MINDBRIDGE by Joe Haldeman

She took his hand and held on while she thumbed the door open. “I don’t have anything to drink in the-“

“Carol, uh, look. I’m sorry. It wasn’t you. It was that damned-“

“Shush.” She slipped her arms around him and leaned her head on his chest. After a moment: “I owe you a meal, Lefavre.”

“Oh, that-“

“Free for breakfast tomorrow?” Tugging him toward the door. “Come on. I have real eggs.”

21- To the Marriage of True Minds Admit Impediments

The Effect of Telepathic

Communion on Coitus

by

Raymond Sweeney, M.D., Ph.D.

HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL

1. It is not meant to be implied that any general conclusions may be drawn from this report, based as it is on one single episode. Certain aspects of it, however, may be of interest to investigators of human sexual function and dysfunction.

2. The subjects involved were Jacque (sic) L. and Carol W., the two veterans of the first Groombridge mission most sensitive to the amplifying effect of the Groombridge bridge. They were scheduled for two hours’ sexual experimentation in conjunction with the bridge, without observation, on the condition that they consent to interviews afterward.

3. The subjects seem sexually compatible, but had no mutual sexual relationship prior to the experiment (in retrospect, this seems unfortunate). Neither has any significant history of dysfunction. Carol’s testimony reveals a relatively high frequency of sexual contacts; Jacque’s, relatively low.

4. The subjects were interviewed separately for two to three hours, two days after the experiment. Carol allowed part of the interview to be conducted under hypnosis; Jacque did not.

5. Carol reported a relatively normal, if unusually intense and accelerated, pattern of sexual response. Jacque suffered acute ejaculatory incompetence.

6. Jacque recalled two previous episodes of ejaculatory incompetence, both with well-defined etiology: unusual fatigue, overindulgence in alcohol, lack of emotional rapport with his partner (a prostitute, when be was sixteen). He claims that none of these factors was present to any significant degree in this case, and attributes the episode entirely to the influence of the bridge.

7. Carol, on the other hand, would like to have a bridge of her own.

8. Directly following the experiment, the couple twice shared mutually enjoyable coitus, which of course reinforces Jacque’s claim.

9. Transcription of the interviews, and medical histories, are here appended.

22 – Sing Nonnie

(From A Critical History of American Popular Music, Volume 6 [2040-2060], by Eliot Green. Copyright © Quadrangle TFX, 2072.)

. . . briefly dominated by a bastard creation baptised the “NeoElizabethan Movement.”

The instruments were Elizabethan-as well as copies could be made with 21St Century craftsmachineship- and the melodies and many of the words were stolen from that period. But the spirit behind it was pure profit, merchants and musicians alike cashing in on the blunted sensibilities of a novelty-hungry public.

A typically bad example is “Sweet Lovers Love the Spring,” popular in the fall of that year:

It was a lov-er and his lass with-> hey

and-a ho and-a hey no-ni-no, that’s with a Broom-

bridge bridge did pass the springtime, the only etc.

Not a complete stanza, but could anyone care. Musically it’s unimaginative-and the words have an immediate emetic effect on any lover of Shakespeare.

Rumor has it that the song was written by a computer in the Public Relations department of the Agency for Extraterrestrial Development.

23 – CHAPTER SEVEN

Jacque closed the briefing room door behind him and nodded hello to everyone. He took a seat beside Carol. The soft leather creaking was the only sound in the room.

“Okay,” Tania said, looking up from her clipboard. “We’re all here. Jacque, this is our new teammate, Gustav Hasenfel, from Bremehauven. Jacque Lefavre.”

Jacque leaned over the seminar table to shake hands. “Guten Tag.” Pale blond hair, handsome strong features, tall, ineffable sadness in clear blue eyes. Handshake warm, dry, firm. Jacque did not like him.

“Tag. Sind Schweizer?”

“Ia naturlich. Mein Akzent?”

“Jawohi.”

“Hey,” Carol said. “Speak French or something.”

“Gus is a Tamer Two,” Tania said. “He’s had four missions.” Which meant, Jacque knew, that after his last mission retirement and/or death had reduced his team to two or three. Otherwise they wouldn’t have broken up his team; the AED liked to keep people together.

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