Free Virginia Hamilton by The Gathering: The Justice Cycle (Book Three)

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    A roadway system traversed Sona. An incline led from the platform where they stood to a ground-level road. Celester informed them that the ground-level was called Oneway. Justice and the others recognized it as the road on which they had entered Duster’s dream.
    There were inclines from the Oneway level to Midway, and from there to the Highway, the topmost level of the triway. The Highway hung suspended at the height of the great dome. High up, support strands glinted in the dimness; they were like giant harpstrings, bracing every level.
    Dustlanders were boarding a moving incline from the Oneway level, which carried them to the higher levels. Male Slakers, standing on the incline, had already reached the Highway. There, glass machines waited to roll. Beings who appeared to be duplicates of Celester led male Slakers to seats inside the glass tubes. The males were quickly whisked away.
    Females had taken to flight, gliding in and out of the dimness at dometop. They dived around the transit tubes. Justice thought she recognized the Bambnua’s keening cry. It was the Dustwalker’s song of hope.
    I hope there’s a good place for Slakers here, Justice thought.
    Grims followed Celester beings who had taken charge of them at the Oneway. The smooth-keeps did not mind now that the grims were leaving. Then the packens, with Duster, Siv and Glass in the lead, fell in behind a group of Celester duplicates who smartly marched them away.
    They’re taking everybody, Thomas traced uneasily.
    I don’t sense any danger in it, Justice traced back. And then: Thomas, what do you think of all this?
    You’re asking me? he traced. I ’ ll tell you one thing. I think maybe the Dustland gang are being hypnotized, that’s what I think.
    Well, it’s something like that, she traced. It’s in the damp. Feel how moist the air is.
    Slippery, to keep the skin that covers the Celester beings smooth. It was Levi divining this; he had been led into the discussion by Justice.
    Celester, beside them, read their thoughts. Who cared? What was going to happen would.
    Justice traced, There’s something mixed in with the moisture that calms the Dustlanders.
    You think it’s okay to drug people without them knowing it? Thomas traced. He didn’t care if Celester read this.
    It doesn’t affect us, Justice traced.
    That’s not the point! I can’t believe you’d go along with something like that, Thomas traced.
    If it’s not harmful for us, it can’t be harmful for Duster or any of them. Anyway, we can’t say that what’s done here is right or wrong. We don’t know enough about anything.
    Well, I don’t like it, Thomas traced. Putting stuff in people’s air has to be wrong!
    Don’t judge everything from our time, she traced. Here, it seems everyone is taken care of. Slakers get to go somewhere suitable, I guess. It looks like kinds are grouped.
    Sounds like segregation, Thomas traced.
    Celester interjected, “There is equality in every domity. All serve their purpose.”
    “Yeah,” Thomas muttered. “I’d like to be the guy that tells everyone else to serve!”
    Just give it a chance, Justice traced.
    “What you say are packens,” said Celester, “go to their domusi—dwellings—where they live. There is a plan for them, but they are long separated from that plan of life. In Sona, where they belong, they must relearn.
    “Now,” he said, “let us go awhile. The triway passes domusi and atmospas—resting places you call parks. Domus be a single dwelling for many like-kinds. Domusi is a grouping.” He stepped onto the moving Oneway and beckoned them to follow him.
    On the Oneway they saw other people who were more like them than like Celester and who wore tunics or gowns that looked comfortable.
    Telepathy raced among the four, for some of the people were telepathing to one another in unknown language rhythms. They greeted Celester in musical tones as well as sound segments like words.
    Justice felt an intense mind-probe, scalpel