What's Already In There

WHAT'S ALREADY IN THERE
by Matthew Sanborn Smith

"The Greeks grew as a civilization because of a constant influx of ideas with their trading partners. They were dynamic. The Romans, on the other hand, fell because of conservatism and empire wide standardization," Fea said.

This concerned me, not because of the flimsiness of her argument, but because the mind caulk should have prevented such thoughts. Besides, her statements were a philosophical slap in the face to our own movement. We'd caulked ourselves to keep new, bad thoughts out. We'd even caulked the space between our two minds to ensure our fidelity. First issue first, however.

"The Roman empire lasted much longer than the classical Greek civilization they absorbed and was much larger, discounting, possibly, the conquests of Alexander, whose empire fell as soon as he did," I said.

Fea opened her mouth to rebut my rebuttal, but I held up a hand. "More importantly," I said, "Where did you get such an idea? Is your caulk peeling? Because we paid for the extended warranty."

"Well, it was there before. The thought, I mean. Danny told me about it once. I don't know why it just came back like that."

"Danny told you."

"Yep."

"Danny. Tall guy, muscular?"

"Yeah, that's him."

My tongue clicked the comm inside my mouth. I got hold of the guy who sold me the caulk and ordered a case of mind scrub. Good thing he'd put the thought in my head before I'd sealed myself off. How lucky was that?