| Part 0 and Prologue | Kinetic Energy | Metastable Equilibrium | Paradigm Shift | Epilogue |
Synopsis:
With the Earth poised on a knife-edge between genocide and acceptance, faced with the verdict of a Federation set against them, the TPs fight for the very survival of their species.
A story in three sections. With prologue and epilogue
* Kinetic Energy (Parts 1 - 6)
* Metastable Equilibrium (Parts 1 - 4)
* Paradigm Shift (Parts 1 - 7)
The Kindred Spirits universe is dedicated to the late Philip Gilbert.
This is the fourteenth story in the Kindred Spirits sequence. Recommended reading order is:
Kindred Spirits - Two Aims, One Destination
Kindred Spirits - Double Bluff
Kindred Spirits - Slipping the Net
Kindred Spirits - Consumed by Fire
Kindred Spirits - The Stair
Kindred Spirits - Stara Majka
Kindred Spirits - ZD28-FV6
Kindred Spirits - Darkness and Lust
Kindred Spirits - Abandoned
Kindred Spirits - The Path Ahead
Kindred Spirits - Serpent's Tooth
Kindred Spirits - Grand Central Station
Kindred Spirits - Luna Yuletide
Kindred Spirits - Resolutions
Previous stories can be found in the TPFICT archive or on our websites at http://www.oocities.org/tiylaya/KS/ or http://www.effdee.demon.co.uk/tp/Stories/stories.htm
Background information:
This story begins in December 2021, more than ten years after the Mass Breakout began, changing the world forever. A decade of ever-increasing persecution and paranoia has left both Saps and Tomorrow People facing an uncertain future. On the Galactic Trig the Senior Tomorrow People struggle for the sake of both races against a Federation Inquiry that threatens the entire Earth, while in Luna the remaining TP leaders strive to hold their people fast in the face of a tidal wave of fear and hatred....
Disclaimer:
This story is based on the television series 'The Tomorrow People', created by Roger Price and owned by Thames Television/Freemantle Media. It also features original characters and situations created by, and the intellectual property of, Jackie Clark and Elizabeth Stanway, October 2003.
The titles of the Times, Guardian, Mirror and Sun newspapers, and of the BBC, are used without permission and we do not claim to accurately represent the editorial policies of these media organizations.
The genetics paper used for reference in part three is taken from the web site http://biomed.brown.edu/Courses/BIO48/22.Genetics.HTML
Many thanks to Ana for her comments and also to Anyta for beta reading this and every story in the Kindred Spirits series. Your guidance and commitment to excellence was invaluable to making this universe come to life.
E-mail Address(es):
tiylaya@yahoo.com
Jackie@the-tomorrow-people.co.uk
"Another drink, John?" Carol held out a flask of fruit juice, shaking it invitingly. John watched the viscous fluid it contained wash from side to side and shook his head with a look of distaste. The juice's saccharine sweetness had been refreshing at first, but it had rapidly begun to pall, much like the planet on which it originated.
He had come to Adonisia looking for information and for advice. He had wanted an insight into how the telepathic race here had survived its turbulent childhood. He had hoped to find a way for his own to do the same. Instead he'd found a people striving to maintain their placid way of life in the face of outside change.
At first John had seen only the graceful elegance of the slender Adonisians. Their astonishing calm and telepathic harmony had soothed him, buffering him from the turmoils of his life, as it always had on his earlier visits. Carol's family had welcomed him into their home and he had revelled in their hospitality, taking comfort from the company of his oldest friend. It had taken him nearly a week to begin to see the cracks in the near perfect facade. The plight of his people on distant Earth was sending out ripples of disquiet that spread ever wider.
Carol and Narscissa had taken him to see the refugee centres, and he had felt the distress in the minds of his old friends. Narcissa had used all his considerable influence to improve conditions, but even so, the centres were isolated and crowded. Far as they were from the sprawling cities of Adonisia, their presence had been felt. The Adonisians had been shaken from their complacent and settled life, forced, by the Tomorrow People's struggle for survival, to question their own good fortune. And forced too to question the values of a culture that could remain indifferent, or even openly hostile, in the face of such suffering.
The undercurrent of bitter self-examination had left a bad taste in John's mouth and he swallowed hard, as if to clear it, before answering Carol's question with a shake of his head.
"I've had enough for now," he told her. He sighed, looking around him sadly. "Of everything."
*****
Carol watched John's expression as he leaned back in his chair, lost in introspection. Compassion and concern flooded her, but a lifetime of experience kept her telepathic shields tight and her thoughts private. John didn't need to know how much he worried her, or how tired she felt he looked. It had been clear since his arrival that he needed space and time to be himself, not the burden of maintaining the self-confident appearance that he so often tried to project.
She and Narscissa had been astonished when Adonisia's space-traffic control informed them of an incoming vessel headed towards their family's estate. They had been more surprised still when John, looking thin and pale, had stepped out of the Kalinar that landed on their grounds. Carol had flung herself upon him, greeting him and scolding him in equal measure for his long silence, and even Narscissa had clasped John's arm warmly, the tactile welcome unusual for his inherently telepathic race. With tears in her eyes, Carol had asked the questions in a rush. Where had John been? Why hadn't they heard from him before this? Why had he left so suddenly?
John had just looked back at the Kalinar as it lifted off behind him, fingering the communicator that would evidently allow him to recall it. Later, he had told her. He would answer her questions later, but not here, not yet. He just wanted to speak to her and to do so in private. The others couldn't know. He had too many questions himself to answer theirs just now.
Since then there had been only silence, and Carol had sensed her guest's growing frustration. Whatever he had come to Adonisia in search of, he clearly hadn't found it.
With sudden decisiveness, Carol placed the flask she held on the table with an audible clatter. She caught John's eyes with her own as he looked up, reacting to the sound, and was startled by the anguish she saw there.
"All right, John," she told him in the same firm tones she had used to berate him long before, when they were teenagers together in the very first Lab. "I've been patient, but you can't keep things bottled up like this. That's not what being a Tomorrow Person is about. We're here - I'm here - to share whatever's troubling you, and to help if I can." Her voice softened and filled with compassion. "What happened, John? What made you leave the Lab?"
"What happened?" John repeated the question slowly as if considering it from all angles. He shook his head, breaking eye contact with Carol, and sighed. "Nothing really. I suppose I had a bit of common sense talked into me, but it was nothing I hadn't had in mind before that. I heard about the Inquiry in advance, Carol, but you know that; you and Narscissa were among the ones who warned me, after all. I was gearing up for the battle ahead when I suddenly realised I didn't know why. I wasn't even sure which side I should be fighting on any more."
Carol shook her head and her blue eyes were wide with horror.
"But, John," she cried, the volume and pitch of her voice rising with her dismay, "you can't mean that. You can't believe that the Federation are right about this?"
"About isolating Earth, irrevocably? No." John shook his head, and it was the old decisive John she knew. "Never that. But the rest of it? I've started to wonder."
Carol touched his arm compassionately.
"Dear John," she sighed. "I never thought I'd hear you say that. You've always been the leader, the one who knew where we were going. I don't think anyone on Luna knew what to do when you left." John nodded, but there was a pensive expression on his face that confused Carol at first. Slowly, realisation dawned. "That's why you did it, isn't it? To make them think for themselves."
"Think and act." John shrugged. "I trust the people I left behind, Carol - Abby and all the others. I trust them more than I trust myself these days. I wanted to get away - to think about what would be best, not just for our people but for the Saps, the Federation, everyone. I had questions that needed answers. There were things I needed to see and people I needed to speak to."
Carol sat back in her chair, her blonde hair falling back away from her face. She frowned, struggling to understand. "And was I one of those people?"
"You, Narscissa, Adonisia itself." He nodded, sitting back himself and lacing his fingers together, resting his hands in his lap. "A friend told me that I had to see all of this and he was right. I needed to know first-hand what the refugee crisis has done to this planet."
Carol looked out over the rolling hills of her family's estate. The vibrant blue of the sky was reflected in her suddenly tear-filled eyes. "Things used to be better on this world, John. People here just don't know how to cope with the refugees. The Adonisians don't know what we are, John; whether we're allies or invaders, telepaths fit to be Federation members, or just children to be sent home with an invitation to come back when we've grown up a little." She wrapped her arms tightly, protectively, around herself. "But if the Federation get their way, even that won't be an option." She turned back to meet John's eyes. "No one here is happy with the Federation, John. They can't agree with the Inquiry and what's being done in their name."
"You truly believe that?" John asked intently. "That Adonisia isn't one with the One Mind?"
Carol nodded but her expression remained sad. "But what can we do? The Federation speaks for a million telepathic worlds, not just one or two. It's too big for us to fight. Perhaps this is one time when we're just going to have to give in and accept that nothing we can do will change anything. That maybe we don't know best."
There was a long moment of silence as Carol waited for her old friend's response. She felt his instinctive anger at her resignation, but something else too - a growing determination that was almost frightening. She watched, confused, as John stood suddenly. "Is Narscissa in his office?" He didn't wait for a response, but came around the table to take hold of her hands. She felt his hands trembling with suppressed energy, but his mental defences were rock tight. Whatever conclusions he'd reached, he wasn't ready to share them, not yet. "Carol, thank you."
"John?"
"I need to speak to Narscissa, but then I've got to go. I have a decision to make, things to set in motion, and there are others I want to see, before it's too late and the time for decisions is past. Even for me, time is slipping away."
| Part 0 and Prologue | Kinetic Energy | Metastable Equilibrium | Paradigm Shift | Epilogue |