“Good morning, councillor!”

“Good morning, Sir! I’m very proud of having a chance to tell you everything about our mission. I’m sure you will be satisfied with me. I’ would like to express my extreme respect to you for planning the mission. It couldn’t be successful without your kind…”

“Stop now, councillor. We want to hear the facts and important events of your journey.”

“I hope my poor mind is able to make you and the respected members of the committee…”

“Don’t waste our time. Start it now.”

“Yes, Sir. At first I would like to show the murder. Quazar Xysh let me into his mind. Here is the result of my search.”

The members of the committee opened their minds and began to feel the borning vision in their brains.

Heavy rainfall shrouded the world and made everything wet. Lightning ran through the thick cover of clouds in the night. The storm – as the reply of the hurt nature – raged through the forest and made the trees crackle under the pressure of the wind. The half dead planet seemed to screw up all courage and frenetically tried to destroy everything. In a second’s break of the shouting wind, a women’s scream could be heard if there were anybody outside. As though this new loss of life made the storm angrier, the wind started to blow again and tried to collapse the house in the forest.

Roddick, the man kneeling close to the dead body, took a mad glimpse at the new attack of the elements and shouted crazily as his pain became stronger. His bare skin was full of blood-leaking wounds. Roddick felt he was in flames for three days. The blood ran fast through his veins, his brain wanted to explode in every moment. He sat on the floor and tears washed his face but had no effect on his throbbing skin and aching heart. He couldn’t see anything. He just thought about the past. Their first meeting in the park. It was love at first sight. Their happiness always seemed to be one of those unbelievable everlasting ones. In the very moment he killed his wife he went crazy.

Roddick sitting close to the slowly changing body lost his senses. He watched his wife becoming something different from the woman he knew. Waves ran all over her body. Her soft skin he kissed so many times that it became dry and shiny black. Her always laughing green eyes became entirely grey, with no pupils, with no life. He looked at the pretty face he used to know better than his own. He saw her face changing into something else, not into something ugly, not even less beautiful than a few hours ago, but something different. After a while he lost his power to fight with the beast within. He jumped up with sorrow and madness on his face. He looked around with his distracted eyes. He was searching for an enemy, but he found nothing but furniture and things making him remember his happiness. He felt like destroying the world. He started it. He raped for more than an hour and destroyed everything he could. After a while he felt into a swoon and lay on the floor between small pieces of wood and glass. All the windows, all the furniture, everything was broken.

The vision finished and the aliens sitting by the pulpit of the prestigious Central Court of the Empire slowly opened their eyes. They were not shocked; they had already seen thousands of analogical pictures of other questionings. As a matter of fact, it made them a bit tired and bored. Jab felt under the weather. There had been never so many minds in his head before. It took a minute for his senses to start to work again. The head of the committee sitting in the middle of the high pulpit looked into Jab’s eyes and spoke to him again. The words hardly went through the fog and confusion in the councillor’s head.

“Good. Now we have got some information.” Jab became a bit calmer. “But you have to be faster.”

“I will try to do it. I will be faster.” Jab answered with sore brow on his faithful dog face. “You will see the following events through the eyes of the official Watcher.

The same place appeared in the minds of the committee, but something had been changed. The storm was not as angry; the night was not as dark as before. The big grey metal body of a strange machine stood near the house. It was an alien spaceship and tall black extraterrestrials were fussing round it. They all seemed to be busy and know what they were doing. They were not surprised, they moved confidently on the wet lawn. But not all of them were busy; two aliens with a prouder attitude just stood and stayed out of the crowd. They watched as their fellows were taking the bodies into the white stomach of the ship.

“Are we late, Master? Had all of our hopes disappeared?” the younger asked.

“No, Jab, we have to work a lot, but we can fulfil the plan. We have to be fast and effective. We don’t have the luxury of planning a lot. Come on and learn. We will start it now.”

The old man followed the men bringing the litters. His attendance made a circle round him in a second’s time. It could be seen at first sight. They all watched him with respect and a little fear in their telling looks. He was their leader without any doubt. As they entered the ship the doors opened before them and everybody stood off their way.

Roddick lay in a white bed as he slowly opened his eyes. He wanted to sleep more, but something dragged him awake. He’d had a bad dream. One of the worst he’d ever had, even if his mind showed him everything he didn’t want to see. He watched the unknown and strange pictures of another world with pain and sorrow several nights in his life. He never understood them and he feared them. But he feared this new dream much more then anything until that time.  He wanted to run with them to his wife. But he couldn’t decide what had happened yesterday.

“Is it true? Is it just another game of my mind?” he asked himself.

He tried to sit up in the bed, but he couldn’t. Strong ropes restrained him. He couldn’t make any motion. Suddenly he woke up entirely. His fear of truth got into his eyes. He remembered all details of the previous day. Madness appeared aside the fear in his anguished eyes. He couldn’t believe anything. He started to rage for a while, but it stopped at the moment when a big amount of medicine splashed into his body through an invisible pipe.

“The same as last time.”   the alien said in low and tired voice  “It’s always the same. He wakes up, he remembers and goes crazy. He will never be usable. He will never recover. This is the second day we have spent here. We tried everything we could. He doesn’t react to anything. He spent too much time without his original shape. He killed his wife. There were too many shocks in too little time. His mind can’t stand it. I’m afraid.”

“ We mustn’t give up, Master. We need him; you know that better than me.”

“Yes, I know it better than you. I am the leader of this mission. I am responsible for the results.”

“Maybe…”

“No.”

“But…”          

“We won’t do it. Remember the last experiment made the way you like it? You have to forget those stupid things made by you and your last instructor. The truth is too hard to believe, and the quazar’s mind is too sensible. It has to be; otherwise they couldn’t perform their challenge. Don’t forget that you are a quazar liberator and not a butcher.”

“I know. But I know too that we were on the right way. There is no need to flatter them. They can stand it while being attended with the necessary medicines.”

” Shut up!” The Master shouted. ”Your every word is the shame of our profession. We have to show the right way to the quazar and try to save them against shocks. Your method is nothing else than shock and violence of the mind.”

“As you think, Master.”

“Go to your room. You mustn’t leave during our stay here. Later I will deal with you,” the Master said with a face of disgust.

The air froze between the two men sitting close to each other in the small room from which they could control Roddick. Jab slowly stood up and went out the door. He knew he was right. He knew why the Master didn’t let him use his knowledge.

Jab went outside and stayed alone with his fears of failure and loss of the order. He felt changes in the air. The power of new thoughts became stronger than at any other time. He was a member of the ancient system. He liked the way the Empire worked on. He thought of the legends: the early period of the Galactic Empire. There were hundreds of battles fighting with the others, but after billions of life losses they had just few solar systems. They had begun to grow and develop. They started to feel strong and successful, but the most of suffering came then. An unknown enemy attacked them and made total destruction. Their proud folk became slaves of those new conquerors. After the centuries of suffering and abjection, they were resurrected from their death. His heart started to beat faster when he called the pictures of the first real quasars in his mind. They were the only shape shifters of the universe. They could change each little part of their bodies. They could copy anything they wanted. They had power in their cells. And they had power in everything. They got into everywhere and took away the empire of the conquerors. They made their folk to be the leaders again. They were always searching for new planets, for new potential enemies. They found them and destroyed them or made them the slaves of the Empire. They were always the heroes of the Empire, the Chosen One. Jab always dreamt about being a quazar, but he would never be able to be one. It couldn’t be learnt; it had to be ability. It was rare and depended on an unknown mutation of the DNA. He failed – although it couldn’t be his fault – and he felt less than the others. But he wanted to be better. He worked hard. He learnt everything. He destroyed his opponents and he reached the highest position available. He was proud of himself, and he would rather die than lose his reputation. He knew he had to get the mind of the man lying there. He looked at the narcotized body in the room and fell asleep while thinking about the solution. He had to take the first step.

The Master was thinking of the same as him. He was full of dreams in his heart and disciples in his head. He hated the system with the rigorous rules and hierarchy. He hated taking part in the destruction of species just because of the possibility it could become an enemy. He wanted to make them allies and brothers. He was a member of a group of romantic dreamers of freedom. In spite of being romantic, they had surprisingly big power. The whole empire was upset and felt the new waves. Their plan was in the last stage. Everything depended on him. The Master knew he had to make the first step. His black-skinned head was full of racking thoughts. He had to wake up the quasar. He had to convince him of the importance of the new world order he presented. He thought about the idea of the boy. The plan of shocking a so complex mind was terrifying. It had totally unknown effects on the quazar’s brain, but it could work. There was a little chance of winning but he had to try it. He thought about asking Jab help him but he was afraid of his new colleague. He was clever, too clever and too experienced. Through stormy and dangerous years while he was chased by the spies of the Empire, he had learnt to be doubtful of everybody. He decided to try the new method of taking back the quazar’s mind into reality and he would do it alone. It was his last chance. It was fast enough for making good results in a month’s time, although with the old one it took for more than half-of-a-year.

He felt how dangerous the situation was. He had to destroy the personality and the whole world of the quazar. They did not know anything about their real abilities. They lived as the person they had taken over for several years. They forgot everything in connection with their real world and personality. They became exactly the same as the person they acted for, but it could be turned back.

He mixed the necessary chemicals and put them into the medical system. He checked the dose for the hundredth times and tried to stay calm. He closed his eyes and breathed in and out, in and out. He had to be close to the quazar. He had to make a total and direct mental connection with him. It was his profession, but he had never done such a thing. He had built up a mental connection with quasars several times before but after a longer cure and with another method.

He went into the white, poorly furnished room and sat down. He concentrated on the mind of Roddick and made a machine administer the medicine to both of them. He had to wait for a few seconds. He felt the slowly moving thoughts in the other’s brain. He pressed it with his mind and in the necessary second he opened his brain so that the information and the appropriate thoughts could run into the other’s mind.

…

Suddenly Jab felt that the head of the committee ordered a stop. He closed his mind and stopped the information flowing out of his head. He opened his eyes and looked at the committee but before cleaning up the senses he was questioned.

“What was the reason of his death?”

“I don’t know exactly. Something must have been wrong. There was too much of one ingredient. Maybe the quazar’s mind was too strong and he killed the Master in a minute. It will never be known. We know the result but we know nothing about the reason. The Master was killed, and…”

“…And you got his place in the mission,” a member said, and Jab begun to feel insecure.

“Yes, Sir. I got his place. I had to take care of the newly born member of the community.”

There were no answers. Nobody said anything. Silence deflated in the room, then broke into small and hurting-sharp pieces as the head started to speak.

“We know the following events. Did you have any difficulty with Quazar Xysh? Did he get everything, every detail of our plan? Did he understand everything?”

“No, sir, I didn’t have any problems. Ha lay there after his waking and waited for the instructions. He is the fastest learning being I have ever met. He got the plan in a month’s time. He could use all his talent in copying anybody. He was even able to manipulate our own staff. He will lead these stupid beings under the authority of the Empire.” Jab answered proudly.

“Excellent. Are you sure there will be no accidents and mistakes, and we will get that solar system?”

“Yes, Sir, I am.”

“I suppose you would like to know what your reward is.”  The head of the committee said. A little evil light appeared in his grey eyes. Jab would have noticed it and knew everything about the reward he got. He was impatient. He had left his home and family long months ago. He wanted to be there and play with his children. He wanted to make love with his wife and just enjoy life. He nodded quickly and looked at the committee.

“Councillor Jab, open your mind and see fruit of your work.”

Jab did it happily and let the committee in his head again. Suddenly threatening power hit his brain. As a ‘quazar liberator’ he had a sensitive neurotic system. He was destroyed in the first attack followed by two other ones. He fell down the floor and the members were looking at him with their cold eyes as servants came to bring him away. The leader stood up and said:

“End of questioning. Probable time of the occupation of the solar system QGZA435721: fifty rounds. The forty-third mission of the Nazgar starship completed. Two months off to the staff. Close the record.”

A hammer knocked on the table and in the very next moment the whole group was speaking about dinner parties, expensive new cars and changing weather.

A light afternoon made the afternoon wet. The handsome building of the Earth Palace was quiet and dark. There were just few employees in the offices. They were the diligent ones who never went home until finishing their work. Even if it was an extraordinary day like this one and everybody was at home as soon as possible.

He sat alone by the window of his dark room. He thought of the past, the chaos of the last hundred years. He thought about the nearly destroyed nature and the half dead planet. He called the early history of the borning Earth State into his mind. It was his life. He was the Earth State itself. He thought about the fights for the power and fights for the development day by day. He thought about the problems he solved and the results he reached. But none of them was as important as today’s.

It was the day the man had been waiting for since he had looked at the sky. They had made a connection with an extraterrestrial intelligence. He was happy to be the president of that age. He could hardly believe that he had done it. He told the people everything in connection with the aliens. Moreover, he was still in power. There was no fear, no panic, just the happiness of not being alone, no rebellion, no suggestions of killing them all, just interested people everywhere. He felt he had to smile, thinking of the hard day of his spokesman. Everything was much better than it expected. His head was full of wonderful dreams of the future. Sitting on his cushy sofa his lids closed down slowly. Suddenly someone knocked the door. The president opened his eyes. The knock was repeated.

“Who’s that?” He asked.

“It’s just me.” A low voice said and a well-known head appeared.

“Oh, Roddick the best consultant of the world! Although I don’t know our alien friends’ consultants…”

“You can be sure that I would be the best consultant outside too.” Roddick laughed and looked into the eyes of the President.

“Come in and take a seat. It’s a wonderful day. Everything happens according to the plan, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, according to the plan…”

 

 

by Viktor Szálánczi