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Humans, The Only Species Immune To Alien Mind Control

By: Angelos (Writer for Starbound)

It has been almost a standard century since the fall of the Taugesha Kingdom. Almost a standard century, since the Imperium of Terra became the first and only known civilization to resist the abilities of the Taugesha, that held the First Federation under their rule.

Most would call it mind-control, understandably, though it wasn’t quite it.

Vorf soldiers during the Ten-Day Revolt, turning their D.E. rifles to their own heads and pulling the triggers after a Taugesha hacked into their local comm frequences and told them to, their mass suicide captured in their helmet cams. Satellite recordings from the orbit of Jesefert VI, showing the Taxadian Attack Fleet turn on itself as soon as single message from the Taugesha was transmitted to them on a wide-channel broadcast. Then there’s the reports from the Teseraki star cluster, where a now lost civilization of Xenos had apparently dedicated their entire industrial output towards serving the interests of the Taugesha, for absolutely nothing in return.

Turning on the very comrades you fought and bled for side by side, serving without question, even killing yourself. All that just because someone told you to… For most intents and purposes, that is indeed mind control…

Except you see, the Taugesha couldn’t actually impose their wills on others. They couldn’t make you do something you didn’t want to. What they could do, was far more insidious than that. They could change how others perceived them on a fundamental level. They could harmonize their brain waves to those of their targets, infiltrate their very subconscious. Make them think the tone and cadence of their voices was familiar and comforting, make them think their appearances were appealing, their scent calming… They could make you think you were talking to someone you’ve known and trusted for your entire life, someone you would catch a kinetic projectile for without even thinking about it. Then, since you already trusted them, it would only be a matter of them finding your deepest desires, what hid beneath your logic and even your instinct, and exploiting it. They could peer into the memories of you culture, your languages and dialects, your customs, religion, everything… They could prod into your mind, shifting through emotions, thoughts, and memories alike, until they found the buttons that needed to be pushed, the levers that need to be pulled, until you were just a puppet hanging from their strings, clay molded by the tips of their tongues…

Most sentient species in our galaxy, diverse and different from each other as they may be, share the same core desires. Safety, peace, comfort, the touch of someone they love… All universal traits among any civilization that has managed to reach the stars. All exploitable at the hands of the Taugesha, tools to make them want to do things their conscious and rational mind would never even consider. And the further away someone was from having those things, the more desperate they were for them, the easier it was for the Taugesha to dangle them in front of their eyes, yet just out of their reach. Take the Vorf soldiers that fought in the 10-Day Revolt for example. Stuck in the trenches of some foreign world they could barely even pronounce the name of, fighting for their lives, deprived of any sense of safety, comfort or love, surrounded only by mud, death, and misery. Those soldiers would do anything, if they thought it could lead them to being safe, comfortable again. All the Taugesha had to do, was convince them that the path to safety and comfort, begun by turning the barrel of their guns to their own heads and pulling the trigger… In their desperation and manipulated by the abilities of the Taugesha, that was exactly what they did.

The power of suggestion cranked up to its zenith. Mind-control, for all practical purposes…

For millennia the Taugesha ruled over the galaxy like this. Pulling the strings of their puppets, without them ever realizing it. Even establishing the First Federation to legitimize their rule over them, under the guise of an interstellar body of government ruled by vote. The votes of course, always happened to be to benefit of the Taugesha.

It was in the halls of the First Federation’s Citadel that the reports of a new star nation were revealed. The Imperium of Terra. Electromagnetic and gravitic scans revealed a technologically primitive civilization in the Galactic East, incapable of faster than light travel, and whose dominion over the Void extended to only a handful of star systems. Only those that were in range of generation ships, that transferred colonists to their new homes over entire generations. Immediately the Grand Council drew plans for bringing this new civilization into the fold of the Federation, and into their service… An ambassadorial mission was scheduled, full of gifts and the promise of a brighter future. A future bright enough to blind and distract from the gilded cage that came along with it. The Taugesha had no reason to believe that it would be any different to the rest of the civilizations that had been brought under Federation control over the centuries of its existence.

As the TKS Ge’rensha, the Taugeshan ambassador’s void-ship dropped in the edge of the Sol system, any assumptions they had of the primitive nature of Terra, were confirmed. The entire star system was dedicated to war. Rudimentary Directed Energy Weapon platforms dotted the orbits of all planets, planetoids and even large asteroids, Rapid Response Fleets lit up the vessel’s sensors, as they patrolled the system, and the chatter in the local comm frequences the Ge’rensha used to calibrate its translation software brimmed with military jargon. The First Federation had a standing army itself comprised from personnel of every nation-member, along with a Void Navy and defensive systems, but the bulk of military action on the rare occasion it occurred, was resolved by the Taugesha, and their abilities to control other sentients. For ambassador Ke-shean to see such a barbaric display of militarization was a shock. She had read reports from other ambassadors encountering similar circumstances when bringing new civilizations to the fold of the Federation, but never anything like this. Never anything so blatant in the brutality it signified. Standing on the ship’s bridge, gazing into the system that spread before her, she thought just how easy it would be to convert these Terran savages into servants of the Federation.

Before the thought was concluded, a spike in the ship’s gravitic sensors caught her eye. The spike was consistent with the profile of a void-ship grav-jumping in her vicinity. Could it be that the Federation had sent additional vessels as backup? She dared to guess.

The void in front of her vessel split apart like the gaping jaws of a ravenous predator, and in an instant her best guesses were proven horribly wrong. Instead of the slick design of a Federation vessel, with smooth lines that complimented the hull’s form and function, a ship of crude design, full of sharp angles and a hull filled to the brim with weapon installations materialized before her very eyes. Like a storm wave, the gravitic aftershock from its grav-jump shook the TKS Ge’rensha, forcing Ke-shean to grab onto the nearest command console on the bridge to stop herself from falling over. The reports had claimed the Imperium of Terra wasn’t technologically advanced enough to have access to faster than light travel technology, and yet, a Terran void-ship that looked as ugly as war felt, had just dropped in front of her. It had dropped close enough that she felt a storm of foreign thoughts assaulting her mind, shaking it. The disjointed thoughts of the Terran crew. The first words Ke-shean learned in the Terran language. “Enemy.” “Threat.” “Kill.” “Kill.” “Kill.”

Before she had a chance to evaluate her situation, an array of bright lights on the Terran war-vessel started blinking on and off. The Terran ship was trying to communicate. “Light signals. Primitive in their thoughts, primitive even in their communications”, she said to herself as she tried to prod the thoughts of the crew for what the light signal meant. Shifting through thoughts of violence and emotions of wrath, she finally managed to interpret the meaning of the signals. “Unidentified vessel. Power down weapons. Prepare to be boarded.”

“We are unarmed. Coming in peace.” The Ge’rensha blinked back.

Soon after, the clanking of boarding shuttles attaching themselves to the Ge’rensha’s airlocks reverberated through the ship. Four figures, clad in void-black armor made their way to bridge, pushing past the crew of the ship, kinetic weapons at the ready. Ke-shean had been at the business end of weapons before. She knew what she had to do. She focused her mind on the one that looked like the leader of the boarding party. She found memories of Terra, memories of once-blue skies and flowing rivers of clear water, she found memories of family, laughter, joy. But mixed within them, she found profound sadness, covering the memories like an unpierceable veil. She could exploit that, she could take advant…

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