Blood darkened the functionary’s face. He scowled. “Give him the maximum, Yar.” His voice was a clipped tenor without any of the deep training apparent in Materly’s voice.
“Please!” Materly said. She straightened but kept her attention on Teg’s eyes.
Teg’s Bene Gesserit teachers had taught him that: “Watch the eyes! Observe how they change focus. As the focus moves outward, the awareness moves inward.”
He focused deliberately on her nose. It was not an ugly face. Rather distinctive. He wondered what the figure might be under those bulky clothes.
“Yar!” That was the functionary.
Yar adjusted something on his console and pressed a switch.
The agony that surged through Teg now told him the previous level had, indeed, been lower. With the new pain came an odd clarity. Teg found himself almost capable of removing his awareness from this intrusion. All of that pain was happening to someone else. He had found a haven where little touched him. There was pain. Agony even. He accepted reports about these sensations. That was partly the shere’s doing, of course. He knew that and was thankful.
Materly’s voice intruded: “I think we’re losing him. Better ease off.”
Another voice responded but the sound faded into stillness before Teg could identify the words. He realized abruptly that he had no anchor point for his awareness. Stillness! He thought he heard his heart beating rapidly in fear but he was not sure. All was stillness, profound quiet with nothing behind it.
Am I still alive?
He found a heartbeat then, but no certainty that it was his own. Thump-thump! Thump-thump! It was a sensation of movement and no sound. He could not fix the source.
What is happening to me?
Words blazoned in brilliant white against a black background played across his visual centers:
“I’m back to one-third.”
“Leave it at that. See if we can read him through his physical reactions.”
“Can he still hear us?”
“Not consciously.”
None of Teg’s instructions had told him a probe could do its evil work in the presence of shere. But they called this a T-probe. Could bodily reactions provide a clue to suppressed thoughts? Were there revelations to be explored by physical means?
Again, words played against Teg’s visual centers: “Is he still isolated?”
“Completely.”
“Make sure. Take him a little deeper.”
Teg tried to lift his awareness above his fears.
I must remain in control!
What might his body reveal if he had no contact with it? He could imagine what they were doing and his mind registered panic but his flesh could not feel it.
Isolate the subject. Give him nowhere to seat his identity.
Who had said that? Someone. The sense of deja vu returned in full force.
I am a Mentat, he reminded himself. My mind and its workings are my center. He possessed experiences and memories upon which a center could rely.
Pain returned. Sounds. Loud! Much too loud!
“He’s hearing again.” That was Yar.
“How can that be?” The functionary’s tenor.
“Perhaps you’ve set it too low.” Materly.
Teg tried to open his eyes. The lids would not obey. He remembered then. They had called it a T-probe. This was no Ixian device. This was something from the Scattering. He could identify where it took over his muscles and senses. It was like another person sharing his flesh, preempting his own reactive patterns. He allowed himself to follow the workings of this machine’s intrusions. It was a hellish device! It could order him to blink, fart, gasp, shit, piss — anything. It could command his body as though he had no thinking part in his own behavior. He was relegated to the role of observer.
Odors assailed him — disgusting odors. He would not command himself to frown but he thought of frowning. That was sufficient. These odors had been elicited by the probe. It was playing his senses, learning them.
“Do you have enough to read him?” The functionary’s tenor.
“He’s still hearing us!” Yar.
“Damn all Mentats!” Materly.
“Dit, Dat, and Dot,” Teg said, naming the puppets of the Winter Show from his childhood on long-ago Lernaeus.
“He’s talking!” The functionary.
Teg felt his awareness being blocked off by the machine. Yar was doing something at the console. Still, Teg knew his own Mentat logic had told him something vital: These three were puppets. Only the puppet masters were important. How the puppets moved — that told you what the puppet masters were doing.
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