Tentacles

First I find myself on board a gargantuan space craft, descending throught the clouds towards a planet below. I’m being transported to an archeological site. The planet resembles Earth, only it’s more desolate and dry. From the space craft I am taken on board a much smaller craft that can take only two people - and once again I’m with a female colleague. She’s the one piloting our small ’speeder’, I’m in the passenger seat, behind her, like on a bike.

We approach the site, found underneath the ruins of an enormous old bridge. The bridge has fallen apart halfway. We can see huge bipedal robots working on the site. The robots are very colorful, yet dirtied up from the digging, and they move slowly, but carefully, between the various artifacts. As we land, I can see that the robots have uncovered what seems to be fossilized tentacles. The tentacles are clearly evil, they gleam and shine in the sunlight, like polished stones, yet they have an organic appearance.

A huge, green robot with some sort of arm protruding from its chest, suddenly starts shaking and making noises. We can see that one of the tentacles has come alive and is making its way up along the robots chassis, like a slithering snake. The tentacle reaches the arm of the robot and forces it downwards to the ground, where it chrushes a group of people standing there like paralyzed. Everybody panics. The robot now seems to be fully controlled by the tentacle.

My partner grabs me by the arm and we make a run for it, up to the spot where the huge bridge construction meet solid ground. She assures me we’re safe there, and I know she’s right. From her satchel she produces a map or a script of some kind, and she’s talking to someone in charge via a small microphone implant in her cheek. She’s very professional, she makes me feel safe, and I keep thinking that she must be some kind of female Indiana Jones.

We turn around and look down at the site, and now the scenery has somewhat changed: to the right of the site there is now a beach, and the waves from the ocean crashes down on it. It’s become darker, too. Far away in the distance I can see a ship the size of a supertanker approaching. I’m aware that it’s a military ship.

The woman tells me to follow her down to the dig. There are still some tentacles in the ground, yet mostly covered. They do not pose a threat to us. The tentacle-controlled robot is gone, only some smaller robots wander about, aimlessly. I remember thinking, true geek-style, that these robot designs are really awesome.

My partner starts digging in the ground, with her bare hands. I join her. A metallic surface appear under our fingers. We can clearly make out panels and complex wiring - the body of an even bigger robot. It looks extremely old and battered. The ship is close to the shore now. I have the typical dreaming-ability of seeing everything from several places at once. We can hear some sort of signaling from the ship, like a warning. The ships’ crew are waving their arms and yelling.

The ground starts to tremble. Some lights flash on and off on the buried robots’ panels. We can hear a faint but deep, rumbling sound. The robot starts rising up, tearing the ground apart and crushing the other robots. The tentacles originate from the robots innards, which are partly exposed behind bent and mangled metal. The tentacles just hang there, lifeless now. My partner is talking and gesturing; what she’s saying makes no sense to me at all, but I know she’s in charge somehow. We’re about to head out to the ship, which has now reached the shore - and then I wake up.