Nightmare

If only Kendi could work up the nerve.

The byways were busy with people, both human and Ched-Balaar. Kendi automatically pressed fingertips to forehead whenever he passed anyone ranked Parent or higher. It had barely been a week since he had arrived on Bellerophon, but he felt perfectly at home and had already learned his way around the monastery and memorized his schedule. Mornings and early afternoons were spent in class. Late afternoons were reserved for study and private lessons with Mother Ara in using Silence. He was also required to work at least fifteen hours a week on duty shift, doing whatever needed to be done around the monastery. Students worked jobs ranging from serving food in the cafeteria to washing windows to gardening, depending on knowledge, aptitude, and interest. Kendi had so far been on outdoor cleanup, which involved going all the way down to the ground and picking up detritus that fell from the monastery above. He had done it twice and so far hadn’t seen a single dinosaur, to his combination relief and disappointment. All in all, though, it was a busy schedule, and he wondered if it was designed to keep newcomers from getting homesick or missing loved ones. Sometimes it even worked.

Kendi arrived at history class just in time. The teacher was a brown-robed young Sister with short blond hair, a plump build, and merry brown eyes.

'Kendi!' called Kite. 'Verhere.'

With a nod Kendi took a seat at the table with Kite, Willa, and Jeren. Although Kendi had met other students, he liked best hanging out with the others he had been 'bought' with.

'All right now,' called Sister Bren, the teacher. 'Let’s review yesterday a little before we go on. Who remembers what this is?' In the center of the classroom appeared a hologram of a blue-green-brown planet with a single moon. Kendi instantly recognized Bellerophon. A dot of light circled the planet. The view zoomed in toward the light, and it ballooned into a meteor-pocked, gray cylinder parked in planetary orbit. It looked almost exactly like the colony ship Kendi had boarded with his family.

'The Margery Daw,' said several students.

'And the captain was …?' Sister Bren prompted.

'Irfan Qasad.'

The view rotated around the planet to reveal another ship, low and round with a clear top, like a flattened bubble.

'That’s the Ched-Balaar,' piped up another student. 'You said they don’t name their ships. They got here first.'

'That’s absolutely right.' Bren tapped at the controls on her desk and a tiny shuttle scooted away from the Margery Daw and docked with the Ched-Balaar vessel. 'She was one of the first humans to lay eyes on an alien race. Lucky for us they were friendly.' A while later, several dozen shuttles spilled out of the human ship like scattering dandelion seeds and dropped gently to the planet below. The view zoomed in again, showing humans working side-by-side with Ched-Balaar in the top of the talltree forest, building houses and walkways.

'Records differ on this point,' Bren reminded them. 'We don’t know if Treetown started before or after the Ched-Balaar took the first group of humans into the Dream, but that’s a minor aside. Who all did the Ched-Balaar first bring into the Dream?'

The holographic view shifted again to a night-time campfire on a fern-covered forest floor. A group of Ched- Balaar sat near it playing odd-looking drums and rattles.

'Irfan Qasad,' Jeren called out. A sharp-faced woman with a long brown braid popped into existence near the campfire. Her expression was both thoughtful and wary. 'I’d slip her space anytime.'

'Jeren,' Bren warned, and Kendi poked him in the ribs with an elbow.

'Daniel Vik,' said someone else. A stocky, blond man who looked barely old enough to shave appeared next to Irfan.

'Yin Ping,' said Willa, barely loud enough to be heard. An Asian man with silvering black hair puffed into being. The class continued calling out names until the full roster of the first human Silent was complete. Kendi didn’t contribute. His mind alternated between thoughts about his family brought on by the hologram of the colony ship and thoughts of Pitr brought on by nothing in particular. A gentle breeze moved through the open window, smelling of leaves and bark.

'After it was determined that humans could indeed enter the Dream,' Bren said, 'Irfan Qasad consulted with a group of geneticists, both human and Ched-Balaar, and they determined that the current gene pool didn’t carry enough genes for Silence-though they didn’t call it that yet-to ensure the trait would continue. The Margery Daw carried a great many frozen human embryos, however, and they decided to alter some of them for Silence. Unfortunately, it turned out that the Silent don’t develop well in artificial wombs. They just wither and die. No one knows exactly why. You’ll learn more about that when you take biology.'

Utang’s blue eyes. Pitr’s hazel ones. Slapping mosquitoes, catching frogs. Falling from the roof, grasping Pitr’s hand. Writhing in pain under snapping silver bands.

' …do know that she married Daniel Vik and eventually had three children,' Bren said. 'Two of them were Silent. Much of the rest of her history is up in the air. Vik did kidnap the eldest boy and disappear, probably to Othertown, since that’s where he turned up later. The question is, why did he do it? Some records from the time hint that Vik suffered from depression and paranoid delusions. That he had some kind of fight with Irfan herself is almost certain, but what could possibly have …'

Little Martina crying in her slave square. Dad’s face contorted with pain as he reached for Mom’s hand. The flying dinosaur’s stabbing beak. Pitr’s laugh. Festival.

' …appears that Irfan lied to him about their children. It’s possible Vik knew they weren’t his kids. A surviving fragment from his own writings says, ‘My children don’t share my genes,’ which seems to be pretty clear. At any rate, he whipped the government of Othertown into a frenzy. Not all humans on Bellerophon liked the Silent, and a fair number of Ched-Balaar thought bringing humans into the Dream in the first place was a mistake. Vik was building a powder keg, and Othertown was almost ready to declare genocide against the Silent, even though Vik himself was …'

He would do it tonight, talk to Pitr at the festival tonight. After all, Pitr didn’t seem to be the type to get angry. He had always looked gentle to Kendi, anyway. But how would he react?

' …used the Dream to perform research together, even though they were on different planets and separated by light years of empty space. As a team, they discovered slipspace and how to use it. So you could also say that Irfan had a hand in the discovery of slipspace, since she was the one to spearhead interplanetary communication through the Dream. Of course, it was slipspace and slipships that allowed Vik to get his hands on weapons powerful enough to …'

Pup’s eyes going flat, his body going stiff. Rejection in his eyes to words Kendi hadn’t quite said. What if the same thing happened with Pitr? Kendi didn’t think he could face that.

' …resigned from her post as governor in a cloud of scandal, and the question went unanswered. Did Irfan order the assassination of the governor of Othertown or did he truly commit …'

The room seemed suddenly close and stifling, despite the open window. Kendi abruptly found he couldn’t sit still. He needed to move, to-

' …you think, Kendi?'

Kendi looked up, startled. Bren, Jeren, Willa, and everyone else in the room were staring at him expectantly. He scrambled to remember what Sister Bren had asked but couldn’t do it. 'What?'

'Do you think Irfan ordered the assassination of the governor of Othertown?' Bren repeated patiently.

Kendi shrugged. Who cared?

'Well, it’s your homework essay-all of you,' Bren said. 'There’s half an hour left for class. Log into the system and start your research now. Work with a partner, if you want. I’m really interested in what you come up with, so turn them in tomorrow morning, all right?'

The class groaned but got out their data pads. Holographic screens popped up all over the room. Kendi got out his own pad, and Sister Bren moved among the class, pointing out places to find both information and speculation. Several students teamed up with partners. Kendi’s restlessness grew. It felt like he was back in his slave square, hemmed in on all sides.

'Wannaworktogether?' Kite blurted.

'I have to get out of here,' Kendi muttered. And when Sister Bren’s back was turned, he slipped out the door.