RUSH - Dreams

     'I can see them all. Thoughts and lives and dreams that are buried. Are they dust or am I?'

   'I see oceans of souls, lost in walking pets and tasting fruits in markets that are mounds of ash. I see the tears of a scared child frightened by by construction. I feel the joy of a family at a dinner table and their abrupt fear as the night sky transitions from black to the same tangerine hue of their star. I hear the cries of the children as their mother weeps silently, strongly, trying to protect her young. I smell the scent of a burnt world.'

    'I see genocide as I see abundance. Charred husks are talking and laughing and moving about as life should in the same moment.' 

    'The laughter of children echos through these strange honeycomb cluster homes. The scents of wildflowers I've never smelled tinge my nose. There must be an ocean nearby: that sea salt aroma is unmistakable no matter what planet I'm on.'

       "There is a festival in the main square. So many faces that I cannot see. Yet I cannot forget their haunting visages. I see them without knowing them. I know them without truly seeing them. The sky begins to flare, like an orange being crushed slowly. The light becomes unbearable, the cries become indistinguishable. Panic. Fear. Terror.'

    'A lone vessel rests over the planet. A crowning achievement, breaching the confines of the home sphere. The four passengers look on below as their home is consumed by a cascading wave of light and rage. A wave the color of the second sun's setting rips across the surface of their home as breath escapes them. I can feel their destitution and utter terror, but only at a distance. There is a numbness to it, like watching tragedy in a vid stream. I feel every ounce of pain that is coursing through them. The clementine colored cascade finishes its crest and encompasses the planetary sphere. As tears begin to stream down their cobalt cheeks, I know... they know.. we know... they are already dead. Their lives are dead.'

   ' I think I feel tears on my face. When am I?'

***

    Morgan woke abruptly. The sound of the artificial rain was a subtle metronome against her window, a constant reminder of the atmospheric stabilizers of Europa. She was drenched in sweat, her shirt sticking her her skin. She looked around the darkened room frantically, searching for the source of her stress. Her  hazel eyes locked on the display pad near her bedroom door: 01:38:54 local time. She rubbed her eyes and shifted to her side. The thermal conduits were running quiet so her room was an oubliette of silence as she scanned the room.

    'Just the new atmo', she thought as she fluffed her pillows and tried to get comfortable. Within moments she drifted back into sleep.

***

   ' This world is a graveyard. The burned bodies of families lay frozen in place where they sought shelter. Cities are but ashen ruins, the charred remnants of a world. The astronaut returned to her world collapses to her knees, the burnt remnants of a pet Ithkal crumbling in her hands as she knows she will die alone on a dead world, tears coming slowly as does with complete defeat.'

    'I hear the screams as this world is incinerated. I hear the cries. I feel the burn of the fire cascading down from the sky. I die a billion times over..."

***

    Morgan shot upright in bed, he forehead glistening with sweat, her chest pounding. She didn't look around this time. Her eyes locked straight ahead, seeing something that wasn't present.

    "Collin," she whispered through gasps. She knew this was not a dream... at least not her own.