Aberrant: The Middle Children of History - Walkabout

[Rorx]

7th August

Darren arrived back in his lounge after his lunch with Ptesan and after putting his pack down flopped into a soft armchair. things hadn't gone the way he had expected, but at least he had a plan of action now which had been sorely lacking beforehand.

He spent a few minutes staring blankly at the wall over the fireplace as he gathered his thoughts and planned how to spend the time until the Premier. He had already decided that that would be his deadline, he had no intention of missing that so anything else he was going to do would have to be done by then.

It was still fairly early by the clock in his kitchen, a little after 8pm by the time he had had a coffee, so he had a quiet drink with some of the climbing gang down in the Students Union for an hour or two before returning home and sleeping, for a change, until morning. The next day Darren grabbed a backpack and kitted it out for the trip, sleeping bag, small tent, clothes, cooking gear, water bottles and snacks. Most of it he had no intention of using, but it would be expected to be there if he were searched by the police for any reason. Given that he was about to spend about a month on the road, it was pretty likely that he would be stopped and searched at some point.

[Rorx]

Bag packed Darren paused briefly to consider what else needed to be done to prepare for his trip. Maps he could call up on his PDA if necessary, but in general he was planning to just head in the right general direction and ask for directions if he needed to. Seeing his climbing gear in the corner reminded him of the Mountain Rescue team. Although he was going on walkabout, he couldn't in good conscience abandon the team if they wanted his help on a rescue. So with that in mind he called one of the senior members of his team.

"Slater."

"Morning Professor, it's Darren from the mountain team. I was wondering if it would be possible to pay you a visit."

"Yes, certainly. When did you have in mind?"

"Well, if it's ok with you I could be there in a couple of minutes."

[Rorx]

Having gotten an affirmative from the Prof Darren wastes little time on grabbing his shoes and a light jacket for appearance sake before teleporting to a spot round the corner from the Prof's office in the main university building in Bangor. Luckily it was during classes, so the corridor was empty at the time he appeared. Walking around the corner he paused briefly before knocking on the door, "Professor Slater, it's Darren."

"Come in, come in. Now what can I do for you that needed you to come out here rather than deal with it over the phone?"

"I'm going away for a while, I guess about a month, but I wanted to try to arrange things so that I could still be contacted if the team wants or needs me on a rescue. Normally I would just leave you a contact number, but I'm going to be travelling around a lot and I can't guarantee I'd always be able to get a signal. However, I do have another option. As you may remember, I erupted as a Nova a bit under a year ago now and one of my least used powers is like a psychic phone line."

"Yes I remember. A 'psychic phone line'? Do you mean telepathy?" a hint of unease creeps into the professor's voice.

"No." replies Darren firmly, "It's not telepathy. It really is best described as a phone line. For one thing, you have to agree to the connection, I can't impose it on you. For another the person being called can choose to ignore the call, and either party can hang up at anytime. Lastly, it is only a conversation, albeit a mental one. Neither person can get at the memories or anything of the other person."

"I see. Yes, your analogy of the phone is quite valid. Presumably you want me to accept a connection to you? Have you done this with many others?"

"That was my hope Professor, then you could call me anytime the team wanted me and I wouldn't have to worry about getting a signal or having my mobile on me. I have linked with a number of other people, my parents, a few friends, even a Nova or two but in total probably only about 10 people or less so far. There is a range limit, but it's about a 1000km or so, and I don't intend going that far away during this month."

The professor leans back in his chair and considers the young man, young Nova as some would have it, before him. He had known Darren for several years before his eruption, and now for almost a year since it had occurred. In his experience Darren had never been deliberately ill-intentioned, and had not changed siginificantly in personality following his eruption. His mind made up, he sat upright, "Ok, I'll do it. Now what do I need to do?"

"Thank you Professor. Just sit there and concentrate on me, it shouldn't take too long."

[Rorx]

A few minutes later Darren was back in his house finishing packing his bag. After that it was only a matter of grabbing a jacket and slinging the bag over his shoulder before he appeared at Land's End. He had been there regularly as a teenager since it was only about 15 miles from where he lived. Indeed for several summers he had had a variety of jobs in the shops and tourist amusements there.

Now he smiled and waved to the few people who recognised him as he walked down to the signpost by the top of the cliff. Darren photographed himself there on a disposable camera to show the start of his journey, then turned and headed up the road towards Penzance. The 10 miles through the windy country roads amidst the August heat meant little to Darren's enhanced stamina and he could have easily made it in substantially less than the three hours he did the trip in. However, he spent the time walking observing the few people he met, rather than driving past, and the wildlife in the fields and hedges along the way.

In a few instances he exerted his Animal Mastery to get a closer look at an unusual or less common type of animal and giving the nature of his trip he made more frequent use of his telepathy than he normally would. As far as Darren was concerned, the purpose of this trip was to discover more about humanity in general and so decide on his place either within it or outside of it.

The thoughts of most people were very mundane in nature, as you'd expect, when they needed to pay what bills, what to wear to a party, or who was going out with whom. However, in Penzance he noticed a much more interesting line of thought as he passed the Savoy cinema on the way towards the wharf with the Sub he had just purchased in the local Subway. Thoughts of robbing the local Lloyds bank, that Darren could see just coming up as walked down the road.

[Rorx]

Shit, I can't let them get away with it, but I don't particularly want to get drawn into it either. Lets see what I can find...

Delving a little deeper, he finds the get away car, or at least the initial one, the crooks had already got another one ready to switch to a couple of miles down the road. After little thought Darren had come up with a plan. Walking past the getaway car he mimed tie his shoelace while activating his claws and giving one of the tires a puncture. Then, having walked past the car and out of sight he 'ported back behind the car, and dealt similarly with the rear two tires. Lastly he found a working phone booth and gave the police an anonymous tip off.

Sure enough the police arrived just as the bank robbers emerged with the loot and the getaway driver discovered the flat tires. When one of the robbers pointed a sawn off shotgun at the PC who had responded to the call, he suddenly found himself jerking the gun into the air as he fired wasting both barrels. The copper was on to him before he had gotten over the shock and surprise. After that they were quickly subdued and Darren left to carry on with his business in town now that problem had been dealt with.

[Rorx]

Sitting on the wharf eating his sub Darren gazed out to sea and considered what had happend. He had foiled the bank robbery and potentially saved the policeman's life, and all without revealing himself. However, it would have been better if he could have stopped the guy from pulling the gun on the pc in the first place. Perhaps some variant of his telepathy that would make someone do something. It must be possible, but did he want to make people little more than puppets? Or maybe it would be better to work on his telekinesis, to be able to do a shield or screen or something to protect others.

Well, I've got time to think about it in the days ahead.

With that he dumped the filling of what was left of his sub and broke the rest up and threw it into the sea for the waiting gulls. Then it was back on the road, heading Northeast out of town at a moderate to brisk walking pace.

[Rorx]

Starting to feel the amount of juice he had been using to get the feel of peoples thoughts and lives Darren resolved to lay off the telepathy until the night when he could recharge after a final burst.

The four hour walk up to Redruth was uneventful, but as before he found himself slowing from his initial pace to admire the wildlife and countryside that he passed through. He barely paused in Redruth, eager now to make it as far towards Salibury plain as he could today. Darren did stop long enough to grab a coffee, and a couple of tins to heat later on his stove, but then it was back on the road.

A normal person would probably be looking to stop for the day after seven hours of walking, but Darren's enhanced constitution meant he barely felt it and he had resolved to keep going until sunset. Not that sunset would make much difference to him, but it was a natural stopping point and it would be interesting too examine the change in the actions and thoughts of both people and wildlife at that time. In the end he camped in the woods just north of a garage parallel to the A30 at a place marked on the map as Victoria, on the way to Bodmin.

[Rorx]

Finding a small clearing on the field side of woods Darren set up his camp with a small fire for cooking and his one-man tent. Stalking through the wood he quickly gathered the small amount of wood he would need for the night with little disturbance to the wildlife. He smiled at the birds, squirrels, and other small mammals that he encountered as he picked up the odd branch, sticks or handful of moss.

Looking out across the nearby field while he cooked a simple tin of beans he considered the way he had come. It had totaled about 50 miles, which would make it about 10 days to get to his goal of John O'Groats. Darren knew that would be impractical, it was bound to take longer than that, but it looked like he would have a fair chunk of spare time along the way before he was due to go to the Premier of the film.

As the sun was going down Darren looked back into the woods, using his enhanced vision to watch the changing over of the animals from diurnal to nocturnal. Occassionally as he spotted an animal or bird he sent himself into thier minds to see the world from their perspective. Eventually he fell asleep while still sharing the mind of a local owl.

He awoke the next dawn from dreams of flying, and hunting. Outside his tent once he got dressed he found a pair of field mice, a present he guessed from the owl of the night before. Sharpening a green stick Darren made some toast on the revived remains of his fire, then quickly packed for the days hike. He was looking forward to his walk across Dartmoor and so he needed to get at least as far as Tavistock today.