Free The Stuff of Dreams by Hideyuki Kikuchi

stripped off the knapsack about forty feet from D. Quickly opening it, she knocked it on its side. Glistening crystals of synthesized feed for the meat beasts spilled out, and shrill cries arose from all sides as the ground began to rumble. The fifteen-hundred-pound mountains of black came running in unison. The thirty of them had a total weight of over twenty tons, which made the earth tremble and even shook the fence as they stampeded toward her. D alone was unaffected, with not so much as a single hair stirring. It was almost as if the vibrations of the fence the young man was leaning against were absorbed by his black coat before they could reach him.
    Ai-Ling stepped away from the tremendous beasts as they greedily consumed the food they loved, but soon she was lost again in a mad scramble of black armor that seemed sure to trample her to death. And yet, when her slender figure stepped out from between the massive, thrashing forms, she suddenly delivered a kick to the rump of the closest beast.
    “Bad boy, Ben!” Ai-Ling scolded the creature. “You’ve already eaten more than your share, haven’t you? Be a good little beast and give Pluto some room. Don’t give me any trouble now.”
    Although fierce, the meat beasts were also highly intelligent, and if handled properly, could be tamed. Doing so, however, meant risking life and limb day after day. It was said to take as much patience as finding a single grain in a mountain of sand, and yet, it looked like this woman with the cultured upbringing had managed to do just that. The beast she’d kicked ambled aside, but the one called Pluto seemed to miss the point entirely and just continued to hang back. “Get a move on, Pluto. You’ve finally got an opening, so get in there and chow down.” Seeing that the beast still wasn’t responding, Ai-Ling shouted, “You big dope!” and kicked it in the rump. It didn’t move.
    Ai-Ling took a step back and folded her arms. Eyes filling with determination, she grabbed the Tommy gun by the stock and held it like a bat.
    “Now there’s something,” D muttered.
    The woman had just taken the gun and smacked a creature taller than she was right in the middle of its ass. Beads of sweat flying from her, she delivered five or six blows before the idiotic beast finally nosed its way into the opening and started scooping up feed with its power-shovel jaws. Once she was sure of that, Ai-Ling went over to D again. Although she was probably mentally and physically exhausted from what she’d just done, her gait was incredibly steady.
    “Sorry to keep you waiting, but I have to check the thermostats in the chickener coop, too.” Her breathing ragged, the woman had D’s face reflected in her beads of sweat. Her body shook. “Would you like to come with me? Ordinarily you could wait in the house, but I can’t very well have a man in my home while my husband’s out.”
    “Out here is fine with me.” As D said it, he took a place by Ai-Ling’s side and they walked off toward the building that stood to their left. “Don’t seem too suited to farm life,” he said after they’d walked a short distance.
    It took a few seconds for Ai-Ling to realize he was talking about her. Shooting a look of surprise at D’s face, she asked, “You concerned on my account?” Her expression was almost a tearful smile.
    “Farm work is tough, even for a man,” D remarked. “So, why did you give the meat beasts names?”
    “The work’s not really all that hard,” Ai-Ling answered in a cheery tone. “You keep at the same thing for thirty years, and you’ll get used to any kind of labor. And I gave them names because it makes it easier to work with them.”
    Upon reaching the building, Ai-Ling opened the steel door. A nauseating stench billowed out—the stink of wild animals and their excrement. Ai-Ling turned her face away and coughed. “I just have to check the thermostats, but we can talk while I’m walking around. Ask away.”
    Her