Yo, Krycheck...whose your daddy?

I have long wondered how Krychek's parents could have produced such a powerful child....now I think I know. Its kind of hard to explain but here goes nothing.

Psy don't practice intimate reproduction. Most of them conceive through artificial means. Multiple eggs and sperm are taken from the prospective parents, analyzed by doctors for genetic defects and then put together in a way that ensures optimal results.

Now let's say you're a low gradient telepath working at one of these facilities and one of the zygotes you have just finished creating shows tremendous potential. You might just keep that zygote for yourself and implant one of the others into the client. Then you and your partner conspire to implant yourself and pass the resultant child off as your own. DNA scanners aren't perfect and Psy are definitely corruptible, so it wouldn't be too difficult to convince others (outside the facility) that he was your child.

I can see it's a possibility, but what will it benefit the thieves to steal a baby and pass it as their own?

The Psy has been conditioned not to feel emotions, so...to feel proud of a child's accomplishments is a sign of weakening.

It's hard to explain. ^^

To steal someone's child because it promises to be high gradient implies a desire to be recognized or applauded or something. The Psy consider children, not as someone to be proud of, or to love, but as genetic legacy. So to steal defeats that purpose.

Beside, it's too early for them to know if they're handling high gradient babies. The abilities haven't even developed yet to be graded.

The risk of getting caught too is probably high, because these Psy will ensure that no such 'accidents' happen to their 'genetic legacy'. So risks outweighs benefits methinks. :3

Two thoughts for you:

1) low gradients couldn't possibly be as thoroughly Silenced as high gradients. Not only do they not need such thorough conditioning but the dissonance pain controls (which are tied to a Psy's talent) can't be as powerful because the talent isn't as powerful.

2) Psy aren't allowed to feel emotion but they are allowed to be ambitious and producing a cardinal is a worthy goal. Nikita took great pride (for lack of a better word) in having produced a Cardinal. She tells Enrique: "I chose her father with great care to the mixing of our genes. And I produced a cardinal." Later, when the Scotts attacked her in Council for having produced a failed Psy, Marshal comes to her defense and says: "Nikita produced a cardinal—how many cardinals in your family tree, Shoshanna?" I can imagine Kaleb's parents saying something similar, "I may be a weak Psy but I produced a Cardinal. How many cardinals are in your family tree?"

Yes, maybe they'll have the motive, but to actually risk it?

When a high gradient child, especially of Kaleb's caliber is born, I'd think they'd perform further tests to confirm that two low gradient tp did indeed produced such a child.
Simply because it sounds improbable. You know, just to double check things, make sure there was no mix up.
Where would that leave the thieves then?

Yurice wrote:Yes, maybe they'll have the motive, but to actually risk it?

When a high gradient child, especially of Kaleb's caliber is born, I'd think they'd perform further tests to confirm that two low gradient tp did indeed produced such a child.
Simply because it sounds improbable. You know, just to double check things, make sure there was no mix up.
Where would that leave the thieves then?

It would leave them in a Hell of a lot of trouble. On the othe rhand, the baby will have born and you don't just destroy a perfectly good cardinal....so that might be why he has been raised in an institution.

Yes, so not only will they get punished, everyone will know that the child isn't theirs.
So they can't make claims of producing/having a cardinal either. They only dug a hole to bury themselves in.^^

BUT....if Council or the lab's administrators didn't want the truth to get out, they might just go ahead and let Krycheck remain his parents child of record.

After all, if it got out that these lab people stole other peoples genetic material then other high gradient and powerful Psy might wonder if their genetic material was stolen. The facility would be sued or maybe even shut down.

My dog is distracting the Hell out of me, at the moment so this response isn't as well reasoned as it could be but hopefully you get my drift.

The thing is, as long as Kaleb and his parents exists, anyone with the means can perform tests to confirm parentage. Well of course they probably have to give consent, but with Kaleb becoming a councilor, his background will come under heavy scrutiny.
They won't have to dig up old records, they'll just perform new tests.

I can see the lab trying to hide it, but the council? I can see them trying to bring each other down the moment they see an opportunity, not work to protect the others's interests.

And the risk that the institution /facility can get sued or shut down if they breached patient confidentiality or violated rules makes it even more unlikely that the higher ups of such institutions won't ensure their employees maintain the standards.

Kaleb isn't likely to submit to a blood test (and he's too powerful to be forced) and if his "parents" were caught stealing...then they're probably not still around.

Doesn't even need blood, just hair with follicles will do. ^^

But that's not the point.
It will serve Kaleb's interests more to list high gradients as his parents, instead of low Tp ones. For one thing, it won't bring his heritage into question, less to get suspicious about.

So, if the ' parents' aren't around, they were caught, then that means the truth is out. They won't punish someone if they haven't done anything illegal.

To do a bit of recap, because this is beginning to confuse me. Lol

Suppose the 'parents' have enough motive to pass off a child not their own...

Two low Tp parents producing a cardinal will stick out as odd, if not remarkable.
Being Psy who collates data, it will be logical to backtrack, confirm that these two indeed were the parents.
Just this high possibility of getting caught should have been enough of a deterrent to actually commit the act, for anyone. Specially if the penalty is rehabilitation.

Who would risk their lives for a goal, even one as grand as having a cardinal in the lineage, if they won't be around to enjoy it?

Now let's say, two were foolish enough to risk it.
One possible scenario is if they are caught, but the lab/facility will do a cover up to avoid being shut down etc. It would make more sense if they listed the parents as high gradients rather than low, just to lessen the suspicions and possibly doing a reinvestigation.

The other scenario, is in which they didn't get caught.
How likely is this happening? Specially if they will do background checks on Kaleb as he is now under heavy scrutiny as a councilor, with all his political enemies digging up his past and heritage. It spells doom.

I just can't see how they'll get away with it.

Yeah, you're probably right. :-/

Did you really call this thread "Yo Krycheck, whose your daddy?"? Did you really? I'm not just hallucinating? God, so made of win.

Thanks! (I was a little hyper last night!)

Katherine, gotta say, I love the title of this topic!

I know it! I know it! He was adopted by the low scala psy peoplz aaaaand he's got some changeling heritage. Think about it, those low scala psy peoplz adopted Kaleb so he would be raised by them as long as he was not usefull enough for Enrique. His real parents are some forgottens.
Before you throw stones at me: Someone once said (I think Dev) that there was a boy who went insane because he heard voices in his head. He was a cardinal just without the typicall eyes and an orphan so no one knew.
Muhaaha, think about it, Kaleb is actually a figther for the forgotten!!1 Like Snape.

1. Anthony is Kalebs Daddy.
2. Kaleb is some Frankenstein-Monster. You know like taking-sperm-from-like-20-males-and-create-the-perfect-psy.

But it was made pretty clear that the generation of the Forgotten now and the Psy aren't the same race anymore, not really. I think in Dev's and Katya's book that was made pretty clear because he couldn't get her into the Forgotten's net. Their abilities are different, their minds work differently. Far shot imo.

If they've listed his parents as unknown, I would believe the franken Kaleb one. Lol!
He's a dual cardinal! As if people weren't already impressed with his skills! XD

Bella171901 wrote:
2. Kaleb is some Frankenstein-Monster. You know like taking-sperm-from-like-20-males-and-create-the-perfect-psy.

Then what does that make Keenan?

Yurice wrote:If they've listed his parents as unknown, I would believe the franken Kaleb one. Lol!
He's a dual cardinal! As if people weren't already impressed with his skills! XD

His parents aren't listed as 'unknown', they are referred to as 'low gradient telepaths'.

I know, I haven't forgotten the quote from VoH you showed me the other day. XD

Which is why I said 'if'. Though I can see how my post can be misleading...don't know how to phrase it differently though. Lol.

Katherine wrote:

Bella171901 wrote:
2. Kaleb is some Frankenstein-Monster. You know like taking-sperm-from-like-20-males-and-create-the-perfect-psy.

Then what does that make Keenan?

Frankeensta n

maybe Enrique 'created' him?

My opinion - Kaleb is a throwback augmented by inbreeding to create an impossibility - a double cardinal.

degdelta wrote:My opinion - Kaleb is a throwback augmented by inbreeding to create an impossibility - a double cardinal.

That's......definitely a possibility.