Subtitled: "Be careful what you wish for..."

From the author -

Before the story, I must clarify something important first.

The title is a simple play on words made in the spirit of light humor only.

In no way was it intended to disrespect or demean the positive, profound wisdom of the ancient Mayans.

The phrase "In Lak'ech" combines India's "Namaste" with the Christian notion of "Do unto others".

It reminds us that we all are made of the same "star stuff"; connected elements of the Universe.

The phrase "In Lak'ech" acknowledges the reciprocal nature of all things, the fundamental and inescapable Yin/Yang, give-take, action-reaction, "what goes around comes around" principle governing everything, all the time, everywhere.

When you say "In Lak'ech" to another person, it means, "I recognize the divine in you, my friend. We are connected. We are the same. You are the other me and vice-versa. What happens to you will inevitably happen to me. It's an unchangeable, unbreakable Law of the Universe that makes it impossible to harm you without ultimately harming myself too.

Now to the story, shall we?

"In Lak'ech" (I am the other you), Subtitled: "Be careful what you wish for..."

JC awoke hyperventilating and covered in sweat.

Moments later, he realized that what he'd just vividly imagined was just a nightmare and slowly calmed down until his breathing was back to normal.

As he jumped in the shower, he scolded himself for getting so upset over nothing.

"But it seemed so damn real", he thought.

JC was a very private individual.

After retirement from the U.S. military, he spent his days living a quiet life with his daughter, girlfriend and three dogs on his favorite island, one of the many properties he owned in South East Asia.

In his dream-turned-nightmare, his $1 ticket held the winning lottery number for "Awesome Vision's 1st Consumer Space Flight" promotion.

He was ecstatic!

All his life, he'd secretly wished to travel the cosmos.

At age 6, he assembled and launched his first hobbyist rocket.

It was "The Orbital Transport" toy rocket model and resembled the piggy-back setup of today's space shuttles.

But now, he worried about what would happen, especially to his loved ones, if something went wrong with this free flight and he didn't make it back.

He had a serious talk about it with his girlfriend and teenage daughter.

They knew how much it meant to him and encouraged him to go for it.

Besides, they knew exactly what to do if anything ever happened to him; that is, where to find all the legal documents, the passwords to decrypt them and allow access to his fiat and crypto holdings and the very short list of people to ever trust with their assets.

No further explanations for the layers of security and labyrinthine path to authorization and account access was necessary.

Like JC, his daughter and girlfriend were keenly aware of the host of common human frailties and we're fiercely privacy-centric.

That's because life with JC automatically made them targets for all sorts of bad actors (e.g., dishonest lawyers, greedy relatives, sophisticated scammers, envious trolls, mentally unstable stalkers and corporate or nation-state sponsored abductors.

[Back on topic: JC's Space Flight.]

Before the flight and against his many futile protests, JC appeared in several public media events for Awesome Visions, Inc.

Now, instead of being just another non-descript, Asian looking man, his face seemed to be plastered all over social media and news channels.

But he tolerated it all because, unbeknownst to him when he bought the lottery ticket, but spelled out in the microscopic fine print of promotion material, the free flight into space was contingent on participating in various publicity events prior to going into orbit.

Finally, after three months of being paraded around like a trained monkey, he entered the space vehicle, strapped in and flew into Earth's orbit.

He was elated, thinking to himself, "Hoo-Yah! This is a dream come true!"

But a few minutes later, he noticed that the whole crew was frantically pushing buttons and shouting into their comms.

He couldn't hear exactly what they were saying because they were on a secure, "crew only" channel, but it sure looked like something had them very excited.

Then a bright flash of greenish-yellow light appeared in front of the space craft; enveloping it within seconds.

The last thing JC remembers before blacking out was seeing three crew members floating around in the cockpit's anti-gravity with frozen expressions of utter disbelief on their permanent masks of death.

JC didn't know how long he was unconscious. It could've been ten minutes or ten hours.

All he knew was that now he was supine on what felt like a cold, hard surface.

He tried to move, but even though he didn't see or feel any restraints, he was completely immobilized. He tried to scream, but no sound came out of his mouth.

He scanned his environment and saw nothing but darkness.

Suddenly, bright greenish-yellow lights, the same kind he'd seen outside the spacecraft before blacking out, began to illuminate him and his surroundings.

Glancing left and right, he could see reflections of himself on the translucent walls around him.

He was on what seemed like an operating room gurney and above him was a gallery of observers that looked like a bunch of distorted, glowing faces suspended in mid-air.

Before he could make sense of all this, a loud, high-pitched sound shrieked from above him and a small, slowly growing opening in the walls appeared.

Through it, three individuals with face masks entered and began walking towards JC.

Infuriated, JC tried to move and shout at the approaching "people".

But again, he couldn't move or make a sound. Now the anger was turning into fear; especially when the masked individuals got closer and closer.

After huddling around JC's head, one by one, they removed their face masks.

In utter horror, JC could now see the faces peering down on him.

They all sported the same, familiar "sh*t -eating grin. And although annoying, the group smiles were certainly not the least bit scary.

JC was shocked and terrified because the curious beings surrounding his powerless body WERE ALL PERFECT CLONES OF HIMSELF!

That's when JC woke up, safe in his bed and thanking his lucky stars that it was all a silly nightmare.

Freshly showered and feeling better, JC could smell the aroma of Kona coffee brewing in the kitchen's timed, automatic drip coffee machine.

He giggled, remembering how upset he was just a half hour ago.

But then he switched on his widescreen and saw what was streaming on all channels.

IT WAS A VERSION OF HIMSELF DISEMBARKING FROM A PRESIDENTIAL JET!

"Sh*t! It wasn't a nightmare after all?" he mused.

"Those kidnapping doppelganger bastards not only picked and probed, one of them is f*ckin' impersonating me right now! And he, or should I say "it", is the current POTUS? WTF!? Jeez, how long was I actually "asleep"? Most importantly, what the Hell do I do now!?..."

[To be continued?]

Submitted for your entertainment.

May you and yours be well and loving life today.

In Lak'ech, JaiChai

The "Version 2.0" NFT is from the "Crestfallen Reflection" Digital Art Collection.

A rare, signed and non-watermarked version of this image is available at: https://creary.net/digital-art/@jaichai/jaichai-original-science-fictiion-jc-has-a-nightmare

[This is an updated version of " JC has a nightmare..." JaiChai 12 JAN 2022.

Simultaneous multi-site submissions posted. All rights reserved.]