Majgen Ch. 003

----=(Taxi Gate 7, Part 1)=----

Taxi gate 7 was a hallway which appeared pleasing to the eye in a neutral manner. Below average human shoulder height the walls were coloured in a calm, not too bright, shade of blue. At shoulder height and above, the walls were also decorated with intricate ornaments. Bronze, gold and a few streaks of black dominated the ornaments.

Between ornaments the wall was coloured in the same blue shade as the lower part of the wall. Here, however, the blue was interrupted by smaller streaks of different red or yellow shades, cleverly placed to accentuate certain shapes of the ornaments.

Majgen could have stood on her own shoulders twice, without her head bumping into the ceiling.

The wall-ornaments did not reach into the ceiling, ornamented ceilings were unusual at Majgen's time because they tended to make ceilings appear closer than they were.

In super-cities free space between head and ceiling was not just a sign of wealth and status. It was also a well-known factor contributing to general well-being. To this end the wall ornaments, closest to the ceiling, had been cleverly designed with up-reaching flame-like shapes; giving the eye a feeling of freedom above. Also the transition between wall and ceiling was curved, to give an illusion of even more extra space.

The ceiling had a lighter blue shade. The gradual transition from the not too bright blue of the lower walls, to the light blue of the ceiling, began near the flame tips of the upper ornaments.

Light sources were evenly spread across the ceiling. The designer had managed to give them an asymmetrical placement, that appeared random, while still giving an even pleasant lighting through the hallway. At one end the hallway ended at an elevator, which could take people arriving to different parts of the Mentariata. At the other end the hallway ended at a cab parking lot.

The hallway was as wide as it was high. The elevators doors, at one end of the hall, were as wide as the hallway. They were not ornamented like the walls, but they were colored in the same manner as the walls, apart from colors marking their sides; meant to make it obvious they were not mere walls.

The gates to the cab parking lot were see-through. Small ornaments, crafted in a similar style as the larger wall ornaments, were build into the see-through gate. Mostly to ensure that the inattentive would not hurt themselves by walking into the closed gate. The elevator doors in the other end of the hall would open automatically whenever an elevator arrived to let people get off or on. The see-through gates to the parking lot only opened by touching the artistically designed "touch to open" signs, which were placed at several strategic positions on these gates.

Majgen was standing at the wall, near the see-through gate. She had been in the hallway for nearly an hour. A first class cab was parked on the other side of the gate, it had arrived a few minutes earlier. Two black standard long distance containers stood next to Majgen. They were packed with two almost full sets of traditional rank 10 student uniforms and the corresponding amount of underwear.

Femaron Baglian had not needed to specify to her, that she should only pack standard clothing. Standard clothing was the only clothing she possessed. She did own more than two sets of each, but she had made sure only to pack two of each as she had been ordered. She had five different kinds of standard rank ten uniforms, so she had packed ten uniforms total.

The first three uniform types, she had packed, were different versions of the standard uniform, visually almost identical, but designed thermally to be worn at different environment temperature settings.

The fourth uniform type version, she had brought, was designed for optional thermal coating, so it could be used at different temperatures depending on what coating she put on it.

The fifth uniform type, in her containers, was ceremonial wear, meant for festive or special official occasions.

Baglian had ordered her to bring two full sets, she had complied with that order as fully as she could. However, she did not own any of the sixth uniform type; Pompous Ceremonial wear. In all her time at the Mentariata she had never been invited, nor ordered, to attend to a gathering requiring Pompous Ceremonial wear.

Since shortly after her enroll to the mentarion school; Majgen's access to her own money had been blocked. For this reason Majgen was, unlike most mentarion students, unable to make any purchases without permission from her so called student counsellors.

Four years back, she had asked if she should acquire a Pompous Ceremonial uniform, back then she had been told; to wait till a situation arose that would require such an attire. She had been fourteen years old at that time, her student counsellor saw no reason for her to waste large amounts of cash on clothing she would most likely outgrow sooner than getting an opportunity to use it.

Majgen had stopped growing at age sixteen, but she had not brought up the topic of Pompous wear again. By that time it seemed unlikely that she - Majgen the troublemaker - would be asked to attend such solemn or ceremonious events. Now at age eighteen, after five years in the Mentariata, she still had never been asked to such an event.

Student Majgen suffered from more than a slight level of anxiety for the reason of not having been able to fully comply with Femaron Baglian's orders. She had not thought about Pompous Ceremonial wear for years. It had not occurred to her that she did not own two full sets of traditional clothing. At least not when she received the order to pack exactly that, almost three hours ago.

She severely regretted her failure to remember the incompletion of her wardrobe back then.

'I should have informed him immediately,' Majgen berated herself silently, 'I am sure he would not choose to punish me for not being able to comply fully with his instructions, if only I had told him at once when he gave the order.' Majgen now feared it was too late to rectify her negligence.

On top of this worry, Majgen was also nervous about this new change in her life.

Becoming the personal student of a higher ranking mentarion was not a normal occurrence for tenth ranked students. Majgen had never before heard of tenth ranked students entering personal study programs. She had heard of a few powerful second and first ranked students temporarily being assigned to private study with Femarons or Firearons. However, she knew that the personal study program was primarily meant for the freshly graduated mentarions; the Etarons.

Majgen was somewhat familiar with the basic rules and mechanics of the personal student system, when an Etaron was assigned as a personal student, but she did not know what rights, if any, an ungraduated mentarion had when living as a personal student.

----=(Majgen's Status)=----

An Etaron would have been presented with a contract, which would specify the terms of a particular student/mentor relationship. An etaron would get the choice to sign the contract and hence become a personal student, or not sign and thus not study under that mentor. She had not been offered a contract. She was an ungraduated mentarion, therefore she had not legally come of age, she was not legally adult in matters of personal freedom.

If Majgen had not been a mentarion she would have legally come of age at her seventeenth birthday. By mentarion special law a mentarion was not legally adult until graduation, no matter what age they would reach prior to that time. Legally she was a minor, and legally the Mentariata was her guardian.

Before she was discovered to be empathic, she had daydreamed of her seventeenth birthday, she had fantasized about what she could do with such freedom.

In her early years at the Mentariata, where the age seventeen was no longer the mark of freedom, Majgen had many times thought about her future graduation, how her life would change once she became Etaron. She had tried to quell an often devastating feeling of despair at her situation with thoughts of how it would end one day. She had managed to keep the dream of graduation alive for nearly four years.

At bedtime on the evening of her seventeenth birthday, the old daydream would not come to her. This was the first time her fantasy had failed her when going to bed.

In the non-empathic world, the normal world, Majgen would have been adult that evening, but in the mentarion world she was still the lowest possible student rank. She had become seventeen, a fully grown woman, but in reality she was the legal equivalent of a ten year old.

That evening, instead of her usual daydream before sleep; Majgen had had a grim realization.

'They will probably never let me graduate. I will be lucky to ever be allowed to rise to a higher student rank.'

She had not let herself cry for at least half a year before that night, red eyes could cause attention. That night, however, she had not tried to stop the tears, she would not have been able to stop them either. She had cried and she had screamed into her pillow, while she had pressed her face against the soft fabric trying to muffle the noise of her anguish.

Loud sounds in her room, would have caused an alert to be sounded at security, which would have prompted security personnel to inspect the visual from her room on their monitors.

Majgen had cried for hours on end, until her body had gotten so exhausted it had fallen into a restless form of nightmare filled sleep.

The next day she had been given some special leeway by her teachers, it was very unusual for Majgen to be given any leeway. She had however, been too dazed and sleep deprived to notice that her unusual extra leisure time that day was not just a coincidence. Mentarion training was in many ways very insensitive and cold, but not even her supervisors had been blind to the emotional pressure of reaching age seventeen and still wearing a rank 10 uniform.

----=(Taxi Gate 7, Part 2)=----

Before the cab arrived Majgen had switched between pacing the hallway and studying the beautiful wall ornaments, to calm her nerves. She had several times reached out to touch them, straining to make herself feel delight in the artwork. Thinking of trivia was a good method to calm herself, but she didn't think of trivia at that time, she wanted to keep her head clear. She had to try to understand her new situation before Femaron Baglian arrived. While she was alone she could truly contemplate freely, without fear of infuriating others by her inappropriate manner of thinking.

When the cab arrived she had immediately ceased her restless behaviour. While being alone with the Mentariata security cameras; acting as if she was unseen was not improper. However, when she was in within view of another human, especially a non-empathic one, she had to uphold dignified mentarion appearance. That duty applied to even the lowest ranking mentarions.

As soon as she had eyed the cab, Majgen had pulled her hood up and placed herself next to her luggage. She had assumed her most used pose, her humble awaiting pose. She took the cab's arrival as a sign that Femaron Baglian would soon show himself. In preparation for the arrival of a higher ranked mentarion Majgen began thinking of trivia, once again slowly burying her personality and intellect behind a wall of boring inessential thoughts.

'The human government is divided into six divisions, the first five each assigned control of specific tasks, the sixth has only one task which is to ensure proper law-abiding functioning in the others, as well as cooperation between the other five. The governmental sections are named according to their primary tasks.' Majgen proceeded to list each section to herself.

'Governmental Resource Division, GRD.

Governmental living Habitat planning Division, GHD.

Governmental Tax Division, GTD.

Governmental Legislative Division, GLD.

Governmental law Enforcing Division, GED.

Governmental Cooperation Division, GCD...' Majgen did not need pauses to memorize the exact wording from her childhoods schoolbooks on the subject of governmental organization.

Back when she had been eleven and was first learning about governmental structure in school, most children in the class had trouble staying awake each time this part was recited. In spite of the class clowns usually making a racket when the teacher reached the really dry parts. She had made an effort to stay attentive though, she wanted to do well in school back then. She had already started making half clear plans for her future when she was nine years old.

Majgen did on occasion feel a yearning to change position to be able to look at a clock, but her extensive training in self-control made it easy for her to resist those urges. Clocks were cleverly built into the wall ornaments at many places. Inconspicuous placement of multiple clocks was a very common feature in areas specifically designed for mentarions.

One of the tricks mentarions used to uphold a dignified appearance was to not fidget about time, at least not in visible manners. A non-empathic would hardly ever be able to catch a graduated mentarion looking at a clock to check the time, unless of course they had directly asked one what time it was. If Majgen had chosen a neutral, rather than a humble, pose. She could have easily checked the time from clocks on the opposing wall, in an imperceptible manner.

The only movements she made while standing next to her luggage, was shifting her weight on her feet about once a minute to make sure her feet and legs would not tire from standing unnaturally still.

Baglian arrived a bit more than twenty minutes after the cab parked outside the gate.

When the elevator arrived it's doors opened by sliding completely into the walls. The elevator doors were as wide as the hallway itself, but the elevators interior space luxuriously reached even wider to the sides.

All the way from the exit gate where she stood, Majgen could feel that the person stepping out of the elevator was Femaron Baglian and that he was alone. She pulled her hood down and turned to face in his direction, however, she kept her head bowed still. When he was only a few meters from her she bowed in the mentarion fashion.

After the bow, she raised her head fully to look directly at him, by then he was already right in front of her.

Emotionally Femaron Baglian was still as dispassionate as she remembered him. Majgen would have expected the face of someone who seemed so unusually dispassionate to reflect a lack of exercise, to somehow appear slack, like an arm that never lifted any weight. However, there was nothing lazy about Femaron Baglian's facial features, his face looked as stern and solemn as the faces of most higher ranking mentarions did, when they were not actively displaying lighter emotions.

The Femaron raised both hands and placed his palms on her ears. A scanning position.

Majgen's heart started beating faster, sooner than she could consciously feel even a hint of fear.

'Mind scan in a hallway,' Majgen thought as her mouth suddenly felt dry. The young woman had many bad memories regarding hallway scans. Many incidents starting with hallway scans had ended with very unpleasant outcomes for her.

Baglian sedated her mind mildly using an image of the color blue from his own memories. Majgen accepted the sedation gratefully, in a sedated state she was far less likely to think up new inappropriate thoughts.

Femaron Baglian did not rush his scan of Majgen, a first class cab would not leave without its passengers. Especially not since its meter had started running from the moment Femaron Baglian had pre-ordered it to arrive.

At first he investigated certain aspects of her mind, which Ottearon Weissme had described to him verbally.

Baglian was sufficiently arrogant to consider himself equal to an Ottearon in many ways. However, his choice to certify the Ottearon's words were not based on a lack of trust in the estimates of the far higher ranked mentarion. Rather his motivation arose with knowledge of how limited words were for describing ways of the mind.

By using his empathic senses, he could understand more and see more clearly, than words could ever describe in a single audiovisual long range communication. Even words phrased with the verbal skills of Ottearon Weissme.

----=(Baglian's Arrogance)=----

Baglian was a very arrogant man, but even he had not been too presumptuous to be impressed by a private call from an Ottearon. Especially one who occupied such an important post in the mentarion society.

Ottearon Weissme was leader of the Mentariata, the most prestigious of the three mentarion schools.

The rank Ottearon was the second highest mentarion rank, seven ranks higher than a freshly graduated mentarion. Femaron rank was a well respected rank amongst mentarions, but compared to Ottearon rank it was quite inferior.

The rank system for graduated mentarions was named after the numbers one to nine as spoken in a long dead language. When the empathic minority had been freed from slavery and the mentarion rank system had initially been established, the founders of the mentarion ways had simply taken the numbers one to nine in from that dead language and had added -aron to the end, to create suitable rank titles.

Etaron, was the lowest graduate rank, anyone with empathic potential strong enough to be called mentarion also had potential to reach at least one rank above this to become Toaron. The next ranks in line were Trearon, Firearon, Femaron, Seksaron, Syvaron, Ottearon and Niaron.

Not every generation contained an empath strong enough to be achieve Niaron rank, at Majgen's time there was only one living mentarion carrying the Niaron rank.

Weissme had called Femaron Baglian, to urge the Femaron to accept the Mentariata's summon.

During the call the superior mentarion had treated Baglian with genuine courtesy and respect, as he would have an equal in rank. He had insisted that the Femaron should make himself comfortable, while clearly stating that the call was an informal call between colleagues. However, Ottearon Weissme had made sure not to request cessation of titulation by rank, he wanted Femaron Baglian to remain awed to be contacted personally by an Ottearon.

Ottearon Weissme was counted amongst the ten most powerful mentarions who were alive at that time, a master in the ways of the mind.

Most Ottearons had been absorbed so much by the ways of the mind that they had trouble with long distance communication, empathic senses could not be transmitted by mechanical means like voice and sound could. Most mentarions above Syvaron rank had even forgotten how to properly read a full context from tone, wording and body language alone.

Weissme ,however, had not let his verbal skills fade with time while increasing his mastery of the mentarion ways. On the contrary, he had learned to use his knowledge of how words and expressions wake emotions to increase his skill at spoken communication.

At his current age of sixty-five Weissme could often manipulate people more easily by words and expression, than if he had attempted direct mind control to gain same means person to person.

During the long range call, Ottearon Weissme had played on Baglian's arrogance as if it was a musical instrument. He wanted Baglian to accept Majgen as a personal student, and he wanted the Femaron to feel good about it.

Weissme had heard of Baglian's personality from another high ranked mentarion. That mentarion, a Syvaron, (only one mentarion-rank below Ottearon,) had also shown him memories of looking into Femaron Baglians mind.

Normally the very high-ranked mentarions considered extreme arrogance a nuisance, a too arrogant mind-set would obstruct a mentarion from interpreting his surroundings as clearly as his empathic abilities could allow.