Free to Dream

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“Tyranny, even in the name of science, cannot risk losing control of anything that could defeat it.  To let go would be to surrender the very power that they crave.”

Free to Dream – Chapter 21

Fresh off of a stunning rebuke in Call of Kayden, the government plots to seize back its control over the wayward sector of Xenon.  To do this, the Ministry of Scientific Compliance recalls Gabriel back to the capital to fully debrief him.

While Gabriel is being debriefed, he learns about a diabolical new technology innovation– something that can detect people in the dream state.  This new level of surveillance risks jeopardizing the many gains that Kayden won.

Gabriel and others must work together to determine if Xenon will assimilate to the desires of the capital or find another way to thwart the totalitarian urges of those in power.

Planned release in 2020.

“Evil will always prevail unless righteous people stand in the gap to oppose its reach.”

Free to Dream – Chapter 26

A dark and eerie gloom cast its aura over the building Darren was waiting in.  While looking across the multitude of shadows, Darren tried to silence the foreboding he felt inside.  Here he waited, trying to patiently determine if his quarry would arrive at the rendezvous alone, versus with those on a mission of betrayal.  For now, no one appeared to be present, which on the surface provided a small measure of relief.

After a few minutes of waiting, he observed the quiet and solitary approach of someone walking in a way that seemed out of place.  Darren stepped out of the darkness and made himself visible.  This was where the greatest danger was – initial contact.  If this was a trap, it would not go well for him.

“May science and reason guide your day,” Darren spoke out.

“Without the lily, all hope is lost,” came the muffled reply from the feminine sounding voice in the darkness.

This was the response he expected to hear to identify his contact.  The person who spoke it also stepped forward where Darren could barely make out the outline of what appeared to be a woman’s face. 

“Do not despair, hope remains,” Darren completed the counter phrase.  “Are you sure you were not followed?”

“I left my handheld behind and I don’t think I have any tracking dots on my body.  I was told you could check me to be sure?” the voice replied.

Darren nodded and took out a portable device he had brought with him, proceeding to do a full scan of the stranger’s body and clothing.  It came back negative indicating that nothing was found.  This wasn’t the top scanner model available but it detected effectively, and most importantly, was small in size to carry, a key criterion on this mission.

“So far, so good,” Darren offered.  “I would like to generate an electromagnetic pulse to fry anything else that may be watching.  You don’t have any implants, do you?  I didn’t scan any, but want to ask before I do this in case causes you problems.”

“Not that I know of.  Do what you need to do,” came the reply.

Darren shielded his scanner and face recognition disruptor then put the EMP device next to their area and triggered a burst.  Nodding with the look of success, Darren looked up. 

“We should be safe now from prying eyes and ears.  I wouldn’t take too long in case a live stream was disrupted and repair is initiated, but we should have a few minutes,” Darren explained while he unshielded his scanner and put it in awareness mode to detect a change in surveillance state.

“Thank you for coming,” the stranger responded.  “I represent a growing group of people who are questioning the laws against religious studies.  There has to be something more than the nothingness that exists beyond death as is taught by the Ministry of Education.  If there is nothing beyond, what is the point of life?”

“A fair question,” Darren replied.  “And what have you concluded?”

“All we have are questions,” the voice replied with the sound of frustration.  “What we want more than anything is a free forum where we can explore these questions.  But to ask these kinds of questions in public is a sentence for confinement or death.  The eldest among us have memories of alternate teachings when they were children, but all references to them have been suppressed.  There are rumors that there are those in Xenon who practice these teachings still, and we long to learn from them if we can.”

“It is true there are those in Xenon and near there who still do practice the ways of old,” Darren answered.  “If it were not for these ways, we would not have survived the clampdown two years back.  It is good that you are asking these questions.  You represent a seed that has been planted but you lack the water and sunlight to be nurtured into something more.”

“Can you help us learn more?” the person asked hopefully.

“Be at peace,” Darren replied.  “I brought you some books regarding the teaching of the lily.  Only one whose mind is opened to the Way of the Lily can receive its gifts.  Keep these safely hidden and learn from them.  Pay attention to any changes in your dreams.  Now go, so our presence is not discovered here.”

The stranger nodded, gratefully accepting the bundle that Darren had presented.  Looking around carefully, she exited the building.  Darren waited a few minutes so they would not be seen exiting together then watchfully left by a different door.

Darren Kubacki did his best to stay in the shadows.  He trusted the facial recognition disruption technology he was wearing but he didn’t want to take any more chances than he had to.  He was deep within capital-controlled territory, and needed to safely make it back to his transport point.  There would be a lot to explain if he were to be captured on how he had got here not having authorization to be in this sector.  The government had to have suspicions on how Kayden had evacuated the people in the recent conflict, but had not yet to Darren’s knowledge gotten their hands on any of the transport tubes.  Kayden did not want to surrender knowledge of this and had been very strategic in how it exposed this technological application to risk of capture.

Tracking technology was everywhere and the Oversite system was getting progressively better at filtering abnormal patterns of behavior and flagging it for follow-up.  Oversite was developing a growing self-awareness, an artificial intelligence of sorts, at a level it had not exhibited previously.  This capability made these sorts of excursions all the more dangerous.  Even though Kayden was steadily growing strength, it saw its only chance of survival was not in defending Xenon exclusively, but instead broadening its appeal, even into the heart of capital-controlled areas.

Darren was not particularly strong in dream gifts.  He had enough dream ability to be able to execute the transport tube and had a rudimentary ability to traverse his past in his dreams qualifying him to be trained in the Way of the Lily.  Darren showed a great deal of courage during the Great Evacuation, helping to both transport the people of Xenon to safety as well as rescue captured children who were not evacuated in time.  Darren had a track record of being calm in the face of danger as well as the ability to not stand out from his surroundings when entering foreign areas.  When this opportunity came up, he was on a short list of people who could do this mission successfully.  Other more gifted dreamers had assessed that the local interest in the Lily was genuine, and contact was worth making.  

He was at least a full kilometer from the safehouse his transport tube was hidden. The sky was full of stars and the moon was but a sliver in the sky.  A large city should not show the sky so clearly, but energy was never to be used without purpose.  So, in the middle of the night all lights were turned off and the starry expanse of the universe was on vibrant display.  Darren used the dim light from the heavens and made his way back to his point of entry.  Just a little further to go and this mission would be a success.

∞ ∞ ∞

Sharna Malloy looked up from her primary workstation to determine the source of the notification she was hearing.  This alert was one she had programmed, not the annoying alarm that some ministry minion wanted her attention.  Sharna quickly acknowledged it and checked what was flashing on an alternate display. 

Oversite just detected an anomaly in the Preath city of Morfort where she was currently stationed.  The standard Oversite routine hadn’t detected anything, but her new experimental one had.  It was possible it was a false alarm, but that was the point of validating a new system wasn’t it?  Sharna quickly checked the data that had triggered it.  Someone walking at night by itself should not be cause for alarm.  This was a legal activity and done frequently.  But there was some difficulty picking up the profile through facial recognition systems combined with the erratic nature of the movement that was detected.  Facial recognition systems were known to not lock in, but that wasn’t anything to deploy for every time that happened.  No, there was also a mysterious sensor outage near where the person was detected walking.  Each piece by itself would not trigger a team to be deployed, but her algorithm had made a solid connection.  It was learning and that was a very exciting development. 

“Sharna here,” she spoke into her handheld.  “I need a Covert Extraction Team to accompany me immediately.  I will be downstairs waiting.  Sending the destination coordinates now.”

“Right away, ma’am,” the dispatch officer replied.  “The CET should be there within a couple of minutes.”

“Make sure they get a move on it.  I’m not sure how much time we have to catch up with this one,” Sharna answered while quickly grabbing her portable workstation and heading toward the exit.

No sooner had she arrived downstairs a non-descript vehicle pulled up.  Sharna quickly got inside and the vehicle took off toward the direction of the target at a higher than civilian authorized speed.  The streets were mostly empty and the darkness was hard to pierce as the vehicle traversed the industrial area of the city.

Sharna was not a talkative person.  Honestly, conversation bored her.  There were so few people that she could speak with and be challenged intellectually, and they certainly were not present in her current work location.  The CET that was assigned to her learned quickly to stay out of her way and do things just the way she asked.  This team had been assigned to her for several months as she had been doing system validation.  They knew the routine and what was expected of them.  They didn’t bother to try to engage in conversation.  They were to speak with new information or respond if she asked something of them.  Otherwise Sharna was to be left in peace to work.  She liked it best that way, and if prior conversation attempts where any indication, they liked it better that way also.

Sharna opened up her workstation and immediately began to digest what the sensors were able to pick up on this suspicious character.  She was able to track this person with an infrared scanner even though there was not enough light to get a good image of features.  Surveillance showed the person had originated from a building that was known to be mostly abandoned, and appeared to be heading back in its direction after doing something enough to trigger the system alarm.

“Adjust our destination to these coordinates,” Sharna commanded before sending the coordinates she wanted followed.  “I want us hidden and inside of the building before the target gets there.”

The navigator nodded and turned promptly to redirect his destination.  They arrived just a few minutes later, after everyone but the navigator exited the vehicle.  The vehicle drove off, but not before some passive sensors and drone surveillance devices were readied. 

“Aglas, do a quick building scan before we go in,” the CET team leader commanded.

Finding nothing triggering their sensors, the team proceeded to get the door opened and went inside.  Each person carefully moved to spread themselves out strategically throughout the structure and out of sight. 

“No one moves without my say so,” Sharna reminded over the closed-circuit radio – Not that they needed the reminder.

A rear door was heard opening, representing the only audible indicator present in the dark building.  Sharna watched with low light technology as a floor panel was opened up to reveal an access door of some sort in the floor. 

This was such an amateur move to not recheck the building he had come back to.  The hidden passage should not have been this easy to discover.  Sighing, she quickly deployed a mini-drone to follow, and crept toward the floorboard once it was closed behind the stranger.  Sharna saw the drone’s video feed and watched as a second opening was propped open in the wall of the subfloor structure below.  There was some sort of vehicle like thing of unknown design inside.  She could not allow this find to get away.  Sharna signaled for the extraction team to detain the person, continuing to watch as they with great stealth and speed opened up the floorboard and followed into the passage below. 

The subject entered the vehicle after closing the passage behind him.  He appeared to put his hands on a couple of buttons after keying something into the console.  He closed his eyes and looked like he was trying to do some sort of meditative activity.  The extraction team was at the second door and replayed the footage to determine how to get the secret passage back open.  After a couple of tries, the door popped ajar. 

“He is about to get away.  Stun him now,” Sharna commanded into the team’s ears via the wireless communicators, watching with satisfaction as the person there was hit with a concussive shockwave that rendered him motionless, causing his hands to fall to his side.  The typical effect was a period of unconsciousness for a few minutes combined with a mild temporary paralysis.   “Good work, I’ll be right down,” came a rare complement to the team.

Sharna arrived in the opening with curiosity beginning to consume her.  “Get him out of that thing and restrain him.”

Sharna looked around carefully.  When she saw the transport vehicle, or whatever it was called on her drone feed, she almost expected there to be a tunnel that the vehicle could travel through.  But now that she was in the small room, she realized that the rock wall was not an illusion; it really was a rock wall.  This vehicle had nowhere to go, but the person acted like it would take him somewhere.  Either the person was delusional or he wasn’t.  The most likely answer was yes, this was going to take him somewhere.  This could be the mystery technology that had been used to evacuate most of Xenon.  If it was, it would be a huge find, and one Sharna could not wait to reverse engineer.

Sharna’s thinking was interrupted by a muffled groaning sound.  The prisoner was coming to. 

“Waiting when you can do nothing is one of the most helpless feelings in the world.”

Free to Dream – Chapter 22