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    Dream Seeker (A Futuristic Novella)
    Dream Seeker (A Futuristic Novella)
    Dream Seeker (A Futuristic Novella)
    Ebook92 pages1 hour

    Dream Seeker (A Futuristic Novella)

    By Anne Avery

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    About this ebook

    Abandoned as a child to what should have been a short, miserable life on the streets of Dantares, Calee was rescued when it was discovered that she was one of the precious, gifted few — a Dreamer, a psychic capable of guiding star ships through the amorphous darkness of within by following the songs of the stars that only Dreamers can hear. Now Calee lives a safe, cosseted existence within the walls of Dreamworld, alone in a room of her own choosing, drifting on the distant star songs that are more real to her than any of the human pilots she guides. The female pilots she guides, because Calee, her childhood still too raw a memory, wants nothing to do with men, ever. But even Dreamworld's high walls cannot protect her when she is assigned to guide a pilot—a male pilot—on a mission so urgent that mankind's very survival hangs in the balance.

    Scout ship pilot Bram Mason has found solace in the dangerous, lonely work of exploring newly discovered planets. But there's a difference between dangerous missions and suicidal ones, and his latest assignment definitely qualifies as suicidal--an ancient probe has reported the discovery of a planet at the very edge of the galaxy, a planet rich in a rare mineral used by humanity's mortal enemies, the vicious, alien Gromin, to create an airborne poison capable of wiping out life on every human-inhabited planet known. The risk that the Gromin have intercepted the probe's message is too great to ignore, and Bram's is the only ship anywhere close. Even though scout ships are built for speed, not firepower, Bram is assigned the task of locating the planet and defending it against any Gromin incursion, no matter what the cost. Bram is prepared to risk his life if he has to, but he isn't prepared for the assault on his heart by a woman half a galaxy away.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAnne Avery
    Release dateApr 28, 2018
    ISBN9781386687245
    Dream Seeker (A Futuristic Novella)

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      Book preview

      Dream Seeker (A Futuristic Novella) - Anne Avery

      DREAM SEEKER

      A Futuristic Novella

      By

      Anne Avery

      ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯

      Calee is a Dreamer, a psychic capable of guiding star ships through the amorphous darkness of within by following the songs of the stars that only Dreamers could hear. Now Calee faces her greatest challenge: guiding a pilot — a male pilot — on a mission so urgent that mankind’s very survival hangs in the balance.

      ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯

      — Copyright —

      Copyright  ©  July, 2013 Anne Holmberg

      Originally published May, 1994

      Enchanted Crossings anthology

      Love Spell Books, Dorchester Publishing

      This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are either creations of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

      All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced, used in whole or in part, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, existing now or in the future, without permission of the author.

      ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯

      — DREAM SEEKER —

      FOR THE FIRST TIME since she’d become a dreamer, Calee hesitated at the entrance to her chamber, her body tense, her stomach tight with anxiety.

      This assignment was a mistake, but none of her protests had rectified the error.

      She raised her hand to the panel that would open the door in front of her. Her fingers trembled; her palm was damp. For an instant, she wondered if she had the courage to open the door. But only for an instant. At her hesitant touch, the door slid silently open, revealing the chamber beyond.

      The room was warm, but not too warm. It was small, slightly longer than it was wide, scarcely large enough to accommodate the massive couch draped with heavy silken throws that occupied the side farthest from the door. Lighting panels, hidden behind the rare, hand-carved wood trim along the ceiling, cast a subdued golden glow down walls covered with a richly textured fabric brought at great cost from a planet half the galaxy away.

      Calee stood in the open doorway, letting her eyes wander over the familiar, precious space that was hers and hers alone. She had chosen the couch, the wall coverings, even the thick, soft carpet with its unusual jade green color.

      If she’d wished, she might have had a larger room, one that opened onto the famed gardens of Dreamworld, or a room with a glass ceiling that gave her a view of the night sky and the stars she knew so well.

      She hadn’t wanted any of that. After years of living in the streets of Dantares, huddling in empty doorways to escape the constant rains, shivering in the winter cold with little protection besides the coarse, dirty rags that were her only clothing, Calee had wanted warmth, and softness, and a small, safe space that belonged only to her.

      She’d achieved that when she’d completed her training as dreamer and gained the right to a room of her own. The right to this chamber where she could spend the hours and days and years of her existence listening to the songs of the stars. Those ancient songs, born in the internal fires of the stars themselves, were what she followed as she mentally guided the pilots of human space ships through the dark of within and back to the physical world.

      Without her and other dreamers like her, interstellar travel would have been impossible. The only way for ships to travel faster than light was to go within. Unfortunately, human-made tracking devices didn’t work in the amorphous nothingness that lay somewhere outside the bounds of normal space. Only a dreamer’s ability to sense the tenuous connections that tied within to the physical universe made it possible for humans to travel with safety among the stars.

      Dreaming was honored work, work Calee loved. That didn’t mean she wanted this assignment.

      She had even gone so far as to protest to the senior administrator, but Dame Kassta had simply looked at her calmly and assured her there was no mistake.

      But this pilot is a scout — and a male! I can’t guide a male! The words had burst from her before she could stop them, but Calee hadn’t even tried to apologize.

      Kassta hadn’t blinked. She’d sat there, her wrinkled old hands calmly clasped in her lap, and nodded slowly. Yes, you can.

      You’ve never made me guide a male before!

      This time we have to, regardless of your fears.

      But you always assign male dreamers to male scouts!

      Kassta had sighed at the note of panic edging Calee’s voice. When we can. But this man’s mission is urgent and cannot wait. The planet he seeks is on the far side of galaxy center, beyond the most distant star that humankind has yet reached. Right now he waits at the edge of the Megelen sector, unable to go farther until there is a dreamer to guide him.

      Kassta had grown silent for a moment, studying Calee. There are few dreamers who can reach him, Calee; even fewer capable of taking him as far as he has to go. You are one of those few, and you are the only one available. You have no more choice in the matter than we did.

      But... I can’t guide a male, Dame. Desperation had jostled with the fear inside her, driving Calee to plead with her superior, something she would never have done, otherwise. It would be bad enough if all I had to do was touch his mind, help him guide his ship...

      The words had caught in Calee’s throat, but before Kassta could stop her, she’d rushed on, heedless of the consequences. You know what it’s like to be a dreamer. You know what it means to share a pilot’s mind, to see the ship with her eyes, touch it with her hands, to feel her body as if it were your own. You know what it’s like to be her at the same time you are yourself.

      Calee choked, then caught her breath, fighting for control. Dreaming is hard enough with a woman, but with a man...! Men are so...big...and rough and... I can’t guide a male, Dame. I can’t!

      Calee would have said more, but Kassta had held her hand up in a peremptory demand for silence. You cannot hide from life forever, Calee, she’d said. Not even here on Dreamworld.

      Kassta had hesitated, then continued sadly, We have tried to protect you from the memories of your past, Calee. We thought that, with time, you would come to accept the emotional costs of the work we do, that you would learn to venture out from behind the mental walls we taught you to build, even if you never again left the safety of these physical walls that surround you.

      Kassta’s steady gaze had fixed on Calee. Perhaps we were wrong. Right or wrong, however, we cannot protect you any longer. We have no choice but to assign you to this scout, Calee. No choice whatsoever.

      Calee would have protested further, but something in the

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