Dream d1374-s: Lit Before We Arrived

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the settlement recognized us before we reached the gate.

The conduit road into the square brightened in sequence as we walked it - each section illuminating when we drew level, then holding steady behind us. The Builder crouched at the third junction to examine the housing. "Passive induction," she said. "Body heat, vibration, one or both." She noted it on the chart. The Student asked whether that meant the road had always been watching. "It means the road responds," the Builder said. "Same thing," said the Student. The Builder considered it. "Nearly," she said.

Where the conduit road bent east, a narrower path crossed it at a right angle - older, the stone worn smooth in a way that had nothing to do with infrastructure routing. No conduits followed it. It ran the direction we had come from, and also further, into territory the Builder's chart left blank. She noted it with a small annotation: not ours. The Philosopher stopped to look both ways along it. "Someone walked this before we built over it." "Or walks it still," I said. He nodded. We left it alone.

The black cat was on the conduit junction housing at the square entrance, back to the settlement, facing out. It had been there when we arrived and gave no sign of noticing us. The Weather Reader's stride slowed near the housing. He stood there for a moment, reading his instruments, though the readings had not changed since the ridge. The cat didn't acknowledge him. Lano passed the housing on the far side of the road, ears flat, close to the opposite wall, looking straight ahead. She said "Basta" when we reached the square and nothing else.

The Wireman had been at the main relay already. He'd replaced a corroded terminal while we were in the field. He didn't mention it. We noticed because the static was gone - the signal atmosphere clear all the way to the horizon. "You could have waited and shown us," the Listener said, her frequency log open. The Wireman shrugged once. She wrote something down.

Through the open east passage came the faint scent of cut wood - fresh, resinous, from a direction the conduit map didn't account for. The Dreamer turned toward it. The passage was unlabeled. Nobody went in.

The Beacon Network Specialist's voice came through on the portable unit as we crossed the square. No interference. "You're all in the log. Signal looks good from here."

The White Crane landed on the relay housing above us and held still. Below it, every conduit ran end to end, every section bright.