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THEY LED DUN FARTHER on down the corridor to another door. This one seemed to have some kind of security pad on it from the clicking and beeping that ensued. The door opened with a final cheerful beep. The room on the inside was bizarre. There seemed to be one wall made entirely of something so smooth and featureless that it reflected every tiny noise. The rest of the room was some kind of precisely textured metal. An odd deep kind of texture that seemed to damp down any noise. Truly strange. In the center of the room was a chair. Dun was getting used to the sense of foreboding from that setup.
“So,” Bel said, “let us explain.”
“Better still,” Stef said, “let us demonstrate.”
“Okay...” Dun said.
“It’s all perfectly safe,” Bel said.
“Who’s going in the chair?” Tam said.
“Me, I guess,” Bel said, “since Stef needs to operate.”
“Sit on down then,” Stef said. “We’ll get you all wired up.”
And she set about with whatever it was needed doing to the apparatus, humming cheerfully as she went.
“What do I need to do?” Dun said nervously.
“Nothing,” Bel said breezily. “You just stay there. Someone might find you a chair though.”
“I’ll get one from the collecting room,” Tam said and disappeared toward the smooth wall. It seemed to have a door in it that opened outward when pressed.
Stef continued buzzing about Bel until she reached some stage of satisfaction, signified by a click of her tongue and a humming noise. Tam returned from the smooth wall, carrying a chair. He placed it on the floor with a clunk.
“Sit down?” Tam said.
“I’ll stand, thanks,” Dun said.
“I’d advise you sit,” Bel said. Not a threat, but what?
“Okay,” Dun said and sat.
“Ready?” Bel said.
“I guess,” Dun said.
“Wasn’t asking you,” Bel said.
“Yeah, ready here,” Stef said.
“Good,” Bel said. “Charge her up!”
A low hum throbbed around the room, and Dun thought it began to get warmer. The hum reached a steady tone and resonance.
“Okay, select pink noise program.”
“Yeah!” Stef yelled.
“Transmit.”
Dun felt like his head was about to split open. The sandy hissing from his dreams was back and as loud as it had ever been. But he wasn’t asleep. Was he?
“Stop!” Bel yelled.
The noise and feelings and smells and tastes stopped.
“I don’t underst...”
“Transmit,” Bel said.
***
DUN SCREAMED, UNPREPARED this time, the sensory input felt like blows coming from all sides at once.
“Enough!” This time it was Dun yelling.
“Okay!” Bel shouted and the sensations stopped at once.
Tears streamed down Dun’s face. “What in all the hells was that?”
“You know already,” Bel said.
“What does it remind you of?” Tam said, a little more kindly.
“Of ... for... foretelling.”
“Is that what you call it?” Bel said.
“But... What... Why?” Dun said.
“It’s called projection,” Stef said, joining them. “Here.”
She gave him an odd object, some kind of a helmet festooned with wires.
“What is it?” Dun said.
“It does the... foretelling?” Stef said.
“How? I... don’t understand.”
“It transmits thoughts,” Bel said.
“But how?”
“Well, the truth of it is we don’t really understand how exactly,” Bel said.
“It amplifies thoughts to a point they can be sent out,” Tam said.
“The amplifiers we understand, the transmitting and receiving, less so,” Stef said.
“How... I...”
“Foretelling... It doesn’t exist, Dun,” Tam said gently.
“But it does... I... hear it.”
“Well, yes you do,” Stef said.
“But it’s not you telling the future. It’s us,” Bel said.
“But there have been shamans for eons.”
“No doubt there have,” Bel said.
“But how long have you—"
“Been projecting? Three or four eons,” Bel said.
“We only came into possession of the equipment four or five eons ago,” Stef said. ‘It took a while to get it set up. And then longer to find folk that could work it.”
“Don’t you work it?” Dun said.
“Well, yeah,” Stef said. “But that’s not what I mean.”
“Listen,” Tam said. “Do you need time for this to sink in? We can do more of this later.”
“But the debriefing?” Bel said.
“Can wait,” Tam said. “I think Dun needs to rest.”
“He can use my bunk for a bit if he wants,” Stef said. “Until you find him somewhere. I won’t be in it for a bit; I’ll be doing lates here. There’s tweaking to do.”
“That’d be great,” Tam said. “You want to take him, Stef? I think he might be sick of hearing us two for a bit?”
“Sure. Come on you.”
***
THEY WALKED BACK TOWARD the landing bay in silence. There was another corridor opposite; it seemed to be where they were heading. There were lots of identical door depressions in the sides of the corridor. They stopped early.
“I’m here,” she said. “Need to be near the action when folks break stuff.”
“Mmm.”
“Sit down. Bed there.” She led his hand to it and gently kept it there. “It’ll be okay.”
“Yeah.”
She moved to go.
“I thought I was special,” Dun said quietly.
She stopped. Walked back, sat, and let out a breath. “You are though, kind of.”
“Oh, good, that makes me feel the opposite of special.”
“No, that’s not what I meant. I mean, not everyone can receive projections. It takes us ages to achieve resonance.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The projector; it’s kind of a communicator, really, but you’ve got to tune it in. You find someone who can transmit, play things through them, and then fiddle with the settings until you find someone who can pick the signals up. Then that comes back on the sensors as resonance; it’s how you know you’ve found someone. How we knew we’d found you. You’re rarer than you think.”
“So all those noises, feelings, senses?”
“All came from us. We projected them all.”
“Even the premonitions of the crazy metal rat-thing?”
“Oh, that was my idea to give you a heads-up. Some Community spies found out the Duchy had sent it, so I hacked into their sensor grid, and, well, you know the rest.”
“Oh.”
“Talking of rest,” she said. “You should get some. I’ll come get you when it’s shift change. You can talk about it more then if you want.”
“Thanks,” Dun said and curled up on the bunk.
