BooksBarbecue
Back Excession
Chapters (108)
  1. About the Author
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. 1 - Outside Context Problem
  6. I
  7. II
  8. III
  9. IV
  10. V
  11. VI
  12. 2 - Not Invented Here
  13. I
  14. II
  15. III
  16. 3 - Uninvited Guests
  17. I
  18. II
  19. III
  20. IV
  21. 4 - Dependency Principle
  22. I
  23. II
  24. III
  25. IV
  26. V
  27. 5 - Kiss The Blade
  28. I
  29. II
  30. III
  31. IV
  32. V
  33. VI
  34. 6 - Pittance
  35. I
  36. II
  37. III
  38. IV
  39. V
  40. VI
  41. 7 - Tier
  42. I
  43. II
  44. III
  45. IV
  46. 8 - Killing Time
  47. I
  48. II
  49. III
  50. IV
  51. V
  52. VI
  53. VII
  54. VIII
  55. 9 - Unacceptable Behaviour
  56. I
  57. II
  58. III
  59. IV
  60. V
  61. VI
  62. VII
  63. VIII
  64. IX
  65. X
  66. XI
  67. XII
  68. XIII
  69. XIV
  70. 10 - Heavy Messing
  71. I
  72. II
  73. III
  74. IV
  75. V
  76. VI
  77. VII
  78. VIII
  79. IX
  80. X
  81. XI
  82. XII
  83. XIII
  84. XIV
  85. XV
  86. 11 - Regarding Gravious
  87. I
  88. II
  89. III
  90. IV
  91. V
  92. VI
  93. VII
  94. VIII
  95. IX
  96. X
  97. XI
  98. XII
  99. XIII
  100. XIV
  101. 12 - Faring Well
  102. I
  103. II
  104. III
  105. IV
  106. V
  107. VI
  108. Epilogue

And was instantly sucked into the light; it erupted blindingly, exploding out at her like some absurdly quick solar flare, engulfing her, snapping around her like a trap.

Zreyn Enhoff Tramow, captain of the General Contact Ship Problem Child, barely had time to react. Then she was plucked away and disappeared into the coruscating depths of the falling fire, struggling and trapped and calling for help. Calling to him.

He bounced awake on the bed-field, eyes suddenly open, breath fast and shallow, heart hammering. The cabin’s lights came on, dim at first and then brightening gently, reacting to his movements.

Genar-Hofoen wiped his face with his hands and looked around the cabin. He swallowed and took a deep breath. He hadn’t meant to dream anything like that. It had been as vivid as an implanted dream or some game-scenario shared in sleep. He had meant to dream one of his usual erotic dreams, not look back two thousand years to the time when the Problem Child had first found the trillion-year-old sun and the black-body object in orbit around it. All he’d wanted was a sex-simulation, not an in-depth inquisition of a bleakly ambitious woman’s arid soul.

Certainly it had been interesting, and he’d been fascinated that he had somehow been the woman and yet not been her at the same time, and had been - non-sexually - inside her, in her mind, close as a neural lace to her thoughts and emotions and the hopes and fears she had been prompted to think about by the sight of the star and the thing she had thought of as the enigma. But it hadn’t been what he’d expected.

Another strange, unsettling dream.

‘Ship?’ he said.

‘Yes?’ the Grey Area said through the cabin’s sound system.

‘I . . . I just had a weird dream.’

‘Well, I have some experience in that realm, I suppose,’ the ship said with what sounded like a heavy sigh. ‘I imagine now you want to talk about it.’

‘No . . . well . . . no; I just wondered . . . you weren’t . . . ?’

‘Ah. You want to know was I interfering with your dreams, is that it?’

‘It just, you know, occurred to me.’

‘Well now, let’s see . . . If I had been, do you think I would answer you truthfully?’

He thought. ‘Does that mean you were or you weren’t?’

‘I was not. Are you happy now?’

‘No I’m not happy now. Now I don’t know if you were or you weren’t.’ He shook his head, and grinned. ‘You’re fucking with my head either way, aren’t you?’