Solbidyum Wars Saga 4: Too Late for Earth (35 page)

“First you got to swear, while wearing the head band, to the agreement,” Gatsner said.

After I made my offer while wearing the headband and Gatsner was finally convinced that we would give him a shuttle and let him go, he began to open up and talk.  He didn’t know how the Tottalax weapon worked, but the way the Brotherhood escaped the effect of it was by wearing small ear bud devices.  Unfortunately, all of those were blown up on the Brotherhood ships, so we didn’t have anything to copy to get the technology.  The Tottalax, it seemed, were mute and could not make any sounds.  While they could detect sounds, they didn’t rely on sound for communication and instead communicated by changing and controlling color and patterns on areas on their flesh.  For long-distance communication, they displayed similar patterns and colors on a vid screen.  The Brotherhood had a computer program that could convert the images into verbal messages and vice versa for communication; once again, we were out of luck, as it also was destroyed with the Brotherhood ships.

When it came to Shydak, however, the information was a lot more useful.  According to Gatsner, Shydak had flown to Megelleon where he intended to meet with the head of the Brotherhood.  Gatsner didn’t seem to know just who it was, but he seemed pretty sure it was someone with connections inside the Federation, because the individual was able to provide the Brotherhood with detailed information as to what was going on inside the government.  This corresponded to what we knew, as we had already discovered links in the FOI and the Senate to Brotherhood sympathizers, and it was possible that the Brotherhood leader could easily be in one of those two places.  According to Gatsner, Shydak was the number three man in the Brotherhood, but he didn’t know who number two or one were, and their identities were closely guarded secrets.

“How long ago did Shydak leave for Megelleon, and when was he expected back?”  I inquired.

The commander replied, “He left two days ago; we had planned to meet up with him later at Plosaxen for an attack there after the Tottalax returned.”

“Plosaxen?  When is that supposed to happen?”  Kerabac jumped in with the question.

“I don’t know.  We weren’t given a time; I only know it was sometime after the Tottalax got back and we don’t know how long that will be.  The Tottalax aren’t the most reliable or prompt race you've ever met.  Besides, now that you busted up our rendezvous here, it’s unlikely Shydak will go through with that plan; he’ll move on to another target.”

“Marranalis, make contact with Admiral Regeny and pass on what we have found out, also pass the information on to Commander…. uh, to the FSO and let them know about this as well.”  I had caught myself before I gave away Wabussie’s identity and involvement with the FSO.  I was taking a risk just mentioning the FSO, but I hoped that Gatsner would either forget it or confuse it with the FOI.  Even if he did repeat it later, no one outside of a few in the Federation knew what the FSO was, or that it existed.  Then I got another idea.

“Excuse me a moment,” I said to Gatsner, “A’Lappe, could I speak with you outside?”

“Certainly, Tibby,” he answered as he slid down out of his chair.  Once in the corridor outside I said,

“A’Lappe, I know the headbands can wipe out memories from a person’s mind.  Can you select what memories it wipes?”

A’Lappe looked up at me and blinked with his large eyes, “Yes, but not selectively.  I can erase blocks of memories for a time period, but it will take everything in that period and not just select items.”

“So you could erase Gatsner’s memories for… let’s say the past three hours?”  I suggested.

“Yes, though it may be a bit more or less, it’s hard to get it right.”

“I see.  A’Lappe, I need you to go find Dr. Hughes for me and bring him to the small conference room across the corridor.  Let me know when you are back; I want to talk to you both before I do anything more.”

After A’Lappe had headed off on his mission, I returned to the interrogation room where Kerabac and Marranalis where both busy asking the commander about details within the Brotherhood and their recent plans and movements.  The commander provided some details, but came up short on most things, and it appeared that the higher echelon of the Brotherhood didn’t allow many details to filter down to their lower-ranking members.  Most of what we learned, we already knew.  “Kerabac, can you call Padaran to come here?”  I asked suddenly as yet another idea hit me.  Kerabac raised an eyebrow in a questioning look but did as I asked.  It took about five minutes for Padaran to show up at the interrogation room.

“You wanted to see me?”  He asked as he entered.

“Yes, Padaran, it’s occurred to me that as a leader of the Ruwallie Rasson you have several ex-Brotherhood ships under your command, or at least as part of the Ruwallie Rasson possessions.  It’s very possible that some, if not all of those ships might have programs in their computer systems for communicating with the Tottalax.  It’s also likely that there may be some ear-buds used by the Brotherhood that protect them from the Tottalax weapon.  I need for you to contact the Ruwallie Rasson back at Goo’Waddle, have them transfer any existing Brotherhood data that may still be in their computers onboard the ships to a storage transfer device; and if they have found any ear buds on any of the Ruwallie Rasson ships, to send them all via a GW pod to you at Megelleon at my estate.  Oh, and have Tondor pay any of the Ruwallie Rasson whatever you think is a reasonable reward for their service and have Kala reimburse you for it.”

“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 him and the number one man in the Brotherhood at the same time.