Three-parter starring Jason Isaacs: score!

I've had some "two installment" dreams before, where I have a dream, then wake up and go back to sleep and have another dream with the same cast & story line continued. Never had a "three part" series until last night. The reason may have something to do with the fact that I've been getting books on tape from the library, a and several have been "romance" novels lately. The last one was so bad ("The Devil on Horseback", by Victoria Holt) that I ended up skipping from tape 5 to the last tape (9) just to see if anything interesting happened in the last act. It didn't. It takes real skill to make the French Revolution, specifically the "reign of terror", seem dull, but she pulled it off! Anyway, I think my subconscious decided it could to better and made a sort of surreal effort along those lines:

1. I was in basic training for some kind of elite military. Sometimes I thought it was garden variety USA stuff, but sometimes it seemed like "Starship Troopers". Ah, the fluid subconsious. As per usual, a lot of the dream took place in the barracks. It was a c0-ed outfit, which didn't bother me as far as living arrangements went, but I wondered how things would pan out during combat. I was older than most of the other soldiers, and felt kind of "square-peg" ish. Our commanding officer was a stern but high-class soldier's soldier, played (thanks to the good taste of my subconscious) by Jason Isaacs. Soon it was time to take some kind of written exam, about which I was mildly apprehensive. When the results came back I saw I had managed to score better than expected, and there was even a nice note scribbled on the sheet by the CO! What a nice guy!

There was some kind of war going on, and we knew we would be shipped out soon. Would we be up to speed in time? It developed that we were being trained as pilots and crews for either atmospheric craft or spacecraft, it varied from scene to scene. I and the others in my barracks must have been officers, because we seemed to be "fraternizing" with other officers a great deal (dinners, etc.). At some point I received a note from the CO of a rather personal nature. We had become good friends and seemed to have similar opinions on a great many things military and otherwise. Can't remember the details, but the relationship progressed to a point where I began to feel very attached to him, which worried me because of my place as a serving officer. I pulled back a bit and tried to keep to myself.

Of course there came a scene at a dinner or other evening event where we found ourselves alone together and a declaration of love was made. He also slipped a gorgeous ruby(?) ring, formerly his grandmother's, onto my finger (Gordon: art imitating life alert!). Oh my! How were we going to keep our undying love a secret! I think a kiss is exchanged in there somewhere...

The war escalated. Troops were deployed. Our unit finished training.

2. (Bob cat wanted out. I went back to bed/sleep and continued...) Air Station/Spaceport: Exterior, Day. High level of activity. Ships lifting off in the background. Cargoes being loaded. I'm doing a last minute check of my ship, which is loaded with many other fighters onto a larger spacecraft. My tech/second and I are running various diagnostic programs when I see a major glitch! Something is seriously wrong with my engines or the software governing them. I see that once deployed I will be stuck at "impulse power". Not only that, but the program that would allow me to detatch from control of the "mother ship" seems to be missing or deactivated. Not only that, but my weapons system is limited as well. Sabotage? Gremlins?

I start my tech working on sorting out the mess, but he keeps running into coded blocks that prevent him from fixing anything. I go straight to the squadron leader, who sends me up the chain to the CO. Mr. CO has his "game face" on and tries to be "too busy" to talk to me. I can see he's under a lot of strain getting the battalion (or whatever it's called) up and out. He finally admits that HE was responsible for jimmying up my ship. He didn't make the problems, but when the report came across his desk that those things needed to be fixed, he had refused approval. He doesn't want me in combat because he's afraid of losing me. What I time to find THAT out! I'm pretty cheesed, but love him so much that I can't be too very mad. I figure I'll find a way to be useful en-route to the front.

3. (yet another interruption involving cats...) The war, or at least that particular engagement, is over and we've returned. In a field near our building some of the girls are building a vintage fighter jet. It's mostly a fuselage, cockpit, one wing and an engine on that wing (no cowling). They are firing up that one engine to test it. Starting it involves pulling on a rope (like for a lawn-mower or outboard engine). I don't want do get to close to THAT action!

There is some kind of party going on inside. Lots of folks standing around a punch bowl in undress uniforms. The CO isn't there yet, so I go upstairs to a big, dark empty room that has a piano in it. I run back downstairs to get a book of Scott Joplin music. One of the girls says, "You play the piano?!" "Ya." I say, "I have for years." I run back up to the piano room. I notice a light fixture hanging from a swagged chain on the ceiling. It's all clogged with brown leaves, so I fly up to clean them out. I dart back down to the floor before somebody catches me at it, and open my book to "Solace", a nice peaceful tango. I know the CO knows I can fly, and that he is at that moment assembling a specialty team for some covert ops thing of which he and I will be a part. Part of his task is "selling" the team to the higher-ups, but I know he can do it. I'm looking forward to being part of a smaller show. Fade out on "Solace"...