Canadian Pacific 5-5

Chapter 14: The Imagined

One thing I wouldn’t mention directly to my friends was what I saw in a dream while I was asleep on the hill after the Wraith knocked me out.

In the dream I saw myself standing on a bridge of alien design. Outside the window I saw the inky expanse of outer space. As quiet as space is the scene was anything but still. Several large ships each several kilometres long battled against one another. Somehow I could tell that each one of my friends commanded one of the other vessels. The ships we were on were typical of human engineering; function over form. They were steel grey hulks with irregular, boxy protrusions all over their rectangular hulls. The other ships were quite different being sleek, oval shaped behemoths each painted a slightly different shade of blood red.

I watched the battle unfold. There was weapons fire from all directions the shot’s colour being the only way to tell who fired it. Some of the attacks looked like the turbolasers from Star Wars while other, more lancing shots, looked more like the phasers from Star Trek. As I looked closer I could see glinting streaks between the ships and tiny exhaust trails racing in every direction. Rail guns, missiles and things that could only be classified as photon torpedoes were all being used. I was surprised at how advanced the technology was. I couldn’t believe we’d come that far only a few years. That is, until I saw the date on the watch I was wearing. 12:35 on November 15, 2318. I stared in disbelief. How had we aged so little in three hundred years? Or were these our descendants of generations to come who only looked like us? If so, who were they? How did they manage to get together like that? Would fate bring them together like it had with us? Or was the Writer behind everything again?

I didn’t have long to ponder these questions because one of the oval ships detonated, its power plant going critical. The super-heated debris reached one of the other ships in its fleet. It was just enough, apparently, to set off that ship too. Before I could react a chain reaction broke out and their entire fleet exploded into clouds of boiling vapours.

I didn’t get to see what happened after that because that was when John woke me up.

There are a few reasons why I wouldn’t tell my friends about the dream. First is that I really didn’t want to worry them too much with the details. Secondly, I’ve found that, in movies, the more people that know of the future the worse the outcome. Third is that the infinitely infinite number of possible futures arising from every decision made between now and then would render the likeliness of that happening nigh-on null and void. Finally, and it took me quite some time to figure this one out, is the seemingly obvious fact that it could have all been nothing but a dream.

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“Makes sense doesn’t it?” I said.

“Yeah, I get where you’re coming from there,” John said, “But the question is; how real did it feel?”

“Extremely real,” I said, “And I can’t count how many times I’ve watched a scene in a dream and then watch it play out in real life.”

“Alright,” Brent said, “I think we can give you the benefit of the doubt for that one. Besides, that’s a future for an alternate version of us.”

“You’re right,” I said, “At least we won’t have to worry about getting blown up in the icy depths of space. Now where was I? Oh right…

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Over the next several weeks we would get into skirmishes with the Wraith, often one on one. While we would manage to do damage to the Wraith it would always teleport away before anything decisive could be done. It seemed to be either sparring with us to hone its battle skills or testing us to see just how far we could, or even would, go and how much control of our powers we had. Either way its battles with us were helping us too as it was constantly pushing our limits and forcing us to create new fighting techniques as well as hone old ones.

One such battle that I recall quite vividly is one that occurred about a week after our mythical fight with the Wraith.

I was walking home from school when the Wraith jumped me. It caught me in a flying tackle but I managed to push it off when I hit the ground. I leapt to my feet and chased after the Wraith who had begun running into the heart of the city. I chased it for about a block before it leapt into the air and soared off. Not one to let an adversary go that easily I followed suit and flew after it. The Wraith then landed near where they were building a high-rise and I set down right next to it.

“Let’s see just what you’ve got,” It said. Its voice was that creepy two-tone you get in TV shows when someone’s been possessed. The Wraith then ran towards a tower crane and started climbing. “That thing’s nuts if it thinks I’m gonna follow it,” I muttered. I dug out my iPod to start listening to some tunes on my walk back home when a small block of plastic knocked it out of my hand and into a nearby pile of loose dirt. It was quite unharmed but as I turned to look at the Wraith a larger chunk of plastic landed right on top of my iPod.

“Oh hell no,” I said, glaring out under my glasses. I snapped around and saw the Wraith halfway up the crane laughing its head off. Pointing at the Wraith I yelled, “You’ll pay for that!” I dashed to the crane and scaled the ladders two rungs at a time. Reaching the top of the crane, twenty stories up, I drew my sword. I fought the Wraith with all the fury I had and forced it to back up along the crane’s boom. Our swords clattered together as the Wraith fended off my attacks until we were almost three quarters of the way along the boom.

Then I drew back my left arm and swung my fist at the Wraith with all the power I could muster. It jumped back just before my fist connected with it. It didn’t jump far enough back because my punch slammed into the cross-guard of its sword and sent it flying out of the Wraith’s hand. I reach out with my powers and drew the sword back hilt first as the Wraith dashed for the end of the crane arm. Catching the sword in my left hand I dashed toward the Wraith and forced it off the crane. My momentum took me with it.

As we plummeted together I stabbed and slashed at the Wraith. Then I heard the Wraith’s voice ring through my head, “Watch your temper, numpty.” Then it vanished and left me to stare at the rapidly approaching ground. “Aw nuts,” I said as I heaved on my steel arm and leg to slow myself. I managed to reduce the impact so it was like I had belly flopped off a chair. Dusting myself off I walked over to the ball of plastic that sat on my iPod. Heaving it off, I saw that there was absolutely no damage to it. I looked back and saw an indent in the plastic ball the exact size and shape of my iPod. For a moment I looked between it, my iPod and the end of the crane’s boom. I then took a deep calming breath, and face-palmed.

I then picked up my iPod and trudged home..

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“You did all that just because you thought it trashed an iPod?” Twilight asked, “Isn’t that a little excessive?”

“Maybe, but it’s one of the few material things I actually cared about,” I replied, I got it as a grad present from my parents. Now, before we get too distracted, I’ll get back to the story.”