Mutant Engineer Sets out to see the world (Colorado) (Open*)

Convention:
Italicized sentences indicate Richard’s thoughts.
Italicized sentences encapsulated in quotation marks indicate speech.

Richard breathed in deeply, savoring the crisp fresh mountain air. Having completed all of his classes, submitted the final version of his thesis (which by now he was thoroughly sick and tired of) and completed the check out procedure, this was the first time in a long while that he had time to rest and relax, to recharge and creep back from the edge of burnout. After thoroughly enjoying the almost foreign sensation and novelty of sleeping in, he had headed out to one of Colorado’s 14-ers for a relaxing hike. He had nothing on his plate, no duties or obligations to discharge and graduation was 2 weeks away. His job applications were going well and he expected to hear back from various companies within the next few days. This was his time to recharge, to almost re-center himself.

He luxuriated in the smell of pine, the brilliant vibrant deep blue sky that stretched endless as far as the eye could see, the wispy flat bottomed clouds that were so characteristic of Colorado, the joyous sounds of birds singing and leaves rustling in the wind. He reached the summit before lunch and headed back down to a valley with a lake to have lunch. He sat, lost in thought, reflecting on his life to date, he wondered where he would go next.

“To Boston perhaps? To San Diego? I hear there is some good cutting edge research and challenging work being done in New York!”

His mind wandered to and fro and he must have dozed off as he was suddenly and rudely awoken by cold drops of rain falling on his face. Drat it, it was getting dark and there was a thunderstorm on the way. He had gone off trail and did not fancy trying to outrun the fast approaching storm. He headed to a nearby grove of trees to take shelter.

Richard was at a dilemma, he did not want to venture out in the thunder storm and risk a painful demise via extreme high voltage but by the time the storm blew over it would probably be dark. He had not expected to doze off for that long. It has been a long semester/year. He mused. He did not fancy trying to find the trail again in the darkness, where trail markers and signs would be masked by the inky blackness; nor did the idea of spending the night on the mountain top appeal to him. It was then he remembered that he had brought a GPS map device as a backup. Joyfully he grabbed at his slightly scuffed backpack. In his haste to reach the grove of trees he had taken a spill or two, but had avoided any injury by landing on his backpack. His joy turned to dismay however when he observed the cracked casing of the device and the fact it would not turn on.

The trees provided a modicum of shelter and lacking anything better to do he decided to try to see if the device could be fixed. After all, he DID NOT want to spend the night shivering on a mountainside. Having divested the GPS of its outer case he preceded to prod and poke it and examine it for any obvious signs of damage. He could not find any. As he turned over the circuit board in his hand, he thought he felt a niggling, as though he was on the verge of some new revelation or knowledge, something new yet strangely familiar. He pushed with his mind, and felt as though there was a barrier; with nothing to lose he decided to press harder. Now Richard had always possessed a certain stubbornness, a tenacity, a force of will. It was this that he brought to bear, pushing against this “barrier” that he felt in his mind. Harder and harder he pushed, his teeth were gritted, a vein on his forehead started pulsing. Yet harder and harder he pushed, then, suddenly with an almost audible “Snap”, he was through. Suddenly Richard felt this almost heady rush of endorphin, this new level or whatever he had come into, well, it felt Glorious. In his mind’s eye, an image of the circuit board that he held suddenly appeared, but with it can knowledge, insight. He had never studied how GPS devices worked but suddenly as he mentally “reached” for the different components, he instinctively began to understand what each component did, how the circuits were connected. Oh he could not design one, but he could suddenly and with growing clarity and certainty understand how they were constructed and how they worked. But wait, there was more, something felt off about this circuit, hungry for more insight and knowledge, Richard pushed harder.

By this time, Richard had lost perception of the world around him; he no longer heard the rumble of thunder or felt the occasional drops of rain that managed to get through the thick foliage. He no longer felt the cooling temperatures or the increasingly biting wind. As Richard explored and examined the circuit board with his mind’s eye, he increasingly got the feeling that something was not quite right, not quite as it should be. Was it in this corner, no, no, a little to the left, wait, wait, There! There! Hidden underneath a black circuit chip, there was some metallic foreign matter that was creating a short circuit, it looked, felt like some type of metallic foil wedged between the bottom of the chip and two copper paths on the circuit board. But there was more, up a bit, up a bit more, no, not on this side. The other side, There! There! The solder connecting two contacts had cracked, probably by the fall and lead to a break in the main power circuit. That was why it was not turning on.

With a rush of satisfaction, Richard sat back, he knew, he knew what was wrong. It occurred to him that this “ability” was one he had been using often, albeit not to this level of power. This was how he could look at a project or system, stare intently at it, and after a while, days/hours/weeks either he would suddenly gain better insight into the system that would inspire a solution or he would institutively get a hunch or two of where the problem was. With this glowing feeling of satisfaction, the reality of the situation came rushing back. His elation plummeted. It was cold out, it was still raining, the light was almost gone, and he had probably enough clothing to stay alive and survive the night, but it would not be a pleasant experience. The most frustrating thing was the he now knew what was wrong, but did not have the tools on hand to fix the problem. In a fit of frustration and anger he was tempted to hurl the currently useless device far away into the brush. Then a thought occurred to him. Hey! By just focusing my will I was able to understand what was wrong with this circuit board, I guess mind over matter can be true in some cases, the evidence supports the fact. Who knows maybe I can “will” this dumb board to work.

But knowing the problem and fixing it were two different things. How does one “will” something to work? Richard decided to approach this challenge as he would any other problem. Perhaps I can will the short circuit away, maybe I can mentally “shift” that foil. He thought. He once again set his slightly tired mind and body to it. Imagining that small piece of foil in his mind, he willed it to deform slightly, to crumple so that it would fall out. As he did this he was conscious of facing a different barrier. This was different from the last one; it seemed to give more easily. With the first barrier to comprehension, it was hard to break through yes, but once through it was easy to stay in the “zone” and it felt glorious. This one seemed to give more easily but one never knows, so steeling himself, Richard pushed.

He broke through almost immediately but found that he had to keep pushing to stay in this “second zone”. In this new zone he could feel the various parts of the circuit board almost as an extension of him. He focused on the foil and willed/pushed it to move, to crumple. It was hard; it felt as if he was trying to use a muscle that he had never used. He gritted his teeth and poured on the will power. Wait! There! He felt it shift slightly. Come on Richard he said to himself, This is only a puny piece of foil. Come on! He pushed harder, a trickle of sweat then another appeared on his brow and began to trickle down his face. Richard was to focused to notice. With a final heave, the piece of foil crumpled just enough to allow it to fall away. Richard became aware of the world again. He was breathing hard and felt as if he had just run a 400 meter sprint. He downed a cliff bar, had some water to prevent dehydration and took a few moments to rest. “If moving a piece of foil is that hard, I hate to think what it will take to restore that connection again!” He said to himself.

Richard gave himself a few minutes to rest and recover, and then set to again. This time he knew what to expect, it was slightly easier to break the second barrier. It was still hard and took energy but at least he know a little of what to expect. He visualized the cracked connection, the solder that has broken off. To make this work again I guess I will have to try to bend the pin back into place. This might get painful. He set his mind, his formidable will power to it. He only had to bend the small pin back a hairs breadth or two, but to him it seemed a herculean task. He pushed, and pushed, he visualized the pin moving and elongating slightly. He felt it twitch. He pushed harder. His teeth were clenched; sweat was beading on his brow and running down his face. His breathing was ragged. He mentally lashed himself, to use more force. Then, finally, just when he thought he would black out… “GAhhhhhh!” The pin snapped back into place and seemed wedged there firmly enough.

Richard fell back, still holding the circuit board. His hands were trembling, he was shaking. He felt utterly exhausted and mentally spent. With shaking hands and barely cohesive movements he tried to put the GPS device back together. After several attempts, he succeeded. Holding his breath he gently pushed the power button. Sweet Mary! Heavens above! It worked. He had fixed it.

By now it was completely dark. After giving himself ten minutes to recover as best he could, Richard snapped on his head lamp, gathered his things and decided to brave the drizzle and try to head down the mountain. He barely had enough will to fore himself to keep putting one step in front of the other. Blindly trusting the GPS map to get him back on trail and back to his car. After what seemed like decades but was in reality only a few hours, Richard made it back to his car. A very long hot shower, some good food and a beer later, he felt almost human again. Later as he collapsed into bed, as he drifted off to sleep he reflected on his experience. This was something new, maybe he was truly gifted. Could it be that he had just imagined the whole “perceive and fix-it ability”? He could not be sure, but later he might try to run some experiments.

(OCC, this is essentially a closed thread unless anyone wants to tag on a email message/phone call on behalf of a company inviting Rich to NY. If not he will head there regardless)