Microstory 201: Advisors and Advocates

Odalis and Isabelle Salomon were brother and sister, and Generation Two anomalies with complementary abilities. Odalis could look into people’s pasts, and Isabelle could look into their futures. At first, Isabelle stayed away from her ability, having the wisdom to understand that knowing the future can make things worse. After all the problems that came with the first couple of decades for Bellevue, the world was operating at a pretty decent level. Odalis began his career working for the Kansas City Police Department. He would look into a suspect’s past experiences, and know whether they were at fault for the crime or not. Legislation was passed, preventing him from divulging the details of his visions. His was a chiefly binary response. Was the suspect guilty of the crime in question, or innocent? Any unrelated crime—or any other event, for that matter—that Odalis witnessed was strictly to be kept secret out of respect for the civilian’s privacy. After some scientific progress, further legislation, and the right amount of money, Odalis was rendered obsolete. He continued to work for the police, but he no longer needed to. They had successfully replicated his ability with technology so that any certified Flashbacker was capable of performing this task. Within a year, this position was being filled in practically every district of the world. Feeling inadequate and unfulfilled, and after the prodding of some new associates, Odalis refocused his purpose. He and his new team realized that those not found guilty still had problems of their own. He formed a small organization designed to help these people. Sometimes they would catch criminals, sometimes prevent premeditated crimes, and sometimes they would just provide emotional and psychological support. Verner Holt was working as a psychiatrist at the time, and limited his practice to spend time working with Odalis’ clients. Around the same time that this was happening, Isabelle was having her own epiphany. She had just been given a job as a primary school librarian in a district primarily serving low income and troubled families. She began to use her ability as well, looking into the futures of her students to see whether they were headed in the right direction. She formed a little committee of sorts with other teachers. They went above and beyond their responsibility, and started to pay extra attention to the children who needed help most. Odalis and Isabelle provided unexpected assistance for hundreds of people over the years, and they all went out to impact the lives of thousands more. They and their teams were instrumental in shaping the future of the planet, and creating the evidence that ultimately allowed it to be inducted into an interstellar cooperative.