you,” the emperor said. Arrius exhaled in relief.
“Thank you, my friend,” Arrius said. “You will be rewarded for this.”
Doctor Axios said, “I need medical supplies…”
“…and you shall have them.”
The doctor came closer to Lucius. “You were dreaming,” he said, but not as a question and not in their tongue, Lucius realized with delay.
“Sometimes,” Lucius said, suddenly aware that he replied in the same tongue of his dreams.
The doctor removed a strap from Lucius’s chest. “You talked while you slept,” he said in Imperial this time.
“The language,” Lucius said. “How do you…?”
The doctor smiled as he removed another strap over Lucius’s abdomen. “I dream as well. In my dreams I am a doctor. A very old doctor.” He removed another strap. “But I work on organic bodies, not cybernetic.”
How is that possible? Lucius wondered. He also dreamed that he had an organic, almost Bion-like body.
“My dreams are always different,” said the doctor, “but they unravel in a sequence – one day at a time, two days, sometimes weeks. I live another life in my dreams.”
“That is ridiculous,” said Arrius. He was standing next to the doctor, watching him untie his emperor. “We do not dream. Or at least we do not remember our dreams.”
“That’s a huge misconception.” The doctor unbuckled a strap on Lucius’s waist. “Do you know when people start to dream?” he asked. “It’s called NDE – near-death experience.” He looked at the emperor. “I believe you had one when you lost your arm and your lower body.”
Actually I lost my entire body and it wasn’t the one you removed. Though Lucius didn’t say it.
“I was in the Battle for Luna with the captain here. Our ship was assigned with something we considered a suicide mission. Armed with the best weapons and stealth technology, we were to go around Luna and attack the Bion fleet from behind while the rest of our ships kept them busy. The maneuver was a success, mind you, but our ship got blown to pieces by a Bion cruiser right after we destroyed five of them. Most of our crew reached the escape pods and left as fast as they could. I had no such luck. A rather large piece of the overhead smashed my lower body inside the infirmary.” He unbuckled a strap from below Lucius’s waist. “I was stuck there for three weeks, floating helplessly in the ship’s debris. I thought I would die from oxygen deprivation. I can still remember when everything turned black. But then something remarkable happened. The world got its colors back – more colors than I was usually used to seeing. It was another world, and I was there. I had a wife, three daughters, I was … happy. Fortunately or not, I woke up. Captain Arrius came back for me. He found me crushed under the overhead. He brought me home. It was not the home I dreamed off.” He pursed his lips. “Once I came back on Palatine, I decided to make the world a better place, just like it was in my dreams.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Lucius asked.
The doctor removed another strap below Lucius’s waist. “Have you ever heard of a man called Servius?”
“A servant?” It’s what the name meant.
“The man lived and worked in the graveyard.”
“Only autonomous machines work there. And no one lives there.”
“Indeed they don’t.” He unbuckled a strap over Lucius’s thigh. “But Servius did. He was punished by birth to work where no man will ever work, where no man will ever see him or talk to him. He was punished to be alone for all eternity.”
“These stories are ridiculous,” said Arrius. “Untie the man, we have work to do.” The doctor looked at Arrius but didn’t reply.
Lucius was intrigued by this story, however. Maybe the doctor knew how to stop his dreams, or what they meant. Instead he asked, “Why would the gods punish him?”
Doctor Axios smiled. “One day,” he said, “a garbage disposal shuttle malfunctioned. One of its bins detached during liftoff and fell back to Palatine … it fell back over Servius’s little hut in the graveyard. It took weeks until one of the engineering teams went to investigate the accident. By sheer luck they found his body under the bin, smashed beyond recognition. Since he lived there, he couldn’t afford to be repaired. So they put him in the next shuttle for space. The bartender you saw in the Gambler’s House above, told me of this unfortunate soul. One of the engineers told him when they stopped for a drink.
That evening before the shuttle was launched, I decided to go to the graveyard and help the man. I searched through every bin that was scheduled to leave Palatine that night. They were almost a hundred of them, awfully smelling things I tell you. Eventually, though, I found him. Poor man. You couldn’t even begin to imagine how he looked. His body was pressed like a tin foil, wires dangled, liquid dripped from his heart, but his eyes remained. His eyes were all sorrow. The man lived a terrible life and he was sentenced for a terrible death. I couldn’t let that happen. I put him over my shoulders and I carried him all the way here.” He stopped, eyes fixed on the floor, and then he smiled on the memory. “I fixed him. I gave him a body, a whole new body. It wasn’t anything good, to be certain, but it was good enough for primary functions. He could walk, run maybe, talk, move his hands to get what he needs…” The doctor looked at Lucius’s eyes. “You know, I thought he would be grateful for what I did, but you know what he said to me when he opened his eyes? He said: this is not my life.
“It was the NDE, you see. We dream of better places, of events that may have happened, somewhere, somehow. Servius said he was happy in the life he discovered. I unstrapped him from the same bed you are now in and I watched him walk away from me. But before he was out, he turned and he said, I’m going to get my life back. I suggest you do the same.” The doctor removed the final strap under the right knee.
Lucius didn’t stand up yet. “What happened next?” he asked. “Where is Servius now?”
The doctor shrugged. “Living his life, no doubt.”
“Is it done?” Arrius asked.
“I never heard of him again…”
“I meant the straps.”
“Yes. Congratulations,” the doctor said to Lucius. “You have a new body.”
Lucius stood up from the bed, stepped down with legs, true legs, and a body of a soldier. But his mind was on the story he just heard. Three people dreamed similar dreams. With one difference; Lucius wasn’t happy in his.
“How does it feel?” Arrius asked him. Helvius and another soldier came closer.
Lucius flexed his arms, curled his fingers, clenched his fists. He kneeled and then jumped lightly. It felt remarkably well to be whole again. “I feel ready.”
The soldiers went out first while Arrius said his goodbyes with his old friend. And then the captain left, leaving only Lucius behind.
“What you did for me,” Lucius said, “just know that it will not be forgotten.”
The doctor tapped Lucius on his shoulder. “I hope it won’t be.” Lucius turned to leave, and the doctor said, “It wasn’t the gods.” Lucius stopped. He turned. “It wasn’t the gods who punished Servius,” Doctor Axios repeated.
“Who was it then?”
Doctor Axios nodded thoughtfully. “I think you will find the answer for yourself.”
AILIOS
“How does it look? Are we going to make it?” Ailios asked. He tried to sound as calm as possible although he wasn’t sure he did. His voice might have quivered there for a moment, he couldn’t tell. It even took a while to realize how tightly he had squeezed the armrest with his hands. It might have drawn some blood for all he knew. The sweat that trickled down his forehead gave a slight stinging sensation on his stitched bullet wound, but he ignored that as well. They were entering the Cyon home world. What could be worse than that? Just look at how angry it stares at us. The planet took the entire window with its gray clouds and orange sands. Here and there blue oceans could be seen, though they never made Palatine look any prettier.
“I told you to be quiet,” said
Olivia. “I’m trying to focus.”
And quiet he was. Until I see a red light beaming toward us. Then he would scream he was certain. Did I scream when the bullet hit my head? He couldn’t remember. He only hoped he wouldn’t find out.
Friseal was also quiet, and so was Luthis who woke up few hours ago, demanding to know who killed his mother until he realized he had a bad dream. Whatever Friseal gave him must’ve been some serious pain-killing drug.
I could use some of it now. Maybe I will dream of Olivia in my bed. He looked at her, waiting for her to say something. But she didn’t utter a sound. She’s too focused to be bothered by my thoughts. That was good. He could finally show some fear without worrying not to look weak in her eyes.
The archeologist was with them on the bridge as well. He kept begging them since he woke up to go back to Talam and search for Eve. He said it was the only way to stop the Cyons. But no one really paid any attention to him. What Ailios truly paid attention to was Friseal’s calmness. It angered him not to know what happened to the frightened chameleon. And I probably never will, he thought grimly, imagining how a light beam halves their ship in mid air.
For a while, though, it didn’t happen. It was almost as if the Cyons allowed them to enter their upper atmosphere for some reason. The ship passed through the thickening air with the usual turbulence and fiery heat. Once they entered the layers of clouds he realized that they weren’t as gray as