"What you are attempting to d simply cannot be done."

Dr. krill stood in his office both sets of arms crossed heavily over his chest as he listened to the protests of his fellow colleagues.

"We cannot even be sure that this mind body connection exists in a physiological sense." The doctor that had spoken was a Rundi scientist with brownish green skin. He wore a contraption around his neck not dissimilar to a human stethoscope.

Dr. krill turned on the spot idly examining his notes as he waited for the protests to die down. Sitting cross the room, Dr. Riss was perched at Krill's desk. He said he was there for "moral support" but Krill had never needed moral support in his life, at least not when it came to verbally beating other physicians into submission.

He could only assume this was out of Riss's own insatiable curiosity.

"I have done the research, and there is evidence to suggest the existence of this mind body connection." Krill was saying, glancing up from his notes.

"What evidence!" A chorus of voices demanded.

"I have seen it." Krill said, holding steady against the protests that followed. He waited for the voices to die down before continuing, "During a spiritual ritual on Anin, I sat with a shaman and a starborn. Using meditative methods the shaman was able to pull the group of us into a..... cognitive state of inner observance. We followed a thread of thought in the mind to a location visualized by the mind as an interpretive location where the thoughts ended in a single point. The exertion from such an event resulted in the shaman's connection snapping, and he was dead for approximately four minutes before he could be revive."

The Rundi snorted, "You hallucinated and someone had a cardiac event, I hardly see how this is evidence."

Krill cut in, his voice more forceful than before, "We know the Anima exists, there is no doubt. We have met and had open access to makers before. They are the manifestation of an anima powerful enough to give itself physical form. The young Anima, like those housed within our bodies are young and mosty incapable of controlling themselves. The body is designed as a sort of trap...... A training protocol if you will gibing access to just enough power to learn control before we are given access to so much power. It also acts as a dampener that was to hide us from the void in years past."

He turned and paced around his office, hands behind his back.

It had been years since he moved like a Vrul, and his human habits were almost completely natural now.

"We know that the Anima exists, we know that constructs exist, and with this knowledge comes the logical conclusion that a connection between the two exists, soemthing that keeps the Anima from fleeing the body. You might call this location some sort of flood gate, holding back the anima until it is time to return to revelation. We know that this gate breaks when death occurs, but we also know it takes some time before the anima leaves. I propose that there are other more minor teathers that must be severed before the anima can leave through the gate."

"I fail to see where this is going doctor.'

"If this tether exists, you might say that people should be dropping dead for unexplainable reasons all the time, and I argue that they do. The connections that hold the anima in place may be simply two or three neurons deep within the brain, and when they are severed death occurs. If you were to have an aneurysm in that part of the brain odds are the connection would be severed of course. When the heart stops the connection is broken, but when the heart starts up again the connection can be repaired or perhaps another connection made. We know that there are multiple teachers more minor in nature. Additionally I have a theory that these other theaters are broken all the time. For instance, Adam Vir's ability to hear the thoughts of star born is the result of a broken tether in his frontal lobe. It may be that symptoms resulting from brain abnormality or damage might simply be a manifestation of Anima ."

He turned and brought up a projection before the projected panel of doctors.

"Visual and auditory hallucinations for example. Yes they simply may be the result of issues in the physical construct itself, however, sever a minor connection between that stops the anima from hearing the thoughts of others telepathically, and then you have someone who swears they hear voices. Sever another connection and you have someone who can sense the existence of other Anima , or other related energies. This is not abnormal and probably exists in all of us to some extent, small damages to Anima tethers that give us specific characteristics . The Shaman I mentioned earlier has lived a life intentionally designed to sever specific teachers to make him more accessible to a..... spiritual plane."

He could tell that the doctors before him were not grasping this as thoroughly as he hoped they would. IN fact most of them looked mildly uncomfortable.

"dr. krill, you understand how unorthodox this all sounds."

Krill kept his arms crossed, "It is not unorthodox it is logical. With everything we know, I am simply astounded that you refuse to accept it."

A Tesraki shook her head slowly, "I am not even entirely sure I understand what you are proposing?"

"I am proposing severing the mind body connection and-"

"That's just murder, its not hard."

Krill frowned, "If you don't shut up and listen to me, I will come over there and sever your mind body connection with a brick." The room went silent and again, rather uncomfortable. Across the room Dr. Riss was smirking lightly.

Krill took a deep breath.

"We know that the mind body connection exists, and due to its connection to the lungs an heart, I would argue that the tether's location is somewhere in the brainstem . We also know that there are other existing tethers around the brain in a more minor way . With my colleagues, I have recently developed technologies that would help to repair damaged brain tissue. So my proposal is not simply severing the mind body connection, but replacing it with a of our own design."

"What would this solve." One of the researchers ask, "What do you hope to accomplish?"

"Access to the Anima's power, without the death part."

"So you are going to go poking around in someone's brainstem, simply hoping that you aren't going to kill them?! Just a few years ago brain surgery wasn't possible in most creatures, and now you are suggesting prodding at the most delicate and essential part of the brain experimentally! Who would ever agree to that?"

Krill shrugged, "I have an endless supply of humans too reckless to mind me poking around in their brains, so test subjects are not the issue."

"This is highly unethical."

"Its only unethical if I fail, and I do not plan to fail."

He could already tell by the muttering that he had not exactly made his case. The screens blinked off one by one.

The Rundi doctor lingered for a moment sitting back in his seat, "I suggest you familiarize yourself with the human fable of Icarus, I think you will find it most enlightening, and perhaps relevant." And then he was gone and krill was left standing in his office with two sets of hands on his hips fuming softly.

Riss leaned absently against Kril's desk, "have I ever told you how stunning your people skills are, really I've never seen anything like it."

Krill glowered at him

"I don't remember inviting you here"

"That's because you didn't. I reserve the right to annoy you on my personal time."

Krill huffed angrily and turned back to his notes, glowering at a diagram of the human brain, "We have already made the mistake of choosing to cohabitate, and now I must endure you during my working hours. Will the horror never end?"

"You make it sound like I forced my way into your house and refused to leave. As I recall the cohabitation was your idea 'for scientific purposes' you said. At the time I assumed it was simply a veiled excuse to have my company."

"You know what they say about assuming...."

"Don't deflect."

Krill huffed long and loud, "You are annoying."

"I am just your type then now aren't I?"

Krill grumbled and slumped down in one of his office chairs to stare at the ceiling, "It seems as if we will be going into this without the support of the scientific community."

"You always have me, and doctor Katie."

"You are a shrink, and Katie is a trauma specialist if you recall, not a brain surgeon."

Riss walked over to stand next to Krill staring out the window with him, "You also have a Starborn. I have no doubt that you will figure this out."

"That makes one of us." Krill muttered absently staring out at the Arcadia skyline. In the distance, he could just see the glittering of their growing inland sea, now no more than a reflective line on the horizon.

"But you do at least have volunteers, don't you." Krill slumped further in his seat.

"No."

Riss snorted, "I see."

"But I can get them easily." Krill announced

"Oh, who would be crazy enough to agree to that?"

****

"Yeah, sure. I trust you."

"Adam!"

Adam turned from where he was sitting on the floor with Kay . Sunny sat cross legged not far away sharpening her weapons, but now she was looking at him with incredulity.

Adam shrugged, "What, this is krill we are talking about, Sunny."

"This is your brain we are talking about, and if he screws up you're dead."

"Look!" kay said proffering a conglomeration of Legos to his father.

Adam looked down to acknowledge his son's burgeoning design acumen before looking back up, "At some point someone is going to need to volunteer, might as well be me."

"Or we could wait until someone else does."

"Like who.

"I don't know someone less important."

Adam frowned lips pressed tightly together, "What do you mean someone less important. I'm a politician now, which arguably means I am like.... Less important than everyone else."

Sunny sighed running a whetstone along the edge of her blade, "I mean important to me dumbass."

"Dumbass!" Kay echoed

Adam glowered at her, "Great now look what you did."

Sunny frowned, "out of all the words I said, and he had to pick that one."

"Dumbass!" Kay announced.

"Great." Adam grumbled before turning to look at Krill, and then back at Sunny, "We need to try, and we don't have time to find someone more willing,, so we might as well-"

There was a pause as a knock came on the balcony door. They all turned to look though none were surprised when Conn floated in. They all expected him to give off some sort of snide comment before getting to the point, but his expression was unusually grim

"What is it?" Adam asked.

"It's Earth." Conn said, "It's been invaded."