“Now THAT is what I’m talking about,” Sidsaid with a satisfied nod. “Imagine you were pinned down in afirefight and someone threw a grenade in your direction. That therewould have saved lives.” Looking thoughtful, he added “I wonder howstrong of a shield you can make, and how big. Could you stop abullet, or block and explosion? Could you shield a whole company orplatoon? Could you make it a one-way shield so we could fire outbut the enemy couldn’t hit us?”
“Slow down there champ,” I interrupted. “Onething at a time until we get it figured out.”
“In any experiment, it is wise to only changea single variable at a time,” agreed Carl.
“In any case, I want a bit of a break beforewe continue. It might look like I’m just standing here, but ittakes some hard work.”
“How are you feeling?” Carl asked curiously.“Any pains, headache, or other symptoms besides fatigue?”
“Not right now. The only pain I felt so farwas the very first time I used the new ability to stop my fallingcoffee cup.”
“Odd. Maybe the initial pain was sort of ashock as your body gained attunement to whatever force is poweringthe ability.”
I could only shrug my shoulders at that, butit sounded reasonable. I figured that I had worked hard enough thisafternoon and deserved a beer, so I fetched us all a round.Relaxing for a bit, I sat down and enjoyed my nice cold beer. Carland Sid started arguing about what else I might be able to do. Ilet them have their fun, but interjected the occasional veto on thedumber ideas like Sid wanting to shoot a real gun at me. I alsovetoed his live grenade idea with a resounding “Hellno!”
Standing, I rejoined the conversation inorder to steer them back toward more reasonable expectations when Iwas suddenly startled by a loud yell from above, passing by with adistinct doppler effect. Looking up, I saw Linda and Sara goblazing by us about fifty feet over our heads. We all stared atthem as they made a wide turn, slowed, and came back to land nearus.
Sara was effluent in her thanks and tackledLinda to the ground with a big hug. After she had calmed down abit, she let Linda get up and went into the house. Linda joined usand gave me a hug and kiss of my own. As the guys cornered Linda inorder to question her on the flight, I thought about how much powerit would take to accelerate two adults to that speed.
Linda seemed to be breathing heavier thannormal, but that could have been due to excitement rather thanenergy use. I’ll ask her later. Sid and Carl started talking aboutgetting a radar gun and other measurement devices, a course inwhich I heartily approved. Hearing that we were back to ‘geek talk’as she liked to call it, Linda escaped back to the house. Sararejoined us a few moments later and immediately dominated theconversation as she described her flight in exquisite detail.
Once she had slowed down enough for us topolitely interrupt her raving, we had her sit down so we couldcontinue with some variants of our earlier tests. This time, Istood out in the middle of the yard, with Carl and Sid on oppositesides of me. Each had a bunch of golf balls that they would throwat me at random times to try and get through my guard. Amazingly, Ifound this challenge to be easier than the last one. Either I hadgotten better at my control, or by being so personally involved Ireacted quicker. There’s nothing like self-preservation to sharpenones senses.
Next, Sid asked me to build a complete forcefield around myself and maintain its integrity while they tried tobreach it. Consenting, I closed my eyes and envisioned a domeencasing me. “Too small,” I thought. “I should have some extraspace around me in case they break through. Busting my shield isone thing, but busting my noggin is something else entirely.”
I enlarged my dome slowly, and oncesatisfied, I fed it power to solidify it as best as I was able.Once I was as ready as I could be, I gave them the go ahead andbraced myself. They both tentatively moved forward until they foundwhere the shield began and began poking and prodding at it. Sid puthis shoulder into his efforts, like he was trying to break down adoor, but gave that up after only a couple of attempts.
Rubbing his shoulder, he made his way over tothe fence and hopped over it to wander through the trees.Meanwhile, Carl picked up his discarded golf club and began beatingon his side of the shield. Sid headed back my way carrying a clubthat he picked out amongst the forest deadwood. They were bothattacking at a pretty good rate when Sara decided to join in on thefun. She sprinted off around the side of the house and I heard theside garage door open. “There’s probably lots of junk insidethere she could use,” I thought.
When she returned, it was with the big axethat I used for the larger logs that needed to be split for thefire pit. Sid and Carl had both decided to catch their breath for aminute, but Sara was raring to go. After a few tentative swings,she paused to figure out the point of maximum force from a swingand adjusted her stance slightly.
I heard the patio door open and turned to askLinda if she wanted to join in on the fun. Before I could begin,the words ‘LOOK OUT’ resounded through my head and echoed a splitsecond later in my ears. I realized that Linda didn’t know what wewere doing. All she knew was
