Touchstone 1 - Stray

have. The two guys were ‘projectors’, I guess you’d call it, and they were able to make illusions. Not very clear ones, but it was fun to watch.
    Strays are thought to be fairly strongly connected to the Ena, so before we were due to go home Nenna had me try out a couple of things – image projection and trying to float – which involved me standing in the centre of the room thinking really hard about doing those things and nothing happening. I didn’t have to worry about accidentally burning or blowing things up since the room had a filter that meant it only enhanced certain kinds of actions, and to be honest I was glad nothing happened because it would have been weird to suddenly be psychic.
    Nenna’s ability is teleportation, though she’s not strong enough to move more than a foot or so even when boosted. But it was amazing watching her flicker from one spot to another: it made her into more than just a talkative kid. Something magic.
    If she puts all her effort into it Nenna can take a passenger, and she offered to ‘jump’ me. And that was a really bad idea.
    We jumped to a nearby atrium and fell two floors. I’ve a broken collarbone and lots of bruises. Nenna’s much worse. She hurt her back, and even with advanced nanotech medicine she’s going to be in hospital a long while.
    She didn’t die. I’m so glad. So incredibly – I couldn’t have stood it. Because, you see, it was me. They’re not sure why, but they think that something about me made Nenna’s jump go wrong.
    So I’m on the way back to the KOTIS island. Not with Sa Lents this time, but a grim greensuit escort. It was an accident, but I feel so awful. I hurt her.
    Sunday, January 6
    Back to the Lab
    Endless medical scans. Apparently they’d already tested me for potential psychic powers, but the only sign they could find was the possibility of being a projector (perhaps the least useful ability in a world where everyone is their own home movie theatre). When they finally sent me off to get some sleep – back in my old room – I can’t.
    Part of that’s because I’m sore. They use nanites to glue broken bones back together, but it still needs to heal properly, and I have to lie on my back not to pressure my collarbone. The pain meds wore off too quick.
    More tests tomorrow. They haven’t been able to find any reason at all for Nenna’s jump to have gone strange.
    Monday, January 7
    Turn it up to 11
    Today they moved on to practical experiments in a different part of the KOTIS building: a huge, reinforced room with observation windows and massive blocks of greenish metal in a row from small to large. Test Room 1.
    First ‘they’ (voices in my head of people I’d never met) had me stand in the centre of the room and told me to try to project illusions or teleport or move a little box or do anything at all. I couldn’t. I felt a complete dick.
    Then they sent in a Setari. He was about twenty-five, reminded me strikingly of Johnny Depp, and had the nicest smile I’ve ever seen. Ever. He told me his name was Maze (or Mase, maybe – all the Taren words I write down are serious guesses as to spelling – the alphabet doesn’t quite correlate to the letters I’m used to). He lifted each of the metal blocks in turn using telekinesis, though he was only able to make it halfway through the row. Then he had me stand next to him, and told me to do exactly what I did when Nenna jumped us. I told him I didn’t do anything, just stood there while she held on to my hand, and he told me to do that then, and held on to my hand while I tried not to look incredibly embarrassed, or to think how much Nenna would want to be in my place.
    Maze began lifting the blocks again. And made it about two thirds through them, and was quite wide-eyed by the time he was done. I would be too, since the last few blocks were bigger than school demountables. They brought a different Setari in, a very beautiful woman around the same age, her hair in a long braid. Her name was Zee, and she did the same thing, except she started out wide-eyed.
    After this was endless, boring variations of handholding and block-lifting. They found that whatever it is I’m doing keeps working for a little while, even if they let go of my hand, and decided I’m a new ability: a magnifier or an amplifier. Not nearly as fun as having psychic abilities of my own, but I guess it’s more good than bad that they were all excited and disconcerted. Back in my room now; time for