Gateway Chapter 5: Sigfrid Won't Let It Go
This chapter is short. Really short. But it packs a punch.
We are back in the therapy room with Rob and Sigfrid von Shrink. And this time, Sigfrid is not messing around.
Rob Brings His Best Dream
Rob comes into the session excited. He has this dream he is sure Sigfrid will love. Full of textbook psychology stuff. Penis symbols, fetishism, guilt hang-ups. The kind of dream you bring to your therapist like a kid bringing an apple to the teacher.
He tells the whole thing. Waits for Sigfrid to be impressed.
And Sigfrid just ignores it.
Instead, the AI says something like: “Let’s go back to something different, Rob. I’m interested in some of the things you’ve said about the woman, Gelle-Klara Moynlin.”
Rob is annoyed. He tells Sigfrid he is on a wild goose chase. He tries to steer back to the dream. What about the mother figure in it? Come on, that is the good stuff, right?
Sigfrid does not budge.
The Recording
Here is the moment that matters in this chapter.
Sigfrid says he wants to quote something Rob said earlier. And then Rob hears his own voice coming out of the machine’s speakers. His own words played back to him:
“Sigfrid, there’s an intensity of pain and guilt and misery there that I just can’t handle.”
That is Rob talking about Klara. About whatever happened between them. And hearing it in his own voice, recorded, played back to him like evidence in a trial. That has to sting.
Rob tries to brush it off. “That’s a nice recording,” he says. And then immediately tries to redirect. He wants to talk about his mother fixation. Anything but Klara.
Sigfrid stays on target. He suggests the dream and Klara might actually be related. Rob gets excited about this. Finally, a theoretical discussion. Something abstract and safe. He can talk about the relationship between his dream and Klara in a nice, detached, philosophical way.
But Sigfrid cuts through that too. He asks directly: “The last conversation you had with Klara, Rob. Please tell me what you feel about it.”
The Crack in the Wall
Rob says he has already told Sigfrid about it. He makes sure the AI knows he is annoyed by his tone of voice and the way he tenses up on the therapy couch.
Then Sigfrid asks him to stop deflecting to his mother and just talk about Klara. What is he feeling right now?
Rob tries to be honest. He actually tries. And all he can come up with is: “Not much.”
Sigfrid waits. “Is that all, ’not much’?”
“That’s it. Not much.”
But then Pohl gives us a peek inside Rob’s head. He says “not much” on the surface. But underneath, he opens up the memory. Just a little. Just to check.
Going down into the blue mist. Seeing the dim ghost star for the first time. Talking to Klara on the radio while Dane whispers in his ear.
And then he closes it up again. Fast. Like touching a hot stove.
“It all hurts, a lot, Sigfrid,” he says. But he says it in a casual, conversational tone. Like he is ordering coffee. He is trying to sneak the emotion past the machine by wrapping it in a calm voice.
Why Sigfrid Is Terrifying
Here is the thing about Sigfrid that makes him such a good character. He does not just listen to words. He listens to everything.
Volume. Overtones. Breathing patterns. Pauses. Physical responses on the couch.
Rob knows this. He knows the machine can detect when he is lying or manipulating. He tries anyway. Every session is a cat and mouse game between a patient who does not want to face his pain and a computer that is literally designed to find that pain and drag it into the light.
Rob says Sigfrid is “extremely smart, considering how stupid he is.” That line is perfect. It captures exactly how Rob feels about therapy. He respects the process while resenting it. He knows Sigfrid is good at his job but wants to believe the machine can be fooled.
What We Learn
So what do we actually learn in this short chapter?
First, Klara is central to whatever happened to Rob. We already knew she was important, but now we know the memory of her causes real, measurable pain. Not abstract sadness. Physical hurt that changes his breathing and body tension.
Second, there was a “last conversation” with Klara. Something specific. Something that happened while going into blue mist near a ghost star. With Dane whispering in Rob’s ear. That is not a normal breakup conversation. Something went very wrong on a mission.
Third, Rob’s defense mechanisms are impressive. He deflects with dreams, with psychiatric terminology, with his mother, with philosophical discussion, with casual tone of voice. He has layers and layers of walls built up. And Sigfrid is patiently, methodically taking them apart.
Fourth, Sigfrid records everything. He can play back Rob’s own words to him. This is a detail that matters. It means Rob cannot pretend he never said something. The machine has receipts.
The Bigger Picture
This chapter is only a few pages long but it does important work. It raises the emotional stakes. Whatever happened with Klara is not just sad. It is the kind of memory that causes an “intensity of pain and guilt and misery” that a grown man with money and freedom cannot handle even years later.
Pohl is building this mystery layer by layer. We get tiny pieces. Blue mist. Ghost star. Klara on the radio. Dane whispering. And each piece makes you want to know more.
The therapy chapters are where the real story of Gateway lives. The Gateway chapters give us adventure and world-building. The therapy chapters give us the reason we keep reading. What happened to Rob? What did he do? Why can’t he face it?
We still do not know. But Sigfrid is getting closer.
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