Dream Thief (59 page)

Spence felt his own heart swell inside him until he thought it must burst. He felt himself higher, nobler, and more true than he had ever known himself to be in his life. He, too, felt radiant, absolutely glowing with kindness and compassion.

Part of this he knew to be emanating from the others as much as from himself. It was true; their very hearts and souls were mingling like rare and precious oils, each one increasing the worth of the other, yet losing nothing of its own value.

Spence felt himself lifted out of himself and he knew each of his friends as he knew himself. In that moment he knew their weaknesses and failings, yet loved them in spite of any shortcomings, forgiving them, as he forgave them in himself.

There was another presence he could not describe; it was utterly foreign to his frame of human reference, though it shared many of the same basic essences. This presence inside him he knew to be Kyr, and he loved the Martian for his utter, alien uniqueness and his freely flowing compassion.

He drank in these impressions and savored them, treasured them, cherished them. He wanted the moment to last forever and to have that incredible, unutterable sweetness on his tongue.

But Kyr raised the second globe and it opened before him. He took the upper part of the globe and handed it to Adjani, and then handed one to Gita, and in turn to Spence. Spence saw that there were several of these bowls nestled inside one another and Kyr withdrew one for himself. Then he poured from the lower half of the globe a liquid that sparkled in the firelight.

When each bowl had been filled with the liquid Kyr raised his own bowl and began to speak once more. “All rivers run to the sea; all roads reach their destination. In every beginning lies the seed of the end. But in Dal Elna there is only Beginning. In the many there is One.”

Kyr brought the bowl to his lips and drank. Spence and the others followed his example.

The strange liquid had no taste that Spence could describe — not sweet, at least not as sweet as the first substance had been, but not bitter either. It touched his lips with a tingle like a mild current of electricity applied to his skin.

He rolled the effervescent drink on his tongue and felt as if he had tasted cool fire—the stuff seemed almost alive. He swallowed it and felt its playful sting all the way down. He drank again, more deeply this time and let the cool fire dance on his tongue. The effect made him want to laugh out loud or burst into song. He felt the inner fire seeping into his veins, quickening his heart. Suddenly he was more alert, more conscious than ever in his life.

He looked through new eyes at the world, and what a world he saw! Though it was night and dark he could see the tall slender ranks of bamboo all around, saw the firelight dancing on their thin shafts. He saw narrow, tapering shapes of the leaves with the delicate saw-toothed edge individually and precisely drawn and duplicated. Each was a thing of exquisite, inexplicable beauty.

Above the leaping flames of the fire he saw an insect. In his heightened vision it became suspended in motion, moving in slow, graceful sweeps as its tiny, transparent wings beat the air. He could see the glitter of light scatter across its multi-celled eyes, and the iridescent gleam of its carapace. He saw its legs dangling as fine threads beneath its sectioned body and the gentle curl of its antennae along its back.

Raising his eyes he saw the heavens, at first dark, now almost bursting with the light of countless stars—each star shining with clear, crystalline light, hard-edged and fine with beams piercing as needles.

Everywhere he looked he saw some new wonder, some commonplace revealed in a way he had never seen it before. The ordinary had been transformed into the extraordinary, the normal into the supernormal.

His friends still sat in the same positions as before, but he saw them wholly changed. He saw not their outward appearance only, but now he saw their inner selves unmasked. And each was larger, more fair and strong in every way. They sat wrapped in shimmering auras of gold and violet, as if clothed in living fire. In their faces he glimpsed unfathomable tenderness, and something he could only call wisdom burned out from their eyes, but a wisdom purer and finer than any born of Earth.

Spence looked at Kyr and saw not the elongated Martian but a creature not unlike himself and the others, resembling them and yet slightly different in subtle ways he could not name.

And where before Spence had felt radiant, he felt now as if he were throwing off sparks. He caught fleeting glimpses of the colored rays as they streamed from him to blend with the light of the others.

Spence felt full to overflowing with the joyous, scintillating, reverberating love he felt for his friends. He felt the power of their love for him and for one another, and it was a mingling of deep strong water which flowed out in all directions from the center, like a fountain or a spring with an endless source.

But he sensed another subtle yet still distinct presence too. This presence interwove all the others and even his own, to hold them and to overlay them at the same time without losing its own distinction. In that heightened awareness he sent out the fingers of his mind to examine this presence. He extended his mind toward it and tentatively touched it. Instantly his mind recoiled, staggered as if by a blazing bolt of lightning.

He knew then that he had touched the Source itself.

He felt dizzy and intoxicated, completely shattered by that single brief encounter. Then his mind began to fill with thoughts strange and wonderful and terrifying in their clarity and force.

He saw galaxies swinging in the frozen deeps of space, flung like pebbles on an endless beach; he heard the roar of silence drowned by the music of the galactic movement. The song of the stars—all heaven was filled with it!

He saw worlds upon worlds springing into existence before nameless suns. On each world life leaped, up, sprung from the voice that had awakened it. Plants of every variety, animals of every description, human creatures as different as could be imagined, yet all possessing the divine inner spark that was the immutable stamp of the Maker.

He saw his own world as one minute fleck against the darkness, and knew that his life, and the lives of every man who had ever lived, was but a single faltering step in the Great Dance of Heaven.

The Dance flowed and ebbed according to the will of the Maker, and all moved with him as he moved. There was not a solitary figure in the Dance that was not in his plan—from the seemingly random shuttling of atoms colliding with one another through the limitless reaches of empty night, to the aimless scrabblings of an insect in the dust, to the directionless meandering of a river of molten iron on a world no human eye would ever see— all was embraced, upheld, encompassed by the Great Dance.

In the many there is One.
At last Spence understood.

One Dance, but it took all space and time to describe it. One life, but it took all living things to define it. One mind, but it took all thought to know it. And still it could not be described, defined, or known in its entirety. He knew why Kyr and his kind called it the All-Being, for it transcended all that it touched even as it stooped to create it.

And though it spawned a billion worlds, gave voice to a trillion celestial lights, directed the course of a quintillion lives, the All-Being was One: inseparable, indivisible, indissoluble, immutable. All-Wise, All-Merciful, All-Holy, All-Knowing. Infinite and eternal…

The rest went spinning by Spence in a dizzying flood of thoughts and feelings and images of power and grandeur untold. He was left gasping and breathless by his single fleeting contact with the God he had long denied, but could deny no longer.

Spence bowed down before the Presence in all humility and surrender, acknowledging it as the first spontaneous act of worship he had ever performed. As he did so he knew that it knew him as a friend and that he had nothing to fear from it now or ever. He felt loads of guilt and shame roll away from him and he heard a voice inside his mind say, “Hear me, son of dust. Why have you run so long and so hard? What were you trying to escape? Your running is over. Enter into my rest.”

“Yes, yes, yes,” Spence heard his heart reply. “Please tell me how.”

“Trust me. Look for me, and then follow.”

Spence felt a rushing tide rise within himself flowing out toward the Presence, but still he knew the choice to be his alone. One word would halt the surge and stay it, or it would be released to flow forever without end.

“Yes,” said Spence. “I will follow. Lead on.”

R
AMM STRODE PURPOSEFULLY INTO
the room where his men were assembled and waiting. The talk in the room died as the chief of security glared coolly around him.

“All right,” he said. “This won't take long. I have just received orders to proceed to phase two of Operation Clean Sweep. Therefore, the escapees must be apprehended at once. Squad leaders, you are to double your efforts. I want every sector double-checked. Work around the clock if you have to. I want them found
now!
—before they have a chance to stir up any trouble. Got it?”

There was a grumble of assent. “What are you waiting for? Move out!” said Ramm. The security force rose at once and proceeded to file out of the briefing room. In the guardroom beyond he could hear the squad leaders calling their groups together and organizing for a renewed search. He glanced around the empty room and then left by a side door.

When he arrived at AdSec he pushed his way past the receptionist and went directly into the director's office. Wermeyer's puzzled face glanced up from the wafer screen he had been gazing into.

“Well?” the former assistant asked, leaning back in his boss's chair.

“We haven't caught them yet, but we will. It's only a matter of time. After all, they can't go far.”

“Yes, well… see that you take care of it.”

“I can handle it, don't worry. How are things going on your end?”

“Running like clockwork. I was just looking over the projections for the completion of construction on the engine installation. We're right on schedule. Hocking thinks of everything.”

“Let's hope so.”

Wermeyer gave him a quick questioning look. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. I'm just a little nervous about this, you know. Taking over an entire space station … I mean, it's never been done.”

“Relax and do your job and everything will go as planned. Did you get your orders?”

“Right. Phase two is in operation; I've already told my men. Any word when the machine will arrive?”

“Not yet. Hocking said to stand by. That's what we're doing.”

“How about the new master program?”

“Ready and waiting. MIRA won't know what hit her. All communication and operation functions will be under our control as soon as we are given the word. If anyone has any thoughts about signaling for help there won't be a thing they can do about it. As for resistance—”

“I'll handle any resistance. I don't expect there will be much. It's awful cold and lonely out there …” He nodded past Wermeyer toward the huge observation bubble and the stars glowing brightly beyond.

“Yes, well, let's hope it won't come to that.”

Ramm turned to leave. Before he reached the door he stopped and said, “Let me know the minute Hocking checks in. We'll want to secure the docking bay in case Packer and his pilot friend have any ideas.”

“You let
me
know the minute you find them,” returned Wermeyer tartly. “This has gone on long enough.”

HOW LONG THE VISION
lasted, Spence did not know. When he came to himself again the fire had died down to glowing embers and the moon had lowered in the treetops. Crickets chirped their trilling nightsong and the breeze down from the mountain slopes had freshened to a chill.

Gita lay curled near the remains of the campfire sound asleep, his turban resting on his outstretched arm. Adjani sat with his knees drawn up, head nodding on his chest. Kyr, his long thin legs crossed and his long arms wrapped around his narrow chest, sat gazing into the glowing coals which reflected in his great yellow eyes.

The effects of the
Essila
still tingled in Spence's limbs and pulsed in his brain; he still tasted a trace of sweetness on his lips. But the mingled rush of thoughts and emotions, of shared essences and spirits was gone.

“It is over,” said Spence quietly. The Martian turned his head to regard him intently.

“Yes, Earthbrother. All that remains is to thank the One who gave us the
Essila
that we might know each other more perfectly.”

“I will thank him the rest of my days,” said Spence. The memory of all that had taken place still burned within him, and he knew he would carry it with him always. “Does it always have such power?”

“Sometimes more than others. The first time is the most overwhelming, but each time is different …” Kyr ran out of words to explain and fell silent. Spence understood that it was not a thing discussed and analyzed, only experienced and accepted. He wondered if the others had undergone the same thing he had.

The wind shifted then and Spence heard a sound that tripped a warning in his mind. “Did you hear that?”