Chapter 5: Discoveries

Michael sat with Jon'a-ren and another masi'na (male) in a private chamber, a rather large one that he would expect to serve as an exercise or workout area if he were in an Earth building.

"Michael, I wish to introduce a good friend and a shipmate, one of us that you rescued with the T'shu-niach. May I introduce Berl'ahan. During your time with us on Earth, he was a masi'mem, a swimmer. He bore a form resembling a penguin, which suited him quite well for sea-harvesting and other work. You might also wish to know that it was Berl'ahan who was at the end of the swimmer relay chain. He delivered the message of your plight to the human scientist in her small vessel at the human science base."

Michael stood to greet Berl'ahan; he grasped his hand and pulled him into a close embrace for a moment and then, placing his hands on the young masi'men's shoulders, he held him out to arm's length and smiled.

"Berl'ahan, you have my most sincere gratitude. I cannot begin to explain how desperate my situation was, alone on that ice waste. I thought my life would end in bitter isolation. I thank you, my friend. That was a magnificent thing that you and your shipmates did for me!"

If a Masi'shen could blush, Berl'ahan did. He ducked his head, stammered for a moment, and then looked back up to Michael with excited eyes.

"My eternal gratitude to you, Michael Hawthorne of Earth. I need not tell you of our absolute desolation and resignation to an increasingly certain fate on Earth. I am also grateful," and he turned to look steadily at Jon'a-ren as he spoke, "that I was not so unfortunate as to endure the entire two millennia of your Earth years as a castaway on your planet!"

Michael broke up with laughter, and Jon'a-ren smiled with wry amusement. Berl'ahan stood watching his friends, enjoying the mirth of the moment.

"Berl'ahan, my young friend ... do you mean to imply that I lived throughout the entire time of our stranding on Earth? Thus I stand before you as ancient and time-worn as that?" Jon'a-ren teased back. "If you think that I am that diminished, perhaps we should test ourselves to see how deficient my age has made me?"

"Nay, revered elder. I mean no such thing. I am sure that age and wisdom have improved your abilities, not diminished them!" Berl'ahan said back, in a teasing tone.

Michael interrupted the exchange, seeing that even Masi'shen could let ego and pride have some influence on their demeanor.

"Hold on, good friends, you forget who is with you. I am here, completely adrift. I am unsure even of my age at this moment, let alone whether I may be 'diminished' or 'deficient' following my time in the healing chamber. I feel wonderful. Better, in fact, than I ever remember. But what can I do? Who am I now? I tell you two dear friends, that I cannot guess ... I am half afraid to face the question. What am I now? I am no longer human, and I certainly am not completely Masi'shen. So I ask, who ... what am I now?"

"And that, Michael, is why I have called us here, and why I have asked young Berl'ahan to assist us. We do not know the answer to your question. Obviously, you are the first. You must understand that it was only with the most profound assurances of our healers that such a thing was allowed to proceed, and they felt ... for some reason that continues to astound both myself and the others of the ship's council ... that your transformation would succeed. They had no doubts about that! But as for your abilities, how your human and masi'na abilities would remain, or cancel, or combine themselves ... the healers could not answer that, and I am completely without knowledge or expectation.

"It is you who must endure the questions, Michael, and we are here to help you discover the answers!"

Many hours passed. Jon'a-ren and Berl'ahan produced exercise and strength-testing devices for their physical bodies, and with Berl'ahan leading, Michael tested his abilities against the young masi'na. Jon'a-ren participated, and was able to hold his own with the younger masi'na, but both of them fell far behind Michael. In physical ability, he proved to be about twice as capable as his Masi'shen friends. The testing was very basic, covering simple tests of strength and endurance.

Once they'd established a simple physical baseline, Jon'a-ren moved them to a larger exercise area to accommodate the Earth equivalent of track and field events. Here, too, Michael excelled. His companions and mentors proved to be superior in speed and agility and endurance compared to a typical human athlete ... on a roughly two-to-one basis: twice as fast, twice as far, twice as high. In some aspects, their ability approached two and a half times to one, especially in young Berl'ahan's case.

But Michael! Something had happened to his physiognomy: his muscles held more power, his sinews more strength, his joints more flexibility, his heart more endurance, his lungs more capacity. He eased into the tests, not wishing to over-extend himself or to appear boastful to his hosts. Jon'a-ren quickly put a halt to that!

"Michael, my son! We are here to test you, to learn your abilities and your limits. We cannot do that if you hold back! I must insist that you not waste our time or this opportunity because of some absurd notion of modesty or reserve. I sense this in you, and it is foolishness! We are not so insecure, Berl'ahan or I, as to resent your abilities if they should exceed ours! Do you understand? Will you please let go and exert your best effort for us?"

Michael blushed and apologized. He pushed himself. He became comfortable with his enhanced body. His pleasure and delight soared as he extended himself to run, jump, throw, leap and tumble with greater speed, agility, and grace.

"Forgive me, father-mine, but the gravity? I cannot compare, since I do not have the same body as I had on Earth, but how does the gravity of this planet compare to Earth?"

"More, my son, by a factor of approximately 1.35 times Earth gravity. If you were performing these exercises on Earth, I'm afraid any observers would be both startled and afraid. They would think you to be super-human. Which, I suppose, is a truth. Indeed, you have become super-human."

Jon'a-ren paced about, cooling himself down from their final run around the oval track, and for several moments he seemed lost in thought. He and motioned for Berl'ahan to join them.

"I think we have accomplished all that we need for physical evaluation," he announced. "It would be well if we returned to our suite and arranged for clean garments and refreshments. Berl'a-han, please join us for the evening, if you would? I'm sure that Michael would delight in your continued company, especially if it will keep his mind occupied lest he spend all evening missing the company of my daughter!"

The men laughed, and strode briskly from the field. Jon'a-ren explained his plans for the next day.

"We must now evaluate other capabilities, ones which will be totally new and unfamiliar to you, Michael. As you have seen and heard, we have a unique ability. We gather and focus and manipulate free energy much as humans forge and use physical tools. You would use a hammer; we would use an energy blow. You would use a saw; we would use a cutting thread of plasma. You would use a drill, we would use a focused beam. These are not so different in application as you might think, but it is how we are able to call forth and manipulate free energy that is unknown to humans. I suspect that you now possess some ability, but we do not know it for certain. And we dare not experiment with this until we can do so in an isolated, safe area. It compares to your ballistic weapons training. You do so in isolated and contained safe areas. Tomorrow, we will go to such an area and begin your testing, and perhaps, your training."

The next day, early, the trio boarded a shuttle piloted by Berl'ahan. They exited through a long, wide tunnel leading out into the icy wastes of the planet's surface. After a short flight over a range of ice ridges, Michael watched intently while Berl'ahan piloted the craft to a landing at the end of a deep, narrow valley. It was featureless except for ramparts of ice surrounding a snow-covered plain. There was no sign of structures or habitation or other use.