Chapter 38

Suddenly, Rianna sat up and pulled her child into her lap. She hugged him close, kissed him, and murmured in his ear.

"It's ok, honey. Mommy's better now."

Though reassured, the boy was still upset. He began to suck his thumb and snuggled against Rianna's chest. The woman rocked the child and continued the reassuring whispers into his ear interspersed with a stream of kisses.

Sam sat dumbfounded that Rianna was even able to move—his damping shield was at full power, and the young woman should be near to comatose under such a shield.

"Pull your shield back, Sam, before you hurt yourself. I'm ok, now."

"But how? That's my strongest shield."

"I don't know. I guess that something popped ... inside of me ... Apparently, I'm a lot stronger than I thought. Sam, I'm changed ... totally! I can feel it. I can see auras now, and not just the ones around people but around everything, even the grass."

"When I was switching shields with you, there, I saw something in you. It was the ahh ... signature, for the lack of a better term ... of the old Shamans of my tribe. Girl, I don't understand! You are of John's blood, but somehow you are descended from my tribe."

"Didn't you know that Gramps and Grams adopted my folks? Grams couldn't have children. They decided that they wanted a boy and a girl that would grow up together and so they checked out all of the orphanages in the area and found my parents.

"When the two reached puberty their gifts turned on and since they weren't blood related, they grew closer, and finally married.

"Well, I hate to tell you, but the only way for you to have the power signature that you have, is if your folks were closely related by blood. Possibly even brother and sister."

"Well, since they're dead, there is nothing that can be done about it now. What is, is ... and that's that."

"I suppose so," said Sam with a shake of his head. His mind was swimming with the legends of his tribe that foretold of a very powerful Shaman that would come one day ... in the end times.

"Sam, I need to ask you a favor."

"Whatever you need child."

"I need you to take care of my baby for awhile. I need to go and sort things out in my head. Besides the little guy needs a man like you to show him what to do when he goes potty, I don't have the right plumbing.

"There is the training that he needs for handling his gift, too. I think that I have spoiled him. Now look at him. He burned Mary badly, and almost killed me with flying things. He needs you, a man who understands the power. You know how to teach him to put up shields, to protect himself from all of the random thoughts of the people on the outside."

"Like I said: whatever you need. But where are you going?"

"The spirits of the forest are calling me. I must answer that call," said Rianna as she stood, handed her child to Sam and turned toward the forest. She paused on the top step of the porch, and looked out at the trees, as if thinking.

Suddenly six wolves walked out of the forest, and calmly came to the cabin. Sam's mouth dropped open.

"Don't worry, Sam. My new friends will keep me safe," she said.

She walked down the stairs and moved off towards the forest, surrounded by the pack of wolves.

Jake wailed pitifully and reached out for his mother, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy..."

Sam wrapped the child in a strong damping shield, and hushed him with a soothing voice. Jake calmed, rested his head on the big man's shoulder, and went to sleep.

When Sam looked up again Rianna was gone. Pesq was standing half way between the forest and the cabin, looking back and forth from the spot where Rianna had entered the forest, and Sam, in a most uncertain way. Sam called the great beast to come. After some hesitation, Pesq walked to stand at the side of the big man. He looked up as if to ask, "What's going on?"

Sam looked down and said, "Our girl has some things to work out, my friend. We need to help her by taking care of Jake."

Pesq gave a little bark, and then followed Sam into the cabin.

Out in the forest Rianna walked slowly, marveling at all of the aural colors. She walked for many hours, not even stopping when night fell. She could see by the light of the auras that were all around her.

She stopped in a small alpine meadow near the top of one of the mountains that surround Sam's valley. She went to the center of the meadow and sat down digging her hands into the soft moist soil. When she let the soil fall from her hand it sparkled like diamonds because of the auras of all of the life forms in the soil. It was like watching a boat move through bioluminescent plankton in the ocean.

The young woman then lay back on the grass and looked up into the stars. It was as if she could see forever. She closed her eyes and went to sleep ... at peace for the first time in her adult life. The wolves lay down in a circle around her.

Very early the next morning the sun crested the top of the mountains to the east, and fell on her dew covered form. Rianna awoke, chilled to the bone!

Shivering as she moved to a sitting position, the young woman said softly, "Well let's see if all of the things that I'm feeling are true. First I need a fire."

With her mind Rianna dug out a small pit and surrounded it with stones and then filled the pit with deadfall wood from the forest. Next she caused fire to appear in the palm of her hand. It had no deleterious effect on her skin.

For a few minutes Rianna just watched the fireball float an inch above her palm, feeling no pain, then she tossed the ball of fire onto the pile of wood. There was a 'whoosh', and the wood was instantly engulfed in the flames of a roaring campfire. In her glee, the young woman clapped her hands together with giggles and squeals, just as a small child would.

Next she tried out switching her aural vision on and off. For the rest of the day she experimented with any and all of her powers. Toward the end of the day she tried remote viewing, and, what she called 'insertion' ... that was, actually getting inside the mind of the remotely viewed subject.

She had chosen Donna for that first test, and was frightened out of her mind. Donna and several others from the Crew were at a meeting with Jacob and his advisers and they were talking about Vezza having tactical nukes. However, what was even scarier was the fact that there could be moles in both groups.

"Well, now I understand why Gramps was so hard on incoming people. He was afraid of letting in a mole! Huh!" thought Rianna.

The young woman sat and thought for some time. Then she decided that her ideas on people's rights and the prohibition to not enter the minds of her staff, was less important than the good of the whole group.

"The needs of the many sometimes outweigh the needs of the one, as Spock used to say on the old Star Trek TV show," she thought as she began to scan the others.

Moving from one mind to another Rianna checked all of those at home. By the time that she was finished, it was almost nine PM. Though very tired, she was greatly relieved that there were no moles at home base. The only sad thing, was that she had found holes in her husband's brain. Granted, they were only pinholes at the moment, but she could clearly see what Sam had said was true.

"I wonder what would happen if I flooded his brain with healing energy," she muttered thoughtfully.

Back at base, Scott grabbed his head. He screamed at the top of his lungs as he fell to the floor, and thrashed about. Then he passed out. People came from all over the base at those horrible screams. Soon, Scott was in a bed in the Clinic with all manner of beeping, blinking and humming monitoring equipment attached to him.

Ann was very worried!

Sam stood next to Jake, as the little guy stood on a wood crate. They were in the privy, and Sam was showing Jake how men pee. The little guy was happy as a lark to do what grown ups did.

With a little mental nudge from Sam the toilet training was now finished for both duties. Earlier that day Sam had cut a new smaller hole for Jake to use in the outhouse with the crate as a step up.

As important as these lessons were, it was now time to start Jake's psionic schooling. Sam was very worried about this training, since it was normally done with young adults, not toddlers, and he had never had any children of his own.

There was a pause in the sitcom, then a bulletin banner filled the screen, it read: We interrupt this program for important fast breaking news! Please stand by!

The screen changed again and was now filled with the ANN (the American News Network) set, with a rather frazzled looking female news anchorwoman, sitting behind her desk.

"JUST IN: MINUTES AGO THERE WAS A NUCLEAR EXPLOSION IN THE WESTERN CARIBBEAN SEA," screamed the newscaster.

The woman was near to hysteria.

It was obvious that the worst fear of the young woman had come to pass. Some nut job terrorist had used a nuke, and it scared the shit out of her. Now that someone had actually stepped over the line, others were sure to follow, right here in America!

The poor woman began to babble about just such an occurrence when the technical difficulties banner filled the screen. Three minutes later the news set was back with the older male alternate news anchor behind the desk.

However, he really had nothing to say because no one knew anything more than an explosion had taken place. In fact, no one knew the exact location of the blast zone, and everyone was concerned for the people who were downwind.

In the com rooms of both Jacob and Donna, the people monitoring the broadcast bands sat, stunned. Vezza had actually used one of his nukes. Then all hell broke out, as runners were sent to inform those that were in charge.