---Origins of The Human Psionic Network---
After first contact with the humans, the Tessary offered them a unique opportunity. The Tessary provided humanity the blueprint for the psionic network in exchange for their assistance in finding a means for the aliens to resettle and restore what they could of their race.
So it was that a brilliant, but grievously ill, young scientist that was assigned to help set up the infrastructure of the network. His name was Alexander Cyrus and from his earliest years he had been a child savant, being gifted and talented far above the scale for his age all through his life. The reason for his vast intellect was a malignant tumor embedded deep within his brain, too deep and too connected to too many vital neural functions to be safely operable. Cyrus realized, early in the project that the psionic network would need a highly advanced neural net to properly maintain it’s functions and, while such technology existed, it was far too inefficient for the task. Which left only one option: The most efficient and powerful neural net he knew of in existence was his own brain. And so, with help from the Tessary, Cyrus underwent the psionic augmentation, blasting open the limits of his mind and expanding his consciousness. He became the core of the human psionic network.
With the establishment of the psionic network, humans were able to undergo a similar, but less extreme version of Cyrus’ augmentation, resulting in them becoming linked to the network and gaining the ability to develop psionic powers. They were also mentally linked, both with each other and with Cyrus, since the network provided an open information exchange to take place. The psionic network was no place to have secrets, there was nowhere to hide sins or crimes from the minds of other psionics. But this was a small price to pay for the ability to instantly and effectively pass sensory data or thoughts to other psionics. During the process of mass augmentation, Cyrus started to have difficulty maintaining a conscious state. He would lapse into a catatonic state which was initially only an hour or two, but swiftly became longer and longer as more and more people became augmented. It’s not known whether the number of psionics linked to the network is the cause, or if it has something to do with his inoperable tumor, but all that is known is that Cyrus is slowly dying, and his periods of catatonia are getting longer and longer. His most recent catatonic state is close to reaching a year.
Within the network, psionics have reported getting flashes of information from Cyrus , usually disjointed thoughts, ideas and memories; a half-finished blueprint here, a memory of childhood there, a query about the thrust vectoring system of an orbital shuttle somewhere else. Most psionics find these intrusions unthreatening, but they are all uneasily aware of the fact that Cyrus is dying. Many of them have reported feelings of mortality in the wake of visions such as these.
Note: Even with the visions and feelings, psionics are not aware of the higher network that actually powers and filters the psionic network allowing this to be possible where the Minds of The Conduit (Alexander Cyrus) and his Apostles reside.
---Becoming a Psionic---
The process of psionic augmentation is long and involved, requiring deep cranial nano-surgery and a process that takes the brain almost to the point of complete brain-death. As such, the procedure is not always successful and an unsuccessful procedure is always fatal. As a result, there are still relatively few psionics active, though the numbers are slowly increasing. Once completed, the psionic is permanently and irrevocably connected to the psionic network, there is no ‘disconnecting’ or even ‘shielding’. A recent technological advancement in this field of research is the psi-collar, a device with a number of reactive crystals within its structure that resonate with the wearer’s unique psionic presence. The psi-collar then gives out a dissonant field which effectively blocks out the psionic network, cutting the psionic free of the network. This device is not, however, without side-effects. Prolonged use of the device can result in the wearer suffering from debilitating migraines, which cannot be medically treated and even wearing one for a short period of time can cause headaches and a lack of attentiveness in the wearer. Added to this, nearby psionics become aware of the collar-wearer, simply because they can feel the dissonance given off by the collar. Its use is currently rare.
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