"Abigail, you're in!" cried Jayne, one of my childhood friends, and I giggled happily as she and the other kids ran off.
"Alright!" I called after them, and placed my hands over my eyes, so I couldn't see them while they all ran and hid and I waited 100 seconds. We were playing a simple game known as hide-and-go-seek to the people of Earth, who I had not heard of at the time. I was seven, surrounded by friends and with no knowledge of the future that was soon to wrap tight around me.
I could hear the sounds of my friends scurrying all around, surveying hiding places to determine a good spot. I'd always been good at this game, and anticipated that I'd be easily able to find everyone. That was, until something completely unexpected happened.
As I stood there, counting slowly in my head, a strange sight appeared before my eyes, despite my eyelids covering them fully. I stared, as best as I could with my eyes shut, at the unmoving, grotesque, glistening orbs with veins and ciliary muscle extending from the sides. I looked inquisitively at the black circle in the centre of the disgusting white sphere, and the swirling grey ring around it and then I began to hyperventilate as I realized the truth. Somehow, I was seeing my own eyes, within my body!
I ripped my hands away from my face and the image disappeared, but I would remember it forever. That didn't calm me down though, because the next moment more things flooded my mind, overwhelming me in a resounding heap. Voices, images and memories all striking me clearly, making me understand them, every conversation, every emotion, every moment.
I had never experienced anything like this before. I was a child, and I was scared. It was as if my brain was overloading, and as I clutched at my hair, trying to keep the images at bay, I gave in and screamed, louder than I had ever managed in my short life.
"Abigail?" I heard frantic voices, but they seemed distant, and I could hardly focus on them. The kids I was playing with emerged from their hiding places to see me. It must have been a strange sight. I was struggling against my own mind, writhing as if from an invisible attack, and screaming high and clear. Naturally they were worried. "What's wrong? Abigail!"
This was where my powers of understanding kicked in. Everything suddenly made sense around me; my peripheral senses took in the positioning of the sun and told me the exact time, my brain told me every function of every organ and muscle in my body, I knew the temperature, the distance away exactly of everything around me, and most of all I could read every emotion on everybody's face. Most of the people around me, like Jayne, Zax and Sierra, were worried about me, confused and starting to panic. Runer, on the other hand, though he tried to look concerned, was just annoyed that the game had been interrupted.
As the pain from the data streaming through my mind rose to a crescendo, it was as if something new awoke within me. The ends of my fingers sparked, as if buzzing with electricity, and then the air particles around me heated up, excited by the friction that I had subconsciously caused. I started to freak out even more, staring at my hands and then at my friends. Realizing the danger, I threw my hands out towards them, urging them to not come any nearer.
That was a mistake.
The movement affected my powers even more, whipping up a ferocious wind. The air crackled, still heating up, and small objects flew upwards. Sticks, toys and tiny rocks spun around us, and the other kids ducked and started to scream. I screamed again as well.
This was the most bewildering thing that had ever happened to me, but my powers allowed me to understand why; it was all caused by my advanced mind. I can't say mental powers are unprecedented in paladanians but they are rare and this was just insane.
"Stop it!" Jayne yelled at me, terrified, straining against the wind. "Abigail, stop it!"
"I- I can't!" I wailed back, and then my powers reached full capacity and I accidentally sent out a shock wave of air that knocked everyone off their feet.
Just like that, the wind calmed down, everything went back to normal, and I swayed dangerously, drained of energy. My friends, though they weren't that for much longer, achingly rose to their feet. Too late, Leila ran onto the scene, and then stopped short, confused as to what had happened.
"Why did I hear screaming?" she asked. Zax started to reply but then Leila's eyes locked onto me. "Abigail!" she screeched and ran over.
She caught me just as I fell, and her face was the last thing I saw before I blacked out.
I woke with a start in the present day, in my cold, dark room, on the mattress on the floor. The rise and fall of Sophie's every breath was all that I could hear, and yet, at the same time, I couldn't get the screams from my dream out of my head. I was stunned.
That had been a memory; an actual memory! Yet before now, I'd never remembered it. When I thought of the day when I got my powers, I got up to the bit where the images overloaded my brain, and the next thing I knew I was waking up in the local healer's office, with Leila anxiously by my side. I never knew about that early expression of telekinesis. If I had, I would never have questioned it when Sophie suggested it to me, all those days ago while trapped on the human spaceship by the Weraynian. This explained everything! I'd wondered all these years why it had only been Leila who stuck by me after I developed my powers, why everyone else had stayed back, as if afraid of catching a disease. It seemed that instead they were afraid of getting hurt, by my crazy powers. Suddenly I felt a wave of anger. Why had they not spoken to me about it? I could have worked on controlling them, and fixed my relationships with everyone!
Calm down, I told myself, releasing my clenched fists and trying to slow my breaths. Remember the personal flaw. Detach yourself from your emotions. Think it through. They were confused, they were afraid. They must have been worried about triggering me, and saw the most logical way to avoid another incident was to avoid me. I mean, it worked, didn't it?
I grudgingly had to agree with that. Thanks to my friends keeping me in ignorance, my powers were kept at bay until they were needed during the Weraynian's attack, when it was most useful.
The most important thing I'd learned from this spontaneous dream, which had probably been brought on by my first fully-fledged encounter with the personal flaw since my powers showed themselves, was that I could fix this. I'd spent so long thinking my friends hated me because I was annoying or rude, but instead it was because they were afraid. Recently, people had been a bit nicer to me, but I could take it the whole way. I could bring back the friendships I'd been longing for my whole life.
As my previous anger at my old friends turned to elation, I rolled over and caught sight of Sophie sleeping again. I rarely woke up before her and got to see her in this state. She looked so peaceful, wrapped tight beneath her cot-sized blanket with her hair splayed across her face, like a child. I had seen that face warped with fear, and pain, and anger, and worry, and confusion, and honestly it was nice to see her void of all those negative emotions. Nice to see my friend content. On that note, I didn't know how she fit in with my whole plan of reconciliation with my friends. She was nothing like them. They were typical Paladanians, knowledge-seeking, a little arrogant, sometimes emotionally detached, but also totally sincere.
Sophie, hmmm... How to describe Sophie? She was impatient, erratic, outlandish, brilliant and silly. She would clash majorly with the others, and what they are used to, but she was also my best friend, and there was no way I could leave her out. I supposed maybe I could save all my friendship endeavors until Sophie was ready to leave. I wondered when that would be.
That dream had shaken me to the core, and I felt like a different person when the sky lightened and I rose from my resting place to get ready for the day. I felt more confident, like I knew better who I was, and I guess that was the truth. Before I'd known about my power's true origin, I'd been confused, disoriented, especially since they'd seemed to first appear during what could have been a war. There's something about a life-risking situation that unsettles a person's soul, and to suddenly discover the depth of my potential right in the center of that was... crazy. But now I knew. Now I understood my life better. It was a strange but brilliant feeling.
Preparing for the day's schooling was a smooth process, unhindered by Sophie's presence. She merely dressed normally while I put on my neatest, simplest clothes and combed my hair. I chopped up some fruit and combined it with some blat to make a thorough breakfast, while she enjoyed a piece of our bread, which she adored. I packed a simple lunch and a bottle of water for break time, and placed them, my notebook and writing utensils into a shoulder bag to take with me to the Learning Centre.
"You gonna be alright for the day?" I asked Sophie, pausing in the hallway before I headed off. I was sure she would, but I wanted to inquire after her plans for the day.
She nodded, leaning against the wall. "I'll be fine. I've got my report to keep me busy, and if I have free time I'm sure I can find a way to entertain myself."
"Okay, that's good." I pulled the strap of my bag more securely over my shoulder, and opened the door.
Before I could exit though, I sensed that Sophie had remembered something and I paused.
"Oh wait!" she said a moment later, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small device, with a miniature antenna and a touch screen. I was speechless as she pressed it into my hand, thinking of the last time I'd used it.
It was my communicator, the twin of Sophie's, which had been destroyed by the Weraynian but since rebuilt by her, and it had been the gadget most useful to stopping an outbreak of war. Without it I would never have been able to convince the humans that my people were innocent. I would never have known the Weraynian was on the ship. I would never have been able to stop him.
It was strange how such a small item held so much emotion for me, but it did, and I smiled gratefully at her, knowing what she was giving it to me for. "Thank you."
She grinned, retrieving the matching one from its spot on her belt, and waving it at me. "I modified yours, so now we both have texting capability as well as verbal contact. Thought you might get bored in class, with your super advanced brain of yours."
"That's very thoughtful of you, Sophie." I laughed, and then, knowing the time exactly by instinct, realized I had to leave now so as not to be late. "See you later then."
Sophie had been right. The day was rather boring. It was a theory day, which meant our elders taught and questioned us on the facts needed for our education, as opposed to tomorrow, excursion day, when we would go out together and experience the application of our learnings in reality, or the day after, where we'd put our knowledge into practice through experiments and skill-testing activities. For now, though, I was just sitting and listening to the teacher, during our Social Studies class. It was where we learnt about our mind's capabilities, and the philosophies and theories of many of our ancestors on how to utilize them and learn from them. It also involved teaching us about the workings of society.
Today, ironically, we were learning about the Personal Flaw, or more specifically the teachings of the legendary leader Artich Raen, its discoverer.
After focusing for a few minutes on the lecture, I tuned out, and my hand travelled down to my bag, and extracted the communicator. I switched it discreetly on, and, glancing momentarily up at my surroundings, quickly determined the best spot for me to hide the device from view and be able to access it with ease. It had Sophie's translater technology integrated, so I knew I'd be able to easily contact her by text.
Opening up the texting application Sophie had installed I saw that her communicator was on so I sent her a message, making sure my device was set to emit no sound.
Half a minute later she replied;
Bored already lol? Whatcha learning bout?
I shook my head at her 'text talk' and tapped out a response on the touch sensitive keyboard.
Personal Flaw, just the basics. They want to make sure we understand our limitations.
Sophie: But you already do. Must suck for the others in your class; they'll never top the tests
Me: You know they don't grade us like that. I've explained the whole schooling system to you.
Sophie: Doesn't mean I understand it. Anyways so can you give me something to put in my report.
Me: Here's a bit on the Personal Flaw I have memorized: the potential of the Paladanian brain is enormous, allowing many complex ideas that average species cannot process to be understood. It does, however, have one limitation, known as the Personal Flaw. It involves interference of personal emotions with thought processes, with the result of flawed logic. Therefore all Paladanians must learn to be able to detach themselves emotionally from situations at will, to not let their feelings control their actions, so that they can develop the fantastic ability to understand all things fully.
Sophie: That's beautiful, it's going in. The Board had better be impressed
I began to type an answer but just then my peripheral hearing alerted me to my name being called and I looked up innocently to see my educator waiting with an expectant look on his face.
"Yes sir?" I asked politely.
He raised an eyebrow at me. "Can you tell me the answer to my question?"
"From page 72 of Raen's treatise on the nature of Paladanians?" I inquired, having picked up the current topic at the edge of my understanding. I was good like that. My mind tended to process everything that I heard, even if I wasn't focusing on the words. Then I could draw from the knowledge stored in there anytime afterwards. It was tricks like that that made my powers very handy.
He stood terse-lipped, clearly annoyed. For a moment I felt bad. He knew I hadn't been listening and he'd been trying to call me out on it, but failed because of my abilities. I mean, technically I was doing nothing wrong, as I knew everything he'd been teaching, but still, it was rude of me, and teachers don't tolerate rudeness. "Do you remember what it said, Abigail?"
I nodded. All eyes in the class were on me. "The speech of his that is quoted there was about paladanian understanding, and how it should shape the way we live. He said, "All power that is given comes along with responsibility. Thus we as Paladanians must learn to control our powers, and use them to consider, understand and help those around us. Misuse of power is what leads to chaos, death and destruction, and those things must be avoided in order to maintain peace and prosperity. So I say to you, go, learn to understand fully, so that the world can become a better place."
There was silence for a moment, and then Mr Bentlee sighed, uncrossing his arms. "Very well then."
The rest of the day was majorly uneventful. After Social Studies we had History, in which we learnt about the Great War. Everyone was a little more somber than usual. Since recent events, the words about the suffering that had gone on during the war hit us harder. After our break, where I ate my lunch and drained my water bottle and just sat there for a bit, we had Science, which involved maths, biology, chemistry, physics and all sorts of subjects related to the knowledge of how the world works.
The next day we left the Learning Centre, the simple, squat brick building in the middle of our town, and headed into the city, taking notes along the way and being advised to make our own deductions when we arrived at a bustling, business section in the Capitol. We went to a hospital where we watched a medical examination, were briefed on the medicines stored in the laboratory, saw a room full of people in comas and visited the emergency room. I stored all the details of everything I saw in my brain, there to prepare me for my own studies on healing. It was a rather humbling experience, seeing all the pain there, and I felt even more compelled to follow my career choice. It was people like this I wanted to help, I remembered.
By my final school day of the week, I was tired, burnt out from all the information we'd had to process, and lonely. Every time I tried to talk to someone just casually, I thought of my dream and remembered the way my fingers had ignited some electrical force, throwing all my friends back. I hesitated, and then I decided not to follow through with it and retreated back inside myself, like I was used to.
Science was before our break on that day, and after being given a quick briefing on today's work, we were set to our first experiment.
"You'll be working with staar matter today." Mrs Smyeson addressed the class, gesturing to the boxes of equipment on her lab table. Projected above the table was a data map on staar matter. "You should all remember its properties. Each lab table has a vial of a fluid mixture on it. Now, using what we have here, your first assignment for today is to identify and categorize all the elements in the fluid and ultimately to determine which of them staar matter is. You will need all your knowledge on staar matter, from what I've taught you over the past month. Now, begin!"
Everyone set to work, rushing to get equipment and assemble it at their lab tables. I noted Jayne and Runer setting up what was needed for distillation on their table, and my own lab partners, who I got amiably along with, arguing over the best way to identify the components of the vial. I, however, just crossed to the vial and stared at it. I could work it out easily. I knew about staar matter. It was the name given to a very specific substance related to our the properties of our sun, and part of its chemical makeup and that of most planets in our system. It was a unique element, in a constant state of both gas and liquid, which sounds impossible but it was all because of the circumstances under which it formed. It could come in all sorts of colours, conducted electrical energy incredibly well and became luminous when under pressure, but what was most interesting about it was that it was what gave the Halapatovians their telekinetic abilities. Long ago Halapatov had formed with large deposits of staar matter all through it and its native people had been born with it in their blood. Therefore, if they concentrated hard enough, they could harness the potential energy staar matter possessed. This allowed them to move things through the air, to manipulate things from far off and gave them great power. It was a physical ability on par with the Paladanian's mental one.
How did this tell me how to isolate the staar matter in the vial's fluid? Well, staar matter was affiliated with telekinesis. I had telekinesis. Therefore... I placed my hand on the end of the vial, covering the opening with my palm, and concentrated.
"What are you doing?" Kloe, one of my lab partners, asked as she came over. I held up my other hand to silence her, and she just stared at me in confusion.
The vial started to heat up as I focused my mind on moving the contents of the fluid. Different colours flashed among the flowing liquid, typifying each element, and then, amazingly, a clump of matter separated from the rest of the mixture and floated towards my hand. I grinned, and looked up to see the entire class staring at me.
I looked over at Jayne, without thinking, and saw the worried look on her face. She was scarred, after all these years she still remembered and I bit my lip as I realized that she was scared. I softened my expression so that she knew I wasn't going to explode and then gave her a guilty half-smile, my eyes screaming an apology. Jayne was intelligent, I knew that, and after a moment she smiled back, nodding. She understood. My heart leapt and I turned to see Mrs Smyeson standing right beside me, smirking. Most educators would have gotten mad, but she was pretty relaxed. "Very clever utilization of your powers, Abigail. Would you like to hold that up so the whole class can see?"
I did so, and everyone looked in awe upon the shimmering gold staar matter, hovering right beneath the top of the vial. I moved my hand off the top and, concentrating, made the staar matter float after it, until it floated over my palm in the open air. Some people breathed in amazement, and I smiled brighter. This was turning out to be a great lesson.
Once all our experiments were done and we were ushered outside for our lunch break, I felt wonderful. After eating what I'd brought in my bag for the day, I moved about, watching what everyone was doing. A few groups of people were just sitting down and talking amongst themselves, at least two groups were poring over data-pads, and some people were playing strategy games. This included my old group of friends, the ones who'd ignored me for years. Most people ignored me because I was weird, or they were content with whatever friends they already had, but they'd ignored me because they knew my greatest secret, the danger of my powers. When Leila had been here with me, she'd hung out with them sometimes, never knowing exactly what their problem was, but never all of us together. It had just all been too tense. I watched my friends now. They were playing TargetBall, a very interesting game. It involved overcoming a bunch of obstacles which led to the objective, which you then had to get the ball to. There were two teams, and the fun part was that each team chose the others objectives, and so you had to work out where to direct the ball using the clues before you, all whilst avoiding losing the ball to the other team. It was fast-paced, intense and super fun. Right now, it was being played by five players; Zax, Runer, Jayne, Sierra, and a newcomer to the group, Jason. I tried to push away the thought that if I played they would have perfect numbers.
I watched as Runer, running with the wooden ball, ducked and weaved through trees and bushes, heading for the benches on the other side of the playground. I followed his route and easily worked out the objective, the bell tower next to the benches, or more specifically, the bell itself. I smiled, hands in my pockets, as Runer passed Jason the ball over a frustrated Sierra's head, and the new boy prepared to launch the ball upwards. I watched the intent expression on his face, and knew he was calculating the best trajectory to throw the ball at, with the intent of hitting the bell. He moved his arm as Zax tried to take the orb in his hand, and then began to move, knowing exactly what he planned to do. I watched in awe as he jumped onto the benches, and then kicked off the wall, spinning around in midair and hurling the ball upwards. All the others stopped and Jayne, Sierra and Zax, from the opposite team looked mournfully on as the ball hit the bell square on. As Jason landed and Runer clapped him on the shoulder with a laugh, I couldn't help myself and started cheering.
Instantly their heads all snapped to look at me, limbs frozen as they stared. Jason especially looked confused. I stood my ground, pushed a smile easily onto my face and walked awkwardly over.
"That's the best game I've seen in ages." I commented truthfully, considering that I hadn't seen much TargetBall in a while.
Sierra was the first to respond. She walked over to me and clasped my hand, eyes shining. Had she missed me as much as I'd missed her? I couldn't say but I could sense a shift in relationship. I could tell she'd been talking to Jayne; they'd always been close, and now she seemed to trust me. I thought of her terrified expression all those years ago just as the excessive force I'd generated had knocked her down. Now she seemed at ease, and she gestured to the group.
"Do you wanna play another round with us?"
Never had words impacted me quite in the same way.
I felt warmth bubbling up from the depth of my being, and a smile spread across my face, mirrored on that of my friends.
"Ye-Yes!" I replied excitedly, and so, for the rest of that break, I played TargetBall with my old yet new friends. I have to admit, in that moment of reconciliation with the people I'd spent so much of my childhood with I felt as if all was right with the world.