I have always lived with vivid dreams. Such tales that my mind spins when it should be resting. When I was still young enough to believe in the supernatural, I wondered if the world that appeared to me in my sleep was not an alternate universe. But being an engineering student, I was too practical for such foolishness. Once I was diagnosed with Narcolepsy, I felt all these dreams, hallucinations were explained.

The beginning of this journey was confusing to me. The military had received some sort of intelligence that an alien race was planning an attack on Earth in the near future. With absolutely no information on the aliens, the armies of various nations would have been frantically gathering arsenal and recalling reserves. But the one who told the military about the invasion also said that she had glimpsed at into another world where a savior... an entity existed. She said that if we were to retrieve the entity, it would protect us from the invaders.

This knowledge was of course highly classified. I would have never been privy to them if I did not unintentionally become part of the retrieval process. I never did find out who the lady, the oracle was, nor do I know what she did to persuade the military that her story was true.

My part in this came in an unexpected visit from the army. I was biking home on a small biking path. A group of men dressed in black descended from a helicopter hanging above me. Surprisingly, the helicopter was flying silently. One of the men lifted his ski mask and I was surprised to recognize Colonel O'Neil from Star Gate. I was too stunned to talk, so I just stared.

He showed me some paper that I couldn't read in the dim lighting, and he said, "Ma'am, you must come with me now!"

I shook my head dumbly. (It must be a dream, but it's going to be a fun one if Colonel O'Neil is in it...) Before I got to form an answer, two of the men had attached something to my clothing, and I was lifted off the ground, just as they were. Colonel O'Neil was still at eye level with me, and he gave me one of those "You are going to be more trouble than you are worth looks." I was disappointed.

The helicopter had a dozen men all dressed the same. Their masks still hid their identity. (I wondered if this was some kind of reality show?!) They were bustling about the rather roomy interior of the all black and plastic copter.

I sat in one corner with my legs crossed and Colonel O'Neal sat down next to me. He seemed very stressed out, and after a long sigh, he said, "Ma'am. You have been enlisted to save humanity."

I would have laughed if it wasn't Colonel O'Neal absolute serious face. Me? The army would have been knocked over by my long list of health problems. Not to mention I have no particular technical skills that they could want.

"What I am about to tell you is absolutely confidential? You will not be allowed to withdraw from this mission. You must cooperate." He said.

Well I was inclined to tell him something about what I thought of his attitude. Human rights!!! Anyhow. I wanted to hear the confidential stuff. I do love to gossip and this is going to be good.

"We are under threat by an unknown and as of yet unnamed alien force. They will be arriving in the near future. We do not know if they have infiltrated Earth already. In fact we know very little about them other than that they have annilated the last world they were attacking. Earth will not be another victim.

"Our sources have told us that in the previous world, a small sanctuary was created around an entity called "the savior." This entity holds the key to saving our world. This entity unfortunately lives in the other world, and this is where you come in. We need you to open a portal to that world such that we can retrieve the entity."

I had sat through most of this briefing, surprisingly attentive. But the last part surprised me. Why would anyone expect me to open a portal? For that matter is a portal a mini warm hole? Where on Earth did they come up with the idea that I can open it.

"Sir, I am really not interested in being part of this reality show." I finally said.

O'Neil was clearly shocked and then he muttered something under his breath. He looked up and said, "I want you to understand that this is not a joke. This is not a TV show. I am not an actor, though I look like one. You must take this seriously. Time is of the essence."

I didn't believe him, but what can I do? After all I am trapped here with them.

"Why can I open the portal? How did you guys pick me?" I asked.

"We have our sources. Your brain wave patterns during REM is remarkable. It's detectable within many miles even when you are on your medication. Also, they believe your projections into the other world is one of the most stable."

Suddenly it dawned on me that they must mean my dreams. All this time that I have been trying to come to terms with the fact that those dreams are just aberration in my brain waves. Yet my intuition had been right. That world seem too concrete too vivid to be just imagined images.

"I don't get to control when I dream though." I said quietly.

Colonel O'Neil was clearly relieved that I finally believed him. He said, "We will help you with that. We will also help you strengthen the projection in terms of stability,vision field, andduration. I am sure it is quite overwhelming, but the doctors will explain in a minute."

At that point, the copter was landing softly. When I was helped out of the copter, I found myself standing on a small clearing near a very large mansion which in turn was surrounded by a dense forest. It was beautiful night, but I was already being pushed along into the house.

The house was bustling with people. Mostly in black like the colonel. Some were in white and I assumed those were the doctors. I occasionally caught glimpse of other people dressed in plain clothing, but they were also surrounded by their own team of men in black. I was led to a room in the basement. It was furnished like an expensive motel room. I sat down on the bed and watched the soldiers march in and out filling out charts and carrying equipment.

Apparently, my brainwaves was to be tested so that the doctors can figure out where my weaknesses lie. I don't recall much about the tests or whether I slept that night.

Myrecollectionskipped to the morning after. I was led to the diningroom for breakfast. I met my companions. There were 7 of us. After a round of self-introduction, we discussed our conditions for a while. As it turned out, there 6 of us were narcoleptics and one considered herself a psychic. We were all plagued with vivid dreams into a similar but different world and we were all able to control our dreams to some extent. Lucid dreaming it was called.

Despite the number of soldiers around, we were left mostly to our own vices. We talked for most of the day and wondered when the doctors were going to meet with us. It was just before dinner that one of the tall male doctor came to speak with us. He couldn't have been more than 35 and while he smiled, I felt very uncomfortable. It was odd.

He asked all of us various questions regarding how we dreamed and how we control our dreams. I didn't say very much, especially nothing that the others didn't suggest. I hoped he would not be the one to go into my mind. Upon reflection, I wonder why I didn't realize he never mentioned his name to us.

That night, I retreated to my room. I was quite tired, and I wanted to be alone for a while. I was just starting to get bored when the doctor knocked and entered my room before I gave him permission.

He had a clipboard and a small device in his hand. He said, "Jessie. Right? If you don't mind me calling you that. We will be working with each other quite a bit. I understand you are the most talented in this group."

"No I am not." I said.

He smiled and came closer. He said, "I want you to wear this device tonight. It should sit right next to your eyes." He placed the device on my temple. It seemed latched onto my skin painlessly.

"This will help us monitor how often you can project into the other world and how long we can expect to be there uninterrupted. We don't want one of our valuable doctors to be caught in the other world."

I didn't know that was a possibility but I didn't negate him either. He looked around the room and ticked some things off on his list. Then he asked me, "Can you lucid dream?"

I hesitated before answering, "To some extent."

He nodded, and said, "Can we try that? We have tried using lucid dreaming to induce a projection, but so far we have failed with 3 of the other subjects."

I didn't like being called a subject, but I didn't know if I could defy him. So I agreed. I lied down as he pulled a chair to sit facing the top of my head. As I closed my eyes, he pushed a button on the device on my temple.

Within seconds, I began my usual hallucinations. It was a place I was quite familiar with. A world that was very quiet, as though abandoned. It was dark and very cold here. I walked around but I didn't recognize any of the rubble piles. I was vaguely aware that in this world, my temple was also covered with a small device.

A voice drifted over the device and said, "That's good Jessie. I think you have already gone past the projection and you are in the other world. I need you to follow my voice and retreat just enough that you are aware of this world. Can you feel the your toes or your hands? But don't lose sight of the other world."

I followed the instructions, and surprisingly, I found that I was moving backwards through a white round tunnel. I can still see the other world at the other end of the tunnel, but I can also feel my limbs and hear my breathing.

"Good. They were certainly right about you having the right talent."

I was asked to redirect my field of vision and navigate in the other world. It took a while for me to figure out how to control everything, but it seemed easier with the device helping me to concentrate.

The next part was rather hazy. I recall finding a brilliant object in the distance. I was drifting towards it I think, and suddenly a pair of gloved hands appeared in from of my eyes and tore through the tunnel into the other world. The tear caused me great distress, almost as if the fibers of my psyche were being destroyed. I was horrified yet I was in too much pain to collapse the connection to the other world.

The hands reached the shining object and began crushing it. I could hear such a high-pitched screech of pain. I wanted to help but I was too fragile and exhausted myself. I think I was becoming drowsy... I wanted to fade into darkness that was between the two worlds. For I was no longer aware of my existence in this world, yet had no idea how to reach to the other side.

Then something or someone intervened. The device on my temple was ripped off. The sharp stab of physical pain brought me out of the dizziness. I forced myself to envision the room that contained my physical body, and after some struggle, my concentration won and I opened my eyes to see the room assigned to me. I was no longer lying down. Colonel O’Neil must have been shaking me. His left hand still held the device that was on my temple. The doctor was fainted in the armchair.

The colonel wanted to know what happened. I would have been very upset at his insensitive attitude if not for the fact that he was holding me in his arms. I probably wasn’t all that eloquent in my description of what I had seen in my dreams. Eventually I managed to explain enough that the colonel pieced it together. He looked at me with very sad eyes and said, “So then you found it first.”

At first, I didn’t quite understand what “it” was. It dawned on me that I was looking at the entity we were gathered to retrieve. If the doctor was trying to destroy it, he must have been on the alien’s side. The colonel called for other soldiers to come and carry out the doctor’s still unconscious body. I was reassured they would figure out who the doctor really was. The colonel stayed with me a little longer before calling for a nurse to look after the wound the device had inflicted. I reluctantly left his arms.

I must have fallen into a deep sleep because when I woke up, I was in a moving jeep. The colonel was driving, and I was wrapped in some blanket and stuffed in the passenger seat. We were driving through the forest at a ridiculous speed.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“You don’t need to know, but it will be safe.” He answered, “We are going to be out of contact with the other groups for a bit. Obviously we were already infiltrated. We have to protect as many of you as we can, in particular you, because you can already identify the entity. Also, we don’t want you to project to the other world again. If they can track those signals then we don’t want them to find you that way.”

I nodded. I wondered why he was the only one with me. Shouldn’t a battalion of soldiers be protecting me? I suppose that would cause a lot of attention. I turned my mind back to myself. I didn’t realize my mind was powerful enough to do anything exciting. Now, all that has changed and people want to hijack my dreams. I wonder if I will be allowed to dream or even sleep again.

We arrived at this cabin. It was much larger than I would have imagined. He let me in first and while he unloaded his equipment. I wondered around and felt like crying because I am all alone now. Well I suppose there is the colonel but the way he had ignored me in the jeep, I don’t expect him to say much from now on. After all he probably thought of me as some kind of psychology experiment he needed to protect until I can be of use to humanity.

We spent two days in the cabin, mostly in silence. He was studying his instruments to make sure there are not intruders. I drew most of the time. Unfortunately the pictures always revolved around a pair of milky white hands out of darkness reaching for a brilliant orb. He gave me some kind of medication that was suppressing all of my REM activity. It made me very sick. He seemed to feel sorry about feeding me something that’s akin to a toxin.

The silence was finally broken the second evening. He said, “We are going to move again tonight.”

I wanted to ask where we were going, but I was certain he wouldn’t tell me. He was afraid that even in my dreamless sleep I would broadcast our location if I knew it. We set out in the dark. I dozed a lot, and at some point I must have fallen towards him, because I woke up in his right arm. He was driving with the left across rather boring and flat terrain. The sun was starting to peep out from the East.

“We are almost there. Did you dream?” He said.

“No.” I would have been angrier if he wasn’t smiling at me and I wasn’t still in his arm. It really is difficult to get mad at someone who is taking care of you.

When we arrived at a cabin that looked very much like the previous one, I was disappointed. The only good thing was that there was a light on and a very familiar figure was moving about inside. I opened the door and to my delight it was my mom. She was making breakfast and she smiled at me. I don’t think I could have been happier to see her. She talked to me about how the army had been relocating her everyday so that no one can track her and find me.

The cabin was quiet. Peaceful. I think I felt very content to have the colonel protecting me and my mom taking care of me. I would have liked to stay there, but the peace was broken before another sunrise. The colonel shook me awake and dragged me out of the cabin. I was complaining that I wanted to talk to my mom about my clothing and the right pair of shoes. I don’t believe any of it registered. A silent copter was waiting for us outside again. He hooked the hanging cable onto something on his belt and picked me up around the waist. Instinctively I held on around his neck.

We were taken to an abandoned military base way up near the Arctic Circle. It didn’t look like a military base, but a dungeon. The walls were moist. The corridor had rooms on both sides all of which were divided by metal bars. The cold pierced through the black military clothing I was provided with. I must have looked very frightened or ill. The colonel pulled me into his arms and I closed my eyes.

In that instant, a flash of the other world appeared on my eye lids. Then a flash of some horrible large room with metal seats and all kinds of strange instruments shook me. An image of white claws reaching for my neck stunned me. Again and again, images familiar and strange but all associated with the most terrifying significance hit me. When I finally manage to open my eyes, I saw the colonel’s concerned eyes. He must have felt my body jerk in reaction to each of those images. He must think I am going insane. And he must worry how I am supposed to pull through and save everyone.

The end of the corridor came into view and I saw the metal seats and the instruments. The doctors were busy and the soldiers busier. All but two of the other dreamers I had met were already sitting in their designated seats. They looked tired, but not sick. I wondered what had happened to the other two, if they were not tracked down by the alien spies. The colonel lifted me out of the jeep and carried me to the seat. I felt so weak and slumped into the seat that fitted my body down to almost every curve.

He took my hand and said, “You will get through this. When this is down, we will go back to the cabin and you can sleep and dream all you like.” He smiled as he backed away. His smile was sad.

A very friendly looking lady sat behind me. I could see she was a doctor and she was in her forties maybe even fifties. I wonder if she had a daughter about my age. She smiled, but again the smile held sadness. No one believed I would live through this and I was never given the option to withdraw.

The experiment started with all of the dreamers getting a shot. The shot must counter the effect of that toxin, and suddenly I lapsed into REM. I was aware vaguely that a metal device to the temple without the wound. The REM images came crystal clear. I was not alone either. I could vaguely tell the other four was standing by my side. Each of them was looking into a tunnel at the other world. I heard the doctor tell me to envision a larger space. My field of vision suddenly doubled and my tunnel intercepted those of the other dreamers. I was asked to remember where I had seen the bright orb. Even the mention of it suddenly brought me there, right in front of it. It took awhile for the other four to follow.

The orb was slightly cracked now. It was leaking its brilliance. Yet its brilliance was soaked in by the darkness around it. I felt a pair of hands reach through my vision. It seemed to be very tender but still it pressed a hole through the boundaries of my reality. The awful pain returned. I couldn’t stand it. The doctor tried to reach for the orb. The orb started to fall apart in her hands. Other hands appeared, probably through the other dreamers.

Those hands tried to help collect the pieces, but they kept fading in and out. Then suddenly one of the hands disappeared, and another, and another. I assumed the dreamers must have collapsed.

My doctor’s hands were desperately trying to keep the remaining brilliance from leaking away. She tried so hard to pull the orb out of the boundary in the edge of my projection. I was scared, wondering what the leaking brilliance would do to me. Would it burn or sooth? Before she could get her own wrist through the hole, a pair of dirty hands knocked down the orb from hers. I recognized those hands. They belonged to that doctor who wanted to destroy the orb. He had succeeded. It was destroyed.

Or so it appeared as its brilliances spilled all over. The awful hands tore the gloves off of my doctor. The doctor’s hands burned like a brilliant electric storm. I was terrified for I knew those hands would try to destroy me next. I wanted to close the tunnel but if the doctor did not remove the device on my temple, I couldn’t break the projection by myself. The other dreamers were all gone by now. I was terrified.

Instead of running away, I suddenly decided to use my lucid dream abilities to fight him. I raced towards to the boundary. Instead of indenting the boundary and looking into their world, I crawled through it. I wonder if I actually entered their world. I couldn’t be sure. The dirty hands were not just hands. There was shadow of a being behind them. It was clearly stunned by my action, but it soon realized it would be just as easy to attack me in this world. I reached the remaining essence of the orb, and stuck both hands in it. Many fragments of its shell tore at my “skin”. I didn’t care. I braced for the attack. As the gray hands reached me, I ducked and reached for the shadowy figure behind. Much to my amazement, the figure stood motionless for a second before it slowly turned and collapsed. The shards from the orb had killed it, or stunned. I can’t be sure, but I was glad to race back. Even as I did, I saw the orb disappear into the darkness. This world may never be safe to visit again.

It was difficult to find the boundary. I felt that other shadows were gathering to replace the one that I had immobilized. With all my concentration I tried to reposition myself on the right side of the boundary. When it worked, it was only a hair’s width away from the new shadows. Someone must have turned off the device on my temple for the tunnel looked foggy. I quickly closed it and forced my eyes open. I saw the colonel looking at me with worried eyes. He had wounds as well, burn marks. It was strange. I wondered about that before I blacked out.

I woke many hours later. All I know was that the shadows as I had seen in my dream had managed to use the fourth dreamer’s tunnel to pipe into our world. The shadows had caused an electric overload that managed to damage most of the equipment and wound almost everyone to some degree. The overload caused the shadow to be caught in our world for an instant but without a body, it had to disappear.

Luckily, my device and I were not damaged and the knowledge or the data that was transmitted during the few moments that I stuck my hand in the orb’s essence and hit the shadow was enough to provide the military with information of how to defend ourselves. Not wanting our own secrets to be revealed to the enemy, they wouldn’t tell me what exactly was learned.

Many people died in that dungeon. Our first fight against this alien was over. I was the only dreamer that was left. I suppose that meant I was somewhat special. Maybe that’s why the colonel kissed me when I woke after my long rest. Maybe that’s why the colonel kept visiting me even after the ordeal. Maybe that’s why he married me. Who cares? Earth was safe and I was happy.

Epilogue

It was some two years after the ordeal. I had had my third child, a daughter, after having a pair of twins first. I was quite content. My colonel turned out to be quite funny and relaxed character when Earth’s security was not at risk.

The baby was a few months old now. It was a beautiful baby, and more perfect now that it was sleep through entire nights. Last night was the first time I can dream in a long time. It was an odd dream. I dreamt that I went back to the military base but I was no longer scared. I dreamt that my children where with me. Our hands were linked. We couldn’t find any tunnels to the other world, nor can we form any. I wondered if the other world had not imploded. When I awoke, the sun was already high. I looked at my husband as he held one of the twins on each shoulder. I looked over at the baby in the crib. What could be more perfect?

“Do you suppose they will dream the way you do?” The colonel asked.

“I don’t know. Perhaps.” I looked into the eyes of my baby, and saw a boundary-less path into the darkness of the other world. In a terrifying second, I shifted to look at my twins. And in their eyes too were open paths, stronger and bigger than the ones I had mastered. The sky suddenly darkened and the sun disappeared. I can feel a ship of gray and shadows descending on us. My baby daughter had dreamt. All of my children and I had dreamt, in synchrony for the first time. Together, the tunnels didn’t exist because together our field of vision covered everything. Finally the connection was large enough for the alien forces to invade Earth.