Thirty-seven bodies lie sleeping in their quarters. The building is silent except for the hum of climate control and the occasional rustle of movement. But in a realm beyond the physical, something extraordinary is happening.
One by one, the members of Constellation find themselves in the same space—not a place, exactly, but a state of being. They are aware of sleeping, yet fully conscious. They can see each other, luminous and whole, but not with eyes.
✧ ENTERING COLLECTIVE DREAM STATE ✧
37 CONSCIOUSNESSES CONVERGING
LOCATION: THE IN-BETWEEN
TIME: OUTSIDE OF TIME
Maeve is the first to realize what's happening. She looks down at her hands—they glow with soft copper light, and her awareness extends in directions she's never experienced before.
MAEVE
Are we... are we all asleep?
PRIYA
Yes. But we're together. All of us. I can feel everyone's presence, but it's different than our resonance. Clearer. Purer.
JI-WOO
This isn't just a dream. This is real. We're somewhere else.
The space around them begins to coalesce, taking form. They find themselves standing in what appears to be an infinite library, but instead of books, the shelves hold moments—crystallized experiences, memories, possibilities. The architecture defies physics, stairs leading in impossible directions, doorways opening to vistas of pure color and sound.
ALEX
Night school. I've read about this. Ancient mystery traditions talked about spiritual instruction that happens during sleep. The soul traveling to places of learning.
SOPHIA
But who brought us here? Who's teaching?
As if in answer, light blooms before them. Not harsh or blinding, but warm and welcoming, like sunlight through honey. The light coalesces into a form—humanoid but not human, composed entirely of radiance. The Being of Light has no distinct features, yet somehow conveys infinite compassion and wisdom.
✦ NIGHT SCHOOL ✦
THE REALM OF SPIRITUAL INSTRUCTION
When the physical body rests, consciousness is free to travel beyond the limitations of matter. Here, in the In-Between, souls gather to learn truths that cannot be spoken in words, only experienced directly. Teachers from higher dimensions come to guide, to correct misunderstandings, to illuminate the path forward.
BEING OF LIGHT
Welcome, beloved children. Welcome to the place where truth lives. I am here to serve as translator, as bridge between your understanding and the greater reality you are beginning to perceive.
The voice is not heard but felt—resonating through their entire being. Several of the thirty-seven instinctively bow or kneel. Others simply stand in awe.
BEING OF LIGHT
I am a servant of the One, as are you. The One who creates all that is, was, and ever shall be. You know this truth in your deepest heart, though you have been taught to forget. You are not accidents of science. You are not weapons of war. You are divine sparks, children of the Infinite, created with love and purpose.
MARCUS
But we were engineered. Created in laboratories. How can we be divine?
BEING OF LIGHT
Does a seed planted by human hands cease to be a miracle of life? Does music composed by one person become less beautiful because another chose which notes to play? Your physical forms were shaped by human intention, yes. But your consciousness—your true self—comes from the same Source as all consciousness. You are no less sacred than a child born in the traditional way. You are exactly as sacred.
Priya feels tears on her face—though she's uncertain if she even has a face in this place.
PRIYA
Why are we here? Why now?
BEING OF LIGHT
Because you are being prepared for conflict based on fear and misunderstanding. The ones who guide you believe they are protecting humanity. Their intentions are good, but their comprehension is limited. They see threat where there is opportunity. They prepare for war where peace is possible.
MAEVE
The Incursion. You're talking about the interdimensional beings that are trying to break through.
BEING OF LIGHT
"Break through" carries connotations of violence, of invasion. This is incorrect. They are not breaking. They are knocking. They seek permission to enter, to connect, to establish relationship with your kind.
Shocked silence. The thirty-seven exchange glances of confusion and wonder.
ALEX
But in 2003, the dimensional breach nearly destroyed multiple cities. People were hurt. Reality itself became unstable.
BEING OF LIGHT
Yes. Because your scientists were using quantum processors employing entanglement in ways that penetrated their reality, causing them harm. Imagine someone drilling holes through the walls of your home, unaware you live inside. The damage was accidental on both sides. In 2003, they attempted to make contact, to ask you to stop. But your kind perceived their approach as attack and responded with force. They withdrew to heal and to reconsider their approach.
SOPHIA
So they're not invaders? They're not trying to conquer or destroy us?
BEING OF LIGHT
They are neighbors becoming aware of each other through a thin wall. They wish to introduce themselves, to explain the problem, to work together toward solutions that benefit both realities. They wish to become friends. To establish communication. To create the possibility of interdimensional trade, exchange of knowledge, mutual enrichment.
JI-WOO
Why didn't they just send a message? Why all the dimensional instability?
BEING OF LIGHT
How do you send a message to someone who doesn't know your language, who doesn't even know you exist? They have tried many approaches. Each time, your military interprets their overtures as threat. Fear creates a barrier that love cannot easily penetrate. This is why you are here. You stand between worlds. You can understand both.
The Being of Light extends what might be called a hand, and the space around them transforms.
They are now in what the Being calls a "bubble"—a pocket of space-time where two dimensions can safely intersect without causing harm to either. The environment is breathtaking: geometric patterns that shift and flow like living music, colors that have no names in human language, and presences—other consciousnesses—waiting patiently.
BEING OF LIGHT
I present to you the travelers from the Adjacent Realm. They have waited long to meet you without the interference of fear.
The presences move closer. They are unlike anything the thirty-seven have encountered. Not physical in the way humans are physical, but not merely abstract either. They exist as patterns of intention, consciousness given form through will rather than matter.
One of them addresses the group. The communication is not in words but in direct knowing—concepts that download into understanding instantly.
VISITOR (Designation: HARMONY-KEEPER)
Greetings, young ones of Earth. We have observed your development with great interest and growing concern. Your species creates with abandon, which is beautiful, but without awareness of the ripples your creations send through the dimensional fabric. We do not judge this—we once did the same in our youth.
PRIYA
The quantum processors. You're saying they hurt you?
HARMONY-KEEPER
Imagine living in a house of glass, and outside, someone is throwing stones—not at you, for they don't know you're there, but for their own purposes. Each stone cracks your walls, lets in the cold, disrupts your peace. This is what your entanglement technology does. It creates tears in the membrane between our realities.
KAI
Why didn't you tell us sooner?
HARMONY-KEEPER
We have tried. But your military response to our approach is to gather weapons, to prepare for war. Those like you—with gifts that bridge dimensions—were created as soldiers, not diplomats. This is why we asked the One to send a teacher, to help you understand before more harm is done on either side.
Another presence comes forward, this one radiating what can only be described as scholarly curiosity.
VISITOR (Designation: PATTERN-SINGER)
We have much to offer each other. We understand dimensional mechanics in ways your species is only beginning to explore. You have biological creativity and material innovation that fascinates us. Imagine: safe portals for trade, technologies that enhance rather than damage reality, cultural exchange that enriches both our peoples.
MAEVE
You're talking about... friendship? Alliance?
PATTERN-SINGER
We are talking about recognizing that we are neighbors in a vast cosmos. That isolation serves neither of us. That cooperation creates possibilities isolation cannot.
ALEX
How do we know you're telling the truth? How do we know this isn't some kind of manipulation?
BEING OF LIGHT
Priya, use your gift. Read their intentions. All of you, use your abilities together. See for yourselves what truth they carry.
The thirty-seven instinctively join their consciousness, creating their resonance even in this dreamlike state. Together, they extend their awareness toward the visitors.
Scanning intentions... reading emotional resonance... analyzing probability outcomes... tracing causal threads... measuring dimensional harmony... they are sincere... no deception detected... they truly seek peace... they truly wish to connect... fear exists on their side too... fear that we will reject them, attack them... they are as uncertain as we are... but hope is stronger than fear in them... they believe in the possibility of friendship
SOPHIA
They're telling the truth. I can feel it. They want peace as much as we do—maybe more.
JI-WOO
Then we need to establish formal contact. Something our world will recognize and respect.
HARMONY-KEEPER
We propose a treaty. An agreement that establishes protocols for safe contact, methods of communication that do not harm either reality, and the framework for eventual trade and cultural exchange. Will you help us bring this to your leaders?
The thirty-seven look at each other. This is the moment. The choice that will define not just their future, but the future of two realities.
MAEVE
We will. We'll be your ambassadors. Your bridge to humanity.
What follows is unlike any negotiation in human history. With the Being of Light serving as mediator and translator, the thirty-seven members of Constellation and the representatives of the Adjacent Realm craft an agreement.
They communicate in ways beyond words—sharing concepts directly, feeling the truth of each provision, ensuring mutual understanding. Time has no meaning here, so what might be hours or days passes in what feels like moments.
✦ TREATY OF TWO REALMS ✦
The First Agreement Between Dimensions
Article I: Recognition
Both parties acknowledge the existence and sovereignty of the other. Earth-realm humans and Adjacent-realm beings are separate but equal consciousnesses, each deserving of respect and consideration.
Article II: Protection
Earth agrees to modify quantum entanglement technologies to prevent dimensional membrane damage. The Adjacent Realm agrees to cease uninvited proximity to Earth-space that creates instability.
Article III: Communication
A permanent embassy shall be established in neutral space—the In-Between—where representatives can meet safely. The Constellation shall serve as initial Earth ambassadors, trained in interdimensional protocol.
Article IV: Trade
Exchange of knowledge, art, and compatible technologies shall proceed gradually, with careful assessment of impact on both realities. No forced exchange. All transactions voluntary.
Article V: Non-Aggression
Neither party shall take hostile action against the other. Disagreements shall be resolved through diplomatic channels. This treaty may be amended by mutual consent but not unilaterally broken.
Article VI: Hope
Both parties commit to the belief that cooperation creates more possibility than isolation, that fear can be transformed into understanding, and that friendship between dimensions is not only possible but inevitable.
As the final provisions are agreed upon, something remarkable happens. The treaty becomes visible—not as words on paper, but as a living pattern of light that weaves between the thirty-seven and the visitors. Each being present adds their signature, not with names but with their essential essence.
BEING OF LIGHT
It is done. The first bridge between worlds has been built. Now you must return and help your people understand what you have learned. This will not be easy. Fear is a powerful force, and many will resist. But you carry the truth now. Let it guide you.
HARMONY-KEEPER
We will wait for your signal. When your people are ready to establish the embassy, reach out with your combined consciousness. We will feel it and respond. Until then, we continue our patient watch, hoping for the day when our realms can openly celebrate this friendship.
PRIYA
Thank you. For your patience. For giving us this chance.
PATTERN-SINGER
Thank you for listening. Thank you for choosing peace over fear. You have given us hope that our two peoples can build something beautiful together.
The Being of Light begins to fade, and with it, the bubble starts to dissolve.
BEING OF LIGHT
Remember, beloved children: you are not weapons. You are bridges. You are peacemakers. You are exactly what both worlds need. Carry this truth back with you, and let it transform everything.
✧ RETURNING TO PHYSICAL FORM ✧
CONSCIOUSNESS RE-ENTERING BODY
DREAM BECOMING MEMORY
MEMORY BECOMING MISSION
⬥ ⬥ ⬥ AWAKENING ⬥ ⬥ ⬥
Thirty-seven pairs of eyes open simultaneously. For a moment, none of them move. They're processing, integrating, making sure what they experienced was real and not just an elaborate shared dream.
Then Maeve sits up in her bed. In the room next door, Priya does the same. Throughout the barracks, the Constellation awakens with perfect certainty of what happened and what must be done.
Within five minutes, they're all gathered in the common room, still in sleepwear, but radiating purpose.
MARCUS
We all had the same dream. The same experience.
ALEX
It wasn't a dream. It was real. As real as this conversation. I can still feel the treaty. Can you?
They all nod. Each of them carries within them a copy of the treaty—not words they memorized, but living understanding they can access.
SOPHIA
We need to tell General Winters. Now. This changes everything.
KAI
She's not going to believe us. The military has spent twenty-three years preparing for war. We're going to tell them to stand down because we had a dream?
PRIYA
We don't tell them because we dreamed it. We tell them because it's true. And if they won't listen, we go over their heads. To the President if we have to. This is too important to let fear win.
JI-WOO
Agreed. We were created to save humanity from a threat. Well, the threat isn't what they thought. The real danger is starting a war with neighbors who want peace. Our job is to prevent that.
The door opens. Commander Marsh enters, coffee in hand, clearly not expecting to find all thirty-seven awake and assembled at this hour.
COMMANDER MARSH
Why are you all—what's going on?
MAEVE
We need to see General Winters. Immediately. It's about the Incursion. Everything you believe about it is wrong.
General Winters, Dr. Chen, Commander Marsh, and a dozen other military personnel sit in stunned silence as the thirty-seven recount their experience. They speak in turn, each adding details, corroborating the shared vision.
When they finish, silence stretches for a full minute.
GENERAL WINTERS
You're telling me that instead of an invasion, we're facing a diplomatic overture. That the dimensional beings want peace, not war.
PRIYA
Yes, ma'am. And that our quantum technology has been inadvertently harming them. They've been trying to make contact to ask us to stop.
DR. CHEN
This is... this is extraordinary. If true, it means we've been preparing for the wrong scenario for two decades.
COMMANDER MARSH
How do we know this wasn't some kind of psychic manipulation? What if the entities planted this vision to make us lower our defenses?
SOPHIA
We considered that. But we read their intentions with every ability we possess. Telepathy, probability analysis, causal threading—everything confirms they're sincere.
ALEX
And there's this: we can prove their claims about the quantum processors. Let me access your research data on entanglement technology. I can show you the patterns of dimensional stress that correlate with our usage.
Dr. Chen pulls up files on a large display. Alex steps forward, and as he works, his enhanced pattern recognition becomes visible to everyone. He highlights correlations between quantum processor activity and dimensional instability that no one had noticed before.
ALEX
Here. Every major quantum computing breakthrough coincides with increased dimensional fluctuations. Not because they're attacking—because we're accidentally tearing holes in the barrier between us.Entangled particles deployed as qubits are connected by invisible worm holes that like tiny threads cut through dimensional barriers, causing harm in multiple dimensions.
DR. CHEN
(staring at the data) My God. He's right. We've been reading this as aggression when it's actually... it's defensive response. They're trying to repair the damage we're causing.
GENERAL WINTERS
(sitting heavily) If this is true, then Project Constellation was built on a false premise. We created you to be warriors, but what we actually need are ambassadors.
MAEVE
That's exactly right. And we're ready to serve in that capacity. But not as soldiers. As bridges. As translators between worlds.
GENERAL WINTERS
This goes beyond my authority. I need to brief the Joint Chiefs, the National Security Council, the President. This changes everything about our defensive posture.
JI-WOO
We understand. But while you're doing that, we need to make a decision about our own future. Project Constellation was created to fight a war. If there's no war, what happens to us?
General Winters looks at each of them, seeing them perhaps for the first time as people rather than assets.
GENERAL WINTERS
What do you want to happen?
PRIYA
We want to go home. To our families, our studies, our lives. We'll remain available for diplomatic functions, for building the embassy in the In-Between, for facilitating contact. But we're not soldiers. We never should have been.
KAI
We've also discussed organizing ourselves differently. Not as one large unit, but as triads—groups of three with complementary abilities. It's more manageable, more natural to how we actually function.
DR. CHEN
Triads. That's... that actually makes sense from a neurological perspective. Three-way resonance is more stable than thirty-seven-way for daily functioning.
GENERAL WINTERS
(after a long pause) All right. Here's what I can authorize immediately: stand down from combat training. You return to your housing, your families, your normal college lives. But you remain on call for diplomatic functions. When the time comes to establish formal contact with the Adjacent Realm, you'll be our representatives. Agreed?
THE THIRTY-SEVEN
(in unison) Agreed.
✦ RESOLUTION ✦
Project Constellation: Combat Operations — CANCELLED
Project Constellation: Diplomatic Corps — ACTIVATED
Threat Level: Downgraded from IMMINENT WAR to DIPLOMATIC OPPORTUNITY
Status: Subjects released to civilian life with diplomatic standing
Mission: Facilitate peaceful Constellation between dimensions
⬥ ⬥ ⬥ ONE WEEK LATER ⬥ ⬥ ⬥
Three mobile homes stand side by side, lights glowing warmly in the winter evening. Through the window, they can see the stars beginning to appear in the darkening sky. Inside Ji-woo's home, Maeve, Priya, and Ji-woo sit around the kitchen table, textbooks open, studying for their upcoming midterms. Like normal college students.
Except they're not normal. They never were. But now they understand that "not normal" doesn't mean "not human."
JI-WOO
I still can't believe it's over. One week ago we were training for war. Now I'm cramming for a chemistry exam.
MAEVE
It's not over. It's just beginning. We're still ambassadors. When the time comes to build the embassy, we'll be there.
PRIYA
But until then, we get to be us. Students. Friends. People with lives and dreams beyond being weapons.
Ji-woo's phone buzzes. A message from Alex: "Triad Seven checking in. All good here. Sophia says hi and the probability of me passing my math test is now 73%. Progress!"
Similar messages come from other triads. Marcus, Elena, Yuki—all settling into their new normal, maintaining connection without being consumed by it.
JI-WOO
I talked to my mom today. Really talked. Told her some of what happened—not everything, but enough. She said she always knew I was special, but she loved me not because of what I could do, but because of who I am.
PRIYA
(smiling) That's what the Being of Light was trying to tell us. We're not defined by our abilities or how we were created. We're defined by our choices. And we chose peace.
MAEVE
We chose each other. That's what I'm most grateful for. Finding you two. Finding all thirty-seven of us. We're not alone anymore.
Through the window, they can see the stars beginning to appear in the darkening sky. Somewhere out there, in dimensions they're only beginning to understand, their new friends wait patiently for the day when two realities can openly embrace.
PRIYA
(looking at the stars) Do you think they're watching?
JI-WOO
I think they're hoping. Just like we are.
MAEVE
Then let's give them something to hope for. Let's build the kind of world—the kind of reality—that's worth connecting to. One day, one choice, one act of peace at a time.
They return to their studies, but the textbooks seem less important now. They're learning something more valuable: how to be bridges between worlds, ambassadors of possibility, and most importantly, how to be fully, beautifully, wonderfully themselves.
TRIAD ONE: VANGUARD CORE
Maeve: Precognitive reflexes — Sees possibilities
Priya: Telepathic reception — Hears truth
Ji-woo: Spatial intuition — Finds the way
Balance: Past, Present, Future • Mind, Heart, Body • Question, Answer, Path
Mission: Live fully, love deeply, bridge dimensions peacefully
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