Part of the answer was in my skill of shifting between two worlds. The world of Landine had certain natural laws; and it had the Bracks. They were determined to safeguard their territory. The lives of a few interlopers were unimportant in the face of their millions of people and their future security. Even if this was paranoid, it was fact.
Who was at fault? Martin started the project; but only at the invitation of Resnik. Resnik was at fault for his dabbling in dream jumping beyond his ability to control it and for assembling a crew. Maybe he didn't know what it would lead to; but he had started the ball rolling. Everyone was trying to reach Resnik for their safety. And obviously, at least to me, Resnik was no safety at all.
What was the point of me getting to some safe zone if my friends were captured and killed, or maybe worse? I had to find a different solution.
I slept on it.
Alone
I struggled over an incline. It had the appearance of a gentle hill, but I was puffing, every breath a labor. It was easier before, when Elise and the other were with me. Did the group consciousness, the collective have anything to do with this?
I stopped at a small pine like tree, it's lower branches shoulder high. They were not thick, so I leaned against the bole and looked back over the rolling land behind me.
I had stuck it out in that little rock space the whole night, with flyers periodically buzzing the hill. Finally they gave up and the kite shuttles lifted off like huge insects, their sails straining for the wind.
"What do you do now?" I asked myself. "Elise, Dan, Mela... all of them are gone. And you are heading for a zone that doesn't hold any particular safety for you. It's probably guarded anyway." I sat on the ground.
Why was my body suddenly reverting to its old form, just like on earth? Before Elise was captured I was a magnificent specimen. I was missing something important.
I was a newcomer to Landine and a newcomer to dream jumping. That meant something special according to Jennie. I had special abilities, abilities based on my perception of myself.
I always believed in my ability. I did modestly well in any area, not exceptional flashy things, but always adequate. I had to change my viewpoint, my attitude. I could do more than a little above average.
I sat down and pulled a piece of paper from my pocket. After a while I curled up at the base of the tree and closed my eyes.
Action And Capture
In my office I always thought best with my hands on a computer keyboard. After logging off the information service that connected me with a million other computerphiles I switched to my word processing software.
I began typing. `It was 3:00 a.m. on earth, but on Landine it was early afternoon. The sky was a silky amber, like a sweet woman's negligee. Ed woke up, comfortable for the first time in days. There was work ahead of him and he knew he was the only one who could do it. Up the hillside, he searched for it, the box designed for his mission. Ed saw it sitting under a tree. The equipment would be in it and it would be all he would need. Ed smiled. This was going to be a good day, a very good day.'
I looked at the screen and my creative efforts with satisfaction. I read it several times over, letting it sink in, feeling it was a part of the vision I had of Landine. It would happen exactly as I had written it, I knew it would.
I set my alarm, lay on the couch and closed my eyes.
It was cooler on Landine than I remembered. The wind swirled small pieces of dried vegetation across the empty hill. I got up from the pine nest and felt stronger now as I walked up the hill at an angle. It was here somewhere; but it wasn't under the trees where I expected it to be.
I scanned the hillside, then the red corner of it gleamed briefly and I zagged twice to reach it on the steep slope. I didn't remember it being red.
I gouged and scratched it from its half buried place in the hard packed earth. It was an ornate, chinese style box, banded with hard wood straps and with a small but very strong lock on it. Lock? There shouldn't be a lock, this was my creation and I didn't plan on any lock! I pulled at it angrily.
Now I had to go down the hill and find a rock. With a big stone, with many loud and angry smashes and fingers that suffered from misplaced blows, the lock snapped.
Nestled inside was a video phone. A small box with a transparent cover was attached to the top of it.
I pressed the letters, M a r t i n. There were no clicks or beeps, the phone was silent. The very second I pressed the final n the small imager came to life. A downcast head filled the screen.
"Martin, can you hear me? Martin?" I whispered, not knowing if others near him could hear me, if there were others there.
The head slowly turned. It was Martin, his desolate face surprised, a haunted look in his eyes.
"Martin, I can see you from where I am. Nod your head slowly if you understand me."
Astonishment and a spark of life flitted across my friend's face. He nodded slowly. I wanted to see more of the room. I fumbled with a dial under the screen and the view expanded. Elise sat limply against one wall, Mela and Dan in a corner and other researchers stretched out on the floor.
Afraid that my voice might carry with the wider setting, I re-centered it back on Martin. "I'm in the scrubs. The Bracks didn't get me. I think we can work some way for you to escape. Is it possible for you to dream jump somewhere else?"
"We're locked in this world. There's no way for us to do it without the retraining. We're too ...tight. The Bracks make it worse by keeping us tense. They play with the lights and broadcast discordant music and then hypnotic rhythms at odd intervals. We can't get sleep."
"What do they intend to do?"
"They're talking about some kind of extinguishing process. Something they say is painless but will dissolve us. We're all frightened about it. Extinguish... They're just using another word for execution."
"I'll get back to you Martin. But tell the others to be ready to dream jump out of there. You probably should get totally out of that world, someplace where you first started. OK?"
Martin nodded, a tiny smile breaking the tight mask of his face.
I dialed Resnik.
It was the same fuzzy head and oddly formed face with gray eyes. He looked back at me, able to see me clearly. "I recognize you from the laboratory." Resnik said.
"My name is Ed Bell. I am with the Asgard research group. They need your help. Right now they are in a Brack prison. Will you do something for them? The Bracks intend to destroy them."
"It's astonishing. I was told that no one escaped their nets. How did you get away? How are you communicating with me?"
"Skip that. Did you understand me? My friends need help."
Resnik held out my hands. "I've tried. The Bracks are unyielding. They feel this is their only alternative. Since I started these events with my experiments I am responsible for what happens to them. Nothing I say makes any difference."
"What do you think?" I asked.
"From their viewpoint, they're right." The man’s face held an expression of defeat and sadness. "I'm guilty of bringing Martin into this, showing him how to recruit a research team in the dream pathways, even helping him construct the tower. I didn't think the local military would find out about it. My agreement with the Governor seemed reasonable and private. I was so excited to meet someone who could gather a group of dream jumpers and work together with them... the only consequences seemed to be totally positive."
I felt a brief pang of sadness. The man was deeply affected by the results of his `experiment.' My concern faded when I turned my thoughts to my friends and their plight. "What will happen to them if they are killed by the Bracks? What will happen in our world, on Earth?"
The soulful eyes turned away. He gestured at a holo on the wall with towering buildings and fine arches linking many of them. "That is my home city. It is called Jenden Tredk. There are 18 millions of us living
in it. And we are part of Quinta, an Empire that borders on Brack space." He looked back at me. "It is a real world. When I dream travel, when I met Martin, we met in an inbetween world, but a real world as well, different from either my Earth or Jenden. We discovered Landine together. We are able to bridge it together."
"I did not establish myself on Landine because it is close to my home system. We have star travel, whereas your race does not. I could be of help from here. The materials that your tower was built of were real materials that I shipped from a system not far from you."
"Wait...Wait a minute. I want to understand something. This in-between world. Can Martin jump there whenever he wants to? What's preventing any of us from slipping into it and escaping the Bracks?"
Resnik shook his head. "No. They are locked in Landine. If they had reached the free zone I could have put them through a period of adjustment. It would have been several weeks of training and relaxation, then they could get back to their world. There is nothing I can do." He almost cried and I felt a sympathetic wave of hopelessness wash over me. I fought free of it.
"And when we die? When you die in your world? What happens to you?"
"There is no death. I move into another universe. I may not have the same shape or exact personality; but the essence of what I am survives whether I like it or not."
I shook my head. "I still don't understand. But I know that I have to help Elise and Martin and the others, and