Starry eyed

Asha has had dreams before. She has had strange dreams before. She has had strange dreams that woke her up before. This last one... this last one, it was unusual. Something about it was unsettling.

Asha took a sharp short breath in as she made her way up the stairs to the terrace in her night clothes. Once she lay foot on the terrace, mindlessly she made her way across to the parapet. She pulled her wraps around closer as she looked in wonderment at the magical sky above, mouth half open.

It was a clear night with the stars scattered above in a lay of dark blue and black. No clouds. Not even wisps of clouds. A view straight from the heavens. The moon had his day off for the night. A gentle cold wind blew like a lullaby. A strange pleasant sort of chill was in the air. Asha was glad to have that dream after all. To be woken on a magical night such as tonight, was nothing less than a godsend.

Bits and pieces came back to Asha as she scoured her brain for the sequence of events. Deep in the night, Asha felt that the sequence was more important than the actual content. Why did she feel like that was her own guess.

The little girl and her eyes of fire...no no, that was the last one. Yes it's coming back...

***

I stood at our ancestral home, dusty and dim-lighted, a canvas of brown with a little chance of other colours. I knew where I had to go. It was the room my grandmother always tucked me in to sleep. Long, long ago when I was a little girl . The room belonged to my father before me.

I could go by the old way, but I chose a new route. A route that invented itself as I went on its path. Secret passage ways and previously unrecognized corridors. Tiny underpasses and huge overbridges. All that I could swear existed in the real world, match for match as in the dream.

I reach my fathers room. It was dark. I searched for the switches and turned them on. Nothing happened.By the soft evening light through the open window, I saw a neatly wrapped gift in a red glazed paper with little pink butterflies on it. A present! Maybe grandma kept it for me.

I crouch down for a closer inspection. My fingers reach out to the bow. It was then that I notice a little butterfly struggling to get out of the wrapping paper. It succeeds after a while, shrugs off the pink glitter to reveal a deep blue colour and flies out the window. My eyes follow it. It was a puzzle piece that set itself in its place in the only white spot in the deep blue sky.

I look down again except there is no gift there.

There is a door. The handle is shaped like a bow. My hand is still outstretched towards it. Slightly confused, I grab the handle and pull the door ajar.

The world changed to black and white and it seems I had stepped onto a train that has the mind of a roller coaster.

I struggle to keep my balance. But there were people dancing about. It would not be polite to stumble into them. Side to side I move about in small steps avoiding these men and women dressed in finery. The dancing started as slow and graceful. They all looked like they were lost in a dream, paying no attention to how the train was challenging their balance . They looked happy and blissful.

I spot a blue door with a ribbon for a handle. As soon as I spot it, I make a run for it. But the music changed. It wasn't like I could hear the song, more like I felt it. The ones dancing, danced faster now. The closer I got to the door, the more I was shoved around.

At the end, someone shoved me right towards the door. I turn the handle.

It all changed.

Empty benches and desks surround me. I move downhill through the aisle, feet stepping lightly on convenient steps.Further down at the slightly raised podium sat the professor. The young professor was framed by the greenboard filled with words and letters that made no sense to me.

I stop a few steps short of him.

"I found the solution" He said in dismay.

"Solution to what?" I ask, mildly confused.

"To something that is not a problem." He revealed, falling apart in silent tears. "Perhaps you would like to hear?", he asked, almost hopefully, looking up for the first time.

He was strikingly beautiful but I had no time.

" I'm sorry I've to be somewhere", I said looking around for a door.

There was none.

"Where is the way out, kind sir?", I ask him in a soft voice.

" The only way out is through", he said wryly, nodding his head towards the greenboard.

Tentatively, I move towards the greenboard. Then I moved into it.

The world became dark green with letters and numbers floating around, swaying in a soft current. I stopped in front of a giant white 2 and pulled it away. Reluctantly, but without resistance, it sat where I would wish.

I went to the ends of the expanse. No door.

I couldn't go back either. No door ever opens once closed. I wandered in search of a door with a handle shaped like a bow.

Shaped like a bow!! I thought as looked around. There it was! Among its friends, almost in the middle of a gossip.

I pulled the number 8 into infinity and pulled with all my might.

I walked into an empty street. An empty street with tall buildings. The golden sun cried out in yellow rays, casting itself on the glass windows. It was all somehow dismal. The clouds set themselves up in the sky.

It starts to rain, except it rains fire instead of water. Firedrops that sting a little every time they land on your skin but otherwise cool. Like little jolts of cool electricity that somehow make for a pleasant feeling.

I stretch my hands to the sky above and exclaim, "Oh! What a wonderful day to be alive."

"But, only while you dream," said the little girl with the eyes of fire, whom I notice for the first time, "will you be alive." With those words she turns her back to me and leaves.

Asha took a breath of cold air in as she returned to her reality. Her eyes spot specks of light racing across the night sky. A childlike thought urged her to make a wish. Asha closed her eyes. 'If it all were to end on a night like this, I don't think I would mind at all.'

One of the glowing points in the sky grew bigger, its radiance surpassed the neighbouring stars. Perhaps it is getting closer? No. Usually meteorites burn up in the atmosphere but this one...

A fiery glow touches the horizon not too far away, and shortly after, a distant rumbling confirms that the meteorite has touched down...

---------------------------*******--------------------------------

"Tell me why we are doing this again", EO19240374 exclaimed, terribly bored.

They watched W7598, an inferior beta model collapse after convulsing. The only reason for calling it inferior was because it had an intact working biological human brain, which hadn't been dismantled as it had been in several other models.

The other one was busy making notes.

EXPERIMENT NO. 782368/2377698

SUBJECT NAME: W7598

PERSONALITY SIM: ALICE

EXPERIMENT: DREAM SEQUENCE

OBJECTIVE: ARTIFICIAL DREAM CREATION AND CONTROL DREAM ELEMENTS

SUBJECT W7589 successfully initiated dream sequence 1 and 2 after being carefully simulated in a home simulation 084. After sequence 2, subject could not be woken up and was observed. Further dream sequence were without code. Elements were recorded but could not be controlled. Subject ended dream sequence automatically and returned to home simulation 084. Brain activity suggest depressive thought process after which subject collapsed.

RESULT: Fail

After a few milliseconds, the second robot turned towards EO19240374

"For art."