The Dream of Planet Bloom Read online

  “The Hoola are in sync with their nature, but I don’t think that humans are any less in sync with theirs.”

  “I’m not sure that you know us so well,” Rikes says.

  Ku-uhala arches her eyebrows. “Oh, is that so?”

  Rikes nods.

  “May I remind you, Commander, that the Hoola have had contact with humans for centuries. We have observed your development first hand.”

  “Your species has had contact with our ancients,” Rikes says. “Humans of modern age have developed without any contact with the Hoola. Much has happened in the course of 2000 plus years.”

  “You are still the same species,” Ku-uhala says. “The only thing that has changed is your technology. Your instincts have remained intact. They are the same as they were thousands of years ago.”

  “Ah!” Rikes exclaims. “I beg to differ. Not only has our technology changed, but our morals and views have changed too.”

  “Have they?”

  “Yes, ma’am, they have. We have moved on from being a violent species to being a species who’s on a mission of peace.”

  “But you have never ceased to impose your views on others.”

  “Hold on a sec there, Ku-uhala. Every species, every group, collective or individual has their views. Discussing your views with others doesn’t mean you’re imposing them. It’s a form of exchange of opinions. Don’t Hoola ever discuss their views?”

  “Our society functions in a much different way than human society. Like I said, we are guided by our instinct and therefore we have different habits and practices when it comes to exchanging opinions.”

  Rikes chuckles. “This is what I like about you, Ku-uhala. It’s never boring with you. We never run out of things to talk about.”

  Ku-uhala drops her head and smiles.

  “Anyhow, how did we start this debate?” Rikes asks. “Weren’t we talking about your visit to the Doctor?”

  “We were at first, but then we drifted away.”

  “Let’s talk about important things. What did the Doctor say?”

  “He said that my lungs aren’t equipped to breathe the air on Scorpio. I need to have a higher intake of carbon dioxide if I want to avoid being short of breath.”

  “You’re not sick or anything?”

  “No, I’m not,” Ku-uhala says.

  “I’m happy to hear that. Did the Doctor manage to help you?”

  “Yes, he did. He gave me a shot that will allow my lungs to process more carbon dioxide. I should be fine.”

  “I see,” Rikes nods. “I’m glad that the visit to the Doctor produced results.”

  He reaches out and covers her hand with his.

  “So … how about it?” he says.

  “How about what?”

  “You know … our date.”

  “Oh, is that what you were hinting at when you said you wanted to talk to me in the mess hall today?”

  “Maybe.”

  She smiles. “Commander, I’m afraid I’ve led you on to believe that I have an interest in you that is beyond professional.”

  “Well, don’t you?” Rikes asks cunningly.

  Ku-uhala looks at him from the side. “I’m not sure yet.”

  “Just listen to your instinct, Ku-uhala. Your instinct will tell you the truth.”

  “I’m afraid my instinct is rather quiet today.”

  “Maybe you need to be taken out on a date for your instinct to wake up.”

  “You’re funny,” Ku-uhala says.

  “I don’t see you laugh.”

  “I’m laughing inside me. It’s a still laughter.”

  Rikes comes closer to her. “I think you’re flirting with me.”

  Ku-uhala blinks. “So, what do you suggest?”

  “I suggest a romantic trip to planet Bloom.”

  “With the dream resonator?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Are we allowed to use that machine for private purposes?”

  “Who says it’s for a private purpose?” Rikes says. “Officially we are going on an exploration mission to planet Bloom, and we are testing the dream resonator for its functionality.”

  “That machine is still quite insecure,” Ku-uhala says. “You know that.”

  “I do know that, but we need to continue our exploration. We came to the Orion Nebula to explore, did we not? Exploring new technology and parallel dimensions is part of our mission.”

  “You’re so dedicated to our mission that you want to take me on a romantic date to a planet in a parallel dimension with a machine that has not yet been fully tested?”

  Rikes frowns. “You make it sound so dramatic, Ku-uhala. I have tested the machine. I’ve been to planet Bloom myself. It works just fine. It’s time we see how the dream resonator works when it connects consciousness of two individuals from two different species. And after all, we’re going out on a date. I can’t think of a more beautiful place to take you to than planet Bloom. Where else could we go? Look at this galaxy we’re in. There’s not I single planet or moon in the proximity of 50 light-years that is eligible for a shuttle to land on it. And certainly none that has an atmosphere and oxygen on its surface. Where should I take you out? To Scorpio’s recreational center?”

  “A visit to the sauna followed by a massage doesn’t sound too bad to me for a first date,” Ku-uhala says.

  “Oh, come on!” Rikes protests. “Where is your sense of adventure?”

  “Left on my home world together with my instinct for romance,” Ku-uhala says and laughs.

  Rikes softens up. “Is that a ‘yes’?”

  Ku-uhala nods. “How about this Saturday?”

  “Saturday at 19:00 hours,” Rikes says. “You and I are off to Bloom on our first date together.”

  “Sounds exciting … and adventurous, Commander Rikes.”

  “Good to know you like the idea. I can use a little action. It’s starting to be pretty boring in the orbit of this planet. There’s nothing much happening in the Oxydia Solar System at the moment. We’re just observing an uninhabited planet that has holes on its surface like Swiss cheese.”

  “And you and I are going out on our first date together,” Ku-uhala says. “Do you think we’ll make it far enough to go out on our second date?”

  Rikes cups his chin with his palm.

  “I’ve known you long enough to say that I can picture us going out for a second date,” he says.

  His remark flatters Ku-uhala. If she were a female specimen of the human species, she would have probably blushed after hearing Rikes’ direct expression of interest. But, because she belongs to the Hoola species, she feels no discomfort. She fixates her eyes on him and falls into silence. Her face is expressionless and her body is mute. She isn’t sending out codes Rikes would know how to read or interpret.

  As her silence prevails, her fingertips caress the bottom of the vase which is filled with lilacs with slow refined strokes. The vase is the only barrier standing on the cafeteria table between her and Rikes.

  “I’m not accustomed to being asked out on a date, Sy,” she blurts. “My people aren’t accustomed to going out on dates. We don’t practice this … tradition, if I may call it that, which seems to be widely popular with humans across all cultures.”

  “What do your people do when they want to let someone know they are fond of them in a special way?” Rikes inquires.

  “The Hoola instinctively know when there is a potential for a chemical bond to be established. Our instinct tells us when we’re drawn to someone. If the attraction is mutual, there’s no need for further ado. We begin spending time together, and that is how we get to know one another.”

  “Well, that’s good enough for me,” Rikes says. “I’m sure our instincts are working in our favor. Integrating a little romance in the pursuit and going for a little trip to planet Bloom won’t do harm, will it?”

  “Would you be so kind as to define romance to me, Sy? I want to be sure I’m getting it right.”

  Ri
kes breaks out in laughter.

  “You ask the hardest questions, Ku-uhala. I don’t think anyone has ever asked me to define romance for them. Let me see … I would say that romance is the human habit of spending time together by creating an atmosphere of seduction that is designed to lead to mating.”

  “Oh, I see!” Ku-uhala exclaims. “Is that what we will be doing on our first date? Creating an atmosphere of seduction that will lead to mating?”

  Rikes smiles.

  “Wait and see, Ku-uhala. Let yourself be surprised.”

  “So, it’s Saturday then. 19:00 hours.”

  Rikes nods. “I’ll pick you up from your quarters.”

  “I’m looking forward to it,” Ku-uhala says and smiles seductively.

  “Oh, and one more thing—,” Rikes says.

  “Yes?”

  “Bloom is not a planet in a parallel dimension.”

  “What is it then?”

  “It’s a dream simulation of a beautiful world I’ve created in the astro lab. Unofficially and during my free time, of course.”

  “You’ve created a world?”

  “I sure have,” Rikes says. “This is an extension of the possibilities I see the dream resonator offering us. I want to know if we can create our own worlds we can dream into life.”

  “I see,” Ku-uhala says quietly and looks Sy straight into the eye. “An Earth man of 24th century who decided to see what it’s like to play God for a change.”

  Chapter 4

  The Trip to Planet Bloom

  I’M WALKING through the corridor on Deck 2 towards the dream resonator chamber. Today is Saturday and it’s close to 19:00 hours. I’ve picked this time to walk around Deck 2, because I wanted to be here when Ku-uhala and Rikes travel to Bloom on their first date.

  I arrive to the door of the dream resonator chamber. The sliding doors are high and gray. “DREAM RESONATOR CHAMBER” is spelled out across them. Not everyone on the ship can enter this chamber. Only senior officers who have a clearance can enter it. Another clearance is required for the dream resonator to be started.

  Commander Sy Rikes has all the clearances. He’s the only senior officer next to Captain Megan Ashley who does. I turn away from the door and look around me. The corridor is empty. I cross my arms and begin to tap my left foot on the floor impatiently.

  Where are they? I’m fairly certain Rikes and Ku-uhala haven’t made any changes to their plans for their first date, and yet I’m surprised that they aren’t here. The senior officers are always on time. Punctuality is rated high on Starship Scorpio, because the senior officers want to set a positive example for the junior staff.

  It’s good that I have a window in front of me to watch the cookie-brown planet of the Oxydia Solar System while I wait. I can watch how this window frames the endless streams of gases of the Orion Nebula, creating a perfect composition of colors. It’s a marvelous painting. I don’t think Michelangelo would have been able to paint such a perfect painting, but Giordano Bruno probably would have, had he ever painted the Universe.

  I’m neither familiar with Michelangelo nor with Bruno, but I once heard two cadets from Earth discuss them while they were working in the astro lab.

  One of them said that Giordano Bruno was a monk from Italy who was interested in the sciences and began studying astrophysics. The legend says that Bruno envisioned the entire Universe by traveling to the stars in his spirit. He flew out to space without a ship during his vision quests and saw how the planets rotated in the Milky Way. He saw that the Earth rotated around the sun and not other way around. His discovery went against the teachings of the Catholic Church at the time, and the Inquisition tried him for heresy. But Bruno stood by his beliefs because he was certain that his visions and mathematical calculations were an accurate depiction of the cosmos. The penalty for defying the official teachings of the Church was death. Bruno knew this, and yet he was ready to sacrifice himself for what he considered to be the betterment of the human kind.

  The Inquisition ordered for his tongue to be pulled out for spreading false beliefs and for him to be burned alive.

  I was surprised when I heard this story. I wasn’t aware that Earth people repressed each other so much in the past. One of the cadets mentioned how he admired the Hoola for overcoming their drive for destruction and repression of free thought. The other cadet commented that the Hoola were a much older species and that they had a long time to do it, almost twice as much time as humans. The Hoola succeeded to develop as a species by learning not to identify themselves with their thoughts and emotions and by focusing their minds on the present alone. That was the key to their success. It was quite simple, really, and yet the simplest things are often the hardest. Not identifying with thoughts or emotions, and focusing only on the present are two very difficult things to do for humans.

  I found that intriguing, because I only live in the now. My emotions are like ripples on the surface of a deep ocean, just like my thoughts. My ocean is still. It’s the easiest thing for me to do. It’s what a ghost does. Judging from my observations of the humans, they talk a lot about what goes around their minds, jumping from past to future, from one thought to another. They rarely have their thoughts focused on what is in front of them for a long time. Humans think they’re going to miss out on something important if they don’t think and ruminate all the time.

  The ugly things humans do, like kill, strangely connect to the pretty things they do, like love. Humans move from one extreme to another, and when they do, they praise themselves for being able to stretch as far and eventually return to the golden middle.

  I’m becoming more and more aware that going from one extreme to the other is a sort of an entertainment for humans. If it weren’t, they wouldn’t do what they do.

  I hear feet scampering to my left. There are people coming. I turn my head and look. Hey, hey! It’s them! Commander Ku-uhala and Commander Rikes are arriving. They are chit chatting about some mishap that happened in the engine room.

  I wish I could read the time, but I don’t have a watch. From what I know about senior officers’ punctuality, I’m pretty sure that Rikes and Ku-uhala are on time and that I came here early. The trip to planet Bloom is about to begin!

  I watch them as they approach me. Didn’t they say they were going out on a date? Why in the world are they wearing their uniforms? I don’t understand senior officers. Even when they are enjoying their leisure time privately, they do it in their uniforms. Oh, well … Maybe Sy and Ku-uhala just got back from their shifts and didn’t have any time to change their wardrobe. Yeah, that sounds plausible.

  Rikes stops in front of the door and says his clearance authorization to the computer.

  “Access granted,” the computer announces.

  This is it! We’re going inside the dream chamber!

  “Lady and gentleman,” I gallantly say as I beckon their way to the door. “Please enter the dream chamber!”

  The automatic door slides open by my command and Rikes’ authorization like Sesame.

  I walk in behind them in and watch as they lay down in two cocoon beds that are placed in front of the dream resonator. The cocoon beds are called that because they enclose their bodies, leaving only their torsos exposed.

  My eyes wander off to the dream resonator. It feels good to be close to it, to be in the same room with it. I’m attracted to it, and I have to look at it. The dream resonator and I are connected by a special magnetic bond. So special, I can say that we are family. I consider the dream resonator to be my mother.

  Rikes and Ku-uhala are each lying in their separate beds. I hop from one cocoon bed to the other. One moment I’m standing beside Ku-uhala’s bed, the next I’m beside Rikes’. The two of them are adjusting their heads in the right positions inside the half-globes in the cocoon beds. Soon, these half-globes will connect their minds to the dream resonator by syncing the frequency, the electric impulses, and the waves of their brains to the resonator. And then, they will enter the dream of
planet Bloom, and I will enter it with them.

  “Are you ready?” Rikes asks Ku-uhala.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing, Sy.”

  “Are you still worried?”

  “You are an adventurous man,” Ku-uhala says. “You like to take risks. Your love for risk taking is somewhat challenging to my instinct.”

  “We can still stop, if you want. You don’t have to go through this if you don’t want to.”

  “Are you advising me to give up, Commander?”

  “Not at all,” Rikes says. “All I’m saying is that you should follow your instincts.”

  Ku-uhala laughs. “It’s too late for you to talk me out of this, you know.”

  “I’m glad to hear you appreciate adventure as much as I do,” Rikes says.

  “You didn’t think I was going to let you have all the fun on your own, did you?”

  “I should have known you would be as determined as ever, Ku-uhala. Are you ready to fly to planet Bloom with me?”

  “You bet, Commander. You did test this program before you plugged us in, didn’t you?”

  “Of course I have,” Rikes says languidly. “There’s no reason for you to worry. I promise.”