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 9
Kal screamed when the boat struck the shield. White flames flared on the screens, which consumed all her hopes.
"No! No!" Kal repeated.
Lemak seemed to grow old again: he was slouching over the console, ignoring the reports of the crew and the messages of the central computer appearing on the monitors.
"Send your people!" Kal was screaming, shaking Lemak by his shoulder. "Why are you delaying?!"
"Send them where? To catch photons?" The Admiral turned to her heavily. "They've been turned into energy and left into aTan. In an hour, Curtis van Curtis is going to find out about our little hunt for his son, and, an hour after that, he's going to be speaking with the Emperor. They're already on Terra, you fool!"
Kal swept the bridge with a mad gaze. Then she stared at the planet floating under the ship.
"Into aTan. But there's an aTan facility here too, Lemak! They could be on Grail! All they needed to do was to get close to the planet, since resurrection takes place at the nearest company facility. Lemak, land the ship!"
"This isn't a boat, Kal. She can't land on a planet." Notes of life appeared in Lemak's voice. "We could use drop pods, but they're under lockdown."
Isabella jerked, as if imagining the hours it would take to reactivate the pods; meanwhile, Arthur Curtis would be on the very planet he'd been trying to reach.
"Let's follow them, Lemak."
The Admiral raised his head, "You're insane, Kal."
Isabella turned and looked at Marjan; it was too bad that mechanists rejected aTan. She switched her gaze to Louis and unfastened her holster. Her voice was as soft as velvet.
"Nomachi, we're going to have to go after them. Through aTan."
Louis took a step back, throwing his hand up, as if it could protect him from a beam. He muttered slowly, as if in a dream, "Kal, I don't have a lot of money, the prices on Dogar are so high—"
"I'll pay you back for this aTan," Kal said, pulling the trigger. Nomachi dropped, and, a moment later, Isabella was knocked down by Lemak.
"You idiot! Have you gone insane?! You can't shoot on the bridge."
"Your pieces of metal are tough… tougher than people…" Kal giggled, switching her gaze from Lemak to two officers, who were already holding her at gunpoint. "Help me, Admiral."
Fury and reason were struggling in Lemak's mind. He looked at a marine sergeant who had run up to him and ordered, "Shoot her. For attempting a mutiny aboard a ship in the middle of a combat operation."
"Gladly," Ralph Gordon said. His first shot burned off Kal's legs, the second one mutilated her chest, and only the third shot hit her head.
"My shooting hasn't been up to par lately," Ralph noted, putting away the pistol. "My apologies, Admiral."
"Three days in the brig," Lemak said, staring at the still-quivering remains. "For an insufficient level of combat readiness."
Ralph saluted and turned around. If the Admiral heard him mutter "I'd do thirty-three…", he didn't react.
Mohammadi was still standing near Louis's body. Lemak looked at the mechanist for a second, then he said, "Help my people prepare a drop pod. I imagine you're good with technology, Marjan."
"Happy to help." Stepping over Louis's body, the mechanist headed for the exit.
She had indeed sped up the pod's reactivation. With her help, the technicians would have been able to finish the job in three hours, but only two hours into it, the operational headquarters of the Dogar Group contacted the destroyer. Lemak listened to his deputy's report, gave the appropriate orders, and the ship left the planet's orbit. The acceleration was brief, since the destroyer wasn't suffering from power limitations. She jumped into hyperspace while the planet still looked like a small disk.
Grail couldn't hope to have a complete aTan facility. The corporation had placed a minimal trefoil-type structure there. Then again, even two simultaneous clients were an infrequent occurrence on Grail. It was possible, of course, for a pair of miners, who had managed to make enough money selling zot crystals for immortality, to end up in a collapse.
The staff would remember this day for a long time.
"We've got a signal!"
Karen Browdie was almost dancing at the controls. Kay Ovald, a merchant from Endoria; how the hell had he ended up this far out? From the Emperor's home planet. People said that all Endorians were incredibly attractive and genuinely aristocratic. Just like on that show Ice Throne.
She was a native of Grail, very young, and still had her naiveté and optimism. Karen noticed the signals on the parallel monitors, which hadn't been manned, only a minute later. Then she dashed to the videophone to summon the next shift.
Kay Dutch realized he was alive once more. His eighth death had been a light one, far from the one before that. Just a moment of darkness.
There were no longer any aches in his overloaded muscles, no more itching in his armored skin. There was only fear. He opened his eyes.
"Everything is all right, you're alive," a thin girl in aTan uniform said. "You're safe, don't worry."
She herself could have used some more calm. Kay glanced at the glowing tableau. "Grail."
He'd broken through. His aTan had been paid for, and, contrary to Curtis's plan, Terra wasn't the only place where they activated a replicator. He now had two bodies instead of the one he'd lost in the flame of nuclear decay. Curtis van Curtis had one, and the other one was on the planet, where, in Arthur's opinion, God lived. But only one body was capable of attaining a complete mind, the one that was created first.
"Thanks for the efficiency," Kay said. The girl flushed. Then, immediately growing serious, she started in an official tone, "What is your name?"
"Kay Ovald, Endoria, code three-nine-six-three-one-four-nine-one. I'm perfectly fine. I'm of sound mind and clear memory."
Lowering his feet from the cold disk, Kay habitually felt for the cheap clothes and started to get dressed. The girl was staring at him in confusion.
"No, really, thank you." Putting on the pants, Kay smiled gratefully. "I'm not new at this, miss. It's my second time."
The girl nodded, a little calmer now.
"I wasn't alone," Kay said, feeling his heart speed up. "Is everything all right?"
But nothing could be all right. Two neural networks with identical numbers were simultaneously transmitting two separate signals. Sure, no one ever bothered to check the structure of the number, a long sequence of meaningless digits. But how would the computer treat this signal? As an error? Except there couldn't be any errors in aTan. As one signal? Probably.
Arthur and Tommy, how would you handle being in a single skull?
And who would be the one to find this out: Curtis van Curtis or Dutch?
"Your boys are alive." The girl looked deeply moved. It was only natural, as children rarely had aTan.
"Boys?"
"The process is almost over… or is already over. Forgive me, Mr. Ovald, but is it an Endorian custom to give twins the same name?"
"Probably," Kay whispered.
Machines. Just machines that couldn't make mistakes. No one had ever required them to compare different signals. Arthur Ovald, twelve years old, aTan – paid for. Again, Arthur Ovald, twelve years old, aTan – paid for. The numbers are correct. Resurrection permission granted. For both. Right?
Kay felt that there was a gap in his logic. No, it was impossible…
But it had happened, hadn't it? The cards had been dealt, and there were two Jacks of Hearts on the table. And no one was surprised.
But who had ended up with the twin cards?
"You're very nice. What's your name?" Kay asked.
"Karen." The girl was embarrassed again. God, what kind of a planet was this… a preserve of innocence.
"Take me to my children, Karen. I'm very worried about them."
Unlike the woman on Incedios, Karen didn't start quoting rules.
"Let's go, sir. You died… excuse me, did your trouble happen in space?"
"Yes, we hit an asteroid," Kay said grimly. For a girl who only knew about space from TV this was a good enough reason.
They left the resurrection module into a small square hall. There was a door in each wall: three identical ones and one that appeared to lead to service areas.
"There and there," Karen said. Then she added in an apologetic tone, "We only have three modules, so the woman will have to wait. Her signal came later."
"Woman?"
"Oh, you're not together? I thought… Almost immediately after you, there were two more signals. A man and a woman from ISS. But the man's aTan hadn't been paid for. You know, it's so sad, when a person could have extended his life, but couldn't pay…"
Not waiting for her to finish, Kay stepped to one of the doors. Well then, Kal was still on their heels. At least she was alone.
"Hold on, there's a tactile lock here." Karen pressed her palm against a sensor plate, and Kay moved past her to enter the module. He was just in time; the lattice of the aTan emitter was already sliding up, revealing a small naked body that lay motionless on a white disk. An employee, a lot older than Karen but, in some ways, similar to her, threw a quick glance at them and bent over the boy.
For a moment, Kay thought he had lost. The body (Arthur's? Tommy's?) remained motionless. Then the woman said, "Everything is all right, buddy. You're fine. You're alive. This is the aTan Corporation."
The boy lifted himself up on his elbows, and Kay caught his eye. Arthur? Tommy? The employees would accept only one answer.
"Son! Arthur!" Kay shouted, running to the boy. "Arthur, you… It's you, Arthur!"
"Sir, you have to leave!" There was irritation in the woman's voice. "Young man, do you remember everything? What's your name?"
"Arthur." And Tommy gave Kay a barely perceptible wink. Dutch started to back away, grabbed Karen's hand, and they ran out of the module.
"I'm going to get an earful from Mom for that," the girl said, although she didn't really look panicked. "As you can see, aTan is flawless."
"Please."
Karen silently opened the second door, remaining on the threshold. But Kay had no intention of entering; he saw that Arthur, sitting on the edge of the disk, was telling something to a short olive-skinned aTan worker.
"Thank you," Kay said. "You're very kind."
He took Karen by the shoulders and kissed her on the lips. This didn't result in embarrassment, as the girl was still intoxicated by the strange erotic charge that surrounded the resurrected, which attracted so many sexophiles to working at aTan.
"Our psychologist will be here in a minute," Karen said, freeing herself slowly. "I doubt you need him, but—"
"We're in a hurry." Kay shook his head. "We do have a right to leave immediately, don't we?"
"Yes, but up there, it's—"
"War?"
"Of course not! It's night!"
Kay laughed, still holding the girl. Night. Just night. True, he wouldn't say not to supper and normal sleep. Arthur even more so, he had no doubt about that.
But, in several minutes, this naïve girl would start resurrecting Isabella Kal, who had a right to carry heavy weapons and was capable of putting the entire Grail ISS office on alert, no matter how provincial or sluggish it was.
"Forgive me, Karen, but we really are in a hurry," Kay said. "We're in such a hurry, that we're forced to sacrifice sleep and your excellent complimentary breakfast."
