Mandy hurried along passageway T-7 in the third tier of space station Orion. Dante trotted alongside her with ease, his collar clinking in the early morning silence. It was always quiet throughout the space station at 5:00 in the mornig, and the guards never patrolled this sector before 7:00 o’clock. Dante projected a thought warning to Mandy as they approached the corner near the health center, and she thought back a “thanks” to him as she felt the walls with her mind and turned left down passageway T-6. Dante knew that at the end of this passage was the station’s garden complex, where Mandy often went when she wanted to be alone.

This was not a garden as such, but a place of special wonders – of grassy hillsides and sunny fields, craggy purple mountains with rushing white water rivers, and sometimes the shifting sand-cliffs of the fifth moon of Daarvan, the dark and melancholy crylenium mines of Percephane, or the crystalline beaches of Lake Meridium high in the mountains of the planet Khorsov. Dante always went with her during her mind-walks, and loved their time together. Mandy had perfected her mind abilities following the loss of her sight due to a childhood fever. Dante wasn’t very good at this mind-walk thing, so he valued the opportunity of going with her to learn.

Today, Mandy was meeting Perch, her best friend, next to Dante, of everyone on the space station. Perch was 16 and just two years older then herself, and the only person who could hear her thought projections. He was also the only one who could hear Dante when he mind-spoke. They were inseparable, dearest friends, these three. Today Perch said they had to meet in the garden because the space station was under general lock down.

Mandy felt the button panel with her mind, and keyed in the code and opened the outer door to the air lock, then the inner door, and the two slipped into quad-4 of the garden complex. The birds were beginning to chirp in that time just before sunrise, and there was a slight breeze blowing from the eastern mountains. Perch had described that region once as the land of mystery “east of the soul”; the description stuck for Mandy.

It was a beautiful morning, but Mandy was anxious to see Perch and so hurried herself along. She sensed the rough surface of the trail with her mind, as she felt the dirt and pebbles under her feet. She walked smoothly along the path, sensing the changes and turns in her mind’s eye. Dante kept pace with her as she moved effortlessly along the pathway. “Hi Hi,” called a voice from behind.

Perch had entered quad-4 just behind the two, and caught up with them near the old cypress tree. Mandy reached out her hands, and Perch took them and squeezed hard. Dante said “Hi,” too, and jumped up to lick Perch’s face.

Mandy knew something was troubling Perch, so she projected “What’s on your mind?” – she apologized for the pun.

Perch smiled, and said, “We shouldn’t talk here; we needed to get farther up the hillside.”

Soon they came to an overlook just above the river, and finding a sheltered place away from the path, sat down.

“So, what’s up?” thought Mandy.

Perch asked excitedly, “Have you heard the news?”

Mandy thought back, “No, I haven’t. What?”

Perch explained that the security police were gathering up all personal computers, and impounding them – even the obsolete wristwatch PCs.

“It’s a control thing,” said Perch. “A group of kids have been getting into the main system, and there have been problems. Trohl Nhevil, Patriarch of Orion Security, had authorized the sweep of the station early this morning. Jurquil Bhodi, his assistant, was the one primarily handling today’s raid, and had already gathered most of the PCs on the space station.”

“When I learned of the sweep,” said Perch, “I tried to hide my wallet PC in the shaft of the crylenium mines, but they followed me and easily got it.”

“Mine is in my room, and if they started this morning, they probably already have mine by now.”

“Too bad,” said Perch.

Dante just snuffled, and harrumphed.

Mandy projected her thought to Perch, “It doesn’t matter, I rarely use it anyway.”

Puzzled, Perch asked, “How do you do anything without it?”

Mandy smiled and thought “I haven’t needed it for a long time.”

“Nope!” thought Dante; “Hasn’t.”

Perch looked really puzzled now, so Mandy thought, “I use my thoughts for almost everything, and I have a very good memory to store things.”

“She does,” thought Dante, “Yep!”

Mandy thought, “Come on. I want to show you something,” and she got up and rushed down the path toward the garden entrance. Perch raced after her, with Dante loping alongside.

They came racing out the air lock doors of the garden complex, and narrowly missed crashing into the garden director, who was just arriving, and a squad of guards patrolling D-6. Perch’s eyes widened when he saw that the leader of the patrol was Jurquil Bhodi. Bhodi grabbed Mandy’s arm and yelled for the guards to hold the two.

He directed Mandy to keep her dog under control, or his mind would be erased.

Mandy caught Dante’s inner ear with one word: “Mind.”

Dante sat back on his haunches beside Mandy. Perch struggled as the guards held his arms to his side.

“What were you doing in D-6/0707?” Bhodi hissed.

“We were just watching the sunrise on Darvaan, that’s all.”

“How did you get in?” hissed Bhodi.

“Tell him some idiot left the door unlocked,” thought Dante.

“Quiet,” whispered Perch, and he gave Dante an evil eye look.

Mandy quickly thrust out her open hand, which held a small plastic card, and said, “We used this.”

“Aha – Why do you still have this key?” asked Bhodi. “Why wasn’t it turned in when the recall was issued?”

“Tell the idiot you liked the pretty colors!” thought Dante.

Perch stepped on Dante’s tail, and projected, “I said quiet!”

Dante stifled a bark.

Perch explained, “Mandy is blind and doesn’t speak, and she didn’t know the keys had been recalled because she just last night returned to Orion from a visit with her parents.”

Dante licked his tail where Perch had stepped on it, and gave him a dirty look.

Bhodi looked through narrowed slits at Perch – and his eyes gleamed with a hardness that sent chills down Perch’s spine. He tried not to flinch, or blink; it was with effort that he held Bhodi’s gaze.

Bhodi grabbed the key from Mandy’s hand. “Curfew isn’t over until 7:00 A.M. What are you doing out without a permit?” Bhodi’s voice dropped, and it took on a more ominous tone.

Perch began to perspire – he stammered, but then was silent. The guard standing behind Perch interrupted Bhodi, indicating that according to the master computer a visit to D-6/0707 in the name of “Grosvenor, P.” had been cleared for this morning. Bhodi looked at the two and their dog – “On your way, and stay out of harm’s way!” he snarled.

As they rushed along the hallway, Perch asked Mandy, “Did request a permit?”

“No…” thought back Mandy, “I didn’t. Did you?”

“No,” said Perch. “I don’t get it. Who did?”

Perch jerked off balance as a large hand grabbed and yanked on his ponytail, and he tumbled onto the floor, arms and legs flying. He looked up to see Trohl Nhevil’s angry face glaring down at him.

“What can you tell me about the communications graffiti problem, Mister Grosvenor?” Nhevil emphasized the “mister Grosvenor.”

Perch tried to get up, but Nhevil put his foot on Perch’s chest and pinned him to the floor. Perch said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” but Nhevil persisted, accusing him of entering coded messages into the space station’s intercom.

Perch knew that over the past several months, unauthorized messages had been broadcast over the communications monitors – some were humorous, but most were disconnected from the usual fare of messages on the intercom. He vigorously denied anything to do with the messages.

Perch had the reputation of being a self-taught computer genius – he was extremely bright, and with a creative bent had broken and deciphered the super codes of the Orion’s operating computers. He’d gotten into not just a little trouble over that.

Even Orion’s technical consultants on occasion had asked Perch’s assistance with some perplexing software problems. Because of this, and because Nhevil didn’t like Perch’s attitude, he believed that Perch was the culprit behind the annoying and illegal intercom messages.

Nhevil growled that he had him under surveillance, and with that he turned and angrily strode down the hall toward central security.

Mandy asked, “What’s with these intercom messages I’ve apparently missed while I was gone?”

Perch said, “I can only remember a few – the first was short and sweet: ‘Tyranny is a four-letter word…’ Someone, and nobody knows who, obviously is pissed with our dear Patriarch Nhevil.”

“Another went something like ‘Dream, and the unimagined becomes possible…'”

“The one I like best went: ‘Why?’ is the most irritating weapon of the oppressed….’I am,’ the most potent…”

“And then last week Nhevil went ballistic with ‘The heart is the pump of the body – it is also the pump of Courage, Inquiry, and Freedom…'”

“Who could be doing this?” asked Mandy, but Perch hadn’t the vaguest idea.

“Everyone across Orion is talking about the messages, and because Nhevil as Patriarch of Orion Security isn’t able to stop them, most people were laughing at him and the whole comic situation – well, not to his face, and it is pretty funny.”

This angered Nhevil all the more, and he vowed he would take all means necessary to apprehend this computer terrorist.

“It’s curious, and intriguing, because breaching computer security was no easy feat,” said Perch. “Whoever is doing this is some super crafty spirit who knows a little something about electronic wizardry. And he, or she, is waxing philosophical, and has a devilish sense of humor.”

Mandy smiled, and thought, “It is pretty funny. Was the one on ‘freedom’ the last one?”

“This hacker, whoever he is, has gotten through the secret codes and entered another phantom message at communications central last night, but it had been blocked before it could go out over the system: “The message was ‘Life is like…'” Perch started – “a box of chocolates*…” finished Dante…

* With apologies to Forest Gump…