Galaxy's End: Book One by LeRoy Clary (popular ebook readers txt) 📗

right in the complexity of the various computer systems. Not only did they not speak the same computer languages, but some systems were thousands of years old, while others were only dozens.

If we were traced with DNA on one planet, it would take months to request DNA identification from the nearest planets—and not all of them would provide that information. Many were enemies or distrusted other planets and their inhabitants. All was not peace and harmony between worlds. I turned to Captain Stone. “I think I’m beginning to understand.”

She nodded and said, “It was one thing when you were stuck on a single planet. It’s amazing what a bankroll of credits can purchase on certain worlds and habitats.”

I had other thoughts. I asked Bert, “Fang said the Malabar, and the Bright, are probably the other bounty hunters. I assume you checked them out first as the possible ones who killed the captain?”

Bert said, “Yes. They are no longer wishing to try claiming the reward as both wish to survive this transit. Neither appears to be the one working with the Champers.”

So, we still had a murderer on the loose. And we had a pair of bounty hunters we couldn’t trust. That didn’t make me feel better.

I sighed inwardly and mentally checked off everything physical and found myself fine, even my mind seemed normal, and any lingering fear was normal. I said, “I had no idea I could do that stuff with the other ships.”

“Which part?” Captain Stone asked as she watched me carefully as if thinking she had broken something inside my head, and maybe she had. Her voice was softer, more caring. “You already knew you could sway a person’s choices.”

She was right. But that’s all I could do, or so I’d believed. I could gently sway a decision or push a person in one direction or another, people who were usually located within a few steps of me. That was my only choice. My simplistic explanation was that I believed if a person came to a fork in a country road, I could influence them to take either.

To be clear, that is not the same as making them take either fork. Nor is it a fact that I could do so. My beliefs are the result of studies and tests performed by two young teenagers without formal training—or schooling. We made it up as we went along.

Bill and I had learned to read via autonomic teachings, like everyone else. No teachers, classrooms, or spirited discussion. We’d gone to sleep in a government training center one night and the next morning we could read. However, knowing the words is not the same as understanding them. It took us years to understand that concept and begin to comprehend what we read. Not that we read much. Mostly things to do with daily life, like the names of stores and what they sold.

What we devised for my abilities came from not understanding how to intelligently design tests to accurately decide if I had empathic powers, or how strong they were. There were hundreds of things we hadn’t tested because we either didn’t know how or hadn’t thought of it. To us, it was almost a game.

“Which part?” I repeated Captain Stone’s words to stall answering directly. “I mean, I had no idea that I could make my thoughts known across such a distance. Those ships were hundreds of kilometers away, right? I’m not sure what you want to know.”

“Much farther than that. Add a couple of zeros to your estimate. Let’s start with the basic idea of ‘fear’ instead of the idea of simply swaying a person’s decision. The second could almost be the result of your body language, a sweet smile, an irritated expression, and so on. But transmitting, if that is the right term, a feeling is unheard of. At least, by me.”

She was a starship captain, and I was a girl of what we guessed were fifteen years. Maybe sixteen. I had shared the secret of my ability to change or influence minds only with Bill. Nobody else. Now, in a matter of days, four people knew my secret. Which brought up the subject that she also shared her related power. We had not discussed that. Perhaps that anti-empathic power gave her more insights.

Captain Stone could detect empaths when they touched her mind. She hadn’t fully explained that, nor truthfully acknowledged it to any degree. But I had seen her reactions at the arena. I knew. She was keeping her secret to herself. I wondered if she had performed tests on herself that might shed stray information on my skills, or even better, be able to test and expand mine.

I glanced at her from the corner of my eye. Trust was earned in my world. She had earned some of mine, not all. I was still wary. We hadn’t had time to discuss much of a lot of things I wanted to know. Events had been happening too fast.

I said, “Putting fear into their minds was a surprise to me, too.”

Stone said, “You put it in all our minds, not just theirs.”

“Lack of control is the best explanation. But they were so far away, in other ships, I had to push like never before.”

Stone looked into my eyes, probably trying to decide if I held back or was lying. Maybe to try understanding. She said, “Let’s start at the beginning. Tell me all you know about empathy.”

“Bert says that I’m never to research it because those opposed will track me down. He says it is like advertising I know something or someone if I even do a single computer search. What I’m saying is that I know almost nothing of it because where would I find out?”

“However, you do know. At least, a little.”

“A little. Bill and I made up some tests when we were