Author's Note: For those interested, there are now eight advance chapters on P-atreon (remove the spaces and dash): p-atreon/ SkySage24.
Isha leaned back in her chair, tapping thoughtfully at the dataslate in front of her.
"This should all be done already, you know," She said dryly, a faint exasperation in her voice as she looked at the Emperor. "Codifying a basic education and curriculum for psykers isn't exactly something you need my help for.
George coughed slightly but didn't back down. "I thought it best to avoid making psykers too well-trained and dangerous. I could not come up with any kind of training that truly shielded them from the Warp or meaningfully lowered the risk of corruption, so if they went rogue after being trained, they would be more dangerous for it. With dreamstones to shield them, however, that is moot."
Isha hummed in displeasure but didn't belabour the point.
"In any case," She typed into the dataslate, altering a few theorems. "This should serve as a solid guide to the training and management of psykers. I based it on the basic curriculum used for Eldar children in ages past, before the Edict."
George tried not to be offended by her words. He knew she meant nothing by it, the simple truth was that humanity didn't have the inborn control and precision that the Eldar did because mankind was not a species engineered as psychic super soldiers.
The kind of psychic training used for adult Eldar was simply not something most novice human psykers would be able to handle.
That didn't mean it didn't sting.
Nevertheless, he put it aside and reviewed his own dataslate, the files changing and expanding to match Isha's edits as he read through them.
He would need to make some adjustments to make it fit humans, there were still places where it was too obviously meant for Eldar, but it was still useful.
Combined with the psychic manual he had prepared himself, it should work.
"The training of psykers aside, what of their rights in the Imperium?" Isha asked, changing the subject and putting her dataslate down. "The Terran populace does not seem to like psykers very much…well, save for yourself. Which is understandable, but subjecting new psykers to vicious prejudice for the sins of those who came before will only create a vicious cycle."
The Emperor shrugged, an informal gesture he hadn't used in a long time. "The people of Terra fear psykers, and rightly so. For thousands of years, psychic warlords have been the bane of its people, nightmarish monsters who bent the world with sorcery and treated people like toys. That fear cannot be erased overnight."
"You mean psychic warlords such as your right hand," Isha drawled, her voice as dry as the deserts of Mars.
"Malcador has changed," George answered firmly. Despite their disagreements recently, Malcador remained his dearest friend and closest lieutenant. "He has made mistakes, but he seeks to make up for them now."
"His repentance brings great comfort to those who must pay the price for his crimes now, I'm sure," Isha said in a voice as sharp a rose's thorns, the sarcasm dripping from her voice making it clear exactly what she thought of Malcador's repentance.
Admittedly, serving as the second-in-command of a great empire and especially the chief of its intelligence and assassination divisions was not a conventional attempt at redemption.
But George sincerely believed that Malcador was trying his best, and through his actions, he would help usher in a new golden age for mankind.
He knew Isha would not be receptive to those arguments, however.
"Punishing Malcador would be counterproductive," He said instead. "His handling of the day-to-day details frees me up to focus on greater tasks, and how to handle our most dangerous enemies. As for psykers, now that we have dreamstones for them, I intend to authorize full rights though they will be legally obligated to wear a dreamstone at all times and of course, be registered and trained. Perhaps a mandatory period of military service as well. If they prove valuable and loyal subjects of the Imperium, that will help improve their reputation and slowly erase the stigma against them."
Isha pursed her lips in a way that made it clear she didn't entirely agree but was restraining herself. "I would recommend against mandatory military service, if you wish to keep psykers stable, throwing all of them headfirst into your wars regardless of their wishes is not the ideal way. Civil service as part of the Telepathica, perhaps."
The Emperor conceded the point with a nod. "Civil service, then."
"To return to the subject at hand," The Emperor said, looking down and reviewing Isha's notes. "These notes on Void Dreaming…these are all you have?"
The idea of a psychic art that would allow trained psykers to navigate the Warp was appealing because it would mean the Emperor would not have to give the Navigators an effective monopoly.
Unfortunately, while the Eldar had developed such techniques long ago, Isha's knowledge of them was sparse.
Now Isha shrugged helplessly herself. "It was never my area of expertise, but rather my daughter's. I picked up the basics from her, but that is all."
"It's a starting point, at least," The Emperor said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Though I would like to have it refined further before the Crusade begins in earnest."
Isha pursed her lips. "My children on Iyanden may have some ideas that I do not," She said slowly, reluctantly. "Even if they are struggling to deal with the shadow of Slaanesh, the Craftworlds have been galactic travellers for many long aeons. However, given they are currently in the middle of having to rebuild their psychic traditions and disciplines from the ground, innovating a new form of Void Dreaming that they can use and also teach to humans would require extended collaboration between the Imperium and Iyanden. It is not a short term project."
Iyanden, who feared and hated the Emperor and accordingly were unlikely to be enthusiastic about offering up psychic secrets to his empire willingly. Isha could command it, but she didn't seem terribly inclined to do so.
The Emperor suppressed a grimace. He could only hope that Horus made a good impression.
"Void Dreaming aside…perhaps I could build some sort of navigation device with wraithbone," The Emperor said, thinking to himself. He had designed AI Navigators in the past, but that was out of the question now. Still, perhaps he could apply that experience to build a warp navigation device usable by humans, something like a compass on a greater scale.
It had been a long time since George had felt like this, energized to delve into the mysteries of the universe and build new devices to lead mankind forward. The Thunder Warriors, the Space Marines, even the Primarchs…all of those had been a grim necessity, projects he would not have gone through with if the very state of the galaxy didn't demand it.
But building an entirely new interstellar communications and navigations infrastructure…it too was a necessity, but it was the sort of thing he would have devoted himself to even in times of peace. Something that did not require blood and sacrifice, or for him to turn people into living weapons of war.
It was invigorating.
"It is worth trying," Isha conceded, her gaze turning distant as she considered the matter herself. "Perhaps it could be tied into your psychic beacon network."
"It could," George said thoughtfully. "Something like the lighthouses of old, but on a much larger scale, with the beacons serving as points of reference." Yet, having navigation devices dependent on those beacons didn't sit well with him.
But it wasn't as if giving a monopoly on warp travel to the Navigators or even to psykers in general didn't have its downsides and problems.
But that was getting ahead of himself. First, George needed to sketch out a basic blueprint for a navigation device, build a prototype and a million other matters.
"I also had some other ideas for psychic devices built with wraithbone," George said, tucking away the idea of Navigators for now. "A communications device, actually."
Isha raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"Golden Age interstellar communications relied on opening microscopic warp portals and transmitting signals through. That was part of why the warp storms were so devastating to us, and it is no longer a viable option," George grimaced at the memory of daemons flowing through communications relays to possess everything from phones to capital warships. "I planned to train a cadre of psykers to transmit messages, and have them all soul-bound to me, but that's inefficient."
Isha shook her head. "Inefficient is putting it mildly," She said dryly. "Most mortals could not endure a soul-bonding beings like us, you understand?"
"I know," George acknowledged. "But I had no other options until you taught me to make wraithbone. I know Eldar have long had interstellar communication, and if I can replicate that…"
"Such devices do exist, yes," Isha said eventually. "The fall of the Dominion destroyed the Eternal Matrix, but even in their diminished state, my children are capable of recreating a proper communication networks eventually. Unlike Void Dreaming, they can still construct them with ease. You want the designs for that, I take it?"
"I do," The Emperor nodded. "I will need to modify them for human usage, of course, but it would speed things up considerably."
Isha regarded him with shrewd eyes, apparently considering something. "Very well," She said. "I will procure the designs for you. But there is something else we need to discuss, something you've been avoiding."
Ah. He should have expected this.
"We need to talk about the status of the Selenar's test subjects on Luna."
The Emperor rubbed a hand across his jaw. "It's…a delicate situation."
And it was. Isha had let loose all the test subjects and clones and genetically programmed slaves on Luna, who had lashed out at their former masters eagerly.
The Imperium had forced an uneasy ceasefire, but tensions remained, the fragile peace maintained only by the presence of the Fourth Thunder Warriors Legion and the Sixteenth Legiones Astartes, who had been assigned to garrison Luna and keep it under control.
"You want me to side with the slaves, I take it," The Emperor said with a sigh. He had been putting that problem aside as he concentrated on Mars and other matters, but it seemed he could do so no longer.
Isha gave him a blistering look. "Of course I do."
The Emperor didn't respond immediately, weighing his options. The Selenar Gene-Cults were useful and outright toppling them from power in favour of their former slaves would be a difficult thing…but it was a small price to pay for interstellar communications.
The main reason he had avoided taking a stance on the matter was not out of any attachment to the Selenar, but the fact that most of the slaves were humans and mutants of some kind. Directly endorsing them would mean that he would also need to take a firm stance on the rights of non-baseline humans, something which he had left murky in Imperial law so far.
Isha, of course, knew that perfectly well. But she said nothing, simply folding her arms and watching him with piercing eyes.
If he was ten thousand years younger, he would have immediately agreed with her, to support the slaves and enshrine human rights in Imperial law immediately.
But unlike George Adams, the eccentric scientist and researcher, the Emperor of Mankind had to weigh the political cost, the backlash from the populace, the fact that programs to encourage equality and reduce discrimination would have to be set up…
And yet.
It was the right thing to do, wasn't it?
Isha was even giving him an incentive. Effective interstellar communications were worth all the trouble and more.
So why was he hesitating? Had he truly grown this cold and calloused?
George let out a sigh of vague amusement. He had known the right answer from the moment Isha had raised the topic.
"I will do as you ask, and begin drawing up the new laws."
He couldn't even be annoyed at the spark of triumph in Isha's eyes.