by Jack L Knapp
The ground was rushing toward her again, but this time from much further away. Libby shrieked as she looked down, then glanced up to where Ray floated, following her down. The bubble...something around her, something to protect herself...
A bright red flash surrounded her suddenly, then faded, leaving no afterimage. Libby suddenly realized she was falling slower.
Below her, the ground grew closer, but Libby felt no fear. Somehow, she understood that Ray would keep her safe. She slowed, then bounced when the protective field generated by her mind, the one that T and Ray called the bubble, contacted the ground.
Libby nodded, waiting. Ready...collapse the layer around her...
Moments later, she stood upright, grinning in pleasure.
Libby nodded.
Libby nodded.
This time, she fell only a few feet before the bubble surrounded her, allowing her to bounce across the ground. Libby squealed in pleasure, then dropped to the ground when she was upright.
The next drop caught her by surprise; Ray had dropped her from less than three feet up. Still, forming the bubble was automatic and virtually instantaneous, just as he’d said. She had time for one rotation only, then she collapsed the bubble and landed on her feet.
There was the faint red flash again and Libby found herself floating a few inches above the ground. She looked at him smugly. Ray glared at her, his face took on a menacing look and he drew back his fist. Suddenly that fist was coming directly toward her face...
The fist contacted the bubble, bowling her over.
“The last thing we’ll do today is practice tumbling. You’ve got to keep your concentration, even when you’re spinning around or rolling head over heels. Ready for that?>
Moments later, Libby found herself rolling across the flats, blown by the slight breeze. She was still a short distance behind Ray. Expanding the bubble, she began rolling faster. As she drew even, she shrank the bubble, adjusting the size until the two were rolling alongside each other. Libby giggled; Ray was rotating at the same speed, but whenever she was upright, he was head down.
Libby had gone almost half a mile before she became dizzy enough to stop the rotation, then drop the bubble, catching herself. Moments later, Ray drifted up alongside.
“Ready to go home, Libby?”
“You can, but speak normally. We’ll practice comming another time.”
“Okay, Ray; how’s this?” Libby was floating by his side, slightly higher. She no longer had to look up to watch his eyes.
“That’s fine. Just look forward and find a patch of ground, then concentrate on it. Pull yourself toward it. As you get closer, look for another piece of ground farther ahead. That’s the basic technique. Just take it slow for now. Later, we’ll let you go higher and look farther ahead. You can go faster that way. Angle your body forward too. That makes it easier. After a while it becomes automatic, just like the bubble.”
Libby nodded, concentrating. Slowly she moved away. Ray followed, watching. Moments later she sped up.
Ray realized he’d have to keep working with her. Libby was too fearless for her own safety! At least, she had the bubble now, so maybe that would help. Maybe, if Mike and Denny had known how to control their bubbles, they might still be alive. But the decision to levitate in the mountains and keep on, even after it became too dark to see, that they’d done on their own. And neither Ray nor T were foolish enough to fly through mountains in the dark.
The new abilities were wonderful. They could also be lethal to the untrained or overconfident.
Chapter Two
“T, I’ve been teaching Libby to use the bubble. Between that and levitating, she should never have a reason to burn someone again. That’s the problem with using the pyro ability, it’s all or nothing. You can’t almost-burn someone.”
“Are you sure, Ray? If it’s anything like the psychokinetic ability, you can move small things as well as large things so maybe it’s also possible to control pyrokinetics.”
“How can you almost-burn something, T?”
“Why don’t we go out back and give it a try? Have you really tried to just warm something?”
“Well, no. I can barely manage to set something on fire, much less control the heat.”
“There you go, then. For that matter, I’ve got a few other things I want to take a second look at. You remember I told you I couldn’t use the PK ability while I was in the bubble, and levitation seems to be part of that? What if I was wrong?”
“You never tried it, T?”
“I did, but that was back when the bubble was the strongest ability I had. I think I want to give it another shot. Why don’t we head for that flat area by the mine? It’s deserted and nobody ever comes back there but you and me. Well, Bobby does, but that doesn’t matter; he’s back there somewhere, trying to get a better focus on the mineral deposit I found, but we don’t have any real secrets from him.”
“Could he be working in the mine?”
“Maybe. More likely, he’s hiking somewhere back in the hills, using his new leg. It’s fully grown now, but last time I commed him he said it needed more use. It’s not as strong as his other one.”
“Sound
s like a plan. Want to take lunch, or just come back here when we’re done?”
“You make the lunches, I’ll bring a case of water. It’s pretty warm, back in those canyons.”
#
After loading the water in the bed of his truck, T collected the sports section of the New York Times; he subscribed to the newspaper primarily for the financial information, but the newsprint would be useful today.
Arriving at the mine, T commed Bobby.
T collected the newsprint and the cardboard from the bottled-water carton. Crumpling the newsprint into wads, he scattered them around the tailings dump. The air was still, so there was little chance that fires would spread. The cardboard, ripped into smaller pieces and distributed among the paper wads, provided more pyro targets. The cardboard would probably be harder to light than the newsprint. He finished as Bobby flew over the ridge that lay just north of the mine.
“Leg doing okay, Bobby?”
“Stronger every day, Ray.”
“I think we’ll start with the pyro exercises, Bobby. Better to learn the limits here, where no one will get hurt.”
“I’ve used it for campfires. Nothing to it.”
“You may have had more practice than any of us. Can you dial down the heat?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never tried.”
T joined the two. “Today’s the day to see how much control you can establish. Pick one of the pieces of paper to start with; it’s easy to light, but if you just heat it then it will turn brown and curl up without catching fire.”
“Sounds like fun, T. All right, here goes.”
Bobby glanced at the closest wad of paper, then tried to heat it gently.
“Drat. So much for that.” The paper burned merrily, the flames licking from the wad’s base upward.
“Try putting the fire out, Bobby.”
“Is that even possible, T?”
“Won’t know if we don’t try. The pyro ability is just adding heat, maybe we can remove energy if we try.”
The three looked at the blaze; the paper was now fully alight, but nothing happened despite each of them attempting to extract heat.
“You know, T, we’d have to not only take the heat out, we’d have to put it somewhere. Maybe transfer it to the ground?”
“That’s an idea. You know, if we can move heat around, it sounds like a form of teleportation.”
“Huh. I hadn’t thought of that.”
The flame suddenly died, leaving part of the paper wad unconsumed.
“Wow. I did it.”
“How do you know it was you, Bobby? We were all trying.”
“Okay, let’s try it again. This time, just me, okay?”
“Don’t forget, try to control the heat. Warm the paper first, and if it catches fire then try cooling it down.”
Bobby nodded. The second twist of newsprint flamed. The three watched for a moment, then the flames began to die out.
“Are you doing that, Bobby?”
“I think so. It’s a lot harder than starting the fire!”
Charring the cardboard scraps without setting them on fire proved much easier, but putting out flames was still hit or miss when they finally stopped. The last scraps of paper and cardboard had burned away; only ashes were left.
“Scatter the ashes, roll the rocks around to hide the soot. Someone might wander by and wonder why there were all those small fires here.”
T watched as Bobby and Ray stirred the rocks around; in moments, there was no evidence that anything unusual had happened; it was, once again, just a tailings dump. Mining regions throughout the west had thousands of them, monuments to failed dreams.
“I’ll start with my bubble. That’s the easiest, I’ll just form it and then see if I can levitate.”
T was hidden by the momentary reddish flash as his bubble formed. Clearly, he was trying to lift himself, but nothing happened.”
“Let me try, T.” Ray’s bubble flashed into existence. Moments later, he drifted higher as he extended the bubble. It took only seconds to push the bubble to the largest diameter he could control.
“I think maybe...” Ray’s voice was muffled, but something was happening. Slowly he drifted higher.
“You can’t think about both. Form the bubble, then think only about levitating. It’s not easy; every few moments something happens and I lose my concentration. When that happens I begin sinking. I can feel a kind of flutter in the bubble too. I’m not concentrating on both, I’m switching my attention between them.”
“Maybe if I was levitating first, I could try forming the bubble. It really doesn’t take a lot of concentration.”
Bobby drifted up until he floated ten feet above the flat ground by the tailings dump. The flash announced that he’d formed his bubble. Slowly he began drifting downward, finally stabilizing. He held the position for a minute, then drifted slowly higher.
His bubble winked out just as Ray’s did. The two floated to the ground, landing in front of T.
“Looks like you’re both ahead of me this time,” T said.
“We could all use practice. What next, T?”
“Speed. Neither of you are very fast, but the only thing that slows me down is the wind. If I start moving too fast, it’s uncomfortable. That’s why I wear a motorcycle helmet with a full face shield if I expect to be going fast. I’ll try putting my hand in front of my face today and focus on an area that’s five miles ahead of me. I’ll go first, you two try to keep up with me.”
“We’ll have to be pretty high up to see that far ahead, T.”
“Right, there’s a wide area in the road where it dips and goes through that gully. That’s about five miles back, so we’ll levitate until we can see it. Last one back’s a rotten levitator.”
The three chuckled even as they began rising.
“Cool up here, T. No airplanes around, are there?”
“None I can see, Ray. The clearing’s in sight, so whenever you’re ready, give it a try.”
“You know, if we could use the bubble, we should be able to forget about the wind, shouldn’t we?”
“Yeah, but we’ve established that...”
Two pops answered him as Ray and Bobby formed their bubbles, then streaked toward the clearing. T was barely behind them at the start, but the two vanished moments after the bubbles formed.
T’s answer was slow in coming.
T picked up a water bottle from the truck and drained it. Tossing the empty back in the truck’s bed, he turned to Ray.
“Ray, I don’t think you were levitating. I know that’s what we were doing at the start, but as soon as you formed the bubbles and took off, I couldn’t even see you.
“Something else; I could hear you comming, but it sounded like you were down in a well or something. I could hear an echo. You too, Bobby; it was almost as if I could hear your thoughts twice, one just a little bit ahead of the other.
> “T, I don’t understand. I didn’t hear that from you. If anything, it was as if you had stopped comming completely for a moment. I heard you, then there was nothing for a second, and after that I could hear you fine.
“Ray, Bobby, you both did it. I don’t see how I could have made a mistake. You were there, then you vanished. It wasn’t like you moved faster, you just weren’t there anymore. Guys, I think you just teleported. We talked about moving energy from the fire to the ground, but there’s more to what you just did than that. What I heard...just instant transport, that wouldn’t cause your thoughts to change. It wouldn’t cause me to stop thinking, either. I need to think about this.
“Anyway, we’re all tired. What say we have lunch, then head back for the ranch? Bobby, you could stand a shower.”
“Yeah, there aren’t many bathrooms back where I was! But I’ve found two smaller deposits off to the side of yours. I haven’t had time to do a real investigation, but they’re not as deep as the main deposit is, the one you located.”
“You want to try sinking a shaft, Bobby? We could take a look. We could both help you dig.”
“Dig? T, I’m an explosives guy. I’ve still got ammonium nitrate, all I need is more diesel fuel. I’ll need a piece of pipe too, maybe six inches in diameter? I’ll just drive it in, then pour it full of ANFO when I get through mixing the slurry. There’s plenty of dynamite left and I’ve got a box of electric blasting caps. If it’s all right with you, I’ll blow the charge tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll come up, Bobby. Ray, you want to be here too when Bobby sets off the charge?”
“Wouldn’t miss it, T. Tell you what, though, I’m going home after we get back and catch a shower myself. I might take a nap after that.”
“You’re getting old, Ray. Why don’t you bring Ana Maria to the ranch after she gets off work? We’ll broil some steaks on the patio.”
“Works for me, T. See you around six?”
“Six or half past. If you’re early, I’ve got a new scotch we can try. Glenmorangie Lasanta; they mature it in used sherry barrels or something. It’s supposed to give it a smoother taste.”
“Where’d you get that? I never heard of it before.”
