Discovery (Science of Psionics Book #1) by Dave Renol (sad books to read .txt) 📗

of them ranging fromsemi-plausible, like telepathy or empathy, to the truly bizarre,like transmutation or matter manipulation. Do a net search if youwant the full list.”

“Maybe I will, but not right now. I’ll haveto let the one we’re currently experiencing settle into my skullbefore there can be any room for something even weirder,” she said,laughing. She looked thoughtful for a moment before continuing.“How are you handling this so calmly?”

“You think I’m calm?” I asked with a sardoniclaugh. “I almost left a brown stain on the seat of my chair when itfirst happened. If anything, I’m still in shock and will maybesettle down to a mere panic level in a few days… if I’m lucky.”

She nodded in understanding. “I can relate tothat, alright. In fact, I think I want to take a nice long walk tohelp me clear my head a bit.”

“Go ahead, if you think you’ll be ok, but beextra careful. Mountain paths or county roads are dangerous whenyour head’s not screwed on straight.”

She nodded vaguely in my direction, “Yeah,yeah.”

“I mean it. I don’t want you walking off acliff, or into traffic,” I chided.

“Yes sir!” she replied, snapping me a quicksalute. “I’m always careful, you’re the absentminded one.”

“See that it remains that way then. I’ll do abit more research while you’re gone, and maybe that’ll help me tofocus better.”

Wishing me luck, she left to go change intosomething more appropriate for a hike. Fifteen minutes later, Iheard her go out the patio door. Spinning my chair back to face mycomputer, I stared at the screen for several minutes without reallyseeing it. Giving up for the moment, I got out of my chair andstarted pacing.

“Ok,” I said to myself. “Putting thehow and why of things aside for a moment, let’s lookat the ramifications. Is this a permanent thing, or will we go backto normal soon? Do we announce it to the world? Keep it toourselves or maybe tell a few select people? What are the limits ofwhat we can do, and is it safe to keep trying to do things thisway?” I wasn’t expecting to come up with any answers yet, butasking questions helped me to organize my thoughts.

Let’s assume that this thing is permanent. Ifit goes away, then we can just chalk this up as a moment of sharedlunacy and move on. If it doesn’t go away, then sooner or later,someone will find out. But does that mean that we tell people inadvance, or try to keep things a secret for as long as possible. Idid figure out that any decision to tell someone should come fromboth of us.

Now let’s look at safety. So far, theredidn’t seem to be much danger, unless you count the risk ofimpaling yourself with something due to lack of control. Thenagain, what would happen if I tried to do something that I didn’thave enough power to accomplish? Maybe my brain would melt orexplode or something. We might have been walking a razors edge overa pit every time we used this thing. Testing the limits isimportant. It needs to be done slowly and carefully, since there isno possible way to evaluate the risks in advance.

If I was to analyze this as a thermodynamicsystem, I would have to look at the work done, compared to theenergy used. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, it can onlychange form as either heat or work. If Linda agrees that we shouldtell people about this, perhaps I could get some of my old lab ratbuddies up in Edmonton to help evaluate and quantify things.

For now, though, I needed to get back to myresearch on the subject. The more I know about the basic theory,the less risk there should be attempting the practical. Sighing, Isat down and began typing out my next search query. This could windup being a long day.

Chapter 5

Linda: A Dream Revisited

I was glad that Mark admitted to not beingquite as calm and collected as he had appeared to be. I may havespent the morning thus far using this strange new ability in acasual manner, but every action that I performed frightened me downto the very core of my being. I don’t think that anyonecould be calm when confronted with impossibility like this. Noteven my friends Sid and Sara Jensen, who were both ex-rangers andhighly decorated from a tour of duty in both Iraq andAfghanistan.

After changing into clothes suitable for ahike up the mountain trails, I put on my boots and stepped out ontothe back deck. Looking around, but not quite focusing on anythingin particular, I came to a decision. Raising my arms above me, Ileaped up off the deck and floated into the crisp clear sunlight inmy back yard. Since my dream had reminded me of the lovely pond, Idecided it was a good time to pay it a visit. Turning to the right,I started to follow the little stream that wound its way up thehillside.

Gaining confidence, I slowly increased myspeed. Following the gurgling stream up higher, I enjoyed thetranquility of the mountain which was broken only by bird song orthe occasional chatter of a startled squirrel. I had rarely gonethis way, due to the roughness of the trail leading up to it, butwhat was difficult on the ground, was easy when above it.

As I rounded the last bend and it came intoview, I paused for a moment to savor the sight of the watersparkling in the sunlight. The serene feeling that had beenbuilding inside me on my journey here suddenly faded as it dawnedon me… I wasn’t just getting the idea from my dream, thiswas the dream: right in front of me was the mama dear withher baby, drinking from the pool. I waited for it, and yes, the doesuddenly raised her head, looking at me and tensed, preparing forflight.

With much wonderment and more than a littletrepidation, I gave myself over and said the words I had spoken inmy dream. “Peace, little darling, I won’t hurt you.” Thedeer looked at me for a moment longer before resuming her drinking.My heart soared with joy and amazement