Chapter 7
"If the Psi Corps find out about Will, they'll take him," confirmed Lyta, in answer to Susan's greatest concern.
"How strong are his abilities?" asked Susan, making a great effort to keep her fears in check. If unleashed without constraint, they would probably be terrifying enough to awaken the sleeping Will.
"Technically he's too young for any formal testing but I'd say that at the very least he's above psi 5 and that is a very conservative estimate, I would think that he'd be nearer a psi 8 to 10 maybe more. It will become clearer when he gets older and I think that he has the potential to become much stronger," said Lyta, without much expression.
Susan's heart hammered painfully as she absorbed this information. Her mouth was dry and she had gone extremely pale.
"How... how is that possible? I'm barely telepathic at all," she gasped.
"I'm not sure, but what is obvious is that there is a genetic heritage in your family line. Sometimes it skips a generation. Your mother appears to have had average telepathic capabilities but she was fully able to communicate telepathically, which requires at least a psi 3. I'd also have expected it to be stronger in Iona but somehow it's not, so my other hypothesis is that maybe it's also because he is Marcus' son," reasoned Lyta dispassionately.
"What do you mean?" asked Susan sharply.
"The Corps are very particular about the suitability of their pairings. They chart family trees meticulously to try to breed more powerful telepaths. From what I'm aware of, telepathic ability is usually inherited and even if the parents are only latent telepaths, some well matched pairings can produce very powerful telepathic offspring. Thankfully, they've not quite discovered exactly how that happens or else I'm sure that they would find a way to exploit the knowledge for their own ends," explained Lyta with a grimace.
She looked at Susan, "I think it's more than likely Marcus has latent telepathic abilities too. Some of the things he seems to know, at times it does feel like more than just intuition and sheer luck. And for some reason when you match your genes together, you get a much stronger telepath, like Will. I'm saying this because even though Iona is mildly telepathic, she is nearly and adult but her abilities are not half as strong as Will's and she is John's daughter. I certainly don't think the Captain could ever be described as telepathic in any way," commented Lyta dryly.
Susan sat ramrod straight as she listened to Lyta's words. It was everything that she had feared and more. Will was only four and he was already a fairly strong telepath, most telepaths were latent until their adolescent years somehow triggered their telepathic abilities. Deep down, she was still worried that her own latent powers would one day be activated. Somehow she had always felt that her telepathy was only dormant, eventually to be brought forth.
It was horrifying to find out that her long-held fear had partly come true. Only what she had feared was dormant in her, was brought to life in Will. Will, who was somehow her son but yet not quite. In a different universe he was her son, her son!
"What? How do I protect him?" said Susan slowly, trying to marshal a strategy against the overwhelming fear.
Lyta stared at her.
"I suggest that you talk to Marcus. Somehow I get the feeling that he may know more about telepathy than you think. He's certainly very good at shielding his thoughts. I suppose that's a useful technique for a Ranger but I've always wondered about him having some telepathic ability," advised Lyta.
A few minutes passed in silence.
"Is there anything else?" asked Lyta, preparing to leave.
"Yes, how strong is Iona?" asked Susan, assuming that her daughter's telepathic ability was stronger than her own.
"I don't know. She might be able to tell you herself. She declined to be tested," replied Lyta.
Iona had been taught to shield herself and fake the tests as well. Lyta naturally assumed that she had been trained by her own mother, who probably felt the same as the Susan here did, in such matters. Iona's mother had very successfully impressed upon Iona the need to be suspicious and on her guard against any telepath and to always deny her abilities.
"Thank you," said Susan, standing up to see Lyta to the door.
Lyta answered with a brief nod and walked out the door without a backward glance.
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Marcus walked into Susan's quarters with a resigned air. He knew that the only reason he was here was that she had something to say regarding Will. Otherwise, he would never be summoned outside of official business. He was no further forward in his quest to win her favour and more importantly her heart.
He was too caught up in his own thoughts regarding the nature of their current relationship that initially he did not notice Susan's alarm. When he sat down and eventually took in her appearance, he was startled to see fear in her eyes. What had happened?
"Susan? What's wrong? Is it something about Will? Susan?" questioned Marcus impatiently.
Susan took a deep breath and half nodded miserably. It was extremely hard for her to broach the subject of her telepathy. Her ingrained sense of fear of betraying herself and having herself or someone else that she loved subjected to the kind of treatment that her mother had suffered was intensely overwhelming. She knew that she could trust Marcus and indeed, she did trust him with her life. He definitely could be trusted with this; actually he was already aware of her telepathy from Will's stray comments. But all that logic could not quell her irrational fears that had haunted her for so many years. Added to that, she had nearly worked herself up into a frenzy with worry before finally realising that Lyta was right. The best person to talk to was Marcus. Will was his son too.
"Susan?" prodded Marcus sharply, he was starting to get worked up himself.
Susan swallowed and took a deep breath. She clasped her hands tightly together in her lap and kept her eyes lowered to the floor.
"It's about his telepathic powers," began Susan.
Marcus relaxed a fraction.
"What about them?" asked Marcus when Susan took a long time to continue.
"I asked Lyta to try to assess his strength," said Susan hesitantly.
"What? And you didn't even tell me? Susan, you should have let me know about something like that," said Marcus in exasperation.
Susan was startled by his comment. It distracted her momentarily.
"Well, it's not like you're around that much," she shot back sharply.
"He's my son too and we're raising him together remember? You've not mentioned a thing about doing that. Why did you do something like that? He's only four for goodness sake; most telepaths only develop full powers when they reach adolescence. Luckily I agree that Lyta can be trusted too. Otherwise, he could be in a lot of danger," snapped Marcus.
Susan was angry now. How dare he assume that she regarded Will's safety lightly? There was no way that she would ever do something that she thought would remotely compromise his safety.
"Well, I'm sorry but I've done it and now there are things that we need to discuss from that. Besides, as he gets it from my side of the family, it was my responsibility to ensure that his telepathic abilities are monitored and that he does not fall into the clutches of Psi Corps," she ranted, then put a hand over her mouth in shock. She had just confessed that she had telepathic abilities.
Marcus was now up and pacing. He came back to stand at her seat and looked her in the eye. He leaned down and put both his arms on the armrests on both sides of her seat, trapping her in place.
"Why do you assume it's always your responsibility and that it's all about you? How do you know that his abilities aren't from 'my side of the family' as you've so termed it," he growled at her. His face was inches from hers and she could just about feel his breath on her face.
Susan's eyes went wide.
