The Collective

by David McCahan

  “You know I’m a little nervous about it but I was only going to use them until we arrived in system so yes, we’ll try au natural and see how it goes.” Glory responded.

  “So is it OK to wish you sweet dreams then?” Jeff said with a slight smirk.

  “Definitely!” was Glory’s reply.

  Index

  Chapter 6 – Contact

  Glory didn’t think it right to sleep while there was so much to do but had to admit that she was ready to pass out where she stood. It had been months since she started the medication to suppress the nightmares and had to admit to being more than a little bit apprehensive about going to sleep without the meds. Would the nightmares return or was it something in the FTL environment? Well she was about to find out as she crawled under the covers. She stretched, relaxed, closed her eyes and darkness came.

  They approached the invader vessel alert and listening, always listening. Moving through the vessel unnoticed they heard pain, confusion, anger, fear, and desire.

  We should disperse over the vessel and listen and learn. We are one on this.

  One moved through the vessel and connected with another mind, not among the one, different and alien, but somehow not fearful. One moved closer and listened.

  We have found a mind worthy of listening to. We shall listen here. We are one on this.

  Glory was enjoying her first truly sound and restful sleep in some months. As her sleep deepened she began REM sleep and the dreaming that accompanies that stage. She saw a strange light and in her dream turned to find the source of the light. As she turned toward the light she recognized her room onboard Columbia. The room was dark except for a light towards the foot of the bed. So strange she thought. Not like any light she had. Finally, like she was moving in slow motion, she found the source of the light. It was shaped like a man hovering a few feet off the floor. The shape was of a man but he was luminescent. His whole body had a glow but she could also see through him. Light, energy, shape, but no physical mass. Then he seemed to look at her more intently and seem as if to speak to her.

  Why do you invade us? Why do you wish to harm us?

  Glory suddenly awoke with a gasp and sat bolt upright in bed. She was gasping for air and scared out of her wits.

  “What the hell was that?” she said out loud to no one in particular. “Oh great first dark nightmares, now light nightmares, and now you’re talking to yourself. So what am I losing a grip on reality now?”

  Why do you invade us? Why do you wish to harm us?

  “Oh great I’m still dreaming. Who ever heard of a dream in a dream?” With that she pinched her own arm. “Owww! Damn I must actually be awake. Ok, no more sleep today. In fact, I think I had better get my head examined.”

  With that Glory bolted out of bed, then showered and dressed as fast as she could and headed for C&C.

  We have contacted the invader. Its consciousness freed from its physical body and listened to us then retreated back into physical body. It then listened to us again before leaving us. We will wait and listen for this invader again.

  Glory entered C&C and sat at her workstation and stared at the desktop, hugged herself and did her best not to scream. Was she dreaming, was that real, had she just lost all touch with reality? How would she know?

  “Glory, are you alright?”

  She almost jumped out of her chair and screamed at the sound of General Fitsimmons concerned voice.

  “Oh, Jeff it’s you. I’m not sure. I think I’m losing it.” Glory sputtered.

  “Ok, let’s go over to my ready room then and discuss this in private.” He said as he laid an arm over her shoulders and guided her into his office. They sat down together on his couch.

  “Now what do you mean you think you’re losing it? Take your time. What’s wrong?” Jeff asked.

  “Ok, Ok. Well I went to bed and fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. How long has it been anyway?” she asked.

  “Let’s say almost four hours ago.” He replied.

  “Really? Seems like just a few minutes ago. Ok well then I must have actually fallen into a really sound sleep. Then I had this strange dream, which by the way I’m not sure that I have actually wakened from that dream yet.”

  “Well you do seem a bit dreamy at times, but trust me you are very much awake right now. Not sure about lucid but continue and I’ll let you know.” He replied doing his best not to laugh while doing so.

  “Well I see someone enjoyed his nap now didn’t he? Ok well in the dream I could see my bedroom, dark as I had left it when I went to sleep, but there was a light somewhere in the room. I began to turn to look for the light and there was this form of a man floating there.” She expected him to call the doctors and have her confined to the med ward for observation at this point but instead he seemed actually interested in where this was going.

  “Please continue; a man was floating in your room….?” He urged her on.

  “Well, somehow I had the impression that is was a male. He was radiating a soft glow from top to bottom but there was no physical body. I could actually see through him. I heard him say something like “Why are you invading us and why do you wish us harm?” And it shocked me so bad I woke up very suddenly.” She looked up into his face and she saw concern and rapt attention there. He nodded for her to continue. “So now I’m awake, I think, and searching the room for any sign of an intruder and then I heard him again. Not with my ears but in my head and he said the exact same thing.”

  “What did you do then?” he asked.

  “I got dressed and got the hell out of there as fast as I could and then you found me at my station.” She blurted out.

  “Ok, now let’s remember you haven’t slept without a sleep aid in months. The sudden change may have turned loose your sub-conscience all at once. But then I’m not the expert here, so I think we should get you down to medical and file a report there and see what they recommend.” He urged.

  “Let’s go see the people in the white lab coats. They can examine my head and see if they find anything.” She laughed.

  “There’s a couple of million dollars worth of computer hardware and software in there that I know of at least, but let’s go see what else they find.” He said as he chuckled with her. “At least your sense of humor appears intact.”

  A few minutes later Jeff escorted Glory into Medical 1. Dr. Evans seeing them entering the reception area hurried over to see what she owed the honor of her commanding officers visiting her medical center.

  “General and Colonel how may I help you?” she asked.

  “Hello Rhonda. Another of us that doesn’t have the good sense to sleep when they should I see?” he said jokingly. “Actually I’m a little concerned about our Colonel here and wondered if we could speak in private?”

  “Certainly, let’s go to my office just down the hall here.” Rhonda led the way and urged them to have seat at the conference table and sat down with them. “So what is concerning you?”

  Jeff had Glory relate her experience to the doctor. After she completed telling about her dream and waking dream again she searched Rhonda’s face to see her reaction.

  “You know how your nightmares were not isolated to just you but others were experiencing the same dreams?” Rhonda asked.

  Glory nodded yes.

  “Well I think you are not alone in this either.” She said as she activated her com. “Dr. Gossling this is Dr. Evans; can you join me in video conference please?”

  A second later Dr. Emma Gossling, Columbia’s Chief of Psychiatry appeared on the office video screen. “Oh, Dr. Evans, Colonel Callaghan, and General Fitsimmons, what can I do for you?” a clearly fluster Emma Gossling was surprised by the gathering of brass she was addressing.

  “Emma I believe I heard you had a couple of cases in the last hour of very strange nightmares that terrified the patient but also were very similar in nature?” Rhonda asked.

  “I not sure how a couple of nightmares rises to this level but I d
id just see a couple of patients and yes it was weird how similar their experiences were. It seems they dreamed something or some being was floating near their bed and they didn’t have a physical body but instead a transparent body the glowed.” Emma said.

  At this Glory audibly gasped and involuntarily hugged herself again. “Dr. did they mention the “being” saying anything?”

  Not quite sure what to make of Colonel Callaghan’s reaction she continued “Actually I believe they both said something to the effect of Why are you invading us and want to do us harm? Or close to that. Colonel are you okay?” Even over the video feed Dr. Gossling could see that Glory was white as a ghost and about ready to pass out.

  Rhonda got a glass of water for Glory and encouraged her to drink. “Glory, when was the last time you ate?” she asked.

  “I’m alright, just a bit startled is all.” Seeing that none of them were quite buying it she relented. “OK, Ok. As soon as we’re done here I’ll go straight to the mess hall. Promise! I give!” she said laughing slightly and just that little bit helped a lot. “Dr. Gossling, I had the EXACT SAME DREAM.” She said the last few words slowly to emphasize them. “I also heard the words in my head AFTER I woke up as well. Anybody report that as well?”

  “No, that’s a new wrinkle, while two was a coincidence, three cases in totally unrelated personnel in my experience needs very close attention. I think we just moved from psyche to science if you ask me.” Emma replied.

  “Thank you Emma. Can you forward those case files to me and I think we need to run some comparative analysis to see if there is a physical commonality here? I’ll get back to you in a few minutes to compare notes and see what course we should proceed on.” Rhonda said to the screen.

  “Will do Rhonda. General, Colonel I’ll help any way I can.” Emma replied.

  “Evans out.” Rhonda said as she exited the video conference. “Glory, now please go and eat something and then stop back here in about an hour and we’ll see if we can find a connection to explain this. I think this dream may have been more real than you are letting yourself believe.”

  “Rhonda are you saying she might have actually made contact? I’m not sure I can quite wrap my head around that.” Jeff exclaimed.

  “Hey I was there and I still think my marbles are a little scrambled.” Glory added.

  “Let’s take a step back and look at the facts. We know that an intelligence directed those bombs at us by some unseen force that we still cannot explain. Then shortly thereafter three crew have the same dream, see the same ghost, hear the same questions? Well the scientist in me looks at the facts and comes to the hypothesis that we may have just contacted our first alien life form. I want to look for other possible explanations but I have to wonder if in the end these three, and maybe more, should just go back to bed and see if they can’t make contact again.” Rhonda was dead serious and Glory could see Jeff was beginning to think she might be on to something.

  “Hey now you can’t be serious.” Glory was beginning to not like the direction this was going.

  “Glory just think of the possibilities. What if this was more than just a dream? What if this was first contact? Who says every sentient species in the universe has the same physical make-up or communicates in the same manner? What’s the harm in seeing where this leads?” Jeff asked.

  “I don’t know. I could see me in a straitjacket, locked in a padded room singing my ABCs all day.” Glory quipped.

  Jeff and Rhonda just looked back at her. “Ok, OK, I surrender. I suppose I can’t stay awake forever anyway. But you have to promise a room with a reaalllly good view if I do go around the bend.” She said laughing.

  “Colonel, first breakfast, then back here for some tests, then back to bed. Doctor’s orders.” Rhonda said while smiling broadly.

  “Yes Ma’am” and then Jeff and Glory got up to leave the medical center and get something to eat. “Be back in an hour.”

  We have listened to them that we thought were the invaders. They do not seem to mean us harm. Could the invaders be not these and instead be another? We must listen more. We are one on this.

  Jeff returned with Glory to Dr. Evans office after their meal. She was waiting there for them with Dr. Gossling.

  “Well Glory your color looks much better.” Rhonda said when they walked into the office.

  “Yes Thank You, I do feel much better. Now if we could convince my personal boy scout here that he has more important things to deal with right now.” Glory said as she gestured toward Jeff.

  “Well I beg to disagree with your analysis but your possible contact with the native inhabitants of Eden are very much the most important thing I have to deal with right now. So Rhonda have you learned anything new in our absence?” Jeff said turning to the doctors.

  “Yes I think you could say that. We’ve run a genetic analysis on the people who have reported this contact, which now number 15, and also a genetic analysis on all the personnel reporting the nightmares and compared to the rest of our population. There are general differences in the cerebrum of the nightmare population compared to the general populous but a rather dramatic difference in the personnel involved in the contact dreams. I won’t bore you with the technical description of the structural differences, besides we don’t have that much time, but suffice it to say that there is a possible physical explanation to the events on this mission.” Rhonda paused and then looked directly to Glory. “You are the only one reporting hearing the voice when you are awake. The structural differences in your cerebrum are the most pronounced. I think this explains why you were the most affected by the nightmares somehow and why you were able to hear the voice in your head while awake.” She paused while they considered this.

  “So there is something wrong with me that caused this?” Glory clearly shaken by the recent events.

  “No no no, not even close.” Rhonda reached out to take Glory’s hands in hers and then continued, “I think exactly the opposite. This structural change is a sign of improvement, and maybe even the beginning of the next step in human evolution. Not wrong, improved!”

  “Well I think we all knew that long before this voyage. Didn’t need your scans to tell me that.” Jeff said trying to lighten the mood. “Glo this contact could give this mission a whole new meaning and might be our salvation.”

  “Ok let’s not get carried away here.” Glory responded.

  Rhonda continued “Look at it this way, we humans only use 10 to 15% of our brains typically. What if these differences are allowing you to begin to access more of the brain and opening your mind to, for the lack of a better description, the spiritual or psychic world or dimension? All I know is there is a very definite documented difference. What it does we’re not sure of but it is there.”

  “So now what?” Glory asked.

  “Go to bed, get some sleep and this time if you see and/or hear your visitor try to stay with him and make contact. Convince them we are no threat and that we should be friends.” Jeff said.

  “Hey! Whose side are you on?” Glory look at Jeff with mock astonishment and then considered for a moment and said “I’m terrified about it, but all the same I agree that we’ve got to try if there is any possibility of them being right. Feels a lot better that I might not have totally lost my marbles.”

  “So Colonel, off to bed with you then!” Rhonda said as she stood still holding Glory’s hands and then gave her a friendly push towards the doorway.

  “Ok Ok I’m going. Sheeesh pushy much?” she giggled as her and Jeff headed out.

  Was the voice a real first contact or a hallucination? It just seemed so surreal and so terrifying at the same time. If it was real, would the visitor still be there? All this and more was running through Glory’s mind as she crawled back into bed and tried to find sleep that would not come. She would have killed for a decent night’s sleep over the last few months and now she is just too keyed up to fall asleep. Then using relaxation techniques, she focused on favorite memories, let herself
relax and finally fell asleep. She soon passed into REM sleep and began to dream again. Once again in her dream she saw her room, darkened as she left it, and the glow she had seen before was there once again. She turned and looked at the light and once again she heard the voice in her head,

  Why do you invade us? Why do you wish to harm us?

  She tried to push down her panic and stay here in this moment and not wake up. How can I speak in a dream? Well let’s try just talking and see.

  “We are not invading you. We come in peace. We want to be friends. We wish you no harm. Do you understand me?” Glory tried to make him understand. Not that she was quite sure she understood what was happening in this ‘Dream’.

  We listen to you. We heard you come and thought you were the invader that comes. Did you not hear us call?

  “I have never done anything like this. No one has ever ‘listened’ like this ever before. I do not know how I can hear you or talk to you now. What is happening here?” Glory expressed her confusion and perhaps the visitor might help her understand.

  This is how we listen. How do you listen if not like this?

  “We talk to each other. We vocalize through sound when we are awake, not in dreams when sleeping. We have physical bodies, not spiritual bodies like you.”

  We also have physical bodies but we do not listen through sound. We always listen in mind. We have to return to our physical body soon as you must return to your physical body to feed your spiritual body after a while. Look at your body over there.

  He pointed to her bed and yes there was Glory sound asleep, peaceful really.

  Now look at your spiritual body here.

  She looked down and there was also her body but glowing like the visitor, floating a foot or so off the floor and semi-transparent just like the visitor.