Dr Hanneke is drifting slowly through the upper levels of globe DREAM-X1B, checking the equipment in Section A of the reMIND programme series. It is a boring task and her thoughts are dwelling with regret on mind reflections of the holidays she returned from less than one dream period ago.
The globe is one of three zero gravity areas in the city complex of the government’s Mind Defense Laboratories. The complex is immense and covers almost a third of the surface area of this moon.
A faint crackling or humming sound can be heard through the entire globe. Its origin are the reflective essences extracted from the minds of the eight major species of the extraorbital terrain that are studied here. The live essences are suspended like sheets in magnetic rings that stretch them out thinner than a nanospider’s web until nothing is visible but sparkling light reflections.
What the researchers here are trying to learn is how these reflections of consciousness communicate with each other, directly from one ring to the next, or via the globe itself.
The inner walls of the globe are a dark violet. It is hard to tell what material they are. The surface looks smooth and polished, it could be made of liquid, but it could just as well be smoke. It is at the same time matt and reflective. Reflective ripples of lights flash across the surface, whenever the mindwebs emit signals that reach the edge of the globe, as if a consciousness residing within the wall reacted to them, understood and responded.
Like all researchers here, Hanneke is wearing a protective helmet at all times, not to be corrupted or driven to madness by the mind energy that fills the globe. She is torn from her memories by an alarm beeping at the far end of the section. With a well-practiced effort of concentration she releases a burst from her soundflex.
This is the way the researchers move in the zero gravity globes. A thought reflection of the path to the desired location is fed through the soundflex extension in the helmet and released against the inner surface of the globe. The wave of consciousness reflected back from the wall propels the person precisely and in almost no time to her destination.
gizmo – som har en précis ide i huvet om hur det här ser ut, men blir frustrerad att inte lyckas beskriva det i ord. Och som önskade att någon duktig forumskonstnär tog bildreflektionen från hennes tankar och gjorde en ritning av den. Och som interpreterade begreppet ”reflekterande yta” lite väl fritt.
