Holy Inquisition

“I’ve been to this planet a few times before. It is always dark and cold – absolute zero. At least, it was so before the transgalactic station was built. Of course, they have to keep comfortable temperature and provide some air – that is what the huge old-fashioned transparent hemisphere over the station is for. It is very thin, invisible, it does not reflect any light, but you just know it is there. You can see the stars and the planets. The lights inside are never too bright – because the sky is so beautiful! Actually, it is just as beautiful as the night sky over the Earth, not any better at all, but marketing haunts you everywhere – even in deep space. Advertised sky seems much more attractive, than unadvertised, and a lot of people come here just to look at the sky and have dinner and the lodge. What else would attract any tourists to this piece of rock in the space? It is just a refueling and layover place, a place of switching ships. For some reason everybody believes that the sky is gorgeous here. People are happy to leave tremendous amount of points at their restaurant, which is not that great. I figure the secret is that the visitors are so busy looking for something impressive about the sky, that they look up, through the glass, and don’t see that their steak is burnt, or their vegetables are not done. How would they pay attention to taste of extra salt or fish with too much preservative in it being so busy contemplating something they came to see? Who is going to be the first one to confess that they flew all the way here just to see the sky that was not even beautiful? They will advise this wonderful place to their friends. Mass media commercials are always right.

I was contemplating the sky, too. I just had nothing else to do standing next to the entrance of my ship and leaning against the cold metal barrister. I was waiting for my flight, chewing a peppermint gum, inhaling ionized air and watching people going up the escalator. Surely, I can say people, although I know some of you might disagree with me. We all are. Some of us are humans, which is not too bad, but some of us are more or less intelligent, depending on when we were created and how much time did we have to develop. We are all people, although we look a little different, too. But what I saw this time – surprised me. To put it mildly.

The Lady.

She was standing on the escalator. Her hand was resting on the handrail. Her body looked perfect, an ancient statue, although she wasn’t quite skinny (which is fairly common among the ancient statues). She had a cylinder-shaped suitcase hanging off her bent arm.

She had a purple suede jacket on – with real fur collar and cuffs. Her hands were covered with soft black leather gloves.

She had royal bearing. She looked perfect and elegant. I could smell the whisper of fine expensive perfume being a few feet away from her.

She had no head.

God!

I have seen a lot of different people; I like to watch them – as I said before. But they all look very… humanlike! Well, mezins would say – mezinlike, but still… Upright, trunk, legs, hands, and… head, definitely head!

I felt scared.

‘She will not hurt you. Calm down. She can’t even see. But she travels by herself!’

I was trying to look at the stars again but – God! – how could I?’

The only piece of her skin I saw was this perfectly smooth circle surrounded with the purple fur of her collar. How many hundreds of points does this only collar cost? What about the rest of her outfit?

Wait, where is her head? No, it is a wrong question. What keeps her alive?

My eyes must have sparkled with terror, as my hands were squeezing the chilling barrister till my knuckles were going white and I could taste the metal in my mouth.

She had no eyes, no lips, no brains…

But yet she turned towards me, gave me a very funny look and smiled.

S-m-i-l-e-d.

My eyes saw right through the air. There were some lights, ships, buildings… Right above her neck… But also there was this sinister smile with a little of sarcastic laughter over the naïve and ignorant person – over me.

It takes about thirty seconds for a person to get inside the ship from the floor. I was watching her for long hours!

Sarcastic laughter over me, am I going crazy?

I followed her with my eyes all the way from the bottom to the top ignoring all the manners and decency – till I could not see her any more.

I was shocked.

Well, what would you do if you saw a headless lady? What would you feel? It’s not like Headless Horseman. Mayne Reid’s was dead and tied to the horse, at first ghostlike and mysterious. Washington Irving’s was supernatural. Not alive, not going up the escalator without any supervision and smiling at people!

I looked at the sky again. I was trying to keep my mind busy with my licentious adventures I had during this week on vacation. The taste of the lips, that belonged to my beautiful roommate, Brinae. Memories like this, in details, when all the feelings and emotions come back to me – they always help to take me away from the reality. That is what the adventures are for. I still have her number and address, but we both had good time there and then, just for those memories, not to keep in contact after. This time even memories did not help.

Headless lady made me shiver. I discovered it, looking down on my hand, my fingers apart: they were shaking.

Deep breath. Little pieces of ionized oxygen produced by the green galleries were crawling into my lungs and blood –

How does she breathe?

Does she?

Maybe she’s a robot?

Yeah… That’s what it is…

But the smile, she smiled at me! I surely could not see it, but I felt it so very clearly! I can distinct my own imagination from the outside signals. I am very good at it. She was alive.

I am not capable of solving this. I give up. Back to watching people. Amusing.

What can one tell about the person after 30 seconds? I notice their outfits and hairdos, their gesture, bearing, whether they talk to somebody or are quiet, what they are holding in their hands, their auras…

But the first thing I look at is their eyes. Not their shape or color, because it is always only lenses, but the expression, their glare. I have not seen ugly eyes a single time in my life. Every eyes have mystery and depth – just some of them are more open than the others. If I saw yours you couldn’t lie to me. I would figure it out straight away. I can see hypocrisy and pretense immediately.

This gray-haired guy – I hate when they dye their hair gray – is so unusually looking – but unusually not in a good way. Not bold or aggressive. Just extremely strange. I saw some ancient paper photographs – and the guide in the museum said people had gray hair naturally – and even wrinkles! The only place they exist now is the theatre, if somebody is doing classical production. I am glad to be born in my time. But our ancestors were getting them after thirty or forty, and he guy only in his early twenties! His eyes were telling me he was not self-assured at all.

*        *        *

What is very strange today – I have seen only humans so far. Only one koovin couple that is definitely going to be in the first class stateroom. Surely on a business trip. Business is all koovins worry about. Earth is very warm but it doesn’t have to offer much to the tourists like them. It is still my favorite though. Provably, because it is my home.

Oh, there are two geekuh women. Very likely, that it is their first time here. Their Grean planet joined the Galaxy Union only 10 years ago. Ironical name, because the 60% of the planet is covered with sand and rock deserts, beautiful mountains, but with no water. Centuries ago it was not like that, but they nearly destroyed themselves in the Gee War. They had to discover ways to keep the water clean and prevent in from spreading towards deserts. All the scientists were busy with it; only a little group of outsiders full of imperialistic thoughts was trying to explore space engineering. It was not financed or supported by government, so their technology was far ahead comparing to Earth when the first delegation of their ambassadors arrived to Anu, the Galaxy Union Capitol.

Anu is a wonderful green planet, very small but very fascinating. The landscape on it resembles Earth. Flora and fauna include a lot greater amount of species. Climate is comfortable all year around all over the planet. There are cooler and warmer areas but no extremes. Acclimatization takes day or two due to the level of oxygen in the atmosphere that is a little lower than Earth’s 23%. Almost paradise. But what is even more amazing – there is no any people on this planet. No superior beings that would pollute air or leave trash unrecycled. Nobody cuts the trees down or melts metal ore. Humans were not the first ones to discover this treasure island in the space. Koovins were. Tourists are not allowed there, and I glad to know it. Although I would love to visit it. Not unless I am invited to the science conference or get elected to the Galaxy Union. Hmm… Chances are so small. I like to analyze and criticize, but I hate to imply my opinion on others. Well, mass media way sounds good enough. I still have a chance!

Looking at those two geekuh women I can’t help myself being surprised and fascinated by the Mother Nature: everything was predicted somehow, and everything is controlled! Geekuh never had any troubles with water before the Gee War, but their bodies resemble those of the lizards on Earth. Skeleton is built differently, almost exactly like humans, but their skin keeps the moisture inside their body.

My thoughts were interrupted with strange discomfort, and I knew exactly what it was and where it was coming from. Very high frequency of the sound warned me it was the time to take my seat inside the ship. They never announce it into the speaker any more, and the explanation for it is fairly simple: too many languages in the space to make announcements understandable for everyone.

Just before I left Earth a week ago I have heard some interesting news: a New language finally was developed. A few years ago Galaxy Union was proposed to make Esperanto a transgalactic language. It sounded great at first, especially in a very intelligent speech that was given by the British linguist who developed this idea. A few discussions have taken place on Anu. Learning Esperanto would not be hard for me. But Ludwik Zamenhov, the Polish philologist, who invented Esperanto, lived so long ago that he could not and did not think of mezins and geekuh whose mouth and larynx are not capable of making certain sounds from Esperanto alphabet. Neither did the Union, because humans and koovins are in majority there, they prefer to consider their own needs first. When they realized their mistake, some language experts got a job and an assignment that was worth a lot of points. A week ago it was complete.

The New language was not given a name yet. Its grammar and writing system are simple, but even this will not be required for next ten years that was meant to be a testing period for the language. I am guessing that in thousands of years we will not have such problems with anatomy. When I was doing my research for the history class, I discovered that when there still were distinguished races on Earth, they had some prejudice against each other, and sexual contact between different ones was something inappropriate. History is never logical, it never makes sense. Well, if I try, I may understand it partially, I don’t consider geekuh very attractive, they remind me of lizards too much. I enjoyed reading their poetry – very original! – and some philosophy. And even if I would have geekuh boyfriend, who would judge me? Even Amish people wouldn’t. A little group of extremely sickly pale people that live in some restricted northern areas for centuries and do not interact with the rest of the world. They still keep their Old Religion, worship Jeesas (if I spelt it right) and use ancient Pentium II. They would not judge me because they have no right to do it; I am not a part of their community. By the way, they are the last antique species of what was called “white race” long time ago. I don’t share their beliefs, that why I am so negative, but I am absolutely indifferent to their skin color, although it is different from mine.

And still it is hard to comprehend for me: there was so much less of a difference between races then and races now, that some of the scientists were questioning the idea of the existence of races. I wish humans perceived information equally with all six senses, not just 90% with vision. The only disadvantage is the fact that old beautiful cultures and tradition live only in books and museums now. Books are easy to access from anywhere. Actual artifacts have a tendency to decay and recycle themselves, and the methods of preserving them were so primitive for so long, that very few are left now. Some of the traditions are still alive among different language groups, but they are so different from those described in literature and cinematograph, that –

‘Excuse this inconvenience; the system was not able to recognize your identity.’ The machine said after I have put my thumb to the screen and chose the language of communication. Probably, in a week or so I would have to use the New one, and look into the dictionary in my notebook.

‘Shoot!’ I forgot that I have just put some peach lotion on my skin and did not rub it in enough. ‘There!’

‘Say your name, please.’ They didn’t have to ask it before some crazy man cut off his wife’s thumb to get on the board.

‘Clara Dowino.’

‘Your destination?’

‘Earth.’

‘Thank you, you may come in, follow the green screens with your name on the walls, they will lead you to your seat. Enjoy your flight.’

I stepped on the board.

*        *        *

The smell of the seaside was great, but I would prefer rain or forest. I was spending half of each day of the last week on the beach. The sound of my steps sunk in the carpet. I felt cozy and almost at home, even though I still had a few hours to spend in the seat.

The door to my room slid smoothly and quietly, as I touched another screen with my thumb. And then I could not move any more.

My seat was located in the economy department, so you might be sharing your room with a stranger. How would I know, that I had to share it with the Headless Lady with the purple suede jacket on? After a few seconds of silence and feeling the cold blood in my veins, I tried to make a step. The door closed behind me.

‘Come in, please. Am I scaring you?’ She got up and stepped toward me. I stepped back and hit the door with my back. ‘My name is Jessica Carther.’ Her hand was waiting for me to shake it. I succumbed.

“N-nice to meat you. I am Clar-ra.’ 

‘Please, sit down. I have to talk to you.’

‘To me?’ The thought came into my mind and didn’t let go. I could not figure out how I could understand her. If somebody would ask me to describe her voice, it would be useless to try. I could not hear it. But I could almost feel her words. When I am just falling asleep, I can hear various voices that are loud, but not real. With her it was exactly the opposite. Real, but not loud, not voice.

‘Yes. To you. I understand, you are perplexed, and I expect you to be. I am the first one of this kind, and I am the author of the idea and theory. I will explain you the basics so you are not scared. My brain is right here.’ She touched her cylinder-shaped black suitcase. ‘It is alive, but connected to a device that transforms the signals that are normally passed through the spinal cord into infrared rays, those that are used in the remote control at anybody’s house. The device I developed also decides when to send those signals, and how long should be the signals. They range from 0.77 to 340 micrometers. Some of them are sent to my body. Like those from medulla to control my breathing and heartbeat, from cerebellum to coordinate voluntary movements and balance, and from my skin to thalamus. My other senses are damaged, though. I can see only through the camera that is installed in the side of my suitcase, I can hear only through the microphone. I can’t smell or taste at all. I am sure you are curious about how I eat or breathe.’ She lifted this piece of her skin that was surrounded by her expensive collar, and I discovered that it was just a lid, that looked like smooth skin. ‘That is where my most vulnerable part is. I have to eat only dried ground artificial food, and have the water and artificial saliva pumped inside my gullet. Instead of having my nose filter the air for me, the little filter on the trachea does it. And it also detects poisonous smells, while ignoring other. So you can fart, if you feel like it.’ She laughed, but I was not sure if I should have. ’And other signals go to your mind, or the people around me and stimulate the neurons in chosen areas of your thalamus. That is how you can hear me right now. Did you see me smiling at you?’

‘Y-yes. I did.’ I still felt uneasy.

‘Good. The infrared waves are fascinating because they combine the characteristics of light and electromagnetic waves that is how they get through the clothes and the walls of the bag. Now when you know how it works and, I hope, are not scared any more, I will ask you for a favor. I am flying home to San Francisco from the science conference on Anu. They did not believe what I did was possible before they saw me having this done. My speech was read aloud by somebody else, because it is impossible for me to speak into the microphone, but I was the living evidence of the possibility of such a thing.’

‘Why did you decide to do it?’ I asked.

‘I always was inspired by the idea that there is some electricity in the human body. ‘I sing the body electric’, you know. By Walt Whitman. Old American poet.’

‘I know him!’ I did not want to interrupt her, but I did not want to be thought of as an illiterate person. ‘Sorry.’

‘Oh, that is great. Not a lot of people do now. Anyway, I was studying psychology, biology and physics in order to develop the device I talked about earlier for many, many years. I was ignored by everybody, my research was unsupported and self-financed. The other problem was I could not find anybody who would agree to have his or her head detached from the body. Even among the few of my followers and friends who helped me with money and experiments. During one of the experiments on rats, the device exploded, and my face had third-degree flash burns. Nothing besides a few inches was left of my hair. I spent 5 days at the hospital, but later I signed a paper where I was asking my crew to operate me and implant another device, just to make sure it will not explode. It was a miracle that it happened exactly when everything was ready for the operation on human, and that the hospital let me out. And there I am. It worked! I am rich, famous, and I don’t have this ugly head any more! Well, I will be rich soon. And famous.’ She must have noticed the funny look on my face, because rich and famous people don’t fly in economy class most of the time. Although she could afford the fur and suede jacket. The real fur and suede! I absolutely forgot about the camera. Her eyes. ‘Now the most important. Not everybody likes what I did. I don’t know how in the hell they know; I thought media was not allowed on Anu, as well as loiterers, if there is any difference. But it is the fact. I would really appreciate it morally now, and materially when I have the money if you were my bodyguard for next few hours. Or, I should say, headguard. I can type without looking, and talk, too, so that is what I will do. Would you hide my suitcase anywhere and make sure nobody gets it?’

‘Well, of course. Who would want to get it?’

‘I don’t know, really. I just want to be on the safe side. I can’t protect myself really well, you know.’

‘I guess. Isn’t it scary sometimes?’

‘Fear is an emotion that is possible to fight. I made sure that the signals from my amygdala, the center of the brain responsible for fear and aggression, do not go to my body. They stay where they appear. That way I never get violent. It is impossible to irritate me, and this makes me defenseless too. The good part is – I am not scared of anything!’

‘Well, where would you want me to place you brain bag?’

‘It is up to you. Just so you protect it. All right?’

‘Sure.’

I lifted the soft lid of the seat and held it for a while frozen, thinking. I thought about her senses. I never pay attention to this soft feeling of the fabric. I could recognize temperature, shape, type of fabric, softness, and structure. Little neurons run up to my thalamus and the message gets processed by my brain… Fascinating! The skin actually does more than “keeps people from seeing the inside of your body, which is repulsive, and it prevents your organs from falling onto the ground”, as Dave Barry said. For Jessica it is the only sense she feels the same way I do. I put her suitcase inside the seat and closed the lid.

She is all mine now.

Just a little bit ago I was afraid of her, and now it is up to me what happens to her! I didn’t have to do anything; this thought was good enough for my ego.

‘Do you mind if I sleep for a while? I am very tired.’

‘Oh, that’s fine. I can work on something. As long as my bag is under your seat.’

I walked up to the bar and poured some milk into the glass. Drinking it, I started laughing.

‘What’s wrong? What’s so funny?’ She asked.

‘I just remembered what I’ve heard once. When space traveling just started, they had to have all the liquids in tubes, so it doesn’t float around and make bubbles or balls! Can you imagine running around the room in desperate attempt to catch a ball of milk?’

I heard her laughter.

‘You wanted to go to bed.’ Her body was shaking in a scary way. ‘Wait, could you help me with some milk, too? Just pull the funnel-looking device out of my bag, open my neck, stick it into my gullet and pour the milk inside. Easy.’

It wasn’t a hard task. Upon completing, I unrolled he blanket and went to bed. I fell asleep right away and without any memories of doing it.

*        *        *

When I woke up it seemed that I slept for long hours with no dreams. I slowly opened my eyes and peered into the darkness. The watch on my hand said that only hour and a half passed. And something else on my hand said something was wrong. It felt like a wasp sting. I reached to the switch and turned the light above my seat on. Looked at my forearm. It looked like a bite, but I knew what it was. Syringe injection. That is why I slept so great. I took a deep breath. The smell in the room was strange. I sat up and looked across the table at Jessica’s body. She was still sitting up, with her hands on the keyboard. The screen was dark, and part of her computer was missing.

‘Jessica? You all right??’ I was nervous. I felt my amygdala was working great. She did not answer in any way. ‘Jessica?’

I touched her hand. It was cold.

‘No!!!’ What do I do now? CPR? How? What happened? Ahhh…

I jumped on my feet and lifted the seat. My lungs refused to breathe for a few seconds. The bag was gone. Did I forget to lock the door? Oh, what she just dropped it on the floor? No, I had this sting on my hand… Why would she do it? I had to turn the big lights on to look for the bag. On the way to the switch I stumbled over something, then stepped on something slippery, but my cerebellum worked good enough not to let me fall – probably after the triple shot of adrenaline. I hit the switch button and screamed.

The gray-haired guy I saw on the escalator was lying on the floor dead. I was sure about that. And Jessica was dead, too. Her brains were all over the floor and his heavy boots. The Device was smashed. Even the tiny camera had a crack in it. He tried hard. I felt disgusted now. I touched his neck. There was no pulse, and I didn’t feel any desire to look for it, or to try to bring it back. There was an envelope on the floor. I was not sure it I should have, but I picked it up and sat back on my seat. I had to take my socks off, they had brains all over. I opened the envelope. Of course, he didn’t know handwriting it was all typed.

‘Dear reader, whoever you are, if you have this, I must be already dead from poison I drank. It’s not a will; I just want to explain the reasons. I found out about Jessica Carther and was struck by the fact how crazy talented people can be. She is a genius in Biology and Physics, but she is crazy and doesn’t have any common sense. She has not the right to live in this world.

I am opposing the idea of any rays or waves going inside my brain just because she wants so. I don’t want to be operated by somebody else. Long lime ago they called it Black Magic. Call what I did Holy Inquisition. Her invention was great, but it will bring more harm than anything else. I sacrifice my life for the humankind, because I don’t want to be prosecuted for my beliefs. I believe I did right.

The only two copies of the theoretical explanation and formulas of her invention were in her laboratory in San Francisco and in her personal computer. My friend must have taken care of the other one in San Francisco whatever it takes for him. My part was Jessica and her computer. I hope I did well on it. Farewell. Markus Moffitt’ The signature was in handwriting.

I folded the letter and put it back into the envelope. Called the crew and reported about two bodies in my room, one of them headless. Pulled out my computer and went to check my e-mail, as the stewards and stewardesses were running, cleaning, passing out, yelling and making a mess. I slowly, star by star, typed my password in. Clicked ‘login’ button. 2 unread messages. One – from Brinae, my seaside girlfriend. Surprise! I did not expect it.

The other one was from Jessica Carther. I clicked on the bold font after a few seconds of doubt. The letter said, that she did not want me to open the attached file unless something happened to her for two reasons. One was that it was important information that could put me in danger. And the other – that I would not understand anything anyway. Something happened to her. I opened the attachment. It just gave me the phone number and address of somebody named Keith and request for password. The gray-haired guy did not consider this. I forwarded the file.

Brinae was saying she was going to visit Earth soon; she was koovin.

She would like to see me again.

I did not notice that we already landed on Earth. I heard a click and then felt cold metal around my wrist. The guy with the blue uniform on was telling me something I have heard in the movies so many times: that I can stay quiet, because anything I say might be misquoted and used against me. He didn’t understand I had no desire to talk whatsoever.

I don’t know what happened to my luggage, but now I am at the police department ready to turn this paper in.”

*        *        *

Read-haired policeman raised his head from the paper and looked at everybody else in the room.

“So, do you think she is crazy? I asked her to write a attestation, not a novel.”

“Indeed, no great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness, as Aristotle said. The story could be good, but not where it was supposed to be. At least it shows clearly what happened. Along with this letter that is signed by Moffitt, who was trying to kill himself and will probably be in bed for the rest of his life.” He handed the cup to the guy next to him. “Pour me some more coffee, Jo.”

“I agree. I think she is clean. We should let her go. There is a beautiful koovin girl waiting for her in the lobby.”