Fourth Birth: The Oakmont Saga, Book 1

“Dr. Trasker, we have images of a new subject admitted to Oakmont. These are very interesting,” Dr. Percoli told the head of the Neuro-Science Research Division.

“Put them on the wall,” Dr. Trasker commanded, the sound of authority clear in his voice.

“Yes, sir,” Dr. Percoli replied.

The Dr. Trasker studied the images, taking control of the mouse. He moved through the images with an ease that only years of practice could bring.

“I want regular updates on this subject…32145,” he stated, after studying the images for a little while.

“Yes, sir.”

“Where is the background profile?”

“The Oakmont staff has not attached it yet, sir.”

“Find out why and get that remedied.” There was annoyance in Dr. Trasker’s tone.

“Sir, as you know 32023 is almost as anomalous as 32145 but does not appear as strong. 32023 has a sibling, 31067. 31067 is typical, although a small degree stronger than most,” Dr. Percoli said, wanting to move on to the next point of interest. The older doctor stared, seemingly into space, for quite a while.

“What is the development level of 32145?”

“None apparent, but she just arrived, doctor,” Dr. Percoli replied.

“Begin daily injections of Sterocartalide on 32145 tomorrow. I want to encourage rapid development. Get a small team to Oakmont for monitoring and administration. Leave 32023 as is. We’ll use that one as a control, for now. I want weekly scans and blood samples from all three.”

“Yes, sir,” Dr. Percoli replied, slightly nodding his head as he turned to leave. He’d wanted to address the subject’s intelligence, but that wasn’t going to happen.

That evening, Dr. Rebecca Wilde, Dr. Margaret Warple, Dean James Hargrove, Emily Trulin, Mike Miller, Brian Stone and Headmaster Robert Raughlin met in the Headmaster’s conference chamber to discuss their newest student. Each of them walked in separately, almost as if they didn’t want to be seen together, although it was completely chance that it happened that way.

Margaret Warple was an old woman, by anyone’s standards, even wearing half glasses on the end of her nose, those being held around her neck with a small silver chain. Her hair was medium length and grey, with a little curl to it. She walked completely straight, as if she was trying to keep a book steady on her head, or maybe she was just very prim and proper. She had a friendly face, but it seemed as if she was ignoring the entire world to maintain that outward demeanor.

Then there was Brian Stone, who looked like he should be carrying an assault rifle and wearing camouflage, of the military variety. He carried himself with confidence and his lean and wiry physique lent itself to that military aura. What he did wear was all black, in the police SWAT team style, even having a mic penned to his shoulder. He was the chief of security, after all, so the image was in line with his job.

Rebecca was eager to try and decide the best course of action for their newest student, one that for some reason she seemed particularly drawn to. Melanie Brager could be the future of this program, if they could figure out how to get the girl to buy into it, which she was definitely not sure of, at that time.

She had never seen a child with that much animosity at arrival, as this girl had. Fear yes, but anger was new and Melanie clearly had plenty of it. Then there were the girl’s gifts, which she had in abundance, more than Rebecca had ever seen or heard of.

Though she was eager, she waited for the Headmaster to begin the meeting. He was looking at the assessment that she performed on the Brager girl that afternoon. “Section 6 is amazingly empty of ability, considering her FICAT scores,” he said when he finally finished reading the results.

“Headmaster, we have never had a student miss every single question on that section, even students that ended up with no telepathic ability at all. They answer at least one question in favor of ability simply by chance. Her scoring not a single question makes me think she did it deliberately,” Becky said, making most in the room express varying degrees of curiosity on their faces, and no small amount of skepticism.

“How could she do that? This test was designed to catch that,” the Headmaster replied, voicing the doubt everyone shared.

“Even though she was referring to the science section, she told me she could write a better test than this one, and I believe her,” she replied, leaving the implication that her comment might extend to other portions of the test as well.

“She is a child, even if a smart one. Experts at test writing and psychology put this together, in particular Section 6,” continued the Headmaster.

“Yes sir, but she’s not like any child we’ve ever had before,” she said.

“Assuming she actually did score this low deliberately, we have to ask the obvious question. Why?” he commented.

“I believe that she had already figured out that this facility isn’t what her parents thought it was, or what she thought it was, for that matter. Those innocent sounding but pointed comments as we were on approach strongly hint at that. She also doesn’t want to be here and thinks that by hiding her ability we may send her home. If you recall, there was a definite hesitancy when we recruited her. She may be smart, but she’s still young and not very sophisticated,” Emily Trulin said, giving the obvious answer.

“She knows without a doubt now. She was given the ‘riot act’ statement today, since she asked a student where we are. It was a bit earlier than is preferred or standard, but necessary as per SOP,” Becky added.

The Headmaster only nodded. “Regardless of what the FICAT says, does she have any ability?”

“She does. I caught her listening to me in the van, just as we pulled up,” Emily replied.

“Well, how strong is she?” he asked, obviously expecting more.

Emily looked a little embarrassed. “She caught me by surprise when she did it. Before I could sense her strength, her signal was gone. She seems inconsistent with it, which is what I’d expect at her age. In all honesty, I’d be surprised if she can hear at all, since she hasn’t had any training to listen. She just hears noise right now,” Emily stated.

“Is there a chance she could have turned it off when she realized you caught her?” he asked, his curiosity almost like a child’s.

She looked thoughtful for a moment, but obviously dismissed the idea fairly fast, “Though it is possible, we have seen that very few children can even begin to tap into the ability before ten years old and only crudely then. It usually takes at least three years of regular training to develop a consistent pattern of use and ability, much less finer skills like turning it off. I believe she is able to touch it once in awhile, and then only by chance. I just wish I had been able to gauge her strength before her talent winked out. Not only that, why would she listen to me? She wouldn’t be able to hear me with the mind block in place.” Mr. Miller nodded in agreement, but didn’t add to her response.

“She also had a psychic burst today. It happened as a result of Rebecca having the talk with her, which shows that she’s a telepath,” Mr. Miller informed them, after a lengthy pause.

“She had an attack as I left?” Becky asked, incredulous.

“It would appear so,” he replied.

“Were you able to get an impression of it?” she asked him.

“By the time I got there, it was almost half an hour after, but there was a definite energy signature. Aside from it lasting that long, which none ever have before, I couldn’t really get anything of value from it.”

“Since I performed her assessment, I also pulled her brain scans. They’re very interesting,” Becky continued.

“What did it show,” Mr. Miller asked, very curious.

“The area that normally indicates telepathic ability is extremely active, especially for a child only beginning to awaken. She shows more energy than our strongest and best trained students. There are also some other anomalies that I can’t figure out right now. A couple of other areas are showing energy patterns similar to telepathy, but those areas have nothing to do with the ability. The normal intellect regions of her brain are also anomalous, especially the areas associated with memory, looking similar to the patterns for an eidetic memory, but still different even then. Her energy patterns are unlike any brain scans I’ve ever seen before and that’s what I studied for my second doctoral thesis. I’ve sent clean copies to some colleagues for their opinions, as well as the Neuro-Research Department,” she said, pausing to catch her breath. “As odd as Aliyah Draper’s scans were, Melanie Brager makes them look absolutely normal, but there are still a lot of similarities between the two girls. They’re more similar than any other subject has ever been to Aliyah,” she concluded.

“Do her unusual brain scans show anything that we can make use of?” the Headmaster asked.

Rebecca looked at the table top for a while and finally looked up with a curious expression. “I’m not sure at this point. As I said, I’ve been studying the brain for years and I’ve never seen anything like this before, which is why I’ve asked for other opinions on her brain patterns.”

“Would you please send copies of those images to me? I’d love to take a look at them,” asked Mr. Miller.

“They’re in her file. You should have access to them as one of her teachers,” she replied.

“Regardless of what the brain scans tell us, everything we do know about her suggests she’s the strongest telepath to ever come into the program. She may function differently than any other as well. We’ve seen this a few times before. Think about Megan. She’s relatively weak, but she’s anomalous. How long did it take to figure out how to tap into her abilities?” Rebecca asked.

“She was my toughest student yet to figure out. I hope the Brager girl isn’t worse,” Mr. Miller replied.

“Be prepared for that possibility,” she said.

“Alright, I think any other discussion will only be speculation. Becky, I think you want to discuss other aspects of the Brager girl’s assessment,” the Headmaster said, ready to move on.

“Yes, Headmaster. Aside from whatever telepathic ability she possesses, she’s the most intelligent person to ever walk through these doors, and that includes you, me and those under its former purpose. This could contribute to the odd brain scans, or it may not. We could make use of her intellect, if we cultivate it properly. That’s going to take some effort by us, though. She may already be past the top end of my knowledge in mathematics and I have a PhD. I’m not sure about her other academic strengths, other than what the assessment shows.”

“I didn’t look at the other areas due to my concern over Section 6. Would you care to enlighten us please?” he asked.

“In all the years I’ve been administering the assessment test, I have never had a student get a perfect score in any subject area,” she replied.

“I assume she did. I would also assume that it was in mathematics, which would explain your excitement,” he replied with a small smile.

“She did indeed score perfect in math, and also in science and the social science section. Her language arts section wasn’t perfect, but she could challenge most adults with her score, including many college graduates. That test was intended to test the limits of their current education when they are around a third to sixth grade level. There was never any intention for a student to answer every question correctly in any section, much less several, which is why college level material was also included in all sections,” Becky said and paused for that to sink in.

“Then there’s Section 6, which I suppose you could say she scored perfect on as well. As I said, I’m convinced she intentionally scored as low as possible on it. I watched her as she took the test and it was the only section she read before answering any questions. She then reviewed it after finishing and then reviewed it a second time, which could indicate she knew the nature of the questions and was making sure her answers were consistent. That also takes a high level of intelligence and thought. Pretty much any child, and most adults, wouldn’t have noticed, much less attempted to rig their results. If I’m right, we have a very unique opportunity for this program that we mustn’t let slip by, regardless of the strength of her telepathic powers, including none,” she said, pausing again.

She then continued, before anyone else could begin speaking. “To further press this point, let’s look at the science section. As I said, she didn’t review it once. As a matter of fact, she didn’t even use the calculator or scratch paper to work out problems. When I received her results, it showed that she’d answered one question wrong, which you’ll see on the results before you. She was shocked. No, horrified would be a better descriptor. Anyway, she told me there was no way she got any questions wrong. Hopefully I quote her correctly, but I believe she said, ‘The entire science section was a joke. Even I could write a better test.’ I looked for the question in the book and at her answer. I even worked the problem out on paper and with a calculator, which she didn’t need. She was correct. She’s smart enough that I believe she can tell when a test is designed to trip someone up. To be honest, it was almost as if she’s taken a test like that before, although it would be a little odd,” she said and paused for a moment, as if thinking about that possibility. “But as Emily said, she’s not sophisticated, or rather she’s not wise, and didn’t think how odd it would look to get all of them wrong. So, in a way, she scored perfect on four sections, not just three,” Becky said, finishing her line of reasoning.

“Since the assessment gave us nothing with regard to her telepathic abilities, do we have a plan on how to proceed with her?” the Headmaster asked when she finished.

“For now, I suggest we put her in classes with her peers, and let her do self-study,” Becky suggested. She looked at Margaret Warple as she said that, knowing Margaret would want to put her as far ahead as possible. Unfortunately, nobody from English or Social Studies was able to attend the meeting, so there was no guidance in those areas.

“I’d have no problem with her simply reading a book. There isn’t much more she needs to learn, from an academic perspective. Though she doesn’t appear to have manifested ability yet, I suggest we put her in level two mind control, which is where her roommate is. That’ll serve two purposes. First, she’ll be with someone she seems comfortable with and second, her roommate being the best in that class might help draw her strength out faster. Aliyah Draper is strong enough to challenge Melanie Brager, if Emily is correct and I believe she is, and also based on her FICAT scores and brain scans. Like I said, as anomalous as Melanie’s scans are, there are many similarities between the two girls. Almost too many, in fact,” she said, pausing again to catch her breath.

“I think we need to work toward Melanie Brager becoming a part of the training program and maybe even the research program as she matures into an adult, which means a lighter discipline path. With a mind like hers, this program could really excel, if she can be aimed in the right direction. I also don’t think our normal indoctrination will work with her. She’s simply too smart and is already turned against us. We’ll have to try and use her animosity to drive her into the program, rather than away from it,” Becky replied.

Margaret Warple harrumphed. “If she did that well, then I want her in an advanced science class, either chemistry or physics. With a mind like that, I can teach her great things,” Margaret stated emphatically.

“And what if the older students decide to indoctrinate her?” Becky replied. Margaret had always turned a blind eye on the student indoctrination, which for some reason was allowed to exist by the administration.

“She’s a child. Even if they did some kind of hazing type thing, they won’t even notice her. She’ll be too much below them for that,” the older woman said.

Headmaster Raughlin thought this over for a minute. “It’s your department and I’ll go along with your decision on it.”

“If anything happens to her, we may possibly lose the best subject we’ve ever had our hands on. Her FICAT scores strongly suggest that to be true on all levels,” Becky said.

“Her roommate could also provide us the ability to keep tabs on her. Aside from peeking in on her, Mike can guide her roommate as well, without either being the wiser. Who did you say her roommate is,” The Headmaster continued.

“Aliyah Draper,” Becky answered.

The Headmaster sighed. “I should have known that with the apparent strength and your references. The older Draper girl was such a success and strong. The younger girl is much stronger but is too willful and too much of a loner. It may be worthwhile to move her up next semester. Might help bring her into line,” he mused.

“Why don’t we see how Melanie Brager does first?” Becky suggested.

“We could move the Brager girl to a different room,” Dean Hargrove suggested.

“No, that would isolate her and likely have a very negative impact on both. In only one day, the two girls have already formed a bond, which Aliyah has done with no one in two years. I think we’ll just have to live with the current situation and see if we can make it work for us,” Becky replied.

“We shall proceed as you have suggested, Rebecca,” Headmaster Raughlin said.

“Headmaster, I feel you should be aware that Melanie Brager is fully aware that she’s a prisoner here. She made a comment as I was leaving her room this evening questioning a country that imprisons kids against the will of them and their parents. Just before that, she whispered something that I’m not sure if I heard, but I think she said something about us not being able to teach her anything at all. That came after I told her that we may not be able to teach her anything in the academic areas, but we could teach her other skills. If I did hear that, then it may indicate that her abilities could be very strong and may already be at least partially developed, maybe more than Emily has already seen or suspects,” Becky added.

The Headmaster looked at her very hard for a moment. “Does she trust you?”

“She’s only been here a day, so I don’t know. After she asked where we were and I gave her the ‘talk’ about that, she made those comments. I may have ended any trust that I’d begun to build in her, but only time will tell. I can’t read her thoughts like Emily or Mike, so all I have to go on are body language and words. Right now, she’s very timid and very untrusting, though she did exhibit some backbone during that exchange. She was angry, more angry than I suspected, which apparently was enough to trigger an attack. Aside from that, she cries easily, which could also be a problem if she moves up too soon and why I advise against putting her in with older students. There’s one thing I could possibly do that might start to build some trust if you would permit it,” she said, hoping for agreement.

Headmaster Raughlin nodded his head for her to continue. “When I administered the assessment today, she began crying. It was because she misses her father. Would you allow me to give her a picture of her father, which would only be allowed in her room?” she asked, not wanting to admit she already said she would.

The Headmaster seemed to think on this for a little while. “Yes, I think it can be allowed this time. Let’s see if it helps build some trust between you two. Try and be a mother figure for her.”

“She also has some earrings on from home that were missed. I would suggest allowing her to keep them, as well.” The Headmaster smiled and nodded agreement.

“Emotionally, she is weaker than I would have thought, from our first meeting with her, Headmaster. Mrs. Wilde is right. If she is moved in with the older students too soon, it could destroy any chance of developing her to her potential, should anything happen. I also agree with Mrs. Wilde’s suggestion of keeping her at the lower levels in all classes, at least until we can harden her, and more importantly, gauge her strength. I disagree with the thought that the girl might be advanced, however. There is simply nothing to indicate that, other than a suspicion based on a comment made as a result of anger,” Emily said, when there was a sufficient lull in the conversation.

“The Brager girl has something else to note. There’s some kind of block. It’s almost like Emily’s ability to avoid sensing,” Mike Miller said, finally entering the conversation. No one seemed to understand his meaning.

“Well, we need to figure out how to get past it then,” Emily stated. He shook his head at her, as if she was a student who wasn’t getting the lesson.

“No, she’s able to block people from her thoughts. It’s subtle and I don’t think it’s deliberate, but it’s there,” he said.

Headmaster Raughlin was suddenly very interested in Mike’s observations. “Would you please elaborate?” he asked the head of the mental training program.

“Today was her first day in my class. I teamed her up with Aliyah Draper. I usually try to team roommates together, especially if they could be similar strength. Aliyah couldn’t sense her at all and she’s the strongest and most gifted in the class. She has moments where her ability seems to fail, which isn’t unusual in younger subjects, but this was different. She could hear anyone else in the room, except Melanie. So, I brought Megan over. She’s an odd one with her talent. As you all know and mentioned, she doesn’t have much strength, but she’s able to access deeper thoughts than anyone else with almost no effort and no effect on the target. She was able to sense Melanie, but only on the surface and it was obvious that it caused Melanie a lot of pain, which is also new. I’ve never seen a basic probe cause pain. At that point, I probed her myself. She’s incredibly intelligent, as you mentioned. It’s almost frightening, actually. What surprised me was that I could tell immediately that she was actively trying to produce thoughts to misdirect me. I believe she was thinking about calculus. I didn’t go deeper, fearing her noticing or maybe hurting her more than I already did. I’ve been with this program since its beginning and I’ve never had a student stage thoughts before. Even for me, her mind was like looking into muddy water and it was difficult to get in at first, like she had a weak mind block in place. That’s how Megan described it and her description is a pretty fair assessment. I don’t know if it has to do with her intelligence or something different about her abilities that we haven’t encountered before, as is possible based on her brain scans. As Rebecca suggested, Melanie Brager may be the strongest we’ve ever had, including Emily and the Draper girls.,” he told them.

Headmaster Raughlin just stared at him for a while. “She needs to be monitored closely. If she is deliberately misdirecting thoughts, would that not imply that she is aware of mind reading? Emily, are you sure her ability is as random as you said?”

“There’s no way I can be sure, but it looked that way to me. It’s the same as other children I’ve brought in. There and then gone in the blink of an eye,” she replied.

“There’s no indication that her ability is fully developed. What I just described is simply thought control. Someone without any telepathic ability could figure that out if their mind was strong enough and they could keep their thoughts ordered. That girl’s brain is the most unique mind I’ve ever encountered. Aliyah told her what this school is, so she could’ve decided to try and do that whenever she feels the danger is highest for her. For now, there’s nothing to be done with this, but we need to consider it moving forward. She’s actively masking her thoughts and intentions, if she has any at this point. On top of that, even surface probes cause her extreme pain, so reading her to monitor her is almost out of the question, for now,” Mike told them, backing up Emily’s impression, but adding a lot more.

After a pause, Mike added, “We’ve never had an escape because we could always tell what they were up to before they did anything. She may be the first subject where that’s not true, unless we can figure out how to get in her mind without causing her pain. Let’s hope she doesn’t actually try and escape before we can figure that out, or find out her plans by normal means.”

“That provides another very solid reason for keeping her with Aliyah. Encourage them to become close. That way, if she does try to escape, she would likely try and include her friend. We can monitor her through Aliyah,” Rebecca suggested.

“That’s a good idea,” Mike agreed.

Headmaster Raughlin surveyed his team. “Even if she does manage to escape the grounds, which I highly doubt, there is nothing around for miles. She is a young girl, not a soldier, and a seemingly weak girl at that. We will be able to recover her before she gets far.”

Rebecca kind of doubted how weak Melanie really was, even if she was timid and cried easily. She’d seen a small display of the girl’s will and it was definitely something to keep an eye on, not to mention there was something else about the girl that was different. She just couldn’t put her finger on what that was.

“There is one other item I need to mention. The Neuro-Research Department has attached to her file. They want weekly scans and blood samples from the two Draper girls and Melanie Brager. They have also ordered Sterocartalide injections for Melanie Brager,” the Headmaster informed them, his voice even and clear, as if this was normal procedure.

Rebecca knew, it definitely was not. She was very concerned with their sudden interest, knowing what they were capable of. The Sterocartalide was something else entirely. That stuff was bad news. The results usually took a few months to manifest, but when they did, they could be frightening in how fast they developed and the intensity of them. It had caused burnout in many of the early test subjects and also had some other unpredictable results. How would it impact this subject?

“Now, if there is nothing else we can gain from further discussion, we will proceed with this plan for now. If anything changes, or anyone gets any new ideas, let me know immediately. Rebecca, please work with the other departments and teachers to arrange her classes. Margaret, if you put her in an advanced class, make sure you keep an eye on her. If there are no further discussion points on our newest student, then that will be all,” he said, closing the meeting.

Rebecca caught Mike in the hall after they all filtered out. Emily just managed to join them before they were able to walk away, not that they were trying to escape. “Mike, tell me what you felt,” Rebecca asked.

“As I said, it was a half hour after the event, at least. I couldn’t get enough to accurately gauge strength, and attack impressions are weak gauges anyway. What I did feel was impressive. I could still feel enough strength to be concerned if we can’t find a way to control her, especially with her getting the Sterocartalide injections,” he stated, obviously as concerned with the drug as she was.

“If she’s that strong, why not place her on the strength chart?” Emily suggested.

“I’d wait, at least until we can get a better handle on how strong she actually is,” he said.

“Do you want me to start working with her in the evenings?” Emily asked, eager to have access to the girl.

“Yes, I think that might be needed. I’m not sure what method you should use, though. She appears timid and weak, but Rebecca has seen some will in her. Let’s go easy for now and see where that leads,” he suggested.

“Okay. I’ll run a Monday Wednesday session with her,” Emily said.

“I think we need to get her into some organized activity on Tuesday and Thursday, just to keep her busy. Don’t give her time to think about her situation,” Rebecca said.

“For once, I wish we had full week classes. She’ll still have the weekends to think and plan, if she decides to try and plan anything,” Mike said.

“Obviously you think that’s more of a concern than the Headmaster does, but there’s nothing we can do about it, without putting her into the research program,” Rebecca replied.

“I think it’s a strong possibility, based on what I know so far. The fact that she’s staging thoughts worries me more than anything I’ve ever faced here,” he said.

“What activity would you like her in on those days,” Emily asked, continuing the plans for Melanie. “I could arrange it, if you have an idea.”

“Considering what I’ve seen from her, I think ballet would fit her well. She’s a petite and limber girl, and I suspect she likes to be pretty and probably thinks she is. Every time I’ve seen her it’s as if she just brushed her hair. Ballet might help feed that and occupy her mind,” Rebecca suggested.

“I was kind of thinking the same thing,” Mike said, with a small smile.

“If I remember correctly, ballet is on Monday and Wednesday, so make your tutoring Tuesday Thursday instead and put her in the ballet class,” Rebecca said.

“Alright,” Emily agreed.

“There’s one other item I am concerned with. There’s no background information for her,” Rebecca observed.

“Yeah, I noticed that,” Mike replied.

“It’d be very good to have that. She seems unusual, and there’s something about her that isn’t sitting well with me, but I can’t seem to put a finger on it,” Rebecca said.

“I know what you mean,” Mike replied. Emily remained silent.

“There’s one other tidbit I can offer up,” Mike began, after a short pause. “When I went into her mind, I could actually sense her strength. Just like with the attacks, I can’t quantify it, but what I sensed was immense. I’ve never actually felt strength from a simple probe before, but hers was unavoidable.”

“Are you sure we shouldn’t put her on the strength chart?” Emily asked again.

“For now, yes,” he replied.

“Alright, we have a plan, at least the start of one. Let’s meet as needed, if there are any changes or observations that need to be shared. Considering the interest from the head docs, I’d also suggest keeping anything not clearly documentable out of the records,” Rebecca instructed them.

“Okay,” they both agreed. The three parted ways, heading to their own homes.

As Mike walked away, there was one thing from his probe that still bothered him, though he didn’t mention it to the others. He got the impression that he had surprised her when he sent his probe. There was only one way he could have surprised her, but he wasn’t quite ready to admit that, although there were definitely indications. It was just too incredible for him to commit to until he was certain, but it would go along with the comment that Becky thought she heard.