Issue 1 Downtime

This hadn't exactly been an easy project.

Fortunately, though, it hadn't been exactly a hard one, either. Cal looked down at the various devices on the table, then began bringing systems online.

The staff hadn't been as much work as people might expect. This was mostly owing to the the fact that the initial design had been completely modular. He'd had to reassemble the power source and focusing device, true, but once he'd done that, he did have a few segments that he'd had mostly finished to put onto it. General purposes are better than specific focuses anyway, he mused as he looked at the other devices.

"What are you working on?" Aisha asked. She was invisible to most people, not that Cal would notice.

"Call it power development," Cal said. "Remember those hidden cameras that were putting us looking like assholes up on the internet?" He pointed to a cluster of silver spheres, about the size of shooter marbles. "Got a better use for them. Among other things."

"That is totally cool." Aisha said "Did you figure out who put them up?"

"That part... is weird," he admitted. "I took as many readings as I could, and... I've got no idea. Biggest problem with rebuilding these things was that they... I don't know, they shouldn't have worked. Like... the only way that they would have functioned is if the laws of physics were rewritten. It wasn't so crazy that I couldn't take the hardware and fix it to work, but... yeah, I don't know what to make of them."

"Now... here, let's see how they work." Cal picked up the staff, mostly to move it out of the way.

System links online.

Code: Select all

System links online.  Probes status: online

At Cal's mental command, the spheres floated off the table, drifting for a moment before steadying into a circular formation. "Whoa," he said, staggering a bit.

"Are you ok?" Aisha asked, concerned

"What? Oh, yeah. It's... like I just opened six more eyes, all feeding me crazy sensor data. Takes a minute to get used to." The spheres all began to drift and took up an orbit around him.

"So the camera are feeding to you, not whoever it is?"

"Yeah, I didn't take any chances with that. Took out the transmission gear, built a new set. Kind of a... combo bluetooth and the hookup the gear that my eyes have." He looked down at the staff, then back up at her with a grin that was only partly as manic as it used to be. "Now, you want to see something really cool?"

".....Sure."

The grin got a little wilder, and Cal spun the staff in his hand in what was rather obviously a practicedly cool move. "All right... here we go," he said. He aimed it at the wall behind him, shooting off a beam of energy. A glowing circle, about four inches around, appeared on it. Then he pointed it at the table, where it flashed again. To a casual glance, it looked like there was a hole in the wall and the table.

"Ya Allah." Aisha exclaimed "You made a death ray?!"

"What? No! Why the hell does everyone always think I'm making death rays!"

"Because you seem like you want to make them?"

"When have I ever... oh, just look into it!" he said, pointing at the hole in the table.

"Okaaaay." Aisha said, cautiously walking over to the table

The table, as she could plainly see, had a hole in it.

A hole, through which, she could see Cal's back and... well, the rest of the room as viewed from the hole behind him.

"What did you do?" she exclaimed.

"I made science my bitch," he said with a grin. He pointed the staff at the table again, and another hole opened in it, as simultaneously the one behind Cal vanished without a trace. "Now watch this." He grabbed one of the hovering balls out of the air, then held it over the hole closest to him and dropped it. As it passed into the hole, it popped out of the one closest to Aisha, then dropped back again, and so on.

"Ok, seriously, what are you doing?"

"Well, I mean, they aren't BIG portals, but... well, they're portals. Cool, huh?" Cal was evidently very pleased with himself.

"Yeah, that is totally cool." Aisha said.

He snagged the orb out of the air as it bounced back out of the table, then shut off the portal generator. "I mean... I don't know what all to do with it yet," he admitted. "I'm working on it, though. Still figuring out what all it'll work on, too."

"You could use it to move things around." Aisha said "That'd be useful in a fight."

"Long as they're... about the size of a baseball," Cal said, shrugging.

"So what've you been up to?"

"Working on power control, mostly." Aisha said.

"Yeah, that... always sounds funny to me when you say that," he said. "You been cam-chatting with your family?"

"Why does it sound funny?" Aisha asked "And yeah, I have. Its been nice, but I worry about them."

"Because you don't look like you have power problems to me. Ever," he said, smirking. "And what are you worried about? They're fine, aren't they?"

"So far, yeah." Aisha said "But my little brother is turning twelve in a month, and...I think he might be manifesting."

Cal, who'd been messing with one of the spheres, looked up sharply at her. "How," he said, without preamble.

"I'm not really sure." Aisha replied "He's trying to hide it, but I think its some kind of telepathy."

"Well, that checks. If you buy into the whole 'power trends run in the family' thing and not 'anything can happen to anyone'. What makes you think it's that if he's trying to hide it?"

"He's been griping about headaches, and one time he replied to something that Mom said, except she hadn't said anything."

"Give him a really, really intense 'come to Jesus' about this," Cal said, oddly serious. "Or... crap, a 'come to Allah'? Is that a thing? I'm going to shut up about that before I start sounding like a dick."

"Jesus is a prophet too." Aisha corrected, automatically "Right now, I'm not sure if I should talk to him, or help him keep his head down."

"Okay, you've seen Haley, right? How many times has she answered questions you didn't ask? I mean, she answers things I think all the damned time, and she says I'm hard to read. How long do you think it'd take for him to out himself without knowing he's doing it?"

"It might have been an accident." Aisha said

"Well yeah. But an accident is what it'll be if he outs himself. I mean, no one who isn't a jackass intentionally puts it out like that, right?"

"Amir is smart, though." Aisha said "If anyone can be careful, he can."