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Chapter 40: D’Anna Biers show on Telepathy
0 reviewsTonights topic: Telepathy: Gift from God or invasion of privacy.
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Unhuman
Chapter 40: D’Anna Biers show on Telepathy
Caprica - Caprica City - FNN studios
“Hello friends, and welcome to the D’Anna Biers show. Tonights topic: Telepathy: Gift from God or invasion of privacy. My first guests via subspace link are: Luziana Eight and her wife Boomer Eight from the Starship Argos. Welcome!”
“Thanks, D’Anna,” replied Luziana.
“I’d like to clarify for the benefit of our views who missed you previous appearances on our show that although you look human, in spite of appearances, your actually another race entirely.”
“That’s right D’Anna,” replied Luziana. “I’m Betazoid, a completely different species.”
“And one of the things that makes your people different from Humans is that you are a telepath,” pointed out D’Anna. “How common is this ability amongst your people?”
“Universal,” replied Luziana. “Everyone on my home planet, Beta Zed, is telepathic unless there is something wrong with them.”
“And what’s it like to be a telepath on a planet full of telepaths?” asked D’Anna.
“You can constantly feel the minds of others all around you,” explained Luziana. “You always hear the thoughts of others. I’ve linked up with a Borg once, and I think being on Beta Zed is a little like being a Borg, except we haven’t merged our minds into a single being. We’re still individuals.”
“The Borg I have interviewed say they like being that close to each other in their minds,” observed D’Anna. “Do you miss that kind of contact?”
“Very much,” confessed Luziana. “When it gets to be too much for me, I meet with other telepaths and we link minds.”
“And yet you married someone who can’t share that experience with you,” observed D’Anna. “Boomer, what’s it like being married to a telepath?”
“Sometimes it’s really frustrating,” admitted Boomer. “She has a tendency to read peoples minds and then blurt out the things they would never admit to.”
“So she goes around telling peoples secrets?” asked D’Anna. “Sounds like a security risk.”
“Not really,” replied Boomer. “Those are not the kinds of things she says. It’s more like she tells everyone the embarrassing personal things, like if you are attracted to someone and what you are thinking about doing with that person. And as her wife, I get more of that than anyone else.”
“Sounds like a hard way to live,” observed D’Anna.
“Oh, it’s not all bad,” said Boomer. “We never have misunderstandings because one of us doesn’t know how the other really feels about something.”
“Don’t forget how useful it is in bed,” said Luziana. “You like the way I always know exactly what you want me to do to you.”
“Luziana!” yelled Boomer. “You see what I mean about her blurting things out? She just told the whole galaxy about our sex life, but didn’t mention the emotional intimacy that you can have when your partner can read your feelings and can project her feelings at you. And our baby is able to project her feelings at us too. You can’t imagine how good it feels to feel you own daughter’s mind touching yours.”
“So even though your baby has not been born yet, you can still communicate with her?” asked D’Anna.
“Yes, I’ve been able to hear her thoughts for a while now,” said Luzaina, as she put a hand on her belly. “She doesn’t have language yet, but she does have emotions.”
“And I can feel it when she sends them to me,” added Boomer.
“Sounds like she’s going to be very powerful after she’s born,” observed D’Anna. “Are Betazoids the most powerful telepaths?”
“No. Actually we’re fairly week compared to some of the other races,” replied Luziana.
“Which races are more powerful telepaths than you?” asked D’Anna.
“Well, the Medeusans are so powerful that they can speak to anyone else on their planet,” explained Luziana. “The Talosians are even more powerful and can communicate over interplanetary distances. The Borg have a subspace connection that is like telepathy, that only they can use, and only on each other. It works at intersellar distances. But there are also a lot of Talosians who have joined the Borg. And they brought their ability with them. Our Communications Officer, Lieutenant Solon, is more powerful and any of the other Talosians, so much so that they regard her as a sort of religious figure. And she can . . . let me give you an example. Lieutenant Baltar’s wife is a Daemon that only he can see and hear. I’ve been able to strike up a friendship with her because I can look into his mind and see what he is seeing, even though I can’t see her directly. But Lieutenant Solon can reach into his mind, see her, then project an illusion into all of our minds in a way that is so realistic that we can’t tell that she’s not really there for us. She can also put other illusions in our mind that are so realistic that it’s like being on the holodeck.”
“That’s the room on the Argos where you go to be entertained by holograms that look like reality?” explained D’Anna, for the benefit of her viewers.
“Excactly,” affirmed Boomer.
“But I think the most powerful telepaths are the Vulcans,” said Luziana.
“The Vulcans?” asked D’Anna. “I’m surprised to hear you say that. I thought their telepathy was so weak they had to have physical contact to make it work?”
“Oh, they do,” affirmed Luziana. “They have to touch you in order to initiate telepathic contact. And their process in forming that link is much slower than my people’s. But once they’ve established that link, you see how powerful they really are. They can restore lost memories, remove mental blocks, even re-write your memories. And there’s nothing you can do to stop them from doing what ever they want to your mind once they’re in. Also, if you establish the link your self, It’s the same as if you had let them touch you. Your mind merges with their’s into one being like the Borg, when they’re Mind Melding.
“It sounds very intimate,” observed D’Anna.
“It is!” agreed Luziana. “And scary! It’s sort of like being in the Borg. I linked with a Borg once. Did you know that there is a dedicated group of Borg who take turns having sex so that all the other Borg can feel it constantly? And with their cybernetic enhancements, they can go a lot longer than us normal people.”
“Luziana!” scolded Boomer. “Stop embarrassing the Borg!”
“Thank you for your time, Luziana and Boomer,” said D’Anna. “Our next guest is also aboard the Argos. Please welcome Ensign Betsa. Now, Betsa, your are an Einar, is that correct?”
“That’s what they tell me, D’Anna,” said Betsa. “But actually, telepathy is a rare trait that appears in Andorians. We’re a persecuted minority on my planet and I’m told eventually we’ll form a sub-species of Andorians called Einar.”
“And you are also blind,” pointed out D’Anna.
“Yes, all of my people who have this gift are the same,” explained Betsa. “I guess it’s the price we pay for being able to see into other people’s minds.”
“Don’t you find it debilitating not being able to see?” asked D’Anna. “Doesn’t your disability interfere with your duties?”
“I don’t feel disabled,” replied Betsa. My antennae give me a sense that you don’t have. I haven’t found the Colonial of Argos word for it. It’s like touching, but at a distance. This allows me to move around in the world without bumping into things. And if I really need sight, I can look through someone else’s eyes. The only problem I have is with the touch screens. For that, they gave me a visor that allows me to see them. It gives me a headache, but I tolerate it so I can serve on the bridge in the gamma shift.”
“You were until recently living a stone age life,” said D’Anna. “Has the adjustment to living with technology been a difficult one?”
“It would have been a lot harder without the learning machine,” admitted Betsa. “But the presence of other telepaths has helped a lot. I don’t think a mind-blind Andorian would be able to make the change as easily.”
“Which race do you think are the most powerful telepaths?” asked D’Anna.
“The Talosians,” replied Betsa. “Definately the Talosians.”
“Thank you, Betsa,” said D’Anna. “And on that note, we’ll turn to my next guest, who is coming to us via subspace from Kobol. Please welcome the Talosian Delegate to the Federation Council, Sokra.”
“It is pleasing to see you, D’Anna,” said Sokra.
“My other guests said that your people’s telepathy was very powerful,” stated D’Anna. “How did that come about?”
“Through selective breeding,” answered Sokra. “For generations our people have been practicing selective breeding, mating strong telepaths only with other telepaths of similar strength. And we have encouraged the strongest of us to breed more and discouraged the weak from breeding. As a result, each generation is slightly more powerful than the one before.”
“But isn’t genetic augmentation forbidden by the Federation Charter?” asked D’Anna.
“It is not augmentation, it is merely being selective about who we mate with,” replied Sokra. “Other races are also selective about whom they choose as mates.”
“And my understanding is that amongst your people, you do not use names?” asked D’Anna.
“Yes, each mind has a unique ‘feel’ to it,” explained Sokra. “So we do not need to use names with each other. However, it helps other species to more easily interact with us if they have a name to designate us. So we have adopted them for interacting with the other members of the Federation.”
“Your people were rather enthusiastic about joining the Federation,” observed D’Anna. “Why is that?”
“We do not have religion amongst our people,” explained Sokra. “Nevertheless, meeting Lieutenant Solon activated many of us in the parts of our brains that religion does in other races. She is 100,000 years more selectively bred than us. We immediately knew we wanted her to sire the next generation of our people and we wanted to be a part of her Federation.”
“What do you mean by: ‘sire the next generation’?” asked D’Anna.
“Lieutenant Solon was kind enough to donate all her generative cells to us,” explained Sokra. “These were mixed with the genetic material of our most telepathically powerful males and implanted in our fittest females. The next generation of Talosians will all be her children.”
“Some of my people were the first to join the Borg, when Lieutenant Commander Harry Kim began recruiting new members,” stated D’Anna. “But more recently, large numbers of your people have joined. Does this mean joining the Borg is the future for your people?”
“Those were all members of our race that were considered too telepathically weak to breed,” explained Sokra. “As members of the Borg they can have fulfilling lives and be better connected to other minds through subspace link than they can with their telepathy.”
Chapter 40: D’Anna Biers show on Telepathy
Caprica - Caprica City - FNN studios
“Hello friends, and welcome to the D’Anna Biers show. Tonights topic: Telepathy: Gift from God or invasion of privacy. My first guests via subspace link are: Luziana Eight and her wife Boomer Eight from the Starship Argos. Welcome!”
“Thanks, D’Anna,” replied Luziana.
“I’d like to clarify for the benefit of our views who missed you previous appearances on our show that although you look human, in spite of appearances, your actually another race entirely.”
“That’s right D’Anna,” replied Luziana. “I’m Betazoid, a completely different species.”
“And one of the things that makes your people different from Humans is that you are a telepath,” pointed out D’Anna. “How common is this ability amongst your people?”
“Universal,” replied Luziana. “Everyone on my home planet, Beta Zed, is telepathic unless there is something wrong with them.”
“And what’s it like to be a telepath on a planet full of telepaths?” asked D’Anna.
“You can constantly feel the minds of others all around you,” explained Luziana. “You always hear the thoughts of others. I’ve linked up with a Borg once, and I think being on Beta Zed is a little like being a Borg, except we haven’t merged our minds into a single being. We’re still individuals.”
“The Borg I have interviewed say they like being that close to each other in their minds,” observed D’Anna. “Do you miss that kind of contact?”
“Very much,” confessed Luziana. “When it gets to be too much for me, I meet with other telepaths and we link minds.”
“And yet you married someone who can’t share that experience with you,” observed D’Anna. “Boomer, what’s it like being married to a telepath?”
“Sometimes it’s really frustrating,” admitted Boomer. “She has a tendency to read peoples minds and then blurt out the things they would never admit to.”
“So she goes around telling peoples secrets?” asked D’Anna. “Sounds like a security risk.”
“Not really,” replied Boomer. “Those are not the kinds of things she says. It’s more like she tells everyone the embarrassing personal things, like if you are attracted to someone and what you are thinking about doing with that person. And as her wife, I get more of that than anyone else.”
“Sounds like a hard way to live,” observed D’Anna.
“Oh, it’s not all bad,” said Boomer. “We never have misunderstandings because one of us doesn’t know how the other really feels about something.”
“Don’t forget how useful it is in bed,” said Luziana. “You like the way I always know exactly what you want me to do to you.”
“Luziana!” yelled Boomer. “You see what I mean about her blurting things out? She just told the whole galaxy about our sex life, but didn’t mention the emotional intimacy that you can have when your partner can read your feelings and can project her feelings at you. And our baby is able to project her feelings at us too. You can’t imagine how good it feels to feel you own daughter’s mind touching yours.”
“So even though your baby has not been born yet, you can still communicate with her?” asked D’Anna.
“Yes, I’ve been able to hear her thoughts for a while now,” said Luzaina, as she put a hand on her belly. “She doesn’t have language yet, but she does have emotions.”
“And I can feel it when she sends them to me,” added Boomer.
“Sounds like she’s going to be very powerful after she’s born,” observed D’Anna. “Are Betazoids the most powerful telepaths?”
“No. Actually we’re fairly week compared to some of the other races,” replied Luziana.
“Which races are more powerful telepaths than you?” asked D’Anna.
“Well, the Medeusans are so powerful that they can speak to anyone else on their planet,” explained Luziana. “The Talosians are even more powerful and can communicate over interplanetary distances. The Borg have a subspace connection that is like telepathy, that only they can use, and only on each other. It works at intersellar distances. But there are also a lot of Talosians who have joined the Borg. And they brought their ability with them. Our Communications Officer, Lieutenant Solon, is more powerful and any of the other Talosians, so much so that they regard her as a sort of religious figure. And she can . . . let me give you an example. Lieutenant Baltar’s wife is a Daemon that only he can see and hear. I’ve been able to strike up a friendship with her because I can look into his mind and see what he is seeing, even though I can’t see her directly. But Lieutenant Solon can reach into his mind, see her, then project an illusion into all of our minds in a way that is so realistic that we can’t tell that she’s not really there for us. She can also put other illusions in our mind that are so realistic that it’s like being on the holodeck.”
“That’s the room on the Argos where you go to be entertained by holograms that look like reality?” explained D’Anna, for the benefit of her viewers.
“Excactly,” affirmed Boomer.
“But I think the most powerful telepaths are the Vulcans,” said Luziana.
“The Vulcans?” asked D’Anna. “I’m surprised to hear you say that. I thought their telepathy was so weak they had to have physical contact to make it work?”
“Oh, they do,” affirmed Luziana. “They have to touch you in order to initiate telepathic contact. And their process in forming that link is much slower than my people’s. But once they’ve established that link, you see how powerful they really are. They can restore lost memories, remove mental blocks, even re-write your memories. And there’s nothing you can do to stop them from doing what ever they want to your mind once they’re in. Also, if you establish the link your self, It’s the same as if you had let them touch you. Your mind merges with their’s into one being like the Borg, when they’re Mind Melding.
“It sounds very intimate,” observed D’Anna.
“It is!” agreed Luziana. “And scary! It’s sort of like being in the Borg. I linked with a Borg once. Did you know that there is a dedicated group of Borg who take turns having sex so that all the other Borg can feel it constantly? And with their cybernetic enhancements, they can go a lot longer than us normal people.”
“Luziana!” scolded Boomer. “Stop embarrassing the Borg!”
“Thank you for your time, Luziana and Boomer,” said D’Anna. “Our next guest is also aboard the Argos. Please welcome Ensign Betsa. Now, Betsa, your are an Einar, is that correct?”
“That’s what they tell me, D’Anna,” said Betsa. “But actually, telepathy is a rare trait that appears in Andorians. We’re a persecuted minority on my planet and I’m told eventually we’ll form a sub-species of Andorians called Einar.”
“And you are also blind,” pointed out D’Anna.
“Yes, all of my people who have this gift are the same,” explained Betsa. “I guess it’s the price we pay for being able to see into other people’s minds.”
“Don’t you find it debilitating not being able to see?” asked D’Anna. “Doesn’t your disability interfere with your duties?”
“I don’t feel disabled,” replied Betsa. My antennae give me a sense that you don’t have. I haven’t found the Colonial of Argos word for it. It’s like touching, but at a distance. This allows me to move around in the world without bumping into things. And if I really need sight, I can look through someone else’s eyes. The only problem I have is with the touch screens. For that, they gave me a visor that allows me to see them. It gives me a headache, but I tolerate it so I can serve on the bridge in the gamma shift.”
“You were until recently living a stone age life,” said D’Anna. “Has the adjustment to living with technology been a difficult one?”
“It would have been a lot harder without the learning machine,” admitted Betsa. “But the presence of other telepaths has helped a lot. I don’t think a mind-blind Andorian would be able to make the change as easily.”
“Which race do you think are the most powerful telepaths?” asked D’Anna.
“The Talosians,” replied Betsa. “Definately the Talosians.”
“Thank you, Betsa,” said D’Anna. “And on that note, we’ll turn to my next guest, who is coming to us via subspace from Kobol. Please welcome the Talosian Delegate to the Federation Council, Sokra.”
“It is pleasing to see you, D’Anna,” said Sokra.
“My other guests said that your people’s telepathy was very powerful,” stated D’Anna. “How did that come about?”
“Through selective breeding,” answered Sokra. “For generations our people have been practicing selective breeding, mating strong telepaths only with other telepaths of similar strength. And we have encouraged the strongest of us to breed more and discouraged the weak from breeding. As a result, each generation is slightly more powerful than the one before.”
“But isn’t genetic augmentation forbidden by the Federation Charter?” asked D’Anna.
“It is not augmentation, it is merely being selective about who we mate with,” replied Sokra. “Other races are also selective about whom they choose as mates.”
“And my understanding is that amongst your people, you do not use names?” asked D’Anna.
“Yes, each mind has a unique ‘feel’ to it,” explained Sokra. “So we do not need to use names with each other. However, it helps other species to more easily interact with us if they have a name to designate us. So we have adopted them for interacting with the other members of the Federation.”
“Your people were rather enthusiastic about joining the Federation,” observed D’Anna. “Why is that?”
“We do not have religion amongst our people,” explained Sokra. “Nevertheless, meeting Lieutenant Solon activated many of us in the parts of our brains that religion does in other races. She is 100,000 years more selectively bred than us. We immediately knew we wanted her to sire the next generation of our people and we wanted to be a part of her Federation.”
“What do you mean by: ‘sire the next generation’?” asked D’Anna.
“Lieutenant Solon was kind enough to donate all her generative cells to us,” explained Sokra. “These were mixed with the genetic material of our most telepathically powerful males and implanted in our fittest females. The next generation of Talosians will all be her children.”
“Some of my people were the first to join the Borg, when Lieutenant Commander Harry Kim began recruiting new members,” stated D’Anna. “But more recently, large numbers of your people have joined. Does this mean joining the Borg is the future for your people?”
“Those were all members of our race that were considered too telepathically weak to breed,” explained Sokra. “As members of the Borg they can have fulfilling lives and be better connected to other minds through subspace link than they can with their telepathy.”
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