The Heart That Holds

Chapter 1

                The door of his office burst open and the young intern skidded to a halt in front of his paper-littered desk. "Dr Goebel, sir! Dr. Harris has figured out a way to transfer the energy!" Then he was gone, most likely back in the direction of the lab, where Dr. Thomas Goebel and his partner, Richard Harris conducted their research experiments.

                Dr. Goebel stood, feeling more than a little excited himself. However, he was an old man, and conducted himself with more restraint than some of the younger members of the research group.

                Polished shoes clicking sharply, Goebel walked down the hall in the same direction as the young intern. Stopping at the room labeled Paranormal Studies, he drew in a breath and held it. Inside he could hear noises of celebration after almost three years of painstaking work.

                The team he and Harris had put together had been handpicked to help them reach a revolutionary era where a paranormal phenomenon such as telekinesis was commonplace, and people without psychic abilities were abnormal. As a doctor dealing with the rehabilitation of people with near-death-experiences or those in comas, Thomas had seen a great deal of strange activity concerning a person's brain functions. The way a coma victim could hear a loved one speaking to them, even when their body showed no response to outward stimuli was one. There had also been a few people who had woken up and had just known things they shouldn't have, like the sixteen-year old who had woken up from a three month long coma and wished him a happy birthday.

                Thomas had always wondered how these people had been able to do such things, and when Richard Harris had approached him about working on a project to discover just that, he had jumped at the chance.

                They had not only discovered that everybody had the potential for psychic abilities, but that some of the energy used towards it could be transferred to inanimate objects and then transferred back to that person, or any other person for that matter for uses such as healing, which had interested the two doctors greatly. They had found that part out accidentally, and had for the last two years been driven to find a reliable method for the energy transfer.

                And Dr. Harris seemed to have accomplished that this afternoon.

                Thomas walked into the lab. 

                The younger, dark-haired man looked up from his glass of champagne. "Thomas!" he said. "We've got it! We've finally got it!" He jumped up and grabbed another long-stemmed glass of champagne, handing it to Dr. Goebel. "After three years of research, we've finally been able to discover the secret to containing psychic energy! Think of what we could do with this knowledge!"

                Thomas smiled. Harris had always been overzealous when their work was concerned. Yet, as much as he raved about the work they were doing, he was very elusive about when they should begin publishing their work in the scientific journals.  Thomas had already made one attempt at convincing Harris that they should publish at least some of their work, after the discovery that everyone could be trained to use their inherent psychic abilities. Perhaps it was time for another try.

                "With this information, we could help a lot of people," Thomas said. "I think it's time to publish our work."

                As soon as he had started speaking, Harris was already shaking his head. "No, not yet. We need to make sure our work is foolproof. This successful energy transfer could prove to be a fluke, and then where would we be if we had already published our work. We need at least two or three months of reliable testing before we even consider publishing."

                Thomas tried again. "But even without discussing the energy transfer, we can write a paper discussing the natural talent everyone has for psychic abilities."

                "No. I want to have all the data we need, and publish it all in one go. I want to shock the world and make sure they will remember our names. If we write a paper on these supernatural powers everyone has, some amateur might come along and try to set up his own experiments and steal our ideas. No, I want these experiments and the results to remain a secret from the general public until we are ready to unveil everything!"

                Thomas nodded thoughtfully. "If that's the way you want it."

                "It is."

                Thomas nodded again. "Alright, we'll wait." It made sense, to keep a discovery this huge a secret until it could be further tested, but Thomas was a little bit worried about Harris. This was the second time he had said no to publishing their work, and had been vague about when they would actually publish it. Thomas Goebel felt he could wait a few more months before their experiments were revealed to the general public, but there were so many people in hospitals that could be helped with this information. Time was of the utmost importance, and Harris kept ignoring it.

                Thomas decided that he wanted to keep an eye on his partner. If it was just to prove that the energy transfer wasn't a fluke that kept Harris from wanting to publish, then everything was alright. If there was some other reason however…

                Thomas raised his champagne glass for a toast.

                "Cheers."