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THE SIME~GEN SERIES FROM THE BORGO PRESS
House of Zeor, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#1)
Unto Zeor, Forever, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#2)
First Channel, by Jean Lorrah and Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#3)
Mahogany Trinrose, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#4)
Channel’s Destiny, by Jean Lorrah and Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#5)
RenSime, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#6)
Ambrov Keon, by Jean Lorrah (#7)
Zelerod’s Doom, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah (#8)
Personal Recognizance, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#9)
The Story Untold and Other Stories, by Jean Lorrah (#10)
To Kiss or to Kill, by Jean Lorrah (#11)
The Farris Channel, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#12)
Other Jacqueline Lichtenberg Books
City of a Million Legends
Dreamspy: Tales of the Luren, Book Two
Molt Brother
Jacqueline Lichtenberg Collected: Book One: Science Is Magic Spelled Backwards and Other Stories
Jacqueline Lichtenberg Collected: Book Two: Through The Moon Gate And Other Tales of Vampirism
Those of My Blood: Tales of the Luren, Book One
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Copyright © 1989, 2003, 2012 by Jacqueline
Lichtenberg
Published by Wildside Press LLC
www.wildsidebooks.com
DEDICATION
To Robert Anson Heinlein
May he rest in peace
*
To Sophie Herbert
May she rest in peace
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
2012 UPDATE
This manuscript was copyedited by the longtime Sime~Gen fan known as Kaires, and by Karen MacLeod, spending long tedious hours on a book they practically know by heart. Any remaining problems with it are my own doing. And I do not have the map of the galaxy created for the hardcover edition available for this edition.
* * * *
The list of acknowledgments for this book is substantially the same as that for the companion volume in this universe, Those of My Blood, with the following additions.
It is unfortunate that the dedication of this novel to Robert Heinlein had to be made after his death. My first novel, House of Zeor, was also dedicated to him, but for different reasons. In this one, I have tried to pay tribute to something I learned from him during my teens, namely that it isn’t necessary to wait for someone to teach you something before you try to do it. The great leaps forward in human history have come from people doing things that have never been done (never mind taught) before. People who live by that creed tend to irritate those who don’t.
Secondly, I have to acknowledge the unwitting contribution of Katherine Kurtz to this universe. Nothing could be farther from her Deryni universe than this novel, yet the basic premise, the Pools and the mathematics behind them, is connected to a burst of inspiration triggered by the rereading of nine Deryni novels (and an anthology) and the fevered creation of an alternate-universe Deryni story outline revealing the Qabalistic origin of the Deryni Portals. Since that story can never be written, I have incorporated a few of my postulates in the Pools.
Thirdly, I have to thank Katie Filipowicz, Roberta Klein-Mendelson, and Marge Robbins for test reading the manuscript of Dreamspy. Marge in particular has been very busy preparing to turn the Sime~Gen Welcommittee over to Linda Whitten while she takes up editing ZEOR FORUM, a Sime~Gen fanzine. The activities of the Sime~Gen fans have become particularly complex since the fanzines have been opened to discussion of all my universes.
The map was prepared by Michael Poe and Kier Neustaedter, using the Apple Scanner and a Macintosh II.
For further information on the fan activities, contact with other s/f fandoms, current availability of all my novels, or just to comment on this book or Those of My Blood, as of 2012 see http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com for a list of social networks.
CHAPTER ONE
It was just an overheard comment, a nonhuman voice floating on the echoes trapped in the ship’s corridor: “...that woman Kyllikki! She thinks she’s so much better than the rest of us.” But the comment stung. I’m not like Zimor! I’m not!
Kyllikki focused on the red of the lift doors ahead of her and kept walking toward them, breathing deeply to suppress the unbidden tears, trying not to hear the echo of a voice answering the bitter comment.
“How do you know what she thinks? She’s the telepath, not you.”
“Look at how she wears her uniform, how she walks, how she holds her hands away from contamination, how she speaks in that distant voice, never meeting your eyes. You don’t have to be a telepath to tell what someone thinks of you.”
The nonhuman voices faded, but the thoughts didn’t. //She used to be some kind of Teleod princess. You can’t fault her if she has Imperial manners—human manners!//
Kyllikki’s face flushed and her heart sped faster. She could not blot out the searing reply. //I can fault anything Teleod. In the Teleod I’d be considered little better than an animal because I haven’t a single human gene in me.//
A hatch clanged shut, reducing the amplitude of the thoughts, and at last she gained control. She hadn’t even been able to guess what species the two were. Too arrogant to learn the voices and accents of the people I live among?
The lift doors whipped aside and Kyllikki flung herself into the empty compartment, hitting the controls. As the lift moved, she let herself sob out loud, once, and then marshaled the tattered remnants of her mental barriers and fought down guilt for the accidental intrusion.
She’d known defecting to the Metaji Empire wouldn’t be easy. If Zimor ever saw me like this, she’d laugh so hard the servants and guards would think she’d been drugged!
The vision of her ruthless cousin laughing at her in triumph stiffened Kyllikki’s spine. It had been nearly a year since she’d given the woman a single thought. Now, three times in one day, she’d reacted as if she were still in Zimor’s household, having to face Zimor over the dinner table each evening. Is there to be no escape, anywhere?
She told herself that anyone would react to overhearing such scathing comments. It didn’t mean Zimor had reached through space and across stellar empires to corrupt
