Phase Q/Applications
In the makeshift lab, the Fyuchees watch the monitors. Some show chemical analysis readouts, others show video footage, yet others show tracks and traces of dozens more measures.
Silently, they wait and watch.
On the Flowriser video screen, with multiple angles surrounding the subject, an undercover Triad agent goes into the underground dream chamber.
Despite the costume, the agent stands out quite obviously to the Fyuchees. Like a pig among fish.
The agent sits down, as directed.
Then, the Fyuchees track over to the center of the chamber.
There, some kind of glowing object emits vapor in addition to its light.
The Fyuchees watch as, seemingly without moving a muscle, one dreamer after another seems to appear over the glowing object, like a ghost.
The dreamers float through the dark empty space.
At first they take turns appearing over the glowing object. One after another, they float over the light, then return to their original places.
Then, they start joining each other there. One after another after another, the dreamers float ghostlike over the glowing object. There, they seem to melt into each other. More and more of the dreamers come together in one spot. Almost magically, they merge.
The Fyuchees watch in stunned silence.
With all of their technology, with all of their measuring apparatus, the Fyuchees still scratch around for explanations. None of their existing hypotheses serves to describe what the dreamers do.
Uncertain of what to do next, one of the Fyuchees calls in another nodeset.
Instantaneously, at four distinct locations spread out around the country, four other groups of Fyuchees respond to the call. They assemble themselves spontaneously in a virtual room and piece together the evidence.
Studying the same phenomenon, the ghostly dreamers, with a divergent set of methodologies, the Fyuchees rapidly converge on a new hypothesis.
Word spreads throughout the tubeworks.
A Fyuchee inquisition unit summons forth a representative sample of dreamers. Culled from the streets and alleys and subways of the city, the diverse dreamers show a statistically wide spectrum of characteristics.
“So, you like to dream?” asks the Fyuchee committee. Curiosity more than repulsion or any other antagonistic mood fills their voice.
A dreamer steps forward.
“I like to dream, yes I do!”
“Why?” asks the committee.
“Where do I even start? Dreaming is fun, and it connects us all together, and it brings us fresh new ideas. And there’s so much more than that.”
“Like what else?” It’s clear from the Fyuchee’s voice that this questioning doesn’t pose the immediate threat that many dreamers have come to expect.
“Well, sometimes I’ll have a dream, and then it will come true,” says the dreamer.
“Hm,” says the Fyuchee. “What is the mechanism?”
“The mechanism?”
“How does it work? Do you have that dream because it will come true, or do you dream and then it comes true, or what?”
“Well, I guess I don’t know, but I always figured if I have a dream that it means that will happen.”
The other dreamers continue to tell their stories.
Phase Q: An interactive adventure.
