Part 3
It's true that you're still longing to look around this fantastic space city and the thought of travelling so far again without really knowing how you got here is frightening but an opportunity to visit another planet is just too good to pass up! Stephen fits you up with a custom made Artificial Environment suit and teaches you to use the chamaeleon like spectra shift and you try your best to take it in your stride. After all, if you are in space, it seems natural that you wear a spacesuit. The pair of you join Tyso the following morning when he heads to the long range jaunting pad he has booked for his trip.
"These are fairly technologically advanced people." Tyso explains as you follow the blonde Tomorrow Person through the Trig's long white corridors. "Not far off Earth at the moment." He glances at you. "In our time," He clarifies. "And actually more advanced in some ways. Well below the Federation's average level though.
Anyway, their native telepaths went public about their abilities about ten years ago and they've been working on full Federation membership ever since. Most of the usual backlash passed over within the first couple of years. Timus likes to drop people into their local groups occasionally without too much warning just to get a feel for how things are going."
You're in the jaunting room now and like the other you've visited, one wall of the room is transparent to the beauty of deep space. It still takes your breath away but at Tyso's gesture you obediently step up onto the jaunting pad and turn your back on the fantastic view.
[Are you ready?] The technician's highly focused mental touch asks softly in your thoughts. You manage to keep your thoughts tightly shielded as you signal back an affirmative. Stephen acknowledges your effort with a smile. He's already had to warn you several times today to keep your mental shields tight while off the Trig.
[Just relax, Jay.] He advises. [Your method of teleportation may differ from ours but it will catch the jaunting beam just as easily.]
[Here we go.] Tyso tells you just as the all-over tingle of the long range jaunt flows through you. As it subsides you look around to take in your first view of a new planet. As Tyso promised the air here is very similar in composition to Earth's. A few percent more oxygen in the air makes it feel thick and rich as you breathe in your first lung full. Inevitably, with the different combination of trace gases and industrial aerosols from those to which you are accustomed, there is a slightly strange odour but your awareness of it fades even as you take in the view.
The city you are looking down upon would not look out of place in any industrialised country on Earth. A slight wrongness about the scale bothers you until Tyso explains that the average height of the humanoid natives of this planet is seven and a half inches taller than the human average. The slight changes in building, door and window proportions are just enough to remind you that you're no longer on your home planet. You've jaunted to a hillside overlooking the city, which nestles in the foothills of a tall mountain range behind you. The rolling terrain is carpeted in a grass analogue almost indistinguishable from that to which you are accustomed. Here and there thickets of a shrub of some kind dot the hills. Occasional yellow flowers peer out from between pale green leaves in the bright light of a sun that you had assumed was nearing zenith but that you now realise is still low on the horizon.
"The sun here is class G3, a couple of percent brighter than ours which is G5." Stephen explains when he sees you squinting slightly. "But this planet is also further from it's primary than Earth so the effect isn't very different." He hands you a pair of sunglasses. "You'll probably need these before much longer though."
You accept the glasses gratefully and look from Stephen to Tyso and back again.
"So what do we do now?"
"Now." Tyso says. "We find the telepathic group that's meant to be having a picnic near here." He grins at Stephen, obviously continuing their old joke. "With any luck we should have arrived just in time for lunch."
*****
You walk for several minutes before Stephen points out the group of people sitting about a mile away. You are startled for a moment when Tyso suggests that you jaunt over to join them, here in full view, but then you remember that on this world telepathy is no longer a trait to be concealed.
[Do you mind if we join you?] Tyso broadcasts quietly but generally for the telepaths in the group to pick up. Several members of the group look up startled and gaze directly at you from across the intervening distance.
[Join us and welcome.] The thought comes back to all three of you after a few moments.
There are about twenty people sitting around in the group to which you teleport. To one side a group of teenagers are keeping a watchful eye on several small children who seem to be playing an elaborate game. All these people seem tall to you although there is a natural range in heights and body shapes. Their hair is mostly a mid-brown in colour and, you realise, their skins are pigmented with a pale green which closely matches the shrubs around them. It takes you aback for a moment but compared to the enormous variety of people you encountered in even your short stay on the Trig these people look almost human.
"Welcome." The voice that invited you in repeats. You can feel the very light touch the telepath is using to translate your words and his own. "You are not from this world?"
Glancing down at your own pink skin you realise that in comparison with these people you seem to stand out a mile from your surroundings. You realise too that even without further training you are stronger telepathically than anyone in this group and that they are as aware of this as you are. The question from the other telepath was not so much a question in itself as a request for further information. Tyso nods and reinforces the intrinsically human gesture with an empathic sense of affirmation.
"My name is Tyso. I am an observer from the Federation and these are my companions, Stephen and Jay."
"I am Lakrim, current spokesman for this group. Will you join us for our meal?"
You can't completely hide your grin as Stephen and Tyso exchange amused thoughts. Tyso gestures for the three of you to sit down.
"We may share some of your foods, if you will, although others may have unfortunate effects on us. We have also brought food to share." He adds taking off the bag he has carried over his shoulders from the Trig.
The 'grass' feels strange to sit upon but you soon become accustomed to the feeling. You listen as Tyso and Stephen engage some of the adult telepaths in conversation. the political situation on this planet intrigues you. Much as it has on Earth industrialisation pushed just a few of the nation states here into a position of economic and political dominance. From that dominance arose a free trade association that gradually swept the weaker nations into its structure until it became first an effective government and then an official one. It was only after the elections of the first world government organisation that the telepaths of this world, by then numbering several hundreds of thousands, revealed their existence to their incredulous fellows. With a world government in place, the sensible voices of the majority were able to drown out the hysterical reactions of the few. Now, a decade later, the situation appeared to have stabilised without any form of segregation or institutionalised prejudice sitting in.
This group of telepaths are far more interested in hearing Stephen and Tyso talk about the Federation than in speaking about themselves though and, after a while, you become tired of admitting that you are a newcomer to the Federation yourself and can add little to the conversation. The teenagers and children off to one side have been watching you with interest and now you wander over to join them.
"I'm Jay." You offer with the most tightly shielded mental greeting you can offer.
"Tam and Freda" One of the group introduces himself and the young lady beside him with a smile. More names come at you with increasing speed and you almost immediately lose track of them, particularly when the young children start chiming in with high pitched voices and a lot of giggling.
"You have only learnt to use your powers recently, haven't you?" Freda asks curiously after a few moments. "You're very strong." You nod, a little shyly.
"You?" You ask. You're not sure how telepaths on this world come into their powers although the presence of the very small children argues that it's probably not quite the same for them as for the Tomorrow People.
"Svrian just emerged a couple of months ago." Freda reassures you, indicating a young man apparently about your age. "But a lot of us are second or third generation. Most of us were born with our gifts."
"I'm still learning." Svrian says with a tolerant smile at his friends. "Even if this lot do try to confuse me all the time."
"Me, too." You agree, warming to the relaxed and friendly group. Deep in conversation you don't realise that one of them has passed around a bag of snacks until you find yourself biting down on the pastry concoction that you took instinctively.
With your mouth full, you hesitate. Tyso was careful to point out the foods you couldn't eat at the picnic spread and you're sure this wasn't on that list. On the other hand you're not sure that there were examples of this snack there for him to comment on. It would be rude to spit it out and there were only a couple of dishes you couldn't eat out of the thirty or fourty Tyso inspected. Should you risk it?
Do you:
a) decide to risk it?
b) Decide to spit it out?
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