Commander Riker has had a recent bad experience that left him injured and disfigured. Instead of being on the Enterprise, he has been reassigned by Starfleet to test new flying equipment. I have been assigned to assist him. Riker’s current test vehicle is a hovercraft that will be used for mine shafts. It glows yellow-green, is circular and is currently being tested in a deep rock crevasse.
The test vehicle needs a counterweight apparatus, so I am assigned to be on that part of the rig. When Riker goes up with the machine, I go down. When he goes down, I go up. During testing, I notice two men who are on the side of the crevasse. They attach something to the cable that connects my rig with the test rig. Then, one of the men slides down to my area. He stops above me, then reaches down with his hands.
“Take my hands if you want to live!”
I grab his hands, then, right before the cable gets cut, grab his elbows in a tighter grip. We fall for quite a while into the darkness of the crevasse.
I wake up in a room full of people. My parents and other relatives as well as college students, crowd my small room and hallway .
“Wake up, Russell, your future wife is here.” my mother says, shaking me in my warm bed.
Groggy and shocked from the dream about the long fall into darkness, I look into the hallway and see cousins, uncles, and women. A young woman with long black hair smiles at me. Is she my future wife, I ask myself?
We are all going for a hike by the river. As the throng files down the narrow dormitory hallway, I walk into my neighbors room. They are sneaking hits from a pipe, and I warn them about doing that around the adults.
Outside, the women hop on a rig that will take them up a rock-face to the trail. Others have opted to hike another route. The women ask me if I want to go with them, and I decline.
A bit further along the other route, I come up to the rocky edge of a river. I am stunned to see cows buried in the river muck. Some still move while others are completely buried. Shocked, I do not go down the trail. I turn around and then see more buried cows behind another part of the riverside.
Some of the group shows up again, and I ask them about the cows. They don’t seem too concerned, noting that they’re just cattle.
“Don’t cows have a soul too?” I ask.
I then end up alone on the trail with the black-haired woman. We have an awkward moment, and then walk back to the dormitory.