The Void by Brett J. Talley

is the last great clinical laboratory,” he said. “This type of experience is simply unavailable on Earth. It's a sacrifice I suppose, but well worth it.”
    “So we are your lab rats then, Doctor?” Aidan asked as he filled his glass. Dr. Ridley blushed and tried to laugh it off. 
    “That is one way to put it, but no. It's just that most of my fellows are professors. The fact is, the psych drugs are so good these days that few people planet-side really need a doctor. Not when they can take a pill and make it all go away. Drift off into some happy oblivion and wake up, as good as new. No analysis needed.”
    “If the drugs are so good, why not use them here?” Rebecca asked.
    “Well . . .” Ridley paused and then coughed. That the answer was obvious didn't make it any easier to give.
    “It's the dreams,” Cyrus said. “You need a clear head for the dreams.”
    Aidan glanced from Cyrus to Rebecca to the doctor. A cold chill, a shadow, had fallen over the room at their mention, but Cyrus was right. So many of the things they did were inspired by the dreams, so many of their procedures revolved around them.
    “You know, I hear so much about these dreams,” Rebecca said tentatively, trying to blow off her fears as mere curiosity. “Are they really so bad? Are they nightmares? I mean, the way you people talk about them, I imagine you must see all sorts of horrible things. Demons, dragons, the creature from the black lagoon.” Rebecca laughed for a second but no one else joined her.
    “They are not nightmares, not in the traditional sense of the word,” the doctor explained. “In fact, I would argue that they aren't even dreams.”
    “They are too real,” Cyrus said before Rebecca could ask the doctor what he meant.
    “And you don't forget them,” Aidan added.
    “No,” the doctor continued, “no, your typical dream you might remember right after it happens but even then only briefly and only in parts. I think it is safe to say that we all remember the dreams.”
    One by one, starting with Cyrus, every person at the table nodded. Even the captain.
    “Wait . . . you remember every one of the dreams you have ever had? How is that possible?”
    “They are always the same,” the doctor replied.
    “More or less,” the captain added in a whisper that only she heard.
    “That's amazing. How is that possible?”
    The doctor shrugged. “No one knows. We barely know anything about the dreams, really. Not yet. It is one of the last great mysteries of the mind. Now you can see why I'm here.”
    “But if the dreams are so bad, why not just stay awake?”
    “Well, the regulations require it, of course.”
    “But why? Surely there is a reason.”
    “To understand that,” Dr. Ridley explained, “you have to appreciate what a warp drive does.”
    “Right,” Cyrus said. “Faster-than-light travel is impossible, of course. And even if it weren't, you've got that whole time dilation thing.”
    “A year for you is a decade for everybody else,” Aidan interjected.
    Cyrus took a drink of his wine and nodded. “Warping is not traveling faster than light. In fact, it's exactly what it sounds like. The warp drive warps space.”
    “How so?” Rebecca asked. Jack glanced at her but she ignored him. She knew all of this, of course. One might call it her specialty, what she did for a living. But she wanted to hear them explain it. Dr. Ridley was enjoying the discourse as well. He'd read her file. He knew the truth. Something about Rebecca intrigued him, however, and he had no interest in revealing her charade.
    Cyrus explained, “Well, that's a little bit more complicated. But basically, it stretches and compresses space. Twists it all up and then unravels it. Traveling at warp isn't about moving through space at all. It's about moving the fabric of space itself. Ripping a little hole in it and slipping through.”
    “More like riding a wave,” Aidan said.
    “Yeah, whatever.”
    “So you can imagine what that