Free Terran Times Second Wave # 10 - Liberty by Viola Grace

 
     
     
Chapter One
     
     
    Liberty Trout sat up and stared toward the bars of her cell.
    “You have a visitor, Trout.”
    She looked into the shadows on either side of the grilled doorway. “I can’t see. Who is it?”
    The guard unlocked the door and beckoned her forward. “Come out, Trout. They are going to talk to you.”
    She extended her hands to the guard, and he put the cuffs on. She walked with the two other white-garbed orderlies that were on duty at the house for the criminally insane.
    If she had been convicted of an actual crime, she would have had an easier time of it. As it was, Libby was used to the cold cell, the lavender scrubs and the frightened looks that she received from the staff and other inmates.
    The flat, rubber-soled shoes thudded as she stomped her way past the eyes staring through the grills of the cell doors.
    They took her through the hallways into a secure room where a peculiar party was waiting for her.
    A small, silvery man was sitting at a table while two large and burly males were positioned behind him.
    Her guards seated her across from him, and to her surprise, they left her alone with the extraterrestrial guests.
    She smiled slightly and waited.
    “Are you the seer?”
    The silver man was direct.
    “What do you mean, the seer? I am just a mental patient who likes to call in disasters.”
    A chilling smile, that could have done a shark credit, spread across his features. “I am Recruiter Norz. If you are the seer I am looking for, there is a position for you in the Alliance or possibly the Imperium if that is where your aptitude lies.”
    “You are kidding.”
    He lifted a tablet and gracefully flicked through images with his fingers. “You predicted nineteen terrorist events before they occurred last year, and this year, you have already briefed local law enforcement on twenty-three that have all born fruit. If the law enforcement had taken you seriously, the most recent explosion that destroyed so many lives might not have happened.”
    Libby nodded. “It was good that the others listened.”
    Norz nodded. “Very good. Now, your people do not look favourably upon talents, and more and more of you are appearing in the population. We are not demanding that you come to us, but we are offering you a choice to be appreciated for what you bring to the universe.”
    “Paranoia and pain?”
    “You do not bring the pain, you merely see it. Do not give yourself more credit or blame than necessary.”
    She blinked. “That is one of the kindest things I have ever heard since this started. You do understand that I can’t control this. It comes and goes as it likes.”
    He nodded. “I do understand. I also understand that your own species would keep you locked up in this fashion every time you have a vision.”
    “I am currently being held in a detention facility, so you will have to wait until after I am tried and I serve my time. I have been in the papers and now am on a wait list for a trial date. I would definitely be interested in the posting, but I don’t know when I will be out.”
    Norz gave her a considering look. “If you agree, you will have full opportunity to leave on the earliest shuttle. The arrangements with your government have already been made.”
    “They will let me go, just like that?”
    “They cannot prove your involvement and the funds to bring you to trial will be excessive. This is the simplest answer. There are more detailed moral issues that would come to light when the announcement was made.”
    “Like what?”
    “Perhaps like, if your talent is truly real, what have they been filling the mental wards with? The organisers of your world do not wish for the existence of psychic talents to be known.”
    The witch hunts that would ensue were probable. With humanity’s record for attacking anything different and analyzing it afterward, it was safer for those with a talent to keep their mouths zipped and try to get off world.
    “So, I will be found