Majgen Ch. 005

For those who are fascinated by the world Majgen live in, I have submitted Majgen appendix 001 it contains some historical background and can be read on the side indepent of the storyline in the normal Majgen chapters. I hope it will be approved earlier than this chapter.

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----=(The spaceport)=----

After they were done in the tailor design shop, Baglian and Majgen went back to the cab.

"Take us to the nearest suitable spaceport," Baglian ordered over the intercom.

He did not elaborate, he did not need to. The chauffeur knew which spaceports had the facilities, which users of first class cabs would consider appropriate.

The cab let them off at a taxi gate reserved for persons traveling on first class.

"We wont be needing you anymore," Baglian said while walking away from the cab. He had already left a tip for the chauffeur, using the payment system access in the passenger section of the cab.

Most people tipped in public, next to the cab, when they decided to tip a cab driver. Since Baglian didn't care much what others thought of him in general, he hardly ever bothered with the inefficiency of tipping outside a cab.

Majgen followed Baglian through the taxi gate and into the elevator at the end.

This elevator was not as large as the one at the Mentariata's taxi gate 7 had been, but it was still comfortable.

The elevator closed its doors behind its two passengers. With a pleasant recorded voice it requested instructions.

The spaceport taxi-gate elevators had no buttons, in these elevators passengers could not choose their own destination. Instead there was a touch screen, as well as voice activation options. With either of these two means passengers could inform spaceport computers of their travel plan, or state desires to meet a travel planner in person.

Normally, after receiving instructions from its passengers, spaceport taxi-gate elevators would relay the information to a central computer, which would then choose a destination for the elevator.

For security reasons passengers were also scanned for identity confirmation in those elevators, usually by comparing scan with data in their passport. People who travelled a lot usually had their passports implanted, like almost everybody had a credit card chip implanted.

Practically all mentarions had passport implants.

Majgen did not know it herself; but apart from her passport implant she had five other identification implants and nine tracing implants. Majgen also had five GED specific information implants, four Mentaricon specific information implants, and two Empaticon specific information implants.

She was more packed with security measures, than a convict on sick leave from imprisonment facilities.

Shortly before transferring Student Majgen to Femaron Baglian's custody, the Mentariata had rearranged her implants.

In that process a simple mistake had been made.

Ottearon Antwoine Weissme had ordered for all of Majgen's information implants to be replaced. He had personally written which information to place on each of the new chips to be implanted into her.

However, somewhere in the chain of command the word 'replace' was lost. The technician controlling the procedure chose to overwrite the information on her current implants, instead of replacing them with new ones.

The technician did not notice that five of Majgen's implants contained genuine GED information chips. He successfully replaced the information on the Mentaricon and Empaticon implants, but the GED specific implants were impervious to the Mentariata coding waves.

Mentariata had machinery that could write on empty GED chips, and have such information be tagged with Mentariata or Mentaricon signature. As had been done when Majgen first got her implants. But genuine GED chips could not be overwritten at all, once coded.

The only way to erase the old information from a genuine GED chip, was to destroy such a chip completely.

Hence when Majgen had left the school clinic, believing she had been through a regular physical check up; the old information, meant for GED readings, was still on her GED specific implants.

Units belonging to the Governmental law Enforcing Division, GED, were in charge of spaceport security on all public spaceports. The elevator Majgen and Baglian was in, scanned them for GED-specific implants, as well as passport information.

After reading the information on Majgen's GED specific implants, the elevator began moving to a secure area of the spaceport, and sent information to the spaceports security computer. Telling which one of it's security programs had been activated.

The security computer sent an alert on to GED personnel. To this alert, the computer attached a message which held instructions for security personnel. These were nearly five year old written instructions from Majgen's GED-implants; containing advice on how to proceed if an implant alert was triggered.

Part of the security-protocol the elevator was following; was to keep receiving instructions from its passengers as usual.

Majgen and Baglian could not feel the elevator moving. They both assumed it was standing still, while Baglian was tapping instructions on the touch screen.

With the bored speed of habit, Baglian finished informing the elevator of his travel and waiting plans.

"You will be transported to spaceport floor eight in blue section. Available leisure areas can be rented from control panels or personnel stationed there," the elevator's pleasant voice misinformed.

At that time the elevator had already arrived at a security room. Its doors remained closed while the elevator's computer awaited instructions from spaceport security.

Baglian and Majgen had no suspicion of anything unusual going on. Not even after spending minutes waiting for the elevator to let them off.

Baglian knew first class travelers rarely had to wait that long for elevators to arrive at the proper destination. However, he was not worried by the inconvenience, they were very early.

Both of them were facing the elevator door, waiting for the elevator to announce arrival. There was no way for them to know; the elevator had been standing still a while. First class elevators were designed to accelerate and decelerate unnoticeably.

Four minutes and forty-two seconds after the elevator doors had closed, GED spaceport security personnel was ready to receive them and the doors opened. Majgen's head was slightly bowed, she did not see the GED-team in their black spaceport uniforms herself. Baglian did.

'What?' he thought, completely unprepared for the view.

Reacting to Baglian's surprise, Majgen raised her head instantly. But all she saw was a flash of light from an electric pulse gun, as she was shot.

Baglian jumped back when his student slumped silently to the floor.

"Stillness!"

The word was spoken by a GED-officer, the only one of them who wasn't aiming a pulse gun into the elevator. 'Stillness' was a standard GED-phrase which meant; stand absolutely still.

Baglian froze in spot, he had no clue as to what was going on. However, very few were sufficiently stupid to disobey that command when looking into the firing end of multiple pulse guns.

The one who had spoken stood still a few seconds, observing the Femaron. When the officer felt confident; the Femaron was not about to do anything rash, he moved his eyes to his wrist watch.

"I am going to have to ask you to stay where you are for two full minutes, Femaron," the Officer said without taking his eyes of his watch.

"What is going on?" Femaron Baglian asked.

"Standard procedure," the Officer replied, "we will only need you to stay right there for one minute and forty-seven seconds longer."

"You just shot my student, how can that be standard procedure!?" Baglian sputtered. He could sense Majgen was still alive, although deeply unconscious.

"Majgen Rahan, is not allowed to leave the planet. By orders of her legal guardian, the Mentariata," the Officer replied. "Please remain calm, Sir, we will not keep you long."

"Are you saying the Mentariata told you to shoot my student?" Baglian asked, he was still absolutely baffled by the unexpected turn of events.

"Please remain still, Sir, we need you to trust us to do our job properly; for one minute and twenty-one seconds longer."

"What happens in one minute and twenty-one seconds?" Baglian asked.

"At that time we will feel assured that if you have been affected by her it will have worn off."

"I am a Femaron, you think I have been mind-controlled by a rank 10 student?"

"Please remain still, Sir, it wont take much longer."

"Why did you shoot my student?"

"Please remain still, Sir," the Officer repeated.

Baglian could not enter the minds of any of the GED-officers. They were wearing helmets which blocked empathic signals. He did not like to be treated like a criminal, but he did not speak again while waiting for the two minutes to pass.

"Are you feeling clearheaded, Femaron?" the Watch-Watching Officer said when his timer had counted down.

"Yes," Baglian replied.

"Are you feeling violent urges towards me or my colleagues?"

"None I can't control."

"All-right. At ease officers, he seems unaffected."

The GED-team relaxed, lowered their guns and deposited those in their holsters.

"Come with me please, Femaron," the Officer requested, when all guns were holstered.

"What about my student?" Baglian asked.

"Majgen Rahan will be sedated with kask. She will be kept fully unconscious till Mentariata security supplies us with further instructions," the Officer explained.

Baglian could tolerate that, for now. He wanted answers fast, and chose to go with the officer, rather than complain further.

----=(A conversation with Weissme)=----

Ottearon Weissme was furious that the nature of his orders had been disregarded by his own staff. However, he did not waste time showing his frustrations while working out the misunderstandings with the GED.

"Yes, the officers at the space station acted with accurate, precision and speed. I must say, their swift action upon reading the instruction on that chip was impressive," Weissme said, recycling the same sentence for the fifth time since he had been contacted by space port security.

Only practice and determination enabled his friendly appreciative smile from turning stiff on his face.

'They shot an unarmed eighteen year old. How hard can that be?'Weissme thought, but didn't let his thoughts affect his words.

"Yes, the procedure was performed with the precision of a military operation, very efficient."

Weissme was highly skilled in matters of sweet-talking. In less than an hour he talked GED officials into not making a big deal of the mistake. He talked spaceport medical personnel into removing Majgen's GED chips, on the behalf of the Mentariata. And he coerced spaceport GED security personnel into handing Student Majgen back to Femaron Baglian's custody prior to their planned flight.

Once finished with the GED part of the affair, Ottearon Weissme arranged for a private long distance audiovisual talk with Femaron Baglian, who was still at the spaceport.

'Now, on to make sure that the most arrogant Femaron in the universe will still feel privileged to train, Student Majgen Rahan,'Ottearon Weissme thought while waiting for the call to go through.

'First a good long tirade of concern for and interest in his well-being, to make sure he feels important.'

When Ottearon Antwoine Weissme talked with close high ranking friends, and mentioned opening conversations using such tricks; he referred to it as the oiling phase.

The call went through and Weissme, the leader of the Mentariata, started out with eloquently asking Femaron Baglian how he was doing.

"I have not been harmed, Ottearon Weissme," Baglian said, in response to Weissme's first expressions of concern.

'My phrasing offered nine options for whining complaints,'Weissme thought, 'I expected him to at least jump at three of them.'

"It is quite horrid to be exposed to such things, isn't it, Femaron Baglian?" Weissme said, giving the Femaron a new opportunity to air frustrations.

"I assure you, Ottearon, I am quite fine," Baglian said, brushing Weissme's words of concern aside politely and efficiently. "However, I would like to know how soon I can get my student back, Ottearon Weissme."

'He is more interested in getting Student Majgen back, than in being praised,' Weissme realized. This in itself removed all Ottearon Weissme's worries regarding a possible change of heart in the Femaron when it came to the task of training Majgen.

Ottearon Weissme had not needed to worry. Baglian would not express it neither directly, nor indirectly; but he would not let any inconvenience deter him from the unique opportunity of training Majgen.

Weissme allowed Femaron Baglian to guide the conversation away from oiling, and into sorting the details regarding the safe return of Majgen. A topic Baglian did not stray from, until it was fully settled.

Baglian's next topic of interest, however, was predictable.

"So now, please tell me Ottearon Weissme, why did the GED shoot my student?" Baglian asked as soon as the matter of him getting back Student Majgen was settled.

'Amazing that he withheld that question for this long,'Weissme thought. He did not know many who would have kept their priorities that straight so soon after facing armed pulse guns.

"Ah yes, Femaron Baglian, I'm terribly sorry for that. I had made the proper arrangements for that not to happen. However, I did not check if my orders were carried out as needed."

Ottearon Weissme considered himself too old and dignified to push all blame from himself. Even when it was plausible to do so.

"You see," Weissme continued, "Student Majgen acted a bit rebellious, when she was first enrolled in the Mentariata. As you know she was discovered at a very late age."

When Ottearon Weissme said 'a bit rebellious', what he was thinking was:

'Scared senseless to such a degree that she could not even herself account for all her actions.'

However, he saw no reasons to explain this to Femaron Baglian. If Baglian should feel a need to learn more of those days; he could find plenty information in Majgen's mind.

"She even tried to run away from the school a few times," Ottearon Weissme said.

Ottearon Weissme went silent a moment while considering how much he should elaborate on the security measures they had made after that incident.

Although running away from school was a normal occurrence in non-empathic boarding schools and the likes; it was practically unheard of in mentarion schools, like the Mentariata.

"Back then, we blocked her finances and implanted GED information chips on her," Weissme said, deciding to elaborate as little as possible.

"The instructions for the GED we planted on her back then, requested that they immediately sedate her, and return her to us. If she should attempt to enter a spaceport."

Weissme did not list all the other places, where the chips would also have informed the GED to sedate Student Majgen and return her to the Mentariata. He also did not mention; he had convinced a number of different powerful officials, and GED-politicians to put their signature on the information. Weissme had done everything he could think of to ensure swift action and full cooperation from the local GED-departments if the chips were ever read.

Before he was asked to train Majgen, Baglian had actually been very close to attaining high security clearance within governmental offices. Far closer than Baglian himself was aware of. Ottearon Weissme, however, knew, hence he also knew he could share sensitive information with Baglian safely; except for one thing.

Everything Baglian knew, eventually Majgen could know. No matter how hard Baglian should try to keep it from her.

Since the incident between Majgen and Femaron Braygen, about four years earlier. Ottearon Weissme had kept himself out of Majgen's sensing range.

He knew too many things, a student should never be allowed to learn of. In time he had even begun keeping at least two chain of command links between himself and her. Making sure never to talk face to face to any empath employed at the Mentariata about Majgen. Especially if that someone would enter Majgen's sensing range in near future.

It had been a sacrifice for him.

Weissme had wandered freely all, over his school, since he became its leader. But in order to avoid Majgen's sensing range, and in order to make sure everyone did not realize he was actively doing just that, he had been forced to stay out of the student hallways of his school.

The measures Weissme had taken to keep Majgen from gaining too much knowledge from other empaths, had been extensive too.

If Ottearon Weissme did not believe that Baglian could be trusted with all aspects of the Majgen-situation; Baglian would not have been chosen as a mentor for Majgen. However, if he did inform Baglian of all aspects, he would also indirectly inform Majgen.

'I do hope that one day Student Majgen will mature to a politically sophisticated woman, who can be trusted with the full knowledge of her own value. As well as the full knowledge of the danger she has posed to mentarion society,'Weissme thought to himself,'but until that day she has to be kept in the dark.'

"She never did make it as far as a spaceport," Ottearon Weissme continued, "with her finances blocked she never managed to get further than she could walk. She hasn't tried to run away for years though. I hope you have found her to be suitable obedient now?"

"Yes," Femaron Baglian said, "a bit too anxious to think straight at times, but very intent on being obedient. I have good hopes that her anxiety will be under full control before I am done with her training."

Ottearon Weissme nodded consent. Not revealing that he understood the finer details of that matter.

After seeing memories from the mind of one of Baglian's former personal students, Weissme knew Femaron Baglian could be directly cruel to his students. Especially in the beginning of their studying time with him.

However, Weissme had also understood that living with Baglian would be less painful for Majgen, than living at the Mentariata.

"Regarding her finances, Ottearon," Baglian continued, "why are they still blocked, Ottearon Weissme?"

Weissme frowned.

"I'm sorry for that too, Femaron Baglian," Weissme said, "I forgot to consider the matter of Student Majgen's funds in connection with her transfer to private studying."

The Ottearon really had forgotten to think of that matter. Now that he was reminded of it; he immediately decided that he would not release Majgen's funds.

'She still fantasizes of freedom from a mentarion life,' Weissme thought to himself.'Even though she has no plans of running at this time; such plans might appear if the opportunity becomes too temptingly available.'

Majgen's funds had barely been touched the last five years. It had grown to a size that could buy her a ticket just about anywhere, even though her only income was tenth ranked student allowance.

"Would you like to have access to her funds, to cover her private expenses, Femaron Baglian?"

"No," Femaron Baglian replied, "I don't mind having a student with no access to money. I can easily cover the expenses I consider reasonable. I was merely curious as to why they were still blocked."

When Baglian politely repeated his question this way, Ottearon Weissme realized he could not avoid the question inconspicuously. So he chose a direct lie.

"Majgen has been a rank 10 student a very long time. I was planning to give her back control of her funds when she would one day be promoted to rank 9. In reality there is not much difference between life as a rank 10 student, and life as a rank 9 student. If she got her money back along with the promotion, I think she would get a stronger feeling of achievement from the promotion."