Abel III's Awakening - 26. Chapter 26 A Birthday Surprise.

Chapter 26

A Birthday Surprise

Abel III's Personal log:
Thursday, 8 March 2734

We awoke early this morning and rushed through breakfast as we were due to dock with the space station Valentina Tereshkova, named for the first woman in space as it served Gagarin's World. Time had flown by as we hurtled toward our destination from the transit point, but we were at least two days ahead of schedule. This meant we would be able to spend an extra day at the station to celebrate Bill's birthday which was today. In honor of his birthday, Bill had the day off and was on the bridge with the rest of the family as we made our final approach. Steve was not so lucky and was with the dining crew on his usual shift.

As we approached the station, Dennis and I entered our mind-melded state and began a systematic telepathic scan of the station which housed about twenty-five thousand. It was good sized and was an important commercial point for all the grain and alcohol it shipped from the planet. True to it's Russian heritage, the planet was a huge source of vodka, and Stolichnaya had its main space based production and marketing facility located on the planet and we were scheduled to pick up a big shipment for distribution along our remaining scheduled stops outbound.

The station was usually called Valya by the locals as that was the common Russian diminutive. While Russians were the largest ethnic population, the diversity was such that no ethnicity was a majority on the station or the planet. There were six intermediate sized military vessels based here and the military component of the station was about seven thousand and all six vessels were in port. We concentrated our scan there first and found nothing worrisome for the Silverspin. In fact the only thing we did notice about the station population which was a little odd, was that the station security force had two people in custody who were apparently deeply sedated as to be almost flat-lined. We reported our findings and we were soon docked and umbilicals were being deployed and activated. Due to our fast entry in-system which necessitated a rapid decelleration, our gravity compensator nodes were wound tight again and we were selling some of that inertial based energy back to the station as we were already at fifty percent gravity.

Dennis and I hurried to Engineering to do our assigned chores in helping to put the various systems into back-up status while we were docked and on station power for the next two and half days. The rest of the morning went quickly and we finished by lunch. After lunch we would have the afternoon and evening off as well as most of the day following. The loading and off loading of cargo and supplies would be handled by the assigned crewmen as it was a routine amount. Bill wanted to plan out his birthday outing and we adjourned to his cabin after lunch to do just that and were joined by his brother Steve within the hour. Bill's nineteenth birthday, while not as important as the eighteenth milestone of reaching your majority, was a big deal to him and he wanted to blow off some steam. Being on a station and not just closed up on the Silverspin made that easier as Valya was noted for some lively nightspots and he wanted to check them out. He was busy checking the local net to see all the hottest places to shop, eat, drink and dance.

I couldn't understand everyone's excitement about shopping, but Dennis sided with my cousins and I was drug along and shopping was the first thing on our agenda. They all wanted to get new clothes to go clubbing and I wondered what was wrong with all the stuff we bought on Starview, much of which had never been worn. However, they found some cool clothes and were soon making me try on some as well. After three hours in five stores, the four of us had spent another seven hundred Sovereigns and I was beginning to wonder if our closets were going to be cramped.

Our packages were sent to the Silverspin and we headed to a Russian style restaurant called Ivan's. We had a typical meal starting with two salads one primarily of lettuce and the other a heavy salad with potatoes, pickles, onions and pieces of meat with a mayonnaise base and served with a dark rye bread still warm from the oven. That was followed by a Borsch, or heavy soup with meat stock and pieces of meat and sour cream. Then we had homemade pelmeni dumplings, which was pork inside a dough pocket. Water or vodka was served with the meal and a big Samovar of tea was brought out for dessert with little Russian honey spice cakes. It was a heavy meal and we walked back to the Silverspin to shower and change into our clothes to go clubbing.

We hit the first club at about 19:30 and it featured techno disco and was populated by a horde of young ripped contortionists frenetically keeping up with the heavy beat. Teenagers seemed to predominate and Dennis and I looked a little old and out of place. Our group lasted less than an hour and we moved on to the next club on the list, which was close by. It was a young but mixed crowd with an average age closer to twenty-five. Line dancing was featured and the dance floor was crowded. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. It featured several types of beers and seemed much more our style and we had a good time and stayed there until 22:00 hours when we moved to the third place on Bill's list.

It was called the Cossack Club with a cover charge of thirty Sovereigns. Vodka was the drink of choice served straight, on the rocks, or mixed with a variety of mixers. It was more of a slightly older crowd with the average age appearing to be somewhat over thirty and it seemed to be filled with many of the station's upward bound professionals. There were go-go dancers and a floorshow and while the dance floor was large, the place was dominated by the bar and scores of horseshoe shaped booths with tables for six or ten. It was a little less noisy and clearly people came to dance, flirt, talk and party. Our group of four was shown to a smaller booth, which could have seated six easily, and we ordered drinks and some appetizers while checking the place out. The floorshow did not start until 23:00 and was supposed to be quite good. The sound system was really good and not just loud. The room, its set-up and the acoustics all seemed to have been engineered to provide an unparalleled music experience for the patrons. The music selections were eclectic and soon we were up and dancing as several tunes struck Bill's fancy and he was not one to sit.

We soon drew a crowd as Bill and Steve were demonstrating the latest dance moves from Earth and Dennis and I were doing our best to keep up. When members of the crowd found out it was Bill's nineteenth birthday, he became even more the center of attention. As usual I was discreetly and lightly scanning everyone around us and noted that several people worked in station administration including station security. As I scanned deeper, I found that several product representatives congregated here as well and in fact much business was conducted at this club. While the crowd was composed mainly of professionals, the guy eying up Bill had left his professional demeanor way behind and was openly lusting over my hunky young cousin. Bill was enjoying being the center of attention and Steve was being chatted up as well.

It seemed that everyone could tell Dennis and I only had eyes for each other and that was okay with both of us. We danced for nearly the entire set and finally Dennis and I had enough and returned to the table. Bill and Steve stayed with their coterie of admirers for the rest and when it ended, a couple of guys followed them back to our table and room was made for them. They were both in their mid-thirties and definitely on the hunt for an evening of fun. They were successful and knew it and dressed nicely with some expensive looking accessories including custom bejeweled cases for their com units. While they were busy making small talk with my cousins and buying us all a round of drinks, I was busy doing a deeper scan of both them.

The guy fawning over Bill was a mid level administrator in the station security department and thought he would be the top administrator in that department by the time he reached forty. His name was Nick and he made it his business to know everything going on in his department and the station at large. He also considered himself to be something of a Romeo and he clearly had his sights set on Bill. My scanning of Bill found he was amused by the older man's attention and Bill clearly had his number and had no intention of taking him back to his cabin on the Silverspin, much less going anywhere with Nick.

The guy chatting up Steve was a sales representative for a company competing with Stolichnaya and it was clearly the number two in the competition. He was dressed flashier and had bought the round of drinks for the table. His name was Peter and he was dressed very expensively and exuded charm. He too was used to getting whatever he set his sights on. My scan of Steve showed he was less than impressed with either of them and he was wondering if they could get rid of them before the show began.

While I was accessing that thought and trying not to smile, I heard Nick brag to Bill, 'We have two suspected telepaths on ice in detention waiting for some hotshots to come in and determine if it's true.”

The conversation at the table came to screeching halt and all eyes turned to Nick. Thankfully, Peter spoke first and asked, “Are you for real? Real telepaths? How did you capture them without them knowing?”

Meanwhile, I was sending strong 'suggestions' to my cousins to not over-react and to just act normally interested and I was guaging the strength of my suggestions so they would work without awakening their abilities. Dennis was linked and was supportive.

Nick replied, “They came in on a small freighter and were turned over to us by the captain and the crew after they started acting bizarrely and complained of hearing voices and people conspiring against them. They are both in their early twenties and have known each other as best friends since childhoood and apparently signed on as roustabouts to get off their planet out in the boonies when the freighter dropped off a load and took on some freight. When station security questioned them, they acted strangely and seemed to know the questions before they were asked. Since the government has a high reward for finding and identifying telepaths, we sedated them and contacted the central authorities.”

I scanned Nick a little deeper and found the 'hotshots' he referred to were Jake and Josh Hall, the J&J twins. This aroused even more concern for me and I dug deeper to see when they were expected and found it would be a couple of days after our scheduled departure.

Nick wanting to turn the attention back to Bill asked, “Life on our station is not as boring as you thought is it?”

Bill laughed and said, “We serve on a cargo ship with only a hundred or so of our most intimate friends with limited outside contact for much of the time. I should hope life on a vibrant station with a huge population situated over a large fertile planet with even more people would be more diverting.”

Fortunately, just then the lights dimmed and an announcer stepped forward and introduced the opening act of the floorshow which featured a comedian. He was pretty good, but the jokes were slanted toward the locals who mostly frequented the place. They were inside jokes, meaning for those of us who did not know the local context, they fell a little flat. His spiel lasted about fifteen minutes and the crowd seemed to enjoy him. Up next was the main attraction which featured a singer who covered many of the popular songs of the day and did so with some style and panache. The crowd really got into his performance. Thankfully the great sound system was not overpowered by the crowd noise and we had a wonderful time. He sang for more than an hour and ended the show with an encore performance. When he finished the song, everyone in the entire club was on their feet giving him a standing ovation.

Our table service had been impeccable and discreet with no annoying fuss, but our waiter was always there to fulfill every order. Since the night was our treat, I settled the bill with my com unit and punched in a two hundred Sovereign tip for our waiter who was very appreciative. I noticed that Nick was surprised by that amount and on scanning him found he was wondering if we were rubes who didn't know the value or if we could really afford that. As we made our way out of the club, I was glad to note that both Bill and Steve were thanking the guys for spending some time with us and making sure they understood the evening was over as far as they were concerned.

We made our way quickly back to the Silverspin. Through my permanent links I could tell my dad, Kade, grandfather and Drew were all asleep and we decided not to bother them tonight. The four of us entered my cabin and all we could think about were the two poor guys being kept sedated for possibly being telepathic. I told them that the J&J twins were coming in to verify the possible telepaths who would then be forced to work for the government. My cousins wanted us to rescue them and I quickly told them that we could do nothing to expose ourselves lest we find ourselves in the same predicament.

Dennis and I decided to do a mind meld and see if we could scan and read the two, despite their being so heavily sedated. It was like pushing into a mind full of pea soup fog. There were no surface thoughts at all as they were both deeply under the influence of the seditives. Neither seemed to have any natural shields and as we pushed deeper in the first one, we found his name was Dustin. He was born and raised on an out-of-the-way planet called Corrientes which was noted for its rice, tea and cotton and was largely an agrarian world. He had no knowledge of any telepathic ability in his family. His family owned a large farm, which was adjacent to his best friend and lover Diego's parents estate. They had run away so they could be together as both sets of parents wanted their sons to marry the daughters of other landowners so as to increase their holdings.

It was clear his telepathic ability had manifested during lovemaking with Diego while they were on the ship and Diego's ability had manifested concurrently. With no family or other telepaths to guide them and give them a package of information and data, they were two lost souls.

My scan of Diego confirmed the information I got from Dustin and we wondered what we could do to help them. We asked Hal for his thoughts but he had no experience with guiding new telepaths during their first development of power other than observing mine and certainly not while they were in a drug induced coma. We discussed dozens of ideas but made no real progress and finally, it was decided to have a family meeting after breakfast the next morning and see if the rest of the family had any ideas.

We all went to bed with heavy hearts that night and our only consolation was the closeness of our own family.

After a restless night we all had a quick breakfast without our usual appetites. The meeting was held in Grandfather's cabin and we quickly apprised the family of the facts. Grandfather, being the family historian was busy searching to see if he could connect the two to any of the known families but was unsuccessful. He further stated that there was no record in the family histories of any of the telepathic families ever settling on Corrientes. Drew was the one that asked if Dennis and I in our mind meld could deliver the package of instructions to each of them while they were in a coma and what effect that would have. Grandfather immediately told us he thought that was a bad idea as the packaged was intended to be explored in detail upon arrival and that time and practice were then required, something these guys would not get. Further, any package we delivered would lead the J&J twins back to the Silversmith family.

I realized that the kindest thing we could do for the two men in custody was to silence them and in their coma-like state, wondered if that was even possible. Finally, I asked, “What else is involved in silencing someone and can it be done in such a way as to leave no trace?”

Everyone looked at me, most with expressions of disbelief. I then said, “I have deeply scanned Jake and Josh Hall, both together in their mind-meld and separately. I know what they experience being tools of the government. If they didn't have each other, I think they would have suicided by now. Even so, they have considered it, singly and together and have done so several times. The government is pushing them harder all the time and now they are being sent here to expose these two prisoners if they are found to be telepathic and sentence them to the same sort of bondage they hate.”

As Dennis continued looking at me in askance I did a group send to him and the telepathic members of family replaying some of what I found in my probes of the twins. I gave them about an hours worth in five minutes. My cousins could tell I was sending and the rest were receiving, but they had their own questions and concerns.

Bill spoke first, “Isn't there something else we can do? Taking an ability away from someone sounds terrible!”

The rest of the members of my family were assimilating what I had sent, so I answered, “It is terrible, but my concern is that failing to do so would be a whole lot worse for them.”

Steve replied, “Oh my god!”

Drew spoke next, “Based on what you sent, you are most assuredly right. I never thought of what it would be like from the point-of-view of one of the exposed telepathic family members.”

Before Grandfather or Kade could speak, my dad said, “I think you and Dennis need to get with Abel Sr. and Drew and learn the specifics of the procedure and that we should do it this evening. I don't see that we have any real choice in the matter. It will spare these two young men a life of servitude and spare the hidden families of more danger of being exposed.”

While all the telepaths in the room were onboard with the decision, my two cousins were still very much in doubt. My grandfather was reading them well and asked the rest of us to give them some time to talk so we all left to begin our work routines, save him and my cousins.

The day went by in a disjointed sort of way and that afternoon Dennis and I again met in Grandfather's cabin to go over the silencing procedure in detail. It was more complicated than we expected and done only a few times in the history of the families. Grandfather in his long life had only participated in one and none of the others in my family had any experience in the procedure. While they had contemplated having to silence my dad at one point, my Grandfather's only experience in the matter was when he was only twenty-five years old and was called with his father to help another telepathic family silence a daughter who was totally insane and without any shields and thus strongly broadcasting her crazy and bizarre thoughts. He did a send to us detailing what he went through and what they had to do and it was graphic and tragic.

Supper was a somber affair and the crew began to notice the family's mood and they became quiet and somewhat worried. That prompted my dad to make an announcement as a cover story that we had received word of a distant family member who was gravely ill and we would not be able to attend the expected soon to be held funeral.

After supper we adjourned to Grandfather's cabin except for Steve and Bill. They decided after talking with grandfather that it would be better, as just watching everyone else involved in a sending which would last at least two hours would be boring as they wouldn't be able to see or experience any of it. Once we were all seated, Grandfather instructed us all to block our links monitoring my cousins and to also block our links to Hal. He then called Hal from his terminal and said, “Hal, we have blocked our links to my grandchildren and to you. Execute standing order Zulu 42.”

He then did a send to us explaining, {Standing order Zulu 42 means to stop all monitoring both mentally and physically of my cabin and its occupants and go into defensive mode regarding everyone else on the ship. While we are performing the silencing, we are in a somewhat vulnerable position ourselves and we don't want any surprises.}

He then sent us the final instructions on performing the silencing and as he did so, the complete and detailed information became available from the original self-extracting package I received when I came into my powers. It was then I learned just how vulnerable we would be if an outside telepath were to decide to attack us. Silencing meant severing the link that powered all psychic ability at the source. The tricky part was that applying the interfering thread to cut off the flow of power had to be done in stages and that if not done corretly, there could be an explosive counter reaction that could potentially sever the link to power of the ones doing the silencing. That was why it required several experienced telepaths of at least level three ability working together to even attempt to try to perform the silencing procedure.

Grandfather asked us to all link up normally and cautioned Dennis and I not to mind-meld as we needed to maintain our strong self-identities during the procedure. With Grandfather leading we first silenced Dustin and did it carefully in stages. As the source of power was completely cut off from him we could sense his ability wither and die. It was a heartbreaking experience. It took about an hour and then we turned to Diego and followed the same procedure. Again watching the ability wither and die was sobering. Then Grandfather directed that I and Dennis go back into Dustin's mind and alter all his memories of experiencing the thoughts and feelings of others including his partner and to replace them with false memories of drug induced dreams. We worked hard to eradicate any possible memory of Dustin sensing anyone else's thoughts or emotions and we replaced his public exposure of his talent with drug induced ravings that mirrored what he told others and which led to his being restrained and turned over to the authorities. When we finished, we did the same for Diego from his point of view. It was delicate and tiring work and we spent another two hours on this portion.

At the end we were pleased that we had eradicated all signs of any telepathic ability and had done so in a way which left no signs of our tampering or presence. When we finished we were all exhausted and Grandfather and Drew asked us to leave as they wanted to shower and get some rest. Dad informed Hal that the Zulu 42 emergency was over and to resume normal operations and he and Kade led us to his cabin and he called his nephews to join us.

They arrived at once looking worried as it had taken so long and when they saw how exhausted we were asked about Grandfather and Drew. Dad explained they were already in bed resting. He gave them an overview of what happened and concluded by saying, “Silencing one telepath is a long exhausting process. Silencing two at the same time was exponentially more exhausting and it had to be done while they were both in drug induced comas which meant it was like working almost blind in a heavy fog. We had to feel our way along the whole way and we would not have been able to accomplish it without the extraordinary and deep talent of my son. Your grandfather was worried the whole time that we would run out of sustaining power ourselves to finish the job but Abel III kept everyone supplied from his own reserves. All of us are about dead on our feet and we are scheduled to depart the station early tomorrow morning. I think it would be best if we all got to bed so that we are rested for tomorrow.”

With that we all bade them goodnight and left him and Kade and headed to our own cabins to shower and rest. Bill said goodnight to us all in the hallway and then said, “I expected my birthday to be special because we had a day and a half to celebrate it on a station instead of being deep in space. It ended up being much more memorable than I thought and the surprise was not anything I would ever want to repeat.”

We all nodded our heads in exhausted agreement as we headed to the arms of Morpheus.