...And We Will Have Snow

Chapter 8-5: What It's All About

Outside the dome, they walked to an open area they could lift off from.

Back in the room, Sedna took Newt's hand and entered her shaman dream. They were already holding hands as drones, but the drones' tactile sense was limited. The body hand-holding intensified the sensation, made their flying together feel more intimate as they lifted off and soared upward. Newt began to speak, telling her how they should fly to achieve orbit along with altitude, but she said, "Shhh. Just link the drones and do it." As he linked the drones, she linked her mind with his. In the shaman way of speaking, she was opening herself to his inner awareness, seeing through his dream, becoming familiar with his perceptions.

At the same time, she intensified her own dream, making it available to him in the shaman way. This was so similar to the way the QAR link worked that he was not at first aware of what she had done. Then she whispered, "Close your eyes, Newt. Listen to the Q." He did, and Sedna reached over with her free hand and removed his lenses.

Newt realized that his dream image was the same as the drone image the lenses had been feeding him. Sedna spoke to him in the dream. This is how I do it, she told him. We bypass the whole lens feedback system, take our drone feedback directly from the Q. As long as the drone stays active we can use our own familiarity with its Q link to find it and rebuild the resonance if we get separated from it for awhile.

This is great. Can I do it too?

You are doing it. Here, let me show you. Sedna withdrew from his dream. Newt looked around with the drone's visual sensors, taking in the stars, the familiar constellations, the vast sweep of the Milky Way, the Moon, the Earth below and, reassuringly, Sedna beside him, holding his hand. The drone's visual feedback program automatically showed him the avatar her drone projected, not the drone body. His hand when he raised it appeared to be his own hand, arm sheathed in the sleeve of the flight suit.

He looked at Sedna again, smiling beside him. He squeezed her hand, gently, and then more urgently, suddenly missing her presence in the dream. She sensed it, and came back. He relaxed, and together they watched the Sun rise over the edge of Earth. Mesmerized, they watched as the atmosphere grew more and more illuminated and daylight spread across the surface they soared over.

Sharing this view with Newt, Sedna became aware of something she had never felt before. Despite having herself created the World Dream, with its QAR trip beyond the Moon, she had never directly viewed the Earth as a whole this way. With her center of being still in the room far below, but her enhanced awareness extended to encompass the whole planet, her sense of connectedness to it all was exploding.

Newt, linked to her in the dream, felt it too, in a way he might not have experienced alone. The resonance between them added another dimension to the sensation, so it was together that they encompassed it all. It was an expansive intimacy with everything, the world and the life that was part of it, in all its endless complexity. Together they felt themselves part of every detail, including each other.

Back in the Dome, their minds euphoric from the spectacular visual input and the new sense of belonging that grew in them, their bodies embraced and clung together in ways that became more and more intimate. The sun rose and set for them several more times before it began its morning rise on the Dome.

They woke late, and hurriedly showered and dressed. They didn't want to miss breakfast. For anyone wearing lenses, Sedna projected herself in smart business attire instead of her rumpled shirt and jeans. Newt had his lenses on and ogled her, saying, "You can do that without lenses too?" She just smiled.

Newt was a bit sheepish about seeing Dema and Cern at breakfast, considering that he had been with their daughter the whole night. But they greeted him just as warmly as if nothing had happened. When he began to think they hadn't guessed the extent of their intimacy, he got a small look from Dema that ensured him that she knew very well.

Sedna raved about the adventure. "We flew into orbit!" she said. "I've never done that before. It's visually spectacular, of course, but it's far more than that.

"You've both shared your experience of Gaia with me, and I thought I felt it truly, but never like this." She raised her fork with a bit of egg on the end.

"Even this, this small bite of breakfast, is part of it, a link in the chain, something to love and cherish."

Sedna's dream was wide open. Newt was still wrapped in it, and now Dema and Cern were in it too. Their experiences of Gaia resonated strongly with Sedna's, and Newt was opened to a whole new realm of meaning in the world. He sat with tears streaming down his cheeks. Sedna on one side and Dema on the other took his hands, while across the table Cern suddenly epitomized life and love.

When he could breathe again, Newt said, "I thought I understood the World Dream. Through it, I thought I understood Sedna, and what she is trying to do. And I loved her for that." He turned his eyes to her, and they were full of the truth of what he said.

"But, truly, I had no idea. What you showed me last night, what you all showed me just now, that's what it's all about. That's why we do what we do."