I fainted during a doctor's appointment, and so the doctor left me undisturbed in the room till I could recover enough to leave without fainting again.  In that interval I dreamed that I was Soskia, driven through the mountains before dawn, past the rebel base, suddenly realizing that the torn-down fence meant imminent attack.  So that would place this dream in the late nineties, when I had a doctor.  I had flashes of other dreams showing the outside of the rebel base, the mysterious glint of blue lights in a horizontal crack of the mountainside—that would be the rebel lamps.  I also dreamed of the patch of pines that Deirdre and Cyran gazed upon.  From that I spun this chapter.

          Why would I dream of being Soskia?  That was the only time I did.  I made more money in those days, in medical transcription, than I had ever done in my life, boosted by bonuses and merit-raises, and felt pretty darn proud of myself.  Perhaps the dream tried to warn me that all this would soon fall apart if I stayed on that road, that I wasn't as safe as I thought.  But I stayed on it anyway, and it cost me.  Fainting should have been a clue.