The Dreamer Chronicles Trilogy Boxed Set Vol I - III: A Sci-Fi Parallel Universe Adventure (The Dreamer Chronicles - Science Fiction For Kids And Adults)

by Robert Scanlon

  “I thought you were gone forever. They told me you were safe, but—”

  “I know, Mum. I’m really sorry. If it was physically possible for me to get a message to you, I would have ...”

  “You don’t have to explain. Yet. I still can’t believe I have you back.” Her mother looked her up and down. Her brow creased. “You’ve really shot up in the last couple of months, Sarina. A real grown up now.”

  More than you’ll ever know, she thought. She hugged her mum tight. “It’s good to be back.”

  Sunday was blissfully quiet. Just the two of them. Nothing to do. Her mother sensed she still needed space before talking and had let them enjoy each other’s company in silence.

  The phone rang, making them both jump. “I’ll get it,” her mother said.

  “Yes it is. Oh! Hello, how are you? Yes she is ... I doubt she wants to talk to anyone— ... I see. I’ll ask.” She covered the receiver. “It’s Rona, you remember, the lady in the wheel—”

  Her mother was barrelled out of the way by Sarina who shrieked and jumped up to grab the phone. In the crazy upside down of returning to normal, she’d forgotten to call Rona and tell her she was back.

  “Rona, I’m so sorry, I should have called!”

  “I heard the news, my dear. Are you alright? Not hurt, or—”

  “No, nothing, incredibly. Well I did break the wrist of my painting hand, but it’s all better now.” She saw her mother’s puzzled look out of the corner of her eye. “It’s a long story, but I want to thank you again. Without your help ...”Actually she didn’t even want to think about it. Without Rona’s help, none of them might be standing where they are. “You helped me save my friend.”

  “I think you may have done more than that, my dear. But I’m not calling just to hear your story. One day, of course, when you’ve had time to settle back in.”

  Sarina frowned. Then why was she calling?

  “I’m glad you’re okay and unhurt, that’s the main thing. Now. Obviously you missed any possibility of getting into the Paris Art School, which personally, I think is a good thing.”

  “It is?”

  “Yes. Having witnessed your skills, I think you would find their fine-arts oriented approach too ... restrictive. But a good friend of mine is the Art Department Director at the Royal College of Art in London. When you ... left, I had a heart-to-heart with her. I also put her in touch with your teacher—Mrs Gratten I believe? Their intake is only on merit, and you’d still have to sit an assessment; but I persuaded her to keep a place for you, if you ever returned.”

  Her mouth dropped open.

  “Sarina?”

  “I, ah ... thank you. It’s ... overwhelming.”

  “Well you deserve it, dear. Such bravery. But that’s not the whole story. When I said I heard the news, I actually heard it well before it was public. Simon rang me to say a Professor Kingsley was trying to get hold of me and did I want him to give the man my number? It was in relation to you, of course, and strangely he knew all about the police escapade and even knew about the place held for you at the College. I’m not sure what he’s a Professor of, but he has some powerful friends, I’d say. Anyway, when I spoke to him, he told me he was setting up a new institute called the Art Research Foundation, and he would like to sponsor you into the Royal College. He said he had a promise to deliver on.”

  Now she really was speechless. She tried to move her mouth, but only noises came out. “Uh ... er.”

  “I know. Just let it sink in. He’s also offered me a part-time role as a mentor. I said I’d have to ask you, since we hardly know each other. But you can think about that. I thought I’d better call you as soon as possible, so you can tell the folks at school—and your lovely mother, of course. Call me when the dust has settled, okay?”

  “Yes, thank you!”

  She hung up and turned to her mother. “You won’t believe this!”

  Her mother laughed. “After all you and I have been through, do you think there is much I won’t believe? Tell me, darling. By the look on your face, it’s good news.”

  Her mother drove her to school the next day, and a crowd of kids had already gathered. They rushed up to greet her. They’d seen the news of course; the two missing children, feared dead, miraculously found alive and well and ... and slightly bigger than they used to be.

  Nathan was already in the playground, surrounded by friends. He caught her smile and shrugged.

  “Aaaaiiiiggggghhhhhh!” The squeal could be heard across the school. It was her best friend, Georgia. She ran up to Sarina, her red hair flying behind her, and hugged her friend. “I saw you on the news! Brilliant! You’re back! What happened?”

  She gave her friend a wry smile. “It’s a long story. One day I’ll tell you some of it. But I’m so glad to be back home. Tell me, what’s been happening?”

  Georgia was taken aback. “You don’t know? Oh gosh, Sarina, it was soooo frightening. We all had nightmares; the world had to shut down and—” She stopped and looked at her friend with narrowed eyes. “You have no idea do you?”

  Sarina shook her head and smiled. “No. But I’m all ears. Tell me all about it.” She hooked her arm under her friend’s and led her into school.

  ~~~

  Lena turned the mobile phone around and checked the screen. Nathan had given Agent Blanchard’s spare phone to the Professor, thinking it must be useless after all it had been through. The Professor in turn had taken the sim card out and given the phone to Lena for play. Now Lena had finally managed to get it to stay charged.

  She pressed the button and the phone sprang into life, immediately complaining about the lack of a sim card. Lena cancelled the warning and flicked through the screens to find any games. She should have known, Agent Blanchard’s phone would never have any games.

  She turned it around again and beamed into the camera for a self-portrait.

  She pressed the ‘Photos’ icon and saw herself grinning back at her. She was about to turn it around to take another shot, when she noticed the phone had more photos, indicated by the ‘Next’ button in the gallery. She frowned and swiped across.

  They were all taken at night with the flash. Men fighting, frozen in the act, with teeth bared and fiery eyes. They were scary enough, but the effect of the flash against a pitch-black forest made the still images look like they were taken straight from a horror movie.

  But what Lena saw in one image made her gasp and drop the phone.

  Caught looking directly at the camera with wide eyes and a snarl was Daddy. Not Daddy-Professor, as she sometimes thought of Professor Harrison, but her real Daddy.

  Professor Malden.

  Fact or Fiction? Author's Notes

  Notes from the Author

  You will find many references in The Dream Killer that appear to have a scientific basis. It may surprise you to know that many of these refer to real life discoveries and/or real people.

  Below you will find the explanations of these references in roughly the same order as they appear in the book. You will discover real scientific explanations as well as find out which items are completely fictitious. I have also I have also included internet links for you to reference, should you wish to read further.

  When it comes to the internet, you will see many references are to ‘Wikipedia’ articles. In my experience these articles often serve as a broad summary, often in just a few paragraphs. Wikipedia can be a great place to start, but remember it can also contain inaccuracies. So as always, when it comes to the internet, use your critical thinking skills to determine if you need more information.

  On occasion, you may want to verify the content by looking in multiple places and searching for people or places with authoritative views and opinions—even contacting them, if you are able. They will often respond!

  So here we go ...

  Nathan Rosen and Albert Einstein

  It’s very likely you have already heard of the famous Albert Einstein. But who was this person that in the b
ook is portrayed as Nathan’s great-great-grandfather? Nathan Rosen and Albert Einstein were real scientists and both were highly acclaimed and famous in their time. They worked together on occasion, and the wormhole theory was put forward by Nathan Rosen. As far as I am aware, Nathan Rosen does not have a great-great-grandson called Nathan Goldberg!

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Rosen

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

  Faraday Cage

  A Faraday Cage is an enclosure used to prevent travel of electromagnetic radio-waves beyond the perimeter of the structure—for protection, or for radio silence. The cage works in either direction: To protect items or organisms either inside the cage or outside it. They can be constructed in any size or shape, and must only satisfy two conditions: To be electrically conductive across every surface, and for there to be no gaps in the surface (which would allow electromagnetic wave penetration and defeat the purpose!).

  A Faraday Cage may be constructed from a fine metal mesh and resemble a cage. In the book, Professor Harrison uses two types of Faraday Cage to protect people from exposure to rem-particle spikes: A fixed one built into the ‘cold room’, and a portable one he takes to the warehouse.

  A box lined with conductive foil, including the lid, will act as a Faraday Cage. A lift (or elevator) is an everyday example!

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage

  The Rem-Particle

  The Rem-Particle is a complete work of fiction by the author! As far as I know, there is no particle responsible for creativity and creative thought.

  Rapid Eye Movement is one of the stages of sleep that ensure that we all get to dream. It’s not our deepest sleep stage but it is the stage where dreaming does occur. As denoted by the name, if you were to observe somebody dreaming you would notice that through their closed eyes their eyes are moving from side to side quite rapidly as if they were awake and fully engaged.

  Higgs Boson

  The Higgs Boson, or so-called ‘God particle’, was first hypothesised by several groups of research scientists in 1964, and confirmed to exist at CERN in 2013. The particle is named after one of the scientists in one of the groups: Peter Higgs. The particle was hypothesised to exist in order to explain several fundamental ‘problems’ within particle physics, and our wider understanding of how the universe is constructed—hence the attribution of ‘the God Particle’, as “it explains everything!”.

  While scientists have been tremendously excited by this breakthrough, there is as yet no immediate consequence to our daily life ... but in the future? Who knows!

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

  Plasma and Cold Plasma

  Plasma is one of the ‘states’ of matter. You are probably already familiar with three of them: Liquids, gases and solids. Plasma is a fourth state, and usually occurs when a gas is heated and its molecules become ionised (causing ions and electrons, both positive and negatively charged, to occur and form a plasma). You may be surprised to know that most of our (non-Dark) matter is in the state of a plasma, but this might make more sense when you realise that our sun (and every star) is comprised of plasma.

  Plasma can exist in many different forms and at many different temperatures (and also depends on how much of the gas is ‘ionised’). What scientists call ‘Cold’ plasma, if fully ionised, is still many thousands of degrees hot, and not what I would describe as cold to the touch!

  Cold plasma as I have described it in the powerful form used by Sarina, Nathan and Paolo in Paolo’s world, does not exist (yet!).

  We see plasma in many different forms around us: In the flames of a fire; our sun; the Aurora Borealis; fluorescent tubes; some flat screen televisions (though almost all computer screens are not plasma, but instead are LCD [liquid crystal display]), and lightning.

  Unlike gas, plasmas are electrically conductive, which make them very useful in many technical applications.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics)

  Dark Energy

  Dark Energy is thought to make up about 2/3 of the universe, and is hypothesised to be responsible for the expanding nature of our universe. It is not dangerous to us (in the short term!), and the only thing it interacts with is gravity. Even though Dark Energy makes up 2/3 of our universe, it is spread very thinly which makes it difficult to detect in any laboratory experiment. Dark Energy could be increasing as it fills the increased space in our expanding universe. Scientists are still debating its structure and some people postulate that Dark Energy may eventually literally rip our universe apart. (Don’t worry – that would be billions and billions of years in the future!)

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy

  Dark Matter

  Yes, Dark Matter is different to Dark Energy, and is the most common type of matter in our universe. It comprises about 85% of all matter! Together Dark Energy and Dark Matter account for about 95% of all of our universe. ‘Normal’ matter – the type that you see all around us – accounts for only about 4.9% of the known universe. Dark Matter cannot be directly detected, and presently exists only in theory, developed to help explain our universe.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter

  The Chameleon Particle

  The strangely named Chameleon Particle is hypothesised to exist. It is suggested to be most powerful in the farthest and least occupied areas of space, and weakest in densely populated areas, such as our own galaxy. Hence the name ‘chameleon’. Scientists have postulated its existence to help explain what might make up Dark Energy and Dark Matter.

  http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090529/full/news.2009.531.html

  The Graviton

  A Graviton is the particle hypothesised to be responsible for gravity. The theory that postulates them also reveals that detection with current equipment would be virtually impossible, due to the size required, the graviton’s low interaction with general matter, and the extremely low detection rate. So it is no surprise that this particle remains hypothetical!

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graviton

  The Hadron Collider

  One way that scientists study very hard to observe particles, is by accelerating them to very high speeds and smashing them together. I know, it doesn’t sound very sophisticated, does it? But in actual fact the process researchers use and the machines they build to do this is very sophisticated! Some of these devices are exceedingly large, one such being the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

  The LHC was specifically built to help understand some of the so-far unexplained elements of quantum theory, especially the existence of the Higgs-Boson particle (postulated in the 1960s and confirmed in 2013!). It is comprised of a 27 kilometre ring of superconducting magnets.

  It was built by CERN and completed in 2008. CERN is a huge joint research facility located on the Swiss-French border, and was also where the Internet was invented.

  http://home.web.cern.ch/about/accelerators/large-hadron-collider

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider

  Contact Juggling

  Contact juggling is the art of moving an object—usually a ball—around the body and in contact with it, and/or with other objects (hence the name!), and often appears to defy gravity. Contact juggling when done well is a beautiful sight. Contact jugglers can be found busking in popular spots all over the world.

  But the best way to understand this highly visual skill is by watching:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtztrcGkCBw

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ7MSS9eqFY (this one has multiple examples from the world over)

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_juggling

  William Forsythe and Spontaneous Improvised Ballet

  William Forsythe is a ground breaking choreographer, deconstructing classical ballet and incorporating experimental elements (such as improvisation and experimental music; the spoken word).

  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1090933/William-Forsythe

  The Neo
cortex, Limbic System and the Sense of Smell

  The Neocortex is a part of the brain responsible for those things considered to be the ‘higher functions’ of the brain: Conscious thought, language, spatial reasoning and sensory perception.

  In humans it is well-developed and accounts for three-quarters of the brain’s volume. In all other mammals the neocortex has a much smaller ratio to the rest of the brain matter.

  The Limbic System is the name given to a group of anatomical parts of the human brain that are mammalian in origin. Among other things, the limbic system was thought to be more responsible for functions such as emotional reactions, memory (short- and long-term), and smell. This strict definition is now being challenged by the relatively new science of neuroplasticity (as well as advances in neurophysics) which shows that the brain may be able to take over functions from other damaged parts, when given the correct training.