Harris was nodding as he made notations.
When Jemma took her turn, parroting Jack’s words and sending back her own storm of emotion, even Dr. Harris seemed nonplussed. He stopped writing to look at the monitor, and Jemma saw that the activity had flat-lined at its maximum recording capability.
After several seconds, Dr. Harris began typing, though he seemed to be consulting with somebody other than Josh, who hadn’t been given a keyboard for the morning. Josh stood, staring at the readings, and Jemma closed her eyes.
In the silence, she could shut out the other two men. The medical chair was reasonably comfortable, after all, as long as her skin wasn’t sticking to it. Jack’s thumb was still stroking hers rhythmically. Allowed contact, their connection was open, the temptation to send something great. She focused instead on the sensation of skin against skin, of his hand in hers until she was jarred out of her thoughts by Dr. Harris’s electronic voice.
“Cease contact for now.” They let go immediately, and Jemma’s jaw clenched. Dr. Harris turned the monitor toward her and Jack so they could see it more easily, then continued typing. “We’ve not yet tried all combinations, but this is the first time we’ve seen this static on contact. It was too steady to be conversation, so you will not be penalized. We’d like to be able to recreate it in other test samples. Are you consciously aware of it?”
Jemma looked at Jack, who shrugged. If they hadn’t started testing the established pairs, it would make sense that they hadn’t seen a true connection yet. She was pretty sure Ken and Marcia would be able to give them results, and there was no way the twins, as similar as they were to each other, wouldn’t show this same static or whatever it was on the monitor. If the others didn’t have that, though, she still wasn’t sure what it would hurt to explain what she thought, as long as she avoided any mention of Talking without contact in here.
She typed, “My best guess is that it’s our connection. We can feel each other there when we touch, and when we’re not in this place, when we’re not limited by whatever it is you’re doing to us, we can feel it without touching.”
“Could you feel it before the Event?” Jemma and Jack shook their heads. “Do you have that with anybody else?”
“Not in the same way,” typed Jemma. “We could Talk, but I couldn’t feel them when we weren’t actively Talking. I don’t know whether we would have built that eventually. You kidnapped Ken and Marcia before we could find out.”
Dr. Harris frowned. “Let’s continue. Not with contact,” he interrupted when Jack reached for Jemma’s hand once more. “You’ve clearly demonstrated you excel in that area. We’ll do that one more time before we end this morning. Right now, I’d like you to try it without contact. Stick to the script.”
Jack went first, putting on a show of concentrating before typing his lines. Jemma spent the time figuring out how she was going to fool the monitor; if she actually tried, it would work, and she wasn’t ready for them to know about that particular ability just yet. When it was her turn, she looked at Jack and focused her attempt on Josh. As far as the monitor was concerned, she tried her best, putting in considerable effort without much result. For the first time, she was glad this building seemed to force mutual concentration to connect to Jack.
They continued at varied distances for several hours, and as the tests continued, Jemma’s head began throbbing, making it difficult to concentrate. By the time they were finished, Jemma’s headache was one of the worst she’d ever felt. She didn’t hear Dr. Harris tell Jack to take her hand, but she was aware of the contact, of his presence in her mind, the stroke of his skin against hers giving her something to focus on. She felt the pinch of a needle and rolled her head to the side to see Josh withdrawing blood while
When Jemma took her turn, parroting Jack’s words and sending back her own storm of emotion, even Dr. Harris seemed nonplussed. He stopped writing to look at the monitor, and Jemma saw that the activity had flat-lined at its maximum recording capability.
After several seconds, Dr. Harris began typing, though he seemed to be consulting with somebody other than Josh, who hadn’t been given a keyboard for the morning. Josh stood, staring at the readings, and Jemma closed her eyes.
In the silence, she could shut out the other two men. The medical chair was reasonably comfortable, after all, as long as her skin wasn’t sticking to it. Jack’s thumb was still stroking hers rhythmically. Allowed contact, their connection was open, the temptation to send something great. She focused instead on the sensation of skin against skin, of his hand in hers until she was jarred out of her thoughts by Dr. Harris’s electronic voice.
“Cease contact for now.” They let go immediately, and Jemma’s jaw clenched. Dr. Harris turned the monitor toward her and Jack so they could see it more easily, then continued typing. “We’ve not yet tried all combinations, but this is the first time we’ve seen this static on contact. It was too steady to be conversation, so you will not be penalized. We’d like to be able to recreate it in other test samples. Are you consciously aware of it?”
Jemma looked at Jack, who shrugged. If they hadn’t started testing the established pairs, it would make sense that they hadn’t seen a true connection yet. She was pretty sure Ken and Marcia would be able to give them results, and there was no way the twins, as similar as they were to each other, wouldn’t show this same static or whatever it was on the monitor. If the others didn’t have that, though, she still wasn’t sure what it would hurt to explain what she thought, as long as she avoided any mention of Talking without contact in here.
She typed, “My best guess is that it’s our connection. We can feel each other there when we touch, and when we’re not in this place, when we’re not limited by whatever it is you’re doing to us, we can feel it without touching.”
“Could you feel it before the Event?” Jemma and Jack shook their heads. “Do you have that with anybody else?”
“Not in the same way,” typed Jemma. “We could Talk, but I couldn’t feel them when we weren’t actively Talking. I don’t know whether we would have built that eventually. You kidnapped Ken and Marcia before we could find out.”
Dr. Harris frowned. “Let’s continue. Not with contact,” he interrupted when Jack reached for Jemma’s hand once more. “You’ve clearly demonstrated you excel in that area. We’ll do that one more time before we end this morning. Right now, I’d like you to try it without contact. Stick to the script.”
Jack went first, putting on a show of concentrating before typing his lines. Jemma spent the time figuring out how she was going to fool the monitor; if she actually tried, it would work, and she wasn’t ready for them to know about that particular ability just yet. When it was her turn, she looked at Jack and focused her attempt on Josh. As far as the monitor was concerned, she tried her best, putting in considerable effort without much result. For the first time, she was glad this building seemed to force mutual concentration to connect to Jack.
They continued at varied distances for several hours, and as the tests continued, Jemma’s head began throbbing, making it difficult to concentrate. By the time they were finished, Jemma’s headache was one of the worst she’d ever felt. She didn’t hear Dr. Harris tell Jack to take her hand, but she was aware of the contact, of his presence in her mind, the stroke of his skin against hers giving her something to focus on. She felt the pinch of a needle and rolled her head to the side to see Josh withdrawing blood while
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