Dream People I — The Mysterious Magic Visitors

CHAPTER 8

The General's Warning

General Reedis addressed the AURELIS Civil Assembly beneath a ceiling of transparent panels. Above the chamber, ordinary air traffic crossed the city in bright streams. Reedis had brought recordings of visitors flying through crowded public spaces, appearing in restricted facilities, and vanishing without warning. He played the footage of Maerina's fatal fall only after asking the Assembly to observe a moment of silence. 'A person can cause catastrophe without intending it,' he said. 'Our duty is to protect those who live here.' The Assembly did not speak with one voice.

Some delegates demanded a ban on all visitors, though no one knew how to enforce one. Others argued that people who appeared involuntarily should not be treated as invaders. A medical delegate asked whether containment might worsen the condition that caused disappearance. A civil-rights advocate demanded that any captured visitor be recognized as a potentially sentient person, not an experimental object. Alyssra listened from the gallery, surprised to find herself agreeing with people on opposing sides. Sardrith presented the early containment model. A lattice of synchronized fields might briefly stabilize the measurable boundary around a manifestation, allowing sensors to record what ordinary cameras missed.

It was not a prison proven safe. It was an untested hypothesis with substantial risk. QUIDRIX confirmed that the models could not establish the visitor's biological status or guarantee survival under

restraint. Reedis wanted authorization to proceed. Sardrith wanted the right to stop the test. After hours of debate, the Assembly approved a tightly limited research program. The field could be activated only in a controlled location with a documented public-safety rationale. Continuous monitoring was required. An independent review group would inspect the data, and the lattice would terminate automatically if critical thresholds were exceeded.

The Assembly also forbade invasive procedures on a conscious visitor without consent. Outside the chamber, Reedis told Sardrith that caution would not help if another child lost a parent. Sardrith answered that haste could create exactly the tragedy they hoped to prevent. Neither man yielded. QUIDRIX recorded the disagreement, along with the legal limits that would govern their work. In a nearby district, Seralyn walked home beneath flowering trees, unaware that the man she had painted had become the subject of a national security debate.

The Assembly's Silence Reedis had rehearsed his speech without the festival recording. At the last moment he included it, not to provoke horror but because every discussion of risk seemed to drift toward abstract numbers. He knew Alyssra was in the gallery. He did not look at her while the footage played. When the lights returned, no one spoke. The silence was worse than disagreement. Reedis waited until the presiding delegate invited questions. A representative asked whether the proposed field might kill a visitor. He answered that the research team did not know. Another asked whether the Assembly could authorize restraint without evidence of hostile intent.

Reedis answered that public safety sometimes required action before intent could be established. Sardrith rose from the scientific benches. 'Then the burden of restraint is on us,' he said. 'We must show that the response is proportionate, reversible, and monitored.' Reedis had expected the scientist to oppose him entirely. Instead Sardrith offered conditions.

By the time the vote was called, the proposal was no longer simply the general's plan. It belonged to a frightened, divided civilization trying to write rules before its next emergency.

An Expanded Scene

Outside the Assembly chamber, Reedis found a corridor lined with portraits of earlier commanders. None had faced a threat that might vanish without retreating, strike without intending harm, or arrive without a vehicle. A junior officer asked whether the proposed containment measures would make the city safer. Reedis answered carefully. 'They may give us time to learn. That is not the same thing.' He had watched the festival footage too. Unlike Alyssra, he had never known Maerina. His responsibility was to people whose names he might never learn. Still, when he studied the evidence he could not find a single rule that separated deliberate attackers from bewildered arrivals. He entered that limitation into the official briefing, even though he knew it would weaken his argument.