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“Dad, where are we going?” Elliot asked.

It wasn’t the first time he’d asked the question, and Iago couldn’t force another reassuring smile as he replied.

“Somewhere else.”

Their bags were packed, only the essentials.  Most things they’d have to get again, but that was fine.

Going out of the ship, he felt all the eyes on him and his son.  They knew.

At any moment he’d been waiting for the Response team to come out.

For Pirra to betray him, to arrest him, take his son away and lock him up, to rot where they’d . . .

The thought faded.

No Response Team had appeared, but he didn’t let his guard down.  So they wouldn’t be open about it, he thought, as they merged onto Gohhi proper.  Thousands of beings from just as many systems, of all species imaginable were hurrying on their way.  None cared about a lone human male and his son.

They’d get lodgings and then . . .

He didn’t know what.  He hadn’t planned that far ahead.

Looking around, he felt that somehow he’d drawn attention to them.  A group of Sepht were watching him, signalling to each other with shifting colors on their skin.  He couldn’t understand the words, but he knew they had to be watching him.  They were Sepht, of course they were in the Sapient Union, they were spies.

Bad spies, just standing in the open, but they were watching him.

So it’d be a precise strike, he thought.  A team would come for him, break down the door, perhaps just shoot him down and make it look like a robbery.

He fingered the grip of the sidearm he’d smuggled off.  They’d find the evidence in the system soon, but he’d felt confident that he’d hidden his tracks well enough that it’d be when the system ran its shift-change security checks that it was discovered.  He still had three hours.

He planned out the fake rooms he’d rent, the accommodations he’d already made, the people on Gohhi he’d paid off to smudge his trail.  It would just buy time, that was all he needed.

And money, he realized.  His ex was all digital, as were all SU credits.  But he’d need something accepted on Gohhi.

They were still near enough to the ship.  Stopping at a money console, he accessed his account and transferred all of his ex to External Trade Credits.

How had he not thought of this sooner?  This was sloppy.  They’d note this for sure.  They’d know what he was doing.

Well, he thought, they had no doubt anyway.

“Dad,” Elliot said insistently, and he realized the boy had been tugging his shirt.  “Why are we leaving, Dad?”

Something suddenly hurt inside.  Iago was shocked at the feeling, realizing just how numb he’d become.  This pain felt real, fresh, and it burned.

He looked at his son, feeling his jaw and eye twitch, seeing the hurt on the face of his boy.

“We’ve just got to leave the ship, Elliot,” he said, kneeling down.  “I’m sorry.  I know it’s . . .  difficult.  Something changed, and . . . we just have to go.”

“It’s because of Terris, isn’t it?” Elliot asked.

Iago’s blood ran cold.

“How do you know about that?”

Everyone had changed around him when he’d seen the things there.  His superiors, Kai and Brooks.  Even his closest friends, like Pirra and Alexander.

He’d known that.  But . . .

Had Elliot changed, too?

“You talk about it in your sleep.  Every night, Dad.  Sometimes you’re even awake and you just say stuff,” Elliot said.

He saw the fear on his son’s face.

No.  No, no, no nonono.  His son was still his son.  He hadn’t changed.  Because if he had, what was any of this for?

He held desperately to that thought.  “Yes, it was at Terris.  I saw something . . . and I learned something that I shouldn’t have learned.  I’m sorry . . . I’m so sorry it has hurt you.  But this is our only choice.”

“Why?” Elliot insisted.  “Why can’t we just talk to the Captain about it?  I’m sure he-“

“NO!” Iago roared.

Elliot cringed back.  Several beings nearby stopped, looking at him with surprise.  But their interest faded, and he saw that Elliot was not cowed.  If anything, he looked more determined.

God he was proud of him.  He felt so weak and useless.  If not for Elliot, then he’d be nothing now.  He’d let them take him, because he’d be worth nothing, not even to himself.

But at least his son would be better than him.

“What did you learn, Dad?” Elliot asked.

The words had some power of compulsion.  Iago knew he couldn’t tell the boy – both that it was a terrible idea, and that words simply could not convey it all.

But he found words pouring from his mouth all the same.

“All of it is a lie,” he said, his mouth moving, making sound of its own accord.  He could not stop it.  “The reality we know is just a dream . . . a dream of a dream, a . . .  hallucination . . .  The truth has so many facets, so many angles I can’t believe I ever even believed all of it.  It’s just hollow.  This station, the ships, every item, even us.  We are just dots on a flat sheet in a universe with more dimensions than we ever thought possible.  Don’t you see?  There’s no point to it unless we unlock the reality!  We have to get higher, become more, or there’s no point to any of this!”

He was screaming.  Ranting, but-

No he wasn’t.  He realized that he had not said a word.

His mouth had never even opened.

Elliot was still looking at him, determined, scared, and wanting to do right.

“Dad!  Are you all right?”

He was on the floor now.  Shaking.

Elliot had his hand, and Iago was watching it shake wildly.

“I’m fine!” he said forcefully.

He didn’t remember standing up, but he was.

The kiosk nearby beeped.

His transfer was complete.

Stumbling over, his body still feeling weak, as if he might have another seizure, he leaned heavily against the kiosk and looked at the figure on the screen.  It was correct – all his substantial savings had been converted to external trade credits he could use anywhere in the known galaxy.

But there was a note as well.  It was added by the system of the Craton.

Cautiously, hoping that it was from the mysterious person who had contacted him before, he read it.

“Iago,

I know you need to go.  Contact me once you feel safe.  I will do anything I can to help you.”

It was signed Ian Brooks.

Stepping away, he realized he felt so numb that he could barely tell his feet were touching the station’s deck.

“Let’s go,” he said hoarsely to Elliot.

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