Steven Harper - Dreamer

His voice was hard. I let go, and he smoothed his white sleeve. The elevator disk reached the next deck down, and Sufur went into some kind of lounge. Wide round portholes looked out at the spaceport and more thick carpets covered the floor. Half a dozen adjustable bed-couches were arranged around the room. Sufur sat in one. I took another.

“What do you mean?” I pressed. “Either Fen’s a spy or he isn’t.”

Sufur lay back on his couch and stared at the ceiling. I couldn’t read his expression. “I sent Fen to the Unity as my mole about five years ago, though I’m sure he told you and Mother Araceil that he’d been there longer. He’s adept at digging up information, even classified secrets. If he told Araceil half of what he told me, I’m surprised she didn’t get suspicious at what a mere clerk was able to uncover.”

My stomach dropped as the ship lifted. The ships visible through the portholes fell away were replaced with blue sky.

“I’m sure the Unity would love to talk to Fen,” Sufur continued. “The Confederation, on the other hand, should be grateful to him. He was paid to feed information to me, not the Children or the Empress. The Confederation benefitted from his work free of charge. In any case, spying on the Unity isn’t a crime in the Confederation, so they can’t level charges against him.”

“Why the hurry then?”

Sufur shrugged. “Courts are the same everywhere. It would take months for them to come to this conclusion. I’m just cutting through the red tape.”

The sky oustide darkened and stars salted the blackness. A moment later, the view exploded into slipspace color for a split second before the portholes darkened to hide it. Sufur got up.

“I have things to attend to,” he said. “You’ll find I prefer communicating with my employees by vid or in the Dream, so that’s probably how you’ll hear from me next. I’ll set up a bank account for you and make the other arrangements. Good day.”

And he was gone.

So now I’m updating my journal on his ship. I don’t even know what it’s called. The computer says we’ll reach our destination-whatever it is-in six days, two hours.

I think I’ll spend a lot of it in the Dream.

PLANET RUST MIDDLE OCEAN

“She is spending more and more time in the Dream,” Vidya said from Katsu’s bedroom door.

Prasad nodded, his eyes still on the holographic screen. “The Dream grows worse. Pitfalls and monsters everywhere. And this darkness the Silent speak of is still there. Everyone is frightened.”

Vidya strode into the living room to peer over his shoulder. “The Unity news services are reporting such things? I find that hard to believe.”

“This is an underground service,” Prasad said. “They aren’t free of propaganda-they have their own agenda-but they are more reliable.”

“What is the Unity saying?”

“Very little,” Prasad’s fingers moved and the screen readout changed. “The reason communications are delayed, they say, is the war brewing with the Confederation. The Confederation has reneged on trade agreements, it shows imperialistic tendencies, the Empress and her people consort with vile aliens, and so on. And now the Confederation has stooped to kidnaping Unity citizens.”

“Sejal,” Vidya said.

“It took the Unity a while to admit it,” Prasad agreed, “but many rumors were flying about how the rogue Silent slipped out under the Unity’s nose. They had to say something to explain it, so they claim Sejal was kidnapped.”

Vidya pulled up a chair beside him. “How much longer can we continue to stall Dr. Kri and Dr. Say, do you think? It’s been days. I will not give them my eggs, and neither will I give them Katsu’s.”

“I don’t know,” Prasad replied, eyes still on the screen. “We have manufactured excuse after excuse, but soon they will realize our words are empty.” He paused. “I have been thinking. My wife is correct. The laboratory is not working to end slavery among women who bear Silent children.”

“That much should have been obvious to my husband from the start,” Vidya couldn’t help saying.

“The question is, of course, what they are actually doing,” Prasad continued, ignoring Vidya’s gibe. “I wonder if they are trying to use the children to destroy the Dream.”

Vidya’s intake of breath was sharp. “What brings my husband to this conclusion?”

“I have never seen Dr. Say touch Katsu.”

“And what has that to do with it?”

“I think Dr. Say is Silent and that she is the one who communicates with our benefactor, the person who funds this facility. Dr. Say does not wish anyone to know she is Silent, but Katsu would discover it if they ever touched. She has avoided Katsu ever since she was old enough to enter the Dream, though I never noticed until I thought about it just now.”

“This does not explain-”

“The children are devouring the Dream piece by piece. As they grow more numerous and more powerful, they will destroy it.”

Vidya blinked. “Why would anyone, espeically a Silent, wish to destroy the Dream?”

“You would have to ask Dr. Say and our benefactor.”

Vidya tapped her fingers on the table. “We must stop them, in any case, and we have still not solved the problem of what to do with the children. I refuse to accept the idea that we must kill them.”

“But perhaps we can immobilize them.”

“But perhaps my husband can explain, then, and with more speed?” Vidya said testily.

Prasad gave her a quiet smile, one which hadn’t changed in seventeen years. Vidya suppressed a grimace. They had been together for almost a week now, and Vidya still couldn’t decide how she felt about him. They shared a bed but had not made love. They hadn’t even kissed. Sometimes as Vidya lay next to him in the dark, she wanted to bury her face in his shoulder and mold her body against his. Other times she wanted to shove him onto the floor and kick and beat and tear at him. Vidya wondered if Prasad felt the same ambivalence toward her. They had not discussed it. By wordless accord they had gotten into bed together that first night but did not touch. Now it was becoming a habit, and the longer it went on, the harder it was to broach the subject.

“As always, my wife wishes speedy answers,” Prasad was saying. “I will explain. The lab is equipped with cryo-chambers. Dr. Kri had them installed in case we ever had to move the children. If the children are indeed causing the disturbance in the Dream, putting them into cryo-sleep would end it. No Silent can reach the Dream from cryo-sleep.”

“Ah.” Vidya nodded. “A fine idea, my husband. The only flaw I see is that we have to find a way to put thirty-one children into thirty-one cryo-chambers despite what will certainly be the best efforts of everyone else in the laboratory to stop us. Then we will have to figure out what to do with the children once they are in cryo-sleep.”

Prasad shut off the terminal. The holographic screen vanished. “When we walked to Ijhan, my wife, we did so one step at a time. It appears we must once again take the same approach.”

“I think,” said a new voice, “that it would be better to run.”

Vidya and Prasad turned as one to see Katsu in the doorway to her bedroom. How long had she been standing there?

“What do you mean?” Vidya asked before Prasad could respond.

“The children are angrier and hungrier than I have ever seen them,” Katsu said quietly. “They will expand again soon, and more Silent will die.”

“The children are killing Silent?” Prasad said, dumbfounded.