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His expression didn t change. I suppose I do, he acknowledged. I suppose we all do. But we ll have to go on trying for a while, before we simply put him Page 36 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html to death. She nodded, eyes absent. There s something I can try, she told them. I didn t think of it before. Something you can try? Wergard said, astonished. His head indicated the screen. To save him there ? Yes. Perhaps. Dasinger cleared his throat. I don t see . . . what do you have in mind? She shook her head. I can t explain that. It s psi. I ll try to explain as I go along, but I probably won t be able to explain much. It may work, that s all. I ve done something like it before. But you can t Wergard broke off, was silent. Dasinger said, You know what you re doing? Yes, I know. Telzey looked up at them again. You mustn t let anyone in here. There mustn t be any disturbance or interference, or everything might go wrong. And it will take time. I don t know how much time. Neither of them said anything for some seconds. Then Dasinger nodded slowly. Whatever it is, he said, you ll have all the time you need. Nobody will come in here. Nobody will be allowed on the estate before you ve finished and give the word. Telzey nodded. Then this is what we ll have to do. 5 She had done something like this, or something nearly like this, before . . . Here and there was a psi mind with whom one could exchange the ultimate compliment of using no mental safeguards, none whatever. It was with one of those rare, relaxing companions that she d done almost what she d be doing now. The notion had come up in the course of a psi practice session. One was in Orado City, one at the tip of the Southern Mainland at the time. They d got together at the thought level, and were trying out various things, improving techniques and methods. I ll lend you what see if you ll lend me what I you see, one of them had said. That was easy enough. Each looked suddenly at what the other had looked at a moment ago. It wasn t the same as tapping the sensory impressions of a controlled mind. Small sections of individual awareness, of personality, appeared to have shifted from body to body. It went on from there. Soon each was using the other s muscles, breathing with the other s lungs, speaking with the other s voice. They d got caught up in it, and more subtle transfers continued in a swift double flow, unchecked: likes and dislikes, acquired knowledge, emotional patterns. Memories disintegrated here, built up there; vanished, were newly complete and now quite different memories. Only the awareness of self remained that probably couldn t be exchanged, or could it? Then: Shall we? They d hesitated, looking at each other, with a quarter of the globe between them, each seeing the other clearly, in their exchanged bodies, exchanged personalities. One threadlike link was left for each to sever, and each would become the other, with no connection then to what she had been. Of course, we can change right back Yes, but could they? Could they? Something would be different, would have shifted; they would be in some other and unknown pattern and suddenly, quickly, they were sliding past each other again, memories, senses, controls, personality particles, swirling by in a giddy two-way stream, reassembling, restoring themselves, each to what was truly hers. They were laughing, but a little breathlessly, really a little frightened now by what they d almost done. They d never tried it again. They d talked about it. They were almost certain Page 37 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html it could be done, oh, quite safely! They d be two telepaths still, two psis. It should be a perfectly simple matter to reverse the process at any time. It should be. But even to those who were psis, and in psi, much more remained unknown about psi than was known. Anyone who gained any awareness at all understood there were limits beyond which one couldn t go, or didn t try to go. Limits beyond which things went oddly wrong. The question was whether they would have passed such a limit in detaching themselves from their personality, acquiring that of another. It remained unanswered. What she had in mind now was less drastic in one respect, seemed more so in another. She would find out whether she could do it. She didn t know what the final result would be if she couldn t. She dissolved her contact with Noal. It would be a distraction, and she could restore it later. Larien Selk was fastened securely to his couch. Dasinger and Wergard then fastened Telzey as securely to the armchair in which she sat. She d told them there might be a good deal of commotion here presently, produced both by herself and by Larien. It would be a meaningless commotion, something to be ignored. They wouldn t know what they were doing. They had to be tied down so they wouldn t get hurt. The two men asked no questions. She reached into a section of her brain, touched it with paralysis, slid to Larien Selk s mind. In his brain, too, a selected small section went numb. Then the controls she d placed on him were flicked away. He woke up. He had to be awake and aware for much of this, or her work would be immeasurably, perhaps impossibly, increased. But his wakefulness did result in considerable commotion, though much less than there would have been if Larien had been able to use his voice or, by and by, Telzey s. She d silenced both for the time being. He couldn t do more than go through the motions of screaming. Nor could he move around much, though he tried very hard. For Larien, it was a terrifying situation. One moment, he d been sitting before the screen, considering whether to nudge the console button which would cause a stimulant to be injected into Noal and bring him back to consciousness again for an hour or two. He enjoyed talking to Noal. Then, with no discernible lapse in time, he sensed he was lying on his back, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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