Story Seed – or – What a Crazy Dream

I had a peculiar dream last night, but one from which an interesting story could arise.

I dreamed that I was a member of the crew of the Starship Enterprise (The Next Generation). I was on a foreign planet with Jean-Luc Picard and some others. My son was there, too, though I don’t know that he was important to the story. It seemed that Jean-Luc was grooming me to be his second-in-command.

We were trying to make some manner of peace or association with these people. I think they were new to the federation. There was something about the planet that the inhabitants wanted to keep secret from us. They were reluctant to let us keep, for example, any empty bottles, as if the residue of the contents or in the bottles themselves would give something away. Somehow, they would take things right out of our hands without us really noticing.

At some point, we were sent off. They were angry with us. They sent us to a crevasse nearby. Well, they were actually chasing us, I think. Nevertheless, we thought this crevasse would be safe. Everything was covered with deep snow. It came to above my knees.

We looked down in and thought we saw just rock formations. I realized that they were derelict spaceships and other craft, included a jeep-looking thing that had just passed us. Other ships passed down the crevasse, seemingly on patrol. We tried to keep low and hidden whenever these ships passed by.

We were noticed though and the ships would turn and climb up the walls of the crevasse to try to get to us. And I mean, turn. The ships were flexible and animal like. Sort of reminiscent of Voltron. It was like a ‘standard’ spaceship as it patrolled, but it would contort itself to turn and climb out of the crevasse. One seemed intent on climbing out and engaging us. Picard ordered me to go out and shoot at it, which I did. My laser weapon had no effect, but the ship *poof* disappeared.

Picard asked me if I had offered it food and supplies like he had told me to. I hadn’t, because he ordered me to shoot at it.

That was when I realized that something weird was happening. Yes, we were all together, but none of us were having the same experiences. Something was controlling our perceptions. I wonder if we were in a holo-deck or under some mind-control or something. I talked to Picard and he agreed. We were trying to figure out what to do. People would disappear then reappear. What was real and what was programmed we could not distinguish.

Some crazy creepy things were happening. We saw a police car that was occupied by a human, a dog and a cat (I think) who stared down on us through a glass ceiling. Their eyes were huge. Then we looked again and they were gone.

There was also this whispy black craft that hovered in front of us for a few moments. It also promptly disappeared when we shot at it.

There were other people there, but they seemed to not notice us. One tried to play poker with my son and I while we were trying to get the boy’s equipment together to play hockey. That was just weird.

I think the crevasse was where the ‘unwanteds’ were sent. Ships patrolled to insure that they stayed there.

***

I think the part about perceptions and potential mind control could be a good jumping off point for a book. I’ll have to think about that some. What do you think?