Page 24 of Soros
“Would you say that recipe is your best kept secret, General Hughes?”
He shrugged and chuckled. “We’ve managed to keep it in the family for over fifty years.”
“But is it the best kept secret you have?” I asked again and this time I used my persuasive power to cloud his mind. “In this room we’re all friends and you know you can tell us anything.”
With his mind clouded, the general volunteered, “Nahh, it’s probably that I hate my wife’s coleslaw. She makes it way too salty but it’s her mother’s recipe and she would get hurt if I told her.”
“What else?”
“Well, no one knows that I have a kink for feet. I can masturbate for hours just looking at feet.”
The other people in the room muttered, disturbed, as they understood that the proud man would never have told them that information voluntarily.
He looked amused as he waved a dismissive hand. “Don’t act so innocent. You all have kinks too. My foot obsession is nothing compared to all your dirty secrets.”
The mutter grew in intensity as many of the fifteen other people around the table objected.
“Oh, as if it isn’t publicly known that Benson has a drinking problem and what about you, Kellerman… didn’t you get caught banging the nanny a few years back?” the general prodded.
When there was an instant uproar among the gathered people, I gestured for all of them to calm down.
Turning my focus back on the general, I asked him. “I wonder though, since you’re so good at keeping secrets, how come you’re sharing everything with all of us right now?”
“Why wouldn’t I? My secrets are safe with all of you. You’re my friends.”
“Thank you for helping me prove a point,” I told him and looked around the room, addressing the audience. “Do you see how mind clouding works now? It’s subtle, but powerful.”
The woman scientist whom I had mentioned to Tania raised her hand and waited until I pointed to her. “Yes? What is your question?”
Her long neck was accentuated with a necklace in golden colors that she played with while talking in a smooth voice. “Mind clouding seems to be similar to a hypnotic state. How long does it last?”
“The duration of the effect is a matter of several things. First there’s the mental powers of the individual doing the mind clouding. The larger the group that they are trying to influence at the same time, the harder it gets. You can compare it to physical exercise where there’s always a limit, but the limit varies depending on the shape and stamina of the athlete. Other factors are the skills of defense within the victims. Some are so skilled that they can’t be mind clouded at all. Others can be influenced but it wears off faster. And then there are species like humans with no mental protective powers who would be easy targets. I am by no means a master at mind clouding, but I have enough skills to defend myself unless I’m faced with an Ugon Master.”
I sensed the unrest in the audience. “Let me comfort you by saying that Ugon Masters are no threat to you humans. They are enlightened and kind individuals with no interest in harming anyone. All through the Universe they are admired for their wisdom and compassion. The real threat would be if Malbreeans or even Noxins had access to Earth. They would no doubt exploit your weak minds for their own gains.”
Some of the participants whispered among themselves and with my excellent hearing I picked up that they were offended at me for saying humans had weak minds. “Who are the Noxins again?” the woman with the purple and green scarf around her head asked. “How are they different from your race?”
I had already covered this subject, but luckily K’rem, my contact person from the Federation, had prepared me that teaching humans required patience and endless repetitions. I felt bad for them that they didn’t have the same mental capacity to remember as most of us Descendants of Doom.
“Of the nine races that descended from the original Mulkas from the doomed planet Ixion, my race, Eidrons, is the most similar to you humans physically, but if you did a DNA test you would see that we differ in small areas. Mentally, we communicate mainly through telepathy, and we have a larger mental capacity to store and retrieve information. Noxins could easily blend in with humans as well, but they have differences that would be easy to detect when you know what to look for. Their eyes have a double row of eyelashes giving them a thicker framing around their eyes, and their fingers are generally longer than what you would consider normal for humans or Eidrons like me. The problem with Noxins is that, although they aren’t as bad as Malbreeans, they are opportunistic and great manipulators.”
“Tell us about Malbreeans again. Do they have special features like the Noxins?” the woman asked.
“Malbreeans are generally taller and larger in size than any of the other Descendants of Doom. They are as varied in looks as you humans, but someone like me, who has studied speciology, can typically tell the races apart in the same way that you humans can tell each other apart depending on which part of the Earth you originate from. Generally speaking, Malbreeans have distinct thick eyebrows and long necks. Many of them also have turned-up noses and thin lips. When they greet each other, they snap their fingers.
“My Earth agent, Tania, told me that in general humans fear alien invasions. And that many of you imagine aliens as parasitic predators that will feed on you. What the Federation is really trying to protect you from is an invasion by the Malbreeans or anyone with ill intentions. They could slowly infiltrate you without any of you being aware that you’re under alien attack.”
“How tall are the Malbreeans?” a slender man asked. He had a peculiar hairstyle with a half circle of hair and a bald top. As I stood and looked out over the room of thirteen men and three women, it became clear that this hairstyle had to be popular among middle-aged males.
“The Malbreean officials tell us that an average male is six-feet-four, but when you visit Markatoria and walk among them, it feels as if most of them are close to seven feet.”
“We’ve got plenty of males of that height,” the general said. “Just look at the NBA or NFL.”
“I’m sure you do, but according to my data, the average human male is somewhere around five-feet-nine or maybe even smaller.”
“That can’t be true,” a man with curly black hair in a blue suit said, but then he added, “Well, I suppose, when you count Asia, it can.”
The questions kept coming, and a few times, Tania assisted me when I didn’t understand the framework of the question.
