Conjuring Dreams or Learning to Write by Writing

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  "I tell you, gentlemen, the evidence is incontrovertible . . ."

  "Not to mention unbelievable." There was nervous laughter all around the room.

  "Nevertheless, gentlemen, you all saw the footage. Rega exploded thirteen months ahead of schedule and an alcoholic troublemaker knew all about our top secret dimension transport plan. The coordinates we had calculated secretly were there in his flight computer with slight modifications as well as a video and untampered log which included a visual of our system exploding. There can be no doubt that speed is of the essence."

  "Director General, you can't expect us to believe that Rega will explode in 11 days because of the log of a renegade ship of some demented pilot," said the governor firmly. "The same man who claims he left more than two weeks ago. His is not the word I am most likely to place faith in."

  "Sir, there are two Dragons in the bay, one still impounded, and it never left the impound dock. The other arrived three days ago piloted by Jason Wilson who had been in it for two weeks alone. That same Wilson had been in my office whining about releasing his ship just the day before. There are two Jason Wilsons on R-27 as we speak."

  "Oh my God!" whispered the governor, white.

  "Even worse, they're both sober. The one that arrived we have 'quarantined' to not only keep him from bumping into himself but also to keep him from any accurate timepieces. As his ship's time jibes exactly with what he thinks is the correct time and date, he's still ignorant of any time anomalies. The other is sobering up in isolation/debriefing, also to help prevent contact. We have the colonists picked and ready, but we have to move fast. We do not have the luxury of months that we thought but instead a handful of days . . . hours even. And an armada of colony ships that must escape without fanfare.

  "What's more, Mender, our expert on the sun, told me he has seen some signs in the star he has never seen on another star before. When I asked him if it could blow early, he said he hadn't a guess, only that the star was not behaving as planned. Unpredictable, he called it."

  "But do we have to send Wilson?" moaned a weakening governor and there were concurring mumbles from the room.

  "What choice do we have? We've already sent him because he already came back. It has to be him."

  "Just say we send someone else. What happens?" a councilman asked hopefully.

  "No one knows, but experimentation is another luxury we cannot afford. The stakes are too high and the time far too short. We must decide and we must decide now. What's it to be, gentlemen, live or die?"

  "Can you pull it off?" asked one soft voice in the answering stillness.

  "I have no choice."