To Ride Pegasus
- Автор: Маккефри Энн
- Серия: Talents #1
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «To Ride Pegasus». Краткое содержание книги:
“Hmmm.” Welch considered the suggestion. “I’ll rig up something, I guess.”
Op Owen chuckled. “One of the comforting things about you, Les, is your unfailing rise to the challenge. I don’t believe you know what failure is.”
Welch regarded his superior with some surprise. “Failure is an inability to consider what is not presently known. Like Ruth Horvath’s variation?” Then he added, “Or Senator Zeusman’s strategy?”
Op Owen dismissed that with a wave of his hand and continued to scan the Horvaths’ readings. “Dorotea’s first Incident rocked him, didn’t it?”
“Yes, it shows up in his sleep pattern as unusual restlessness the first nights, but see, he’s calming down by the third.”
“It’s from that date that his precogs begin to dwindle.”
“By God, you’re right. I thought he’d be too stable for a deviation like that.”
“Yes, he’s been too consistent a precog. I think I’ll call him in and drop a few leading questions to see what reaction I get.” Op Owen initiated the call then and there.
“There’s nothing wrong with Dorotea, is there, sir?’ Lajos asked as soon as he entered the office.
“Good heavens, no,” Daffyd op Owen said, gesturing Lajos to a chair.
“It’s about my drop in Incidents, then, isn’t it?”
Op Owen eyed his young colleague for a moment, savoring the peripheral emotions the man was generating.
It took no Talent to recognize the defensive nervousness in Lajos’s attitude.
“Not exactly. There are always periods of rest for precogs, caused by any number of valid reasons, including the absence of fires. However, your graphs show an onset of Incidents, broken off just as they begin.”
“Once or twice in the office, I’ve felt as if something was preventing me…”
“Preventing you…?” Op Owen prompted Lajos gently as he had broken off, startled by his own phrasing.
“Yes, sir,” Lajos went on slowly, “it’s as if something’s preventing me from previewing. Sort of like…glancing into a strange room and having the door slammed in your face.”
“Aptly put. Could you suggest why…or perhaps what…is preventing you?”
“You think it’s a psychological suppression, don’t you?”
“That’s my first thought”
Indignation and disbelief were Lajos’s instant reaction,
“Why would I want to suppress suddenly?”
“Something you yourself don’t want to see. Precog is not the easiest of Talents,
Lajos,” op Owen replied. “Often the precog imposes his own block, as a relief from the psychological pressures.”
“If you think there’s a chance that I’m developing the Cassandra complex…”
Lajos was heatedly provoked now.
“No, that follows an entirely different pattern.”
“Dorotea’s preventing me?”
“If this occurred only in your home environment, we’d have to seriously consider the possibility. But it’s improbable for a variety of reasons: the prime one being that her room is shielded to protect her from overtones of your precogs as much as to protect us from her blatant calls.”
“Ruth?” Lajos’s hushed question had the power of a shout. “She is Talented after all. But why suppress me? She loves me. I know she does. She’s always helped with Incidents. It made her feel a part…” Lajos stared at op Owen. Then shook his head, violently disagreeing with the natural conclusion. “No! I don’t see why suppressing me would…do her any good.”
“Has something else upset her? The suppression starts not long after Dorotea’s first Incident.”
Lajos covered his eyes, groaning deeply. He collected himself almost immediately and, looking up at op Owen, recounted Ruth’s curious uncertainty about Dorotea.
“Yes, I see now what has possibly happened. She’s made you her whipping boy.”
“Now wait a minute, sir. Ruth’s not petty or vindictive.”
“I’m not for a moment implying that she is, Lajos. Let us both try to see her conflicts. She’s had to make so many adjustments. She had such hopes when she entered the training program. I remember her cheerfulness and vivacity so well.
It was difficult to have to disillusion her. You two married and she has exhibited skill in assisting you. But even the most generous soul experiences twinges of envy. She looked forward to maternity as an outlet for her natural inclination and the assuagement of her failures. Suddenly she finds herself with the extraordinary daughter who makes even the Director of the Center jump at her whim.” Lajos weakly returned op Owen’s smile. “I thought at the tune she was very much distressed at the thought of relinquishing any of Dorotea’s care to our impersonal toils. I don’t believe we entirely relieved her fear that the
Center will usurp her role in her daughter’s upbringing. Can you see why she may be indirectly punishing you for circumstances that threaten her happiness?”
“Yes, I can.” Lajos’s admission was dejected.
“Now, it’s not as bad as that,” op Owen said firmly. “In fact, stop feeling guilty and look at the very positive side-Ruth actually has been able to suppress your strong Talent.”
“And that’s positive?”
“Yes. The underlying problem is Ruth’s lack of Talent.
We now can prove conclusively that she has one. She has demonstrated it superbly. Severe frustration often breaks down blocks. And she’s had that.”
“Of course.” Lajos’s face began to light up. “Whoa. You said she doesn’t know she’s doing it?”
“I’ve proof for her. And the further proof will be the renewal of your precogs.
I’ll have a talk with her and straighten this out today.”
He made the call as Lajos left. There was more to the problem of Ruth Horvath than touched the little family. If you don’t tell all you know, how much is enough? op Owen wondered.
“All right, I’m forced to believe you,” Ruth said, her defensiveness waning under op Owen’s gentle redirection, because she also could not deny the evidence of the graphs: of that remarkable, infinitesimal variation that had to be an Incident.
Daffyd op Owen felt himself begin to relax with her admission. He had known it would be a stormy confrontation: one reason why he had not delayed it. Ruth had been appalled by the knowledge that she had subconsciously blocked Lajos. She finally admitted that Dorotea scared her: that she had lost all joy in her daughter and was terrified of predisposing the child towards her.
“Yes, I have to believe you,” she repeated, not bothering to stifle resentment, “but it’s a pretty poor excuse of a Talent,” she added bitterly, “if all I can do is block my husband’s, and not even know I’m doing that.”
“On the contrary,” op Owen replied with a laugh, “it’s exactly the one you need the most…applied properly.”
Ruth glared at him, waiting pointedly for an explanation.
“You’ve a strong moral code, Ruth. You would not permit yourself to act against your daughter, though her Talent frightened you. But you will have to waive that most laudable principle. Until Dorotea has developed sufficient discretion to handle her mental gift, you are going to have to block it.”
Ruth blinked in surprise and then her eyes brightened, her mouth formed an “O” of astonishment as she began to understand.
“Of course. Of course, I understand.” Tears of relief welled in her eyes. “Oh, of course.”
Op Owen smiled at her. “Yes, Dorotea cannot be permitted to dip into any mind she chooses. You must restrict her by your ability to block. You won’t need much pressure to dissuade her from broadcasting or eavesdropping.”
“But won’t Dorotea resent it? I mean, she’ll feel me doing it, won’t she?”