Chapter 38

Telepathy was studied in a lot more detail. Seeing into a skull helped. I was just not seeing what I hoped. Logic said that it might be more than our five standard dimensions. That was fine and good but none of us could see into more than five.

There was some information on Tomma brains gathered but it was not good enough. Those that had died had been cremated and I would not feel right searching through their corpses. I did investigate my children. They were different again but not a lot. Even those full-blooded human were different. I had to attribute it to them being exposed to so many telepathic babies.

In May, June presented us with a baby girl. She was very pleased to see three proud fathers. Mom had a lot of talks with Craig and she gave her ok for the couple to date if not court. June had lots of willing babysitters in any case.

Garbo used a hyperwave to transmit to us. It was not only faster but it was more directional. It was almost like a laser. If you were not in front of the beam you could not sample it. Basically he was reporting to Rontem that the components for the ship were being assembled.

The Aristis wanted more ships to carry the parts into orbit. This was a real problem because they could use the ships against us if we came into the system. We compromised by designing and building some high lift grav-pads. The repellers could lift a thousand tonnes into orbit but the Aristis ships would have to place the cargo where it was needed.

We had to make our own unit to work out any design flaws. We also had to have them and their cargo invisible to earth radar. The first design was not as good as mathematics and our engineering said it should be. When we did get a stable and safe unit we simply made the crystals for it and sent them to Cralto. They would make the lift and just install the crystals.

Just when everything looked so good we ran into a serious problem. We learned that the high lift platforms though invisible, tended to ionise the air they passed through. This was not a problem except that a scientist working upper atmosphere phenomena found the trails. One we might have discounted but he discovered this during our third launch. He did not report anything until the incidents stopped.

Since then the government has been looking for similar situations. There was a lot over Toronto and some figured that it had to be something not natural. They did not see it as spacecraft but they could. Going for the obvious was common sense.

We did our own tests. The larger the ship the more power was used to lift it or to hover like the Fonduush was. The ship had to go back into orbit but do so during a storm. It was hoped that the ionisation effect would be hidden. The opposite happened. The Fonduush was hit by lightning eleven times as it ascended. This was no danger to us but the electricity wrapped itself around our hull and its shape was seen by thousands. Worse of all some people had been using camcorders to record the brilliant display of mother nature. The film rights got bought up and displayed on television news. It then went worldwide.

We went on the offensive right away. Instead of denying it we said that a ship must have been laying doggo here on earth. We were waiting to release our movies but did so now even before the academy was ready. One new episode had a ship of beautiful women as crew. They had problems with their vessel and had to land on earth to repair it. We hired models and gave them long fingers.

Stodgy old Canada did not buy the films but the movie was sold in Europe and the United States. We became instant stars. The models that played the Tomma in the movie were shown with and without their long fingers.

The idea was that a small school espousing alien visitors would keep other more respected organisation from coming to the same conclusion. To agree with us would be demeaning to the scientists. The diversion worked but we opened a big can of worms.

MacLeans Magazine for the last few years put out a report on Canadian universities. It was not done as scientifically as the universities would like but people read it anyway. They did a large article on our school and found that even those that were not in the academy scored far higher than children the same age that went to school elsewhere. They were not using our faked data but tests we had to do for the government. Those in the cadet program got far too high a score. They were told to not get perfect but they were still competitive.

Teaching officials were around us like flies now trying to find our secret. Our monetary incentives was well know by the parents and this was in the MacLeans story. The PK almost got out on five separate occasions but the computer family was monitoring the regular students continuously. When a person thought of talking about this topic, his or her 'conscious' told them how bad an idea it would be for them and the school. Larry getting new eyes and Craig a new leg had to be similarly treated. Other courses we could not stop them from talking about because they already spoken of this years ago.

Our combat skills came out because we demonstrated this to the parents. There were even camcorder films of their kids doing far better than what a child their age and experience could do.

The regular students had no qualms about doing math that was just as far advanced. They could spout their history and geography and we worked on a global scale not just one country.

Our students seemed to be smarter and could parrot all the facts they were told in class. They fought as if we were a Shaolin temple. This was in the movies and we could not pull this back. Children that had been sickly were now anything but. Larry and Craig stayed out of sight as much as possible. One had an insert in a shoe and the other dark glasses but they were not perfect actors.

Into all this the police came after me for the way the two Arnold brothers and their gang were beaten. Somebody from that time had seen the films and my face and told the cops. The lawyers were long ready but it came at the wrong time.

Our Fleet uniforms did not infringe on any television or movie but they were picked up. They looked good and the crotch of the pants was not down to our knees. We had to break ranks many times because we looked like a military unit.

My fighting ability got my body declared a deadly weapon. I could not disprove this because too many people had seen me fight. The Arnold gang had attacked first so I was not in shit about that. The cops though wanted to hit me with innuendo if not facts. CSIS came out of their hole and added everything they found but it was put out as rumour.

The unsolved murder of innocent gangsters came up again. Many of those that had been kidnapped were in our group. We were questioned again and again under public pressure but they could get nowhere. I think many of us would have broke if it wasn't for our communicator and the assistance each one of us gave the rest.

This put a lot of pressure on the parents. We fought back strongly. The best attorneys were under retainer to us. We used them to fight slander in all its forms. We were asking for large settlements and we already had the best legal help. Newspapers and magazines had to send their articles to their lawyers before they went to print. Radio talk shows as well as television commentary were the same way.

We took up the running of our website when Nadac got nuked. Apart from a few weeks, it had stayed up ever since. Nobody could trace it or link it to us. When the people of the various government agencies hit us with a foul, we posted some truthful data about the person doing the maliciousness.

The CSIS had been looking at who funded our school since they got caught. It went back to some people that acted as the board of directors. The directors knew nothing but had to put up a front. The spy agency could not get past these men. They had been working on this problem for a quite a while with no success.

The tax men came after us but this probability had always been planned for as a logical way to attack. They could not get the school or any of us for anything and this they thought was not right. Everybody had some skeletons.

This lasted until we needed a break. The regular students went home though a few more were invited into Star Fleet. We took trains or buses out of town then disappeared into pods and then rendezvoused with the Stamich. The island now seemed like paradise even more than usual.

The furor had not abated in our absence. We lost three good students because their parents pulled them. The students cried and so did some of us. Samantha Dole was one of those and a full cadet. She could not fight this even though she was now eleven. She cried and went home like a good daughter. After she got there, she wrote a long letter to her parents and disappeared. A few hours later she was on the Fonduush.

The academy was taking shape. The school closed its doors after we moved south to Dunnville. We spent the first week digging out microphones and video devices out of the walls, floors and ceilings. Laser beams hit out glass windows and the beam was shaken in time to the sounds that hit the glass. A second site gathered the beams and put the information through a computer. We made a device that vibrated the glass to camouflage and voices.

We set up our own surveillance openly and photographed the people until they automated it. The lawyers then went to the European press to talk about how criminal the Canadian government was. Canada never existed to Europe and when it now did, it was bad. This had to go on for five more months until the laser surveillance stopped.

The new home was great but we did not have the students or the teachers. We had not been lax. This period of time had been foreseen years ago. We had interviews with people from all over Canada and not just Ontario. There were a lot of nuts in Europe and the United States we could draw from as well. We worked to get them work permits if they looked good enough.

We had our contract with the various levels of governments and we would go for multi millions if they tried to renege because of the CSIS interference. We used a heavy hand at the first instance and later we found very little opposition.

Doc and Irene thought that they had been worked hard before. The teachers and the new students showed how good they had it before. Most of the teachers believed in the paranormal but they also believed in aliens, the continued existence of Elvis as well as witchcraft and magic. I would not want to be taught by them but they were malleable. This was not important though because the teachers would not really be teaching, they would be role models and proctors.

There was a surplus of teachers and when some got fired the rest fell into line. That was another thing that never happened in the world outside our property. Teachers no matter how bad could not be fired if they had tenure. The contracts they signed said that they were hired for only one year at a time and had to be rehired to work the next year.

We were an academy so we had a preference for drawing upon the military. The uniforms though did not make a military. Some students felt lost in all this. They were used to structure even if they claimed to hate it. Humans provided some leadership here but it was mostly the structure of the cadets. This annoyed a few of the cadets because it cut into their free time. We hoped it would become rewarding later.

The students found that they had all been able to see the odd energy given off by crystals and many of them were able to move the sphere. We were not out to just get techs though they were still much in demand. We canvassed for good people. Most of this could be attributed to upbringing but not all. We needed to flush out other segments of our society. Everybody was a soldier and most were techs too. The computers provided our bureaucracy but I wanted people too. At the moment, we were still small enough to have people do a bit of everything and still have a speciality.

Everybody had a communicator implanted. Their intelligence would slowly increase as would their memory. Health problems were treated by human doctors. We cured them slowly to avoid problems. Some serious problems had to be just kept in check until it was safe to perform a cure. Curing diabetes or cancer would get us in trouble. Those that were hyperactive got something better than Ritalin.

There were only seventy two students that were not in Star Fleet when they came to the new academy. We had to bring some of the cadets back to sit in for a while as role models. Samantha Dole was not one of them. We truthfully said that we had not seen her near the school. The police used the fact of the girl's disappearance to keep asking questions. The school population now was 834 students, counting the custodians we hired.

Three runways in the form of a triangle were laid out. This gave us a reason to build some truly huge hangars. They would fit the Stamich though there was not much room to spare. There were lectures about aerodynamics and a great many other topics. This was done by large and very large video screens. One or more of the computer family would produce a simulated body similar to the details of the props seen in the movies we made. They would teach something important and show the required amount of detail. Our biological teachers marked papers, gave assignments and other jobs. The students got the best training possible this way. 'Cameras and microphones' mounted in the classrooms or lecture halls provided a way for the students to ask questions.

Mentors, like the way Nadac used to help, were provided. There was a confidant, teacher, friend and companion for each student. If there was a problem the face changed as did the mannerisms until the two entities seemed to mesh.

Projects were handed out to one or more students. The group could meet online to talk or to actually do work. Ultralights were being built and the students loved this idea. Other groups worked at acting or making scripts. Mindball was the name of the game we played. The teachers were amazed to see it but already knew that it had to have existed. Other sports were played as well but mostly it was our super karate.

The school took a lot to run. Like the military we had the students prepare food, cut grass, clean washrooms or work in our sanitation facilities. We worked sixteen hours a day but only a few of those hours were for labour. It was just like the duty on a naval ship or in any military. They got good money for doing this and they also got to learn on an individual level. There were professionals here too but they were actually teaching.

All statutory vacations were cancelled. The school actually went every minute of every day. You booked a personal vacation just like in the real world. Important events like weddings and funerals were still worked in. Having flexible schedules meant that everything was available or nearly so.

There was water on two sides of our property. Lake Erie to the south and the Grand River flowed through the north. Like any good navy we had to have boats and these the students could make too.

The breeze off the lake was enough to dispel the small amount of ionised gas produced when were used the small pods. Every cadet had to make a pod now and they came in some odd designs. Some were armoured like a battleship and some sported missile launchers but no missiles.

We ordered the parts and started to construct other aluminium ships in the hangar. Some of the smaller projects were given the best of human technology by strapping on a reaction motor. It should even fly if it were given the chance. It had to be built first though.

Pop said, "When are we going to start our own shipbuilding? The Aristis may do some for us or just to keep them busy. We need ships and lots of missiles. I just know that the Aristis are going to come this way one day."

I was knee deep in children and crystals. A new computer was started but mainly it was for the effect it had on me to align crystals. It was also safe for the kids. They liked the lights I put in and I tied the sequence to their brains. It played musical notes and even moved by rocking. It was my version of an educational toy.

I said, "The cadets are learning to make pods first. What do you see them making?"

"Fighters are out but there are a lot of ships we could make that are armoured enough to survive long enough to release their supply of missiles, especially if we use the engine you invented as the primary drive on the ship."

I said, "I guess you do not intend to cut the size of the engine, so this means that you have to work on a much better inertial compensator."

"We are doing that and making airframes that can hold everything together. We do not have to have room for servants like the Aristis but the ships have to be large enough to carry enough armaments."

"You must have a plan or you would not have come to see me?"

Pop smiled and said, "I do. The computers passed the design but you have to ok the construction. You also have to make the computer the way you do. The cadets can't do what you do even when they are fully trained."

"Let's see it."

The ship looked slow and sturdy. There was room for six or more if they hot bunked. The ship this size usually had twelve crew and six servants. The extra space now went to provide room for my drive, a much better inertial compensator. The latter was on the drawing board and the rest of the room was devoted to missiles.

For a few moments I tied in with the computers and got their opinion. I said to Pop, "Beef up the shields, especially the forward ones."

"They are already stronger than what the Fonduush has."

"Go for a higher density. You will have a good enough computer to handle the design."

"That will mean a redesign of the hull."

"You have the computing power and you have the raw labour. Perhaps you should look into making more robotic equipment."

"That was another topic I was going to bring up. The Aristis have a mobile unit like the movie 'Terminator'. We can use those devices. They can perform guard duty even if it gives the CSIS somebody to look at. We are getting a lot of people coming for a visit that were not invited."

"I know the unit you mean. Build a dozen for construction and vary the size and shape. We do not need them looking all like big German bodybuilders."

"Ok, I'd feel more comfortable if you made the computers. The movie frightens me and the cadets never mind the students."

Irene had worked on her original job and tried to formulate Star Fleet Regulations. They had to fit all the races that might join Star Fleet one day and give enough guidance so we knew what we could not do. Humans though were not logical and our current laws proved this. Irene went through all the information the Aristis had and then used our own. So far we had a framework that would have to be fleshed out through experience. The computer in our skulls mimicked our thoughts and could go crazy with us. It could also be used to bolster some deficiency. This also implied brain control and possibly a culture that would make the Aristis seem like nice people.

For the next two years we built. The academy was rated the best but we were the ones that chose the students still. Some students were tested and interviewed when they were off our property. Humans could mimic us but they did not have the money to afford all the properly trained teachers.

The old laptop computers were no longer used. The new computers had a separate screen. It was possible to make this from human components. The only connection was to a separate power supply and the screen. Our unit was voice activated and needed no keyboard. Ram substituted for a hard drive.

The operating system was very Unix like. Our construction was simplified because we did not have to make the machine backwards compatible with previous pieces of hardware. Some units were stolen from students but we figured that would happen. Everything patentable was done anyway. The thief had to get around the password then have a twin mimic the owner. We knew the owner so the internal circuits were fried if they did not have the computer apart already.

My kids were running around now. The terrible twos took on an entirely different meaning when there were so many children that age. They were all fitted with a communicator and computer but they had to work hard to get the communicator to work. It was much easier to use telepathy. The children from the Tomma ladies had shorter fingers but their hands were still delicate and made for manipulating small articles rather than the larger hands of a human.

My Tomma ladies were showing the effects of being away so long from their people. They were not as depressed as they should be though. This many children helped them see a little bit of Cralto here on the Fonduush. There were no more pregnancies but it was not for want of trying. If I did not do something soon I would have to give them what they wanted.

One encouraging activity did come from this. The Tomma women were naturally graceful. They danced on Cralto and they did so here too. They took to the much more varied steps of all the cultures and then insisted that we join them. I got to be a fair dancer before gaining the Fonduush but now I was good among the great. The social activities seemed to help the Tomma as much as it helped the rest of us.

Star Fleet had climbed to almost four hundred cadets. There were really no teachers because we were all learning as we went along. Some were young and some were old but all of them wore their uniform proudly. We were getting older students now and it did not seem odd to see them learning from the youngest.

The school population had grown to twenty three hundred. Even at this figure the computer family was able to keep up but I made more for when we would need them and not have time.

As a leading school we had a reputation to uphold. We bought helium three and deuterium and made our own fusion reactor. Others were in existence but they did not produce more power then they consumed. Since the reactor was very safe we built full scale. We released the reactor to the world as our invention. Since it could not be used to make bombs or actually detonate we were not attacked by the combined militaries of Canada and the US. We got lots of visitors though.

We sold the power from that unit and from our wind farm to Ontario Hydro. There was a lot of pressure to bring in students that we had not vetted and we resisted. They may not be spies but they would get in the way.

The American government actually loved us. We proved that Helium 3 worked. They wanted to justify their future trips to the moon to get it. When the oil ran out there was going to be a serious crunch that would destroy the world economies.

The students did not usually want to go home for vacations if it was more than a few weeks. We made it seam that they were in the military but we were lax. There were no really essential systems that would not be covered if people left. We did have a lot of family visiting though. We made dorms for family that were quite large. Some went up to four bedrooms with an efficiency kitchen. These could be rented for two weeks of a year but not longer. The cost was fair but we were not after the money but the control. Mindball and other games were behind closed doors.

The number of properties we owned in Toronto increased. We then rented them out to the affluent. They were being hounded by a great number of people interested in finding out about us. Anybody that had ever talked to us was questioned or offered a reward for even small bits of information.

We went into our pasts and tried to find who could incriminate us in anything unlawful. The Children's Aid had a hold over us. Paul was not considered an adult yet. He was adopted but that did not protect him much. We had negotiated with a lot of public agencies to acquire some of the wards of the state. Recently somebody pieced together the games and the children that got them. By now there was over a half million sent out worldwide.

The hundred dollar bill was not used but there was a phone number to call. The instructions explicitly stated that the mind was to be used to move the tiny sphere. It did not take too long until the governments got into the act. With us winnowing those down the could do it the governments just had to pick up what we sowed. They did not know for sure who or what we were doing but the school was their first guess.

Parents of students were encouraged to take their students home so the government could get their hands on them. We countered by telling the world about Mindball. We challenged other two person teams with a million dollars as the reward for the winners. At the same time we admitted sending out the games then talked about the governments putting pressure on parents to get some kids to use in their experiments.

We had made an average of six movies a year. This made us a lot of money because they were popular. A new movie came out with government agents forcing parents through threats or lies to give up their children. The children were treated nice to their face but the researchers were hounded by the governments for results. The children started to suffer.

In the movie, fourteen year old Erin, wearing a Star Fleet uniform would be given the information and break out the suffering children from a research facility. They would go into her reaction powered rocket plane to reach the academy and safety. The third mission had her killed and Paul, her husband, crying as he held her body as the final group made it to safety. It was not our usual end but I wanted the film to have a prominent black side.

The film was released all over the world at the same time. The language and the features of the rescued children represented the region the film was intended for. The films were usually pulled as soon as the governments found out about them and this too was commented about on documentary television shows. Soon this too was not open to us.

We had stopped sending out boxes when we had been discovered. We now tried to monitor everyone that had a box never mind the ones that just received them. This was difficult but not impossible as we had many of them watched.

We went out and gave demonstrations and explained how we were developing this natural ability while easing mankind's fuel shortages as we made children into responsible adults. This we kept up until nearly everybody knew that PK existed. We moved bits of paper, our ceramic ball and anything that did not weigh much. Mankind learned that some bright kids could move dust bunnies with their minds and they were not worried.

There were a lot of documentaries on our school and nobody ever said that we were running a prison camp. We talked about what could happen when some politician wanted results and didn't care who's children suffered for it.

I was sure we moderated the effects of the governments in the west but the east was not as well covered apart from the Philippines and Japan. We had not gone far into China or the other nearby countries yet because of the postal system and the inevitability of us being found out before we could get the students. The Chinese government was now making it compulsory for every child to try our test but so was every other country was too.

We came out with a movie similar to the X-men again. They rescued children in poorly run government camps and taken to safety in properly run government camps in a nearby country. Regulations were quoted but the name Star Fleet was not given. It talked of a law that protected the children from government, corporate or any kind of abuse.

I was in a bit of a dilemma myself about abuse. My children were now five and a half. They were all Star Fleet because of the cadets. They followed the cadets all the time and picked up a lot of information. They were taking their own courses as early as seven months. Most of it was play but it was structured too. I was a happy father until I found that my children could alter crystals too. Not all of them could but most. The seventeen original Tomma children could too but the Tomma could not do this before.

What was different was that I loved them and treated them different, there were a lot of them born at one time. My testicles had been worked on by Nadac when an Aristis would not allow this. I surmised since that time that my children would favour techs. The most likely possibility was that the children went with me into the 72 when I worked on it. Bert Jr was older than my children but he too was with me some of the times. He had the ability but it was not strong. June's child did not have this ability but I did not get to hold the child much.

The Tomma ladies wanted more children by me. I was not able to see any particular child much, but like the Tomma, the mothers took this job. The family now included the Tomma and I guess the Aristis too though they did not join in as much. They did not mind having another child especially if he or she could be a tech as good as I was.