Dane thought of Rachel. “Dolphins can communicate. Monkeys can respond to signals. Those are forms of communicating. What no other species can apparently do, though, is communicate as extensively as we can with a verbal language. Many scientists believe that is when we parted ways with the rest of the species on this planet, when we began to act as individuals, rather than as part of a group. And that was not necessarily a good thing,” Dane added.
“Why?”
“We’re the only species that wars amongst itself at the level we do. We’ve lost a lot of our intra-species empathy. In the beginning, humans didn’t have a verbal language. Sin Fen thought that early man communicated telepathically. Not-” Dane held up his hand to keep Kolkov from interrupting-”in the way that we could read each other’s thoughts, but rather we could sense each other’s emotions. If one member of the tribe saw a lion, the fear that person felt was transmitted to the others in the tribe.
“This made for effective tribal interaction but retarded overall progress because the tribe had to stay together. Developing a verbal language allowed man to explore more, to act as individuals and have more initiative. This change occurred inside our brains and was a major trade-off.
“We have two hemispheres that, to a large extent, are redundant. There are people who have had an entire hemisphere removed and can still function relatively normally in the world. But there’s one part of the brain that is similar but not redundant. We have speech centers on both sides, yet in the vast majority of people, it is only active in the left hemisphere.”
“What does their right speech center do?” Kolkov asked. The ride was getting bumpier, and Kalansky was muttering to himself in Russian.
“It’s there, but it doesn’t seem to do anything in most people.”:Except you,” Kolkov said.
Dane nodded. “Mine is active. Sin Fen said that is where our primal telepathic ability, or more appropriately, you might call it our empathetic ability, resides. There are three parts in the brain that produce speech: the supplementary motor area, which is the least important; Broca’s area, in the rear of the frontal lobe; and Wernicke’s area, in the posterior part of the temporal lobe, which if you remove it, produces a permanent loss of meaningful speech.
“All three work in the left hemisphere to produce speech, but they are also present on the opposite side, but apparently nonfunctioning in most people. Initially, man’s brain was more connected between the two sides and the speech centers worked in harmony so all humans could ‘talk’ to each other in a telepathic way. In fact, the strange thing is that early man might have been able to ‘read’ each other’s minds, except they didn’t have a language to read.”
Seeing Kolkov’s frown, Dane tried to explain. “Do you think in words, or do you think in pictures?”
“I’ve never really considered it,” Kolkov said. “I suppose in words.”
Dane nodded. “Most people do, although some think in images. But if you had no words. No language. You would have to think in pictures. Also, what do you think is stronger-thoughts or emotions?”
“Are they necessarily different” Kolkov asked.
Dane found it strange to be having this conversation as they were being sucked into a portal that would take them from the planet they knew. Despite their fronts, Dane could sense both men’s fear. He was the only one of the three who had been into a portal before. He’d been to the Space Between and beyond. He knew that Kolkov wanted the discussion to keep going as” much to keep his mind off where they were going as to learn.
“Maybe not so different,” Dane admitted, “but isn’t emotion more powerful? Doesn’t all art revolve around emotion rather than intellect? Sometimes I think artists are trying to bring us back to our roots. The development of a verbal language allowed us to advance as a species, but when we lost our telepathic abilities we also lost something important.
“Sin Fen believed that people like her and me have come full circle. We have both-the verbal language and the telepathic ability. I could speak to her and hear her without saying a word.” Dane tapped his head. “My speech centers are equally developed, functional, and more developed than a normal person’s. Sin Fen had MRIs done of her brain and they verified this.
“Physiological psychologists have” long theorized that Wernicke’s area on the nonspeech side of the brain-the right side-is the center for man’s imagination. It is also where I get my visions from and where I hear what Sin Fen called the voices of the gods, which I think is some sort of transmission by the Ones Before. Psychologists have long theorized there is indeed a God center in the brain.”
“Five minutes until we cannot go back,” Kalansky said.
“In ancient days, Greeks and Romans called people like me Oracles. They were the seers of their tribes.”
“And what do you see for us?” Kolkov asked as the” submersible rocked in the strong current. “If the Shadow is draining this water because it needs it, won’t we go through this portal directly to the Shadow’s world?”
Dane shook his head. “I don’t think any portals to our world lead directly to the Shadow’s world. The Space Between is a buffer between parallel worlds. There are portals that go to other places on the same world, but not to other worlds.” At least, Dane thought to himself. That’s my best guess based on my experiences.
‘’There is something ahead,” Kalansky said.
The ride was getting rougher as the submersible was being tossed about in the torrent of water being sucked into the portal.
“We cannot go back now,” Kalansky announced.
Dane leaned forward and looked at the radar display. It indicated what appeared to be a solid wall directly ahead. “That’s the portal. Radar can’t penetrate it.”
“Are you sure we can?” Kalansky asked.
“Yes.”
“And then’?” Kalansky pressed.
“We should be in the Inner Sea of the Space Between,” Dane said.
“And then?” Kalansky looked over his shoulder. “If you have a plan it might be good to share it with me, as we will reach this portal in less than two minutes.”
“We land on the shore and link up with Amelia Earhart.” Dane said.
“And where is all this water going?” Kalansky asked.
‘’Most likely to another portal and then on to the Shadow’s world.”
Kalansky’s hands were fighting the controls, trying to keep the craft relatively stable. “If this volume goes from one place to another in this Inner Sea, the current in this Inner Sea will be tremendous. How do you suggest we get out of the current to the shore?”
Dane hadn’t thought of that. He had simply known they had to go through a portal and the Devil’s Sea one was too dangerous.
Kalansky looked over his shoulder. “You don’t have a plan, do you?”
“Not yet.”
“‘Not yet’? Kalansky turned his attention back to the Controls. “You’ve got one minute before we’re into this thing to come up with a plan.”
Dane leaned back in the crash seat and closed his eyes. He felt the dread that close proximity to a portal always produced. But beyond that there was nothing. No voice. No vision, just darkness and-he was slammed against the shoulder straps and everything inside the submersible went dark.
He heard Kalansky yelling something in Russian. Then Dane’s head slammed back against the seat as the front of the submersible rapidly dipped down. Within seconds it was upside down.
“English,” Kolkov yelled at the pilot, who was still speaking rapidly in his native tongue.
A dull red glow lit the interior as a battery-powered emergency light went on. “We’ve lost main power,” Kalansky said, his hands flying over the controls, flipping switches. “I’ve got no thrust, no steering, and if you haven’t noticed, we are inverted.”