StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Prologue

Andrew awoke groggily as his alarm beeped, forcing him from some very pleasant dreams which were rapidly vanishing from memory

“The Time is Zero Six Hundred, Earth Standard Time, August Twenty First, Twenty Two Fifty One”

“Fuuuck” the sixteen year old complained as he crawled out of bed to shut off the annoying klaxon.

“Lights” he spoke, and the room lights turned on. He was in the west-facing room and it was still technically pretty dark where he was. He shambled into the bathroom to the shower, still half asleep. He stepped in, and enjoyed the warm water washing over his body, waking him up and washing the sleep from his brain as well as dirt and sweat from his body. After about ten minutes he finally reached for the shampoo and body wash, making himself officially clean. Then waited another ten minutes or so to actually get out of the shower. Drying himself off he went over to the mirror and checked the stubble on his face, and nodded in approval. Just enough to look like a man, not enough to itch. He would have to shave tomorrow though, lest he be scratching at his face like a mad-man. After he finished brushing his teeth and combing his black hair before he strode back into his room. Andrew did not bother putting on his robe, he just walked into his room nude, and was about to pick a shirt out when he felt something strange stirring within him. He could somehow feel the irritation coming from down the hall toward his room, and bolted to pick his towel back up as his mother opened the door

“Andrew, you had better be ready for breakfast, you cant be late for your first day of classes” his mother commanded as she opened the door

“Ack!” he exclaimed just as he managed to get the towel around his waiste. His mother’s eyes rolled in their sockets ‘it is nothing I have not seen’ he could hear his mother saying, but still he insisted on keeping up the façade.

“Mom, you know you should knock”

“Oops, I forgot! She said, closing the door “breakfast is ready, be fast or you will be late”

“Alright Mom” he said as he pulled a shirt over his head, put on a set of shorts and a set of denim pants, fastened, then zipped.

…

After wolfing down a breakfast of pancakes, yogurt, and grapefruit, and bolting out the door Andrew sat in his first class of the day. Earth Alliance History and Government. It was one of the required classes. His other classes consisted of advanced calculus, Xenobiology, Physics II Electromagnetism, Conversational Narn, and Creative writing. In addition to that, he opted out of PE and went for Orchestra, as he played the Cello.

“Wow… I am a masochist” he muttered under his breath looking at his schedule with no small amount of trepidation. “Oh well, this is what I get for wanting to study Xenobiology at University”

He had already gotten a deferred acceptance letter from Cornell, but that meant having to meet some stiff requirements this year. His teacher, Mr. Wallace walked into the room just after the chime rang, handed out the syllabi to the students, hard copy, introduced himself, called roll, then started droning on about the policy on cheating. Once that was done, he gave a brief overview of the current size of the Earth Alliance and how it controlled eighteen systems, which it had just started to obtain around a century prior.


“There are several reasons for this” he said “One of which, one which has become more popular in some circles lately, is that humans are inherently superior to other sentient species that inhabit this section of the galaxy”

Andrew sighed and thought ‘Tell that to the Minbari’

“I’ll have you know we won the war Mr. Grenz” Mr. Wallace said, smirking, he enjoyed playing devils advocate and arguing positions just to make students think about their positions.

“I didn’t say anything” Andrew replied, confused.

“You said ‘tell that to the minbari’ and I will have you know they surrendered to US”

“He didn’t say anything Mr. Wallace” said Lindsay Stevens, a blonde sitting behind Andrew

“It doesn’t matter Lin” Andrew responded “I wanted to say it… and would like to respond anyway. Mr. Wallace, with all due respect, the Minbari surrendered right before opening fire on our cities with multi-kiloton beam weapons. Why they surrendered, who really cares? I don’t. The simple fact is, had they not, none of us would be here”

“Well that is certainly a good argument, and a difficult one to actually refute” Mr. Wallace said smiling, before turning back to the board and starting to talk about the events leading up the fourth World War

After class Andrew stepped out to grab a drink of water, for some reason, the drinking fountain had been around for hundreds of years, but had not changed. After taking a very long drink he stood back up

“What the hell is going on?” said to himself “I didn’t say anything, so, either he is an unregistered telepath… or I am” It was as if a light clicked on in his head, one which was quickly covered in thick woolen blankets. He made damn sure no one was around, and buried that thought deep in his mind, he did not want to join the psi-corps. Besides, it was an isolated occurrence, maybe it wasn’t true, right? Maybe Mr. Wallace just saw him roll his eyes and thought he heard something he didn’t,

…

Several weeks later, and nothing strange had happened since that day. At least not to strange. He still had odd inklings about possible danger, and sometimes he knew what was wrong with someone before they would tell him. However, he had been able to do this for a long time and thought it was at least somewhat normal.

It was time for his first round of exams, and to say the least the stress levels were massive Andrew had already taken exams in Physics, Xenobiology, and an oral exam in Narn, and now it was time for a calculus exam. The test was computerized and used a touch screen that would allow them to manipulate images, scratch out calculations, then circle their answers with a stylus. He was doing alright, but others were not. He could feel their stress, and eventually something happened. They started talking. Everyone, but their lips were not moving. They were going over the solutions to problems, cheating, and the teacher seemed fairly nonplussed about it. Then he realized it. They were not speaking. He was hearing their thoughts. The second he comprehended that the voices got louder and louder inside his head. He tried to block them out, but he couldn’t, as the test progressed the stress in the room caused their collective thoughts to scream in his mind as if he was standing next to a shuttle lifting off. The next thing he knew before he lost consciousness was hitting the floor.

He was screaming

…

Andrew woke up. He did not know how much time had passed, and there was a person standing over him. Ms. Schmidt, the schools educational telepath, a representative from the Psi Corps

“Fuck” he was going to say, but the voices started up again. He clutched at his head, wimpering.

“Its alright, I can help you” Ms. Schmidt said to him

“I cant get them out, the voices! Get them out of my head!” Andrew cried as he clutched at his ears trying to plug them to no avail.

“I can help you block them out. Just listen to me. Concentrate, build a wall behind your eyes, brick by brick. Build the wall and shut the voices out” While she was saying this she was looking direction into his terrified eyes, sending the thoughts into his brain as well as speaking the words, and also gently projecting a feeling of calm into his mind.

Andrew concentrated, he saw not through his eyes, but rather saw from behind them. He was not really seeing his eyes, he was just visualizing a conceptual image. But he built the wall. Brick by brick, closing his eyes to the thoughts of others, he shut out the voices, the noise, the images projected by others unbidden to his hyper-receptive mind.

Ms. Schmidt felt his mind close to her gentle probings like a pressure-door as the wall was built. She was shut out as surely as if someone had closed and locked a steel door. She looked back at the principle, Mr. Johnson with a look of astonishment

“What is it?” he asked

Andrew was calming down, sweat poured down his brow from the stress but he was able to keep out all but a background hum of people’s thoughts.

“Yeah… what… is it?” he asked, seeing her expression.

“I will be right back” she said as she motioned for the principle to follow her into an adjoining room. He followed, just as Andrew slipped into unconsciousness.

“What is it Ms. Schmidt?” the principle asked again

“Andrew is… powerful. He managed to block me completely when I told him how to block out people’s thoughts. I don’t know how he managed to slip past the tests, but he is at least a P Ten, possibly higher. He probably did not even know he could sense other people’s thoughts. The stress of his calculus exam must have triggered a mind-burst.”

“Jesus. Will you contact the Psi Corps?”

“I don’t have much choice. The law is the law. He either has to join the corps, or go on the sleepers… the other alternative is prison”

The principle sighed. The poor kid had dreams, dreams that would now be snatched from him.

“Should I call the parents?”

“Yes, they deserve to know”

…

Andrew woke up about two hours later. He felt whispers, some of the stronger ones getting through and conveying feelings of concern, love, and…loss. He could see his parents as he opened his eyes, and he did not need to read their minds to know something was wrong. They were crying.

“Mom, Dad, what’s wrong?” his mom just broke down into more tears, sobbing. His father was speechless and couldn’t actually get the words out. But he did feel them. The emotions were strong enough to slip through his barrier and he could see his mother answering the call and seeing Ms. Schmidt, he could hear the words “Telepath” and “Psi Corps” and he could feel his mother’s heart breaking. And that is when the sixteen year old broke down and started to cry. He knew what this meant, he would have to join the Corps, or go on sleepers, the side effects of which were less than pleasant from what he had read; terrible even. His dreams were over. He would have to leave his home and go to a Center for training. He would have to register with the Corps. Hopefully they would let him do research for them. His hopes brightened for a moment. Until Ms Schmidt spoke up.

“Andrew. You were in an exam and you took a mind burst. Sometimes when a telepath’s gift is triggered the voices of others are too strong to block out, and the resulting system shock causes pain and unconsciousness. I taught you how to block them out”

“Thank you” he replied “How… powerful… am I?”

“That is the other thing I want to tell you… You were able to block me. With no training that means you are extremely powerful. At least a P Ten. We had some blood drawn and the nurse is running the test to see how strong the genes that control telepathy are in you. It should come any moment”

As soon as she said that, a pudgy woman with red-brown hair walked in carrying a piece of paper, which she handed to Ms. Schmidt. She took a look at it and with a steeled-expression handed the paper to Andrew

He read through all the jargon that comprised the test results. Talk of QTLs, alleles, epistasis and gene expression until he caught to the bottom

The bottom line read P-Rating=12

…

End Prologue

Good stuff, looking forward to more.

I'm very curious about the Minbari surrender. What would make a massively superior opponent unilaterally cease combat prior to imminent victory?

Also, the P-scale; what is the maximum level? Is it linear or logarithmic?

P-12 This boy is at least as strong as Lyta after her time with the Vorlons...

Silly me, I now see that this fic falls under the Babylon 5 universe. I'll definitely have to watch it now.

Raesene wrote:P-12 This boy is at least as strong as Lyta after her time with the Vorlons...

Put it this way. This fic is an exercise in literary sadism.

nickolay1 wrote:Silly me, I now see that this fic falls under the Babylon 5 universe. I'll definitely have to watch it now.

How did you not notice? Psi Corps? Minbari? Conversational Narn?

Alyrium Denryle wrote:

nickolay1 wrote:Silly me, I now see that this fic falls under the Babylon 5 universe. I'll definitely have to watch it now.

How did you not notice? Psi Corps? Minbari? Conversational Narn?

I was totally unfamiliar with (and wrote off) B5 prior to looking it up after reading your work. It seems like exactly the type of show I'd be interested in.

Chapter 1

Three days later, Andrew got off the shuttle at the Psi Corps training Centre in Geneva. He carried only a suitcase, and his Cello. Some of his other belongings, such as his book collection would be shipped to him later. The campus was eerie. It looked like a university campus, nice well-maintained class buildings, a cafeteria; the area was even well landscaped, with trees, grass, and tasteful fountains. But there was one thing that made it seem creepy. The entire facility was covered in a huge glass dome that let in the light, but did not allow normal vision, instead scattering the light into different shapes and color patterns. . It was beautiful and kept the light level even and shadows diffuse. But Andrew could infer immediately that this was in effect a secret facility in plain sight. It existed, but what transpired within did not. Andrew started to feel scared, but he soon felt a soothing wave wash over him as several individuals walked out of the main building. They were wearing black uniforms, with the Psi Corps badge on their left breast and pairs of black gloves. One was a woman, her uniform a tight dress that reached her knee. A gorgeous woman Andrew thought. She was in her late twenties, with blonde hair to her shoulders, a very pretty smile, a set of double Cs and a set of legs that the 16 year old would kill to touch. She looked at him directly, but did not react to his almost lecherous ocular exploration of her figure. Instead, he just felt a tingle in the back of his mind. He realized that she was scanning him, and he immediately tried to shift his mind to other thoughts, namely his favorite cello piece. She simply smiled.

The other was an equally attractive man, well muscled with close cropped blonde hair, blue eyes, and a self assured smirk. Andrew had not admitted that particular character trait to anyone but himself, but there it was. He found both of them physically attractive. He felt that tingle again, but this time he resisted it. He did not want that bit of information in their hands. He tried to build a wall strong enough to block out more than the whispers he was getting used to hearing in his mind. And it hurt like hell. Andrew grimaced, feeling as if his mind was held in a vice. He did not know if the defense was successful, but he could feel the man pulling back. The two people looked at eachother as if they were speaking, without moving their lips, then turned back to Andrew.

It was then that he really took notice of the others he was with. There were three more, roughly his age. One was a rather spindly individual wearing a Kippah, with square framed glasses. He stood confidently, looking at the two older individuals with an inquisitive but apprehensive stare. The other two were young women. One a brunette wearing a turtleneck, who wore her hair straight back across her shoulders, was practically cowering. Andrew, now that he thought of it could feel the waves of fear pouring from her. He had no choice but to block it before it overwhelmed him. Given his prior exertion, this was no easy task. The Jewish guy he could tell was doing the same thing, his eyes were closed and his breathing was measured, his lips were moving. Reciting something in order to concentrate. The second girl was doing much the same thing that Andrew was doing. Taking in the surroundings, but she was intense. Her stare looked like it could burrow through concrete walls, and made Andrew turn away. She also seemed unperturbed by the fear wave.

The woman spoke up first

“Welcome to the Psi Corps Training Centre in Geneva. I am Melissa Caldwell, and this is my friend Steven Vance. We know some of you have been through a lot. Your families abandoned you, and your friends rejected you. Mundanes do not understand you, but we do. The Corps is here to help you, and take care of you.” Her voice was even, measured, with a hint of what Andrew could only describe as a mix of motherly affection and seduction.

The next words came from Steven
“But that is not to say we will go easy on you. In addition to regular school work, all taught by telepaths, you will be trained to use your abilities, and meet your full potential. Not just for your own good, but to protect the privacy of Mundanes. It is very hard, and there is a good chance that you will burn out before your training is complete”

What the hell did burn out mean? Was it insanity? Death? Loss of telepathic ability? Andrew did not know, and he expected the two wouldn’t say. He could see the same looks upon the others, as if they were wondering the same thing.

“But enough about that, lets get you settled in and then we can worry about your training” said Melissa.

As they left the arrival door and walked toward the dormitory that housed the first year trainees, they realized that the campus was not empty. The campus was bustling with students, distinguished from the instructors by ID badges in addition to the Psi Corps badge, which looked like a bronze shield with the greek letter Psi stamped into the metal. They also all wore black gloves. There was another difference. All the instructors had a PPG at their belt, a PPG being a small snub-nosed plasma pistol.

When they got the dormitory, all four of them were taken into a room. It had a common area, with two couches, a table, and chairs, as well as a bookshelf and a media display. Attached to this were two rooms, which contained further shelving, lamps, two chairs, two desks, and two beds, as well as a closet and dresser space.

“I’ll let you get settled in. You start your first class in an hour, we have tried to match up your coursework with your interests as mundanes as best we could” She handed them all pieces of paper listing their schedules. Andrew looked at his. It listed his normal classes, but instead of orchestra he had a class on Earth Alliance Law regarding telepaths. There were also periods which were delineated as “Surface Scan, Scanning and Defense, Cognitive Science and Philosophy for Telepaths, and Fringe Skills. In total he would be in class for twelve hours a day, starting at seven AM, six days a week. The only day off was Saturday.

“So… we will be living together, and…. I presume have the Psi Corps core classes together as well, we might as well introduce ourselves” said the Jewish guy, setting his Tanakh down on one of the tables.

“I am Isaac Lowenstein, from Heidelberg. Psi rating P twelve”

“I am pretty sure we are all P twelves” Andrew said, realizing that this was probably how they trained telepaths, especially high level ones. They all had to be at a similar level. “I am Andrew Grenz, from Hamburg”

“Sylvia von Braun, from Bohn” said the one who was still terrified out of her mind. “I was… forcibly taken” she said. “My parents were…are… renegades. The Psi Cops… they came at night and…” she ran off into her room before the rest could do anything. They heard the door lock, and heard her crying within the darkened bedroom.
“My god…” said Isaac

“What? I don’t see what the problem is” said the other girl “Telepaths belong in the Corps, it is for their own good. Blips cant be allowed to raise a child in that kind of environment, always on the run. Children need stability” She looked around, as both Andrew and Isaac’s jaws dropped slightly

“Oh, and my name is Natalie Stevens, raised by the Corps here in Geneva. My telepathy did not manifest until later though”

“Well, now that we know eachother” Andrew said, breaking the tension he could cut with a knife “I have some unpacking to do”

He walked into the room with his name up above it, which he was going to share with Isaac, and noticed a black uniform in his size, with a set of black gloves, an ID badge with his name and vital information embossed on it (and presumably medical and other information stored electronically), and the Psi Corps badge. Which was a bronze hexagon with alternating sides somewhat elongated, with a Psi stamped into the metal. He changed into the uniform, and put on the gloves and ID. But he hesitated. He fiddled with the Psi Corps badge, running it through his fingers and feeling the metal. No matter what else he did in life, he realized, he would never be free of this badge. A tear ran down his cheek as he contemplated this. His dreams were gone, and now he realized, his freedom lost. Both sacrificed on the altar of a fear long past. He sighed heavily, and put the badge over his heart just as Isaac walked in and slowly underwent the same ritual.

….

The first class was in room HLPO 301, the first room of the third floor of the High Level Psi Ops building.

“They certainly don’t waste any time” Andrew said to Isaac as they entered the building

“No, I imagine not, we are all late bloomers… most kids manifest their abilities much earlier, and they probably start them off much more gently than they will us”

“Somewhat disconcerting, I don’t know whether to be excited for the challenge or frightened of it” Andrew responded

“A bit of both I think is appropriate”

“There are only a few ways they can train us scan someone” Andrew noted

“Only one… we will have to scan someone”
“I was referring to how they would accomplish it. They can either pair us off, or use a volunteer”

“Probably true, though this is the deep scan class, those I have heard hurt like a bitch, even if you don’t resist”

“And can seriously injure you if you do” Andrew shot back “I don’t know who they would volunteer for this”

“what do you mean?”

“Eh?”

“You said who they would volunteer… implying that the person was acted upon, the direct object rather than subject of the sentence.”

“Are you always this analytical?”

“yes” replied Isaac

“Then we should get along well. In any case, I misspoke. That is too terrible a thought to be true.”

“Yes, it is.

They walked into the class, and found the two girls sitting at a desk, with Steven and Melissa at the head of the class in front of a chalk board. Sylvia looked like she was done crying. Whether she was adjusting, or just numb Andrew couldn’t tell. Melissa spoke first

“Hello class” she said, with that grin on her face that never seemed to leave “If you will please take your seats we can get started.”

Andrew and Isaac took seats at the same desk as two girls had done and Steven spoke up

“Scanning is one of the more powerful tools in your arsenal as telepaths. Surface scans are hard to detect, but also easily blocked by even the most casual of mental defenses. Even normals, if they suspect a surface scan, can put their mind to another topic and prevent you from getting the information you want. The Deep Scan avoids this. The down side is that they can be detected and even cause pain. The pain is more distinct if one resists without being trained to do so. In this respect, if the surface scan is a pick that allows you to scratch the surface of the mind, the deep scan is a sledgehammer that with training will allow you to break another person’s mind and lay its contents bare. As a corollary, you must learn how to defend yourselves from the scans of hostile telepaths without stroking out” Steven started at them sternly, looking over at Melissa briefly, having an entire conversation with just their eyes. Melissa spoke up next, still smiling, and warm. A sense of warmth and comfort washed over Andrew very subtly as she spoke. Calming down what anxiety he had about having his mind torn open in such a traumatic manner

“We wont let any of you get hurt, but this will be very difficult. We don’t expect miracles from any of you. Just do your best, that is all we can ask. Your basic block though will be to build a stronger version of the wall you use to block out stray thoughts.”

Andrew and Isaac faced each other from across the desk. Andrews eyes starting right past his new friend’s glasses and into his eyes

“You go first” Isaac said “I want to get the painful part over with

“Alright… I will try not to hurt you.”

“I am not going to let you in”

With that, Andrew started. He tried to burrow past Isaac’s eyes and into his mind. He was naturally a very visual person, so he envisioned himself stepping through Isaac’s skull. And there he was. But he could not see anything but a shimmering wall around Isaac’s thoughts. Not much different than the glass dome surrounding this training facility. He could tell there were treasures inside, but could not see them.

Outside, Andrew started intently into the other young man’s eyes, his eyes were as daggers and his face cold and expressionless. Isaac gasped as soon as Andrew entered his mind. Sweat immediately poured from his forehead from the sheer foreignness of having another mind inside his.

Inside, Andrew touched the barrier and focused his will forcing it through the wall. Cracks began for form in the barrier, inching their way out from his hand. Andrew brought a hand back, and with all his might, punched the wall, forcing his will upon it.

Outside, Isaac was clutching his head, his eyes were now closed and he was muttering in Hebrew. Prayers to God to give him strength, to make his mind steel, to focus his will on maintaining his defenses. It was much easier to scan than it was to block, and Isaac was feeling the strain. But so was Andrew, he was beginning to sweat, his breathing was becoming heavy, but not labored. Still very measured.

Inside, the wall was crumbling. Andrew could feel it giving, and the cracks were becoming larger. Pieces were starting to fall away from his hand, and the entire structure was quivering under his touch. Finally, the wall gave way. The entire edifice crumbled under his assault, and the secrets of Isaac’s mind were laid bare should he wish to see them. But instead, he pulled back to his own mind and once again saw through his own eyes.

Isaac was rubbing his head right behind the eyes and tears swept down his cheeks. His mind had broken, and this was terribly painful. It was a mercy that Andrew had not poked around further, as the doing would have left him quivering on the floor.

“You okay?” Andrew asked, reaching out to hold Isaac’s hand.

“Yeah… I am Okay. Just give me a second to recover. If that was trying not to hurt me, I don’t want to know what it is like when you try”

“Sorry man. I didn’t know how to get through so I kind of…brute forced it.”

“Figures… you certainly did that… Alright, I think I can take a shot at your mind. No illusions… I am going to try to break you. But I promise not to rummage. I will pull out once your defenses are down”

“Alright”

With that, Andrew shut his eyes, and envisioned his own wall. This once was not glass. His wall was one of a more crystalline nature. No sooner did he realize what his own defenses looked like than he felt something seem to slam into his brain. This was Isaac entering his mind and hitting the wall for the first time. Testing its strength. Andrew felt the pain immediately. As if someone had put his head into a vice and was starting to squeeze. He floated in the middle of a hollow sphere, in which were compartments with his memories, his thoughts, his secrets. He focused his will on the section of his wall that was under attack, and attempted to keep I from breaking. He could feel his real hands clutching his head. He could even hear his own mutters and whimpering. His wall was beginning to crack, despite his best efforts. It was not long before his wall came crashing down around him, and he was powerless to resist as Isaac mind walked freely in his own. But he did not open the compartments. Isaac seemed to look around, then pulled back into his own mind.

On the outside, Andrew had nearly lost consciousness. He had even burst a blood vessel in his eye trying to keep Isaac out. On the other side of the room, Sylvia had succeeded in cracking Natalie’s mind, showing remarkable focus on the doing. For her part, Natalie was crying into her arms. Just what the bitch deserved, Andrew thought to himself once he could muster the strength to actually think.

Steven piped up once the exercise was done.

“ Lucky for the lot of you, there are better ways, both to attack, and defend”

End chapter 1