Dream thief

21

… SHOULD MELT YOUR flesh where you sit! I should blast your shriveled body to atoms! How dare you defy me!" The ancient eyes flashed fire and the voice croaked with murderous rage.

Hocking, for once, appeared at a loss for words. "I… I did not defy you, Ortu. Th-there must be some mistake."

"There is a mistake and you made it when you gave heed to your own overreaching ambition. You will pay for this error, but first I want to know if you have any notion at all of what you have done. Do you have the slightest idea what you have ruined with your trifling, puny efforts? No answer?"

Hocking had never seen his master so angry. He thought it 4, best to keep his mouth shut and weather the blast if he could.

"No? Well then, I will tell you," Ortu spat. He raised himself up and sat on his cushions erect and commanding, though he had not moved from his place. His hairless head gleamed like a polished knob; the hanging folds of skin around his neck jerked with every venomous word. The gleaming circlet across his forehead glowed hotly, and the great yellow eyes, burning out of their enormous sockets, undimmed by age, pierced the object of their focus like laser beams. Hocking shrank even deeper into the yielding cushions of the pneumochair.

"Your meddling has jeopardized the work of a thousand years. Centuries of cultural and social conditioning have brought us to the precise moment of maximum vulnerability. The tanti is at last attuned to the exact mental frequency of the collective human mind. Mankind trembles on the threshold of our new world order, and does not even guess what is about to happen. Like dogs they await the coming of a master to lead them."

"How has anything changed, Ortu? It is still as it was. Nothing has been lost."

"Silence! A great deal has been lost! I thought you were smarter than others of your kind. Use that miserable brain o yours, then-think what you have done!"

Try as he might Hocking could not think what had gone wrong. He did not even know exactly how Ortu had found out about his plan to eliminate Spencer Reston.

"Does your tongue fail you? Well it might, since you do not fathom even the tiniest fraction of the whole.

"The tanti is ready, is it not? It has been tested relentlessly for many years." Ortu sank back into himself, and glared dully at Hocking. "Its power has been increased a billion-fold."

"Correct." Hocking's mouth was dry and he croaked.

"With the tanti we possess the ability to control the universal subconscious and thereby control the behavior of every human being on earth. With it we can literally rule the world."

"Control a man's dreams and you control his mind," said Hocking. He had heard the maxim often enough.

"And yet, in the final calibration experiment what happens? Unexpectedly, we discover a man capable of resisting complete domination. How is this possible?" Ortu crossed his long thin arms across his narrow chest. "Answer me!"

"I don't know," snapped Hocking. "Obviously, if I knew it would not have happened."

"Well said. But do you not even now perceive your error? Did it never occur to you that where one man resists there may lie the secret of all men's resistance? That is why I wanted him brought here-to learn the secret of his ability to withstand control. Instead, you seek to eliminate him, to destroy him. If you had succeeded we would never know."

"You saved him, didn't you?" Hocking fought down the twinge of fear that coursed through him as he remembered his unsuccessful attempts to kill Reston. "I fail to see how I have seriously harmed our plans, let alone damaged our overall contingencies."

"Then allow me to illumine you, oh wise one," mocked Ortu. Hocking colored under the scorn. "Reston has contacted a member of my race-"

"Impossible! It is beyond current physics…"

"It is not impossible. I have just said it has happened. It is a fact. He did not travel to distant galaxies, no. He has awakened one of the Guardians and has summoned him here."

"I don't believe it!"

"You will believe it. Long ago when we on Ovs migrated we left behind in each city one of our own to guard all that we left behind against the day when others would come, that the knowledge gained should be wisely used and our treasures respected."

Reston could not have discovered this-no one on Earth believes Martians exist, much less Martian cities."

"You, who believe nothing-how do you know what men believe in their innermost hearts? And why do you keep telling me these things are not possible when indeed they have happened?

"Men believe that their salvation will come from the stars, from benevolent beings who will show them the way. That is what men believe today. Have I not spent hundreds of years nurturing that belief? Creating wonders in the sky, strange and unexplained events on the ground? All to prepare the way for this final stage, for the willingness of humankind to accept a savior from beyond their world.

"It has all been part of the social and mental conditioning. Men speak of UFOs and watch the sky by night for a sign that their space brothers are coming. And why? Because I have willed it so. I, Ortu, have programmed it to be so."

"How can one man, even a very stubborn man like Reston, change that?"

Ortu sighed. "Because within him is the force to withstand, and to undo all I have done. And the Guardian who is with him now will not allow our work to continue-he will see it stopped." …

GITA, WHOSE WIDE ROUND eyes never for a moment left the alien, kept hopping up and down in a kind of ecstatic dance, first on one foot and then on the other. He was beside himself, almost literally. And though he did not enter into the conversation with the others, he did not miss a word.

Spence and Adjani were endeavoring to explain their present situation to Kyr, who listened intently. It was a marvel to Gita that the Martian could speak so well; Spence had explained the being's remarkable facility, but that did not diminish Gita's sense of wonder that the first words he heard from the mouth of an extra-terrestrial were in plain English.

Spence explained, "We have very good reason to believe that one of your own-an Ovsian -came to Earth during the time of the Great Migration. He has lived for thousands of years somewhere in these mountains-a place called Kalitiri. The soldiers in the truck were supposed to be taking us to him but… they evidently changed their minds."

Kyr pondered this information; his eyes narrowed and he looked away toward the mountains. "If one of my race is here, he will be found. He must be convinced to return to Ovs. It is forbidden to interfere with an alien culture."

"Unfortunately that appears to be just what he has been doing here," said Adjani. "We think he is somehow connected with Spence's blackouts and the dreams; that is, he is responsible for them. On at least one occasion what Spence had dreamed has come true."

"The tanti-dream maker," said Kyr. "It is a device-a transmitter capable of influencing brain functions and inducing mental imagery. It was used on Ovs as a medical instrument for treating those suffering from acute mental disorders."

"I'm afraid it has been put to a very different use here on Earth," replied Adjani.

"Then the tanti must be destroyed; those who would use it must be stopped."

"Our thoughts exactly." Spence glanced around at the late afternoon sky. "But it will be getting dark soon. Perhaps we should find shelter before nightfall-at least, before the soldiers work up enough nerve to come back."

"Come with me," said Kyr. "We will use my vehicle." A long arm swept up to indicate the still-glowing object sitting in the center of the dirt road.

".Why?"

"Because he must. It is his life-sworn duty."

"Then they must all be destroyed," said Hocking, for the first time speaking with anything approaching hope. "I was right after all."

Ortu's head began weaving back and forth. "You still do not understand. Perhaps you are unable to comprehend what I have been telling you."

"I understand that if our work is in danger we must take any steps necessary to eliminate that danger. We must stop them." "How do you propose to do that?" Ortu scowled.

Thinking fast, he said, "Your disciples could do it. Send them out to destroy our enemies."

"You have left us no choice. I will summon them." Ortu's head sank. For once he seemed to wear the full weight of his years. His voice sank into a rasping whisper. "Go now."

Hocking swept out of the swirling, cloud-choked chamber and found Pundi lurking in the hallway nearby. "Bring his disciples at once!" he ordered. The servant hurried off on pattering feet to retrieve the chest of gopherwood containing the six teak boxes.

"A flying saucer," said Gita. "I'm going to ride in a flying saucer!"

"Vimana, " said Kyr. "It is called a vimana. "

"Sky car! He is right!" exclaimed Gita. "The word is exactly the same in our language."

"Why not?" chuckled Spence. "No doubt that's where it came from in the first place."

"Then it is really true! And the myths of my people,. Gita began and stopped, stricken with the implications of this revelation.

"Are myths just the same," finished Adjani. "Though with a grain of truth behind them."

"A mountain of truth, sahib," said Gita, shaking his head. "When I said before that I believed your story, I never dreamed… To think they have been worshiping Martians all these years! It staggers the mind!"

Spence listened to this exchange and smiled. As they started toward the vimana he said, "Kyr, how did you know to come here?"

"Your bneri summoned me."

"No, it was taken from me before I could use it. One of the soldiers grabbed it just as I was about to send you the signal."

"I received the signal and I answered it."

"But how? How could you have come so quickly? Only a few minutes passed before you arrived. Does your spacecraft travel so fast?"

"I do not know what you mean, Earthfriend. I was aware of your presence on this road. I watched the truck from before your entry into the village when you were stopped on the road."

Now Spence was completely confused. "That can't be-I had not tried to signal yet. You would have had to receive my summons before I sent it!" He shook his head and looked to Adjani for help- "Just when did you receive the signal?" asked Adjani.

"Your question has no meaning. I cannot answer." The Martian shrugged his narrow shoulders in a human display of ignorance.

"No meaning? Are you saying that time is irrelevant to the working of the bneri?"

"It works outside of time, as thought is outside of time. Therefore you cannot ask 'when' of it." "I don't get it at all," muttered Spence. "Do you?"

"I think so," said Adjani. "Prayer often works the same way. We sometimes see that the seeds of the answer to our prayer have been sown before we even knew to pray. This is possible because God is not confined to time as we are. Past, present, future-he moves through each as he will."

Kyr made a low whistling sound, and translated it for them.

"This God you speak of. He is the All-Being-the Source."

"Yes," replied Adjani. "You know him? You worship him?"

"Worship?"

"It means to revere, to hold worthy, to adore, to praise and love."

Kyr shrugged again. "This, I believe, is implied in living before him. We know him and feel his presence with us at all times."

"It isn't that way on Earth," said Adjani. "Men must choose to know him and worship him of their free will."

"It is the same with us. But who would choose not to know him?" Kyr gave Spence a quick, ironic look.

"You'd be surprised," said Spence.

"I told you once that I would find a way to explain the ways of the All-Being to you. But I see now that there is a barrier between us which I cannot cross. It was placed there by Dal Elna, who made you different from us. My explanations would not satisfy you."

"I believe you, Kyr. For an Earthman, nothing will do unless he finds the All-Being by himself, in his own way."

Just then Gita, who had been silent during this exchange broke in with, "Look! The townspeople from Rangpo are coming. They have seen your vimana. We must hurry away now or we may be here all night."

"We will talk of these things at greater length when time is not important. Now we have work to do," said Kyr. He turned and headed toward his craft. At his approach a red line appeared at the top of the object and slid down along the side, slicing it in two. A brilliant light flooded over them as the two halves parted to receive them. Spence, Adjani, and Gita stepped hesitantly into the light and followed Kyr into the craft.

The people of Rangpo saw four figures disappear inside a red beam of light and then a loud whirring sound filled the air as the unidentified flying object grew suddenly bright orange and then flashed over their heads in an instant, moving over the town toward the mountains to vanish in the clouds.