Chapter 1

The end of another day was drawing to a close, Ray sat on his porch staring at the night sky. Sighing he stretched his thick frame and ran a hand through his thick, curly, dark brown hair. Stepping inside he went to the cupboard to get something for the headache that was starting to pound in his head. All his adult life they had plagued him, tonight being no exception. Opening the medicine, he read the label HA! Just two? yeah right.

Taking out five he downed them without anything to drink, oh shit! That was a mistake.

Rushing to the sink he grabbed a quick glass of water, sighing he knew that this was going to be a bad one. An hour later he laid down, thoroughly exhausted from the day. As always Ray said a small prayer hoping that everyone was well, even those that didn’t like him and that his luck would take a turn for the better.

Dreams had been an illusion for many years, he found he very rarely remembered dreaming the next morning. It started when he was a teen, after the car wreck the week before his senior year of high school the headaches started.

They weren’t that bad then, but it seemed each year they got increasingly worse. Now, they were to the point that he had at least one every day, sleep didn’t always alleviate the pain either.

Now thirty + years later a lot of weird things had happened along the way. For one though, he rarely remembered dreaming, it was strange but when he did the dream actually happened. This had him at times hoping he didn’t have a horrible dream, remembering it would spell disaster.

He had started seeing things he knew couldn’t be there. The worst was thinking at times, that his desire for something to happen if strong enough, actually happened. This night as usual, in his prayer he hoped that nothing bad was dreamed. Drifting into REM sleep he felt he was traveling a great distance, passing planets, galaxies then he was slowing.

Damn, Ray thought, first time ever had a dream like this, stopping above a gray planet he looked at it and was suddenly standing on the surface. The dry barren landscape reminded Ray of pictures he’d seen of deserts on earth. A little confused he felt a hot breeze blow across his face, what the hell? Never had that happen, I’ve had a lot of funky dreams but nothing like this! A soft misty patch of blue came toward him, [Are you the creator of the life form before?]

“Huh? The life form before?” Ray said.

The mist floated there not moving, then again Ray heard or thought he heard, [Are you the creator of the life force before?] It was then that he realized that he hadn’t ‘heard’ it, but it had been inside his head. Ok, he thought, it’s a dream might as well go along.

[What do you mean the creator? This is not my true form, that is corporeal.] Ray thought he hoped it ‘heard’ him. It? Looked? At him a moment then moved closer.

[Your thoughts are nnnnn anything we have nnnnn before, ] it thought at him.

Ray was getting confused, as it moved closer, he felt warmth from it, what the hell?

[You are having trouble with my thoughts] thought Ray, [what can I do to make them better or clearer for you?]

[Your thoughts, nnnnnnn] Ray could feel the frustration from it, strange dream to be for sure.

[This is not as you call it a dream, AH! We see now. Is the visage that is before us you or from you?]

[This is what I am seeing in my dream, so ... it’s from me] Ray thought ok, this is getting weirder and weirder.

There was a pause then it started back, [you have such power that was why we drew you here, we beseech your help, we and our planet are dying.]

Ray felt his head pounding, then he was seeing around the whole planet, ok, this was new. Passing over countless areas of gray, he began to see a pattern develop. That was odd, it appeared that something deep underground was poisoning the crust of the planet. Reaching out he surrounded the blue mist with a soft energy. He heard what he thought was a collective sigh. After fifteen minutes (he thinks) the mist’s color grew darker, many parts separating and circling him after thirty minutes they were all circling him.

[Thank you we are much better, have you seen what is killing everything?] The voice in his head asked.

[No, not yet, but I can feel something deep under the crust poisoning everything up here] Ray thought, just for a moment it seemed that he could tell the difference between the many different pieces of mist that were floating around. Most of the mists backed up when he reached out to find what was causing all the problems. Drawn to whatever it was Ray seemed to fly through the soil and rock as if they were merely pictures in front of him. He had been at it for a few minutes when he felt something far more alien to him than the mists he’d met before.

He was suddenly coming through a layer of rock, when he found a strange machine, well he assumed it was a machine there was metal on and in it. It was very deep in the planet not all that far from the core. It appeared to be sucking the energy from the core it’s self, no wonder the planet was dying. That’s when he felt it drawing energy from him, not much as it appeared his wasn’t very good for it. A strange clicking started when he drew closer something that looked like a barrel pointed at him, oh shit! Not good! Quickly Ray was in the wall moving to the other side of the strange machine.

Barely looking out he saw it was looking for him where he’d gone through the wall. Quickly he moved out and into the machine careful to stay away from the energy collectors he’d seen before. Finding what he thought was the control center he concentrated trying to read the strange writing on the controls.

Not moving afraid it might detect him it was half an hour before he was starting to understand a few words. Damn it! This was taking far longer than he’d hoped it would. Another fifteen minutes had him finally putting words together. Reaching out he tried to reverse the flow of energy, but it hadn’t started yet, it was too damn slow.

Ray felt a change in the machine, in a minute or two he was afraid that it would be centering on him inside. Summoning more energy, he again pushed the controls feeling a clunk he felt the energy tanks begin to pump out instead of in. A series of whirs and clicks caught his attention and he was darting out of the machine surprised to find the machine had moved.

Damn it! the nearest wall was a hundred feet away, darting back and forth across the room, the machine shot a beam at him just as he hit the wall. Barely hitting his foot, it was like a hundred ants biting at the same time. Damn it! He’d been careless trying not to scream he slowly moved around the room feeling somewhat weaker.

Looking out again the machine was waiting and fired, barely getting back in time Ray sat for minute trying to get his energy back. It was slow, what had it hit him with? Finally, his energy was higher he moved as far around the room as he could. Sticking his head barely out, the machine was almost in place to fire again. Pulling back, he thought the machine must be able to follow him when he was near the wall. Moving further away from the wall he moved around again coming out quickly to the back side of the machine again. Going in, he started to get the energy out faster, looking at the readings he saw that half of what had been taken was back out.

Concentrating again he was soon able to read all the text, hmmm it appeared that he could shut the security off, that done he went over all the controls. Damn according to this there were five other machines on the planet. The tanks almost empty Ray then looked for a way to destroy the machine. Reading further on Ray saw that there were many, many safeguards to keep the machine safe. Damn there had to be a way, Ray was at his wits end when he found that he could overload the energy cells. Ray was trying to hurry, the cells were at critical, now just a bit more, pulling out as fast as he could Ray had just gotten through the wall when the machine exploded.

Ray felt all around him, the planet here, felt more normal but the draw was still going on just not as bad. Rushing to the other machines Ray had a much easier time with them, now that he could read the strange language. The Fifth Machine exploded with Ray heading to the surface. Though none of the other four machines had fired on him he still felt tired, he also felt that he’d have to wake up soon his sleep cycle was almost done. Appearing near the many parts of now dark blue mist, he called out to them.

[It is done but it will be a little before you notice the change.] Again, he thought he could tell the difference between all of the pieces of mist.

[Yes, we feel the, as you call it energy, once again flowing though the planet though it is still deep, we can feel it. We ask now what you would desire for what you have done for us.] The collective voice of them all thought.