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 12

Kal didn't even try to land near the abandoned vehicle. The flyer circled it once, flooding the car with the cone of a spotlight, then soared up into the sky.

"I'm coming," Isabella stated. "Did you really think you could escape me?"

There was an unbearable stench in the flyer's cabin. Kal hadn't bothered to land to relieve herself in nearly a day, which seemed perfectly natural to her.

"I don't need you at all," Kal went on. "I couldn't give a shit about aTan. And about what you're looking for here. Is that right, Lemak? You don't give a shit, which means it's not worth it…"

Lemak, who existed only in Isabella Kal's mind, nodded from the second seat. He was an old man again, the way he was supposed to be, for heroes of childhood dreams didn't need aTan.

"I also know how to kill an immortal," Kal continued speaking to Louis this time, who had imperceptibly replaced the Admiral. Nomachi lowered his head guiltily. "The fool will die himself," Isabella went on, peering into the small night vision screen. "I just have to treat him like a smart kid, and he'll die. A smart person can be broken. They're not going to want to live. And you won't either, my boy…"

She threw a sideways glance at the seat, but Arthur hadn't appeared there. The little bastard was waiting for her somewhere down there, with his double, who had appeared out of nowhere, and his loyal guard dog.

"I'm coming," Kal said gently, throwing the flyer in a downward direction. "Coming…"

The invisible line, woven by the woman's crumbling mind, was connecting them as tightly as two lovers. Unknowingly, Kal had a key, and her flyer hadn't fallen out of the sky onto the Evil Lands, where random malfunctions were the norm.

In the pink light of the morning, Kal saw a dim spot on the infrared screen, which was the trace of the smoldering fire. She giggled, adjusting her hair, and landed about a hundred meters away, so that the hum of the engines didn't disturb even the lightest sleeper. She got out of the cabin, dragging the laser rifle by its strap, not noticing either the ache in her weakened legs or the cold wind, which was getting under her light dress.

Clumps of fog floated over the river, and some stubborn star was still shining in the bright azure sky. Kal went up to the water and drank her fill, getting down on all fours and slurping straight from the river. Obeying a sudden impulse, she stripped down and washed up to the waist.

She felt better. She hastily put on her dress, went up to the flyer and, grimacing in disgust, took a warm blanket from the stretcher in the cargo compartment. In the bag of the doctor she'd killed, Kal found a vial of alcohol and took two large gulps. Then she sat on the bank and started to wait.

Arthur woke up first. In his sleep, he had pressed again Kay, who embraced him with one hand. Tommy, with the knowledge of how adults ought to behave with children gained on Kailis, would have immediately freed himself. Curtis Jr. had learned to sense the difference of other peoples' touches over the years of his journey. He lay for a minute, peering into Kay's face, which showed nothing but deep weariness, then carefully removed his hand. Kay remained sleeping. Arthur rose to his feet quietly and went to the river.


Kal was sitting motionlessly, like a statue, wrapped in a blanket by some joker. Arthur passed less than ten paces away from her, not noticing her among the trees in the deceptive morning light. Isabella stood silently and followed him, keeping her distance.

Her consciousness was suddenly clear. She watched for a long time as they boy washed himself, snorting from the cold water and laughing forcefully, as if pretending to himself. There was sorrow in her eyes, as tender as a mother's love.

The boy turned and saw her.

"You've caused me so much trouble, Arthur," Kal said.

He didn't answer. He couldn't speak just then.

"I understand, I didn't hold back either," the woman went on. "But it was a game, one that you started. You should have given up earlier, but you kept fighting and winning. What now?"

"I won," the boy said. "I've grown up."

"Really? Is that what you were doing? Is that the Curtis rite of initiation: to defeat the ISS and the military? It doesn't matter… You haven't grown up yet."

She took a step towards Arthur, who retreated, entering the ice-cold water up to his ankles. Kal raised the laser and informed him, "I don't need your secrets. Keep them. The aTan girls here are so kind, they were worried that Altos hadn't renews immortality for either himself or his kids… But you won't die anyway, will you? Your daddy will resurrect you on Terra. Live. Go on another journey."

"Don't," Arthur said. "Please."

"So I was right." Kal gave him a pure smile, which had died in her decades ago. "You can be broken. Break. I'll kill the other you too. Kay can live, though. It'll be interesting."

She touched the trigger, and a thin white beam hit Arthur in the chest.

"First one," Kal said.

Arthur remained standing. There was steam coming off his jacket, as if it had just been ironed. Kal pulled the trigger again, and the beam hit the boy in the face.

Arthur was still on his feet.

"Fall," Kal said. "Fall, you're dead!"

Madness was once again boiling up inside her as a black maelstrom. She fired again.

Arthur laughed.

"One is done," Kal stated, firing a long burst into the boy. "Now the second one."

Then she placed the laser on the ground and looked at the grove pensively.

Curtis Jr. stopped laughing as she passed him by. She stopped for a moment, touched his shoulders, and gave him a light farewell kiss on the forehead.

"This is how it should be… Sleep."

The current was gentle. Kal walked for ten meters before she was knocked off her feet and dragged along the rocks. It would have been simple for her to swim out, but it seemed to Arthur as if Isabella wasn't even trying to fight the flow. An arm flashed over the water momentarily, and that was it.

Arthur spent a long time standing in the water; aTan healed only the body, but a sick mind was still a problem for the doctors. He wasn't sorry for Kal, of course, but he didn't feel happy either.

Then Kay's hand touched his.

"Are you trying to catch a cold?"

"Kal was here," Arthur said. "She went insane and killed herself."

"You're lucky, my king."

Arthur looked up at his bodyguard.

"Let's go, Dutch. I'll explain everything. I want Tommy to hear it too."