Psy-Changeling 2 - Visions of Heat,

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//-->VISIONS OF HEAT-[Psy & Changelings 02]-Nalini SinghThis one's for my Mum, Usha,the most extraordinary woman I know.With love.MADNESSClinical insanity.The number one cause of death for F-Psy before Silence.Death by insanity? For the F-Psy, it was very much a harsh reality. They became lost in thevisions of the future their minds created—so lost that they forgot to eat, forgot to drink, and, inextreme cases, forgot to make their hearts beat. The Psy are their minds, and once those minds arelost, their bodies can no longer function.But the dead were the fortunate ones. Those who broke under the pressure of the visions and yetsurvived were no longer sentient, no longer anything close to sentient, their minds locked in a worldwhere the past, present, and future clashed and splintered over and over. As time fractured, so didthey.Surprisingly, the F-Psy were divided about the implementation of the Silence Protocol. Somethought it would be a precious gift to feel no emotion, for then they'd be safe from the threat ofinsanity, safe from the hideous illusions of their minds ...safe.But there were others who saw Silenceas an act of betrayal against their very gifts. The F-Psy had stopped countless massacres, savedcountless lives, done endless good, but they had done it all with emotion. Without emotion, theirabilities would be controllable, but crippled.It took ten years, but the proponents of Silence won the mental battle raged across the millionsof minds in the PsyNet. As a result, the F-Psy stopped foreseeing the human darkness of the future andwithdrew into the sheltered walls of the business world. Instead of the saviors of innocents, theybecame the most powerful tools of many a Psy enterprise. The Psy Council declared their services toovaluable to share with the other races and gradually, the F-Psy disappeared from public view.It is said they prefer to remain out of the limelight.What very few know, what the Council has hidden for over a century, is that though they arewealthy and cosseted, the once-resilient F-Psy have become the most fragile of beings. Somethingabout their ability to foresee the tangled threads of what could be leaves them unable to function fullyin the real world, necessitating constant surveillance and care.The F-Psy rarely travel, rarely mingle, rarely function on any level aside from the mental. Someof them are close to mute, able to communicate their visions and only their visions, by scattered burstsof sound or, in severe cases, through diagram and gesture. The rest of the time, they remain locked intheir Silent world.Yet the Council says this is what they were meant to be.CHAPTER 1Faith Ngihtstar of the PsyClan NightStar was aware she was considered the most powerful F-Psyof her generation. At only twenty-four years of age, she'd already made more money than most Psy didin their entire lifetimes. But then again, she'd been working since she was three years old, since she'dfound her voice. It had taken her longer than most children, but that was to be expected—she was acardinal F-Psy of extraordinary ability.It would have surprised no one if she'd never spoken.That was why the F-Psy belonged to PsyClans, which took care of everything the foreseerscouldn't, from investing their millions to checking their medical status to ensuring they didn't starve.The F-Psy weren't very good at practical things like that. They forgot. Even after more than a centuryof forecasting business trends rather than murders and accidents, disasters and wars, they forgot.Faith had been forgetting a lot of things lately. For example, she'd forgotten to eat three days ina row. That was when NightStar employees had intervened, alerted by the sophisticated Tec 3computer that ran the house. Three days was the allowable window – sometimes F-Psy went intotrances. If that had been the case, they would've put her on a drip and left her to it. "Thank you," shesaid, directing her words to the head M-Psy. "I'll be fine now.”Xi Yun nodded. "Finish the entire meal. It contains the exact number of calories you need.”"Of course." She watched him leave, preceded by his staff. In his hand was a small medicalkit that she knew contained both chemicals designed to shock her awake out of a catatonic trance andones to knock her down from a manic state. Neither had been required today. She'd simply forgottento eat. After consuming the nutritional bars and energy drinks he'd left behind, she sat down in thelarge reclining chair where she usually spent the majority of her time. Designed to double as a bed, itwas uplinked to the Tec 3 and fed it a constant stream of data about her vital functions. An M-Psystood on alert should she need medical attention any time of day or night. That wasn't normalprocedure even for the F designation, but Faith was no ordinary F-Psy.She was the best.Every prediction Faith ever made, if not purposefully circumvented, came true. That was whyshe was worth untold millions. Possibly even billions. NightStar considered her its most prized asset.Like any asset, she was kept in the best condition for optimum functionality. And like any asset,should she prove defective, she'd be overhauled and used for parts.Faith's eyes blinked open at that furtive thought. She stared up at the pale green of the ceilingand fought to bring her heart rate down. If she didn't, the M-Psy might decide to pay her a return visitand she didn't want anyone to see her right now. She wasn't sure what her eyes would reveal.Sometimes, even the night-sky eyes of a cardinal Psy told secrets that were better kept within."Parts," she whispered out loud. Her statement was being recorded, of course. The F-Psyoccasionally made predictions during trance states. No one wanted to miss a word. Perhaps that waswhy those of her designation preferred to keep their silence when they could.Used for parts. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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