His mind was in a daze, Clay was still slowly coming to terms with the strange new situation that he was in. It was obvious now, he was dead. At least his original body had died when he went to save the girl from the incoming car.He was sure that he was no longer in his own body, in fact his new name Jigme Chokphel clearly reminded him that he wasn"t. His appearance was not much different to before, the only thing that had changed was the things that made up his new ident.i.ty. After awakening, he learned that the things he knew were no longer the same, even right now he was boarding a s.p.a.ce shuttle with countless other people like him who had successfully pa.s.sed the artificial awakening.
The chances that anyone would discover that he was not really Jigme did not exist. Though he knew from his previous memories that the body he was in now was one of many who had volunteered for the Staircase Programme led by Dr Sullivan, the mortality rate for the artificial awakening was simply too high. Every partic.i.p.ant who had registered for it were under a non-disclosure contract with the Cornius Federation, they were like goods that were being processed and sold. The only thing he knew for definite was that the promise of a elevated career progression and subsidised growth plan would be kept if he could survive. The question was IF,
The mission that they had been contracted for was to protect and guard a s.p.a.ce colony for a set period. This was part of the reason why the artificial treatment to "awaken" them had been provided as part of the package.
When he first realised that he was no longer on Earth and the life that he had known before was like a faint breeze that pa.s.sed by, Clay had been hysterical, fortunately this was merely seen as part of the after effects of the artificial awakening process. After all the Staircase Programme was one that had been only set up recently, operating under the Alliance. Memories of the previous host of the body he now occupied constantly barricaded Clay"s sense of self when he first came to, for a brief moment he had considered that he was really Jigme Chokphel and Clay was only a dream that he had been having. Either way, there was no going back, questions still hung in his mind as he wondered how he had been put into the new body or what strange scenario he was facing. But he quickly adjusted. There was no choice.
Though it was considered that there would be after effect for the artificial awakening treatment, there was still a threshold to how much the directors behind the programme allowed any discrepancies for chaotic behaviour, after all they needed to be set back into close proximity with other people.
The awakening process was strange and mysterious in its own way, the artificial treatment invented by Dr Sullivan attempted to put patients into a traumatic state through carefully regulated dosages which would help to awaken their bodies natural instincts to survive. Awakening was only a process in this stage, from what Clay could understand, the world he was in now populated by normal people like him who had over time adapted to the strange energy emitted in s.p.a.ce and a change had occurred to their genetics. The term was called "psionics" people who had awakened their bodies abilities. The form this took was different from person to person. It was a blessing in disguise, at the same time it was also a danger to those around them.
A new field of study had been devoted to people like him, they were seen as "tools" for the creation of an new era of the Alliance. A organisation made up of several large macro groups like the Cornius Federation which governed different areas of the star system. They were seen as a necessary evil, one that had to be controlled and carefully regulated, it was hard for Clay not to compare psionics to a term which he better understand from Earth, mutants. His imagination of super heroes and Marvel favourites had immediately came to mind as he realised he was now different to other normal people. However they key word here was people, it was not hard to imagine but with growth of human civilisation into outer s.p.a.ce and the development of colonies, contact with other intellectual life forms had also exploded and in some ways, psionics were nothing but bugs compared to strange and diverse forms of life in the universe. Conflict of course was also one thing that could not be avoided, which is why Clay was sitting on a s.p.a.ce shuttle strapped into his seat with a cohort of individuals like himself.
Jigme Chokphel. It was a name that hardly rolled off his tongue but one he had to quickly grasp if he wanted to blend in and survive. Fortunately the memories of the previous host of his body carefully updated him with the necessary details that he needed in the midst of his confusion. At first he had almost wished he could die in the sudden surge of information that threatened to overwhelm him but he quickly adapted, he had to. He was now a psionic, he had awakened.