All-Patron Reward: Demons of the Past, Old Draft: Baptism of Fire Chapter 6

Here we arrive at the transformational moment of Varan's life, as it was envisioned fairly early on (though not as it was in the original draft, where Varan himself was a much less likeable man). 

The overall events are similar, but details are drastically changed. In particular there's a fairly long pseudotechnical discussion of what Vick is doing that was removed from later drafts. I didn't see that it added much to the actual story, but it's an interesting detail historically.

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vi.

That feeling of disquiet persisted in the weeks that followed. I was analyzed, poked, prodded, questioned, sensor-scanned centimeter by centimeter, and just when I thought they were finished the whole circus started again. Torline's Swords! The testing never let up; there were remote sensors following me when I got up, a scanner pickup scrutinized my chest as I took a shower. Little electronic eyes stared at me from the table at dinner, and at night my reading lamp had a transmitting monitor watching me turn pages. I think they'd even bugged my pillow.

Worse than any of these, though, was Shagrath. His hearty greetings met me at breakfast and his cheerful good-nights followed me to bed. And he was always there at the tests, watching, sometime barely noticeable, a black and silver figure in the shadows; but I always knew he was there, by the prickly crawling sensation between my shoulderblades whenever he looked at me. His speech was always courteous, warm, even kindly: but his eyes, in a few unguarded moments, had flickered from warmth to chill, calculating orbs as passionless and pitiless as his title of Monitor. It was then I realized why he often wore glasses. That gaze was not meant to be seen.

Finally the last tests were finished. the scientific screwball whose experiment this was, a pleasant if rather ugly lizard named Sssooovickalassa -- Vick, for short -- came waddling over, sniffed at me, and smiled -- pleasantly for him, though to me it looked more like a threat -- and said, "Hmm, yes, Varan Ssham Captain. Process final ready are you for. Cabinet interior please to step."

To cabinet interior step I did, and encircled sensors by I was. I've worked a lot with Sovalites, and their odd syntax usually doesnt bother me. I was much more concerned with the E-steel bands clamping me immovably upright in the glassteel capsule. I took my mind off the various sinister pieces of gadgetry by asking Vick how the whole thing worked.

He answered as he made final adjustments. "Comprehension full for complex too is explanation entire." He aimed what looked like a LasCan at my head and continued. "Engines starwarp principles behind comprehend you?"

"Yes." I answered, eyeing the cannon apprehensively.

Vick, assured now of an audience that wasn't entirely ignorant, proceeded to explain. The Tachyonic Conversion, or TC, drive requires an enormous amount of energy to function. This energy, I already knew, was drawn from another dimension -- a Dimensional Tap. Vick claimed that in some fashion active psionics are apparently creating their own Dimensional Taps, using the vast energies of another universe to perform feats that are far beyond the potential of their own bodily energy. Hanging from his toes, he patted the cannon barrel and identified it as a Dimensional Distorter. Distorters had been invented by Robert Masters before the fall of Atlantis, but until now no one had ever found a real use for them. Now, said Vick, with proper adjustment the Distorter would open psionically closed minds.

"Why doesn't it work on people who are already psionic?" Now the capsule lifted from the floor, leaving me suspended in midair.

Vick dropped from the ceiling and landed with surprising grace; his ancestors had been arboreal. "Fields interfering matter of is it." he said. Apparently, he explained, the already psionic has his own "method" of opening the Dimensional Tap, and the Distorter/computer combination uses another.The two fields conflict with each other, and since the Distorter is powered by the ship's engines and the psionic only from within, the subject's mind overloads. No such conflict exists in a non-psychic. Moreover, he continued, the computer lays down an entire array of subconscious responses so that the artificially-awakened psi can learn to use his new powers in a matter of days rather than years.

By the time Vick had finished with this explanation, the final adjustments had been made. "Closed eyes for duration process to be advisable." he said. I closed my eyes just as his scaly hand grasped a lever and pulled it down.

A flash like an atom blast washed over me. Even with my eyes closed the glare was blinding. Worms of fire gnawed at my nerves, wrenching an involuntary gasp from me. As if from a great distance I heard Vick's voice. "Painful very process is. Consciousness temporarily lose you will."

Red-tinged black rose in a tide of flame over me. I struggled against it suddenly, overcome by the feeling that I was back in the radial corridor, alone against the Doradans. But the waves of pain overbore my will, and I fell into darkness.

Nightmares... dreams of being dissected alive... things picking my brain apart cell by cell... pain... voices...

"Hurry it up, Doctor. You've taken far too long on the preliminary tests. I want to give a full report to the Emperor within two weeks."

"Ssshhhkss!" That must be Vick, I realized foggily. He said something about the complexity and delicacy of the process. "Report done not in months three even, if man lose we now."

There was a slapping sound, and the Prime Monitor's voice was very ugly. "You will finish soon, Doctor Sssooovickalassa, and you will try the booster stage as well... NOW, Doctor."

Vick spoke, in a subdued but not subservient tone. "Destruction mind total result if booster failure is. Allow it cannot I."

This really got my attention; total destruction of my mind did not appeal to me at all. I tried to speak and found I couldn't move at all. then the air itself seemed to congeal about me as Shagrath spoke. "You shall do as I command, Doctor," he said quietly, "or you will die."

Suddenly it was as though a door had opened in my head.the process had already begun its work, making me sensitive to psionic impressions, and for one frozen second I looked straight into the mind of the Prime Monitor.

I recoiled mentally, horrified and repelled. Only later did I realize how lucky I was that I could only receive and not transmit at the time; my psychic scream would have been heard the length of the ship.

Vick must have nodded or bowed, because the menacing chill lifted. "Very good, Doctor."

A humming began, and blackness fell once more.