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Read Ebook: Subjectivity by Spinrad Norman Summers Leo Illustrator
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Ebook has 97 lines and 4942 words, and 2 pages
d Donner preferred the shade, and lounged against the white arabesqued wall which enclosed the garden on four sides, broken only by four arched entrance portals.
The garden had been a good compromise, thought Brunei. Something for everyone. Fresh air and sun-shine, but also the mental security offered by the walls, which also provided shade for those who wanted it. A fountain, a few palm trees, grass, flowers, even the little formal Japanese rock garden that Lin Pey had insisted on.
"Hello, Ollie," said Lazar. "Nice day."
"Isn't it always?" replied Brunei. "How about a little shower?"
"Maybe tomorrow."
"I notice a lot of sleeping people today," said Brunei.
"You think it has a separate existence?" asked Ingrid.
"Of course not," said Vera. "Our subconscious minds are maintaining it. It's probably here when we're all asleep."
"Semantics, Ollie, semantics."
Brunei took a bottle of Omnidrene out of his pocket. "Time to charge up the old batteries again," he said.
He passed out the pills.
"I notice Marsha is still in her cabin."
"Yeah," said Lazar, "she keeps to herself a lot. No great--"
Just then, Marsha burst into the garden, screaming: "Make it go away! Make it go away!"
Behind her slithered a gigantic black snake, with a head as big as a horse's, and bulging red eyes.
"I thought we agreed to leave our private hallucinations in our cabins," snapped Brunei.
Ten feet of snake had already entered the garden. The thing seemed endless.
"Take it easy," said Lazar. "Let's all concentrate and think it away."
They tried to erase the snake, but it just rolled its big red eyes.
Marsha began to cry. The snake advanced another two feet.
"Oh, quiet!" rasped Lazar. "Ollie, do I have your permission to bring my dragon into the garden? He'll make short work of the snake."
Brunei scowled. "You and your dragon.... Oh, maybe it'll work."
Instantly, the green dragon was in the garden. But it was no longer five feet long and bovine.
It was a good twelve feet long, with cold reptilian eyes and big yellow fangs.
It took one look at the snake, opened its powerful jaws, and belched a huge tongue of orange flame.
The serpent was incinerated. It disappeared.
Brunei was trembling. "What happened, Lazar?" he said. "That's not the same stupid little dragon."
"Hah ... hah...." squeaked Lazar. "He's ... uh ... grown...."
Brunei suddenly noticed that Lazar was ashen. He also noticed that the dragon was turning in their direction.
"Get it out of here, Lazar! Get it out of here!"
Lazar nodded. The dragon flickered and went pale, but it was over a minute before it disappeared entirely.
Even Oliver Brunei's friendly Saint Bernard had grown to monstrous size, turned pale green, and grown large yellow fangs.
Only the Spanish garden in the common room was free of the monstrosities. Here, the combined conscious minds of the ten crew members were still strong enough to banish the rampaging hallucinations.
The ten of them sat around the fountain, which seemed a shade less sparkling.
There were even rainclouds in the sky.
"I don't like it," said Bram Daker. "It's getting completely out of control."
"Not yet," said Marsha.
They all shuddered.
"What went wrong?" asked Ingrid.
"Who knows?" said Brunei. "At least we can keep them out of here. That's--"
There was a snuffling at the wall. The head of something like a Tyrannosaurus Rex peered over the wall at them.
"Ugh!" said Lin Pey. "I think that's a new one."
The dragon's head appeared alongside the Tyrannosaur's.
"Very funny."
Marsha screamed. The huge black snake thrust its head through a portal.
And the flap of leathery wings could be heard. And the smell of sulphur.
"Come on! Come on!" shouted Brunei. "Let's get these things out of here!"
After five minutes of intense group concentration, the last of the horrors was banished.
"It was a lot harder this time," said Daker.
"There were more of them," said Donner.
"They're getting stronger and bolder."
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