Dreamstone

by Ben L. Hughes

  “I’m ready,” he said, still sounding a bit sleepy.

  “Are you nervous about tonight?” she asked as she started the car.

  “I am,” he replied.

  “You’re doing the right thing,” Melissa added.

  “I know. I just wish there was a more certain way to find an insider who can help,” Matt said hesitantly.

  “I do too, believe me.”

  “Do you wish I had never found it?” he asked.

  “It is a remarkable find, but objects of power are always coveted by those who seek to use that power for good or evil. The truth is that the dreamstone makes me nervous,” Melissa admitted.

  “I will miss talking with Helios,” Matt replied.

  “I have a feeling that even after you hand off the dreamstone, Helios will be in touch with you sometime down the road. You befriended him, and I doubt that he will forget your efforts to help no matter what the outcome,” Melissa remarked.

  “I hope you are right,” Matt said as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

  After several hours, Melissa pulled into a gas station along I-5.

  “Did you have a nice nap?” Melissa asked when Matt stepped out to pump the gas for her.

  “Yeah, I can take over for a while if you like,” he offered.

  “Okay,” Melissa said with a smile as she got back into the car. Matt finished filling the tank and then they headed back out.

  After they had been on the road for a while, Matt glanced over at Melissa and smiled. He loved how innocent she looked when she slept. She was such an angel, always looking out for him, encouraging him. It just didn’t seem fair that she brought so much to their relationship, it made him wonder what he could do for her in return. Then as the miles passed by, it dawned on him that all he really had to do was never let her forget how much he loved her. If he could do that one thing, then everything else would fall into place.

  “Where are we?” Melissa asked when she woke up from her nap.

  “We’re nearing Tonopah, Nevada,” Matt replied.

  “Already? I must have been asleep for a while,” Melissa said as she yawned.

  “Yeah, you missed some exciting clumps of sagebrush, and a jackalope or two,” Matt replied with a smile.

  “Would you like me to take over so you can rest?” Melissa offered.

  “No I’m fine, but I was planning to stop in Tonopah to get something to eat.”

  “Oh good, now that you mention it, I’m a little hungry too,” she replied.

  “What about that place?” Matt asked as he pointed at an old-fashioned burger shop on the right.

  “Sure, that sounds really good,” Melissa said as she brushed her hair and then glanced up at the vanity mirror on the visor. Matt parked the car and then opened the door for her.

  “Wow, such service,” Melissa remarked.

  “I just want to make sure you know how much I love you,” Matt replied. Melissa smiled and then they went up to the window and placed their order.

  A few minutes later the clerk chimed a little bell signaling that their food was ready.

  “Where do you want to sit?” Melissa asked as they picked up the trays.

  “How about we just sit out here on the bench?” Matt suggested.

  “Alright.” Melissa agreed. After a little bit she noticed that Matt kept looking around at the hillside across from them.

  “What are you looking at?” she asked.

  “Oh nothing much, just checking out all the old mine head frames and tailing piles,” he replied.

  “A geologist to the core,” Melissa smirked. Matt nodded and then drifted off into a daydream about what the area must have looked like in the early 1900’s. Tonopah had risen from obscurity when prospector Jim Butler discovered Nevada’s second richest gold and silver deposit looking for his lost burro near a rocky outcrop. Matt could almost picture how Main Street might have looked back then, when it was lined with saloons and casinos bustling all hours of the day and night. He envisioned gunfights in the back alleys between the law and the lawless. Nervous horses and travelers, unsettled by the blasts of dynamite in the mines below the town, wondering if the next one would cause a cave in. Matt could even picture himself coming home from a long day in the mines, covered in the dirt and the muck. The smell of fresh baked cornbread, the crackle of a log burning in cast iron stove, a dented brass oil lamp illuminating a handmade dinner table in the center of the room. As his daydream continued, he pictured his beautiful young bride reading stories from the bible to his kids as they warmed themselves by the fire. Their horses neighing as they eagerly awaited their nighttime hay, restless in their makeshift stable. Simpler times, he thought to himself. Had technology really improved modern life, or had it only created a hundred new distractions, and the myriad of worries that went along with them?

  “Are you ready to continue on to Pahrump?” Melissa asked when she saw his daydream had come to an end.

  “Yep, I’m ready,” he said with a sigh.

  Melissa drove the next leg of the trip from Tonopah to Pahrump. When they reached the town, Melissa pulled into their hotel and parked. Then she took the reservation inside and came back out with the keycard a few moments later.

  “Follow me,” she said with a smile. Matt picked up their luggage and headed after her. Once inside the room, Matt sat on the edge of the bed and swung his legs back and forth nervously as she proceeded to unpack their things.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, noticing he was restless.

  “I’m just nervous,” he exclaimed.

  “Try not to worry about the program, you will do just fine,” Melissa said in a soft reassuring voice as she rubbed his neck. Then she turned on the TV to pass the time. Ironically, the only decent show was a Star Trek rerun called the Trouble with Tribbles. They had both seen it before, but it lightened the mood and Matt even laughed aloud several times.

  Once the show ended, Matt looked at his watch and said, “I guess we should head over.” Melissa nodded and then followed him out to the car.

  After driving a few blocks, Matt spotted the radio station antennas flashing light on the hillside, and turned onto the driveway that lead up to the entrance. A security guard stepped out from a small shack and stopped them at the gate.

  “Can I help you?” the guard asked as he shone his flash into their car.

  “I am a guest on the show,” Matt replied. Then he handed the guard their studio pass.

  “Okay,” the guard said as he lifted the gate and let them in. Matt felt butterflies in his stomach and he wanted nothing more than to just turn around and leave. Anywhere seemed better than here to him.

  “It’s okay, it will be over before you know it,” Melissa said reassuringly.

  “I hope so,” Matt replied as he parked the car and slowly turned the key to the off position. Then he took several deep breaths and walked over to the studio entrance and rang the bell. The door opened and a well-dressed gentleman stepped out to greet them.

  “Hi,” the gentleman said in a deep lulling voice that both Melissa and Matt instantly recognized from the radio program. “I’m Alex, and this is my sanctuary of truth beaming out for all the world to hear. Thanks for coming all this way to be on the show. Let’s go on inside and we can quickly cover all the FCC rules that you need to know, but wish you didn’t.” Matt and Melissa followed Alex into the studio and sat together on a long black leather couch. Alex pulled up across from them in a plush rolling chair that squeaked softly each time he moved in it.

  “Okay, you probably know all of this already because it’s common sense, but I have to go over it with each guest. First, do not use any profanity. Second, do not touch any of the controls on the control panel unless you have a commercial radio license. Third, relax. If you start to get nervous, just take a sip of water and realize this is a show about sharing your story. If someone takes offense, or if we get a rude caller, don’t worry because we can always cut them off. I have a kill switch, and I’
m not afraid to use it!” Alex said as he pointed to a large red button on the control panel with a jackass sticker on it.

  Matt and Melissa chuckled as they looked at the other buttons marked; imbecile, derelict, know-it-all, and government boob. Most of the buttons appeared to be well worn from frequent use.

  “Do either of you have any questions for me?” Alex asked.

  “No,” Matt replied while Melissa shook her head.

  “Okay then. Do you want to use your real names or not?” he asked.

  “I think we would like to remain anonymous,” Matt replied.

  “All right then, Jack and Lisa, we’re almost ready to go,” Alex said with a wink as he pulled a microphone out from the wall and positioned it in front of them. “I will give the listeners a brief background on your story and then I will introduce you. Both of you are free to talk, however, Matt you have indicated you are the primary, so I would like you to lead off with your story after I’m done with the intro. Melissa, if Matt misses an important point, or gets stuck, feel free to jump in and help him out. I would like to keep the story to about fifteen minutes, that way we have plenty of time for callers with questions or comments. The show is designed to be interactive. We have about three more minutes before we start, so if you need to use the restroom or take a minute to collect your thoughts, now is the time.”

  Alex rolled his chair over to the control panel and pulled out his microphone and tested it with a couple of finger taps. The he looked over at Matt and Melissa and said, “We will be live in just a moment.” Then he turned back to the control panel and as the on-air light illuminated he started the show.

  “Good evening America, and beyond. I’m your host Alex and you are listening to Dark Matters. Tonight’s program is going to be very exciting. I have two guests with me that are going to share their incredible story with us. A story that ties together many of the elements from previous shows. Topics like aliens, inter-dimensional doorways, and governmental conspiracies. So without further delay... let me welcome our guests, Jack and Lisa. Jack, why don’t you start things off by describing your amazing find in the Mojave Desert.”

  “My story begins on a field trip to a remote part of the Mojave Desert. A trip my friends and I took earlier this year to study Native American petroglyphs for a school project. Like most trips things started off pretty normal, and even when a few odd things did happen, we didn’t really put all of the pieces together until later on. The first strange thing that we noticed was an unusual shadow hanging over a small alkali lake in the valley below our campsite. Upon closer observation, we noticed a large reflective object hovering above the lake. It seemed to be trying to blend in with the surroundings. After a few minutes, the object moved away from the lake and slowly disappeared into the background. Later that day, I found an unusual looking stone near that alkali lake, and being a rockhound, I picked it up and kept it.

  The next event that occurred, was during the night, I had a strange life-like dream about meeting an alien named Helios. In that dream he warned me that I needed to protect the stone that I found, he also said my friends and I were about to be arrested. The dream ended and moments later a military helicopter landed at out campsite and took us at gun point to a secret facility about twenty minutes away. While we were there, an interrogator kept pressuring us to divulge if we had seen anything unusual or found any artifacts in the desert. My friends and I all denied seeing or finding anything, and they eventually let us go. It was a terrifying experience. They have been threatening us and trying to steal the little stone that I found ever since.

  What we have come to find out is that the stone is actually a communication device that works through our dreams. In those dreams we have been contacted by an alien visitor named Helios who has come to warn us about newly emerging inter-dimensional technology with far reaching consequences. According to Helios, this technology is being developed in secret by our military and the potential for misuse has him concerned. Helios wants to make sure that the technology ends up in the right hands, and he has offered to help us use the technology in a way that will not harm us, or others. That’s why I have come here to share my story. I need to reach someone directly involved with the secret project before it’s too late,” Matt paused for a moment and Alex chimed in to keep the show moving forward.

  “So Matt, you mentioned that Helios is concerned about this technology being misused, can you elaborate on how this technology works and what his concern are?”

  “Yes... the military has been working on a technology that allows objects to ‘shift’ from our dimension into another one, and then back. When used correctly, it will allow humans to travel across the vastness of space through that other dimension which they call ‘hyper-reality’. It’s really just a type of space travel that might seem familiar to the fans of the sci-fi series Stargate. Although you wouldn’t be walking through a portal unprotected as in Stargate, the principle is the same. The traveler would use a specially designed spaceship that would protect the traveler as they pass through hyper-reality. However, this new technology, as with any scientific leap forward, has significant risks that might not be realized until the harm has already been done. That is where Helios comes in. He wants to make sure that humans use the technology to explore the cosmos peacefully. Since the technology is currently being developed in secret by our military, I am sure anyone can see where our alien friend’s concerns about the potential for misuse are coming from. Helios only wants to help us, and prevent the technology from being perverted into a weapon or tool of conquest. Given our history of war and brutality towards one another, I am sure you can understand why he has come here to help guide us,” Matt explained.

  Alex sat back in his chair as the phone lines lit up. Then he pulled the microphone over and said, “Wow! That was an amazing story; I bet we have a bunch of eager callers that would love to talk with Jack…so let’s get started. Line one go ahead.”

  “My question is, exactly how are the aliens going to help us?”

  “They know that our technology has catapulted us to the point where we are about to join a galactic community filled with other species and cultures. They simply want to make sure that we are prepared for that epic transition,” Matt replied.

  “Great question… next caller, you’re on the air.”

  “How do we know if the aliens are friendly, maybe they have nefarious intensions of their own. It’s not like they would tell us if they did.”

  “I have communicated with Helios personally many times, and not once did I get the sense that he, or his kind, mean us any harm. If you think about it logically, their technology is far more advanced than ours, so they could probably just take whatever they wanted if that was their goal. Instead, they have offered to help us make this quantum leap forward. Who better to show us than an advanced race that already uses the technology?” Matt concluded.

  Alex nodded his head in agreement and then said, “Next caller, what’s your question?”

  “Why don’t the aliens just come down to earth and make their existence known to all of us?”

  “I believe they would if people were more socially accepting of the unknown. The simple fact is that the majority of people are apprehensive or even fearful of things we don’t fully understand. If aliens just appeared out of the blue, it would probably cause mass panic, and we have a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. As it stands now, the aliens can safely communicate with us through the dreamstone,” Matt replied.

  Alex leaned into his microphone and said, “Well we’re almost out of time, let’s take one more caller.”

  “I have been listening to Jack and Lisa’s story and without divulging too much about who I am, or what I used to do, I need to speak with them right away.”

  “Caller, I am happy to take your information off the air in just a moment, please stay on the line and I will be right back with you,” Alex promised.

  “Thank you,” the caller replied. “I can’t stress
how important it is that I get in touch with them personally.”

  “I will make sure they get your info,” Alex replied, sounding somewhat annoyed at the caller’s persistence.

  “Well folks, that’s all we have time for tonight, but be sure to tune in tomorrow for another exciting show. Our next guest speaker is an expert on crop circles. Are they hoaxes or messages from beyond? Join us tomorrow at midnight to find out more. Thank you and good night.”

  “Thanks again for making the long trip to my studio,” Alex replied as he shook their hands and then gave Matt an envelope.

  “What’s this?” Matt asked as he peeked inside.

  “That’s the contact information from the last caller. Use caution if you decide to contact him... admittedly my show can bring out individuals that are on the fringes of society. There is also a short list of some of my personal contacts. These are people who support the kind of work that I do on my show and are also in unique positions throughout the military and government. These are some very influential people and I am only giving you their names because I believe your story, and you may need their help. This is not something I normally do for my guests, and promise me you will use discretion,” Alex said with a stern and expectant look.

  “I understand what you are saying,” Matt replied.

  “Only use my contacts if yours proves to be a dead end,” Alex added.

  “Okay,” Matt agreed.

  “Thank you for all of your help,” Melissa said as they headed out the door.

  “You’re welcome, and good luck,” Alex replied.

  “I think you did a great job,” Melissa congratulated.

  “I was so nervous before the show I wasn’t sure if I could do it, but once I started telling our story it got easier,” Matt replied.