On Shalimar - VIII E-Book

Suzann Dodd

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Psi-probing is a method of mind control.  It was used on Sharon which is why she can not remember who she is and what mattered in her life.  Everything is new and strange.  Can she survive in this time and place without memory?

Leseprobe

Suzann Dodd

On Shalimar - VIII

BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

All Things Considered

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED

TONY JOHNSON

ENGREVI ANIMAL PRESERVESHALIMAR

I would, if I were in 'real life', not bothered with a shirt, as it was that hot. But this is not real life.

I don't know what this is. I don't know how the ZerShaz would react to a half naked human man, but having never seen any of them out of uniform, didn't chance. I took a 'tee shirt' from my bag, pulled it on, moved to the window.

I get the feeling the windows were so wide and low as the Chin Sees used them for doors. The veranda was about three meters wide with a sturdy rail running  the perimeter of the house.

And it was a big house.

A big house, but all I had was a junk room at the back. Well, I wasn't a guest, was I?  I was a trespasser. I was iSaz uPaychel's whatever, and he had no authority here. 

How I had the audacity to just march into the house which was iSaz uReglimi's 'capitol' on this planet is pretty much in my nature.   I was happy to quit the room for the veranda.

I walked around  to the front of the house. Just one minor Zee posing which screamed that  Ki-Zee wasn't in the front room. If he was there'd be at least twenty ZeSha.

I noticed a number of Zees milling, but none gave me more than a third of an eye. I came over the railing and walked to the gazebo where they, the almighty They, had their confab last night.

I could see why this house would be prime to reintroduce Sharon to the world of THEM. It was more than old fashioned. Though it had to have been built no more than one hundred years ago, it could have been picked out of 1989.

It was made of wood. Not clayment, not plasti, not metal, wood. I've never seen a wooden house that wasn't in a museum or protected as a relic. This made me wonder about the Chin Sees.

The house wasn't in the ancient Chinese style, though I suppose the roof did curl a bit, but it was more like a house found in rural Jamaica than what I'd seen of that period in China.  

I walked the lawn, the grass kind of squishy. I know it's not Earth grass, at least not the kind that grows in Jamaica.  The little pagoda stood apart and empty, but last night, Ki-ZerShaz, the god/king, had stood there, my boss, uPaychel, here, and uReglimi, the iSaz of this Sector, here.

What did they talk about? Who knows, save how they cut and diced the galaxy was probably a sub topic. My topic was Sharon.  Sharon, the wife of Ki-ZerShaz.  Who had no memory.

I didn't have much experience with psi-probe, in fact, none. Sure I'd taken the class in med school, it was required. But I would never use it, it was obscene. It wasn't analysis where you get the patient to uncover his own traumas, you just walk into his brain and redecorate.

Vende did a real job on Sharon. Took everything, leaving her with nothing, which meant anything could activate a probe and eventually, she'd go vegetable.

She is going to die. I can't rephrase it. Unless she can let go, fight against remembering, letting shards of the past ooze in, she's going to die.  I suppose there's a psychiatrist somewhere who is such an expert he could remove the blockages, but who could trust him?   The ZerShaz had completed conquered and defeat humans.  And she was the one, if not The, archetect.

The better course was for her to quit close, take everything fresh. Let bits of real drip, slow and managable. But she was the wife of the god/king. Could she, without the baggage of past, reconnect?

I leaned against the railing, looking into the forest behind the house. The paint on the pagoda was remarkably thick. I assumed it had been painted every other year for the past century. If I were mischievous, (or thirty years younger) I'd scrape the railing to see what colour it originally was.

Now it was a stomach churning pinky beige they call 'gardenia' with a thicker pink called 'flamingo'. The circus colours made it seem tacky and childish.

I imagine it was black and red lacquer, matching something in China. Debbie, no doubt unable to perceive beauty, turned it into its current kiddie's wedding cake. Told me a lot about her.  Of course I wasn't here to psychoanalyse Debbie Chin See/uReglimi, I was here for Sharon.

The possibility of Sharon 'falling in love' with 'Daktoy' could not be ruled out. How he behaved in her presence was contra how he conducted himself with everyone else. 

I'd viewed the holos of his life among us, seen more than one episode of his interactions with humans. He stood just as far apart, kept his face just as flat, spoke just as measured with us as he'd done last night with his own people.

Yet, with Sharon, he was as soft and open as a child.

Jill is sure if Sharon doesn't remember, if Sharon doesn't reform the marriage, uPaychel will be made Ki-ZerShaz and eDapktchoy will send her back to the past and off himself. But that can't play. Sharon doesn't remember her 'Realtime' anymore than this 'Unreal' time. It's all been wiped.  All been wiped by a zealous medical student who thinks the woman he pulled from a wrecked flyer is a Marilyn somebody who was having delusions.

If he hadn't psi-probed her...

Well I wouldn't be here on Shalimar.

Amazing.

In my life, my real life, I never left Earth.  The farthest I travelled was Jamaica to California.  Since the Zees conquered us, captured all our planets, locked all humans onto their world, (save Seponi and Xenos which they emptied) I've been flying the galaxy.

First on an 'Ark' going who knows where, then to the hole in the ground called Galteri, then to Beta Mar, now to Shalimar...