Override (Glitch)

projection inside my head. It was a strange sensation; I could sense movement tugging at my scalp and from behind my eyes, like ants crawling in my skull. I tried to ignore it and focus on my objectives.
    Moving bodies dotted my mind’s projection. One right outside the Med Center had the bulk of an ex-Reg. I paused, then continued exploring down the hallways. There, another one was in the corner of the Caf. The third stood by the wash-down station at the exit, and the fourth … where was the fourth?
    I passed body after body—too slim, too short—but still couldn’t find the fourth ex-Reg. I breathed deep and pushed out a little farther, up the elevator shaft and all the way to the transport bay. I hadn’t gone this far before, and the projection shimmered and faltered in my head, as if it would collapse at any moment. I gritted my teeth and took several moments just to breathe, holding the image still. Two people stood in the transport bay, but one was larger than the other. Definitely an ex-Reg. He was standing beside the largest transport vehicle.
    I squeezed my eyes shut tighter, only holding on to the four ex-Regs and letting some of the other details of the rooms go. These were my targets. I pushed past their skin, through the metal and muscle and all the way to their spines. I counted down the notched vertebrae from the top to the C2. Jilia had assured me spinal reattachment was an easy surgery. I was glad to have found an alternative to killing the Regs. Even Taylor had reluctantly approved.
    I stayed there a moment, holding the four spines with my mind before pulling back out of their bodies to the hardened plaster poles they held in their hands. I snapped all four poles at the same time, feeling them clatter to the floor beside the ex-Regs. I finally breathed out and pulled back.
    I’d learned to sever my telek connection gradually, since doing it too quickly left me dizzy and nauseated. I slowly worked my way back, letting each room dissolve in my mind’s projection cube until I was back in my own body, looking out of my own eyes.
    I felt Taylor’s narrowed gaze on me. “It’s done.”
    “Good,” she said. “Let’s keep going, to make sure your stamina can hold up. Can you continue?”
    I swallowed. The truth was I felt light-headed and tired, but I didn’t want to admit it. “Be honest, Zoe,” said Jilia gently. “It won’t help anyone if you get on-site and aren’t able to perform.”
    “I can keep going.”
    “Good,” Taylor said. “Get into your suit; I’ll meet you in the transport bay.” She spun on her heel and left without another word.
    I changed and took the elevator up. The bay was a low, wide space, with steel struts crisscrossed over our heads and down the walls. It was open to the Surface on one side, an uneven rectangle of light so bright I had to look away. I tugged nervously on my glove and took one more glance back at the green beyond the opening. I shivered despite the warmth of the suit.
    General Taylor stood off to the side with Rand and one of the ex-Regs. A mountainous jumble of metal was beside Rand, melted beyond recognition. Parts burned orange around the edges. The ex-Reg, Eli, reached forward with a coolant tank. He released the top valve and liquid sprayed over the melted slag. Steam billowed off in clouds, but it didn’t injure the ex-Reg’s metal reinforced hands.
    I came forward, familiar with the routine. Since we didn’t have spare giant metal doors lying around, Taylor had us train with a pile of steel left over from construction on the Foundation. Rand melted down more metal into the heap each day, making it heavier and heavier. By the time I reached them, the steam was gone, and only a swath of glistening icy coolant was left behind on the surface.
    “Lift it,” Taylor said, a bit unnecessarily. I’d been doing this all week; I knew the drill. I closed my eyes and let the telek expand again. Almost immediately the transport bay filled the projection cube in my mind. I surrounded the slab of metal with my telek.
    It was melted solid into the rock underneath, but as I poured more of my energy out, like a web surrounding it, I felt the satisfaction of knowing it didn’t matter. Weight didn’t matter, gravity didn’t matter. It was an object filling a space, and I could move any object as I chose. I knew later I’d feel the exhaustion of having used so much energy. But right now all I felt was the powerful sense of being in control.