Golden Torc - 2 by Julian May Page B

small coins or half-chewed bones, according to the quality of the talent displayed. The Exalted Personages supped in a more refined fashion; but down near one end of the High Table, where Aiken was seated opposite two nobles attired in rose and gold, there was a good deal of rowdy laughter and cupthumping going on.
    The Queen said, "Tell dear Bryan about our gift of the torcs, Thaggy."
    "Tell us both," Elizabeth said, with her most Mona Lisa smile.
    The King wagged a finger at the farspeaker. "Barriers still up, little love? That'll never do, you know. Honey-wine is what you need. Is there anything else I can tempt you with?" Nontusvel covered her mouth and spluttered with stately mirth.
    "Your Majesty is a most gracious host." Elizabeth raised her goblet to him. "Please continue your fascinating history."
    "Where was I?.. Torcs for the humans! Well, you have to understand that true fellowship between us Tanu and you people wasn't something that could spring up full-grown in a year or two. There was the genetic compatibility, with advantages that were manifest but not well understood. We bestowed honorary golden torcs on Greggy and Tasha in gratitude for their efforts. They weren't latents, as it turned out, and not all that psychoadaptive, either. And then Iskender-Kernonn came through and domesticated the animals and we gave him an honorary torc."
    "Poor dear Isky," the Queen lamented, emptying her goblet. A waiter filled it immediately. "Snatched from us by the Firvulag and their bestial coterie of Lowlives!"
    "And then about forty years ago Eusebio came through and did such brilliant work improving the rama torcs, being a psychobiologist back in the Milieu and the first person who seemed to understand the theory behind the torcs. So we gave him a gold, too, and named him Gomnol. And damned if the man didn't turn out to be a superlative latent coercer, for all that he's an ugly little runt! What a shock for us!"
    "You hadn't known about the human metapsychic latency factor before?" Elizabeth asked.
    "We are an old, old race," the Queen admitted, "afflicted with a certain scientific languor." A tear stole from one sapphire eye and trickled down her flawless cheek, splashing into the cushioned depths of her corsage. She took consolation from the cup.
    "As Nonnie says," the King resumed, "we're an ancient race. Rather decadent in certain disciplines, I fear. And our own small faction, which as you may know fled our home galaxy under duress, was even less scientifically inclined than the common ruck of Tanu... No, except for Brede (who doesn't really count), we didn't understand how the torcs worked to make our own metafunctions operant, and we didn't try very hard to understand the powers themselves. They were there, if you follow me. We didn't worry overmuch about the whys and wherefores, so human latency came as a complete surprise. As Gomnol pointed out, you humans didn't know your own minds and bodies for ninetynine pip niner per centum of your racial history, either! So don't sneer at us. Where was I?... Oh, yes. Latent humans. Well, when Gomnol got his golden torc and went meta, he connected the whole thing in a flash. The Tanu are latents and so are normal humans, some more, but most very much less, even to the point of nullity. In your future world, the babies that are potential operants are detected and later trained up by farsensing and redactive practitioners such as this Illustrious Lady." He gave a courtly nod to Elizabeth. "Since no operants came through the time-portal in those days, and since our torc-enhanced powers are shaky in detecting human latents, Gomnol decided that we must make ourselves a mechanical device for mental assay of the human population. He worked out the gadget that tested you folks back at Castle Gateway. We have others at our principal cities to catch the latents that elude us because of mental turmoil during the initial testing. There are a fair number of slip-throughs." He scowled