Free Behind the Eyes of Dreamers by Pamela Sargent Page B

forehead; she longed for the cooler, dryer air of Aniya’s house, for all the comforts and aids that were forbidden here.
    She considered what she knew about Daro. The man was connected to the world outside the Garden only by his link. He came to the wall for supplies, but had not passed through the gate to the other side for many years. He occasionally acted as a guide to those wishing to explore the Garden, and he had agreed to help her. He lived alone. His past before he had entered the Garden was, at his command, locked away in the records of the Net and was inaccessible to anyone else, but that was not uncommon. Aniya had closed off her own past life before fading her memories. Perhaps Daro had also chosen forgetfulness.
    Orielna opened her link fully, hoping to find a message from Daro. He had to know that she was in the Garden. She heard nothing, then closed all the channels except the one linking her to the Net. She did not even know what the hunter looked like; his image was something else he chose to hide.
    It did not matter. Daro would help her, for she could never find Josef by herself as long as his link was closed. She dampened her thoughts and trudged on.
     
    She was still far from Daro’s home when the night grew too dark to see. Her link could have guided her through the darkness, but the long walk had wearied her. She climbed up a small hill and sat down under the trees, keeping her wand and a small globe of light at her side. The light would keep animals away, but she was prepared to stun any that approached.
    The leafy branches overhead hid the night sky. She missed the familiar sight; with Aniya, she had often sat in their courtyard, gazing at the stars and the specks of light that marked the Hoop of Habitats.
    Most of humanity lived in the hollowed-out asteroids and glittering metallic eggs of the Hoop that encircled the Earth, shaping their worldlets to please themselves. In the past, other Habitats had fled the solar system, scattering like seeds into deep space. The people in the Habitats that remained felt no need to wander, finding enough unknown territory in their own minds, wills, dreams, and desires.
    Long ago, human beings had created the Net of cybernetic mentalities to serve them. They had seeded near-space with their Habitats and had transformed the barren, hellish, sister-planet of Venus into a world of tropical gardens, tree-covered mountains, and warm, wide oceans. They had set a bracelet of Habitats around Mars and had made Earth’s moon burgeon with life. They had banished the deserts creeping across Earth’s lands and then, as though exhausted by their labors, they found rest in their Habitats and on the garden worlds they had created.
    Once, according to the Net of minds, the planet-dwellers and those who lived in the Habitats had been separated by suspicion and distrust, but their links with the Net had drawn them together in the end. Those who had sought to transcend the bounds of human nature were now wandering the cosmos. The descendants of those who had rejected the linking of humankind with the Net hid in Earth’s Garden and in the wilder lands of Venus and the Moon.
    The rest lived in the dream their ancestors had imagined. Orielna, like her sharer, was moved whenever she contemplated the efforts of those who had made her peaceful life possible and who had not lived to experience their dream. Lately, however, thinking of the past made her feel mournful and adrift, and she had no right to be unhappy. Any misery was an affront to those long-dead dreamers. She wondered why the Net allowed unhappiness to exist.
    A creature hooted overhead; something howled in the distance. “Daro?” she called through her link. No one answered.
    The night amplified her loneliness and fear. She wanted to reach out to Aniya through her link, but her sharer had not wished to experience this search with her. Orielna had understood why immediately. Aniya did not want to endure the difficulties and