Chapter 9: The Debriefing of Dreams & Nightmares

The three of us sat and talked for what felt like hours. I told them how I was a teacher back on Earth and they shared stories of the all the worlds they had visited. The food we ate was like nothing I'd ever tasted before. They ordered different items, almost like several sampler platters and I tried everything. Some of it I really liked, some, not so much. Other creatures joined us and they too would share stories about space travel and the different worlds they had seen. It seemed I was somewhat of a celebrity here. Everyone wanted to know about Earth, me, and how I came to be on the ship. Among those who joined us included Valente and Sharma, plus several others from different sections of the ship. We were laughing and just having fun when suddenly, everyone got rather quiet. At first, I didn't know why, then I saw Oliver and Iman walking over. The creature sitting closest to me quickly stood up and moved away and Oliver smiled, took his seat, and clicked something to him.

"No using our native language," said Oddo, "Alexis Perry doesn't understand ... oh, sorry sir. I didn't realize it was you."

"No need to apologize Oddo," said Oliver smiling. "You were right, it was rude of me."

"Alexis Perry," said Iman. "How are you feeling?"

"Better now that I know what things are supposed to look like," I said smiling.

"I am sorry I did not realize your optic receptors were malfunctioning," said Iman. "I fear we did not ensure you were as well as we hoped."

"Considering all that was wrong with me," I said. "I didn't know there was something wrong with my eyes until Lara said something."

"And as much as you've all enjoyed getting to meet and get acquainted with Alexis, I'm going to steal her away for the night," said Oliver as he took my hand and kissed the back.

The group moaned their disappointment and Oliver said, "Don't worry, she's going to be with us for a while so you can all get to know her better while she is with us."

I stood up, as did Lara and most of the group, bid my new friends goodbye, and followed Oliver and Iman out of the room, with Lara behind me. We quietly walked down the different hallways until we entered a room with a table and chairs around it. It had a sense of familiarity to it, but I shook it off as Oliver said, "Lara, would you wait outside, please."

"Yes sir," she said and left room. I noticed the friendly Lara was once again replaced with the more militaristic one.

We sat down at the table as Iman said, "Ol-lee-ver has asked me to speak with you about what he and I have witnessed."

"You mean the nightmares?" I asked.

"Yes Alexis Perry," she said. "It seems that we do not experience these dreams or night-mares as you call them, we had some difficulty understanding them at first. However, we did some research and found a correlation that we do experience to help us better understand."

"So what does that mean?" I asked.

"It means we now understand how they work, and why you were so upset by them," said Oliver.

"I would think the 'why' was kinda obvious," I said.

"Yes," said Iman, "and now we understand how the tracker was able to use them against you. The tracker saw these as a weakness and thus, tried to use them to torture you during your rest period. On some level, it did work. However, there were more than the two you were aware of."

"How many were there?" I asked nervously.

"I am not sure Alexis Perry," said Iman, "But we only just finished watching them. I believe they occurred during your time of unconsciousness during the time your injuries were being repaired."

Oliver's face was ashen as he shook his head and said, "I knew those trackers were monsters, but I had no idea the depravity they were capable of reaching. I know now you will not be safe until they are captured and put to death."

I wanted to be sick. I mean, I've never really thought much about capital punishment before as it was such a hot topic issue. But here I was, listening to Oliver talking about killing two creatures ... no, monsters. I knew he was right, but there was still a part of me that was appalled at the thought of killing unless it was necessary. Then I thought of Lara's father and brother, and how they were killed because of me. Then Fleck's words flashed in my memory, 'I never fail ... I will make sure you have a front row seat when I do. I'm sure Ms. Perry is quite the freak ... especially in restaurants.'

A tear fell from my eye as I said, "This is a lot to process."

"I agree Alexis Perry," said Iman.

Oliver took my hand and asked, "Alexis are you all right?"

"I'm not sure," I said.

"I think Alexis Perry needs to rest without the fear of the nightmares," said Iman.

"There's no guarantee of that," I said.

"What do you mean?" asked Oliver.

"Sometimes I have nightmares for no real good reason," I said.

"Is this normal Alexis Perry?" Iman asked.

"Yeah," I said. "But sometimes I have good dreams as well."

"Yeah," said Oliver. "We saw some of those as well."

I blushed as I got the feeling they involved him. Iman said, "I know you said only nightmares, but I did not realize that a few of the good dreams slipped in. So many of these nightmares started the same way as the dreams did that it was an easy mistake to make, until we realized what was happening, and that you were not in fear or at risk of harm."

I blushed harder as Oliver took my hand into his. "Alexis, I now understand what you go through and what you are most frightened of. I will do what I can to keep you safe."

I smiled, "Just knowing that makes me feel better."

We rose from the table and left the room. Iman left us and we walked back to another room with Lara right behind us. Oliver told Lara she was to be in the room across from us and he would let her know when he was leaving me in the morning so she knew when she had to be with me. She was also to keep something on and listen for sounds of me in danger. Then he clicked something and she nodded. Lara bid us both farewell and entered her room. We entered our room and even though I was sure this was the same room I has slept in, and got sick in before, it looked so different to me now. I looked at Oliver and asked, "Is this the same room we were in before?"

"Yes Alexis," he said smiling. "Tell me what you see."