Chapter 63

The internet giveth and the internet taketh away.

This is what I told myself after looking for quite a while at wakeboards, surfboards, sailboards, and snowboards. At one point I even looked at satellite dishes, and table tops, anything to give me something to stand on.

In the end though, that was the real problem. I was a telekinetic, not a magician. I could move anything I could get a lock on, but doing that didn't magically overcome other problems. I couldn't overcome inertia or gravity or friction. I had no way to keep myself on the board I was moving beyond my own strength and balance.

"I can't ride something that moves, even if I'm the one moving it," I told Bud. "I need to move me, and failing that, I need to move the suit, which you said I would be able to do eventually."

"Eventually," Bud repeated. "You're don't have the skill needed to do that safely yet. You are right though. Riding an object will not work due to the limitations you mention. We will have to start over and make a new suit."

I heard some depression in Bud's voice. The audio that played through the suit while I wore it was not as nuanced as hearing his thoughts in my head, so the depression must have been deeply felt. At the same time, I wondered about the absolute confidence I had been placing in Bud and those he represented. This seemed like a pretty obvious fuck up on their parts, after some very lengthy and detailed planning.

"We might need to make a new suit, but that doesn't mean we can't make this one work for us while we're waiting," I offered. "What about a harness that we can add to the outside of the suit? Maybe the unconverted AG951 material. Its easy enough to grab before I convert it into Impervilon, and its still as good as Kevlar."

"hmm ... something like that would work, but I would suggest we use actual Kevlar. That way if we loose it at any time it won't lead back to us like the AG951 would," Bud countered. "We could use the AG951 in the new suit though to provide an internal harness."

"Maybe we should avoid Kevlar as well and do something simple like ripstop Nylon. Parachute cloth."

"Ahh, now we're getting far afield indeed, and I retract my previous conjecture. We need to use the AG951," Bud countered. "We need to use something that can be bonded using the BFD. If its bonded with that, then its not coming off."

"Then lets use it and be done with it," I said, getting a bit exasperated. "Can you give me a pattern to apply since you're not in my head?

Bud paused when I said that. I hope he was taking it as an insult, because that's how I meant it.

"No, I can't," he said. "But I can show you on the suit's heads up display. Can you apply and bond the material while wearing the suit?"

"I should be able to," I said after thinking about it for a moment. "Can you give me live feedback about my positioning?"

"Yes."

Six hours later, Two important things occurred. First, the suit modifications to add a TK harness were done.

A new stripe of material went from shoulder to ankle on the outside of both left and right sides. Along with these two stripes there were three chevrons on the chest and three inverted chevrons on the back. Each row of chevrons was split by a vertical stripe that ran from neck to waist in the back and collarbone to waist in the front. The top chevron in the back met and blended into the vertical side stripe at the shoulder. In the front, the bottom chevron met the side stripe on each side at the hip. This operlap was important, because it made the entire arrangement of stripes a single 'grab' as far as my telekinesis was concerned.

The second important thing that happened was, night fell. It was dark, and my house on the Russian River was relatively isolated. I didn't have neighbors for at least a mile in any direction. Even better, a state preserve and recreation area meant it was near wilderness for many miles to the north.

Just before midnight, I stood in the back yard, about where my pool might be going some day, and pulled the hood/mask down over my face and sealed it by 'zipping' the two layers of material together telekinetically. As I did, the heads up display blinked on. Cool air flowed over my face and sections of the suit went stiff.

"Here's the situational display," Bud's voice came through the suit. Suddenly there was a split screen view of two maps. Both showed me as a small blinking three bar chevron. The left hand map showed me from a top down perspective and the terrain and buildings around me were rendered as wire frame images. The right hand display showed me from the side with the elevation of things in front of and behind me displayed.

I spent a while staring at it. "This is not the most efficient system we could employ," Bud interrupted my silence. "But it will take a lot of practice to get comfortable with the 3D overlay system."

"Its just information anyway, right? You're actually going to be watching out to make sure I don't run into anything."

"Correct."

"Then lets get going," I reached out and locked onto the harness.

"No, we've got a few other things to learn first," Bud insisted as the display died out and left me just 'seeing' normally again.

"Okay, I said. I kept my lock for the moment but waited for Bud to clue me in.

"Flex your legs and jump up lightly."

"A bunny hop? Sure," and I did.

"All right," Bud said and then I felt a sort of hum run through the suit. "Do it again."

I did my little bunny hop again, only this time, I jumped a good ten feet in the air!

Wow!" I said as I landed with no more effort than if it had still been the little bunny hop I'd tried the first time.

"That, my boy," Bud crowed triumphantly. "Is the set of exoskeletal muscles built into the suit. Jump again and give it everything you've got this time."