Behind closed eyelids, Thenos began to use one of the most challenging abilities of a telepath. To influence someone else’s mind was one thing, but to affect your own, to overcome your natural aversion to doing something potentially harmful to yourself, was something else entirely. Memories were something that could always be accessed by someone once they infiltrated your mind. The owner of these memories may be incapable of recalling these memories in a non-psychic way, but a permanent record of their entire life could always be found. Thenos was going to access his own memories, going back to an event fourteen years ago. He would experience all of the inputs into his brain, everything he felt, saw, heard, as if he was there again.
Thenos walked down a corridor in the Arlan Psychic Academy on the planet Arla, which was back in Trader Space. He had been allowed out early from the advanced telepathy lesson, having mastered what had been taught fairly quickly. He was always first out, and the various teachers at the school all called him a prodigy, the greatest student they’d had since that girl that went off to become the top commander in the Flames of Vengeance faction. Thenos was looking for someone else who had left early. She was the new girl, who had joined his year at the start of this year, having had “problems” at her previous school. She had been sent out after being caught reading from a data pad. Sister Tayeela, who had been leading the lesson, had called her to the front, and then had told her to perform what the sister had been telling the class about. Obviously, she couldn’t, which annoyed Tayeela. She had asked the girl whether she cared about fulfilling her psychic potential, and she had said no. This had brought Tayeela, who had had several bad experiences with the new girl, to breaking point, and the sister had psychically struck the girl’s mind. It must have hurt her, but the girl had done an impressive job of covering up the pain as she was ordered to leave the room. Thenos suddenly spotted the girl sitting at the edge of the data library, reading from her data pad again. He headed over to her, until she noticed him and attempted to hide the data pad, dropping it in the process. It had something about minerals displayed on the screen. She went to pick it up, and caught his eye. Thenos could tell that she was scared.
“Don’t worry, I don’t mind about you reading,” Thenos said. He had been told that she had mentioned how she disliked telepathy, so had decided to talk instead. He also knew that many of the other students at the school bullied her, and that some of the pupils had even beaten her up recently, which would explain her fear. However, despite all this she kept on doing what she wanted. Thenos respected that.
“Really?” she asked, sounding surprised at his tolerance of her hobby.
“I don’t mind at all. Mind if I take a seat?”
“Sure.”
Thenos did, and said, “Sister Tayeela acted in a really out of order way. Doesn’t it hurt?”
After a short pause, she answered, “yes…”
“I can help if you want,” Thenos began, stretching out with his mind to hers.
“No!” she snapped, then continued in a softer tone, “I’m okay, I don’t need help.”
“So what were you reading about?” Thenos asked, trying to change the subject.
“Oh, they’re just old mineral reports,” she said, “but did you know that crystals used to be valued solely on their appearance?”
“What do you mean?” Thenos inquired. He was trying to keep her talking, to make her feel less isolated. His friends probably wouldn’t understand why he was sympathetic to a completely unrefined psychic, but he couldn’t see any reason to dislike her.
“Well, nowadays we only care about how well they focus beams and lasers in weapons, but back then they were appreciated for their beauty. There’s a lot that we can learn from the past.”
“What? Like the exile of our ancestors and stuff?”
“No, not just what everybody gets told, but the things you’re not taught. Did you know that our ancestors traded with the David’s Lions before they were removed from their world?
“With them? But they were TEC!”
“Exactly. It proves that we can find peaceful solutions. It’s not all about how many worlds we can burn out of revenge. If we learn from the past, we can deal better with the future. Then we can enjoy things for what they are, not how we can use them to kill,” she sighed, “but the others don’t seem to appreciate any of that. They just want to go and get their portion of revenge for an event that nobody actually remembers any more. They just see a glorious future of war, and label people who like me freaks.”
“You’re not a freak,” Thenos comforted her, “but what do you plan to do at the end of the year when we go out and get our places in the Unity?”
“I don’t know. Something where I can be left alone, probably. What are you going to do?”
“I’ve always wanted to be in the military,” Thenos admitted. To his surprise, she didn’t seem to be annoyed by that, “but I don’t know what I’ll do in it.”
“You’ll probably be a captain at least. You’re a very skilled psychic, and it’ll be people like you, good listeners who are on the front lines, who may be able to bring us closer to peace with those we share the galaxy with.”
“Thanks,” Thenos said, rounding off as a bell rang, signalling that the next lesson would soon begin, “and what’s your name? I’m Thenos Garr.”
“I’m Casey. Casey Tahira,”
“Great talking to you Casey. I’ll probably see you-“
The memory cut off as, like a nightmare from his previous meditations, a wave of hatred struck Thenos. Suddenly, he felt his mind moving to another memory, one that he had never had trouble recalling, that had haunted him ever since the event had occurred…
