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
They hadn't driven on the dirt road for long, after it melted away in the rocky hills, where the car's wheels were throwing up fountains of thin white dust. Arthur drove until sunrise, then he stopped and woke Kay and Tommy up. They ate some smoked meat, sealed in rough plastic wrapping, then Arthur fell asleep, and Kay got behind the wheel. He drove for another ten kilometers, chatting with Tommy and listening to the radio. Grail appeared to have only two stations: the planetary and the Imperial one. At noon, the music playing on the planetary station was interrupted, and they heard the Emperor's address. Gray only said what Kay had been expecting for the past ten days: the Empire was at war with the Darloks. The cause was an explosion at the Imperial embassy on Nazin, the central planet of the Darlok Unity, but Dutch only chuckled, remembering the Shield special operative Vyacheslav. He didn't expect any upheavals from the war, since the Alkari Union, the only ally of the Darloks, had plenty of problems of its own. The Trinary Alliance, based on the Imperial fleet, Bulrathi marine detachments, and Meklar equipment, was currently the strongest power in the galaxy. It was possible that, had the Emperor's goal been the complete and total destruction of the ancient race, the Silicoids would have gotten involved, the Psilon Confederation would have started moving, and the flame of a new war would have engulfed the galaxy. But, this time, everything would be limited to the destruction of the enemy fleet and the occupation of a dozen planets; Kay was almost certain of that. Kal, circling the area in the flyer a hundred kilometers from them, having chosen to first check another road, had also heard the Emperor's speech. She probably realized that Lemak's destroyer had departed long ago to join the rest of the squadron. But it was difficult to be sure of that, since Kal's mind, which had never been particularly firm, was rapidly falling into its own warped world. This world had no Emperor, no Lemak, no planet Incedios, where her position had already been declared vacant. There was only Grail: emerald green in the lowlands, barrenly rocky in the mountains, there were occasional settlements, where she could ask about an old off-road vehicle with three passengers, there were Kay Altos and Arthur, who had managed to somehow twin himself.
The vehicle continued to serve them until the evening, when the hills were replaced by a plateau, covered in huge boulders. Kay involuntarily thought of a glacier, but the stones didn't look smooth in the least, consisting of sharp corners and ragged edges. He killed the engine, and silence wrapped the old car in a burial shroud.
"On the map, this place is called the Evil Lands," Arthur said. "But the locals prefer a profanity instead."
"Why?" Kay inquired.
"Too many accidents with those who come here. Almost a hundred percent. Aggravations of chronic illnesses, careless weapon usage, falling from cliffs. Another five or six years, and the local authorities would have gotten involved. That's why we were in such a hurry."
"How would you call these Evil Lands?"
"The Threshold. Don't worry, Kay, you have a key. Two keys, in fact. You had to have known that, why else would you have come for Tommy?" Arthur climbed out of the car, walked behind the nearest boulder, and shouted, "But try to stay near one of us, okay?"
They left the car and started walking south along the lifeless desert, climbing over small boulders and walking around the large ones. Kay had separated the load into three parts, and the boys silently stuffed their jacket pockets with bags. They had neither the strength nor the desire to talk, and Dutch noticed that he was starting to confuse Arthur and Tommy. Their identical bodies and clothes were reinforced with a frightening similarity of behavior. Either Tommy was involuntarily mimicking Arthur, or, as strange as it was, just the opposite.
That evening, Tommy slid down a shaky boulder and scratched his cheek. Kay felt a strange sort of relief at that. It had gotten dark, and they stopped for the night, spreading out the covers they had ripped off the car seats on the rocks. The polymer "velvet" was extremely well insulated against the cold, and Kay fell asleep almost instantly.
The next morning, he found that dried scratches were decorating the cheeks of both boys.
"I went to take a leak at night and ran into a boulder," Arthur explained.
"Were you looking in the mirror when you did that?" was all Kay could say.
They ate and resumed their journey. Arthur was walking first, and the road was as familiar to him as if he had walked it a hundred times already. Twice, they had to make detours to fill their canteens with water from small cold streams.
Kay remained silent for most of the trip. For the first time during the past month, he was feeling himself useless; it was a sensation he was used to at the end of a job, but it had become unexpectedly sharp this time.
"Dutch, was your ship really self-aware?" Tommy asked him during one of their brief rest stops.
"I was the one who programmed her pseudofreedom of behavior."
"What does that mean?"
"She was trying to appear to be a person. Any priest or programmer can prove to you that it has nothing to do with having a consciousness. Just an indistinguishable imitation."
"So what's the difference then?"
"None at all…"
When darkness was starting to fall, they came out onto a small even clearing between the hills. Arthur stopped and glanced at Kay with a slightly playful look, which Kay had only seen in his eyes back on Terra.
"Shall we spend the night here, Dutch?"
Kay looked at the stones under his feet. They were a little darker than normal and seemed to have been ground by water, wind… or flame.
"I don't think it's a good idea. One-person corvettes had very dirty engines. I bet this rock is giving off radiation."
"You got it," Arthur summarized.
"Curtis landed here," Kay went on. "He selected these unclaimed planets, where there was no risk to encounter enemies. He was always good with computers, so his log was never called into question. The free hunters weren't big on orders and never really reported to anyone; it was very useful."
"Stop it."
Dutch continued to examine the melted rocks.
"A plasma torpedo to blow up an enemy transport, two neutron blasters to fight off interceptors, and three grams of antihelium to drop on an alien planet. Those were very successful ships, which turned out to be far more useful than battleships. Thousands of ships, thousands of pilots, and plenty of cowards among them. Don't feel bad, Artie."
"What is he trying to say?" Tommy grabbed Arthur's hand. They were standing in front of Kay, as if reflections in some invisible mirror.
"That Dad is a coward."
"Arthur, Curtis van Curtis is not your father. He's you, having merely lived a different life. Back then, van Curtis was only nineteen. He had no aTan, no money, and no power. But he didn't want to die."
Arthur smiled wryly. Not as a child. Then he said, "As if you do. Let's keep going, there's a grove by the river."
It was a quiet, not like a typical mountain stream, river, whose banks were overgrown with thorny bushes. The promised grove turned out to be a dozen trees, which were short and covered in juicy orange pods.
"Those are poisonous," Arthur informed them. "But the thorns are edible, although they taste awful."
Kay made a fire from broken twigs. They dined on meat and stale flatbread, sprinkled with some bitter spice. Tommy fell asleep almost immediately, not asking any questions, not inquiring about the next day, and Dutch had a fleeting thought that the boy had begun his own game.
"We had a deal," he told Arthur.
Curtis Jr. was staring at him through the flames.
"Do you really want to kill me?"
"If I don't have a choice. I want the truth."
"Can you wait until morning?"
"Why?"
"At night, even the words have a different color."
"Then you should play with them less."
"Tell me a story, Kay. The last one."
Dutch dropped a seat cover on the ground and lay down on the thin fabric. The skies of Grail were floating over him, a cold gleaming threshold. Arthur settled down next to him.
"Long ago," Kay said, "a boy who was afraid to die found God. God was very old and very bored. Once, he had created the world, and there was no longer any place for God in that world. He asked the boy what he wanted, and the boy told him. He wanted to be the master of life and death."
"I know that story," Arthur said. "There's nothing interesting in it."
"What was funny," Kay went on, "was that the boy didn't believe in God. He only believed in machines that obeyed him. That was why his God was also a machine, and even the life and the death given for him to rule over also turned out to be machines."
"But why did God make this gift to him?"
"Because infinite power and knowledge left no room for wishes. So the wishes of the boy became God's wishes. He left with silicon tablets, which bore the blueprints of life and diagrams of death. He got old by the time he turned them into metal… Sleep, Arthur. I'll wait until morning."
"Why the sudden change?"
"Because this night has its own color, and I want to remember it. Tomorrow, one of us is going to die, right?"
"Right," Arthur agreed.
"Too bad. I've grown attached to you."
"Same here. You should leave, Kay. Take Tommy and go."
"I'm responsible for you."
