If Jeff had thoughts of his high position making the upcoming training any easier, Tage Bennett and Kendrick Van Blair disabused him of that the first night. Tage Bennett and Kendrick Van Blair disabused him of that the first night. Jeff had rejected the solitary VIP quarters set aside for him in favor of bunking with his teammates. That meant sharing quarters with Bennett and Van Blair. The others from Team One were in adjoining rooms. Only Red Leader Kerrington bunked alone. The heavy paperwork of his Base Command and Scorpion team positions made private quarters essential.

Jeff listened in growing dismay to Van Blair’s summary description of early Scorpion training. There was no way he could do most of what was being described. It was physically impossible for him. The teams' respect for their so-called Gold Leader would be deleted in the morning when they saw him fail to make even the first half of their brisk ten-klick run.

Bennett Caught the look on Jeff’s face and tried to encourage him. “I know you feel like you’re too weak even to start to complete the warm-ups. I’ve heard you will develop adequately later, but for now, I’m sure Paul Kerrinton has something in mind to help build you up since he has never been accused of inefficiency.”

There was a sudden knock, and Green Scorpion Scott Axton stepped through a connecting door. “You guys got the telecom off again?” He glanced at the dark screen of the device. “I thought so. Better get it on. Kerrington’s about to make some kind of announcement.” Having warned his teammates, Axton dropped onto the foot of Van Blair’s bed and watched as Tage Benet activated the screen.

Kerrington’s serious features were framed there, and he was already talking. “...having barely made it back ahead of WSA’s watchdogs. Gentlemen, that and the renewed RiaZan advance toward this system have prompted the Nobility Council to order the Scorpion Forces to become fully activated. You’ve witnessed the first step in the activation, the arrival of the Gold Leader, His Imperial Highness, Prince Jeffry Axime Michael Alek Richards, who holds the rank of High General on this base.”

Jeff felt his face go red as the others in the room turned their eyes to him for a moment. It was the first time he had heard his full legal name and title. In fact, until that moment, he hadn’t known it was his legal name. He was Jeff Carlisle and had always been Jeff Carlisle, Rod Carlisle’s son, and he was proud of that.

Now he couldn’t even claim Rod’s name anymor. With the formal announcement of his legal name, that was all over. Worse still, to any thinking person, it nailed down exactly who and what he was; not quite a real person, but a virtual reincarnation of Emperor Axime of Thalles.

Jeff felt a cold lump in the pit of his stomach. He had never felt so distant from his family and humanity in general, not even when Rod told him about things two nights ago. At that moment, Jeff would have given absolutely anything for the chance to go back to being just plain Jeff Carlisle.

Tage Bennett moved to Jeff’s bunk and put a comforting hand on the boy’s shoulder. Tage had not only known Jeff but had babysat him regularly as he grew up to the point that he felt like a second dad to Jeff. So he was the only Scorpion on base who felt comfortable comforting him just then. The others were as shocked at the revelation of Jeff’s full name and title as Jeff was and somewhat intimidated as well.

They had known that there was a young, full-blood Thallian of Imperial blood and Level Ten psi power on Earth who would one day become the Gold Leader. To head up and coordinate all the teams. When Jeff was brought in, they knew he was the long-awaited Thallian. However, no one had understood exactly who and what Jeff was other than that. Paul Keffington had gotten the information from the Nobility Council only minutes before the base-wide briefing and was as surprised as everyone else.

Up to that moment, when they heard his name, all of the Scorpions, including Tage Bennett, had thought Jeff was Rod and Gwen Carlisle’s natural child. After all, they were both descended from the Imperial line, and Gwen HAD carried him. They thought Jeff was the product of some fancy genetic engineering that had matched Rod’s Thallian genes to Gwen’s, leaving out nearly all Terran chromosomes. The truth, as revealed by Jeff’s legal name, was a shock. The five-part name was the Terran version of the ancient Emperor’s Axime’s legal name, which meant that somehow Jeff was the direct offspring, a literal biological son, of the famous emperor.

Kerrington’s voice continued. “For General Richard’s Information, the second step in the activation will be to remove all psionic dampers implanted in each Thran, and of course, in High General Richards at birth. Simultaneously, our Terran teammates will be given psionic activators to make full use of their inborn abilities and physical-strength enhancers to bring their strength up to Thran norms.

Surgery schedules will be issued. Once each team is activated, you will begin special training with your new abilities. The training will be intense. The Nobility Council has advised this base that twenty of our twenty-eight teams will be ready to launch a mission against the RiaZan in no more than two earth months. Eight teams will stay behind to defend Earth in case the RiaZan get past the rest of us and to train new teams as Red leaders are discovered.”

Kerrington paused. “General Richards, you’ll need to report to the Hospital Station immediately. Major Van Blair will escort you.”

Jeff just sat there and looked around the room. Amused, Van Blear stood by until Bennett gave Jeff a little shake, “That’s you, Jeff. Guess being top dog and all around here, they mean for you to go first. It serves you right, tool!”

“Oh yeah, that’s me.” Jeff took a huge breath. Jeff gave Bennett an affectionate but ineffective shoulder punch, which the Scorpion didn’t bother to block. “Tage, if they’ve got KP around here, I’m going to see you get it for that.”

The moving walkway was quiet as it sped through the long, underground corridors. Everyone was asleep already. Jeff glanced up at Van Blair. “Uh, Major, just what is it I’m going first with?”

“That’s Ken.”

“Sir?”

“Ken,” Van Blair repeated. “Not ‘Major’ and certainly not ‘sir’.” A smile touched Van Blair’s lips. “Unless you want us to retaliate …. Highness.”

“Okay, Ken,” Jef said hastily. “What is this about psionic dampers implanted in us?”

“They’re going to take them out,” Ken explained. “We’ve all got them, all but the Terrans. Any Thran, and in your case, Thallian, born with psionic ability, is fitted with a damper. Otherwise, it’s doubtful we’d have been tolerated here on Earth. For instance, your schoolmates would never have stood for having their minds read. Neighbors would look at you funny if you used telekinesis to clear a driveway of snow. And if a teleport should pop into parties unexpectedly, things really would get wild.”

Jeff swallowed hard. Until then, all the talk about psi ability hadn’t sunk in. He had pictured it on a much smaller scale than Van Blair was describing. So what if some ancient Thallian prince had Tked, a bunch of bad guys to the far side of nowhere. That was sort of like a superhero movie.

Recently, all he’d heard was about potential psi ability. That sounded weak, like someone trying to guess which card you held in your hand. He’d seen or heard nothing to make him realize the awesomeness of the power they would have until now. “You mean we really can do these things?”

Van Blair nodded. “In varying degrees, yes. All of our people have at least a little psi. Some have a great deal. Scorpian have what we call combat-strength psi power. We are psionically strong and can apply it to the most brutal and savage combat test situations the Nobility Council can come up with.”

Van Blair spoke in a more somber voice than Jeff had ever heard. “And then some of us have been tested for real.” He said that last so quietly. Jeff looked up, wondering what he meant. Van Blair took a deep breath and seemed to shake off something dark that had briefly settled over him.

“Let’s get back to psionic differences,” Van Blair went on before Jeff could ask about his last comment. “As I told you earlier, there are four general power levels within the Scorpion Forces. A Red Scorpion can do about anything and is limited only by distance. For example, when Paul’s psionic implants are removed, he can read the minds of the Lunar Base personnel but not those in the asteroid shipyards. Blue scorpions are even more distance limited but are still remarkably strong. Greens can’t teleport but have fantastic Telekinetic abilities and varying degrees of the other powers. Orange Scorpions are powerful telepaths, but they can’t teleport either. Like the Green Scorpions, they have varying degrees of the other powers.

Jeff looked thoughtful. “Which do you suppose I’ll be like?”

The question startled Van Blair. “Didn’t they tell you?”

Jeff shook his head no.

“We’ve heard for years that you were Level Ten, all psi powers in strengths and distances they couldn’t measure while testing an infant. That’s one of many reasons you are in command of all the Scorpion Forces now.”

“I’m WHAT?” Jeff exclaimed.

“Our Commander-in-Cheif, so to speak.” Van Blair answered. “Your even Paul Kerrington’s boss. Didn’t they tell you?”

Jeff thought a moment. “Not in so many words, Kerrington called me High General, but I guess I didn’t make the connection.”

Van Blair gave jeff a moment to take it all in, then spoke quietly. Jeff?”

“Yes?”

“This name of yours. Does it mean what I think?”

Jeff glanced at him. “What do you think?”

When Van Blair seemed hesitant to answer, Jeff had mercy, “I’m not a clone, at least not exactly.” He explained what Rod had told him just a couple of days before.

Van Blair whistled. “Must have been tough having all that dumped on you!”

The moving walkway broke away from the main walkway and began to slow. Before it stopped, Jeff vaulted over the railing as Van Blair did earlier. “It was horrible,” he admitted. “But you guys made it all a little easier. For a while today, I thought I’d be put on a flagpole and left there as a symbol for everyone to salute as if learning I got here in a weird way wasn’t enough. I’m glad it didn’t happen and won’t happen. Jeff said the last slowly and deliberately, causing Van Blair to chuckle.

“Scorpion Team One will personally deal death to anyone here who even thinks of bowing and scraping.” He led the way to the wide double doors of Hospital Station, clapped Jeff on the back, and left.