“I’m not sure if what I know is real; I think every subject of the Realm would like to think they are descended from a member of the Royal Family. I can actually see some of them in my mind. I see memories from hundreds of years ago but I don’t know if they are real or not.”
“They are real.” Matt and Angel were surprised. “Twelve hundred years ago the Captors left our universe. We were told about the coming invasion and I met with the Royal Family and discussed how we could possibly survive the might of the Eight Legs. Twig and I had discovered a means of reading an individual’s psychic power and we learned something that was amazing to us. When we used our device to read the power of the Royal family members, it registered half of the scale which was phenomenal. Twig had an idea that psychic abilities were genetic so we quietly made several trips to measure the psychic power of other family members.”
“Why did you do that,” Matt asked?
“To see if others in their families also possessed similar abilities. We scanned Thomas Gardner’s parents, Cassandra Gardner’s parents and sister, and Danielle’s parents.”
“What did you find out,” Angel asked?
“We discovered that both of Thomas’ parents and Danielle’s parents possessed a high level of psychic power but displayed no psychic abilities. The same was true of Cassandra’s parents but it was the scan we took of her older sister that shocked us.”
Matt looked at Sprig and knew that to shock an Algean was almost impossible.
“Cassandra Dodd, that’s right Angel, she and you have the same last name, was the most powerful psychic in the Royal Family; her psychic abilities and power were as strong as all the others combined. However, her sister moved our scanner up three quarters of our scale. She possessed psychic power more than fifty percent stronger than Cassandra but exhibited no psychic ability to use that power.”
Matt was confused, “I’ve never heard of Cassandra Gardner’s sister.”
“That is because she never had her power released. She was a latent psychic that had passed the power she possessed on to her four children and each of their scans showed they possessed latent psychic powers that were incrementally stronger than their mother. We learned that if the psychic power is not released in a person, then it grows in their descendents.”
Matt and Angel thought about what they had just heard and then Matt looked at Sprig with a serious expression, “You decided to produce a super psychic.”
Sprig’s leaves turned greener, “Did you reason that out or did you just know it?”
“It explains a lot about my memories. Those powers that are passed down to the next generation carry a certain amount of the previous one’s memories with it, right?”
“Yes, it does. Please remember that Danielle Ash and Cassandra Dodd only had limited psychic skill when they came into contact with the one that released their powers. Thomas Gardner had been born released and his powers were manifested from a very young age. It was his touch that released Danielle. Tommy and Rose Gardner were also released at birth and their powers were incrementally stronger than their parents. It was Tommy’s touching of Cassandra that released her psychic power. However, both Danielle and Cassandra had already been manifesting some psychic abilities so we believe that they had reached the extent of their psychic development. Their power would not have grown in their children.”
Matt looked confused, “I’m not sure I understand what you are explaining, Sprig.”
“Did you know that Rose’s along with Tommy and Cassandra’s children did not exhibit any psychic abilities? Rose had five children and Cassandra had seven and not one of them demonstrated any psychic abilities.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Very few do. Once we scanned their children we understood what was taking place. All of their children registered more psychic power than their parents but had no way to use it; they were latent psychics.” Sprig looked at the two Searchers thinking about what they had just heard. “Think about psychic power in terms that we plants are comfortable with; think of it as a seed. The seed is planted in good soil and it starts to develop. The seed is passed to another generation and receives more nourishment and grows. Each new generation adds to the development until finally it reaches a point where it is fully developed and cannot grow any more in the vessel that holds it. Then it starts to sprout and the vessel begins to manifest some psychic skills. Once the right kind of food is delivered it bursts out in full bloom.”
“So the psychic power grows from generation to generation until it reaches full maturity in a person. It won’t come out until it is fully developed. Why didn’t Thomas Gardner need this right kind of food,” Angel asked.
“Because it happened to reach maturity with his birth; no one else was needed. His children, Rose and Tommy, were given their parents power fully developed, however, that only happens in the next generation. It does not pass beyond one generation.”
“That explains why Tommy and Rose’s children did not have psychic abilities,” Matt said.
“Exactly right,” Sprig paused and then continued, “It was at that point that Cassandra told us something that shocked all of us. She and Tommy were disappointed that their children did not share their abilities but Cassandra did possess a psychic skill that allowed her to have glimpses of the future; not possible futures like some psychics see but the actual future. She announced that one of her descendants was going to have psychic powers and abilities that dwarfed her skills and would be greater in their abilities than anyone could possibly imagine. We questioned her how far in the future this child would appear and she didn’t know. She did say that the child would have both bloodlines. When we asked her what other bloodline, she said she didn’t know. She just knew what she saw. We decided to try and make the event happen before the Eight Legs invaded.”
“What?” Matt looked at Angel and then back at Sprig, “how did you intend to make that happen?”
“Twig and I knew the two bloodlines; one was the Gardners and the other was the Dodds.”
“But Cassandra’s children all had Gardner genetics in their makeup.”
“Yes, but Cassandra’s sister’s children did not.”
Suddenly Matt understood. “You traced the children that came from those beginnings and have been measuring the psychic power of each generation. You have also prevented as much as possible any of the two branches marrying and having children.”
“Right again. It wasn’t always easy especially as the numbers grew. We sometimes had to use the realm’s help in transferring families to prevent members from coming into contact with members from the other branch. Sometimes we failed but it appeared that when members from the two branches actually managed to get together and ultimately married, their children actually lost most of their psychic power. We theorized that until the seed of psychic power was fully developed, it would fail if those two branches came together.”
Angel said, “It really wasn’t that hard to keep them apart was it?”
“Yes, it was extremely difficult; that’s why the seed developed from generation to generation. If you put five thousand people in a room with two latent psychics among them, the psychics would find each other faster than you could imagine. Their latent power actually pushed them to find a good match. They wouldn’t know it was happening but they would find the most comfort in the presence of another latent psychic.”
Matt said, “You’ve already tried to produce the super psychic, haven’t you?”
“Yes we have.”
“And.”
“The child of the parents from each bloodline was born with remarkable abilities; but not abilities superior the original Gardners possessed.”
Matt looked down at the ground and Sprig said, “You know him.”
“Who,” Angel asked?