All That Glitters Ch. 36

"What you, Junelliya, are doing is basically unconsciously scanning the upper surface of the mind, taking information that can be found there. Things like a person's name, their age, their occupation, and anything that they are currently focusing on, can be scanned this way. More information takes more control.

"Entering a person's mind is risky, both for the reader and the one being read. Make a mistake and at the very least, you will alert them that you are there. Using too much power could injure the person being read or the reader. It takes skill, training, and repetition to learn what is necessary to use one's power," Mayute explained.

"Can you show us a little of your power?" Augraf asked. "You told us before that your Council was against public displays of empathic power. However, I do believe that those in this room are aware of your abilities, Junelliya."

Junelliya opened her powers and looked around at those in the room for something to latch onto to push to the two Toolend. Surprisingly, she found that Ikekia was hungry. With a smile, she picked that up and amplified it to push gently to the Toolend and the others in the room, eliciting smiles from all.

"I can take a hint," Hanalei said, baring her breast and letting Ikekia feed, to the giggles of the humans.

Junelliya continued to push the babies feelings as she contentedly suckled at her mother's breast.

"That, is amazing!" Mayute said, utter surprise colouring erht's words. "The Toolend have always been able to read minds but we do not transfer thoughts like you transfer feelings. We more or less broadcast our thoughts to others, who chose to take those thoughts or not.

"Even when we read a mind, the feelings do not come with the act.

"I felt as if I was the child. The hunger was real. I could feel the warmth of her mother, and the need to feed, and the joy of taking fresh milk into my mouth. This is something that I have never experienced before," Mayute finished.

"Our reading of minds is usually dispassionate. Just the thoughts, not the feelings," Augraf explained.

"Is that why you were so surprised the first time you encountered my abilities during the party?" Junelliya asked of Mayute.

"Yes, it was. Our people at the party were all linked to talk to each other mentally. When you broadcast your list of feelings to us, it shocked us. This is something that we cannot do," Augraf explained.

"So, things to learn from each other," Junelliya said. "I think then, we should describe what we are about," Junelliya stated. "Vangeliya, you are up."

For the next hour, Vangeliya explained all about the Council of Empaths and how it worked. She and Heyya, talked to them about the training techniques, especially those they she used with Junelliya, as she was an adult when they had first encountered her. Vangeliya showed them one of her training sessions with Junelliya and her Fellowship, as it was recorded by the scientists. The Toolend were fascinated.

Somewhere near the end of the hour, Junelliya, leaning against Fayad, suddenly faded, her head falling against his chest.

Fayad smiled and leaned down to kiss her brow. Junelliya smiled and whispered that he should not forget Hanalei.

With a grin, Hanalei put her head where Fayad could kiss her brow, and then whispered that he should not forget Ikekia. Fayad leaned down and kissed his daughter, who smiled briefly in her sleep.

The Toolend had been watching all of these small actions, reading the surface scans of the four minds and were fascinated by what they saw there. Vangeliya pulled the feelings from the foursome, and passed it to the Toolend, who were surprised that she could do that, too.

"I think that Junelliya, in her gravid state, has just ran out of her reserves of physical strength," Vangeliya pronounced. "It is time to wrap this mini-conference up for this evening."

"We agree. How do the humans say it? 'We do not want to overstay our welcome?', is this correct?" Mayute asked.

"It is," Vangeliya agreed with a smile, not bothering to correct the small error.

"Fayad, take your family home," Fiona ordered, watching as they quietly left.

"I hope that this session has been instructive for you, Mayute, Augraf?" Fiona asked.

"It has been, Fiona," Mayute replied. "The information you have provided us, Vangeliya, will help us immensely in the organization of our telepaths in a structure similar to that of the Council of Empaths.

"We will need to fully understand how your laws work for the conduct of both individual empaths and the Council of Empaths but we think, with some modifications, we can make this work for the Toolend, the key being not to scan without permission or requirement under the law.

"The idea of an emblem that shows we are on duty, would be of immense benefit to us once the Community of Sentients understands it's significance.

"For too long, we have hidden ourselves from the other sentients because of the fear we bring when a telepath moves into a room. Your structure will provide us with the means of achieving acceptance as equals, telepaths with training, and not to be feared," Mayute finished.

"There is still more that you need to understand before you can start this process, Mayute," Vangeliya stated. "You would benefit from a face-to-face with the elders of the Council of Empaths."

"I believe you are correct in that assessment," Augraf said. "We will happily learn whatever you can teach us, Vangeliya, and we will monitor and try to help Junelliya reach her goal of deliberate use of telepathy. She is on the first step to this goal now.

"However, you must understand, that not all the Toolend find the second step for many years, and some never do," Augraf told them.

"That is true of empaths as well, Augraf," Vangeliya explained. "It would seem that we are not all that different from each other."

That thought was a surprise to the Toolend but on reflection, they had to admit to the possibility.

Interspecies Embassy, Liramor-23, Piscium System

The four human ambassadors, Fiona Marsh, her aide, Raymond Clark, Liea Samson, their bodyguards, Mind-Ur, Cynthia Stewart, the reporter from IPNS, Junelliya, Vangeliya, the ten ambassadors from the Community of Sentients, and Nar-Tre Sai-Rai, filling in for her mate Kome-Nar Sai-Ro, were sitting in the main conference room in the Interspecies Embassy.

"I have some good news finally," Michelle Halten began. "The UDC has recognized the Pod-Drran Embassy. Which means that recognition for the rest of you will not be far behind.

"I cannot say how soon that will be, however, I believe that we can expect to see notes of recognition for the different embassies over the next few days," she said with a smile.

"Thank the Goddess," Nar-Tre said, with a Pod-Drran smile. "My mate will be so happy, as will the Kumar-Pair."

"We have here the formal recognition note, for the Pod-Drran," Michelle said, holding up the envelope. She turned to Raymond.

"As this was mostly your work, I would ask that you present it to Co-Ambassador Nar-Tre Sai-Rai of the Pod-Drran, Raymond," Michelle said.

Raymond stood and pulled the large sheet of old fashioned parchment with the formal notice and the seal of the UDC on it, inviting Nar-Tre and Ambassador Halten to stand with him in front of the Union Flag in the room, Cynthia Recording the event.

"On behalf of the people of the Terran Union, we are happy to accept and recognize the Pod-Drran Embassy on Liramor-23. May we grow and learn from each other as we search out our future potential together," Raymond said, extending his right hand to Nar-Tre and holding the official note in his left hand with her, Michelle standing on Nar-Tre's left.

"You will have to bring the flag of your people to place beside ours in this room, Nar-Tree," Michelle informed Mar-Tre. "Congratulations."

All the humans and Mind-Ur, stood around Nar-Tre, who stood in the center holding the Certification note as images were taken. Then the other ambassadors came in behind Nar-Tre for informal images.

Cynthia Stewart held an impromptu question period for the news systems. A very happy Nar-Tre answered all the questions as best she could, stating formally that she was accepting the note on behalf of her injured mate, who had recently lost his arm.

Cynthia tittered at such a loss and asked if there was any intention of medical recovery, to which Nar-Tre stated categorically that she had been waiting for this recognition so that her mate could indeed complete a medical recovery of his arm. He would be the first Pod-Drran to undergo such an operation and she hoped that it would prove to be a useful new medical tool for her people.

The article went out immediately to Cynthia's controller, who endorsed it for the evening news of all of the Union planets. For the first time ever, a non-human ambassador sat in the official Pod-Drran Embassy on Liramor-23.

Conference Room One, Liramor-23, Piscium System

Dr. Aruna had asked to give a short presentation about new improvements to the FTL drive. At the end of the regular morning brief, Fiona called her and an Asocan Senior Scientist into the room.

"Good morning all. This is Kloyak>, a senior scientist of the Asocan who specializes in their FTL drives. She and I have been going over the designs of our FTL drives and comparing them to the Asocan designs to see what modifications we can make to either system.

"We have just finished testing the use of Marilon/Aruna generators for supplying power to the Djinaëte systems and we have shown that, while they need to transform our power to be compatible for what they use, they can indeed use our generators.

"Their engines are more efficient than ours for two reasons; the first is they are simply just a little different in how they use their power to generate the jump field meaning they need less power to activate the field, the second is because of how they apply their power in the jump field.

"Union ships use vanes to generate our jump fields, the Great Ships do not. They have a grid built into the skin of the ship which they pass the jump field through. Effectively, that means they have something in the order of a 73% greater surface area to pass the jump field through over our vane method, with the resulting increase in range. Our small fast ships use the same trick of increased area to spread the power through, though they simply use oversized vanes to achieve that effect.

"The issue for us is how we employ that power. The power they use for their FTL is different from the basic electrical power they use in the ship. Which means there is no conflict between the two, unlike our systems.

"We use vanes for safety reasons, pushing the power transfer out away from the ship because we use electrical power in the formation of the jump field. Kloyak> believes that we can safely isolate the grid from our ship's skins, allowing us to use the same trick of a grid over the entire structure similar to Djinaëte ships. That should give us an immediate increase in jump range to any ship we apply this to.

Unlike our system of jump vanes, where the smaller the ship and the larger the vane the more range we have, with the new system, the larger the ship, the more surface area that can be covered, the greater the result in range. As such, smaller ships will not have the range of larger ships, a direct opposite of what we have now.

"That being said, we can likely increase the jump range of even the small fast ships by a factor of two," Ohi finished.

"You're saying that we can have small jump ships with a single jump capacity of 130 light years?" Capt. Matt Cage of the NS Orion asked.

"Perhaps a bit higher, but yes," Ohi replied.

"You are positive that you can isolate the necessary power levels?" Fiona asked.

"We have discussed the math and it appears to be more than feasible," Kloyak> answered. "We do, however, need a test vehicle to confirm this. For the moment, there are none available and we would wait for something on the order of eight to ten months, possibly more, before even a small fast ship is available."

"I will contact Pallanders and see what we can do, however, if they are saying eight to ten months, I doubt we will get anything sooner than that," Fiona told them.

"How long will it take you to make this modification?" Fayad asked.

"Depending on the size of the vessel, it would take several days, less than one of your weeks, or it could take up to as much as six of your weeks for one of your larger ships," Kloyak> replied.

"Then I have a proposal for you," Fayad said with a smile.

Piscium Family Quarters, Hotel Deck, Liramor-23, Piscium System

"You want to what?" Hanalei asked, surprised. "Fayad, we haven't even taken possession of the ship yet, haven't even named her."

She looked around at the people in her home, Dr. Aruna Ohiraha, Fiona, Liea, Raymond, and an Asocan were standing in her apartment listening to Fayad telling Hanalei about the proposal.

Liea jumped in. "Hanalei, we allowed Ohi to make all kinds of modifications on The Wanderer. Those items turned out wonderfully and our ship became the model of all future capital ships for Terran Union Space Navy because of them. Ohi wouldn't propose to do something she didn't have faith in."

"And you're asking this of me because?" Hanalei demanded.

"There are no other ships available, Hanalei," Ohi explained. "Pallanders has just completely gutted their two Princess Class test beds in order to rebuild them for more extensive testing. They will take more than eight months to be ready for use again. All ships being built over the next eight to ten months are spoken for and if we wished to use them, we would have to contact their owners and ask permission for this, which is what we are doing with you. If you, and others, say no, we will have to wait for most of a year for a ship to be available.

"Whatever happens, I can guarantee that you will not lose your ship and you would end up owning a ship with capabilities like no other," Ohi finished.

"I haven't even named her yet," Hanalei pouted.

"What is Anuuran for very fast?" Ohi asked.

"Serria Jadda," Fayad said.

"How about Hanalei Jadda?" Fiona quipped.

"No!" Hanalei said, laughing. "That is an Anuuran colloquialism for a lose woman! It figuratively translates as Hanalei running quickly from man-to-man."

That got some laughter from all, even the Asocan.

Hanalei thought for a bit, then shook her head. "How about, The Trine?" Hanalei asked, getting smiles from her family.

"OK. So we have a name for my ship. How long do you need to test it before I can actually use it?" Hanalei asked.

"One to three weeks," Ohi said. "Though, we can guarantee that if you need the ship in the interim, once it is considered safe, we can use any travelling you do as part of the testing."

"That is actually a reasonable compromise," Fayad said.

"Pallanders has said I would have to wait three months to see my ship because of how busy they are and the modifications to the interior and exterior that I want," Hanalei said.

"I can guarantee that you would receive preferential treatment when we tell Pallanders why we want it. Your ship will jump to the front of the queue and likely will be ready for testing inside of a couple of weeks," Liea said. "The proposed increased efficiency and jump range will definitely get Pallanders' interest.

"I will work my magic on Pallanders and you might even receive a bit of a discount for lending us the ship as a test bed. No promises on that, though, as Pallanders is a business and they like money," Liea said getting knowing smiles around the room.

"Alright. In return for getting my ship early, I will allow you to use it for a test bed for your new system. I am expecting to spend thirty-seven million credits for the vessel. Anything less than that is a bonus to me.

"If I get back a ship with much improved capabilities, then I will be even happier. Just don't lose my ship to testing," Hanalei told Ohi, firmly.

Ohi and Kloyak> smiled, though the toothy smile of an Asocan was a little bit intimidating...

Hospital, Hotel Deck, Liramor-23, Piscium system

Junelliya went into labour on 24 Jun 2846, ten days after the Teatime for Mothers incident. After six hours, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Zarrenia Henadi Latti Piscium, named after Junelliya's maternal grandmother, after Henadi Noor, whom the family always respected, the short version of her Pod-Drran name; Poda-Rai-Latti (the Goddess' daughter), and taking her father's family name.

The delivery room was rather crowded as many of the medical staff of the Interspecies Embassy had asked to observe the birth, their first human birth, though Heyya had insisted that only one representative of each of the interested species could in the room, the remainder having to watch via vid-link in the hospital's conference room.

Nar-Tre Sai-Rai, the Pod-Drran co-ambassador, had insisted on being present in the name of the child's future Godparents, the Kumar-Pair. She immediately sent an image of the child to the Fleet Shem and the Imperial Palace via FTL probe.

Small Throne Room, The Imperial Palace, Pod-Saar, Sharanas System, 108 Light Years from Terra

The Kumaraie noted the e-mail from Nar-Tre Sai-Rai, coming on the mornings FTL comms probe, and opened it. She had made it a point to open the e-mails from her ambassador as the items from Liramor-23 were always interesting.

The image opened showing Nar-Tre standing against a soft-blue coloured wall wearing a mask. That got the Kumaraie's attention. The second thing the Kumaraie noted was that this image was not being taken from the viewpoint of a wrist comp, or at least not from Nar-Tre's wrist comp.

Nar-Tre bowed low before speaking.

"My Kumaraie and Kumaroe. I am pleased to announce the early arrival of your Goddaughter, Zarrenia Henadi Latti Piscium, only a few minutes ago as I stand here," Nar-Tre announced.

The camera turned towards Junelliya siting in a hospital bed, holding a small child, though a child larger than Pod-Drran newborn.

Beside her on her right side sat Hanalei holding Ikekia, on Junelliya's left was Fayad. The Chlaerge were sitting on the bed, calling their unique 'kit keening' sound to the baby. The camera zoomed in, giving a closeup of the baby, whose eyes were open and looking at the Chlaerge.

The Kumaraie noted that the eyes seemed to hold wisdom in them, unlike the eyes of Pod-Drran newborn. The baby appeared to be very much aware of the Chlaerge.

"Good day, Godparents," Junelliya began as the camera zoomed in to capture her and the baby. "We are pleased to present your newest Goddaughter to you and hope that you can make time out of your busy schedules for the naming ceremony of our two children in two weeks time."

The camera watched the pair for a few moments then turned back to Nar-Tre.

"My Kumaraie and Kumaroe, that was an unofficial invitation to you, the Godparents of these children. An official announcement of the birth and a request for your presence at the naming ceremony will be sent later today."

Nar-Tre bowed low and the camera turned back to the family, who all waved to the camera, including Ikekia who had discovered that waving meant that people paid attention to her.

The site stirred the heart of the Kumaraie and she turned to her mate with a smile.

"That child is ugly and so big," he stated, bringing a laugh from the Kumaraie and indulgent smiles from the Kumir-Rai/Ro in the room.

"It is a human child. We should not judge it by our own standards as it does not know what those standards are," the Kumaraie spoke lovingly to her mate.

"I suppose so, We have to go to the naming ceremony, does that mean we have to hold the child?" the Kumaroe asked, this time gaining laughter from their Kumir-Rai/Ro in the room.