Chapter Text
The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 11: Heart of the Sunrise
Scene 7: The Dreamer
11.7
The Dreamer
“Am I a prisoner?”
The term was medical confinement under psychological advice. Meaning that while the patient needed medical and/or psychological assistance, her reactions and attitude from one minute to the next were unpredictable and she might at any moment and without warning become a danger to herself or to others.
While she was a small, female purple, not much larger than a terrestrial gibbon (and rather similar in build and physical ability), Dr. Uto’s evaluation of the person now identifying herself as Shadow, made it clear that of the many personalities resident inside this creature, Shadow was by far the most dangerous. A skilled assassin who had killed at least a dozen of her own kind and at least one holy warrior in order to protect herself and to escape.
“These people are concerned that you might hurt yourself. Or one of them,” Pel responded
Pel had spent several hours talking to Shadow and had met some of her other personalities. Shadow acted as a control and as she became increasingly confident that she was safe and would not be returned to her home planet, she had allowed first the writer and social critic, Ben Urri Urri, then the crippled loadmaster, Spun Verz Nasqua, then at last and only briefly, the disgraced gathering virgin, servant to the holy ones, Sheeux Vosq Nala, to emerge for a conversation with Pel.
But the appearance of these personalities was closely controlled and timed by Shadow, the only one who seemed aware of the existence of all the others. Each of the others, introduced to the new situation, panicked immediately and had to be reassured by Pel that they were safe.
“I will not be kept prisoner,” Shadow replied. “I’ve never seen anything like the field around my bed, but I won’t be kept prisoner.”
“You are an escaped prisoner, of a sort. At least some of your personalities…” Pel trailed off in mild confusion.
“I killed to escape. They would have killed me. Were going to kill me that very night,” Shadow mused.
Pel found herself quite disturbed by Shadow’s implied threat. She did not know the purple’s capabilities, but other creatures had the ability to escape from force fields in various ways.
“You were a religious prisoner,” said Pel. “You could ask these people for asylum. If you appear stable… I mean, it seems like you’re in control of your various personalities… You should be able to negotiate some sort of living arrangement…” Pel paused again. Shadow was watching her intently.
“Well,” Pel started again… “That’s what I did. It’s been complicated. Unsettling. I’m not one of these people. But they have kind of… Well… Sort of adopted me.”
“What would I have that I could negotiate with?” asked Shadow.
“Information,” Pel replied. “They have been reading the collected works of Ben Urri Urri. I don’t think it has registered with them that Ben Urri Urri is right here with them now. There is so much context that Urri assumed his readers understood that these people don’t understand. And they need that information now. They’ve lost an entire starship and crew. You could really help them… Well… you might be able to help them out a lot…”
11.7