My mind is on time-share to a better author overnight

I was playing a character in a sci-fi story. It sounds odd to declare it like that, but dreams have a way of giving you knowledge directly, including knowledge that doesn't make sense. I was still myself, but I was also an actor performing a role, making a story happen.

I was leader of a group of Americans trying to colonize a planet. We had settled in a wide valley, and we were constructing big habitats made out of metal and cement, with geothermal piping for heat and energy. It was vaguely brutalist and not very inviting, but it was sustainable. Hardware and materials were scattered along the rough avenues.

Today we were on a scouting expedition. I was leading a handful of explorers beyond the valley and towards another one, where we had detected a mysterious energy surge. In a ravine passing between the valleys we discovered a glowing diamond-shaped wall, suspended between the rocky slopes on either side of the ravine and blocking our path. When we drew close it surged forward and engulfed us, and then it appeared again behind us at the near end of the ravine. We walked forward, emerging into the unknown valley, and found a lightly forested landscape of rolling hills and plateaus. Ahead of us we heard human voices, singing.

Threading through the trees, we found a group of about a dozen people, all wearing sweeping, billowing robes, like a cross between priests and dancers. Each person's robe was a different pastel color. They greeted us warmly and some of them began calling for us to join their side in "the battle", which was about to start.

The ground sloped upward, and we kept walking. We saw more people, all wearing robes. They were talking and laughing, and doing stretches like they were limbering up for a dance. They started walking up the hill in the same direction, condensing into groups of about 20 people, making rough rings.

My crew and I reached the top of the slope and the trees gave way to a plateau, where we beheld a giant structure like the stands of a stadium, built on a cement platform with rough-hewn logs in cross-braced patterns. I looked closer and saw it wasn't exactly like stands, because there were open areas inside it, and people in robes were clustered inside the structure as well as above.

My crew and I spread out in a line, gaping at these not-quite-stands, and the press of people walking around and through us got confusing. I saw the groups of 20 unfold parachute-sized hunks of billowing colored cloth, and pull them over each other, forming these airy dome shapes over their heads. Similar domes of cloth appeared all around the stands. Peering beyond them I saw an open area covered with grass, like a football pitch, and past that another giant structure, also covered with people wearing colorful clothing. Was that the opposing team?

On some unknown signal, a handful of individuals began shouting orders and pointing, in a rhythmic sing-song way, like they were choreographed but too familiar with the routine to bother with being precise. Some of the groups began edging out onto the field, with their big cloth domes billowing over them. Other people began to dance in lines, forming caterpillar shapes, threading slowly between the domes. More people dropped down on their knees and started crawling on the ground, making elaborate arm motions so their robes danced around them. Dozens of rhythmic chants filled the air, overlapping. I walked to the edge of the pitch and stood in the thick of this, amazed.

The crowd in the stands on the other side was doing the same thing. As I watched, groups from both sides met in the middle of the field, and meshed with each other in some incomprehensible unit-to-unit dance. I could not tell what the rules were, but saw that some dancers got marked as "out" and returned to their side of the field, where they would take a break for a few minutes - perhaps have a snack, or talk casually - and then join one of the units that was about to re-enter the field.

Feeling dazed by the spectacle, I walked back towards the stands I'd passed on the way up, and caught one dancer by the shoulder, stopping her as she walked towards a group. She had epicanthal folds on the inside of her eyes, like someone from Mongolia or Tibet. I asked her what was going on.

All she said was "This is how we fight wars now."

Then she smiled and joined her group, which began to arrange itself in a circle.

I tried to reconcile this. There were colonists already here on the planet? And they'd established this amazing society? We should join it right away! Why were we wasting time building all that new industrial stuff, when we could ask these obviously enlightened people for help?

I walked my way back around the giant stands and saw some low buildings nearby. They looked old and worn, and had ivy snaking over them. I noticed a large stone, like a monument, at the base of one building and walked over to inspect it.

It was one smooth lump, shot through with bands of some bronze metal. Very pretty and natural-looking. It had characters stamped on it, in a futuristic version of Chinese with the strokes all at right-angles. I can't remember exactly what it said, but the meaning it conveyed was:

"COMMEMORATING THE 500TH YEAR OF CHINESE SETTLEMENT"

That was a bit of a shock. Was this entire civilization from China? If they were "at war", who was the opposing side?

I had an idea where to find the answer. I turned around and jogged out, past the stands, past the field, and around the other set of stands, threading through masses of people. There were some more low buildings. There was another monument.

It said, "IN HONOR OF THE 500TH YEAR OF RUSSIAN SETTLEMENT"

It all clicked: My crew had been transported 500 years into the future when we encountered that diamond-shaped well, and the American settlement we were from had been erased from history, leaving only the Russians and the Chinese.

This presented me with a dilemma: Even if I could go back and rescue our settlement, should I? These two civilizations appeared to have a pretty good thing going. 500 years of conflicts resolved by pageantry and dance... How do you beat that?

I wandered around a bit, thinking. I realized I had no idea what really happened to the American settlement - my settlement - and I couldn't bear not knowing. I decided to find a way back.

I made my way down the hill where I'd come. Down here was a smaller settlement, one I'd missed before. It was a tiny, bedraggled American settlement. Not mine -- mine was over in the other valley. Some other leader was in charge here.

We'd met before. I remembered now. She'd welcomed me into the settlement as a fellow American, and I'd agreed to help out with the work. But it turns out she'd been lying. She told me there weren't any other colonies on this planet. She also said it was still my version of "present day" -- another lie. She'd been limping this colony along for 500 years, and it was still a ragtag mess.

I needed to get back to my own time, and crew, and fix this. But I needed information, to be prepared for this future. I decided to sneak into the headquarters of this American colony and grab what I could, then make my escape.

I rigged up a breathing mask, and then snuck into the headquarters, which was built into a long, narrow cave carved into a hillside. There were people working at benches and consoles but they ignored me. When I got near the back of the cave, I put on the breathing mask and opened up a pipe in the wall, which would mess up the atmosphere inside and temporarily put everyone to sleep. While gas hissed out around me, I unplugged and then ripped apart a big computer that was under a desk. It contained a hard drive array. It was heavy, but I could carry it with one hand. I knew it had all the data logs for the colonists' observations over the years. This would help me make decisions back in my own time.

On the way out I encountered the leader. Dark skin, long curly black hair, blue jumpsuit with a golden badge on it. She yelled at me to stop.

"Why are you doing this?" she said.

"This can't be our future!" I said. "I'm going back! This all has to change!"

She chased after me but slowly collapsed onto the floor as the gas took hold.

Colony guards were rushing toward me outside. I activated a jet pack, which was not strong enough to lift me straight up, but could greatly increase my speed going forward. I bounded across the landscape. The guards fell behind. My feeling of desperation and pursuit was melting the dream from the inside out. Things got weird. Well ... weirder.

Ahead of me was a city, made of enormous buildings, all in different historical styles. A Japanese fortress, a Victorian mansion, a glass skyscraper, a cathedral. The buildings were too big to steer around. I was flying through the air in a long arc, still holding the drive array. I needed to get past these buildings but I was going too fast. I tucked myself into a ball around the drive, shielding it, and hit the side of a building, rolling along it and flying out into the air again. Another building loomed ahead, with a sloping tile roof. More rolling. The next building was stone, and I was going to hit it face-on. It would hurt but I thought I might survive. I braced for impact and the wall surged towards me...

I woke up. Dang, I've been reading too much science fiction lately.