I had a dream that I was a cop in a future dystopian society.

It was Voting Day. It was pretty chaotic at the polls. Everybody was desperate to get into the polling place. Instead of an orderly line, people were pushing each other to get in first, because there was no guarantee that the polls would stay open long enough to register everybody’s vote. Indeed, the cops were deployed due to the chaos (ostensibly) and our mission was to disperse the disorderly crowd.

The sergeant ordered us to load our tear-gas grenade launchers and fire. I objected: “Sergeant, are you sure it’s okay to disperse these people? The only thing they’ve done wrong is to try to vote!” The sergeant explained that I was not to question orders and did I want to lose my job?? Indeed, I was lucky to have a job. I shut my trap and loaded the canister.

Just then, a bunch of children burst through the crowd and into the building. “Damn it!” the sergeant swore. We weren’t allowed to fire tear gas when there were children under 12.

So he ordered us into the building to round up all the children. He said we weren’t allowed to hurt any of the children under 12, but left it open-ended what we should do with the older children.

So I went into the polling place. I put away my tear-gas launcher and got out my stun gun. I kept on hearing the children, but they would always dart around a corner and disappear before I could capture any. In this way, I kept wandering around the building. Eventually, I came into a room full of computer equipment, and a man sitting alone. When I came into the room, he said “Fascinating. A collection of data.” He approached, knocked me to the ground, and shoved a hand inside my head (his hand seemed to be somewhat immaterial). I began quickly experiencing all my memories. I was just barely able to reach for my belt and pull out my stun gun. I zapped him with the electricity and he got all pixelated and then disappeared.

I left the room and kept wandering around. Finally, I found an older child. She appeared to be in charge, the way she gave orders into a walkie-talkie. (She was played by Shannon from the Lancaster project, a mental-health club around here). At this point, I was confused and disoriented. And I did not relish the idea of beating up these children. So instead, I asked her, “what in the heck is going on here?”

She explained: The polls were corrupt. Someone had tampered with the voting computer and they were here to prove it. It had to be children because children were not registered voters yet, and so the computer’s security would let them through to the main operating room.

I asked if that had anything to do with that weird guy who attacked me. She got very excited when I described that. Apparently, the main supercomputer produces a holographic image of a person, and simulates its brain functions in order to think. I had encountered the supercomputer. What’s more, the fact that it had jacked into my head, and that I had interrupted it, meant that my brain had enough information stored in it to prove that the program had been tampered with. Now, I was an adult, but I was also a cop, and that’s probably why the computer let me into the main operating room. And now, they needed me to leave there and go to their headquarters. The police were deployed here, she said, primarily to stop the children from getting this information that I now had. Would I join their cause?

Well, I never liked the idea of being the bad guy, so I agreed. She and I stole one of the police hover cars and had an exciting chase scene and got out of there!

And then I woke up.