Part 3
"I'm not going." Andrew's expression is stubborn and he beats you to the statement by moments.
"Nor am I." You agree. Elizabeth and Hsui Tai nod too.
John looks irritated.
"Look this isn't a matter for discussion." He says tiredly.
"Well I think it is." Liz tells him firmly. "John, if you're staying here then the rest of us are too. More than one of us needs to be here to deal with this if it gets bad."
John hesitates.
"TIM, will the filters on our air supply down here keep these chemicals out?"
"I believe so, John."
"See." You push. "If we're not needed out there we can just stay in the Lab."
John nods slowly.
"Alright then."
The next couple of hours are tense for all of you. John spends the time checking the atmospheric seals on the Lab, while the rest of you go through the situation over and over again with TIM, still looking for a solution that isn't going to be found.
"How long, TIM?" You ask after a while
[It is difficult to judge.] TIM answers slowly. [I believe that we still have an hour before the fringes of the cloud penetrate western Europe. However, I am beginning to receive reports from Russian sources which suggest an unusual number of people collapsing with symptoms of significant mental distress. I believe many of those are normal Homo sapiens for whom any such sensitivity will be temporary. I suspect, however, that the effects will continue to develop over the course of the next several hours.]
Elizabeth frowns and a moment later cries out, burying her face in her hands.
"Liz?" John is at her side in a moment, embracing her. "What is it?"
"I can feel them, John. All those people in Russia. I just let my mental barriers down for a moment and they were there. They're in so much pain!"
"There are so many breaking out, or doing whatever it is they're doing, all at the same time." You realise. "They're all picking up each other's pain and re-broadcasting it more loudly."
"A feedback loop." John nods grimly. He looks down anxiously at Elizabeth but she waves him away.
"I'm alright. I just wasn't prepared for it."
"How many of those people might be Tomorrow People, TIM?" John asks thoughtfully.
"It is impossible for me to say, John." TIM says regretfully. "There could be a few or there could be thousands. We've never been able to fully establish how many potential Tomorrow People there are on Earth. However I should point out that the consequences for those Homo sapiens affected may be as severe as those for the Homo superior."
"How do you mean, TIM?" You ask.
"The Tomorrow Person mind is inherently more flexible than that possessed by the Saps. The Tomorrow People may be able to assimilate this experience, while the minds of some of the Saps may just `snap'."
There's something very final about the way TIM says that word. You shudder.
"We have to do something!" Andrew protests.
*****
[TIM?] The thought that is projected into the Lab startles you all before anyone can answer Andrew.
[Stephen!] TIM's mental response is joyful. The rest of you exchange looks and then slide into place around the link table, fingertips touching.
[Stephen?] John reaches out with your linked minds, boosted by TIM's power. As you make contact you get a momentary view of the inside of the Trig, and then you are in full contact with the distant Tomorrow Person who called you.
[John, TIM.] Stephen sounds relieved. [Hello, everyone. John, we're picking up an awful lot of stray telepathic activity from Earth up here. We were getting worried. What's going on?]
[I wish we knew for sure, Stephen.] John tells him.
Between you, you manage to explain the situation to Stephen. By the time you've finished, the other man's thoughts are concerned.
[You ought to evacuate. Come up here to the Trig.]
[It's not an option, Stephen.] Elizabeth says. [Andrew's right. We have to do something.]
[I know ...]
You feel a wrench as Stephen's mind is suddenly torn from yours. Your mental link with the other four Tomorrow Peoplw breaks at the same instant and your eyes snap back into focus on the Lab. You're not alone in your surprise. The others are looking a little pale and shocked too. Below your hands the link table is dark and cold.
"TIM?" John asks anxiously.
TIM's spheres pulse apologetically.
"I am sorry, John." The biotronic computer sounds mortified. "My main telepathic transmitters are located on the surface and have been affected by the rising levels of psychoactive compound in the atmosphere. The feedback pulse as the transmitters failed has also damaged the link table."
[John? Anyone?] Without the boost from TIM, the distant telepathic contact is so faint as to be scarcely audible.
"We'll just have to do this without the technology then." John says simply. He raises his hands to either side of him and, still seated around the link table, the rest of you do the same. You concentrate on the task of establishing a link without TIM to mediate. As the five of you regain contact with Stephen you realise that he too is now in a tight mental link with others in order to compensate for your reduced power.
[Are you alright?] Stephen asks, his mind flooding with relief as you touch his mind.
[We're fine.] John assures him for you all. [Hello Mike. Hello Carol.]
[Don't scare us like that, John.] The woman, Carol, scolds.
[It wasn't deliberate. TIM's transmitters just went on the blink.]
[Is he alright?] Stephen asks quickly.
[A little embarrassed but alright.] You contribute, aware of telepathic greetings from the Tomorrow People you've never met before.
[But it does mean that evacuating is not an option anymore.] John says grimly. [Without TIM to transmit us, I wouldn't want to jaunt so far, particularly through a hostile atmosphere.]
[Is there anything we can do?] Mike asks intently.
[Not that I can think of.] John admits. [But keep in touch. Calling out isn't going to be easy without a boost from TIM.]
[We'll keep in touch.] Stephen promises as you break the link.
*****
Hsui Tai looks a little pale as the contact ends.
[I can hear people crying too now.] She says softly. [Crying in my mind.]
You swallow hard, realising that you too can hear the front edge of a wave of panicking minds.
"We're going to have to try sending a general telepathic broadcast." John suggests. "Tell anyone who can hear not to panic."
"And help any real Tomorrow People out there to breakout." Elizabeth adds in a worried tone.
You are all careful to maintain your telepathic barriers as you establish an unsupported link for the second time in a day. John, as usual, takes the lead pulling you all into a tight link.
[Alright.] He tells you. [We're just going to project reassurance and help any individuals wee can sense. Ready?]
You all take a deep breath and then John lowers your telepathic shields.
*****
[What's happening to me!] [So many voices!] [Noise! Noise all around me.] [This can't be happening! This isn't happening! I wont let this happen!] [Voices all around me, overwhelming me!] [I can't be doing this. Telepathy is impossible!] [Noise, thundering white noise.] [Help me!] [A tidal wave breaking over me.] [Other thoughts flooding my mind.] [Help me!] [It's all too loud!] [Shut up! Everyone just shut up and let me think!] [Thunder in my head, I can't get free!] [Can someone just explain?] [I can't ...] [Noise ...]
*****
Voices cry out to you from a grey, misty plain. People appear and disappear all around you, seen as no more than a flash of colour against the dull world. Some of the people you feel you ought to recognise, most you don't. You can hear their surprise and fear as a new world opens before them and you feel the devastating loss some experience as senses they never knew before this moment are torn away just as quickly. A few, you know, don't lose those senses but instead are overwhelming by them, unable to cope with a world evolution never intended them to experience.
One child appears directly before you in your dreams and screams, desperately and repeatedly. He is crying out for release and relief from the pain. For a moment, his dark eyes meet yours and then he jaunts, unfocused and unaware, into the peace of hyperspace.
Your eyes snap open and, unable to distinguish dream from reality, you jaunt automatically after him. You cannot say who is more amazed, the young boy with oriental features or yourself, as you appear beside him in the psychedelic tranquility of hyperspace. Instictively, you scoop him into your arms and jaunt back to the Lab.
You appear kneeling beside the link table with the child sobbing against your chest but you can feel that the small boy, no more than seven or eight years old has made the same transition you did not long ago. He is a Tomorrow Person too.
You look up at where the others are still slumped over the dark link table. The truth begins to dawn as you hear Andrew and Hsui Tai struggling and calling out in their sleep.
"These aren't dreams, are they?"
TIM's spheres are an anxious monochrome.
"It is not a dream." He confirms. "Well done, Jay. You just saved the child's life."
"Wh..what happened?" You ask, still confused.
"The five of you were hit by a telepathic blast that overwhelmed your minds." TIM tells you. "There are too many other minds being telepathically activated and damaged by the process. You have to maintain high telepathic barriers, Jay."
"I'll try." You promise, only now realising that you've been doing just that instinctively. In the back of your mind you can hear the roar of other thoughts continuously now. It feels like the pressure you felt when you broke out but it's there now even in your telepathically released mind. You wonder what it must be like for those breaking out in the middle of all this and you shudder. Held against your chest the little boy shudders too and you struggle to your feet before putting him down on the sofa. "You're alright now." You tell him. "Just stay there and don't panic."
He gazes at you blankly and you realise that the Asian child speaks no English. You hesitate, reluctant to try and touch him mind to mind in order to communicate. Both of you are still a little telepathically sensitive for that.
TIM's voice speaks in a strange, lilting language, and then another and another until finally the child looks up at TIM's spheres in startled comprehension.
"Ah, Korean." TIM notes calmly in English. "Leave him with me, Jay. I will ensure that he does not panic and return to hyperspace."
You nod and move to check on the others. Andrew wakes as you shake his shoulders and as his eyes fly open, he too jaunts from the Lab. Hsui Tai wakes a little more placidly but her eyes are filled with pain and anxiety. As Andrew jaunts back into the Lab, all three of you move to comfort and reassure the two people he's brought out of hyperspace.
"They're jaunting out there all the time!" Andrew says with tears in his eyes. "There are thousands of them!"
You take a deep breath. All three of you are working on pure adrenaline. You need to stop and figure out what to do next.
"Why won't John and Elizabeth wake up?" You ask.
"They're both more highly trained than any of the rest of you, Jay." TIM answers you. "The telepathic blast will have had a more intense effect upon them. They will wake soon."
"What can we do about all these people jaunting into hyperspace, TIM?" Andrew asks, also trying to get a grip on his emotions.
"Is that where we were?" Of the three people you've pulled into the Lab only a teenage girl appears to speak English. She's holding the Korean child you rescued but her eyes are frightened and confused. "Are others there? Where are we?"
"Safe." You say shortly, impatient for TIM's answer. Too many people are dying as you talk. You know that and are powerless to stop it.
"I believe we may have the components here to build a telepathic beacon." TIM tells you all. "It will pull those who jaunt without focus back out of hyperspace. I will need assistance to construct it though."
"I will help, TIM." Hsui Tai tells him hurrying off into the storeroom at his direction.
You and Andrew exchange anxious looks and then turn back to your three visitors.
"Look," Andrew begins. "Something amazing is happening. You have a gift and you're learning to use it properly, as we do."
"Unfortunately," You chime in. "So are a lot of other people who nature never intended to have these powers. Some of them are dying. Some of us are dying. A lot of people are panicking."
Andrew's eyes go unfocused and he teleports mid-sentance, returning a moment later with a young man who is screaming hoarsely. The man's eyes are glazed and the much smaller Andrew shakes him vigorously.
"You have to focus!" He snaps. "You have to focus on my voice. You can block everything else out if you can just accept it! Release your mind."
The other three novices cry out in pain and you too can feel the newcomer as a loud presence in your mind. You help Andrew ease him through breakout and everyone in the room relaxes as the new Tomorrow Person gets some control over his own thoughts.
You turn to Andrew, pale faced.
"How many, Andrew? How many can we save one on one like this."
"As many as we can." Elizabeth's voice is weak and she opens eyes flooded with horror at what's happening.
John helps Hsui Tai with the beacon when he wakes, even as the rest of you, including some of the newcomers, pull person after person out of hyperspace or ease them remotely through the trauma of breakout. The Saps who experience telepathy and teleportation you can little for. Their minds do not have the same safety mechanisms that allow a Tomorrow Person to ease through breakout. For most of the Saps the process never progresses so far and their experience of telepathic gifts is brief. For a few it lasts a lot longer.
You know from news reports that TIM is able to pick up that hundreds of people around the globe are unconscious in hospital, their brains shutting down under the enormous and unrelieved strain. You don't need news reports to know that many more have jaunted to Hyperspace and are beyond your help forever.
Even before John and Hsui Tai finish the beacon the Lab is already full. Even with no more than the first fringes of the chemical cloud touching Britain you're pulling in Tomorrow People from across Asia, the Russian steppes and the middle-east as well as the first few from Europe.
"We're going to have to separate." Elizabeth is the first one to suggest it but you're all thinking the same. "We can't keep bringing people here." You exchange looks from across the crowd of frightened and confused people in the Lab. You all look tired and upset.
"Ginge, Lefty and Chris are all outside." TIM announces with his usual perfect timing, letting them in.
"What's going on?" Chris demands as soon as the Saps burst in to the bustling Lab.
"No time to explain." John barely looks up from where he's fiddling with the last few components of the device he's building. "Ginge, Lefty, have you got your bikes with you? Yes? Well I want you to take Andrew and Jay and open up the New Lab. You remember how to get there?" He glances over at you, explaining quickly. "It's in an abandoned station like this but on the other side of London. Ginge, can you get Jay and Andrew out there quickly?"
"Well, yes but ..."
"Andrew and Jay will explain on the way." John snaps. "Chris, can you take Elizabeth and Hsui Tai out to that wasteland where Elmer left the Doozlin Pin? You do have your Jeep here? There are a couple of old warehouses out there that you can use." He pauses and looks at each of you in turn. "Look. I don't want any of you to jaunt at the moment. There's too many distractions to stop you focusing. And, besides, the same effect that's knocked out TIM's transmitters will take out our belts too. Pull anyone you can contact in towards you. We'll try and pick up anyone else here."
"Well," Ginge sighs, looking at you. "Come on, lads. We'd better get going."
*****
The roar of the motorbike mirrors the cacophony of random voices in your mind. They seem to be growing louder as each moment passes. By the time you relax your hold on Lefty and stagger off the back of the motorbike you are pale faced and Andrew's drawn expression mirrors yours.
"It's getting worse." You whisper.
"The cloud. It must be almost here by now." Andrew tells you. "We have to get inside!" You look around helplessly, momentarily disorientated, confused by the run down estate and the red brick facade of a derelict underground station in front of you.
Ginge and Lefty exchange worried looks and Ginge grabs your arm.
"Come on you two. We can get you to the door but you'll have to open it."
You stumble down concrete steps and along the derelict platform, the London Transport roundels on the walls providing the only familiar point of reference in a suddenly confusing world. You've never been here to the New lab before but even Andrew seems disorientated by the rising thunder in your heads.
You feel a sudden flash of panicked thought and automatically jaunt after it, pulling a little girl from the disorientating swirls of hyperspace. Only your focus on Andrew pulls you out of the maelstrom. You arrive by his side just as he raises a glowing hand to a metal door incongruous in the dusty station wall.
[Hello!] You feel Andrew's thought reaching out to the little girl but her minds is quiet, her fear reaching a plateau of terror.
"I used to live in this place." Andrew tells you, too tired to try to reach the girl just yet. "When we moved back to the Old Lab we took TIM with us but left a generator. We should have some power."
All five of you stumble into the darkness beyond the door as it opens. Lefty, accustomed to coming through this entrance, is the one who remembers where the main power switch is. He finds it in the dim light from the dorway and then you're all blinking as white light floods the room.
Andrew jaunts as the light hits you, clearly picking up still more thoughts. You feel him struggle to find you again, falling through hyperspace, reaching for your mind.
["Andrew!"] You shout the thought telepathically as well as aloud and Ginge and Lefty look from side to side as if expecting to find him hiding. The little girl still in your arms looks curiously at you and you feel her mind touching yours. The extra power is enough and Andrew uses the pair of you as a beacon to jaunt, pale faced and gasping, to your side. With him he brings two men, both in their early twenties, both clearly scared out of their wits.
"Look, you two sit down." Ginge orders them, still confused by the situation but taking charge. Lefty begins to talk to them, explaining what a Tomorrow Person is as Ginge turns back to you. "Andrew, are you okay?"
"I will be, Ginge." Andrew's Scottish accent is thick in his tired voice. "Jay, we can't teleport any more. This stuff us affecting us as well as the others. We can't focus."
You nod, frustrated.
"We'll have to try and call out telepathically." You suggest. "More carefully this time but we must be able to help some of these people through it."
By the time those of you in the New Lab have mentally talked thirty new Tomorrow People through breakout you are aware of perhaps twenty more who have managed it on their own and that's not even including the people that Liz, John and Hsui Tai have helped. The emergent Tomorrow People though are just the tip of the iceberg. You can feel the Sap telepaths out there panicking.
"Ginge, can we get television down here?" You ask after a while. "I want to see the news reports."
Ginge looks up. He and Lefty found a kettle somewhere and have been serving drinks to the shell shocked newcomers with the help of a couple of the more coherent breakouts. It's strange to see the leather-clad biker offering reassurance to strangers but there's something about the lost look in the eyes of the new arrivals that can't be ignored.
"TV?" He says. "Yeah, the kids used to let me watch it down here 'cause we only had black and white at our place. I stopped coming here so often once we got colour." He walks over to a bank of equipment on one wall. "Let's see. Usually I'd just ask TIM but I think this set of switches here ...." The wallscreen lights up to the astonishment of many of the people in the room. Ginge nods thoughtfully. "Now I think this button is for ITV." He presses it and sure enough the familiar Thames television logo fills the screen as the signature fanfare fills the Lab.
"And now we're taking you back to our special news report on the medical crisis that has paralysed the western world." The announcer's voice is not quite as level as usual. Even the ivory tower of the media is being shaken by world events.
"Western world, Eastern world, when are they going to learn that we only have one planet!" Andrew snaps angrily. "This is a problem we're all going to have to face together!"
The face of the newsreader fills the screen indifferent to Andrew's outburst. He looks grave and a little anxious.
"The latest headlines." He declares. "In excess of thirty thousand people in the United Kingdom are now believed to be suffering from the effects of the toxic cloud released from a Russian weapons laboratory two days ago. It is still not clear what chemicals are involved in this leak but the presence of nerve agents seems certain. Police are repeating their warning to stay inside with windows and doors closed and vents covered until the worst of the cloud has passed. Reported symptoms of chemical poisoning include severe headaches and panic attacks leading to comas in some ten thousand reported cases so far in the UK. Other symptoms include sever hallucinatory experiences which some victims have described as being akin to telepathic experiences." The newsreader sits back in his chair as the camera pans out to include a middle aged, balding man in the shot.
"Professor Cawston!" The exclamation comes from Ginge and Andrew simultaneously. "He's a friend of ours." Andrew adds in explanation.
"Professor Cawston is a leading researcher into paranormal psychology." The newsreader is explaining to the rest of the country. "Professor, do you believe that the paranormal phenomena being reported in connection with this chemical poisoning could be real? Or, as other commentators have suggested, are they merely the result of hallucinogens in the gas cloud itself?"
"I very much wish that could be the case." The professor's voice is taut with anxiety. "No, I fear that these telepathic symptoms are indeed real."
"Fear, professor?"
"I am alarmed at the number of reported cases of people ja ... teleporting away from their loved ones in a panic. I feel it is very important that people are reassured that this is a natural process and that there are people who can help them through it. No one should panic."
"People, professor?" The newsreader presses. "Have you encountered people with symptoms like this before?"
Cawston hesitates. Then nods simply.
"Yes." He says simply. "And if any of them are watching I would very much like them to get in touch." He adds looking directly at the camera, almost directly at you. "The entire world needs to know what is happening to stop this panic from spreading and I believe that there are only a few special individuals who can provide that explanation."
"Well..." The newsreader says doubtfully, "Thank you, professor."
You and Andrew exchange looks as Ginge turns down the volume on the news report. One of the more coherent of the newcomers is staring from one of you to the other.
"He means you, doesn't he?" She asks.
Andrew nods, reluctantly.
"And people like us, like you." He tells her. The Scots boy looks you in the eye. "He's right, Jay. We can't hide. We have to go public, if only to save lives."
You nod.
"Do you think John or the others saw that?" You ask. Andrew shrugs helplessly.
"Liz and Hsui Tai are in the middle of nowhere and who knows what's going on back in the other Lab?"
"Can't you just..." Ginge waves a hand in a vaguely mystical gesture, "...call John, find out?"
"None of us can use our telepathy just now." Andrew tells him regretfully. "If we even crack our mental barriers then the whole force of the mental storm hits us in the face. And if we're feeling it so badly then think about what John's feeling."
"But you're still pulling people in." Lefty protests.
"There's enough of us here now to attract people to us even against the background." You tell him. "But we can't do anything actively. We can't talk to the others."
"Should one of us go to the television studios? What do you think, Jay?" Andrew asks you doubtfully.
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