Previously: Chapter 4 <Part 1> <Part 2> <Part 3>
Six men gathered in a "time-cloister", a sort of
"space-between-spaces" that existed beyond the normal dimensions,
where they could observe the events of the real world undetected and
uninterrupted.
They watched now, as the mother-mind once again reshaped
herself.
One of them spoke, "The people no longer accept our
rules for them."
His immediate companion nodded, "Somehow we have lost
the direct influence over the masses themselves—but how? How is it possible to
make the mother-mind re-form as she has been? Have the Overseers discovered who
has been tampering with it?"
One of the others shook his head. "They have been
concentrating on Inoculations; as far as they can see, no one has been near the
mother-mind."
"Ah yes," said a fourth, "how has that been
going?"
"Rather well," the third man smiled. "We've
got all the novices like puppets on strings. In fact, it's only because the
wyrts still inspire fear and respect toward the military and a desire to become
a Novice that we have been able to maintain our footing here."
"Ah yes, the soldiers; how are they at maintaining
order?"
The fifth Brother spoke, "The ones that have difficulty
remaining connected to their wyrts because of the alterations in perceptivity
in the creatures are regardless fiercely loyal, and would willingly report to a
more receptive officer the things that the wyrt apparently cannot see."
"And how does the mother-mind fare through all this? Is
she accumulating the proxy information well?"
"The problem, Brother," explained the second,
"is that she is in such distress that the Caretakers tell me she has not
produced any polyps in the last few days."
"How is this a problem?"
"The new wyrts are usually the way we solve the
perception issue. Every time the mother changes, we see a rise in people
discarding their wyrts because it takes a while for the memories of old
existence to be completely overlaid with the new, causing the sensations to
flicker in and out as the wyrt tries to adjust. By simply giving out brand-new
ones, which have already adjusted, we could maintain numbers, even saw some
rise occasionally.
"Since we have no new polyps, however, we cannot
replace the ones the people already have."
"Tell me something," the first Brother
interjected, "have you had this problem at all in the Inoculated
Novices?"
"No, Brother; the Serum works much faster than a wyrt
at adjusting the perceptions."
"Then why not Inoculate everybody?"
"We cannot make enough Serum for every citizen, and
besides, we must have the citizens without appearing to force them into
anything, or we will simply reinforce the antitheses that have been showing up
lately."
"Well," the irate Brother persisted,
"Inoculate the soldiers, then! We must have some way to keep
control!"
"Very good, Brother." And the Brother who had
spoken contacted the military Overseer and gave him the command. The Brethren
watched as all the soldiers were led into the barracks and given the
Inoculation. A glowing, profuse matrix appeared before them as the mother-mind
received a host of new memories.
"See here, Brothers?" one of them pointed to an
area of the matrix. "Here are the memories of just today. And here is just
one hour of the—"
"Stop!" The quick eyes of one of the Brethren caught
something important. He pointed at a short memory. "There! This one was
watching the courthouse. Wasn't that where today's uproar started?"
"Why, yes," his comrades answered.
The Brother selected the memory and enlarged it. They all
clearly saw the two figures in black slipping away from the courthouse while
the shift in thought was going on. The soldier no doubt had followed them for
quite a ways, but the memory ended abruptly before the edge of the block.
"Where is the rest of it?" the Brother demanded.
"Why was it cut off?"
"The mother-mind sometimes does that when a section of
the matrix is too small to hold everything. She divides it up among the whole
matrix, wherever there is room. It could be anywhere in here," he replaced
the matrix and showed the entire memory mass, where each was no bigger than a
tiny pinpoint of light.
"Blast!"
"Think on this, Brother," another rushed to
console him. "Now we know that there are two renegades responsible for the
problems we have been having. We use the Inoculated Army to hunt them down, and
once they are disposed of, we are free to do as we like with the
populace."
"They could be anywhere in this city!"
"So? We have enough soldiers. Post them everywhere, and
promise rich rewards for their capture."
"I will notify the Overseer immediately."
The Sixth Brother watched the other five without speaking
the entire time. Now he grinned.
No comments:
Post a Comment