Psychics in Society

Psychics occupy an unusual and sometimes nebulous place in Federation society. On the one hand, their talents and abilities are of inestimable value, providing services which would, otherwise, be hideously expensive or simply impossible. On the other hand there is no denying the fact that for most people in the Federation, citizens and civilians alike, there is something about psychics that is, to put it bluntly, rather creepy.

The role of psychics in Federal Service is well defined. Indeed, of all people in the Federation, psychics are the only ones encouraged to join Federal Service (at least until the Arachnid war started, an event which precipitated the first aggressive recruitment in Federation history). Within SICON, all psychics are placed in Military Intelligence, the fi eld of service where they may best use their gifts for the betterment of the Federation. This holds true for those whose abilities are discovered after entry into Federal Service as well as for those who enlist already aware of their special talents. In the case of a soldier who is discovered to possess psychic abilities after going through boot camp and starting his service with Fleet or the Mobile Infantry, he is immediately removed from his unit and transferred to Military Intelligence.

The lack of service options for psychics does not come without its own benefits, and is ameliorated in large part by such perks as immediate commission as an officer, although the long history of bad blood between the Mobile Infantry and Military Intelligence is often enough to make a newlydiscovered psychic snatched from his MI unit and impressed into Military Intelligence feel like a bit of a traitor. Within Military Intelligence, special talents receive the finest training, equipment and medical attention SICON can offer them, a fair trade for the grueling tasks expected of such a psychic. In the end, psychics in Military Intelligence find the work and its rewards so fulfi lling that very few of them ever develop a desire to leave Federal Service and those few who have are usually granted additional enticements to stay on. Not only do they represent a tremendous investment on the part of the Federation, such skilled psychics are also an extremely limited resource.

For psychics who never enter Federal Service, the future is far less well defi ned. It may be that the psychic in question never had any interest in Federal Service, despite SICON’s entreaties to budding psychics. Or it may be that the psychic was judged psychologically or physically unfit for service. Either way, the psychic must make his way through life as a civilian.

So long as the psychic has a modicum of ambition, this is not a difficult task. Even without the training that comes from experience in the Special Services, psychics are a limited and valuable resource the Federation is only too happy to put to use. Any civilian psychic who wishes to work with the Federation government may certainly do so; positions are always made available for such applicants in anything from Economic Services (for probability psychics) to the Federal Justice Division or even local law enforcement. The latter career choice, normally reserved for citizens, even offers the psychic an alternate path to citizenship. If he serves the cause of law enforcement in the Federation well and faithfully for five years, he may petition the FJD for citizenship. He will then go before a review board (normally a nominal review only) and be awarded with his franchise in recognition of his difficult service to society at large. A psychic enjoys preferential treatment in job assignments and advanced promotional opportunities. Additionally, psychics who happen to work in a fi eld not strictly limited to those with such talents tend to receive higher base pay than their non-psychic counterparts, roughly 10 to 25 percent more annually.

Of course, the government of the UCF is not the only entity within the Federation that sees the immense value that a psychic offers. Just as the Federation courts psychics for everything from Federal Service to Economic Services, so too does the private sector court them for everything from corporate information security (fi ghting against corporate espionage by rivals) to economic trend forecasting. Nor are corporations the only non-governmental enterprise that craves the special abilities psychics bring to the table.

Restrictions on Psychics

For the most part, psychics in the Federation are regarded under the law just like any other citizen or civilian. Though carefully monitored to ensure their gifts are not abused, they have the same right, responsibilities and privileges as any other citizen or civilian. However, there are some exceptions.

No psychic may seek or hold elected public office in the Federation. They may, and often do, hold positions within the government, but such positions must be in support roles; a psychic may not hold legislative or executive authority in the Federation. The only exception to this rule is very minor indeed – the surrogate commanding offi cer programmes practised by SICON which place a psychic in temporary command of a Mobile Infantry platoon or a Fleet vessel. In many ways, this stricture is a throwback to the earliest days of psychic research in the Federation, when the discovery of Jon Forrest set off a wave of unease in the population and the government itself, leading some to fiery speeches espousing science fiction stories of a takeover by psychics and spurring the formation of Pure Humanity, a short-lived (but in its time powerful) group opposed to the inclusion of psychics in any level of Federation society. In time, all these fears were allayed but the restriction against psychic leadership in the government still stands.

No psychic may invest directly in the Federation Stock and Commodities Exchange in London. Essentially, this means a psychic may not individually choose which stocks he wishes to invest in. Rather, he must invest his money indirectly through one of the many investment corporations in the Federation. This allows the psychic to make financial investments for his future security while minimising the opportunity for him to use his gifts inappropriately for his own financial gain. The possibility is still there, of course, as the psychic is free to invest more money, remove money or change investment corporations as he pleases. This is where the government’s monitoring of the psychic comes into play. If the government can offer credible evidence the psychic is using his abilities to know when and what to do with his money, the government can step in and stop him, possibly even bring him up on criminal charges.

Thirdly, no psychic may gamble. Anyone with a Unicard identifying him as a psychic will not be allowed inside a casino anywhere in the Federation. Of course, a psychic may circumvent this easily enough with a false Unicard purchased from the black market, but doing so carries the risk of arrest and trial for two crimes – using psychic abilities to defraud and possession of a forged Unicard.

Even 220 years after the first documented discovery of psychic activity in the Federation, the laws governing use of psychic abilities are still being formed and new questions, as well as new challenges to existing laws, arise regularly. For example, there are frequent (and thus far wholly ineffectual) movements to allow psychics to serve as elected representatives in the Federation government. When dealing with psychics and the law, the best rule of thumb is this that psychics may not legally exploit their abilities to give themselves an unfair advantage over the rest of the population in pursuit of personal wealth or power.

The Psychic in Corporations

The corporations of the Federation have been interested in acquiring psychic employees since the discovery of Jon Forrest in 2078. Initially, the UCF government tried to bar psychics from employment in a corporation but eventually relented and, in cooperation with the Civilian Corporate Coalition, established guidelines for psychic employment in the private sector.

Psychics in a corporate environment serve many of the same functions they do as part of the government. Those with superhuman abilities in probability studies work to forecast economic and social trends, helping tailor the corporation’s operations to dovetail perfectly with the fl uctuations in the financial markets and Federation society. Those with clairsentient or telepathic abilities are commonly assigned to enforcing corporate security. There are less well-defined roles available to those psychics with psychometric abilities but, much like the UCF government itself, most corporations will always find room for a psychic they can recruit as an employee.

Despite the standards put in place by the Federation and the CCC, not all corporations with psychics on the payroll are overly studious about adhering to those standards. Corporations with a lack of morals but whose directors believe they have enough power and infl uence to shield their activities from the government will often try to put their psychics to work in ways that directly defy set standards for psychic employment. Such activities range from using probability control psychics in an attempt to manipulate the fi nancial market (a rare occurrence, if only because it is nearly impossible even for a ‘lucky man’ to accomplish) to dispatching telepaths, clairsentients and even psychometrists as corporate spies and information saboteurs. This second use is far more common and indeed is one of the reasons corporations are so anxious to have their own psychic employees, if only as a shield against the espionage attempts of other corporations.

The Psychic in the Underworld

Though it is never mentioned on FedNet or acknowledged by the Federal Justice Division, there is a small minority of civilian psychics who never find work within the government or with a legitimate business but are instead drawn into a life of crime.

Psychic ability tends to be discovered early in childhood through genetic and behavioural screening. This allows the Federation to monitor potential psychics and discover their ability levels and growing powers through yearly testing. These tests are voluntary, though a review every four years is mandatory. Even though this process catches most potential psychics from birth, hundreds slip through the process every year either through intentional deception or simple error on the part of test administrators or medical personnel.

It is these psychics who slip through the holes in the net that are most vexing for the Federation government, particularly those who mislead the test administrators and willfully dodge identification as a psychic. Often, this is simply a result of the individual not wishing to be tagged with the label of psychic and the additional burdens that accompany it. Other times, however, it is because the psychic has less innocuous reasons for avoiding identifi cation. These psychics are the most worrisome of all, as they are the ones who most often end up on the wrong side of the law.

Psychics who enter the criminal underworld of the Federation are cast from two moulds. One is the previously identified civilian psychic, who is lured or manipulated into a life of crime by those who would seek to use the psychic’s special talents for their own benefit. Usually, such psychics are quickly apprehended, as the scrutiny all such psychics live under will not be fooled for very long about the psychic’s new activities. The other kind of psychic found in a life of crime is somewhat more difficult to track down and apprehend.

This is the psychic who has deliberately found a way to avoid detection throughout his life, living in the Federation as a normal civilian and keeping his special talents hidden. Though his lack of any meaningful training like that received by psychics in the Special Services usually means his talents are not terribly impressive, he is still a danger. Such a rogue psychic, even one with weak powers, can prove extraordinarily troublesome for the Federation. Moreover, if knowledge of such a psychic ever reached the public, it would only fan the fl ames of unease many citizens and civilians still feel for psychics.

A psychic in the criminal underworld of the Federation is rarely a solitary figure. Any psychic clever enough to be able to fool his way past Federation testing knows his opportunities for profit and continued freedom lie within a larger organisation. Criminal organisations, for their part, are only too happy to welcome a psychic into their midst, eagerly putting him to work in a variety of capacities, from undermining competition to foiling any attempts by law enforcement psychics to probe inside the organisation. A powerful psychic inside a powerful crime syndicate can quickly become a very wealthy man, a temptation that sadly proves too much for some psychics to resist.

Life as a rogue psychic is however not one of security or stability. The rogue has chosen to evade the notice of the authorities, hiding under the radar of tests and analysis to make sure that his psychic talents go undetected. He must be constantly alert and guarded, ever wary of slipping up and revealing his true nature to SICON.

Without the guidance and rigorous training of the Special Services, rogue psychics’ powers develop in a slightly different manner to those of the same talent that receive SICON schooling in the powers of the mind. A rogue psychic’s powers are often a far more intuitive growth of their talent, lacking the focus towards specific tasks that SICON psychics possess.

Some rogue psychics simply want to live their lives in peace, developing their powers only to the extent where they can control them and thus avoid ever using them. These rogues do not want the ‘special status’ afforded to known psychics, forced into the Special Services and viewed with suspicion and mistrust by the common mass of the populace. A rogue psychic of this kind can go his entire life without detection if he is smart enough. Many rogues, however, seek to avoid the public eye because they choose to turn their talents to their own gain rather than the service of mankind. With crime as their vocation and psychic powers at their disposal, they run a constant risk of being discovered and hunted down. As a result, either through conscious focus or subconscious imperative, these rogue psychics become highly talented in protecting themselves from surveillance or capture and prove to be the most elusive of criminals.

Rogue psychics are extremely adept at concealing their psychic talents from the eyes of the law and either quickly learn how to shield their mind or are apprehended.

The Psychic and Public Perception

Within Federation society, psychics are a breed apart. Regardless of their role in society, civilian psychics are always viewed by other civilians and citizens as an oddity. This rarely results in violence but a level of social stigma is attached to their gifts, creating an almost invisible prejudice that is impossible to completely dispel. Just as soldiers have a hard time taking orders from psychic officers, the Federation’s general populace also reacts with distrust and resentment when dealing with someone who could potentially be reading their every thought. This reaction was far more extreme in the early years of the Federation but governmental sanction and control keeps civilian distrust of psychic ability to a minimum in the modern era. Still, human beings have a strong, visceral reaction against the thought of someone else invading the sanctity of their own mind, a reaction that never could (and never should, certainly after the discovery of control bugs) be purged from human nature.

One of these controls is a limitation of information. Members of the Federation, civilian and citizen alike, with no reason to interact with psychic individuals are not exposed to the concept openly. While many civilians and citizens know about psychic phenomena and may even know a psychic personally, there is no easily available information on the subject. This keeps psychic ability something the people of the Federation can safely place in the realm of plausible deniability. This freedom to ignore such powers provides a psychological buffer that greatly reduces cultural stress, but it does have its limitations. A person’s status as a psychic is encoded on his Unicard, for example. While this is not something that is visible to someone who merely looks at the Unicard, it comes up every time the card is scanned. This measure may sometimes be inconvenient to the psychic but is extremely helpful to the government in maintaining its scrutiny of all civilian psychics.