Fractal Dream

Putting down the second empty beer bottle, Mark stretches his back and right
arm. It is 2 a.m. on a summer night. Outside, the moon illuminates the parking
lot in front of his apartment and part of his living room. He is at home,
surfing the internet and playing videogames. The room he sits in exudes a
very utilitarian style, a desk for his computer, a gaming chair with proper back
support so long periods of inactivity don’t stress the body, a dinning table, a
couple of chairs and 2 sofas for occasional company, that betray, through their
use as second wardrobe shelves, the solitary existence of their owner.
As soon as he gets back up, Mark stretches his upper limbs and looks around
as if to make sense of his life. All the signs around him give the impression of
young adult who moved out on his own. He feels a bit weird, the same feeling
one has when after a night of heavy drinking one ends up in their bed fully
dressed in pyjamas, confused yet relieved with a hazy recollection of what just
happened. He lets out a sigh and proceeds to boot up one of the may games
listed on the screen, this time a space empire simulation.
After another hour, that seemed like minutes to him and aeons to the simu-
lated subjects he ruled over, Mark decides that it is finally a good time to go to
sleep. Indeed, for anyone that has, as far as their concious mind is aware, no
arrangements for the day, it was a good time to rest, maybe even a little early.
Before drifting off to sleep he sets and alarm for eight and a half hours, after
all there is no need to waste time even when one has an abundance of it. His
bedroom, again, betrays the solitude of this existence, a bed, made for maybe
one and half persons, a single pillow with proper support and blanket. Aside
from these sleeping arrangements there’s also a night stand made of metal
with a couple of books and of course his phone. Apart from this the room
is empty. As he closes his eyes, he is almost immediately pulled into a deep
slumber, his whole body relaxing and his mind becoming void.
The piercing sound of two metal bells wake up John from his slumber.
Around him, in the sunlit room the old and robust mahogany furniture sits
covered by a small layer of dust. Two sturdy wooden night stands, placed
the each side of the large bed, serve as support for John’s most loved things,
books; and of course for the bane of his existence, a rather large wind-up clock
that he silenced as soon as he made head and tail of what and where and who
he is. This sort of thing was usual for him, as he was a very deep sleeper.
After getting fully up, he walked to the kitchen to brew some coffee. His
house was small, divided 5 areas, 2 of which would trigger claustrophobia at-
tacks should there be more than 1 person in at a time, those were the kitchen
and the bathroom. The rest were a bit bigger, the living room and the bed-
room, and it also had somewhat of a hall. John figured it wasn’t that bad,
he lived alone after all, also ’what kind of psychopath would have 2 people

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CHAPTER . FRACTAL DREAM 2

cooking or using the bathroom at the same time’, he though.

He took his coffee into the living room and proceeded to sit down into a
luxurious chair. He put down the coffee on the small table in front of him,
whose only aesthetic boon was to fill the gap between the 2 identical chairs.
John got up and went to the library behind him, a particularly large set of
bookshelves spanned before him. He picked up a leather bound book, not too
small but not too big either. The cover was had the title engraved into the
dark crimson leather that covered the book, ”Twenty thousand leagues under
the sea”. He brought the book with him, sank into the chair and began to turn
over the pages as if looking for something. ’Aha!’, he exclaimed filled with
anticipation. He had found the place he remembered leaving at. ’Imagine
that, something that can transport you underwater and for quite the breath
of time. Wouldn’t that be nice if it existed’ he contemplated getting more and
more absorbed into the story.
This was John’s day off, and since he always wanted to finish that book, now
was the time to do it. He enjoyed reading, but most of all he enjoyed reading
Jules Verne’s stories about crazy machines that might exist in the future, and
imagining what it would be like to be in one of them. He did this for the next
few hours stopping from time to time to drink and also replace the coffee in his
mug. When alas there was no more of that brown elixir of awakening, John
decided that it was time to clean himself and get dressed. During his morning
bath, that was already longer than usual, he fell asleep in the tub thinking
about the wonders of sea. The warm bathwater and his general relaxed and
dreamy attitude did not help in keeping him awake either, but his height did
manage to provide the necessary conditions to keep John from drowning.
A bright light accompanied by what can only be described as a mini tornado
alarm wakes up Adam from his peaceful slumber. Startled and groggy, he
stretches in the seat of his car, a small sedan, grey, that to the untrained eye
looked in pretty good condition, but should you know where to look it really
did show it’s years. Adam goes out and walks around the car a couple of times,
half to make sure the car is still in one piece and half just to decompress from
a night, well, more like a nap since it’s still dark outside, spent in the seat of
his car.
This was Adam’s last day of vacation this year and he had to make it home
before work started again. He didn’t want to think about that, all he knew
was that he did loath that place, but it did put meat on the table.
After examining his watch and doing some more exercise around the car he
concluded that it was indeed time to go. He did have enough time to make it
home, but he didn’t feel like driving in the desert’s sun, plus what was he going
do there? ’Nothing that’s what’, he thought to himself as he strapped into the
car. He lowered the console and typed his address. As soon as he pressed
enter the car started driving. ’I wish I could sleep during this’, he mumbled,
’why did they have to keep the rule of being awake while ”driving”?’. He was
extremely tired, although he couldn’t remember what it was he did during his
CHAPTER . FRACTAL DREAM 3

vacation, one thing was certain, it wasn’t sleeping. Adam wasn’t the kind to
mind such a thing, if, of course, the trade-off was enjoyable; but sitting still in
a car that does everything is far from it. It was a strange combination he felt,
tired yet happy, relaxed. He contemplated this state of mind for the entire trip
and was only aware of the end it when the care shut down the inside lights.
Going upstairs to his one-bedroom apartment, the only thing that was on
his mind was his bed. The metal frame resting on a wooden box that together
hoist up the one-person matters. The rest of that room consisted of a couple of
drawers in a dressing and an empty hamper. As soon as he arrived he darted
towards the bed, missed the hamper with the clothes he was wearing and fell
face-first into the soft yet firm pillow on his bed. For those of you concerned
about the clothes, the hamper moved and picked them up as Adam was falling
asleep.
He awoke to a dull but loud beeping sound that rang with impressive ac-
curacy every half a second and to a red light that flashed in tune with the
alarm. Looking around him he managed to see a screen and decipher the sym-
bols on it: SUBJECT: M. JACK... DELTA TIME: HALF PERIOD... REASON
FOR SUSPENSION: MANUAL INPUT/MAINTENANCE... SYSTEM: COOLING...
TYPE: PLANNED AWAKENING. Even though he could read it, the words did not
make any sense to him, not even the name. He assumed it was his since he
didn’t remember having any.
’Hello captain. I am H.Y.P.N.O.S. the Human Youth Preserving
and Nurturing Operating System’. Please do not be alarmed and
allow your mind some time to remember. Based on the previous
twentywake-ups it should be done within half and hour captain.’
a disembodied and cold voice spoke from the speakers. Jack, for he now
accepted that that was his name, started to search his mind about anything
from his past, after all it was exactly what the voice asked him to do. At first
it was hard, he couldn’t remember anything, then slowly the ship, or what
he saw of it, his body being stuck in a large glass cylinder, and the name
”HYPNOS” started to feel familiar. Slowly, memory by memory, event by event
he remembered, he was captain M. Jack of the Earth’s Space Exploration Force
and he was sent on a mission to the far quadrant of the Andromeda galaxy.
’Mark, John, Adam, Constantine and Kevin’, he said loudly.
’Password accepted, welcome back captain!’, the voice from the speak-
ers replied, the large cylinder beginning to open.
’Full awakening report!’
’Time since last period of conciousness: 15000 sols. Reason for
cryo-sleep suspension: scheduled cooler change in the main proces-
sing unit of the ship (manual task only).’
’Begin procedure in t-30min!’
’Timer set!’
As far as he remembered this was the third time he had to perform this rou-
tine ”oil change”. He didn’t really understand why people back home deemed
CHAPTER . FRACTAL DREAM 4

it necessary that this process needed to be completed manually, although he

was sure it had to do with the self-reliance of intelligent beings. ’I really don’t
see the point’, he thought to himself, ’the computer is already controlling my
dreams, with that technology it could have me do whatever it wants, no mat-
ter if it’s self-reliant or not. And it’s not like this computer is all that powerful,
it can’t even simulate other people in my dreams, even though I can recall
at least a handful right now.’. This was one of the things he dreaded most,
being alone and not having anyone to talk to. As he finished replacing the
cooling agent and strapped himself back in the cryo-chamber he looked out
at the starts one last time and prayed that may, just maybe this time HYPNOS
would manage to recreate at least the most basic semblance of interaction in
his dreams. ’Continue with Constantine!’