Overseer Council Emergency Session Transcript Excerpted

20th of Corvus, 1944

Teles: That is not what I am saying, sir.

O5-7-0: Oh, but I think that it is. You are suggesting we turn over our whole operational security to an ancient machine cult's fortune telling device.

O5-3-0: Seven, you know that's not what he's suggesting. The device -

O5-4-0: Teles's translation of this so-called codex is not even peer-reviewed -

Teles: That is simply not -

O5-2-1: Enough! We don't need to have this argument again. Now, Doctor: the chief concern of 4, 5 and 7 is valid. How are we supposed to know that this… thing won't do to us what it did to your test subject?

Teles: Donovan… had no training in resisting foreign mental impulses. There was no way to predict that his reaction to a simple -

O5-5-0: No way to predict spontaneous catatonia and permanent addling of the brain?

O5-2-1: Let him finish.

Teles: I… no one regrets the experiment's failure more than I. But the results prove the need for further research, at the very least! As I was saying, if a single word keyed through that thing can reduce an adult brain to the stage of an infant, then what could we do with the other three hundred? Surely there's no end of people whose mental faculties are an inconvenience to us!?

Silence.

O5-2-1: We are in a state of war.

O5-7-0: Our nations may be. Our mission could continue under the Reich.

O5-6-0: We all know you would be eager for that.

O5-7-0: How -

O5-1-0: This bickering does not suit us. I declare the vote open: shall we permit Teles's continued use of this machine? I move in favor.

O5-2-1: I move against.

O5-3-0: Favor.

O5-4-0: Against.

O5-5-0: We are scientists, not sorcerers. I move against.

O5-6-0: It is not the way of scientists to reject that which clearly exists and may be useful. I move in favor.

O5-7-0: I stand to gain the most, but this is the wrong precedent to set. I move against.

O5-1-0: It is decided. Teles. Bring the device to headquarters. I shall obtain thaumatological and neurological researchers to convene at a secure location and assess this device independently. We can refer to this among ourselves as "Project Modus."

O5-2-1: And who is to pay for this research, if I may ask?

O5-1-0: I shall employ my own resources. The common fund shall not suffer for this.

O5-7-0: And the security factors?

O5-1-0: I shall make all needed arrangements.

O5-2-1: If that's acceptable to the rest of the Council… then our business is concluded.

Teles: Thank you, Councillors.

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