g of all headaches today."

"It'll clear up after you're done and get roaring drunk," Jyslin grinned. "You done?"

He shook his head. "I have Control II tomorrow morning, then I'm done," he answered.

"Well, there's the end of your headache," she said, slapping him lightly on the shoulder.

"Amen."

"You ready?"

"Yah, but I have more studying to do, just to make sure."

"Smart man. See you two later."

Tim watched her go, then came into his room. "She have evening shift today?" he asked.

Jason nodded, sitting down at his desk. "You look a little pale, and your nose is red," he noted. "You getting the flu or something?"

"I must have lost a quart of blood today," he grunted. "Lisa Porter hit me in the face with the door coming out of Xeno I. They sent me to the campus clinic to stop the nosebleed, then they found out my nose was broken. Hairline fracture of the nose," he growled, then he swore. "They had to fix it, and that really fuckin' _hurt_. I thought those bone fusers were supposed to be painless. My nose is still a little sore, and it gave me a headache that still hasn't gone away."

"I didn't know they worked on cartilage," Jason mused aloud. "That might be why it hurt."

"Whatever. I plan on accidentally knocking Porter down the stairs tomorrow morning."

"That's not an accident," Jason chuckled.

"That's accidentally on purpose," Tim answered. "God, I want to sleep, but I have to study."

"It does no good studying with a headache," Jason told him. "Get some sleep, wake up early, and study in the morning. You'll be better off."

"I think you're right," Tim grunted, putting a hand to his nose, then wincing. "See you tomorrow."

"I'm going out in the morning to test that, but I should be back in the afternoon," he said, pointing at the railgun.

"You got it working?"

"I hope so. If I come back tomorrow without both arms, you'll know something went wrong."

Tim chuckled humorlessly. "Good luck."

"Good luck on your last test. Just keep saying that, _last test_. It helps."

"I know it does," Tim agreed, then filed out of his room.

Jason blew out his breath, then leaned back in his chair. He looked up at the railgun, whose display was still steady, and reached over to turn off the display of his panel. Well, he'd find out if it worked tomorrow.

                                        * * *

It was a windswept rock, barren and uninhabited. It had a narrow pebble beach on the north side, and a long, narrow plateau that formed a gulley leading up to a sheer rock face of the solitary hill at the center of the island.

That made it absolutely perfect.

The place was called Seal Rock, and it was an island off the coast of Maine. Jason remembered it well from kayaking trips with his father, for it was often used as a camp by kayaking troupes as they traveled up the coast from Portland, towards Rockland. It was about a mile off shore from the coast, but that coast was almost always shrouded in fog or mist. Seals often basked on the pebble beach on the west side, or along the rocks on the jagged coast on the other sides of the tiny island, but there were none there when Jason landed his airskimmer on the pebble beach. The surf pounded on the east side of the island, sometimes sending spray up far enough for them to see. Jason felt this was the perfect place to test the railgun because there was absolutely no chance of anyone getting hurt so long as the weapon wasn't fired towards the coast. If it all worked properly, of course. The wind was strong and crisp, and even though it was July, it was noticeably cool. Jason climbed out of his skimmer with the railgun in his hand and breathed in the salty air, a thousand memories floating through his mind. This region, it had been his home, the first permanent home he'd known. He'd been to Seal Rock a dozen times with his father, and he had fond memories of it. They'd lived only fifty miles from here, in a small, steep-roofed house built out in the middle of the woods, with the woodpile out by the shed that held all their camping gear, and the canoe hanging between two trees by ropes tied to the ends. Thirty miles from here was the tiny airport where his father ran his instructor business, with the airstrip with the big pothole near the end that always got those who didn't land there often.

Memories of another time, another life, something he would never have again.

"I hate cold," Jyslin growled as she came down the steps after him.

_This is summer,_ Jason noted idly. _You don't want to be here for winter_.

_I lived on a rock that had _never_ seen liquid water occur naturally, Jayce hon,_ she sent with an audible grunt. _This would be considered volcanic by those standards_.

_Then don't complain,_ he sent absently as he set down the small case, then opened it. He removed the clip from the railgun and then pressed the button that ejected the chambered round, which dropped from the empty magazine holder and to the ground. He then loaded the new clip and pressed the button that caused it to chamber the first round. "Well, let's not waste any time," he told her aloud as he took off the safety, and the weapon went hot. "You might want to back up. If this thing blows up in my face, I don't want you getting hurt."

"You're my only way off this rock," she snorted as she came up beside him. _If you go, I go._

"You can swim," he teased.

"Riiight," she drawled, then she chuckled. "Let's see it."

Jason set the weapon against his shoulder. He hadn't installed sights or a scope, so he had no guide to aiming it. He did have a large hillside to serve as a target though, so he wasn't exactly worried about missing anything. He prepared himself for a possible heavy recoil, and then, as soon as he was ready, he pulled the trigger.

There was no recoil, but the weapon most certainly did fire. There was a strange sound, a high-pitched punching sound like a _BEEEeeaaaah_, and instantly there was a corkscrew trail of smoke that led away from the muzzle of the railgun. The iron-cored round, sheathed in laminated titanium, was at the vanguard of that spiral tail, and it slammed into the rocky face of the hillside at speeds that almost defied rational comprehension. The round penetrated deeply into the rock face, until the energy involved in stopping the round transferred into the rock and caused a spectacular explosion. The sound of that impact was compounded by a sudden miniature sonic boom, a very loud _crack_, noticeably loud but not as loud as a gunshot. The air that had been displaced by the slug formed a shockwave that accompanied the sound, a sudden pressure in the air that washed over them, almost like getting slapped in the face by a child. Startling, but not painful at all.

The rocky side of the hillside simply _shattered_, spraying dust and chips out from the point of impact. The shockwave of that impact startled Jason and Jyslin, who instinctively dove to the ground as a billowing cloud of dust boiled angrily away from the impact point, and a sudden rain of small rocks dropped on them.

"Holy _shit_," Jyslin gasped as she looked up, then she laughed. _I'd say that that was a successful test fire!_

_I'd say so,_ Jason mirrored, getting back up onto one knee and looking at the dust, which was quickly blown away by the wind. It exposed a crater in the side of the hill that was almost eight feet across and three feet deep. The slug had stuck the side of the hill with the velocity of a falling meteor, and had blown a crater out of the side of the hill. _The sonic boom wasn't as loud as I'd expected._

"By Trelle's garland," Jyslin breathed as they advanced up to look at the impact crater. _I bet it'd go through neutronium._

_I'm not sure, but it'll go through any armor the Imperium has here_, Jason answered. _Neutronium's very resistant to physical impact, and that's all this is._ He read the velocity display on the panel of the weapon and frowned. "Only 14,732 miles and hour," he grunted. _It was supposed to go faster than that_.

_You don't think that's fast enough?_ Jyslin asked archly, then she laughed again. _It _works_, love! You actually made it work!_

_Yeah, it worked all right,_ he sent, inspecting the weapon for any signs of stress or damage. It looked just fine, though, and a diagnostic showed him that everything was operating as expected. The weapon's recoil absorption system had worked perfectly, completely absorbing the massive recoil of the catapult, a recoil that would have ripped his arm off had he fired it without the recoil system working. He shouldered the weapon again, and Jyslin managed to turn around and put her hands to her pointed ears just as he pulled the trigger again. Another bluish corkscrew of smoke was the only indication that the weapon had fired off the round, with that same punching sound that was quickly replaced by a loud _boom_ from the sonic boom and the fact that the slug had blown another huge crater out of the side of the hill. He checked muzzle velocity and found it to be only different by 37 miles an hour, then quickly fired the weapon again, before the dust had been blown away from the last shot. The muzzle velocity was only 12 miles an hour off from the original shot, showing that it was going to consistently fire around that 14,700 mile per hour mark.

"Well, this calls for a celebration," Jyslin said with a grin.

"We'll go out with Tim and Symone tonight," Jason told her. "Right now I want to get this back home and take it apart to make sure there's no damage inside."

_Hold on, I get a turn,_ she sent quickly, holding her hands out.

_Sure, here you go,_ he agreed, handing it to her. _It automatically chambers the next round. Just pull the trigger when you see the indicator turn green here, _he instructed, pointing at the green light. _That tells you that the flux cabling capacitors are recharged and ready to fire_.

_About how long is the recharge time?_

_About a half a second, but it also takes it about half a second to chamber the next round, so you're not really losing any time either way,_ he answered. _It's not an automatic weapon like an MPAC, Jyslin. It's not really meant to be anything, really, except an experiment._

"That's slow," she complained aloud.

_I didn't design it to be fast,_ he countered. _It's not a military weapon, girl, it's an experiment._

"Well, it works," Jyslin chuckled, putting the weapon to her shoulder, then firing off four rounds in rapid succession, creating a huge cloud of dust. She lowered the weapon and waited for it to clear, and it exposed a destroyed hillside that had nearly had a hole blown clean through it. Both Jason and Jyslin had been hitting the same general area of the hill, causing each round to dig even deeper into the crater left behind by the original round. They weren't exactly on target, but that didn't really matter when the craters overlapped.

_Nice, it doesn't even twitch,_ she said appreciatively. _Even my MPAC has some recoil. This has none at all._

_There's not enough recoil in an MPAC to justify recoil reduction, _Jason told her._ With this, you have to have it, or it'll rip off your arm._

_That's no lie,_ she agreed, looking at the devastated hillside. _I don't suppose I could convince you to send this in?_

He gave her a flat look.

"I didn't think so," she chuckled. _It was worth a shot._

_You should have known better than to even ask,_ he sent with an audible snort. _I'm almost afraid to think of what would happen if one of these slugs hit a person._

_I've seen space dust injuries,_ she told him. _When I was on board. That's when dust or microrocks hit people out doing maintenance on the hull. This would probably be similar._

_Was it bad?_

_Actually, not as bad as you'd think. The thing moves so fast that it doesn't have the chance to rip a person up. Flesh and bone doesn't really hinder it, you know. It leaves a neat hole all the way through. I'd imagine that it hurts like hell, but rock strikes are more dangerous because of suit decompression than they are from the wound itself. Well, unless it hits something vital, that is._

_Huh. Well, here's for hoping that this experiment _never_ ends up hurting anyone._

_Nothing wrong with that, hon,_ she nodded. "You ready to go? I want to get back to someplace warm."

"You mean back to the boiling cauldron," Jason grunted.

"It's nature's revenge for making me go to Argentina," she winked.

"All you had to say was no," he countered.

Jason picked up the case of slugs from the ground, and offered his hand to take the railgun back, but Jyslin just cradled it in her arm. _Let's get back. I wonder how Tim did on his exams. He was really worried about calculus._

_He should be about done by now. I'm sure we'll find out soon enough._

                                        * * *

Railgun safely stowed in a duffel bag in the back of his car, Jason drove back to Tulane in a relatively good mood. The railgun worked, and worked pretty much well how he expected, though he'd have to figure out why the round velocity was slower than his mathematical projection. Maybe he hadn't taken ambient air pressure enough into account, or used the wrong pressure formula. It was just a good thing that that wasn't a vital part of the weapon's operation. If he was going to mess up, it was best to mess up on something trivial like round velocity. He pondered that as he motored up Saint Charles Avenue, his mind only half on driving. He stopped at a red light beside a Faey hovercar, which had two Army regulars in it.

_I wonder if they're going to call us in,_ one asked the other.

_I doubt it, I think they have half the Marine barracks over there right now. They need us out here to keep a presence on the streets,_ the other answered.

Jason glanced at the pair, a dark-haired Faey and one with whitish hair, older than the first, with the tip of her left ear missing.

_I wonder if it's just a rumor, or if it's really true,_ the first asked in a kind of nervous voice.

_We'll find out soon enough. Oria's got campus duty today, she's in the middle of it._

Campus? There was only one campus around here, and that was Tulane. Jason wondered if someone had a nervous breakdown and went nuclear or something. It had been known to happen before.

Well, something was certainly going on. Jason had trouble getting past all the hovercars to get to the student parking lot. Marines in their black armor were swarming all over the campus, along with a good number of Army regulars, and the sendings were thick in the air, almost like a chatter, as commanding officers relayed orders, soldiers reported in, and so forth. It was so thick that he had trouble sorting one voice out from the others, but that was due to a lack of training. Jason had no experience dealing with multiple sendings at once, for there was no way that Jyslin could teach that to him. It was a kind of blur of voices, each one competing with the others for attention in his head, and making them all incomprehensible.

Jason passed a pair of Marines who were picketed at the edge of the parking lot and moved up to the steps of the dorm, where several students were standing, watching the Faey run around. "What's going on?" he asked, shouldering his duffel bag.

"Someone flipped out I think," a girl with short dark hair answered him, wearing a white tee shirt and jeans. She was Mary Liston, she lived up on the third floor. "I'm not really sure. I just know that they cancelled exams for today to sort things out. They had the Plaid surrounded for a while."

"They cancelled exams? Woah," Jason breathed. "That _is_ serious."

"Well, someone just washed out," someone said with a chuckle, which caused a few people to laugh. "I wonder who it was."

"It makes me wonder why the teacher didn't just zap him," someone else mused in a thoughtful tone. "I've seen them do that before. Professor Korten's really liberal with his telepathy. I mean, how could a student go bonkers like that? A teacher would just zap him."

"Certain states of mind make it hard for telepathy to work," Jason said absently. "If this person was totally off his rocker, he'd be really hard to subdue with telepathy. That's probably why they called in the Marines. They'd be able to do it no matter what."

"And you'd know that how? From that blueskin you date?" someone asked acidly.

"Try looking around on CivNet," Jason answered coolly. "You'd be surprised the kind of stuff you can find out in the public domain."

"Jayce, I'm glad to see you back," Tim called as he came up the sidewalk. "Did you hear what's going on?"

"I just got back," he answered. "I haven't yet. Do you know?"

He shook his head. "I just know that they evacuated the Plaid, and not long after a big mess of Marines blocked off the building, then sent in a team wearing full battle gear," he related. "I don't know if they've brought anyone out yet or not. We all think that some student went psycho and like got hold of an MPAC or something, or has a PPG and is threatening to make it nuke or something." He sighed. "At least I got my test finished before it happened. I was leaving the Plaid when they called for us to evacuate."

Jason tuned out the students and Tim to concentrate on what was going on with the Faey. He labored to pick out individual sendings to try to understand what was going on, but it wasn't easy. It was all nothing but a big jumble. Whatever it was, though, it had all the Marines _very_ agitated. Something quite serious had just happened. He knew it was _really_ serious when an airskimmer carrying the crest of Trillane landed out on the campus accompanied by two Dragonfly fighters, and the Baron of North America _himself_ appeared in the doorway as the two fighter mecha hovered over the airskimmer protectively.

Jason fidgeted a bit, and realized that he had the railgun in the duffel bag in his hand. That might not be a good thing to be carrying around with the Baron of North America within his line of sight. He was about to go up to his room when one of the Marines behind him sent, and she was close enough for him to single out her message and understand it. _The students at the east dorm are calm,_ she reported in. _They're trying to figure out what happened. They think that a student suffered a nervous breakdown during a test and became violent._ There was a pause. _Aye, Captain._

_I just can't believe it,_ the second sent to the first. _It seems impossible. How can any of these, these, _natives_ have any talent?_

Jason almost dropped the duffel bag. Talent? Someone had expressed telepathic ability? Right in the middle of exams?

_Well, they are remarkably similar to us,_ the first answered. _Just less developed. Maybe this woman is just that one in a million that's similar enough to us that she has talent. These humans have had psychic ability threaded through their myth and history, though they've never proved it. Given their violence against things they don't understand, maybe anyone who could prove it wasn't brave enough to come forward. Maybe they really do have it, but it's just ridiculously rare. I feel sorry her, truth be told. The mindbenders are going to probe her, and it's not like she did anything wrong. She probably couldn't help it. Actually, I think it's a _good_ thing that humans might have talent._

He felt like his entire world was about to turn inside out. It was over. The Faey now knew that humans could express talent. He had no doubt that that meant that soon, mindbenders from the Secret Police were going to start showing up on Earth, and they were going to start watching everyone, watching them _very_ closely. And in a way, it told him that he actually was _not_ unique, that he was _not_ some freakish accident of nature. He was _not_ the only human to express telepathic ability. And now that the Faey knew, knew that humans could express that one ability that gave them an absolute stranglehold over Earth, they were going to come down like the sword of Damocles.

His knees felt a little weak. He sat down heavily on the steps, trying to get over a storm of near-panic. What was he going to do now? It was going to be almost impossible to hide from the Faey if they had teams of mindbenders running around checking everyone out. How was he going to do it? How was he going to keep his secret with them running around trying to ferret out others?

Maybe he was overreacting a little bit. They'd found _one_ telepath, and it was going to take them time to figure out why she was one. It was irrational to think that they were going to send an army of mindbenders down here and scour each and every human on Earth because _one_ expressed telepathic ability. For the moment, he still had a cushion of relative safety. It was going to take the Faey time to figure out what was going on, and decide on a course of action. They very well might start looking for other telepathic humans, but it wasn't going to happen _right now_. And with him being out of class right now, he had time to address this issue calmly and rationally, to think things through and decide what was going to happen. Because from this moment on, he knew that things could never be the same.

The game was over.

"Jayce? Jayce, you ok?" Tim asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm alright. It's just the heat. You know I can't stand heat," he said, though his attention was again more focused on the sending flying around him. He was starting to get the hang of it, and from time to time he could pick out a snippet of legible sending. They were still a bit disorganized, it sounded, trying to get everything settled down. He did hear that the student that expressed was still in the building, under active subdual from a pair of Marines. Odds were, the girl's panic had given her a desperate strength on top of the powerful defense her unhinged mind had presented to the Marines, so it had taken two of them to get her under control. So far, there has been no order to lock down the school, and Jason had a feeling that not being on campus just might be a good idea right now. "I think I'm going to go down to the Quarter," he told Tim quickly. "Too much activity around here to suit me, and nobody's gonna do anything all day but talk about what's going on. I don't feel like being aggravated all day. Wanna come?"

"Sure," he said. "We taking the car or riding a streetcar?"

"My car's already cool from the AC, so let's take that," he said, standing up and shouldering his duffel bag. "Just do me a favor and run up to my room and get my panel," he asked quickly, handing Tim the key to his room. "I'll get the car started and pick you up over at the sidewalk."

Tim eyed the duffel, and seemed to understand that Jason had his prototype railgun in it, so he nodded. "Sure," he said seriously. Jason didn't want the railgun to be found in his room, and that was a serious possibility right now.

"Like smoke," Jason said quietly, and Tim nodded. Jason opened himself just enough to listen to Tim's thoughts, and found that he was doing as Jason ordered, using some of the tricks that Jason had taught him to hiding from Faey eavesdropping. He wasn't very good at it, but then again, Jason was _actively_ listening to him. The two Marines over there weren't focusing on any one person, so Tim would just kind of fade into the background noise when he passed, offering no thought that would make them focus attention on him. Jason walked past those two without attracting much attention, but one of them did look back at him when he reached his car. She watched him open the trunk and toss the duffel bag in, then seemed to lose interest, putting two fingers to her head as a powerful sending drowned out all others, so strong that Jason too took note of it, as someone with impressive strength addressed all Faey in the area with an open, broadcasted sending.

_ALL UNITS ARE TO FORM A PERIMETER AROUND THE CAMPUS IMMEDIATELY,_ the sending boomed across campus. _INFORM STUDENTS THAT THEY ARE TO REPORT TO THEIR ROOMS FOR A BRIEF PERIOD WHILE THE CAMPUS IS SECURED FOR THE BARON TO CONDUCT A TOUR. ENSURE YOU ARE POLITE, THE STUDENTS ARE NOT UNDER ANY SUSPICION, AND ARE PROBABLY UPSET. SQUAD LEADERS, CONTACT COMMANDER LYRE OVER COM OR BY SENDING IMMEDIATELY FOR ZONE ASSIGNMENTS._

That was not good.

"Excuse me! Excuse me, you at the car! I'm afraid I have to ask you to go back to your dorm room for a while, they're asking all students to return to their rooms!" one of the Faey called loudly to him. "It shouldn't be for too long, they're just securing the campus for the arrival of the Baron!"

"If that's all it is, why does it matter if I go? I'll just be one less person underfoot," he answered reasonably, closing the trunk.

"My, he has a point," the other one laughed. "But I'm sorry to say that orders are orders, babe. Back to your room. You should be free to move around again in about an hour."

Jason hesitated, caught in a brief dilemma. He did _not_ want to be on campus with that telepathic girl out there making the Faey concentrate here, demonstrating that humans had their talent. He was very afraid that they might take that opportunity to interview other students, and he didn't want to end up in that position, facing an unknown Faey across a table who might use her power against him. Jason had never been in that position before, and he didn't know if he could keep his power a secret if he was confronted in that manner. But, on the other hand, openly defying a Faey command at this moment would be monumentally bad. He had to choose between risking being exposed, or doing something that was going to get him into very real and immediate trouble.

Then again, maybe it just required a little subterfuge. "Tell you what," Jason said, going around to the far side of his car. "I'll arm wrestle you over it." He put his elbow down on the blistering hot metal of his trunk's hood.

"You two go get those other students back into their rooms," a voice called behind him. He turned and saw Jyslin standing there, her black armor gleaming, and a sober expression on her face. "I'll get this one. He always likes to fight." _This one is my beau. I'd prefer to get him off campus and out of your hair, because he'll do nothing but fight with you,_ she added her thought, supposedly a private instruction to them, or it would have been had Jason not been able to hear it.

_We have orders to get them into their rooms,_ she protested mentally.

_We have orders to secure the perimeter. Where he is doesn't matter so long as he's not wandering around campus, right? Letting him and any other student that wants off campus accomplishes the same thing, it secures the campus._

_Probably, but I'll have to send in for some clarification,_ the taller one said dubiously, turning her head towards the airskimmer and increasing the strength of her sending. _Commander, I have students here at the east dorm that want to get off campus instead of report to their rooms. Is that permissible?_

_That's fine, so long as they remain outside the perimeter until the Baron leaves,_ came the response.

_Well, there we go,_ the taller one mused. _He's all yours, Sergeant. Sorry to go over your head, but I didn't want any doubt as to orders with the Baron on the site._

_No problem, Corporal, that was the smart thing to do,_ she answered gracefully, grabbing Jason's arm. "I think you need to take a little walk, mister," she told him with a false smile. "Stop bothering the Marines."

_What are _you_ doing here?_ Jason demanded in a tight sending just to Jyslin, as the two Marines started towards the other students, calling for them to either return to their rooms or leave the campus, as they wished.

_I got called in, what did you expect? Do you know what's going on?_ she replied quickly.

_I know enough. It's been too thick for me to make out everything, but I managed to get the main parts. This is _not good_, Jyslin,_ he said, making a few abstract gestures. _Not only are there telepathic humans, but now the Imperium _knows_ about-no, they know that I might exist. You know how messy things are going to get, right?_

She scratched her face, then thrust her hand at him to reinforce her point. _Yeah, I know, but let's not get too hasty,_ she pressed. _Things haven't developed yet. Let's see where they go before we start making any kind of serious decisions._

_I know, but it's got me nervous,_ he sent with an audible sigh, motioning back towards the dorm. _Right now I'm waiting for Tim to get down here with my panel. We're going to go down to the Quarter and sit in Patty O's for a while and wait this out. You have the range to reach me down there?_

_Please,_ she answered with a snort. _Just don't try to reach back up here to me. You have the range, but you might get intercepted trying to reach that far. Call me, don't _call_ me,_ she said, holding up her little com device, to which Jason had the contact number.

_I know better. They're way too many Faey up here who are too keyed up to try that. Are you going to be alright?_

She chuckled. _Hon, that's what I should be asking you. Are you ok?_

_Yeah, just nervous as hell,_ he answered, scrubbing his face with a hand.

_Just calm down. Go down to Patty O's, but _don't drink anything_. Keep a sharp wit about you right now._

_I don't plan to,_ he assured her.

_Unassigned personnel report to the staging area by the main science building,_ an open sending broadcasted across the campus.

"There are my orders," Jyslin told him aloud, looking back towards the Plaid. "I'll see you later tonight, ok?"

"Tim's bringing my panel, so call me if something comes up," he answered.

"Yah, Tim is," Tim called as he rushed up, Jason's panel in his hand. "Those two Marines didn't want to let me pass at first, 'til I told them you were waiting to pick me up. Then they let me by. You ask them to let me through, Jyslin?"

"No, they're letting students get off campus instead of staying in their rooms," she told him. "And that means you two had better get moving before they wonder why you're not in your rooms."

"Good idea," Tim said, going around the car and quickly climbing into the passenger seat.

Jason drove slowly and carefully down to the French Quarter, and even parked in a pay garage instead of trolling the usual hidden areas where free parking could be found. He was just too unnerved. They walked 