Im looking for a book I would have read sometime after 2010 in YA (probably, I was like 14) Sci-Fi where different humanoid civilizations "unlock" the brain to allow for telepathy, clairvoyance, and telekinesis. These civilizations also have advanced space travel vessels and are peaceful. Not sure if the travel was interplanetary, interstellar, or intergalactic. Anyway, these 'developed' civilizations monitor other humanoid civilizations that are developing nuclear tech. The idea is that technological advancement brings humans to a crossroads where they can either destroy themselves via nuclear warfare or expand into space using new tech. The monitoring by the developed humanoids is strictly non-interventionist, they send people there whose physical characteristics match the natives so they can avoid detection. Those people then infiltrate society to observe and try to understand what makes a planet go one way or the other.
The plot of the book centers on a female character sent to a planet to do this observation/monitoring. She ends up in prison, where they cut off her hair (this is a majorly shameful thing in the planet she is observing's culture but not hers so she doesn't really care). There's a scene where she clairvoyantly "sees" into a vent duct in her prison cell and she talks about how this is not one of her strong suits in ESP, like she doesn't have a natural talent for clairvoyance like she does for telepathy or telekinesis.
Through flashbacks you learn that her alien partner fell in love with one of the natives and ended up giving him access to alien tech, including one of their starships. This worries the main character and the people she reports to because it could trigger the first interplanetary war if this civilization replicates the starship and colonizes other planets without resolving their own planetary/species
conflict. Then they might start a war using the advanced starships and their dangerous nuclear weapons.
I dont remember any of the character names unfortunately, and I know this is a ton of information so any help finding this book would be appreciated.
The plot of the book centers on a female character sent to a planet to do this observation/monitoring. She ends up in prison, where they cut off her hair (this is a majorly shameful thing in the planet she is observing's culture but not hers so she doesn't really care). There's a scene where she clairvoyantly "sees" into a vent duct in her prison cell and she talks about how this is not one of her strong suits in ESP, like she doesn't have a natural talent for clairvoyance like she does for telepathy or telekinesis.
Through flashbacks you learn that her alien partner fell in love with one of the natives and ended up giving him access to alien tech, including one of their starships. This worries the main character and the people she reports to because it could trigger the first interplanetary war if this civilization replicates the starship and colonizes other planets without resolving their own planetary/species
conflict. Then they might start a war using the advanced starships and their dangerous nuclear weapons.
I dont remember any of the character names unfortunately, and I know this is a ton of information so any help finding this book would be appreciated.
