Quoriston

cover art by Michael Whelan

If there were aliens who could telepathically control human thoughts, would we ever notice? If there were a science fiction story about aliens who could control human thoughts, would readers notice that? I ask because in this commentary on the works of Robert Rohrer, there was this:

"Greendark in the Cairn" is a fairly straightforward story of the Captain of a spaceship who becomes convinced he is being driven mad by enemies. His ship is encountering a ship of the enemy (who apparently destroyed another ship with 1500 civilians aboard) and the Captain must make the decision to attack, but his mind is losing it. I have to say I didn't see the point, really -- so, he's going mad, for whatever reason, and as a result he fails to perform his duty. There seems nothing more to the story, to be honest."

cover art by Stephen Youll

Upon reading the above commentary on the story, I read "Greendark in the Cairn" in which Rohrer included the following: "A rumor had spread through the ranks that the enemy was able to control minds. Stanley had scoffed at the rumor. Now he believed it." Stanley is Captain of a spaceship and for the first 4 pages of the story he is having bizarre thoughts. He finally realizes that his mind is being controlled by the Evil Aliens™. Realizing what has happened, and knowing that because the enemy control his brain he will be prevented from destroying the enemy spaceship during the coming battle, he waits to the last minute, kills himself, and then another member of his crew takes over and destroys the enemy spaceship.

I suppose readers who are not particularly interested in telepathy as a sci fi plot device could read "Greendark in the Cairn" and say: "The dude went mad and killed himself. So what?" For my stories (such as "Meet the Phari"), it is important to make it clear to readers that the human characters can be subjected to sophisticated mind control without them ever noticing. Or, if they do notice, their memory of having noticed can be efficiently erased.

Grean (image credits)

In "Greendark in the Cairn", while being telepathically controlled by the aliens, Captain Stanley can say and do certain routine things, but he is unable to warn his crew mates that his behavior is being controlled by the aliens. This kind of selective mind control was deployed by Isaac Asimov in his story The Robots of Dawn. Baley realizes that Giskard is a telepathic robot, but Baley is not allowed to tell anyone else. Giskard tells Baley: "...you need not fear the responsibility of having to remain silent. I will allow you to remember, but you will never have the urge to repeat the matter..."

For my stories set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe, I make use of nanotechnology to precisely control human memories and behavior. I imagine that Grean the Kac'hin has access to "infites", a type of nanotechnology that can transfer information into a human brain or selectively hide memories of past events. However, I don't set out to write horror stories, so nothing really bad ever happens in my stories when humans are subjected to alien mind control.

image source

My tastes in Sci Fi were established when, at a young age, I read storied by Isaac Asimov such as Second Foundation. In that novel, the space fleet of the First Foundation has a confrontation with the enemy fleet from Kalgan. Right in the middle of the Battle of Quoriston, who shows up but Preem Palver with a spaceship full of potatoes for Terminus, the capital world of the Foundation. Nobody notices, but Palver is a powerful telepath of the Second Foundation and he uses his telepathic abilities to help the First Foundation fleet defeat the Kalgans. Up until that moment in the war, the First Foundation forces had been in full retreat from the Kalgan forces. But now, with Palver's help, the Kalgan fleet is utterly destroyed, ending the war. Nobody notices that Palver's telepathic meddling changed the course of galactic history.

Kwenslo

In "Meet the Phari" Delpha had devised a plan for how to allow humans to telepathically contact the Phari. Then something derails the plan. Delpha is surprised when Eynta does not arrive at Kwenslo with Kwystyk. How does the expected course of history get derailed? On Yrinna, Glinnes and Duissane are trying to investigate the starmenters of Yrinna. When Duissane meets Lady Gensifer, the course of events is altered, leading to Lady Gensifer being captured along with Lord Gensifer.

Lady Gensifer and Rupert are taken off of Yrinna and they get to interact with people such as Sally Lanting and Jenny Ebernal who eventually come in contact with Eynta, leading to changes in Eynta's behavior.

Next: Daz Studio animation, lighting and surfaces.

See also: Chapter 11 of "Meet the Phari".

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