THE YNGLING AND THE CIRCLE OF POWER by John Dalmas

Most of the progress in psionics during that time was with telepathy, the psionic potential seemingly most frequent in the population and most amenable to cultivation using strictly empirical means and simple biofeedback equipment. But this hardly qualified as scientific research; the explanations re­mained speculative. What it did accomplish was to make limited telepathic skills sufficiently common and well recognized that psionics became accepted as a legitimate, if crude, science. A 2072 study at Oxford University, with cooperation from a number of other universities planetwide, showed a highly significant correlation (P < 0.003) between demon­strable telepathy and family. It did not, however, clearly establish that the correlation was based on genetic inheritance and not on other family in­fluences. In a.d. 2090, a Chair of Psionics was founded at the University of Damascus, with Dr. Timur Karim Kazi as chairman. In 2094, Kazi invented the psi tuner, and during the short period ending with the Great Death of 2105, interest burgeoned. But even the psi tuner was an intuitive invention whose prin­ciples were only loosely understood. Beginning with the first reported case of the "Burning Plague," or "Great Death," on 18 July, 2105, within 15 to 20 days the human population of planet Earth was reduced from approximately 60 7.184 billion to an estimated 10 to 20 million, of which it is further thought that perhaps fewer than two million, worldwide, were still alive two years later. The evidence is compelling that mortality was not uniform worldwide. Certain genetic stocks had sub­stantially, or even much higher survival than others, though it is arguable that genetics was not the prin­cipal cause of that higher survival. On the other hand, evidence strongly suggests that persons with appreciable telepathic talent survived with much greater frequency than average, perhaps due to the linkage of a gene for plague resistance with one for telepathic sensitivity. More compelling, indeed al­most indisputable, is evidence that functional tele-paths—those who are routinely and reliably able to discern the thoughts of those around them—are far more frequent in existing terran populations than in populations before the plague. ... EIGHT The emperor's greed, like his forefathers', was for power and domination, not grandeur. Thus his palace, including its associated buildings and grounds, was rather modest by antiquity's standards for emperor's palaces. Still, it was by far the most beautiful building, amidst the most impressive set of buildings and grounds, in the empire. Occupying the top of a broad hill, it overlooked the imperial city, still growing three generations after its founding. On three sides were other hills, forested with a variety of broadleafed and coniferous tree species. And the em­peror, Songtsan Gampo, was not insensitive to nature. When he wished to leave his desk, and the reports that tended to pile up on it, he'd step out on his office bal­cony to sit in the open air and contemplate the view. It was not an ordinary balcony. Four meters deep and twelve wide, it was supported by inverted buttresses of stone, floored and furnished with elegant hardwoods, decorated in ivory and gold, and in summer green with plants. Sometimes he received a visitor there, one not brought 61 62 to be intimidated, and for whom formality was no advan­tage. Mostly these were members of the ruling race, a people whose ancestors had migrated from their high harsh land some three thousand kilometers southeast­ward. On this day he received on his balcony the master of his Circle of Power, Tenzin Geshe. He did not require that the geshe prostrate himself or even kneel; abasements were primarily for supplicants, the newly conquered, and those accused of something ill. It was enough that the geshe bow low from the waist. "What is it you wished to see me about, geshe?" "Your Magnificence may recall my telling you, some weeks past, of a man whom your Circle saw while questing." The imperial gaze did not change. "I remember." "We have felt a disturbance in the Tao, a possible portent of danger approaching from the west. It is distant yet, very distant, and hasn't the vibration of an army. It is a man, the man we saw." The eyes reflected sharpened interest. "And you say he may be dangerous to us. You had no vision this time?'

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