The Science of Psionics, Wednesday
The classroom they found before them was stark, and probably not unfamiliar to anyone who had taken Kerrigan's classes previously. The woman herself stood at the front of the class, arms crossed, waiting impassively until everyone had entered and the door had been closed.
"Frost," was the first thing she said, "You're my teaching assistant this term."
A beat.
Then: "As for the rest of you, I am Lieutenant Sarah Kerrigan. Chances are if you're here, you have some level of psionic ability, so before you ask: I got captured by aliens once. They tried to mess with my biological make-up. Most of it's back to normal, but I'm keeping the bits that aren't shielded with my powers so nobody shits themselves. Don't go poking around."
No, seriously. That might end badly for you.
"Welcome to the Science of Psionics. Now, I'm sure every single one of you comes from a place where there's a different general word for these powers, so I'm going to kick off with the definition. Psionics is the ability and practice of using the mind to induce things that would be considered paranormal, such as telepathy and telekinesis. The nature of psionic potential can vary from species to species, individual to individual, and universe to universe. I'm not even pretending I know what all of yours are like, so I'll rely on you to be upright and honest about what you can do."
She gave a good bunch of people a look at that point. "But, since all things are fair, I'll kick off by telling you the story of my people's grasp on psionics. Now, we consider ourselves Koprulu Terrans, and not Earth humans-- we're basically all the product of a madman who shot forty-thousand people into space just to see what happened. As it turned out, a small percentage of those people had the first, genetic makings of psionic ability. In such a concentrated environment, that meant that after a couple generations of interbreeding, those skills were going to come out.
"There's still not exactly a giant bunch of telepaths and telekinetics running around. Most of them get snatched up by the military and loaded full of tech for 'safety'. Theirs or ours... well, I'll let you make that call. We get trained for combat, so most of our knowledge in the field pertains to that.
"To measure the ability of a psionic, we use the Psi Index back home."
She shoved a sheet onto the projector.
1-2 No psychic powers. Most humans.
2-5 Limited powers. Wranglers.
5-8 Telepathy. "Teeps". Most Ghosts fall between 5 and 6.
8-10 May have telekinesis. "Teeks". Extremely rare.
"There'll be a couple of you falling into the 1-2 category," she drawled. "Maybe a couple in the two-to-fives, too. Wranglers are near-teeps that can sense people with psi potential. So the military likes to use 'em to dig us up. Five-to-eight, usual range for military Ghosts, and then we have the rare ones. The eight-to-tens."
A brief pause.
"I'm not going to tell you where I rank," she said, "I'm just going to tell you that they reworked this entire system to fit my test readings." Her eyebrows went up in amusement. "Now, it's introduction day. I don't really care what class you're in, but I want names, a little bit of your background where it comes to psionics, and where you think you rank on the Psi Index. For as much as it'll even fit you guys."
"And finally, we're going to be playing a little touch-tag today. I'm going to tag one of you telepathically, that person tags someone else, and so on. If you don't have powers, use your fingers. If you're afraid you'll roast someone's brain, use your fingers. If you're afraid someone's brain will fry by touching yours, say something, you idiot. I want you all to get some measure of each other today."
[[ wait for the ocd up! ]]
"Frost," was the first thing she said, "You're my teaching assistant this term."
A beat.
Then: "As for the rest of you, I am Lieutenant Sarah Kerrigan. Chances are if you're here, you have some level of psionic ability, so before you ask: I got captured by aliens once. They tried to mess with my biological make-up. Most of it's back to normal, but I'm keeping the bits that aren't shielded with my powers so nobody shits themselves. Don't go poking around."
No, seriously. That might end badly for you.
"Welcome to the Science of Psionics. Now, I'm sure every single one of you comes from a place where there's a different general word for these powers, so I'm going to kick off with the definition. Psionics is the ability and practice of using the mind to induce things that would be considered paranormal, such as telepathy and telekinesis. The nature of psionic potential can vary from species to species, individual to individual, and universe to universe. I'm not even pretending I know what all of yours are like, so I'll rely on you to be upright and honest about what you can do."
She gave a good bunch of people a look at that point. "But, since all things are fair, I'll kick off by telling you the story of my people's grasp on psionics. Now, we consider ourselves Koprulu Terrans, and not Earth humans-- we're basically all the product of a madman who shot forty-thousand people into space just to see what happened. As it turned out, a small percentage of those people had the first, genetic makings of psionic ability. In such a concentrated environment, that meant that after a couple generations of interbreeding, those skills were going to come out.
"There's still not exactly a giant bunch of telepaths and telekinetics running around. Most of them get snatched up by the military and loaded full of tech for 'safety'. Theirs or ours... well, I'll let you make that call. We get trained for combat, so most of our knowledge in the field pertains to that.
"To measure the ability of a psionic, we use the Psi Index back home."
She shoved a sheet onto the projector.
1-2 No psychic powers. Most humans.
2-5 Limited powers. Wranglers.
5-8 Telepathy. "Teeps". Most Ghosts fall between 5 and 6.
8-10 May have telekinesis. "Teeks". Extremely rare.
"There'll be a couple of you falling into the 1-2 category," she drawled. "Maybe a couple in the two-to-fives, too. Wranglers are near-teeps that can sense people with psi potential. So the military likes to use 'em to dig us up. Five-to-eight, usual range for military Ghosts, and then we have the rare ones. The eight-to-tens."
A brief pause.
"I'm not going to tell you where I rank," she said, "I'm just going to tell you that they reworked this entire system to fit my test readings." Her eyebrows went up in amusement. "Now, it's introduction day. I don't really care what class you're in, but I want names, a little bit of your background where it comes to psionics, and where you think you rank on the Psi Index. For as much as it'll even fit you guys."
"And finally, we're going to be playing a little touch-tag today. I'm going to tag one of you telepathically, that person tags someone else, and so on. If you don't have powers, use your fingers. If you're afraid you'll roast someone's brain, use your fingers. If you're afraid someone's brain will fry by touching yours, say something, you idiot. I want you all to get some measure of each other today."
[[ wait for the ocd up! ]]