Free Test of Mettle (A Captain's Crucible Book 2) by Isaac Hooke Page B

truth?”
    “The truth,” Jonathan said.
    “Crew anxiety appears to have increased fifteen percent, thanks to that broadcast,” Maxwell said. “Heart rates are up. As is crew perspiration. Productivity is down across the board, with crew members gathering in small groups to discuss this latest development.”
    Jonathan could almost hear the gloating in the AIs voice. But he must have imagined it because that wasn’t possible, of course: AIs didn’t gloat.
    “What was that you were saying earlier,” Maxwell continued. “About a mixed human-AI crew operating at a higher productivity level than an AI-only crew?”
    “Shut it,” Jonathan said.

ten
     
    B arrick sat at a desk, looking down at the virtual image that existed only in the aReal contact lenses that the woman whose consciousness he had borrowed wore. She just so happened to be looking at his chart.
    According to the data, he had several pressure sores—they hadn’t been turning his body enough. Joint stiffness had reduced the range of motion of his limbs—they hadn’t been moving his arms and legs enough. A tube in his bronchial passageway continually cleared excess fluid, at least, sparing him from pneumonia. How thoughtful. His muscles, meanwhile, had atrophied to the point where it was apparently impossible for him to walk on his own.
    What a mess.
    Then again, perhaps their inattentiveness was good. The medics, with all their degrees and charts and advanced machines, had failed to notice that Barrick had developed a tolerance to the sedative they were using, about one week ago. The increase in his brain activity was nearly imperceptible to their instruments, of course, and not enough to count him anywhere close to consciousness, so he supposed he shouldn’t judge them too harshly. They wouldn’t have even known to watch for such an increase: individuals with his particular mind abilities were centuries down the evolutionary ladder. Perhaps millennia. Then again, when the life expectancy of human beings reached at least two thousand years, other telepaths would begin to manifest the mastery he had attained. So the great sea change would be a combination of evolution and life expectancy, then. Assuming humanity ever made it that far.
    It sometimes felt odd to be unconscious and yet still have cognizance. He didn’t need consciousness to access the outside world, not at the level he had developed his abilities. Sometimes, in his previous lives, he had accidentally killed people in the waking world while he slept.
    What he experienced at the moment was something more akin to a lucid dream than anything else. A dream based on reality. In it, he could experience the waking world via the crew who inhabited the ship around him, moving from the perspective of one mind to another. His ability to access others depended, in part, on how far away they were from him, and their own innate telepathic strength. The captain was probably the strongest telepath aboard, followed closely by his second in command. And neither of them knew it. So much potential, untapped. No doubt their rise had depended in no small part on their apparently uncanny abilities to predict and read their fellow men. The navy really needed to start testing all applicants for telepathic ability yearly, as it could begin to manifest at any time in life. But that discovery would not occur for at least a hundred years yet, of course.
    In any case, because of their strength, Captain Dallas and Commander Cray had been his favorite remote viewing targets. Since they had no idea how to use their abilities, their minds had been left wide open. The readable parts, anyway.
    At the moment, he was observing the outside world from the mind of deputy medical officer Maria Young. She was not strong, but she was nearby, and thus made another good target when Barrick grew weary of watching the captain or his commander.
    Two days had passed since the fleet had entered that star system so far away from