Samantha's Talent (45 page)

"For instance?"

"Oh, like when you told me about the object the alien left. You did it in a way that made me keep thinking about it. Do you know what that little spire in the center of the circle does? Or what it means?"

"You've wondered about that?"

"Yes."

"Do you have any ideas?"

"Sure. Like does it move? Is it an antenna? Does it point to a specific point in the sky? Is it broadcasting in a medium we don't understand so that the alien can come back to the spot where it left? Is it gathering information on us? You said the red area increases by fits and starts. Does that mean an alien craft is stopping at different star systems on the way back here? Is it going into hibernation those times? See, you made me think of lots of questions about it."

"Hmm. A couple of them I hadn't thought of. Just like I hadn't thought of the fact that Anton must have communicated the meaning of time passing to the alien, even if he doesn't remember how he did it. You're a very intelligent young lady, Sammie."

"Thank you. Where next?"

"The labs, after we eat."

The MRI and other diagnostic instruments were impressive. She made a note to herself to study up on them before Dr. Lysander arrived and began testing her. There was a community swimming pool and small club house for the DARPA employees. It was located inside the Skunk Works so that conversational tidbits wouldn't be overheard. Neither was in use at the time. "We try to entertain ourselves within the boundaries of the Skunk Works so we don't accidentally give away information we shouldn't. Even so, if you decide to come here, be careful of what you talk about. Everyone isn't cleared for knowledge of the alien."

"I will, and thanks for warning me."

She hated for the day to end. She made it home just before dinner time, then asked her mother if she could invite Juan to eat with them. She wanted to prolong the time in his presence.

"Certainly," Elaine said. "We have plenty."

He declined though, telling her he had something he needed to do. "I really did enjoy the day with you though. I'll see you again soon, I'm sure."

"Thank you, Juan. I liked having you show me around."

"G'bye." The rest of the evening seemed dull.

***

Samantha spent the next few days studying and helping her parents get settled in their new home. Monday morning she dressed as she usually did in jeans and a blouse. She fastened her hair back in a ponytail and after breakfast headed for Anton's office.

Dr. Lysander was medium height and slim, with a rather plain face but she smiled a lot and appeared to more or less stay in a good humor, as if she enjoyed her work.

"Samantha, I've heard so much about you. I'm very glad to finally meet you." She held out her hand.

She took it and said, "Please call me Sammie. I like that better. And this is my dog, Shufus."

Shufus offered a paw to shake and the doctor took it as if it happened to her every day. "Nice to meet you, Shufus. You look like a full German Shepherd."

Shufus nodded his head, yes. He understood that term from anyone.

"Does he understand everyone like that?"

"Oh, no. You just mentioned a word he knows. He knows a lot of terms but I'm the only person who can really talk to him."

"So I've heard. I've also heard you can make any animal understand you. Correct?"

Since this was where she was going to be studied she saw no reason to deny her talent to these people. "Yes, I can talk to any animal and make it understand me. I understand them when they answer, as much as they're capable of communicating to me. I'm sure you know there's a large gradient of intelligence among the mammals. Same for Avians."

"You can talk to birds, too?"

"Not as well, but yes. I had a crow but... never mind. He saved my life but died doing it. The same thing happened to my bobcat."

"I was told just a little about that. It must have been very traumatic for you."

"Yes, it was."

"Tell you what, Sammie. Why don't we start out with a physical exam and then we'll spend the rest of the day getting a complete history on you."

"What will that entail?"

"Everything you've ever done that you can remember," she said with a laugh.

Samantha didn't see how a history could take up most of a day but soon discovered that it could. By late afternoon her voice was weak from talking so much and her wrist hurt from writing. "What do we do tomorrow, Dr. Lysander?"

"Sammie, let's get on a first name basis since we're going to be working so closely together. Most of my patients call me Lynn."

"Okay. But tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow and the next day is written tests. Probably even a third or fourth day, depending on how fast we work."

It took three days. There were intelligence tests of several types, tests for mechanical aptitude, language ability and a plethora of psychological tests. Most of those she had never heard of.

Lynn put her at ease right at the beginning. "Just do your best and don't worry about scores. Most of these tests don't have correct answers, as such. They're personality evaluations more than anything."

"Okay." Some of the tests were boring, some interesting and some seemed totally bizarre. By the end of the third day she was more exhausted

than she thought she would have been if she had been worked physically rather than mentally.

"Okay, Sammie," Lynn told her at the end of the third day. "We have a wrap. Take tomorrow off and rest while I fill out your history from your parents. Then Friday we'll begin with the MRI."

"Magnetic Resonance Imaging. That ought to be fun."

The doctor grinned. "Tell me that again after we finish."

***

"Forget the Doctor and call me Lynn. We're all going to be a close knit group before long." Lynn said after the Douglas couple entered her new office. There were still boxes yet unpacked and papers scattered on her desk. It also contained a desktop computer and printer on a side table.

"Fine," Elaine said. Ronald nodded.

"I'm going to give you both some big long forms to fill out in a moment. They're nothing more than a life history that will take you all day to complete." She smiled and raised a brow.

"Nothing more than that, eh?" Ronald said.

"Right. The information will be used to help evaluate Samantha's talent. I'll also be drawing blood from both of you for tests and I'll do a full genome analysis on all three of you. Are you with me so far?"

They nodded.

"Good. Now, I'd like to talk to you for a bit about the tests Sammie has been taking. It turns out that she's a very unusual girl."

"Well, hell, we knew that already," Ronald said with a grin.

"I'm not talking about just her talent for communicating with animals and birds. This is about her personality, for want of a better word."

"What about it?" Elaine asked, anxiously now.

"She's too mature for her age."

"How can that be possible?"

"Let me start over, Elaine. You've heard of teenage angst, I'm sure."

"Of course."

"I'll bet you haven't seen much of it with Sammie, though, have you?"

Elaine turned red, causing the doctor to raise her brows. "Something?"

"Um, any angst we ever saw with Sammie was probably my fault. I went a long time not believing she could actually talk with animals. I kept trying to keep her away from them."

"Can you tell me why?"

"It should be obvious. First, who ever heard of a girl who can talk to animals and have them understand her as easily as you're understanding me here? I just wouldn't believe it so secondly, I was frightened for her. She actually played with a grizzly bear who had two cubs. I imagine you've heard how protective they are when they have cubs to care for. That's one of the main reasons you hear of tourists getting hurt or killed in Yellowstone Park and in the Rocky Mountains. Sammie thought nothing of it, but I almost had a heart attack when she let it slip out." She grinned lopsidedly. "Of course that was only one in a series of almost heart attacks."

"I can imagine! But other than that you think she was normal?"

"No. According to everything Ronald or I ever read about teens, she was simply too well behaved and too polite." She waved her hand in a brushing away motion. "I know, some teens are taught by very strict parents to be that way but many of them rebel anyway and can't wait to get away from home. We were never strict with her and never had to be. Just the opposite, if anything. Playing with animals was the only real dispute we ever had with her. Otherwise she's been just as loving and lovely a daughter as any parent could ever want. She still is."

"I agree. But you see, that's abnormal. Teens aren't like that. They learn by pushing limits with their parents and teachers, by thinking they know more about what's good for them than their parents do, by wanting to do things they're really too young for at the time. All those familiar stories about rebellious teens are mostly true. Of course some are better than others but almost none are able to judge how their actions will affect them in the long term. All of them conceal a lot of their activities from their parents. Sammie isn't like that. I told you teens conceal many of their activities. Sammie has done the same but only on a very limited basis. She has been very open with you, mostly. About all she kept from you were some of her activities with animals, and of course she didn't elaborate when she told you about being kissed. She realizes she doesn't know many things yet and she's unsure of herself when they arise. But where other teens would pretend they did know or commit actions contrary to their own interests, I doubt that Sammie ever has. Instead, I'll bet when she was unsure she asked you or her father or asked for a book about the subject or did the research on the internet herself. Right?"

"You've pinned her down perfectly, except that we didn't have the internet in Alaska," Ronald admitted. "We never had to discipline her except over her playing with animals, and I realized she could actually talk to them a couple of years before Elaine would acknowledge the truth of it."

"And I finally accepted it only when she was able to interact with untamed tigers with complete confidence." Elaine said.

"Have you any idea of how high her IQ is?"

"No, but I'm certain it's way up there."

"Sky-high might be a better way to describe it. She has a higher IQ as measured by several different tests than anyone I've ever been associated with, other than Juan Carrera."

"No wonder she thought Ray was dull. We knew she was smart but not to that extent."

"She is, though. I almost have to believe it has something to do with her talent, although I can't prove it. Not yet, anyway."

"What else did you discover about her?"

"She's rather inexperienced so far as romance goes but she's aware of it and not worried by the fact like most fifteen year old girls would be. She knows that she
will
gain experience when she finds a male she really likes." Lynn paused for a moment as if trying to decide how to present an adjunct to the subject. "I believe her real problem is that so far she's failed to find an intellectual equal of the opposite sex. Frankly, that may become a real problem in time but I don't know her well enough yet to judge how she'll solve it."

"She will solve it, though. She's analytical that way when she realizes a problem exists. I hope she'll come to us if she needs advice, though."

"I believe she will. Let's let that stew for a while and move on. A few years ago she wanted to be a veterinarian but her horizons have widened considerably since then, and it happened before she knew of our group. She realized her talent was unique and was trying to decide for herself the best way to use it when she was grown."

"Yes, we figured that out."

"Elaine, did you know that her love for you never wavered even when you didn't believe her about animals? She knew, even that young, that yours was a normal reaction and allowed for it."

"I knew and I really felt guilty when I finally bit the bullet and admitted her talent was real. I felt even guiltier when she didn't go into the 'I told you so' routine like many youngsters her age would have. She was so reasonable and loving about it that I could hardly believe it."

"Which is just another indication of how mature she is. Now I'm wondering about some of what I told you. If her personality is related to her talent, and if it turns out she can teach it to others, how much would the world change? Whatever I might imagine is probably an underestimate, though. And that's not even counting the alien if it comes back."

Samantha had made arrangements to spend her day off with Juan. "I should have known how much you'd be tied up with Lynn, Sammie," he apologized first thing when he arrived that morning to pick her up. "I'm sorry our schedules won't coincide for a while but whenever you're free, and if you want to see me, I'll be available."

"That'll be great. Come on in for a minute. I'm not quite ready. I stayed up late reading about the tests Lynn is going to be performing on me and slept later than usual."

"How many times have I done that very thing, studying late and winding up late the next day? But you're not late. I'm early."

She led him on into their new home. Ronald was still there but Elaine had already left for work. "Be back in a minute or two."

Ronald grinned. "Unlike most teenage girls, she means it. How have you been, Juan?"

"Fine, but frustrated at the doc for grabbing Sammie away from me most of the week."

"You'd better make reservations. Jane and David are both wanting time with her and Lynn will be spending at least two days a week with her for about two months, she said."

Juan's expression of anticipation was replaced by a rather gloomy countenance. "I know. I suppose her work is the most important, though. If we're ever to understand how her talent works, Lynn will be the one to discover it."

"Don't rule yourself out, Juan," Samantha said as she came back into the living room from her bedroom and heard his last statement. "And don't rule me out, either. After I finish reading all of Lynn's results I might have something to say about my talent, as everyone puts it."