All That Glitters Ch. 62

"The children did in fact prevent a massacre," Raymond stated. "Ikekiya by first freezing the assailant in place, initially preventing him from killing me, then knocking the weapon out of his hand and then killing him when he tried to attack her directly.

"Zarreniya stopping his partner from killing Ikekiya in revenge. I'm sure she was going for the plasma pistol when she knocked Ikekiya down, it was the only thing that made sense for her attack. The weapon was in a straight line with Ikekiya between her and it.

"Zarreniya stopped the female from killing her sister then fought for her life when the female attacked her. From what I saw of the incident, both girls were very fortunate to come out of this relatively unharmed," Raymond finished.

"The information we now have on the plasma weapon upgrade will make the products of Les Armuriers Laundray much more effective and will save lives throughout the known galaxy," Kim chimed in. "We owe you and the children much, including our very lives."

************

The next day the children were much better and the hospital staff ran several cognitive tests on the children getting uncertain results.

"Physically, the children are above average in height, more in line with three year olds rather than children not quite two years. However, that is still within the possible height range for children their age.

"Their physical coordination is also above average but that is consistent with all the exercising they get from Kim, Ululla, and the Brucomma. I would expect children so involved with extreme physical exercise to have better coordinated than the average.

"The medical scans of their brains have shown some startling events for the children. We are trying to assess their performance but they are not being very cooperative," Nurse Katanya informed the family.

"We might be able to help with that as the Nanny Comp has been conducting continuous tests on the children in the form of games they like to play. We could ask Jane Marple to help us out," Hanalei stated.

The piled into the conference room and called up the number they had been given. Jane came up immediately as soon as she saw who was contacting her.

"Hanalei! How are you and the little ones doing?" she asked solicitously. She had seen the news reports and had feared for the children.

"We and the children are fine, for now. However, they have had a really bad experience," Hanalei admitted. "The hospital staff is trying to determine their mental capabilities but the children are not cooperating. They seem to be frightened and depressed over the incident."

"Not surprising. This is the first time they have been in a situation like this and it would have frighten even an adult. OK, what can I do to help then?" Jane asked.

"Hi, Jane, I am Doctor Leanora Gault, Psychiatrist. We need the latest assessment that you might have on the children's cognitive abilities."

"So this is a medical request?" Jane asked, getting confirmation from the group. "OK, let me shut off the recording then as medical requests are private." Jane called up several charts and put them up for the group to look at.

"Damn, those are results from the children?" Leonora asked.

"Yep. These children are off the charts for children of their age. In fact, they would be considered geniuses if they were young teenagers with these results," Jane admitted. "Their cognitive scores are incredible as are their abilities to remember things, which is not surprising considering they are fluent in almost twenty languages.

"Their musical abilities are again off the scale but surprisingly, it is not unusual in children of this age to be proficient in music. That also ties in with their math abilities as music and math tend to compliment each other, though that is more noticeable in children a little older than these two.

"Their math skills are bracketed being above normal for things like basic math and even more advanced calculus and such but not so good for standard or advanced algebra. It was explained to me that they children consider Math a language thus they look at it in the same manner. The way they take to math shows how their minds work with languages and how they are able to memorize and adopt unexpectantly higher level efficiencies in languages and as a consequence, math," Jane ended.

"Wow, those scores are just incredible especially when you consider them to be across the board like that. I am unable to explain this. It goes against all that I know as a psychiatrist," Leanora stated.

"Well, we may have a partial answer to that," Heyya said after a moment. "The children's brain chemistry is a bit skewed. They seem to have a rather high level of the hormones that create new connections between the brain cells. This is probably because of their constant need to upgrade the connections in those parts of the brain that control their empathy and telepathy which are growing at an exponential rate. When the hormones have done their job in these sections, they could still be used by other parts of the brain. We see a rather high level of unusual connectivity between the brain cells, according to our scans, for children their age even more so in those areas that we know are responsible for empathy and telepathy.

"We know that the number of intelligent people among empaths is unusually high and we may now have a partial answer to why that is. The empaths tend to score much higher in IQ than the general population. However, when empaths come into their powers at a young age, it can produce unusual levels of intellect. We noted this with Councillor Shylmiya. She came into her powers at five years of age and she is a very brilliant individual as well, her intelligence manifesting very early," Heyya finished.

"Does this mean that any future children we have will be like Ikekiya and Zarreniya intelligence wise?" Hanalei asked.

"Nothing is guaranteed, Hanalei. However, I would say that if they come into their powers as young as your current children then it is a strong possibility," Heyya conjectured.

"Heyya, we can never allow this information to get out," Jane suddenly stated forcefully. "You will have to keep this as confidential medical information to the children and their parents. If this information got out to the general public, there is no telling what some despot might try to do.

"You have two children there, Heyya. Both of them would be at risk. They would be experimented on. The worse thing from my point of view, is that with two of them, one could be experimented on and one could be dissected. I would not like to see that, Heyya," Jane stated very dramatically.

"The information stays with this group," Hanalei ordered. "It does not get entered into the children's files. Jane?"

"The scores are already part of the children's files here, Hanalei. However, this conversation is listed as a medical request. As such, it was not recorded. I will not include anything other than it was a request for cognitive result due to the ongoing incident," Jane answered the unasked question.

"Thank you, Jane. I really appreciate this," Hanalei said.

"Not at all, I really enjoy working with your children, Hanalei. I hope to continue to do so once they get over what is going on," Jane replied.

************

For the first time in two days, the children were left alone in the hospital room. Zarreniya climbed up on Ikekiya's bed and hugged her sister, crying on her shoulder. Ikekiya patted her sister's back and hugged her in return.

"I was so scared, Ikeki. I thought I lost you. I could not see you in my mind," Zarreniya whimpered.

"I know. It scarry, Zarry," Ikekiya reassured her sister. "We did bad, Zarry. They not like us now. We hurt people."

"Bad people, Ikeki. They not nice and they want to hurt many. We no have choices," Zarry replied.

"Big people not see that, Zarry. We too little. They get angry at us. We did bad. We hurt people," Ikekiya answered.

While the children could understand that they had needed to act, the fact that they had hurt someone was uppermost in their young minds. What worried them most was the possible reactions from all of their family friends. They knew their immediate family would support them.

"What we do, Ikeki?" Zarreniya asked.

"I no know, Zarry," Ikekiya admitted.

The pair continued to cling to each other, crying softly against each other's shoulders. They would have another fitful sleep but the IPPF needed to talk to them. They would be questioned the next day and Ikekiya was aware of it, and what her sister knew, Zarreniya knew as well.

Hospital Conference Room, Lima Deck, Liramor-23, The Piscium System

After breakfast the next morning, Fayad, Hanalei, and Junelliya, brought the children to the hospital's conference room where the IPPF team was waiting. Also in the room were Fiona Marsh, Capt. Émilia Pétillante Fiona's Aide-de-camp, Fiona's Civilian PA Grace Elizabeth Holloway, Raymond Clark, Liea Samson, Kim, and Gillaya. Nurse Katanya, Dr. Gualt, Dr. Maya, and Dr. Heyya were their for the benefit of the children. They would call a halt to proceedings if they children became too distraught.

Due to the risk for the IPPF Interrogators, the Cats had been deliberately left out of this session.

Chief Superintendent Maria Sangar started the recording equipment and noted the time and place for the 'initial questioning of Ikekiya and Zarreniya Piscium'. She included the names and positions of everyone in the room then turned to the children.

*Hello, children. I am Chief Superintendent Maria Sanger, Director of the Interplanetary Police Forces Operations on Liramor Prime,* the woman spoke to them in French. *Are you alright to continue in French or would you prefer we speak in another language?*

*Do you speak High Andanii?* Ikekiya asked in French.

*Unfortunately, I do not,* Maria admitted.

*OK, we do this interrogation in French. We know you understand then,* Ikekiya stated firmly.

The ghost of a smile played at the corners of Chief Superintendent Marc Poilievre's lips as he witnessed the little girl try to take over the meeting. He could tell she was nervous, as was her sister. If they were adults, he would suspect them of trying to hide something.

He gave his chief interrogator, Damion Dallmar, a significant look and was not surprised to see that he had also caught on to what the children were attempting to do.

*OK, it is my duty to protect you from these other people who will be asking you many questions,* Maria informed them.

*So you 'Good Cop' then,* Zarreniya said, giving Maria a warm smile. *We be nice to you.*

Both Poilievre and Dallmar were trying hard to keep a stern look on their faces but this was just too precious.

*Hello, children. I am Superintendent Damion Dallmar and I would like to ask you about the event the other day. There are some issues that we don't quite understand surrounding your involvement in this incident.*

*You be the mean interrogator then,* Zarreniya said as she purposefully shied away from him, hiding her face under her momma's arm occasionally peeking an eye out to look at him.

Poilievre almost lost it. He was deliberately restraining himself from laughing outright at the situation. Most of the adults arranged on the other side of the table, and supposedly supporting the children, were having a hard time from smiling, though the two bodyguards, Kim and Gillaya, wore open, and what appeared to be, proud smiles for the children. Or perhaps smug smiles...

*Don't tease the police agents, children,* Junelliya spoke sternly to the children. *They have an important job to do today.*

*Yes, momma,* both children replied in harmonic voices that slightly unnerved some of those very same police officers. It was rather reminiscent of twins acting in unison.

*We would like to know why you were even there during incident?* Dallmar asked.

*We came for picnic with daycare,* Zarreniya explained.

*Picnic?* Dallmar asked, a little confused.

*Uh huh. With daycare, we sometimes go to Food Court for lunch. We children like this. They have yummy food at Food Court,* Ikekiya explained. The agents smiled at this as they had all had the opportunity to eat at the Food Court and yes, indeed, they did have yummy food.

*Imagery of the event shows you running toward the assailants before the incident began, Ikekiya. Can you explain this?* Dallmar asked.

Dallmar noted that Ikekiya closed up almost immediately after that question. Her sister touched her arm and then looked back at him in a challenging way.

*My sister have bad dream. She see many people die. She no like dream. She try not to have dream but it come back many times.

"My sister close her mind but I see her dreams. I know. We talk. We know this bad thing. Raymond have protection cloths. But he still die. We no like this dream but it come back. We see start of dream many time. See us all at picnic.

*We come to Food Court and see clue to dream. We look and see man in brown, then see Raymond and Liea come in Food Court. I tell Ikeki 'go help Raymond'. I tell Miss Urano there be danger, to take others back. Then I go help Ikeki,* Zarreniya told them.

Ikekiya turned to her sister with tears in her eyes. The pair hugged each other for a moment, then turned to face their interrogators, their little heads hanging down unable to look their questioners in the eyes. Their mothers reached over and each gave a strong, one-armed hug to their respective child.

*Do you remember how many people died in the dream? Or was it different each time?* one of the agents asked.

*No. It same all time. They make twelve people die in dream, seven big people and five of us children,* Zarreniya replied, shuddering as she said so.

*Raymond said that the man in brown was aiming at him but he didn't shoot, or perhaps could not shoot. What do you know about that?* Dallmar asked.

*Ikeki say in head; 'No move! No move! You no move!'.* Zarreniya explained. *He no move but we not so strong so soon he move. Ikeki make enough time to hit gun with her staff and it go way. Then man try to catch Ikeki's staff. He take staff and want to hit Ikeki, hurt her, so Ikeki use her Damate.*

Both girls suddenly looked very contrite at that. Once again they hugged each other but this time didn't let go.

*Are you saying you made the assailant freeze?* one of the other IPPF agents asked, scepticism clear in her question.

Junelliya snapped her fingers and the person who asked the question suddenly found herself frozen in place. Real fear showed on her face as she realized the could not move, could not speak, had no control over her body. Junelliya snapped her finger again and the person suddenly sagged forward, free to move once again.

*Merde!* she called out.

*The children are not as strong as I am but they have witnessed this action of mine before,* Junelliya told them. *Pumped with the adrenaline of the moment, Ikekiya found just enough power to make the man in brown pause for a few seconds. That was all the time Ikekiya needed to get to him and knock his weapon out of his hand.*

*Then Ikekiya was attacked by the woman,* Dallmar stated rather than asked after a brief pause.

*Ikekiya's attention was on the man,* Kim explained. *She did not see his partner until it was almost too late. She rolled under her blow but did not escape all of it. We are fortunate that she only wound up with a concussion.*

*What did you do then, Zarreniya?* Dallmar demanded.

*I see woman with knife. I shout in my mind like Ikeki, 'You no move! You no move!' but I not as strong as Ikeki. She move but I am there and hit her with my staff. She move at last moment and I miss her knife but I turn staff and use 'spear thrust' at nerve point,* here Zarreniya pointed to the nerve point on her own arm. *I hit and she drop knife but she grab my staff so I use Damate on her like Ikeki did. I hit her in back and feel her roll away. I hold on to Damate and it come free so I push it back at woman. She fall and I know she hurt bad. I hurt her bad. I look at Ikeki and I no feel her in my mind. I very 'fraid.*

The girls started crying and clung to each other tightly. Maria pointed to the parents and they took the children out of the room, Dr. Gualt, Dr. Maya, Dr. Heyya, and Nurse Katanya leading the way.

*At this point we had to remove the children who were too distraught to continue with the questions,* she spoke for the recording equipment.

*One thing I would like to point out for the record,* Special Security Agent Meteryea said. *The children are distraught at having to relive this experience all over again but there is an underlying feeling of extreme guilt. They hurt someone badly, killed them. They are not happy with that and they believe that they will eventually be punished for having done this. I'm not sure how we will get around that.

*Yes, the children interfered in an adult issue but, according to their testimony, their actions may have saved twelve people from death, including both of them if you believe what others have told us about Ikekiya's dreams.*

*Fiona, your people looked at the weapon and found that it would have been effective against the new devices that we have from Les Armuriers Laundray. Can we include that in the report?* Maria asked.

*Not unless you want that information to get to the public,* Fiona replied. *While we are going to make corrections on the sensors, there are too many of these protective outfits out there in the real world. You can report on the effectiveness of the weapon against the targets and state the targets were protected but I would prefer that you not indicate how they were protected.

*You may want this investigation team to take a look at the protective clothing and bring that information back to IPPF Terra but that should be another report and a highly classified one.*

Maria gave a nod of her head to that. *Do we have enough answers from the children to finalize the timeline of events?* Maria asked, getting positive responses from all on the team.

*Good. I believe we have enough information now to complete a comprehensive report for the boss,* Maria stated for the record. *Lets have that ready in forty-eight hours, please. Then we can make arrangements for this team to return to Terra on the Piscium/Terra Passenger Service.*

Main Conference Room, Interspecies Embassy, Lima Deck, Liramor-23, The Piscium System

Two days later the investigation team was in the Embassies Main Conference Room to present its report. On one monitor was the Director General of IPPF, Diana Gorman, on other monitors were the President of Liramor Prime, Marcel Lapierre, and his daughter Lillian Lapierre, the First Lady of Liramor Prime, Antoine Liramor, CEO of Liramor Holdings, his daughter Annett Liramor, Director of Operations for Liramor Holdings, Dr. Aruna Ohiraha, head of Aruna Laboratories, the President of the Union, Wilford J. Holloway, and his First Lady, Madame Angelique Aubuchon.

In the Conference Room with the investigation team were Fayd Piscium, Director of Operations for Liramor-23, his two wives, Hanalei Anar and Junelliya Herlan, Raymond Clark, his bodyguard Gillaya, Liea Samson and her bodyguard, Kim, Dr. May Anne Mirren, Chief Medical Officer of Liramor-23, Dr. Heyya, Doctor of Record for the Piscium Children after the incident, Dr. Leonora Gualt, Chief Psychiatrist for Liramor-23, Dr. Maya, Psychiatrist and specialist in Empathic and Telepathic issues for humans, Nurse Katanya, and Nurse Silliya. Around the table, at their usual locations, were the ambassadors of the Interspecies Embassy. On monitors behind the ambassadors could be seen the rulers of the Greater Community who had vested interest in the ongoing investigation. After all, the Piscium children were mentioned in ongoing prophecy about the Greater Community.