The Long Dream

The heart rate monitor beeped at a steady rate. A female patient could be seen lying down on the hospital bed. Her body was wrapped in a open mouthed cylinder shaped glass with her charming face barely noticeable. Numerous chords were attached to her head to capture any abnormal neuro-signal.

Dr. Blake, the neurosurgeon kept observing the LED screen that showed various brain activities in different parts.

There were no hyperactivities in the visual or auditory cortex. In contrast the hippocampus was highly active indicating it was definitely not a hallucination but rather a recollection of a real experience or a dream.

'A dream? I highly doubt that." He muttered lightly.

Dr. Blake's brows drew together. He took another look at the monitor and left the ward before instructing the nurse to not let anyone in.

"How is she now?" Mr. Yin enquired nervously.

"Your daughter is doing just fine Mr. Yin. If everything goes well, she will gain consciousness within the next two weeks. Don't fret please."

Yin Ran left the corridor with a lighter mind. He never had to worry much about his filial daughter. More so, after she got into Caltech last year. She was never a socializing person to begin with and stayed back at her dorms or library most of the times.

Just a week ago, he recieved a call from the University, which stated his daughter was in a coma, without any apparent reason. He felt as if the sky broke down. After his wife died, he had been the one to cater to every single need of Xiao xixi. He took the fastest flight to USA and arrived at the hospital. Fortunately according to the doctors, her condition was nothing to worry about. He heaved a sigh of relief.

____________

In the Research faculty of California Tech University;

"Why didn't you explain the turn of events to her guardian?" Dean. Morgan couldn't hold back his frustration.

"I know what I am doing. If anything happens, the responsibility will be mine." Dr. Blake spoke calmly.

"We all know how much you contributed to the research team. But that doesn't mean, you will take a talented student as your ginipig for experiment." Aron Hale, a man in his mid 50's said somberly glaring at Dr. Blake.

Xixi was one of the most promising students in the undergrad batch this year. Her academics achievement in publishing a premium tier Thesis at such a young age alongside winning the prestigious Golden Mathematica prize made her a treasured student to Aron Hale.

He couldn't help but strongly retaliate against Blake's decision of agreeing to Xixi's whimsical request so easily.

"She is an adult old Hale. It's her decision. As her instructors, we should try our best to assist her." Blake stated monotonously.

"Let's leave. He already said he will take responsibility. We can't change The Dr.Blake's decision anyways." Ethan Brooks,the abstract mathematics professor, who was quietly sitting in the corner till now, said his piece in a light mocking tone and left.

Giving the unperturbed Dr.Blake one last look and shaking their heads in resignation all of them left one by one.

He lighted a cigarette, it burnt through his fingers as smoke emerged. When it was about to burn the tips of his fingers; he dropped it casually on the floor.

"Sir, I want to execute my hypothesis via experiment." He remembered the determined glow in her eyes that resembled the young man of past in his memories.

At first just like everyone else, he was also resolute to not agree with her reckless decision. That was until she showcased her efforts, in meticulously preparing files with data-charts, rare case analysis, detailed description of thoughtful personally conducted experiments over the past two years. Her persistence revived the dead passion of his youth. With not a tinge of hesitation, he promised her to be of help.

Stimulating the nervous system in the brain to create a pathway to another dimension- an original idea inspired by various analogies of occurance of hallucinations, lucid dreaming, sleep paralysis and so on. Even though, it sounds like an interesting theory to experiment with, the experimental subject has to go through huge risk. Since it requires first hand perception of the subject, only humans have to be taken in consideration. Xixi wanted to be the subject for the results to be better. Dr. Blakes was absolutely non relenting in this part. He wanted to contact his assistant in order to look for some wiling volunteers. However, Xixi persuaded that the chance of anything going wrong was less than 1% and showed him the rechecked algorithm of the programme. Reluctantly he agreed as he personally was eager for the results too. It's not like he was regretting his decision, but thinking back to it; he should have given more thought to it rather than being so impulsive.

The programme has been working well enough till now. A sense of excitement brewed within him.

"Sir, the patient is going into a coma. Please come here. We can't even stop the stimulations." Elsa, the nurse who was instructed to look over Xixi's condition was almost out of breath as she stated this over the call.

Dr.blake's eyes widened in horror. He hurried to hospital only to find out it was too late.

The brain activities completely stilled down. He trembled and his body swayed lightly. Before he could fall down on the ground , to his disbelief the monitor started beeping once again. This time, along with the hippocampus the occipital and parietal lobe also showed steady activity rate. 'The flow is upwards!' This....she actually did it?