15:15 Academy Armory

“Explain now,” John said barely holding back his shock.

“Dunno, I’m not entirely sure. Since you built most of it and I only helped with the circuitry bits,” Kevin said, “But I have a working theory that I was working on over the break when Andern called me.”

“This only supposed to be channeling psychic energy, we tested that thoroughly.”

“So that means you’re still telepathic then,” Andern said confidently.

John looked at him and shook his head, “That door is firmly closed. I don’t ‘hear’ anything anymore.”

“Do you have any other ones of these that are synched to him?” Kristin asked.

“Only made three, could make more,” John said, “And not going to lie, not sure how to desync one of these things for someone else. The sample size is only one after all.”

“Kinda kills the general military use for them,” Jessica said, “Whole interchangeability and whatnot.”

“John, I’m not sure your body isn’t producing that energy anymore,” Kevin paused, “But you just can’t do anything with it, without the amplifier of course.”

“Bullshit,” John said in disbelief.

John tossed the amplifier on the workbench and walked back toward the reliquary. He began taking his clothes off and dropping them on the floor. He slipped into a void sheath and powered up the reliquary. Ten minutes later the power armor was powered up, though it was missing the amplifier.

Jessica whispered to Alice, “He’s not the bashful type, is he?”

Alice responded in kind, “I need to work on that with him. But when he gets in that kind of mood he becomes a bit of an unstoppable force.”

John walked to the test range and pointed at Kevin, “Run a full diagnostic. Going to do twenty minutes' worth of stuff. When that’s done, we’ll do the same with the amp and compare the differences.”

“Give me five minutes to get the test suite online. I’ll holler over when I’m done,” Kevin said as he logged into the terminal.

“When he starts send me the medical scan data on him, and the rest of us,” Theresa said as she sat down, “Assuming they are as thorough as you think they are, we may be able to prove it.”

Alice walked over to the range and took John’s hand, “What does this mean?”

John shrugged, “Hell if I know. By the top of the hour, I figure we’ll have at least some answers.”

“Or more questions,” Andern said as he walked over to them, “We could shoot you with one of those psychic guns and synch it to that scan you took of yourself.”

“Why the hell would you suggest that?” Kristin shoved his shoulder.

“What? Maybe he lost his spooky mind magic, but they are saying the spooky mind energy still exists.”

“He’s got a point,” Kevin shouted.

“This is way above my paygrade, but stand still,” Theresa said as she was scanning John with a medical device.

Theresa smiled when it was done and walked over to Kevin. Kristin was berating Andern for suggesting more human trials on the experimental weapon. Alice was glaring daggers at him for planting that suggestion in her husband’s mind once more.

“John, giver her hell,” Kevin yelled.

John did just that. He was flying all over the range. He was seeing how fast he could accelerate and what his top speed was. He also tested his reaction times with getting into position, aiming, and firing with a gun using simulated rounds. Agility and strength tests were also run. Kevin had created a mountain's worth of analytics available to analyze. John completed forty-two passes around the circuit he had created.

When the time was called John walked over to Kevin. He unplugged the amplifier and placed it on the central equipment point. The light shined when it was connected to the suite, but wasn’t nearly as bright as it was when John held it previously.

“Remember, you need to focus on whatever you did when you were holding it,” Kevin said as he shrugged, “Honestly I have no clue how you channeled anything to it before. Never got that part.”

“Got it.”

Kevin sat back and transferred the data and began comparing it to previous tests they had performed. John began his inner channeling to the device, which caused the light on it to brighten then began running the circuit he had created.

Kevin was comparing the results lap to lap. Andern walked over and began questioning him in his normal annoying fashion. Theresa pointed out the differences between the runs. There were obvious improvements across the board with the amplifier.

Theresa was reviewing John’s medical scans and the one she did just recently. She appeared to be quite happy with herself with whatever she found. But the look of confusion was also on her face as she wasn’t entirely certain what they were looking at.

“Not quite as quick as he was before though that delta could be explained because he’s not back to his peak form,” Theresa pointed at a couple of charts, “But it’s a marked improvement over the unpowered runs.”

“I think you may be onto something Andern,” Kevin said as he was reading some of the scans.

“That we should shoot him?” Andern asked.

Alice slapped his shoulder, “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“What? It’s a legit theory, even more so now than when he was suggesting it earlier.”

Kristin sat down and leaned back, “Maybe the psychic energy is still being created by him. Whatever enables that in people wasn’t destroyed right? But that weapon or the suit having its limiters removed fried his ability to use that energy.”

Alice looked at her and said, “You mean he actually mutilated himself?”

Kevin sighed and swung his chair to face Alice, “That weapon they used was nasty shit, but I don’t think it had any lasting effect on his psychic capabilities.”

“Look at this,” Theresa pulled up several scans that the suit had recorded over its use, “See those waves. They are always present and are still present today. Compare that to that marine though, that wavelength is nearly nonexistent.”

“Spooky mind magic,” Andern said confidently.

“The jester is right,” John said as he took his helmet off and leaned in and displayed scans taken of him after the incident, “Something else in the body is producing that stuff. The part of the brain that is believed to control psychic abilities in me is simply burnt out and won’t function anymore.”

“Hate to break it to you, though I suspect you know this already,” Kevin said.

“Yeah, I fucked up and I’m this way because I burnt out my powers. Didn’t know that was even a possibility. Too late to whine and moan about it, it's water under the bridge now though.”

“The working theory is that everyone has this energy. You basically walked ass-backward into building a method that harnessed that natural energy through technological means,” Kevin said proudly.

“This means everyone radiates that energy then, right?” Kristin said.

“Yes, but telepaths seem to produce an unnatural amount of it,” Theresa said pointing to the scans, “Looking at these scans at these wavelengths, everyone is radiating it. Only one person in this room has an excessive amount.”

“Our sample size is rather limited and there’s only the one, a formerly freakish telepath in the sample. Our theory could use some exploring,” Kevin said.

“I’ll send off a request for similar scans to Intelligence for some anonymous submissions for you to review of some registered telepaths in the military,” John said as he stared at the scan on the screen.

“Cool, so who’s hungry? It’s almost chow time.” Andern said but then all eyes focused on him, “What?”

Tuesday. 07:15 Cafeteria

“Y’all look chipper,” John said as he was taking a bite out of a sausage puck.

“Not enough time off. And it’s early. And school sucks,” Andern droned on.

“Sounds like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” Thomas said as he sat down.

“That’s an awful joke by the way. But it looks like things are back to normal,” Brian said, “Do you have any surprises in your classes?”

Kevin swallowed his bite of pancakes, “Engineering is pretty ho-hum this semester.”

“Operations classes will be surprisingly busy. Has a bit of everything in it,” Nathan sat down next to Brian and pointed at the syrup.

John slid the syrup down the table, “First command class today we get to see our official results and then talk about our commands. I’m sure we will have some papers to write about it too.”

“I so want to hear about Terry’s command,” Kristin said giggling.

“Safe to assume we were the best?” Thomas asked, “And his was a dumpster fire?”

“If we ignore my little act of idiocy, then yes we certainly were,” John said before having a drink of orange juice.

“And if we don’t ignore it?” Nathan asked innocently.

“Still the best, but we were also the only ship who had a crew member receive a formal reprimand,” John took his last bite of pancakes, “Who ironically submitted the request for said reprimand themselves. That being said, we were the first to push off and were the only ones running an eighteen-hour day. And we also traveled more than the others and we did save some dignitaries.”

“Stupid bitch,” Alice blurted out.

“In her defense, that was an acceptable response,” Jessica said laughing.

The friends shifted gears once again and started to talk about spring break, which was actually happening this year during its regularly scheduled time. A fact that Andern immediately and repeatedly brought up. No final decisions on it but there were plenty of good ideas to go around.

08:10 Armstrong Building – Main Lecture Hall

Their professor for the Advanced Command class hadn’t arrived yet, but a message indicated that they would be there fifteen to twenty minutes late. John, Kristin, and Joeng discussed the spring command. Specifically, they were discussing how to split their crew up and knowing how certain individuals couldn’t be with one another.

“Lief,” Patrice Vernon called from the row behind.

John turned and answered, “What’s up?”

“Did you hear any specifics on Terry’s command?”

John and Kristin chuckled quietly. That caused the students around them to do the same. Everyone had heard something, but nothing was certain. Though it appeared that they didn’t have to wait long for more concrete details to come out.

“Mostly rumors and innuendo. Have it on good authority that the academy liaison told him to tone it down otherwise he’d been relieved of command,” John paused, “I trust who told me that implicitly but that was secondhand info.”

“Heard the same from a relative in the Second Fleet. Getting bounced from your command is pretty much career suicide, isn’t it?”

John shrugged, “I’m not sure. Can’t imagine it being a good look. We’re still not commissioned officers, so unless there were some truly unbecoming actions I doubt it will hurt his long-term prospects. How was y’all’s trip?”

“Slow to start but ended fine. Kinda wish we had gone to the normal fleet day that you did. Hate to admit that I hadn’t even thought of that.”

“To be fair, unless you’ve spent time on ships it’s not really discussed a whole lot.”

Patrice seemed annoyed, “No one wanted to go back to the ship after we inspected a couple of freighters.”

“Yeah, we did an inspection on a fresh, two-month-old I think, freighter. Damn hallways were three times as wide as ours and everyone had their own private quarters.”

“Can confirm, our ship wasn’t the most pleasant place to live in,” Kristin added.

“And miners, good god they are a disorganized mess,” Patrice said, “We waited nearly an hour hailing them.”

“We would fire a warning shot or worm them,” Kristin smiled.

Patrice looked like he had an epiphany, and then disappointment washed over his face. John started to laugh but then a grizzled captain walked into the room. He walked straight to the circular lecture area. He placed his briefcase quietly down on the table and logged into the terminal.

In a booming, baritone voice he began to speak, “Good morning and apologies for the tardiness. There was a last-second change. I’m Captain Jones. Cadet Lief, would you please stand and provide a critique of your command.”

John stood, “Sir, I would say it was a great success overall. There were mistakes made by the crew and myself but aside from the one that I recommended an official reprimand be given to myself, they were all relatively minor. In the end, the only person that was injured was me, which given my actions was deserved. The cadets worked well with the enlisted crew, they took into account their opinions and recommendations and made decisions and stuck with them.”

“What was the thing that surprised you the most?”

“I knew these old ships were small, cramped, and lacked privacy, but I didn’t expect it to be that bad. Also, the lack of a dedicated rec room was disappointing, but we rectified that through some creative interpretation of the regulations.”

The captain nodded his head, “Were you properly prepared for the trip?”

“No, but in deference to the Academy and Navy, I doubt anyone is ever truly prepared for their first command or deployment. In the end, you prepare as much as you can, then you use what you’ve learned and run with it.”

“Would it surprise you that your crew earned the highest marks we’ve seen in the last ten years?”

“No sir it wouldn’t. My crew, as nepotistic as it was, performed better than I could have imagined and handled the stress and rigors well. Only had a couple of knucklehead enlisted crewmen that got boozed up during a leave who ended up getting into a bar fight.”

“Thank you, cadet. You may sit down. Cadet King, how would you describe your command?”

“I felt as if both I and my crew were overprepared. But then things fell apart when we got on the ship and the simulations that we had performed were not helpful in the end. It felt like we didn’t have enough people for the shifts either,” Terry said.

“Lief, how long is a standard day on a naval vessel?”

“Eighteen hours sir. Broken out into three six-hour shifts.”

“What surprised you about being in command King?”

Terry paused and thought about his answer for a moment, “I felt that once on the ship the crew never rose to the challenge or was able to operate near their peak abilities. The mood on the ship was borderline dour.”

“This is a tale of two ships. Juniors had never received a command during the first semester you were on ships. Three of you were captains. Cadet Lief’s ship overall scored higher than all of the senior class captains did. Cadet King’s was at the bottom.”

“Thank you, you may sit down,” the professor said, “Now the good news is no one expected excellence. Mistakes are to be made now so that you can learn to not make them in the future. And the expectations that we have of you, should be clear. To those that have a remedial mark, we expect improvement. To the rest, we expect at a minimum to maintain your current levels of performance and even improve where possible.”

John was a bit worried for his friends and crewmates. He had hoped the bar wasn’t set too high for them. Whether that was the case or not, his path was clear. Excellence was not just needed; it was required for him henceforth.

12:15 Cafeteria

Kevin sat down across from John, “Two things, where are the girls? And I have a question.”

“That’s two questions. Our significant others are in the medical building currently. Alice messaged me that one of the doctors was late and thus they are now late. The operations folks are also late as well, not sure why though.”

“Andern got qualified on a Mark 5 suit, right?”

John nodded, “Yeah, he bugged the Senior Chief enough where he finally tested him to shut him up. Passed on his first attempt too.”

“Oh man, he was so done with Andern. He wanted me to order him to shut him the hell up,” Kristin laughed.

“Can we make another amplifier?” Kevin asked quietly.

“Components are all there, so yeah. But why?”

“I have a working theory, so hear me out. We all have that energy, what if we can finely tune that thing to help us normies? Wouldn’t that be of some benefit?”

John paused and thought for a moment, “Ok, so let’s run with the theory that the amp can be tuned that finely. What if someone doesn’t have the coordination or muscle control to handle that?”

“Lots of testing and scaling it up slowly?” Kevin shrugged, “Of course that’s presuming we can make it tap into that energy for us in the first place.”

“May have to wait until the weekend, but sure, we can give this a try.”

Kevin took a bite of his sandwich, “So what do you think?”

“I have serious questions whether or not it can be tuned that tightly. And if we can, I have concerns with managing that extra power and reduced response time,” John paused to eat some fries, “Hey, was engineering a total clusterfuck on Terry’s ship, or was it just his command staff?”

“Nah man. Calling that ship a clusterfuck is insulting to proper clusterfucks,” Kevin looked back, “When shit for brains sits down let’s ask him about the ops. But engineering was awful. Nothing that would cause the ship harm, but things were not done well, inspections were skipped or barely done, and drilling was nearly non-existent.”

“Late classes are the suck,” Andern said sitting down, “Oh man, do I have details for you.”

“Terry’s ship?” Kevin asked.

“Yup, he turned into a full-on micromanaging Hitler. None of the enlisted wanted anything to do with the cadets either. But the department heads and general operators were fucking terrible. Like failing grades bad.”

John was shocked at how poorly Terry had mismanaged his ship, “Did you hear anything about people wanting to serve under him anymore?”

“His clique group will continue to roll with him since his dad has connections. Everyone else though wants nothing to do with his clown show routine. Heard quite a few of that group chatting with our peers in class. They want in on what you, Kristin, and Joeng are selling. Patrice looks pretty fly in their eyes too.”

Kevin smirked, “Won’t have any problem filling up our ships. Takes him out of the running too, doesn’t it?”

John shrugged, “Probably sets him back a good bit. But we still have two ship tours to go. And a bunch of classes left to finish too.”

Alice sat down next to John, “Oh my god those lectures were awful. You’d think they would’ve sped up or cut things off but noooo, we have to have our ninety-minute intro in a sixty-minute class. Ugh.”

Theresa started to laugh, “So I’m not one of those gossipy bitches, but Terry’s ship. Oh my god.”

Kristin smiled, “Yeah we’ve been talking about that. It was a dumpster fire to end all dumpster fires.”

“The enlisted on the ship complained to the ship's doctor. They weren’t ready to mutiny, but their displeasure with everything forced the liaison’s hand to act sooner than they had wanted,” Theresa said.

Nathan laughed, “And the smackdown happened early in September. He had antagonized his crew that much in just a scant six or so weeks.”

“Ouch, so it was way worse than I had heard,” John said, “That meant that all happened just after they pushed off.”

“He also failed hard during their first ship inspection. The other ship’s captain actually kicked him off his ship,” Thomas said, “Have you heard in your classes whether or not he’s going to be given another command?”

“It was made clear that they scored his command and ship overall as the worst,” John answered.

Kristin leaned back in her chair, “Stands to reason that his best-case scenario is one more chance, right?”

“Sure, sounds like he’s on his last legs to me,” Brian said.

John finished his lunch but was shocked at how poorly Terry did. It wasn’t surprising that it was the topic of the day in the dining hall. Terry was incredibly smart, but his desire for exacting perfection clearly caused him issues. That there were this many complaints though suggested to John something else was going on.

In the end, John was happy that their deployment was as successful as it was. He wouldn’t swap positions with Terry, but he empathized with him for a bit. He resolved to chat with Terry if he wanted to, but Terry’s pride would likely prevent him from reaching out for help.