Dr. Tachyon

Dr. Tachyon (Takisian given name Tisianne brant T'sara sek Halima sek Ragnar sek Omian) is a character from the Wild Cards series of books. He was created for the books by Melinda M. Snodgrass. Tachyon is a geneticist from the planet Takis, whose people naturally developed various telepathic powers. Interbreeding among these psionic peoples created a royal caste system and various specified powers. Tachyon's royal house of Ilkazam created what human doctors called "Xenovirus Takis-A" -- the Wild Card virus. The virus (known to the Takisians as "the Enhancer"), was intended to boost their own natural psionic powers, allowing his House to conquer their rivals. To avoid the side-effects, it was decided to test the virus on an isolated population with the same DNA as Takisians - the humans of Earth. Tisianne protested this decision. He then tried to stop his partners from testing the virus on Earth, without success, since he had personally been responsible for achieving enough success in getting the virus to its present testable stage. When the virus was released, he worked among the "jokers", physically deformed and mutated victims of the virus, guilt-stricken over his responsibility for their suffering. Of course, Tachyon was not so anguished that he refrained from hobnobbing with celebrities, politicians, and many "aces", those rare humans successfully granted paranormal abilities by the Enhancer. His nickname came from the scientists who worked with him and is a reference to the tachyon particles used by his ship's faster than light drive - his own name was prohibitively long, and hard to pronounce. His normal telepathic powers include skilled mind reading, thought projection, and the ability to physically control up to three human bodies, in totality, while simultaneously reading their minds and projecting his own thoughts to them. These powers can be reduced by extreme physical, emotional, or psychological stress.