Her Royal Madness

Her Royal Madness Part 18

"Well Maddie, why don't you start from the beginning. When did this 'weird stuff' start happening and what was it? I think I can guess but I'd like to hear it in your words." 

"Well first I started hearing voices in my head and then Henry shows me how to pick up dice without touching them, which almost kills me, and Daddy starts freaking out and starts speaking Chinese, or Russian, or whatever, then he disappears but makes Henry walk me to school and I can suddenly pick up Martin, who's much heavier than a pair of dice, but I don't pass out or anything, only this time there's a green glowing thing in the air, and finally somebody tries to blow me up and you show up and drag me all over the galaxy, and the worst part is I'm starting to act like Henry, bossing everyone around and being mean, and, and..." Was that a tear forming up? Sometimes I'm a blubbering idiot. "Oh - sorry. Breathe, Maddie, breathe." A deep breath at least stopped me talking. 

"It's okay Maddie. Take a moment to calm down. A minor breakdown in control is forgivable at this stage in your development." 

Breakdown in control? Forgivable? Was that her idea of comforting. Juna's not exactly the nurturing type. 

I took another deep breath and relaxed, a bit, before Juna continued. "As I told you before Maddie, you're not from Earth and you're not a human. Your brain is much more highly developed and you have mental abilities that your hosts on Earth can only dream of. 

"Let's start with telepathy. Some of the bounty hunters have extremely sensitive telepaths working for them. By tuning themselves to your specific brainwaves, and calling out your name, they were able to establish a rudimentary link with you and locate you from a distance of several light years. Your powerful but untrained mind shines like a bright beacon in the darkness to them. One of the first things you'll learn is to set up a mental shield, to block all contact so you're untraceable or to allow limited contact for communication but blocking the parts of your mind that you want to remain private. You'll learn to communicate across great distances with anyone you want to." 

"Hey, wait a minute," said Henry. "I talked to her once or twice without talking. I mean talking out loud. With my voice. Was that all her doing it, or do I have special powers too? Well I know I have special powers, right guys? But I mean the same ones that she has." 

Juna looked at me. When I didn't object, she said, "That's uncertain. Telepathy is very rare in males. But it's also very rare for an untrained mind, like Maddie's, to be able to set up a rapport with a non-telepathic mind. It's possible that growing up in an alien environment with twisted gender roles has triggered some latent abilities. And it doesn't hurt that your mother was so powerful. I'm sure the doctors can find some answers by performing an autopsy as soon as we get to base." 

Juna glanced at me and winked with the tiniest of grins. I didn't know she had a sense of humor. 

"What?" Nicholas said. "Don't you have to be dead for an autopsy? You can't do that to Hank." 

"Don't worry," Juna said. "All they need is his head. One quick slice to remove it from his body and he won't feel a thing." 

"Ha, ha, very funny." Henry was just a little bit nervous. "But, but I'm kind of attached to my head. Besides the Lady Madelaine wouldn't let you do that to her beloved brother." 

"I don't know Henry." I said absentmindedly. "It's all in the interest of science. Surely even you can see that this is much bigger than you." 

Henry was speechless for once. Nicholas wasn't. "Now wait a minute! If you think Mash and I are just going to sit back and watch you cut off Hank's head, you are badly mistaken." 

"But Nicholas, there's nothing you can do about it. It's already been decided." 

"I'll show you what I can do about it." As usual Nicholas took the time to carefully think things through before he acted. He charged straight at me. I held up my hand, stopping him in mid-stride.