With that, the image of the scientist broke up and dissolved. Leela, uncertain of where in the illusory world she would end up if she left the lecture hall, spotted an empty seat and moved toward it. "Excuse me," she said to the young man and woman in her path, who seemed unaware of her presence.
Foss continued to drone on as she took her seat. "Imagine if we could communicate using thoughts and feelings instead of words," he spoke. "Words vary according to culture and language, but thoughts are universal. If I tell you I'm hungry in Swahili, few of you will understand; but if I share my feeling of hunger with you, regardless of our relative cultural and linguistic backgrounds, you will understand perfectly."
It's weird, sitting in a chair that doesn't exist, thought Leela. It's very comfortable, though.
"…by filtering and amplifying the signals across a network of synthetic neurons…"
That's the dorkiest tie I've ever seen. Doesn't he know that ties went out of fashion in the 24th century? I swear, he must have gone to a dorkwear store and special-ordered it. I wouldn't be caught…wait, did he just say 'synthetic neurons'?
"…the signals of one brain are transmitted to the other, with the same amplitude, uncontaminated by noise…"
Of course, thought Leela. When you can hear the other person's thoughts loud and clear, it's as if you're both thinking the same thing. It makes perfect sense!
"…applying a discrete convolution at each point in the network…"
Discrete convolution. Got it.
"…more efficient than existing methods by an order of magnitude. Are there any questions?"
Leela's hand immediately shot up. "Leela?" said Foss, gesturing toward her.
Leela? My name's not Leela, it's…huh?
Glancing down, she discovered that her white tank top had been replaced by a gray varsity sweater. Furthermore, there seemed to be two noses on her face. A double nose? That's something only two-eyed people see…
"Yes, Leela?" said Foss from the podium.
The girl shook her head, and clarity returned to her mind as if she was awaking from a dream. She looked down at her usual tank top and a single image of her nose. "Wh-what the…" she sputtered.
Foss walked in her direction as the imaginary students picked up their bags and filed out of the lecture hall. "Being inside another person's memory is tricky," he explained. "If you're not careful, you can forget yourself and become part of the illusion."
Leela rose slowly. "Is that what happened to me?" she inquired. "For a minute I felt like I was a different person."
"You were," said Foss. "You became Darla Thurmond, one of my brightest students." And someone with whom I had an unprofessionally intimate relationship, Leela thought she heard him say.
For an instant she wondered if she was really Leela, or yet another figment from the professor's past, but she quickly brushed the thought aside. "Now that the lecture's over," she said demandingly, "I'd like you to tell me why you decided to join the pirates."
Foss responded with a deft wave of his hand. The walls of the lecture room shimmered and faded, promptly replaced by a narrow, dimly lit hallway. From the many small rooms with entrances blocked by iron bars, Leela easily discerned that she was inside a prison.
Foss' footsteps echoed as he guided Leela to the end of the cell block, where they observed a gaunt man sleeping on a bunk bed. He wore a drab uniform and had a shaven head like the other prisoners; what distinguished him was a scar that ran from one ear to the other, as if he had survived the slitting of his throat.
"This is where I met Garmoshka Balalaika," Foss recounted. "He was of little more than scientific interest to me then. I hoped to demonstrate the utility of the Fossitron by entering the mind of a hardened criminal, making him aware of his innate morality by exposing him to mine, and thus helping him along the road to rehabilitation. But as we entered the matrix and I examined his thoughts and feelings, I learned something which, in my naiveté, I hadn't anticipated—he had no innate morality. In his mind there was only rapacity, cruelty, and cunning. The landscape of his memories was like a field of slaughtered innocents. Worse yet, for every scene of murder and rapine I witnessed, I felt the same lurid joy that he himself felt while committing the act, as if I had done it myself."
"Oh, God," said Leela quietly.
"Against my better judgment I pressed on, looking for something I could relate to," Foss continued. "Eventually I found it, but only because I had changed. Balalaika's infernal lusts had subtly insinuated themselves into my own feelings, to the point that I was more pirate than professor in temperament. A week later I broke him out of prison, and I've been serving under him ever since."
Leela gazed at the sleeping pirate and sighed. "Even with these bars between us, he still makes me nervous. Yet you were right there in his mind, surrounded by his evil…"
"There's that word again," said Foss sharply. "I see that you share the same simplistic notions of good and evil that Captain Brannigan does. Tell me, Leela, if you see piracy as evil, then why are you here?"
Leela could feel her heart quake as she searched her mind for a convincing, or at least obfuscating, response.
"Don't answer that," said Foss, his tone now calm and assured. "I can see your thoughts. I know why you're here."
To be continued