Ben and Susan were lying in bed, cuddling and exchanging caresses in the dark. He was stroking her hair while she was stroking his chest right next to where her head was resting.

“I had this weird dream last night, Sue.”

“What about?”

“I dreamed that I'd just met you, and you were married to someone else.”

Sue started worrying about the direction that the conversation was taking. She tried to lighten the mood:

“Was he hot? Please don’t tell me it was that creepy guy from the grocery store…”

“I don’t know who he was; all I know is that it wasn’t me.”

“We all have crappy dreams sometimes. Just let it go.”

“You're right.”

Sue decided to bring up an entirely different topic:

“I’ve been thinking about our vacations, Ben. We need to decide where we wanna go.”

“Why don’t we go to Alaska? We’ve always wanted to see the northern lights...”

“It must be a beautiful thing to see. We should do that someday.”

“And we should definitively start a day by riding dog sleds.”

“That would be fun… but you know what would be romantic?”

“What?”

“Strolling around New York in the winter. I love that city covered in snow.”

***

Captain McCoy woke up and found sitting next to him the woman that he had been dreaming about – it was the second time in a row that she was the centerpiece of his dreams. It looked to him like she had spent the whole night watching him from that chair.

“I thought you had a bedroom of your own, Dr. Minett.”

“Good morning, Captain. Did you sleep well?” – Dr. Minett stood up from her chair and started walking in Captain McCoy’s direction.

“Good morning, Doctor. I slept alright, same as usual.” – Now that Susan was standing next to him, it was clear to Ben that she had stayed up all night. – “Did you sleep at all?”

“Yes. How are you feeling?”

“I’m seeing some funny things. They look like a bunch of little colorful beams moving really fast in the air.”

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“Phosphenes. They are a result of your brain trying to adjust itself to the device.”

“Will they go away?”

“When you’re ready to use the device you'll be able to see electrons. It will look pretty much like what you’re seeing now.”

“So I'll see like this all the time?”

“No, the phosphenes should be gone by tomorrow. From then on, this shouldn’t happen when you’re not using your abilities. Anything else that I need to know?”

“No, I guess that’s it.” – McCoy forgot to tell that he felt a sort of shock in his limbs just before waking up.

Dr. Minett performed all the tests of the protocol that she had established for the HETO program and did not notice anything unusual in Captain McCoy, which made the events that took place in the past night seem even weirder to her. When Minett was done removing the electrodes from McCoy's head, she asked:

“Did you dream last night?”

“I don’t know. I don’t remember.” – Dr. Minett’s question caught Captain McCoy by surprise and made him wonder whether he started talking in his sleep. “Why do you ask?”

“Standard protocol.”

“I’ll let you know if I remember anything.”

Dr. Minett nodded and said:

“You’re free to do your routine during the day, but I need you to spend another night here.”

“Why? Something’s wrong?”

“You exhibited an unusual EEG pattern for a moment last night. It's probably nothing to worry about, but I'd like to keep an eye on you tonight.”

Sitting on the gurney, Captain McCoy ignored Dr. Minett's answer and decided to test something that he remembered from his latest dream:

“Do we get northern lights here in Adak? I mean, if there was a window I could look out…”

“No, we’re not in the auroral zone. Even if we were, the sky is always clouded here, so…”

“Crappy weather, huh?”

“Yeah. I don’t remember the last time I saw a clear sky.”

“I’d love to see the northern lights someday.”

“Me too. It must be a beautiful thing to see.”

The last sentence that Dr. Minett had just pronounced made Captain McCoy feel chills all over his body. Her interest on the northern lights was most likely a quite usual coincidence, but he chose to believe that there could be something about her choice of words – the same words that she said in his dream – in a rather general response.

Euphoria took over. McCoy’s breath was so short that he could not speak three words without having to breathe again. For a moment Ben was not aware of what Susan was saying to him or – even worse – what he was saying to her, but he managed to find a way to calm himself down and quit the autopilot mode that he had entered into.

“I’ll let you get back to your work”, McCoy said as he stood up.

“See you later, Captain.”

“See you later.”

McCoy headed to his provisional practice room and decided to turn the arguable excitement that he was feeling into motivation for what he knew was going to be a long day of hard training.