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 5

Arthur didn't remember being brought aboard the ISS ship. Either the Meklar had miscalculated, or he'd intentionally given him a powerful stun blast. He awoke from a pain in his chest.

A tiny square room, nearly identical to the Darlok cell but opaque… from the inside. A toilet, a sink, a foam mattress on the floor. He was lying naked, and a man in powered armor was attaching electrodes to his chest.

"Awake?" Nomachi asked, continuing his work. He slid another platinum needle under the boy's skin and covered it with a fixating film. "Want to know what I'm doing?"

Arthur nodded.

"Very simple, my friend. This is a resuscitation device. If you stop your heart or stop breathing, then the device will take over these functions. Clear?"

The door to the cell opened. Isabella Kal, the woman who had questioned Arthur on Incedios, stood on the threshold. She was wearing the same loose blue skirt and white blouse with wide sleeves. Curtis hadn't recognized her at the house in her powered armor, but now he felt a strange sense of pride. His intuition hadn't failed him. They had fled Incedios right on time, but the ISS managed to catch up to them anyway.

"Are you done, Louis?"

"One second."

"Finish up and go to the bridge. It's too cramped in here."

"I'd rather sweat it out in my armor than let the boy leave," Nomachi said with slight offense in his voice.

"Good job."

Louis glued the control circuit to the boy's skin. He took a fixating spray can and carefully covered Arthur's chest with a transparent film.

"Done."

"Go!"

Nomachi rose, threw a final pleased glance at Arthur, and left awkwardly. Curtis Jr. and Isabella Kal were left alone.

"Here we are again," Kal said almost tenderly, crouching down next to Arthur. "Do you know what I need?"

"A good psychiatrist."

Isabella laughed. Her voice was resonant and happy.

"No, there's no need for that anymore. You're Arthur van Curtis. Are you going to tell me I'm wrong?"

"I'm not going to answer any questions."

"We know how to ask them, Arthur. You've lost, and you don't have a choice."

"Where's Kay?"

"So you want to ask questions? Fine, I'll tell you. Kay will be brought here soon."

"Hah," Arthur said in the most unpleasant voice he could.

"Trusting in his strength? I won't argue. With a dose of luck, a well-trained human can survive a Bulrathi… or kill him. But I don't particularly need Kay. He's just a pawn, covering the king. And the king…" Isabella reached out and patted Arthur's thigh, "…has just been stalemated."

"You know," Arthur said thoughtfully, "I don't feel shy in front of you at all."

A strange expression that turned into a smile appeared on Kal's face.

"Well, you're not twelve, my friend. Your cunning daddy sent you through aTan to trick everyone. But you're sixteen, so I think you've screwed plenty of girls to get used to it…"

"No." Arthur smiled, and Kal didn't like that smile. "I'm normally shy. But I don't give a damn about you. You're already dead. You've been dead from the moment you sicced your gang on Kay and me. I don't feel the need to be shy in front of corpses."

"I guess I'll have to prove to you that I'm alive." Kal's voice didn't promise anything good. But her hands seemed to have a life of their own.

"You won't have aTan, you won't have a job, you won't have a home," Arthur went on. "You'll be exiled to a shithole that won't even have a name. On the personal order of the Emperor… he'll… agree… with van Curtis…"

"So, am I still alive?" Kal laughed.

"You really do need a shrink," Arthur said.

"No, kid. I need aTan, and you're going to tell me how your dad performs the final assembly phase. I need instructions on killing people with a neural network. The last thing I need…" Kal bent down to the boy and whispered, "is the truth about where you're going. What business does Curtis have, if he sends his own son to handle it?"

"You've got bad breath," Arthur said.

"I'm tired of you," Kal informed him. The door to the cell opened, and she rose to her feet. Marjan Mohammadi was looking at them dispassionately. "It's good that you're here. Work on the boy."

"To which extent?"

"3A." Kal gave Arthur a wink. "You'll like it."


The Chance wasn't too heavy. The six-barreled non-targeted automatic laser fire system, also known as the Martyzenski Harp Laser, or "woodcutter" in the soldier vernacular, looked similar to an ancient multi-barreled machinegun. The six barrels spun around the central axis. Each barrel was pointing slightly off-center. When firing, the spinning lasers were activated randomly for different lengths of time, which allowed them to cool down and provided for a wide kill zone. This Vague War-era weapon had the same basic idea as the Ultimatum, meant for poorly trained users or for a lone person engaging a group.

Out of those two, Kay preferred to consider himself a loner. He didn't know how many humans and non-humans he was facing. Henrietta had seen four, but that meant nothing. Of course, he could easily mark the Meklar down as ten foes, as well as the mechanist girl.

He was walking through the garden, trying to find any traces in vain. His enemies were as much professionals as him. It was likely that the ISS ship was already in orbit, and all he would be left with was to look at its launch area, the charred vegetation around it.

Then a burning smell reached Kay. The wind was carrying it from the west. He'd nearly missed his target. The ship had landed very close to the house.

"I hope your garden is insured… Wanda Kahowski," Kay said, taking the Chance off the safety. The barrels of the laser gun hummed quietly, starting to spin. There was no vibration, the harp laser turned out to be very well balanced, and Dutch nodded in satisfaction.