The Three Factions

This is the last part of a lengthy, detailed dream, most of which I don't remember.

There were three factions on a planet. I looked down on the planet and saw that their land was more or less evenly divided as three wide north-south strips. Though the actual factions were very different, they had the names of the playable races from Sins of a Solar Empire - TEC, Advent, and Vasari. The TEC were human, and they had a vast space fleet. I was making a documentary about their war with the Vasari. Though their ships were real, I was using hyper-realistic CGI to show the ships, cutting back to real interviews with people on board. The ships were almost indescribably massive - many were basically floating continents. I showed comparatively smaller ships flying out of a hangar the size of Nevada.

Later, I learned that a friend of mine had been accepted by the Vasari to learn their ways. At this point I was watching loosely from the body of a middle-aged woman. I had some sense of self in her but she wasn't me. The woman was begging the young man not to go, even as he went. He landed on the Vasari territory, and to my surprise it was lush and green. An old woman with a hood came and started preparing him for the transition - mostly covering him with beads and muttering. "I" kept begging him not to do this, reminding him how evil the Vasari were.

The old woman opened a hole in a massive tree that reached up into the sky. Bark and termites poured out. Then she climbed in, wrapped her arms around my friend, and pulled him in. "I" leaned in, saw the darkness and smelled the rotting wood. I begged him one last time not to go. He said it was too late for him, and asked me to come with him. Then there was another weird old lady humming, ready to take me into the tree too. I hesitated. I felt deep down inside that I should go into the tree, but I also knew that the un-self part of me wouldn't do it. I sadly said goodbye.

Later I saw Dane Cook standing on the top of a skyscraper in a TEC city. I had a similar sense of shared self with him, though I watched him from a distance of about thirty feet. Soon he was wanted by the police; he leapt from building to building to evade them. Whenever helicopter-borne cameras were on him, I saw the chase as live action. When I didn't, the news casters approximated the chase with CGI, which was always precisely accurate to the actual course taken.

Dane Cook kept running; sometimes he was surrounded on all sides but he always found a way to evade. Then part of a building gave way near the edge of the city and he slid down, grabbing onto things for support. They collapsed too, and down and down he went in a gently broken free fall. Soon he was nearly at the bottom of the building, decidedly outside the city. The lights and sounds had faded away. A woman's voice in the blackness called for help. About this time, I felt complete selfness in Dane's body.

I slid down the rest of the building searching for the sound, though I had a sinking feeling I knew what I would find. There was a river between dark trees with a soft, warm glow. A woman was standing in it weeping. I waded out and saw that the river didn't have water, it had balsam wood statues of people. I then knew I was in Advent territory. The woman was crying because the balsam statues had been her friends; they had been turned into wood. I couldn't think of a way to help her.

Later, the sun came up and I was in an Advent village. The Advent were also completely human. They reminded me of the Lakota Sioux, living in tipis and being totally horse-crazy. There were magnificent horses everywhere. This struck me as odd considering they were a space-faring race. I had been accepted as an Advent warrior. I mounted up and the chief shouted that we were attacking a church.

Just as we were about to head out, one of the women shouted: "How many captives?" And the chief's son said: "You're right. To keep our honor, we must each take six captives. Perhaps even six and a half." Then we rode, in a chaotic and glorious mass of horseflesh and half-naked warrior.

We surrounded a classsic little white church and burst into the doors. The people inside were stereotypical pioneers. I immediately went to the back and selected six people. I herded them onto side pews. Within seconds, the entire congregation was held captive.

For some reason, we couldn't ride out of the church yet. We had to wait for something. I explained to my captives that if any tried to escape, I would kill someone left behind. They seemed appropriately terrified.

Many of the women from the village arrived and sat around on pews talking. I felt the captives growing restless, and at the same time more and more familiar. Then one of them disappeared when I turned my back and I knew who he was - one of my interp kids. The others said he had a canoe.

I pounded out of the church onto a wide rolling hill. I knew that the canoe meant going downhill so I urged my horse that way. I saw three canoes in the river. I went faster and faster then leapt into the water and used my momentum to carry me ot the first canoe. I knocked the rider off and spun around in front of the other two. Night was falling.

It was my kid and his older brother. I shouted at them: "Did you not believe me when I said I would kill you?" They weren't taking me seriously. I worried about the other captives unattended at the top. Then I woke up.

The Unfinished Journey

I was supposed to get five items. The first two were keys. A man's voice told me to get the items; I felt a great urgency to do so.

I had traveled a short distance already, much of the time with Penny (who is my real-life girlfriend). But now I entered a maze of canyons alone. There were various families and clans there but they all got along well. They didn't trust me at all, and most of the people there believed I should be driven away. I scanned the group and pointed out one woman; she was holding a small key in her mouth, about a half-inch long. That key was the first item, but it was also a weapon. When I found it, her clan accepted me. The others still ridiculed me.

I searched the canyon for a way to press on to the next area but it was all sheer rock. A girl who seemed to want to help me showed me a complex, abstract, branching map. She said half the fun was finding a route to the end. Before I could finish studying it, I heard the sound of rushing water. I ran to the top of the canyon and saw as water poured in. The clans retreated to the high corners where they were safe.

But one of the women in another clan - the one who had been outspoken in wanting me exiled, walked out onto the water. It had frozen into ice. Five or six kids stood behind her. I saw the water warming up again, and getting thinner. I yelled at her to go back but she wouldn't listen to me. Then she looked down and jumped back just as the ice fell away. She was safe but the kids all fell into the water. I dove in.

The water was freezing cold and pitch black. By feel, I found each of the kids and shoved them to the surface. Then my feet hit the bottom and I jumped up.

Everyone was studying instant replay of the rescue mission I had done. Many were arguing I had just done it to win favor, not because I cared about the kids. They were analyzing my facial expressions. Eventually I was driven out of the canyon.

I walked along a board walk. I saw the Eiffel Tower across the water far in the distance. I called Penny. She had found another item and were going to meet up to find the last 3. I saw her at the end of a board walk and ran up to her. I spoke to her but she didn't acknowledge me - she was running to catch a train.

She reached the train and I put a hand on her shoulder. "Where are you going?" She stopped and turned to me; in that instant the train streaked away over the water. She had missed it.

"I'm going to see you," she said.

"But I'm here!" I cried. Then I woke up.