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the additional invasion of the extraction, but it did, at least, change things up a bit.
    It also reminded her of where all this had started. Mysteries aren’t supposed to start in blood banks. Nor are kidnappings or elevated telepathic abilities.
    The question still remained as to whether they’d found out that Jack and Jemma were likely to be more telepathic or whether they’d created that ability in the first place. Judging by their interest in her, Jemma’s best guess was the former; if they could get abilities out of anyone, it would make more sense to use one or more of their volunteers. It would be easier, certainly, if they didn’t have to kidnap people, pay guards to keep them contained, find ways to convince the subjects to try to use their abilities.
    Then again, it wasn’t as if she’d really even been able to use her abilities since coming to this facility. She’d have read in the newspaper if people stopped being able to Talk, so they had to have some sort of suppression going on.
    It had baffled her since she’d figured that out, though, why they would choose to suppress abilities they were trying to study. In addition to wondering why they were doing it, she often found herself wondering how they were limiting their telepathy.
    The sound of the door opening brought Jemma back to the present, and she saw Naomi reentering, Dr. Harris already prepared with his clipboard and tablet. After Naomi sat, he nodded, and the pointless, one-sided, silent conversation began once more.
    It couldn’t be any later than two in the afternoon, and Jemma was already waiting for the day to end.
    ***
    What to Watch
     
    Movies coming out this week include a science fiction feature, a superhero film, and a romance.
     
    There’s nothing unusual about this list, of course, but today marks the first time that every new release is without natural voice.
     
    The bigger budget movies were, of course, mostly recorded before the Event, but each chose to eliminate voice in order to better suit the current world. These movies have used silence, captioning, emulating old-fashioned silent movies, but new films currently under production promise to deliver replication of Talking, as well as more realistic depictions of current methods of communication.
     
    By stepping up and producing films that reflect us, these movie makers are boldly renouncing replacement voices, saying that it’s okay to be who we are. They’re also saying, quite clearly, that they don’t think this is just a passing phase, that we won’t regain our voices in the foreseeable future.They have decided it’s easier to imagine a continued future without voice than it is to imagine a near future with our voices returned.
     
    What do you think? Should movies use artificial voices as our newscasts do? Or should they continue this trend and become mute, as we are?
     
    — Katie Brink, Staff Writer
     
    She ate her breakfast while making her way through the newspaper. She paused, spoon halfway to her mouth, as she looked at the date.
    It was a Friday, her second spent trapped in this place. She should be having dinner with her family that night, not sitting alone in a locked room, fighting an endless headache and waiting for the next round of repetitive testing.
    She missed them, wondered how they were holding up and whether they had tried to find her. How many more Fridays would she have to spend in here, stuck in this cell, before she could join them again?
    Jemma continued eating through her lack of appetite. She couldn’t keep her mind sharp through the monotony if she didn’t at least make her best attempt at ingesting enough food.
    She put down the paper, no longer able to focus, and choked down the rest of her breakfast, emptying the bowl just before that day’s guard opened the door to allow her the morning’s bathroom break.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    SIX
    Quality
     
    Josh seemed particularly exuberant that morning, grinning at