Steven Harper - Dreamer

“Sejal,” Ara said carefully, “how many people can you… handle at once?”

Another shrug. “I don’t know. The most I’ve ever done is eight.”

Ara’s stomach went cold. What was Sejal’s maximum? Ten? A dozen? A thousand? An army? Ara imagined a troop of grim-faced soldiers all unafraid to die because someone else was controlling their very thoughts. Could this boy who had cried at his mother’s feet do something like that?

But he was a boy, Ara reminded herself, who had been selling himself on the streets for money. A boy who grew up without a father and felt neglected by his mother. The perfect recipe for trouble.

Their disguises were still in place, so getting into the spaceport proved relatively easy. The place was crowded, as usual, and guard were everywhere, though none gave Ara and the others a second glance.

“How close do you need to be, Sejal?” Ara murmured over her shoulder. Sejal’s collar and shackles were still in place and he walked a pace behind her.

“I need to see or touch them,” Sejal replied in an equally low voice.

They made their way to the landing field. Harenn trotted off ahead and returned to report that the six guards were still there and that she had found a vantage point that might work.

They ducked and weaved their way across the field. The harsh smell of fuel hung in the humid air, and the sun had fallen low in the sky. Eventually, the familiar gray wedge of the Post Script became visible ahead of them. They stopped behind an empty loader and peered around it.

“Is that it?” Sejal asked, pointing. A half dozen guards were waiting by the ramp that extended up to the hatchway, their black and scarlet uniforms unmistakable.

Ara nodded.

“All right.” Sejal strode toward the ship.

“What’s he doing?” Pitr gasped.

“Don’t move,” Ara ordered. A small cynical part of her wondered if the guard would open fire. That would certainly solve her problem. In any case, there wasn’t anything she and the others could do but watch, unless they wanted to take on six armed guard with their bare hands. Sejal, in his shackles and ragged robe, stopped fifteen or twenty meters away from the guard and stood with his arms folded.

“What are you doing there?” a guard shouted, but Sejal didn’t answer. “You, slave! I said, what are you doing there?”

Sejal remained silent. The closest one, energy rifle at the at ready, came forward.

“Listen, boy, when the guard asks you a question, you better-” The guard stopped, frozen in place. Behind him, the other’s faces went slack. Sejal’s gaze was fixed, unmoving.

“Go!” Ara said. “Kendi, you get Sejal.”

The group needed no urging. They sprinted past the motionless guards and all but tumbled into the hatchway when it opened at Harenn’s touch. Ara glanced over her shoulder. Kendi was leading Sejal across the aerogel asphalt. The boy moved slowly, as if in a daze. Ara wanted to scream at them to hurry up, but she kept her mouth shut. It took forever for Sejal to cross the threshold of the hatchway. Ara was starting to slam it shut when another voice shouted, “Wait!”

Reflexively Ara stopped. A figure darted through the hatchway. On the asphalt beyond, the guard hadn’t moved once. The figure slammed the hatchway shut, and Sejal blinked myopically.

“Who-?” Pitr asked.

The figure turned. It was Chin Fen.

“Fen!” Ara gasped. “Why the hell are you here?”

Fen smiled. “Because you owe me a walk on a seapad leaf?”

“Mother,” Ben’s voice said over the intercom. “The guard know something’s up, but they don’t know exactly what. They’re demanding entrance to the ship.”

Ara gestured, and Pitr grabbed Fen from behind. The moment he touched Fen’s bare arm, Pitr gasped, though he didn’t let go. “He’s Silent, Mother. I got the jolt.”

A knife appeared in Harenn’s hand, and she flicked it to Fen’s neck. The blade made a scraping sound on his skin. Fen’s brown eyes went wide.

“Who are you working for, Fen?” Ara demanded.

“Mother, what do we do?”

“I don’t work for anyone!” Fen squeaked. “I swear! I hate the Unity. That’s why I came to you.”

“Mother, they’re going to open fire on us. Rifles won’t do much to the ship, but they’ve already radioed for heavier artillery.”

“Take off, Ben,” Ara said.

The floor rumbled beneath them. Harenn’s knife didn’t waver from Fen’s neck and Pitr remained motionless as a hazel-eyed block of granite.

“Kendi, get to the bridge and take over piloting,” Ara said. “We’ve got everything covered here. Fen, you’d better talk fast or I’m going to shove you out the airlock once we make orbit.”

“I got sucked into the Unity right after I left the monastery,” Fen said hurriedly as Kendi ran off. Harenn’s knife remained at his throat. “I thought it would be something good, humans first and all that, but by the time I realized how repressive it was, I couldn’t get out because I had no resources and I was too afraid and then you walked into the office and I knew you weren’t just a trader because it just felt wrong and then when you wanted all that information about Vidya and Sejal so I figured you were up to something big.”

“You paid him to spy on me and Mom?” Sejal asked incredulously. The glazed look had left his eyes.

Ara ignored him. “Why did you choose this particular moment to show up, Fen?”

“I really did come about our date,” Fen said. “We were supposed to meet at seven, remember? You didn’t show up and there was no answer when I called your ship, so I came down. Then I saw the guard and they froze like statues and I saw you rush past them. All of a sudden I saw how cowardly I’d been all these years and that this might be my last chance to get out of the Unity, and oh, please believe me, Ara. It’s true.”

Ara clenched a fist in exasperation. This wasn’t anything she wanted to deal with right now, but she had to do something in the meantime.

“Sejal,” she said, “remove your shackles and put them on Fen. Be ready-you’ll feel that jolt. Pitr, once he’s set up, take him and Sejal down to the galley and explain to Jack what’s going on. Give Jack the master unit-” she handed it to Pitr “-and tell him to keep an eye on Fen. I don’t want him out of Jack’s sight for a second, got it?”

“Yes, Mother,” Pitr said.

Fen yelped when Sejal touched him. “Holy mother! I was right. He’s the one. You found him!”

Ara didn’t respond to this overly obvious statement. “After you’ve taken Fen down to Jack,” she continued to Pitr, “I want you and Trish to go into the Dream. Whisper to anyone who follows us and get them to make mistakes. Harenn, you get down to engineering in case we get hit. We’re in for a rough ride, so be ready.”

Fen accepted Sejal’s shackles without protest. Ara headed for the bridge. Kendi had arrived well ahead of her and was already at the helm. Ben was back at communications, and Gretchen was running sensors. Ara took her customary chair. The ship shuddered slightly, and it made an odd rattling noise.

“What is it with your boyfriend?” Kendi asked.

“Boyfriend?” Gretchen said.

“He’s chained up in the galley,” Ara replied, glancing at the vid-screen. It showed nothing but red sky. “And he’s not my boyfriend. What’s going on up here?”

“We’ve cleared the spaceport,” Kendi reported. “A couple of cargo ships were caught off-guard since we didn’t have clearance or a flight plan, but I managed to dodge them.”

“The Unity’s screaming bloody murder,” Ben added. “We’ve been ordered to return to the port immediately or they’re going to fire on us.”