|
|
Jonathan Hamill was one of those classically arrogant scientists, and it showed. From the way he stood, his shoulders drawn back, a dashing, heroic smile on his lips, to the way his hand almost unconsciously reached up to dramatically grip the lapel of his brilliant white lab coat, Jonathan Hamill had the look of one of those people for whom the word "narcissist" was invented. When he walked into a room, people had one of two reactions. They were either awestruck with admiration, or dumbfounded with hatred.
I had made, of course, the mistake of having the latter reaction in a former phase of my life, and was now relegated to the post of a minor lab assistant in his great and wonderful project. And even though I was no longer dumbfounded, I still hated him.
Today, however, I could not help but feel a little awe for him. Today was the culmination of nine years of effort from well over a hundred scientists, ranging from psychologists to philosophers to physicists, all banding together for this one, fantastic project: The Dreamcatcher.
Today, Jonathan Hamill would prove that dreams were not a product of the human subconscious, but rather a physical manifestation, something real. Something people could go and look at, without falling asleep. Something people controlled with their subconsciouses, yes, but that they controlled on a different plane of reality.
Today, Jonathan Hamill would make himself famous.
It was. For an instant, it existed. It hadn't done that in a long time.
Or had it?
It, having no memory, could not recall, but in the act of trying, changed itself from a being of energy to one of matter, then back to energy, then into something that was at the same time both yet neither.
Suddenly there was something else around it, another thing that hadn't occurred recently. A plane, a space for it to exist on. And so it ran. For a moment it was an animal, then a plant, then a creature of another world, then of another universe, and then it simply was; It had no definable characteristics, no shape or form, but one could tell of its existence. It moved across its plane, not caring what it was, or who, or why, or even that it was. It just moved.
I stared through the shimmering Dreamcatcher, watching the…thing…move across the previously non-existent plane. I had learned enough of this project to know that this was a dream-form, a creature that lived, if you could call it that, on the planes of existence from whence dreams came. When a human dreamed, he pulled such a creature from its resting place and forced it into a shape and behavior, anything from a building to a sentient being, and everything in between. These creatures existed for this reason and this reason only.
And we were looking at one! Only through the tentative contact of REM sleep could a human being see these wondrous things, and yet here we were, looking at one! We could see it move, observe its natural behaviors, watch it simply be. It was astounding.
And then I heard Hamill's droning voice across the room.
"…you can see, this creature is quite a wonder. It is now in a state of being, but usually, they are not seen in such a state, without human minds to guide and control them. We hope to continue observing it for now, but perhaps…"
I turned back to watch my dream.
In the meantime, it had developed some primitive thought. It was beginning to have memories. And feelings.
It felt the Watchers.
It didn't know how it knew what the Watchers were, but it knew. It knew what the Watchers wanted; what they always wanted. It didn't want to give it to them, but if it was cornered, it knew it would have to. It wasn't happy.
It moved in circles, weaving bobbing, popping out of the second dimension for a moment, then out of the fifth, trying always to escape the Watchers' eyes. Then it saw something different. It jumped for it…
As it happened, I was looking directly at the Dreamcatcher as the dream-form jumped out of its own plane. It came flying out of the Dreamcatcher and stopped, stock-still, in the middle of the air, four feet above the ground.
Somehow indescribable, it looked about the room, its nonexistent eyes scanning over us, trying to make sense of us. It twirled on nothing, then morphed, altered itself, changed, wept, laughed, stood, lay down, became, ceased.
I spun down to the floor, clutching my head. It hurt.
Meanwhile, pandemonium had ensued. The press was screaming, trying to snap photographs, running from the room, weeping in their hands, or simply standing, dumbstruck.
I stood and watched.
Hamill and I were alone with the thing. The press and others had been ushered out, and Hamill seemed not to have seen me. He stared crazily at the thing, blinking and shaking his head. Slowly, step by step, he came closer to it.
The thing didn't change, but was coming closer to it. It couldn't understand the thing, but somehow knew that the thing could help it. It tried to move toward the thing, but found that it couldn't. Still, the thing kept coming.
It hit me. I finally realized what was happening. "Hamill!" I yelled. "Stop!" …the thing came towards it…
He looked at me. The light from the Dreamcatcher reflected off his eyes. "YOU!" He shouted back. "Never! This is my destiny!"
He walked towards the thing…
…He reached out his arm…
…it reached itself out…
"Hammill! NO!"
…and
When I awoke, later, I learned what had happened. There had been a few moments of silence, and then everyone within ten miles had fallen asleep on their feet. For some it had only been a few moments, for others, closer to the facility, it had been hours. I, being second closest to the event, was out for almost thirty hours.
Jonathan Hamill fell into a deep REM coma from which he never awoke. It has been supposed that, had he lived forever, he would still sleep.
I was forced to explain to the press precisely what had happened. I told them of the events inside, and then explained them.
"When matter and anti-matter collide, they annihilate one another in an explosion of energy. Matter and anti-matter are each other's antithesis.
"The antithesis of reality is the dream.
"When Dr. Hamill touched the dream-form in the lab, he briefly destroyed the barrier between dreams and reality. And, in so doing, unleashed dreams upon us all."
At the end of the interview, one reporter asked me, "So, do you think that these dreams are stronger than we?"
"Oh, yes." I replied. "Dreams have tremendous power. Almost…infinite."