...And We Will Have Snow

Part 7: Sea Dreams

Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made.
Those are pearls that were his eyes,
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange...

Shakespeare, The Tempest

The little group had left Jen's lab and were on their way to dinner. Sedna was still with them and spoke up. "The Dome Dream and the World Dream were designed to raise people's shaman awareness. At first it was critical to the success of the new dome communities. Too many of them were populated by city people who were so accustomed to a vast, invisible supply system that they took it for granted. In the domes they had to learn how to connect with the system more directly. Part of that was understanding the farm system, and their part in keeping it functioning."

Jen was bobbing her head. "And your World Dream is an extension of that. Awakening people to the broader reality. Getting them to understand it too."

Sedna nodded in return. "Yes. And it became important to us to know how well it has been working."

Xayna said, "Bear came to me because I was part of a community that hadn't lost touch with the shaman way. Not entirely. And we were bringing it back, by bringing back our understanding of how our human culture was tied to nature. What we see here is a group of people who are doing the same thing. Bringing back their understanding of how people are tied to nature."

Jen said, "You had to find out if we were just another of those new domes where people were trying to carry on with their city culture, with their inbred belief that the world was all about people, all about them."

Bear said, "Exactly. Because the insidious lie infecting many human civilizations is that they have risen above the natural world, don't need it anymore."

Jen's growing agreement was rekindled. "Even biologists can fall into that trap, if they cloister themselves away in sterile labs with their electron microscopes and DNA sequencers. So it's no wonder if you were wary. But Zeke is not that kind, and we follow his lead."

Sedna focused on Jen and said, "Are you ready for the next step?"

"Sure. I think. What is it?"

"You see me and hear me because you are wearing your lenses."

"Of course."

"Have you noticed that Xayna and Bear are not wearing theirs?"

Jen glanced at them, startled to see that it was true. "How...?"

"It is because for them I am truly here, not just a projection from the drone."

"I don't understand."

"I think you do. And I think with the help of Bear and Xayna, I can show you."

"How?"

"Take off your lenses."

Jen did as instructed. She no longer saw Sedna, just the drone. Then Sedna strengthened her own presence in the room, using her shaman dream. Bear and Xayna entered it with her. Together they opened it to Jen. From within the dream, through the dream, through the Q, Sedna spoke to Jen. "Do you see me now?"

Jen's eyes widened, and Sedna had her answer. But Sedna knew Jen's eyes saw nothing but the drone. Her ears heard nothing but the quiet of the room. She was getting no resonance, no physical feedback, from any actual presence. What she saw was coming only from within herself, her own mental connection to the Q, and what her three visitors were putting there. "Close your eyes, Jen," Sedna told her. "It will make it easier to see me. I am coming to you in your shaman dream only."

Again Jen did as she was told. At first the dream went dark, but then it came to her more clearly, though dreamlike. She stood silently for a moment, eyes still closed, lips forming a whispered "Wow!"

Then her eyes snapped open and she said, "Bear said before that every critter has its own shaman dream. Now I know what he meant!"

"Put your lenses back on," Sedna told her. Jen was already out of the dream, beyond the moment of revelation and into her own understanding of it. She put the lenses on and saw Sedna's drone avatar. But the dream link lingered, and Sedna's presence felt more real to her, more natural.

"When I use the QAR link to study sea life, I feel something like this," she said. "But it's not the link, it's not the computer assist, it's the Q itself!" She paused again, then, "It's totally natural. It's common to all life. It's the source of life, isn't it? But then, why aren't we all aware of it? Why aren't we born knowing this?"

Bear was astounded at how rapidly Jen was processing her new awareness. Then he realized that she had been well primed for it, by the World Dream, and by her own life experience. He sensed that others in the Sea Shell would be like her.

"We are born knowing it, Jen," he said. "But then we lose it. We overlay it with a series of cultural agreements that are constantly reinforced by the beliefs of other people. It's part of the human condition."

"The condition you want to change with the World Dream." She looked at Sedna with new respect. If that was possible. She knew that she, and others, had already begun to think of Sedna as some sort of demigod.

"That would be another cultural distortion," Sedna told her. "I'm as human as you are."

Yeah, right, thought Jen. Your mind-reading trick doesn't make that very convincing.

Back at WBI, Sedna rolled her eyes.