Metamorphosis - Jean Lorrah [96]
Ikonor animals! I understand your primitive noises, but, thank Providence, the Konor have no need of such. We communicate soul to soul. You may be powerful enough to kill me, but you soulless beings will never defeat the Konor.
Data was astonished. He had never before felt .
. . heard … there was no word he knew for receiving
another’s thoughts inside his head. The words were accompanied by the Konor’s scorn at being forced to deal with a lower lifeform. But Dr. Pulaski was undaunted. “We’ll leave the state of our souls to the theologians. Right now we are trying to communicate. I’m Dr. Pulaski. Will you tell us your name?”
Konor have no need of names. We identify one another by the essence of our souls.
Troi stepped forward. “He is sincere,” she said: “But then, you could ail feel that, couldn’t you?
Let me see what I can do.” Data could see her concentrating, but he did not receive any thoughts she tried to transmit. At first.
Then, faintly, it seemed he heard her gentle voice inside his head, feeling with it her sweet emotional presence. Is this the communication you need to recognize us as your equals?
Data glanced at Riker, saw him smile proudly at Troi. Captain Picard looked surprised, then pleased. Pulaski smiled as Data remembered she had done when the boy from the Genetic Research Station on Gagarin 4 had communicated with her telepathically. Worf almost allowed a smile, then caught himself and took up his most military stance. There was no response from the Konor.
Do you not hear me? Troi asked. She was even paler than usual, and strain showed around her huge eyes. Her “voice” still seemed very faint to Data, but surely that was because he was not a telepath. Still no response from the Konor.
After a third try, Troi turned away, trembling with the effort. “Doctor, this man is adept at shielding his feelings-a common ability among telepathic races. However, it prevents me from telling whether he does not hear me, or whether he is simply refusing to respond.” “That’s easy enough to test,” Pulaski said, and set her instruments to measure the electrical impulses of the Konor’s brain. They quickly found the problem: When they spoke to the Konor, his response indicated that he heard and understood what the universal translator transmitted to him. When Troi broadcast to him mentally, although her crewmates received her thoughts there was no indication that the Konor heard them at all.
Pulaski frowned. “I don’t understand this.”
“We don’t know how telepathy works,” Troi said. “It doesn’t operate on any frequencies we can measure; that’s why it cannot be artificially reproduced.”
“Perhaps this man’s telepathy operates on a different frequency from yours?” Data suggested.
“I suppose you could use that analogy,” Troi said with a tired smile. “It’s not a physical thing, though, Data. I shouldn’t have used the word “frequency’but whatever the reason, while the Konor can broadcast to Samdians, humans, Andorians, and Klingons, they cannot receive Betazoid thoughts.”
She turned to the Konor, who lay impassively waiting for their next move. “Let me make certain we understand your beliefs. You believe that the ability to communicate without speaking is evidence that a person has a soul?”
That is correct, but you speak of belief, while we know. We communicate soul to soul.
“How can you claim we have no souls if we can understand you?” The soulless recognize our state. It is their own they refuse to accept.
“And what do you think our “state” is?” Troi demanded. You Ikonor are to the Konor as beasts of burden are to you. Providence created you to pave the way for our coming. You have built well, and we are pleased-but now you foolishly attempt to deprive us of what was built for our use. We are forced to destroy you, when you might have pleasant and productive lives in our service.
“Never mind that,” Commander Riker broke in.
“What would prove to you that we are as much people as you are?”
Any