All That Glitters Ch. 40

"We are pleased to be here," Tougrate responded, giving an intricate wave of his tentacles to the President. "We have been asked to assist with the medical needs of some of your citizens. We do not know yet if we can do this, which is why there are only two of us here to determine this."

Junelliya got a nervus look from FAdm. Robert. "Be at ease, Fleet Admiral. The Toolend who leave Toolend space are all members of the Assembly of Telepaths. They have strict rules to follow similar to those of the Council of Empaths from Hollander's World."

"That is correct," Tougrate stated. "Our laws do not permit us to do more than a cursory look at a person without their expressed permission, without a warrant, or without medical requirements."

"Cursory look?" Robert asked.

"When you see things with your eyes, can you unsee them, or do you retain the image regardless?" the Toolend asked.

"So, you see our minds in the same way?" President Serment inquired, curious.

"See is not the correct term, more like read, however, we cannot not read a mind once we learn our telepathy," Tougrate replied. "We cannot help but read the surface layer of your mind in the same way that you cannot help seeing things you scan with your eyes. However, anything more than a surface scan requires us to deliberately use our telepathic powers in much the same way as your eyes must track onto something specifically to make more sense of what you are seeing. This is where the laws of the Assembly of Telepaths comes in. We are not permitted to look without invitation or cause.

"Those of us who agree to this are permitted to leave Toolend space and must wear the symbol of our Assembly," erht stated showing its arm to the pair.

"So all those who wear this symbol are bound by your laws?" Robert asked.

"Correct, and none of those who do not are permitted to leave Toolend space. We do not want our kin in the Interspecies Community becoming upset that there may be a Toolend who will look without permission," erht explained.

"I notice that Junelliya is wearing your symbol, as well as the symbol for the Council of Empaths," Serment noted.

"Junelliya is a special case," Malnad informed them. "She is a very powerful empath who is also capable of limited telepathic ability. As she is being taught to further her telepathy by us, she must conform to the Assembly's laws and regulations. That is why she wears our symbol."

Serment nodded her head and smiled. Junelliya sensed immediately that the President was feeling much better about the telepaths than previously.

"That is good to know," Serment stated. "I need to get back to my office. Things are still hectic because of the earthquake and OP Sandcastle. However, I think that I can be sure now there will be nothing unusual going on here." She gave them a nod and left.

FAdm. Robert also gave them a nod. "You said that you can scan surface impressions from my mind. Is there a way to block that?"

"Yes, of course. It is very similar to the method used to block empaths from scanning your feelings," Malnad stated. "Junelliya can teach you, and any others you wish, how to do both."

"That is good to know, I will take you up on that offer if you do not mind, Junelliya. In the meantime, this is Cmdre. Dr. Angelica Seraph. She is the Surgeon General of Sector Fifteen. I will turn you over to her," he finished, giving them a bow and also left for his office.

Dr. Seraph was a blonde woman in her late forties who wore the traditional white military jumpsuit of the medical trade. The gold star of Commodore was on her collar as well as the gold star of command high on her left breast. Tall, with wide shoulders and hips, she looked to be a formidable person, though the smile on her face gave her an approachable presence.

"Good afternoon, Dr. Seraph," Tougrate greeted her. "It is good to meet a fellow doctor."

"You are a doctor?" Angelica asked.

"I am, and my colleague is what you would refer to as a Nurse, though in our methodology of training, erht simply does not have the same level of training as I have and thus does not fit our definition of doctor," Tougrate informed her.

"Erht?" Angelica asked.

"What we call ourselves," Malnad responded. "You would say 'him' or her', referring to yourselves by gender. We are unique and can be either male or female as required, thus use only one pronoun, though we might refer to one of us who is pregnant as 'erhta'."

"I see. I would love to ask you many questions, but I understand that you are here for a reason and should be given access to our psychology patients to see if you can help them," the Commodore stated.

"We would appreciate this, it is why we are here," Tougrate acknowledged.

They moved swiftly through the base, gaining many looks of astonishment as they made their way to the big main hospital. They made their way to the psych ward. Almost immediately, the Toolend noted the difference in the demeanor of the people held here.

"Many of these people are in serious need of assistance," Malnad noted, aloud so that Dr. Seraph would understand.

"They are. While we can help with appropriate drugs, healing the mind is something that takes time and effort on both the side of the patient and the side of the practitioner," Angelica informed them.

"Where the issue is damage to the mind from physical or mental trauma, we might be able to help," Tougrate stated. "That will then leave your practitioners the opportunity to teach 'life lessons' to those who were injured to help them move forward."

"I like that term. I think I will make it a mandatory use term on this ward," Angelica stated. They approached a male Navy captain in medical whites.

"Dr. Tougrate, Nurse Malnad, Junelliya, Dr. Maya, this is our head psychiatrist, Capt. Dr. William Defroe," Angelica introduced the doctor to them.

"Good day to all of you, it is a pleasure to personally meet the Toolend for the first time," Dr. Defroe responded.

"We are here to serve," the Toolend replied in unison.

"What would you have us do?" Tougrate asked.

"We do not yet know the capabilities of the Toolend, though we do know that you are telepathic in nature. We are hoping that you can help some of those here who are in desperate need, especially those who were recently freed of slavery," Dr. Defroe explained.

They moved down a long corridor until Dr. Defroe opened a door for them. They saw a thin woman sitting on a bed, rocking back and forth, holding a blanket in her hands, singing a wordless tune like she might be rocking a child.

"We do not know what is going on with this person," Dr. Defroe explained. "She was functional until she got up to the ships, then simply broke down and became nearly catatonic. No one knows why."

"Do we have permission to scan her?" Tougrate asked.

"She is not in a position to object," Dr. Defroe told them. "As her attending psychologist, I ask that you scan her to see what can be done, if anything."

Tougrate nodded, an odd effect considering that erht was all tentacles and body.

"May I link with you, Tougrate?" Junelliya asked.

"I would prefer that you do not, Junelliya. You are untrained, and this could be something serious."

"I will allow her to link with me, Tougrate," Malnad said, looking at Junelliya. "I can let her see what we are doing and protect her from any backlash on the part of the patient."

Tougrate acknowledged her as he raised a tentacle to the back of the patient's head. Junelliya touched Malnad and, as an afterthought, touched Maya as well, so she could experience the events to come as well.

Tougrate let his power move over the surface layers of the woman's mind. He saw great sadness there. Though he couldn't experience the emotion itself, he could clearly see the difference in her persona from a 'before and after' perspective.

Junelliya briefly inspected the woman's feelings and broadcast them to Tougrate and Malnad. Tougrate appreciated the feelings that he was now experiencing and carefully delved a little deeper, noting an image in the woman's mind, a young girl, perhaps four or five years of age, the child was laughing and happy, playing with her mother who was content to have the child in her arms.

In another image from her mind, the woman was holding the blanket but seeing the child, a redheaded little girl who smiled up at her as she rocked her and sang a lullaby to her, much as she was doing now.

The image was very powerful, as was the obvious love the woman was showing. Tougrate looked around her mind and found another image, this one of the two of them being torn apart. A man was pulling the child away from the mother. When she objected, he shocked the mother and made her scream, causing the child distress.

The child and mother cried out for each other, screaming until the sound of each other's voices were silenced by distance. The man returned and sent wave after wave of pain to the woman through her collar, punishing her for making such a scene with the child. He left her barely conscious on the floor and stormed off. It was only a few days later that the woman was rescued by the raid, her child left behind in the hands of the Alliance.

Angelica and William could not see what was happening, but they could see the response from the woman, who suddenly broke down crying. Immediately, Junelliya broke contact with Malnad and pulled the woman into a tight hug, the two of them crying together for several minutes.

When she finally stopped crying, Junelliya asked. "What is her name?"

"Her name is Paige," the woman replied, tears still streaming down her cheek. "She turned five last week, just before the raid that freed me. If the raid had come sooner, she would have been with me when I was rescued."

"I'm so sorry to hear that," Junelliya informed her. "But we will be working to get all of our citizens out including those who were born of citizens of the Union.

"What is your name?" Junelliya asked her.

"Mary Kodecko," she replied. "I am from Planet Varus. I was captured by pirates seven years ago. My child was the light of my life, my only reason for living while in the hands of those fiends."

"So your child is Paige Kodecko," Junelliya inquired. "We will make sure that she is asked for by name."

"That might not work," Mary told them. "If she is still in the estate, her name might be changed to lessen the chance the two of us will meet. If she is sold to another estate, her name will definitely be changed. I may never see her again." With that statement, Mary broke down again, holding on tightly to Junelliya. Junelliya passed a hand in front of her face and the woman suddenly wilted. Junelliya settled her on the bed and turned an inquiring look to Tougrate.

"I can lessen her pain somewhat," Tougrate informed them, "but she is sad for the loss of her child. More importantly, the fact that the loss came so close to her own freedom. This will take time to heal. Conversely, if we can find her child and bring her back to her mother that will be of more help."

"Thank-you Tougrate," Dr. Defroe said. "We were completely unable to get through to this person. We had no idea of her name or her situation until you looked for us. You have helped us immensely with this case."

"That will not always be the case, Dr. Defroe," Tougrate informed them. "There will be those whose minds will be complete chaos. It will be difficult to move through those minds without losing oneself in them. This is something we must prevent.

"Fortunately, the solution is to always be with another Toolend when we look deep into the minds of the chaotic. To form an Assembly of Telepaths," Malnad stated.

"Like a Congress working with our empaths, then," Maya stated, getting an agreement from Malnad.

"This is confusing though, as you will be bringing people together for an assembly and your organization is known as an Assembly," Maya said. "May I make a suggestion? Why not call your organization the Order of Telepaths and use the word Assembly much as we use the word Congress?"

Both Tougrate and Malnad mentally nodded at the suggestion. It would be difficult to get the movement to change names now that it had moved forward so much, but the use of the word Assembly for two or more telepaths moving in a given direction with purpose was already part of the use of the word Assembly. Taking that away from the name of the group made much more sense to both of them and would likely make sense to all Toolend. It would also lessen the confusion for non-telepaths and other members of the Greater Community.

"I saw you work around so many different images in Mary's mind," Junelliya said. "I know that the Toolend do not respond to feelings in the same manner as empaths do. How then did you know what to look for? Which image was the one that mattered?"

"That comes with experience, Junelliya," Tougrate informed her. "It is important to understand that some species bond tightly to their offspring, while others do not. In this case, the mother was showing signs of having lost a loved one, likely a child by the manner in which she was holding the blanket and rocking back and forth. This was an indicator to me. I looked for images of her with her child.

"They were very happy together, so when her child was taken from her, it was a traumatic experience for both of them. Then there was the pain she suffered from the shocks given to her by the collar. I wondered why she was being punished and looked back to see what I could. The images just burst on me," he explained.

"I had the feelings from her that you experienced, Junelliya," Malnad said. "The images to us Toolend, are just that, images that require much interpretation. They have no sway in how they help us to see into a person's mind. We need to understand life to make sense of some of those images. Things that one species sees as important, another will not. It can be confusing."

"Fortunately, the Toolend too, revere their offspring. So the images made sense to me," Tougrate took up the conversation again. "However, the emotions that came through the link when you were connected to Malnad helped me to determine that this was indeed the important event in this case.

"Junelliya, your ability to feel emotions, together with our ability to read thoughts, would be a very useful tool if they can be taught to telepaths and empaths alike. You have proved this in this one single incident.

"Dr. Maya, whatever help you need for these patients, we will provide. The Toolend can assist, but they need to be paired with empaths who can help the Toolend feel what is right. We cannot monopolize Junelliya. We must find a way to work together to help these people. I think that means that you must complete your own project and learn from Junelliya how to learn telepathy and teach this to your people. Then, in turn, you will need to learn how to teach empathy to the Toolend.

"Junelliya and I have just proved the value of this. Your work has just become very important to all of us, Maya, though I suspect it will be a long-term project," Tougrate finished.

Maya groaned and put her hands to her temples. Tougrate moved them away and place a tentacle on each temple. He asked for permission to inspect her mind.

"You brain's pathways are changing, that is why you are experiencing pain. This will pass with time, though it will be unpleasant for a while," Tougrate informed her.

Tougrate moved to Junelliya and touched her in the same way. "Your pathways are very much different than Maya's, which is understandable considering the power you possess. Like her, your brain is being rebuilt from within but you are already much more advanced in your changes, likely because you have had more time as a telepath.

"The pain you were experiencing previously, Junelliya, is already receding. The more you use your new powers, the faster the changes will be completed. Once this has been accomplished, you will not experience as much pain, though it will persist for some time yet," Tougrate advised.

"I did note that the pain was much reduced," Junelliya told him. "I thought that might be because of the exercises that Augraf and Mandenn had given me."

"I am certain that they helped," Tougrate explained, "but it is the completion of the pathways that will make the greatest difference. In the same manner that we increase our muscle fiber when we do physical exercise, if we overdo the physical aspects, we experience muscle pain. This is also true for our mental capacities.

"Once the pathways are established, the pain will fade. The time it takes to do this depends on the individual and how fast the pathways are formed. The faster they form, the more likely there will be pain, often severe. The slower they form, the less likely there will be pain but it will also take much more time for the individual to gain their telepathy," Tougrate ended.

"Humans do not have the lifespan of a Toolend," Maya mused. "It will likely mean that we will experience some pain during the formation of our skills. I know that when I developed my empathic abilities, I was often hit with some severe migraines. We have medication that will help with that."

"You will need it. I noticed that you had some pretty strong headaches when you first connected through Junelliya back on Liramor-23," Malnad told her. "You can expect the same from this experience.

"Your connection, this time, was different from just reading the flow of thoughts. This time, you were connected to a specific event with a specific target in mind. That is advanced telepathy. The headaches could be strong," erht warned.

Junelliya turned to Dr. Defroe. "Can we get some analgesics supplied, Dr. Defroe? Dr. Maya will definitely need them and I suspect I will as well."

"Please call me William," he responded warmly. "After what I have just witnessed, I will help in any way that I can. You people are amazing and I am proud to have witnessed this first attempt at helping our citizens."

Junelliya smiled at the man. She hadn't expected such support from him so fast. Thinking back on events though, she had to admit that their group had been impressive when working with the woman.

"Tougrate, how did this incident affect you?" Junelliya asked. "Are you able to continue or do you need a rest?"

"This incident was not that difficult for me," erht responded. "It was pretty straight forward. Her mind was not chaotic, simply depressed. Once we broke through to the reason, it was not difficult to open her mind again. The minds of the chaotic are the ones that will give us the most difficulty."

"I think I understand, as this is true for all psychiatrists," Dr. Defroe said with a nod. "I cannot imagine what it would be like to be inside the mind of such a person."

"We will have to bring the empaths together and find those who can connect to the Toolend," Junelliya spoke to Dr. Maya. "Once we are able to pair an empath with a Toolend pair, we should be able to bring help to many of your patients, William.

"I suggest that we work together as a team for the next couple of days, Tougrate, until Maya has brought a group of GME psychologists to be paired with you and other Toolends.

"Our ship, The Trine, is capable of jumping directly from here almost to Toolend space. We will need someone who can act as an intermediary with us to bring more Toolend here from your home world or other Toolend worlds," Junelliya suggested.

"That would be a wise decision indeed," Tougrate stated. "Malnad can work with Maya to help her with her telepathy. Maya can read the patient's feelings when necessary. That will allow us to work as a team of three.

"However, we will need you here to help us initiate other empaths into telepathy. I think that you are a good bridge between our peoples, a bridge that is necessary to begin telepathy in your people. They do not seem to be able to initiate telepathy on their own," Tougrate indicated.