We made camp near one of the stone cities that the colonists discovered when surveying the 3rd planet in the Sirius system. They had already established a home on the outskirts of one of the largest cities spanning at least a thousand square miles. Our overland flight took in the breathtaking size of the towering stone skyscrapers casting their shadows over a complex weave of roads. Conservative estimates were at least 100 million inhabitants once lived there and there were hundreds of these large mega cities.
Kallos took a small rock and hurled it against the invisible force field. Like the settlers and the other teams, none could figure out what was preventing us from entering the city, nor a way around it. It baffled us further as the various living things native to the planet could pass through. A few teams attempted to encase probes within a shell of native materials be it a plant or within a living carcass, nothing.
After several days, we decided to take holiday and most of the crew made for the colony outpost or enjoyed the native hills and lakes. Pei, Kallos and I took our time preparing a nice dinner. The colonists helped us identify which native plants and animals were edible and we had caught some eel like fish and a ground tuber similar to wild potatoes. I spent the time mashing and found hard rocky crystals that I gently removed and placed on the side.
After dinner, we relaxed by a campfire and enjoyed the open sky. It was familiar, yet we could see constellations in a different alignment and now included Earth in its own cluster of stars, the Knutmudsen constellation.
Pei and Kallos retired together in a tent and I went to my own near the edge of a small pond. I dipped my toes in the cool water and dozed off into a dream. The Alpha Centauri on Despina had helped me improve my skill and precision and I found myself peering back at myself from within the stone city.
I continued walking towards a large building and felt the same sense as when I was on iG's homeworld that it was a library. The shelves were empty and any trace was mere dust. Not wanting to waste time walking through the same stone building after another, I began jumping from place to place within the city, spending a few seconds to look about and see if there was anything of interest. After several hours of this, I grew bored until I noticed a dim and flickering light. Walking towards the small building almost in the center of the city and surrounding by some of the tallest of buildings, I found narrow steps leading up several stories to a large doorway and I could hear the hiss of fog shrouding something from view.
Reaching in, I felt a small round cylinder and pulled it forward, the hissing increased as the fog subsided and within the palms of my hands floated gently a clear white cylinder encasing what was glowing dim, but still bright enough to illuminate the large room a miniature star. This must be the power source maintaining the city and the force field.
A circle of large runes appeared in yellow hovering around the edges of the room and pulsated as they begun to spin slowly around me. I waved my free hand and a rune would spin closer towards me and gesturing it would dissolve and something within the city would awaken. There was a loud cracking sound and all the large buildings near the city center pulsated and glowed with a clear bluish white light. I could see the lights snaking up and around the edges of the towers of stone cutting at straight angles with each weave and turn.
The runes, imparted some recognition within my mind of their purpose and I searched for one that controlled the force fields. A circle rune with a dozen interlocking lines spun towards me and as I dissolved it, a loud audible hiss let out a large sigh as the entire city spanning field dissipated.
Kallos called for me over our comms and told me he was awakened by the loud crack and saw the center of city light up. The Amaya also reported a similar experience of seeing the light visible from orbit stretching deep into space and sent a narrow beam of high intensity towards Altair. He was initially concerned as my tent was empty, but relieved then surprised that I was several miles in the center of the city.
To my amazement, he was right and pressing my hands to my sides, I could feel my own body had somehow was now there. I don't remember if it happened when I began dreaming, or if somehow it later followed. They quickly joined me as well as other crew and colonists who began fanning through the city. It was all nothing but stone and light, there were no artifacts or trace. After a few more days, we decided to seal the city back up and once again I pressed the runes and returned the glowing cylinder back on its altar. Fog slowly wrapped around and a hissing until it was completely covered.
I was physically within the city, but when I reached the city limits, I was able to pass through effortlessly. Kallos, Pei and the others who also were with me could also do the same and many of the colonists continued to make excursions to continue studying and exploring.
Madam Sophia contacted me directly. Pei had briefed her on what they all witnessed on Sirius as well as my previous dream travels. She was both intrigued and concerned as it appeared whatever powers I had discovered were increasing. She asked me to visit her on Mars at my earliest convenience and invited Kallos and Pei.
We were greeted by Andrea, who had resumed her duties as a sister marine upon our flight back to Neptune at Triton Station. She shared word that all of the sisters, including those who became savages had since been rehabilitated and restored and now serving the Neo-Artesians once more. She was made a madam and granted the freedom to travel around the outer rim until she settled on a place to establish her own chapter. She blushed when near Kallos and embraced him with a bear hug, her large 7 foot frame wrapped around him with powerful arms still bearing the deep spars of her sister's blades.
Being freed from Proxima B and suddenly being surrounded by billions of humans was a dream and she rampaged through for almost three years enjoying everything she could lay her eyes on. The gardens, my favorite refuge also became hers and we shared casual strolls, feeding the koi ponds and recalling the ferocious battles she endured.
Sophia arrived and met me for tea at a nearby shop. We were alone and she shared that the sisters have known of dream travel and warp sickness. Many of Olivia's crew were afflicted by it and she had several who were most severely afflicted placed in isolation. It was one of her reasons for not returning as she felt the place was cursed. Olivia herself noted her own travels and her descriptions were detailed and similar to my own. She also visited Sirius in one of her many dreams and discovered the stone cities and of the glowing cylinder.
I asked her if there was more and she added most of the sisters would stop at the nightmare of the brain worms and afterwards lost all ability to dream travel. A few, however also were given detailed instruction by the mechanical brain in a similar fashion and were bitten as they described by a brain worm. Only, they realized later the brain worm did not dissolve and die, but remained intertwined in a symbiotic relationship with the host. The worm was still alive and attached to me.
I recoiled in shock and looked down at my scarred hands and arms, still a dark purple across my pale skin. How? I thought was that thing still there? Sophia reached for my hand and said eventually, like the others, I would start to see the worm again as it has an intelligence and is sentient, it'll start to speak to me.
For the others, they all were driven insane. Olivia was one of the few to persist for a few more years trapped with the endless thoughts that the brain worms pumped into her mind. She described their hunger as insatiable and ravenous. They exist only to feed on the thoughts of others and they found the Alpha Centauri who had built their massive subspace universe with their subconscious, a literal feeding ground. But with each host's death, their once seemingly endless supply was dwindling and their attempts to find new hosts was borne out of their desperation.
iG's world was nothing more than a farm. They have a few more like it scattered across the galaxy, but their large numbers were in need of sufficient replacements. They timed the evolution of man to eventually spread across the stars and multiply in numbers so they could become the next ready hosts. That brain sitting in a vat on Despina was one of the willing converts and handlers of the brain worms.
She then placed an old revolver in my hand. It belonged to Ninya, Olivia's dearest daughter and my bloodline. When she reached the end of days, she took her own life. She had warned the madams who would follow to place that same gun in the hand of another dream traveler and they will one day embrace and seek out its salvation. I cried and winced and asked defiantly, the other sisters who experienced the nightmare, they continued? Sophia nodded they did, but my experiences appeared different as I may not have had that dream, but already accelerated beyond. She honestly did not know and only was obeying the wishes of Olivia.
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