Intellivore - Diane Duane [42]
Ileen put her head in her hands briefly. “What exactly is this thing? Is it a species? Is it a single creature? Is it some kind of hive mind … or something else entirely? Or is the whole damn planet sentient, and it’s just grown itself a warp drive? Or bought itself one.”
“One thing makes sense,” Dr. Crusher said suddenly. “If it is indeed an ‘intellivore,’ as the captain describes it—then that might explain why it bothers raiding ships when it has such power. It needs—or simply wants”—she made a helpless gesture—”maybe not mind itself. ‘Intellivore’ may be a misnomer. I doubt even a telepath could explain to me how mind itself is something you could eat. But something associated with mind—the ambient energy of living creatures’ minds, maybe even their own sense of sentience—”
That thought had occurred to Picard, and it had given him the shivers. He watched it do the same to Beverly now as she stopped, and shook her head. “This is legend country,” Crusher said softly. “For pity’s sake, it’s the boogeyman we’re talking about here. Things that jump at you out of the dark and eat your brains. That I could cope with! But this—”
“Doctor, I wouldn’t instantly reject the concept out of hand,” said Dr. Spencer from a little farther down the table. “There are some consciousness theorists who talk perfectly calmly about cognitive processes such as thought and memory producing transient nonphysical ‘byproducts,’ the way muscle use produces lactic acid in humans and its analogues in other hominid species. I’ll grant you, when I’ve read some of these people’s papers, I’ve wondered whether your brain eaters had been snacking on their authors.” There was a soft chuckle around the table. “But now I’m beginning to wonder. There is still so much about mind that we don’t know.”
“And so much about our present problem,” Riker said, frowning. “Captain Maisel’s question is rather to the point. Somehow we have got to get more information about what this thing is, if we’re going to assemble any kind of defense against it.”
“If the captain’s source’s story is accurate,” said Data slowly, “and the pre-Romulan colonists did indeed telepathically sense a ‘hunger,’ then perhaps there is some hope for us in the sort of telepathic screening technology with which the Vulcans have been experimenting. It remains in its earliest stages. They have been working on mechanical screening devices for young Vulcans in hormonalsurge telepathic overload, and so far there has not been much success, but—”
“—but you haven’t been working on it, Mr. Data,” Picard said, with just the slightest smile. “Perhaps you should look into it. For the time being, until we can assemble additional information—and additional theories—I would recommend that we keep our distance. But we will not be able to do so forever.”
“Damn right we won’t,” said Captain Maisel. “Jean-Luc, we need to get at least close enough to confirm that what we’re chasing is that.” She nodded at the viewscreen, which was still showing the multiple images. “We don’t have to do it ourselves; we can send a probe.”
“The only difficulty there, Captain,” said Data, “is the possibility that the intellivore—if indeed that is what we are now pursuing—will tamper with the probe’s memory as soon as it detects it, causing it to show us whatever illusion it pleases. Perhaps mere empty space, or a large alien vessel?”
Ileen frowned at the table. “I hate this thing,” she muttered. “What this is going to do to my research schedule!”
“Mr. Data,” Picard said, “perhaps you had better get started as quickly as possible on the telepathic-screening end of this problem. If you can devise some kind of shield for the probe, however crude—enough to let us get a safe look at what we’re pursuing—it will certainly reduce the number of unanswered questions by one.”
“It may increase the number of problems by one as well,” Clif said suddenly. “Captain, if the intellivore is indeed a creature that lives by, or on minds, and it can sense thought, then it stands to reason that it may very well be able