It was a pleasant night to be camped out under the stars, and Bennu, in the middle of checking out another large site, was enjoying doing just that. Especially since a meteor shower had been predicted!
Bennu watched in awe as the sky filled with streaks and flashes. Truly, the works of The Light were beautiful! It was careless or corrupted free-will beings - like Yago - who introduced most of the ugliness into the Universe.
Well, Bennu, you're mostly right. Perhaps a Scientist would appreciate the aesthetics of a construct spun out of nothing more substantial than air and water vapor, but even you did not like "vortex clouds" in their more violent manifestation. Nature has its ugly side, too.
Bennu closed his eyes and went to sleep. As the night passed, his dreams filled with thoughts of first Mira, then Yago, then a nameless calling. He awoke with a start. Most uncharacteristically, sleep did not return easily to him, and he had to use some of his mental control to return to it. (True, he could have raised his mental barriers to block out auditory and external mental effects, but that would have been most unwise on an Immature World. A petty thief or mentally erratic person with a knife could put the plans of the Wise into much bigger disarray than intrusive archaeologists and overly ambitious governments ever would!)
The next morning he awoke, not unduly tired, and prepared for the day's work. A leisurely Suncharge restored him to full efficiency and he strode off to the next mound on the site. Suddenly he cocked his head as if listening for something off in the distance. He shrugged and went about his work. Or tried to, anyway - his heart - or mind - didn't seem to be in it. Something was nagging at him and wouldn't quit.
He shrugged, picked up his backpack, and gave in to it. Soon enough he was at a bus station, waiting for transportation to "The Arrowhead," an Indian site a few hours ride away. It was named that not only for the artifacts that littered the ground there, but for its roughly triangular shape.
As the bus took him towards it, he stared blankly out of a window, not much on his mind. Indeed! Bennu, what's got into you?? Yoo-hoo, anybody home? Guess not.
When he arrived, he headed off on a steady course, seemingly sure of where he was going. He wasn't the only one, either. Premminger had had a similarly restless night and had also found himself headed towards The Arrowhead, arriving at about the same time as Bennu. He, too, seemed to know where he was going - indeed, the expression on his face was totally blank!
Bennu noticed his presence with considerable irritation. "I do not have time for this Earth-pest! I'm busy!" he thought, as he reached down for an object. Fortunately for Premminger, Bennu had picked up a small rock, not an arrowhead. Nonetheless, Bennu threw it with considerable force, and the impact of it upon Premminger's skull caused a concussion and a significant amount of other damage. Bennu stopped just long enough to remove and dispose of a gun, then continued his walking.
Soon he arrived at a mound with a series of strange marks in the ground leading into the entrance. Following them, he found himself looking at, of all things, a meteorite. It must have bounced and rolled in, somehow. He started to approach it, and as he did so, crystals in it lit up. Some flickered or pulsed. Others had sparks dancing in them. Bennu was utterly fascinated! His face took on the same totally blank look as Premminger's had.
"Nice rock! Pretty rock! WANT rock!!" He started towards it to pick it up and put it in his backpack.
However, before he could, something else, also answering the summons, rushed past him in a cloud of black mist, mentally hissing "That's MINE!" as it did so. Yago wrapped himself around it, cutting Bennu off from its light. Bennu's head snapped back in reaction and he angrily reached for his medallion. Then he dropped his hands to his sides. Good Children didn't hit, and maybe Yago would let him play with the pretty rock when he was done with it.
The "rock" wasn't fussy. Bennu, Yago, it didn't care. They were all the same to it - mindfood. Yago let out a mental scream of anguish as a searing pain bit into him. He tried to let go and flee, but he was caught! Suddenly he realized what had him. //It's a Mindstone! Bennu, help me!//
Bennu looked puzzedly at Yago. Help him? And use up so much SunPower that if he succeeded, that bully Yago would beat him up?
Yago: //Bennu, if it eats me, you're next!//
Bennu: //How silly! Rocks don't eat people. Besides, if it is hurting you, it's all your fault. You grabbed it away from me.//
Yago desperately reached out to the now conscious but still groggy Premminger, who staggered into the mound. At Yago's frantic command, he picked up the rock and carried it away. Bennu followed curiously, wondering why Yago would seek light.
Premminger: "Yago says get stone. Big stone. HURRY!!"
Bennu looked about the area, picked up a good-sized hunk weighing perhaps 200 pounds, and brought it over to Premminger. "Here."
Premminger: "It's not for me, it's for Yago."
Mouthing a silent "Oh," Bennu brought it over to the Yago-wrapped meteorite, and, looking more like George from an Earthly cartoon show than a Healer from a spacefaring society, pulled his hands apart and let it drop straight down. CRASH!! A cloud of dust, part stone, part Mindstone, rose. He sneezed loudly.
As the lights faded from the shattered crystals, Yago pulled himself free and fled, releasing Premminger's mind as he did so. Premminger collapsed, doing himself further injury.
Bennu watched with sadness as the last sparks of light faded out. That Yago was mean! When he got tired of playing with the pretty rock, he tricked Bennu into smashing it so he couldn't - Great Phoenix, what had happened to them?!
He studied his mind. Clearly, he had been entranced. So had Yago. Premminger, presumably, had been Bennu-hunting and picked a very bad time to be successful.
Premminger! Oh, that poor man. Bennu hastily healed his injuries - after all, not only had Bennu caused some of them, but he - and Yago - had unwittingly saved not only Bennu's life, but possibly the lives of all those on Earth!
Premminger (half sarcastically, half seriously): "What was that - something else from your planet?"
Bennu reverently crossed his hands over his medallion. "Praise The Light, no! It was, I believe, a psychophage spore. It probably fell last night during the meteor shower. They feed on psychic energy - it drew the two strongest sources, Yago and me, to it. Little is known about them - they are impossible to study safely, and, as you can see, when killed, they crumble into a powder which dissipates into the air." By now, in fact, it had indeed nearly disappeared. "Fortunately, they are very rare."
Premminger: "I was following something, too!"
Bennu: "Hmm. Perhaps it was that encounter with Yago that made you susceptible."
Bingo, Bennu! Now, if you'd followed up on that thought ...
Premminger began to pat himself. "Oh, no, my gun's gone again!"
Bennu: "Even in a trance, I wasn't going to let you keep it. I tossed it into a mound. While you're finding it, I'm escaping!"
Premminger: "Last time I had to find it, it was in a bramble bush. So was a snake."
Bennu: "I don't think they'll be any bramble bushes inside a mound. Snakes, maybe, but none that I summoned."
Premminger: "You summoned? Why, if I believed that was possible, I'd -"
Bennu: "You'd what? Find yourself getting another spanking? That, I'm sure, you believe."
Premminger: "Oh, Lord, don't remind me! My partner blabbed to the other agents, and I still haven't lived it down."
Bennu (laughing): "I'll tell you what - I'll take you out for a beer."
Premminger laughed, too. It might seem strange that these two adversaries would be joking with each other, but they had both been under incredible psychic strain from the Mindstone, and anyway, Premminger wasn't a threat to Bennu at the moment, and both of them knew it. Oh, if only Premminger could accept the Truth ...
Premminger: "One of these days, I am going to catch you."
Bennu responded with something else he'd learned recently - a big, noisy, wet raspberry. He began striding.
Premminger sighed and began searching for his gun. By the time he'd found it, he was well into turning the day's events - what he could remember of them - into yet another repression, and Bennu was long gone.
"Hypnosis again!" Premminger thought. "How does he do it? That medallion, I'll bet! Sure, that's it! People report most of the screwy things after he makes it light up. Take it away and I'll bet he'll be powerless."
Now, that is an example of managing to come to a correct conclusion using totally inaccurate premises!
Copyright Sept. 23, 2000 Three Cheeks Productions (Richard Kaplan)