Stars Dancing [Dreams-To-Lovers Romance]

"I'm so sick of celibacy I'm turning as purple as my shirt."

- Sibsil Creed, Stories of Shurwinn, (2781)

RYST

Dream Journal

I was in a very tall hotel. A building. A starliner was coming. I could see it coming. I was outside the tall building. I was the starliner. I struck the building. Then I wasn't the starliner; I was me, inside the building. I could see it coming. It would hit the building. I felt the impact. Everything shuddered. The walls melted. The walls were candlewax, dripping. Everything melted. It was wax melting. It was sand. It was sand rushing, gushing, flowing sand. Moving out. It was rushing like a stream— out. And I was on top of it— a rushing river of sand. Being pushed forward.

I was standing on a grey desert. It was cold. My feet were bare. I wore a thin dress. My feet were on cold, solid ground. But it was a grey desert. Something stretched around me. Then it was brown sand. Brown sand all around me. The ground collapsed. Everything crumbled. I fell through darkness. I reached out. It was green. There were green leaves. I was rushing past them, going down. There was solid ground. It smelled fresh.

Something grew. I was growing up. I was a tree. I could feel the sky above. There was breath. Breath within my trunk. I had branches, reaching to the sky. The sky was above. It was dark. There were stars. I could reach them. I had branches. My branches touched the stars. I could feel them. In my branches. In my trunk. In my being.

I knew the stars. They were mine. The stars felt me. The knew me. I was a tree. An infinity tree. With branches. Full of stars. They knew me. I was theirs, and they were mine. All of the stars. With me and not me. I was theirs. They were mine. In my branches. Reaching out. Every star. I was theirs, and they were mine. We were friends. We knew each other. Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! I was full. So full! So much love! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!

A starliner struck a building. Everything melted like wax. A starliner struck a building. I was the starliner. I watched the building melt around me like wax. I got up and paced around my small monastery room in my shorts and sleep tank. It wasn't yet dawn. Restless. Restless. I couldn't stop seeing all that melting wax. I couldn't calm down. I had to go!

Ryst: I'm coming over.

Peydran: ok

"Do the question thing, Peydran. I can't calm down. I can't shake it off this time. It's something so big, so big. It's like a giant tangled ball of thread, and a question will start to unravel it. It's so big. It's out there on the horizon. I feel it out there, and I can't focus. I'm like a woman in labor, and something is coming. You gotta help, me Peydran!"

"Okay, Ryst, let's focus. We're going to deliver this baby. You're going to breathe. I'm your assistant. What started it?"

"Ah, a dream? There was melting wax. Everything melted. And desert sand. Cold. Grey. No, no, that's not it. That's not it. Different question."

"Why did you come to my apartment?"

"Yes! Yes! That's it! I had to come here! You had to help!"

"Am I designing a new project?"

"Hmm. Mmmm. Maybe? I think so? Do you want to design something? I can't see it if it isn't chosen?"

"I want to help design this project. What do I design first?"

"Ah, mmm. Hmmm. Ah. Mmm." I waved my hand in a "continue" motion.

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"Is it a new stream site?"

"Ah. Maybe? Some? More?"

"There's a new stream site and more parts of the project to design?"

"Yes! So big. It's really big!"

"I like big projects. I'm doing a new stream site. What else does my new project require?"

"Ahh. I see buildings? Several buildings. A forest? Or trees or something?"

"Do I live there?"

"Not sure?"

"Do you live there?"

Surprised, I said in a light voice, "No, I live higher. I'm higher up!" I sounded like I was high as a kite.

"Are you in a house?"

"Yes! It's my house!"

"What does your house look like?"

"It's so beautiful, so full of light. And I'm happy, so happy! There's a king-sized bed! And a nice kitchen! And light, so much light! I'm up high. I can see out."

"Are you on the roof, up high?"

"No. I'm inside."

"Is it a tall building? Three stories?"

"No, it's one story. Small. But up high. I see out. There's a stream. Going down. Like a trickle of water. Not a waterfall. It goes down. Past other buildings and more buildings. And a train! There's a far away train!

"Is it Genesis Oasis?"

"No."

He asked one-by-one each oasis, but I felt adamant, and impatient. I cut him off, "No! It's not an oasis we have a name for."

"Is it a new oasis?"

"I don't know."

"Is it on another sphere?"

"Mmmm. Mmm." My breath came in gasps. That was not right! It could not be right!

"No, very distressing. It's across the desert." I waved out in front of me. "Mmm. ahhh. heenn." I really did sound like I was in labor. We were so close to something…

"Is it to the west?"

"Yes!"

"Is is 1,000 miles away?"

"No. No… Ah. Not that far? Maybe? Not sure? Is there a train? Maybe?"

He said in a dubious voice, "Is it Coal Station?"

"Mmm." I waved my hand; keep going.

"Is it near Coal Station?"

"Mmm." Keep going, my hand waved.

He was quiet for a bit then he asked very softly. "Is there an oasis in the hills above Coal Station?" My eyes opened, and I blinked rapidly. I questioned him with my eyes. A pad hovered over to me. On it was a satelite image. I didn't know what it was, but I thought it was probably Coal Station, about 100 miles west of Media Oasis, across barren desert. To the north of the station were hills and there was some greenery in those hills.

I looked back at Peydran. He grinned. I felt like I was going to faint. I sat down on the sofa and put my head betwen my knees. Peydran rubbed my back. "Can you keep going, Ryst? We aren't finished with this baby."

I nodded. There may have been tears in my eyes, but they were firmly clenched tight. I waved my hand at him. Keep going.

"What's in the buildings, Ryst?"

"Umm. People?"

"What are the people doing?"

"Working?"

"What are they working on?"

"Ah. Mmm." Waved my hand, keep going.

"Do they work for you?"

Keep going.

"Do you work for them?"

"No."

"Is it a new business?"

"Ahnn. Mmm. Not exactly Living Foods. More. It's more Peydran!"

"Are there patients?" he asked eagerly.

"Not a hospital."

"Patients on stream?"

"Maybe."

"Are the people collecting data?"

"Maybe," keep going, my hand waived.

"Are they researchers?"

"Maybe."

"Do they make videos?"

"Yes."

"Do they schedule sessions?"

"Yes."

"Do they publish studies?"

"Yes."

My arms clutched around my middle, and I rocked. Something was wrong. Something was wrong.

"What are you doing, Ryst?"

"I can't. I can't. I can't," I sobbed, shaking my head.

"What can't you do, Ryst?"

"I can't leave you, Peydran! I can't leave Media!"

He took my arms in his hands and shook them lightly and said, "Look at me Ryst Nova." I looked up.

"I'm coming with you," he said emphatically.

BOOM! Everything rang like a gong. Everything slid into place. I saw it all. I felt it all. Everything unwound in front of me with crystal clarity. "Peydran, take notes. I see it all. My house is at the top. Down below that are buildings. Kitchen. Dojo. Work area. Apartments. Research and Training Centre. The Living Foods Research and Training Centre. There's a village down below. The train comes up from Coal Station."

Peydran grinned. "Tell me about the buildings. Tell me everything I'm designing."

And so I did.

It turned out there was a small oasis in the hills above Coal Station. The station was in the center of the Shurwinn desert. It was a massive transit authority for import, export, and transport of goods. From the east of Shurwinn to the west, to the off sphere Space Station in the sky. It didn't really look like a place I'd want to live. But to the north, miles away in the hills was a very small oasis. It wasn't unknown; it was unnamed. Waiting for that future someday when someone wanted to develop it.

So, we gave it a name: Centre Oasis. Guilds were contacted; ministers consulted. And Produced by Peydran found themselves their first village-planning gig. Funding was procured. Engineers. Architects. Business investors. Hoteliers. Restaurants. Shops. A whole new village. Small. Less than half that of Media. But a desirable vacation spot. A novelty. And nearby was Coal Station for overnighters coming and going off sphere. If all went well, we'd move in a year, just after my twenty-fifth birthday; two years after I'd arrived on Shurwinn.

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