Author: dhsully
Company: US Army

The Psionic Man

Chapter Two

Marl Ki sent two small explorer ships down from the mother ship, carrying surveyors, personnel to collect soil samples, plants, and animals for study.   The law required that all higher animals, both wild and domesticated, be returned unharmed.  
With the variety of plant and animal life on Planet Earth, Lt. Commander Vin estimated the ship would be here at least one sidereal year.  His group of scientists, skilled in many fields, would be busy.
All Zenin personnel were instructed to avoid the locals, but if they did happen to be spotted, they were to use telehypnosis and instruct the local to forget the entire incident. 
Because Earth was a non-telepathic planet, the intelligence chief had her monitoring equipment tuned to catch and amplify random non-telepathic thoughts of Earth people.  
Because he knew Earth to be a non-telepathic planet, Captain Ki was astonished when he received a report from Lt. Zee that her equipment had detected a telepathic thought from among the Earth people.  
"Captain, the telepathic thought was unexpected, but what is even more surprising is that there seems to be a high degree of psionic power in the thoughts that we have monitored.  At this time we are unable to assign a level, but indications are that it may be at least as high as level 5, and could approach a much higher level.   
"At first I thought that my equipment might not be properly attuned, and that we could somehow be picking up the thoughts of one of a Ryll or a Dorion.  But the thoughts were of a higher psionic level than those two.  
"The thoughts had something to do with fighting this damned heavy traffic and getting to work on time.  It could only have been a local.  But just to be sure, I ordered a thorough check of the equipment.  Everything is working properly.
"Captain, someone on this planet has powerful psionic powers."
"If so," said Captain Ki, "this would be the first planet we've found that has both telepathic and non-telepathic individuals.  If you've found one, there are probably more.
"Lt. Zee, I want you to take one of the skiffs, load your detection equipment aboard, take the personnel you need, and conduct a thorough search of this planet for humans with psionic power."
"Very well, Captain.  The skiffs are speedy, but scanning will slow us down.  It will take fully three days to spiral this planet from pole to pole.  Also, the skiffs are not equipped with visual-distortion screens, so we may be spotted by locals."
"A chance we'll have to take.  Anyway, the skiffs are small enough that the locals may mistake them for their own aircraft.  Proceed as soon as possible, Lieutenant."
***
Three days later, the captain received a summary of the report from Lt. Zee: There are a total of fifty-six telepaths with psionic capabilities on this planet, from a population of six billion.  
The telepaths do not contact each other.  In fact, none of them seem to be aware that they are telepathic.  It is my theory that their telepathic abilities lie unused deep in the recesses of their minds.  But the psionic abilities are definitely there, and could be awakened.  
We still have not determined the psionic level of the Earth people.  It is difficult to make a determination because their psionic skills are dormant. But they are definitely strong.   
It is my recommendation that one of them be abducted for study.
A detailed report on telecube will follow later.
Later, in the privacy of his quarters, Captain Marl Ki reflected on what had been learned about Planet Earth in the short while since his arrival.  The people of Earth, called humans, were not out of the ordinary.  They were bipeds, as were most other intelligent beings of the galaxy.  They were shorter than the Zenin, but taller than the Rylls and Dorions of Istana.
But fifty-six telepaths on a world full of non-telepaths was unheard of.  Why would Earth be different than other planets in that regard?  
There were psionic worlds and non-psionic worlds, about evenly divided in the galaxy--so far as Captain Ki had found.  Among the inhabitants of telepathic worlds, some worlds were more powerful than others, ranging from level-1 to level 8.  Only the Zenin reached level-10.
Marl Ki was curious about Earth's telepaths, and what other psionic skills they might possess.  Lt. Zee's proposal to abduct one of them was a good idea, but at the same time it presented a new problem.  By law, he was only allowed one abduction.  Would it be better to abduct one of the fifty-six telepaths--anomalies among humans--or to abduct a normal human from among the six billion?