Machine Dreams

Clickety-clack. Click. click. Clack-clickety-Click-clack.

A fire burns in the west.

Back when Moses still slept he would lie down, but his body was never completely still. The heat from his furnace pulsated. A fan in one of his motors whirred. Beneath his metal skin, moving parts remained active, generating a current. Zipporah rested her head on his flesh arm and let the mechanical symphony lull her to sleep. It became comforting to her. Back when he slept.

Now he doesn't sleep, but he still dreams. Looking out a port hole aboard Sennin there is nothing but water until the horizon, but his eyes are full of flames.

Click. Clack.

The Difference Engine speaks to him in an analog language that he almost understands. It is the language of his dreams. It tells him that a fire is burning in the west. A fire which cannot be quenched. It instructs him to seek it. He does not know why.

The ship's engines also rumble, and the sound of the waves rushing by, is like a lullaby. They are soothing sounds that make Moses remember what it was like to sleep. It was good. But he left that behind, like the mines, and Geneva Prime and, he supposes, like Zipporah left the Chantry. And now they have all left behind the continent and civilization itself to follow... what?

An arrow in the sky?

Or the dreams... seeking the fire, which burns in the west.

Click. Clack.

The Difference Engine speaks. What is its purpose?