4 Weeks Later, Friday. 12:00 Cafeteria 1A

The cadets were having lunch. They looked exhausted, station life coupled with little time off or free time does that to people. Even John was feeling the effects of it, and that was after him having a few days off here and there to play with his new suit.

“Think they shipped us up here to see how many of us loose our damned minds?” Thomas asked.

“This is the most soulless station known to mankind, I can’t imagine it being worse.” Jessica was just staring at her lunch.

“There’s worse assignments. But them basically shutting down the rec areas to us doesn’t make sense. In our off hours on a ship or other station they’d be available to us.” John took a big bite out of his burger.

“Speaking of which, we’re playing Mario Kart tomorrow.” Brian said.

“So, they basically lock us down and see how many of us get to our breaking point? Seems like a bad plan.” Alice was frowning.

“It’s sneaky clever. Bounce those that can’t handle it before they spend too much time and money on them.” Theresa was poking at her food.

“Or it could be to get us ready for being on ships in a few months.” Andern was surprisingly insightful with his statement.

“Bingo.” John pointed at Andern. “Well in any case we have two days of leave this weekend. Then another four days of class.”

“Then confined to the Academy for that weekend for our health.” Nathan finished his sandwich.

“And then we can’t leave the academy till the following Thursday despite most of us being done by Wednesday. Fucking stupid.” Thomas finished his lunch; he was leaning on the table.

“But then roughly fourteen weeks of vacation. Fourteen glorious weeks of no class.” Andern looked so happy.

“Not to mention a wedding and a honeymoon. Except the latter y’all aren’t a part of.” John smiled.

At the mention of the wedding the girls got excited and effectively ended whatever conversation was happening at the table. Thomas looked at John and just shook his head. The boys sat there at the table silent being dominated by the four girls. Just before the top of the hour they headed out to their afternoon classes.

Terra Geminus System. Location unknown

“Let us go and get him. We can get to earth quietly.” Lex was urging Dr. Norman to authorize the attack on John.

Dr. Norman sighed and reviewed the operation again. “I must impress upon you both. Neither he nor his fiancé can be killed or mutilated. That will ruin all my plans. Should that not be possible you must abandon the mission and return.”

“Yes father. If we cannot extricate him safely then we’ll return empty handed.”

“Good girl. We needn’t rush things, but I will approve this mission, however if either one of you doesn’t adhere to the terms put forth the punishments for both of you will be severe.” Dr. Norman was pointing at them.

“Understood.” Lex was curt with his response.

Lisa just shook her head. Dr. Norman shooed them out of his room. The twins smiled and looked excited. It would take roughly three weeks for them to get to Earth and avoid any suspicion.

“We’re finally going to get him Lisa. We’ll extract a little pain as revenge for the last fight.”

Lisa stopped Lex in the hallway. “If we can’t get him out without harming him, we will abandon the op. You heard father.”

“Pfft, we can hurt him a little. It won’t matter.”

“Lex, we must follow his orders. I will not stand by you if you cause this operation to fail.”

Lex looked incensed and hurt at the near betrayal of his sister. “I will get my revenge.”

“If you try that you run the risk of this failing, or worse, us dying.” Lisa turned around. “I’d rather we not die. If you can’t keep a cool head, then I will cancel our plans.”

“FINE!” Lex shouted and bumped into his sister as he walked by. “But if this fails it’s all on you.”

“Understood, let’s get ready and leave as soon as we can.”

Saturday. 09:30 Recreation Room 6B

“Mario Kart is stupid, and anyone that plays it is dumber for having played it.” Andern was pouting.

“Came in last again champ?” Kristin smirked.

“Good god, that’s a dick punch girl.” Kevin hollered from the Mario Kart area.

“He’s not wrong, that game is all sorts of awful.” Jessica was reading a book.

“Who’s been winning?” Theresa asked.

“Kevin and Nathan.” Andern said. “John’s being a troll in the game.”

“And that’s why he’s complaining.” Alice shook her head. “Honey, are you being an asshole.”

“No more than normal dear.” John smirked, that statement was clearly a lie, he was being a gigantic asshole.

Thomas and Brian were laughing. The mood was light in the room. Except of course for Andern’s pouting. They had all day to relax and unwind for two days in a row. They ate up the different activities. They bounced from video games, then to darts, to foosball, then air hockey, to cornhole and then back to video games.

This respite was exactly what the group needed. There had been precious little time to actually relax and have fun while on the station. Fun is what they had that morning. Despite the pouting session eventually even Andern was his normal jovial self.

The highlight of the morning was Brian daring John to play a song he had never played nor seen played. True to form John did John things. Jessica picked a current pop song. They listened to it once then John began pressing some keys. Then he smiled and began playing the song back on piano. It wasn’t a perfect translation but impressive none the less.

12:00 Cafeteria 1A

“Dude, I don’t get how you can be good at fucking everything.” Brian was shaking his head and laughing.

“No, we’re not starting this conversation again. His head gets so fucking big when people praise him like that.” Kevin threw some fries at John.

“Look, he’s not telling me something I don’t already know.” John smiled smugly.

“Ugh, honey. That is so unattractive.” Alice elbowed John.

“But it’s true. I am awesome.”

“Thanks Brian. The smug monster has been unlocked.” Theresa shook her head.

The friends laughed. The group kept its light mood throughout lunch. A big Mario Kart tournament was planned. Along with a dart tournament. Nearly anything that could be turned into a competition was. They had another full day in the rec rooms to get through all of their fun and games.

After they finished lunch, they returned to the room after lunch and immediate got going with the Mario Kart tourney.

“Who’s the blue shell bitch?” John yelled.

“You’re not going to win.” Thomas shouted. “Oh, what the fuck, Andern, how’d you get the bullet bill.”

“Suck it bitches!” Andern was laughing like a madman.

“Well, second was still good enough for the win. Thomas, you’re the low man on the totem pole.” John stood up.

“FUCK! Losers bracket already?” Thomas shouted then handed the controller to Alice.

The door opened; Jerry was at the door. “John, we need your help.”

John walked to the door. “What’s up?”

“Pretty sure Tiff is suffering space psychosis.”

“Lead the way.” John turned around. “Y’all stay here.”

They were in the rec room two floors up. Jerry opened the door while John followed. Tiff was in the corner and had a look in her eyes that was unsettling to the others. To John though it was a look he was all too familiar with.

“Everyone outside.” John said. “No questions.”

There was some grumbling, but they eventually complied. John locked the door behind them. He walked over to the security station and entered an override code to disable surveillance to the room. John grabbed a chair and walked over near Tiff, he sat down on the chair backwards.

He was leaning on the top of the chair. “You can hear other voices, can’t you?”

“Make it stop.” She responded quietly.

“No one can do that except you. But you’re in luck. I can tell you how.”

“When I look at everyone, I feel their thoughts and I can see colors around them. It hurts to look at you.” She curled into a ball in the corner after looking at John. “I see nothingness around you.”

“That’s a rare gift you have. Close your eyes and begin take deep breaths. Slow your breathing down.”

“Why. I hear so many voices.”

“You need to do this in order to get your heartbeat rate down. Trust me. Close your eyes, take deep breaths.”

“What’s going on with me? It hurts.”

“I’ll tell you everything when we get you to close your mind to the voices.” John watched her start his lesson. “Good. Keep going.”

“I can still hear everyone. It hurts.”

“You’re doing good.” John pulled out his tablet and began playing a looping playback of a soft beep that went off every five seconds. “Now keep your eyes closed but focus everything on the beep. Keep the breathing down.”

Tiff was quiet. She wasn’t shaking anymore. Her muscles began relaxing. Eventually after five minutes John turned off the sounds. She opened her eyes.

“You’re a rare bird, most people awaken telepathy when their ten years old.” John got up from his chair and offered a hand to her.

“How did you do that?”

“I didn’t do anything, you had to learn how to close your mind off. Technically you haven’t learned the proper way to do that yet but focusing your hearing on one specific thing can shut down one’s telepathy.”

“I don’t want to feel that way again.” Tiff wasn’t all that steady on her feet.

“Unfortunately, there’s no going back, those abilities are part of you now. Come with me, I’ll take you to the medics, then you’ll need to get enrolled in some psychic classes to learn how to handle those abilities of yours.”

Before the two left the room he turned the security cameras back on and unlocked the doors. He told Jerry that he’d take Tiff to the medics to get scanned but he figured everything would be fine.

“Why didn’t you tell them?” Tiff asked.

“Not my place, you can when you’re ready. Or you can hide it, in any case that’s your choice, not mine.” John smiled. “Oh, if you ever figure out you can move anything with your mind. Tell no one and bury that knowledge in the deepest darkest part of your mind.”

“Ok. I’m not sure what any of that means.”

“You will all too soon.”

Twenty minutes later they were outside of the station’s hospital. John explained to the nurse they needed to speak the station Psi-Corp medical officer. There was an awakening. The officer was off-duty and quite put off by being called back into work. Even more so when the awakening was a twenty-year-old sophomore in the academy.

John assured the agent that Tiff was in fact a telepath. He also had to explain that he was one too. That at least got the medical officer to take them seriously. The officer performed a cursory scan on Tiff, he was surprised someone so old had awakened. They agreed to place Tiff in a class immediate that afternoon to help her begin to close her mind. She’d also be required to attend different classes until they headed back to the academy.

John took that as his cue to leave and said goodbye. He had left the room before Tiff had the chance to thank him. There was a grim sense of inevitability John felt with Tiff, he had her pegged as at least an L4 if not a low level L5. That ability to see auras would effectively end whatever career aspirations she had. She would almost certainly be assigned to the Psi-Corp when they figured out how powerful she actually was.

17:15 Cafeteria 1A

“Who won the Mario Kart tourney?” John said as he sat down.

“I DID BITCHES!” Andern shouted.

“Settle down you spastic idiot.” Nathan laughed.

“Last to first on the last race thanks to a double that gave him a blue shell and bullet bill. Complete bullshit.” Kevin spat out the sentence.

“Honestly, you guys are idiots.” Theresa was shaking her head.

“Where the hell did you go?” Jessica asked.

“Helped out a classmate.” John didn’t elaborate farther.

“So, no more details mean you can’t say or don’t want to say in their place.” Brian asked.

“Yup.”

“Ok, moving on. The girls want to do movie night.” Thomas said.

“Cool, pick a movie yet?” John was eating a slice of pizza New York style.

The group continued to chat. Andern, naturally, couldn’t let things lie and continued to ask questions. John refused to answer, both being the stubborn individual he was and, in this case, not talking about something John didn’t feel he was in position to say anything. Alice was curious as well, but she knew when John could be pushed to answer a question, this wasn’t the time for that.

Sunday. 15:00 Recreation Room 8C

John’s morning started out with him paying his tax bill. It was just under a billion dollars. Just once he wanted to avoid paying taxes, or not do them. But he knew if he did that there would be a world of hurt heading his way. So, John was trying to have a good time despite the IRS getting a bit of his flesh in the day.

Despite that, overall, the group was halfway through their second day of leave and thoroughly enjoying the time off. The boys were still playing Mario Kart and being loud as hell. The girls were annoyed by their antics, but they had their side of the room and were enjoying the day.

The door opened to show Jerry standing there. “John, have five?”

“Brian, catch.” John tossed the controller to Brian and walked outside of the room.

“Tiff says she’s fine but won’t say what was going on.”

“And you want me to tell you what happened?”

“I would appreciate that.”

John shook his head. “Sorry, I can’t tell you what happened. It’s not my place to do so.”

“Look, she didn’t look right at all yesterday. This morning everything’s fine and peachy. I need to know what’s going on with her.”

“Jerry, it’s not my place to say.” John put a hand on Jerry’s shoulder. “If I could, I would tell you. You need to ask her.”

Jerry swatted John’s arm off. “I don’t fucking get you.”

“Jerry, little bit of unsolicited advice. When someone tells you their deepest darkest secret, they do so with a degree of confidence in you. Telling someone else that information is a great way to remove that confidence permanently. You’re going to have to make the decision in the future to be told something, then to shut the hell up about. This is one of the times.”

Jerry scoffed and walked away. Andern was watching from inside the room.

“He still has that stick up his ass?”

John let out a painful laugh. “He is smart as hell, but his desire to control and manage everything around him is going to doom any command he has.”

“So, he’d be amazing in logistics but terrible in command.”

“Can’t say that you’re wrong.”

“Is the cadet fine?”

“As fine as she can be. I suspect things will be fine as they work themselves out.”

The two walked back into the room and joined the movie night. It would be the last movie they’d watch on the station. They had enjoyed the weekend. But more than anything else they were looking forward to getting back to Earth.

Tuesday. 09:40 Command Theory III

“Captains of their ships or stations are responsible for a great number of things. That’s why we need to do all of this. Any questions?” The professor asked.

“Commander, under what situations would it be prudent to pry into the personal lives of those under your command?” Jerry asked.

“The situation would be rare, but the immediate reasons that spring to mind are if it threatened the chain of command or was directly impairing how orders were carried out.”

“Sir, wanting to know the results of a medical incident that happened to a classmate would generally fall outside of that no?” John asked.

“That would be correct. I cannot think of any situation where one cadet can demand of another that information.”

“Thought so. Thank you, sir.” John said.

“What was that about?” Kristin whispered to John.

“What happened on Saturday.” John smiled.

“Gotcha, so Jerry thinks he needs to know.”

“Mhmm.”

The rest of the lecture was unremarkable. John and Kristin were already done with all their homework and their papers were already written. Classes were just window dressing at this point. And it was very difficult for the pair to focus.

Jerry stopped John down the hall toward their next class.

“The fuck was that about?”

“Jerry, stop trying to micromanage those around you. Gotta let go and trust people to do what they can do and what they are ordered to do. We don’t need to know everything about everyone.”

“You don’t get to dictate to me what I need to know.” Jerry looked pissed.

John stopped and faced Jerry. “Look, you’re going to get a command during academy at least once if not twice. But with this demand to know everything isn’t going to help you.”

“Bullshit, I know how to run a ship and my way will work.”

“I’m out, you do you.” John shook his head.

“What, you’re be a pussy now? Not confident in your capabilities.” Jerry was prodding John.

John responded by laughing. “Resorting to name calling? Come now, you’re better than that. What’s the bet?”

“We’re both going to finish with the academy with a perfect GPA. Top of the class goes to the best captain.”

“Done. Remember the bet now, because I sure will.” John waived and walked by Jerry.

Kristin shook her head; she kept her opinions to herself until after they got out of earshot. “Was that wise?”

“Who knows, I’m not the one that started it.”

“Ugh. You know your male bravado is going to get the best of you sometime.” Kristin rolled her eyes.

John let out a couple belly laughs. “You think that hasn’t already happened? Oh man, this has bit my ass on at least three occasions.”

“Only three?” Kristin laughed as the two walked into their next class.

“Besides, you saw him during wargames last year. His style of command will grate on people. It doesn’t work.”

“I knew that, but why’d you egg him on?” Kristin looked confused.

John had an impish grin on his face. “Because now if we finish top of our class there’s an agreed upon means of breaking any ties.”

“You are a clever bastard; you know that right?” Kristin was laughing.

“Yup, heard that before.”