“I’ll get a message pod off to Tondor immediately. It’s too bad that we didn’t set up a DSC unit back on Goo’Waddle,” he added. “As it is now it will take months before we receive anything back.”
“True, but that can’t be helped. Until things are more stable, we need to keep the DSC out of the hands of outsiders.”
We were interrupted by a knock at the door. Marranalis opened it to find A’Lappe and Dr. Hughes standing there.
“By the stars,” Marranalis muttered, “I never thought I would see the day when A’Lappe would knock on a door instead of just magically appearing in the middle of the room uninvited.”
A’Lappe completely ignored Marranalis’s comment and said, “Tibby, I have Dr. Hughes as you requested.”
“Good. If you all will excuse me a few moments once again,” I said as I stepped out of the door and led A’Lappe and Dr. Hughes across the corridor to the small conference room.
“Is there something special you need, Tibby?” Dr. Hughes asked with a concerned look on his face once we were inside the room
“Yes there is, Doctor. I’m assuming that as a psychiatrist that you know hypnosis?” I asked.
“Why yes, but we seldom use it anymore these days. We have electronic devices that assist with retrieving memories that are more reliable.” Dr. Hughes replied.
“I wasn’t planning on having you assist in recovering memories,” I answered. I was hoping you might be able to implant false memories in someone.”
“Well, theoretically it’s possible, but ethically I can’t do that, it would violate my Hippocratic Oath, and I could have my medical license revoked if I did.” He answered with a look of shock on his face.
I chuckled, “Doctor, I don’t think anyone is going to revoke your medical license, since there is no one left to revoke it. Secondly, I’m not sure that psychiatry is even recognized in the Federation, so I don’t think you have anything to fear there, either. As for ethical, well let me explain what I have in mind, and then you decide.”
I briefly related to the doctor our problems with the Brotherhood, the battle to acquire the ship and how it was destroyed in the hangar and about Commander Gatsner and the information we had extracted from him. I explained my promise I had made to release him in exchange for his cooperation.
“I see, but I don’t understand what that has to do with me and hypnosis,” he answered when I was through.
“We need to keep our encounter with Gatsner a secret, specifically the information that we retrieved from him. Additionally, we need to make sure that anything he may have learned about us and our defenses, and particularly information I let slip about the FSO, never gets back to the Brotherhood. While there are no indications that we have from the headband readings during his interview that Gatsner would reveal any of what has taken place here, there is no way of knowing what might happen if the Brotherhood got hold of him later and what he might tell them then. What I propose we do is have A’Lappe erase his memories of the past few hours, and I want you to implant a false memory of him escaping, finding a still functioning shuttle in the hangar bay and stealing it. He’ll find the 500,000 chip credits I promised him aboard the ship but will think of them as being lucky. I want you also to implant the idea that he needs to get away from the Brotherhood and the Federation and seek a new and honest life elsewhere in the galaxy, removed from this conflict. He won’t remember his being questioned by us, but he also won’t want to be a part of the Brotherhood, either.”
“I see,” Dr. Hughes said. “You’re putting me in an ethical dilemma. I can see the value in what you want to do, and honestly, I don’t think your idea would do the individual any harm. However, it goes against the principles that were ingrained in me in my training and goes against the rules of psychiatry.”
“Let me remind you again, Doctor, those rules only exist for you now; there is no psychiatric review board or medical association. You are the last of your kind, which sort of makes you the sole authority and decision maker when it comes to these things. If I have A’Lappe erase Gatsner’s mind for the past few hours, and he wakes up in a shuttle with 500,000 chip credits in it ,and no idea how he got where he is ,or where he is to go, there is no telling what will happen to him or what he will do. Isn’t it better to give him some memory, even if it’s a false one, that explains things to him in his mind and that gives him a direction to go?”
I observed A’Lappe following our conversation with great interest, but he said nothing. Finally after a long pause, Dr. Hughes said. “Alright, I’ll do it in the interest of both the subject and the life’s of others. However, please don’t expect me to do this again. I’m very much against tampering with people’s minds in any way that gives them a false memory.”
“Thank you, Doctor, you may have saved a lot of life’s with your choice.”
A little later while Gatsner still thought he was being interrogated by Kerabac and Marranalis, A’Lappe erased three hours of time from his mind and placed him into a trance-like state with the headband. Doctor Hughes next entered the room, and using hypnosis techniques, implanted the escape scenario into Gatsner’s mind. After that he was taken down to the hangar bay, where he was placed in a shuttle conveniently left at the open hangar bay door. This required some fancy maneuvering and improvising along the way, as the hangar area was still unpressurized, so we had to have Gatsner suit up to get him aboard the shuttle. It was necessary for Dr. Hughes to embellish a few details in Gatsner’s memory to explain this part of his escape, but in the end it all seemed to work out. Gatsner was instructed while in hypnosis to take off with the shuttle and fly off from the NEW ORLEANS in a direction which would take him away from Federation space. He was still in a hypnotic state when he did this, but Doctor Hughes explained that after a period of several hours without any further input from anyone, Gatsner would awake from hypnosis on his own. And even though implanted memories would seem like a dream after he woke up, they would be the only explanation he would have of how he got there, and he would most likely accept them as real.
The next-day Commander Wabussie contacted us; this required me to go to the bridge and have A’Lappe there to relay our conversation using the DSC system. For some reason Wabussie didn’t want anyone other than A’Lappe to relay our words. I thought this kind of odd, as Wabussie never appeared very trusting of him, but now it seemed that A’Lappe was the only one he did trust. Wabussie said he had received the information we’d extracted from Gatsner and that it coincided with information the FSO was working on. He said that at the moment he was not at liberty to relay all the details, but that it linked the Brotherhood with someone high up in the Federation, and the FSO was trying to narrow it down to just who it was. He said that Senator Tonclin was being instrumental in the investigation and that his reports were very valuable. He also said it was believed that whoever the head of the Brotherhood was had close ties to Leader Roritat and was feeding him information intended to defame me and my crew as being scoundrels and trouble makers; whoever it was seemed to have Roritat’s ear on the matter. Up until this point, however, they had not been able to identify just who it was that was feeding Roritat the information.
Leader Roritat had already gotten word of our encounter with the Brotherhood at Goo’Waddle and was portraying my crew and me in the worst possible light, even though the event was outside the Federation and its jurisdiction. That, plus the fact that the details being given out were totally false, didn’t help matters either. His latest comments implied I had returned to Earth and was bringing back a horde of Earth barbarians in an attempt to conquer worlds and establish my own space kingdom to challenge the Federation. Wabussie also said Leader Rieam had tried to make light of Roritat’s comments, assuring him I was a personal acquaintance and I was nothing like that, nor were any of my associates. He further defended me by saying I was a great champion of the Federation. Wabussie said that thanks to our information, they would be on the lookout for Shydak and hopefully could get hi
m and the number one man in the Brotherhood at the same time.
It was only a short time later a message came in from Admiral Regeny stating that because of the information we had provided him, he was sending more ships to Plosaxen in an attempt to ward off any pending attack there. He was concerned after hearing about the planetary attacks made by the Brotherhood, and with the aid of the Tottalax and their weapon, there would be several casualties at Plosaxen if the Brotherhood made a heavy attack. He said that he was glad we were nearly at Megelleon; just knowing I was in the area made him feel more secure. I had A’Lappe remind the Admiral that I was a civilian and not a part of the military; the Admiral said he understood, but he still felt better when I was around.
After taking the Admiral’s message, Kala and I spent a few hours in our secret garden. She told me that her last medical examination clearly showed that the twins were a boy and a girl.
“You know what this means,” I said looking at her with a grin.
“What? What does this mean?”
“It means we will have to name the girl Luinella; remember Lunnie said if we ever had a girl we should name it after her?” I answered. Kala stretched out her hand and touched my cheek as a tear ran down her face. “I know,” she answered, “I was hoping you would remember, but if we are going to name her after Lunnie, I think it’s only right that we name the boy Reidecor. He and Lunnie were close, and he died trying to save her, it’s the only proper thing to do.”
“Agreed; Lunnie and Reidecor it is.”
“Luinella! We can call her Lunnie, but her name is Luinella.” Kala said looking at me in mocked sternness.
“Luinella, then but she will always be Lunnie to me.”
When we left the garden it was nearly time for the evening meal. Kala suggested that since we had spent the last few hours together away from the crew and others that perhaps we should dine in the main dining room where many of the ships company and the refugees dined. Unlike mess halls on military ships or the crew dining on merchant ships, the dining rooms on the NEW ORLEANS were more like luxury fine-dining restaurants on Earth. Fine table cloths adorned the tables at each meal (in different colors for each meal) and the lighting in the room and the colors of the walls were adjusted accordingly; but unlike Earth, where one was expected to dress in one’s finest, to dine in such an atmosphere, things were more relaxed dress wise, and various styles of clothing were seen about at the tables. Waiting staff took meal orders and delivered the meal and saw to the needs of their table, just as one would expect in any fine restaurant, and just like any restaurant, the dining room had its evening specials.
Though Kala and I had dined in this room before we generally dined alone in our suite, or in the Starlight Dining Room under the transparent dome at the top of the ship with my senior officers or honored guests. I noted on entering the dining room that a few of the refugees were actually working there. Kala informed me that some of them had come to her seeking employment on the NEW ORLEANS. Mostly, they were Chinese women who had been on the Moon working in domestic services at the lunar base. Others with engineering, technical skills or scientific backgrounds had either sought out positions similar to their backgrounds to apply for, or they were waiting until they reached Megelleon in hopes of finding jobs more suited to their skills. While the décor and the food was excellent, it definitely wasn’t as fine as the TEZU LAGONG, but it was close, and dining around others provided a pleasant break from our daily routines. We were just finishing up our meal and I was taking the last bite of an exquisite dessert, when Captain Slater from the Mars colony approached our table.
“First Citizen, I apologize for interrupting you during your meal, but I was hoping I might have a brief word with you.”
“Certainly, Captain, we were just finishing up, and you are not interrupting at all. Please, have a seat.” The captain took a chair between Kala and me.
“Now, what can I do for you?” I asked.
“I’ve been hearing a lot from your crew about the problems the Federation military is having with their lack of military history in battle planning. I was wondering if it might be possible for me to help out in some capacity, that is, if the Federation military might have me?”
“Well, I certainly think that the military would be glad to have your services; what area would you be interested in and what is your expertise?”
“For a while, I commanded a unit in Asia against China during WWIII, but I was asked to lead the Mars team to set up defenses, as it was believed that the Chinese might try to attack the Mars colony. Once the defenses were established, I was to be rotated back to Earth, but before I could return, the asteroid showed up.”
“I knew you were a Marine, but I wasn’t aware you had commanded a unit in action against the Chinese.” I responded
“I was in the battle at Kusmi in India and also at Bhabua, where we defended a small landing strip the Chinese were trying to take. We lost half our company at Bhabua; that’s where I got my Purple Heart.” Slater replied.
“You were wounded in action! Nothing serious, I hope?” I said with concern.
“Actually, I’m a little embarrassed about it. I was reliving myself in a secluded area when the attack broke out and I never got my pants pulled up and secured properly. I was running back toward the airfield and the landing area when my pants fell down, tripping me. I was trying to get up on my knees when I got shot in the ass. My company never let me live it down and made jokes about me getting shot while mooning the enemy,” he chuckled.
I had to admit his story was funny; then Kala asked, “What is mooning the enemy? Tib, you never used that expression that I know of.”
This got both Slater and I laughing as I tried to explain it to Kala. “It’s a rude gesture made to someone or to a group of people, where you turn your back to them and bare your buttocks in their directions, more or less inviting them to kiss your butt.”
Kala looked puzzled, “Why in the stars would anyone want to do that?”
Both Captain Slater and I looked at each other a moment and then began laughing harder.
“I guess it’s a planetary thing,” Kala said. “But I really don’t get it.”
I turned back to face the Captain and said, "I will be glad to recommend your services to Admiral Regeny. He heads up all the military in the Federation. You may find it a bit confusing at first, and ranks are somewhat mixed up compared to Earth, but unlike Earth, there is only one military force, not several like an air force, navy or army. Actually, their entire military is fashioned more like the Marines in many ways.”
“Sounds to me like that’s exactly how it should be. The Marines on Earth kept telling the other branches that for years, but the rest were too proud to admit it,” he said with a grin.
“Well, I think you will be a huge asset to the Federation,” For several hundred years they haven’t had to fight a real war and mostly handled small planetary skirmishes by overwhelming brute force instead of planning and strategic actions. Having someone with experience to help them with planning battles and teaching their ranking officers strategic planning will be a huge asset.” I replied.
With the dinner over, Kala and I decided to take a stroll around the ship. She was always pestering me that I didn’t know my own ship (and she was right), so this was an opportunity to get better acquainted with it. We were walking through one of the transparent domed gardens on the upper level when I spied Regata sitting on a moss-covered rock by a small pool and waterfall, staring out into space.
“Good evening, Regata,” I said. “Is everything all right? You look rather sad sitting there.”
“Ahh, Man-Who-Speaks-for-Thumumba, and his mate, I am well. I was just sitting here meditating and sending my thoughts and observations to Thumumba.”
“I’m sorry I haven’t been able to talk with you much since you came aboard the ship. How is your search going for another like Thumumba? Have you sensed another in any of the star systems we have passed?”
�
��No need to apologize, you have much to accomplish. Sadly, I must report that thus far I have not detected another life force of Thumumba’s nature, but when we were at your home world of Earth, I did see signs that once an entity much like Thumumba occupied the sun there and did creative works on your planet. However, it seems that this entity left your sun over 2000 of your Earth years ago. I have no idea where or how it departed, nor what happened to it.”
“Do you think that it might have died?” I asked a bit too quickly; I realized it after the words had left my lips.
“There is no real death, not as you think of death anyway. There are only transitions in life.” Just then a butterfly-like creature that lived in many of our garden areas flew down and lighted on Regatta’s arm. “Just as this creature goes through a metamorphosis, changing from a worm-like creature to this lovely winged one, so do all life forms make transitions through what you think of as death. Life does not end, it moves on to another existence. Somewhere out there,” Regatta said looking up and out the dome, “the Thumumba-like creator entity that resided in your sun still lives; perhaps in a similar nature as it did in your sun, or maybe in a new form like this lovely winged creature.”
I was taken aback by Regatta’s words. I had told Kala when I first met her that I had more or less given up my ideas about religion and of gods and creators; but with things I had observed at Goo’Waddle, and my experience seeing Lunnie when I had died in the battle on the DUSTEN, it was causing me to believe there was an afterlife and creative forces in the universe. Regatta looked at me as though he were reading my mind. “One needs not to understand something to believe in it, Man-Who-Speaks-for-Thumumba.” And then he made a slight bow and moved back into the shrubbery in the garden area, and suddenly he seemed to disappear in that amazing way that all the Goo’Waddle natives seemed so adept at doing, leaving Kala and me alone.
Solbidyum Wars Saga 4: Too Late for Earth Page 27
