Dreamworms Book 1: The Advent of Dreamtech

by Isaac Petrov

  “And how do you want to do it, huh?” Edda is frowning now. “Blow everything up? Get some explosives, and boom?! People could get hurt, Aline. We cannot do that.”

  “Well, no, of course not. Blowing up was more of an expression. I mean… incapacitate, sabotage.”

  “Come on. The more you speak, the smaller it gets. It’s like with the barge. You said it yourself, they will just pour karma over the wound and a day later everything goes back to normal.”

  “Not a day. A week at least. A month if we get creative. And we will!”

  “Even if it’s a year, sister. That’s not the point. The whole idea is just… too small, too local. Think about it. What would we really achieve? Who would care outside of Lunteren? We would only harm our neighbors.” Edda points at the rack filled with bicycles, next to the factory entrance. “Even your own family would be out of commission.”

  Aline purses her lips and resumes the walk in sour silence.

  “Think about it, Aline,” Edda says, catching up. “You’re talking about a little stunt here in the world’s ass. Not even our neighbors in Geldershire really give a shit about who pisses on whom in Lunteren. It’s just the truth, mensa.”

  Aline gives Edda a glare out of the corner of her eye. “All you care about is your dad. That is the real truth, mensa.”

  “This is not about my dad! You cannot be blind to the opportunity, Aline. In a few days, all the eyes of Germania will be set on our little backyard. When will something like that ever happen again? This could win us the trial, yeah? Truth is, if we want to win, it’s got to be big. Bigger than whatever Gotthard and the Smook assholes come up with, because I’m not Elder Yog’s favorite human of late.”

  Aline rolls her eyes. “Understatement of the century.”

  “Quaestor jokes aside, it’s like Goah awsself keeps waving the Century Festival right in front of our nose; like Goah wants this.”

  Aline snorts. “Oh, so pious now. It wasn’t Goah, Edda. It was you.”

  “Are you serious?” Edda’s voice is more severe now. “Are you saying that you don’t want to take advantage of the Festival taking place right here?”

  “It’s too risky, Edda.”

  “Too risky?!”

  “Yes, Goah’s Mercy! The risk is huge. If they catch us… Wait!”

  They step aside while a pedal cart, filled with still-flopping catch, passes by towards the colony. They remain silent until the electric buzz fades behind them.

  “They won’t catch us, Aline,” Edda says, keeping her voice calm and controlled. “But even if they did, what could they do? Throw us in jail a few days?” She scoffs. “Been there, done that. Worth the risk any day. Listen, we are not hurting anybody. It’s not like your idea.” Edda gestures with her thumb back at the receding factory. “Sorry, sister, but if they catch us sabotaging the livelihood of our neighbors, then we are fucked for real. And you call my plan risky?”

  Aline snorts. “You are being naive. You think you can do something so big, with no consequences? They’ll cleanse us for starters if they catch us.”

  “They can’t! Aws Compacts protects us.”

  “They’ll wipe their asses with aws Compacts and our sacred rights if they catch us, Edda. Come on, you are always the cynic; you know your history better than I do. But now you’re just fooling yourself. Or worse, trying to fool me.”

  Edda walks in silence, the weak afternoon breeze playing with her hair and tunic. A horse cart passes by on its way to the market, loaded with shellfish on ice. Ximena eagerly sniffs the lingering fresh smell. The driver shouts a curt “Happy Days of Lights, Juf Edda!” but Edda ignores him, too lost in her thoughts.

  Ximena can feel the conflict burning in her mind. Aline is right when she says the risk is real. But the goahdamn Century Festival taking place in Lunteren is so… improbable. No, improbable doesn’t even begin to do justice to the chances of this opportunity happening naturally. Edda was not kidding when she said that it is as if Goah wanted it. And what else is there on the table, anyway? What could they do that that could have even a fraction of the impact? They are out of ideas. No, they must seize the chance, risks be dammed. You have to crack an egg to eat it, don’t you?

  “There is risk, sister. You are right,” Edda finally says, her voice a notch graver. “But this is bigger than any of us. Imagine a world without Joyousday, Aline. We could begin something here. Something that could have unimaginable impact in the lives of millions of people one day. Ideas spread like fire when the straw dries of hope.”

  Aline shakes her head slowly. “Have you heard the Quaestor’s sermons recently? I can tell you, she is not in the mood for… extravagances.”

  “Extravagances? That’s how you see my dad’s Joyousday?”

  Aline sighs. “You know I don’t. It’s not so simple, Edda. You know I support you—with all my heart. My mom… I tried to convince her… Our home is so empty now. You can’t…” She looks down, unable to speak.

  Edda places her hand on Aline’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry—I really am. I loved her so much. I miss her too.”

  “I know.”

  They walk in silence. The breeze brings the salty fragrance of the sea, clearly visible now at the end of the road, the sinking sun timidly reflecting on its pale-blue surface.

  “But the Quaestor…” Aline breaks the silence. “It’s such a big deal now, with the Festival and all… I’m scared.”

  “Of course you are; you’re not stupid. You don’t think I’m not shitting myself too? But we must be brave—this is bigger than us. And they won’t catch us. Impossible. And if they do, I’d assume responsibility. I swear to Goah, you know it’s true.”

  “And how are you going to convince them that you, a schoolteacher, knew how to build such a machine? From books?”

  “Well… Of course!”

  “I’m sorry, Edda, but this is too risky.” She turns to meet her gaze. “No goahdamn Path in the Shadow is worth losing you as well—I’m sorry.”

  Edda gives her friend a long, cool glare. “So, I’m supposed to take that shit? I’m supposed to say, ‘Fuck it, too dangerous?’ Too risky to save my dad? To even try?”

  Aline sinks her head and keeps walking in silence.

  “I helped you and Piet with that action on the barge—no questions asked. I fought and killed that asshole alien. I risked my own qualification in the trial. Only for you. Thanks to me, you are in the final trial. And now it’s my turn! If we win, if we learn how to persuade, I can convince my dad to stop his Joyousday. You had your chance with your mom, Aline. Sorry to say, but you were too… timid. It’s my turn, and I will not be timid!”

  Aline keeps walking in sullen silence.

  “It’s my turn, goahdammit!” Edda says, tears showing in her eyes.

  Aline looks at her, but says nothing.

  “Shit, Aline…” She begins to weep. “My dad… Please…”

  They take a few more steps in silence, Edda trying to control her sobs—and failing.

  Aline suddenly begins to cry as well. “I couldn’t… convince her.”

  “I know,” Edda says. “I’m so sorry!” And they embrace each other. A long, tear-filled embrace.

  After unceremoniously drying their faces on their sleeves, they keep walking towards the noisy harbor.

  “Hans is awake.” Aline caresses the toddler on Edda’s back who is looking around the open field with big, curious eyes.

  “No wonder, after so much drama—he’s the sensitive type, like his mother.” Edda smiles, her eyes still sad. “Isn’t that Piet’s boat over there?”

  Aline turns to her friend and grabs her with both hands. “Okay, I’ll do it!”

  Edda’s eyes grow wide. She gapes at Aline, speechless.

  “I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Aline continues, wetting her lips. “We are doing this, Edda. We’ll take the Century Festival by the balls. I’ll build the fucking machine, on one condition.”

  “Anything!”

&n
bsp; “Promise me we are not doing this just for us.”

  “I promise!”

  “Swear by Goah. I need to know that the risk is worth it. Tell me we are making a difference here, Edda. That this really is bigger than us.”

  “It is!” Edda places her right hand over her chest. “I solemnly swear by Goah. We are not doing this for us. We are doing it for the people.”

  “Look me in the eye, Edda. We are not doing this just for your dad, are we?”

  “I told you already, Goah’s Mercy! All I want is a better world.”

  Twenty-Five

  Aline’s Machine

  “What’s taking so long?” Edda asks.

  Aline shrugs, and bites her lower lip with impatience as she paces the infinite stone floor of the staging permascape. They are alone this time in the eerie emptiness of the nothing-dream.

  “Remarkable,” Rew says.

  Edda and Aline—and Ximena—jump at the suddenness of her soft, female voice. She has just popped into existence next to them, and is floating an inch over the dark, polished stone as if she had always been there.

  “I hate when you do that,” Edda says. “So, what’s the holdup? Still didn’t work?”

  “Still did not, Redeemed van Dolah. The human—”

  “Elder Aaij,” Edda corrects.

  “Elder Aaij does show remarkable resistance to your intrusion.”

  “Our intrusion? You mean yours?”

  “I do mean your intrusion, Redeemed van Dolah. I do experience no difficulty intruding into the hu— Elder Aaij’s dreamscape. Alas, when I meld your halos into his, the threading fails to materialize. I do admit this is beyond my experience.”

  “But how can that be?” Edda asks. “You had no trouble melding dozens of humans together that time with Consul Levinsohn, yet now you cannot get us into a dream with a single man?”

  “Maybe Elder Aaij is awake,” Aline says.

  “He does sleep,” Rew says. “And does dream, as his halo conveys. The trouble lies elsewhere. There seems to be an incompatibility clash due to your intentions. I do know this, as I clearly sense the nature of the rejection of Elder Aaij’s psyche—it does react against your hostility, and thus rejects the Second Wake threading like an immune system rejects a preying germ. When we did meld with your Consul Levinsohn, there were no hostile intentions tainting your human halos. Now there are.”

  “Come on,” Edda says, “that cannot be. We are not hostile. We only want him to get out of the Joyousday House at midnight during the Century Festival. What’s wrong with that?”

  Aline nods, and adds, “We are just trying to motivate him to take a pause, or go to the Forum to join the celebrations, or whatever.”

  “You are thus planning to deceive Elder Aaij into leaving the post he has been commissioned to guard, and so violate his duty. Deception coats your Second Wake halos like antigens coat an intruding virus.” Rew speaks now like she is thinking aloud. “This must be yet another human weakness. Human halos have never sustained the evolutive pressure to smooth its intent. Most remarkable indeed. And an unfortunate complication.”

  “Complication? Pure sin!” Edda spreads her hands indignantly. “All that training, all that suffering, and for what? How in Goah’s Name are we going to get anything done with all this,” she moves her fingers in the air, “dream magic if we can’t even get into other people’s heads?!”

  “You can intrude, Redeemed van Dolah. There lies not the problem. Your hostile intention is.”

  “Pure sin! What are we going to do now, huh? Impose our oh so mighty will with caresses, cuddles and kisses?”

  “They did indeed prove effective with Consul Levinsohn.”

  Aline laughs out loud as Edda throws her hands up in the air in exasperation.

  Rew raises her right arm in a very human gesture. “Do not disappoint me, Redeemed van Dolah, Woman Speese. Both of you do possess gifted brains—for a human. Stop using them to engage in futile bickering and do use them to readjust your perspective.”

  Edda and Aline frown at Rew in confusion.

  Rew continues, “I shall attempt to assist. Redeemed van Dolah,” Rew turns her white empty eyes at her, “do explain why Elder Aaij must evacuate the Joyousday House.”

  Edda sighs the sigh of a Juf explaining a simple concept to a distracted student. “We are going to set fire to the goahdamn place.”

  “With incendiary devices,” Aline adds. “I’ll attach hand clocks with automatic triggers so that at precisely midnight—”

  Rew has raised her arm again. “I do not care for your plan, nor am I allowed to meddle in its conception or execution. But do allow me to suggest to you how to use your brain with a simple question: if you do fail to get Elder Aaij out of the building, shall you abort your plans?”

  Edda and Aline blink and exchange a long glance.

  Aline says, “We are not about to burn Elder Aaij alive, if that’s what you mean.”

  “I mean nothing, Woman Speese. Do answer the question, please.”

  “Of course we would cancel the plan, yeah?” Edda says. “But I’m sure—”

  Rew interrupts her, “Do allow me a suggestion—not as a collaborator, but as your instructor in the way of the mind. Do rearrange your priorities, and your motivations shall rearrange themselves. Do make it your goal to destruct of the building.”

  “But that’s already our top priority,” Aline says.

  “No, sister,” Edda says, and wets her lips. “I think I know where Elder Rew is coming from. Our top priority is to keep Elder Aaij safe.”

  “Hmm, yes, of course.”

  “Therefore, we are trying to go into his dreams to trick him out of the building. Which doesn’t work because—”

  “—deception and all that, yes. So what?”

  Edda smiles and gives Rew a sidelong glance. “If we decide that we are going to set the building on fire, no matter what, even with Elder Aaij inside, then we’d go into his dreams not to trick him, but to—”

  “—save his life, of course!” Aline smiles, eyes beaming. “Let’s try that!”

  “It is not easy,” Rew says. “Far from it. You do need to truly accept your priorities, and not merely deceive yourself, as humans are so fond of. In this one instance you must commit to destroying the building, and thus collaterally terminate Elder Aaij.”

  “So we kill him, right?” Edda looks at Aline, shrugs, and says, “This is bigger than us, sister, so yeah, I’m in. What about you?”

  Aline shuts her eyes and draws a deep breath. “All right,” she finally says. “We are killing poor Elder Aaij. His family will be destroyed, and we will be responsible—criminally responsible—unless we find a way of saving his life. Is that better, Elder Rew?”

  Rew nods in that slow, awkward way of hers.

  Elder Aaij is sitting in the entrance hall of the Joyousday House. Usually empty, he has brought in a foldable table and a chair for guard duty. It is not a small room, but the large fiery eyes painted on the left and right walls make it eerily oppressive. Ximena feels the strong emotions that this place elicits in Edda. Aline’s expression is similarly tense.

  By the light of two candles—the only sources of light in the room—Elder Aaij is studying a chess board, its wooden pieces casting quivering shadows. He occasionally turns his attention to the well-read book set wide open next to the board. Ximena can discern chess diagrams spread across its pages.

  “Uh, Elder Aaij?” Edda says. She is standing to the left of the big, chubby man, while Aline is on his right. Rew keeps to herself, closer to the entrance. “Can he hear us?” Edda asks Rew.

  “Only if you will it. You do not, thus he cannot. Were he a trained Walker of the Mind, his dream sense would immediately react to your presence.”

  “So we are invisible,” Edda says, wide-eyed. “So sexy! How did you bring us here, Elder Rew? Into his dream, I mean? I want to learn the trick!”

  “Regretfully, the Second Wake and the melding of minds are the exclus
ive domain of the Path in the Shadow, and I am forbidden to share such knowledge at the moment. Furthermore, although the Second Wake grants considerable power to the traverser, it is also dangerous—mortally so. Proper training is of the essence. Training which only the team that tops the trial shall be granted access to.”

  “So unfair,” Edda mutters.

  Rew says, “At the very least you do already possess a critical piece of knowledge: that you must erase all hostile intentions from your human mind to enter the mind of another human. This is indeed new to me as well. I shall reveal this crucial fact to the other trial candidates when my duties in this session are over.”

  “No, please!” Edda says. “Keep it between us, okay?”

  “Alas, I cannot. It is in the interest of the Reseeding effort to promote the worthiest human into Walkers of the Mind.”

  “What is the Reseeding effort?” Aline asks.

  Rew doesn’t reply immediately. She stares at Aline in silence for a second or two before saying, “It is the ultimate reason we marai revealed our presence to you.” Her voice is a notch slower than usual. “It is how we satisfy our urge to save humankind from extinction and make it bloom anew.”

  “Aha,” Edda says. “Well, we’re sure as Dem in, huh, sister?”

  “And we’ll begin,” Aline says, pointing a finger at the sitting man, “by saving Elder Aaij’s life. How do we convince him to leave his guard post by New Year’s Eve at midnight?”

  “Hmm,” Edda says, tapping her chin. “We test some ideas on this dream until we find the one with which we can get him out.”

  “Easier said than done,” Aline says. “Got any ideas?”

  “Nope. Let’s brainstorm.” She squints at the guard. “What do we really know about Elder Aaij?”

  Something barks and begins to scratch the outside of Joyousday House’s door, attracting the immediate attention of Elder Aaij. He stands heavily up and opens the door, a frown on his face.