Whispers in the Mind
By
Tanya Allan
Whispers in the Mind: Book 0ne
Copyright 2004 Tanya J. Allan
Second edition Copyright 2011 Tanya J. Allan
By Tanya Allan
All rights reserved.
This work is the property of the author, and the author retains full copyright in relation to printed material, whether on paper or electronically. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – for example, electronic, photocopy, data recording, etc… – without the prior written permission of the author or unless paid for through sales channels authorised and approved by the author. The only exception is brief quotation in printed reviews.
Any adaptation of the whole or part of the material for broadcast by radio, TV, or for stage plays or film, is the right of the author unless negotiated through legal contract. Any commercial use by anyone other than the author is strictly prohibited.
This work is fictitious, and any similarities to any persons, alive or dead, are purely coincidental. Mention is made of persons in public life only for the purposes of realism and for that reason alone. Certain licence is taken in respect of medical procedures, terms and conditions, and the author does not claim to be the fount of all knowledge.
The author accepts the right of the individual to hold his/her (or whatever) own political, religious and social views, and there is no intention to deliberately offend anyone.
Also by Tanya Allan on Amazon Kindle:
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A FAIRY’S TALE
AMBER ALERT
BEHIND THE ENEMY
EMMA
EVERY LITTLE GIRL’S DREAM
FLIGHT OR FIGHT
FORTUNE’S SOLDIER
GRUESOME TUESDAY
IN PLAIN SIGHT
MARINE 1
MODERN MASQUERADE
MONIQUE
QUEEN OF HEARTS
RING THE CHANGE
SHIT HAPPENS, SO DO MIRACLES
TANGO GOLF: COP WITH A DIFFERENCE
THE CANDY CANE CLUB
THE HARD WAY
THE OTHER SIDE OF DREAMS
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A SUPER HERO
THE SUMMER JOB & OTHER STORIES
TO FIGHT FOR A DREAM
TWISTED DREAMS
WEIRD WEDNESDAY
WHEN FORTUNE SMILES
WHISPERS IN THE MIND
1.
<<Captain, scanners show landing area is clear.>>
<<Good, silent mode, activate cloaking screen.>>
<<Screen activated.>>
<<Begin descent. Number Three, keep your eye on the scanner and abort descent at the first sign of any contact.>>
<<Aye Captain.>>
<<Beginning descent, Captain.>>
<<Notify science officer to make ready his team. I will give them four gronks (time units) to get the job done.>>1
The Captain sat in the command chair, while the bridge officers sat at the crescent shaped console in front. There were eight of them on the bridge and, had a human been there, he or she would not have been able to tell them apart. The lighting on the bridge was dim, but the controls were sufficiently illuminated for the job at hand.
The Captain, as were they all, was a hairless biped with a large domed head. With skin the colour of an elephant and of a similar texture, leathery grey, with a basic humanoid form, these beings were definitely not from earth.
They had two arms, two legs, with feet and hands with four digits on each. They were quite puny looking by human standards, with slight muscle development on the limbs and a narrow torso. All were between 4’6” and 5’ in height, and the size of furniture and room was proportionate.
The strength of these creatures was not physical, but mental. For in the large cranium lay a brain that was three times more efficient than the human brain, and as the entire previous conversation took place in silence, one would understand that they were telepathic beings.
They had facial features that might not necessarily be considered ugly by Earth standards. Not human, but the large dark eyes were actually hypnotically attractive. There was a vestige of a nose, and a small thin mouth, used solely for eating. Two small ears were where they should be, but as these creatures never used spoken language, their vocal chords and hearing abilities were severely restricted.
The race was an old one, belonging to a system many parsecs beyond the far rim, thousands of light years from earth. Their sun had gone Nova several thousand generations ago, so the race was scattered amongst the stars in vast mother ships.
Now doomed to search out suitable planets for colonisation, this planet, called ‘Earth’ by the inhabitants, seemed quite promising when first discovered two centuries ago.
The race were omni-sexual, in that for much of the time they were neuter, but at will the individual could assume the gender of their choice depending upon the situation they were currently experiencing. This was a development of assisted-evolution, as their survival factors were vastly increased by such a characteristic.
Offspring were nurtured in co-operative units, allowing parents only the responsibility of conception, pregnancy and birth. Any individual could lactate at will, allowing those who were skilled in childcare to undertake the task, thus allowing others to continue with their specialised tasks unimpeded by children.
Theirs was a race on the edge of extinction.
Their life expectancy was in the region of four or five times that of an Earth human, but their fertility was about one eighth.
It took an individual twenty Earth-years to reach maturity and become fertile. It took another twelve years to reach basic optimum mental operating capacity, and to be able to function efficiently. Each individual hoped to have four offspring during their lifetime, but recently, the reality was two or three at best, with the majority infertile and unable to carry a child full-term.
The Captain of this scout ship was two hundred Earth-years old, so was exceptionally experienced at the task in hand. This task was to identify a suitable location whereby a small colony could be seeded away from the indigenous population, in order to create a living cell that could exist apart from the rest of the race, thereby increasing the chances of their race’s survival.
Such colonies were seeded on hundreds of planets across thousands of systems, and they were bound by strict rules.
• No contact was permitted with the indigenous people for a minimum period of one hundred local years, and only thereafter if full knowledge and acceptance had been achieved.
• Should accidental contact be made, then no harm was permitted to be affected against the locals, and steps must be taken to eradicate any memories of the contact.
Thus they managed to co-exist without any awareness by their hosts, and by using their incredibly powerful mental skills, this co-existence was assured.
<<Captain, landing in one-quarter gronk.>>
<<Thank you. Notify science team to attend exit section.>>
The ship assumed a hover, and at no time did it come into contact with the ground. As the technician responsible for maintaining the attitude of the craft adjusted the final hover, for a split second, the screen flickered as power was diverted into the anti-gravity device.
The Science team exited down a ramp, where briefly, the glow of the internal section of the ship escaped into the New Mexico desert. Then darkness and stillness returned, as the team of fifteen dispersed into the still night.