Transference — Susannah J. Bell

A mindwalker is in hiding on the edge of the Sigma Sector, where the Fleet are still a rumour.

Flesh body. Forty. File clerk. Space station. Planet Nigel. Sigma Sector: every morning Victor Gomenzi has to remind himself who he is, where he is â€" and what he is.

Victor Gomenzi is a mindwalker.

On the run from Sigma agents, Gomenzi is hiding out on Nigel, tenth rate industrial colony world culturally disconnected from the Sigma Sector. He works on Nigel's space station as an official spy for the government, extracting data for the vice president using the standard procedure. He tries not to mindwalk too much, but it's hard to resist.

On twelve Sigma planets laws have been passed against mindwalking â€" yet mindwalkers are a myth, like vampires. Meanwhile, in the Church of SPIT, priests study the doctrines given to them by the Fleet. No one has met the Fleet. No one knows who they are. Except Gomenzi.

Always on the prowl, he destroys the lives of everyone around him: ex-wife and brilliant scientist Aster; shy and virginal girlfriend Tess; snack-munching workmate Tidman; insanely ambitious boss Admiral Grote. And countless others on the space station whose minds he rips apart in order to experience an emotion. Any emotion will do. He wants nothing more than to go home to Dirtball â€" Earth. But his twin brother Vincent is after him and Vincent works for the Fleet.

The first novel in the Fleet Quintet, TRANSFERENCE enters the psyche of a ruthless mindwalker.