Aniya is a perfect creature. Using the power of the Net, she has banished all of her painful memories, allowing herself to live in a state of perfect contentment on a far-future Earth. In order to have companions, she creates two eidolons—living beings imprinted with all of Aniya’s thoughts, feelings, and desires. Of the two creatures, Orielna is happy to live in her creator’s shadow, but Josef is not. When the pain inside him becomes overwhelming, he commits a murder and flees into the tangle of the Garden, a place where death has not been conquered. To rescue him, Orielna follows him to the Garden and discovers that behind its walls lie impossible dangers—and unknown joys.
In this bewitching collection, Pamela Sargent explores what becomes of humanity when all its pains are stripped away.
Aniya is a perfect creature. Using the power of the Net, she has banished all of her painful memories, allowing herself to live in a state of perfect contentment on a far-future Earth. In order to have companions, she creates two eidolons—living beings imprinted with all of Aniya’s thoughts, feelings, and desires. Of the two creatures, Orielna is happy to live in her creator’s shadow, but Josef is not. When the pain inside him becomes overwhelming, he commits a murder and flees into the tangle of the Garden, a place where death has not been conquered. To rescue him, Orielna follows him to the Garden and discovers that behind its walls lie impossible dangers—and unknown joys.
In this bewitching collection, Pamela Sargent explores what becomes of humanity when all its pains are stripped away.
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Overview
Aniya is a perfect creature. Using the power of the Net, she has banished all of her painful memories, allowing herself to live in a state of perfect contentment on a far-future Earth. In order to have companions, she creates two eidolons—living beings imprinted with all of Aniya’s thoughts, feelings, and desires. Of the two creatures, Orielna is happy to live in her creator’s shadow, but Josef is not. When the pain inside him becomes overwhelming, he commits a murder and flees into the tangle of the Garden, a place where death has not been conquered. To rescue him, Orielna follows him to the Garden and discovers that behind its walls lie impossible dangers—and unknown joys.
In this bewitching collection, Pamela Sargent explores what becomes of humanity when all its pains are stripped away.
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781504010412 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
| Publication date: | 05/19/2015 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 215 |
| Sales rank: | 249,918 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
About Ruler of the Sky, Sargent’s historical novel of Genghis Khan, told largely from the points of view of women, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas has commented: “Scholarly without ever seeming pedantic, the book is fascinating from cover to cover and does admirable justice to a man who might very well be called history’s single most important character.” The Washington Post has called Sargent “one of the genre’s best writers,” and Michael Moorcock has said of her work: “If you have not read Pamela Sargent, then you should make it your business to do so at once. She is in many ways a pioneer, both as a novelist and as a short story writer. . . . She is one of the best.”
Sargent is the editor of the Women of Wonder anthologies, the first collections of science fiction by women. Her novel Climb the Wind, set in the United States after the Civil War, was a finalist for the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, and her novel Earthseed has been optioned by Paramount Pictures. Melissa Rosenberg, the scriptwriter for all five Twilight films, is set to write and produce the movie through her company Tall Girls Productions.
Pamela Sargent has won the Nebula and Locus Awards and was honored in 2012 with the Science Fiction Research Association’s Pilgrim Award, given for lifetime contributions to science fiction and fantasy scholarship. Her many novels include Venus of Dreams, The Shore of Women, The Golden Space, The Sudden Star, and The Alien Upstairs.
About Ruler of the Sky, Sargent’s historical novel of Genghis Khan, told largely from the points of view of women, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas has commented: “Scholarly without ever seeming pedantic, the book is fascinating from cover to cover and does admirable justice to a man who might very well be called history’s single most important character.” The Washington Post has called Sargent “one of the genre’s best writers,” and Michael Moorcock has said of her work: “If you have not read Pamela Sargent, then you should make it your business to do so at once. She is in many ways a pioneer, both as a novelist and as a short story writer. . . . She is one of the best.”
Sargent is the editor of the Women of Wonder anthologies, the first collections of science fiction by women. Her novel Climb the Wind, set in the United States after the Civil War, was a finalist for the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, and her novel Earthseed has been optioned by Paramount Pictures. Melissa Rosenberg, the scriptwriter for all five Twilight films, is set to write and produce the movie through her company Tall Girls Productions.
Read an Excerpt
Behind the Eyes of Dreamers
and Other Short Novels
By Pamela Sargent
OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA
Copyright © 2002 Pamela SargentAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5040-1041-2
CHAPTER 1
Shadows
The sun hid its face behind the clouds, a gray layered curtain which hung close to the Earth. Defeated, the city's inhabitants trudged along the highway, crowding the four lanes. Suzanne Molitieri could hear the droning of murmurs punctuated by an occasional wail. Don't look back. She kept her eyes resolutely focused on the asphalt at her feet as she walked. Her hand clutched Joel's, both palms dry. Around her, people twisted their necks as they glanced back at the empty city.
Above them silver insects hovered, humming softly and casting faint shadows over the people below. They were passing the suburbs now and more people joined the stream, trickling down the highway entrances, creating small eddies before becoming part of the river. Herded like animals. Suzanne glanced at Joel, saw his brown eyes focused on her, and grasped his hand more tightly.
Resistance had been futile. A few invaders had been slaughtered by gunfire in Buenos Aires as they left their ship, and Buenos Aires had vanished, people and all. When the same thing happened in Canton and Washington, the will to resist had subsided. Suzanne doubted that it had completely vanished.
The Earth was an anthill to the Aadae. They had descended on it from the skies, stepping on it here and there when it was necessary. Yet Suzanne had seen an Aada in the city streets weeping over the dead burned bodies of some who had resisted. Then she and the others had been herded from the city, allowed to take nothing with them but the clothes they wore and a few personal possessions. Suzanne carried more clothes in a knapsack. She had left everything else behind; the past would be of no use to her now. Joel carried a pound of marijuana and some bottles of liquor in his knapsack; he was already planning for the future.
Suzanne adjusted the burden on her back. Around her the murmuring died and she heard only the sound of feet marching, treading the pavement with soft thuds. The conquered people moved past the rows of suburban houses which were silent witnesses to the procession.
Suzanne thought of empty turtle shells. The gunmetal gray domes surrounded her, covering the countryside in uneven rows. Groups of people huddled in front of each dome, waiting passively. She thought of burial mounds.
"How they get them up so fast?" A stocky black man standing near her was looking at a dome. He began to rub his hand across its gray surface. Suzanne could hear the sound of weeping. A plump pale woman next to Joel was whimpering, clinging to a barrel- chested man who was probably her husband.
"They took her kids away," a voice said. Suzanne found herself facing a slender black woman with hazel eyes. The woman's hair was coiled tightly around her head in cornrow braids. "She had six of them," the black woman went on. "They took them all to some other domes."
Suzanne, not knowing what to say, looked down at her feet, then back at the woman. "Did you have kids too?" she asked lamely.
"No, I always wanted to, but I'm glad now I didn't." The woman smiled bitterly and Suzanne felt that the subject was being dismissed. The stocky black man had wandered to the dome's triangular entrance. "I'm Felice Harrison," the woman muttered. "That's my husband Oscar." She waved at the man in the entrance.
"I'm Suzanne Molitieri." The introduction hung in the air between them. Suzanne wanted to giggle suddenly. Felice raised her eyebrows slightly.
"Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," said Suzanne, almost squeaking the words. Oscar joined his wife and placed his arm gently over her shoulders.
"This is Suzanne Molitieri," Felice said to Oscar, and Suzanne felt reassured by the steady smile on the man's broad face.
"I'm Joel Feldstein," Joel said quickly, and she felt his hand close around her waist. She had almost forgotten he was there. His hand seemed as heavy as a chain, binding her to him.
Joel smiled. His too-perfect teeth seemed to glitter; his brown eyes danced. With his free hand, he brushed back a lock of thick brown hair. He's too beautiful—I had to love him. "I guess we're going to live in these things," Joel continued. "I can't figure it out, I don't understand these people. That's quite an admission for me; I've studied psychology for years. In fact, I was finishing my doctoral studies." You haven't been near a classroom in years. "I wanted to go into research, then marry Suzanne, give her a chance to finish school; she's been working much too hard helping me out." He smiled down at her regretfully. Somebody had to pay the bills. "The thing I regret most is not getting the chance to help Suzie." She winced at the nickname. The chainlike pressure on her waist tightened. "What about you two, what did you do?"
"It hardly matters now," Felice said dryly. Her hazel eyes and Oscar's black ones were expressionless.
"I guess you're right," said Joel. "You know, I even had a couple of papers published last year—I was really proud of that—but I guess that doesn't matter now either." Why are you lying now?
"I was a bus driver," said Oscar coldly. Suzanne suddenly felt that she was looking at the Harrisons across an abyss. Her mind began to clutch at words in desperation.
"What's it like inside the dome?" she said to Oscar. The black man seemed to relax slightly.
"Just a big room, with low tables and no chairs," Oscar answered. "Then there's these metal stairways winding around, and some rooms without doors, and the ceiling's glowing, don't ask me how. No lights, just this glow."
"Hey," Felice muttered. The people around them had formed a line. Suzanne turned. One of the Aadae stood in front of them, holding a small metal device.
Suzanne sniffed at the air. She hadn't realized how smelly the Aadae actually were. She watched the alien and wondered again how the military must have felt when they first saw the conquerors.
The Aada appeared human, a small female not more than five feet tall and slender, with large violet eyes and pale golden skin. Her blue-black hair, uncombed and apparently unwashed, hung to her waist. She wore a dirty pair of bikini bottoms, spotted with stains. The alien scratched her stomach, and Suzanne almost snickered.
"Give nameh, go inside," said the Aada. She waved the metal rod she held at the dome. Then she pointed it at Joel. "Give nameh, go inside." The Aada's violet eyes stared past them, as if perceiving something else besides the line of people.
"Joel Feldstein." The rod was pointed at Suzanne.
"Suzanne Molitieri."
"Oscar Harrison."
"Felice Harrison." They began to move toward the dome.
"Are my children all right, please tell me, are they all right?" The plump mother of six was pleading with the alien.
"Nameh," the Aada repeated. Suzanne looked into the alien's violet eyes and was startled to see sadness there. The Aada's small golden hand patted the plump woman reassuringly. "Nameh," and the word this time seemed tinged by grief.
Puzzled, Suzanne turned away and entered the dome.
"You tell me," said Joel, "how a technologically advanced culture can produce such sloppy, dirty people. I can't get within two feet of one." He grimaced.
"Cleanliness and technological advancement aren't necessarily related," said Gabe Cardozo, shifting his plump body around on the floor. "Besides, from their point of view, they might be very neat. It depends on your perspective."
Suzanne, huddled against the wall near the doorless entrance to their room, suddenly felt dizzy. They had been drinking from one of Joel's bottles since early that evening. She tried to focus on the wall opposite the entrance.
The room was bare of furnishings except for two mats on the floor. A small closet near the door held their possessions. There was little space to move around in and she knew they were lucky to have the room to themselves. Gabe, two domes down, was sharing his room with three other people. She had asked Joel if they could have Gabe move in with them; he was, after all, Joel's best friend. But Joel had dismissed the idea, saying he had little enough privacy as it was. No, you have to hide, Joel, that's it, Gabe might find out what you really are.
"What do they want, anyway?" said Joel. "They took the trouble to put up these domes, I don't know how, moved us in, and we've been sitting around for three days with nothing to do." Joel suddenly laughed. "Whoever thought an alien invasion would be so goddamn boring."
"Well, they obviously don't need slave labor," Gabe said. "They put up these domes with no help and they are technologically advanced. And if they'd wanted the planet for themselves, I suppose they could have executed us. They want us for something, and they probably moved us out here so they could watch us more carefully. People could hide in the city."
"What difference does it make?" Suzanne said loudly, irritated by Gabe's professorial manner. "We'll find out sooner or later; what good does it do talking about it?" She stood up, wobbling a bit on weak-kneed legs. Gabe's walruslike moustache seemed to droop slightly; Joel shrugged his shoulders.
She found herself outside the room on the metal stairway, leaning forward, clutching the rail. The large room below her was empty and someone had pushed the low tables closer to the walls. She began to move down the stairs, still holding the rail. When she reached the bottom, she sat down abruptly on the floor, clutching her knees. "God," she whispered. The floor shifted under her.
A hand was on her shoulder. Startled, she looked up into Felice's hazel eyes. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," said Suzanne. "I don't know. I think I'm going to vomit."
"You need some air, come on." Suzanne stumbled to her feet. Holding on to Felice, she managed to get to the triangular doorway and outside.
A cool breeze bathed her face. "You better now?" asked Felice.
"I think so." She looked at the rows of lighted doorways in front of her. "You're up pretty late, Felice."
"I'm up pretty early. It's almost morning." Suzanne sighed and leaned against the dome. "You feel like taking a walk, honey?"
"Can we?" asked Suzanne. "Will they let us?"
"They haven't stopped me yet. No wonder you look so bad, staying inside for three days. Come on, we can walk to the highway; do you good."
"All right." Her head felt clearer already. She began to walk past the rows of domes with Felice. Occasionally, shadows moved across the triangular doorways they passed, transforming themselves into loose-limbed dancing scarecrows on the path in front of Suzanne.
"What's going to happen to us?" Suzanne muttered, expecting no answer. An apathetic calm had embraced her; her feet seemed to drag her behind them.
"Who knows, Suzanne? We wait, we find out about these Aadae chicks, what their weak points are. That's all we can do. If we tried anything now, we got no chance. But we might later."
They reached the highway and stopped. Felice gestured at the domes across the road.
"They live in those things, too," she said to Suzanne. "I found out yesterday. I looked inside one of their doorways. Exactly like ours."
Suzanne looked toward the city. She could barely see the tall rectangles and spires of its skyline. To the left of the city, the early morning sky was beginning to glow. Felice clutched her arm and she noticed the Aadae for the first time. They were sitting on the highway in a semicircle, soundlessly gazing east.
"Suzanne." She swung around and saw Gabe, his face almost white. His dark frizzy hair was a cloud around his head. "Are you all right? I followed you just to be sure; you didn't look too well."
"I'm fine. Where's Joel?"
"He fell asleep. Or passed out. I'm not sure which." Gabe looked apologetic.
She shrugged, then looked uncertainly at Felice. "Oh, Gabe, this is—"
"I know Felice, she was in my evening lit class." Gabe smiled. "She was the best student in it."
Felice was appearing uncharacteristically shy. She grinned and looked down at her feet. "Come on," she said. "You were a good teacher, that's all." Suzanne shuddered at the mention of the past. She watched Joel as he slept beside her. His slim, muscled chest rose and fell with each breath. I love you anyway, Joel; there's been more good than bad. We just need time, that's all; you'll find yourself.
Suddenly she hated the Aadae. She closed her fists, hoping for an Aada's neck around which to squeeze them. Tears stung her eyes, blurring the image of the Aadae in the road.
"What are they doing?" Gabe whispered. She ignored him and began to walk along the highway toward the aliens. A soft sigh rose from the semicircle of Aadae and drifted to her. They were swaying now, back and forth from the waist.
The sun's edge appeared on the horizon, lighting up the road. The Aadae leaned forward. Suzanne, hearing footsteps behind her, stepped forward and turned.
Five pairs of blind violet eyes stared through her. Startled, she moved away from the five Aadae and let them pass. The five, dressed in dirty robes, stumbled onto the road, arms stretched in front of them. They wandered to the edge of the semicircle and stood there, holding their arms out toward the sun. Suzanne followed them and stood with them. They didn't seem to realize she was there.
She waved an arm in front of the nearest Aada. The alien showed no reaction. They're truly blind, she thought as she gazed into the empty eyes. The five Aadae continued to stare directly into the rising sun. They began to sway on their feet, burned-out retinas unable to focus. She stepped back from them, moving again to the side of the road.
Gabe and Felice were with her, pulling at her arms. "Come on," said Gabe, "we'd better get out of here, come on." She pulled her arms free and continued to watch the Aadae.
Something was drawing her toward the aliens, something that hovered over her, tugging at her mind. She was at peace, wanting only to join the group on the road. She found her head turning to the sun.
A shadow rose in front of her. "Suzanne!" It was Gabe, holding her by the shoulders. Suddenly she was frightened. She stumbled backward, grabbing at Gabe's arms. The sighs of the Aadae were louder now, driving her away.
"Run!" Suzanne screamed. "Run!" Her feet, pounding along the side of the road, were carrying her back to the domes. She ran, soon losing herself among the domes. At last she stopped, exhausted, in front of one. She turned to the triangular doorway.
Two Aadae were there, one with stiff orange hair like a flame and shiny copper- colored skin. The dark-haired golden-skinned one was coming toward her. She threw up her arms, trying to ward her off.
The alien took her by the arm and tugged gently. Suzanne followed the Aada passively, led like a child along the path between the domes. Then they stopped and she realized that she was in front of her own dome.
She sighed and leaned against the doorway. Her fear had disappeared, and she was feeling a bit foolish. I must have been really drunk. The Aada released her, then bowed from the waist in an Oriental farewell before disappearing among the domes.
The air was heavy and the sky overcast. People were sitting or standing around aimlessly; occasionally small groups of people, scarcely speaking to each other, would pass by. Suzanne sat with her back to her dome, watching Felice mend a shirt. That morning, at breakfast, one of the men had stood up and thrown his bowl, still filled with greenish mush, at the wall. All of them had been growing tired of the food, which was always the same. But until today, they had simply gone to the slots on the wall, pushed the buttons, and passively accepted the green mush and milky blue liquid which were all the slots ever yielded besides glasses of water.
The green mush had stuck to the wall, resembling a fungoid growth. Rivulets ran from it, trickling to the floor. Then a tiny gray-haired woman hurled her bowl. Within seconds, everyone in the large room was throwing bowls and following the bowls with the glasses of blue liquid, shrieking with laughter as the liquid mingled with the mush on the walls. Several people hurried to the food slots and punched buttons wildly, pulled out more food and threw it at the walls. The orgy of food throwing had lasted almost half an hour until the walls were thickly coated and the Aadae had arrived.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Behind the Eyes of Dreamers by Pamela Sargent. Copyright © 2002 Pamela Sargent. Excerpted by permission of OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA.
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