Mindbridge Read online

  FROM: Johnathon Legman, M.D., Ph.D.

  Andre Barnett, M.D.

  Miriam Kophage, M.D., Medical Research

  Group, AED Col Spr

  RE: Autopsy of Tamer 1 Hsi Ch’ing

  Abstract

  Tamer 1 Hsi Ch’ing died on his first translation, a training mission to a fairly earthlike planet of Groom-bridge 1618. The mission was highly unusual in many respects. Not only was the planet quite viable for geoformy, but one of the animals the Tamers discovered seems to function as an amplifier for telepathic communication (preliminary report attached; Appendix VIII).

  Tamer Ch’ing died at 21:32:47.6, 17 August 2051. The GPEM attempted to diagnose the cause of death but was unable to, and so communicated to the supervisor “Death due to undiagnosed GPEM malfunction,” and then froze the cadaver for later analysis earthside.

  Our bioengineering section has checked out the GPEM very minutely, and reports that it is functioning perfectly. Its data crystals show no indication of malfunction at the time of the Tamer’s death. The diagnostic it communicated to the supervisor can also be interpreted “Cause of death unknown.” (Appendix III)

  Our examination of the cadaver was similarly negative. Tamer Ch’ing was in excellent health on 16 August 2051 (See pre-translation physical, Appendix IV), and the cadaver likewise showed no symptoms of illness or trauma not directly attributable to postmortem freezing.

  Biometric data just prior to death are ambiguous, and can be variously interpreted as indicating death due to cardiac infarction or massive cerebrovascular incident. Autopsy, however, denies the possibility of either.

  28 August 2051

  Contents:

  Autopsy report

  Appendix I: Subject’s medical history

  Appendix II: Raw laboratory data

  Appendix III: Bioengineering Section report

  Appendix IV: Pre-translation physical & interview

  Appendix V: Autopsy visuals

  Appendix VI: Specialist’s report: cerebrovascular

  Appendix VII: Specialist’s report: cardiac

  Appendix VIII: Preliminary report: The Groombridge “Bridge”

  Copies of original data crystals available on request.

  17 - Schedule

  EXPERIMENT SCHEDULE: Groombridge “Bridge.”

  Hours Team Purpose Equipment

  25 Aug

  03:05 (translation) -

  03:05-10:00 Senior Survey General investing.ad lib

  10:00-17:00 Bio Group, Meta/catabolic Mod. Stokes

  Willard meas. chamber

  17:00-24:00 Bio Group, Reaction to ad lib

  Jameson stimuli

  26 Aug

  00:00-14:00 Math Comm, ESP (stat) Rhine deck

  Chandler

  14:00-15:00 PR Group Public relations ad lib

  15:00-22:00 Bio Group, Exp. w/modified

  Van der terrestrial breathers,

  Walls animals animals ad lib

  22:00-24:00 Lefavre, Personal cot

  Wachal (ESP, psych)

  27 Aug 00:00-14:00 Math ESP (stat) Rhine deck

  Comm, Fong

  14:00-17:00 Riley et al Press Conference -

  17:00-24:00 Bio Group, Change in Mod. Stokes

  Willard metabolic chamber

  rate wrt stress

  increment

  EXPERIMENTS 28 AUG-31 AUG TO BE DETERMINED BY RESULTS OF THE PRECEDING WORK.

  1 Sept 19:00-20:49 Bio Group, Dissection Surg instr.,

  Willard cameras

  20:49 - (translation: “slingshot”)

  18 – CHAPTER SIX: PRELUDE

  A preliminary to an action, event, condition, or work of broader scope and higher importance . . . an independent piece of moderate length, sometimes used as an introduction to a fugue...

  SETTING: The finest restaurant in Colorado Springs, Saturday evening, 26 August 2051. JACQUE LEFAVRE has invited CAROL WACHAL to dinner. Candlelight, heavy velvet, music by a neoElizabethan octet. The waiter has taken the dishes away; JACQUE orders from the wine steward a bottle of Château d’Yquem 2039.

  CAROL

  Teasing:

  Am I really worth that much?

  JACQUE

  A little defensive:

  It’s an occasion.

  CAROL

  Won’t be much of an occasion if we drink too much. Alcohol is a depressant.

  JACQUE

  Good wine never hurt that. . . facility.

  CAROL

  Are you always so formal?

  JACQUE

  Me? I’m not so-

  CAROL

  Yes you are. You’ve been treating me like a cousin you haven’t seen in a long time. Not like-

  JACQUE

  Well, hell. Maybe I’m a little nervous. It’s not your usual first date.

  CAROL

  That’s true. Loosen up, though. It’s not as if we’ll be on a stage in front of-

  JACQUE

  Yeah.

  I’m glad you stepped in when old Chandler wanted us to-

  CAROL

  Shrugs.

  There are limits.

  JACQUE

  I suspect you weren’t quite as outraged as you acted, though.

  CAROL

  Don’t pry, now. You’ll have your chance later.

  JACQUE

  Laughs.

  I suppose. Here comes our man.

  The wine steward serves the bottle with appropriate ceremony. They toast and drink.

  CAROL Good. Are you used to this kind of living?

  JACQUE

  Was once. Not since I was a boy.

  CAROL

  Your parents were rich?

  JACQUE

  Fairly well off. Dad was a senior physicist at Institut Fermi in New York.

  CAROL

  He’s dead now.

  JACQUE

  Hesitates.

  In a manner of speaking. Let’s talk about something else.

  CAROL

  Sure, I’m sorry.

  JACQUE

  It’s funny.

  CAROL Hmm?

  JACQUE

  Well . . . that we should have gone through so much together-discover a new world together- and be such strangers.

  CAROL

  Together separately. I can’t get used to seeing you as a solid human, inside a body. You’re supposed to be just a voice in my ear.

  JACQUE

  I don’t have any trouble getting used to your body.

  CAROL

  You’re so gallant.

  JACQUE dips a forefinger in the wine and skims along the top of the glass. It’s fine crystal and makes a pure singing note, which unfortunately doesn’t go well with the octet. A man at the next table gives JACQUE a sharp look, and he stops.

  CAROL

  You don’t care for the music?

  JACQUE

  Music! It’s just a gimmick to sell lutes and flutes.

  CAROL

  It’s pretty...

  JACQUE

  Next year it’ll be electric guitars.

  CAROL

  Could be.

  JACQUE

  If it were real Elizabethan music, madrigals and such, that would be all right-austere, controlled; but this modem-

  CAROL

  Calm down, Jacque. It’s nothing to get all worked up over.

  JACQUES finishes his wine and pours another glass. CAROL declines.

  CAROL

  What time is it?

  JACQUE

  Five after nine...

  CAROL

  If we left now, we could walk to the chamber.

  JACQUE

  That’s...

  Regards his drink.

  probably a good idea.

  Signals waiter.

  It’s a nice night.

  JACQUE settles the check and they leave, CAROL’S hand lightly on his arm.

  19 - Fugue

  A polyphonic composition based upon one, two, or more themes, which are enunciated by several voic
es or parts in turn, subjected to a contrapuntal treatment, and gradually built up into a complex form having somewhat distinct divisions or stages of development and a marked climax at the end.

  The Groombridge bridge was housed in a room-sized hyperbaric chamber adjacent to the ready room. It was overbuilt for the purpose, the air pressure on Groom-bridge being nine-tenths of an atmosphere, but as Jacque pointed out, it had one real advantage for their particular experiment: no windows.

  They were a little early, and were sharing a cup of coffee when Van der Walls and his group came out.

  “Any results, Dr. Van?” Carol asked.

  “Difficult to say.” He shook his head. “Most of the animals were lethargic.” He opened the cage he was carrying and took out a small collie, still trailing wires from its head and chest. It was limp as a rag; didn’t want to stand. Van der Walls stroked it gently and talked to it.

  “They couldn’t wear masks, of course. Carbon dioxide got to most of them. We’ll know more after we look at the biometrics results. There, boy.” The dog was standing sleepily.

  His two assistants brought out the rest of the cages. “That’s it, Van,” one of them said. Van der Walls tucked the dog under his arm and with a straight face wished them good luck.

  Jacque and Carol put new plastic inserts in two of the breathers and slipped on the masks. They didn’t strap the tanks on their backs, but carried them through the airlock into the chamber.

  The drop in pressure made their ears pop.

  “Not exactly the honeymoon suite,” Jacque said. Bright white enamel walls and black tile floor, an aquarium full of muddy water on a table in the middle. A folding cot borrowed from the infirmary. Video cameras.

  “Omnia vincit Amor,” Carol said.

  “We’ll see.” They led each other to the cot. In passing, Jacque threw his jacket over one of the cameras.

  “They said the cameras wouldn’t be on,” Carol said. Jacque was taking his shirt off, a tricky business, since it was a turtleneck. He had to worry it over the mask, then thread it down over the airhose and tank. “That’s what they said.” He threw the shirt over the other camera.

  Carol’s semiformal jumpsuit presented no problem. She ran her finger down the seam and shrugged it off, folded it neatly and set it on the table by the aquarium. She smiled at him, groped through the murky water and fished out the bridge. It was wet, but not slimy.

  “This should be fun.” She sat down next to him on the cot. He stroked her gently, made no move to touch the bridge.

  She stretched out on the cot, put her head in his lap, lifted her mask enough to kiss him, then lick.

  He ruffled her short hair. “You don’t waste time.”

  “I don’t feel like wasting time.” She urged him down. While they were shifting, making room on the narrow cot, they touched the bridge:

  JACQUE CAROL

  Disconcertingly “But quick so

  accurate closeup quick. . . “Blurred

  of his face, then picture of various

  genitals super- parts of her body,

  imposed “So shifting “Skin

  nervous he is, hot.”

  so solid.”

  “I’m not nervous,” he said in a hoarse whisper.

  “Of course not.” She ran a finger down his chest.

  “Hair’s growing back.”

  “Have to-hey!”

  “Sorry, ticklish?”

  “Only the navel, never could . . . that’s better.”

  “I should hope.” She put his hand on her breast and touched the bridge again.

  JACQUE CAROL

  Her eyes closed Her face the sudden

  he sees dark red curve of her hip “So

  feels fingers hot, soft, so like...

  bump over hard so like. . . not to

  nipple pleasure think, not to think. . .”

  two places His hand moving over

  “Think something her breast A BEACH IN

  sexy”. . . NOT BRIGHT SUN A SLENDER

  THINK See her GIRL “Not to think

  mind see his Maria not to think...”

  hand “What not

  think?”

  “Don’t censor yourself,” she said softly. “She looks like me? In your mind she does.”

  “Did.” He traced a line with his finger, down her ribs, waist, hard bump of her hipbone.

  JACQUE CAROL

  Warm wake of Sliding down hot

  pleasure follows damp skin “See her

  his finger belly jump” and

  jumps in nervous over sand papery

  reflex “O hurry O stubble down along-

  hurry” over the side it stop then part

  little tendon lips from bottom so

  corner and down- hot so wet slide up

  “There O now and find it MARIA

  hurry” lips part- RUNNING UP FROM

  ing wet sound THE WATER SHE SITS

  breath holding ON MY BLANKET DRY-

  “There O no too ING HAIR LEGS APART

  hard O-here PINK MYSTERY IN

  BAD BOY here!” BLONDE HALO “No

  bad boy” slippery

  here “Too hard?

  I...”

  “Here.” She let go of the bridge for a second to position his hand.

  JACQUE CAROL

  “Still now” she “So ready!”

  thrusts against “Don’t press

  him twice breath- she knows still now.”

  ing once deep “I ...”

  anus tightening

  “O.. Oh” away “How can...”

  and back again

  slow featherlight “?”

  circling touch “Jesus!”

  “. . .”

  hot pulses two

  “. . .”

  three diminishing

  “. . . Oh.”

  radiate tingling

  “. . . Oh, Jacque.”

  “Oh, Jacque.” She rubbed her forehead against his chest, wiping off sweat. He let go of the bridge to hold her tightly.

  He swallowed twice. “You don’t need much warming up, do you?”

  She giggled into his chest. “It’s been over a week. Can’t touch yourself in a suit.”

  “You had all day,” he said.

  “Saved it.” She resumed rubbing him. “Is this all right?”

  “Fine.” He glided the edge of his hand down her backbone, skin slick and cooling. “That was something.” His fingers rested lightly at the top of the crevice between her buttocks, his thumb making little circles in a lumbar dimple. “It’s different than with men.”

  “Better?”

  “Different.”

  She stopped panting. “It wouldn’t be so fast. . . but the bridge! It’s like. . . it’s like. . . being both people. Not quite that, something like that. Exciting.”

  It wasn’t like that for Jacque. “Good, good.” For Jacque, it was like being watched.

  “We don’t have to hold on to the bridge with our hands,” she said. “How about this?” She rolled over so her back was toward Jacque. “Take me longer this way.” She reached over her shoulder and slipped the bridge between her back and Jacque’s chest.

  JACQUE CAROL

  “If I try think soft nest “God!

  about something crawly bug trapped

  else” feel of him spider get it

  wilting on her away!”

  “CRAWLY TRAPPED

  SPIDER”

  He almost pushed her off the cot, squirming away from contact with the bridge. “I’m sorry, it. . . let’s just hold on to it with our hands. Then we can drop it if-“

  “You felt trapped.”

  “It was trapped.”

  She reached back to hold him. “Jacque, you aren’t afraid of me, are you? Afraid to let me inside-“

  “No. No, I like it.” Not a complete lie. “Just let’s keep the bridge . . . at arm’s length. I don’t like it touching me. I don’t like it so close.”

  “All right.�
�� She set the creature by her abdomen. “Can you reach it here?”

  “Yeah.” They touched the bridge and with her free hand she guided him into her.

  JACQUE CAROL

  “There” pushing Quick shiver good

  back him warm going in then slight

  against her “Tell resistance overcome

  now Maria” buttocks surprising

  NO CAN’T staying cold “No I can’t”

  then slow then staying then drawing

  fast, holding back slowly and

  tense quick thrust holding

  tense “All right”

  “All right.” Both of them eyes closed, faces flushed. Carol stroking him gently, “I trust you,” he said:

  JACQUE CAROL

  Hot wet Trust “Trust you” SITTING

  “She is like me ON MY BLANKET DRY-

  with hair-“ ING HAIR LEGS APART

  slick cold outside SHE LOOKING AWAY

  going in slow hard THEN LOOK DOWN

  HARD out quick AND SEE ME HARD

  in slow THEN WHAT REALLY

  out HAPPEN SHE LAUGH

  in AND SAY YOU GROW-

  “But Jacque ING UP JACQUES AND

  you not here” PAT MY KNEE AND

  in, out in, “Feel RUN AWAY DOWN THE

  ME Jacque,” out in SAND LAUGHING BUT

  SHE ON TOP I ALWAYS

  I LOVED SHE REMEMBER THERE’S

  DIED NOBODY ELSE THERE

  “JACQUE” AND WE PLAY TO-

  GETHER AND SHE ON

  TOP OF ME ON THE

  BLANKET SHE SHOWS

  ME HOW

  “I loved her she was

  my sister she died”

  “She died when. . . I was twelve when she died.”

  “Jacque.” She reached blindly back and touched his cheek, eyes. “My poor Jacque.”

  They tried five different sexual geometries in the next hour, Carol becoming fairly exhausted after nine or ten orgasms. Jacque was even more exhausted by the strain of none.

  He could start but he couldn’t finish. Not with another person’s thoughts, however attractive, intruding on his privacy; not with his own fantasies being reflected back to him distorted by Carol’s sympathies- and by her revulsion sometimes, though she tried to mask it.

  Carol had no such problems: she was not a very private person to begin with, and she was less sensitive to the bridge. Being tuned in to Jacque was a delicious spice to her, like making love surrounded by mirrors, with an illustrated pornographic story unreeling in her mind.