Aberrant: The Long March - Chapter 8: Those who have strayed from the path.

[Mr Fox]

Over the course of two days of tireless work on the parts of Steve, Andrew, Cody, Michael and Amber, you have narrowed the field down to 5 candidates as your potential spies. Three assistants to Department heads all in positions of access to the appropriate docs and information to leak the technology, and two actual department heads that were in already in trusted positions and were not required to undergo scans.

Also of note, Lorean has become a media sensation. While there has been some grumbling that the public was not made aware of the second ship, the overall response is one of great relief in the foresight of creating the second ship. It has been made public that Enterprise was destroyed by aliens, but the public has been urged not to overreact. It is currently being portrayed as a tragic mistake, and the people are being reassured that a meeting with the aliens has been set in order to resolve the situation. Publicly everything is calm, but orders have been issued for several new ships to be constructed. The President has told you privately that they ships will be equipped with weapons and defenses unlike the Enterprise which was intended for exploration purposes only. The orders have not yet been issued for the the ship upgrades since that would put the technology into the hands of the spies you are hunting.

As of two days ago, the entire human output has been geared to advancements in space and production of more ships in the event that peace talks fail. The President has personally assured you all that even if this situation is resolved peacefully, he will continue to pursue these goals so that the human race will never again be placed in such a precarious situation.

On the third day the group gathers again for the testing of the final 5 candidates. Everyone is present in the event that you may all have to take action immediately, to prevent escape or sabotage. To start with Steve asks Amber to see what will happen when Cody and Michael scan the head of the Procurements department. Amber gets the familiar look of concentration, then opens her eyes wide in surprise, and yells out, "DON'T!" (In order for her precognitive abilities to work Cody and Michael have to be actually preparing to do a scan.)

After a moment she calms, and explains, "I don't know if he is a spy or not, but if you had scanned him it would have set in motion a very bad chain of events that would have led to the destruction of the lunar shipyards." Seeing the look on Cody's face, she adds, "No, I don't know how he could even be aware of you scanning him, but that's what I saw."

The next person on the list is the head of the Biotech department which is non other than Gemma the Psion that invented the technology and who has been involved in the project from the beginning. She wasn't scanned because she developed the tech itself and it wasn't deemed necessary to scan her since she invented the tech. Amber concentrates and after a moment smiles. "If you scan her she will know it, she is a strong Teep after all. She will be annoyed about it, but it will not lead to any difficulties or discoveries."

Next is Gemma's personal assistant. Amber concentrates, again as Cody and Michael prepare to reach out for his mind. This time Amber's eyes jerk open and she physically reaches out and gives both Michael and Cody a shove as she shouts, "STOP!" She looks shaken and sits down quickly being assisted by Steve. "I'm sorry, but that was close. Gemma's assistant Maury Leftowitz is one of your spies. Worse, he's not supposed to be a Psion, but if you had scanned him Cody would have been killed and Michael would have been severely damaged mentally."

Moving on to the final two one turns out to be innocent, and the other, the assistant to the Director of the Lunar shipyards would have caused the same problem as the head of the Procurement department. Scanning him would have led to the destruction of the shipyards. When it is all done Amber sits looking very tired and drained.

[Courier]

Steve moves to sit by Amber and holding her hand says,

"I think you just saved the world Love."

(To everyone else) He says quietly,

"So, we've got a telepath stronger than Cody and Mike, who is working for a Telepathic Psion without her knowledge. We also have two land-mines."

"I think the next step is to move to a room a few rooms away from her and do some node pings."

[Courier]

Steve catches himself and continues,

"No, there's no need for that. We could just make a cell and teleport her into it, but that's misreading the problem."

"Multiple issues here. First, a super powered alien. Second, possibility of other super powered aliens. Third, she or they will have created puppets. Forth, possible explosives in the shipyards, although that might just be the third point. Fifth, possibility of these being on a dead man switch."

"Question: Lorean, just how good are your psi-shields? Could you hold Mike?"

(OOC: Steve turns on Mental Pro: Invest)

[Mr Fox]

Lorean looks uncomfortable at the question, but answers. "No Steve. I couldn't prevent someone of Michael's caliber from penetrating my shields. They are most effective when someone isn't aware of them, and thus not aware of us. Trying to find someone when they are behind our shields especially if they don't know where we are physically is very difficult, even Michael would have trouble with that. If someone of his strength were inside the shields I couldn't block them from getting messages out. Also, being able to look up from the surface of the moon and see us sitting here would give someone of his strength the edge they need to get in as well. Your own personal psychic defenses combined with my shields should make it next to impossible for any of you to be compromised. Andrew might be a risk though if someone were to target him, but they would have to specifically target him as long as he's on board."

[Omar]

Omar, who had been a bystander during the spy hunt, spoke to Steve and the others. "Could we manipulate them into sending out the signal to blow up the shipyards, without the trigger at the shipyards getting the signal?" Omar figured he had to explain further.

"What if we head back in time 20 years. Once there, we scan their minds until they send the signal to blow up the shipyards. I doubt the bombs, or whatever it is that they have, will be there then. Then we come back and act as if the shipyards blew up. If we are convincing enough, they might just give up where the bombs were planted after the fact. Then we simply go to and remove the threats."

[Courier]

Steve says,

"I doubt there are any explosives as such. It'll be just like the Enterprise, the crew will deliberately destroy themselves. This is a shipyard, there's all kinds of stuff that could be used. The guys working with compressed oxygen will... it doesn't matter."

"Rounding them up wouldn't be hard. It's my company. I call a company wide meeting complete with cake and ice cream to announce a multi-trillion dollar contract. Then we detain everyone."

"But that just deals with the pawns, their King is the real prize here. He, she, or it knows how they found us and why they're doing this. They also know whether or not they've got a squad of planet breakers as backup for the lizards."

[Andrew Murphy]

"Cut off a limb and it will merely regenerate, but cut off the head and the body will die." Andrew nods to himself, "If Steve is right the easiest thing to do will be to evacuate all of the workers from the shipyards prior to our interdiction of the mole. With nobody to sabotage them the shipyards should be safe."

[Mr Fox]

Lorean clears her throat. "Something has just occurred to me that I think I should share. When we became 'trapped' here in this timeline, I said once that I believed that it meant we could travel back and forth inside this timeline if we wished. That is something I could not do when I was free to travel the multiverse. Before, if we made a change and traveled back we would end up in an alternate timeline, thus, you all felt that you couldn't ever really make a difference, because you could never see the results of what you did, only alternates."

Lorean looks a little amazed, "I don't understand the physics of it, but if I understand things right, whatever, Max and I did to trap us here seems to have changed that. I am reasonably sure that I can now travel through time within a single timeline if I wish it." She looks very pleased at the discovery.

"I'm not at all suggesting that we should use this ability in the current situation, but since Omar brought it up, I thought I should let you all know."

[Courier]

Steve says,

"Thank you Lorean, that does give us more options."

"OK... my feeling is that we're going to find that he's a psi user, but someone is going to need to do some node pings to test that."

"Let's proceed under the assumption that it's true. Omar, Joani, and Andrew need to manhandle and set up two of those psi-dampers next to a cell Lorean will prepare."

"Question: Lorean, how long could you run both of those and the psi-shield at their maximum? And how long do you think it'd take to set that up?"

[Mr Fox]

Lorean frowns. "I'm sorry Steve, but we only have one psi damper. On the bright side, I can power that one damper and my shields at maximum for three weeks if I don't have to do anything else. Of course we have to Jump to meet the Chromatics in just a week and I will need to be at full power for that."

[Joani]

Originally Posted By: Courier

Steve says,

"Let's proceed under the assumption that it's true. Omar, Joani, and Andrew need to manhandle and set up two of those psi-dampers next to a cell Lorean will prepare."

Joani nodded briefly, "I think I can handle that damper on my own. No need to bind three of us for that task.", she looked at Omar and Andrew for approval and assuming they didn't object she proceeded to get the damper.

[Courier]

Steve says,

"Lorean, three weeks to run both dampers, how much time would a jump say a light year take off that?"

[Mr Fox]

"Actually, it is 3 weeks with one damper and the shields. A one lightyear jump would take off about 5 hours or so."

[Courier]

Steve nods and says,

"Then I propose we do the following. We spend a day or two making arrangements. This includes making darn sure we're dealing with a god level psi and not a nova, and setting things up on the shipyard, and getting legal authority to do what we have to. Then we do the cake and ice cream announcement thing and teleport him to the brig, immediately followed by us warping a light year away."

"Everyone who doesn't have a great mindshield stays behind, specifically including the President and Andrew."

"Then we try to figure out what's what. After we're done, regardless of how long it takes and what we do, we'll warp back in time to come back shortly after we left."

[Andrew Murphy]

Frustration lined Andrew's face, "Sorry folks, Steve's right, I thihk the last thing that any of you want to see is what somebody who doesn't fear for damaging my body could do with my abilities. I just wish there was something I could work on in the meantime."

[Joani]

"Maybe you could participate as a hologram? Just like we did with Caroline?", Joani suggested just before she left to get the damper.

[Omar]

"I am sick and tired of these spies, posessors, and miscreants. For once, I would like to really put the hurt on one of them. Make them realize their error." Omar looked like he was about to erupt with rage.

[Courier]

(Activate Sooth)

Steve says,

(To Omar) "My friend, that's going to happen. In a day or two specifically."

(To Joani) "With Caroline we were safe with the room. The dampers aren't going to be enough, they wouldn't fully stop Omar or Mike and this guy is at least as strong." Steve looks at Michael and shrugs in apology.

(To Andrew) "There won't be much 'meantime'. After you're sure the psi-dampers are working and the ball starts rolling we'll backtrack things so you don't miss anything."

[Joani]

Joani changed her mind as she saw Omars outburst.

"Mabye you should go get that damper? Looks like you need some air to vent.", she smiled at him friendly.

[SkyLion]

Cody looks at Amber.

*Is the deadman switch only triggered by telepathic interrogation? What would happen if I walk in there and interrogate the subject normally. The hallucinatory effects of my gaze and the hypnotic effect it instills could very well keep them from triggering whatever it is that has compromised the spaceport.*

Cody walks over and stats turning the door handle with the full intention of carrying out such an interrogation. He will only stop if Amber's reading tells him to. The intent to act must be real for her powers to work...

[Courier]

Steve says,

"Cody, if that alien finds out before we're ready he'll kill lots and lots of people. That's the switch. Those two are his prime puppets, he's in their minds, and if he finds out they're made then the game is over."

[Mr Fox]

Amber nods, "Steve's right. I don't have to use my talent for that. They are being watched by the spy, I'm sure of it."

[SkyLion]

*If that's true, then what does our spy think about our little roundup of its pawns?*

[Courier]

Steve shrugs and says,

"We haven't rounded up anyone yet. All my people are happily going about their jobs..." Steve waves a hand vaguely in what might be the shipyard's direction "...without knowing that you and Mike were about to probe their minds. All our research has been on paper, computer monitors, or in an aborted future."

"But... best move on the table for him right now is too blow up the shipyard. He needed for us to develop the technology so he could give it to the lizards, but what is he waiting for..., ah, right."

"We pulled another ship out of our pocket. That might mean we have an entire other shipyard as well. Maybe more tech too. Odd that he hasn't tried to scan my mind, we've probably met over the years. Hmm... either he pegged me as a nova, or just my wife being a nova scared him off. Also odd that he never scanned Andrew."

"Our Mr. X is being very, very cautious with the novas. But he doesn't mind working right under a Psion. Interesting."

"So... the next step is to confirm we're dealing with a Super-Psion and not a Super-Nova. Whatever he is he's not dormed, shapeshifted or something maybe, but not dormed. Not if he can fry our best on the drop of a hat."

"So... Lorean will monitor the phones, Amber will pull a string that will pull a string and make some work for him. When Lorean tells us that he's in his office stuck on the phone, Amber and I will pay a visit to the office above or below him or whatever. I'll throw about 100 node pings his way while we set up the big meeting."

"We'll set up a televised company wide meeting to announce our new Trillion dollar contracts and answer questions. With both Enterprise and Lorean some people will be worrying about their jobs. If Mr. X is smart he'll use that meeting to try and find out where the other shipyard is or what the deal is with Lorean."

"And while everyone is at the meeting about to have cake and ice cream, we'll teleport Mr. X into Lorean's holding cell, complete with a big tank of Liquid N to dump on him if worst comes to worse. Then a one light year jump, and security can detain the entire crowd."

Steve thinks a moment and then nods,

"It should work. The cameras will let Lorean pin point him. Security won't know anything in advance which is a bit rough on them but needed. We'll get a Presidential order before we pick him up."

[Joani]

"Omar and I are going to be backup in case things get physical?", Joani looked a little lost, this obviously wasn't her battlefield.

[Courier]

Steve thinks for a moment and replies,

"Between her enhanced senses and my own we should be able to have Lorean pull us out before it gets rough, but if it does..."

"There's a phrase in business called 'throwing good money after bad'. If we're lost then I advise you to let the agent go, or come back in time later and nuke him. Someone has to live to carry on the fight."

[Joani]

"Do you mean kill him?", Joani asked.

[Courier]

Steve replies,

"Him and everyone else in the same city. Joani, Cody and Mike couldn't take him in mental combat. If they couldn't then you, me, Amber, and Omar wouldn't last long either."

"In the mean time you should probably explain to the President what we've found and ask him for a presidential order telling us to do what we're going to do anyway."

[Joani]

"I can do that.", said Joani a little relieved to take some action instead of waiting.

"There is no other way I suppose?...", a faint of hope clinging to her voice as she left the room.

[Andrew Murphy]

Andrew listens as the conversation continues, deep in thought he wishes that there were more he could do to help the others. Finally he begins to search his memory (and thus by extension Lorean's databanks) for any possible chemical compounds that can neutralize a Psion's ability in the way the more well known anti-nova chemicals can. If he is able to recall any he will synthesize some for the group so that they can at least attempt to level the playing field if their mole turns out to be a psion.

[Omar]

Quote:

Him and everyone else in the same city. Joani, Cody and Mike couldn't take him in mental combat. If they couldn't then you, me, Amber, and Omar wouldn't last long either."

Omar furrowed his well tended, yet bushy eyebrows. "If I engage him in combat, it won't be mental. I doubt a psion will be able to withstand a punch from either Joani or myself. The moment he attempts to wipe my brain, I smash his brains in."

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: Ziggurat

Omar furrowed his well tended, yet bushy eyebrows. "If I engage him in combat, it won't be mental. I doubt a psion will be able to withstand a punch from either Joani or myself. The moment he attempts to wipe my brain, I smash his brains in."

Steve responds,

"Omar... do you really have it in you to kill someone without giving them a chance to think or surender? I don't think Joani does. You give this guy a chance to act and you're as dead as Cody or as brain damaged as Mike. And that's with what we know. Best case is he's dead and you're alive."

"Worse case is that whatever else he's got really hits us below the belt. Maybe he's got precognition so effectively he's quicker than we are. Maybe he doesn't really have a body so your fist goes right through him. Maybe killing him forces him into Joani's body, or even just the closest baseline."

"If he kills two of us my advise is to not risk two more... but obviously I won't be around to offer anything so you'll have to choose for yourself."

[Joani]

"I could try to immobilize him with my superbreath - but thats still taking the risk of being slower than him. Should it not work, Omar can close in to...", she looked at the floor and didn't end the sentence.

"At least he would be distracted with me - maybe thats just long enough for Omar to act. Besides that - I'm quick.", she looked at Omar. "You're not going to take him all on your own, I'm with you."

[SkyLion]

*My intuition tells me we are making far too many assumptions about the nature of our adversary. What do we have here? A few pawns at best. We can't say for certain whether the puppet master is novus or psion, human or alien. In short we are taking a stab in the dark.*

[Courier]

Steve responds,

"Oh, he's alien." Steve pauses and adds,

"Probably. Almost certainly. Well, OK, there's an element of finding what we're looking for here, and thank you for pointing that out." Steve appears serious about that last part, from experience Cody knows that he doesn't mind having his analytical mistakes pointed out to him. Steve hesitates, which means he's thinking deeply, and continues,

"If he's a nova he doesn't look the part and he hasn't shown up as one during the 8 years we've known about him. To be this strong he'd have to have been around since the beginning, and that's a hard sell."

"If he's a Psion then he *can't* be that old, and in just a few years he's become the strongest Psion on Earth by an insane amount. Some of this could be him twisting anyone who does find him, but even so, again it's a really hard sell."

"Add to that him wanting to cripple our ship yards and probably giving tech to the aliens and that's extremely suggestive. Even so... other possibilities could be that he's an insane paranormal. Big time powerful, big time crazy."

Steve seems a touch relieved to add this,

"If he is we'd have to treat him the same way that we are. We need to stop him from taking down the ship yards. We need to know what he knows and why he's doing what he's doing."

[Mr Fox]

The next day dawned early. The media is keeping the general populace calm, but there is a bit of buzz that Advantech will be making a big announcement today which has people watching their connections for updates. The President has signed off on your plans and given you the official go ahead. He is going to be teleporting to a secret location during your confrontation.

Before the big meeting Amber gives Steve the go ahead for trying the node ping. Since he is expected to be in the office at the time there is nothing unusual about the situation. The node pings prove without a doubt that the spy is not a nova and the plan proceeds.

At 10:00am Local time, 1:30pm EST, Avantech founder and chairman Steve Courier calls all employees to a meeting. On Earth, the Moon and even Mars all Avantech employees crown into meeting rooms, conference rooms, and whatever space will hold all the local employees. At the shipyard facilities on the moon all employees made their way to the designated spot, the spy included. Lorean was able to track his movements through security cameras and pinpoint him in the crowd. She says over the link, "Everyone. I have a fix on the target, there is no need to make a direct physical confrontation yet. I can port him directly aboard. Operation On Ice is a go."

At 10:10 with everyone assembled across the solar system and media networks the world over tuned in, Advantech's press secretary introduced Steve Courier and stepped aside so that he could take the podium.

[Courier]

Steve walks up to the podium and says,

"Everyone. I'm Steve Courier, chairman of Avantech. As we are all aware, the Enterprise was destroyed with only one survivor. Our deepest sympathy go out to it's crew and their families."

"I am here to address a few rumors, and to make some announcements. First of all, at this point we're sure the destruction of the Enterprise was not the result a design flaw. If anyone is blaming themselves for this late at night, don't. Your work has been admirable."

"There have been rumors of a second ship, and these rumors are correct. The Lorean does exist, it's creation is a long story that's not relevant in our current situation. However have no fear, your work was key and will remain so."

"To be blunt, with the events of the Enterprise it has been decided the entire space project is going to be vastly expanded. Ditto this company. You should expect and plan for extremely large growth, and you should also expect the manufacture of many more space craft."

"Just a moment, I have a prerecorded announcement to run." Steve clicks a button, nothing happens, a look of irritation crosses his face and walks off stage for a moment..."

*Lorean, now would be a good time. Please begin your transporter sequences.*

(The taped message starts to explain that ice cream and cake is available, and with the military nature of their expansion everyone will be required to undergo mental screening before returning to work. Steve and the alien should be long gone before the scanning part is mentioned and if they aren't he'll stop the recording.)

{Activate Trickster, Mental Prodigy Invest, several other enhancements are always on}

[Mr Fox]

Lorean takes her cue and a certain director's personal assistant simply disappears from the crowd. A few people around them are startled, but in the next instant the recorded message begins to play. With the scale of the announcement the oddity is quickly forgotten by those few who noticed. Security also detains the two dangerous individuals who would have attempted to destroy the shipyards. The detentions are quiet and though more people noticed the two being led off by security, nothing is thought of it in the general excitement of the moment.

On board, in a specially designed cell with many safety precautions in place a man suddenly appears gasps in surprise and less than three seconds later his eyes roll up in his head and he slumps to the ground unconscious.

Over the link Lorean announces, *The target has been acquired and passified, it should be safe to begin.*

[SkyLion]

As soon as Mr. X and Steve are onboard Cody has Lorean teleport as far away as she can in a single jump to a random and remote location.

He is waiting for Steve when he teleports back to Lorean.

*Well Old Man, whomever, or whatever has been watching our man here has got to be pretty pissed off right about now. Any thought as to how you want to go about this? Even isolated, unconscious, and safe behind Loreans shields, I don't want to risk whatever booby-traps may be lying in this man's mind. I suppose I could do it the old fashioned way...*

[Andrew Murphy]

Sitting up on the stage Andrew figeted, knowing what was going to happen didn't make him any more comfortable and he still felt angry that he couldn't help. Steve finished his speech and left the stage as the tape began to roll disappearing from right in front of Andrew as he followed. Good luck guys, I wish I could help.