Freud and Jung
06 Nov 2023Ryuko Ntsikana
Part Twenty-one.
Freud and Jung
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Monty continued to take advantage of Zooey not changing the registry of the Diamondback Explorer. Each system that contained a navigation beacon recorded its passage, allowing the Inspector to create a breadcrumb trail of her travels. Whether her failure to change the registry was intentional remained a separate question. The latest hypothesis—that the essence of the entity inside him also resided within her, with her mind-state controlling whatever abilities remained—gave both him and his symbiote an unnatural shiver.
Xochitl had become less aggressive with hyperspace jumping her carrier after the same revelation. She needed intelligence on Zooey, most importantly on the results of the battle for her mind, which had resulted in the current situation. How much of her identity had been absorbed remained a part of whatever it was that had both absorbed it and decompiled, compressed, and transmitted the entity.
One of the key disciplines missing from Xochitl’s clan was that of a psychologist. Avery and the doctor were doing their best to determine what part of Zooey could have been unleashed or created due to the conflict between her ID and the entity. To bring an outsider into the morass that was unfolding would open a new Pandora's Box. Their best would have to suffice.
To everyone’s surprise, it was a minor clan member and service technician who arrived at the best explanation. He had a couple of years of undergraduate study in the subject but couldn't complete his degree due to the typical regional conflict between the Imperial and Federation factions. His day job had become his full-time employment, and his education was put on permanent hold.
Chief Bowen brought him to the morning Chiefs' meeting, where he presented his theory.
“The shadow of the unconscious, from Jungian theory, could, in theory, accomplish part of what was described in absorbing the primitive Freudian ID. The Jungian self could assist, and in theory, also be part of what happened to the entity. This fusion of shadow and self could, in theory, present a more formidable foe than the ego and superego combined. A fully actualized shadow-self fusion would be, in essence, a new form of psychological existence. Combine that with the retained abilities of the entity's synthetic genome, and Zooey could potentially become something that would defy conventional definitions.”
Avery turned her head in curiosity, looking at Xochitl. “What the entity sought to achieve by becoming—the psychological battle inside of Zooey, along with the synthetic—had been created by accident.”
“Sweet mother!” Zarathustra, Chief of Security, cried aloud. “How do we combat something like that, or even save Zooey, if there is anything left to save?”
“The answer lies within Inspector Gladsen,” Eunice Faulkner, the head of the ship’s genomics section, stated flatly. “The original entity is alive and well within him. Whatever shade it left in Zooey is unknown, whether partial or whole.”
Xochitl looked up at Avery. “Find out from the entity and its host what the chances are of it evolving, to form a baseline of what we should expect. Then we can design our training around the worst-case scenario and use it to hone our skills, whether it agrees to it or not.”