Caleb 9 - Training and Sharing
I started my Monday with a run. The weekend had been amazing; there had been some ups and downs, sure, but overall, it had gone really well. Jules was euphoric, Amanda and Mary were happy, and Josh and Louise would be back from her parents' later today.
For some reason I had got out of bed even earlier than usual, waking up just after four-thirty. I was wide awake and felt energized. I decided that rather than just waste the time, I could go for a run, get an hour's worth of martial arts training in, and still be at the gym by six-thirty to meet James.
Intending to shower at the gym, I packed a change of clothes in my backpack and set out.
I was feeling particularly upbeat, so I put my earbuds in and started my playlist off with ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky."
I checked my shield as I ran. Ever since my first session, when James had told me I needed to keep it always raised - even when sleeping - I had endeavored to do just that. Maintaining it when I was awake was not a problem. It had the added advantage of blocking out all the extraneous noise I had been exposed to as my Telepathy had developed. Keeping it up when I was asleep was more difficult, and I'd failed miserably the first couple of times I'd tried.
I'd decided, then, that that was as good a time as any to perform an experiment I'd been hesitant to try: Compelling myself. I'd still shied away from the most direct approach, but ultimately, ordering one's mental starship crew to keep the shields raised until eight in the morning is just ordering one's self. That's what I'd imagined happening, and, to my delight, my shield had stayed up until exactly then.
I got a little jolt when it dropped automatically at the predetermined time: an unexpected rush of mental noise. A small amendment to the order, though, and I was secure behind the best mental shield I could build. Best of all, the only cost seemed to be that I was eating more. I guess the energy had to come from somewhere.
I still hadn't figured out how to cloak while the bonds with the twins were active. I was also a little concerned about them generally. As James had said, they were a vulnerability. Even without being attacked directly, I could be incapacitated if someone got to one or both girls and somehow neutralized the bond. I needed to figure out a way of not becoming completely useless if that happened. If it did, that would mean the girls were in trouble. I'd need to be able to save them.
I ran through the park, and, after I had covered around five or six miles, I ended up on a playing field just outside the university grounds. I dropped the backpack onto the ground and began to center myself and practice the forms I had been working on.
Half an hour later, I 'smelled' James' approach. He was not trying to be stealthy, so I didn't stop the kata I was in the middle of. When I finished, I turned toward him, and out of a reflex I didn't even know I had, I bowed.
"Nice," he said. "You are coming along nicely. How much time are you practicing a day?"
"I average about two hours a day," I returned.
"Show me," he said, adopting his own fighting stance.
We circled each other. I knew from the start that I had nothing that would worry him, so I concentrated on keeping my form good and executing each move precisely.
He feinted a blow, but I easily read his intent, ignored the feint, and blocked the follow-up.
I copied his feint, and likewise, he ignored it, but it was a double bluff. I followed through with the original move, forcing him to backpedal a little and block. Then I saw an opportunity to use my wrestling skills; I grappled him, taking him to the floor and trying to apply an arm bar. He wriggled free and rolled away, regaining his feet and immediately attacked me while I was still down. I was in no position to defend myself, so I used my Telekinesis to push him away.
He grinned at me. "Excellent use of combined skills and abilities," he praised. "Your martial arts training is coming on well; I will give you more memories at the end of today's session. Remind me." He chuckled at his own joke. "Adding in your wrestling experience was a good play. It's something you are familiar with, and had you locked in that arm bar I would have been in trouble. The fact that you didn't would have been a problem if you hadn't thought to use your power to give yourself space to recover.
"I am not concerned about your ability to fight, so I think we need to concentrate on other things from here on. I'm not abandoning the martial arts training, but if you maintain the regimen you have been following, I don't need to be as involved.
"Actually," he reconsidered, "let me give you those memories now. Drop your shield for me."
I complied and soon felt more martial arts information being poured into my mind. With that out of the way, he indicated that I should follow him, and we jogged briskly the half mile or so to the gym.
Once inside, we sat on a bench at the side of the room. "I am sure you have been thinking about things since we met last," he said. "Is there anything you want to talk about before we start?"
"I need to do something with the bond," I replied, "so I'm not incapacitated if it is disrupted. No matter how good my defenses are, if someone gets to the girls or somehow finds a way to block the bond from outside my shield, I'm fucked.
"Also," I continued, "I need to figure out how to use the cloak and not disrupt the bond. I was also thinking about how to use the cloak more like a disguise. Apparently, the cloak makes it look like I'm not there. Having a physical presence, but no mental one would be a red flag to anyone who can sense it."
He nodded. "All good points. Did you figure out something to use to detect illusion?"
I nodded.
"What did you decide on?" he asked.
I grinned at him. "If I tell you that," I said, "I'm going to have to start all over again."
"Good man," he laughed. "Tell nobody - not me, not Dianna, not even your three girlfriends. Only you need to know."
We started the session. First, he showed me how I could compartmentalize my mind so that no matter what I was going through emotionally, I would still be able to function. It was initially unpleasant, as it effectively switched off my emotional drive completely. It was dissociative; I could still recognize the emotion and understand its significance, but it didn't affect me directly.
"Use that with care," he said, "and only in dire need. It is possible to overuse it and lock it into place. If that happens, you effectively become a psychopath, with no emotional drive. I'm sure you recognize how dangerous that could be given your power. Also, you need to remember that if the bond is disrupted, you may have locked off the emotion, but your girls will still be suffering the full pain of the disruption, so make sure you resolve the issue swiftly.
"Now," he continued, "about your cloak. I did some research, and I found something that might answer two of your questions - specifically, I watched
Star Trek VI,
where the cloak has been improved to the level where they can not only fire their weapons through it, but it can also mimic its surroundings and appear to be the same as normal space.
"Since your abilities seem largely driven by your imagination, perhaps you can imagine a scenario where the phasing of the energy making up your cloak allows the specific frequency of energy that forms the bond to pass through unimpeded, and also picks up the background signals you are receiving from those around you and uses them to create an image to project instead of just a blank space."
I nodded but decided it was something that I needed to practice at home. I needed to have the girls in sight in case something went wrong and I accidentally blocked the bond.
"I said that I would show you how to exit an illusion once you determine that you are in one," he continued. "I am going to create an illusion, and pull you in. Once you recognize that it is an illusion, I want you to tell me. That will let me know how good your detection is. Then I will show you how to get out."