I could hear my mom worrying away in her mind about the contract she had to sign to get me into the University. Something about not using my talent for anything except for helping the planet. She kept remembering the contract and wondering if she could find a loop hole in it so that when I come back I could maybe help them move up the ranks a little. She was ambitious my mother, she wanted to get the Greener Planet group big enough and powerful enough to make some major changes in the way things were run here on Barsoom.
She was worried about me going off to another planet without her of course, I was after all only six. She had researched the university throughly. She had even spoken with the people who had been there. They were unanimous and had been reassuring. It was as safe as the instructors could make it.
I would be gone for a decade and she was determined that I would come back to a world that would accept me and the others like me. There really were only about a dozen of us on this world. Along the way she was hoping either she or dad would make it to Comptroller or Senante, they needed to be that high in order to affect Barsoom law.
Barsoom law was all about trade and making money in any way one could to the detriment of the planet. It wasn't dead yet, Mom always said, but it is surely in its final years. Most of the green spaces were gone and nearly 80% of the native fauna was extinct and the other 20% were dying. I would hear her weep sometimes because of the pain she sensed the planet was in.
I am an average child or so I have been told in an average world with one major exception. I can hear other peoples thoughts. when it first began to happen my parents didn't hesitate they took me to get tested. It was a major perk to have a gifted child. You immediately gained some respect and a more advantageous place in the world.
Let's see I was three I guess or there abouts when I first began to hear the voices in my head. You have to be no older than six to start at the university.
When it was determined that I did have telepathy my parents began to make plans. They made sure I had the best teachers available so I wouldn't lose myself in the voices in my head. They also began the process of getting me accepted at the University of the Mind. It was a long process and they had very little time before I reached the age of acceptance into it.
Being a normal kid I mentioned it to my mother and told her what the people were thinking. Over the next few years she used my talent to make enough to pay for my transport on an FLT in deep sleep going to Aszis.
That is part of the reason she worried about the contract because it meant she couldn't use my talent to make more when I got back. On the other hand she figured having a fully trained telepath to help her with the Greener World Party work would be a major plus and help her swing more votes towards the things that needed doing to save our world.
Azizi
Aszis is a world circling a star many light years from home. It is a vacation world but unlike any you've ever seen. Also located is the University of the Mind where people with talent can learn to control of their mental powers.
Aszis is covered in plant life, the giant Burgundy in which the natives live, the purple grass called Zim which is a staple of their diet and so many others that only a biologist could know them all
There is no smog or motor cars anywhere. To go any where you walk or transport yourself using your mind. Aszis has never had a "industrial" age as we know it because everything here is mentally ruled. There is no need to build factories when you need only visualize what you want and it appears full formed and working as it was in your mind.
The students learn many things at that university but the first and most important lesson they learned was that no matter how much or how little talent they have it is to be used for the betterment of their world and not for the betterment of themselves. To accomplish this the students spend their first four months at the university under the control of one of the highest mentats and are subjected to many indignities
The Aszii beleive the world is more important than the self and in everything they do you see that demonstrated. From the fact that their homes are high in the trees and their food farms do not stand out but blend into the earth and rock
When a student completes their ten years at the University they are sent home with only one job to start the re-educating of their people in the process of living in harmony with their world. This is the promise the student's parents had to make to be get their child accepted for the Aszii training, the price of our tuition so to speak.
Aszis: Aszis is a world whose pallete runs from the palest of pinks and purples to the dark almost black ones due to some sort of element in it's stratosphere. It's axis to its sun is 90 degrees and turns 360 degrees every day and it experiences temperate weather during all of its 400 day year. Each day is 25 of our earth hours long. It has an elliptical orbit much like our planet except that it's winter is like our spring rains as it's distance from it's primary is nearly constant. It has two moons and one land mass. Since tides can be unpredictable most Aszii live near the centre of the land mass in carefully cultivated Burgundy cities. Travel between the cities is accomplished either by foot or by teleportation. Each city actually has a terminal whose sole purpose is to move people and things from one place to another. The University of the Mind is located in one of the remoter cities since beginning Talents often cause damage unintentionally. The city it is located in is Kamilton and the whole city works for the University in one way or another. The next city over is called Karon and it is where the council and services are located that serve & govern the Talents once they are through the University.
The Aszii: Like their planet the Aszii range in colour from the deepest reds & purples to the lightest pinks and lavenders. Their bodies are covered in short, soft fur not really thick but a respectable coat. They live in the Giant Burgundies and have flexible feet and hands for climbing and moving easily from tree branch to tree branch. They do not have an oral language as they are so Talented that they can communicate mind to mind. They do have creative minds and are great tinkers. They farm Zim and a few animals like druggers and frengs as food is the one thing they can not create from the air. Since their planet has such a mild climate they wear little more than a breech clout, (male and female both). The young are born alive and nursed by both the male and female of the species. It is believed that something in the breeding process activates hormones in both parents when conception occurs so that both lactate.
