Teylon: Doing his party trick again A couple of nights later, Teylon was sitting at his office desk, idly browsing the Mars Wide Web on his entertainment/computer system. He glanced out of the window. It's night time already. He yawned and stretched. His wristband gave a small chirp and an orange light flashed a few times on it. Teylon dismissed the alert notification, then read the alert message: "A couple of small asteroids are expected to transit the dome within two hours, and land on unoccupied ground 70 kilometres out. One of the Orbital Defence space craft has been manoeuvred and will be in an accessible orbit, should action be required." Right, an asteroid alert, category zero. What's this, about the fifth since I've been on Mars? It certainly can be scary, living in a fragile dome surrounded by vacuum and vulnerable to any little hypersonic rock that decides to make us a little visit. And nice to know that there is something above me that can take out said rock, if need be. Do they do it with lasers, or by firing projectiles? He could not remember the finer details. Never mind. Whatever it is, I'm sure they have done their best to ensure our safety. He yawned again. All of this research is fine, yes, but is it getting me anywhere with my task? Not really. Tonight he had decided to find out about esp abilities, more specifically, when did they start appearing and how? This was a question that he had made quite a few previous attempts at. Only to be totally blown away by the enormous amount of information available. Most of it repeating itself, most of it pure speculation, and an awful lot of it contradictory. He had tried again tonight, trying out some more refined search queries he had been thinking about for the last few days. Still not much joy here, is there? It's obvious that the powers that be are not releasing much in the way of useful information. So, what are they hiding? Maybe they want to keep it all to themselves? After all, they are extremely careful not to let any espers get anywhere near the surface of Earth. Although they grudgingly allow some out to the asteroid belt settlements. After all, without esp users powering the spaceships, the asteroid settlements would be severely handicapped. But he had made some progress in extracting at least a small amount of actual information from the huge pile of speculation. Let's see, esp powers were announced a little less than twenty five years ago. To much disbelief, of course. It took five or so years before they were generally accepted. And, of course, one reason for the slow acceptance was that the first espers were little babies and toddlers. He took out a piece of paper and pen, and doodled some time lines. So, if the oldest known espers are about twenty five, and allowing for a few years before that for them, whoever they are, to get going, then I suppose that means they must have started about thirty years ago. Reading between the lines, there must have been some tragedies with the first espers. Although all of the official documentation tends to skirt around the issue. But still, it is there in the official application form. He currently had it opened on the screen. So, it can only be done at about the 14th week point in a pregnancy. It doesn't cost anything. Which is interesting, normally you have to pay for everything on Mars. There is a clear warning that there are dangers associated with the procedure. And, hmm, the would be mother is put under a light sedative at the hospital, and is taken - somewhere - for the procedure, and returned. And no one knows where. And we still don't know how. He screwed up the piece of paper and threw it into his recycling bin. Everything on Mars was recycled. After thirty years, and all of the research might of Earth, no one has figured out what the hell an esp ability is. He recalled when he first learnt about esp abilities, more than two decades ago on Earth. That's right, the governments and military organisations and universities went nuts trying to work out what was going on. I guess they are still trying, although I lost interest in the whole subject after a while. He got up, went to his bedroom and flopped onto his bed. And is all of this relevant to my task? Probably. After all, I have gathered five teenagers all with esp implants - although Sarsaparilla's doesn't appear to be functional. His mind started drifting back through the years. I remember now, it wasn't just the Martian discovery of esp abilities that stirred things up, it was the whole colonise Mars thing. Ah, yes, that school project I did, way back when I was in junior high. Gave me the perfect excuse to talk about a prostitute (well, ex-prostitute) and a crooked billionaire in front of class, and even the teacher never suspected that that was my underlying intention. Those two ladies must have been running some grand con there, I'm sure. Somehow, when all of the major super powers had given up on space exploration, they, the leaders of their respective minor countries, managed to launch a research project to get man onto Mars. And they actually managed to do so! By the time of my talk, there were already people living permanently on Mars. Did that ever stir up the geopolitical scene! A couple of little pipsqueak countries beating the super powers into space! And because of that I was able to talk about Molly the prostitute and Imelda the billionaire despot for twenty minutes to a bunch of school kids! Oh, to be a teenage hormone charged boy again - not. Although I've never been able to work out how they pulled off that heist. Apparently, no one has. They must have had access to top-secret scientific data from somebody, that's for sure. But none of the major powers owned up to being the original owners. Well, anyway, that was a grand con for sure. Reminds me of my own, minor, cons. Those were the days, stealing from the rich and corrupt and distributing the largess around to the more worthy. Ah, such fun times... He had a series of flashbacks: Maggie's grandparents, left destitute. Emila, committing suicide from despair. The little girl crying all afternoon because she did not get her ice cream. OK! OK! Esmeralda! I take the hint. Sigh. I wasn't so crash hot, after all. Ah, I'm tired of this. I should get out and do some walking or weight lifting... Teylon’s Soul Reading of: Sarsaparilla A clear image of Sarsaparilla, walking home from Adalace's place. She was busy thinking about her latest date with Adalace, not paying much attention to her surroundings. She and Adalace had brought some fresh food and tried the experiment of cooking a meal together. Their cooking skills could be summed up as - indifferent, but they had managed to produce something edible. And they had managed to have a mostly successful evening, with only a few disagreeable bits. She was pleased with herself, and was thinking: Yeah, Teylon is sure correct, relationships are difficult. But we seem to be making some sort of progress. The night was getting chilly; she was wearing a thin jacket. She wrapped it closer around her body. Teylon: Err, a soul reading from Sarsaparilla? But, why? Teylon’s Soul Reading of: An unknown man. Another snapshot of someone. Someone he did not know. He was young man, waiting in a second story room. He had a rifle. Currently he was watching the outside. He had on earphones. His thoughts were few and sparse. He was waiting for orders. Sarsaparilla appeared in this man's view, walking along the path besides the building. Teylon: Adrenaline powered fear lifted Teylon to his feet. Sarsaparilla! Teylon’s Soul Reading of: Yet another unknown man. Another context switch. This time another man, sitting at an operations desk in some underground room. He was looking at his monitor, which showed the same viewpoint as the man who was waiting for orders. His thoughts were not sparse, but they were cold. He was speaking into a microphone. "OK, Twenty Three. That is the girl we want. Line her up in the telescopic sights of your rifle. When I say so, you can shoot her. Teylon: Teylon screamed. "You bastard! Die in flames! - oh." He finally remembered that he did not have to hurl abuses at him. "Judgement!" Teylon’s Soul Reading of: Yet another unknown man. The man had the weird sensation of watching his body collapse onto the chair, then fall onto the floor. He barely had time to process this strange situation when a horrifying being appeared, eyes glowing red, and yanked his soul away. The soul reading faded out, cutting off the sounds of someone screaming. Teylon: Oh shit. Teylon’s Soul Reading of: An unknown man. The man who was waiting for orders kept on waiting, as he tracked Sarsaparilla as she walked from right to left, across his field of vision, and disappeared into the dusk. He put down his rifle, and kept on waiting. Teylon: Who the hell is he? And why did his thoughts seem so - blank? Teylon's awareness returned to his room. Shit, I've got to ring her! Where's my telephone? Oh, that's right, this is Mars, it's on my wrist. "Sarsaparilla! Get to some well lit public area, someone just tried to kill you!" "Ah, excuse me, what?" "Just do it! Please!" Damn, I'm not very good at this emergency response thingy, am I? Wait, I know someone who is! Sarawatch was indeed good at such things. She took over from Teylon, and consequently, twenty minutes later a frazzled Teylon and a composed Sarawatch were at the at the neighbourhood watch centre. Sarsaparilla and Adalace entered together. "Sarsaparilla! Thank God you're all right!" said Teylon. He rushed forward and gave her a bear hug. They held it for a few moments. She's all right. All right. I can relax. Err, wait on, I'm hugging a teenage girl whom I've never done anything more than shake hands with - and she only likes girls - oh He backed off. "Sorry, sorry, I got carried away there, please accept my apologies." "Y - Yes, certainly." Just then, three more teenagers turned up, all at once. Sarsaparilla went back to being hugged by Adalace. "But, are you sure that someone was trying to, to, - shoot - Sarsaparilla?" asked Adalace. "Yeah, what exactly is the story?" said Maggie. "You certainly seem agitated." said Erasyl. Teylon began to have a sinking sensation. I know what happened, but they just have my word for it. Fortunately, Sarawatch came to the rescue. She had been talking on her phone, and broke off to talk to the group. "I've just confirmed it, the police picked up a young man sitting in an empty room, overlooking the path that Sarsaparilla was walking along, with a fully loaded rifle with a telescopic sight. Apparently he was just waiting there, and didn't seem to be in any way worried by the police arriving." What a relief, now they won't all think I've gone nuts. Two hours later, Teylon was back into his bedroom, getting ready to retire for the night. Adalace and Sarsaparilla were also present, in his spare bedrooms. Separate rooms. Definitely separate rooms. They got a bit tongue tied about this subject, until Teylon had assured them that he did, in fact, have at least two spare bedrooms. After having Teylon's story confirmed by the police, Sarsaparilla wasn't feeling all that secure. Her state of mind was not improved when Sarawatch had passed on the news that the police had been requested to release the man who had the rifle. No explanation had been provided. But, at least, the police were allowed to keep the rifle. So when Teylon had suggested they both stay over, they were both agreeable. Of course, the other teenagers had followed and stayed for an hour or so, which meant that Teylon's fridge was looking decidedly bare. Just as a side note, weapons that shot bullets were extremely illegal on Mars. After all, they lived in pressurised domes that were made out of thin layers of materials. Having a bullet go through those layers was not something that anyone wanted. So guns and rifles were extremely rare on Mars, and the places that could possibly manufacture them all had a lot of oversight. Consequently, it was a very interesting question as to where that rifle came from. Teylon looked up at his bedroom ceiling. I really panicked there, didn't I? The thought of Sarsaparilla dying was enough to fill me with panic and fear. Those kids... Sarawatch is going to have fun at my expense the next time we meet, that's for sure. Deep Underground The mood was not very comfortable. "I thought you said that you had taken precautions!" said Prakash, pointing his finger at Arnold. "Bloody hell, I did! How was I to know that the man on the scene would be ignored, and that our operative who was controlling him would be targeted instead?" "I hope you realise that he was our last genuine assassin? Of course, we still have the Girls in Pink, but they will only do certain types of jobs. And they appear to be getting doubts about what they do." said Teresa. "That's enough of the recriminations!" said Lenny, "We need to move on from here." Everyone gathered their breaths. "Yeah, I guess that this is a strong hint that we don't, in future, try to kill off any of them." said Teresa. "Surely we're not going to just let Teylon, or Esmeralda or whoever, do what they like!" said Terrence. "No." said the leader. "But it looks like we are going to have to rely on more round about methods to defend ourselves." He massaged his eyes. "This is going to be a long meeting. We have to discuss what we can do..." A little later in the discussion. "Oh, that's right, I've gotten news that Maggie's father has gotten sick again. Apparently the medicos think that this time might be his last." said Prakash. A pause in the conversation. "Well, we have tentative plans for recruiting Maggie when that does happen. Perhaps we should activate them?" said Terrence. "After all, we won't be killing her." said Arnold. "But still, will it be allowed by Esmeralda?" said Teresa. The leader drummed his fingers on the table. "We shouldn't allow our actions to be totally controlled by an unknown entity with unknown abilities, you know!" "But we have already seen the death of three people due to the unknown ability of this unknown entity!" said Prakash. More argument. "OK, we will go forward, with due caution." said the leader. "Any suggestions about this?" After more discussion. "We definitely need something extra to push Maggie over the edge. I'm thinking that perhaps we 'accidently' arrange a little interaction between Maggie and Shane. Hmm?" said Prakash. "Whoa there, are you sure that Teylon's magical ability, whatever it is, won't start to work on Shane also? We really don't want him to break free of our influence." said Teresa. "Nyah, how is that possible? Shane can defend himself against anything that Maggie can throw at him, and he's waaaay too deep into what he has been doing to be able to back out of it now." More discussion. "OK, we will proceed with this." said the leader. Maggie: Shocked and horrified to her core. A few days later, Maggie was on the high-speed maglev for the Number 1 Test Range Facility. I wonder how Dad is going. The latest news doesn't seem all that promising, although he would never admit that anything bad was happening. She did her best to compose herself, she didn't want to get distracted from her test practice. It was dangerous enough as it was. The maglev capsule stopped and the capsule door and the platform door opened in synchronisation. She got out, the doors closed with a faint whoosh, and the maglev capsule, as seen through the window on the platform door, disappeared from sight. The maglev track came to an end here; the test range was on a dedicated spur line. Consequently, there was little traffic, and right now, the small platform was completely deserted. Putting her backpack back on, she walked along the short platform, to the entrance to the underground range control bunker. Her footsteps echoed faintly in the enclosed and otherwise silent space. Reaching the entrance door, she tried to enter, only to find the door closed and locked. She looked through the window. The control centre appeared to be completely deserted. Huh? I'm sure they had confirmed my regular practice session booking. She looked at her wristband, twitched out some commands. No emails about any cancellations, either. Just past the command room entrance the platform came to an end, with a flight of stairs going up. Well, damn it, if they're too lazy to turn up and not even give me notice, I'm just going to go up to the surface and do some practice. Hmm, perhaps I won't go full out, since there is no emergency backup. I'll aim to practice fine control instead of trying to produce the biggest blast possible. She hung her backpack on some convenient coat hangers, and skipped up the stairs three at a time. Being Mars, this was easy to do. The steps went up to the surface exit. Which was nothing more than a rectangular hole in a slab of concrete at ground level. It was surrounded on three sides by a steel railing; this railing looked the worse for wear, parts of it were melted and there was a big gap on one side. None of this damage was Maggie's fault. Someone else doing target practice had miscalculated something and had hit them. Instead, Maggie's damage was evidenced by a metre wide hole in the concrete just to the side of where the steps came out. I wish they would get around to repairing that. I don't want to be continually reminded of my poor aim on that day. She looked around at the deserted dome floor, covered in patches of grass plus potholes... and was surprised to hear a series of bangs from behind her. She looked around. Someone else is here? Now that's dangerous, two separate people practicing dangerous manoeuvre without the command centre coordinating them... Fifty metres from her she spotted a man. Say, isn't that Shane the Shield? She had never spoken to him, but had seen him in passing at various esp training sessions. He's practicing making small shields? Shane's specialty was in producing shields. Small ones, big ones, flat ones, spherical ones, ones that surrounded him complete, or surrounded something else. And, unlike Maggie's shields which were produced by a complex sequence of actions which ultimately relied on her magnetic ability, Shane's were produced as is. And he could produce them much faster than Maggie could, and they could be much bigger, and a whole lot stronger. He could even maintain a shield automatically without any conscious control. So he could do other things, even sleep, and still be protected by a shield. Right now, he seemed to be producing flat shields in front of him, then lots of small spherical shields, a centimetre or so in diameter, which were moving outwards at the velocity of a thrown ball. Although Shane, if he wanted to, could make them go at sonic speeds. Strange, what exactly is he doing... She looked to the side, in the direction to which he was pointing. There's someone else! So they're having a sparring contest... Hey, she's a girl, looks like a teenager my age... The girl appeared to have a small bag of rocks in her hand. She would pick out a rock and flick it towards Shane. In doing so, the rock would suddenly take off with a bang, followed rapidly there after by another crack as it splattered against Shane's shield. Must be her ability. She fires at Shane who blocks them. And then he fires a small spherical shield back... It hit the girl on her leg. She staggered but managed to stay upright. What? For the first time, Maggie realised that the girl's dress, which had a red and white pattern, was tattered and ripped, as if from multiple strikes. What!? Then Maggie realised that the red patches on the dress were not dye. They were blood. Whaaaat?? She hoisted herself into the air upon invisible tendrils of magnetic force and propelled herself towards the girl - only to realise that the steel rebar embedded in the concrete pad around the exit did not extend very far out. Damn the cheapskates; they must have used plastic membranes to seal the ground! She decelerated and hit the ground running. "Shane! What the bloody hell do you think you are doing?" Shane looked up and towards her in surprise. He stopped throwing the projectiles at the girl, and scratched his head in annoyance. The girl, too distressed to pay much attention to what was happening to the side, lobbed a few more rocks at him, which he absently mindedly blocked. Eventually, she also realised that something amiss was going on. She stopped and looked at Maggie in puzzlement. She was swaying on her feet, just a little bit. "What the hell is going on!" said Maggie, as she ran up to the girl. The girl looked at her blankly, then said: "I have been tasked with providing ability enhancement practice for Shane." She said this in the same tone of voice that she might have used to say she was going to go shopping for milk and bread. "Sorry?" said Maggie, completely befuddled by this statement. But, now that Maggie was right up close, she could see that the girl was in a bad way. She was bleeding from at least half a dozen cuts. Blood was dripping down, leaving puddles on the ground. "Shit! You need medical attention! Why isn't your bracelet flashing blue - Oh." Maggie worked out why. The girl did not have one. Nevertheless, the girl gave a convincing demonstration that Maggie was correct, by collapsing onto her knees. Maggie bent down and managed to catch her before she fell completely onto the ground. The girl continued to look blankly at Maggie, she also kept on bleeding. Maggie, right up and close, watched in horrible fascination as blood seeped out and covered her own arms and her school uniform. "I - I don't understand..." said Maggie. By now, Shane had walked up and stood in front of her. He did not look too impressed with the situation. In fact, he looked damned annoyed. "What am I doing? I'm doing my practice. More to the point, what the hell are you doing, interfering with me?" His words, hinting at disdain and contempt, hit Maggie hard. "Practice! You're killing her! How can you possibly do this?" Maggie had left her purse in her backpack, but she still had a few nails tucked in a pocket. They zipped out and started to circle Shane menacingly - only he made a gesture with his hands as he used his ability to flick them away with a fast moving shield, sending them high into the air and away. Way out of Maggie's magnetic reach. "Behave yourself, little girl! This is my practice, not yours. Hmm, you're Maggie the Magneto, aren't you?" He curled up his lips in a sign of disgust. Maggie began sputtering in fury, then realised that the girl really did need help. I need to call the medicos - wait a moment! Holding the girl up with her left arm, she ripped off her own bracelet with her right hand, and put it onto the girl's left hand. Three seconds while the computerised electronics in the band worked out what was going on, and then it started flashing a bright blue. "Don't worry, girl, it is now calling for medical help. They'll be out here in no time! No worries!" She's visibly fading. No worries like hell! The girl looked up at Maggie's face. "I am worried that I am unable to complete the practice session as per my briefing." Why is she talking like that? Not getting any answers by watching the girl bleed, she looked up at Shane. 'Why are you killing her?" Shane sighed, totally annoyed at her stupid questions. "Jesus, don't give me that look of horror. That girl is a clone. She was made, not born. She had no personality or memories of growing up. She was decanted from an incubator bottle only a few weeks ago, and was programmed for her task. Which was to help me practice. OK?"" He's mad. Mad. Cloning doesn't work like that. "You fucking idiot! Even if she was cloned she would still be sixteen years old or whatever. She would still have been brought up like any other human child!" Maggie paused for breath, and in the gap the girl spoke up. "I am a clone. Number 43. I was activated nineteen days and five hours ago. My task was to fight Shane, using my ability, until I was rendered inoperative." She finished speaking with a voice that was hoarse and breathing that was laboured. Maggie was also having trouble breathing. She felt her heart, her whole chest, was being squeezed. With every word the girl spoke, the pressure grew. She looked back at Shane, still standing there, looking pissed off. "Why? Why? There's still no need to kill her!" Another sigh from Shane. "Yeah, I know it looks like I'm murdering an innocent teenager, but she's a clone. Not a real human. And as they explained to me, it is necessary to kill her. It's part of how abilities work. By fighting with her, and eventually overpowering her, our two abilities interact. And when she dies, my ability receives a boost. It's just the way they work. So it's just as well that I can do this with a clone, isn't it? Naturally, I wouldn't do this with a real person. But she isn't a real person. She's a clone. And cloning does work like I said it did. They showed me the incubation chambers. Get it? She's a clone. She's not real. It doesn't count as murder. So of course, I took the opportunity to get a boost. Wouldn't you, also?" But cloning a person in a month is impossible. Impossible! Anyone with high school level knowledge of biology and genetics and human intelligence would know that! And what's that crap about getting a boost? "I - I wouldn't. I mean, your whole scenario is wrong! It's..." At this point the girl tried to move her arms, tried to get up, and then sagged and went still. She stopped breathing, and her bleeding trailed off. "Well, anyway, it still worked out for me. So, see ya." said Shane. "I shall call the police!" "Fine, fine. They're not going to do anything about this, anyway." With that, Shane turned and walked towards the exit, nonchalantly waving his hand over his shoulder in passing. Maggie, blood dripping over her skin and soaking her school uniform, was left in the kilometre wide flat expanse of the dome, holding a dead teenage girl she had just watch die. My God! My God! What do I do? Before I start screaming, I had better get help. She slid of the now blood soaked bracelet from the girl's limp arm and put it back on to hers. Ignore the blood. Ignore the blood. Whom do I ring?