The Naked Weapon

I blinked and walked around the image. "Like...what?"

"Well, the Doyen the Russians shot down was in their Scout Form -- a projection of telekinetic energy, with all their psychic senses on full. And if the VVS hadn't shot them down, then they'd have broadcast to the Doyen Empire that it was open hunting season on a whole planet of mindless." Barry shook his head, then waved his hand to banish the image.

"Their term," Amelia cut in. "For people without psychic talents."

I gulped. "W-What do they do to mi- to non-psychics?"

"You don't want to know," Amelia said, shuddering.

"Sense chattel, slave labor, sport," Barry said, rattling off the terms that made just enough sense to give me the total fucking shakes. No wonder my inner voice had been screaming at me to run the instant this shit got serious.

I nodded.

"But," Barry said, grinning. "We got a few decades of reprieve and enough chunks of a Doyen to build...this."

We had reached the end of the corridor and came to another one of those heavily defended rooms, like the stargate room I had entered by. The door opened and I saw that this room lacked the C4 and heavy machine guns. Instead, the walls were simply thick, greyish metal that made me feel like I was walking into a bunch of pillows. I stepped out onto the broad, flat room and looked at what sat in the center. Imagine, if you will, a tube like the one Luke Skywalker got into in the Empire Strikes Back. But then have it get designed by H.R Gieger and built by a bunch of Harvard graduates who had run out of funding halfway through. There were smooth, bio-mechanical designs that swept around the outer edge of the tube like a double helix of snakes...but built into and around those supports were snarls of wires, computer components, tiny cooling fans, heat sinks, what appeared to be a few industrial lasers, and other bits of technological ephemera I couldn't hope to identify.

But the center of the tube was just that. A glass tube, filled with what I hoped was water.

"This is the Prometheus Chamber," Amelia murmured. "Getting inside will turn your latent talent to an active one...and it will mean you can never go home again. The Doyen can pick up an active talent from light years away -- the only reason P-Com HQ has a fighting chance is we move constantly. But if even a single Doyen Exemplar or Paladin finds Earth..." She shrugged. "We're done."

I gulped and looked at Barry, who nodded at me.

"B-Before I do..." I said, slowly. "Um, Colonel Springly, he had a psychic talent. He was scanning me."

Barry chuckled. "Springly has a high telepathic sigma-"

"Okay, what the fuck does a sigma mean in this fucking context?" I asked, lifting up my hands -- taking advantage of the fact I wasn't in the military yet.

Barry laughed at my expression. He rolled his broad, muscular shoulders and said: "Well, it's a math term. A sigma is the sign for calculating out a factoral. So, Sigma 5 is zero plus one plus two plus three plus four plus five. Or, if you've got a college degree-"

"Fifteen," I said, smiling.

"A latent talent is just an expression of all your potential active talents merged into one whole," Amelia said. "My latent talent was empathy sigma -- class four. But it's not an exact science." Her grin was fierce. "Turned out my factors were a class zero on empathy, but a three point five on telekinesis and point five on telepathy."

I shook my head. "What's my sigma?"

Barry gestured to Amelia. "Will you do the honors?"

Amelia chuckled. "Sure thing, Sarge. Uh, you okay with this, Abadi?"

She was looking at me like she planned to do something. Something psychic. I gulped and nodded, then gasped and held up my hand. "Wait, wait!" I grinned, nervously. "Firstly, you can call me Abby. Secondly..." I closed my eyes. "Think unsexy thoughts, thing un-"

"Wanker!" Amelia laughed. "I already scanned you."

I opened one eye. "I apologize-"

"And you're either real lucky or real unlucky, Abby," Amelia said. "Your a cyberkinetic, sigma six."

Barry's head swung around to look right at me. "Jesus," he whispered.

"Sigma six?" I blinked. My basic capacity to do math said that that meant that was a total of 21. So, if the variation in the factors was as irregular as Amelia, I could have a 20 in Kicking Ass and Taking Names and a 1 in Being Sexy. I shook my head. "W-Why could that ever be unlucky?"

"Well, if you have a high factor of, say, cyberkinetics, then you'll be of only minor use," Amelia said, nodding. "The Doyen don't use tech, and most of their slaves are in bronze age tech." She bit her lip. "Well...lets roll the dice, huh?"

I gulped. "D-Does focusing on what I want help?"

"No idea," Amelia said, cheerfully. "But it sure can't hurt. Now, get naked."

I knew this had been coming. But I still didn't know why. And so, I tried to delay as my fingers started to undo the buttons on my T-shirt. I popped button after button, painfully aware of Barry and Amelia's eyes on me. The two were so confident in their nudity that it was easy to forget that they too were naked. I had no such advantage, and felt a flush rising on my cheeks. "S-So, uh, why do I need to get naked?"

"Beyond the fact you're getting dunked into a pool of magic psychic juice?" Amelia asked, her face scrunching up with a wicked grin. "Cause we're all perverts."

Barry snorted. "What Amelia means is all psychics manipulate their local sub-quantum fields. Life-forms influence that field, but so do inorganic objects, and the interface between inorganic and organic SQFs completely jams most talents. The actual physics behind it is kind of complicated..."

My buttons were half undone. I slid my shirt slowly off, blushing hard as Amelia nodded ever so slightly. So, earlier, I had mentioned hours swearing in a dojo. And that stuff paid off: My muscles were taut and lean, and moved like well oiled machines underneath my nut brown skin. I tended towards light in the body hair department (helped by judicious shaving) and so my skin glittered slightly with fear sweat as I stood shirtless before the two of them. I breathed in, then out, then started to undo my pants.

"Just get it over with," Barry murmured, quietly. "The faster you get used to it..."

I nodded, screwing my eyes shut.

And knowing that I was under scrutiny, I pushed my pants down.

The cool air brushing along my balls sent a tingle along my spine, which caused my cock to immediately start to harden. How could I be so utterly mortified, and yet so fucking turned on. I opened one eye, half expecting to see the two of them to look disgusted. Or maybe excited. Instead, they were simply smiling slightly, clearly rather proud of me as I stepped out of the remains of my pants. I looked down. My cock was uncircumcised -- and considering the complicated and gnarled path my family took to go from Iran to Europe to America over the past two centuries, with at least two conversions along the way, the fact I was uncut wasn't exactly shocking. I had never measured myself, but...

I wasn't a patch on Barry.

Well, I was an enlightened, 21^st century male. I could take being...smaller.

Amelia gestured with one hand to the ladder next to the PC. I gulped and started forward, my bare feet slapping on the ground. My balls crawled up into my belly as I took a hold of the ladder, then started to climb up. They had designed this thing knowing that naked people would be climbing up the side, because the rungs were softened with plastic and rubber. But as I climbed, I tried to school my thoughts.

I want to be badass.

I wanted to help. I mean, earlier today, I had been hacking into the Pentagon just because I could. Now? Now, the world was under threat. The Doyen were out there. I closed my eyes as I came to the lip of the Prometheus Chamber. I could smell the faint wiff of the liquid -- and it smelled appealing. It was hard to really place how it smelled, though. It was like it bypassed my nose and tickled the back of my brain. It was the exact opposite of going near the stargate -- the urge to simply crawl inside was nearly overwhelming. I breathed slowly in, then slowly out, then stepped up once more, my hands going to the lips of the chamber.

"Here it goes..." I whispered.

Then I pitched myself forward and slipped into the tube.

How to describe the indescribable? This isn't like describing color to the blind -- that's easy. If you're blind, colors are just the music of the eyes, different frequencies of light, in the same way that sound is merely frequency of air striking the ears. But entering into the Prometheus Chamber really was beyond anything that I could have comprehended before. Sliding face first in was like breaking into a world of infinite horrors and endless beauty. It tessellated around me, flexing and unfolding and rippling, endless geometric patterns that became silky smooth in the distance. But up close, it was as solid as iron. And as I felt my mind expand, I tried to keep my grip on my body.

And I focused on my desire to be badass.

And then I was sliding forward onto the floor, gasping and coughing. I twitched and writhed, feeling sparks leaping off my body as the liquid I was still slick with sizzled.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Amelia's voice came to my ears as my twitching started to fade.

My head pounded. When I looked up at Amelia, I saw her smiling down at me. She was so freaking pretty. Did she know she was pretty? As I thought of that, the mental image I had been trying to supress for ages leaped into my head: Of closing my lips around those cute, perky titties. As I thought that, I saw Amelia's cheeks darken. Her freckles showed clearly as she bit her lower lip, her hand pressing to my muscular chest. She slipped her fingers along the lines of my muscle, tracing them coyly. The contact set my cock off -- it thrust eagerly into the air.

Oh.

Now I was on par with Barry.

Barry let out a booming laugh, his hands on his hips. "Hah! Let me guess -- at least some of his factors includes biokinetics."

"In my defense..." I whispered, my voice hoarse. "You're really impressive. And I'm shallow."

"U-Uh..." Amelia shook her head. "His passive defense is blocking me." She sounded a bit awed. "Come on, let me in, Abby."

I nodded and tried to...open up. I closed my eyes and imagined taking walls down and opening up gates and throwing down bridges over moats. Like my brain was a castle. And it turns out, in the same way someone with sudden super-strength might try and jump and end up on the moon, I opened up...and found my brains meshed with Amelia's. I could feel her heart beat, her guilty and excited thoughts, and the thrum of her inner monologue: Oh god, he's so fucking hot, I, god, I want to slide myself up and down that cock, oh god...oh, I'm so sorry, Natasha...

Guilt stabbed at me. Had I done that? Also, uh, I was in her brain. I tried to draw back -- but then I felt her focus. It pinned my mental connection down, and I felt as if I was being gripped in a solid mental vice.

Abby? Her voice echoed, accusing.

Sorry! I just tried to be...open... I said.

Well... She sighed. I'll forgive you this time. But be careful.

She looked up and the connection dissolved as she drew her hand back as she smiled at Barry. "We're in luck. His factors are ten TK, four TP, three warp, two bio, one precog, one metapsi."

Barry whistled slowly. "Hot damn."

I grinned. "Is that badass?"

"It's fucking cosmic," Barry said, shaking his head. Then his grin became fierce. "And it means that I get to make your life a living hell, recruit."

All my good, happy feelings...went away.

Just like that.

***

"From here on out, you will refer to me as Sir," Barry -- er, Sir -- boomed as he walked me, buck ass naked, through the corridors of the ship. "If you pass the next two weeks of basic braining and become a member of PsiCom, you will have the honor and privilege to call me Sergeant and might actually get to meet a real office. But for the next two weeks, you may as well think of me as god." He grinned wickedly at me. "You will jump when I say jump, you will run when I say run, and you will die if I say die. Do you get me?"

"Y-Yes Sir!" I said, nodding.

The door we were walking to opened and I saw that it led right into a bunk room. Several other naked people -- some a few years older than me, but most of them roughly the same age -- were lounging around. Some were playing card games. Others were chatting. Two -- both Indian looking girls -- were seated at the same bed in the lotus position, facing one another, their eyes closed. All of them responded to Barry's arrival with an immediate explosion of motion.

And, uh, in one case, spontaneous teleportation.

However they managed it, they were at attention, and there was nothing like standing at attention while buck naked to give a near perfect breast size comparison. The variation on display was staggering, and it had passed from sexual to downright surreal -- but now it was edging back towards sexual again as I saw just how pretty all of the girls were. And most of the boys. I gulped and thanked evolution for the heavier melanin count I was blessed with. It kept my blush from being quite so obvious.

"This is Recruit Abadi Hatem," Barry said, gesturing to me. "He's a new fish, and I plan to beat him into shape ASAP. I want each of you to do your part in keeping him on basic braining." He grinned one of those fearsome grins that promised a lot of pain to anyone who didn't manage to get what he wanted done. I gulped.

"I'll be back in an hour for the beginning of your braining," Barry said, looking down at me -- and I made sure I was standing at attention, trying to mimic the posture and position of the others. Something I did must have been halfway close to right because Barry merely corrected half a dozen mistakes with a series of harsh snarls, points, and carefully coded insults. Once he was done, I felt like I wanted to melt again.

"At ease."

And then Hurricane Barry was away, surely ready to prep some new torment for me.

I clutched at my chest. One of the two Indian girls walked over. She was generously curved, with succulent breasts that swayed as she sauntered over. She wore being naked the same way the Queen of the Universe might don a crown -- with a confidence that made me feel like an unkempt schlub. She beamed at me. "Aww, poor dear, looks like you hit every part of the looking glass." Her finger touched my chin and a sudden sense of wellbeing filled me.

Like everything was going to be okay.

"Well, at least some of his factors are totally bio..." Another voice spoke from behind me. The girl who had pulled the trick of teleporting was now behind me. She was a gorgeous, ebony skinned girl with an afro that was as big and proud as her own body was rail thin. She had small, A-cup breasts, and her nipples were an even darker, richer hue than her skin. Which made them almost on par with tiny black holes, or the depths of space. She was leaning forward to look at my butt. And, uh, everything visible between my legs.

"Oh, great, another bio," a boy said, sneering as he walked over to look at me from the side. He was Chinese and as heavily built as a superhero. His shoulders rippled as he stretched behind his back. "My name's Fang Chong. S4." He puffed up his chest. "My primary factors are TK and TP."

"Beli," the girl who had touched me said, giggling. "And don't worry, Fang just likes to swing his psi-dick around."

Fang scoffed.

"Let me guess..." I said, slowly, looking back at the black girl. But she was gone. I looked around -- and suddenly, she was infront of me. I yelped and sprang backwards.

"Diamond," she said, grinning broadly -- her teeth bright white in her dark face. "Sigma 5, almost all warp, baby, with a side of TK."

I nodded. "I'm, uh...well, my name's Abby. Abby Hatem." I nodded. "And, I'm, uh..." I coughed. "Sigma 6."

See, while this interrogation had been going on, several other recruits were talking.

That ended with my statement.

Suddenly, I was surrounded by naked people. And if you've never been naked on a spaceship orbiting the star Arcturus with a bunch of psychics, let me tell you, it's really surreal. Diamond was practically sharing atoms with Beli -- that was how close they were squishing together, their faces nearly bumping against mine. Beli's voice was awed: "Sigma six?" She clucked her tongue. "Holy balls, ghanta, you're pulling our legs. What's your factors? Anyone wanna probe him?"

A white guy -- big and blond and slightly chubby despite a layer of muscle -- raised his hand. "I can do it, Midnight!"

Beli, who responded to Midnight as if it were her name, grinned at him, but before anyone could start probing my brain, I held up my hands and felt my talent shiver up around me. Each of my new 'comrades' were pushed back a few inches as I gently shoved. And I do mean gently. The last thing I wanted to do was start my career in Psi-Com with mashing my new friends against the walls and turning them all into red jam. Ugh. No. But as they skidded back, Fang snorted.

"Well, he's definitely got a TK...that the best you got?" he asked, preening.

I scowled slightly. "I happen to be holding back." I cracked my knuckles. Well, time to lay it all on the table. I remembered what Amelia had said, and then tried to translate those into what I thought the non-slang terms were. "My factors are, uh, ten telekenisis, four telepathy, three warp, two biokinesis, one precognition, one metapsionics."

"Damn," Diamond whispered, stepping back and away from the TK field I had put up.

"No wonder he's hung like a horse..." A voice whispered -- not quite quiet enough for me to not hear her -- behind me. My cheeks darkened ever so slightly and I felt a simultaneous rush of absurd pride and squirming embarrassment. I should have been more mature. But...I mean...

Fuck you?

Fang, looking a bit taken aback, coughed. "Well, uh..." He shook his head. "You need to have more than a high Sigma. You also need to know how to use it. You haven't made a war-form before, have you? Don't even have a callsign. Or any confirmed kills."

"He just got here," Beli said, scoffing and clicking her tongue.

Fang shrugged. "Yeah, well, the Sarge said that we should do our part to keep him on track..."

Beli took a hold of my arm with the authority that she seemed to exude as a natural part of her body. Honestly, I was still shocked she wasn't wearing a crown. Now, the fact that I was being touched by a sensual, curvaceous beauty was enough to override my brain for a few seconds, psychic powers non-withstanding. So, I barely noticed as she started to walk me over to a cot, leaving behind the knot of other psychics to whisper and hiss to one another.

"So, Abby," she said, cheerfully. "This is the free bunk."

The bunk in question was underneath another bunk that I was pretty sure I had seen Fang sleeping on. I glanced at her -- and heard her gay, tinkling laughter in my head. Yeah, Fang hogged the top bunk on the only free double. Don't worry, Fang's a real softie once you get to know him.

Really? I asked back -- and noticed that this kind of communication was lightning fast. As in, we were able to flicker the thoughts between one another so fast that some people who were talking out loud behind us were still mid word. It was like time slowed down to give us plenty of time for us to brain-talk.