An Officer’s Duty (13 page)

Beside him, perched somewhat nervously on her own chair at the round, white-topped table, was the young woman Kaskalla. Like Ortuu, her complexion was dark, her eyes brown, and her hair black and fuzzy. Her tabard contained the sword-in-galaxy of the Unigalactans…but the edges of hers were marked with fanciful rauela feathers, each long, curving shaft stitched in a different rainbow hue.

“She’s…not a member of the Zenobian Sect,” Ia observed, glancing at the older priestess. She didn’t like this second surprise sprung on her. If she had probed the future in more than just a light skimming, if her instincts about the timestreams hadn’t remained calm, she would have called an end to this session before even arriving.

“I thought it best that you have at least one ‘neutral’ observer on record. Don’t worry; Kaskalla’s one of us in heart, if not in vows,” Leona added.

Ia shook her head. “I’ll have to scan her, first. Introducing
any
new element, however seemingly benign, can shift the paradigms too far.”

“Scan
me
?” Kaskalla asked, brows lifting. “I’ve already undergone my ethics probes for the year, meioa. In fact, it was just last month.”

“It’s not that kind of scan,” Ia corrected her. She glanced at Leona.

“I haven’t told her much about you,” Leona confessed. “I figured it’d be best that way. But I’ll vouch for her. I was one of the ones who scanned her, last month.”

“I’ll still have to scan her,” Ia demurred. Crossing to the younger woman, Ia addressed her concerned look. “My abilities are a bit…touchy, meioa. Oversensitive, I suppose you could say. I need to make sure you and I can interact without triggering them the wrong way. It does not, however, involve reading your thoughts. It’s sort of more like scanning your aura than anything else. Do I have your permission to do so?”

Kaskalla looked at the other two. “Is this safe?”

Ortuu shrugged. “Ia
is
a duly ordained priestess of the Zenobian Sect. She’s passed all the required psychic ethics and appropriate conduct classes, the exact same as you.”

“Do you need me to lower my shields?” the young priestess asked Ia.

Ia shook her head. “That shouldn’t be necessary. But I do need you to refrain from reacting psychically to anything you may sense.”

That earned her a skeptical look, but Kaskalla shrugged and acquiesced anyway. “Alright, you have my permission.”

Nodding, Ia touched her fingers to the other woman’s forehead. This wasn’t quite like touching the minds of the youths Rabbit had gathered around her. Kaskalla was Ia’s age, maybe a little younger, but she was a fellow psi. That changed all the variables.

Back when the kinetic inergy, or KI, machine had first been crafted and proven to be capable of reliably measuring psychic emanations—weeding out the con artists and the merely
delusional from the actually gifted members of society—scientists had discovered that different people had different “frequencies” of psychic abilities. Some of these frequencies could augment fellow psis, while others could negate, counter, or otherwise interfere with the abilities of two or more gifted people.

Touch almost always concentrated that effect, though personal effort via mental “shields” could quell some of it, and the stronger the gift, the more likely it was to overpower or override a fellow psychic’s abilities. But by a quirk of quantum probabilities—namely, the butterfly effect—even a weak ability could mess with a very strong one. Highly subjective as most psychic abilities still were, despite the advances of modern detection and training methods, they did operate under the same general rules of physics as other energy phenomena.

So Ia eased her mind open very slowly, very carefully. Leona’s mind, she knew. Ortuu’s mind, she knew. Kaskalla’s mind was rife with curiosity and touches of wary caution. It wasn’t telepathy, per se, but it was a pathic-level awareness of the other female. Opening her precognition a tiny trickle, Ia probed carefully into her timestream possibilities, skimming lightly to minimize the chance the other woman would sense what she was doing.

What she was looking for…she didn’t find. Kaskalla wouldn’t betray Ia or her fellow colonists to the Church. Not on any potential level of possibility, not in the timeplain paths Ia was trying to guide everyone into. There was a chance Kaskalla’s gifts could augment her own a little, since she was apparently a very strong telepath, but she was a polite one, remaining safely within her mental walls.

Relieved, Ia backed out of her probings. Removing her fingers, she nodded. “I think we’ll be compatible enough.”

“Good. Then we can get started?” Kaskalla asked, glancing at the others.

Ortuu put down his caf’ cup with a heavy sigh, visibly reluctant to give up the hybrid version of coffee. The Terrans and the V’Dan had developed it between themselves shortly after the two disparate branches had been reunited, smoothing out the bitter flavors and increasing the caffeine content pleasantly. Leona took a seat at the table, a cup of water resting in front of her. Ia sat as well, picking a seat between her and Kaskalla.

The younger priestess eyed her. “
Um
…I thought we were going to move to one of the testing rooms. You know, where the KI machines are?”

Leona, Ortuu, and Ia all shook their heads. Ortuu, dropping his feet from the spare seat, answered her question. “We can’t have an active KI machine in the same room while we do this.”

“Ethical Scan regulations clearly state that the psi in question needs to be monitored with a KI machine to ascertain whether or not they’re straining away from the probe,” Kaskalla argued, tapping the table.

“Yes, but the
cost
of those precious KI machines argue against using them in Ia’s presence,” Ortuu countered just as tartly. “Her gifts and those machines are incompatible during an ethics probe. Unless you yourself want to pay the twenty-three thousand credits per machine to replace them, we do this without any active ones—speaking of which, I’d better go and double-check the ones in the testing rooms
are
still turned off,” he added, pushing to his feet. He snagged his mug as he rose. “I know I checked them earlier, but paranoia is only prudent. I’ll be right back.”

Kaskalla gave him a confused look as he left. She shifted her gaze to Ia. “I don’t get it. How can you damage a KI machine, unless it’s done physically?”

“You didn’t tell her anything about my gifts?” Ia asked Leona. The older woman shook her head. Sighing, Ia gave the younger woman a brief explanation. “As I said, my gifts are overly sensitive. Particularly when someone is mucking around in my brain. Three of my gifts are telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and electrokinesis, all of which can affect the KI machines. Particularly the electrokinesis, if it’s triggered inadvertently by you stumbling around inside my head.

“Unfortunately, while the actors in
Space Patrol
pull down huge piles of creds for each vidshow they make, I’m in the
real
Space Force, and my pay is a laughable pittance by comparison,” Ia said, holding Kaskalla’s gaze. “I had to save for two years just to be able to afford to come home. I literally cannot afford to replace the Order’s testing machines on my salary.”

“She killed four of them before we figured out what she was doing, back when her gifts fully blossomed,” Leona added dryly. “Thankfully, one of her
other
gifts was precognition.”

“Precognition?” Kaskalla asked. “Why be thankful for that?”

“Because I gave the Order the exact numbers to win just enough money in the Alliance Lottery to cover the replacement and shipping costs for four new machines,” Ia told her.

The younger priestess opened her mouth, hesitated, then closed it. She shook her head. “That…skims the grey lines of ethics rather neatly. You didn’t benefit
directly
from doing that, and it is covered under the ‘reparations’ addendum. Which technically leaves you clean, ethically. Though I wonder how you could pluck the exact numbers out of the air so readily,” Kaskalla murmured, frowning. “Or was that a lucky touch of your gift?”

Ia lifted her left arm, checking the chrono display on the lid of her arm unit. “Tonight’s local lottery drawings will take place in…forty-three minutes. Considering this session will take over two hours to complete, it doesn’t violate any ethics to give you the winning numbers for tonight’s games, since you won’t be free to go buy a ticket. The Sanctuarian Daily Lotto’s numbers are 4, 37, 18, 9, and Blue. The Lucky Draw’s cards will be Queen of Diamonds, Three of Clubs, Seven of Clubs, and Ace of Spades.

“I’d give you the Alliance Lottery’s Power Pick winning numbers,” Ia added, smiling slightly, “but those won’t be drawn until tomorrow, and
that
would be a violation of ethical use of precognition in predicting gambling outcomes, because you would have time to go buy a handpicked ticket, which in turn could be construed as a bribe to you…not to mention it would be a violation of the future, since you’re not scheduled to win any of the drawings this week. Sorry.”

“You didn’t even
strain
to pick those numbers,” Kaskalla protested. “How can I know they’re real?”

“Write them down, and check them after the fact—welcome back, Ortuu,” Ia added as the priest reentered the conference room. “Everything shut off?”

“Everything’s shut off, and I have a fresh cup of caf’,” he agreed, setting the refilled mug back on the table. “Let’s get started, then. Everyone scoot a little more evenly around the table. I’ll be the anchor, the one not in direct contact with her mind. Kaskalla, you are only to
observe
in this session. Make
sure you do not say or think the word
time
while you are observing, while you’re at it. Leona will be leading the probe and the questions. Ia, when you are ready, bring us in.”

“Right.” Closing her eyes, Ia calmed her thoughts. Running through the grounding and centering exercises was by now an old habit, but she consciously took herself through each visualization step, until she felt stable, calm, and controlled. Opening her eyes, she reached for Kaskalla’s hand, gently bringing the Witan priestess into mental contact with her.

(
Hello,
) Kaskalla greeted her. (
By the code of the ethics probe, what is yours will remain yours until the end of this session, where my fellow scanners and I will debate the legalities of your psychic-related actions. You have the right to defend each point of contention during this scan. You have the right to a second scan. If any illegalities are uncovered and sustained upon a second scan, you have the right to legal counsel and legal representation in a court of law. Do you understand these rights as I have explained them to you?
)

(
Trust me, I’ve been doing this since I was a little girl. Just don’t prejudge until you have all the facts,
) Ia warned her. (
Don’t leap to any conclusions, and limit your questions. Let Leona take the lead. She knows which questions to ask. Brace yourself; I’m bringing her in.
)

She could sort of sense the older woman already, who lurked beyond Ortuu’s thoughts, who lurked at the edges of Kaskalla’s mind. When she held out her hand, accepting Leona’s grasp, the circle of thoughts jolted. Now Leona was a strong presence on her right and a weaker echo from the left. Kaskalla was strong from the left and an echo from the right. Ortuu was a double echo, anchoring the far side of the ring. Not in direct, physical contact with her, he would remain the clearheaded member of the trio, much more of a dispassionate observer than either woman, who would be in direct contact with Ia’s thoughts, emotions, and memories.

(
You know the standard rights and waivers, Ia, so let us begin. Your last probe took place on February 13th, 2492 Terran Standard. Examiners were myself, Priestess Miranda Fyodore and Priest Ortuu Wickenne of the Zenobian Sect of the Witan Order of Sanctuary,
) Leona stated. (
We will therefore start with the day of February 13th of 2492 T.S. Today is July
27th, 2492. Have you consistently used your psychic abilities every single day between the thirteenth of February and today?
)

(
I have,
) Ia stated, putting conviction and honesty behind the mental words. It was exceptionally difficult to lie mind-to-mind. It could be done, if the person lying possessed both very strong telepathic abilities and were a talented method actor, but with three trained and strongly gifted examiners watching her every thought, Ia didn’t bother.

(
God,
every
single day? We’ll be here all night!
) Kaskalla protested.

Leona frowned at her. (
Keep your kibbitzing to a minimum, Priestess. It will
not
take all night. Ia, have you, to the best of your knowledge and honesty, used your abilities in the vast majority of instances with ethical care and consideration for obeying the laws of the Alliance?
)

(
In the vast majority of instances, I have,
) Ia stated. She could feel Kaskalla start to form a protest and squeezed the younger woman’s fingers in silent warning to stay quiet. (
I am prepared to show you any example you wish of legally acceptable use of my psychic abilities.
)

Leona nodded. (
We will exercise that option at our discretion. Regarding instances which do not fall firmly into the category of ethical care and consideration for obeying the laws of the Alliance…are you prepared to submit those instances for our examination and consideration?
)

(
With the understanding that I have the legal right to call upon the statutes covering
Johns and Miskha versus the United Nations,
regarding the rights of precognitives to act or not act in accordance with the betterment and benefit of future lives and their overall safety as foreseen in advance…I am prepared to submit all potentially questionable instances of my psychic behavior to this ethics inquiry,
) Ia replied.

(
You’re going to use
Johns and Mishka
as your main defense?
) Kaskalla asked skeptically from her left. The echo from the right was flavored with Ortuu’s amusement and Leona’s impatience.