Thirteen
Chapter Seventeen
Dancing With The Devil
Most of the time, Garrison Hollifield prided himself on being unlike the vast majority of politicians, in that he didn't put his own special interests ahead of the people he governed as president of the Earth Alliance. However, there are exceptions to every rule, and this was most definitely one of those times.
His transport was supposed to go straight to Earth, but it stopped near the Orion 7 colony, where a former Psi Corps ship now operated by telepaths sworn to him met it, and who had a certain Alfred Bester on board. He didn't like doing this, but since Bester was nearing his final days, it would make for some rather fitting poetic justice that he be used in a way that he used so many people. That salved Hollifield's guilt for the most part, but it didn't make him feel less dirty.
His uncle Walter wouldn't approve, but since he passed away shortly after the Drakh plague had been eradicated, he wasn't around to browbeat him. Hollifield remembered some of the lectures that the former drill sergeant and Baptist minister had given him growing up about living up to high standards. His aunt Peggy wouldn't like it either, but both would understand that this needed to be done.
Hollifield was born on August 8, 2215 near the Cherry Point Earthforce Base on the coast of North Carolina, near Jacksonville. He was the only son and youngest child Peter and Rebecca Hollifield, having five older sisters who ranged from twelve to five years older than he was. His father was the senior trainer for pilots, while his mother worked as an executive for a nearby military contractor.
His childhood was an unusually normal one for a military brat, as his father stayed stationed at the base at the behest of the commander for his excellent record in turning out top quality pilots. All that changed when he turned eight and his mother shockingly got telepathic abilities, and angered many in the family by choosing to enter Psi Corps instead of just taking the sleepers and staying at home. His father, who was shaken up by the transformation of his wife, sent his kids to live with his brother, Walter, who was in the Earthforce Marine Reserves and lived in Asheville, North Carolina.
Walter became the main father figure in young Garrison's life, as he encouraged him to play sports and to excel in his schoolwork. Despite his past as a drill sergeant and his role as pastor of the Asheville Reformed Southern Baptist Church, he had a light touch with his nieces and nephew.
Garrison had just entered junior high when he got his telepathic abilities. He had just finished football practice when his abilities awakened inside him. Before anyone could do anything about it, a Psi Corps representative was on the seen and whisked him away. His mother had him entered into the Academy in Teeptown, near Geneva, and his world changed overnight.
To say he had trouble adapting would be an understatement, as he was a "later" and subject to ridicule from those who had been born with their abilities. However, he had been tested out as a strong P12, and his teachers saw great potential in him. He lived with his mother on the Psi Corps compound, and noticed that she had changed dramatically in the five years since entering the Corps. She had become colder, more ruthless, and more demanding. Despite excelling at the Minor Academy and entering the Major Academy with excellent marks, she always thought he wasn't doing enough to maximize his potential.
One night, at the age of fifteen, he was awakened by some people entering his room. They were all dressed in black, and had the Psi Corps badges on their left breast pockets of their uniforms. "What do you want?" he said, to which they all held him down and one of them injected him with a tranquilizer. He tried his best to fight off the intruders, but it was to no avail as he went under and was taken out of his mother's apartment.
Next thing he knew, he was on a shuttle bound for Mars, with his mother at his side. When he asked her why they were going to Mars, she told him that she had volunteered him for something that would benefit the Corps and that he would learn more later when they arrived at the Syria Planum facility. Garrison didn't know what to make of what was going on, and was scared of what they were going to do to him.
They took him to a laboratory and strapped him to a chair. When he asked what was going on, his mother hissed an order that he not ask any questions. A short, young man with dark hair and an even darker presence walked up to his mother and said that they were ready with the experiment. They hooked IV tubes into his arms, only after restraining his arms to the chair when he fought them. His mother then hauled off and slapped him with the back of her hand, saying cruelly, "You will do as you are told! The Corps is father, the Corps is mother!" She slapped him again and then ordered the techs to begin the administration of the drugs.
He didn't know what they were doing to him, but all of a sudden, his heard began to race and sweat broke out all over his body. He grew hotter and hotter as his telepathic abilities began to exponentially grow. He was able to read his mother without even looking at her, and he could feel her hatred for him, which shocked and hurt him deeply. As they administered even more drugs, his mind began to race at the speed of light, and he was unable to control himself. Finally, for a brief moment, he was able to read everyone, and then his mind closed itself tighter than a locked safe. He collapsed in the chair, and their efforts to revive him failed.
Rebecca Hollifield looked at her son with loathing and said, "He's always been a disappointment. Better off that he died here. Take him away!" The others in the room began to move towards them, but an explosion caved in a nearby wall and knocked over those inside the room. Unbeknownst to Garrison, something took him out of the facility, and carried him off into an unmarked ship, ascending into the heavens and racing away before anyone could stop it.
When he came to, he was in a clear tube, filled with some kind of fluid. He could breathe for some reason, as the fluid was oxygenated. He looked around and saw some beings in weird bulky suits, and he wondered if aliens had kidnapped him.
One of them noticed that he was awake and spoke to him in his mind.
You are awake.
Yes. Where am I?
Our home. We are remaking you.
Remaking me? How?
Understanding will come with time. For now, rest. The being then managed to sedate him enough to sleep again, and he stayed under for a very long time.
The next thing he knew, he had turned up at his uncle's place, dropped off by some unknown people who had claimed they had kidnapped him for a ransom. They didn't tell which group they were with, or why they had kidnapped him, but Uncle Walter was glad to see him. They took him to a local hospital, where a Psi Corps representative came by to pick him up. However, Garrison asked to be tested again for his psi abilities, because he claimed he no longer had them.
Skeptically, they did, and were shocked to find that his abilities were gone. Not knowing what to do, they allowed him to leave the Corps and reenter life with his uncle in Asheville. No one knew what had happened to him, so his uncle explained that he had had a stroke and was now fully recovered. A doctor, who was an old friend of Walter's, confirmed the diagnosis and cleared him to resume his sports career.
But Garrison had not lost his abilities at all, instead his had been increased so much that the Vorlons had given him tight controls over them. He was able to read almost anyone from almost anywhere, regardless of distance and impediments between him and whatever subject he was scanning. He was able to scan them and not even let the person know what he was doing, allowing him to deep scan people without their knowledge. Garrison also had incredible telekinetic abilities, which he practiced only alone. Not even his uncle or aunt knew what he was capable of, and it was better that way.
Never again did Garrison want to have anything to do with the Corps, and he embraced his supposedly normal teenage years by excelling in academics and athletics in school, winning a dual scholarship to the University of North Carolina to play both football and basketball for his beloved Tar Heels. He chose to study political science and intergalactic relations, and excelled in his studies, joining the Phi Beta Kappa society and winning many awards.
He excelled as a football and basketball player, gaining all-Atlantic Coast Conference honors for playing quarterback in football and shooting guard in basketball. He led the Tar Heels to a shocking national championship playoff win in his senior year with Carolina football, beating the top ranked Michigan Wolverines in the championship game in Pasadena, California, throwing for a whopping 532 yards and eight touchdowns in the 63-28 rout of Big Blue. After the football season was over, he took over the two guard spot from the struggling Randy McMaster and took the under-performing defending national champions to a repeat performance in the Final Four in New York City.
During his time in Chapel Hill, he met Victoria Estes, a struggling jazz singer who was touring with her band mates out of an old skimmer van. She eventually became a headline act at clubs in the Triad area as well as the Raleigh-Durham area, so she and Garrison began to date, much to the chagrin of the football and basketball groupies who wanted a piece of the big man on campus.
They married a week after he graduated summa cum laude with a dual Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and Intergalactic Relations. He entered the Masters of Business Administration program at Harvard, while Victoria shuttled between Boston and New York to play the big jazz clubs there as well as travel to play concerts and make appearances to promote her albums. In two years, he graduated with his degree, and Victoria recommended that he enter Georgetown University to get his law degree so she could be closer to her family, as well as the headquarters of the new record company she had just signed up with.
Garrison sighed at the memories of how things had gone wrong in Washington. Her family was long-time power brokers inside the beltway, and they didn't take kindly to the "black sheep" bringing her career and her "damned redneck" husband to live with them. The stress of family problems, combined with Garrison's schoolwork as well as his job as administrative assistant to the Washington Generals pro football team, started a downward spiral for her.
He remembered the night that ended their marriage, when she had gotten so drugged up that she had literally thrown him out of their brownstone and forced him to wander the streets of Georgetown that night. He got smash drunk, so much so that he did something incredibly stupid: he purchased the services of an underage prostitute and took her to a nearby hotel.
The next morning, he awoke in the room with a massive hangover and a tremendous amount of shame as he saw just how young the prostitute was. He had two credit chits on him, and he laid one down with well over two thousand credits on it. He took the other one, which had more and went back home. When he arrived, he found Victoria passed out with a needle sticking in her arm. He broke down and cried, not knowing how long he lay there.
He moved out soon after into an apartment with some friends and completed his studies at Georgetown, then he entered Earthforce Academy and eventually met one of those people that was in the room when the experiment that had so altered his life had taken place.
The man was older now, and was a Psi Cop. At the time, Garrison was captain of the presidential guard, a position that his uncle and father had attained for him through their friendship with the president, Elizabeth Levy. It was during a briefing with the president that he met Alfred Bester, who looked to be even darker of heart now. No words were said between them, but Bester kept looking his way, as if expecting to catch him using his stealth telepathic abilities.
In the years that followed, each of them ascended in their respective professions. Garrison Hollifield convinced the president to let him fight in the Minbari War, and he was one of only 200 to make it back from the climatic Battle of the Line, which ended the war. He then resigned his commission at the behest of the vice president and joined on with the Babylon Project, which helped launch his political career. Bester, meanwhile, cemented his position as the top Psi Cop in the Corps, gaining loyalties and powers that would come to a head years later.
The climax took place during the Telepath War. President Suzanna Luchenko urged Hollifield to meet with the leader of the resistance, Lyta Alexander, to negotiate a truce. They met in the catacombs of an abandoned Italian estate in the Alps.
"There can be no truce, Garrison." Lyta told him. "If normals and telepaths are to co-exist, we must win this fight and destroy the Corps!"
"You know I can't allow that, and neither can the president! What do you want me to do, Lyta?"
"Make love to me." Lyta said with a straight face, and it caught Hollifield up short. She continued, adding, "It's the only way to get all the answers, Garrison. We've both been directly touched by Vorlons, and I won't make it out of this conflict alive. I need someone to carry my secrets on after my death." She began to take off her clothes in the empty room where they were meeting, and Hollifield followed suit, knowing that making love was the only time when two telepaths could completely drop the mental walls that protected their minds.
To this day, he still had trouble understanding all that Lyta had shown him. He knew that she had transferred most of her memories into his mind, and he found out later why: she used herself as a bomb to blow up the main headquarters of the Corps in Teeptown. Bester almost was killed in the explosion, but managed to survive and escape as the Corps' downfall became complete.
Bester stayed on the run for years, only to be caught by his arch-nemesis, Michael Garibaldi, in Paris of all places. The trial was held there and Bester made a show of his trial, defending all that he did. The verdict was obvious: guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to life in prison and to be on the sleepers for the rest of his life.
That was almost a decade ago, and now Bester lay silent on a medical bed, sedated. Hollifield approached him, and one of the telepaths loyal to the president asked, "Do you need me to stay with you for the procedure?" Hollifield shook his head and the woman left the room. When she had closed the door behind her, he began to work on Bester's mind.
They dropped him off in an old Black Omega Starfury, damaged by pulse cannon fire, but with enough life support to do him for several days. He was still sedated, and Hollifield had implanted certain memories inside of Bester that would make him think he had received some information on the Colonials, stolen a Cylon transponder, and took off for Vorlon territory, only to be intercepted by Earthforce and almost killed. Hollifield had the emergency beacon transmit its signal along a Colonial wavelength as well as Earthforce's. Then the Whitestar formed a jump point and sped off into hyperspace, taking the president back to Earthforce One orbiting Orion 7 and, once he boarded, he went back to Earth to deal with the emerging storms in Geneva and Washington.