Gamma looked through the two-way mirror into the room beyond. Inside there were ten people, of both sexes and varying ages. Standing by the mirror was Aranince with the smug smile on her face. Beside her was Medea.
"Now," Medea was saying. "I want you to spend the next week observing your subjects. Write down what you learn about them. Next week we'll start on your first empathic projection task."
"Yes Medea," Gamma replied solomnly, hoping she kept the nervousness out of her voice.
Aranince and Medea left.
**********
"So, how'd it go?" Beta asked her later.
Gamma shrugged.
"It was okay. Just doing observations at the moment."
"Don't worry," Delta said gleefully. "The fun really starts when you get to manipulate them."
Quinten rolled his eyes as he stabbed his food with the fork.
"Boring," Alpha dismissed.
"What would you know?" Delta scorned. "Your idea of manipulation is twisting an iron rod out of shape."
Alpha shrugged.
"And your idea of manipulation is giving people orders in telepathic form."
"They can't ignore me. And it's a lot more subtle than that," Delta objected.
"Okay, seriously?" Beta said. "You two, shut up. Besides, if anyone's going to be able to master the art of subtle manipulation here it's Gamma."
Gamma gave a weak smile.
"I mean, seriously, she could even be insigating this argument right now all by projecting a little irritation and aggression on us - well, you two, right now."
There was silence and everyone glanced at Gamma, whose eyes ad gone wide with alarm. She opened her mouth to protest when Quinten started laughing.
"Beta, Beta, Beta," he chuckled. "Like Alpha and Delta need any help getting into an argument."
Beta grinned back.