Majgen Ch. 015

Majgen got to her feet, and stood there for a few seconds gathering a sensible sentence.

"I request your permission to go to my quarters, Ottearon. Please let me go. Femaron Baglian can explain why it is needed, Ottearon Skent."

"All right then. You may leave, Student."

"Thank you, Ottearon Skent," said Majgen, with a bow. She was relieved and disappointed at the same time, as she started towards the door.

"Student!" Skent called out, causing Majgen to stop and turn again. "Go by your teacher's quarters on the way and send him back here. I want an explanation."

"As you command, so I will do, Ottearon Skent." Majgen bowed yet again, and left the room.

For more than two hours, Majgen sat in her room waiting for the long dinner break to end, while trying to push away her hatred towards yijejos. By the time the door to her room opened, to reveal Syvaron Prel outside, she still had made no progress towards drowning the hate.

"Student Majgen," said Syvaron Prel, with a bow, baffling Majgen with the unexpected courtesy meant for equals.

"Syvaron Prel." Majgen got on her feet and returned the bow.

"Are you ready to continue, Student?"

"As ready as mere waiting can make me, Syvaron Prel."

Prel nodded in response as Majgen approached him. The two mentarions walked together to the interrogation chamber and the captive Winin. It was Syvaron Prel's turn to function as decoy for Majgen. While they walked, Majgen was preparing herself to meditate on Prel's ability to hate for both of them, but as they entered the interrogation chamber and she saw the shivering terrified enemy, there was no need for such meditation.

'His name is Aejoa,' remembered Majgen, and let his emanations wash over her.

(o)

"That was no way for you to use the power within you, Aejoa." The Ejue's voice was filled with reproach.

"He has always been mean to me, Ejue Uon, I only did to him what he deserved," Aejoa objected.

"What punishment others do or do not deserve is not for you to decide, you are but a mere child yourself. To take control of another's mind and make them do things they do not want to do is very wrong, Aejoa. Very wrong."

"He is a bad person, he is mean."

"And what are you, Aejoa?"

"I am innocent, it was self-defence, Ejue, he was going to hurt me."

"No, what you did was not self-defence, it was revenge."

"But he was going to hurt me again."

"If you had pacified him and left, that would have been self-defence, Aejoa," explained Ejue Uon. "But that was not what you did."

(o)

'Mid-late childhood,' thought Majgen, and moved on.

For every one of Aejoa's memories Majgen gained it became harder for her to think of him as a monstrous enemy. When finally interrogation was halted for the day and Majgen retired to her room, she tried to reawaken her hatred. The other interrogators would not again raise questions about her hatred; Baglian had explained to them that his student had to overcome, and ignore, her hatred to sense with her special perceptivity. But Majgen herself felt she needed the hatred, felt a need for the comfort of bloodlust.

'It is still there, right under the surface,' she tried to convince herself, while going to bed.'The only reason I can't feel it is because I forced it away. All I need to do is think about the stories Ottearon Skent and the others told at dinner, then it will come back to me.'

Lying in bed, Majgen thought about those stories, and the memories that had come with them. It didn't wake her old hatred, as she had hoped, instead an empty sorrowful feeling filled her and Majgen cried herself to sleep.

During the first round of the second day's interrogation, the yijejo's attacks drained the mental stamina of all the high ranking mentarion interrogators. By her own request Majgen was allowed to continue the interrogation alone. The others would need to rest a full day, before being mentally recharged and able to aid her again.

This day, there was no hate left in Majgen towards the yijejo in front of her; she had gained too many of his memories to be able to think of him as evil. She had come to realise she liked Aejoa - as a person.

Majgen's eyes were open. Watching the sleep-deprived, drugged prisoner, she no longer had trouble recognising the person she knew from his memories.

'Why did you come to the war, Aejoa?' she wondered.'You are not a killer.'

Interrogating the yijejo prisoner had become a chilling duty; she now hoped she would not be ordered to attend when the time for his torture came. She knew that time was bound come eventually. It would come if the interrogation should prove that his mind was not tuned to dissolve upon torture. Or it would come when she had gained all useful information he carried - and asserted he had no more.

'You are doomed to be tortured and killed, Aejoa.' This fact hurt Majgen deep inside, in spite of this she still did her best to adhere to her duty as an interrogator.

Most yijejos captured by humans were tortured before execution. This practice had become habit after the Hawlun-massacre. In the case of high ranking yijejos the audio-, visual-, and sometimes medical-recordings too - were transmitted to the enemy. The humans called it 'psychological warfare'. Aejoa knew about this, same as Majgen.

So far Aejoa had only been introduced to two forms of torture by his captors. One was the combination of mind affecting drugs and sleep deprivation, the other was a device nicknamed 'Crown of Blinding Light', or for short, simply 'crown'. It was a device which interrogators and torturers placed on the head of a victim. The design existed in a multitude of variations, the common features for all versions was that they were equipped with tiny projectors, placed and pointed to shine directly into a victim's eyes.

Since shortly after his capture, Aejoa had been wearing such a crown. If he opened his eyes, the sharp light from the small projectors caused his eyes instant and sharp pain. While his eyes were closed, the light caused him no physical discomfort. Unlike human eye-lids, the yijejo eye-closeners allowed no light to pass.

With no other mentarion present to distract him, the prisoner was attacking Majgen. Aejoa's attacks could not penetrate her shielding, but the effort of warding them of distracted her from sensing his emanations.

'He is tired of fighting,' perceived Majgen,'he wants rest more than anything.'

To keep his eyes closed while being so tired, yet unable to sleep increased his suffering. The day before he hadn't attempted to open his eyes while Majgen was present. This day, however, he was more worn, more ripe as human interrogators called it. On a regular basis he inadvertently opened his eyes, only to be blinded by the intense light from the crown. The single human day's time had not meant much in itself. Rather the difference had been caused by an efficient adjustment of the drugs administered.

A single human day, did not fill much in the day cycle of a yijejo. The standard human day was divided into seventeen hours waking time and seven hours sleep. The yijejo standard day could be counted in about eight human days. Four for waking time and four for sleeping time.

Every time Aejoa opened his eyes, the pain he felt went straight to Majgen's heart.

'It is time to change the situation a little,' decided Majgen.

"I need to talk to a supervisor," she said to whoever was monitoring the audio-visual of the interrogation room. Nothing happened. Majgen managed to remember the voice-command to open communication channels.

"Surveillance acknowledge," she said, hoping the room was set to accept her voice for commands. A reply came within seconds.

"Surveillance is listening." It was a neutral female voice, seemingly not computer-generated.

"I need to talk to a supervisor," repeated Majgen.

"Hold," said the female voice, and disappeared. Majgen had to wait more than a minute, for further communication.

"Your-supervisor-is-ready-to-hear-your-request." This voice was fully computer generated; each word spoken separately, tonelessly and without the rhythm of natural speech. Not unusual when interrogating yijejos, unemotional relay of information was less likely to generate emotional responses in the listener. Making it harder for the yijejo to guess what was being said.

For this interrogation audible communication in itself was not a problem, since this prisoner did not understand humana.

"I wish to have a message from me translated to the prisoner," said Majgen.

"Which-mesage." Since the mechanical voice spoke each word without any intonation: only context revealed it as a question.

"Stop attacking me." Majgen made sure to pause at each full meaning, if the supervisor complied to her request - he might very well use a translating device. Those required full stop after each sentence containing a full meaning to translate properly.

"I am not trying to penetrate your mind shield," she continued, paused again and finished, "If you stop attacking me, I will remove the extra light shining in your eyes."

"Hold," was the computer generated reply.

For almost half an hour there were no other sounds than the shaky whining of the prisoner. His attacks against Majgen were silent and invisible, her defences too.

Suddenly the mechanical voice started speaking yijejoan. Majgen assumed it was the translated version of her message. It took her a while to confirm her assumption with the aid of the prisoner's emanations. The mental fight kept her sensitivity far below her normal.

'He understood the meaning of the message, but he doesn't believe it,' realised Majgen.

"Supervisor, can you hear me?" Majgen spoke with a neutral tone, trying to mask her irritation.

"Yes."

"Requesting permission to have the message translated again in a different manner," she said.

"Clarify-request."

"Requesting simultaneous-translator activated for this room."

"Why."

"The prisoner did not believe the first translation." Majgen hoped the supervisor would understand without further explanations, it was hard for her to keep the irritation and frustration out of her tone while focusing on the mental battle. The mechanical voice was quiet for a few minutes.

"Simultaneous-translator-activates-in-three-seconds."

Majgen counted silently, to be sure she did not start speaking before the translator was active.

"Stop attacking me." Majgen paused and waited for translation. The mechanical voice repeated her sentence in yijejoan.

"I am not trying to penetrate your mind shield." Again she waited for translation to complete before speaking again. The yijejo was still attacking her mind.

"If you stop attacking me, I will remove the extra light shining in your eyes," she finished.

The yijejo ceased his attacks a little sooner than the translation of that sentence was completed. Majgen stepped forward and reached for the tiny projectors aimed at Aejoa's eyes. She turned them off and stepped back again. The prisoner did not immediately open his eyes.

'He needs further confirmation that the painful light is gone.'

Slowly, Majgen lowered her mind shield, to allow him to sense her clearly. At that moment she didn't really care if he would use the chance to hurt her with a mental blow.

Aejoa noticed how Majgen lowered her mind shield. She had his full attention.

'What is it up to?' he thought, he had a feeling this was the beginning of another form of torture, but he couldn't think straight. Drugs, fear and sleep deprivation took a large toll on his ability to think coherently.

'I mustn't let my guard down. I must fight.' He tried to force himself to attack, but hesitated.'It can't be trusted. Attack it. Fight.' Aejoa whined to himself, dignity was something he had stopped worrying about a good while back.'I can't stand keeping my eyes closed! I need sleep. I want to sleep, I want rest. If I attack it, the others will hurt me.'

Instead of attacking the smaller creature, Aejoa reached out with his empathic senses. Tentatively he scanned the top of the lone human's mind, to confirm the promise had been kept.

'Only the top, only the top, don't make it angry.' A part of him felt he should use the opportunity to see the creature's full plan, but a much bigger part of him wanted to be allowed to open his eyes without blinding pain.

'It's telling the truth,' Aejoa confirmed to himself, and withdrew from the interrogator's mind.'Why is it sad? It doesn't have anything to be sad for.' The question fluttered away from his conscious mind faster than it could have been spoken.

Majgen was on the verge of tears.

'I have become a nameless evil,' she thought, and raised her mind shield again.'I am here, I am part of the crew. This is me doing this.' She did not allow her emotions to show on her face.

When Majgen had first seen the prisoner she had forced her hate into hiding. At first her feelings of tolerance towards the prisoner had not been genuine. They had merely been fake products of thought techniques, a means that made her able to perceive memories from him.

'I'd wish I could go back to hating him, I'd wish I didn't know he is a good person.' Her world was crumbling.

Aejoa opened his eyes, and saw the dark floor of the interrogation chamber, for the first time.

Independent of each other they, Majgen and Aejoa, both had the same thought at the same time.

' 'Why did Aejoa come to the war-zone?' '

Majgen did not know the answer, but Aejoa did, and his question to himself made him remember.

'Rumours, it was the rumours. The human prisoners,' remembered Aejoa.'I am going to die because of rumours.'

Aejoa's wording of his own thoughts would not have made much sense if spoken, but the memories that rose to the top of his emanations, upon these thoughts - were clear.

(o)

"Have you heard any rumours of illegal torture of human prisoners of war, Winin?"

"No, I can't say I have, Ojewa," said Aejoa, and respectfully bowed his head to the revered Ojewa.

"There are such rumours, Winin, they have spread so far that some are beginning to consider them fact. The time has come to put a stop to those rumours."

"I trust your wisdom, Ojewa." Aejoa knew very little of humans, and of the war. He did, however, know when torture of humans was legal, and when not.

"I do not believe the rumours are true, Winin, I want you to know that. But if people believe that the rumours are true, then they also believe that we, the Eieie, are not adhering to our duties. We cannot allow such misconceptions to prevail, Winin," elaborated the Ojewa.

"You honour me by sharing your wisdom with me, Ojewa," replied Aejoa.

"I will send you to the War Zone, Winin. There you will lead an official investigation of how human prisoners are being treated, and how they have been treated. You need not worry for your safety; you, and the other civilians coming with you, will be kept at safe distance from combat at all times. I value you, Winin, I would not put you at risk."

(o)

'He is a civilian,' realised Majgen, not just from the Ojewa's words to Aejoa.'Aejoa is a civilian, he knows almost nothing about the war. He has no information which could be useful in the war effort. He is useless to the GED, and his mind is not tuned against torture.' A lump grew in her throat.

'But that won't stop them from torturing him. Not at all. The yijejos will truly care if one of their Winin's get tortured. The GED will torture Aejoa thoroughly, slowly, and continuously. Those like Skent will do it for personal satisfaction, but officially it will be done to demoralise the enemy.'

Majgen turned round to leave the interrogation room, she had trouble keeping her face locked in a mentarion mask of dignity.

'It's not right, he doesn't deserve it!'

She walked to the door and held her hand to it.

'There is nothing I can do about it, my work is done, now I must report. Adhere to my duty and live with it.'

The door opened.

'I couldn't save him even if I wanted to.'

She walked through the door.

'I want to save him.' Majgen knew she wanted to.'But I can't, it is impossible, and even attempting will doom me to the same fate as him. Torture and death. Treason is the only crime punishable by torture, and I know it.'

Majgen entered the communication side room, assigned to the interrogation of Aejoa. From there she called surveillance.

'I will say: The prisoner is a civilian with no useful information, and his mind is not tuned against torture,' she thought while waiting for her call to be answered,'Swift, simple, and contains every bit of information they need from me.'

"Surveillance here." This time it was a male voice.

"I have perceived essential information from the prisoner," said Majgen.

"Speak freely, Mentarion."

"I was told one of my priorities was to establish whether or not the prisoner has been tuned against torture," said Majgen, while wondering;'Why am I stalling?'

"Have you made any progress with that?" asked the faceless male voice.

'I won't do it,' decided Majgen.'Aejoa doesn't deserve to be tortured.'

"Yes," she said, "I have made progress. I have found that the prisoner is tuned against torture. A very severe tuning. We are lucky that the Crown of Light didn't trigger it. If it is triggered I estimate it will be completely impossible to gain any information from what will remain of the prisoner's mind." Not having lied for years, Majgen was surprised at the smooth confidence of her tone, as this lie passed her lips.

"Grief!" the voice exclaimed, Majgen got the impression the man on the other end was grinding his teeth. A few seconds later he spoke again.

"What else did you find?"

"Nothing tangible, I'm afraid," said Majgen.'Careful now, lies must be weighed with far more consideration than the truth.' She had learned that from Ottearon Weissme's memories. "Only indicators. Give me a moment to find words, Surveillance."

'A moment to find lies, under the guise of looking for words to clarify reality. How many of Weissme's tricks have I accumulated without noticing?'

"The strongest indicator that this prisoner has important knowledge, Surveillance. Is that the prisoner believes it has information,"'Grief, I almost said 'he',' "which it considers vital to keep from us."

"That is a strong indicator, is there anything else you can tell us at this point?"

"No, Surveillance, anything further would be too speculative. I need more time with the prisoner," said Majgen, in her thoughts she added,'More time where you won't be torturing him.'

"What kind of information is it?" asked the voice.

"I do not know, Surveillance, I will report as soon as I have something tangible. At this point all I know is that the prisoner considers its own knowledge important. At this time I have nothing further to report, Surveillance. May I resume the interrogation now, Surveillance?" asked Majgen, making sure to sound eager to get back to work, rather than sounding like she felt - terrified to be found out.

"Is it regarding weaponry, or ship placements within the zone? Smuggler routes? Planned tactics?" asked the voice.

"Surveillance. Would you like to call one of my colleagues in for this interrogation of me? Do you need another mentarion present to certify I tell the truth? I already said: At this time I have nothing further to report." Majgen made sure to appear annoyed, not frightened.

"I was just..."

"My job is not easy, Surveillance. However, a non-empath has no business telling me how to read the mind of a prisoner," said Majgen, while thinking,'That should serve for the spice of confusion, to leave him wondering if it was I who misunderstood him - because of anger. Or if he actually tried to tell me how to do my job.' Majgen made sure to narrow her eyes and glare angrily into the monitor which was not showing the visual of the man.