Lt. Commander Doz Finch - The Mists of Memory
Doz Finch
((Ship’s Library, Deck 4, USS Gorkon))
Doz had seen the torment and turmoil love could cause a person; in her youth, her fathers sudden death had also marked the departure of her mother Iris. Not in person, but in spirit, because hers had all but disappeared. Then as the years went on and as she declined, her brothers all started splintering off in their own directions, and it was then she supposed that a seed had been planted. Somewhere deep inside herself, “love but be wary of it.”
She loved Faruch, and it all fell apart. She loved her dear friend Murphy, and then she lost him forever. So she was setting herself up once again for disappointment, and for pain, encouraged by a small voice telling her to do it just one last time. Only for him. Only for Hal.
Finch: What I do remember was that he’d trained in some sort of specialised Ullian telepathy, ::she nodded, opening the book to page one,:: and that he’d dedicated his life to it, in Ashmeransa — his home before it all happened.
Kairis: Seems like a good place to start.
Her tea in one hand, Thea tapped on the controls of a library workstation. An image of a city carved out of white stone appeared on the screen, cliffs dramatically falling away from its foundations. The Tyrellian woman turned with a smile and twisted the screen so the older human could get a good look at it, bushy brows lifted with bubbling intrigue.
Kairis: Ashmeransa, the City on the Cliff. Home to a church of telepaths known as the... Cenhmara. It's beautiful.
Finch: That’s it, Thea! Ashmeransa. The place he lived…or still lives, maybe. ::She pressed three fingers to her own lips.:: Cenhmara.
Who were they, and what did it mean to be a church of telepaths? Were they religious? Just spiritual? Was it more than that, or even less than that? The ability to read minds wasn’t unheard of in the slightest, as there were several species on several different planets born with the ability. But to devote one's entire life to it suggested some sort of tutelage and training. At the very least, it painted a picture of a movement far grander than merely reading another persons thoughts.
Kairis: Apparently the Ullians have an ongoing program to build a library of memories. Does that sound like something he'd have been involved in?
Finch: Do you know, it does sound like something he'd have a hand in.
Hal’s handling of his own memories, and his telepathy in general, wasn’t what she’d have imagined from a Ullian, and certainly not one from a so-called church of telepaths. One of the first things he had said to her during their first encounter in L’Spirria’s was that he couldn’t tell her anything about her past, present or future, when evidently he probably could have. The past part at least.
Perhaps he’d seen too much—felt too much, to want to put any of his skills to work. In any case, it wasn’t helpful to assume or wonder why he’d told her so little over there. He’d told her enough, and with Thea's help a direction was forming.
Kairis: Response
She sipped her tea, bringing up more information on the Cenhmara, reading it carefully through her thick accent.
Finch: Cenhmara lead a specific lifestyle in service to the people, and are one of many groups that came to be after what the church describes as the “Lum Innith”—a violent century of telepathic tyranny, memory invasion and erasure for the Ullians.
She blew into her cheeks, expanding them to a hot air balloon extremity. Few planets had come up unscathed, but the mere idea of a war of minds sounded worse than anything she could comprehend, because her own mind was already a battlefield without any outside interference. She used her finger to guide her way along the paragraph.
Kairis: Response
Finch: Although they have locations all over Ullia, their primary and most historical central building, Ahinielriniar, or the Old Dome as it tends to be described, ::she turned to Thea, looking relieved at that,:: is incredibly large and overlooks the misty seas below.
Kairis: Response