Chapter 49
Enter Byron, Enter Talia
Earth Alliance Metasensory Research Center
Geneva, Switzerland, Earth
May 1, 2271
Major Susan Ivanova walked with President Garrison Hollifield inside the halls of what was once the main research facility of the Psi Corps. They were in Teeptown, the village where telepaths were first brought to upon discovery or birth to be trained and live away from regular people, or normals, as the teeps called them. Under their breath, some telepaths called normals "mundanes", but the current director had set a policy where any teep found calling a normal by that slur would be subject to a fine. Not surprisingly, no telepath had yet to be fined under said policy.
Deanna Troi was being treated for sustaining a massive neural invasion. Her mother, Betazed Ambassador Lwaxana Troi, was with her, holding her hand and gently sending messages to her. Hollifield could pick them up in his own mind as if she were voicing them from her mouth, but he mentally walled himself against it so as to stick to business.
The ambassador stood up as she noticed the two of them coming into the room. "Is there any news on her condition," she asked.
"It's what we were afraid of. From the scans they made, it appears that the former Psi Cop, Alfred Bester, has planted something deep inside her. Or, rather, many things. We're not sure about all he's done to her. For all we know, he may have implanted a sleeper personality inside of her that, when she p'hears the right word..."
Lwaxana Troi looked puzzled and asked, "I'm sorry, but what is 'p'hear'?"
Hollifield paused and said, "P'hear means to hear a message from another telepath in your brain, or to hear the thoughts of someone else. We had this problem years ago with a telepath named Talia Winters..."
Flashback 2259
Susan Ivanova had entered what were once the quarters of her old friend, and hoped-to-be lover, Talia Winters, expecting to find some shred of the person she once knew. The new Talia destroyed that hope with a blunt speech:
"Always the romantic. The program is complete. The Talia you knew no longer exists. There's just me. .. You don't know what it's like living only in the shadows of her mind, watching, laughing at all of you out here: foolish, petty, stupid. There I was, trapped inside, able to come out only at night when she was asleep. Her invisible sister. And you believed everything she said to you, all the things you wanted to hear, all the words I whispered in her thoughts while she lay sleeping, the words that would get her closer to you .. and to what you knew. You should see the look on your face .. my good .. and dear friend Susan."
To this day, that image had haunted her. Slowly but surely, she was falling for the blonde in the crisp, tight Psi Corps uniform. She had come to her quarters one night, after Bester had been fooled into thinking that the rogue telepaths that Dr. Stephen Franklin had been smuggling into and out of the station were all dead, with a couple of glasses and a bottle of wine. That had been the start of her feelings for Talia, and those feelings had been crushed when Lyta Alexander had sent the psychic password she'd discovered for the hidden sleeper agent into Talia's brain.
Back to present
Susan Ivanova shook off the thoughts of Talia and concentrated on the moment itself. Deanna Troi was waking up, and she twisted and turned in her bed. She opened her eyes and looked at Ivanova. She smiled and Ivanova returned the smile. Deanna's mind was foggy, and she thought it might be the drugs they were using on her. She laid back and turned to see her mom.
"Good morning, Mother.," she said softly.
Lwaxana's eyes misted as she replied, "Good morning, child!"
One of the doctors came in and did a brief scan of Deanna, checking her condition. The doctor nodded and placed a device on Deanna to assist him in the scan. He did it without saying a word, and then left after just a few moments.
The three didn't think much of the device, and Hollifield asked Lwaxana if she'd like to take a break and come down to his office to talk. They left, and Ivanova stayed briefly, looking back at Deanna. Deanna smiled and nodded, and Ivanova returned the gesture, then turned to leave. Just then, the device spoke one word, in a familiar voice: "carnival".
Ivanova noticed whose voice that was and turned to see what was going on, but Deanna Troi leapt up and grabbed her, hitting the device. They were beamed out of the office and onto a strange ship. Ivanova tried to get up, but Deanna had a death grip on her.
Bester walked up to them, saying, "Well done, Deanna! Now we have our bargaining chip!"