Gently Down the Stream

A drug that induces lucid dreaming has revolutionized remote robotics. Operators can now bond completely with their artificial bodies, working better, harder, and longer in harsh environments like those of the moons of Saturn. However, the drug, in combination with another that dilates subjective time, has also created the worst addiction-related crime wave in U.S. history. More than five million "zoners" now live their lives almost entirely in a utopian dream, emerging only long enough to get more drug—and doing whatever it takes to get it. To combat this trend, a creative penal system comes up with the idea of curing addicts by replacing their dream worlds with nightmares from which they will be only too glad to awaken. Under the guise of this program, an unscrupulous general begins hooking addicts up to remote, specially-designed artificial bodies to create an army of super-soldiers. One of his victims has a plan to defeat him. But will it succeed? Bagwell's previous work has appeared in the print publications Analog and Leading Edge.