Chapter 6: Choices

THE WOMEN SAT still after Daniel had finished his tale, looking shocked and stunned as they considered the implications. Beyond an occasional furtive glance between each other, they remained silent for several minutes; speechless in the face of what he had told them.

"So..." Elaine started eventually.

"He's a fuckin' god!" Chaz burst out excitedly.

Both Daniel and Elaine stared at her, confounded by her wild statement.

"Think about it!" she crowed, even as she saw the look on their faces. "Oh, come on! Not a 'God' god, but... look, he can do stuff with our heads, rewire them and shit. He can make things - MAKE things! And he's got us begging for it. Literally! Well, me at least. He's... !" Chaz's excited speech trailed off as she failed to fit a description to her new deity. Sucking her lower lip in frustration, she flapped her hands in defeat then slumped back into the seat with her arms crossed.

"Ummm... Elaine?" Daniel mumbled helplessly, but she barely noticed as she continued to stare at Chaz. Daniel sighed. "Look Chaz. I've told you, I can't actually 'make' anything. It's an illusion. Oh, it's real physically I suppose, but it won't hold up, not for long."

"Whatever. If you can touch it, hold it, see it, then it's real enough for me!"

That was true, Daniel thought as he reconsidered. If you think it's real, it may as well be real. Though it was a comment he usually associated with holograms in low budget science fiction films, he briefly pondered the implications behind the words before speaking. "Okay, I'll give you that. But, rewiring your brain?" He paused to carefully consider his words as he knew he could already do something along those lines - then he mentally crossed his fingers, desperately hoping that Elaine's memories of the incident with Dr. Farrell were not sufficient to make the short, logical jump to mind control. Oh shit, shit, shit! How could I possibly have known I would be in this situation? "Wellll... maybe. Sometime in the future. But not right now at any rate. Besides, I don't want to be able to do that." But I can. He carefully glanced at Elaine, watching for signs of trouble.

"Why the hell not?" Chaz asked. Elaine looked up at him, plainly wanting to know the answer herself.

"Well, for a start, would you feel comfortable hanging around with a guy that can turn you into a zombie sex slave if he felt like it?" Daniel snapped out, his voice more rough than he intended as he silently panicked.

Both the girls froze, shocked at his blunt words. "Umm..." said Elaine eventually after a brief moment of consideration.

"You haven't..." continued Chaz.

"No. NO! Of course not!" retorted Daniel angrily, rising straight in his chair. "Don't even think it! Besides," he continued, his voice softer as he regained control. "I'd be scared shitless. I'm no shrink..." Daniel paused again, remembering with growing disquiet each time he had tinkered with his own mind. He had felt no ill effects since his 'rewiring' session at the clinic; in actual fact he now felt much better than he had for years. No, could be a fluke, Daniel thought. Damn, looks like I'll have to swat up on biology after all. Shit! This is more trouble than it's worth.

"Oh." Chaz said. "Ah... I'll take your word for it. I think."

Elaine paled slightly and looked away.

Daniel noticed through his mental fog. "You... you don't... you're not... what?" He moaned unintelligibly as he collapsed, his head in his hands.

After a moment, he looked up again at the both of them with his hands clasped in prayer before his mouth and his chin resting on his thumbs. "Look, things are getting a bit... well, I..." Daniel muttered weakly. Then he took a deep breath and slowly stood up as they both looked at him. "I think we need to take a breather, don't you? I'm going to the office tomorrow, so I think I'd best call it a night. Besides, I need time to deal with everything that's happened today. Sl... err, sleep on it."

"Yeah. Good plan," Elaine said with faint relief. Chaz merely glared at her. "Need a lift? I didn't see a car outside."

"No, I'll be fine, thanks." He shrugged into his jacket. "I haven't had time to sort my license out yet. Besides, I don't have a car."

"Oh. Hang on, wait a minute." Elaine scrabbled momentarily amongst a pile of assorted papers next to the phone. "Here, write down your number. You've got mine after all."

"Oh! Sure." Accepting the offered pen, he scribbled down both his number and address. As an afterthought, he added his work number also. "I'll see you... what, tomorrow? That okay?"

"Sure. I'll probably get back around six or sevenish."

Chaz remained silent as she stared at the carpet while nibbling at her lower lip.

"Right, then. Uh, bye!" With that, Daniel left the girls and hurried out into the night.

"Bye," Elaine said quietly as she looked at Chaz.

By the time Daniel reached his apartment, his mood had lightened somewhat and he no longer felt the urgent need for a coma-like dreamless sleep. Feeling restive, he considered his options and decided to capitalize on his unexpected solitude; he did not know when he would next have such a good opportunity. He needed knowledge. He needed practice. Urgently.

A precautionary leak and a quick shower later he swept clear a suitably large space, arranged a selection of cushions and blankets around a low table, then settled himself down. A moment later he sprang back up and walked over to the music center, one of the first items he had dusted free of dirt and grim cobwebs together with the television. Pursing his lips thoughtfully, he finally selected 'Dreamland' by Robert Miles and inserted the compact disc into the tray. After turning the volume down to a low background level, he returned to the cushions and began to clear his mind - an easy task with 'Fable' playing in the background.

He had never had much problem relaxing. Merely the thought of smoking a joint was sufficient to leaden his limbs usually despite his long period of abstinence, but music always helped whatever the situation. Absolute silence can be worse than daytime street sounds. He recalled sourly how difficult he had found it as a teenager; every time he tried to slip into a trance or even merely relax, his mother almost always burst into his room - banging the door off the wall, of course - at exactly the wrong moment. That was also the reason he never brought girlfriends to his house.

Where to start? Daniel mused silently to himself. Can't really try out tel... Daniel grimaced internally and mentally shook his head. Focus, Daniel. Focus. 'Remember these, they help protect your privacy', Edward had said. So, farspeech is out. Same with... mentat? Mentation? Mentalism? Daniel winced. That was lame. Better than running around 'bending' people though. That sounded perverse. So that left 'lifting' and 'creation'. Daniel cringed at the word, recalling how Chaz had wildly claimed his status as a Supreme Being and Edward's admonitions against any such aspirations. No, he thought to himself. They made a bad choice picking on that term. The last thing I need now is to be called a Creator. Next thing I know I'll get picked up by the FBI on suspicion of starting a cult. Then they'll interrogate Elaine and Chaz, probably find out about my ability to put people in a 'religious frenzy' and really do a number on me.

After a few minutes of trying to refocus his attention on the here and now - a difficult task as any practising meditator will attest to - he decided to try his hand on telekines... There I go again, Daniel thought sourly. Right, that's it.

He grudgingly climbed to his feet and moved to the music center again. Removing the 'Dreamland' cd, he replaced it with Prodigy's 'The Jilted Generation' and returned once again to the cushions after switching straight to track two. Better, he thought grimly. Kinda trancy but not dreamy. Better than their more recent efforts anyway.

It took Daniel much less effort now to concentrate.

Four months previously he had thrown a ballpoint pen onto the table, a black one with a transparent plastic body and a removable cap. Coated as it was in a thick layer of filth, it had long since dried up and was completely useless in its original function; but now it was an ideal subject for his experimentation. Concentrating intently, he gazed at the pen and willed it to move. Nothing. Not a twitch, not even the pathetic tremble Edward had proudly demonstrated on the twig earlier that day. Remaining unconvinced, Daniel tried again. And again. And yet again. Ten minutes later he gave up, feeling extremely disappointed. That would have been really useful, he thought to himself sadly.

Feeling slightly cramped, he stood up and stretched - gazing morosely at the pen as it remained obstinately loyal to gravity. He shuffled to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water; for some reason, whenever Daniel tried to meditate or relax in any way he always ended up with a parched throat. With his enthusiasm severely reduced, he returned to the cushions.

Right, he thought bitterly as he looked at the pen. Sod you then. Have it your way.

After settling down and relaxing again, Daniel focused his mind completely on the object of his ire. Slowly, everything else became indistinct, unimportant. Only the pen drew his attention, filling both vision and thought. He could 'feel' the texture, the smooth cap and the rough grip. The shiny plastic body, transparent like fogged glass. Holding all the details firmly in his mind, he then overlaid a fresh copy onto his external vision - and there it was, an identical twin in every way.

Daniel slowly released his breath after assuring himself he was not imagining it. Well, he thought wryly to himself. I am, really. Slowly, he reached out and picked up the twin in one hand and the original in the other. Bringing them close, he carefully compared the two; almost no difference, except that the new twin felt slightly smoother and was lacking the layer of grime the original had.

Shaking his head faintly in fascination as he continued to examine the two pens, he recalled Edward's astonishment at the spontaneous materialization of the twig he had made earlier. Daniel was not a fan of Star Trek, but he was familiar with the effect Edward had described. However, he was familiar with the more serious discussions in and around usenet regarding the mechanics of matter transference, mainly to do with how really strong supercomputers would be needed to isolate and record every atom of the original. Computers - never mind supercomputers - being far superior to human thought in terms of speed, the generally accepted theory was that were such an act possible, both the encoding and decoding processes would be instantaneous - it would have to be, to even have a chance at avoiding the problem of constantly shifting atoms.