Book Excerpt for DreamFlowering

DreamFlowering -- Extract

Ryan Davison

Cover graphic design by Drew at idrewdesign on Fiverr.com.

The right of Ryan Davison to be identified as the author of this book has been asserted in accordance with Sections 77 and 78 of the Copyrights and Patents Act 1988.

Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the author.

All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

Lavita poured them both another glass of vin. "So you are dangerous to our native cultures?"

"Meeting us is bound to change it, though maybe not for people as much as other races. I wanted to ask you -- what do your people think of humans? Everybody acts nonchalant. They tolerate me, but they don't pay me any particular attention. Most races are either curious about creatures from outer space, or hostile."

Lavita smiled and crossed her legs, giving Yutaro a glimpse of her sleek brown thigh. "You're the biggest news of the year. I guarantee when you're around, lots of people are talking about you. But they're too polite to let you see it. They're curious, but they don't speak Cyrillish and you don't know our yazik. Even if they could communicate, what could they do about you? What should they want to do? Ask for your autograph? They're interested, but they still have their own dious to work every day.

"The crops must be planted and harvested, the fish caught, the food chopped, the buildings constructed, the children raised and taught. Studying humans does not fall into any of the established diou categories. So far, I'm the only one who has learned your language. When more of you come here, the children who find you the most fascinating part of the universe will do more research. As you teach us different fields of knowledge, soma of us will want to take those as our dious. Pioneering a new diou is a challenge the most adventurous can't resist, although it can have many drawbacks, as I know too well. I was afraid I would never practice my diou again. I really want to celebrate now. I'll make the anniversary of this day a feiertag for the rest of my life."

"I wish I could make my own holidays. I'm also happy. I did not dare hope my interpreter would be so beautiful."

"Human men. I read in books how you're always complimenting women on external beauty. Ashcroft said things like that to me too."

"It's our custom. I wouldn't have said anything if I didn't like you as a person too."

"You hardly know me."

"But I have a feel for your personality, and I like it."

"I like yours too, though I don't think I know you humans well enough to be sure of anything about you. But thanks for the flattery. I'm not ungrateful. I'm just more used to being judged by what I do. And since I couldn't practice my first diou until today again, the judgments have not been good."

"I don't understand. Why couldn't you practice another profession? And you said you danced a lot -- there's nothing wrong with that. I thought you danced beautifully."

"I do -- but it's still my second diou. We don't switch dious like you go from job to job. With us, our life's work is just that. We can change clothes and change lovers, but not the dious we pick when we're growing up. Everybody who's civilized has a first diou. Most people have a second diou different from the first, something to do for relaxation, as a hobby, but it is not supposed to replace our first diou. I chose tree-style dancing for my second. Even if something happens so we can't perform our first diou, we can't change to another one. That's a terrible situation. I've been a social outcast, a procazhonny. But now you're here I can practice my first diou again. I only hope I do a good job."

"You speak Cyrillish very well."

Lavita moved closer to him on the couch. Her perfume gave off a scent like a bouquet of flowers.

"I know I can communicate with you. Going back and forth between my language and yours is the hard part. It's like trying to play the same piece of music with an orchestra and on a piece of string stretched out tight."

She certainly had a low opinion of her own language. The relative complexity of Cyrillish must have been what attracted her to study it.

"Do you people have a name for yourselves?"

"Lia. That is also the name of our planet. It's hard to translate -- it might mean something like 'animal-creating.'"

"It sounds pretty." Yutaro poured more glasses of wine. "Where did you get 'Lavita?' That's a human name."

"Ashcroft called me that. It was easier for him, until he learned our language. We don't really have names, not like you do. What we call each other by is more like labels, or descriptions, and they change as our lives change. We do have a kind of name we're given at birth. That's registered in record-keeping cities like this one, and it never changes."

"Why the secrecy?"

"They're not secret, we just don't use them in conversation, only legal documents. Mine takes five minutes to say. I won't bore you with it."

"I'm not bored at all." He draped his arm around her shoulder and gave her an intense look.

Lavita smiled and said, "There's something else I've missed since the last time I saw Ashcroft. She stood up, pushed the table away from the couch, sat on Yutaro's lap and kissed him.

"Ashcroft took me from my birth mother when I was still a child, the day we first met. He was my father, my brother, my son, my friend, my teacher, my mother, my student and my first lover."

"Are human men better?'

"Nyet . . . just different. Maybe worse -- it's awkward and unnatural and sometimes painful, at least for me, but that makes it even more exciting."

"I understand."

They kissed again.

Much later in the evening, Lavita rolled off the bed. Before Yutaro could move, she told him, "I have more things to do. Meet me in front of the, the . . . archives, the big building, early after breakfast."

"Wait," Yutaro said. "You are moving in here, aren't you?"

"Of course, that's why I have to take care of my things." She rushed out the door. The candle flame danced in the draft.

Yutaro leaned back against the stack of pillows and stared up at the dark ceiling. What a start.

Yes, this woman changed everything. What this job lacked in danger and excitement, her delightful company in and out of bed more than made up for. Although he still craved adventure and the opportunity to show the Committee he was still a crack agent, this incredibly beautiful and sensual woman sure provided another type of adrenaline rush.

And she had seduced him more than he her. A wise if unplanned move for him to make. If he let her feel in control of at least one aspect of their relationship, she was less likely to quit in anger if the situation ever got rough.

Yutaro learned long ago keeping the goodwill of the people working with him was crucial to his success. Some agents bullied and tyrannized their subordinates, but Yutaro scorned that method of control. He preferred to trick his people into allowing him to use them, into wanting to fight for him, to die for him if need be. He found his technique more efficient and trustworthy.

He suspected his brutal colleagues were secretly softhearted, and really did not like to use other people. Making their men and women hate them eased their consciences, for lying to and manipulating those men and women. They unconsciously felt they deserved only hate, so they forced it out of people who really preferred to take risks out of love, out of belief in a cause.

Yutaro had no time for that. He worked for the welfare of TUT and so, indirectly and often unknowingly, did the people he recruited. Sometimes they paid the final price for believing in him, just as he had almost paid it several times and might still -- a condition he accepted when he entered this profession, for the excitement and to escape the iron grip of the army.

He felt no qualms about obtaining loyalty from others by any means necessary. Promises were easy to make and just as easy to break, even when he betrayed all those who trusted him.

He had done so before and would do so again unless the Committee really did force him to retire at the end of this assignment. Fortunately, this was a peaceful and almost open one. He needed Lavita's full cooperation, but translating was not an arduous or dangerous chore, and she was eager.

Yutaro gulped more wine and, suddenly seized with restlessness, began pacing the room. He tried several times to lie down again, but could not stay still. He tried to plan what to say to the king, but could not concentrate. He kept remembering Lavita and the way she smiled. He threw the glass against a wall. It shattered.

Suddenly tired, Yutaro fell back into bed, closed his eyes and was almost asleep when he heard his miridi beep. He hurried to answer it. What did See-See want now? This was not a scheduled communication.

The voice from Central Command said, "Vice-President Struckhelm here."

Vice-President?

"Where's my case officer?"

"That personnel holds not sufficient security clearance ranking to communicate with agent in your field of operations."

Yutaro felt a cold chill down his spine. What could have happened to change this assignment's security to the vice-presidential level?

Struckhelm spoke the code words which established his authority. When he said, "We are extending your defined operation. Happening outside your responsible area has imperatively given rise to new mission definition of highest priority ranking."

When Yutaro finished speaking to Struckhelm his heart pounded his ribs and his hands shook. He lay on his back and covered his eyes with his palms, but none of the relaxation techniques he knew could calm his nerves and muscles.

So -- no soft and restful assignment after all. Suddenly he carried the weight of an entire world. The lives of so many millions of intelligent aliens, including Lavita and, not least of all, himself, were at risk. He had entered a pennyante jaro game only to find the stakes upped past the house limit.

He considered going back to his spaceship and taking off. Escape. Go wild. Head for the frontier and take his chances.

No, he was a professional. He had his orders and, as always, would carry them out to the best of his ability. He would prove he was still the Committee's best field agent. Successful completion of this mission would give him enough leverage to demand retirement to a high-paying diplomatic sinecure on a pleasant alien world filled with beautiful, willing alien women.

Could he go to the crashed missile in his spaceship? No, because if he landed within one hundred fifty kilometers of the missile the vibrations could set off the bomb. His ship carried only one person, and he could not go alone so far on an unknown planet. He needed help reaching the missile site.

Yutaro decided even if he could not sleep he should try to rest. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and waited for morning.

He'd need all his strength to reach and disarm the anti-matter bomb before it blew up and destroyed Lia.