Majgen Ch. 008

His words caused the child to begin shaking and tightening her grip on Majgen's legs so hard, that the child's muscles began to acid up. Baglian noticed Majgen's rage rising even higher, as she felt the child's distress.

"Control yourself, Student Majgen, or I will sedate you," Baglian stated still speaking with a professionally toneless voice.

Majgen did her best to comply; she wanted to help the child, not to make matters worse by loosing her self-control.

"Units are on their way, Femaron," the female voice said through Baglian's communicator, after Baglian had been quiet a few seconds. The call taking GED employee had already found and verified his identity.

"Can you tell me more about the situation?"

"Not right now," Baglian replied, he suspected an explanation might cause the suspects to fight or flee. The Call-taker remained quiet on her end, listening intently for anything that could increase her insight of the situation.

The father kept trying to call his daughter to him. Baglian scanned the top of the male suspects mind.

'He still believes it will make a difference if the child listens to him,' Baglian saw.

The mother was absolutely quiet, and absolutely still. She seemed to be staring at nothing. Baglian looked quickly into the woman's mind, and found she was trying to convince herself that she was innocent. Even with such a brief scan he could clearly see, she wasn't. She had known all along.

"Lift up the child, Student," Femaron Baglian ordered.

Majgen did as she was told. Holding the child tight, while staring at the offending parents. The amount of spectators had grown to a crowd. Baglian was annoyed to see visual recorders in several hands. He didn't want his student to become a public figure, at this time. Tears were still streaming down her face.

'Mentarion tears added to a story of pedophiliac incest will make those visual recordings travel far beyond Drom,' Baglian thought.

Baglian sedated the child in Majgen's arm fully, sending her into a hypnotic dreamless sleep, sparing her from hearing more of her father's hypocritical sweet talking. When the father saw his daughter's body go completely limp, he realised she was being mind-sedated.

"I didn't give permission for my child to be mind-sedated," the man complained.

"I don't need parental permission to sedate a minor in a situation of crisis, to lessen the risk of post-traumatic effects, Sir," Baglian informed the ignorant pedophile hypocrite.

"I am her father, I decide when she is in crisis or not!"

Baglian ignored that comment. He had to keep track of three adult players at once, to act instantly if any of them should suddenly decide to do something stupid. Three adults to watch closely, while also keeping the child sedated.

The first; a father who might do something really stupid, once he realised he was completely found out. The second; a mother who might suddenly realise she was facing nearly the same penalty for having done nothing in spite of her knowledge. And lastly; his student, whose emanations were boiling with such intense fury, he was having slight worries that she might enter a primal rage.

"I am going to take the communicator from my ear to have both hands free," Baglian informed the GED Call-taker, and put the communicator back in his sleeve pocket, microphone end pointing out so the call taker would still be able to hear.

Baglian took the sedated child from Majgen, shortly thereafter the siren from the first GED-unit could be heard. It consisted of a single officer. Travelling on the ground on a one man scooter. The fastest unit for travelling amongst pedestrians.

"Student Majgen go to my apartment," Baglian ordered.

For nearly two seconds Majgen just looked at him; she did not want to leave. She would have disobeyed if it could do the child any good, but the understanding that such disobedience would only complicate the situation swiftly came to her. Hence Majgen chose to bow to Baglian and leave the scene.

In the eight days since she had become Baglian's personal student, he had not allowed her to move in public alone. In reality, it had been five years since Majgen had last been walking in public alone. The Mentariata had only rarely allowed her off Mentariata grounds, and then always under supervision by others. Yet, Majgen did not feel insecure walking alone. She had lived in a mining habitat before she came to Caesar as a youth-worker. Even if she had not remembered how to get to Baglian's apartment, she would have been able to figure it out, unguided.

Tears were still streaming from her eyes, the wetness felt cold on her cheeks with the slight illusion of breeze caused by walking briskly. She took her hood up after walking a while. Now that she could do no more for the child, Majgen began to remember herself again. She wiped her tears and changed her walk, to no longer let it reflect her emotions. Reminding herself to uphold mentarion dignity.

----=(The silence between the storms)=----

Majgen was pacing back and forth on the living-room floor in Baglian's apartment. For four hours, she had been waiting for him to get home. At first she had tried to study, Baglian had given her a time-table-less study-plan regarding non-empathic subjects. She was meant to work on such studies whenever she was not occupied by training her empathic abilities with him.

Focusing on academic matters, had been completely impossible for her these hours. Majgen was scared. Now alone, she could not understand how she had had the audacity to act in as fool-hardy a manner as she had done in the park. She had acted against protocol.

'Invasive therapy. How could I be so stupid? Why did I do it?'

She reached a wall and turned to pace in the opposite direction.

'What was I thinking? I'm a tenth ranked student, I've barely learned to scan. How could I come to believe that I knew what therapy form would be best?'

When Majgen reached the opposite wall she had no energy to turn again. She leaned against the wall pressing her hands and forehead against it.

'Why did I even leave the café without informing Baglian? And even if that had not been an offence in itself, I should have fetched him as soon as I realised the girl had been abused.'

Majgen took her forehead a small distance from the wall, to bump it gently against it.

'Stupid, stupid, stupid.'

She leaned the side of her head against the wall. She was sure she would experience plenty pain, soon enough, without hurting herself.

'And I deserve it. How could I come to even think of performing invasive therapy.'

Majgen turned round and leaned her back to the wall.

'I hope I didn't harm the child.'

She tried to remember everything that had happened in the park. The fear made it hard for her to think clearly.

'I should have known better, I DO know better.'

She remembered what the child's mind had felt like before and after, she had transmitted to the child.

'I didn't harm her, I know I didn't. I just know.'

Not feeling guilt about her actions made Majgen more fearful. Mostly because then there was no guilt to distract her from feeling fear, but also:

'If I don't see the error of my ways myself, he will beat the fear of righteous fury into me instead. He has done that to others before.'

Majgen began pacing again.

'Femaron Baglian has no tolerance for disobedience, that alone will cost me dearly, but he will also consider my actions reckless. If he thinks I put the child's mental health at risk, there will be no mercy.'

"Why did I do it?" Majgen asked the air around her, "I'm not an educated mentarion. I have no right to meddle with other people's minds."

'I didn't meddle. I helped a child, saved her from a future filled with feelings of guilt and shame.'

Majgen kept going over the events and her motives, over and over, while pacing with fear. She had good reason to be afraid, and she knew it only too well. Once an Etaron had caused mental harm to one of Baglian's patients. Majgen knew this because she had perceived the memory from Baglian some days earlier.

Back then the memory had not instilled fear in her. Majgen had not thought she would perform invasive procedures against Baglian's instructions. Before this day, she had never acted disobediently for principal reasons. Thoughts of disobedience did not come to her easily, not normally; Majgen was usually too scared of the consequences to even consider disobedience.

Today, she had not just been disobedient. She had performed invasive therapy, something she had not been trained in at all. Even just transmitting comforting emotions to the child, had been crossing the line of what she was trained to do.

'To show a ten year old my own understanding of what I had seen in her memories, WAS an invasive procedure,' Majgen recounted,'it was a non-empathic child.'

'I should have fetched Baglian as soon as I found the child had been abused. That would have been the proper course of action for a rank ten student.' Majgen stopped pacing to press her hands against her stomach, which had begun to hurt from the anxiety.

'How could I be so arrogant?' She asked herself, but couldn't help replying too.

'I know I was right!'

'I SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE IT.'

'I did the right thing.'

Majgen gave up on arguing with herself, she could not instil a feeling of guilt in herself, not one that would be strong enough to lessen her punishment in any way.

'I'm in so much trouble.'

Images haunted her, from the memories of how Baglian had personally punished the Etaron who had caused his patient harm.

----=(Baglian's view on malpractice)=----

Years before Baglian had been one of two mentarions working as treating therapists at an Empaticon clinique. The other mentarion was a Firearon, who had an Etaron, Ake Ristro, as a personal student. For the sole purpose of giving the Etaron opportunity to train his diagnostic skills, Etaron Ristro had been allowed access to Baglian's patients.

One of those patients was troubled by multiple traumatic memories. Etaron Ristro estimated the patient was in need of memory repression, and decided to perform the invasive procedure himself. Ristro mastered the technique, he had conducted memory repression procedures on multiple occasions, but he was not meant to decide whether or not such a procedure should be performed.

Calling his mentor, Etaron Ristro gained confirmation that he was allowed to perform memory repression unsupervised. Ristro neglected to mention that he was planning to do so without consulting Femaron Baglian. After the call Ristro proceeded to make the appropriate memory repression journals, using normal empaths as memory-witnesses he performed the procedure.

A day later, Femaron Baglian went through patient journals and saw what Ristro had done. He immediately left his office in search for the young man, and found him in a laboratory section of the clinique, where the young offender was chatting up young members of the medical staff.

"Is there a doctor present?" Baglian asked, while approaching the group.

"I'm a doctor," one replied, while another also prepared to volunteer her services.

"Good," Baglian stated, "Your services will be required in a few moments."

Femaron Baglian turned his gaze to Etaron Ristro.

"Without my permission, you performed an invasive therapy procedure on one of my patients, Etaron Ristro."

"I diagnosed and then treated the patient accordingly, Femaron Baglian," Etaron Ristro said.

The Etaron's fear showed clearly in his emanations, but not on his face. Ristro was not Baglian's personal student, but Femaron Baglian outranked Ristro's mentor. Hence Etaron Ristro could not hide behind being another's student.

"Approach me, Etaron," Baglian commanded.

Once the Etaron stood in front of him Baglian began beating him. With clenched fists Baglian alternated between hitting the young man's face and stomach. Soon Ristro lost his balance and feel to the floor, spitting out blood and gasping for air. With calm mentarion dignity, Baglian walked to the nearest sink and started washing blood of his hands.

The two doctors rushed to Ristro's aid, but were stopped by Baglian's words.

"Stay away from him, I am not done with Etaron Ristro yet."

Once Baglian's hands were clean he wiped them with a paper towel, which he dispassionately deposited in a waste bin, before turning his attention to the Etaron on the floor again.

"Please, Femaron, no more. I won't treat your patients without permission again, Femaron Baglian," Ristro pleaded from the floor.

Baglian ignored the plea, and Ristro instinctively covered his head with his arms, when the Femaron moved back to him. Baglian was not aiming for the young mentarion's head, he had no plans of causing permanent harm, he was aiming for the Etaron's ribs. For the purpose of bending, or even breaking a couple of ribs, Baglian kicked Ristro's chest five times.

Task completed, Baglian turned and walked to the door, just before he reached it he turned to address Ristro one more time.

"If my patient has been harmed by your treatment, I will get back to you, Etaron Ristro." Then Baglian glanced at the two young doctors. "I'm done, you can patch him up now."

'I will need to change uniform,' Baglian thought while walking to his office.

In spite of his efforts to hit in ways that made blood spray away from him, a few blood droplets had landed on his uniform.

After changing Baglian went to see the patient - whom Etaron Ristro had treated - to see if the inexperienced mentarion had been right or wrong regarding his choice of treatment. The patient was a new arrival, Baglian had not seen to him personally yet.

The Femaron found that the Etaron had made a severe mistake. Ristro had repressed three traumatic memories. All three memories had caused emotional problems for the patient, and all three memories were more than a decade old. Baglian found that two of them had been personality-shaping. When removing a personality shaping memory, the mind of the subject would no longer understand the basis of the subjects personality.

If a fresh personality shaping memory was removed, the subject's personality would often successfully revert to what it was prior to the events described in the memory, but when an old personality shaping memory was removed emotional chaos would ensue. This would happen whether or not the mind managed to reverse the personality, fully or partially. If the personality reversed, the mind would be unable to cope with the inconsistency of current and remembered personality patterns. The consequences were practically unpredictable, ranging from insecurity, depression and nightmares - to complete conscious memory-loss of all years between the removed memory and the time the procedure was performed - to hallucinations and psychopathic behaviour in the subject.

Baglian did his best to restore the patient's memories, but Etaron Ristro had been very efficient; the studying Etaron truly mastered the repression techniques. For the first time ever Baglian found himself cursing at skill, as he realised he had to retrieve the memories from one of the memory-witnesses and feed them directly to the patient, rather than reconstituting the patients old memories directly from the patient's mind.

The patient needed many further follow-ups. In total Baglian spent nearly fifty hours in the patient's mind, trying to patch the damage Ristro had done. During the three weeks where Baglian worked to correct Etaron Ristro's malpractice, Ristro wisely did everything he could to stay out of the Femaron's proximity; every time Femaron Baglian saw the Etaron, he threw him a knuckled fist to the face or kidneys.

Baglian did this just as much to be sure to see as little of the Etaron as possible, as he did it as actual further punishment. Baglian was planning to get back to Etaron Ristro, on the matter of how harmed his patient had been - as he had promised. But he had to wait for the Etaron's injuries from his last beating to heal first.

When he had originally kicked Ristro in the chest he had broken four more ribs than planned. The amount of punishment Ristro had coming for the severity of his malpractice; was of an extent that would - in Baglian's estimate - break the Etaron's mind if his old injuries were not healed first. Baglian had no moral issues with the concept of serving Ristro some of his own medicine, but mentarions were too valuable to let go to waste. It was more important to teach Etaron Ristro to never repeat his mistakes, than to avenge the damage done to the patient.

Femaron Baglian did not manage to restore his patient fully. If Ristro had not removed the three memories the patient would, with Baglian's aid, have been able to recover completely from the initial problems that had brought him to the clinique. When Baglian had done everything a mentarion therapist could do, after Etaron Ristro's malpractice, the patient was sent home with psychoactive drugs, which he would have to take for the rest of his life. Also he was referred to tri-monthly empath appointments, which he would most likely need to go to for the rest of his life to avoid falling into psychopathic patterns.

After the patient was out of the clinique, Baglian no longer hit Etaron Ristro every time he saw him. But he never gave up the habit of occasionally beating Ristro on sight, not even after administering a severe whipping as soon as the Etaron's ribs were healed. When Baglian realised that Ristro's mind was beginning to crack under the pressure - that he would break if the abuse persisted - then Baglian chose to seek transfer away from the clinique, rather than ceasing his harassment.

Baglian considered it a valuable lesson to the Etaron, that some things were never truly forgiven.

----=(Consequences 1, Baglian comes home)=----

Majgen's pacing had been replaced by sitting. She was sitting in a couch, watching a clock mark the minutes on the opposite wall. Counting seconds between each minute, trying to foresee exactly when the next minute would tick into the clock. The temperature in the apartment was stable and unchanging, but sometimes Majgen felt she was freezing and sometimes she felt she was burning hot.

In the complete quiet of the apartment Majgen clearly heard Baglian enter the apartment. She jumped to her feet and turned to the direction of the apartment's small entrance foyer. Baglian was standing in the doorway between foyer and living-room already. Looking at her.

"Turn off your senses, Student."

Majgen obeyed instantly. She had received and obeyed that order from him several times in the past week. Always for purposes of him scanning her without having to mind sedate her. On previous occasions she had not been bothered, by being unable to sense his emanations for a while. But this time she wished he had waited some moments before giving the order. She wanted to know what he was feeling. She wanted to know how much trouble she was in.

Baglian walked to her. She could read nothing from his face, it was a mask of mentarion dignity. But she still tried, she kept her eyes on his face while he approached, searching for any clue. Looking for any twitching muscle or slight tension, which might reveal what was under the mask.

Standing in front of her he placed his hands on her ears. His palms shutting out sound. Majgen was stared up at the face of her mentor. His face still revealed nothing to her, not even when he closed his eyes to focus on the scan.

Baglian was worried.

Baglian had scanned Ukrial before leaving her in the custody of GRD social workers. The Governmental Resource Division was responsible for assigning abused, neglected or orphaned children to proper care. The children were not referred to as a resource, that would be too politically incorrect, but the adults willing to take care of such children were openly considered a resource.