Chocky's Dawn
by Chaoseternus
Note that italics indicates telepathy.
One
Commander Thompson was not in a good mood, first he gets a call at 6am informing him that his new command had been assigned to somebody else, and not just any somebody, but Captain Ewans, a man who owed his rather meteoric rise through the ranks more to political manoeuvring and straight blackmail then competence, a word, Thompson thought sarcastically, that Ewans would no doubt have to look up in the dictionary, and that he had been shifted to a shore posting, he was now that most vile of creatures, a paper pusher.
That was a bad start to what was certainly a bad day.
At 7am, his mother calls, bothering to speak to him for the first time since father was lost, to tell him that an Aunt he never liked had died and that as he was in the country, family honour required him to attend the funeral.
He was forced, after twenty minutes of listening to her prattle on, to tell her exactly where she could stick family honour'. He had no intention of showing up, there were few enough of his relatives he liked and the best of those was still listed as MIA.
At 7.30, having finally managed to drop back to sleep, the twins called, rather tearfully explaining that they had been involved in an accident, and his vintage Mustang, his Cherry Red beauty which they had borrowed had been hit by a truck just seconds after they stepped out, his pride and joy, which he had spent the best part of a thousand pounds on restoring hadn't just been wiped out, she had been burnt out.
Then the Police called, to inform him of the same and to ask, all too casually if the girls really did have permission to borrow his car. Considering the twins were the only two he would trust with his baby, which rather put him off. Not to mention, finding out that the truck driver had failed a roadside breathalyzer test.
At 8am, his stockbroker called to tell him that one of the companies he held shares in had gone under and he had lost six hundred pounds. At which point, it became obvious that he was really for it and getting to sleep was out.
A therapist and maybe an intravenous drip of caffeine certainly seemed called for however. Hence, he tried to make a cup of tea of tea, just waiting for the kettle to blow up on him and join the long list of things that had gone wrong already today. It didn't, but the tension even had his cat crawling into hiding and that was enough, he needed to calm down.
A long walk was called for, the rain could go to hell, he needed to walk some tension off. Of course, he should have left his pager at home; else maybe he could have honestly told Admiral Winters that he hadn't got her message in time. In London of course, couldn't get to a phone in time' wouldn't wash.
One Admiral Winters was caught up in the office and thanks to a recent crisis, and there was enough of them going around that he was tempted to ask which one, he would not be able to take his son to the private school he had gained access to, could Thompson possibly oblige?
Well, you don't say no to an Admiral if you can reasonably avoid it, and it wasn't as if he had to size up his new command anymore, apparently word had already spread that he didn't have one to size up. Hence why he was here now, trying to help a child he knew very little about to settle in and cursing Winters for dropping him into what was his responsibility, not mine.
To cap off a perfect day, the children here all seemed to have one thing in common.
They were all insane.
Doesn't look special does he? Albertine commented, You would hardly think he was military
Maybe not, but you need to be careful, you know how much trouble we have had with that sort in the past Mathew replied, his thoughts tinged with dark memories, dark places, the military can not be trusted
You do not need to tell me, Albertine grimaced mentally, her face carefully blank as she observed the officer who had delivered their newest recruit; I wish I knew why Chocky chose this one. She had to know it would be merely a matter of time before he blabbed something to his father and then, once more, we will have to deal with the military. They are only interested in control, in power, not in what's good for the planet
Maybe, I would not be surprised if the child was a plant either, He replied, and Albertine caught at the very edge of her mental perceptions the movement of Mathew's hand, and a canvas. He was painting again, but then, he was always painting, he was famous for it, either way, you will need to be careful. I am just glad I am in New York; hopefully well away from any fallout that you may spread around England
Thank you Mathew, she replied, not bothering to hide the sarcasm, it's nice to know you are with me every step of the way
Always, Mathew grinned, the expression coming through cclearly with his thoughts, Always
I am not sure I should be leaving Thomas here, however much Winters might think this school is prestigious, a place for the upcoming geniuses of Britain, it is clear that they aren't entirely sane.
Okay, so I do expect Geniuses to be slightly off, but still, I have noticed them talking to themselves, I have overheard them talking about aliens as if they were real, always going dead quiet if they think I might be able to hear, about the last time the military got involved' whatever that means and about technologies that are the realms of science fiction, not science fact.
Okay, so I am no scientist, but even I know there is no way to get energy from nothing, yet when they think I can not hear, they talk as if there is, and more importantly, certainly more tellingly, they talk about telepathy, telekinesis as if they were not only real, but as if they had them. I may need to recommend an investigation into this place, maybe even psychiatric evaluations for these children.
I now they are not normal, that's in a good way in their cases and why they are here, but something is wrong and that is a problem. My perfect day just got capped.
"He suspects something" Albertine commented, as soon as the officer finally left, "could they be checking on us once more?"
Her father just shook his head, and resisted the urge to roll his eyes; he used to get locked up his work, become oblivious to what was around him, but still, "If we were being left alone for once, then I assure you, we will not be now. Even I thought you were all behaving a bit off and I'm used to you, imagine what he thinks?"
"Yes, but is he with them?"
"I don't know, he's military yes, but it wasn't he navy that caused us problems last time and" Arnold Meyer shot his daughter an affectionate, if somewhat resigned look, "I know you checked his records"
"I couldn't" Albertine admitted, "not completely, there are several sections for which every access is logged and the coding was solid. They would almost certainly notice that somebody had been hacking in if I touched that"
"That's interesting," Arnold frowned, "and troubling. It means he has done some highly classified work in the past"
"So, the Military is checking up on us again" Albertine commented.
"Not necessarily, you do remember that it wasn't the military that kidnapped Mathew the first time, or the pair of you the second"
"So" Albertine frowned even deeper, "we don't know who is checking up on us then"
Her father rolled his eyes, "Albertine, find up a dictionary and look up the word paranoid'. He may have been on the level, in which case if he is as responsible as he seemed, thanks to your behaviour and that of your comrades, he will now investigate just to check that everybody here is quite sane"
Arnold considered that for a moment, "considering that you regularly talk using telepathy and we have a non-corporeal alien paying us visits, its entirely possible he may label us insane"
Albertine frowned," I can't imagine why"
Arnold shook his head, the scary thing was, she wasn't being sarcastic, she actually couldn't see why they might be considered insane. In truth, his daughter really needed to get out more, and dare he say it, get laid?
She certainly needed something to wake her up to the world