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feel...’
    I can’t get the words out. The room is spinning. I think I’m going to be sick. Alexander turns the dial again; the shock waves increase. I see a flash of blue. Cold, salty water splashes my face. A faraway voice calls out to me, ‘Travis! Where are you? What’s happening to you?’
    ‘Hudson!’ I call back, but another voice breaks in; a female voice I’ve never heard before. ‘Travis! Travis!’
    My head explodes in agony, and I spiral into the familiar darkness.
    ––––––––
    T he water makes a swishing noise. I gulp as I roll onto my back, gasping for air. My eyes stare up at a brilliant, blue sky. Large white birds hover in the air, calling to one another. Birds have almost died out in my world. Something skims through the thin white clouds, high up, two parallel trails following it. Scared, I sit up. ‘What’s that?’
    ‘Only a plane,’ says a girl’s voice behind me. I twist around quickly. ‘On its way to Tenerife or somewhere, I bet. I wish I was on it! What I wouldn’t give for a trip abroad right this minute!’
    The girl, wearing nothing but a thin, see-through robe, a short pink top, and the shortest pink trousers I’ve ever seen, grins down at me. She’s holding a pair of sandals, and a cloth bag is draped over her shoulder.
    Shivering with fright I try to use the thought pod. ‘Hudson! Dr Alexander! Are you there?’
    No answer. It isn’t working, or they aren’t listening.
    ‘Get up, lazy bum!’ says the girl.
    ‘I – where...?’
    ‘The tide’s coming in. I thought I’d better save you before you drowned!’
    She clasps my hand, and helps me to my feet. My limbs are stiff, and I’m exhausted and confused. I’m in the new world, my dream world, but this time it seems very, very real. The girl is real. My clothes are soaked by the sea. The air cools my skin, the breeze blows through my hair. My feet sink into the yellow, gritty stuff beneath my toes: sand. I dig my toes in further, relishing its softness. I realise for the first time that I don’t have any shoes on.
    Who wouldn’t prefer this new, beautiful world to my old one? I only know a police state with grey, colourless buildings, unhappy people, dampness, mud, destruction, poverty, starvation, fear, suppression, fighting – and death. I’ve never seen a land like this before with people who smile.
    ‘It’s really happened, hasn’t it?’ I murmur. ‘I’ve really escaped the institution!’
    The girl is about fifteen and pretty. I don’t recognise her accent, although she’s speaking my language. Her hair is fair, tied back from her face, and she has pale skin and pink cheeks. Her brown eyes twinkle at me. She reminds me of someone, but I can’t think who. My eyes lock with hers for a moment, and she blushes.
    ‘Hudson!’ I think again.
    Still no reply. Of course, Hudson can’t hear me, because this isn’t his world, only mine!
    If the pod doesn’t work it must mean the probe doesn’t, either. I can’t test that theory out here, not yet; I have no reason to get violent.
    I gaze out at the waves, wondering what makes them roll backwards and forwards like that. The sand seems to stretch for miles. Tufts of green grass sway above the sandy mound behind us. I find out later that it’s called a ‘dune’. There are other people dotted along the beach, adults and children, running around or lazing about, half-naked like the girl. Some are in the sea. They aren’t droids. Droids don’t know how to enjoy themselves, and never dare to go near water, anyway. They must be richers. There’s laughter, happy laughter.
    A white bird flies down, settling on a pole sticking out of the sand. The girl puts her sandals in the bag.
    ‘This is good weather for Barrasay,’ she says, ‘not usually this warm, but I bet it’ll be hotter in Tenerife.’ She wraps the robe firmly around her chest.
    ‘Barrasay? Tenerife? What are they?’
    Laughing, she grabs my hand again. ‘Oh, Travis! You’re