Mind's Eye

[T'Prise 0]

The vast amount of metal used to construct the room, and the objects and surfaces within it, created a severely sterile atmosphere that felt as cold as it appeared. However, the room's occupants, who all lay silently and still upon the metal tables lined neatly and endlessly, row upon row, displayed a distinct absence of reaction to their environment. Although they lacked any sort of covering normally utilized by warm-blooded species to aid in controlling the temperature of their bodies, these people appeared oblivious to their surroundings. Instead they merely lay upon the hard metal surfaces, eyes closed, faces devoid of expression, the only sound the ambient hum of the machinery that served as the infrastructure of the extensive network of wires and mechanical interfaces to which they were all connected.

 

The only motion within the stillness of the room came from the far corner, were the four newest occupants lay, only recently integrated into the system. Close scrutiny revealed that these individuals were not like the thousands of others in the room. The two women especially possessed a very distinguishing feature, setting them apart from the others – instead of rounding into a smooth curve, as with all the others, the helix of their ears tapered into a sharp point. Their cranial structures, like their ears, were a bit more angular in shape, though one woman's brow appeared more pronounced than the other. That one's face appeared to contort slightly in pain at decreasing intervals as the integration proceeded; similar expressions graced the faces of the other two men who comprised this group of new novitiates. The other woman, however, remained stoic and impassive; displaying no facial response to whatever stimuli affected her companions. Her eyes, however, while closed, betrayed some type of neural activity occurring, as they moved back and forth rapidly beneath their lids.

 

Assault … foreign presence … assimilation … reordering … illogical ... illogical… unrestrained and illogical… firing synapses … intemperate … controlling … controlled...

 

…floating … spasms … pain … darkness … convulsions … disjointed … pain… paroxysms … torment… sensations … throbbing … pain …

 

…pain…

 

…memories…

 

Wanderlust … Lamoreaux … guilt … dead … transgression …responsibility …guilt …contrition … Escher… mind-meld … Escher…feelings…incomprehensible … inability … guilt … irrational … illogical… unemotional …

 

Subsides … control it… repel it… stabilize … light … pain diminish … diminish decline descend … descend… light … lessen … control … control … control… subdued … ebb … moderate … subside … safety … logic … light …

 

Reaching for the light, the woman entered a familiar place of sanctuary where everything was as she last left it – the warmth, the tree, the park, and the bench. She sat on the bench, absorbing the orderly peace and tranquility of this place. Here, within the confines of the mental shields and barriers she had constructed for protection, she could manage the intensity of the pain and disorientation adequately. To leave this place would only bring agonizing torment that would make her incapacitated and incognizant once more.

 

She closed her eyes, her face becoming peacefully emotionless once more, but behind the lids, her eyes still moved rapidly, mirroring the continuing anguish of her physical body.