Dream d1239-s: Seven at Their Posts

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I walked the full perimeter of the settlement at first light, Lano trotting ahead of me, his white coat catching the amber glow from the beacon at center. The beacon pulsed once every twelve seconds. I had counted it so many times I no longer needed to count.

The Builder was already at the eastern wall, fitting a new section of conduit between two structures. I could hear his work before I could see him - a steady tap of metal on stone, unhurried, precise. He had been building since before the others returned, and he built the same way now as he had then, which is the way you build when you know what the structure is for.

The Wire Man came out of the signal room and crossed the open ground toward the relay post without looking up, a length of cable over one shoulder. Lano's nose tracked him. The dog's ears lifted, then settled. The Wire Man nodded as he passed. Neither of us spoke.

I stood for a moment at the center, near the beacon base. The light moved through me when it pulsed - not warmth exactly, more like a confirmation. Somewhere on the ridge, the relay beacon answered. I could see its blink even in daylight, a faint echo.

The Philosopher was in the reading room. I could see her through the window, sitting with something open on the table in front of her. The Listener was at the broadcast station, headphones on, one hand moving slightly as if adjusting something I couldn't hear. The Weather Reader had climbed to the upper platform of the forecasting tower and stood looking north, the stripped towers of the old world faint in the haze behind her.

The Dreamer I found near the projection pavilion, watching the wall where images would appear at dusk. He wasn't speaking. He didn't need to yet.

The Beacon Network Specialist was the last I saw, on the far side of the settlement, running a diagnostic along the outer ring of sensors. She moved between them with a calm that comes from knowing your system the way you know your own hands.

Lano had circled ahead of me and come back. He sat down near the beacon base and looked up at me.

"Hoy," he said.

The beacon pulsed. The network held. Above us, the white crane turned once in a slow arc and drifted toward the ridge.

I kept walking. There was more to check, and the day was still young, and all seven of us were here.