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.


Part VII

God's Lair

Chapter 1

T/san was furious. He, having worked at the ISS for twenty-five years, had been held under lock and key for half an hour. They didn't trust him! And all because there happened to be another Meklar among the attackers.

They managed to reach the brig in time; Lemak hadn't yet started the assault. Along the way, Kal had to show her badge to guard posts three times; four soldiers in powered armor and a Hunter presented a nearly impenetrable barrier. Kal thought that had Lemak shown such fervor from the get-go, Kay and his friends would have been captured halfway to the brig.

The Admiral stood in front of a three-legged field console, surrounded by several aides. Farther down the hallway, at the end of which melted doors could be seen, she noted groups of people in armor.

"Are you going in first?" the Admiral inquired, turning away from the screen. Isabella shook her head. "Of course not… Let's move!"

It was as if a metal wave passed through the hallway. Kal squinted as the assault team's armor glowed with plasma flames, and laser beams struck through the door opening.

Some of the members of the team, who had moved too far ahead, were hit by their own comrades and fell, either dead or having decided to take stay down.

"Casualties are unavoidable," Lemak said, glancing at Kal. "But almost all of them have aTan."

The assault team burst into the brig. The majority of them went through the doors, while some groups went straight through the walls. Kal understood that Lemak's soldiers were, at the moment, entering the brig from all directions, but those several dozen people in front of her seemed capable of crushing any resistance.

The shots went silent.

"And that's all there is to it," Lemak said, turning to Kal. Smiling, he placed a hand on her shoulder. Isabella's face twisted in a grimace of fury.

"All? What if the boy has been killed?"

"My people—" Lemak began.

The aide, who had taken his place at the console, stepped up to the Admiral, "Excuse me…"

Lemak broke off.

"They're not in the brig, Admiral. Just three bodies of our people… and that's it."

Kal pushed Lemak aside and ran to the melted door opening. T/san dashed after her.


Kay never overestimated his own abilities. He tended to rely on luck even less.

However, just then, he had no choice but to rely on both.

They came out from the brig very simply, using the same method the base's command staff used to visit the interrogation rooms. This part of Seiker's plan had seemed the most dubious to Kay, but the hypertunnel really was still working. No one had even considered that prisoners would escape from one prison to another.

But in this case, they had a tiny chance instead of none at all.

"A pleasant spot," Andrey said, after Dutch had passed through the hypertunnel, carrying Tommy.

Kay knew what the cyborg meant. The room was an office: a multifunctional console with a comfortable chair, a panoramic screen, a collection of weapons on a concave wall, covered in an ancient tapestry. It would be interesting to dig around in here… if only they had the time.

"Sensors?" Kay asked, stepping off the receiving pad.

"Probably none."

Kay glanced at Tommy. The boy was still stunned, but his eyelids were starting to quiver. The mechanist had given him a full blast.

The hypertunnel activated, and the Meklar appeared in the office. In order to fit within the transition area, he had stood up on his hind legs, turning into something like a statue to a rearing Meklar. He was pressing Arthur to his chest, and Kay once again felt a pang of pain at the sight of the pale-yellow face.

"Do you want to dig around in the computers?" he asked the Meklar and the cyborg.

Kas/s/is took a step away and replied, "I won't chance it."

"Me neither," Andrey answered. "We're even farther from the dock than before, but there is a very nice hallway that leads from here."

The hypertunnel activated one more time. The flunky remained standing where he was, which was a sensible decision; by standing in the receiving area, he was blocking the passage.

"Let's get undressed," Kay said, lowering Tommy to the floor. "Kas/s/is, work on the door."

The armor was very heavy, and, even though they were helping one another, they ended up losing seven precious minutes. Before climbing out of his Seraph, Kay took a sip from the tube near his mouth. The liquid was astringently bitter and had a nauseatingly rotten smell, but "combat cocktails" had never taken first prize at beverage competitions.

"Now I have two hours," Kay said.

"That's enough to either die or escape," the Meklar felt the need to comment, using a free limb to attach a high-ranking ISS emblem to his chest. "According to the plans, there are three more rooms here, with possible guards in the last one. Then there will be Transport Terminal 8 and a hallway to the docks."

Kay adjusted his uniform. Sewn the previous day, it didn't look new, but that wasn't required. A captain's rank insignia and Servant of the Empire, 4th Rank, award ribbons rounded off the image perfectly.

The flunky had become a sergeant, while the cyborg was now a low-ranking ISS agent. Under Tommy's armor, there were only faded gray pajamas, very similar to the one Arthur was wearing. Kay slapped the boy on the cheeks lightly, but there was no reaction.

"Let's go," Kay said, throwing the Excalibur onto his back. "It's time. Andrey, grab Tommy."

They came out through the door that opened before them obediently. The armor was left on the floor in four gray piles. Even if Kay mentally thanked the mindless cermet plates, he wasn't sentimental enough to say it out loud.


Jan Dumbovsky had not been left behind on a secondary guard post because he was a poor soldier. In the very near future, he would get his sergeant stripes and a transfer to the elite First Regiment, commanded by Lemak himself.

Only the fact that he hadn't yet earned enough money to get his first aTan prevented him from participating in the assault on the brig. Over the three years of service, with an almost total lack of expenses, Jan could have afforded immortality for myself, but his parents lived on the impoverished Haxia. Their son's money, who had been fortunate enough to enlist, allowed them to eke out an existence on a planet that had been deemed unpromising.

Jan wore the fifteen kilograms of light armor as lightly as if it was a shirt made of genuine silk, one he couldn't afford. The pulse laser rifle, nested in the crook of his elbow, seemed to be an extension of his right arm.

All in all, Jan was very pleased with himself and didn't think it much of a crime that, when sending a letter to his parents that night, he was going to relay the terrorist attack as if he himself had participated in their capture. Dumbovsky's post was located in front of Lemak's quarters. Jan was marking the time in a recess in the wall, which afforded him good visibility and slight cover, when the door opened. An unfamiliar captain exited into the hallway, brushing something off his uniform sleeve.

Jan stood up straighter. He had taken up the post two hours ago and didn't know if there was anyone in Lemak's quarters. The Admiral frequently worked nights.

But he still aimed his rifle at the stranger. The other man frowned.

"Identification," Jan spoke in a neutral tone. The Captain wordlessly reached into his jacket pocket and handed him the ID. Jan took it with his free hand, glanced at it, and said, "My apologies, Captain Shivaki. We are in a state of alert."

Niazo Shivaki, interrogation specialist, attached to the Endorian Group, put his identification away and asked, "Has the dust settled yet, soldier?"

Jan didn't normally care for such officers, condescendingly benevolent towards the lower ranks. But, just then, he wanted to speak out.

"There was a general notification that the terrorists had been blocked off in the brig. Lemak himself is there."

Shivaki shook his head, clearly disapproving of the Admiral's tendency to be in the very thick of things. He said confidentially, "Barely got here and straight into trouble… How do I get to the infirmary? These pups have gotten pasted from the first ampoule…"

"Tier 3," Jan replied. He was starting to get nervous. The Captain's identification was in order, but…

"Hey, Sergeant!"

A blond guy with a pale emotionless face appeared from behind the door.

"Bring the boys, they're prone to kick the bucket before the Admiral makes it back."

A human cyborg appeared behind the blond guy, holding a slumped child in his hands, followed by a Meklar with an identical load. The cyborg was wearing an ISS uniform, while the alien had a service badge gleaming on his chest scales.

"I need to check your IDs," Jan said. He suddenly felt unbearably cold, and a stream of sweat ran down his back, for some reason. Everyone knew that a teenage boy with classified information had been detained, but Lemak did not perform interrogations in his own office, and, as had been announced, there was a Meklar among the attackers.

"Check," the Captain agreed. Somehow, Jan was certain that everyone's identification, including the alien's, would be fine, and they would pass by him, not to the infirmary, of course, but into a transport pod, which would take them to the docks in two minutes.

Jan also thought that, if he ignored the regulations and let them pass (while warning the guard post at the terminal), then he wouldn't be court martialed, merely discharged for violating the guard duty rules. He would once again work in the mines of Haxia, and his little brother would have to drop out of college and join him in a year or two. Jan pulled the trigger.

He beat the Meklar by half a second. His beam swiped at the blond guy, amputating his arm up to his elbow. Then Kas/s/is's plasma blast ensured that Jan Dumbovsky's parents would get his Imperial pension.

"Shit," Kay Dutch whispered, watching as Andrey lowered Tommy to the floor and bent over the flunky. The guy bared his teeth, holding back a scream, but there was no fear in his expression. The Family's doctors knew how to suppress the self-preservation instinct. The Meklar approached Kay, "The plan has failed. Even if this kid figured out what's going on, then the guard posts at the transport nodes won't let us through."

"He became suspicious that we came out of these rooms."

"He became suspicious of me. What do we do with the flunky?"

Kay walked silently towards Andrey. The cyborg stepped aside, and Kay looked down at the wounded man. For a moment, their eyes met, and Kay looked away.

"Do it… quickly…" the guy whispered.

"I'm sorry," Kay said, taking the Excalibur from his shoulder. He felt a burst of heat from the soundless flash, then Dutch pulled the trigger. Andrey was already picking Tommy up.

"We're going with Plan B," Kay decided.