drifting, bodiless amid whirling colors. Gradually he became aware of having hands and feet again. The colors faded and cleared, leaving Ben standing on a hard white floor in the center of a giant computer network. Organic data processing units reached up like fingers, their DNA matrices glowing green and blue. Magnetic fields pulsed, lights flashed, metal gleamed. Transmission lines and data portals opened in all directions around him, ready to transmit or receive.
It was Ben's part of the Dream.
Despite a thousand years of study, no one knew exactly what the Dream was, though the prevailing theory held that it was a plane of mental existence created from the collective subconscious of every sentient mind in the universe. The Silent-people like Ben and Kendi-could actually enter the Dream, usually with a boost from a drug cocktail tailored to their specific metabolisms.
In the Dream distance meant nothing. Two Silent who entered the Dream could meet and talk, no matter where in the galaxy their bodies might be. The Silent could also shape the Dream landscape, form it into whatever environment they desired. Some Silent-Sejal, for one-could reach out of the Dream and talk to Silent who were in the solid world. And a few could actually possess the bodies of Silent in the solid world. Ben hadn't learned to do any of this yet-shaping the landscape was as far as he could go-but he suspected it would come in time.
A few quiet voices whispered on the still air around the network. Kendi said the Dream used to be filled with thousands, even millions, of voices, but Ben had never experienced that. Ben had only been in the Dream once before the Despair, and then he hadn't been paying much attention to details.
Ben automatically searched the network-his turf-for flaws. Looked solid. He concentrated a moment. The Dream swirled, and a computer terminal coalesced into being, one with a crisp and sharp holographic screen. Ben flipped through a series of images, checking security cameras and anti-virus programs. Everything was in order, and Ben sighed with satisfaction. This was a good place. A bit unorthodox, but a good place. Every Silent had his or her own turf, full of comfortable or soothing images among which to work. Many Silent created idyllic landscapes or fantastic castles for themselves, but Ben found comfort in his network, a locale where everything fell into place and made perfect sense, where any and every anomaly could be tracked down and explained.
A transmission line glowed blue and disgorged a koala bear. It landed not far from Ben's feet, bounced twice, and skidded to a halt. After recovering its balance, it glanced around the network room with a small whuff of disapproval.
'Tough,' Ben grinned. 'This is my turf, not yours.'
The koala grunted, then turned enormous brown eyes on Ben and held up its arms like a child demanding to be picked up. Ben laughed and felt some of his earlier tension ease. 'I am not going to carry you,' he said. 'What are you, a little kid?'
In answer, the koala bear leaped straight into the air. Even as its hind claws left the ground, its form shifted like quicksilver and a blue-and-brown falcon flapped across the intervening space to land on Ben's shoulder. The falcon's talons gently pricked Ben's skin through the thin material of his shirt, and Ben had to force himself not to flinch. The little raptor leaned over and nibbled Ben's ear in what turned out to be a surprisingly suggestive manner.
'Knock it off, Kendi,' Ben spluttered, pushing the beak away. 'That tickles.'
'But you taste so good,' the falcon pouted.
Ben rolled his eyes. 'Is this your attempt to be more impulsive?'
'Maybe.'
A presence brushed Ben's mind, requesting permission enter his turf. At the same moment, a message flickered across the holographic screen: May I approach?
'Hey, Sejal,' Ben said. 'Come on in. Kendi didn't even bother to ask.'
Another conduit glowed blue and Sejal Dasa slid into the room. He was a dark-skinned teenager, thin, with startling blue eyes and thick black hair that had a tendency to curl. He looked around the network and gave a low whistle.
'Pretty good,' he said. 'I hadn't seen your turf before.'
'Thanks.' Ben's reply was self-conscious. 'I'm still kind of new to all this.'
'Hey, you're one of the elite,' Sejal pointed out. 'Numbers are still coming in, but it looks like the early estimates were right-only about one Silent in ten can still enter the Dream these days.'
Kendi shuddered once on Ben's shoulder. 'I guess I should count myself lucky that I can get in at all.'
'Any luck changing back into a human yet?' Sejal asked.
'No.'
'So how are you guys doing?' Sejal said.
'Tired,' Kendi replied. 'When I'm not in the Dream, I'm in slipspace. The Order have kept us kind of busy in the last six months trying to track down other Children who were caught out in the field during the Despair.'
Ben resisted the impulse to stroke Kendi's back. 'How's the new government doing back home? Is my grandma still shaking things up?'
'Yeah.' Sejal gave a wry smile. 'She's fucking scary, you know that? She was three votes short in the election for Party Head, and none of the Senators who were voting against her would budge. So she talks to three of them. Private, right? And next thing you know, Senator Reza is Party Head. Just like that.'
'Wow,' Kendi said.
Ben nodded wryly. 'That's Grandma. Heaven help anyone who gets in her way.'
'Anyway,' Sejal continued, 'the new Bellerophon Senate is up and running, and the Independence Confederation of Planets is pretty much gone. I hear tell Empress Kalii just vanished-ran away or something.'
'She was pretty popular,' Ben said, surprised. 'What happened?'
Sejal shrugged. 'Got me. It's just a rumor I heard. I do know that the Children are raising their communication rates through the roof-so is everyone else who can still reach the Dream-and since almost nobody can talk between planets these days, everything's starting to come apart. The Empire of Human Unity's falling to pieces.' This last came out with a certain amount of glee. 'There's talk of recession all over the place. The galactic corps were really hard hit. Their Silent network for orders and money transfers and business communication-' he snapped his fingers '-gone in one shot.'
'Any official numbers on how many Silent died during the Despair?' Kendi asked quietly.
Sejal shrugged again. ' 'Lots' is the best I can tell you. If you go out there-' he waved a hand vaguely toward Ben's computer network '-the big thing going is trying to find out who survived and who didn't. It's depressing. I'm glad I didn't know anyone very well.'
Kendi seemed to sense Ben's mood and nibbled lightly on his cheek in sympathy. Ara Rymar had been Kendi's surrogate mother as well as his teacher, and her death had hit him equally hard.
'Sorry,' Sejal said, belatedly noticing the effect of his words. 'Didn't mean to be a drag-down.'
'We're not exactly bundles of sunshine,' Kendi said. He adopted a more brisk tone. 'So what's going on besides gossip, Sejal? Any good news?'
'Actually there is,' Sejal replied. 'That's why I wanted to talk to you.'
'You've got more information about Bedj-ka?' Ben said. 'We've just arrived at Klimkinnar, but a planet's a big place to search. We could use some more info.'
'I've been trying. I mean, using the Dream to find people in the solid world is flipping hard these days,' Sejal said. 'I can reach out of the Dream and touch your minds pretty easy because I know you, but Bedj-ka's more difficult.'
'I know,' Kendi said. 'I'm supposed to be one of the best Silent-finders ever, but these days I'm lucky to find Ben.'
'Yeah. Anyway, when the Despair started up, I touched every Silent in the universe for a moment, including Bedj-ka. Talk about a major mind fuck.' Sejal hawked and spat. 'I told you about how I got a flash of the kid being on Klimkinnar, but I know that's not much to go on, so the last couple days I've been working on finding them again. If I listen really hard in the Dream, I can sometimes hear people who used to be Silent and track them a little bit.'
'And?' Kendi asked tautly.
'I think Bedj-ka is in a country named Tiq. Does that help?'
Disappointment settled in Ben's stomach. He had been hoping for more than that. Still, searching a country would be a lot easier than searching an entire planet. They might be able to shave off a week, maybe even ten days
