The Psionic Man

By Donald H Sullivan

Al Rice awakens one morning to find himself healed of hemophilia, and is no longer HIV positive. He also learns that he has powerful psychic capabilities. In trying to learn how all this happened, he learns that Earth is being observed by three different alien groups.
Two of the groups are from the same planet and are at war with each other. They now struggle to control Earth for certain valuable minerals that have been depleted on their own planet.
The third group, the Zenin, is far more powerful than the other two and is sympathetic to Earth. However, their mission is solely to explore the galaxy, and their own laws forbid them from interfering with other cultures. Though they are powerful, they will not fight unless directly attacked.
Their captain goes out on a limb to contact Al Rice and warn Earth, but that is all he can do. Earth, of course, shrugs off all such warnings as the work of crackpots, so Al is all that stands between Earth and an alien invasion. His only allies are Sue Martinez and a handful of UFO investigators.
Finally, Al learns the secret of how he and a handful of other humans came to possess psionic power.
Al must find a way to use his new found powers to resist the aliens--who also have psionic powers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Donald H Sullivan
• Release date: May 13, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458167132

Donald H Sullivan

I'm a native Floridian, retired from the US Army, I started writing in the army, mostly training and tech manuals. Boring stuff, but it whetted my interest in writing. I've written sci-fi, thrillers, mysteries, humor, fantasies, horror, and more. I'm now living in NC. While in the army, I served in air defense artillery, military intelligence, and psychological operations. I also worked in Federal Civil Service as a quality assurance specialist, ammunition surveillance. I love writing, reading, most kinds of music, and animals--especially dogs.

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THE PSIONIC MAN

Donald H Sullivan

Copyright 2008 by Donald H Sullivan

Smashwords Edition

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This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters herein to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Title page

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

About the Author

Chapter One

Captain Marl Ki of the Zenin Starship Galactic Explorer, and his science officer, Lt. Commander Lann Vin, watched the image of the third planet of Star System 8220.50 on the captain's view screen as the ship drew closer to the system.

We've finally found another inhabited planet, said Capt. Ki. I was beginning to think we would find no more in this sector.

All in all not too bad, said Vin. This makes the third one we've found in the thousands of suns we've visited so far in this sector. Three is about average.

Suddenly Vin leaned forward. Are those specks what I think they are?

If you are thinking spacecraft, I'm thinking the same thing. I'll get the signal room to check it out. Marl Ki sent a telepathic message. Lt. Lywa, there appears to be a number of ships in this star system. Have you picked them up?

Yes, Captain. I've already activated our anti-detection screens and have locked on to the ships. There are two-hundred of them, all in orbit around the fourth planet. Surveillance equipment has also been activated and data should be flowing in shortly.

Thank you, Lieutenant. Keep me informed.

Interesting, said Vin. It appears that we've found a civilization on this planet capable of space travel. That makes two that we've found in this sector. Very unusual.

We spent an entire sidereal period studying the last one--the one called Istana, said Capt. Ki. He chuckled. We know more about Istana than the Istanans do.

At that point Lt. Lywa broke in. "Captain, we've found another fleet of ships, this one also numbering two-hundred, and also orbiting the fourth planet. Neither of the fleets is of local origin. Both come from Istana, the last planet we observed.

One of the fleets is Ryll and the other Dorion, and each of them have a base set up on opposite sides of the fourth planet.

Ryll and Dorion. Those two were at war with each other on Istana, said Vin. Apparently they've brought their war here with them.

So it appears, said Capt. Ki But I don't think they're here merely to do battle with each other. I think there has to be another reason, and I want to know what it is. I'll have Lt. Zee of intelligence to activate the thought amplifiers as soon as we get in close enough. The Rylls and Dorions are telepaths, so we can listen in on their conversations.

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The next morning Captain Marl Ki received a brief summary of the report from the intelligence chief. She had edited the report, deleting such trivia as the small talk of crew members and unimportant matters like weather reports.

"Monitoring of conversations among both the Ryll and Dorion officials reveals that the two rivals are seeking to invade Earth, the name given by the planet's inhabitants, to gain control of certain valuable minerals that are near depletion on their home planet of Istana.

The two sides have been locked in a stalemate since their arrival here one-hundred days ago, by local time. Each is seeking to outmaneuver the other, or force the other into making a critical mistake.

Earth is well behind both sides in technological development. Some nations of the planet are in the early stages of space travel, but still have not traveled beyond their own moon.

The inhabitants of Earth are non-telepathic.

A detailed report on telecube will follow later."

Marl Ki mulled over the information in the report from Lt. Zee. He had participated in ten voyages totaling five-hundred years of observing and studying alien cultures of inhabited planets in the galaxy.

Of the hundreds of planets he had studied, he had never experienced a situation like this one, where technologically advanced forces were preparing to invade a relatively backward planet.

Further, he had never heard of any other research team running into a similar situation. Captain Marl Ki felt trapped. He did not like this situation at all. His sense of justice and fair play compelled him to intervene, but Zenin law forbade intervention in all matters involving alien cultures.

Zenin starships were allowed to defend themselves only if they were directly attacked, and for this reason Zenin ships were well armed. Marl Ki had no doubt that he could defeat an entire fleet of two-hundred Ryll or Dorion ships if the need arose.

The superior armament of the huge Zenin ships alone might be enough, but the added level-10 psionic powers of the Zenin--compared to level 4 of the Rylls and Dorions-- would give them a tremendous advantage. Zenin psionic power was awesome, unmatched in the galaxy.

Marl Ki considered all this. It would be tempting to launch a surprise attack on one side, then the other, sending them both limping back to Istana. Such a move would save Earth from invasion. What's more, the people of Earth would never even be aware that they were in danger.

The situation gnawed at him, filling him with outrage.

But the Captain knew all this amounted to a daydream. If he were to attack an alien force, he would be kicked out of the Zenin Space Force in disgrace, never to wear the uniform again.

Marl Ki loved his work and he loved space. His voyages in the vastness of space gave him a sense of freedom. No matter how many new planets he discovered, he still felt a thrill each time he found a new one. And he enjoyed watching the scientists at their work and learning of their sometimes wondrous finds.

No, he would not risk his career by breaking Zenin law as much as he would love to intervene. But he considered one other option: The action that came closest to intervention allowed by Zenin law was a proviso that permitted abduction of an intelligent being in special cases.

During the study of a planet, a team is permitted to gather and study any of the flora and fauna of the planet, excluding any kind of intelligent life. Intelligent beings must be studied only in their natural habitats -- with one exception.

When deemed necessary to the mission by both the science officer and the captain, one--and only one--intelligent local could be abducted and studied. In such a circumstance, the local must be returned unharmed, and the Zenin must use telehypnosis to wipe all details of the abduction from the local's memory.

Marl Ki could see no way that this option would help him. He had no choice but to ignore the Ryll and Dorion fleets and continue his mission, which was to conduct a study of his latest discovered planet: Earth.

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Marl Ki sent two small explorer ships down from the mother ship, carrying surveyors, personnel to collect soil samples, plants, and animals for study. The law required that all higher animals, both wild and domesticated, be returned unharmed.

With the variety of plant and animal life on Planet Earth, Lt. Commander Vin estimated the ship would be here at least one Earth year. His group of scientists, skilled in many fields, would be busy.

All Zenin personnel were instructed to avoid the locals, but if they did happen to be spotted, they were to use telehypnosis and instruct the local to forget the entire incident.

Because Earth was a non-telepathic planet, the intelligence chief had her monitoring equipment tuned to catch and amplify random non-telepathic thoughts of Earth people.

Because he knew Earth to be a non-telepathic planet, Captain Ki was astonished when he received a report from Lt. Zee that her equipment had detected a telepathic thought from among the Earth people.

"Captain, the telepathic thought was unexpected, but what is even more surprising is that there seems to be a high degree of psionic power in the thoughts that we have monitored. At this time we are unable to assign a level, but indications are that it may be at least as high as level 5, and could approach a much higher level.

"At first I thought that my equipment might not be properly attuned, and that we could somehow be picking up the thoughts of a Ryll or a Dorion. But the thoughts were of a higher psionic level than those two.

"The thoughts had something to do with fighting this damned heavy traffic and getting to work on time. It could only have been a local. But just to be sure, I ordered a thorough check of the equipment. Everything is working properly.

Captain, someone on this planet has powerful psionic powers.

If so, said Captain Ki, "this would be the first planet we've found that has both telepathic and non-telepathic individuals. If you've found one, there are probably more.

Lt. Zee, I want you to take one of the skiffs, load your detection equipment aboard, take the personnel you need, and conduct a thorough search of this planet for humans with psionic power.

Very well, Captain. The skiffs are speedy, but scanning will slow us down. It will take fully three days to spiral this planet from pole to pole. Also, the skiffs are not equipped with visual-distortion screens, so we may be spotted by locals.

A chance we'll have to take. Anyway, the skiffs are small enough that the locals may mistake them for their own aircraft. Proceed as soon as possible, Lieutenant.

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Chapter Two

Three days later, the captain received a summary of the report from Lt. Zee: There are a total of fifty-six telepaths with psionic capabilities on this planet, from a population of six billion.

The telepaths do not contact each other. In fact, none of them seem to be aware that they are telepathic. It is my theory that their telepathic abilities lie unused deep in the recesses of their minds. But the psionic abilities are definitely there, and could be awakened.

We still have not determined the psionic level of the Earth people. It is difficult to make a determination because their psionic skills are dormant. But they are definitely strong.

It is my recommendation that