The Scanner
Some things cannot be unseen...
AI Artwork prompted by Catherine Knee
I usually enjoy recording my day in my journal, but today…. I don’t know. Today was… a challenge!
I really enjoy my job, most days, but today was a tough one. We had a Terran come through the space station today. As usual, like I have done for every new applicant for Intergalactic Trade Licences whilst on duty, I was called on to do a psychic scan on them. I wish I hadn’t been on duty today!
The Terran seemed fairly normal, really, apart from the fact that they had no chitin, or natural weapons and no mental skills to compensate for their lack of natural attack and defence, not even any mech style physical augmentation. Even their space-faring apparel is flimsy and indefensibly adequate. They came aboard the Trade Alliance Station from a rather quaint little spaceship, barely capable of interstellar travel. It seems that the Terrans are very new to interstellar travel, but their antiquated vessel did make it this far, so, they are on the right track.
The captain of the ship was a woman, who introduced herself as Captain Vanessa Scott, and, since she was expected, I had already up-linked the correct language module in order to communicate effectively with her. I wonder how many languages that makes it now for me? Quite a lot, is the answer!
Anyway, Captain Vanessa introduced herself. She bared her teeth at me and stuck out her hand. I was already informed that the teeth-baring was their way of showing friendliness, which is actually peculiar, but then, she had no fangs or serrations or anything to show aggression with, so it mattered not. Perhaps they bare their teeth to show their mouths are not weapons and that is why they do it? As for sticking out her hand, again, I was warned that this was not a sign of aggression, but a sign of good faith from her species. I extended a claw to her, and she shook it up and down. It felt… decidedly odd, but you know, you meet all sorts on the Trade Station.
I asked the Captain if she had been forewarned of the psychic scan to assess intent and integrity and she bobbled her head up and down. I thought something had happened to her neck with the shift in gravity, but I remembered just in time that this was an assent. I did give her a startled look for a brief moment, before I remembered this fact. Her face changed and her mouth twitched up at the sides. I do recall thinking, the sooner I did the scan, the better, so that I would better understand her mannerisms before causing an intergalactic incident quite by accident.
I invited Captain Vanessa to a side vault, where we would be away from curious eyes whilst we did the scan, and she agreed so I led her to vault 164 832. Her garment swished as her legs rubbed together when she walked and I wondered why Terran legs were so close together? Some weird design flaw in her species which must have made balance somewhat tricky. I suspected it would affect their combat capabilities.
I ushered her into the vault, and she kept herself positioned close to the open door. Understandable. I took the time to explain that no harm would come to her and that I would gently touch her with one of my anterior claws and enter her mind to ascertain that her integrity and honour were acceptable to Trade Standards. She bobbled her head again and I couldn’t quite stop my secondary eyes from constricting at the ickiness of it.
I flexed my tegmina and my membranous wings rustled slightly underneath. All was relatively normal up to this point. I certainly was not prepared for what came next!
In her memories, I moved backwards in time, seeing her space travel training and her initial selection to the Trade Mission. She graduated with honours and was well thought of, and her behaviour was immaculate apart from some, well quite a few, speed infringements. She seemed ideally honourable, but I could feel a shadow in her mind. My senses went on red alert, and I knew I had to investigate further, so I delved deeper to find the truth of the matter. She could be harbouring some ill intent, after all.
All three of my hearts just skipped a beat recalling what it was like under the surface of her mind! Humans have an emotion that they call pain. It is not pain like we know it, and it is not an emotion that we are familiar with. I have had second hand experience of vast amounts of physical pain from examining minds that have experienced war, arena battles, fights for succession and more, but nothing prepared me for feeling the Terran emotion of pain.
This Terran female, when she was a child… I can hardly bear to recount it and record it. I can’t get the scent of it out of my nose slits! Even the Dalmarkians, who eat their own excess spawn would never… !
Terrans… they look so weak and harmless, yet…! I shudder at the thought of what their species is capable of.
I passed Captain Vanessa Scott, First Class, all privileges as her personal strength and integrity is unparallelled, even in spite of her formative years. But as for me, this ends my two centuries on the job. I cannot risk facing that emotion they call pain again. My hearts and mind will be forever tainted and harmed by what I experienced this day.
Tomorrow, I hand in my resignation.
Inspiration
This story was written for a writing club challenge based on the prompt A Diary Entry. I enjoy science fiction that explores humanity from an outsider's perspective, particularly when familiar things become strange when viewed through alien eyes.
Rather than focusing on advanced technology or interstellar politics, I found myself wondering what a psychic alien might discover beneath the surface of an ordinary human mind. We often think of humans as physically fragile compared to many fictional species, but our strength is not always visible. Sometimes the things we survive tell a very different story.
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Summary
The Scanner is a science fiction short story by Catherine Knee exploring alien telepathy, human resilience, and the hidden depths of the human mind.