Piece of Mind (short story)

Piece of Mind was a free short story in the Lethbridge-Stewart series.

Summary
Following the end of his engagement with Sally Wright, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is ordered to the Sanctuary by his commanding officer, General Hamilton. The plan is for Lethbridge-Stewart to have "time alone if nothing else. The Sanctuary specialises in mental strength – new techniques, but they take peace and quiet to learn." Of course, it isn’t only Lethbridge-Stewart that Hamilton sends, but Sally too.

But, naturally enough, the Sanctuary isn’t exactly what it seems and, despite their bruised feelings, Lethbridge-Stewart and Sally find themselves dragged into a new mystery…

Plot
Shortly after the end of Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart's engagement, he's 'advised' to go to the Sanctuary - a secretive military group at Glastonbury that trains people in new mental techniques - by General Hamilton to develop his mental resiliance. Sally Wright is sent to the same place. Both go thinking it'll do them good to have time away from each other, and both are angry to learn Hamilton's sending them both by the same car.

Colonel Ralph Waterman, head of the Sanctuary, runs a deliberately informal organisation that Sally likes and Alistair decidedly doesn't. The meditation causes him to storm out in a huff. When Waterman and a hippie-seeming woman named Jana says he may miss the "silent minute" by being absent, Alistair and Sally are both suspicious. An unnatural shadow moves across the Tor briefly but the Brigadier calls it a trick of the light, refusing to believe everywhere they go has alien threats.

The next morning, Alistair and Sally decide to gather information on their hosts. Talking to Jana and Waterman, respectively, they learn the Sanctuary plans to prevent post-traumatic stress disorder and psychic takeover by developing mental defences in soldiers: the Silent Minute was a psychic defence developed by Wellesley Tudor Pole during the Second World War, a moment of prayer at 9PM every day where everyone would focus their will for peace at once. Both Waterman and Jana believe the Minute can be harnesed for new purposes. Alistair departs the Sanctuary, ordering Sally Wright with him.

The moving darkenss returns over Glastonbury Tor, and Alistair and Sally pursue Jana into the darkness. Inside, Sally realises she can feel the emotions of fear that always accompany the Great Intelligence, and when Alistair denies feeling anything, she demands he admit he's afraid; the Brigadier states he's tired of fighting, though it's unclear if he means against the Intelligence, with Sally, or internally. Waterman then appears, revealing his mission was to turn the Silent Minute into a defence against aliens, and instead has decided that human fears of the "sheer wrongness" of alien threats can be channeled into the Minute and make it a powerful weapon.

Jana reveals there's always been a "central node of energy" at Glastonbury - the reason the Minute was started here - and she's a guardian of it, waiting to confirm Waterman's plans. She also adds that the Brigadier's fears of the Great Intelligence added far more power far quicker to the Silent Minute than Waterman expected; Waterman says that due to the fears that have "saturated" him, Alistair is now the weapon that will deploy the corrupted Minute. Sally then disputes that, saying he cannot be reduced to a weapon and he isn't consumed with fear - Waterman has ignored that Alistair is just a normal, ordinary person with odd foibles, not a grand defender of the Earth. Under Jana's urging, Alistair focuses on this and fills the Minute with banal, ordinary thoughts that drive the darkness back.

The Brigadier orders that the Silent Minute will be left alone from now on, and Waterman flees to his true masters (as Jana says); he and Sally are left wondering how much of this was suspected by Hamilton. When Jana considers getting thousands of normal people to fill the Minute with joy, Sally suggests doing it with a yearly music event. The Brigadier takes his leave and decides to see if he can get a pint locally.

Characters

 * Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart
 * Sally Wright
 * Oliver Hamilton
 * Ralph Waterman
 * Jana

Continuity

 * Sally believes she is being punished for joining the Daughters of Earth. (PROSE: The Daughters of Earth)
 * Lethbridge-Stewart considers meditation and "dabbling with the mind" potentially dangerous due to his encounters with the Great Intelligence.
 * The Brigadier is repressing fear from his run-ins with the Intelligence.
 * Anne Travers and Bill Bishop have just started dating. (PROSE: The Cruel Oil)