by Kal Spriggs
Trial and error are always the cornerstone of experimentation. Many times I felt despair that I would never meet my goals. There were many, many failures, but thankfully ESPSec is never frugal when it comes to giving up experimental subjects. Hardest was when subjects developed mental aberrations, where I was forced to decide between discarding them or wiping them clean and starting over. Sometimes it would take twenty or thirty attempts with a subject to get a stable baseline with which to proceed.
--Dr. Jonathan Halving, Project Archon Notes.
Shaden followed Doctor Halving through the corridors of the facility. They had supplied Shaden with a pair of grey sweats, which hung off his gaunt frame. Shaden felt emaciated and weak. He wondered how much weight he’d lost.
He managed the walk to their first destination, though.
“You’ll stay here,” Halving said, as he opened a door and waved Shaden through.
Shaden stepped into the small room and took in the painted white cinderblock walls, gray floor tiles, a narrow bed, and an empty desk. A pile of folded blankets sat on the end of the bed. There was also a window which looked out on what looked like a parade square.
Shaden felt an irresistible urge to move to the window. He almost put his face against the glass and stared outside. He didn’t know how long it had been since he had seen the outside world. It felt like forever though.
The bland gray sky seemed almost too wonderful to his eyes. The brown and green grassy hill next to the square, and the skeletal trees that grew on it seemed to hold more color than the bleak little room. For a moment, Shaden wished he could run outside under that sky.
Halving cleared his throat behind him.
Shaden turned quickly and fought back his embarrassment. He had a mission here, he couldn’t act like a child. Surely he’d had plenty of opportunities to do that as a child… hadn’t he? Shaden frowned, but his memories of childhood seemed distant, almost disjointed. He remembered schools. He remembered classes. He didn’t remember games or time spent outside at play. All children play, Shaden thought, it doesn’t mean anything that I don’t remember a specific time…
Halving cleared his throat again, and Shaden shook his head, “Sorry, sir. I just… got a little distracted.”
Halving cocked his head again, his dark eyes seemed to bore into Shaden’s head. For a moment, Shaden felt the slightest tickle in his brain, almost as if… no, that was ridiculous, the government would never put a mind-reader in charge of the facility. It had to be his imagination.
“Right now, I’ll have three classes for you to participate in. The first, and the most important for you at the moment, is the physical training. Your muscles have atrophied a bit since the… incident.”
Shaden nodded, “I understand. What else?”
“You’ve shown signs of two areas of psychic abilities. The first is what we call Psi Kappa, psychokinesis, the ability to move things with your mind. It looks like you will be very powerful in that area. You also have the potential for Psi Beta, or metabolic psionics.”
“I’ve heard of PK,” Shaden said, with a frown. “What’s metabolic…”
“Metabolic psionics is the control of the human body. You should be able to learn to control your own body and the bodies of others, to a somewhat limited extent. You can speed healing, control your heart-rate, put yourself or others into a trance or coma… it’s quite a useful ability set.”
“Sounds like it,” Shaden said. “I’ve… done something like that?” He could see the positive aspects immediately. He felt a spurt of hope that he could do some good in helping people.
Halving chuckled, “No, not yet. But I’ve got hopes you will. Unlike Psi Kappa abilities, Psi Beta skills tend to require extensive training and practice to accomplish anything noticeable. The ability is far more subtle, which also makes it a more effective weapon for dealing with certain threats.”
“Threats?” Shaden asked.
“Of course,” Halving said. “If you can control a person’s body to heal it more efficiently, you can also stop their heart. A very effective assassination technique.”
Shaden stared at the other man for a long moment. He felt a surge of revulsion rise up inside him. After a moment he asked, “You train assassination techniques?”
Halving nodded, “Of course. Think of it this way, Shaden, if you could save a hundred people through the death of one man, would you not choose to kill that one man?” Everything about his voice reassured him, the even tone, the confidence, yet for some reason Shaden still felt a chill.
Shaden looked away. He understood the logic. He couldn’t argue with it, yet it bothered him. In a moment, his mind locked on the problem: rarely was a situation down to assassination or the escape of the individual. Governments had far more choices than murder… didn’t they?
“Of course, such a decision is made only after all other options are exhausted,” Halving said, as if responding to Shaden’s thoughts. “But we are that last line of defense, Shaden. You will be the man who must take actions to safeguard our nation.”
“I understand,” Shaden nodded. That made sense. It was a repugnant task, but one that would be taken only when absolutely necessary. He let his worry go. He could trust these people and he could trust Amalgamated Worlds and the Command Council to make the right decisions. That was their job, just as his was to enforce their laws, and defend civilians from threats.
Jonathan Halving nodded, “Excellent.” He stepped out of the doorway, “I’ll lead you to your class.”
***
“This is Angel, she will get you back into shape. Later she’ll teach you how to fight,” Doctor Halving said.
Shaden looked around the gym. He had known the facility had resources, just eating breakfast and his room had shown him that, but the gym was huge. They’ve probably more and better training gear than the Academy will ever have, Shaden thought. Complex machinery for working different muscle groups clustered at one end of the room. The other half held soft foam mats. Shaden felt an odd eagerness to challenge himself, to test himself.
He turned his attention away from that thought to Angel. She was a short, almost childlike, Asian woman. Her entire appearance bespoke feline grace and elegance.
“I’ll leave you to her. When she’s finished with you, someone will come and take you to the next trainer,” Doctor Halving strode away without another word.
Angel looked him over. He felt a tingling at the base of his head, and he was sure, somehow, that she looked over his thoughts too. He imagined that she moved through his mind as if she turned pages in a book. The thought frightened him and made his skin crawl. He felt violated.
She stared at him with an immobile face. Shaden sensed something dangerous lurked in her eyes. There was anger there and a lot of hate. He wondered if he had somehow slighted her in some way. When she spoke, her high-pitched voice was sharp, “Your body is weak. We’ll start light.”
Shaden thought he knew hard work. After five minutes under Angel, he’d come to hate her and to hate his own weakness. She directed his exercises with a cold, precise voice. No sooner would his muscles give out on one exercise than she moved him to another. She worked her way through every muscle group in his body, then back into the beginning. They repeated the circle of exercises once and then again.
Finally, when his breathing came hoarsely, when his aching body could barely move anymore and his clothing dripped with sweat, she stopped. “That’s enough for the day. Hit the showers.”
He did as told, and spent a long time letting the water run off of him. Shaden changed into an identical pair of gray sweats, different only by the fact that they were clean..
They seemed oddly familiar for a moment. They were a set of gray sweats, shirt and pants. For some reason, he flashed back on his fight with the mysterious woman who’d so battered him. The details seemed hazy and as he tried to focus on the memory, they grew more indistinct. Had he really fought that woman or had it been only a dream?
He’d have to ask Jonathan Halving. It was good to have someone he could trust to help keep him grounded.
***
“You worked him harder than was necessary,” Halving snapped. He had scheduled the time after the male’s workout to bring in the female, but he had postponed that after seeing what a wreck Angel had made of him.
Angel looked unrepentant. “You told me to get him in shape. As long as he eats properly and gets rest I’ll have him fully operational within two weeks.”
“I told you to get him in shape, not nearly kill him,” Halving said. “You have no idea how important this is. I need both him and the female intact. I need that far more than I need you. You need me to need you... or your daughter will suffer, am I understood?” He hated to make threats like that, but Angel was stubborn. I don’t even know if she did this on purpose or if she was just willfully ignorant.
Angel ground her jaw so hard that Halving heard her teeth creak, “I can’t work in the dark. You told me get him in shape as soon as possible. I adopted an accelerated curriculum.”
Halving glared at the woman, “Don’t push this, Angel.”
Her mask cracked slightly, “Please… I just tried to do what you wanted.”
The apology, the anguish in her voice satisfied him. And, he thought, I have kept her out of the loop; she has nothing like the access of any of my other senior personnel. Halving nodded grudgingly. “Understood. I didn’t tell you not to push him too hard. I might have over-emphasized the time frame. Tone the workout down a bit. Don’t push him past the point he might cause himself physical damage.” He cocked his head, “Do not bring up our arrangement with him, either.” Given her abilities, he wanted to make it clear to her in no uncertain terms. Otherwise, she might seek to push things.
She scowled, “I wouldn’t risk my daughter’s life–”
“I know, but that’s not my point. I don’t want him to know… organizational details about us. Any questions he has, tell him to ask me,” Halving said. “Same goes for the female when we start her with you... probably tomorrow afternoon.” After seeing the shape she had left the boy in he had switched the girl over to Cyrus instead.
“Anything else?” Angel asked.
“Just take him to lunch,” Halving said with a hand wave, “Introduce him to Cyrus.” The boy’s Psi Beta capabilities were a high priority to him. He wanted to see if they could develop those abilities as projected by his models.
“Cyrus is here?” Angel’s voice showed surprise. Not that he didn’t understand. Cyrus had once been quite the firebrand, fighting for freedom for psychics everywhere. He’d become a figure in their community… but the years had worn Cyrus down and changed him. His idealism had turned to cynicism and Halving liked him better now that he’d given up on his causes.
Halving snorted, “The old man knows which side of the bread is buttered. He doesn’t let his mushy-headed philosophies get in the way of practicalities anymore. Introduce him to the boy and then make yourself scarce until his next class. I don’t want you spending any time with either subject outside of their training sessions with you... and I want that only because you’re talented enough to monitor their minds for any issues.”
“When will I see my daughter?” Angel’s voice sounded dejected.
Sometimes he regretted taking the position he had in order to leverage her into supporting him. Still, it wouldn’t do to express that, she might seek to manipulate him. Angel is very good at what she does, he reminded himself. Halving smiled politely, “Let’s just see how this first week of training works out, shall we?”
***
Angel dropped Shaden off at a large open dining hall.
Someone had cleared most of the floor, the majority of heavy wooden tables lay stacked to the sides of the room. Only three tables remained near the center of the large hall. A buffet lay across one table, while a dozen men and women ate at the other two tables.
Angel paused in the doorway. She pointed at an old man seated alone at the end of a table. “That’s Cyrus. He’ll train you this afternoon.”
She left before Shaden could respond.
Shaden walked across the cavernous hall slowly. His legs felt weak and he doubted his ability to eat after such a workout.
His stomach growled though, as he caught a scent of warm bread. He stepped nearer the buffet and felt his mouth water. He moved towards the food like a moth to flame. Within only a few moments, he had a plate stacked with food.
He turned away from the table to find the old man’s eyes on him.
Shaden looked down, he felt suddenly self-conscious. He took a deep breath to calm himself and moved over to sit near the old man.
He’d begun to raise a roll to his mouth when Cyrus spoke, “That right there is what I’ll be teaching you, at its heart.”
“Excuse me?” Shaden asked. He took a ravenous bite out of the roll. He poured himself a glass of water from the pitcher at the center of the table.
“Self-control and a knowledge of self. Those are what you’ll learn from me, boy. Them and other things.” Cyrus had an abnormally deep voice, one that seemed to come straight from his toes.
Shaden didn’t know what to say, so instead he focused on eating. Every now and then he stole a look at the old man. He sat still in his chair, eyelids half drooped as if about to fall asleep. He had a face like shoe leather and dark, hard eyes.
Cyrus didn’t speak again until after Shaden had finished eating.
***
They sat there until after everyone else had left.
“Uh, aren’t you supposed to teach me something?”
“I am,” Cyrus said.
“What’s that?” Shaden asked, “Patience?” He couldn't help the quip, didn't know where it came from, yet he didn't regret it.
“Amongst other things,” the old man said with a slight smile. “Everything I’m going to teach you is internal. Very little of it is measurable. You know about the rating system for psychics?”
“No,” Shaden said.
Cyrus snorted, “Of course you don’t.” He sighed, and sat silent for a long moment. “Normals are always trying to quantify things. They rate psychics on what they can physically accomplish with their mind.”
“So, non-psychics rate how powerful psychics are?” Shaden asked. While he wanted to defend the decision, it did seem sort of backwards to him.
“It’s mostly done by ESPSec, who are more concerned with destructive potential. That’s why it feels overly restrictive when it comes to categorizing abilities, they like their nice little boxes, ESPSec does, it makes everything neat and orderly.” There was something ugly in Cyrus’s smile, something that felt at odds with his relaxed expression. “They have Psi Gamma, Kappa, and Beta. Each area has its own subcategories. I’ll train you in Beta skills, mostly because I’m damned good at it. Even so, I’m rated as a level three in Psi Beta overall.”
“Is that good?” Shaden asked.
Cyrus opened one eye and gave Shaden a derisive eye-roll. “Please. Level five is barely detectable, really indistinguishable from a normal. A level four beta might stand out as an excellent athlete or that woman who eats whatever she wants and never puts on a pound.”
“And level three?” Shaden asked.
“I can do some parlor tricks. I can tell you’ll be sore as hell tomorrow morning. If I really felt like helping you out, I could ease the healing process.”
“Will you?” Shaden asked.
“Of course not.” Cyrus grunted. He spoke again, his deep voice solemn, “A level two Beta could stop your heart from across the room or prevent you from going into shock and dying if you were hurt bad.”
Shaden shivered slightly. “Somehow I don’t think I’ll get by with learning just the healing.” Killing someone like that, though, it didn’t feel right.
“It’s all the same: two sides of a coin,” Cyrus said. “It’s control over the body... sometimes right down to the cellular or even genetic level. When you have that, you can do
any damned thing you want.” The old man looked sad for a long moment. “There’s worse things than stopping hearts, and you’ll learn those too, if you’ve the dedication and control.”
“Do I?” Shaden asked. He didn’t know if he could do this. His mind told him to try, but he felt uncertainty in his stomach.
Cyrus didn’t look at him, “I won’t know until after you try your hand, boy. There’s a touch to this and I won’t know if you have it until you really exert yourself.” Cyrus shook his head, “That’s enough for today. Halving will want to speak with you after dinner.”
Shaden stood up from the table. As he left, the old man still sat at the end of the table, eyes drooped half-closed.
***
“Cyrus and Angel both said you made some progress,” Halving said.
Shaden shrugged, “I suppose. I’m exhausted, if that counts for anything.” He felt his eyes droop as he spoke. He had to shake himself to stay awake and that just resulted in protests from his muscles.
“Give it some time. Once you’re in shape, we’ll start you on psychokinetics. You’ll see a lot more concrete progress with him.” Halving sounded a little distracted, Shaden noticed. He looked back over his shoulder and saw a woman had entered the hall just behind Angel. Shaden couldn’t quite see her face, only a head of blonde hair drawn back in a ponytail. She wore the same gray outfit as him and that struck him as odd.
Shaden opened his mouth, about to ask about her when Doctor Halving spoke. “Well, if you’ve any questions, let me know. Any of your teachers can contact me.” Jonathan Halving said. “Now I’ve got to meet with another student. You look tired, by all means, get some rest.”
Shaden felt suddenly overcome by a wave of fatigue. He shook his head and yawned. He couldn’t believe how quickly exhaustion washed over him, almost as if his body were ready to shut down. He pushed himself to his feet and stumbled out, the walk back to his room passed in a haze.
Shaden didn’t even remember when he undressed and crawled into bed.
