Test II: Mental Composure
The door to Twilight’s tank slid open. She didn’t know how long it had been since the panel incident. She didn’t know how long she’d been unconscious for. She didn’t know what the electrodes had done to her, but she didn’t feel any different. At any rate, it seemed like they had new plans for her.
She slowly turned to face the door. There was a creature in it, bulky like the ones that had captured her, but its carapace was slimmer, and purple. It also lacked any shell around its head, and Twilight could see it was the same underneath as the researchers, a passable resemblance to the humans she was more familiar with, except for the eyes – its eyes were more fiery, more searching and reactionary. They quickly flitted across the room as it entered, before settling on her. The sides of the creature’s mouth turned upwards. Was it… smiling at her? Really? It wasn’t a confident grin or a cocky smirk, or a terrifying, maniacal grimace – it was just a smile. Warm, honest… the creature seemed to be enthusiastic about… whatever came next.
As it stepped into the room, Twilight saw that there was a long tail dragging along the floor behind it. It was so long that, no matter how far the creature walked into the room, it remained carrying out the door. Escaping through there wasn’t an option, though – the alicorn spied two of the heavier, bulkier carapaces on either side of the door, each carrying a small, boxy instrument that glowed blue from a nozzle on the front. Weapons of some sort, she decided.
A snapping noise drew Twilight’s attention back to the purple creature, and she saw that it had clicked it’s fingers together, the tips of which were uncovered, too. There was no sharp claw or wicked point at the end, though there was a firm-looking, but uselessly rounded, nail, making its hands similar to the ones she had possessed during her brief journeys through the Mirror. It (or he, if the alicorn were to hazard a guess) proceeded to gesture with one of them, to a point on the floor partway across the room from itself, directly opposite the centre. Twilight hesitated for a moment, before cautiously stepping over towards said point. Was this a test? What for? To see if she could follow directions?
She stood at the point, realising that she was now stood at one edge of a large circular metal sheet that made up the centre of the room’s floor, with the creature stood at the other end. He smiled again, still as warm an honest as ever, and nodded to her. Almost a bow, really. Twilight half-bowed back, mimicking his action. If this was a test, she was going to try and do well at it. And even if it was merely a test of her responses to external stimuli, they were sure to learn something about her. Maybe then they’d let her go?
The creature closed his eyes, and held its hands outwards from itself. Twilight felt the air become thicker, her fur beginning to stand on end slightly. His eyes opened, now faintly glowing a dark purple colour. Magic? What sort? She tensed, ready to jump away at a moment’s notice, as the creature drew its hand up to the front of its face, a ball of roiling violet energy floating between them. She knew what it was – pure magical energy. Completely invisible to the two guards at the door, or the other creatures watching. Maybe even to the purple-armoured one himself, but not to Twilight. She read in the amethyst curls a pattern, a structure, and most importantly, a purpose. It was much like looking at the horn of an untrained unicorn – you could tell what they were going to cast simply by glancing at it. Twilight knew what was about to happen, and so relaxed her tensed body, charged her horn slightly, and steeled her mind.
The creature put a lot of movement into his casting, taking a step forwards and two-handedly thrusting the wave of lilac swirls at her. They surged forwards, and she closed her eyes as they began coiling around her head. Immediately she felt it – a push of dominance on her consciousness, an attempt at controlling her. She fought it. It tried to creep in around her thoughts, and she struck out and blocked it. Inhibited like she was, it was all she could do – attempting an actual counter would take strength she didn’t have. On the other hoof, the other creature’s attempts were strong, but slow and clumsy – keeping it at bay took all of her magical strength, but little of her concentration.
Twilight opened her eyes, and studied the creature across from her. He was relaxed, but beads of sweat were appearing on his brow, which was set into a stern frown. His forelimbs moved fluidly, a somatic buffer to his mental struggle. The technique was seldom practiced by unicorns, but mages of other races would often make use of it – a bodily movement to help shape the spell. Judging by the sluggish movement of her opponent’s efforts, he needed all the help he could get.
Confident that she had it held back, Twilight started walking forwards. Or, at least, she tried to. Her muscles didn’t listen. She blinked, confused slightly, and looked down at her hooves. Except here neck didn’t respond. Ah. Seems her opponent had actually made some headway on immobilising her before assaulting her mind. Glancing at the swirling purple tendrils of magic, Twilight tried to pick out how it had hidden that, and was met with the odd observation that it hadn’t. How could it have paralysed her with a mind control spell? Maybe it had locked her within her own mind – which, apparently, included freedom to blink and look around. Odd. At any rate, it would’ve been easier to cast one mind control spell and one paralysis spell than try to use the former for two purposes. Twilight puzzled for a moment, before reasoning that maybe her opponent didn’t actually know how to incite paralysis. Huh.
And thus Twilight found herself in the odd predicament of being unable to move, unable to act, but completely free to observe and think. This would likely last until the strain of continued casting wore down her assailant, and with no real gauge of its power she couldn’t tell how long that would be. She could wait, though, since nothing else really demanded her attention. She watched, and waited.
***
The test had finished. It was a simple test, but too vague for the Head of Research’s liking. The results obtained here could not be final, but they made for a good estimate of a benchmark at least.
“What was it like, direct contact with the creature?” Doctor Vahlen asked, as a handful of scientists lingered nearby, taking notes. “Was it any different to the other?” She was addressing the lone soldier sat in the chair normally reserved for panel operators.
Sergeant Cameron Murray, Sniper, scratched his head. “It weren’t that different, I s’pose, but then I didn’t get to see a lot. That thing’s mind is a fortress, once it realises what’s happening.”
Doctor Vahlen raised and eyebrow. “Once it realises?”
The Scotsman nodded. “I made some headway into it’s mind before it put up any kind of defense. After that it was a stalemate, and call me a fool but I went an’ tried to paralyse the thing first. Cut of the conscious brain signals to the limbs, y’know?”
The doctor nodded. “An understandable action in combat, perhaps. In a secure testing environment…” she shook her head. “No matter. Did you glean anything else from the subject’s mind?”
“I…” Cameron paused for a moment. “It wasn’t so much a thought as a feeling, but… I think it’s a girl.”
There was a moment’s silence as the doctor gathered her thoughts. “It identified as having a gender?” Cameron nodded, to be met with a second thoughtful pause. “This is an unusual discovery. No previous test has shown any notion of gender identity in an alien’s mind, and if they repopulate their number via cloning, as the near-identical genome mapping of previous subjects indicates, there would be little need for such a feature.” She looked over at the nearby containment tank, in which the alien lay sleeping on the floor. “Why would they include it for this specimen?”
“I couldn’t begin to tell ye,” Sergeant Murray replied, ignoring the fact that Dr. Vahlen probably wasn’t addressing him when she spoke just now, “but that’s all I can give ye to go on. Everything after that was just holding it steady, and I can tell you this – if my lot had to go forty-seven minutes without a sniper on hand, they’d get into all kinds of trouble. Anything you can do to help us out in case more of ‘em show up would be greatly appreciated.”
Dr. Vahlen nodded. “It’s an impressive record, certainly, but my team will continue to study the specimen and see if there is some flaw in its defense, a reason for us to have never encountered one before.” She turned to address the sniper once more. “You are free to go, but with your permission we’d like to perform another psychological evaluation, in case direct contact with the subject’s mind has affected your own somehow.”
Cameron nodded. “Seems fair enough, I’ll be sure to check in to the medbay later.” He stood up and turned to leave, taking no more than two steps before pointing to the next closest staff member. “The psi suit linked up brilliantly, doctor, I barely recognised anything were different.”
Dr. Shen nodded, and the sniper continued out of the room. The older man then addressed Dr. Vahlen, “It’s a worrying thought, isn’t it? Holding a perfect defense for nearly fifty minutes while weakened.” He walked up besides her, and looked into the containment tank as she had. “Who knows what this one might be capable of at full strength?”
Dr. Vahlen’s response was, as usual, measured. “Not to worry, we have this one contained. Another showing up would be troublesome to say the least, but the fact that we only happened upon this one by chance makes it seem unlikely that we will see a second.” She paused for a moment. “I can only wonder, though, what need the aliens would have for a specimen that identifies with a gender? If they do not breed in the conventional sense, then what possible use would such a trait have?”
***
Clunk. Clunk. Clunk.
Heavy, dark green boots pounded on a metal floor.
Clink-clink, clink-clink, clink-clink.
Besides them, a set of altogether different feet walked the alien hallway.
Big, burly, bulky, and possessed of a single-minded determination, the Muton led its charge onwards, deeper into the ship. Good. This one was different, much different. It had been brought in with the last wave of captives, only a few planetary turns ago. It had gone unnoticed for some time, locked in a stasis pod that it barely fitted. But now, it had been discovered – a rogue element, an unbalancing factor.
A vast door of blue light melded away, revealing the bridge of the vessel. A few Sectoids shrank into the consoles they manned, seeking to evade the hulking brute now among them. It paid them no mind, for it’s task was simple – deliver the captive to it’s leader.
Said leader was still for some time. The entire room was. Slowly, unnaturally still, it turned, hanging in the air a few inches above the floor, heavy robes hanging straight downwards.
A single second of unspeaking study, an emotionless analysis of the captive, before a single twist of deepest purple energy seeped from the heavy mask surrounding the ruler’s head. It bore upon it a single thought, a single question.
Who are you?
It touched the creature. There was no response. Perhaps the wait in stasis had broken it too far, mde it loose all thought. Still, in circumstances such as these, a second attempt was almost required.
Who are you, and this time, where are you from?
Still no answer. The commander would have frowned, if it still believe emotion was worth the energy to feel, let alone express. Perhaps a third time, and then it would be done, one way or another.
Tell me what you are.
A second.
Two.
Nothing.
A small pity, perhaps, but not a great loss. There would be another chance, another-
No. No others. I and I alone.
The commander did not recoil, it did not react, but it paused. Interesting. It hadn’t sent that thought. This one possessed the Gift.
It asked again, What are you?
The response was spirit, fire, self-assuredness. It was exactly what the commander was hoping not to see, exactly what the abduction process was meant to remove, exactly what made its subordinates loyal through their lack of it, and its enemies dangerous from the intensity with which they felt it.
It was a sense of the self.
I am me.
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Fending of mind control for almost a hour. Impressiv.
So I guess the alien's attempts to make captive humans loyal have failed... Intresting.
Good work, a bit of a wait isn't to much, and enemy within was very distracting for me as well. Hopefully enemy within won't serve as the next distraction, but I'm on my seventh playthrough, so I wont bet on it.
He DID use Mind Shield plus Psi Armor right? Right?
The plot thickens!
3593068
Oh yeah, he was wearing psi armour plugged into the psi-blocker that's keeping Twilight weakened. Which didn't make him more powerful or anything, just exempt from the effects of it himself.
So twi stood toe to toe with a psion sniper at full power while being limited in her power output XCOM better hope x21 doesn't come looking for her student.
Okay, why isn't she trying to communicate? Even without a translation spell, she could try. Why is she letting them set the pace?
3775328
Give it tme dude, languages are complicated and psionics are based on emotions and intentions more than translatable concepts. PLus I find the use of catch-all spells like Tongues and the like to be a little bit cheaty, especially in a narrative like this.
3788118
I didn't really mean via telepathy, though it was the only way that the Uber Ethereal could communicate with the Volunteer. And yes, translation spells are cheap, but I usually use them because i want to get to the dialogue.
However, play acting or talking? I'd expect her to want to show some sign that she's intelligent. Being passive as she is doesn't really seem in character. She should be trying to change her circumstances, push back rather than accept whatever they do to her. Twilight is all about communicating, whether via books or lectures.
I guess it's delayed shock, or massive culture shock, stopping her from reacting, but even if she's not done it yet, I expect her to start soon. I understand why you've done it, to keep her a specimen rather than a person in their eyes, but it seems kind of a cop out. A bit anyway.
3788468
Mmm, good points all round. I'll bear it in mind for the next couple of chapters, thanks!
3790570 speaking of it's time for your council report. We have high hopes for you commander.
This is a good story. I just fear of how you are going to make them realize the nature of twilight's arrival and mindset. Because you will have to do that at some point.
The only way I see now is for twilight to allow the xcom to see that she is not an enemy, that she is lost and that she means no harm. The xcom are in a full "assume hostility" and have no reason to believe otherwise.
Someone needs to have a good mental conversation with her or this shit will go nowhere fast
I look forward to an update as I'm interested in seeing what's going to happen next.
woot now the aliens and by extintion exalt know about twilight and are gonna be after her i hope they don't need to harm her but they probably will to delve in to her brain for psychic tidbits of equestria
hopefully the gore does eventually stop with twilight and continues on the aliens and the people why because i doubt it matters why because this is xcom baby unfortunate shit happens to people i hardly care about make sure to explain how there mech suits why cause that is simply epic especially when your in need of a spare turn and there a mechtiod right in front of your mech suit and you feel the urge to just rip it body out of the said suit and crush it in your fist ahh the beauty of it all the gore there is a kiss
please at least include that fight scene in the base attack i know its going to happen and i would find it so beatifully goretastic i may cry and also dont forget about the bridge scene in exalts mission
in fact if i had to guess let there be continued power focus why because the simple gore of it all is just so beautiful in that its beauty o and dont forget about the fun of smashing the sectopods with said upgraded fist attachment the amount of gore is just beatifully realistic and the destruction is just sexy to me why beautiful
then again im guessing your playing this in the sight that they had the highest technology and yet did not quite have the full onslaught of diffirent aliens inside of itself so lets see if twilight can escape the creatins in side of itself and yet still live through it all the beauty of it all is beautiful
More please! :)
I'm surprised Twi hasn't given them a teleport-surprise. I hope you continue this!
5841296
Alien containment nullifies psionics. Otherwise it'd be rather useless.
6189004 It's maaaaaaaaaaaaagic.
6189004
True.
I can't wait for X-Com 2.
its
led
"I am I." would be the correct form...but I don't know if the mind thinking it knows that.
its
So uh what about food or water? Or he'll a bathroom. Overthinking but really it been hours
made
Twilight meeting the actually hostile aliens is a terrified conclusion to the tests coming.
Damn... Who do they got captured? I rather have the humans as my captors than the agressive and moral free aliens...
It is me?