by John Gordon
Why has this happened? I have people I am responsible for here." Martin's anger was a thin veil over his fear.
Resnik shifted and I had the feeling that he was working a computer terminal of his own, searching for information that might help. He kept talking while his eyes scanned something nearby. "Their worlds are based on state slavery. We cannot hurt their rigid society. No one would dare risk the penalties even if there was any harm we could do them. They want to control everything. That is the root of this and it is not good Martin, not good at all."
"Can we sustain an attack in force?"
The man was silent for a long moment, his eyes focused on some inner view of his own. Then he looked up at them. "You cannot hold out against them. Use the escape route to the flyer. Go now, all of you. I'll do what I can from the free zone about access to the zone itself."
"The escape tunnel has been compromised. One of the workers, a new man at the University; we think he is a Brack. He's gone and the flyer is wrecked."
"Then you must leave by surface: the dangers are far greater than I thought. I wish I was there with you. I feel this is my responsibility."
"Surface?" Martin's face was grim. "We know little about the surface of Landine. Where can we go?"
"You must get off planet. We have a ship in the free zone, eight days away by half-track. There is no other place we can enter a Brack world, and they will not let us leave it to go elsewhere. I will meet you there." He held up a plastic map. Duplicates of it fell into a bin at the bottom of the terminal. "Take the armored tracks."
The Armored Track
"Strap in. This may be rough." Elise pulled a double strap harness over her perfect body, sheathed in the light, copper toned body suit that seemed to be standard travel style.
A vivacious, pixy like woman named Annie popped in and strapped into a cushioned pedestal. She smiled at Elise and nodded at me, then pushed a button at the side of the little chair. Annie and the pedestal rotated up and almost out of view. Only her calves and slippers were visible to us.
"That's the top gun turret. We always start out with a gunner posted." Elise sounded like a stewardess telling her passengers about flotation seats and exit doors.
The half-track rumbled, a deep vibration that rattled our bones, then subsided to a hum. The tower's warehouse like bay passed behind us and we trundled onto Landine's surface. The ground was a rich red, dotted with green plants that formed prickly patches, some as high as a man. Four half-tracks trailed us as the tower shrank in the distance.
I reached over and squeezed Elise's hand. Whatever the difficulties, I was confident it would work out. And after all, this was just a dream.
We crossed the first flat and Annie lowered her gun seat into the lounge. "I'm really angry about this," were her first words. "We're not doing anything to change their world. They shouldn't be bothering with us. We aren't anywhere near their dumb civilization."
Elise fixed drinks that were heavy and glowed a vivid purple. They tasted like sweet bread with strawberry flavor.
She switched to an acceleration chair with her drink in hand. She held it in both hands like a child sipping from its first glass. "They want to stop us. That doesn't mean chase us away. It doesn't mean let us go to some other area of the universe we can dream jump into; it means stop, permanently."
An explosion rattled the tank. The sky behind us filled with smoke that pulsed with a brilliant yellow light. As the smoke cleared we could see what had happened.
Folding in slowly on itself the research tower gracefully bowed out of existence. In a breath it was a heap of rubble on the plain; no tower, just a jumbled part of the barren landscape. Nothing interrupted the view of a distant mountain range. Martin had destroyed their refuge to keep it from the Brack.
They exchanged glances: there was no turning back.
Track vehicles were ideally suited for the roadless, dusty trail we traveled. All day the mountains were distant, hazy shapes. Toward evening, with the sun low behind our line of travel, the sharp lines of cliffs, rocky shapes and the silence of immense crags filled the horizon. The sky was clear and crisp and cloudless.
Annie's best friend functioned as ambassador and sociologist for the research group. "Tom told me that the Bracks don't want a war right now. They are learning to use psychic power to control their people's minds. Once they controlled with physical force, now they're learning to do it with pleasure and sheer terror. And they do it in dreams."
"What we face is a mistake in judgment by Resnik. He believed that an agreement with the Governor of this area would protect what we are doing, that we wouldn't come to anyone's attention. One of the Council members got wind of the agreement and brought it to the attention of the military. They are acting against us."
"None of us can be allowed to leave without a complete psychological shake-down, their style. No one would survive that and still be the same person. We wouldn't know our heads from a dumpling."
While Annie talked Elise walked to a shelf unit against one side of the Half Track and touched a panel. Two sides, the back and ceiling of the Half Track turned transparent; only a slight tint revealed the polarized material that separated them from the passing landscape.
Jennie paused and gazed around them. The dust suppressor kept all but a small billow of desert sand from dancing in the light behind them. "Resnik believed he could negotiate a compromise. His worlds are trading partners with the Bracks. He was wrong."
"Why didn't you go somewhere else?" I risked unbelting as we sipped on a fresh batch of Purple Elgo.
Elise pointed to a line of figures moving along the long graceful slope of a hill. "Look Ed, natives. The only ones we've had contact with are nomads."
Annie gave the natives only a passing glance now that she had an audience in me. "Landine is close enough to the Quinta, the 5 solar systems that make up the Empire that Resnik is a citizen of, for supplies to be shipped here."
"Resnik's the one I saw on the display screen?"
She nodded. "He isn't a Brack. The Bracks look different, harder. They are a very severe people, even their common citizens. Resnik made it clear this was risky. The materials were smuggled in secretly through the free zone. We had to have special matter to mold into the tower and into instruments. It's matter designed to be shaped by finely disciplined minds. The first six weeks was all building."
"So. Why not go back to earth, just wake up? I know this is a dream I'm having. What's the problem?"
Annie popped out of her chair and I was surprised to find her cuddling in my lap, her cheek against my neck. I reflexively reached around her and the fresh scent of some fruity shower spray flooded my senses as well as her warm physical presence in my arms. She pinched my cheek with her hand. "I'm real, Ed, and dream jumping is real. You may as well get used to it because you're with us right now. We're connected here. If you hadn't returned today chances are you wouldn't have been able to join us again. But now you'll be back. When you sleep on earth you'll be back here, with us." I followed Annie's lithe, athletic shape with my eyes as she uncurled from my lap, jumped to the floor and began stretching exercises on the rocking deck of the tank.
"Elise, tomorrow I'll see you in the computer lab. This won't mean anything to me." I looked at her and secretly wished I were wrong.
"If you're like the rest of us were in the beginning, you'll think it's just a dream." Elise gazed out the side wall of the tank as the muted whirring changed in pitch and they ground to a stop. There was a tall mound nearby. The driver would go to the top to check for pursuit.
I was tired and my thoughts kept bumping around in my mind like revelers after a party. How could I even imagine something this complicated? I was asleep in my home in Dayton, Ohio, wasn't I?
The tank had five compartments. The cockpit held two drivers with a storage/sleep room for them. There was a small washroom, another sleep roo
m and the lounge they sat in with its two gun turrets. One turret was on top of the tank and one at the rear.
We stopped for the night in a shallow wash surrounded by a twenty foot high ridge. I helped the crews stretch camouflage netting from one ridge to the other.
I skipped dinner. I wanted to sleep, to get back to reality. The first hours I had been curious; but the long drive was tedious and boring. Even seeing a few familiar faces from the University during lunch didn't have the excitement I expected.
The hammocks were wide and comfortable. Tired as I was, I wished I were sharing it with Elise. Maybe this dream was my unconscious way of resolving my feelings for Carol. This could be the finish of my pining away for my ex-wife and with it an awakened interest in other women, even the cool and aloof Elise Termins.
Sorry About This Ed
I reached for my morning coffee and the memory of the night exploded into my mind like river over a dam. The journey through the desert, the beautiful shape of Elise Termins, the girlish charm of Annie and finally my groping into a swaying hammock for sleep. I laughed at it all and shook my head in amazement. And it all happened in a battle tank!
At the U I went hunting for Martin, but he was out so I sat in the small snack bar that was his favorite haunt when he was not teaching or working with his grant project. The stale roll and coffee
