Dreaming of Dancing on the Thinnest of Ice

Posted on 31 Mar 2025 @ 3:58am by Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater

1,371 words; about a 7 minute read

Personal Log Stardate 69418.31

Hi Morgan, I had a dream about you.

I think the best part of that statement should be read as the fact that I am getting some sleep. I need to be getting more sleep. I blacked out yesterday afternoon. Luckily the Voice of the Fire told me what happened. Last thing I remember I had been talking with Lamar, he was getting changed and I said I'd wait outside his quarters. We were heading to Callisto, going to grab a drink and catch up.

I don't remember any of the drinking or catching up but she told me that we went down to the bar and we talked about the ongoing search efforts for the Nekomi homeworld, I told the story about what happened in Tarin's holodeck experience, and then I talked about that time I visited my family on Terra when I first came to the academy. I'm not really sure how that would have come up in conversation, I wasn't that impressed by England. It is deeply frustrating to not remember what was said. I should ask Lamar about it some time.

We're thinking it's probably the lack of sleep. When we say "we" I mean me and her, the other Sofie. Honestly those few hours of sleep I just caught were the best I have had recently. I was so tired. I guess I am still tired, it's 0220 and I've been up for at least two hours. I'll be meeting up with Sera later for the meditation she suggested, I hope that also helps.

But yes, anyway, I was going to talk about this dream that I had. As a general rule I wouldn't tell you about any dreams that I had but if you are reading this then either I'm dead, missing or killed someone so I don't think it matters if you think I'm a bit weird. It is weird to share your dreams with people I think. Like why does any of it matter? I doubt dreams are even nearly as profound as we tend to think they are. If someone is telling me about their dream I'd be like, oh wonderful! But like I can't care about someone else's dream. Maybe it could be interesting to hear about but it's not like it's a book that I could also read. You can't recommend a fun dream you had to a friend.

So we were dancing. You were bad at it. I don't know if you are bad at dancing in real life. I had to learn a little dancing in my previous career so I do have some professional experience. Maybe you used to take classes, maybe you are amazing at it, but in the dream you were terrible.

You were leading, your hand on my back made me feel safe, but as a looked into your eyes I could tell you were nervous. Not nervous enough that you would want to let me take the lead. I couldn't imagine you not being our leader.

Quick side note: You have really nice eyes. I've been thinking about eyes a lot recently. One of the things about having a telepathic link with other people is that you start to notice that they notice your eyes. Maybe that's not a general rule but however common my eye colour is on my homeworld it is less common here and people do seem to notice it. Again I understand that I am in some sense unusual and thus memorable but I feel when it comes to my skill at noticing I am the opposite. I almost never notice other people's eyes.

For example when I try to think of the people, other than you, on Galileo that I actually remember the eye colour of... Petty Officer Andrews in engineering has brown eyes. I don't know why I remember that. Ensign Sera has blue eyes, that's a freebie because we share a telepathic connection. I want to say Jeysa has dark grey eyes just like mine but I know I'm actually remembering someone else's. When I try and think of the other people in my department; Aaltonen, Clark, T'Lin, Hayes, Fletcher, can't place any of them. Mimi's eyes are green, they haunt me. I think Warraquim's are also green but I'm a bit less sure about that one.

Anyway, that's all to say that I notice yours. Maybe you'll take that as a compliment. I guess it depends on if I died or if I killed someone.

Right, so, back on topic: You're leading, we're dancing. But the floor feels a little slippery, like they have polished the surface a bit too much. I don't want to look down, I'm looking at you. And it starts to get worse.

I'm the better dancer so I'm more stable but you are starting to slip. Your feet can't keep up and because you are the one supporting me there isn't much I can do to help. I pull you closer, trying to keep you in body contact for that mutual support but you are still slipping. I can tell you are going to fall, your eyes become more frantic.

You don't fall though. Or, I guess more accurately, you don't slip. The surface we were on was so slippery because it was ice. We danced over the thin ice and we came to a patch were it was too weak. The ice gave way and you fell in.

This probably could only have happened in a dream. If we had actually been dancing on thin ice then I'm pretty sure I would have fallen in too. But dream logic was doing dream logic things. Dreams don't make sense, that's why I don't tell people my dreams. I'm only making an exception for you today because clearly something bad has happened for you to be reading this.

So I'm there at the edge of the broken ice and you, the captain, our tireless hazel eyed leader, my starry Tarin, you are in the water. You're trying to stay afloat but the water is cold. So I get down to me knees and I'm trying to pull you out. I can feel how icy the water is on your skin and its slippery, dream slippery, the kind of slippery that you could never get hold of.

I knew you would die if I couldn't get you out. I knew I couldn't pull you out. So I stopped trying. I jumped in after you.

Again, it's a dream, it doesn't need to make sense. It wouldn't make sense that from there, when we were both in the hole in the ice, I would be able to lift you up back onto the ice. This would have been a very stupid thing to do in real life. But it is a dream so it worked, I was able to get you up onto the ice.

Of course, now I'm the one in peril but you manage to pull me out with no effort at all. Where I struggled you managed effortlessly. You make it look so easy. You were standing, I was on my knees. I looked up at you. We looked into each others eyes and I remember very clearly what I said next. I said "You're a terrible dancer, captain." You smiled.

Don't tell people your dreams, it's not productive and it's rarely interesting. I don't think there's anything profound to be gleaned from this. I don't think it reveals anything about my inner life or hidden feelings. I don't know why I'm telling you this. I haven't slept much recently and in the few hours that I did get to sleep you were there.

I don't know if you are any good at dancing out here in the real world. I can't imagine there exists a situation where you are reading this and you would also be able or willing to accept an invitation but in the unlikely event that you are: Maybe we should go dancing some time. If you don't know how then don't worry, I can teach you. Solid floors though. Solid floors.

End log.

RSS Feed