The Project Gutenberg EBook of Planet of Dreams, by James McKimmey

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Title: Planet of Dreams

Author: James McKimmey

Illustrator: Paul Orban

Release Date: September 20, 2009 [EBook #30045]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration]

_The climate was perfect, the sky was always
blue, and--best of all--nobody had to work.
What more could anyone want?_

Planet of Dreams

By James McKimmey, Jr.

Illustrated by Paul Orban

It was a small world, a tiny spinning globe, placed in the universe to
weather and age by itself until the end of things. But because its air
was good and its earth was fertile, Daniel Loveral had placed a finger
upon a map and said, "This is the planet. This is the Dream Planet."

That was two years before, back on Earth. And now Loveral with his
selected flock had shot through space, to light like chuckling geese
upon the planet, to feel the effect of their dreams come true.

Loveral was sitting in his office, drumming his long fingers against his
desk while the name, Atkinson, ticked through his brain like the sound
of a sewing machine.

Would he be the only one, Loveral asked himself, or was he just the
first? In either case, it was up to Loveral, as leader and guiding hand,
to stop this thing and stop it quickly.

Loveral stood up and put on his jacket, although there was no need for
it, other than the formality it gave his figure.

He stepped out of his office into a clear bright day, where the air was
clean and fresh in his lungs, at once like frost and fire and sweet
perfume. He walked along a winding path, which was bordered by
slim-necked flowers and a short hedge whose even clipped lines were kept
neat by tireless robot hands.

Trees pointed to a blue sky, rocking and fluttering their leaves in a
soft breeze, and glinting metallic houses lay peacefully beyond in
wooded hollows and upon slight hills.

A whole small world was before his eyes, set there upon his direction,
maintained by himself wi