#she wasn't going to go swimming with a bunch of aggressive sharks after undergoing an unknown alien procedure

[drowned-cypress]

Robin didn’t remember exactly what she was dreaming about; she just knew that she had been dreaming with a sense of urgency. The alarm pulled her towards consciousness like surfacing from underwater. She slapped at her PDA and it silenced, but it was too late. She was already awake. She was sore all over, hungry, thirsty, and she needed to pee. The ground seemed to be leaching warmth from her back, so she sat up and stretched.

“What happens as you are sleeping?” the alien in her brain asked.

Robin jumped, startled. She’d forgotten about him.

“I was being pulled from illogical world to illogical world with you at the center of them all.”

Robin yawned. She wanted to be frustrated with the alien, but her head was still too fuzzy from sleep to really work up the emotion. “I was dreaming,” she answered neutrally.

“Does it serve a purpose? It was such disorienting and fragmented thought–random images and sensations.”

Had he never heard of dreaming? Was she going to have to explain every aspect of human life? She supposed so. She rubbed her eyes, wishing vaguely for coffee and trying to kick her brain into gear. It sounded like Al-An was from a species that experienced life very differently. “We aren’t completely sure what it does,” she replied, recalling what she knew about the neuroscience of dreaming, “but scientists theorize that it’s the brain’s way of processing memories and emotion. It can also just be incidental brain activity. Pretty much every human dreams though, as do many other mammals.”

“Is it enjoyable?” Al-An asked.

“Sometimes.” Robin pulled her backpack into her lap and retrieved a slightly squashed nutrient bar. “There’s good dreams, and there’s bad dreams, and then there’s dreams that aren’t really either. I’ve had dreams that were entire fleshed out narratives full of adventure, but I’ve also had dreams where I was convinced that something awful was going to happen to me or my sister, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I’ve had dreams where I woke up sobbing for no reason. A lot of my dreams make no sense after I wake up, but honestly, I don’t usually remember my dreams.”

Robin peeled back the nutrient bar’s protective foil and took a bite. These things were always so bland, but she didn’t have anything else at the moment.

“Your biofeedback indicates that narratives are the most enjoyable dreams,” Al-An said. “I therefore hope you have more of those. Mainly for my own safety.” The trepidation that entered Al-Al’s tone on this last statement made Robin blink.

“They aren’t harmful, you know, even when they���re scary,” she tried to reassure him. “The worst they can do is disrupt my sleep.”

“I found it unsettling. I did not know what was happening.”

Now that she thought about it, it was kind of weird that he could see her dreams. He had said he couldn’t read her mind. She frowned as she puzzled it over. When she thought about what actually happened in the brain during dreams, it made more sense. He had access to her sensory input. Brain scans showed that the various parts of the brain responsible for seeing and hearing or whatever all lit up during dreams, the same way they did when receiving actual sensory input. Actually, “Wait,” now that she thought about it, the weirdest part was, “were you aware while I was dreaming?” 

“Should I not have been?”

“Most people aren’t aware they’re dreaming,” Robin explained. “They generally experience everything going on as something that’s happening to them, including the actions they themselves take. It's like a story, and they’re just watching it happen without any agency. There’s a practice, called lucid dreaming, where people learn to become aware that they’re dreaming, and get to control the dream. I’ve always wanted to try it, but it’s never worked for me. Do you remember everything that happened in the dream?”

“I believe so.”

That was kind of disturbing. She chewed her bland nutrient bar as she thought about that. Dreams could also be raw manifestations of unconscious desires. The fact that he remembered them and she didn’t left her feeling exposed. It was going to be awkward as hell if she had a sex dream.

“A lot of people have trouble remembering their dreams,” Robin said after she had finished the nutrient bar. She put the foil back into her backpack and retrieved her last water bottle. “That’s because the part of the brain that encodes short term memory into long term memory is less active while we’re asleep, so we usually only clearly remember the parts of the dreams that happen when we’re partially awake. Some people can remember more of their dreams by thinking about them immediately after waking up, or journaling about them, which helps intentionally encode the short term memory into long term memory.”

“Is it not distressing to have incomplete memories?”

Robin sipped her water and shrugged. “Not really. Dreams can be entertaining, but if I don’t remember what happened, it’s not like I’m missing out on anything actually important. Now that you’re here though, I’m mildly concerned about what you might see that I might not even know about.”

“That bothers you.”

It was an observation, not a question. Robin was reminded that he had mentioned biofeedback. She supposed that functioned as a kind of empathy. All emotions had both a physical and a mental component to them. If he could feel every physical sensation that she felt, then he would be able to make a good guess of what emotion she was experiencing. She wasn’t sure how she felt about him being able to read her like that. It wasn’t too different from other people reading her facial expressions, just… more invasive. He was an alien, though. Would he even understand a lot of the physical responses her body had to emotions? He apparently did to some extent, to understand when she was bothered.

“How about this,” Robin started, trying to keep the conversation on track. “The next time I’m dreaming, try telling me I’m dreaming. It would be interesting to see if you could induce lucid dreaming. Perhaps if I’m more in control of my dreams, it will be less disorienting for you.” It could also potentially make it easier for her to remember her dreams, and make it less likely for her dreams to contain something embarrassing.

“Very well,” Al-An agreed. “The experiment is worth the attempt. What would you do in a lucid dream?”

That was a good question that deserved some thought. “I’m not sure,” Robin said slowly. “Probably fly. One of the best dreams I ever had let me float around in the air weightlessly, but still in total control of my body. It was pretty fun. I’d like to do that again.”

“Then I shall remind you to make the attempt.”

Robin smiled. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.