Free Fluency by Jennifer Foehner Wells Page B

God,” she choked out.
    “If you wish, I would be gratified to debate the existence of deitous life forms, but perhaps we should attend to the matter at hand? It would have been preferable to defer a bit longer before imprinting the command and control engram set. However, in this moment, it is expedient. Are you ready to commence?”
    “No! Just…stop!” She writhed on the rough, dusty floor of the casita, her hands clutching her head. Tiny, blazing bees zoomed within, making connections, overwriting, leaving searing trails in their wake as they rendered data. “Make the bees stop! Please—it’s too much!”
    “Dr. Jane Holloway, you are overcome. I will assist.”
    She felt a lifting, a lightening, a shedding of pain. She opened her eyes to darkness, but felt no fear at the change, only simple curiosity. She felt embraced, warm and welcome. It was wonderful, but also worrisome. “What did you do to me?”
    “I merely separated the cognitive layers. You are still there, and there, but also here. I dare not shield you for long. It could create cognitive dissonance. I have no idea how your species will react to such interventions.”
    She felt like she was wandering farther and farther from reality. “Where is here?”
    “With me.”
    “Where are you? Physically?”
    “I am here.”
    This individual was not the straightforward type. If it weren’t such a dire situation, she’d laugh out loud. “What is this form of communication? How are we doing this?”
    “I have tapped into a dormant area of your brain. Stimulating this area activates previously unexpressed genetic material, which, in turn, triggers ongoing structural refinements that facilitate this method of communication. In short, at my expert intervention, you are experiencing accelerated evolutionary changes.”
    She heard the words. She understood their meaning. She could not fathom them.
    He continued without stopping, “It is a curiosity. You are co nceptually aware of individuals on your world with this ability, yet it seems your culture resolutely denies the possibility of its existence. Blind-sight like this is a blight on the progress of your world. A failure of science, if not of imagination. Yet, on the whole, the six of you are educated in the standard methods of scientific inquiry. Your species is vexing, Dr. Jane Holloway.”
    She swallowed. “You’re communicating with the others this way, too?”
    “No. That is not possible.”
    “Why not?”
    “I can skim the other’s thoughts and memories, learn from them, in a limited fashion, but I cannot communicate with them. Perhaps, in time, it may be possible. They are not fluent in Mensententia. This prohibits communication.”
    She struggled to follow his train of thought. “Mensententia?”
    “The common language.”
    “What? Look, you have to explain yourself. I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
    “I would advise a patient attitude, Dr. Jane Holloway. I am not an educator. I have not received the instruction required.”
    Jane took a deep breath to still her mounting frustration, then continued, “Please, tell me what you know of Mensententia.”
    “I will be brief. The download is nearly complete. You must r eturn. The common language was latent within you, a component of genetic memory, given to you by the Cunabula.”
    “Genetic memory?”
    The voice made a sound like a sigh and went on, “Unmasked by most species during the epoch of pubescent change, it marks readiness to enter into discourse with those outside one’s own kind. Your conversion was nearly spontaneous—quite unique and likely a product of your extensive linguistic experience. When I observed this awakening, I intensified my attempts at communication, leading ultimately to success. I must say, the Sectilius were intensely disappointed to learn that Mensententia was suppressed on your world, to discover that you had not been good stewards there, that your world was in such a state of