Джон Макдональд - Wine of the Dreamers [= Planet of the Dreamers]

Raul stood for a long time and looked into the case. He thought of telling Orlan, but that would entail explaining why he found it necessary to wander in unused places. This one had been dead a long time. Possibly he would never be found. He never would be inserted, head first, into the oval tube. Women were placed in the tube feet first. It was the Law.

Above his head was the soft sigh of one of the grilled apertures through which the warm air rushed. He turned and walked back to the broken track and went up in search of Leesa.

He found Leesa on a high level watching the screen where an ancient war was being fought. Sounds of battle roared from the speakers. He called to her and she turned off the machine, ran quickly to him, her eyes glowing.

She grasped his arm. “Tell me quickly! Tell me about the dreams.”

He sat down, scowled up at her eager face. “Somehow, I know they are all wrong. One day you will know it too. The dreams have more meaning than... what they say.”

“You are being absurd, Raul. They are only dreams. And it is our right to dream.”

“A child does not speak that way to a grown one. The dreams, I say, are reality. They are as real as this floor.” He stamped his bare foot.

She drew back a bit. “Don’t... say that, Raul. Don’t say it, even to me! They could put you out of the world. Through the door you told me about. And that would leave me alone here. There would be no other ugly one like me, with this hateful hair and these hideous heavy arms and legs.”

He smiled at her. “I won’t say it to anyone else. And you shall enjoy the dreams, Leesa. The women who look as you will look when you are grown are considered very beautiful.”

She stared at him. “Beautiful? Me? Raul, I am ugly like the women in these pictures I watch.”

“You will see. I promise.”

She sat on her heels beside his chair. She smiled up at him. “Come, now. Tell me. You promised you would. Tell me about the dreams.”

“On one condition.”

“You always make conditions,” she said, pouting.

“You must promise that you will help me search through all of these rooms, all of these thousands on thousands of spools. It may take us years. I do not know. But somewhere, Leesa, we shall find answers to all this. This place did not grow. It was built. What are the dreams? Why do we call ourselves the Watchers? It had to have a beginning. And somewhere, here, we will find the story of creation. Who made this world?”

“It has always been here.”

“Will you help me search?” She nodded. And as she kept her eyes on his face, her lips parted, he told her of the dreams of the first two worlds.

And on the following day, he told her of the third world, as soon as his dream had ended. He saw her directly after he had reported back to Jord Orlan and had been instructed in the single Law of those who dream. He was still shaken by the significance of Jord Orlan’s instruction.

She sat as before, staring up at him, rapt.

“The third world,” he said, “is entirely different. The first world is all blood and cruelty. The second world is a place of nervous fear and mechanisms and intricate social patterns based on an odd sort of fear. This third world... I am going to return there again. Many times. Their minds are full of power and subtlety. And I know that they know of us.”

“But that sounds silly, Raul! It’s only a dream. How can the creatures in a dream know of the dreamers? The other ones do not.”

“With the first mind I invaded, I was too cautious. There was a moment of resistance, then none. I went in confidently. While I was still moving softly, the mind thrust me away with such a surge of power I was forced to leave it. It took some time before I could find it again. This time I entered more firmly. The pressure was enormous. At last, when I took over sensory control, I saw that I was sitting in front of a small structure. The landscape was pleasant. Woods, trees, fields and flowers. There was no crudeness about the structure. The inner walls, which I could see, glowed the way these corridor walls glow. The machines in the house appeared to be automatic, much like the lower levels here. When I tried to sift the captive mind, to find out what sort of world this might be, I found nothingness. At first I thought the thing might be brainless, and then I remembered the astonishing power of the mind. I had full control of the body, but the mind itself seemed able to erect a barrier that shielded its thoughts. I looked in all directions and saw men and women, simply dressed, standing at a respectful distance and staring toward me. I stood up.

“My host let one thought seep into my mind. He told me to attempt no violence or those who watched would kill him immediately. The thoughts he transmitted to me came slowly and clearly and I had the impression he was speaking to an inferior, simplifying his thoughts for the sake of contacting a less acute mind. He told me it would be best to return to the place from whence I came. If I attempted to move to another mind, the new host would immediately be placed in the same position in which he found himself. I formed, with his lips, our word for ‘why.’ He said that they could read each other’s thoughts and found it relatively simple to sense an alien presence. I could detect grim humor. The others stood and watched and I began to feel that in some odd way he was still in communication with them through a channel I could not tap. I felt that he knew all about the dreams and the dreamers. I tried to make it forcefully clear that I was only curious about his world, that I intended no violence. I sat down again and he asked, again with that touch of humor, what I wanted to know.”

“It sounds so dull!” Leesa said.

“It did not seem so. We spent the entire dream in talking. They call the third world Ormazd. It seems to be named after some principle of goodness. They each live alone, quite simply, and at a considerable distance from one another. They give great care and attention to training and teaching their young. He seemed to ‘speak’ to me as if I were a child. They live for the development and progress of pure thought, thought independent of all emotion. They have been progressing in that pattern for twenty thousand years. The reading of minds is part of that progress, and he told me that when they had at last eliminated all language and all words, they had eliminated all possible misunderstanding between people. They have no crime, no violence, no war.”

“And you say it isn’t dull?” Leesa asked.

“Here is what puzzles me the most. I know he knows about us. He told me to dream about other worlds rather than about his. But the mental word he used was not exactly ‘dream.’ It was more like scan, or measure or survey. I tried to question him and got that grim mental laughter. He said we are powerless to disturb them. When I said I was seeking knowledge, he said that it could do no possible good to give it to me. He said it was too late. Too late for us. He said it would be easier for me to stay away from their world. And then in that odd laughter-of-the-mind, there was sadness for a moment. I had the feeling he had not meant to let me see the sadness. It was very quick, and all I got was something about a great plan having failed. I could feel his pity. I was very glad when I woke up at last.”

“The first two worlds sound much better,” she said.

“I can dream of any world I please now that my first three dreams are done,” he said. “I went to Jord Orlan and he told me the Law.”

“Can you tell me?”

“It is forbidden. But of course I will tell you. We both know too many forbidden things already, Leesa. This is the Law as he told it to me. If ever the dream creatures on any world make machines which will take any of them from their own world to some other world where they can live, then the dreams will end.”