ORION - Ben Bova

Contents:

PART ONE. Phoenix

I'm not Superman.
I have abilities that are far beyond the capabilities of any other ordinary man, but I am as a person and as mortal as any of them.
Perhaps the source of my abilities to be found in the features of my nervous system but I say for sure, of course, can not. I have full control over your body and cause any part almost immediately obey orders of the brain.
Last year I learned to play the piano for only two hours. My teacher, quiet, gray-haired man, and did not believe that until the day I never touched the keys. Earlier in the year I was stunned wizard taykvando that during the week perfectly understood the art, the study of which he devoted his life, at a cost of great efforts. He should keep the incredible work his usual coolness and courtesy, but it was quite obvious that he was beside himself with awareness of this simple fact, and therefore feels the deepest humiliation. After that I had no choice but to leave his school.
One can only wonder what my options are still multiply. I have always had the ability to control your breathing and the rhythm of the beating of my heart. I once naively believed that it is capable of any person, until I read a book about yogis and their supposedly "mystical" powers. Personally for me all their tricks have always been nothing more than child's play ...
Two months ago, I went to have a meal in one of the restaurants in the center of Manhattan. I love the solitude and prefer to have dinner later, so as not to be in the noisy crowds. There was something about three o'clock in the afternoon, and the restaurant was almost empty. Several couples were seated at separate tables, talking quietly among themselves. Two elderly tourists suspiciously studied French menu, suspicious glance at the names of unfamiliar dishes. Another couple of lovers sat at the back wall of the room, holding hands, and every few seconds glancing warily at the door. A lonely young woman takes a separate table near me. She seemed to me to be extremely beautiful. Dark curly hair falling over her shoulders, and the classic features betrayed in her professional model.
By chance, she looked at me, and her cold indifferent glance seemed to penetrate the innermost recesses of my soul. You would have thought that her big gray as polar sea, eyes dormant all knowledge of the world. Suddenly, I felt not only idle, but a very lonely man. As if struck on the spot sucker, I felt a strong desire to go immediately to her table and strike up an acquaintance.
Take me to your eyes, she looked toward the door. Involuntarily, I looked in the same direction and saw on the threshold of a surprisingly handsome man of indeterminate age. With equal reason he could give and thirty and fifty years. His strong face framed by magnificent golden hair. After standing for a moment at the door, he went to the bar and sat down at the curtained window. And although the stranger was wearing a gray suit is very conservative cut, he looked more like a movie star or an Olympic gods, rather than as a successful Manhattan businessman who has chosen this hour for an early cocktail.
My gray-eyed beauty, as if spellbound, did not take her eyes off him. It seemed, even in the dining room was brighter from the lights, comes from his hair. Man certainly exuded a kind of aura that could act on anyone. Half-forgotten memories stirred in my head. I instinctively felt that already met this person and maybe even knew him many years ago. But however much I tried, I was unable to remember where, when and under what circumstances it could happen.
I stole a glance at the young woman. With a visible effort she tore her eyes away from the mu zlatovolosogo