The Prometheus Project by Douglas E. Richards Page A

the Teacher.
    “Sorry to interrupt, but I’m afraid we’re out of time. Your brain cells are not reacting well to my presence. If I stay in contact with you much longer I will overstimulate your brains and cause permanent damage.”
    Ryan realized that his brain did feel as though it were about to explode. The painful side-effects of the mental connection to the Teacher were accelerating rapidly.
    “If you would like me to contact you again, there may be a way, but I will need your permission.  I will need to take a perfect and complete copy of your minds. When our connection is broken I can analyze these copies to try to find a precise telepathic frequency that your brains can tolerate. But there is no guarantee I will succeed. The brain of an intelligent being is almost infinitely complex.”
    “It seems worth a try. But why do you need our permission?” asked Regan.
    “Because in order to succeed I will need to explore every last thought and memory you have ever had. I will come to understand the true essence of your personalities far better than you can imagine. Some beings feel that this is too great an invasion of their privacy.”
    Ryan glanced at his sister and raised his eyebrows. “The fact that you could have done this without our permission or knowledge, but didn’t, makes me think our privacy will be in good . . . ah . . . hands,” finished Ryan awkwardly as he realized the Teacher didn’t have hands.
    Regan nodded beside him. “Go ahead,” she said.
    The Teacher announced it was finished taking the copy almost before they knew it had begun.
    Ryan’s head was filled with searing pain, yet he didn’t want to end the connection in case the Teacher failed to find a way to connect again. It could surely help them. It seemed to know everything. Seemed to know everything , he thought excitedly. “Wait!” he shouted. “Don’t go! Do you know what happened to our parents?”
    The Teacher had been a moment away from leaving their minds. Only the pleading and the urgency in the boy’s voice could have halted its departure for even an instant. It made a decision and searched key parts of Ryan’s memory in less than a millionth of a second, knowing it risked causing brain damage in its young visitor. Instantly the Teacher knew the risk had been worth it! It fully understood the significance of Ryan’s memories immediately, even though he did not.
    “You have to go to your mother now! You only have two hours, so there is no time to waste. She’ll die from being hit by that generator if you don’t hurry up and stop it.”
    The Teacher calculated that it was rapidly nearing the point at which the risk of damage to the children was becoming too great and it would be forced to end the connection no matter what.
    “I don’t understand?” said Ryan in confusion, his head feeling like a swollen balloon about to burst. “Are you saying you know how she disappeared, and where?”
    “She didn’t disappear,” corrected the Teacher, “you—”
    And with that, their connection with the Teacher ended abruptly.
     

 
    Chapter 22
     
    The Answer
     
    “No!” screamed Ryan, an act that caused additional daggers of pain to plunge into his head. “You can’t go now! What did you mean?” he demanded.
    There was no answer. The Teacher had been forced to leave and would not re-connect soon—maybe never.
    While Ryan was just able to withstand the searing pain inside his head, Regan was not. She fell to the ground, gripping her head in agony. Luckily, the immense pain lessened with each second they were no longer connected telepathically to the Teacher. Ryan knew the Teacher had done the right thing. They couldn’t take it in their minds any longer, but the timing couldn’t have been worse.
    Now what? It had told Ryan that they could somehow save his mother but they would have to hurry. But where was she? The Teacher had seemed to know and must have assumed that they did also.
    The blinding pain in