin, the words ‘LOOK OUT’ resounded through my head and echoed a split second later in my ears. I realized that Linda didn’t know what we were doing. All she knew was that she saw me turn toward her, and then Sara swung an axe at my back. It also dawned on me that in trying to warn me, her message hit my brain before it hit my ears.
She had used telepathy.
Chapter 11
Linda: New Experiences
I felt foolish as I realized too late that Mark wasn’t in any danger. From the way the axe bounced off of nothing in mid-air, it appeared to be some sort of defensive test, but my warning shout was instinctive. Mark held up a hand indicating for Sara to stop her swings, and looked at me like I had suddenly grown a second head.
“Do you know what you just did?” he asked me.
Confused, I shook my head no.
“I heard your warning inside my head a split second before you actually spoke it.”
“Are you sure?” I asked in disbelief.
“Definitely,” he affirmed. “Hold off guys, we need to look into this before we lose it.”
Waving off his ‘attackers’, he motioned for everyone to follow him to the seats around the fire pit. Once we were all settled, he turned to me and simply said “Do that again.”
I threw him an irritated look before responding. “We’ve been over this already after the deer incident. Maybe I can really do it, but I have no friggen clue how to do it on demand.”
“Maybe it has something to do with strong emotions,” Carl interjected. “I’m guessing that you saw the axe swinging toward Mark and were afraid for him. If that’s the case, then try and concentrate on that exact moment in time and use that feeling as a guideline to send him another message.”
Still somewhat doubtful, I tried to as he asked. I stared at Mark and thought back to what happened earlier. I pictured the axe swinging toward his back and remembered the sudden surge of fear. “LOOK OUT” I had said. As I thought this, I suddenly saw Mark duck and hold up a hand to his head.
“Jesus, not so loud!” he gasped.
“You heard that?” I asked. “I didn’t actually say it this time.”
“You better believe it. I heard it, and heard it loud. Try again,” he urged.
“What should I say?” I thought.
“What should I say,” he echoed back to me with a grin.
Startled, I thought “This really works.”
“Yes,” he replied, “This really works.”
“What does it sound and feel like? Is it just like hearing normal sounds, or is it flat and monotone?” Carl inquired.
“It’s just like she was speaking into my ear, or yelling as the case may be.” Mark answered.
“It’s your turn now, smartass. Not another word out of me until you can do it yourself.”
After Mark repeated my message out loud, Carl urged him on. “You can do it, show her who’s who.”
He struggled with it for several minutes without success before admitting defeat.
“Noob,” I teased him, throwing as much scorn into it as I could.
“Blow it out your ass, I’m trying as hard as I can!” he angrily replied.
“There ya go. I knew you could do it if you had the proper motivation.” I said out loud
“You heard that?” he asked, sitting up straight in surprise.
“Yes,” I replied mentally, “I thought about what Carl said, and chose to say something that might engage your competitive nature.”
“Thank you. That was an awesome idea! This is so friggen cool.”
“Anytime hon,” I replied. After a few seconds of thought I added “I think this is getting easier now. I don’t have to put quite as much ‘Oomph’ into it as I did for the first couple of times.”
“That’s good to know,” he thought back. “It seems that figuring something out is the hardest part. The rest is just practice, like anything else.”
“Yup,” I agreed happily.
“Hey guys. Don’t forget about us here. You can send each other mental love notes all night if you want, but keep us in the loop here,” Sara complained.
“Sorry,” I apologized. “To put it simply, it seems that we figured out how to talk to each other now.”
“Telepathy,” Carl interjected.
“Yeah, and figuring it out was the hard part it seems, as we can ‘talk’ much easier now compared to the first subconscious attempts.”
“Can you read my mind?” Sid asked tentatively.
I shook my head negatively. “It doesn’t work that way. All that we can do is to send each other our thoughts, we can’t read them.”
“It probably does work that way,” Carl opined. “But as you said, the hard part is figuring out how to do it the first time. Give it a try and tell me what I’m thinking.”
I stared at Carl and tried to get a reading of what was going on inside that egghead skull of his, but to no avail. I finally pointed a finger at him and theatrically replied, “You’re thinking how great it would be if Sara made us her famous fried chicken for dinner tonight. In addition, you are thinking that you should go and pick us up more beer.”
“That’s not what I was thinking!” Carl squawked.
“No? Well, it sounded good to me.” I replied, as everyone else started to laugh.
They both agreed without much fuss and got ready to head to town for supplies. Sid offered to go along for the ride so he could pick up stuff to make potato salad, which was about the only edible thing that he knew how to make. Once I heard the car head off down the gravel driveway I settled back and asked Mark what they discovered during the afternoon.
After he finished going over all they had discovered, I told him about my trip with Sara, which I felt to be tame in comparison. Our entire discussion was done telepathically. I experimented with duplicating Marks latest tricks, and found them to be really easy. They were variants on what I already knew, and having the exact description placed right into my head beat a verbal description by a country mile.
I had to laugh at some of the wild ideas that Carl came up with. Using telekinesis to win at golf or bowling might be fun once, but cheating never remains fun for long. I also felt that it would be disrespectful of the athletes who were good at a sport through natural ability, training, and talent. I felt that everything that happened did so for a reason, and shaving a few strokes off of a round of golf wasn’t what this was for.
After dinner we sat around discussing options and plans. Carl was free to stay all month with us, but Sid had only booked their tickets for one week. It didn’t take much to convince them that a single week wasn’t enough to do more than scratch the surface, so Sid vowed that first thing in the morning he would arrange to get more time.
***
Living up to his word, Sid spent all morning on the phone with Fort Benning arranging more time
here. He was able to get it, however he would have to go back for the weekend in order to make sure that their replacements would have all of their training information. The rest of the week went by without any new breakthroughs; we just got a bit better at the things we already knew.
When it was time for him to leave for his flight, he let us know that he would be back in three or four days. He was planning on driving back here from Atlanta, so Sara gave him a big list of things that she wanted him to bring for her. I could tell that Sara wanted to go with her hubby, but didn’t want to chance missing out on the possibility of getting our ability herself.
She made me take her on a flight every single day, and probably would have spent from dawn until dusk in the air if she had her choice. Every day, Carl had a new get-rich-quick scheme that he tried to sell us. They ranged from clever to ludicrous, and we vetoed them all. Finally, late Monday night, Sid pulled up in the driveway.
We all went to welcome him back, Sara giving him several long and deep kisses. Wrapping an arm around her, he turned to the rest of us and said “Ok slackers, tomorrow we can get some REAL testing done.” He didn’t explain his comment, but a glance into the back of his truck sent a shiver down my spine.
DANGER: High Explosives.
Chapter 12
Mark: Dangerous Practice
The radar gun beeped. “That was a good one; seventy eight MPH,” Carl said as Linda went flying by.
Sid had borrowed a radar gun and brought it for our experiments, along with a pile of supplies from his military base. Guns, tear gas, explosives … I didn’t want to know how he was able to get all that stuff. While we waited for Linda to head back out for another speed run, I amused myself by thinking of how the airport TSA people would flip out if Sid had tried flying back with this kind of luggage.
“Y’all ready for the next run?” Linda asked me.
I looked up and sure enough, Linda was over by the dead tree that we used as a starting point for the flight. “Anytime,” I sent back to her. I warned Carl that we were about to start again.
