Chapter Three

 

The great halls of the Mindmoon were awash with activity. Minds of all ranks were going about their daily duties of care and servitude, studying the mysteries of the psychic powers of the Minds and trying to create new and more effective uses for that power. New Minds in red robes went to their lessons, older Minds with years of experience taught them how to use these abilities. The underlying conversation to all mental contacts, however, was the disaster in enhancer three the night before.

Through all this fuss and movement strode Cheifmind Vasquid, letting his powerful visage and build part the multitudes before him. He carried a large silver cylinder protectively within his robes, and any who saw him in the hall knew where he was headed through rumour alone.

Vasquid came to his destination, a high pair of richly engraved doors that led to the Lordmind’s audience chamber. He adjusted his black robes to make himself as presentable as possible, and stretched out his thoughts to the door controls. They snapped open, and the doors slid apart.

Inside the large chamber was a simple affair. A long table at the far end of the room sat seven, although there were only four seated there at this moment. Long pews stretched left and right, with a flagstone aisle running up to the table. The table was raised a few feet, with a short ramp allowing access to the platform. The ceiling was high and swathed in darkness, as was almost every room on the Mindmoon.

Behind the table was a wide stained window, which showed the vista of the airless moon outside, with low ragged mountains and featureless plains. Beyond the horizon was the shining half-disc of the planet Fedarn, the home of Prime Lord Paol Kreaiden. It shone bright and blue, making a sharp contrast to the star-studded blackness beyond.

Vasquid marched the length of the hall, his boots hardly making a sound as their soft soles brushed with the stone beneath. He walked up the ramp to the table, and stood expectantly.

Regarding him was both Lordmind Estoor and Mothermind Loritacia. Both wore expressionless faces. The other two were their advisors, Cheifminds of both sexes who had powerful abilities.

Before Vasquid could speak, Lordmind Estoor thought to him, “We have been expecting a report. It has almost been a whole orbit since Mind Gilgalen died. I expected something before this.”

   “My apologies, Lordmind, but this has been a most perplexing case.”

Before Estoor could reply with a biting thought, Mothermind Loritacia interceded. “Have attaches been despatched to Chinngard?”

   “Yes, Mothermind, they left after breakfast. They should be arriving as we speak.”

   “Who has been sent?” Estoor demanded, trying to take control of the conversation again.

   “As you instructed, Lordmind, Cheifmind Posht and your personal acolyte Mind Hillit have been sent, with the Mothermind’s own representatives, Cheifmind Hollia and Mind True. They will report to us first chance they get.”

   “Good,” Loritacia thought with an air of satisfaction. “But why has Cheifmind Posht been sent? I thought he was more of an inquisitor than an investigator.”

Estoor looked at her, his expression trying to convey sarcastic disbelief at the Mothermind’s naivetes.

   “What do you have for us, Mind Vasquid?” Estoor asked with a sense of impatience.

The cylinder was brought forth from the folds of Vasquid’s robes, and he presented it to them as if handing over a sacred relic. He turned the object on one end, and inserted it into a recess in the table designed to take it. He then pressed a stud on the top of the cylinder and stepped back.

The top of the cylinder folded open like flower petals, the seams and joins almost unnoticable, as if it had freshly split. A beam of light expanded upwards, and then split open to make a huge vision of charts and tables which rapidly changed and fluctuated. The hologram settled and awaited further instructions.

Vasquid motioned to the hanging image. “I have had Techminds work all day on enhancer three to find any discernible problem with the machine. As you all know, the enhancers are designed to amplify thoughts and brainwaves and cast them over great distances, in this case to Chinngard, the planet of Familee. The charts you saw earlier was the machine starting up and positioning itself for transmission.”

   “Then this is a recording of the machine at the time of the accident?” enquired the Mothermind.

   “Correct. The machine had been broken by the immense psychic output of Mind Gilgalen at the time of the incident. The Techminds could find nothing wrong with the machine, and luckily the main recorder had been undamaged.

   “This is the beginning.”

The hologram shifted and showed a blue line, top to bottom, swinging left to right repeatedly across the image.

   “At this point, Mind Gilgalen is orientating himself with the power of the enhancer as it scans for a return signal from Chinngard. The growing light in the centre is Mind Gilgalen entering the machine’s system. The light represents his thoughts.”

And so it did. The light was a perfectly symmetrical diamond, which gave an indication of the doctrine of all Minds, to remain always in a functional and ordered state. The light grew until it dominated the centre of the image.

   “Now transmission commences. As you can see, the blue line stops swinging and stays in the centre of the image. The other blue line swinging from top to bottom is the enhancer on Chinngard attempting contact. Both Mind’s merge... now.”

Both blue lines, the one that had been swinging left to right and the other, less bright line which had been swinging up and down were now a perfect cross on the hologram, the centre of which lay dead centre of Gilgalen’s diamond. They buzzed and wavered.

   “What is happening?” thought the Lordmind. “Is this where the problems start?”

   “No, Lordmind, that is normal. Each line wavers in turn, indicating contact has been made and communicating has begun. The lines wobble when either Mind is conversing. This goes on for several minutes. I have edited out those minutes on this recording.”

Lordmind Estoor glowered at Vasquid. “This is a recording? How many of these recordings have you made?”

   “Well... this is the only one, Lordmind, that is complete. There are several partial copies that I have left with the Techminds to study and analyse.”

   “I want those copies erased, and the staff assigned to this investigation brought down to a minimum. I don’t want everyone on this damn moon knowing about this.”

Vasquid was confused, and so, evidently, was the Mothermind. She looked at Estoor in surprise, but declined to say anything. She knew that he would justify his actions in some way whilst patronising her in the process. She didn’t want their rivalry clouding this meeting.

   “As you wish. This is the moment where things go wrong.”

   The image was still comprised of the diamond and lines, and the watchers wondered if they had missed something. Suddenley, a small-distorted ball of light appeared at one corner and grew larger. It was a ball of multi-coloured light, growing slowly and heaving like a suspended droplet of water.

   “This reading indicates something being picked up by the enhancer accidentally as it gains full power. We sometimes get this reading if enhancer attendants do not shield their thoughts properly and allow their patterns to be detected. This strange pattern, however, indicates a Mind not trained, and from it’s faded luminescence it emanated from Chinngard.”

The four around the table looked at each other confusedly, all except the Mothermind, who gazed with unmasked fascination at the new light. The others noticed her scrutiny.

Lordmind Estoor nudged her with a small psychic push. “Is there something you would like to share with us, Mothermind Loritacia?”

The Mothermind stood, as if leaning closer to the already huge image would make it clearer to her.

   “That light. That small light.”

   “What does it mean?” enquired one of the advisors.

   “When one of my Minds give birth, we scan the new-born’s mind to detect powers at infancy. The very few times we have successfully scanned them we get images like that on our recordings. That coloured light indicates a baby has been born with the talent. Born whilst these two Minds conversed over the enhancers.”

The Lordmind looked at Vasquid. “And this caused the accident? The birth of a child?”

   “No, Lordmind, it would take something far more powerful than this. We gather Mind Filli was passing to Gilgalen her weekly reports, maybe even something to do with this birth. Of course, we will never know what conversation took place between them, unless Mind Filli lives.”

One of the advisors cut in. “I heard that Baron Familee’s wife was pregnant. I heard she conceived many months ago. I wonder if this could be her child?”

   “That will not be ascertained until the attaches report later, Cheifmind,” Vasquid commented. “It is what happens next which is most perplexing.”

Vasquid’s ominous tone caused all but Lordmind Estoor to lean forward expectantly, watching for anything untoward.

It was over in a matter of seconds. From the lower left corner, directly opposite the indication of a birth, a light spread rapidly until it connected with the crossed lines. Then the image flashed and faded to nothing. The hologram sat idle in standby mode.

The flash made the scrutinisers jump, falling against the back of their seats in confusion. Estoor, the most concerned of all, looked from Vasquid to the faded image several times before demanding, “What was that?”

The Cheifmind shrugged, and reset the cylinder to replay the last image in slow motion. “We have no clue to its origin or identification. The only thing we do know is that was definitely a psychic pulsing or we would not have detected it on the enhancer recorder. See.”

The image played slowly, the lines wavering as if tired or weightless. The light from the corner began as a tiny dot of white, which expanded in the direction of the diamond’s centre. It spread like frost, even sharing the crystal-like characteristics of shape and movement. It was impossibly white, spreading out, looking cold and making the watchers feel the same way. As it touched the centre, where the lines crossed, it blossomed as if touching a live wire and exploded. The lines, almost obscured by the light, seemed to shatter and shrivel like burning string. The whole image burned for a few more seconds and then vanished. “It was at that point enhancer three shorted out, but the other enhancer recorders detected the impact. It appears the two Minds were still trapped by the connection, unable to pull from it with the help of the enhancer. That is what killed Gilgalen. He was as naked to the depths of space as if he was floating there himself. We can only assume Mind Filli suffered the same fate.”

Silence. Speculation. Vasquid felt secretly pleased he had impressed his audience, but that pleasure slipped away when he looked at Lordmind Estoor.

Estoor propped his elbows on the table and rubbed his eyes. He then pointed at the image.

   “Have you ever seen a mental image like that before?”

   “Never, Lordmind. No recording has ever looked like that. Even the most powerful Minds this moon has ever known could not produce such a pattern. It was an intelligent pattern, yes, with symmetrical lining and form, but it was completely alien to us.”

   “You say the word ‘alien’ as if you have already come to some conclusions of your own, Cheifmind Vasquid.”

Vasquid said nothing, and just looked at Estoor. He did not want to say anything that could be twisted or used against him should his theory be incorrect. “I will say that the signal came from the direction of the core of the Setnin Sector, but it could have simply been emanating from a starship travelling between destinations, a trader or a courier.”

Although the advisors nodded agreement, it was obvious they were far from convinced that a ship happened by at that time and, by coincidence, had something on board that could produce such an effect. In the light of the available evidence, there were not many theories to speculate.

Lordmind Estoor sighed deeply, his forehead so screwed up in concentration it appeared he had aged dramatically. He kept his thoughts heavily shielded.

   “It appears we have a new-born child on Chinngard with the talent, and an unidentified source of a mental signal so strong it killed two of our Minds. We can only pursue the available course of action, and that is to find out more about this child. Inform Cheifmind Posht of the infant when he communicates and tell him to obtain the baby.” Estoor stood as if the instructions were clear and would be carried out with no opposition. He shoved his chair back to leave, indicating the meeting was over.

But Mothermind Loritacia had other thoughts on the matter.

   “Lordmind Estoor, we are all aware of your unflinching ability to get what you want when you want it. There is one problem you have not considered. The mother of the child, Baroness Familee, may be less than willing to give up the child.”

   “She is required to. All fresh Minds must be bought to the Mindmoon for training. It is a fact.”

The Mothermind sighed and shook her head as if being patient with an unruly child. “I think we all know of the Baron’s distrust of the Mind doctrine, and this is not just a civilian family we are talking about. It is the child of one of the Barons of the Ki-Ki Sector.”

As if contemplating the matter for the first time, Estoor stood silent, again pondering the possible problems the Baron would give him over the transfer of his child. Then another thought entered his mind.

   “It has not yet been ascertained whose child this is. It could simply be the baby of a servant or civilian on Chinngard. Anyway, if the Baron refuses the handing over of any child I will simply inform the Prime Lord of his defiance and take the child whether he agrees or not. She must be studied.”

   “There is one small matter, Lordmind,” the Mothermind continued. “It is doubtful whether the Prime Lord will get involved. His daughter is the Baron’s wife, after all. Julid Familee was once part of the Kreaiden bloodline.”

Estoor only smiled. “That is a well known fact. What is not so well known is that she married the Baron against the Prime Lord’s wishes. The Prime Lord has long had a dislike for Familee. It is the only planet that stands against him, voices opinions against his own. Very impertinent for a new world of the Ki-Ki Sector. I think the Prime Lord would like to get involved and stir the pot for stirring’s sake.”

Cheifmind Vasquid had disconnected the cylinder and taken a few steps backwards. “I have prepared a report for the Prime Lord to read, Lordmind.”

   “Well, keep it to yourself, Vasquid. I will inform the Prime Lord of this matter when I know more of it myself. There’s no sense making a panic so early when there is nothing solid to panic about.”

   “When Cheifmind Posht reports, inform him of the entire situation. Also tell him of the possibility of a newborn Mind in the Familee palace, and tell him to give enough details to the parent to hint at the power of the child and nothing more, even if it is the Baron. Then tell him to communicate with an answer.” The Lordmind, satisfied the point had been made, swept from the hall in a flurry of reflecting material. His advisor and Vasquid followed.

Mothermind Loritacia stood and slowly walked to a side exit with her advisor, who looked at her gravely.

   “Mothermind, if I may be so bold.”

With a nod for confirmation, the advisor continued. “Lordmind Estoor is acting out of desire for knowledge and is not considering the consequences of his actions. Taking a child from a bloodline will sew more seeds of distrust throughout the Ki-Ki Sector. It is not as if our position is stable as it is. It wouldn’t take much for the Prime Lord to decide that the holonet way of communication is a good idea, and then we lose our power over the Ki-Ki Sector.”

   “I understand your concern, Cheifmind, but Estoor has the final word on all matters concerning the welfare of the Mindmoon and it’s purpose. As narrow-minded as he is, we must find out more of this situation. I agree, he is handling this most unprofessionally. Did I hear Vasquid say that Mind Hillit was part of the attaché to Chinngard?”

   “You did.”

   “Then when Cheifmind Hollia reports in inform her of the situation. Also tell Mind True. Are she and Mind Hillit still... together?” She smiled as she formed the last part of the sentence. The advisor smiled back. “That is correct. They have been seeing quite a lot of each other recently.”

   “Then it may be prudent to see if Hillit has anything interesting to say during their meetings. I understand he has quite a mouth on him. Can’t resist spreading rumour.”

The advisor, not wholly comfortable with the idea of using a Mind to spy on her lover during private moments for information, nodded and hurried off to make the necessary arrangements.