The Mutant Mindbender

[Note: This is not a sexy story. It is more like a 1950's pulp science fiction novel]

[Note: This is not a sexy story. It is more like a 1950's pulp science fiction novel]

Chapter 7: Journey Into The Unknown

Chapter 7: Journey Into The Unknown

Croft and Dalbo jumped off the top of the dam, compelled by the mindbending mutant.

Dalbo was looking at his chrono as they plunged downwards. Undoubtedly he was curious to find out how long the journey would take.

Croft lunged forward and grabbed Dalbo in a bear hug. Dalbo, surprised, tried to worm out of it, but Croft grabbed him tightly.

Then Croft turned to his wrist and pressed a button.

The back of his "suit" jacket blew out, revealing a compact grav chute backpack. Less powerful than a gravitator, with very limited energy, they were good for slowing falls. Croft felt it working as their fall started to slow.

But the ground wasn't very far below them. Could it stop their fall in time?

They were still falling even as the grav chute continued to slow their descent. Croft watched the ground speeding towards them. Time, they needed more time-

Their feet hit the ground first, and Croft expertly rolled to the side, unfortunately with Dalbo on top of him.

He felt pain radiating throughout the left side of his body. He lay there, winded, unmoving.

Croft didn't know how long it had taken for Preston and Waverly to get there. But it seemed like only a moment later when they stood, looking down at him.

"Croft!" Preston shouted, pulling him up. "Are you all right?"

"Ow!" said Croft, feeling the pain in his side. "I think I broke something."

Dalbo got up of his own accord. "Can you describe the pain?" He seemed uninjured. Undoubtedly Croft had broken his fall.

Describe the pain? "I'm looking right at it," said Croft, staring at him.

"Let's get you to base medical," said Preston.

"Wait, what about-"

"We have a team already on the way there," said Preston. "Wender took off in his gravitator. It's a race, to see who will get there first."

Croft didn't find out who had won the race until after he had been treated at the hospital, several hours later. He sat in an operating center while a doctor wrote up the evaluation he had just received.

"How is he, Doctor?" said Preston, coming into the room. Agent Waverly was with him.

"A lot of bruises, a few broken ribs, nothing critical," said the doctor. He turned to Croft. "From what I hear, you were very lucky."

"Lucky, yeah," Croft winced.

"The bones have been fused, but it will be tender for the next day or two," said the doctor. "I prescribe rest-"

"I'll rest when that madman is eliminated," said Croft. "Thank you, doctor." He got up, and left the room with Preston and Waverly.

"We found the generals, they're all ok," said Preston. "We were lucky that we had operatives closer to their location. They were able to get there and get them out before the Mind Bender could get back there."

"Where are they now?" said Croft.

"A secure location," said Preston. "Under observation for the next day or two, just to make sure that Wender's instructions wear off."

"Your President and other senior officials have also been moved to undisclosed locations," said Agent Waverly. "Wender won't be able to try that particular trick again."

Croft nodded.

"How did you know? said Agent Waverly.

"Know what?" Croft smiled, despite his discomfort.

"How did you know that the Mind Bender couldn't read minds?" Agent Waverly asked.

Croft smiled. "It first struck me when he was getting information from the Chief. I noticed that the Chief was answering questions that hadn't been asked. Obviously, Wender had been asking them telepathically. But the Chief was answering those questions in words. At first, I thought it was just a reflex--the Chief was responding in thoughts and words. But then it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, the Chief was speaking because Wender couldn't read his mind. That he could only control minds, but not read them."

"How could he possibly control a mind without being able to read it?" said Preston.

"Let's go see Levi and find out," said Croft.

********

"Of course is possible," said Levi, when they found him in his private kitchen, deep in the heart of Column HQ. "As I try to tell you, reading minds, controlling minds, can be two very different things."

"But how can he telepathically tell them what to do if he can't read their minds?" said Preston.

"If you deaf, can you speak?" said Levi.

"Well, yes, I suppose, but it's not the same thing-"

"Is the same thing," said Levi. "Mind Bender knows what he is thinking. Knows how to project his own thoughts. Can probably sense presence of other minds, and direct thoughts in those directions."

"He knew I was coming to the Chief's office before I came in," said Croft.

"Or he knew someone was coming," said Levi. "It is like a garbled holocom turned on low. You can hear that it's there, but not know what it is saying."

"So he projects the thoughts he wants the subject to obey, and then-"

"Gets subjects to repeat what he told them to do, to make sure he got proper message through," said Levi. "He has immense power, but does not even know if he is successful with power unless subject tells him so."

"Which is why whenever he asks a question telepathically the person he's controlling has to answer it verbally," says Croft. "That also explains why he didn't immediately know that Dalbo was a telepath, or that I had a mini grav chute hidden under my clothes."

"That was a very clever deduction, Croft," said Agent Waverly. "But if you had been wrong-"

"If I had been wrong, he probably would have had me take off my grav chute first," said Croft. "But I reviewed the records of his other victims. They spoke to him too. It seemed like more than a coincidence."

"Now that we know this, how can we use this against him?" Preston asked.

"Since we know he can't read our minds, we can confidently plan a surprise the next time we see him," said Croft. "If he asks for a datapad full of money, we can give him one that will blow up in his face."

"It may not be that easy," said Agent Waverly. "All he has to do is to compel us to tell him what we're planning."

"If he thinks of the right questions," said Croft. "It's a start."

"What about his origins?" Waverly asked. "Did you ever have a Column tech team look over his Exploration Service ship?"

"I did," said Croft. "They should have reported in by now." He activated his comm. Within a few moments he was speaking to the team leader.

"This is agent Croft. Did you examine Wender's Exploration Service ship?" Croft asked.

"Yes," came the tech's voice.

"What did you find?" Croft asked.

"We didn't find anything," said the tech.

Croft frowned. "Did you check the log computer?"

"We didn't find anything."

"Forensic data?"

"We did not find anything," the tech repeated, in an identical tone.

"Thanks," said Croft, signing off. He looked at the others.

"Wender got to them," said Preston.

"I wonder what's in that ship that he doesn't want us to find," said Croft.

"If he were thorough, he would have had his ship destroyed," said Agent Waverly. "Maybe there is nothing to find."

"No, he's just sloppy," Croft decided. "That's another pattern that describes Wender. But by now he has obscured two investigations of his ship," said Croft. "So I'm guessing there is something there to find."

"He really would have destroyed the ship, I think, if there were anything to find," said Preston. "I agree with Waverly on this one."

"Then why would he obscure two investigations?" said Croft. "I'll say it again. He's sloppy. He acts on impulse. He's not a criminal mastermind. A criminal mastermind would have asked for more than 20 million credits. A criminal mastermind would have questioned me more closely on the dam, and grabbed Dalbo, who's easily worth more than 20 million credits. He acts erratically, and that's to our advantage."

Croft turned to Levi. "Levi, I want you to check out Wender's Exploration Service ship."

"What am looking for?" Levi asked.

"Anything. Everything," said Croft. "His entire crew disappeared in midflight. The story is unbelievable. I want to see if you can come up with any evidence to find out what happened."

"How do we know that what happened to the tech team won't happen to Levi?" Preston asked.

"Wender can't be everywhere at once or know everything we do. But we will have to take some precautions," said Croft. "Levi, I want you to take a portable holotransmitter with you. Have someone monitor it and monitor you while you are examining the ship; if whoever monitors you sees any sign of Wender, we'll know that whatever conclusions you come to won't be your own."

"All right," said Levi.

********

Croft spent the rest of the day resting in bed, taking painkillers. When he got up the next morning, he was no longer in active pain, but he felt sore whenever he moved. He called Waverly and Preston and told them to meet him in Levi's lab.

When they got there, a small dog intercepted them at the door.

"Arf arf!" said Quick, the small mutated Pomeranian.

"We're looking for Levi, Quick," said Croft.

"Arf, arf!" said Quick, still blocking their way.

"We really don't think Levi would mind us being here," said Croft.

"Roough!" said Quick, pointing his snout in the air as he barked.

Croft suddenly gained some perspective. "Look at me; I'm arguing with a lap dog."

Croft simply stepped around the small dog and entered the room. Quick, unhappy with the intruders, continued to yap.

It seemed Levi wasn't in the lab. But his holoreceiver was on, and it showed an image of Levi inside an Exploration Service scoutship.

Croft pressed the transmit button. "Levi, I told you to have someone watching you remotely."

Levi pressed the button on his wrist comm. "Yes. Quick is watching. Quick, what is status?"

The little dog ran up to the comm unit. "Arf arf!"

"No sign of Mind Bender yet," Levi translated.

"You're relying on the dog to guard your back?" said Preston. "How do you know he won't be distracted by a bone or going to the bathroom or something?"

"Grrrr!" said Quick, baring his teeth at Preston.

"Is a very conscientious animal," said Levi, bending over a console.

"What have you found?" Croft asked.

Levi turned to face the holotransmitter, and held up a plastic bag with a few bits of something in it.

"Levi, this is no time for recipes," said Croft.

"Dirt," said Levi.

Croft raised an eyebrow. He wasn't really a forensics specialist. "Levi, help me out here. Is it any particular kind of dirt?"

"Alien dirt."

"Alien dirt," said Croft. "Meaning..."

"Soil," said Levi. "Ran it through shipboard analyzer. Doesn't match soil from any known inhabited planet."

Croft frowned. "We were told that the ship never set down anywhere."

"I think it did," said Levi. He manipulated a console, stared at the readout. "Ah!"

"What?" said Croft.

"Databanks altered," said Levi.

"How do you know?" Croft asked.

"Did simple unerase of original log. Very amateur job of erasure. Recovery of lost data showed ship set down on planet, different trajectory than what said in log," Levi continued to read the data, even as he spoke.

"A planet," said Croft. "What else does it say?"

"Planet breathable atmosphere. Ship there for several weeks. Then ship leave," said Levi.

"No personal logs, no crew logs?" said Croft.

"Found erased logs mentioning going to planet," said Levi. "But no logs once reached planet, or after."

"Hm," said Croft. That sounded a little ominous.

"Why wouldn't Wender want us to know about a planet he and his crew discovered?" Preston asked. "Unless...."

"Unless something on this planet gave him this power," said Croft.

"I think we have to investigate this," said Agent Waverly.

"I'm afraid I agree," Croft sighed. He knew he had to go. But he didn't like the idea of going to some distant planet without any backup. Croft was an expert infiltrator; but he felt at ease infiltrating societies with a lot of people, where he knew how to blend in. Going to some distant planet where there was no people, but perhaps some dangerous aliens, was not his idea of infiltration work, and Croft's skills and natural advantages would not help him.

********

Four hours later, they were on one of the fastest and most famous ships in the Exploration Service fleet, theSpace Racer, commanded by the legendary ES explorer, James Starr.

If there was some alien artifacts on this unknown planet to be studied or interpreted, Starr was the best man for the job. He had hundreds of years of experience exploring uncharted planets and analyzing alien artifacts. He had also published many scholarly books on the subject, though because of their scholarly nature, only one, specifically designed for the mass market, had become an instant bestseller: the Complete Idiot's Guide to Monumental Technology. Croft had read it several times, but it was more of a basic guide than a how-to book. Everyone was curious about the old monuments that were found scattered throughout the galaxy, but not much was really known about them. What little was known, however, was known quite well by James Starr. They were just lucky that he happened to be on August at this particular time; he was usually out among the stars, engaged in long distance travel and exploration.

Preston and Agent Waverly accompanied them. Croft also brought Mongo. If they were going into danger, Mongo might be able to warn them beforehand.

"I have to admit a certain amount of apprehension about this trip," said Croft.

"Why, Clifford?" said Starr.

"I mean, this guy went to this planet and came back with the ability to control minds," said Croft.

"Wouldn't you like the ability to control minds?" said Preston.

"It certainly would be useful in dealing with A.A., and some other bosses I've had in the past," said Croft. "But this same ability also drove Wender mad. He probably killed his crew, and when he got back here... look what he did."

"Wender had a violent background to begin with," said Starr. "There's no certainty that whatever gave him this power would also turn us into homicidal maniacs."

"He had an assault record," said Croft. "But he never killed anyone."

"Perhaps because he knew he couldn't get away with it before," said Starr. "But now he can."

"Well, I just don't want to get turned into whatever he is," said Croft. "All our Gamma Operatives have something a little odd about them. I don't want to come back with the urge to count ceiling tiles or something like that."

"Exploration always has a certain degree of risk."

"Yes, and that makes me wonder why you do it," said Croft.

"The thrill of adventure, and making new discoveries," said Starr. "But being a spy is not without its risk as well. It makes me wonder why you do what you do."

"Well, I get to travel," said Croft. "And the Column also has an excellent dental plan."

"Yes, yes, now the Croft admits he is frightened," hissed a familiar voice. "But does he tell that to Mongo before they leaves? No, no. He goes to Mongo, he goes, Mongo, how would you like special trip, to nice beautiful luscious planet? Will make many friends there, and have lots of ice cream, so the Croft says. And Mongo, poor gullible Mongo, he believes the Croft and says, yes, will go and take trip to nice shiny planet. But only now Mongo finds out danger, much danger, yes, and poooor Mongo being sent to naaaasty planet with bad danger."

"We may need your help," said Croft.

Mongo gave him a hard look. "Yessssss, always need Mongo's help. Mongo is number one helper. Many, many statues on August in appreciation for all the help Mongo-"

"Mongo, perhaps now is as good a time as any to make you aware that this ship has not one but several closets I can lock you in," said Croft.

"Yes, must silence poor Mongo. Lock Mongo away in cruel tight place until Mongo is needed." Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. "But if you lock Mongo in closet, how will the Croft know about air leak?" Mongo asked.

"What air leak?" said Starr, looking alarmed.

Mongo smiled slightly. "Air leak comes at night, when all sleeping. No one notices, no one wakes up. Mongo tries to warn, but is locked up in tight closet by the Croft. Everyone suffocates, even poor Mongo. Later, when followup team finds bodies on ship, they say, they say, why did they lock poor Mongo in tight little closet?"

Starr checked the life support systems. "I don't see any signs of an air leak."

"Air leak not happen yet," said Mongo. "Mongo sees what happens later, not now. That is why Mongo is in such big demand. Did you not know? You probably thought Mongo brought along only for his handsome looks, yes."

Starr was more concerned about a more critical issue. "Where will this air leak occur?" said Starr. "I can scan the affected area for microfractures-"

"Just a minute," said Croft suddenly. He stared at Mongo appraisingly. "It occurred to me that this horror story started when I talked about locking you in a closet. This whole story about an air leak wouldn't just be a lie to get back at me, would it?"

"Mongo is always the honest one," said Mongo. "Mongo is not one to say, 'come to nice pleasure planet, is safe for everyone, especially Mongo' when planet can be very very naaaaasty."

"Will there be an air leak?" said Croft, staring at Mongo.

"Mongo does not know," said Mongo, shrugging. "There are many many futures."

Croft tried a different approach. "Is it likely that there will be an air leak?" he asked.

"Mongo does not know," said Mongo.

"Where will this air leak appear?" Croft persisted.

"Mongo does not know yet," said Mongo. "But certainly will not know if locked in closet."

Croft stared him in the eye for a moment, making a determination.

"All right," said Croft. "For safety's sake, we'll all sleep in spacesuits tonight."

"Spacesuits," said Preston, making a face. "We'll never fall sleep in spacesuits."

"It's the only way to be sure, isn't it?" Croft said, continuing to stare at Mongo.

"Ah, Mongo not need spacesuit," said Mongo.

"Why not?" Croft asked.

"Mongo get warning before air leak, and wake you up," said Mongo brightly.

"No, just to be safe, you'll sleep in a spacesuit with the rest of us," said Croft.

Mongo muttered something.

"What was that?"

Mongo muttered to himself.

"I didn't catch that," said Croft.

"Air leak may not occur," said Mongo.

"May not?" said Croft. "What does that mean?"

"There are maaaany many futures," said Mongo. "Air leak in some futures, not others."

"So we should sleep in spacesuits just to be safe," said Croft.

Mongo said, "Ah, not necessary..."

"But I thought you said-"

"Mongo sees now. It was air leak, but not in this ship. Was in other ship," he said quickly.

"Ah, another ship," said Croft, pretending to look surprised. "So it was the OTHER ship you were thinking about that has the air leak, right?"

Mongo looked unhappy. "Yes, Mongo realizes that now," he said, in a soft tone.

"Well, I can see how you might confuse a completely different ship with ours," said Croft. He turned to the others with a knowing look.

"How did you know?" said Starr.

"I know Mongo," said Croft simply.

Two weeks later, theSpace Racerarrived at the locations mentioned in Wender's logs. Sure enough, they found an uncharted planet around an uncharted system.

Everyone in the cramped exploration ship was tense.

Starr checked the sensors. "Detecting an August-type planet with a breathable atmosphere, plant life, mountains...."

"Any signs of a civilization?" said Croft.

Starr paused. "No signs of intelligent life... wait." He stared at the sensors.

"What?" said Croft.