This is one of those super-involved dreams. I will totally understand if it's TL:DR for most of you. It's also really weirdly personal, so...uh...don't judge me, and stuff.
So, I started out on board the Enterprise, but that part wasn't really all that important in the end. Somehow we opened a portal to a parallel dimension, and a few men slipped through. They stayed a few days, and while two were anxious to get back home, one of them was intensely fascinated with our world and how it worked. We spent a lot of time together and developed intense feelings for one another.
We were finally able to send the men home, but I couldn't stop thinking about this guy. In my dream he had a name, but I can't remember it now, so let's call him Enoch. So I couldn't stop thinking about Enoch, and one night, while I was sleeping, he suddenly appeared in my quarters. He told me that he hadn't been able to get me out of his head, and he couldn't live without seeing me again. But he was afraid if he stayed too long, he wouldn't be able to get back home. Then he vanished.
I thought I was dreaming. But the next night, Somehow my consciousness slipped into the parallel dimension and I found myself in Enoch's quarters. This was cooler than it sounds. I asked him if he'd really been in my room the previous night, and he said yes, and he was miserable without me but he didn't see any way that we could be together. We said goodbye and thought it would be for good.
But the next day, I was daydreaming about Enoch and what might have been, and suddenly I felt like I was falling -- that jolt you get sometimes when falling asleep, except I was awake at the time. (Well, awake within my dream.) When I jerked and looked around, I realized that I was, completely and bodily, in the alternate dimension again. It was quiet and still, as though the whole ship were asleep. In fact, most of them were -- in the Enoch's universe, almost everything was the opposite of the way it is in ours, so they were nocturnal. I crept into Enoch's quarters and slipped into bed beside him. He awakened and was shocked and thrilled to find that I'd come to him. We made love, knowing it was a forbidden passion but also that we may never have another chance. Afterward, I fell asleep in his arms but awoke back in my own quarters on the Enterprise.
Weeks passed, and I tried in vain to return to Enoch's world. I couldn't get myself to fall through the dimensions again, no matter how hard I tried. He came to me in dreams a few times, and sometimes I would catch a glimpse of his ship through the interdimensional veil, but I wasn't able to make my body move outside of time and space like I had previously. Then, finally, he came to me one afternoon. We talked at length about the differences between our worlds and how we'd each been able to accidentally travel between them. He seemed to have aged, and I discovered that what had seemed like weeks for me had actually been over a year to him.
When it was time for him to go back, we decided I would try to go with him. I held his hand and he allowed himself to slip, and I closed my eyes and felt as if I was swirling down a drain starting with my left hand. Then a jolt, and I opened my eyes and found myself on Enoch's ship again. This time, he took me around to show me all the differences between his universe and mine. For starters, as I mentioned, everyone was nocturnal. Their society was matriarchal, and I learned that men were the bearers of children -- much to my surprise, when I discovered that Enoch had borne a child since our last meeting. We had a beautiful boy, and Enoch had been raising him alone because he didn't want to burden me with the knowledge that I had a child whom I could not visit at will.
I stayed with Enoch for a few hours and was continually shocked at how everything was exactly the opposite of how it is here, often in ways you wouldn't expect. I wish I remembered more specific details, but basically everything from their economy (in which wealth was reviled) to their cuisine (in which food was judged on its nutritional content rather than its flavor) was diametrically opposed to the way things are here. When I felt that I could not stay any longer without risking losing touch with my own dimension, I slipped back to the Enterprise and told some of my crewmates what I had seen.
Enoch and I continued to work on our ability to move between the dimensions and eventually became able to do so at will. We had another child, another boy, and I visited frequently, but the children were never able to come to the Enterprise. When Enoch confessed that he was expecting twins -- a third son and our first daughter -- I resigned my position on the Enterprise, said good-bye to my friends, and allowed my body to pass permanently into his dimension. (Apparently in the parallel dimension, their version of RicK Santorum had banned birth control, or something -- this dude was remarkably fertile.)
It was a difficult decision. Although a handful of Enoch's people welcomed me, most -- particularly the women -- made it clear that they didn't want me there. I faced intense prejudice from strangers. And the nocturnal-vs-diurnal issue was a constant argument between Enoch and me, especially where it concerned the children. (I was constantly letting them stay up until 1 in the afternoon, much to his chagrin.) But, overall, we were happy. On the Enterprise, I had been alone, married to my work. In Enoch's world, I had love, life, and family.
It was one of those early-morning dreams where you keep waking up, and then trying hard to go back to sleep so you can go back there for just a little bit longer. I succeeded several times, until I ran the risk of making my son late for school. It was really intense and really vivid, and it's probably going to haunt me for the rest of the day. I can't help but ask -- what does it mean? And this imagined man with whom I was completely but briefly in love -- his form will consume my thoughts for the next several hours, I'm certain. I'll remember him, perhaps, longer than our entire affair lasted in real time, though he never existed at all.
Sigh.
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Topic: I had a dream.... (Read 132889 times)