Gulliver's Fugitives - Keith Sharee [104]
“How so?”
“The end comes back to the beginning.”
For Troi, at this moment, conditions were indeed similar to that moment when she first encountered the “Other-worlders,” the characters of imagination. She sat in the same chair, in the same cabin, and looked at the computer monitor as she finished a personal log entry.
“… So I am recommending the establishment of a special data base for counselors that would help us use fiction, myth, and all forms of speculative literature in our work. I believe there is no better way to understand the minds of those we counsel than through the mind’s own deepest, most spontaneous creations … and no better channel of communication between races, nations, and planets, than through these “dreams of the many.” And I plan to begin contributing to this data base immediately, through my own research into the imaginative literature of the worlds both inside and outside the Federation. Log entry over.”
She hadn’t seen fit to voice her anxiety about starting the research. It was a personal problem, having to do with the aftereffects of Oleph and Una’s ethnographic film.
There was a worrisome coincidence much on her mind—a feeling that her experience with the mythical characters from that movie had somehow led her, and the Enterprise, to Rampart, where such imagination was forbidden. A kind of synchronicity, perhaps? A linking of her the observer to the events she observed, the way some theories of physics postulated? If so, might another attempt at research throw her and the ship into another situation beyond control? There was, at the very least, a chance, an undeniable chance, that the mythical characters would re-invade her mind.
But the captain had been right. You can’t start backing away from knowledge. If you start, there’s no end to it.
“Computer, please monitor my metabolic rate until further notice. If there are any radical changes or if I become unresponsive, please send someone to my cabin immediately.”
“Procedure has been implemented,” said the computer’s gentle female voice.
“Thank you. I wish to commence with some research.”
“Ready,” said the computer.
It was a crucial moment. She was going to speak the title of Oleph and Una’s movie. The word that had started the whole thing last time.
Troi’s throat was dry. She gripped the armrests of her chair until her fingers hurt.
“Tell me about the Tukurpa,” she said. “What does the word mean?”
She held her breath, and waited for the room to begin spinning, for her world to begin disintegrating.
“Working,” said the computer.
After another endless moment, the computer spoke again.
“Tukurpa: a word used by several aboriginal peoples of Australia. It refers to the Eternal Ones of the Dream; the beings of myth, or the myth-world itself, the Eternal Dreamtime. It is also called the Altjiranga Mitjina. Do you wish further information?”
She let herself breathe again. Nothing terrible had happened. She was still in her chair, in her cabin, on the Enterprise.
Her anxiety seemed to have evaporated. In its place she felt relief and the exhilaration of embarkation.
“Yes,” she replied.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty