Chapter 10: Operation Chess in my Head

Sakura had never felt like this before. It was as though she had unlocked some new sense she had never known existed.

Breath in. Count to four. Breath out. Count to four.

It was a such a disarmingly simple technique, but its use succeeded in unlocking so much potential hidden just below the surface.

Sakura had been born on a far eastern island once known as Japan. Despite carrying her heritage with her in her distinctly Asian features and jet-black hair Sakura had never considered herself Japanese. To her, home was simply the small independent settlement a few kilometres outside of what had once been Nagato. She had never gone in for the spiritualist traditions her homeland was supposed to have been known for. What she had was not some arcane power of the gods, it was science. A fundamentally alien and barely understood branch of learning, but a science none the less.

If only she'd had this power when she had been home, perhaps she could have done something against the ADVENT raid that had destroyed her home when was nineteen. That was three years ago, and now she found herself part of the revived XCOM program and amongst the first to undergo the renewed Psionic training program.

Even several weeks in she was still getting used to her powers. Amongst the more combat oriented abilities, for better or worse, it seemed her Psionics bestowed upon her a certain affinity for mind reading. Thankfully this didn't manifest itself in the day to day, requiring both a clear head and intense concentration to make any real use of it. The main drawback of her gift was that it wasn't some directed beam she could precisely focus on a target of her choice. It was like trying to listen to someone next to you on an open battlefield, try as you might it was nearly impossible to silence all the noises flaring in the background. At best, all you could hope for was to tune them out whilst still trying to make sense of the one you were interested in. Even now she could hear the echoes of the thoughts around her from the scientist in the laboratory above performing analysis on the body of a deceased ADVENT soldier.

"The leg bone is connected to the, thigh bone. The thigh bone is connected to the, hip bone. The hip bone is connected to the… what the hell is that?"

To Chief Engineer Shen tinkering away in the Engineering Bay.

"I wonder I could outfit ROVER with a small-scale plasma cannon? The energy discharge alone would probably melt his casing though. But just think of the possibilities for close range, airborne fire support"

A part of her felt dubious at the prospect of listening to people's thoughts without their consent. While these might be desperate times they could not abandon their humanity, and descend to a level no better than the aliens they sought to thoroughly kick off their planet. Still, with the way her power worked it may be simpler to contact everyone whose thoughts she hadn't inadvertently eavesdropped on. Yet even as she contemplated the morality of her actions she once more noticed a presence inside the ship which caught her attention.

Amelia Evans, the strike teams resident crack sharpshooter and Sakuras 'bondmate' as command liked to refer to it. While Sakura was certain she was overhearing Amelia's thoughts all that returned to her was a string of seemingly random nonsense. Transcripts of long dead TV shows, scientific classifications of plants and animals, this time it was chess moves.

In the end, curiosity overtook common sense and Sakura decided to investigate.

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Sakura found Amelia propped up in her bunk in the shared barracks. She sat staring down at any empty chessboard laid out on the bed before her, her eyes never wavering from it as she appeared consumed in deep thought.

"What are you up to?" Sakura asked.

Without glancing up from the Chessboard Amelia replied. "Kasparov vs the World. It was a famous chess match in 1999 between the Chess Grand Master and the public played via the internet"

Sakura had to admit, while a lingering sense of guilt persisted about overhearing the others on the ship this was somehow different. Sakura considered Amelia to be one of her closest friends, or at least as close as one could hope to get given the current state of things. If she was going to start somewhere, it might as well be here.

"I wanted to apologise" Sakura admitted.

"For what?" Amelia finally looked up to meet her.

"I was practicing my Psionics and I overheard your thoughts, among others" Sakura said. "And, I wanted to apologise"

"Of course you did" Amelia replied flatly.

"What?" Sakura asked.

"You're a Psionic" Amelia said. "It's what Psionics do"

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"My father was a veteran of the original XCOM" Amelia's leant back in her bunk, her head laid against the cold, alien metal of the bulkhead. "He was among the first to realise his Psionic potential before the fall of the original XCOM. He died about a year ago, ADVENT ambush on a supply convoy"

"I'm sorry to hear that" Sakura replied. An all too familiar story.

"He learnt what he could from XCOM, the rest he had to learn on his own" Amelia continued. "Trial and error mostly. He passed on what he could to me before he died"

"Like what?" Sakura asked.

"He taught me the basis for Psionic powers, and how they can be resisted" Amelia raised herself from her bunk to look Sakura straight in the eye. "I'm sure you've realised by now that the stories of aliens being capable of reading minds are not just stories, they're very much real. These are aliens that can crawl inside your head and there's not a thing you can do to stop them once they're in. Your only hope is to stop them before they have the chance"

"Can you show me?" Sakura asked.

Amelia nodded in response. "That's where this comes in" Amelia tapped a finger against the chessboard still sitting on the bunk between them. Without another word Amelia leant over to retrieve the box kept under her bunk, opening it she began setting up the pieces for a game. The ongoing alien occupation meant that complete sets, much like everything else, were a luxury that was hard to come by. This might explain by the black queen's bishop was being substituted by a walnut, although walnuts themselves were swiftly being added to the list of rare luxuries.

"Chess?" Sakura queried. "I thought you were going to show me how to resist Psionic attacks?"

"No, I can only teach you to play chess" Amelia set up the final pieces before raising her gaze to meet Sakura. "Shall we play?"

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It had been years since she had even seen a chessboard and in the end despite holding her own, Sakura eventually lost out.

"Good game" Amelia said. "So, what are you thinking about?"

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"Right now, what are you thinking about?" Amelia asked.

"Chess, the game" Sakura replied.

"Exactly" Amelia said. "If you allow yourself not to think of anything you leave the door open for anyone to just walk right in. But by throwing up barriers, focussed thoughts and powerful emotions, you can protect yourself against losing control"

"You think it's really so simple?" Sakura asked.

"It is" Amelia replied. "Just remember, if you're ever fighting something that can have the power over your mind, play chess in your head and they'll find it's not as easy as they first thought" Amelia reached out to take Sakura's hand in hers. "Because you'll be here with me, playing chess, where they can't reach you"

Even as she said it Sakura felt another presence taking precedence in Amelia's mind, different this time. Despite her reservations the temptation overtook her, listening for her thoughts.

"But I can. I reach for your… and grab a handful of your… then- wow, steady there you little minx"

And just like that, Sakura suddenly didn't feel quite so bad for eavesdropping.

XCOM Rule 989: With the reinstatement of XCOMs Psionics programme operatives are reminded that mind reading powers exist and to exercise restraint. XCOM command cannot be held responsible for the actions taken by Psionic operatives overhearing thoughts

989a: Which means you could be reading my thoughts right now in which case you would already know this