TWENTY-ONE
The four brains displayed above the medholo varied broadly in size and shape, the largest being oblong with only a slight downward bulge to join the brain stem, the smallest looking more like a withered pallie mounted on a pulsing mushroom stem. In three of the brains, bursts of activity were simultaneously blossoming in bright identical colors, then fading at exactly the same rate. Even more telling were the two-dimensional alpha waves crawling through the air beneath each hologram. Three of the patterns were indistinguishable, with matched frequencies and amplitudes. The fourth wave, located beneath the solid blue shape of a human brain, was alternating between dead flat and so wildly erratic that the peaks vanished into the holo above.
“Very funny, Jacen.” Luke frowned toward the relaxi-chair where his nephew reclined, looking out through viewing window of a huge scanning hood. “Would you stop playing with the brain mapper?”
“Just making the point.” The fourth brain went entirely white. “This won’t tell you anything. You must decide for yourselves whether we can be trusted.”
“Trust isn’t the issue,” Corran Horn said. Along with Luke, Mara, and several other Jedi Masters, he was standing in the isolation ward of the infirmary at the Jedi academy on Ossus, where they would be far from the prying eyes of the Galactic Alliance advisory council. “We’re just trying to figure out what happened to you.”
“It has nothing to do with Killikz,” Tesar said.
“We overused the meld,” Tahiri said.
“And now we can’t stay out of each other’s minds,” Tekli finished.
Though Luke certainly knew about the problems the meld had caused the strike team survivors, he suspected these new symptoms had more to do with Killiks than the meld. Still, that was a judgment better made by the Jedi order’s Master healer.
Luke turned to Cilghal. “What do you think?”
The Mon Calamari looked at him out of one bulbous eye. “I think they are… mistaken.”
“Mistaken?” Kyp Durron asked with his usual lack of tact. “Or lying?”
Tesar Sebatyne started to push his scanning hood off. “This one does not-“
“Easy, Tesar.” Luke flashed Kyp a look of irritation. Now was hardly a good time to be testing Tesar’s patience. The Barabel had felt his mother get wounded less than twenty-four hours earlier, and the only thing anyone knew about the circumstances was a vague sensation that Luke had felt from Leia suggesting that she was caring for Saba-and that he and Mara faced the same danger on Ossus. “I’m sure Master Durron didn’t mean to impugn your honor.”
Ignoring the opportunity for an apology, Kyp continued to look at Cilghal. “Okay, why do you think they’re… mistaken?”
“Because the activity is in the wrong places.”
Cilghal keyed a command, and a blobby structure about the size of a thumbtip began to glow deep within the hologram of Tahiri’s brain.
“With the meld, the hypothalamus responds to emotional reverberations in the Force,” Cilghal said. The blob began to swell and grow red. “Prolonged use-or very intense use-can
enlarge
it
and
make
it hypersensitive. Melders can become so attuned to each other that their minds begin to read the reverberations much as transceivers read comm waves. That’s when the meld slips into telepathy.”
“What about the mood swings?” Corran asked.
Cilghal keyed another command. What looked like a wishbone with two long, curling tails appeared above the image of Tahiri’s hypothalamus.
“As use is continued, the effect spills over into the rest of the limbic system, and melders begin to alter each other’s emotions.”
The Masters watched for a few moments as the “wishbone” grew thicker and darker. They were all aware of the risks associated with the meld, but this was the first time many had heard Cilghal’s theory concerning the actual mechanism. Luke had the sense that some were looking inward, trying to guess how sensitive their own limbic systems might be growing.
Finally, Corran asked, “And where is the other kind of activity occurring?”
Cilghal keyed another command. A fibrous, cap-like structure about ten centimeters long appeared above Tahiri’s limbic system and beneath both her cerebral hemispheres. It was, Luke noted, in a perfect position to act as bridge among all major sections of the brain.
“The structure of the corpus callosum has changed,” Cilghal said. As she spoke, the hypothalamus and limbic system paled, and a hazy yellow fuzz formed in their place. “That haze you see is composed of free-dangling dendrites. It suggests that Tesar, Tekli, and Tahiri are sending impulses directly from one brain to another.”