The Council Listen In
Preenasette - Bala Verceti - 2009
The Cast
The High Councillors - Domeriette, Camcietti, Tauriar, Ventar, and Princess Domeriette
The Bala Verceti High Council leaders sat facing each other around the circular table in the meeting chamber, high in the Pre-eminent Tower in the grounds of the Palace of Ancestors. Bakta, Kam Major and Cascan Ofier weren't present. This wasn’t a full council meeting, just the four Councillors and the eldest Royal, Princess Domeriette.
Bana Domeriette, the Council Elder, sat at the end of the table with the other four—two either side of her— awaiting her decision. Her apprehension about the choice they were here to make manifested as a deep frown. At seventy-nine, she was near the end of her tenure on the council. When not frowning she was still an attractive woman, maintaining an ageing beauty that only comes from ignoring the multitude of anti-ageing devices made available to those with a desire to look young at all costs. But she had a big decision to make—probably the most critical of her nine years as elder—and it showed on her face.
“Quantum Quinary Psychic Vision.” Ventar had come up with that. He’d even given it an acronym and a name: The Q2PV Collective. The council had been working on this for the last sixty years in one way or another. It was the natural next step in their intellectual evolution and involved a process where the combined mental abilities of the four High Councillors and the eldest Royal were used to reach out over vast distances. The process needed five to complete the circle, so accordingly, the past four cycles of the council the eldest Royal had been invited to attend these psychic ability enhancement sessions.
The problem weighing heavy on Domeriette’s mind was the ethics of using these combined abilities. The training process, as a mental exercise, was exciting, but using it? It was akin to the mathematical and theoretical physics needed to design and construct a devastating bomb. It presented a fascinating set of problems to solve in the classroom, but using it in the field was a whole different question. Here, their dilemma was that they had created a way to impose themselves on other people’s thought processes, and if they started down this path, where would it end?
They had hoped that it would be a method to keep in touch with the three Royals in hiding, but to date, they had been unsuccessful navigating the vast distances involved. With the war going so badly, they were contemplating using it on the Trun Council to try to discover their tactics in advance and respond accordingly and redress the imbalance that now existed. Bakta had officially made this request to the Overseeing & Ethics Committee, a committee chaired by Cascan Ofier who sat just below the High Council and acted as a second conscience on such matters. They had given their approval—‘desperate times require desperate measures’ was their reply. But the final decision still rested with Domeriette.
The High Council had made the decision weeks ago, but she had delayed ratifying it until now.
‘Time for action. We shall do this,’ she finally decided. ‘Take your positions and prepare for mediation.’
They went to a white onyx table located in a curved recess in the southern wall. A large circular glass window and a glazed ceiling made it a magnificent setting, with an incredible view of the city and out to the sea, where the tiny islands were reaching up towards the sky like sharp little needles.
The five members of the Collective sat down around the small table, raising their hoods and clasping hands, the circle now formed. They closed their eyes and began the process of deep meditation.
Princess Domeriette, or Dom-Bala as she was nicknamed—to avoid being confused with the older Domeriette—was responsible for forming the conduit. Domeriette acted as a seeker. Camcietti’s expertise was as a reader of thoughts. Tauriar would create the channel home, and finally Ventar, serving as the evaluator, would complete the circle to Dom-Bala.
The High Council were preparing to listen to the Trun’s Quarter Luna War council meeting, which the Vercetian intelligence agency had established was tonight.
Dom-Bala started proceedings by opening up a conduit to the Trun capital Rizontella, the vicinity of the Council Building; an almost subatomic tendril of thought spiralling through space. This minuscule psychic tube was very short for her. She had, in training, opened them up into deep space by bending time; a wormhole type psychological anomaly using the same principle of joining separate points in spacetime. The exact negotiation of the different points was all that was stopping the Collective from contacting the Royals. They could reach out over vast distances but were yet to master pinpointing locations. The tendril was now ready for Domeriette, Camcietti and Tauriar to transfer their psyches to the War Ministry building. The three eased their minds to the far end of the tiny conduit.
Domeriette, as the seeker, took control of the terminal point and began sifting through the invisible ether for a dominant voice. They wouldn’t be capturing words and sentences, but thoughts—not always the same, especially from politicians. The authoritative voice would have the highest density of data packages around it, and she would need to isolate the packages from others in the vicinity carefully.
Domeriette guided Camcietti to these dominant package groups. Acting as the reader, he collected them and passed them on to Tauriar. They appeared to Camcietti as imprints of data surrounding the target. He could sense them, but he didn’t have time to process them. It was all he could do to grab them mentally and move them on through the circle.
Tauriar opened a channel back to the Verceti High Council room, following the route they had come. It was similar to Dom-Bala’s conduit, but instead of allowing thought access, this was an information highway. He transferred the thought imprints through this channel, to an eagerly waiting Ventar.
Finally Ventar, as the evaluator, started receiving the thought packages and tried to make sense of them and to get them into some coherent form. This analysis was passed on to Dom-Bala who, in turn, transferred it on to the other three who were operating psychically in Trun Council Room. They would hear the commentary as they were carrying out their duties.
The first speaker at the Trun War Ministry meeting began by introducing the principal dignitaries around the table and ran through the topics for the evening’s debate.
It was working well. The second and third speakers were picked up and their individual thought monologues captured. They were reporting on basic administrative affairs associated with the war. The Vercetians listened to the commentary from Ventar and at the same time could feel the passion in the Trun thoughts. They had a deep pride in their commitment for this war, still feeling the injustice done to them over three hundred years earlier. Domeriette was appalled that after all this time they still felt so strongly.
Haven’t they seen what we’ve done since those dark times? They knew how we felt and what we did to atone. With no contact and no dialogue, no wonder this war is never ending.
The third speaker finished, and the hall became quiet. Quieter than it had been all evening. Someone important must be readying themselves, thought Domeriette. After an extended pause, for effect perhaps, the next speaker’s energy source began to ripple into the ether, and the thoughts imprints started to form. Domeriette sensed the location of this psychic power supply and eased her mind towards it, creating a beacon for Camcietti and Tauriar. Camcietti opened his mind to the imprints, absorbing them as quickly as he could and packaging them up into nice neat bundles ready to pass on to Tauriar. Tauriar had just despatched the first bundle when the imprints started to change. The cohesive flow of the patterns seemed to pause, somehow evaluating its surrounding space. A shadowy entity was aware of them now. They could feel it probing, assessing. Then it went completely quiet. They could all feel something coming.
The attack, an instant later, was made with such venom and fury it stunned the High Council members. Camcietti took the full brunt of the vicious assault. His mind was wide open and was swamped by evil intent—there was no escape. He began sinking, drowning. His psyche was slipping away. The others looked on helplessly, stunned by their inability to act or help their besieged colleague. Camcietti felt he was falling into a well, his hand stretching out to an ever decreasing circle of light. Deeper, deeper, deeper. All went blank. His psyche had completely disappeared. The others felt it blink out.
Domeriette and Tauriar felt the peripheral effects of the attack on Camcietti; they also felt the evil. Tauriar, in a blind panic, released the channel and with Domeriette flashed back through the conduit that Dom-Bala was now struggling to hold open. A moment later their psyches had re-joined their physical forms back at the council chamber. They sat together at the onyx table, looking at each other. Their eyes were wide with shock and horror.
Ventar, shaken, slowly said, ‘Before the attack, I picked up one thought, a thought directed at the Trun Council...’
“Oh, how I am going to enjoy the slow and painful deaths of every single one of you.”
The others looked at him, appalled.
Domeriette’s senses slowly returned. She looked at each of her devastated friends’ faces, and finally, her eyes settled on Camcietti. He had slumped to the table, facing her, eyes glazed over, and he was obviously quite dead.
‘The Vercetians’ psychic power was most surprising. I was able to neutralise one whose mind was wide open to a neural attack. I’m sure my identity remains unknown.’
‘The speed and ferocity of your attack would have caught them by surprise. But the level of skill they have shown is very concerning.’
‘Yes, if they try again, they might be much better prepared to defend themselves. And possibly detect our true nature.’
‘They were using a psychic corridor technique? They need five, then. They will be a member short and incapable of replicating the psychic bond with only four. It would take years to train a replacement.’
‘Perhaps. But the Vercetians’ method of replacing ruling council members means that one of the exiled Royals has already received most of that training. And, if it is one of the older ones, they would be ready to assume the fifth position almost immediately. Detection at this stage would be a great inconvenience to us and might compromise the advantage we hold in the Game.’
‘It could cost us this Game. I will not allow that to happen. Our hold on this planet is not by any means secure yet. We mustn’t be detected. The prevention of their return is now of utmost importance. We know the locations of two of the three. Arrange visits. I will not accept an interruption to our long term plans.’