Traveller Vignette 039

“Hunting psions is part of the Bureau's job, but frankly not a major one – despite the urban legends about secret megacorp research projects and elite covert operatives, actual psions are very uncommon, and most aren't actually that powerful. The last psion hunt I remember was back in 1105; we'd picked up his trail when Naval Intelligence broke an undercover psion ring which might – or might not – have had Zho backing.

The ring had been testing a new drug which supposedly helped unlock dormant powers, and asked planetary authorities to do a routine follow-up on anyone who might have been a test subject.

Anyway, this guy ran a speeder dealership, and a very successful one. He didn't show any of the standard powers, but he was supernaturally persuasive. I mean, he couldn't make you believe your mother was a Vargr or something, but everything he said just seemed so...reasonable.

The first agent I sent to interview him came back with nothing, except that he'd signed papers on a high-end grav-car he hadn't been planning to buy before he went. The second was a woman, and she at least didn't come back with a new car, but admitted she'd given this guy her private comm number and agreed to a date, which wasn't her usual style.

We pulled him in after that, tested him and gave him the usual choice – a lobotomy, a prison planet or wear a limiter for the rest of his life. Weirdest thing was, when we finally got the records of the original tests, we found this guy hadn't actually gotten the experimental drug after all – he'd been in the control group and got the placebo”


(Author's note - while the case above might be almost light relief, hunting a rogue psi could be a serious challenge for most characters. They may have obtained training, or be barely in control of their powers. Even more dangerously, they may genuinely have Zhodani support, in which case they will have training, psi drugs and a coherent mission, rather than just acting out their own desires)


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