Five dreams

I had five dreams last night. My journal records each very briefly. From each I awoke still tired, but hesitant to let myself fall back into sleep, though each time I eventually did.

The first dream I had was about the ocean. I had learnt to breathe water, somehow, and was thrusting about through coral reefs and into sinkholes trailing away to the very deeps of the world. Inside were blue whales, frightening behemoths who could direct all life and swam about slowly in their role as sentinels of the planet. Occasionally they would fight one another, and the percussion waves of this disturbance shook the foundations of the sea. But sea became space...

The second dream I had was about fighter pilots who had taken their vehicles into space. I'd searched the internet to find a school who would put me into such a vehicle, and at last I was involved in the push into extra-earth habitats. But I soon discovered that such vehicles were unlikely to be inhabited solely by the pilot; If one engaged the autopilot and left the cockpit, it could be seen that a large vessel had been comandeered and not a fighter at all. It was a colony ship; present were women and children, gardens, databases of human knowledge. Examples of human artistic achievements. I wondered just how far back the holds of the ship extended...

The third dream I had was about Fidel Castro and the Soviet Union hunting for me, sniffing every source for clues as to my whereabouts. They corrupted my publisher. I followed an evasive route through space, simulataneously directing a human avatar on the ground below to circumvent the now-corrupt United States and traipse the border of Canada to possible salvation beyond. They controlled all the checkpoints and communications. There were hardships and setbacks; I spend a year inside a prison languishing while my real identity remained unknown. At last I reached my ship, upon earth. In space, I'd reached a safe dock...

The fourth dream I had was about finding myself enlisted in the military. I stressed vigorously my pacifist views, but was assured just as vigorously I had volunteered for service and was legally bound to cooperate. As training we were split into teams and one would then assault the other, using live rounds. The survivors were considered to have passed the assignment and moved on to the next challenge. From a pool of thousands of cadets the officers were hopefuly several hundred would survive and prove themselves worthy to uphold national values in times of war. Needless to say I was terrified, given the odds, that I would be a casualty. Especially since I refused to fire on another person, at least at first...

The firth dream I had found me back in space, a refugee from the suicidal training camps and part of mankind's project to reach the stars. My sister, somewhat bizarrely, had cooperated with the Chinese to engineer a system of transportation between the planets (islands) that took only minutes. We found ourselves riding a shuttle to Jupiter which made use of superheated carbon nanotubules to eliminate friction and thus allow unrestricted accleration. But the forces in pursuit of us soon once again closed the gap, and the game was up. The transports were shut down, and the few pods which managed to escape headed for Jupiter's murky atmosphere in desperation.

Finally it was revealed: Jupiter, like other giant worlds throughout the universe, were the blue whales in their true forms. They were not immortal or invincible, but they were stewards of life wherever it occured. Our whale decided it was time to move on, and space trembled as she cleared the region of despots and do-gooders to allow those of us inclined towards harmless exploration to clamber aboard her and set sail for the stars. Another realm awaited us, untouched.