As with all the Warden worlds, a “research” space station was maintained in orbit well outside the range of any nasty stuff, but it was closed to unauthorized personnel. It was an interesting fact that on those space stations the Warden organism would infect anyone that it came into contact with, but would leave all the inorganic material alone. Its full properties were operative only on one of the planets, and then only on people affected with the same breed of organism.
That brought us to what we really wanted to know. “In addition to the total lack of technological comforts,” Garal told us, “there is a by-product of the Warden affiliation that is, well, hard to accept even after you’ve seen it. There’s a different by-product on each of the four Diamond worlds, all relating to the fact that the tiny Wardens are, somehow, in some sort of contact or communication with one another. On Lilith, for example, some people have the power literally to move, build, or destroy mountains with a thought, by telling their Wardens to give orders to other Wardens in the rocks, trees, other people, you name it. But the degree of power an individual has is arbitrary. On Cerberus this communication is so bizarre that people can literally exchange minds with each other—and it’s so universal that they often do so without meaning to. No control. On Medusa, the Warden communication is so limited that it’s really only within one’s own body, and causes rapid and involuntary shape-changing to meet whatever environment the person finds him or herself in. Here—well, things are a bit different but still related.”
We were all silent now, raptly intent on the speaker. Here was the heart of the Charon experience—what we would become.
“As on Lilith, we have a certain power over objects and people,” Tiliar jumped in, taking up the talk. “As on Cerberus, it is a mental ability rather than a physical one, and mind-to-mind contact is possible. As on Medusa, physical change is possible, but in a different sense. And, while these powers are not arbitrary—that is, everyone has these abilities—it takes great training and discipline to be able to use them properly, while those with the training and control can use them on you. That’s why we cautioned you to avoid the locals for a while.” She paused for a moment, carefully considering her words.
“You see,” she continued after a moment, “Charon is a world out of children’s stories and fairy tales. It is a world where magic works, where sores—sorcerers and their spells have devastating effects. And yet it is a world where none of the laws of science are violated.”
This was a hard concept to digest, and several of our company muttered and shook their heads.
“I know, I know, it’s hard to accept,” Garal said after a while, “but the more hard-headed of you will quickly grasp the reality. Let me ask you first how you know you’re here. How do you know this place looks like this place, that you look like you and we like us? How do you know it’s raining?”
“We got wet,” somebody mumbled, and we all laughed.
“All right, but how do you know you got wet? You—your personality, your memories, the thinking part of you—are really all locked up in the cerebellum and cerebral cortex. Your brain is the only real you that you know—and the brain is totally encased in your skull. It has no way of directly knowing what’s going on at all—it doesn’t even have pain centers. Every single thing you know comes to you, your brain, by remote sensors. Vision. Smell. Taste. Touch. Sound. The five senses. Each transmits information to the brain, and supports the others to tell the brain what’s going on. But what if those five senses were wrong. There are methods of torture—and a lot of psych work, which may be the same thing—that capitalize on this. Sending you false information. There is, in fact, an ancient human religion called voodoo—that might explain it”
“A practitioner of voodoo,” Tiliar explained, picking up the lecture, “took samples of your fingernails, hair, even shit, and put it on a doll. Then whatever that magician-priest did to the doll was supposed to happen to you. And why has voodoo really survived the space age? Because it works.”
“Aw, c’mon,” the big man scoffed.
She nodded seriously. “Yes,^ it works. But only under two conditions. First, the intended victim must believe that the priest has this power. It doesn’t even have to be strong belief, just a subconscious fear that maybe it does work. And second, the intended victim must be made aware that he or she is being hexed. People have been crippled, physically and mentally, and even killed by this method, as long as those two conditions are met. And it’s easier than you think. Even the most rational-minded have, deep down, a streak of superstition or doubt about unknown powers. The voodoo priests are master psychs, and every visible success reinforces the belief in their powers among others.”
“Of course the priest doesn’t really do anything,” Garal noted. “They just establish the psychological conditions and you do it to yourself. In a sense, you might say that voodoo is a magic force that violates no known scientific laws.”
“You mean this is a voodoo world?” I asked jokingly.
They did not think me at all funny. “In a sense, yes,” the man replied. “But here you can eliminate the variables completely and go a lot further. If you’ll remember, I said that the Warden organisms can communicate, so to speak, with one another, even outside the body they inhabit. But it’s a passive thing. They communicate, but they don’t actually say anything. But, because they are a part of you, they can talk to you as well—and you to them. That’s the trick. How well you can master communication between your own Wardens and others. In a sense, Charon is the ultimate voodoo world where belief and preparation are not really necessary.”
Tiliar thought a moment. “Look, let’s put it this way. Suppose some powerful person decided to turn you into a uhar—one of those big blue things that pulled the coaches. If he has the power, the training, and the self-control, he contacts the Wardens in your mind through his Wardens. He sends out a message—you are a uhar. Not being trained, or not possessing the mental control needed, or any combination of these things, you have no defense, no way to tell your own Wardens that they are receiving false data. So this idea, that you are a uhar, gets pounded into your brain, much like a forced hypnoprobe. Your senses are fooled, all the information coming into the brain now confirms that you are a four-meter-tall blue lizard—and, from your point of view, you are.”
I saw Zala shiver slightly and felt some perspective was needed. “So all we are dealing with is a powerful form of hypnotism, the same kind we can achieve with machines, only we’ve dispensed with them to make the contact mind to mind.”
“Sort of,” Tiliar agreed. “But it doesn’t stop there. Remember, your Wardens are in constant communication with all the other Wardens. Your own perceptions and self-image are ‘broadcasting,’ so to speak, to everyone else. What this means is that if you think you’re a uhar, well then, so will everybody else. Even uhar win perceive you as uhar, since they, too, are Warden affiliated. Every single thing will act as if the command, or spell, is real. And since we depend on our senses for all our information, what we and everybody else perceive as real will be real. The more training and self-control you have in this ability, the more protected you will be and the more vulnerable everyone else will be. It’s that simple.”