This is a fan translation of Line of Dreams (Линия грёз) by the Russian science fiction and fantasy author Sergei Lukyanenko. The novel can be considered a fan fiction of the original Master of Orion game.
Chapter 11
The house was made of wood, all three floors of it. Any Terran would have been amazed. Arthur Curtis, though, was used to even greater luxury.
He went down to the first floor into a spacious hall. There was nobody there; Henrietta's husband was probably very interested in his work… or in the people who gathered in the climatizer facility. There was just a black cat napping in one of the low wide chairs. Its only reaction to a quiet "kitty-kitty" was a look of contempt.
A coffee table with a transparent top was covered in a pile of magazines: gardening, the social life of the Empire and Tauri, fashion. A normal collection for a well-off Taurian woman, who was counting on a speedy aTan. Only a recent issue of the Imperial Military Review that could be seen under a Gossiper fell outside that picture. Arthur wanted to skim the magazine but, for some reason, felt embarrassed by the wish. He would have time for that later. Opening the door, which he was surprised to learn was unlocked, he went out of the house.
And found himself in an endless garden.
Tauri had been a paradise from the beginning. Soft climate, fertile soil, plenty of calm rivers and small lakes, as well as two medium-sized oceans. The planet was colonized after the Vague War by hundreds of millions of demobilized servicemen and women, who hadn't been in a hurry to get back to their worlds, overgrown with factories, exhausted with endless production, and poisoned by waste. They had settled a paradise and bettered it to their taste.
Gardens, separated by token enclosures, family estates, small settlements and cities, which served as cultural and educational centers, that was Tauri. The ISS office on the planet employed only locals. The Imperial spaceport seemed like a pitiful parody of the planetary transportation center, from which an endless chain of cargo ships was taking off, carrying fresh fruit, frozen fruit, jams, wines, everything that could be sold. No other planet in the Empire possessed as many freedoms and allowances, no other world participated as little in Empire-wide projects or paid such token taxes.
But Emperor Gray remembered well on whose shoulders he'd risen to power and who had crushed the alien armies. He rewarded the military elite, who had survived the Vague War, for all eternity. Those currently serving in the Imperial Forces knew that.
Arthur went down a stone path past beds with unfamiliar flowers, then turned back to look at the house. The wooden walls were nearly white, with a slight amber hue, as if the house had been built only recently. A light breeze rustled the tree branches, but there were no more sounds than that. The air was filled with a sweet deep-seated smell.
"Hey, Marettan!"
He turned around. A girl was rushing towards him of his… outward age. She was tanned, with a thin ponytail on the back of her head, wearing a short skirt and a white boyish t-shirt. She had a belt thrown over her shoulder with a metal disk dangling from it.
"Hi!" the girl said, getting closer. "Was that you who ended up in a sump yesterday?"
There was nothing offensive in her tone, just a slight envy over Arthur's adventure. He decided not to argue.
"It was."
"My name's Rachelle. You're Arthur, I know."
"How?"
"My dad was at the climatizer yesterday, when you were brought in."
"Does he work there?" Arthur inquired.
"No, why? They have daily get-togethers there with cider and VR. The station has very powerful computers, so they use them." Rachelle fell silent, examining Arthur. Then, having clearly come to a decision, shook her bangs. "Come with me."
"Where?"
"You'll see. Come on, it's cool!"
Curtis Jr. hesitated. Not because of a possible trap; the girl didn't appear dangerous, plus Kay had been fairly certain of his safety. It was just that Arthur had plenty of experience going on tours with girls his age. As a rule, he would have to listen to some boring nonsense about the local sights. Often enough, he would also have to endure a slobbery and inexperienced kiss.
Then again, Rachelle was behaving herself completely freely. Either she had no intention of practicing her future coquetry on the Marettan, or… her kiss could turn out to be not entirely unpleasant.
"Let's go," Arthur agreed.
Rachelle was taking him by using a sixth sense of some sort. For Arthur, all directions had disappeared after the first several minutes. The cloudless sky overhead, as blue as on Terra, the trees that grew equidistantly from one another, the ground, soft from the centuries of falling leaves. And the silence, silence everywhere, even the rustling of the grass underfoot grated the ear.
Tauri had never known war and, if he believed Kay, then even crime here was a rare and minor occurrence. Was it because the planet had been settled by people tired of killing?
"Are you going to be here long?" Rachelle asked. Arthur shook his head.
"Too bad." The girl really did sound disappointed. "I don't have many friends here; everyone lives far away."
It seemed she had absolutely no doubt in the inevitability of their friendship. Then again, Rachelle didn't allow herself to dwell on it for too long.
"Were you given permission to pick fruit off the trees?"
"Yeah."
"Get me an apple. That yellow one."
Arthur jumped and pulled a branch down. He broke the flexible stalk and silently handed the apple to the girl.
"We don't like to pick something in other people's gardens without permission here," Rachelle explained, taking a bite of the apple. "Thanks."
"What about picking up from the ground?" Arthur defiantly kicked at an apple that looked no worse than the one he had picked. Rachelle burst out laughing, "Well… sure… but who's going to do that? We don't even sell them. Arthur, why are you wearing a jacket?"
"Still cold from the climatizer," Arthur grumbled. Even on Terra, no one treated natural produce in such a barbaric manner. Military orders had ruined the ecology of the Old Planets.
"We're almost there," Rachelle informed him, ignoring his tone. "Can you hear?"
Arthur could indeed hear a noise, the even humming of running water.
"I wanted to go for a swim," Rachelle told him. "But I can't go alone, someone has to hold the 'leash'."
It was then that Curtis Jr. realized what disk was dangling off the girl's shoulder. An invisible and extremely strong force line, which appeared when the button was pressed, pulled the person to the "leash". They were used by construction workers, mountain climbers, even parents sometimes forced their children to go swimming with a "leash". But Arthur had never before met a normal twelve-year-old, even a girl, who would wear a "leash" voluntarily.
"Do you know how to use it?" Rachelle asked and handed the metal disk to him. The humming of the water grew closer, and a blue ribbon gleamed through the trees.
"I do," Arthur admitted gloomily. The descendants of the heroes of the Vague War had to have really degenerated, if they wouldn't go swimming on their warm planet without a "leash".
"Just don't mess up," Rachelle said seriously, pulling off her t-shirt without stopping. She was wearing an orange swimsuit, which consisted of a sturdy belt and a little fabric, since more wasn't yet necessary. A ring was gleaming on the back of the belt for the "leash's" carabiner.
They came out to the river, and Arthur froze. The banks had been covered in concrete, since regular soil would have eroded quickly. The river was flowing from the purple shimmering of the compensation zone. The icy, cold-blowing, eddying current roared about ten meters below them.
"Not much water today," Rachelle said with concern in her voice. "Might be shallow…"
"Are you really going in there?" Arthur waved his head.
"Where else? Into the drain passage with fertilizer?" Rachelle pulled her skirt down. "A hundred meters downstream, and then onto the shallow."
Arthur could see the shallow. A flat concrete plane, gradually rising from the water. The river narrowed in that area, swirled, and vanished underground. Other canals appeared about fifty meters around that spot, like blue spokes in an enormous wheel. The water in them was calm and muddy. The canals disappeared into the gardens.
"Attach the carabiner," Rachelle requested, turning her back to him.
"Why not swim right from the climatizer?" Arthur asked, not moving.
"Are you stupid or something? The water there is ice-cold, I won't be able to bear it for more than a minute! Attach it."
Arthur took a small nickel-plated carabiner from a clamp. Then he decisively slid his hand under the swimsuit's belt.
"I'm going to slap you!" the girl promised calmly.
"Don't be an idiot." Arthur jerked on the belt. "Are you sure it's going to hold?"
"It's not my first time swimming."
Arthur attached the carabiner. Rachelle watched him switch the safety off on the "leash" and power it up.
"The charge is low…"
"Enough for a few pulls. I'll try to swim out onto the shallow, but if the whirlpool pulls me in, turn it on. How's your eyesight?"
"Better than an Alkari's."
"Then watch…"
Taking a running start, the girl squealed and leapt from the concrete bank.
"Oh, what a fool," Arthur whispered, peering into the foaming water.
Rachelle had already had an opportunity to dry by the time Arthur carefully came down to her on the concrete slabs. Only her legs were still covered by the drizzle from the roaring whirlpool.
"Want to suntan?" she asked.
Curtis Jr. started to undress. Then he asked, "Do you have aTan, at least?"
"You're funny. Who gives aTan to kids?"
"Curtis van Curtis."
"We haven't met him yet," Rachelle laughed. "Do you want to go for a swim?"
"Where am I going to attach the carabiner? My ear?"
"Your tongue! We'll think of something…" Rachelle suddenly pressed her face into the hot slab and suggested though laughter, "If you want, I can give you…"
"Yeah, right!" Arthur stated with feeling.
Eventually, they decided that the belt from his jeans, if tightened around his chest, would hold the rip of the "leash". An hour later, Arthur was able to confirm that. But his shoulders continued to ache for the rest of the day.
