text: Context: This my character backstory for an RPG called Star without Number. I really got into her tragic story and wanted to share it for others to read. MES gifted are psychics and Tera is specifically gifted with precognition. There are others with different abilities. “One, two, three...” Three pieces slices of bread and a cup of water. Tera tore pieces of the food on her plate and popped them in her mouth at the small dining table, with her little brother, Isaiah. At the other side of the table, smiling, was Uncle Rob and his son Zachary. Zachary wasn’t really a fan of Uncle Rob taking Tera and Isaiah in, for one reason or another. Maybe he wanted to be the only mouth to feed in this small hovel. They were all MES gifted on an anti-MES planet, D'nobi. That’s the whole reason how Tera ended up here in the first place. “Someone’s at the door!” Tera would call down the stairs, “It’s Uncle Rob!” Isaiah would call out right after into the quiet house. A few minutes later, door knocks rung about the house. Tera had guessed her parents were afraid of them for one reason or another, and threw them out of the house to fend for themselves. She was 10. Isaiah was 6. Uncle Rob protested, but now here they are. She supposed mom was afraid the authorities would trace the strain back to her, but that’s her best guess. Isaiah would ask Uncle Rob once in awhile, but he would give the same uncle answer anyone would expect. “They’re just traveling right now.” Right. Traveling. Uncle Rob knew he couldn’t fool Tera, but could never give her a true answer. They just didn’t want them, simple as that. While the rest of the world asked them to suppress or die with their abilities, Uncle Rob felt it would be best they knew what they had and honed it. He taught them as much as he knew, constantly telling them that they would achieve greatness. “I can see it now” he reassured them for 5 years. Once they had enough money and were able to get off this god forsaken planet, they could start a new life where “MESses” were accepted. But he couldn’t see it. He couldn’t see what was coming. While Uncle Rob was out, the police kicked down the door and rushed to find the “dirty MESses” in the house. Tera and Isaiah could only hear what was happening, and couldn’t figure out how or why. As the authorities grabbed and dragged them out of their home, Tera saw. Zachary stood at the dining room window, waving them goodbye. She thought hard about returning the favor, but didn’t want to endanger Uncle Rob’s life either. It wouldn’t be fair to him after all he had done for them. Even though they could see what was ahead of them, there was nothing to be done. They were taken to some kind of facility. Metal walls, metal floors. Eerie silence except for their echoing footsteps. This was it for them. Isaiah cried as Tera held him, not only for his comfort but her own. Two men in white scrubs came through the door. They took Isaiah first, dragged him out screaming and kicking. She fought for him, but was swiftly kicked over by who she assumed was the Chief of the guard. She watched her brother get dragged out the door as he lifted her from the floor and up against the wall. “Maybe we’ll go easy on him if you give me something in return, girly.” She felt a hand run up her thigh. Her first instinct was to slap him across the face... Maybe that was a mistake. He just smiled after being slapped, and began walking out of the room. “NO WAIT!” Tera called out, realizing the decision may spell more trouble for her brother. But her call was ignored. The cell door shut, and then silence. In her solitude, all she could do was cry. Her precognitive abilities could only show her who would be coming through, and nothing else. It was nearly an hour, and the Oracle showed her the door opening and her brother pushed through. Were her abilities playing tricks on her? Moments later, her brother had been on the floor of the cell. Breathing heavy, and fatigued, but alive. Her tears of sadness turned into tears of joy as she picked him up from the floor and put him on their cell bed to rest. Why was he brought back? It didn’t matter now, what mattered was he was alive. The next day, the same men along with the Chief came into the room and took Tera. She soon learned his name was Adam Porter. Isaiah was too weak to stand and fight, but she went with them quietly. Walking through the same halls, deeper and deeper in. Chief Porter, smirking along the way, occasionally whispering into her ear. “Not so fussy today, huh? But I like ‘em feisty.” She found herself strapped to a metal table that was stood up in the room, lit with a white light. Everything was covered in a pale green as she looked ahead at a mirror. “Hello Tera. I’m Dr. Kerrigan Edwards.” A female voice came over some speakers above. “Dr. Edwards? What’s going on here? Please, just let us go!” “That’s not what we do here, Tera. Don’t you want D'nobi to flourish? It will all be thanks to you and your kind...” The quiet lingered as sensors were placed on her head and a distant scream rang in the distance somewhere else in the facility. “Wha... What’s happening?” “Just think, Tera. What’s going to happening in the next...” A short pause, “minute.” Tera focused and the Oracle the same room, except the mirror was now a screen with different patterns. “Square, butterfly, triangle, circle, circle, three, house, cat.” Tera uttered before the mirror flashed white, and showed her exactly what she just saw. “I don’t understand, why am I doing this? Why did we have to be captured for this?” “You will both be responsible for the most advanced technology known to this galaxy. To achieve this, we need the best minds.” Tera thought for a moment about what she had said, still confused. Why capture the MESses then? “Once more, Tera.” Tera took a deep breath, and again, patterns flashed before her through the Oracle. “Dog, umbrella, square, one, three, house, mountain.” Silence... “Good, good. Once more, Tera.” The woman’s voice was almost maternal if not for the situation. “I can’t...” Her head was already spinning. “Not today. I need to rest.” “Once more, Tera.” She was confused now, but tried to no avail. “I can’t, Dr. Edwards. I-” Her sentence was cut off by a sharp pain rushing through her head, and her back arched on the metal table, as visions came through again. Her temples burned as she took labored breaths. “Up, down, two, one, left, house, dog, flower.” “Brain activity emulation successful. She’ll work.” The rest of the conversation was just murmurs. “Again.” “Wait, n-” Her vision began going dark again as he grit her teeth through the pain, and in moments she was back in the pale room. “Dog... Mouse... One...” Tera took a deep breath. “Two... Three... Triangle... Up...” This went on for what felt like hours to Tera, until she could no longer speak, or raise her head to see the board flashing in front of her. Then they took her back to her room with her brother, still resting. Isaiah slowly looked over in her direction as she took deep breaths from the floor. Both siblings stayed silent in fatigued understanding. The next few months were more of the same. They would be taken on different days, and Chief Porter would take a little bit of time talking Tera up, occasionally copping a feel. Once, he was caught by one of the female researchers. “Chief Porter! She is not a play-thing for your pleasure. Do it again, and I’ll make sure they put you in the streets!” “Uh, yes.. Yes, apologies Dr. Edwards...” He never got too close after that day, but he still enjoyed sneering and taunting from a distance before leaving. They always had days to rest after the torturous sessions, but Isaiah seemed to be getting weaker and weaker as time went by. All Tera could do was watch her little brother waste away. All she could do was hold him and talk to him, tell him about the good times. “Remember what Uncle Rob would say? ‘I can see it now! You are made for greatness!” A smile traced across their face. “What a cheesy goober.” “Yeah, but he was our goober...” Isaiah weakly sighed out. “I wonder what he and Zachary are up to... Zach didn’t like us very much did he?” “Nooo... No no, I’m sure he was just always having a bad day.” Family was about all they had and Tera didn’t want him thinking family was what put him here. They had already been burned once by their parents. During one of Isaiah’s sessions, Chief Porter stepped into the room without Isaiah. Confused, Tera backed up to the room’s walls. “Your brother wants to see you.” Tera arched an eyebrow, and slowly made her way to the door. The Chief walked side-by-side with her down the same halls they always walk, toward the same room they always did. But they turned a hallway early. He entered some numbers into a datapad on the door and unlocked it. With caution, she followed him in. In the dark room, stood three researchers and a couple of armed security. Through the window she saw Isaiah. “One... Mouse...” He coughed. He looked pale. There was drool dribbling down the side of his mouth. “Eleventysix... Fish...” “He’s had enough, doctor!” Tera protested. “He’s just gotten here, Tera. Maybe hearing you cheering him on will put him back in order. Come.” The doctor stood to the side and let her walk up to the commspad. “Isaiah?... You...” Tears welled up in Tera’s eyes, as her lips quivered. “Hang in there, buddy...” One. Isaiah screamed into the pale room as the veins on his forehead pulsated. “House... Fish, mouse, tree, circle, triangle.” “Good, Isaiah. Again.” Dr. Edwards promptly commanded. Two. Isaiah screamed again, back arching towards the window. “Square, up... Down... D-” “Good. You’re doing well, nothing is going to happen to your sister. Again, Isaiah.” Three. Isaiah screams into the air again as tears poured from Tera’s eyes. Chief Porter pulled her back, away from the comms pad. “Please doctor. He’s had enough, he can barely speak!” “Triangle... D-Dow-... T-Tera?... Tera... Te.....ra” Isaiah’s words slowly weakened as he called out her name. Body going limp, and eyes closed. “ISAIAH!” Tera rushed to the commspad screaming his name. The researchers casually made way for her. “ISAIAH WAKE UP! WAKE UP! REMEMBER WHAT UNCLE ROB SAID!? ISAIAH!” Moments pass, Tera screaming the whole way. “Subject unresponsive. Come take him out.” Dr. Edwards reported on her personal comms unit. Two men in white walk into the room and unlatch Isaiah from the table, taking him away. “We’re only interested in the best minds, Tera. Your brother’s was weak.” Tera’s eyebrows furrowed in anger hearing this words, glaring through stinging wet eyes. “Some people just aren’t meant for greatness. Now go rest.” Tera charged forward but was caught in by security. They dragged her back to the room kicking and screaming. They left her alone for the next two weeks. In the literal sense. There was nobody around for her to speak to anymore, nobody to make her feel like this was all just some crazy dream. But eventually, they came back. Why wouldn’t they? They took her back to the same pale room, with bright lights. “Go ahead, Tera.” The same voice called over the intercoms. A few moments of silence go by. “Tera, you know we can just force it out of you.” A few more moments. “Have it your way.” A surge of electricity and pain drive into her head again as visions flash before her eyes. The screen ahead of her was cracked. She dropped to the ground. The door was knocked open as a commotion was happening outside. Tera looked up at the mirror at herself, not realizing a small smirk had run across her face. “Eat. Shit.” A seemingly unending scream roared throughout the facility in the distance, followed by a loud sonic boom. The mirror ahead of her cracked. The metal table she was strapped to bent forward, loosening her ties. She pulled as hard as she could until all the blood ran into her hands, eventually slipping them off. “Force construct loose in the facility, shut it down. Secure the subjects.” Tera heard through the intercom as she undid the ties to her legs. She turned to the door, and saw two men in white opening the door, just to be knocked across the hall as a creature of pure force stomped through the building. She didn’t know what it was or who it was that created it, but she would have to find them later to thank them. She made a run out the door, and down the hallways she had become familiar with. Bodies lie unconscious, strewn across various halls and rooms. Down one hall, she came across the unconscious form of Chief Porter. Wanting badly to kill him as he lie, she rushed to him. The stomping of foot soldiers down the nearby halls made her think twice. One swift stomp to his groin was all she could manage, and she was off again. The Oracle told her the way, down wrecked halls and forced open bent doors, avoiding halls and rooms with guards, and straight into a cargo truck. She kept hidden behind the numerous boxes of supplies she didn’t recognize, and held her breath in anticipation of being caught. But nobody came into the back. The truck just started, and left the dock to wherever. To freedom. The truck eventually stopped somewhere, Tera assumed for fuel. As soon as she felt it was safe, she unlatched the back door of the truck, and made a run for it into an unfamiliar city. Seemingly a port for shuttles stopping for fuel and Tera’s first introduction to a race that wasn’t human. She pleaded with the aliens to allow her to come aboard their ship in exchange for work, with them eventually agreeing. Maybe it wasn’t a smart decision to go with a foreign race she knew nothing about, but anything beat staying on this godforsaken planet. She eventually learned they were Uhlangans. “What are you all doing out here?...” Tera questioned. Their unfamiliar yet soft expression comforted her for one reason or another. “Searching for something new. For greatness.” They replied. Tera spent the next few years doing this with several different groups. Eventually learning not only to do menial labor, but to also fight, find, and hunt down people with bounties on their heads, earning herself enough money to upgrade her equipment. She learned the best ways to travel from city to city and who to ask when there wasn’t a legitimate path, always working along the way. She picked up the basics of most languages from planet to planet and did her best to remember their customs. Nearly 10 years of traveling around the galaxy, learning new information and skills. She wasn’t ready before, but maybe now she was. Not once did she forget their faces. Not once did she forget their names as she would lie her head down at night... and count. “One, Dr. Kerrigan Edwards... Two, Chief Adam Porter... Three, Zachary. The. Fucking. Weasel.