Dream 278

I was in an enormous legal building that housed several courts, law offices, legal services offices, and other items such as a book store and a few cafes.

The building was huge, encompassing several floors with slanted floors and walkways connecting them.  There was even a hotel.  I had gone to make sure some documents were properly registered, but when I got back to my house I realized that I had neglected some necessary steps.  

I was a bit miffed at this, as the trip to the building was not an easy one and I really needed to spend time cleaning my house.  I grumbled over the situation.

So, I got back in the car, but half way to the building I realized I'd forgotten my pants and my official jacket.  I went back home and scoured the place looking for them, before deciding I would just go as I was and hopefully finish my business quickly.  

Once there, I went up and down staircases and ramps, but could not find the office I needed.  The building was so labyrinthine that every passage looked correct but went to the wrong offices.  I finally ended up in the bookstore where I found a few rare volumes I wanted to purchase.

Dream 277

I was helping out a woman named Jaqueline Burrows with her business.  She had a small casting agency that specialized in actors for documentaries and educational programs.  It was a passion project for her, but not her main source of income--she was the curator of a museum.  I was never quite sure if the museum dealt with art or rare items.

One day when she was busy with the museum, I was helping around her house.  She had a large number of family members around visiting due to the recent holiday, and things were somewhat unkempt.   While I was trying to clean up, a mailman brought a package for her.  I signed for it and put it on her home office desk.

I found a large pile of trash in the living room, including several pieces of wood, and some snow, and put it outside in the winter weather.  I felt pretty good that I had been able to clear it all.  There was water at the bottom where the pile was, but I figured it would clear up.  Puppies were running and playing throughout the room.

Later, another delivery man with a heavy Eastern European accent showed up.  His arms were covered in packages and envelopes, but only one large box was for Jacqueline.  I tried to pry it out from the maze of other mail, and a plastic covered manilla envelope fell into a puddle.

I tried to help him pick things up, while still holding onto the box.  He said that he needed a signature and I offered to sign, but he didn't seem to understand me.  I said I frequently signed for packages here, but he insisted that the signature had to be from someone in the same "realm."

Just then Jacqueline rushed into the house and went into her office.  I brought the package in to be signed, but she was on the phone and didn't seem to know I was there.  I told the delivery man she signed the box and he left.

I went into the living room and played with the puppies.

Dream 276

Two large red gelatin candies were arguing that they should be given a bus route to the storage depot.  When asked if they knew the route, they replied, somewhat peevishly, that they drove this route seventeen times every day, of course they knew the route.

Dream 275

The starship Enterprise (D) was called to a distant planet to investigate reports that the populace was "going missing."  Once we arrived, we received word from the planet that the report was incorrect, that everything was normal.  Suspicious, we scanned the planet and saw that the population was present, but not registering as life forms.  Photographic evidence showed people, walking about in normal routines, but they were clearly artificial--their faces were crude and indistinct, and some of them were clearly malformed--they had wrenches and other tools embedded in their heads.  They would not have fooled any normal observer.

We beamed down in an investigating party to determine what had happened.  The "people" we met were polite and welcoming but seemed incapable of providing anything other than pleasantries.

All at once, an old man in a floating wheelchair-like device appeared and urged us to follow us to his underground laboratory.  We followed, with the civilians offering no resistance in their pleasant, polite way.

Once in his laboratory, the old man told us that he was working on a plan to replace colonists with replicant robots, to ensure the safety of humans on hostile planets and at the same time, breed a race of humans capable of surviving in adverse conditions that would destroy ordinary humans.  But he needed more genetic material--"Ideal genetic material" was how he phrased it.

With that, he pressed a switch on his machine and he and Captain Picard were suddenly transported elsewhere.  Activating an emergency protocol, we immediately transported back to the ship.

Adjusting the scanners, we searched the planet for any signs of humanoid life.  We were able to filter out the androids and quickly found Captain Picard.  We transported him directly to the bridge.

"Get us out of here, navigator, warp nine!" he yelled, and we quickly left orbit, issuing a warning to Star Fleet Command to quarantine the planet.

Later, in my quarters, I couldn't help wondering what had happened to the original colonists.  Were they still alive?

Captain Picard probably knew, but I was afraid to ask him.  I remembered all those terrible fake faces, and I shuddered.

Dream 274

I heard the neighbor across the hall yelling.  I went into the hallway and asked what was wrong.

It turned out a stray cat had somehow gotten into her apartment and she couldn't get it to leave her bathroom.

I suggested that she close all the doors in the apartment except the bathroom, and I would open the outside door.

When she said all other doors were closed, I opened the front door and the cat shot out into the hallway.  I said "Hey!" and the cat stopped and looked at me.  It was a cat that I recognized from a previous encounter.  I went closer, and the car jumped on me and seized my arm.

At the same time, a small child from an upstairs apartment yelled out a name.  It turned out that she and the cat lived in the same upstairs apartment.  But the cat didn't want to let go of my arm.

Dream 273

I was living in the house of someone very important in city government--the deputy mayor, perhaps.

One night, very late at night, his young daughter and I were looking out of the back porch when we saw a sudden glow in the distance.  It seemed to simultaneously emerge from the ground and pour from the sky.  We both knew this was worrisome--we were certain that some monstrous giant creature was about to emerge, and worse, it knew about both of us and would come for us.

We knew we had to leave the house quickly.  I wanted to protect her, but we agreed we should split up and go in opposite directions to halve the creature's attention.

We started heading toward the opposite ends of the city.  I stopped and made sure the door was closed but did not lock it.  She went right and I went left.

After a long time walking, I ran into the girl's father.  He was very skeptical of my story.  We headed back to the house and went inside.

Out through the back door, there was no sign of the activity I'd seen earlier.

I was certain what I'd seen, and what it portended.  He remained skeptical and dismissive.

He and I agreed to go off and search for his daughter.  Neither of us felt she was in any kind of danger, he just wanted to make sure she wasn't doing something she shouldn't be doing, like spending her allowance on candy.  We set off, and he locked the door behind him after I'd pointed out he left it open.

Unbeknownst to any of us, though, the monster was actually at another part of town.  A huge tanker truck was racing toward the Welsh border, and a smaller car was trying to edge around it because the driver feared the truck would overturn and block the border passage.  Both vehicles were going to reach the goal at the same time.

Dream 272

I was outside of an enormous warehouse-like facility in a pleasant wooded park area.  Looking around, I saw through the trees what appeared to be a Dalek rolling along the access road toward the facility, followed behind by a large yellow industrial vehicle.  "How cool," I thought.  "Some kind of promotional thing."

It was about to round the curve toward me when it occurred to me that I should take some video with my phone.  For some reason my phone was thinner than it should be, so it took too long to take it out of the case.  By which time, the Dalek had gotten closer, and I began to feel uneasy about it.

I ducked inside the warehouse.  It was filled with various levels and rooms, and was very dark throughout.  Some people in the shadows motioned me to join them, so I walked over to them and hid.  They confirmed that what I had seen was not a prop from a TV show but an actual hostile invader.

The idea was that by going deeper into the structure, we stood a better chance of avoiding the Daleks.  I walked along with them, trying to find a passage to safety.  The way was difficult because there were alternating moments of pitch blackness, followed by a blinding light.  There was a string dangling from my pants and I worried that it might get caught on something, so I tried to grab it and remove it, but it remained uncaught.  Then I realized that my hands were nowhere my legs while I was sleeping--they were folded under my arms.  I knew now that this was a dream, which lessened my anxiety a bit.

There was a deep rumbling from the ground.  We thought the Daleks might have found us.  We braced ourselves for the attack, but it turned out to be dark blue tunnelling cars coming up from the ground.  They were filled with children, both as passengers and drivers.  "Nice ride," I said to one of the drivers, and he smiled and waved.  "Here, take this," he said, handing me a sheet of metal about an inch thick and a foot square.  "It's very effective."

I swung it against a wooden beam and it sliced effortlessly through it.  I figured it would make a good defensive weapon, though I realized I would have to be extremely close to use it.  I started to wonder just how many Daleks there might be, and if I might find myself in the midst of a group of them.