Skye is the Limit by Phenomenal Pen (best ebook reader ubuntu .TXT) 📖

Since Mr. Patel had been listening in, it didn’t take long for Athena to get the green light from him. All participants of SKYE Beta were led to the Link Station, which gave the impression of a NASA mission control with five beds radiating from the center. The beds were a cross between giant carved-out white pills and MRI machines.            

“This is where you guys would be sleeping. This station in the center is where we’ll do constant monitoring of all aspects of your shared dream. We’ll be communicating with you through Athena’s projection of herself inside the dream space.”

The Imagineers stood around in awe.

“So, guys,” Lu finally asked. “Are we gonna do it or what? We’ve already come this far.”

< (beep) yeah!> Rip shouted and held out his hand for a hand-pile cheer. Lu and Ellie followed suit.

“Come on, Zacharie,” Lu encouraged.

<Hmp. All right. But this is just because you would get yourselves killed without me,> the backpacker said.

“Don’t worry, Jayla,” Ellie told the fifth member. “We know you’re with us.”

Jayla gave a soft smile. 

“Go Imagineers!” Lu shouted as they all raised their hands.

****

Before anything else, Mr. Chase brought everyone to the cafeteria, which had been reserved entirely for them. Rip couldn’t imagine why Omni Systems employees should be prohibited from rubbing elbows or taking pictures with them. In his mind, a computer engineer who worked for Omni Systems was more of a celebrity than him. Little did he know that Omni Systems HQ had several such cafeterias that served free meals to employees on different floors. Diverting people to various cafeterias was common protocol for crowd and traffic control.

Cafeteria was probably not the most apt word. The dining hall looked and was staffed like a first-class restaurant. World-famous chefs also planned and executed the daily menu. Much to Rip’s disappointment though, the plates were small. He thought it was to discourage employees from splurging and getting sleepy at work. Compared to the typical Asian meal, there was much less carb and more fresh fish, fruits, salads, and kale – lots of it – harvested from the building’s hydroponic vertical farms. He couldn’t find any Korean dish so he settled for an Indian one and hoped it would be spicy enough.

Lu got a lot of the raw Japanese stuff while Zacharie requested, almost predictably, something French. The girls were content to munch on the rabbit food, with Jayla having a gaggle of attendants.

After the meal, Mr. Chase encouraged them to go to the bathroom and prepare themselves for the maximum six hours of sleep ahead. In the bathroom, the three guys were amazed at the state-of-the-art toilets that used nanotechnology and zero water. The toilets also converted urine into clean water and feces into biological charcoal. Zacharie grudgingly admitted it was a step forward. On the other side of the wing, Ellie couldn’t concentrate enough to do what she thought she wanted to do because the female members of Jayla’s retinue came with them.   

****

Back at the Link Station, they received shots of the sedative that Athena informed them was derived from Dimethyltryptamine, the same chemical that the human brain naturally produced during dreaming. Medical personnel had been called in and most of them gathered around Jayla to see to her engRAM pointer, administer her dose, and tenderly lift her when it was time for them to lie down on their respective beds. 

To Lu, wearing the biosensor headset felt just like any normal motorcycle helmet. Although they were wearing it while lying down, Omni Systems made a lot of effort to make the situation comfortable. They made sure to tailor the sizes to their individual heads and that there was an abundance of padding. In addition, in the actual bed, there was a hole where the back of the helmet poked through. Then Lu felt someone attach what he sensed was a largish cable to the back of his helmet.

Soon his helmet was making a lot of beeps and flashes both inside and out. It had an HUD display which was currently empty. Lu wondered if that was all right or if that meant that his head was empty. That would be embarrassing, he thought, and chuckled. He could feel the sedative starting to take over. 

He was anxious that he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep fast enough because he wasn’t really tired. What Mr. Chase had explained about the Nightcrawler sounded really important. But as the sedative kicked in, he felt a drowsiness he couldn’t resist and his eyelids felt very heavy. They were so heavy he could barely keep his eyes open. The Link Bed was so quiet, comfy and snug. Like a cocoon or womb. The exhaustion his body had accumulated all those months since he received word of being selected as one of the Imagineers finally came rushing all at once. The weight of all the combined stress was so great that it seemed as though the bottom of his prostrate body was melding with the bed.

He guessed it was a side-effect of the drug that he was having such morbid thoughts. From his lessons in Sports Medicine, he knew that the downer was creating the feeling of disassociation. He imagined all his muscles gradually turning to meat. Meat on a slab of metal, or plastic, whatever.