This story has been selected for the anthology New Authors Science Fiction # 6. A collection that I really wanted to participate much.
From the beach, the sun's disc appeared unusually large. Her aura cloaked every detail of a red-orange tint, which made everything vague and undefined, as if the figures, the shapes, the boundaries of each element on the scene were carved in copper glow. So was the rocks in the sea, for the dense forest and houses in the distance.
One would have thought the star of another system, and a distant planet that was not the Earth.
A blanket of white clouds approaching from the east seemed immune to quell'aggressione color, and even the ocean, intensely green and crystal clear, let it contaminate. Land, sea and sky seemed to have been collected from different worlds, and forced into a harmonious co-existence so as unnatural.
Among the hiss of the wind and the roar of the waves on the shore, they heard the neighing of a wild horse, galloping on the beach. It was black and fast.
-Here, my son, he '.- very careful Kefalios Luan said the following on-screen horse in motion.
the perspective changes suddenly, moving to the sea, and then the scene is interrupted, and in its place appeared a crowd of people immersed in the chaos of a big city.
Luan Kefalios waited a few seconds, because the next scene was over, and shot a glance to his apprentice that required a response.
Teacher, what I should see?
-before scene change, you have not noticed anything, kid?
-Behold, I ...
-Perspective, burdock. The perspective was changing.
-You are right, master.
-The change of perspective is often a prelude to a scene change. Notice certain details is not easy, the speed at which the dream takes place, but you get used to. Security during the polls there is no time to rewind the recording and see it more carefully.
Bardan Safarian silent.
-whenever you can, shoot the dream from the beginning and study it well, right? If we do now - Luan muttered with a hint of annoyance, pointing to the government in full armor behind them-this' man Immediately notify your supervisor.
-I will, Maestro Kefalios.
Due governativi entrarono nella sala. L’uomo che aveva sognato fu scollegato dalla macchina, risvegliato e congedato. Prima che se ne andasse, Bardàn lo vide scoccare un’occhiataccia attraverso la vetrata, come se quello potesse vederli.
-Sembra arrabbiato.- osservò il ragazzo.
-Lo saresti anche tu, se una volta al mese entrassero nei tuoi sogni.- sussurrò Luan.
Il maestro pensò con sollievo che mancavano solo tre sondaggi per completare il consueto ciclo di venti della mattinata. Il Governo pretendeva sempre più efficienza e rapidità: una maggiore frequenza di interventi significava un controllo più capillare della popolazione.
Like the previous times, burdock activated voice recorder, and Luan declared:
Poll-security bar two hundred and seven seventeen. Males, twenty-eight years, identified as Andras Saudan, registration 5:00 to 7:00-three-three. Analysis of basic components. Sea: high-spiritedness. Sky with clouds: average sense of freedom. Red sun with Earth: weak grip on reality. Horse: good physical health. Not distinguishing marks. Conclusions: elements of good physical health with slight signs of mental confusion, dreams, falling within the norm. Aptitude for rebellion against the central power, nothing. Governable subject.
Bardan listened carefully, and then, as usual, got up and said staff outside to enter the next subject.
In the hall, escorted by the two governments, the subject appeared at number eighteen. She was a young woman had dark skin. Burdock think it was beautiful. Her hair was very short and his eyes were stars of the night thinking about.
stretch was made, and the procedure began.
While asleep, the boy felt a sharp pain in her stomach. For the first time since the beginning of the internship, she was afraid Luan recognize signs of danger to society in the subject that was explored.
The dream of the woman began, and burdock contemplated his teacher get down to work.
Un neonato era adagiato su una grande foglia di felce, al chiaro di luna. Un grosso lupo lo portò via come se volesse sbranarlo, ma il piccolo veniva accolto nel branco. Poi comparve una stanza le cui pareti erano trasparenti.
Lo sguardo di Luan Kefalios sembrava rassicurante: non sembrava che quella donna corresse alcun rischio di essere arrestata. Ma Luan era pur sempre un servitore del potere centrale. E un giorno, lo sarebbe diventato anche lui. Era o non era lì per questo?
Bardàn sapeva che il sogno, quello vero, che si svolgeva nell’inconscio della ragazza, era piuttosto diverso da quel che lui e il maestro potevano vedere. La Macchina realizzava la migliore riproduzione possibile, anche se le immagini dreams were not exactly something that could be reduced to a purely visual representation. But for the inspection operations carried out by the Government was more than enough.
finished watching, Luan snorted for boredom, and recorded his assessment of the rite. It does not appear that there were signs of rebellion against the central power, and burdock breathed a sigh of relief, even if the idea of \u200b\u200bnever again the subject eighteen (learned from registration called Myriam) gave him a deep sorrow.
-One moment, Master Kefalios .- It was the voice of the attendant, who had burst into the room.
-Rewind the dream to the scene of a wolf, please .- ordered.
Luan Bardan motioned to obey, and soon after he glanced to the Governor, who blushed and looked down. It must have been him to request the intervention of others.
-What 's that? - Bared the Supervisor indicating a small embossed logo on the back of the wolf in the still image. It was a kind of red comma.
-What? Oh, that? It's nothing. A symbol of causation. There are a dozen in all dreams, and have no value .- Luan reassured him.
The image was magnified.
-A random symbol? The emblem of the Party of Liberation, a random symbol? I wonder of your superficiality, Kefalios! Arrest that woman .- exclaimed the other, turning his henchmen.
Luan strongly protested, knowing that it would be useless.
The Government was using the kind of characters to control the work of interpreters. Unlike these, the supervisors had no training to understand and decode your dreams, and their role was purely political. And often they clung to such insignificant details in the thought lurks the seed of revolt.
Before being taken away, Miriam was able to stretch out your arms and open palms on the glass. They had already been handcuffed.
For a moment, Bardan seemed to him that she had seen, even though he knew that was not possible. The boy wanted to do something, but he knew that against a decision of the Supervisor nor the opinion of the Interpreter could exonerating evidence. Imagine what he could to serve the word of a young apprentice.
Bardan thought he would never forget the night that the stars were shining in his eyes sad.
Luan and the boy performed the last two polls of the morning and then left the Ministry of Security.
Like other times, they walked towards the Old Town. That day was a wonderful time, and the sun shone in the clear sky king, and the crescent moon was rising so clear that there were distinguished profiles of the colonial settlements that cover most of the area. The traffic at high altitude, above their heads, was scarce, and the air was fresh and clean. But instead Bardan
darkness reigned.
-Master, - said the boy, sighing, that symbol was really insignificant?
-It's my apprentice who asks me, or fawn in love?
Bardan looked down.
-I am not sure you want to learn your art .- then answered feebly.
-Male. You can do much good to the community, boy, when you become an interpreter of dreams.
A lot of good. He thought the young man. Stop people who just want to live in freedom. Really a lot of good.
was now a month that had been entrusted to Bardan Luan, and it was not the first time I witnessed an arrest. Actually happened rarely, and almost always due to the interference of Supervisors.
Yet, once it was precisely to find Luan signs of rebellion in an individual, and to ensure that it was imprisoned. It had been an old man and very shabby.
All those arrested were decontaminated. In other words, their personalities would have been largely eradicated, and would be supplied to them a new identity. The germ of the revolt was thus eradicated forever.
The two reached the crossroads at which they would have said goodbye to each take their own way.
As usual, the young man bowed his head as a sign of respect, and took his leave:
-Thanks for your teachings. To-morrow, master.
that day, for the first time, Luan did not return his greeting, but declared:
-I think you're ready for the second phase of the apprenticeship, burdock Safarian.
The boy turned pale. No one had ever said that there was a "second phase". Moreover, no one had ever even explained too much of the society in which he lived.
was just an apprentice interpreter, and at that time the only dreams that they knew its meaning.
Or at least, it is an illusion that was.
****
a good interpreter could do more to explore beyond the dreams of potential subversives. That was a duty, to which the best were called by the government. But otherwise, the task of dream interpretation, which came from an ancient tradition, could be practiced freely. Many, among them the same Luan, feared that sooner or later that freedom was suppressed. There was
was a time in the distant past, when the interpretation of dreams was not performed due to the machines. Interpreters listened simply the words of the dreamer and were obtained by a verbal explanation. The art of reading the dreams had originated in religions and systems of thought in the most remote antiquity. Often, during certain periods had been banned, but then, at the beginning of the industrial era centuries earlier, it had been discovered the therapeutic value, and through, many people had been treated the worst diseases of the mind.
Then, the advent of the first machines for the survey had done the rest: to read the dreams, have access to essi, non era più tanto difficile, se si disponeva del denaro sufficiente per acquistarne una.
Una buona macchina poteva fare molto: riproduceva il sogno, lo rendeva comprensibile, inseriva suoni e rumori che nell’inconscio del soggetto erano assenti, e creava una versione audiovisiva che ne rappresentava una efficace approssimazione.
Ma comprenderne il significato profondo, il senso che si celava dietro alle immagini che componevano scene e sequenze, era di certo un talento ad appannaggio di pochi.
Fra quei pochi, vi era senza dubbio Luan Faruk Kefalios.
-Non è un posto in cui ho portato tutti i miei apprendisti, questo.- disse il Maestro mentre infilava una chiave nella toppa di una old iron gate in an alley.
After they arrived, they came down a stairway and passed a door. Burdock saw a dozen people who sat on the dirt floor of a room by the peeling walls. On entering, none of them said nothing, but some looked at him suspiciously.
Luan opened a door, ushered the boy pointed to a chair, and said
-You'll stay for as long as you like. Just remember to keep quiet.
Then, after a pause he added: - I do not fall asleep no one here .- and smiled.
Luan sat at a desk and shouted towards the door: Next-
the first! An elderly
woman came in, pulled back the door and sat down in front of the interpreter. After the pleasantries, he came to the point.
-I dreamed of a lame horse, Luan. A parade of Lipizzaner .- The woman spoke with an accent that denotes its popular origin. It seemed an expert on horses. Certainly worked in the imperial stables. -And you know what? - Continued-All 'quick start trotting. And then, appears to be a militiaman. And that stupid animal starts to limp. When I woke up I hurt my legs, damn it!
-Enough? - Said Luan.
-And what else can I say!
-L 'interpretation is simple, Iris. You're a strong woman. The horse represents your vitality, but the government tries to break it. But you resist. Keep it up. When you make the next poll?
-in two weeks.
-D 'agreement. Try to be assigned to you. Is there anything else you want to say?
No, what the hell should I say more? I do not recall another .- said the woman with sullen air, but satisfied. A
Bardan Luan words sounded contrived and contradictory.
After that Iris, the boy witnessed the interpretation of dozens of other dreams.
Luan was not using machines, the words of those people were more than enough for him. In addition, it was evident that the interpreter did not apply at all standard parametric criteria. The horse's dream, Iris, for example, should not represent his physical health, by the book? What was instead the "vitality" that Luan had spoken? And that was not the only example of the total distortion of the fee he had witnessed that afternoon in the basement of Luan Kefalios. The sea, which according to standard criteria represented the spirit, had now been referred to as a sign of purity, and the sky (freedom?) Was explained in a dream as the Society of the Stars (an interplanetary shipping company), and in another hand like a long journey to the moon ... not to mention the fact that Luan was continually questions, and they sometimes contradict each other, or they added details in short, without the aid of a machine, as it was possible that the interpretation had an objective value? And what sense would there be if he had not?
Bardan felt confused and uneasy. At first he had not even realized that in spite of its role as a government employee surveys Performer security, Luan had done nothing but encourage all those individuals in the rebellion, while urging them to remain cautious in the shadows. There was no doubt that their dreams were replete with what the government would be classified as "unequivocal signs of subversion."
Forse Luan era impazzito? O peggio, era un emissario del Partito della Liberazione? Se le cose stavano così, ora anche lui poteva essere considerato un pericoloso elemento ribelle… Bardàn fu preso dall’angoscia, e dopo che l’ultimo soggetto ebbe ricevuto la sua interpretazione, chiese il permesso di congedarsi. La sua voce tremava.
Il ragazzo si alzò e prese la direzione della porta. Ma Luan fu più svelto, lo raggiunse, e sulle prime Bardàn temette che gli impedisse di uscire.
-Oggi hai visto due realtà molto diverse fra loro, figliolo.- sibilò il maestro fissandolo negli occhi. -La prima, ti permetterà di sopravvivere. Ma la seconda farà di te un essere human. Up to you to choose from. With my heart in my throat, burdock came, he climbed the stairs, and walked hurriedly into town. The sun was now well advanced, and the sky was streaked with large red brush.
But it was not to pacify his mind.
That night, burdock Safarian dreamed of a winged monster that took possession of him, and threw it on the rocks of a deep and troubled sea, and his body was not found again.
Upon awakening, he decided it would interrupt his apprenticeship and abandoned forever the insidious way.
Many years later.
I do not know what fate has gone to meet my teacher, but I like to imagine that you spend more in return to the people who go to a freedom that he felt lost.
Forty years since the day I Kefalios Luan revealed his illegal activities, what better reminder of those times is my naivety. It was thanks to this, he chose me.
My old man had only ever tried to escape the clutches of the government any person who had been forced to explore, as a part of me, before I put aside everything else, had always suspected him, and warned the power he had.
Se si fosse opposto, lo avrebbero arrestato. Perciò, sondava e scagionava tutti quelli che poteva, occultando la vera interpretazione dei sogni e fornendo al Governo una versione tanto falsa quanto tranquillizzante.
In merito all’anziano, il solo uomo che di sua iniziativa aveva fatto arrestare, be’, mi disse che era il suo migliore amico, il cui più grande desiderio era dimenticare gli orrori che aveva sopportato nel corso dell’esistenza. Perciò loro due si erano detti addio il giorno prima, e si erano messi d’accordo affinché quello passasse per un ribelle, perché così gli avrebbero cancellato la memoria e avrebbe vissuto in serenità quanto gli era rimasto.
Alle volte i Supervisors had imprisoned some, this is true, but if instead of Luan there was another, it certainly would be many more. Thanks to him, many women and men had saved his life, and could fight for that dark period of our history would end.
On me, it's just a few years, I've really found peace.
To be precise, it happened three years ago.
I was in my office and I was cleaning the electrodes of the machine. The current ones are so sophisticated as to fade the rudimentary tools that were used at the time of my apprenticeship.
He came to me a man. His name was and said he was sixty years old Kenner. On the face scratched bore the marks of time and suffering. When he entered, looked around as if the environment is to his family, as if looking for something. Her smile was fraught with melancholy.
I knew there was a woman in the hall waiting for him. She had come with him. Maybe it was his wife.
Kenner told me he had a recurring dream and I asked him to hook up. After some hesitation, accepted. He also said that it was his first time.
I did relax, and just touch him because he slept: the man had a great desire to break free from something that oppressed him.
I linked the electrodes and turned on the machine. With some confidence, overcame layers of knowledge logic, rationality, and the simple calculation of the total. In a short time reached its deepest unconscious, and I let her go to the floating mass of images that you met.
There was a forest, the sunset. There was no trace of human beings, in addition to Kenner. I was him, for the duration of the dream.
My machine is a latest generation model, the old screens are passed, today the dream interpreter enters the stream and lives by himself, as if it were their own. With all of the images and sensations. With all the equipment of anxiety, excitement, pain, fear, joy, tenderness or love. You a risky technique, and there are prescribed limits that is not healthy to overcome.
The night was about to descend on the forest. A subtle anxiety was rising fast. You could hear the roar of the beasts, the barking of the wolves and the squeak of lesser animals. I was armed and ran. Someone who had obeyed my own likeness. Kenner Kenner giving commands. Kenner was taking orders from Kenner. I was a prisoner of myself.
I was surrounded by a pack of wolves. I was terrified, and began to shoot. It killed many, but one that I caught with ease. The animal did not oppose any resistance.
In a later scene, I found myself in a room full of tunnels, corridors and behind closed doors. The room was getting bigger, and the walls were white. Eventually it became a real labyrinth. It was impossible to escape, there was no ceiling, and it was not possible to scale the walls, because they were high and smooth.
Between the folds of the labyrinth I saw my wolf, and turned a corner to reach it. I began to walk faster and faster, gave chase. I was running.
I managed to grab it, and my hands turned into a puppy dog. It was white with small black spots. I went up and stroked. The dog began to wag his tail and licked my hands. I gave him water and some food.
Suddenly I found the exit of the maze, and left him go. I was naked, unarmed and wearing no clothes. While the puppy away, I saw him turn back into the wolf, which was launched in run up to the forest.
was already far away now, but I knew that on his neck ... there was a small red point.
I was suddenly assaulted by a chaos of emotions, which in part were those of Kenner, in which I had identified with, and that also came from my lived.
Instinctively, I grabbed the electrodes and the readiness to break away from my head. I curled up on myself. I felt pain in its pure state, and it took several minutes to recover.
An interpreter should never have access to the unconscious a person with whom he shared a part of life, however brief it may have been.
At that moment, Kenner awoke, and he began to return to the state of consciousness.
While hanging in limbo for a few minutes to look at us in silence. Him lying on the couch, I sat beside him. Each with its own memory of that day, but with the same dream just experienced.
When I seemed to have returned in force, broke the silence.
-She was a governor, is not it? She was forty years ago, to call the supervisor .- murmured. -She was, to make it stop.
-so that I did run away after a few days. Più tardi, entrai anch’io nella resistenza.- si limitò a replicare.
-Sì, è quel che ho visto, nel sogno.
-La fuori c’è qualcuno che conosce, dottor Safarian.- sussurrò Kenner, mentre le lacrime iniziavano a rigargli il volto.
In qualche modo lo avevo saputo sin dal momento in cui era arrivato. Quel che non sapevo più, invece, era chi fra noi due fosse l’Interprete dei Sogni, venuto a guarire le ferite dell’esistenza dell’altro.
Ormai era la sua donna, ma non aveva importanza.
Mi alzai, e uscii dallo studio, sperando che negli occhi di Myriam avrei rivisto ancora, per una volta, le stelle della notte.
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