"This is a god-dream, this is a god-dream."

West

* * *

Michael

I do not immediately meet my countrymen but I did meet the others of my species of humans, more specifically other 'earthlyings' of my generation. I meet a few earthlings first from the years 2059 and '68 with my heart clenching with dread wondering how Earth could have survived that long without a world war or a pandemic but most of all how old my children were or if they were even alive. Likely long-dead scattered into ashes of history by now while I their father has never been more vigorous with energy.

I do not understand the mysteries of the universe, I do not understand how so many people have been displaced across space and time as I have but I accept it. I understand that I am an alien on this world and instinctively this makes it easier and more comforting to be amongst others from Earth, my home. I start making friends.

We all have different schedules though and there are a lot of people at the compound, I use the word 'people' loosely, so we don't see each other regularly. We have schedules and they actually make a lot of sense so I follow mine even with my American stubbornness and paranoia of being controlled and surveilled, I'm vigilant, I trust no organisation to be altruistic. The diet plan is comprehensive and well put together for introducing a new palette to an exotic diet, they have good food. Some of the best I've ever tasted and even little portions are filling. Everything is new, interesting, worth studying in some way but its the people that most fascinate me.

The training is interesting and slowly more complex obstacle courses are introduced, the running and the swimming are all stimulating and enjoyable, I love to run, to jump, to climb. I never knew I could enjoy swimming as much as I do on Gaia. The consistency of the viscosity of the water is completely different than it is back home. Everyone here is always moving, always doing something or going somewhere, maybe everyone is on a schedule. The exits aren't heavily guarded and maps of the compound and surroundings are readily available so I'm yet to test to invisible leash I know I have around my neck. I have nowhere to go and no one to go with so I might as well let these people train, house, equip and feed me and see what their intended ends are. I'm suspicious but another truth is I actually like it here.

The weight training in a state of the art body training yard designed like an obstacle course gymnasium. More feng shui than I'm used to yet practical with machines, tools and materials for muscle and ligament I didn't even know were important on earth and some that had apparently atrophied from earth's entire evolutionary line of humanity.

My days become a series of deadlines for a while as I follow the schedule set out for me as carefully as I can whilst also snooping around the place for extra information on the people 'keeping' me. The lessons in even the most basic of topics are full of interesting revelations. I'm open-minded 'cause I know I know nothing but everything is taken with a healthy grain of salt.

Our appendix on earth is a mess for example, I learn daily what these people consider basic anatomy in detail that puts the first year college courses to shame. The appendix, one of the organs we had slowly lost in our 'devolution' into a 'lesser' human, one of several organs we've slowly lost or been losing overtime on Earth as our diets change. There is the combat training in my schedule on top of everything else, the long days and nights are truly well utilized on Gaia. Such long days under a strange glorious sun I can gaze directly at without hurting my eyes.

The weapons training is interesting but very difficult and technical in nature, hard to learn. It is painstaking and taking fine tune detail into large account. Swinging a sword dictated by how you stand, where your feet are, how they are placed, where the most power on your feet can immediately come from front or back, where you feel your center of gravity to be, and how quickly you could defend if need be, the next move my opponent can make, the whereabouts of my opponent's weapons. I'm not even talking about wrist movement and the forearm strength needed. Then the feigns, sword fighting at some point becomes an art of balance, reflexes and who is the best liar.

What I really enjoyed because I had a background in and could learn tricks quickly in is hand to hand combat. I had always been curious about pursuing it semi-professionally or just for the fun of it but I really never had time with the army, traveling, then the accident.

In training I had scored exemplary records on the unarmed combat charts, it became sort of my speciality in my Unit but not to the extent that I could kick any of their asses easily, there were guys like that in other Units. Whenever I could train a little at base or gain little tricks from other soldiers that liked the sport I did, and that way I kept getting marginally better at it.

Here at the compound I get a trainer that dedicates hours of his time to training me in what he thinks I'm ready for, 12 hours of every day I am at the dojo sweating on the mats learning a Kung Ku seeming martial style of a discipline known as flow taijutsu. The movements are sometimes silly and need more flexible dancer hip movements than I thought I could manage, but I eventually do manage. Always.

I have sparing partners that are of course all more advanced than me so I can give my all in sparing without fear of hurting them. It is comical how much faster than me they all are, how fluid and smooth their movements as I struggle to emulate whiles also trying to seriously kick their asses. I can't even tell by fighting them who amongst them is the best fighter, that's how much better than me they all are. They all keep me back with equal ease, even making a game of it and competing to see who can deflect my strikes at the very last second closest to impact.

But I enjoy it, I enjoy it a lot even with the bruises I accumulated through the process even to be miraculously healed after a good nights sleep.

I pour myself into my schedule for a whole seven days trying to gauge the improvements and knowledge i'm getting from doing as i'm adviced. It's no surprise to me that i'm at the best shape of my life and my body feels like how I imagine twelve year olds to feel, light of bod, flexible and always eager to test my new limits.

Everyone gives me my space, which is something I both appreciate and am frustrated by. Eventually, I stop the avoidance game and start making conversation collecting news from earth slowly and with a heavy heart.

''When are you from?'' Is the first thing most of them ask, it's strange how the passage of time is so often referenced by who the ruler in the dominant empire was during their lives.

I speak to my sparing partners confirming the passage of time and the advancement of technology to the detriment of a society that sounds more and more dystopian to my ears. Its amazing what human beings will accept, starting little by little to people losing minor rights or privileges as time went by until the government convinced them their existence as corporate drones were their purpose in life.

I meet my fellow Americans but we are so disconnected generational wise that we don't even consider the same things general knowledge from Earth. Who the fuck doesn't know Operah Winfrey for instance and what the hell is Araknet, and how do children even grow up not knowing who Adolf Hitler is? All of us are from the same century yet seem so different in everything we know about United States, Federation of America Jessica knows it by in her time.

I meet Max, Abdul, and Jessica, my countrymen in what used to be the America I knew and we immediately clique and get along with the shared horror of what our country had become unifying us somehow. Max was apparently 65 years old when he was on earth but now he doesn't look a day over 25, Abdul was 88 and he doesn't look a day over 25, Jessica was 74 and she doesn't look a day over 25. I was 39 years old veteran in a wheeled chair but I don't look a day over 25.

I'm apparently the youngest individual 'ascendant' in over 5 years I'm told by the others from earth. The fact that we call ourselves 'ascendant' seems kind of prideful to me, especially in light of how little we know in comparison to everyone that is born on this planet about what's going on.

According to the few that are still in this Sinai Compound after years on Gaia it really is initially an easier climb in 'Awakening' for us in comparison to the locals, apparently. Something about the concentration gradient of ether we initially have and how quickly and thickly it tries to flow into us using the transition pool elements as a catalyst of some sort, at least that's the latest theory from what the people here consider academics. I'm looking forward to being Awoken so I can get superpowers, everyone likes that about this place.

I get along most well with Max and we almost immediately form a close friendship of a sort. The man was apparently a prisoner on earth and kept being denied parole until he met someone that changed his life on the inside. We take a walk outside on a daily basis as he fulfils his obsession of just wandering around freely without much supervision, I don't say much because we are usually supervised but I map the place for possible escpe routes.

Max's schedule is almost the same as mine but he goes to a yoga class when I have cooking, and meditation when I have weapon's training. I've been concentrating on the spear like Jonah started me on and the short sword and shield as a backup weapon, both with shield use and its all been very challenging. As much as I'm flow in Flow Jutsu hand to hand is my bread and butter and I'm actually awake longer than my other earthly counterparts and I take longer to tire or become hungry, but they've been assured they should fully climatize within 10 to 15 months of being on Gaia.

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I spent 3 months on the mountain with my Welcomers and Jonah, I spend another 3 months following this almost daily routine as exactly as I reasonably can. I trust that it was designed by a sort of nutritionist of this place that's a strange combination of archaic, medieval and superior advanced society all in one. There is no electrical technology here, people use spears, swords and ride horses for their travel yet having seen them none of us could call them backwards or inferior in any way to the society we know from home. With a semi-automatic rifle how would I do against a magic-wielding warrior in their primitive garb, its fascinating that the answer isn't obvious.

Its a good 3 months I spend at the Sinai Compound where I have no responsibilities besides getting myself as physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually and sexually healthy as I possibly can.

There is no go on the sexual health part actually but it isn't a pressing issue and the locals are apparently advised not to be intimate with us before we acclimatise fully. And amongst my fellow earth ascendant, I don't immediately find someone to shack up with though Abdul and Jessica are all over each other on a daily basis for the entire time I've known them.

''Your meridians are developing well, you will begin the taijutsu,'' Master Anderson says after watching me perform the flow movement practice.

Three months at the dojo I'm told by Master Anderson that I'm ready to start learning taijutsu releases since my chakra development is so far ahead of my level, whatever that means. That's another thing that's apparently a curiosity with me, my chakra levels are apparently off the charts and especially my crown chakra.

Whenever I go through a deep chakra meditation I'm locked in a room with a few people that are somehow able to witness the universe with me when I finally get to my crown chakra in my process. Its a whole experience in which I start projecting a black mist and my eyes became black pools as I connect to the thing within me on a level in which we can semi understand each other. I connect to the others as well as they open to me and in that way we get to know each other intimately.

I meditate, I learn, I scout my eventually escape as i get stronger and learn more without anyone saying what these people expect from me. We discuss it some amongst the other ascendents. I've watched some people leave to apparently find their own way, are they really allowed to leave though or is some terrible fate awaiting anyone that wants to leave. We can't know because no one ever comes back and there are no cellular phones by which to check on them. I can't trust these Conclave people until I figure out what they want from us but its obviously clear we wouldn't last long out there on our own, no one would that isn't local. So I watch, I learn, I get stronger.

Those are my first 6 months on Gaia, one year and 2 months according to local time I think. Time here still confuses me, a day is a 100hours, so much time in a day it boggles the imagination till you live in it and wonder how people back home get anything done with so little time to do things.

Six months in which my hair grows back slowly but grows back as soft baby hair, my body becomes so ripped with lean ropy flexible muscle that I feel like an extreme athlete, my learning is quick and I can speak the basics of Common along with Linguae, I stop cringing every time someone new comes down the mountain telling me its now year 2099 or such shit, I became as close to my God as I think I've ever been and I'm almost completely Zen if that is even a description, like a monk.

Exploring the forests immediately around the compound with Max, Jess and Abdul is a treat we indulge in weekly, or every ten-days. I'm on obstacle course 7 which means I'm actually more physically fit and capable than the basic untrained citizen born on Gaia but they still mostly treat me with kid gloves around the compound and the women ignore my flirting attempts because they know I've only been with them few months. They don't add up the time I've been up on the mountain and its a little patronizing and definitely getting old.

At least the time difference between Gaia and Earth has been getting smaller and smaller we hear with the new arrivals implying the ratio of time passed is decreasing, and so less and less time is passing on earth in comparison to Gaia. The speed of time passage is shortening and that makes me feel relived, but my children are probably still long dead though, my family.

*

I walk into the bar and almost immediately zero in on the very well curved, busty, fit, beautiful redhead sitting at the bar drinking down on her spirits like a fish. My legs take me there as I pass by other patrons hardly seeing them at all in my distracted state, I slow down as I get close to eaves drop a little preparing a line in my head. Its been a while since I approached a woman.

"Does your dad know where you are?" The white bearded, tall, muscluar, balding bartender asks the girl as he passes her another drink.

"You should ask him that next time you see him around for me." She says with an attitude, not even slurring as she downs another shot of whatever she's drinking.

"Saya, you know he worried about you and wants to spend time with you." The bartender says placatingly as he places another drink before her.

"He wasn't around much when I grew up makes not difference to me now since I no longer need a dad. Only now he deigns to try to spend time with me? As if I'd fall for that 'let's get close' sap he tries now that I can kick his ass." She sips this drink delicately, taking her time.

I take the stool one down from her leaving a space between us and get the bartender's attention. He pours me a beer in a big mug without my prompting and places it before me before returning back to the girl to talk about this dad she's avoiding.

As I hear it apparently her dad wasn't around when she was a kid but now that she's older he wants to be around more, get to know her but she doesn't need him anymore or some such. Dad issues, such an American problem to have, reminds me of being at home being here in this bar. I look around for the first time.

There are a few big differences but otherwise bars the worlds over tend to look the same. One of the only few things that was remembered and designed to perfection even on Earth after all other knowledge of our past is lost.

The bartender finally leaves to go serve someone else, who's order he takes I notice instead of preordering for. I look towards the girl and back at the wall in front of me that's actually a bookcase, one of the few big differences.

"Don't like your dad huh?" I say as I take another sip still facing forward and see if she pays attention to me.

"What would you know about it?" She says after a slight hesitation after looking at me and apparently noticing me for he first time, she definitely looks drunk and her voice has a husky smokey coarseness to it. God I hope that's her voice whether or not she's drunk, it's really sexy with her cute little scowl with her scrunched up little nose.

"Not much really but I have a daughter myself, haven't seen her in a while though. Justing thinking of her that's all." I say my mind going in a direction I didn't actually expect it to go.

She looks at me up and down losing her scowl and gaining a frown instead. "Who are you anyways?" She asks.

"I'm Michael, I'm new here." I say getting off my stool and taking the one right next to her, she smell really nice even with the slight sheen of sweat on her forehead.

"No one is ever new here." She says looking at me over more curiously now before something seems to occur to her.

"You're the one who spent some extra time up in the mountain with Jonah, how is the old bastart?" She says with a grin taking another full swing of her glass and looking back at me.

"He seemed fine last I saw him, likes it up there, didn't want to leave."

"Yeah well there is a story there as well, there is a story in every person's seccumstance I guess. So, why did you spend more time than is usual up there, needed extra time to cope with the stress? Crying yourself to sleep up there missing your probably now dead daughter?" She asks.

"You're quite insensitive about it, what do know of it?" I ask not liking the mean spirit.

She sighs and deflates. "I know nothing about it, I'm sorry. Just having a day that's all, didn't mean to take it out on you. Protious another!" She shouts to the bartender subsequently ignoring me.

I sigh and nurse my drink as well as she gets quiet and grumpily sips on another. I definitely caught her on the wrong day but it can't be helped now.

"Would you care showing me around the compound sometime? I wouldn't mind spending time with you when you aren't feeling so militant. " I say suddenly, giving it a shot.

She raises and eyebrow, then a grin slowly spreads on her face. "Ignorance is bliss they say sometimes." She says to herself before hoping of the tall stool lightly and hoping into mine, practically into my lap and giving me a big, hard, wet, long kiss to the mouth. She moans lightly into my mouth as we explore each other's oral cavities inducing a reciprocating moan from me. I'm sucking at her delicious lips having lost myself the moment our bodies touched, my face suddenly very warm for the first time since I got here.

Then she separates reluctantly as we kiss each other lightly as she pulls herself back, and her tongue questing out for a last lick on my upper lip before she pulls herself back and steps away.

She looks at me like she's the one who is completely shocked by how good that kiss was right now, I haven't felt myself this hard since the first time I saw Amanda naked when I was 16.

"Shit." She says then shakes her head and goes back to her stool. "What did you say your name ways?" She asks in a slightly huskier voice as she sips slower on her drink.

"Michael, Michael O'Hare. And what's your name?" I ask well.

"Vigdis. Vigdis Saya del'Mira."