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 3

At night, the Blue Canyons started looking like a fairytale kingdom. Pseudocrystal druses, the pride of Gorra, were too poor in this area for industrial refinement. But they did come out onto the surface of the cliffs, and each star in the cloudless sky gave them a spark of its light. It seemed as if a sleeping city had suddenly opened up around them, with whimsical dark outlines of buildings and dim lights of curtained windows…

"The Family has snatched up a beautiful place," Kay said.

"We like beauty," Lyka agreed. "Are you cold? Should I turn on the screen?"

"No need. The nights on the shallows used to be even colder…" Kay Dutch found Seiker's hand in the darkness and asked her quietly, "Can you see Shedar?"

"I can."

They lay next to one another, still hot from their lovemaking, and the glittering cliffs around them were arguing with the starry sky above. The pad where Seiker had set up her bedchamber crowned a lone bluff, and Kay briefly remembered Curtis and the "office" atop his needle-shaped home. "Have you been there… after…"

"No."

"I have, once. For three days."

"Don't, Kay," Lyka asked.

"The oceans are still boiling, but the land has stopped burning on the central archipelago. The Empire placed a listening post on the Eldest Sister, still automated. It was less affected."

"Why are you telling me this, Kay?"

"It's been a long time since I've seen anyone else from there."

"Why, Dutch?!"

Kay turned, peering into the face, which was young again in the darkness.

"Are there surveillance systems here?"

"There are, but you can ignore them. I'm the Mother-Keeper, Kay. I'll be leading the Family for two more years."

"Lyka, do you remember our oath?"

The woman was silent.

"A dirty cargo hold, and cots stacked up to the ceiling, the stench, a glass of water per day, Sakkra interceptors on our tail…"

"I remember everything!"

"You want to forget, Lyka." A flame of fury blazed in Kay's voice. "Your mother was with you, and your account at the Endorian Bank hadn't been confiscated. I was the one who ended up in the orphanage on Altos. You were growing up in your own home, going to school, and falling in love with blue-eyed Endorian boys. I just got Christmas gifts and birthday cards, thanks for that!"

"Kay! We tried to get you out of there!"

"I can see how much. Especially—"

"Don't speak ill of my mother. She died three years ago. She refused aTan… she knew where the money had come from."

"Sorry. But I waited for four years. A little boy, who believed in the promises of grown-ups."

"Don't torment me, Kay," Lyka whispered. "You waited for forty years to pay me a visit, and all just to—"

"No. Do you remember our oath? I've decided to fulfil it."

Seiker burst out in a quivering, forced laugh.

"All the guilty ones… we'll live until we avenge. Kay! The Sakkra are all gone!"

"It wasn't the Sakkra who burned our fathers."

The woman from Shedar's Second Planet sat on the bed. She asked dryly, "Who are you going to seek revenge against? Life? I came here because I hated the Empire. But even the mafia is just a cog in its machine. Gray could have easily ground us into dust, but why would the Emperor want a thousand rabid rats instead of a single rabid dog? I speak with him every month, Kay! The balance of power and income. This is how things are."

"I have the key to all the power in my hands."

Lyka Seiker was silent for three seconds. Then she said, "The boy. Probability: seventy percent."

"Exactly, Super," Kay spoke with satisfaction. "Your neurons are still in excellent condition. The boy."

Lyka patted his chest, "And here I thought you'd changed your sexual orientation."

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it. Who is he?"

"I won't say… yet. You'll find out everything, in due time."

"Kay, no one speaks to me this way!"

"I have that right… sister."

"Dutch! We're from different families!"

"We were grown in the same test tube. Twenty-nine percent of common genes is enough for familial ties. Do you remember asking your mother if we could get married?"

"I don't have to ask anyone anymore, Kay"

The woman rose, passed along the edge of the pad over the glittering abyss and bent down to the table with drinks.

"I prefer brut, Lyka."

"I remember. I don't like sweet anymore either."

Seiker came back with two champagne glasses. She handed one to Kay and asked, "I can go through aTan if you want. My matrix was taken at twenty-two. I was a very pretty… girl."

"There's a time for everything, Lyka."

"I see."

"Now the time is to remember old oaths."

"Don't apologize, Kay, you don't know how. What do you want?"

"Will you help me without any conditions?"

"I will."

Kay Dutch sat up and took a sip of champagne.

"The best weapons and armor in the galaxy. Your entire information network focused on my goals. Combatants, capable of taking on a Meklar. And no questions."

Seiker remained silent for a long time.

"You will get everything, Kay Dutch."

"Then go and kick your machine into gear. I need to know the location of Isabella Kal, Deputy Commander of the Incedios ISS. She's using an Imperial Security corvette with a hull number that starts with a six. She was supported by Imperial Marines from Lemak's group, which is based at Dogar."

"Fifty-seven percent probability that she's at Dogar."

"Kal threw a dozen marines to their deaths, even though there was a Meklar and a mechanist, configured for operational work, on board."

"Two to one, she's on Incedios."

"She left a Bulrathi and a lowly operative from Incedios to die. I don't need your guesses, Lyka. I need precise information!"

"You're clashing us with the Imperial Forces and the ISS.

"Yes."

"All right," Seiker said. "Wait here."

Kay laughed, placing the glass on the floor. The only place he could go to from the pad was into aTan… on Terra.

When Lyka returned half an hour later, he was already asleep.

"You've always been a thick-skinned shark," Seiker said, lying down next to him. "Immediately falling asleep after…"

"Sharks can't stop even to sleep," Kay replied with an unexpected clarity. "They sleep while moving."

"Then kiss me in your sleep. Be a good boy."

"When one lets someone tame oneself, there come times when one cries," Kay said, turning.

"You don't know how to do either of those things, Dutch."

"The stars cry for me."