Abel III's Awakening - 22. Chapter 22 More Than Observing

Chapter 22

More Than Observing

Our transit out of the quadrant around Starview and the stars of Alpha Centauri went smoothly. The group psychic force field was tucked in just inside the outer hull plates and we spent our time during the transit in Grandfather's cabin belted into the various chairs and couches while Dad and Kade remained on the bridge. While Dennis was completely joined with me, Grandfather, Drew and Hal were normally linked and sending some power my way through the link. We peeked outside the ship again, passively observing and Dennis got to see it just as I experienced it. With his engineer's mind linked to mine we were able to begin to make some sense of this dimension as we traveled across the highly compressed lattice between normal space. We did not see any sign of the Guardian or the Elders but we were doing our best to remain hidden.

We reached the end of the first transit and dropped back into normal space at our expected location. This first leg of our planned voyage would last four weeks with that same number of transits before we made our first delivery and hopefully picked up some more cargo heading along our route. Since the Silverspin's refit was completed including all the upgrades to Hal, the ship could now travel faster in normal space and slow down faster when needed as well. The upgrades to the gravity field and the inertial compensators, the more flexible command and controls for the main engines, and the ship's enhanced sensor arrays and point defenses made high speed traveling in normal space safer as the ship could avoid or vaporize even small pieces of matter drifting through space on a collision course.

Dennis and I worked our normal shifts in Engineering and he was in fact second in grade to George, the Chief. Dennis' master certifications and comprehensive knowledge of almost all the various systems maintained and operated by the engineering crew warranted that slot. I was still working on learning enough to get my technician’s certification and spent several hours daily going through the tutorials and training modules. I did have an advantage however, as whenever I came to something I was not sure if I grasped it fully, I could check with Dennis through our link. Hal was also a constant source of information.

It was during our fourth transit that we sensed the Guardian. The transit began early in the morning, just after we finished eating breakfast. We were in Grandfather's cabin except for my cousins who were in the food service area with their regular shift (although they too had to take seats and buckle up for the transit). With the additional psychic power from my Grandfather, Drew and Hal, together with our mind melded power with Dennis' lensing effect; we felt we could take a closer look surreptitiously. Using as much stealth as possible and sending out a subliminal message with some power behind it that no one was there, we began observing the Guardian and his thoughts. He had very finely interwoven shields which Dennis and I admired and decided we needed to work some more on our joint shield while in our mind meld as well. The Guardian's surface thoughts showed he was focusing his attention on the various ships transiting this section of intra-space. From my first contacts on the way to Starview, I recognized that this was the same Guardian. Like those first couple of times, I could sense no link or thread back to a corporal body. Dennis and I wondered if this being was an advanced AI machine construct or strictly a spiritual being. Hal, through our link indicated his analysis of the data we were supplying was still insufficient for him to assign any probability to either option.

As we probed ever more carefully but only slightly deeper, we sensed Grandfather's and Drew's growing consternation that we would come into the Guardian's awareness. However, we were being very discreet and my expanded powers were being used to shield and deflect as I continued to send a subliminal imperative that nothing was amiss. All the data we collected was fed directly into a special computer partition that Hal had provided and it was extensive on both a macro and micro scale. In fact most of it was some form of higher math equations involving energy particles as they approached an event horizon. The physics and math were certainly beyond the expertise of anyone on board ship with the possible exception of Hal.

When Kade sounded the five-minute warning before we would emerge from the transit, we slowly pulled back from the Guardian realizing that any misstep now could undo everything. Grandfather and Drew were tense, but Dennis and I worked methodically and withdrew completely within the group psychic shield surrounding the ship. For the first time, we continued to observe outside as the ship completed the transitioning from intra-stellar space to normal space and we experienced a momentary sense of discombobulation before things snapped back into focus. Dennis was affected more than I. Hal speculated that because of our mind meld, we were more acutely aware as we transitioned from the distorted and compressed time in intra-stellar space to normal time sense in regular space. Since I had experienced far more transitions than Dennis, he was affected more from being in our hyper alert mind meld state as we emerged from the transition.

As Kade and Dad laid in our course through normal space for our first destination, Dad announced we would arrive at our first destination in four days as we traveled through normal space. Following that announcement all hands were told to resume normal operations.

Hal then sent a global broadcast to all the telepaths on board: {The amount of data that was obtained from Abel III and Dennis' foray into the mind of the Guardian was massive and I expect it will take me at least seventy-two hours to go through it all and try to draw any conclusions as to what it all means.}

We were all stunned. Since the refit with the upgrades Hal had much more massive computing power at his disposal and could crunch data in thousands of gigabytes per second. Dennis and I had no idea as to the amount of data we collected and transferred to Hal but knew it was a lot as we just opened a pipeline and sent as much as we could find.

In the meantime, Dennis and I returned to our cabin and attempted to emulate and deploy some of the shielding techniques we observed as used by the Guardian. The Guardian's shields and awareness were such that we only dared to penetrate one layer below his surface thoughts but we perceived that there were many more layers. The interesting thing about analyzing and copying shielding techniques was that it enabled you to better see ways to penetrate those shields. This was a fact I had learned from experience over the course of the prior nine months since I first came into my powers and started reading others and attempting to surreptitiously get past their shields.

As we worked on perfecting our mind-merged shield Dennis was struck with the idea that we could also deploy a similar type shield to the group psychic force field. While the group psychic force field was not something that any other human telepaths had detected, the Guardian had readily detected it and thus we had constricted it and tucked it inside the outer hull plates. As we considered the problem we both became excited as we realized that the mental frequencies used to detect it could also be camouflaged, perhaps well enough to effectively hide us from the Guardian or Elders.

Dennis approached the problem as an engineer and he began analyzing how telepaths used various mental frequencies. To research the problem further, he had me do some telekinesis while he narrowed down the mental frequency I employed with that talent.

We then contacted Grandfather and after explaining what we were doing, I sent him a command to stand on his desk, which he did. Meanwhile Dennis was analyzing the mental frequency I used to send a mind control instruction. We then thanked Grandfather and as I looked through our shared link to see what Dennis had found I was amazed. Different sendings and probings did employ different mental frequencies, which Dennis plotted as a scale or frame of reference, so we could analyze them and employ shields to best advantage. The differences were minute and not spread across a broad spectrum but they were identifiable.

Dennis wanted to test his preliminary results with the others and we approached Dad and Kade first and had them do both sendings and probings to see if the initial results held true. Included were sendings and probings over their personal connection between each other as well. Then we had Dad and then Kade do a group send to see the differences there as well. We next approached Grandfather and Drew while Dennis, ever the engineer carefully observed them as we put them through their paces too. With six sets of data, he began to chart his findings and overlay them for each of us. Unfortunately, the findings were somewhat confusing and contradictory. We went to Grandfather's cabin and discussed them in a family meeting and no one had any ideas of how to interpret the data in a way that made any sense.

Finally, we consulted Hal and he looked at the data and almost immediately indicated he could resolve the apparent conflicts. The first thing he noted was that we had to adjust for the relative telepathic strength of the sender so he started with me:

{Abel III is the strongest telepath of those tested and probably the strongest in the entire human race. His sendings are always clean, clear and crisp and he intuitively sends them in a very narrow band of frequencies, ones that his intended receiver can easily pick up and focus on. No one has ever had one of Abel III's sends fade out or become distorted. His sends are always in high definition, even when he is doing a group send. I doubt anyone else can make that claim. Looking at his private channel two-way communications that he has set-up, those are confined to an even narrower band of frequencies and I doubt anyone has ever overheard this type of his sendings unless he specifically intended them to hear. And yes, with his innate ability to calibrate and he concentrates, I suspect he can overhear the private channel two-way communications between the rest of you.}

Every telepath in the room except Dennis gave me an uncomfortable look at that last statement. Dennis interjected, “That may be true but I have never met another telepath who has a higher sense of personal space or boundaries than Abel III. I have completely opened myself to him on many occasions and invited him to look everywhere, but still he holds back and doesn't intrude on my memories of past lovers or sexual escapades unless I specifically lead him there and tell him to look. He claims that the personal relationships and experiences of a person are private and that unless there is a compelling need to know, it is none of his business unless specifically invited. Further he has said that curiosity without purpose is just being a busybody and a snoop.”

Dad surprised me by adding, “When Abel III first came into his power, I opened my mind to him and invited him to look around which he did, but he did not delve into personal areas gratuitously, and I know because I was monitoring him closely afraid as to how he would react if he came across some particularly embarrassing information of which there is plenty. In fact, I was amazed that he looked around enough to get a sense of what happened when I came into my power, but did not poke around and explore every detail of my many mortifying memories of that time.”

Grandfather got right to the point and asked, “Do you have the ability to monitor private two-way communications to which you are not a party?”

I took my time and thought about it and what I had inadvertently 'overheard' in the past and said, “The answer is that I have on occasion overheard some private two-way communications between others, but once I deduced they were private, I tuned them out. As to whether I could tune them in if I thought the circumstances warranted it, the answer is very likely yes. My perception is that everyone has tightened down their shields since I came into my powers and that includes their private communications. For that I am grateful. When I first came into my powers, my ability to filter was one of the main things I worked on as I was being bombarded with the thoughts of one hundred and twenty-four others aboard ship. I just thank my lucky stars that it did not happen when we were on a large space station or even worse on a planet. I think that amount of psychic input would have driven me crazy. I suspect that is partly the reason why I am singular in my powers. Others who were strong like me and came into their powers in the midst of a large population would have either gone crazy or perhaps even committed suicide. Look at Travis, he is a low level three psychic and coming into his power on Earth almost drove him crazy and was mitigated only on their relocation to a much more closed environment.”

As I read the reactions of my family to my statement, I saw that they were stunned by my ruminations and conclusions.

Hal interrupted and sent: {To get back to the data and question at hand, in addition to the power of the sender, we must also account for the type of send and finally we must account for the practice of the sender. In other words have they worked to make themselves proficient or merely intelligible?} Hal then took the data and sorted it according to his take on those variables and represented it graphically for us and it began to make sense.

I was amused to note that while my dad was one of the stronger telepaths on board, he was ranked as the one who was the least efficient or proficient in his sends. As I was scanning everyone, I noted my grandfather had made the same observation and felt guilty about it. Kade and Dennis meanwhile were looking at the data, now adjusted for the variables mentioned, and were working out ways to exploit those findings as their science and engineering background came into play. Drew also was beginning to think of the findings as a puzzle as well. Dad really was wondering what all the fuss was about and just hoped it was worth all the time being spent on the problem.

Grandfather did a send to Dad and privately included me in it, {Abel Jr. you last practiced on making your sendings efficient demonstrating them on the second day after Abel III's power first manifested. While your power is settled and not likely to increase, your use of it could certainly be more efficient and proficient. I blame myself in failing to properly oversee your training so that you could have reached your full potential. I hope you have finally forgiven me, but I still think you could improve and I want to help if you will let me.}

My dad who was nearly sixty years old was almost speechless, as I perceived that this was the first time my grandfather had ever apologized or acknowledged his possible shortcomings regarding my dad's training to him. After some discussion, my dad agreed to spend an hour daily practicing sendings with my grandfather.

Meanwhile Dennis and Kade were making some advanced plans for camouflaging the group psychic shield based on their interpretation of the data we collected and the matrix that Hal had provided. Their plan was to project background or white noise across the frequencies used by telepaths and the psychic shield, thus concealing our group psychic shield and us from the Guardian or the Elders. The best part was that Hal informed them that he could automatically encrypt and generate white noise across those frequencies with no trouble at all. The encryption would assure that the noise source would be diffuse and not attributable to any particular source. Hal speculated it would make our ship look like an automated communications drone to the Guardian or Elders when we were in transit.

After working out some of the general parameters and some guiding protocols, it was decided to deploy and test in normal space first. Dennis and Kade went to the bridge and began working on bringing the project from a concept to a working model in earnest with Hal. The rest of us returned to our normal duties and I reported to George and let him know that Dennis and Kade were working on the bridge on a new computer based anti-detection system without going into details. George had plenty of jobs pending on his board and he assigned me several.

At the end of my shift I went to do my workout and sent to Dennis, {Are you ready to join me for our work-out?}

He replied, {I'll be there in a minute. This is taking longer than we expected, as Hal wants to us to do our probings through the white noise by disseminating our probes randomly through the white noise as well and not by just punching a hole through it. Working out the interface and adjusting for the strength of the probes has been somewhat problematical, but we think we have almost developed a working model. We expect to be able to test it in normal space tomorrow afternoon.}

When he arrived a short time later, we did another vigorous workout. Dennis had at first experienced some difficulty adjusting to the difference between working out at fifty percent gravity and the current twenty percent but he adjusted rather quickly. My cousins again experienced more difficulty with the change in gravity after becoming used to exercising at the station standard of fifty percent while at Starview, but soon adjusted as well. Workouts were an imperative, especially in the reduced gravity and we used them to work out stress as well. The stress of being in the much smaller confined space of the Silverspin was felt by Dennis and my cousins who missed the opportunities for diversions on Starview.

The group showers were as boisterous as ever, if not more so. Dennis and my cousins were much less reserved than I, and were usually pulling pranks on me while in the shower. While I would have preferred to shower with just the two of us in our cabin, Dennis insisted we had to be more sociable with the crew and he did have a point. The result was that the three of them made me the object of their 'fun'. My only defense was to secretly scan them as we got in the shower and thus I was not caught as unaware as everyone assumed. I kept this from Dennis through our shared link as well. Since it was all in good fun, and was not malicious, I usually just tried to enjoy it. However, there were a couple of occasions I was able to turn the tables on them to the great enjoyment of the rest of the crew who happened to be in the showers with us.

Supper was delicious as usual and when we gathered in Grandfather's cabin later, Dennis and Kade outlined their planned tests scheduled for the next afternoon. I was scanning my cousins as this was discussed and noted that both of them were feeling a little left out and were wanting to come into their power sooner rather than later. As I scanned deeper, it was with some relief that I noted their shields were intact and that no psychic energy was leaking into them to spark an early onset of their power. While I understood their desire, I was beginning to comprehend that coming into your power before you were ready was not something to be desired. As I had become more familiar with exactly what my father experienced, my appreciation of the severity of the consequences increased.

I shared my concerns regarding my cousins with Dennis as we lay in the afterglow of our lovemaking late that evening and he said he would keep watch too over the pair as well.

That night our dreams were commingled as we shared dreams of sailing the Milky Way together and telepathically scanning everything interesting that we encountered from behind our camouflaged shields.