The Mind Machine

***Note: this is an excerpt from a book I wrote, Return to Space. I maintain all rights to this material.***

Back at The Canary Dido, Princess Annalise stepped out to speak to the people.  She paused long enough for the prison transport to leave and her guards to return to her side before speaking.  “Niemand is unwell and has asked to go to the mind machine.  He believes that Cindy is not actually dead, even though it is pretty obvious that my sister’s body is on the stretcher.  Out of respect for Niemand, I hereby order that every test gets run on Cindy’s body to verify that it is her; so that he will, hopefully, come home to us soon.” 

The crowd of people started murmuring, but Annalise raised her hand for silence again.  “I know that this is a painful development, but we should remember that it took a lot out of my father to ask for help.  We must be ready to do whatever we can to help him get better before he resumes his position here.  I am temporarily instating Wishter as Niemand’s replacement and I’d also like Daruka to be in charge of the testing on my sister’s body.  Thank you all for your cooperation.” 

“One question, your highness!”  Mycia’s deep voice vibrated across the crowd. 

“Yes, Mycia?” 

“Will Niemand be allowed to come back for Cindy’s funeral whenever that takes place?” 

“I promise to coordinate with the mind machine in order for Niemand to be present for Cindy’s funeral.  I do not see any reason that he won’t be able to be here.”  Annalise swallowed the tears that were threatening to fall before walking off towards her transport to return to her duties leading Terbia.  She really wanted to stay here and grieve the loss of her twin, but there was work that really needed to get done. 

Annalise really hoped that the test results wouldn’t take too long to come back, but she knew that, realistically, they took two weeks.  Two weeks was far too long to leave her people without a leader.  She allowed a hint of a smile to show though as she made herself comfy on her ship, imagining her sister alive and in charge of the piles of paperwork a Princess had to do.  One of the few things she knew about Cindy was that she despised paperwork; however, she was really good at making other people have to do a lot of it regarding her. 

It was bittersweet that the events had turned out this way.  She would do anything to know that Cindy was still alive and get the chance to know her better, but with Niemand insisting that he heard her voice, at least Cindy’s legacy of paperwork wouldn’t be forgotten anytime soon.  She knew that there would be a lot of paperwork coming across her desk when she got home relating to this incident.  Cindy’s name would not be forgotten for a while yet – and that was the very sweet part of this turn of events. 

Some cultures viewed death as final as did the Terbiates. In her studies, she had seen that other cultures viewed death differently. As a result, she had adopted a similar mindset to the Mystic World’s viewpoint.  They viewed that death wasn’t final.  It was believed that as long as someone remembered your name, your likes and dislikes, and you didn’t fade out of history, that in some way, you were still present with your loved ones.  They taught that the bodies were sleeping, but that the dead person’s soul lived on through those who remembered them. 

Annalise sighed as she thought about what this would cost Niemand though.  The mind machine was above everyone – including herself – and not one person ever talked about what happened within the confines of the machine.  Some people swore that they would kill themselves before ever going back. She knew that that was part of the reason she feared the machine.  But other people had nothing bad to say about it, so it couldn’t be all that horrible, right? 

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Niemand kept his eyes closed for most of the trip to Terbia, focusing on his breathing in order to keep his panic from rising in his chest.  What was done was done and now he had to deal with the consequences.  He remembered only one person that he had known well who had went into the mind machine and came back out.  He had been different and told Niemand that if he knew what the machine would do, he’d have rather died.  He refused to say anything else than that about that experience. 

Niemand breathed deeply and then thought of Cindy.  If she was still alive, and trapped on Earth, she was probably terrified.  Nothing that a machine would do to him could be worse than what Cindy would go through. He breathed a sigh of relief that that Dr. White had been removed from the military base and that that particularly evil man would no longer pose a danger to anyone he loved. 

The silence in the room suddenly ended, causing Niemand to jump, as a voice asked, “Niemand, why won’t you help me?”  His eyes leapt open and he scoured the room for whatever had asked it, but there was nothing.  All he could see was the off-white walls of the cell surrounding him.  He was just hearing things again.  It was so frustrating to know that he was going crazy. 

The door lock clicked open and one of the guards entered.  “Are you ready to go, Niemand?”  he asked softly.  This guard was the same one who had reminded him to take it easy earlier. He had grey streaks through his brown beard and tired lines across his face.  Niemand realized that this man had the scar across his temple that Niemand had left him with 15 years earlier when he escaped the prison that King Zonien had put him in.  The guard had been young then and newly in the position, but 15 years of service had taken their toll. 

Suddenly, Niemand felt the need to ask the man’s name.  “What is your name?” 

The guard looked surprised, but still answered, “Hikley.” 

“I’m sorry for hurting your head 15 or so years ago, Hikley.”  Niemand apologized softly as he motioned to where the scar would be on his own temple. 

“It’s ok.  I never blamed you for what you did, Niemand.  I always believed that you wouldn’t have killed Princess Deborah or her daughter – even before we all found out that you and Princess Deborah were together and the babies were yours too.” 

Niemand’s eyes filled with tears as he remembered back to those painful days and, for a moment, he sincerely hoped that the mind machine could erase all of the pain that had been done to everyone. Reality came crashing down on him as he realized that nothing anybody or anything did would be able to change the past. He stood up, wiped his eyes, and said in the most level voice he could muster, “I’m ready to go, Hikley.” 

Hickley gently put his hand on Niemand’s upper arm, guiding him out of the cell and down the ramp.  Niemand was glad that the guards were being gentle and not treating him like a criminal. He didn’t know if he could keep himself from fighting the system otherwise.  Looking ahead at the special hospital where the mind machine was kept, Niemand couldn’t help but compare it to a prison.  The only difference was how it rose from the ground, instead of being below ground. 

The windows had bars on them and the doors had the best security features that Terbia had to offer installed.  There were countless cameras on the outside and Niemand was sure that there were more on the inside.  The building was painted a soft shade of bluish grey, with no decorations to be seen.  Looking around, Niemand was surprised to see that the hospital was in the middle of Terbia’s only desert.  He shouldn’t have been surprised though, he reminded himself that Terbiates didn’t want the crazy people to escape and run rampant through the more populated areas of Terbia. - an out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality.

Hikley knocked on the large, double door entrance before turning to Niemand.  “Don’t be scared.  They are here to help you. I’ll be back before you know it to take you back to Havenland.”  Hikley gave him a small smile as the doors opened to reveal a small, dark woman. 

The woman just said, “Come, Niemand.” as she reached out to sign the paper that Hikley extended to her verifying that Niemand was transferred into her care. Niemand took one last look outside before the doors slammed shut as Hikley left. 

Niemand could feel his pulse quicken in the dimness of the interior.  The windows that had looked like they would, at least, allow light in from the outside seemed to suck the light out of the inside of the hospital instead.  He heard a few different people scream and he jumped involuntarily.  The lady spoke again, “Don’t worry, they just don’t like the medicine that the Great One has prescribed for them.  Just remember, the more you fight the process here, the longer you will stay.  Follow me.” 

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A while later, as Niemand was finally able to go over his thoughts in the room they had been assigned to him, he sighed.  It wasn’t quite as bad as prison, but in other ways this place was worse. 

The first steps of this process had included him to be forced to strip down to nothing in front of another man who verified that he didn’t have any weapons; he had his blood drawn; he was asked a multitude of questions while on a machine that gave a ‘static shock’ every time you didn’t tell the exact and entire truth; and then he had the wireless portion of the mind machine attached to his spinal cord at the base of his skull. It had been a brutal few hours that he hoped would never be repeated.

Niemand reached around to the back of his neck to feel the cold metal part that was sticking out.  It was only about half an inch in diameter, but it hurt a lot – especially when they had first inserted it.  He jerked his hand away as he remembered that they had told him that if he couldn’t leave it alone and not touch it, that they would give him a sedative.  In some ways, a sedative sounded good after everything he had already gone through today, but he didn’t want his intellect to be compromised.  He wanted to remember everything that happened during his stay so that he could share his experiences and, hopefully, allow people to be less fearful of this place. 

Niemand really wanted to be able to relax and not worry about what tomorrow would bring, but he couldn’t help but worry about what the mind machine would say.  What it would prescribe him, what horrors it would reveal about his past, and what it would say about the voices.  There were a lot of unknowns and he did not do well with the unknown.  There was nothing else he could do though, so he laid down on the thin mattress they provided and closed his eyes to sleep.