Cry: Requiem for a Friendship
Chapter One: What Emotions Mean to Me
After the group of Taelons joined the resistance, Hubble Urick and Liam Kincaid set their differences aside and started collaborating on an organized effort to resist the priests. They deemed it the Atlantic National Alliance, a coalition of countries much like NATO that served humanity's interests. The lair at St. Michael's remained a base for the resistance, but the headquarters was moved to a corporate building that Urick "donated" to Doors International as a tax write-off. The paper work was so confusing that even Da'an had trouble understanding it, but it had to be that way to ward off any investigators or Taelon sympathizers. Hubble was declared as their ambassador, and Renee and Liam were appointed as officers. In an effort to keep Da'an safe from any backlash, she was not appointed in any official position, but unofficially she was the head of interspecies relations. The resisting Taelons were now her responsibility. Link had not officially joined the ANA because he wanted to finish his work for his clients before he moved his business to DC. However, he and Da'an kept in close contact, and Link helped them whenever he found the time.
For some reason, the priests had not mentally attacked the renegade Taelons, which concerned a lot of people. The ANA was concerned because they feared the priests were biding their time, waiting for the renegades to gain humanity's trust. Da'an was worried that the priests were using a few of them as watchdogs and kept a close eye on all of them. But the actual renegades worried about themselves more than anyone. They feared that sooner or later they would be forced to betray their new leader and wanted to evolve as quickly as they could.
The priests were up to something, everyone knew. However, the ANA had not seen any real activity from the priests in the past month. Lately, it was nothing more than projects and campaigns to rally support. Their biggest supporters came from the Church of the Companions. Reverend Murray had become the latest televangelist, with a record turnout of attendees to his services. The priests fed on this popularity by speaking at his services every now and then to preach the Taelon word to the masses. However, their influence through the Church of the Companions was not enough to rally the amount of masses they wanted. That was mainly the fault of the Vatican, which had denied the spiritual sanctity of the priests. Still, support for the priests was growing, and that was a concern for their enemies.
Link was on his many visits to see Da'an at the lair one day. He found her with Ta'lay and Dr. Curzon fine-tuning her newfound psychic ability by rotating a pencil in midair. Two censors were stuck on her forehead and hooked up to a machine that appeared to be monitoring her neural activity. The two doctors were watching Da'an with great interests. Ta'lay had not removed her glance from Da'an for at least twenty minutes, and Dr. Curzon was writing furiously in her notebook. Link decided not to interrupt them and waited for a few minutes. Ten minutes later, Da'an released the pen from either exhaustion or boredom. Link couldn't really tell.
"That is the best I can do for now," Da'an told them.
"This is incredible!" Ta'lay exclaimed, checking the monitor.
"This is amazing!" Dr. Curzon cried, just as excited.
"This is Mike Wallace, reporting for Sixty Minutes," Link joked.
The three turned towards him and started laughing. Link walked up to Da'an and kissed her.
"How are you, Link?" Da'an said with a smile.
"Good," Link said. "I take it this is bad timing on my part."
"Of course not," Da'an said. "Do not ever let me miss one of your visits. I look forward to them all week."
"Yeah, I wonder how long that's gonna last," Link said to himself.
"And who do we recall started this relationship?"
"I should shut up, shouldn't I?"
"That's preferable—uh, Ta'lay! Do you mind?"
Ta'lay had been scanning Da'an's energy aura throughout Link and Da'an's conversation. "Sorry, Da'an. It's just that…this is remarkable."
"Yeah, while I'm here, why don't you tell me what's goin' on?" Link asked. "I've seen Roswell specials that started like this, and those always end with the damn alien getting cut up."
"We are analyzing Da'an's psychic ability in order to ascertain its source," Ta'lay said.
"From what Ta'lay's told me, all Taelons are inherently psychic, but the Commonality suppresses their gifts in order to fuel itself," Dr. Curzon said. "Well, ever since Da'an has broken away, her psychic abilities have increased dramatically. She can already levitate small objects for thirty minutes straight, and she can teleport about sixty feet."
"You've been experimenting on my girlfriend all afternoon?" Link asked.
"Indeed, and the results are amazing. Da'an's power appears to be increasing everyday," Ta'lay said. "It will not be long before she can move buildings, teleport across states, and possibly even light fires with her mind."
"My girlfriend is Charlie McGee," Link summarized.
"If all Espelons have this ability, this may be the advantage we need to tip the scales against the priests," Dr. Curzon said.
"You all are getting ahead of yourselves," Da'an said uneasily. "Have you found the source?"
"Your gifts appear to resound from one of two things," Ta'lay said. "Your emotions or your degree of concentration."
"I do not understand," Da'an said.
"When you focus your mental energy hard enough, an invisible psychic force surrounds your energy aura and emanates wherever you direct it in a steady stream," Ta'lay said. "However, short, dramatic bursts appear to accumulate whenever you become emotional. Emotions such as fear and anxiety appear to cause the psychic version of a fight or flight response – the fight being the invisible shield you create and the flight being your teleportation. Emotions such as anger and rage appear to unleash bursts of telekinetic energy or pyrokinetic energy, depending on the degree of rage."
"What about emotions like joy, faith, and…love?" Link asked.
"We don't know yet," Ta'lay said. "When Da'an is in a festive or positive mood, no energy appears to emanate. However, as many humans will tell you, most people feel extremely energetic when they are happy or in love."
"What about sadness or depression?" Da'an asked.
"I don't know. You haven't been sad or depressed in front of us yet," Dr. Curzon said.
"Frankly, those are the types of emotions that I would not like to study anyway," Ta'lay said. "It is possible that positive emotions are cancelled out by your concentration. For example, a human may be in a festive mood, but he is not energetic or excited enough to jump for joy or suddenly start dancing on impulse. However, emotions like fear and anger tend to bring about impulsive actions. It could be that despite the fact that you are happy and energetic, you are not happy enough to act on impulse as you would be if you were extremely angry."
"Basically, as long as you aren't overly excited in a positive or negative manner, your powers will be fueled by your concentration and not your emotions," Dr. Curzon said, "but the moment you become overly excited or enraged, your psychic energy responds in spontaneous spurts or bursts of energy."
Link and Da'an looked at each other. "Should we tell them?" Link whispered so that the two doctors couldn't hear.
"I do not know. I really do not want to," Da'an said. "I mean, you said you were used to it, right?"
"Well, I guess."
"I mean, if you're not—"
"No. No, it's fine. Don't worry about it," Link whispered, "but I still think we should tell them."
"All right. It's your loft," Da'an whispered.
"Okay," Link whispered. He faced Ta'lay and Curzon. "Um, this is gonna sound kinda strange, but there are some…things that have been happening between me and Da'an when we sleep together."
"As in…something intimate?" Dr. Curzon asked.
"No. Not like that," Link said quickly. "We ain't quite there yet. I'm talking about literally. You see, when Da'an and I sleep, I've awaken occasionally to find her…floating."
Ta'lay and Dr. Curzon gave each other confused looks. "As in…'I'm so in love I feel like I'm floating' or as in 'Mary Poppins with the children having a tea party on top of the ceiling floating'?" Ta'lay asked.
It was Da'an and Link's turn to give each other confused looks. "Uh…the second one," Da'an answered.
Ta'lay nodded astounded "Wow. That is really something, not so Dr. Curzon?"
"Oh, yeah," Dr. Curzon agreed trying to find a way to explain that to Link and Da'an. "Well…is Da'an literally asleep?"
"Yes," Da'an said. "Um, I believe so. It usually stops when I start to awaken, and Link has had to tell me about it, so I am quite sure that I am not conscious."
"And it is not often?" Ta'lay said.
"It's not every night, if that's what you're asking, but it has happened more than once," Link said.
"You know, I think that may be a result of your dreams," Ta'lay said. "Have you had any nightmares recently?"
"Not really," Da'an said.
"Well, actually there was that one time when you shot out of bed and all my furniture got magically rearranged," Link said quickly.
Da'an reluctantly admitted to it. "Yes…that did actually happen once."
"When you have nightmares or pleasant dreams, your mind must interpret it the same way it interprets your emotions," Ta'lay said. "When you have extremely euphoric dreams, your mind develops a sense of bliss powerful enough to suspend you in midair via your psychic powers. On the other hand, when you have violent nightmares, your body interprets it the same way as it would a fight or flight situation and unleashes burst of telekinetic energy."
"Oh man," Link suddenly thought. "Does this mean that if she has a violent enough dream, all my stuff's gonna catch on fire? Because I cannot lose my TiVo."
"Oh, will you forget the stupid TiVo?" Da'an asked in an irritated tone. "This is why I did not want them to hear this. I just knew you would trace it back to when that damn TiVo got moved to the other room. I mean, my goodness, Link, it only happened once, and you never let me forget about it. I think I've apologized for that about forty-seven times now."
"Oh, come on, Da'an, it's the All-Star break."
"Da'an, love, it is all right," Ta'lay said, "and Link, I would not worry about that happening. It is natural that Da'an would not have full control over her gifts. Now, Da'an has told me that you do not physically have to sleep and neither does Da'an. Therefore, until she masters her gifts enough to make you both comfortable, just…do not sleep."
Link and Da'an huddled again and whispered it over.
"All right. You got yourself a deal," Link said.
"And in the meantime, your prescription's waiting on my desk, Da'an, and Link, I believe you need a new filter for the energy shower," Dr. Curzon said.
"Yes, actually we do," Da'an said.
"Well, follow me, and we'll get you set up," Dr. Curzon said removing the sensors from Da'an's forehead.
"Excuse me, Da'an," Mi'en called at the doorway. "Our satellites have intercepted a radio transmission from Tau Ceti on an emergency frequency. Major Kincaid and Mr. Urick are waiting for you."
"Thank you, Mi'en. I will be right there," Da'an said. "Link, can you…?"
"Say no more," Link said following Dr. Curzon.
"Thank you," Da'an said kissing his cheek. "Excuse me, doctors."