Chapter 13:
Psy Corps

	Shivana stepped up to Sven's door. She was still a little uneasy with 
these creatures, but this was more important than her fear of them. 
Hesitantly, she knocked on the door. "Who's there?" he responded.
	"It...it's Shivana," she replied, nervousness showing.
	"Come in." She cautiously opened the door and entered. She saw Sven 
tapping busily away at his computer.
	"Are you busy, sir? I can come back later."
	"Actually..." He turned to her. "If you're coming to me, which is a 
miracle in itself, it has to be important. What do you need?" She said 
nothing and handed him a disk. "I'm assuming it's on this." She nodded 
mutely. He put it into his computer and accessed it. He gave the report a 
quick skim and turned to her. "So you think this phenomena brought you three 
to this planet?"
	"I believe so. The circumstances are too identical to be anything 
else."
	"Ah so...." He turned the screen off. "Have you told Tobias or Vu 
yet?"
	"Vu knows about this. Tobias....does not."
	"Should we tell him?"
	"I don't think so. He seems rather attached to you people and would 
probably try to stop all of our efforts to get back to Earth."
	"Get back to Earth?"
	"Yes. I'm planning on expanding this research to see if we can create 
one of these gateways to Earth. I miss my home."
	"But according to this report, it's damn near impossible unless you 
were put under stress that, confidentially, I don't think anybody could 
survive without becoming insane."
	"That's why I would like to conduct more research on the topic. My 
hopes are to unlock the secret so I can get back home."
	"I see. What has Vu done about this?"
	"I sent him off to look up information on psychic imbalances." He 
cocked an eyebrow. "To see if there's anything on the subject that could 
explain this. Don't forget, the hole was created by the built up stress 
Tobias posessed."
	He nodded. "Now, this portal. How is it created?" She showed him the 
diagram she had shown Vu. "So this can happen to anyone?"
	"Unfortunately. Tobias is a prime target for such a thing. He's a 
magnet for stress." Sven laughed. "What? It's true!"
	"Shivana, I need to show you something." He tapped into Tobias's room. 
He was still in bed with Samantha. Shivana, in true fashion to herself, 
turned away in disgust. "Samantha has been there for Tobias a little bit 
after they met. Remember the whole Psycho incident?"
	"That was her taking care of him?" Sven nodded. "Whoa."
	"Sit down. It gets better." She did as he told her. "Do you know WHY 
they would be cuddled up like that?"
	She winced. "Don't tell me they're in love!"
	He shrugged. "All right. What do you want me to tell you?"
	"Oh dear lord!" She shuddered nervously. "I never thought he'd go that 
far in his hatred."
	"Hatred?"
	"He hates the human race. He kept saying he'd save a few 'good' souls 
and commit mass murder on the rest."
	"So you're saying that it's a rebellion against your people?" She 
nodded. "I find that hard to believe."
	"Why do you say that?" 
	"He's told me he's in love with her. He wasn't under any pressure. He 
told me as he would if I were a drinking buddy." Shivana sighed. "Shivana. 
Is there something you're not telling me?"
	"I feel like I'm losing my best friend." She got up. "I'll let you 
look over the report sir. Good day." She turned and left, ignoring Sven's 
protests.

	She spent the remainder of the day musing over her console, making no 
attempts to do any work or to talk with anyone. Not even Vu was able to get 
her attention. And she totally adored him. He was forced to keep a close 
eye on her as he worked. Eventually, around the evening time, it became too 
much for him and he gave her a gentle nudge. "Shivana?" She didn't respond. 
Nudge came to shake. "Shivana?" And yet she didn't respond. He turned her so 
she was facing him and gave her a kiss. She snapped out of her trance 
instantly. She pushed him away, shock playing on her face. "Welcome back to 
reality."
	"Vu! What did you do that for?!"
	"I'm sorry. It was the only way I could think of snapping you out of 
it."
	She shook her head and was about to slap him. "So you were 
attempting..."
	"...To make sure you brought no harm upon yourself."
	The urge to seperate his face from his head with one felt swipe 
disappeared. "Why would you wanna do that?"
	"Because you're a friend. I wouldn't want that to happen." She smiled. 
"I see that you're better. Please don't do that again."
	"Vu, can I ask you something?"
	"Sure."
	"Do you think that Samantha is the right one for Tobias?"
	He was, needless to say, shocked. "Um....do you really want me to 
answer that?"
	"Yes."
	He pulled a chair up next to her. "I can't say. If they were going 
together, then I would have a decent answer." He looked at her. "They ARE 
just friends, right?" She couldn't bring herself to look him in the face. 
"Oh...oh my...Shivana, I'm sorry."
	"Why are you apologizing?"
	"I know how much he meant to you." He hugged her. "Don't worry. He's 
still your friend."
	She looked at him. "Really?"
	"Of course! I've had to deal with the same thing myself."
	She smiled. "Thank you Vu."
	"My pleasure. Now, I found something on what you sent me to find." He 
stopped.
	"What'd you find?"
	"It can wait until tomorrow. I want to make sure you're all right 
before we continue work." He got up. "You wanna go get dinner? One of the 
techs told me of this nice restaurant near the facility."
	She giggled. "Vu! You sound like you're asking me out on a date."
	"If that's how you wanna think about it, then yes."
	She laughed and got up. "Sure Vu. I'd love to go out with you."
	"Fine by me. Let's go pick up some cash first."

	They approached the front door to their building sometime around 
eleven that night. The "date" had gone well; Shivana enjoyed herself and, 
though he refused to admit it, so did Vu. "I really, really enjoyed 
tonight," she told him as they approached the front door. "I hope that we 
can do it again."
	He chuckled. "Do you really want to? You want to go out with me 
again?"
	"Yeah. It'd be nice to do this again."
	He turned from her. "Um...."
	"Vu?"
	He turned back to her. "Okay. How does next Saturday sound?"
	She smiled and kissed his cheek. "That sounds great." He nodded 
mutely, stunned. "You comin' in?"
	"No. I've got some work to do at the lab. Enjoy your night Shivana." 
He smiled and stumbled off to the lab to work. 
	She smiled to herself. "See you tomorrow cutie," she whispered before 
heading up to her room.

****************************************************************************

	"Shivana?" Sven called into the lab. "You still here?"
	Vu looked up from his console. "So sir. Just me. What can I do for 
you?"
	"Oh. Vu. How are you doing?"
	"Eh. I can't argue." Sven approached him. "You look worried sir."
	"I had my computer process the information Shivana gave me. The 
results are pretty damn scary." Vu raised a curious brow. "Here, take a 
look." He put a disk into the console and accessed it. "Tobias....is a 
potential bomb."
	"What?!"
	"According to the report, the energy is channeled into the ground to 
access the portal right?" Vu nodded. "However, past reports of such an 
occurance explain that the portal is not permanent. Everytime someone goes 
through it, it loses a charge. Once the charges are out, the portal ceases 
to exist."
	"Yeah. So how does that make Tobias a bomb?"
	"It's also rumored that if the creator of the portal is killed, his 
body regains the energy used to create it. The body then releases said 
energy multiplied hundreds of thousands of times over."
	"Post-nuclear?"
	"Far worse. We wouldn't have to worry about the Raiders and they 
wouldn't have to worry about us." He shuddered. "As a matter of fact, we 
wouldn't have to worry about this galaxy. He'd annihilate it totally."
	"Oh shit. So what do we do?"
	"Well, Samantha's been keeping him calm. So we don't have to worry 
about him triggering anything. We just need to figure out how to diffuse the 
bomb."
	Vu chuckled. "I think I may have an answer to that." He retrieved some 
of his files. "I found out something about an institution of yours. I 
believe it's called the Psy Corps."
	"No. Don't even think about it."
	"Why not? I read it over. Tobias has handled worse."
	"It's not that. It's how you get in and how they USE you that I'm 
worried about."
	"How do you get in?"
	"You need to have exhibited some form of psychic ability that was 
witnessed and you also need an examination."
	"Okay. I see."
	"But the Psy Corps uses you as well. They are the spies. They will end 
up trying to use Tobias."
	"Okay. So Psy Corps are a last resort. So what now?"
	"I dunno." He looked at the screen. "I guess we have to wait and see 
what happens next."
	"Give him a call in the morning?"
	He chuckled. "You read my mind." They both laughed.

****************************************************************************

	The sun once again woke them out of their blissful slumber. It tickled 
their faces, forcing them to awaken into the harsh realities of life. 
Samantha was the first to sit up, stretching as she did so. "Oh what a 
night!" she grunted. "We are going to do that more often."
	Tobias chuckled. "How does next week sound?"
	"Sounds good." He sat up and wrapped his arms around her, kissing the 
back of her neck. "I love you Tobias."
	"I love you too Samantha." He kissed her neck again.
	She smiled. "Let's not get into that. Kaitlyn is due for breakfast at 
anytime, remember?"
	He sighed and got up. "Ah well. Hopin' to get some intimacy in before 
she arrived, but I guess it can wait." He put on a pair of sweatpants and 
went over to the kitchen area. "I suggest you get somethin' on as well, just 
in case." He collected the stuff needed for breakfast. She got up and 
stretched, momentarily distracting him, before putting a robe on. "She'll be 
here the second the batter hits the pan, so go unlock the door dearest." 
	She chuckled. "You've learned."
	"I know." He winked playfully. She laughed and unlocked the door. 
Moments later, the batter was poured out and Kaitlyn came bursting in 
through the door. "Good morning Kaitlyn."
	"Good morning Tobias. Good morning Samantha."
	"Hungry?"
	"Yep."
	He chuckled. "Have a seat." She smiled and sat down on the couch. 
"Sorry we locked you out yesterday. Needed some time to sleep."
	"It's okay, Tobias. I'm sorry for being to protective of Samantha." 
	"It's all right."
	"No, it isn't. I'm...." She let the sentence trail off.
	Samantha sat down next to her. "You're what?"
	"I...I don't want to say."
	She looked at Tobias. "Kaitlyn, it's by time you told him why you went 
berzerk those times. It's time to let him know."
	He approached with the stacks of pancakes. "Let me know what?"
	Kaitlyn shook her head. "I..."
	"Kaitlyn," Samantha told her. "It's a lot better if he hears it from 
you than someone else."
	She looked at him. "Um...."
	He handed her a plate of pancakes. "It's okay if you don't want to say 
now. It can always wait."
	She looked at the plate. "No. I should tell you now." She took her 
fork up. "Tobias, I've been through bad relationships in the past."
	"I think you told me that already."
	"Yeah, but I didn't tell you about my last relationship."
	He nodded. "What did he do?"
	She blinked. It was like he knew what was coming. "It seemed to be the 
perfect relationship. He was nice, caring, and such a sweetheart. We were 
set to be married."
	"So what went wrong?"
	"He approached me a few days before the wedding was to go down and 
asked to make love with me. I told him no, saying I'd rather wait for the 
honeymoon. He didn't accept that." She put her plate down on the table and 
lowered her head. "He became agressive. He..."
	Tobias gave her a hug. "Go no further. I have a good feeling I know 
what happened after that."
	A tear fell from her eye. "I broke the engagement off after he did 
that to me. It only got worse from that."
	"What'd he do?"
	A soft sob escaped from her. "He sent a bunch of his friends after me. 
I was barely alive by the time they got me to the hospital."
	"Oh shit. I'm so sorry."
	She started to cry into his shoulder. "I haven't been able to trust a 
guy with any of my friends since. I'm so sorry Tobias. I really am!" She let 
go of a sob that shook the entire room. He could only let her cling onto him 
and release her anger. "Tobias, I really think you're perfect for Samantha. 
But I don't want to risk it. You're too much like the guy."
	"Shh....it's okay. Let it all out Kaitlyn. Shh...." He put a hand on 
her back. Almost instantly, she calmed down. "That a girl. It's okay now, 
see?" No answer. He looked at her. She had sunk into a trance. He pulled his 
hand off her back and she snapped back into reality, a bit bewildered. 
Samantha wore a shocked look on her face. "Samantha?"
	"You...your hand! It was....glowing!"

****************************************************************************

	"Documented proof that he has some ability," Vu said. "What was the 
second thing needed?" He was in Sven's office, busy going over Samantha's 
report.
	"Damn it Vu! I told you, we are NOT enrolling him in the Psy Corps 
Academy!"
	"We might not have much of a choice. Our other alternatives are 
starting to wane. There may be no other choice."
	Sven sighed. "I know. I just wish I knew what else to do." There was a 
knock at the door. "We're busy at the moment. Can you come back later?" 
There was no response. "What do you mean?" There was no answer. Vu became 
confused. "Fine then, come in." The door clicked open and Swift came in.
	"Good day to you sir." She bowed respectfully. "How have you been?"
	"I've been fine, my dear. Please, have a seat." She did. "Vu, you 
remember Swift, right?"
	He nodded. "She was one of Tobias's watchdogs, wasn't she?"
	"That she was. She left to go see a doctor, remember?" Vu nodded. "The 
doctors found something about her. Do you know what that is?"
	"What?"
	He laughed. "She is our answer to our problem with Tobias!"
	Swift grew a little concerned. "Problem?" He handed her a copy of 
Tobias's report. She read it over and nodded. "Classic case of controlled 
calming aura. And this is out of our boy?"
	"Yes it is. Or that's what the three of them are saying?"
	"Three?"
	"Samantha, Tobias, and Kaitlyn."
	"Oh." She put the report down. "I am authorized to do a little 
training with him, but to reach the full potential, he should enroll in the 
academy."
	"All we need to do is teach him how to control it. Nothing else. Can 
you do that Swift?"
	She got up. "I'm confident I can." She bowed. "Thank you sir. I'll go 
check in on him now." She turned for the door. "Oh, before I forget." She 
handed him an envelope. "I'm now your regime's new psychic commando. I'm 
back in action." She smiled and left the office.
	"I hate to admit," Vu said as soon as the door closed. "She's got a 
nice ass."
	"I know."
	*I heard that,* Swift's voice echoed through both their heads.
	"Damn it."

****************************************************************************

	Kaitlyn didn't want to be alone after she spilled her heart out to 
Tobias, so she decided to spend the day with him and Samantha. She remained 
belly down on the couch as Tobias and Samantha watched her cautiously. She 
was in a severely depressed state. All that they could do was to watch over 
her. "I'm worried about her," Samantha whispered to Tobias. "She's never 
been like this. She took the situation in great stride when she talked to 
me."
	"She probably feels like I hate her now that I know her motives for 
trying to keep us separated."
	"Well, do you?"
	"No, of course not."
	"Then go tell her that."
	"She will not believe me."
	She sighed. "You're right. She won't. You need to show her you're not 
upset. Show her that she's still a friend." She looked at Kaitlyn. "Show her 
that she's family. Show her how much you love her."
	"But I don't know how I can do that for her. I do care about her, but 
I fear I'll only make it worse."
	She kissed his cheek. "Try at least. For me?"
	He nodded. "I will try." He got up. "Forgive me if I make you upset." 
She nodded and he went over to Kaitlyn's side. "Kaity?"
	She looked at him. "Yes?"
	"You okay?"
	"Of course not. Why do you ask?"
	"Because I'm worried about you." She shook her head and looked away 
from him. "I'm serious. I miss the fun loving Kaitlyn."
	"Pssh! Right. Whatever you say Tobias."
	He knelt down by her. "Kaitlyn? Can you tell me what's wrong?" She 
ignored him. "You're upset about what you told me, aren't you?" She nodded, 
welling up whatever tears she had inside. "You fear that I hate you now."
	"Yes," she replied, her voice weak.
	"Kaitlyn, do you know how much I hate you?"
	She winced. "How much?"
	He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Not at all. I do not hate you at 
all."
	She looked up at him. "Really?"
	"Do I have to kiss you again?" He looked at Samantha, who nodded. "I'm 
sure she doesn't like it when I do that."
	Kaitlyn giggled. "One more kiss will do." 
	He smiled and kissed her cheek again. "Feel better?"
	"Yeah." She sat up and hugged him. "Thank you."
	He smiled. "Never assume what I'm going to do. Remember that." She 
looked at him. "I will never hate somebody that's helped me out a lot. That 
includes you."
	She smiled. "I'm sorry I acted like a jerk."
	Samantha came over. "It's not your fault. Tobias is very 
understanding. You shouldn't be sorry."

	There was a knock at the door. "Who is it?" Tobias called out.
	"Take a guess," he heard Swift say from the other side. He smiled and 
got up to open the door. As soon as he did, Swift slam tackled him. "I 
missed you so much! How have you been?"
	"Busy. Where were you all this time?"
	She chuckled. "I've....been learning a few new things."
	"Like what?" She smiled and set her hand on his forehead. Almost 
instantly, he felt as if he were on the beach. "What the hell?" He fought it 
off and took Swift's hand off his head. "What the hell was that?"
	Swift was stunned. "That was a level 6 mental projection trap. You 
shook it right off. I'm impressed."
	He quirked a brow. "Swift, where have you been?"
	"I've been training at the Psy Corps. I'm now a psy commando."
	He chuckled. "That's great to hear. But now I'm suspecting there's 
something else to this. Am I right?"
	She laughed. "Sven told me about your talents. I've come here to 
analyze what you can do uncontrolled and teach you to control it. I'm going 
to go make an appointment with my doctor to have you examined." She got up 
and looked at him. "Untrained and able to shake off a level 6 MPT. You've 
gotta have some store of psych in you." She left. He remained laying there.
	Samantha crept over to him. "Tobias?"
	He looked up at her. "Am I the only one that found that to be mildly 
disturbing?"