Leading up to the release of Psion Alpha, thirteen character profiles were posted on the author's blog, each detailing a different minor or supporting character from the Psion books. Now you can read them all here. There are no spoilers of Psion Alpha, but beware if you have not read Gamma or Delta.
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Character Profiles for Count Down:
1. Vitória Silva was born on January 9, 2072 in Rio de Janeiro. Her parents called her “Tori.” Tori loved volleyball and football, and was an avid fan of the Botafogo Football club based in Rio. She dyed her black hair half-white when Botafogo won the Campeonato Carioca in 2085. The oldest of three children, Tori’s favorite game to play with her two little brothers, Hector and Raul, was Houdini. They tied each other up and raced to see who could get untied first. Tori was an average student in general, but excelled at football as a keeper. Many coaches in her league saw her as someone with enormous potential.
Walking home from football practice January 3, 2086, Tori and her friends were crossing the street when a car ran a red light and slammed into Tori. Tori, however, was uninjured. Another driver witnessed the incident and phoned a special hotline, alerting the government of the strange occurrence. That same evening, Tori was picked up from her home and taken in for questioning. Her parents were too scared to fight against the men in suits who took her away. She was thirteen at the time of her capture, and turned fourteen after seven days of captivity. When Sammy was captured by the Aegis, he was placed in her cell. By this time, she had grown so distrustful of everyone that she refused to talk to him. She was held for a total of eighteen days before she broke and was taken to another facility for extraction.
*****
2. In 2045 Calven Bredenkamp was born six months premature. Doctors gave him less than ten percent chance of surviving due to his weak heart. Fortunately, Calven was a fighter. As his health steadily improved, he was released from the hospital to his parents, Freddy and Marnie. Freddy, a professional rugby player, raised his son to love the sport. Calven played rugby through the university level. His prospects at playing the sport professionally were high until a physical showed something doctors had missed for years: a potentially fatal heart condition. Heeding the counsel of medical professionals Calven switched gears and went into coaching. It was through community outreach programs that his eyes were opened to the dire need his city, Johannesburg, had for foster parents. After lengthy discussions with his wife, Calven enrolled his family in one of the foster programs. Six months later, they were asked to accept a foster child in their home. When Calven found out about Sammy’s situation, he learned all he could about the boy. Through his research, he decided to study chess because it was Sammy’s favorite hobby.
Calven was Sammy’s foster father for thirty-two days. He never was able to beat Sammy in a game of chess, though he tried mightily. Calven liked Sammy. He found Sammy to be an exceptionally bright and well-behaved young man. The thought even crossed Calven’s mind that adoption was something he might do if their relationship continued to blossom. Unfortunately, during one of their chess matches, Calven suffered a massive stroke and died nearly instantly. Sammy, so shocked by what he’d witnessed, ran from the house without even reporting the death to Calven’s wife.
*****
3. Born in Sao Paulo, Floyd Hernandes was the son of a renowned surgeon and her husband, a surgical technician. Floyd lost his mother during the Scourge and for years planned on following her footsteps by going to medical school. However, Floyd’s father pressed his son to be sure he was pursuing his education for the right reasons. With some embarrassment, Floyd revealed to his father that he’d had an interest in butchering. After convincing his father that he was indeed serious about his ambition, Paul Hernandes helped his son find a job in a butcher shop for a year. Twelve months later, Floyd was certain he’d found the right profession. His father agreed to help Floyd start a shop in Sao Paulo using some of the money inherited from his mother’s death.
Two months after opening his doors for business, while staying late to complete shipping orders, a masked man entered the shop through the back and nearly strangled Floyd to death. The masked man stole all the meat and equipment from Floyd’s store. After a five-day recovery in the hospital, Floyd was released. The first thing he did on his release was permanently close his shop. Two weeks later he sold his premises and relocated to Rio, where crime rates were lower and neighborhoods safer. The first customer to walk through his doors in Rio was a woman named Karéna. They married nine months later.
Floyd never attained the level of wealth his father and mother enjoyed from their professions in the medical field, but his business stayed steady. He stood to inherit almost two million dollars upon his father’s death, which he planned to use to renovate his butcher shop, his home, and then put the rest away for retirement. Unfortunately, those dreams ended on March 16, 2086 when a woman calling herself the Queen broke into the home where the Hernandes family was staying in Sao Paulo. He watched in horror as the woman slaughtered his children like a butcher. His last thoughts were directed toward his wife, hoping she would stay strong and keep Samuel’s location a secret.
*****
4. At age 10, Strawberry Plack entered a major fashion contest. The rules stated she had to submit a photograph of herself after doing her own hair, makeup, and designing her own wardrobe. Unfortunately, the rules also stated that entrants had to be 18 or older. Three days after she sent her submission, she received notification that despite her automatic disqualification she had impressed the judges. The sponsors of the contest flew Strawberry and her mother to Paris, where Strawberry met with several designers and artists about her natural talent for fashion. The trip culminated in a scholarship offer for Strawberry to attend the top fashion-oriented secondary school in the NWG.
Elated at her good fortune, Strawberry and her mother returned to the Plack home near Killarney, Territory of Ireland, to discover that Brickert had manifested some strange powers. The whole family had to be tested for the same abilities. Strawberry dreaded the day the government people arrived at the house to test her. Secretly, she hoped she wouldn’t have the ability. While it fascinated her that Brickert had it, her dream was to go to fashion school. Having some weird superpower would complicate things.
When word came that she did indeed have the ability, Strawberry cried for an entire day. Commander Byron told her she had several months before she needed to make a decision. But Strawberry’s mind was already made up: she was not going. When Brickert left for his new school, Strawberry’s problems slowly faded away, out of sight, out of mind. Six months later, two letters arrived in the mail for her. The first informed her that she had been accepted into the Lyon Fashion and Design Secondary School on a full tuition scholarship, the other was from Brickert. She read the acceptance letter first. By the time she finished it, she’d forgotten about her brother’s letter. She remembered it a week later while doing homework at her desk. As she read the note from Brickert, tears fell onto the paper. Without a word to her parents, she got on the phone, called Commander Byron, and informed him of her decision to go to Psion Beta.
*****
5. Born in Lucknow, Territory of India, Harsh grew up a rabid fan of cricket. Part of this was due to the fact that he was born August 27, 2058, exactly 150 years after the birth of Don Bradman, considered by many to be the greatest cricket player of all time. However, by 2058, cricket was a dying sport except in India.
During a cricket match at age 10, Harsh suffered a traumatic injury to his left leg when a ball struck him above the knee. An intoxicated doctor’s misdiagnosis and a large blood clot compounded the problem, ultimately resulting in amputation at the mid-thigh. The experience had such a profound impact on Harsh that he transformed his cricket obsession into an interest in medical law.
At age 16 he chose to forego his last year of secondary school to enroll in Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He graduated with honors in three years, and finished law school at Oxford before age 23. Two years later, he was selected to handle a high profile case involving the brother of the Governor of the Territory of India. Kansagra’s brilliant work led to a great surprise. Four years after graduation, at age 27, he was selected by the Governor of the Territory of India to be the junior Senator in the New World Congress, replacing the former senator who died in office. Senator Kansagra is known for his willingness to compromise to accomplish goals, his impeccable moral character, and for once removing his false leg and brandishing it on the Senate floor to make his point during a debate on a major reform bill.
*****
6. Sarah Pretorius was struggling through her Economics major at Wits University when her best friend and roommate, Martha, recommended she do something different to inject a little excitement into her life. The next day, Sarah noticed a flier asking for auditions for a student-written play called All is Fair. Sarah auditioned for the lead role and got the part after two sessions of callbacks. Her opposite: a tall, black History-Political Science dual major named Samuel. He was a complete nerd, and when Sarah realized she had to kiss him, she almost turned down the role. The director talked her into staying, which culminated in a show which received poor to mediocre reviews, a two-year courtship, and, finally, marriage.
Sarah had never had much ambition in the career world. However, she worked in finance until Samuel finished law school, then quit the day he graduated. Six months later, she was pregnant with their first child. Unfortunately, the pregnancy lasted eight weeks before resulting in a miscarriage. After her third failed pregnancy, Sarah and Samuel visited a fertility specialist, who told them there was absolutely nothing wrong with either of them. Sure enough, he was right. Eleven months later Sarah and Samuel welcomed Sammy Berhane Jr. into the world.
Having Sammy only encouraged Sarah to try for more children. Her wish would never come true. After Sammy’s birth, Sarah experienced five more miscarriages, the final one being when Sammy was ten. The failed attempts brought on a depression so profound that Sarah thought she’d never shake it. She tried therapy, medication, holistic remedies, and anything else she could find in books and articles. The results varied, but nothing she did brought back her true sense of self. She felt cold and passionless toward her husband; and, whether real or imaginary, she sensed an emotional barrier between herself and Sammy Jr.
Things changed when, at the mall, she bumped into her old friend and roommate, Martha. During lunch, Sarah opened up to her friend about her troubles. Martha pushed her solution across the table in the form of a medicine bottle. The way Martha explained it, the pills were special anti-depressants that could only be purchased from CAG pharmaceutical companies, and were almost impossible to obtain except from black market sellers. In order to protect the sellers’ anonymity, Martha suggested that Sarah purchase the pills from her if they worked. Sarah thought of her son, Sammy, and how difficult she found it to connect with him lately. She thought of her husband, and how distant he said she sometimes seemed. Desperate to pull out of her months-long funk, Sarah accepted the pills, not knowing they were actually powerfully addictive amphetamines.
*****
7. Martin Trector was the youngest of eleven children. His strictly religious mother and father were 46 and 54, respectively, when he was born. His next oldest sibling was over seven years his elder. Martin was a stellar student in his first six years of public school. But in the first month of his seventh year, his 19-year-old brother died in a plane crash en route to a remote area of Central America. After the tragedy, Martin’s grades took a turn for the worse. At thirteen, his life was consumed by drugs and parties. During a particularly wild rave, Martin, high on a cocktail of drugs, jumped from a hotel balcony ten stories up and survived with a shattered arm, seven busted ribs, and a severe concussion.
Commander Byron arrived at the hospital two days later with Dr. Rosmir to perform tests on Martin. Tests showed that of all the Trectors, only Martin had Anomaly Fourteen. It was a rare occurrence for it to be found in just one member of such a large family. His parents refused to believe Byron when he told them about the Psion abilities. To them, Martin’s survival was an act of God, a second chance at life. Even after multiple demonstrations of Anomaly Fourteen, the Trectors refused to believe that what they saw was real. Fortunately, Martin was able to demonstrate a blast with his good arm despite having no training or practice.
Ultimately, Martin convinced his parents to let him go to Capitol Island. He confessed to them his drug use, the partying, and how he felt like they were too old to be bothered with raising him. He promised his parents that if they let him train, he’d clean up his act and make the necessary changes in his life. Byron refused to let Martin attend Psion Beta headquarters until he went 6 months without using any illegal substances. 6 months later, Martin joined the next class of recruits and began training.
Three months after Martin’s death in Rio de Janeiro in November of 2085, his older sister gave birth to identical twin boys. She named them Martin and Marty. Dr. Rosmir, on Byron’s request, flew to Australia to test the babies. Martin’s sister gave her permission against her husband’s wishes. Both infants tested positive for Anomaly Fourteen.
*****
8. On October 3, 2050 Marvin Berhane introduced his young son, Samuel, to the game of chess. Marvin held no special regard for the game, but Samuel took to it instantly. The next day, Samuel spent three hours online watching videos and lectures on chess strategy. His father found it amusing and paid it no mind. But when the behavior continued day after day, Marvin took notice. He enrolled Samuel in a local chess club and encouraged him to pursue his passion to its fullest extent. Samuel’s after-school hobby quickly transformed into chess matches against older opponents. His first breakthrough came in 2060, at age 15, when he won the territorial championship in the youth category. The victory did not satisfy him. He only competed against six kids from the entire territory. The next year, at age sixteen, he entered the adult competition and finished fourth. He finished third the next year. In his third year of competition at the territorial adult level, Samuel finally won, defeating the same person who’d knocked him out in the semifinals the two previous years. Pressure mounted on Samuel to enter the World Junior or World Senior Championships and pursue the rank of Grandmaster, but he declined, choosing instead to focus on college applications.
Samuel enrolled at University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and started at the age of 17. He listed his major as History with an emphasis in 21st Century Events, but found it so easy that he added Political Science as a second major. On a whim, Samuel decided to audition for a new play called All is Fair. Very few men showed up for the audition, leading to Samuel’s selection as the male lead opposite a woman he’d never met, Sarah Pretorius. Samuel was attracted to her the moment he saw her audition and was thrilled to see her get the part opposite him, especially knowing that the script called for three kissing scenes. The day they married was the second happiest day of his life. The first was the day Samuel Jr. was born.
After graduation from Wits and then law school, Samuel took a job in the office of the Director of Public Prosecution in Johannesburg. His superiors quickly identified him as a rising star with his near-perfect success rate at prosecuting criminals. By age 30, he was offered the job as director of the office when the former director was caught having an affair with his administrative assistant. Unfortunately, Samuel’s success made him enemies with both criminals and lawyers.
*****
9. Born in Tehran, capitol of the Territory of the Islamic States, Cala was raised a strict Ahmadiyya Muslim. Her parents moved from Tehran to Riyadh when she was 6. Her father was the CEO of a large company specializing in exotic footwear. Her mother worked at home. Cala and her three much younger siblings attended private schools.
Cala, while not athletically gifted, enjoyed sports, particularly badminton and bowling. Unlike most Psions who discover their powers in dramatic fashion, Cala’s moment occurred when she was practicing badminton alone in the gym of her community center. As a machine shot badminton shuttlecocks to her, she tripped and her racket flew from her hand. Cala immediately knew something strange and important had happened. With a few minutes of practice, she was able to duplicate the effort at will, shooting her racket across the room like a bullet. When she got home, she showed her parents.
They freaked.
Cala spent the next twenty-nine hours in a hospital undergoing tests until Commander Byron and Dr. Rosmir introduced themselves and offered Cala a spot at Psion Beta headquarters. Her parents, deeply set against violence in all forms, strongly discouraged her from joining. Cala wasn’t sure she wanted to go either. Despite all Byron’s efforts, he could not persuade her to join. Finally, he gave her a month to make her decision and left Riyadh. A month went by and Cala did not contact the commander. She considered the matter over. Then, to her surprise, Commander Byron arrived at her house on the first day of the next month. He entered her home without speaking, opened his hand, and used his Psion abilities to levitate a large green pill. Cala knew what the pill was and what it meant. She took the pill, held it for several seconds, and handed it back.
*****
10. At her own fifth birthday party, Asaki Yoshiharu collapsed on the side of a swimming pool at her home in Hiroshima, Japan. An ambulance rushed her to the hospital where she was put through a series of tests. The results were not good. Asaki was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called ependymoma, infecting the tissue in the 4th ventricle of her brain. Unfortunately the cancer had spread to her spine and, from there, her internal organs. Doctors gave her a 33% chance of surviving the treatment to remove the cancer.
Asaki’s parents were wealthy enough to afford the best oncologists available. She recovered remarkably well. After the surgery, doctors informed her parents that they had found anomalous tissues around Asaki’s spinal cord. According to the law, they were required to contact a man named Xiao Wu with a summary of their findings. Less than a week later, Commander Byron visited the Yoshiharu family at the hospital.
Asaki waited over eight years before attending Psion Beta headquarters, the longest waiting time of any Psion with no relations to a previously discovered Alpha or Beta. She entered Psion Beta at age 14. Asaki never felt as athletically gifted or talented as many of the other Betas. She struggled in the sims and in the Arena. She was more interested in the social aspects of life at headquarters. Through her work with Commander Byron, Asaki started to explore alternate career paths post-graduation. She developed an interest in public relations and the recruiting process. Byron encouraged her to explore these options and discuss them with her parents. In the summer of 2086, Asaki became very ill and was taken to NWGMC where tests showed her cancer had returned. On the day the CAG attacked Capitol Island, Asaki was at NWGMC for more testing.
*****
11. William Marnyo was born in Kutomwony, Kenya in 2020. William’s father died of an AIDS-related illness six months before William’s birth. Marnyo’s mother participated in a test program to eradicate neonatal HIV, which successfully cured Marnyo of the disease, but was unable to do anything for her. She did before William turned 2. Each year, an orphanage in Mombasa accepted three children from William’s area into its custody. William was interviewed by the nuns running the orphanage. He impressed them enough to give him a spot.
At the age of 4, he began school. While William excelled at reading, writing, and the arts, he struggled with math and science. One teacher enjoyed making William stand on his desk wearing a jester’s hat while reciting his multiplication tables. His nickname through age 14 was “Mwigizaji Marnyo” among his peers. Mwigizaji is the Swahili word for “clown.” The day he began grade nine, one of William’s teachers sat him down and asked him why someone so bright received such poor scores. William didn’t know how to answer her. No one had ever called him “bright.” But she changed his life.
William steadily improved his academic performance and graduated number five in his senior class. He applied to college at the University of Southern California and graduated number five again, running track and cross country all four years, wearing the number 5 in each race. After USC, William went to law school in Tokyo and went on to work for a prestigious firm in Athens. At his ten year reunion, William ran into his old teacher from grade nine—the one who had called him “bright.” He thanked her for turning his life around and told her about all the things he’d accomplished because of her influence. The teacher smiled and nodded and then interrupted him to ask what William was doing to help others. It shamed him that he had no good answer.
When he returned home to Athens, William quit his job at the firm and returned him to Kenya to run for mayor of the city of Mombasa. After four years as mayor, he ran in the territorial gubernatorial race and won. Eight years later, he ran for the territory’s open senate seat, defeating a three term incumbent. At every level of office, William fought for fair health care reform, increased educational standards, and government accountability. At age 54, William Marnyo was asked to serve as running mate to Hitachi Mashimoto in his bid for NWG President. Marnyo accepted, served two terms as NWG Vice President, and then ran for the office in 2079. He won in a landslide and took office in 2080.
*****
12. Raised by two mothers on a ranch in rural Oklahoma, Anna was one of the last American recruits to join Psion Beta before the Schism in 2063. Her older brother, Adam, joined Psion Beta three years before her. Anna was known throughout Beta as “the crazy b****” because she didn’t want friends, didn’t want help, and refused to lose at anything. Fueled by a fiery competitive spirit, she aspired to be top in all rankings, and nearly achieved her goal. (In Anna’s time at Beta, Byron ranked students in twelve categories. Anna was #1 in ten of them, and in the top 3 in the other two.) More than once, she made teammates (males and females) cry if she lost as honcho.
By the time she graduated to Psion Alpha, Anna’s fierce reputation had spread among the squadron honchos. No one wanted her on their team. Fortunately, Commanders Byron and Havelbert spoke with Nikita Gonzales, honcho of Oscar Squadron. Nikita took Anna under her wing and taught her what it meant to be an effective leader. Under Nikita’s guidance, Anna blossomed into a capable soldier and lieutenant. This led to her appointment as one of the youngest squadron leaders in Alpha. At age thirty-two, she was given the helm of Charlie Squadron.
Prior to his joining Charlie Squadron, Anna was romantically involved with Justice Juraschek, a member of Tensai Alpha. On her request, they kept the relationship discreet. When Justice was assigned to her team, Anna immediately ended the relationship. Justice, however, has relentlessly pursued her despite her rebuffs. Despite knowing that a disclosure of their relationship would result in his removal from her team, Anna has refused to do so because she values Justice’s contributions to Charlie Squadron.
*****
13. Rulé Prado couldn’t wait to be born. He arrived five weeks early and was a handful from the start. Rulé had colic for the first ten months of life, a condition not uncommon among Anomaly Fifteens. The incessant screaming and crying nearly drove his parents apart. Nothing they did could stop the noise that filled the house for hours a day. Because of his extreme condition, Rulé’s vocal cords were damaged, giving him a hoarse voice throughout most of his childhood. His grandfather said he sounded like a toad, and started to call him “Sapo.”
The curse of Toad’s Anomaly Fifteen wasn’t limited to baby colic. In kindergarten, Toad wreaked havoc on the classroom. He couldn’t sit still, he didn’t want to pay attention, and being obedient seemed unimportant to him. During his first three years of school, he gave a girl an shockingly short haircut, carved his initials on every desk in the room, and started three girl-hater clubs. His parents breathed sighs of relief when their next two children were girls. They named the first daughter Vitoria Serenity and the younger girl Fabiana Tranquility.
Through experience, Toad’s parents learned that exercise and athletics was the only way to curb Toad’s wildness. They enrolled him in football, baseball, and basketball to keep him involved year-round. Toad excelled in football as a striker and forward. He played excellent defense in basketball and led his baseball league in stolen bases and in-the-park home runs. Despite his smaller frame, coaches continually told his parents how impressed they were with his natural athletic ability and encouraged them to put him in is as many different sports as they could find. This led to his parents’ decision to get him involved in archery and racing at summer camp.
Toad went to the camp every year with his friend, Braden. They competed in everything, and took great pleasure in finding more ways to compete, even with silly things like brushing teeth the fastest or falling asleep first. Their friendship had one flaw, however, Braden lost far more than he won. Sometimes it drove him batty. Camp was no different. Toad won archery even though he’d never picked up a bow prior to camp. He won the obstacle course, crushing the course’s best time. And on it went. Braden decided to play a joke on Toad by calling the number on all the government safety signs about seeing something suspicious. He figured people would show up, interview Toad and the camp counselors, find out it was all a prank, and then leave. Afterward, Braden would tell Toad that it had been he, Braden, who had called. Then they’d have a great laugh about it.
Unfortunately, after Braden called the number, he never saw Toad again.
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Character Profiles for Count Down:
1. Vitória Silva was born on January 9, 2072 in Rio de Janeiro. Her parents called her “Tori.” Tori loved volleyball and football, and was an avid fan of the Botafogo Football club based in Rio. She dyed her black hair half-white when Botafogo won the Campeonato Carioca in 2085. The oldest of three children, Tori’s favorite game to play with her two little brothers, Hector and Raul, was Houdini. They tied each other up and raced to see who could get untied first. Tori was an average student in general, but excelled at football as a keeper. Many coaches in her league saw her as someone with enormous potential.
Walking home from football practice January 3, 2086, Tori and her friends were crossing the street when a car ran a red light and slammed into Tori. Tori, however, was uninjured. Another driver witnessed the incident and phoned a special hotline, alerting the government of the strange occurrence. That same evening, Tori was picked up from her home and taken in for questioning. Her parents were too scared to fight against the men in suits who took her away. She was thirteen at the time of her capture, and turned fourteen after seven days of captivity. When Sammy was captured by the Aegis, he was placed in her cell. By this time, she had grown so distrustful of everyone that she refused to talk to him. She was held for a total of eighteen days before she broke and was taken to another facility for extraction.
*****
2. In 2045 Calven Bredenkamp was born six months premature. Doctors gave him less than ten percent chance of surviving due to his weak heart. Fortunately, Calven was a fighter. As his health steadily improved, he was released from the hospital to his parents, Freddy and Marnie. Freddy, a professional rugby player, raised his son to love the sport. Calven played rugby through the university level. His prospects at playing the sport professionally were high until a physical showed something doctors had missed for years: a potentially fatal heart condition. Heeding the counsel of medical professionals Calven switched gears and went into coaching. It was through community outreach programs that his eyes were opened to the dire need his city, Johannesburg, had for foster parents. After lengthy discussions with his wife, Calven enrolled his family in one of the foster programs. Six months later, they were asked to accept a foster child in their home. When Calven found out about Sammy’s situation, he learned all he could about the boy. Through his research, he decided to study chess because it was Sammy’s favorite hobby.
Calven was Sammy’s foster father for thirty-two days. He never was able to beat Sammy in a game of chess, though he tried mightily. Calven liked Sammy. He found Sammy to be an exceptionally bright and well-behaved young man. The thought even crossed Calven’s mind that adoption was something he might do if their relationship continued to blossom. Unfortunately, during one of their chess matches, Calven suffered a massive stroke and died nearly instantly. Sammy, so shocked by what he’d witnessed, ran from the house without even reporting the death to Calven’s wife.
*****
3. Born in Sao Paulo, Floyd Hernandes was the son of a renowned surgeon and her husband, a surgical technician. Floyd lost his mother during the Scourge and for years planned on following her footsteps by going to medical school. However, Floyd’s father pressed his son to be sure he was pursuing his education for the right reasons. With some embarrassment, Floyd revealed to his father that he’d had an interest in butchering. After convincing his father that he was indeed serious about his ambition, Paul Hernandes helped his son find a job in a butcher shop for a year. Twelve months later, Floyd was certain he’d found the right profession. His father agreed to help Floyd start a shop in Sao Paulo using some of the money inherited from his mother’s death.
Two months after opening his doors for business, while staying late to complete shipping orders, a masked man entered the shop through the back and nearly strangled Floyd to death. The masked man stole all the meat and equipment from Floyd’s store. After a five-day recovery in the hospital, Floyd was released. The first thing he did on his release was permanently close his shop. Two weeks later he sold his premises and relocated to Rio, where crime rates were lower and neighborhoods safer. The first customer to walk through his doors in Rio was a woman named Karéna. They married nine months later.
Floyd never attained the level of wealth his father and mother enjoyed from their professions in the medical field, but his business stayed steady. He stood to inherit almost two million dollars upon his father’s death, which he planned to use to renovate his butcher shop, his home, and then put the rest away for retirement. Unfortunately, those dreams ended on March 16, 2086 when a woman calling herself the Queen broke into the home where the Hernandes family was staying in Sao Paulo. He watched in horror as the woman slaughtered his children like a butcher. His last thoughts were directed toward his wife, hoping she would stay strong and keep Samuel’s location a secret.
*****
4. At age 10, Strawberry Plack entered a major fashion contest. The rules stated she had to submit a photograph of herself after doing her own hair, makeup, and designing her own wardrobe. Unfortunately, the rules also stated that entrants had to be 18 or older. Three days after she sent her submission, she received notification that despite her automatic disqualification she had impressed the judges. The sponsors of the contest flew Strawberry and her mother to Paris, where Strawberry met with several designers and artists about her natural talent for fashion. The trip culminated in a scholarship offer for Strawberry to attend the top fashion-oriented secondary school in the NWG.
Elated at her good fortune, Strawberry and her mother returned to the Plack home near Killarney, Territory of Ireland, to discover that Brickert had manifested some strange powers. The whole family had to be tested for the same abilities. Strawberry dreaded the day the government people arrived at the house to test her. Secretly, she hoped she wouldn’t have the ability. While it fascinated her that Brickert had it, her dream was to go to fashion school. Having some weird superpower would complicate things.
When word came that she did indeed have the ability, Strawberry cried for an entire day. Commander Byron told her she had several months before she needed to make a decision. But Strawberry’s mind was already made up: she was not going. When Brickert left for his new school, Strawberry’s problems slowly faded away, out of sight, out of mind. Six months later, two letters arrived in the mail for her. The first informed her that she had been accepted into the Lyon Fashion and Design Secondary School on a full tuition scholarship, the other was from Brickert. She read the acceptance letter first. By the time she finished it, she’d forgotten about her brother’s letter. She remembered it a week later while doing homework at her desk. As she read the note from Brickert, tears fell onto the paper. Without a word to her parents, she got on the phone, called Commander Byron, and informed him of her decision to go to Psion Beta.
*****
5. Born in Lucknow, Territory of India, Harsh grew up a rabid fan of cricket. Part of this was due to the fact that he was born August 27, 2058, exactly 150 years after the birth of Don Bradman, considered by many to be the greatest cricket player of all time. However, by 2058, cricket was a dying sport except in India.
During a cricket match at age 10, Harsh suffered a traumatic injury to his left leg when a ball struck him above the knee. An intoxicated doctor’s misdiagnosis and a large blood clot compounded the problem, ultimately resulting in amputation at the mid-thigh. The experience had such a profound impact on Harsh that he transformed his cricket obsession into an interest in medical law.
At age 16 he chose to forego his last year of secondary school to enroll in Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He graduated with honors in three years, and finished law school at Oxford before age 23. Two years later, he was selected to handle a high profile case involving the brother of the Governor of the Territory of India. Kansagra’s brilliant work led to a great surprise. Four years after graduation, at age 27, he was selected by the Governor of the Territory of India to be the junior Senator in the New World Congress, replacing the former senator who died in office. Senator Kansagra is known for his willingness to compromise to accomplish goals, his impeccable moral character, and for once removing his false leg and brandishing it on the Senate floor to make his point during a debate on a major reform bill.
*****
6. Sarah Pretorius was struggling through her Economics major at Wits University when her best friend and roommate, Martha, recommended she do something different to inject a little excitement into her life. The next day, Sarah noticed a flier asking for auditions for a student-written play called All is Fair. Sarah auditioned for the lead role and got the part after two sessions of callbacks. Her opposite: a tall, black History-Political Science dual major named Samuel. He was a complete nerd, and when Sarah realized she had to kiss him, she almost turned down the role. The director talked her into staying, which culminated in a show which received poor to mediocre reviews, a two-year courtship, and, finally, marriage.
Sarah had never had much ambition in the career world. However, she worked in finance until Samuel finished law school, then quit the day he graduated. Six months later, she was pregnant with their first child. Unfortunately, the pregnancy lasted eight weeks before resulting in a miscarriage. After her third failed pregnancy, Sarah and Samuel visited a fertility specialist, who told them there was absolutely nothing wrong with either of them. Sure enough, he was right. Eleven months later Sarah and Samuel welcomed Sammy Berhane Jr. into the world.
Having Sammy only encouraged Sarah to try for more children. Her wish would never come true. After Sammy’s birth, Sarah experienced five more miscarriages, the final one being when Sammy was ten. The failed attempts brought on a depression so profound that Sarah thought she’d never shake it. She tried therapy, medication, holistic remedies, and anything else she could find in books and articles. The results varied, but nothing she did brought back her true sense of self. She felt cold and passionless toward her husband; and, whether real or imaginary, she sensed an emotional barrier between herself and Sammy Jr.
Things changed when, at the mall, she bumped into her old friend and roommate, Martha. During lunch, Sarah opened up to her friend about her troubles. Martha pushed her solution across the table in the form of a medicine bottle. The way Martha explained it, the pills were special anti-depressants that could only be purchased from CAG pharmaceutical companies, and were almost impossible to obtain except from black market sellers. In order to protect the sellers’ anonymity, Martha suggested that Sarah purchase the pills from her if they worked. Sarah thought of her son, Sammy, and how difficult she found it to connect with him lately. She thought of her husband, and how distant he said she sometimes seemed. Desperate to pull out of her months-long funk, Sarah accepted the pills, not knowing they were actually powerfully addictive amphetamines.
*****
7. Martin Trector was the youngest of eleven children. His strictly religious mother and father were 46 and 54, respectively, when he was born. His next oldest sibling was over seven years his elder. Martin was a stellar student in his first six years of public school. But in the first month of his seventh year, his 19-year-old brother died in a plane crash en route to a remote area of Central America. After the tragedy, Martin’s grades took a turn for the worse. At thirteen, his life was consumed by drugs and parties. During a particularly wild rave, Martin, high on a cocktail of drugs, jumped from a hotel balcony ten stories up and survived with a shattered arm, seven busted ribs, and a severe concussion.
Commander Byron arrived at the hospital two days later with Dr. Rosmir to perform tests on Martin. Tests showed that of all the Trectors, only Martin had Anomaly Fourteen. It was a rare occurrence for it to be found in just one member of such a large family. His parents refused to believe Byron when he told them about the Psion abilities. To them, Martin’s survival was an act of God, a second chance at life. Even after multiple demonstrations of Anomaly Fourteen, the Trectors refused to believe that what they saw was real. Fortunately, Martin was able to demonstrate a blast with his good arm despite having no training or practice.
Ultimately, Martin convinced his parents to let him go to Capitol Island. He confessed to them his drug use, the partying, and how he felt like they were too old to be bothered with raising him. He promised his parents that if they let him train, he’d clean up his act and make the necessary changes in his life. Byron refused to let Martin attend Psion Beta headquarters until he went 6 months without using any illegal substances. 6 months later, Martin joined the next class of recruits and began training.
Three months after Martin’s death in Rio de Janeiro in November of 2085, his older sister gave birth to identical twin boys. She named them Martin and Marty. Dr. Rosmir, on Byron’s request, flew to Australia to test the babies. Martin’s sister gave her permission against her husband’s wishes. Both infants tested positive for Anomaly Fourteen.
*****
8. On October 3, 2050 Marvin Berhane introduced his young son, Samuel, to the game of chess. Marvin held no special regard for the game, but Samuel took to it instantly. The next day, Samuel spent three hours online watching videos and lectures on chess strategy. His father found it amusing and paid it no mind. But when the behavior continued day after day, Marvin took notice. He enrolled Samuel in a local chess club and encouraged him to pursue his passion to its fullest extent. Samuel’s after-school hobby quickly transformed into chess matches against older opponents. His first breakthrough came in 2060, at age 15, when he won the territorial championship in the youth category. The victory did not satisfy him. He only competed against six kids from the entire territory. The next year, at age sixteen, he entered the adult competition and finished fourth. He finished third the next year. In his third year of competition at the territorial adult level, Samuel finally won, defeating the same person who’d knocked him out in the semifinals the two previous years. Pressure mounted on Samuel to enter the World Junior or World Senior Championships and pursue the rank of Grandmaster, but he declined, choosing instead to focus on college applications.
Samuel enrolled at University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and started at the age of 17. He listed his major as History with an emphasis in 21st Century Events, but found it so easy that he added Political Science as a second major. On a whim, Samuel decided to audition for a new play called All is Fair. Very few men showed up for the audition, leading to Samuel’s selection as the male lead opposite a woman he’d never met, Sarah Pretorius. Samuel was attracted to her the moment he saw her audition and was thrilled to see her get the part opposite him, especially knowing that the script called for three kissing scenes. The day they married was the second happiest day of his life. The first was the day Samuel Jr. was born.
After graduation from Wits and then law school, Samuel took a job in the office of the Director of Public Prosecution in Johannesburg. His superiors quickly identified him as a rising star with his near-perfect success rate at prosecuting criminals. By age 30, he was offered the job as director of the office when the former director was caught having an affair with his administrative assistant. Unfortunately, Samuel’s success made him enemies with both criminals and lawyers.
*****
9. Born in Tehran, capitol of the Territory of the Islamic States, Cala was raised a strict Ahmadiyya Muslim. Her parents moved from Tehran to Riyadh when she was 6. Her father was the CEO of a large company specializing in exotic footwear. Her mother worked at home. Cala and her three much younger siblings attended private schools.
Cala, while not athletically gifted, enjoyed sports, particularly badminton and bowling. Unlike most Psions who discover their powers in dramatic fashion, Cala’s moment occurred when she was practicing badminton alone in the gym of her community center. As a machine shot badminton shuttlecocks to her, she tripped and her racket flew from her hand. Cala immediately knew something strange and important had happened. With a few minutes of practice, she was able to duplicate the effort at will, shooting her racket across the room like a bullet. When she got home, she showed her parents.
They freaked.
Cala spent the next twenty-nine hours in a hospital undergoing tests until Commander Byron and Dr. Rosmir introduced themselves and offered Cala a spot at Psion Beta headquarters. Her parents, deeply set against violence in all forms, strongly discouraged her from joining. Cala wasn’t sure she wanted to go either. Despite all Byron’s efforts, he could not persuade her to join. Finally, he gave her a month to make her decision and left Riyadh. A month went by and Cala did not contact the commander. She considered the matter over. Then, to her surprise, Commander Byron arrived at her house on the first day of the next month. He entered her home without speaking, opened his hand, and used his Psion abilities to levitate a large green pill. Cala knew what the pill was and what it meant. She took the pill, held it for several seconds, and handed it back.
*****
10. At her own fifth birthday party, Asaki Yoshiharu collapsed on the side of a swimming pool at her home in Hiroshima, Japan. An ambulance rushed her to the hospital where she was put through a series of tests. The results were not good. Asaki was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called ependymoma, infecting the tissue in the 4th ventricle of her brain. Unfortunately the cancer had spread to her spine and, from there, her internal organs. Doctors gave her a 33% chance of surviving the treatment to remove the cancer.
Asaki’s parents were wealthy enough to afford the best oncologists available. She recovered remarkably well. After the surgery, doctors informed her parents that they had found anomalous tissues around Asaki’s spinal cord. According to the law, they were required to contact a man named Xiao Wu with a summary of their findings. Less than a week later, Commander Byron visited the Yoshiharu family at the hospital.
Asaki waited over eight years before attending Psion Beta headquarters, the longest waiting time of any Psion with no relations to a previously discovered Alpha or Beta. She entered Psion Beta at age 14. Asaki never felt as athletically gifted or talented as many of the other Betas. She struggled in the sims and in the Arena. She was more interested in the social aspects of life at headquarters. Through her work with Commander Byron, Asaki started to explore alternate career paths post-graduation. She developed an interest in public relations and the recruiting process. Byron encouraged her to explore these options and discuss them with her parents. In the summer of 2086, Asaki became very ill and was taken to NWGMC where tests showed her cancer had returned. On the day the CAG attacked Capitol Island, Asaki was at NWGMC for more testing.
*****
11. William Marnyo was born in Kutomwony, Kenya in 2020. William’s father died of an AIDS-related illness six months before William’s birth. Marnyo’s mother participated in a test program to eradicate neonatal HIV, which successfully cured Marnyo of the disease, but was unable to do anything for her. She did before William turned 2. Each year, an orphanage in Mombasa accepted three children from William’s area into its custody. William was interviewed by the nuns running the orphanage. He impressed them enough to give him a spot.
At the age of 4, he began school. While William excelled at reading, writing, and the arts, he struggled with math and science. One teacher enjoyed making William stand on his desk wearing a jester’s hat while reciting his multiplication tables. His nickname through age 14 was “Mwigizaji Marnyo” among his peers. Mwigizaji is the Swahili word for “clown.” The day he began grade nine, one of William’s teachers sat him down and asked him why someone so bright received such poor scores. William didn’t know how to answer her. No one had ever called him “bright.” But she changed his life.
William steadily improved his academic performance and graduated number five in his senior class. He applied to college at the University of Southern California and graduated number five again, running track and cross country all four years, wearing the number 5 in each race. After USC, William went to law school in Tokyo and went on to work for a prestigious firm in Athens. At his ten year reunion, William ran into his old teacher from grade nine—the one who had called him “bright.” He thanked her for turning his life around and told her about all the things he’d accomplished because of her influence. The teacher smiled and nodded and then interrupted him to ask what William was doing to help others. It shamed him that he had no good answer.
When he returned home to Athens, William quit his job at the firm and returned him to Kenya to run for mayor of the city of Mombasa. After four years as mayor, he ran in the territorial gubernatorial race and won. Eight years later, he ran for the territory’s open senate seat, defeating a three term incumbent. At every level of office, William fought for fair health care reform, increased educational standards, and government accountability. At age 54, William Marnyo was asked to serve as running mate to Hitachi Mashimoto in his bid for NWG President. Marnyo accepted, served two terms as NWG Vice President, and then ran for the office in 2079. He won in a landslide and took office in 2080.
*****
12. Raised by two mothers on a ranch in rural Oklahoma, Anna was one of the last American recruits to join Psion Beta before the Schism in 2063. Her older brother, Adam, joined Psion Beta three years before her. Anna was known throughout Beta as “the crazy b****” because she didn’t want friends, didn’t want help, and refused to lose at anything. Fueled by a fiery competitive spirit, she aspired to be top in all rankings, and nearly achieved her goal. (In Anna’s time at Beta, Byron ranked students in twelve categories. Anna was #1 in ten of them, and in the top 3 in the other two.) More than once, she made teammates (males and females) cry if she lost as honcho.
By the time she graduated to Psion Alpha, Anna’s fierce reputation had spread among the squadron honchos. No one wanted her on their team. Fortunately, Commanders Byron and Havelbert spoke with Nikita Gonzales, honcho of Oscar Squadron. Nikita took Anna under her wing and taught her what it meant to be an effective leader. Under Nikita’s guidance, Anna blossomed into a capable soldier and lieutenant. This led to her appointment as one of the youngest squadron leaders in Alpha. At age thirty-two, she was given the helm of Charlie Squadron.
Prior to his joining Charlie Squadron, Anna was romantically involved with Justice Juraschek, a member of Tensai Alpha. On her request, they kept the relationship discreet. When Justice was assigned to her team, Anna immediately ended the relationship. Justice, however, has relentlessly pursued her despite her rebuffs. Despite knowing that a disclosure of their relationship would result in his removal from her team, Anna has refused to do so because she values Justice’s contributions to Charlie Squadron.
*****
13. Rulé Prado couldn’t wait to be born. He arrived five weeks early and was a handful from the start. Rulé had colic for the first ten months of life, a condition not uncommon among Anomaly Fifteens. The incessant screaming and crying nearly drove his parents apart. Nothing they did could stop the noise that filled the house for hours a day. Because of his extreme condition, Rulé’s vocal cords were damaged, giving him a hoarse voice throughout most of his childhood. His grandfather said he sounded like a toad, and started to call him “Sapo.”
The curse of Toad’s Anomaly Fifteen wasn’t limited to baby colic. In kindergarten, Toad wreaked havoc on the classroom. He couldn’t sit still, he didn’t want to pay attention, and being obedient seemed unimportant to him. During his first three years of school, he gave a girl an shockingly short haircut, carved his initials on every desk in the room, and started three girl-hater clubs. His parents breathed sighs of relief when their next two children were girls. They named the first daughter Vitoria Serenity and the younger girl Fabiana Tranquility.
Through experience, Toad’s parents learned that exercise and athletics was the only way to curb Toad’s wildness. They enrolled him in football, baseball, and basketball to keep him involved year-round. Toad excelled in football as a striker and forward. He played excellent defense in basketball and led his baseball league in stolen bases and in-the-park home runs. Despite his smaller frame, coaches continually told his parents how impressed they were with his natural athletic ability and encouraged them to put him in is as many different sports as they could find. This led to his parents’ decision to get him involved in archery and racing at summer camp.
Toad went to the camp every year with his friend, Braden. They competed in everything, and took great pleasure in finding more ways to compete, even with silly things like brushing teeth the fastest or falling asleep first. Their friendship had one flaw, however, Braden lost far more than he won. Sometimes it drove him batty. Camp was no different. Toad won archery even though he’d never picked up a bow prior to camp. He won the obstacle course, crushing the course’s best time. And on it went. Braden decided to play a joke on Toad by calling the number on all the government safety signs about seeing something suspicious. He figured people would show up, interview Toad and the camp counselors, find out it was all a prank, and then leave. Afterward, Braden would tell Toad that it had been he, Braden, who had called. Then they’d have a great laugh about it.
Unfortunately, after Braden called the number, he never saw Toad again.
