Free Cosmopath - [Bengal Station 03] by Eric Brown Page B

telepathic ability - not just any telepathic ability, but the ability to read the dwindling minds of the dead. You were made a necropath, Mr Vaughan.”
     
    He kept calm, took a long swallow of beer and nodded at the tycoon. No one on the Station, other than Sukara, should have known about his past in Canada.
     
    “How did you find out?”
     
    “I have my... I suppose you could call them spies, informants. That is of little concern, though. What matters-”
     
    Vaughan interrupted. “I no longer read dead minds. I had the hardware removed years ago.”
     
    “I have the surgeons, and the technical experts, who can reinstall it.”
     
    “Why do you think I had it taken out in the first place?”
     
    “No doubt you had your reasons-”
     
    “Do you have any conception of the pain of reading dead minds, Mr Chandrasakar?”
     
    “Candidly, I cannot begin to imagine the experience, but-”
     
    “It’s something I never wish to experience again.”
     
    Chandrasakar smiled. “Not even,” he said, “for the sake of your daughter?”
     
    You bastard , Vaughan thought.
     
    The tycoon continued, “My surgeons will reinstall the hardware, an advanced version, with the latest programs. It is my hope that you will accompany me to Delta Cephei VII, where you will read the mind of the dead engineer and learn exactly what happened to the crew of the Mussoree. Needless to say, this information will be vital if we hope to utilise the full resources of the planet.”
     
    “You said the engineer died in cold sleep. How long ago was this? Months? In that case her thoughts might be...”
     
    He stopped. Chandrasakar was shaking his head. “The cryo-suspension preserved her at the second of brain death, Mr Vaughan. When the suspension is reversed, you will have access to her dwindling mentation. You will be able to read what happened.”
     
    Vaughan hung his head. He knew, despite himself, that he would accede to the billionaire’s wishes. His protests, he told himself, would be futile, a charade to persuade himself that he had at least put up some resistance.
     
    “When you read a dead mind,” he said slowly, “it’s as if you’re dying yourself. You are one with the dead subject, falling towards oblivion. All that the subject has ever known, ever experienced, is being extinguished, and they know it... and you share this, and the final terrible realisation that this life is all, that there’s nothing beyond death but eternal oblivion. It... that awareness... it lives with you and makes the hours after reading the dead almost intolerable.”
     
    Chandrasakar allowed a few seconds to elapse, and when he spoke his tone was conciliatory. “I can only imagine the hell you so graphically describe, Jeff. But let me reassure you, I will have medics on hand to ease the aftermath of the reading, to prescribe sedatives...”
     
    Vaughan looked up from his beer, ready to give in.
     
    Chandrasakar said, “And immediately you have read the engineer, I will have the program removed. It will be a one-off reading, for which I will underwrite the complete care of your daughter.”
     
    Vaughan smiled, without the slightest trace of good humour. “I need to talk this over with my wife.”
     
    Chandrasakar inclined his head. “Perfectly understandable, Mr Vaughan.”
     
    “When does the ship leave?”
     
    “Tomorrow. The journey will take approximately forty-eight hours. A return trip is scheduled for ten days after that.”
     
    From the breast pocket of his suit, the tycoon withdrew a red velveteen case and passed it across to Vaughan.
     
    He opened it. Two silver data-pins sat in a nest of rucked silk. He looked up, inquiringly.
     
    The tycoon said, “These will enable you and your wife to communicate with each other through the void. The technology is barely a month old.”
     
    Vaughan had heard rumour that communications through voidspace would soon be achievable. He whistled, despite