Part 7
"Ginge, can you take me to the TV studios?" You ask suddenly. The biker takes a step backwards involuntarily.
"What, me? Go outside? In that?"
"Ginge." Andrew snaps short-temperedly. "You're the least telepathically sensitive person we've ever found! Why do you think you get hypnotised so easily? It's Jay who's taking the risks here, not you!"
Ginge sighs.
"Alright, kid. I'll get you there!"
*****
Your thoughts explode with pain as soon as you leave the Lab. Ginge grabs your arm as much to keep you upright.
"Should we go back inside?" He asks you anxiously.
You close your eyes for a moment but resist the urge to shake your head.
"No, Ginge. We have to keep going. Keep talking to me. I need to focus on something."
"What's it doing to you, Jay?" Ginge asks as he helps you towards his bike.
"It's making me more sensitive. I can't focus. I can't block anything out." You gasp in pain. "Hurry, Ginge. I can't cope with this for long!"
"Hold tight, kid." Ginge tells you as the motorbike's engine roars.
*****
You don't remember much of the journey through the winding streets of London. You cling to Ginge like the lifeline he is. You know that your grip on sanity is as tenuous as your grip on the biker's leather. You can hear the waves of pain and confusion tearing through your thoughts, their impact magnified by the compounds in the air which are increasing your sensitivity.
Ginge drives straight through the barriers at the television studios. You're only distantly aware of the shattering wooden pole and the shouts of the security guards. Ginge roars up to the doors of the studio with little concern for the courtesies or protocols.
"We're here, Jay." His voice seems to come from a long way away and when he pulls you off the bike, his arm around your waist is all that keeps you upright. Through the glass doors of the studio people peer at you and they cluster around as Ginge virtually drags you through the revolving glass doors. The air conditioning hits you at full blast as you pass through the doors. Clearly the studios are anxious to keep any contaminants outside.
"Alright! Alright!" You hear Ginge's voice. "Give him a bit of air. Can't you see the boy's sick?"
A glass of water is pressed to your lips but you push it away after just a sip. Inside here you can feel the effects of the psychoactive compounds fading slightly although there is both a residual effect and a low concentration of the chemicals even here.
"I have ... have to find Professor Cawston."
"He's live on air still." Someone tells you.
"Look I don't care, right?" Ginge asks, his frustration obvious. "It's an emergency! A family emergency!" He adds a little recklessly.
"Please, just take us to him." You whisper. "We can talk to him when he gets off air."
Something about your tone, something about the craziness of the world around them, convinces the studio staff to help you.
*****
It's strange to think that only a few days ago John was in this very studio, trying to convince the world of his dull life. Now, as you and Ginge are shown into the back of the studio, there is a very different atmosphere. Professor Cawston is still seated at the well lit table in the centre of the room. He looks tired, as if he's spent the last ten minutes trying to persuade the sceptical journalists of the severity of the situation without success.
His face lights with hope as he spots Ginge in the back of the crowd but then he frowns as he sees your pale and unfamiliar form. The professor stands abruptly, shaking himself free of microphone cables.
"Professor!" The journalist he is speaking to protests. "We are broadcasting live!"
"I have to speak to someone." The professor tells him shortly.
He hurries over to you.
"Ginge? What are you doing here?"
"Well, Jay here insisted, didn't he?" Ginge shrugs giving you an anxious look. "I told him going out in this was a bad idea." Cawston appraises you anxiously.
"Ah, so you're Jay." Cawston says, his face clearing slightly. "Yes, John mentioned you last time we spoke. Where is he? What's happening?"
"Last time we heard from him he was in the Lab." You tell Cawston, forcing yourself to concentrate on his words. "Professor, with all this interference ... we got kind of separated. Professor, you're right. Someone needs to tell everyone that they don't need to be frightened."
*****
"Professor! Professor Cawston!"
The journalist speaking on camera looks over in irritation as one of the technicians calls for the Professor in a high, excited voice. Several more technicians shuffle the three of you towards a bank of television monitors on one wall of the studio. On one of the screens is a view of a young man's face that is unfamiliar to you but clearly well known to Ginge and the Professor. The man appears to be sitting down and waiting impatiently
"It's coming in on one of our outside broadcast circuits." The technician who called you says in a puzzled tone. "It's impossible! No one should be able to establish a connection like that to this studio. He just came on and started asking for Professor Cawston."
"Can we transmit from here?" The professor demands. "It's urgent!"
"Voice only." The technician shrugs, flicking a switch.
"Professor, Professor, are you there?"
The instant you hear the voice, you know it.
"Stephen?" Your voice sounds weak to your own ears but it's more than you can manage telepathically.
"Jay?" The young man on screen frowns. "Jay, is that you? We can't get through to the Lab. We couldn't make contact with any of you!"
"Stephen, where are you?" Cawston asks.
"In a kalinar." Stephen answers quickly.
"One of those flying saucer things?" Ginge grins. "Where?"
"In orbit. We came when we realised how big the problem was."
"Don't come down here, Stephen." You tell him quickly. "We can barely think. All my powers have gone haywire. We're all swamped. I can't contact any of the others, Stephen! I can't hear them."
"Calm down, Jay!" Stephen's voice is firm, if anxious. "Just tell me, where are John and the others?"
"John was in the Lab, the Old Lab. Andrew was in the New Lab. I ... I can't remember where Liz is. Something about a Doozlin pin? So many people were breaking out, Stephen. We were pulling as many as we could out."
"Alright, Jay." Stephen is still frowning but trying to soothe the note of panic out of your voice. "And no one has heard from John or Liz lately?"
"Not since John sent me and Lefty out with Jay and Andrew, and Chris out with the girls." Ginge volunteers.
Stephen sighs.
"And we've already tried to contact the Lab. All TIM's external communication interfaces must be down. One of us is going to have to make some kind of broadcast soon. If only to explain what I'm about to do here." He says anxiously. "It really ought to be one of them."
*****
"I'm here." You've seldom been as pleased to hear a voice as you are to hear John's behind you.
"John!" Professor Cawston calls the name gladly.
"John!" Stephen's face lights up but his eyes are anxious. "You sound awful!"
It's true, you realise, turning slowly and feeling your head spin despite the caution. John's pale, drawn face makes him look as bad as you feel.
"It's rough down here, Stephen. Look, I don't want you or any of the others to come down here. I wouldn't bring a trained telepath within a million miles of this planet at the moment!"
"John." Stephen says intently. "I've got Mike and Tyso here with me. We've brought four large scale psi-damping fields with us. They'll help and the Galactic Federation is preparing more. This is all they could lend us at short notice. As soon as we drop these, people are going to notice thousand mile wide circles with no psychic activity."
"Won't that strip the new Tomorrow People of their powers as well as the Saps?" Cawston asks.
"Yes." John says thoughtfully. "But the Tomorrow People will only be affected temporarily. If we keep the field in place long enough to control the initial effects of the clouds then the new breakouts will be a lot more controllable." He glances at the monitor on which Stephen is waiting and listening. "Stephen, go ahead and place the fields, I'll try to explain. Can you send me a radio unit? All of ours have failed in this mess."
"I'll try." Stephen says doubtfully. "My aim may be off a bit. I can't get a telepathic fix on anything down there at the moment."
He closes his eyes briefly and a moment later a small device clatters to the floor somewhere near your feet. A second one joins it even as Ginge is scrabbling after the first.
"Can you hear me?" Ginge almost drops the devices as Stephen's voice emerges from the tiny radio. He hands one to John and the other to you, even as John fingers the device.
"Got it, Stephen. Off you go."
"Signing off, John. Stay in touch."
*****
"What are you going to tell people?" Cawston asks as Stephen's face fades from the viewscreen. It is only then that you become aware of the near silence in the studio, of the crowd gathered around you, of the cameras that have swung in your direction. The journalist who earlier interviewed Professor Cawston now walks towards your entire group, microphone in hand. With a sinking heart you recognise Hendry, the investigative reporter who interviewed John so recently. He looks angry.
"That, young man, is something I think we'd all like to know."
*****
John closes his eyes momentarily. From this close you can feel the weariness flowing out from him. You wonder if he ever imagined this moment, the moment he tells the world about who and what he is. Certainly he can never imagined standing here bone-weary and only held upright by force of will.
"My name is John." He begins slowly. "I'm a Tomorrow Person. I'm a telepath. I broke out, as we call it, about ten years ago. Since then I've been learning about my abilities and helping others to find their own. There have never been many of us. That is partly because few people are naturally able to break out, and partly because those of us who have the potential don't always survive. Sometimes, they can't adjust to their abilities, sometimes they have not been given the chance. People have tried in the past to force us to use our abilities for greed, for power, for murder. They have always failed. We cannot kill, even to save ourselves. We will not allow our gifts to be misused.
Nonetheless, we have remained hidden because we were afraid. We are still afraid but we can't hide any more.
Three days ago a volcanic explosion released a cloud of telepathically active gases from a military establishment in the Soviet Union. These gases are having catastrophic effects. In potential Tomorrow People, people like me and my friends, it is triggering the dangerous process of 'breakout'. In many non-telepathic humans it is triggering transient abilities that simulate ours but which will pass. Much of the population will find this profoundly traumatic. For a few, the shock is fatal.
Those of us who can have been helping, but we are very few in number. We can only help a tiny fraction of those affected. It is vital that people understand that they must not panic. For most this thing will come and it will pass. If you feel strange things happening to you, if you hear noises that are not there, do not panic! Do not attempt to run or escape. Many people are panicking and it is those who have exhausted us with helping them. For most these abilities will pass.
If you feel pressure in your mind, if you begin to hear the others affected by this thing, then concentrate on a picture. It doesn't matter what, a fist tightly clenched, a flower bud, a child about to be born. Let the image unfold, the fist unclench, the flower bloom, the child emerge into this world. Let the powers flow through you, unlock your mind! Remember, remember if this begins to happen to you. Remember what I've said and don't panic!
A friend of mine, a Tomorrow Person, is currently attempting to establish zones of zero telepathy. These will be established in regions with the highest population density, at least at first. In these regions the symptoms I have been describing will fade and vanish, for as long as we can maintain them."
John pauses, looking tired but with some hint of his usual confident facade.
"We are calling on all the resources available to us to help everyone through this. And I mean everyone. The entire world is being affected by this and we're trying to find and help everyone. Don't panic! Trust us, we're trying to help."
*****
John stops talking to be met with a resounding silence. The cameras are still running as the group of people surrounding you begins to close in. They're asking questions, asking you directly for help. With the increased telepathic sensitivity you're both feeling, the press of their attention is literally painful.
"We can't stay here." You say to John, desperately. "There's too much to do!"
You can see John's agreement but Ginge looks doubtful.
"I don't think we're going to be able to get you out of here." He says tensely. "Even if I can get you past the crowds in the studio, neither of you kids ought to be outside in this."
"John," Hendry tries to be ingratiating. "What evidence can you provide for what you're telling us? I mean, it sounds like a pretty unlikely story."
"Look around you!" Professor Cawston says harshly, "Look at all the people in hospital. Look at that transmission from Stephen."
John ignores them both. He turns to you speaking quietly but intently.
"Jay, we're going to have to jaunt out of here."
"In this?" You exclaim disbelievingly. "John, I can't even lower my shields enough to feel you in the same room as me! Our belts stopped working hours ago. How can I jaunt?"
"Getting to hyperspace is easy. It's getting out that's the problem for everyone at the moment. I got the beacon I was working on sorted out, though. You can use that to get out. Look, Jay, I'm not leaving you here on your own but we have to get back to the others."
You nod, a little hesitantly, and force yourself to concentrate. Beside you, John is doing the same.
"Now, Jay." He says and you jaunt on the words.
You were focusing on the familiar Lab but you're not altogether surprised to find yourself floating in hyperspace, your mind lacking the power to complete the process. You are alone, at first, in the swirling confusion of hyperspace. The patterns and rhythms are soporific and as you struggle against your exhaustion, you know that you have to escape before it overwhelms you.
Where were you trying to get to? You can't remember any more. A beacon? You try to imagine what that feels like, you try to hear the beacon above the roar of minds that you can hear, even here. You were with someone, you know. Andrew? Was it Andrew?
[Andrew?]
The name pulls you towards something, towards a weight against the indifference of hyperspace.
[Jay?] The boy's voice is startled and anxious.
You focus on it and fall from hyperspace to land at Andrew's feet.
*****
"Jay? Jay, answer me!" The voice is coming from your hand and it takes you a couple of moments to realise that it's coming from the small radio you were given. Andrew, squatting by your side, prises it from your fingers and activates it.
"He got back here, John. He's alright. Are you? We saw you on TV. We saw you jaunt out. We were getting worried."
"Yes. Remind me never to jaunt like that again though. I should never have suggested it." John says tiredly.
"John, Andrew." Stephen's voice cuts across the signal as you begin to get your bearings again. "We're going to put our last psi-damping field in central Europe. It's going to affect you all. Get ready for it!"
"We will be." John says unhappily.
*****
Andrew hands you back the radio as you look around the Lab. Perhaps fifty people crowd it, ranging from small children, little more than infants, to adults. They all look tired and drawn but they're no longer the frightened mob you left. They heard what John said on screen too and it said most of what needed to be said. Andrew addresses them, his brown eyes serious.
"Everyone. Very soon you're going to feel something blocking your powers from you. It will be a little strange and a little uncomfortable. Jay and I will feel it worse than any of the rest of you though. Just keep calm. This is a temporary measure until we can get everything under control."
And that's the point at which the senses you've come to rely on are stripped from you.
Andrew falls to his knees, gasping. You are already on your knees but you sway. The others seem to feel little more than a ripple of discomfort.
*****
The effects of the four psi-dampeners are immediately apparent as a drop of the noise emanating from the Earth. You hear from Stephen and the others that they're all still aware of a mental background but now it is easy to make out the louder voices of new Tomorrow People above the roar of the crowd. Between you, you manage to organise liaison points in parts of the globe far from populous areas and as yet unaffected by the toxic cloud. You wonder about those who would be breaking out but are trapped like you below the influence of the psi-dampeners. After all you have deliberately covered as much of the planet as you can with the steadily growing numbers of field generators. First the other Tomorrow People and then a new group from the distant planet Pyrie who offer to help assure you that when the fields are deactivated those people destined to become Tomorrow People will regain the use of their powers. It is the poor Saps whose minds are unable to deal with the unnaturally triggered abilities who are saved by the dampening presence of the field.
After a couple of hours of reassurance and advice you and Andrew send the Tomorrow People you have helped to break out over the last few hours home. There will be time enough to gather them all again before you lower the psi-damping fields and they are going to be of little help in easing others through a traumatic experience they have not yet recovered from themselves.
Inevitably several of the new breakouts and the affected Saps have been broadcast displaying their abilities on camera. Together with John's speech, recorded and rebroadcast across the planet, it is clear that the existence of Tomorrow People on the planet is no longer a secret. The sudden cessation of telepathic activity in large circularly defined regions has also been noted and neighbouring regions are now rushing their unconscious patients across those invisible borders. Many of the Saps and nascent Tomorrow People who were comatose as a result of the chaos in their minds wake as the silence falls across them, others do not.
You can do nothing for the moment for the people within the damping fields. Until the concentration of the chemicals in the air begins to fall, Saps will continue to be affected and the shields cannot be lowered. While the shields are raised the few trained telepaths among you can do nothing to ease the burden of those inside.
Stephen arranges to land his kalinar in the wasteground where Liz has been helping other new breakouts and you and the other senior Tomorrow People gather there to meet it. As you look from face to pale face you're shocked at how much has changed to make you think of yourself as one of the 'senior' group. Stephen and the younger man everyone greets as Mike help you to strap in before lifting the space craft as quickly as they can.
Everyone feels the moment you leave the damping field's dome of influence. John lets out a long ragged breath as a sigh. Elizabeth gives a slight sob. Even Stephen and Mike look relieved despite their short exposure to the field. You say nothing as you feel your senses open like a flower blooming in your mind. You've come to depend on them even more than your more conventional senses. On the kalinar you're all able to take a few minutes to grab a bite of food and rest for a moment. It's the first opportunity you've had for longer than you can remember. You can't stop for long though. Too many people need help.
For the moment, your efforts and those of the others are confined to those relative few breaking out in the less populous regions outside the fields. You ease Tomorrow People through the rebirth of breakout. You buffer the minds of Saps as they struggle with powers that most will only experience for a few hours.
With the existence of telepaths widely known and the presence of an alien race already speculated as an origin for the damping fields, panic begins to rise. In some parts of the world those hospitals whose beds are filled with comatose patients are attacked, in others the new Breakouts are chased or even stoned. Those few of you who know fully what is happening face a difficult choice when John and Elizabeth go to speak to the World's assembled media at the United Nations.
They explain about the volcanic eruption and the nerve agents that it combined in unpredictable ways. They explain that yes, other worlds were assisting in the rescue effort. They explain why the fields must be left in place for some time longer and that more fields were arriving all the time to protect more of the planet as the cloud spreads. They explain too that for the moment the Tomorrow People were acting as representatives equally for every race and every nation. They reassure the new breakouts you have been unable to reach, too, that there are others like them who will help them as soon as possible. They jaunt before the world's media can ask questions they're not prepared to answer. You all know that sometime soon you will have to send real representatives to the governments on the planet but for the moment you have more immediate concerns.
It takes two months to lower the psi-dampening fields around the Earth. As they come down in turn thousands more people collapse with the residual effects of the chemicals now integral to the Earth's atmosphere. This time, however, you have enough partially-trained Tomorrow People in each region to help the worst cases through the trauma of hearing the world in their heads.
Several thousand people around the world die.
Twenty thousand need to be helped from comas they would otherwise never leave.
Four million experience telepathy for anywhere from a few minutes to a month before it fades, leaving them either relieved or bereft.
Eighteen thousand Tomorrow People break out and join the network of small groups that are scattered around the planet.
In some regions those groups acknowledge their gifts publicly and are looked to as advisors and mediators, almost revered. In most of the world though they are reviled and remain underground, hidden. Governmental responses are almost as varied. Some respect you for the impartial way you handled this affair. Others see you as threats and want you gone.
For the moment, you and the other Tomorrow People are not sure which way to go. Eighteen thousand sounds like a lot but you know that compared to the population of largely hostile Saps it may be far from enough. After a lot of thought and consultation with the Trig, you finally advise the nascent Tomorrow People to remain hidden. John and the rest of your group remain in contact with the United Nations as representatives of you all but you refuse to assist with any suggestion of registration for telepaths on Earth.
You, and the others who broke out in London still use both the old Lab and the new as your bases but now there are hundreds of other groups with other Headquarters. There is talk among them of a Tomorrow People parliament, of a new assembly that will be truly global. As long as that parliament has to remain underground though it will never be all it could be.
John and the others intend to resign their roles as ambassadors to both the United Nations and the Trig as soon as the first crisis passes but they remain as Liaisons until a representative can be elected. John is traveling around the world both helping the emergent telepaths with their training and encouraging people to stand for the roles. You've done a fair bit of traveling yourself in the last year, visiting and advising other groups around the world. You remember the shock and fear you felt when you broke out but that seems an age ago now. Now, you're a senior Tomorrow Person.
In your travels you've seen the way things are going. Even if for the moment you have to remain hidden on your own world, the Tomorrow People of Earth are about to appoint their first elected officials to the Federation and there are only a couple of candidates for the roles.
If John and the others think they can get out of their responsibilities this easily they have a surprise coming!
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