Outlaw Badjans (Six of Toigan)

by D Gemcats Purcell

  Anyway, at each pause, we switched walking partners. Cherese and I were walking this segment and as we rounded a bend. She froze in place. All I heard was screams coming from up ahead, likely from the boisterous teenage group. All of our group started to sprint ahead and I was about to follow, but I was spellbound. Her hands were out in front of her, eyes wide open, pupils dilated sweating profusely. Jessi must have reached the scene of the happenings, as she came blaring through to me. “Kid over the edge, bring rope.”

  “I don’t have it, Dillion has it and he must be right with you!”

  I heard her anguish and puzzlement, “The kid is floating, shit”

  I said to her, “Get the rope onto him quickly, it must be Cherese somehow doing it.”

  She said, “Ok we’ve got her, she is secured.”

  Cherese suddenly went limp. I caught her before she fell and lowered her to the ground gently, with her still hyperventilating and obviously very weak from the effort.

  She asked, “Is the young lady safe?”

  I said, “They’ve got her roped so I hope so.”

  She asked me weakly, “Jonah, you’re here with me....”

  I knew what she meant, so I answered,

  “Jessi and I can talk to each other.” I said. “What did you just do?”

  She said, “ I felt sudden fear and all of a sudden I could see this kid was falling off the cliff and I felt a surge inside me. I could make her resist gravity somehow. It was exciting but also draining. I have been able to hold small objects up and even levitate things but not in a life threatening situation like this before where I couldn’t even directly see the situation! Thanks for preventing me from falling. I was too weak to prevent that.”

  Just then the elderly couple who we had passed up, were standing over us, smiling. He reached one hand out over her and she levitated slowly but smoothly into a standing position. The look on her face was nothing short of horror mixed with wonderment! He said, “Now you know what it feels like to be on the receiving end.” His laughter was like a dry cackle like dry beans in a can and all of a sudden, the four of us were gliding 2 feet above ground up the trail gently alighting behind Dillion, Mader, Matt and Jessi who were pulling on the rope. A pair of pale grasping hands were reaching over the escarpment edge 5 feet behind the protective railing clawing on the vegetation and then she was over and safe! I remembered her with the blue long sleeved top among the group that literally ran by us on the trail.

  The old man said, “I am Choka and my wife is Jongi and we are glad to help. We are from the Council of Scientists and have been thrilled to observe your progress as individuals. Imagine our delight when you all somehow decided to get together on your own. I am pleased to see how compatible you are. By the way Cherese, I initially started to help you, but I realized that you could do it on your own, so I withdrew my energy. You Cherese are an exceedingly powerful telekinetic, we are just so amazed.”

  He added, “There are others here now so we must not broadcast our abilities here.”

  Obviously he was a super powerful telekinetic, to so effortlessly have floated all four of us up the trail!

  The bunch of six teens crowded around their friend and came over as a group to say thank you. Much chastened by the experience of nearly losing her in a fall of more than 500 feet, they rather sheepishly started on their way back down. The young lady’s color was just beginning to return to her face and she walked up the Cherese and said, “As I was falling, I could only see your face with your hands outstretched calming me. I don’t know how you saved me, but thank you so much.”

  Cherese said, “You are welcome, but we all played a role.”

  When we reached the top we realized that there were already other groups who had staked out most sections of usable grassy space. We ended up close to a line of lavatories but there was no offensive odors to me anyway. Working on a farm does have a way of inuring one to the scent of animal refuse.

  We could see the entrance and exit for the open lift ride, each pod of which carried 4 people from the parking lot 1200 feet below as well as the Magnalift which shot a similar number up in an enclosed carrier inside of a cave like tunnel within a few seconds, obviously using vacuum technology. I’d heard those rides were thrilling with some g’s to he had. There was also an overlook gazebo and a ticket dispensing kiosk, for the odd folks who needed to purchase a one way ticket off the mountain, I suppose.

  The old couple promised that they would soon see us again and left on the lift to go down. I got to sit by Mader, our bedrolls spread out side by side, while the others were on their Vidcoms talking to parents it seemed. It turned out that Mader was a budding inventor, having already contributed to improvements in interplanetary transport speeds now up to 0.7 light year through an ingenious technique involving surfing energy fields, including heat engines and magnetic sling shots around planets and stars. He has been able to convert electric power from fusion engines into magnetic power plus leveraging power from intra and intergalactic radiation transmuted into ion drives but more important, he had helped with making heat engines to convert hydrogen into incredible trust a reality. This explosive expulsion of hydrogen heated by radiation from a nearby star or even fusion energy had been very difficult to tame before he had contributed by tweaking the heat shielding and special internal coating of the labyrinthine tubes in which it flowed before being squirted out explosively too create mind blowing thrust.

  He has had a talent for building Artificial Intelligence programs that he is literally able to insert himself mentally into since age 5. This way he can, faster than most specialist physicists experiment in a virtual way to see which scenario holds the most promise. So he talks to AI machines like few do.

  After we had washed hands, eaten and chatted a bit, Dillion popped over and squatted on the grass next to me. Dillion said, “Thank you for protecting Cherese during this situation. She told me.”

  I replied, “Glad to. She looked distressed so I stayed with her.”

  He said, “She has been like my sister over the years, we grew up as next door neighbors and I felt her distress too, but was too far away.”

  So I asked him point blank, “What career interest do you have?”

  He answered, “I am training to be an genetic agronomist. I hope to be one of the guys who keep on improving our plant stock and in the near term do some interplanetary travel where someone has to grow the food, both meat and greens. I feel that you’d like to know what special senses I bring to the table though.”

  When I nodded, he continued, “My sense of smell has been my saving grace and my curse too on many occasions.”

  Dillion then related how he has used it to detect early plant distress when apparently they weep chemicals, in the early warning of fires, making wines at his family’s winery and even just tracking that he is far better at than either dogs or pigs. He admitted to even helping law enforcement in investigations, but it is not a role that he enjoys. Instead he has assisted in fine tuning AI sniffer programs to help law enforcement that way. Plus he can sense Cherese’s distress from a distance...

  Oh my, we are a unique bunch. He was well built, if soft and though not obese, he was the closest to that description among the group of us.

  After cleaning up, packing up our stuff and finishing our sightseeing, we took a few group photos- the six stooges with strange talents and headed back down. We were mostly deep in thoughts at the revelation that a couple from the Council had been here, monitoring our every move. Now what will lie ahead for us.

  “I can’t believe that we are that special, there are so many other teens every year with special talents going through the immersion. Are we that unique? Now I was beginning to question whether we had really gotten together of our own free will, really?”

  Jessi suddenly chimed in, “Yes that occurred to me too. Also my Mum and Dad had told me that when powerful kids got together, there is often a strengthening of each of their special powers plus a bleed over of their
powers into each other, a sharing and pooling as it were.”

  She continued, “I don’t want to be paranoid about it, but we’ve heard of such setups. It’s either serendipitous that we are coming together or our minds are being bent a bit.”

  I said, “We may discover that later, but I’m good for the ride. I like all of you.”

  I wanted to say, “I love being with you especially Jessi,” but I quickly shut down that thought. She quickly chimed in, “ What did you just say?” Then she corrected, “What were you just thinking?”

  I felt instant relief at the thought that I could shield my thoughts from her.

  She said, “I heard that.” Then, “Mum said that we will be able to shield our thoughts from others and that will be especially necessary if we are on a transport in space! It would be intolerable to be in each other’s head all the time. Did you notice that you couldn’t get into Mum’s head?”

  I said, “Oh, so she is more powerful than she lets up to be.”

  She said, “She is quite coy, but immensely powerful.”

  By now we were on our way back to Jessi’s home and Dillion had volunteered to drive, giving Cherese a break. I don’t think she had fully recovered from her ordeal.

  Mader reached out from where he sat next to me In the middle row just behind her and touched her neck.

  He said, “You’re still hot but weak. Stay still, you will feel a bit of a tingle.”

  Cherese suddenly tensed, “Wow, what’s that?”

  It was like all the visible skin on Mader’s body suddenly glowed and though she could not see him, she must have felt a burst of energy I figured.

  He said, “I have the ability to give a plant or person a needed jolt of energy if I see them flagging a bit. Don’t you feel better?”

  Cherese said, “So much better, yes thank you, whatever you did.”

  I thought, “Inventor my foot!” He had told me what he wanted me to know at the time, but not all of his talents!

  But I guess I couldn’t complain, since I had only told them about my ability to connect to other people’s minds who were receptive. That was only partly true, since I have increasingly begun to hear the thoughts of others as my strength grew. I had not told them of my ability to worm my way through electric and electronic circuitry to detect faults and software snags. I certainly hadn’t told them of that ability, except for Jessi, to travel through nearby circuits electrical or electronic to troubleshoot plus newly awakening ability to discern objects from a distance if they bled power. I suppose we were still feeling out ourselves and definitely each other.

  One good thing though, was discovering that I actually liked Mader and could see why Jesse appreciated him. The young man was brilliant and super talented. This may be the beginning of a great friendship with Moderns. Back home I had Charlie and Ruston, both neighborhood kids that I went to school with and shared much with over the years as my closest friends plus Moog, my older brother too. They were all from Noncom families who were going to inherit their family farms and businesses and marry well and have the standard 1 kid. That has never somehow been my dream. Thank Lord Meneer that my parents have been super supportive and maybe having me after Moog became their son, helped them to not pressure me to conform to the tradition of the typical noncom family.

  Once back at Jessi’s place, I transferred my stuff to Dad’s car, said my good byes to her parents Jace and Susan and shook hands with Dillion, Matt, Cherese and Mader. It was about 4 pm, no time to tarry for the promised ice cream. Jessi gave me a warm hug and in my ear said, “I can’t wait to see you again.”

  They were all standing in the driveway as I got in, since I had the longest journey of all of them to get home.

  I shouted at them, “Ready your ears for the rumble and Dillion, close your nose!”

  He retorted, “I smell the olive skins, citrus oils and animal oils already!”

  I thought, “Man, he has a nose.” Indeed those were the remnants from which Dad extracted his oils, getting some leftover grease from Ruston’s parents huge vats where they grew the slop that became vegetable based meat. Luckily we could also grow real hogs and sheep too, though bred over thousands of years, so not exactly like the old animals on humans’ original earth.

  Our forebears left earth region 50,000 plus years ago the stories say, starting with Musk Jr’s primitive first forays from Mars and the earth’s only moon in a fleet of barely functional steel cans into interplanetary space. It took them more than 1000 years to get to a suitable star close to Proxima Centauri with a planet good for human settlements. That was their first solid beach head. Back then 20-100 miles/ Sec was all they could muster. Mankind’s first probes Voyager 1 went at 10.5 miles/ Sec and got to the edge interstellar space after 40 years but still took it 300 years to just reach the Oort Cloud and 30000 years to fully pass through it. Humans had expanded more than 20 light years away now from their original home base solar system. That the ‘original pilgrims’ had survived was a stroke of luck.

  But they slowly established colonies along the way, keeping themselves in rotating stasis and bringing along live plants, animals, seeds and stored gene banks. Those were truly brave pioneers. We have evolved much since then, though basically still human. We sure have come a long way.

  Anyway I eased away from them down the driveway, only imagining how annoying it must be their delicate senses with all the exhaust stench and vibration. I’m sure Matt could feel the rush of fuel through the fuel pump and into the intake manifold, the squeaks as I pressed on the pedals and all the mechanical actuators doing their thing. It is such a far cry from our modern transports which are ‘AI or drive by computer’ and are better left to do their thing autonomously. We just monitor in case.

  I watched my speed carefully as I got out of suburbia, as I noticed the flashes and energy signatures of several drones, likely law enforcement. Plus Dad would be proud of me taking good care of his car. I certainly was grateful to him so I could wow my friends with it. I wondered which, if any of them, truly understood glow plugs and diesel internal combustion engines. Of course, the multiple databases that had been downloaded into our minds during the immersion may have helped.

  Coasting into the driveway toward the row of garages with the engine at an almost idle rumble, I thought of how it had been brought home to me once again, that there have been super smart people hovering over me since age 5 when I first showed signs of special talent. The likelihood is therefore that it is still being done. Am I as easy to detect psychically as Dad’s car is to anyone? It leaks stinky fumes out it’s tailpipe plus noise, vibration, electrical sparks and magnetic flaring. I am going to have to make a concerted effort to prevent myself leaking my thoughts, feelings and psychic energy. Those folks form the Council with tremendous power that I had met today, did not leak their power. Maybe I just wasn’t strong enough to notice their powers even when just feet away.

  Engine shut down, I made my way back to our modest country home and gave Dad a hug, reporting to him that his car performed well, no glitches and how everyone was quite thrilled to see it. Mom got her hug as well and when Moog finally showed up from his upstairs bedroom for dinner, he got the obligatory playful shoulder punch. I felt grateful to have had a great family growing up. I knew that someday, I would move away, since I had vague plans for my life that did not involve toiling away on this or any other farm.

  A month later, each of us received official notification of a skill building exercise as soon as our schools adjourned. For better or for worse, we were being treated as a group. All we knew is that it would be here on Toigan and might involve a trek of 250 miles and we should meet when possible between our exams prior to graduation to prepare.

  The six of us therefore began meeting together almost every weekend now for long slower jogs, short fast runs usually carrying packs with survival gear. We were hardening and conditioning ourselves physically and mentally. Throughout the week, we would speak by vidphone and telepathically. What was ama
zing is that as we exercised those skills with each other, our capabilities grew to the point where all of us now had telepathic capability, Jessi and I being the strongest with Dillion next and the others even less so.

  Once while running in the hill country, I felt a strange sensation like the earth was dropping off beneath my feet, even though I realized visually that was not the case. I stopped suddenly and everyone did as well. We stepped backwards a few feet and the feeling went away. It struck us that we were in the area of a defunct mine. After confirming this via a quick interrogation of Ednet via our comms, we walked back and forth and discovered that through sensing subtle shifts in the magnetic profile of the land we could define the tunnels of the mine deep underground beneath our feet. What a revelation! Our senses and skills were constantly improving our repertoire of skills.

  Cherese could now reach out from a distance and lift all six of us up 4 feet into the air, herself included for 30 mins. All of our sense of smell was now more acute, just not close to Dillion’s! Thank Lord Meneer, I had developed better shielding and could control even my odor sensing. It’s a good thing to be able to suppress that in farming country.

  It was much harder going with the levitating skills. I would feel exhausted after 1 hour of trying to lift a ten pound weight for 15 seconds, but I wasn’t any worse than the other four. Concentrating together though, along with Cherese, we could lift Dad’s smoker all 4500 pounds worth, parked out back where I could observe to make sure no one saw and hold it 6 feet up for 10 mins repeatedly. Not bad going. Together we were stronger than anyone of us could be!