Skye is the Limit by Phenomenal Pen (best time to read books txt) 📕

Mr. Chase didn’t answer right away.

“The thing with dreams is, when you’re in it, it feels so real. So, no, I wouldn’t say it’s painless. You will feel pain because pain falls in the realm of the emotion.”

“But you also said that pain is an illusion,” Ellie said. “Is there a way to anesthetize us?” 

“I’m afraid there isn’t. We can call the pain we experience phantom pain in the sense that there is no physical stimuli present but, the fact of the matter is, even illusions have the ability to hurt us.

“But overthinking is irrational. It doesn’t contribute anything to the final outcome and, to top it off, it often makes things worse. What is real and what is an illusion? Now that is the question we should be asking ourselves. After all, our own perception of reality is itself an illusion. It’s like in that poem The Blind Men and the Elephant, you know?”

Mr. Chase surveyed the faces of his audience and, seeing only unrung bells in them, began to recite in a slightly sped-up version:

“ ’Twas six men of Indostan

To learning much inclined,

Who went to see the Elephant

(Though all of them were blind),

That each by observation

Might satisfy his mind.”

Despite Athena’s illustrations, the Nethernauts stared back at Mr. Chase as though their memories were car engines that wouldn’t turn over.

“But… I digress. Shall we discuss dream space rules?”

****

“The first rule you need to remember is: Trust Your Anima.”

Athena made the words appear on the whiteboard. The Imagineers glanced at one another, even more perplexed.

“What’s an Anima?” Ellie finally asked.  

“That is your Anima,” Mr. Chase said, pointing at her arm.

On cue, Athena dimmed the lights in the room and a glow-in-the-dark hologram emanated from the forearm of each Imagineer excluding Jayla.

“What? How did—?”

“Every one of you with the exception of Jayla got your engRAM pointer when you placed your hand on your chair’s arm to get your respective Omni Ear Leafs.” To Jayla, Mr. Chase said: “Don’t worry, Jayla, we’ll get you sorted out later. Athena, please set a reminder about Jayla’s pointer.”

<Certainly.>

 “The engRAM pointer will work in tandem with your biosensor helmet. Needless to say, the implantation process was quick and painless. Let me also assure you that your pointers will completely dissolve on their own once they reach their expiry date.”  

 “Anima…” Lu practiced the word in his lips while slicing his hand through his. Although the others were on the right arm, his was on his left. This was most likely because he was left-handed and had reached for his Omni Ear Leaf with his left hand.

The holograms were all identical: an idly spinning stork perched on some kind of golden mini-pyramid, like a ballerina in a water globe. The stork was a hollow wireframe model but it still retained its colors on its wires like a tie-dyed shirt: black on the head, neck, tail and about two-thirds of the wings; white on everything else except for the beak. The long beak was red with a black band around the middle and a yellow saddle on top.

Athena brought back the lights and the holograms faded away.

“Since the lights will be dimmed in your Link Station,” Mr. Chase continued, “your UV holograms will be constantly visible inside dream space. They will then serve a dual purpose. First, they will be a constant reminder to you of your origin, minimizing the risk of losing yourself in the reality of the dream. Second, they will regularly relay to our dedicated server your position, speed, altitude, health and other data.”

<You inserted a homing beacon in me?!> Zacharie, finally, couldn’t help blurting out.

“Oh! The engRAM pointer only works within dream space, Zacharie. Besides, we assumed you were fine with it because you signed the waiver in your contract.”

<It pays to read the fine print, Zach Attack,> Rip jumped at the opportunity to tease the anti-tech.

Zacharie fell quiet and seethed over what he viewed was a grave invasion of his privacy. It didn’t escape his attention either that Rip had called him Zach when he specifically warned them not to.

<Why a stork?> Ellie asked about the design.

“Athena and I chose the stork to be the symbol of SKYE oneironauts. In ancient Egypt, a stork symbolized the soul of a person, called ‘ba’, and was believed to migrate back to the body each and every night, after which the sleeping person would become reanimated, so to speak.”

<You may also find this symbol in scarab amulets placed beside sarcophagi,> Zacharie added in the tone of a museum tour guide. Athena missed his sarcasm again. <The great stork empowers Osiris, god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead.>