Discovery (Science of Psionics Book #1) Read online

  “Real live telekinesis?” Carl asked, half in awe and half in doubt. He was moving his hands in the air all around the bottle trying to find some gimmick.

  “That’s what it seems like. All we know is that it started last weekend after a massive thunderstorm rolled through the valley. Working in the office the next morning, I knocked my coffee off the table and it just didn’t hit the floor. I went to get Linda out of bed, thinking that I might be going crazy or something, and saw her hovering above the covers.”

  “How are you two doing with this so far?” Linda asked her friends, looking back and forth between Sid and Sara.

  “I’m not sure,” Sara began. “How is this … you can fly?” she finished.

  I threw Linda a wink as I lifted myself up from my chair, and seeing what I was doing, she followed suit a moment later until we were both hovering about two feet above our seats.

  “If this is some kind of elaborate practical joke, I’m gonna kick your ass, Mark.” Carl warned.

  “I already told you. No joke, no prank, no trick … this is somehow real, and we have no idea how we can do this, but we want to figure it out.”

  Carl looked like he was deep in thought for a few moments and then suddenly sat up straight, “You asshole!” he sputtered. “All of those lucky bounces and amazing putts earlier … You cheated!”

  Laughing, I replied sheepishly “I wasn’t quite sure how to broach the subject today, and since sometimes I still think it might be a wacky dream, I was just testing systems, so to speak.” Seeing that they were all still a bit freaked out, I lowered the bottles that I was controlling as well as myself so we could keep things calm. Linda followed suit.

  “Can you do anything else, or is it just telekinesis?” Carl asked. “I assume that one of the reasons that you brought me in on this was to work out a logical explanation, but of course the only Psi stuff that I know comes from sci-fi books.”

  “We decided to reveal this to all of you because we value your insights and intelligence. We also felt that you three were trustworthy, and before we go much further, I want you all to swear that you’ll keep this a complete secret.” Still stunned, they all agreed to silence outside our small group. Having their promises, I went back in detail over what we knew, both from experimentation and from research. Amused, I noticed that nobody had touched the ‘flying beers’ that Linda had brought out, as if they were afraid that they might take flight again between table and lip.

  “How are you dealing with this, Sid,” Linda asked during a conversational lull. “You’re the only one who hasn’t said anything so far.”

  “I’m not sure,” he replied bluntly. “I’m trying to figure out how dangerous this thing is. One of the few things that I trust is the evidence of my own eyes, so I believe that your ability is real, I just need to know more about it. Carry on. I’m not a science geek like Carl, so I’ll just listen for a while.”

  “Ok,” I began. “You’ve all heard our story and you’ve seen some proof. Does anyone have any questions or comments?”

  Carl looked up from fiddling with a game piece and asked Linda “Did you ever figure out how to do the telepathy thing again, or was the deer episode the only time.”

  “Only that time, if it ever really happened at all” she replied.

  “Make me float. I’m curious to see what it feels like,” he said to me.

  Raising my arm theatrically I complied. The surprise on his face was sort of comical, but he didn’t freak out like I half expected he would. “Anyone else care for a ride?” I asked, looking over at Sid and Sara. Sara eagerly agreed, but Sid quickly shook his head no. I gave Linda a nod to work with Sara so I could keep my attention on Carl. The last thing that I wanted to do with the tension so high was to accidentally drop my friend on his ass.

  We talked long into the night, giving demonstrations upon request. Linda and Sara mostly stayed together, while Carl and Sid sat with me. Carl asked plenty of questions, most of which I couldn’t answer, while Sid just sat there listening. It was well past midnight before I called an end to things to let them sleep on it and process all the new information.

  Carl had always been a night owl and would have kept going until the sun came up, but he reluctantly agreed that it might be a good idea and went inside to try and get some sleep. As we all trundled into the house, I wondered how much sleep, if any, we would get tonight.

  ***

  We were all a little red-eyed the next morning from lack of sleep. I amused myself momentarily calling it precognition, but disregarded it as plain old common sense. We sat around fortifying ourselves with copious amounts of coffee, drinking mostly in silence. Nobody seemed eager to be the first one to raise the subject.

  Carl was the one who finally brought it up, asking me to show him what information I had dug up on the subject. I got up and motioned for him to follow me toward the office. Sid got up and followed us as well. It took us the bulk of the morning to go over all the research about psionics that I had saved on the computer. Carl kept asking me to try something every time he came across a new psi ability that sounded cool, and I had to keep reminding him that we only knew how to do the one single thing.

  Linda brought in a plate of sandwiches for us around lunch time, but just left them and went back out to where she was talking with Sara. “Perfect timing,” I thought. “We could use a bit of a break, and nobody has had anything all day except coffee.”

  “I have an idea,” Carl said in between bites of his sandwich. “Let’s sign you up for the PGA Tour and make some money. You would be unbeatable with your telekinetic control of the ball.”

  “Not funny,” Sid sputtered indignantly. “This should be used for the good of our country, not for crass monetary gain. Think of the lives that could be saved in a place like Afghanistan when we’re engaged in battle.”

  I poked Sid and said, “Relax, he’s just being flippant. We’re all a bit giddy from the shock.”

  “I must admit that I haven’t given much thought to real world applications for this yet,” I said. “Both ideas probably have the potential of working. We could try various things this afternoon to see what ideas we can come up with, and maybe come closer to figuring out the mechanics of how it works.”

  “Maybe we can also figure out if this can be taught to someone, or if we should all run outside in our underwear every time a storm builds up,” Carl said with a lopsided grin.

  “Let’s go see what the girls are up to, and maybe we can figure out the answer to that. I’ll try anything, to save us from the sight of you in your underwear” I said, trying to keep a straight face.

  Chapter 9

  Linda: Up, Up, and Away

  I watched the boys file into the office, but as Sara remained seated with her cup of coffee, I decided to stay out here with her. “How are you this morning?” I finally asked as an opener.

  “A little better than I was last night,” she admitted. “Sid and I were up half the night talking about it. It all seems unreal.”

  “Welcome to my world,” I said wryly. “My head hasn’t stopped spinning since this thing started.”

  “What’s it like?”

  “It’s not really easy to explain. I feel kind of tingly whenever I do something mentally, but that’s the only external connection that we’ve been able to identify so far.”

  “What does it feel like to fly?” she asked with a hungry look on her face.

  “Again, it’s not easy to describe how it feels mentally, but the physical sensations are wonderful. Ever since I was a little girl reading comic books, I wished that I could fly away at will, so this was almost like a dream come true.”

  “I’m with you on that,” she replied wistfully.

  “I’ll take you out flying with me later, if you want,” I offered.

  “I’ll hold you to that promise,” she quickly replied with an excited look on her face. “In the meantime though, how about getting me a refill on my coffee?”

  “Easier done th
an said,” I said confidently, floating the coffee pot over from its place in the machine. She grabbed it tentatively and I waited to release my hold upon it until she had a firm grip. When she finished refilling her cup, she suddenly raised the pot up and let it go. She caught me by surprise, but I was proud of the fact that I managed to stop it before it made impact with the table. I topped off my cup before I floated it back to its place in the kitchen.

  “Nice try,” I grinned. “But Super Linda prevails!”

  “Super Linda indeed,” she snorted. “Don’t make me knock you down to size,” she threatened, waving the sugar spoon at me in a mock threatening gesture.

  We talked all through the morning before Sara finally started loosening up. It wasn’t that she was overtly hostile, but I could tell that she was uneasy about abilities that were beyond her control. A growling stomach reminded me that we had skipped breakfast, so I suggested a break to get some food together. Sara must have been hungry herself as she simply got up and went to forage in the fridge.

  We put together a plate of food each, and then made up some sandwiches to bring to the boys. They seemed pretty focused on their discussion, so I just left them their lunch and went back to join Sara. Feeling better with some food in my stomach, I cleaned up the small mess left from our preparations while Sara lingered over her plate.

  Finally finished, she looked up and impishly asked me, “Wanna go outside and play?”

  Grinning in reply, I nodded agreement and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. Offering it to Sara, she declined but asked for a Coke instead. I grabbed a can, and followed her out onto the back deck. “What did you have in mind?” I asked.

  “Nothing in particular, but before we’re done for the day, I’m going to hold you to your promise of taking me on a flight.”

  “No worries on that score,” I said, “How about this for starters then?” With a quick mental flip, I knocked her legs out from under her, but kept control of her body so that she fell into a lounging position, three feet off of the deck. She squawked in alarm when she lost contact with the ground, but relaxed marginally when she figured out that I wasn’t going to let her slam into the deck.

  I raised myself into a similar position and then grinned with success at my maneuvers.

  “You caught me off guard there,” she commented, “but I’ll give you points for style.”

  Before I could reply, I heard the patio door opening and saw the boys file out, talking about different things that they wanted to try. Mark did a double take seeing the two of us floating above the back deck, but carried on forward with only a slight stutter step. Sid looked like he was going to say something to us, but changed his mind at the last second. Carl just gave us a big grin and shifted his golf clubs to his other shoulder.

  “Shall we go see what the boys are up to?” I asked.

  “Sure, but if they’re gonna just be whacking golf balls around, I’m out of here.”

  I was going to float us down to where the boys were setting up in the yard, but opted to play it safe and just move some chairs down there. I lowered us down carefully, and went over there with two chairs and a small table following behind me like little ducklings in a row. Once the furniture was set up to my satisfaction, we settled in to watch their play.

  Carl had his driver out and was sending the ball flying out toward the western tree line. I thought that was some nice shooting, since the trees were over three hundred yards away, and he was almost hitting them. They would all watch the shot, and as the ball finished rolling, Mark brought it back like some kind of auto-reloading driving range. Convenient, I thought.

  It didn’t take long for me to get bored, and looking over at Sara, I could tell that she felt the same way. I gave her a speculative look and made a flying type gesture with my hand. She quickly gave me an affirmative nod and stood up, ready and eager to go.

  “You boys have fun, we’re going to take off,” I said. Mark gave me an inquiring look and I just smiled innocently before rising up.

  “Up, up, and away!” Sara urged me on, blowing Sid a kiss as I brought her up next to me.

  I gave her a ‘thumbs up’ gesture, and then started moving us along the stream path that I had followed last week. I kept things slow for the first ten minutes or so until the confidence in my control grew. I had never tried flying with a passenger before. Picking up the pace a bit I started to follow the curves of the creek closer, banking our turns as sharp as I was able, like a freeform rollercoaster.

  “Yee-haw,” Sara shouted, “This is awesome!”

  Smiling, I glanced over and saw a look of pure rapture on her face. She really loved to fly!

  Arriving at the pool I slowed our progress and brought us to a gentle stop near the larger rocks where we could sit and rest. I immediately sat down to catch my breath. That was the hardest that I had worked my abilities so far. Sara, on the other hand, was practically bouncing around with the adrenaline rush that she experienced from the flight.

  “That was amazing! You have no idea how much I enjoyed that!” she exuded. She finally wound down enough to be able to sit still, and flopped down next to me, giving me a big hug in the process. “I would do anything to be able to fly myself,” She said with a dreamy look on her face. “If the boys figure out how this works and how to pass it on, you’ll never see me on the ground again.”

  After resting for a few minutes, I got up and walked over to the pool. Scooping up a handful of water, I rubbed it on the back of my neck to cool myself down. Refreshed, I asked Sara if she was ready to fly back and she quickly agreed. Deciding to try something different, I floated us up above the tree tops and peered downhill, plotting out the course that the creek carved through the forest. With the necessary direction firmly in mind, I started us moving back the way we came, but higher and straighter. I poured more power into our flight, accelerating us faster and faster. The wind was whipping through my hair crazily as I thought “now this is flying!”

  Our return trip was near an end, accomplished in a fraction of the time that our trip up had taken. Peering ahead, I looked around to make sure that nobody had come up to the area around my house. The road was a dead end, with my place being the last one so traffic was very infrequent, but occasionally lost people would drive by. Seeing nothing untoward, I kept up our speed and flew over the yard where the boys were still playing. Sara let out a huge rebel yell as we passed overhead and then I started to slow us down, banking back to land near them.

  When our feet were back on Terra Firma, Sara briefly raised an arm high in victory before leaping toward me and giving me a tremendous tackle hug.

  “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she said enthusiastically. “That return flight was both scary and wonderful at the same time, and I can’t wait to do that again.”

  “That was exhilarating,” I replied. “We’ll have to do it again soon.”

  “Anytime, but next time please warn me before you crank up the speed like that. I almost peed in my pants!”

  I rejoined the boys, giving Mark a quick hug and kiss for a greeting. Sara went inside, presumably to take care of what she almost did in her pants.

  “That was pretty cool,” said Carl. “I wonder how fast you were going.”

  I shook my head, saying “I’m not sure, but it felt kind of like sticking your head out of the car window while driving down the highway.”

  “That sounds like maybe fifty or sixty then. I wonder if we could get a radar gun and clock your max speed.”

  “I could probably borrow one for a few days. I have several friends in law enforcement,” Sid replied.

  “Nice,” Carl nodded, “I wonder what other empirical measurements we can take.”

  They immediately started arguing amongst themselves on what they wanted to measure and how to go about it, so I left them to it and headed up to the house for a fresh bottle of water. Turning the corner into the house, I was almost run over by Sara in her rush to rejoin the gang and tell them about her adventu
re. Amused, I shook my head over the way she was behaving. She was just like a little kid getting a new toy, or getting off of her first ride at Disneyland.

  Chapter 10

  Mark: Practical Practice

  I concentrated on the golf ball. It was harder than I thought, since from the moment that the club made contact and sped it away, I had to mentally ‘follow’ it and reacquire the feel before I could gain control. There it was. Wrapping my mind around it, I waited until it was near the top of its arc and then gave it an extra little boost.

  “Woot!” cried Carl, as his shot landed at around three hundred yards. “I sure got ahold of that one.”

  “Well, WE got ahold of that one” I corrected.

  “Whatever. Bring it back for another shot, this is fun.”

  Complying with his request, I silently agreed that it was fun. Happy Gilmore, eat your heart out. After thirty minutes or so, Linda stood up and said for us to have fun; they were going to take off. The words were barely out of her mouth when she started flying up toward her stream trail, Sara flying beside her. I watched them go until they rounded the first bend of the trail and then turned my attention back to our tests.

  “You seem to have Carl’s golf idea down, but what else can you do with it?” Sid queried.

  “What did you have in mind?”

  “Can you turn it, stop it, or deflect it? Think defensive.” He urged.

  “Well,” I started, organizing my thoughts. “Turning and deflecting is part of what I’ve been doing in addition to the distance boost. Carl sucks too much to have had that many straight drives here.”

  “Hey!” Carl exclaimed, offended.

  Laughing, I continued. “Stopping or blocking shouldn’t be too different. Let’s give it a try. Tee it up, duffer.”