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psions carved out a meaningful existence for
themselves.
    "I don't know, Ali. Why did you pick a
hellhole like this as the home of the psions?"
    She blinked at him several times in
annoyance. "Me? I don't recall us having much of a choice at the
time. Would you prefer if we'd taken over an inhabited planet and
brought the wrath of the Allied Confederacy upon us? This isn't the
end of our budding kingdom, Z; it's only the beginning."
    All her plans lied deep in the thorny thicket
of her mind. Through snippets of passing thoughts, he tried to
wrest the schemes brewing inside. As her confidante, they read each
other's thoughts and memories like they were their own. Their
brains had grown together and become interconnected. In doing so
her power had grown considerably, yet it left her vulnerable. She
could never block him out—only mislead him.
    "Besides, I liked the name. Superbia…sounds
about right for all of us, doesn't it? I mean, we have evolved
beyond the rest of our pedantic race."
    Zingeri's hazel eyes returned to the horizon.
"They don't see it that way."
    "Of course they don't! They think they've
killed most of us. One day…all of that is going to change. We won't
have to run and hide anymore. We'll be respected—"
    "Don't you mean feared?"
    She cursed under her breath. "We already are.
We have been since the Great Holocaust." She somberly stared down
at the floor and kicked the railing. She'd been there.
    How easy for the fool to forget an event
that occurred over 200 years ago , she thought. January 22nd,
2080. Year of the Metal Rat. It happened a few days after her 32nd
birthday. A jet carrying a powerful biochemical weapon had been
shot down over Tehran. Pure horror ensued. The destruction of the
plane scattered the noxious compound across most of Iran, killing
all of the inhabitants on contact. Having not sufficiently tested
the chemical weapon's properties, no one anticipated the fallout
would combine with water and be carried around the globe on the
wind, in the clouds, and as the rain. 75 percent of the world's
population died in agony from this secondary effect. Panic and mass
chaos gripped the world, leaving orphaned children and decimating
entire families.
    As a result of the Great Holocaust, the Earth
became virtually uninhabitable. Years prior, the nations of Earth
had splintered into three major factions: the PAU, AF, and UE. In
order to avoid extinction, they tenuously shared technology and
searched for new planets to call home.
    For Aliane it had been the end of her old
life and the beginning of a new one. She found herself amongst the
lucky few to survive the Great Holocaust and chosen to leave Earth
with her father. But the toxin changed something inside her.
People's thoughts permeated her mind with ease, and swaying them to
do her bidding took little conscious effort. It almost drove her
mad until she learned to manage her newfound abilities.
    She wasn't the only one. A small fraction of
survivors could use more of their brain than ever before. Most
formed elaborate neuropathways that granted them telepathy. Many
had a degree of conscious control over involuntary biological
functions, able to slow aging and fight off cancers. Still others
possessed telekinesis or could see the future. These people
collectively became known as psions.
    Unfortunately, these abilities didn't come
without a steep price. A neurotransmitter called gammamine
regulated their psionic potential and enabled them to function in
ways normals never could. But the human brain was never designed to
produce enough gammamine for extended use of their talents.
Obtaining it in sufficient quantities required killing normals on a
regular basis, often in brutal fashion, earning them the unsavory
moniker of mind-raper.
    She gazed across the field of tall black
grain behind their lush residence and shuddered, remembering how
much it first pained her to kill innocents in order to utilize her
extraordinary abilities. Back in those days,