Chapter 29: Chapter Twenty-Seven

Over the next couple of hours, Alex and Milo put their magnificent minds together and began assembling a rudimentary dream recorder device from scratch. Fortunately, Alex had already been through this process before so the task was easier the second time around.

The small pile of electronics in the centre of the room had been disassembled and sorted. With the components they had harvested from the RTs, Alex was confident they could recreate the dream recorder she had constructed at the Facility.

For the most part, Mara and the others stayed out of their way as they worked. After several hours of tiresome work, Mara finally interrupted to offer them some food.

“How’s it coming along?” she asked.

“It’s not the refined dream recorder I built at the Facility, but I think it will serve the same function,” Alex responded. “We were lucky to have the right equipment to piece this thing together. You guys have done a good job preserving these outdated parts.”

“When’s it going to be complete?” Mara asked.

“It’s ready now,” Alex said. “Shall we test it out?”

The anticipation hung in the room as everyone stood in silence. Alex guided Mara over to a cot and instructed her to lie back. Milo affixed a headpiece around Mara and ensured the transmitting nodes were securely connected to her temples.

“Okay, close your eyes and think about a moment from your past,” Alex said. “That will help send your consciousness down the right path for when you eventually fall asleep.”

Ordinarily, for a procedure like this the subject would lay in a hyperbaric chamber with several highly-advanced digital displays hooked up to them, monitoring everything from their heart rate to their brain activity, but this version was not that sophisticated.

With her eyes closed, Mara took a few deep inhalations and slowly released the air from her nose. The room was silent and the lights were turned down. Mara relaxed her body and began to recollect moments from her past.

It took over thirty minutes of patiently waiting until Mara fell asleep. As she slipped deeper into an unconscious dream state, she began to see a stage emerge in front of her. She was now transported back to her early twenties. Mara, then known as Alexandra, sat in the audience watching a young, charismatic Maxim Morrison take the podium at the Annual Leadership Convention. She had never met Maxim before, but as soon as she saw him, she was captivated. With his beautiful smile and perfect bone structure, he was truly a remarkable specimen. In addition to his physical stature, he was charming, articulate, and poised, but also had a calm demeanour that put people at ease. Mara was looking for a flaw in him that would snap her out of the haze of infatuation that had unexpectedly consumed her, but she could not find one.

The dream sequence skipped ahead to a time when they were together as a couple. Maxim spoke about how he was going to be the Leader of the New World.

The dream jumped forward again. This time, they were in an apartment, discussing plans for a space program. Maxim had a series of documents laid out and Mara attentively reviewed them.

“Alexandra, I want to let you in on a little secret.”

Mara’s eyebrows furrowed and she tossed around in the dream state.

“Do you think she’s alright?” Milo asked.

“Yeah, she’s fine. I’ve never heard of anyone dying from a dream,” Alex said.

“Alex, you’re committing a false dilemma fallacy.”

“What’s a false dilemma fallacy?” she asked.

“You’re kidding, right? It’s when you erroneously present two possible choices, forcing a conclusion based on one of the choices being false. You claimed that since she cannot die in a dream she must be okay. However, you are ignoring a third possibility that she could be seriously harmed.”

“That’s interesting,” Alex said casually.

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Milo asked. He looked over at Alex and noticed she was flush in the face.

“You know, now that you mention it, I am a little warm.”

“We must be over 200 feet below ground and it’s freezing down here. I can practically see my breath.”

“You know what, I’m fine, don’t worry about it.”

“Alex, something is seriously wrong with you. You forget some elementary logic and then complain that you’re too warm.”

“Hey, cut me some slack, I just built a dream recorder from memory in a matter of hours using random gizmos.”

“Wait, which ones were the gizmos?”

“Milo, it was a hyperbole,” Alex replied.

“I’m surprised you know what hyperbole means,” Milo whispered under his breath.

Alex heard the remark, but chose to ignore him. She tried to keep it together, but knew something was wrong with her. Then, her nose suddenly started to bleed.

“Alex, your nose,” Milo pointed out as he handed her a tissue.

Alex wiped the blood from her nose and felt disorientated. She rubbed her eyes and tried to shake off the feeling she was having.

“Maybe I just need some fresh air,” she said. As she tried to stand up, she lost consciousness and collapsed to the floor.