Suki's Dream Factory: 1: All That We See Or Seem

By Keith Dumble

It’s a place where bored Lunars can go to escape the harsh realities of their lives and experience their heart’s deepest desires – for a price.

Suki Sakamoto runs The Factory, a dream simulation facility on the bright side of the Moon. Earth’s satellite has been transformed into a playground for the super-rich — and into a battlefield where massive corporations wage war on each other from lofty boardrooms.

When a dissatisfied executive makes a complaint against the Factory, Suki and her assistant Holly find themselves investigating the disappearance of a woman last seen in Darkside, a place crawling with lowlife drug addicts and criminals.

And when Suki’s quest forces her to confront the sins of her past, she realises there are some things she will never be allowed to forget.

All That We See Or Seem is the first episode in a series of pulp sci-fi cyberpunk adventures featuring Suki Sakamoto, the enigmatic and embittered proprietor of The Dream Factory.

Each episode in the serial can be read standalone, whilst together they build to tell the story of Suki and her colleagues as they struggle to deal with dangers past and present in a future world where technology and money reign supreme.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Keith Dumble
• Release date: Feb 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310440434

Keith Dumble

I am a writer from Edinburgh, Scotland.I write history, mystery and speculative fiction, focusing on the sci-fi and fantasy genres. As an indie author, I regularly publish short stories, serials, novellas and longer works of fiction on the main e-book platforms.

Book preview

Suki's Dream Factory

1: All That We See Or Seem

by Keith Dumble

Copyright © 2015 by Keith Dumble. All rights reserved.

Cover copyright © 2015 by Keith Dumble.

www.keithdumble.com

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Reproduction in whole or in part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited.

Thank you for purchasing and supporting my work. If you have enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review wherever you bought this book.

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

SUKI’S DREAM FACTORY

one

'Time's up, Mr Ash.' Suki initiated the reawaken sequence. 'Your dream is over.'

She had been watching from the control chamber, monitoring the customer's biometric signals. Searching for meaning in the patterns; something in the void between the glowing lines. It had been like trying to paint music.

'Holly.' She flicked another switch, opening the commlink. 'Commence the cleansing, please.'

The image of the stark white chamber on the monitor was obscured by the familiar blue cloud. A vapour cocktail designed to ease the occupant's senses, avoiding any jarring windshield smash from the embrace of the dreamscape to the sharp-edged lines of reality.

Suki powered down the Hypnos Engine. It ran its usual diagnostics, flickering rows of percentages and charts which would allow the dream to be replicated if the customer so wished. The fingerdrive ejected itself; she filed it with the others. Row upon row of other people's dreams.

She had only ever kept one herself. Always the same, no matter how often she had tweaked the parameters, making adjustments to variables in an attempt to allow her to control the experience. Yet each time she sealed herself in and allowed the fluid to enter her veins, the dream always ended the same way.

Solomon always died.

'Do you want to debrief Mr Ash or shall I do it?' Holly sounded eager. The girl's way with people was a mystery to Suki; another language that she seemed unable to grasp.

'If you don't mind. I'll reboot things here.'

Holly clicked her tongue. Suki imagined the girl shaking her head and smiling, resigned to her boss's lack of social skills. 'No problem. I'll meet you out front in ten.'

Suki severed the commlink. The Hypnos Engine hummed to itself like a drunk singer. Lights flicked off, screens faded to black. A plock-plock-plock as the Morpheus tank started to refill. Ready for the next client. Filling up with fantasies.

She stood, arching her back. She was ill-suited for such a sedentary job. Her muscles were not quite as taut as they had once been; her joints had begun to grumble when she shifted position. A far cry from a few years ago, when she was as efficient as one of the machines in the Factory.

And just as cold.

__________

'What did you give Mr Ash this time?' Holly was blushing, the bloom on her face almost as red as her crimson hair. 'He was still … excited … when he came out of the chamber.'

'You're sure you want to know? His preferences are rather … unique.'

Holly pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. 'Maybe not, then. At least he left happy. Made another appointment, same time next week.'

'Hooked like a fish. His fantasies are triple-a premium, with a price tag to match.'

'I'll never get why people become addicted to it. I prefer to be in control of my own dreams.'

'You've never been tempted, not even once?' Suki picked up the wavetab on the counter, checked the itinerary. One more customer at seventeen hundred, in two hours' time.

'Two things.' Holly crossed her arms tight in front of her chest, a familiar pose of defiance. 'One, I object to the fact it's only available to the supras. Two, I'm still not convinced the Morpheus fluid is safe. There are scientists back on Earth who say — '

'Whatever the corporations pay them to say.' Suki punched a button on the drink unit. The metal cylinder hummed and started to concoct her order. 'Want one?'

'I'm good.' Holly picked up a plastic bottle of water and sloshed it in Suki's direction. 'Anything you need me for until the next customer?'

'The changing room could do with being cleaned.' Suki stared at the gloopy black liquid at the bottom of her cup. 'Especially after Mr Ash has been in them.'

Holly drained her bottle. 'Sometimes I wish we had cybers for that.'

'I thought you didn't approve of using them for such menial tasks.'

'I don't. They have as much right to choose what they want to do as the rest of us.'

'And yet we're here, choosing to run this place.' Suki made a mock grimace. 'Is that what you dreamed of when you were a little girl?'

'Partly, I guess.' Holly looked younger when she smiled, her seriousness ironed away. 'I always wanted to live on Brightside.'

'And is it everything you hoped for?'

'Maybe not everything. But it's still a place of opportunity. Where dreams really can come true.'

'As long as they're within the boundaries of what the CEOs decide is acceptable.'

The flush returned to Holly's face. 'It's different on Darkside. Their sticky fingers don't reach that far.'

'Perhaps. But we're not on Darkside. Here, we face the Earth at all times — and they see everything we do.'

The sides of Holly's mouth twitched. 'Not everything.' She slid her left sleeve up to her elbow. The lines beneath her skin glowed, the circuitry a maze of right-angled veins.

'You're playing a dangerous game. If the PSF find out