The middle of the next century. I'm on the first ship to Uranus.

The mission was radically redesigned at the last minute after input from the crew. Planners expected the mission to be so stressful that a lot of the crew would crack, so the ship was built to be jammed with backup personnel--and backups to the backups. But the crew, after a long Antarctic simulation, concluded that the crowding over such a long trip (a couple of years?) was itself the cause of much of the stress, and they insisted on reducing the crew till the ship felt spacious, even luxurious.

Instead of backups, each crew member swears five or six oaths to fulfil specific mission goals. Not simply to do their job or do their best, but to fulfil them--no matter what.

The one I remember is: "I swear to walk in Miranda's Chasm." The grand canyon on the moon Miranda is about 10 km deep (33,000'); the deepest in the Solar System. It's one of the prime goals of the trip.

In the dream, Miranda has a nearby twin; the two moonlets swing tightly round a common center of gravity, like a miniature Earth and Luna around the sun.

It's a strange trip: feels like the ship is crowded with ghosts--the crew not sent? Or the oaths that take their place?

You can feel them. The power of commitment. The Miranda oaths.

NOTES IN THE MORNING

• Miranda = in Kim Stanley Robinson's BLUE MARS, Ann the geologist goes to Uranus to study Miranda's Chasm. Also, Miranda in Shakespeare's "The Tempest". She's a moony girl, orbiting her magician father (a classic gas giant). She's sheltered like me, with similarly naïve sexual feelings. "O brave new world, that hath such people in it!" She expresses sexual feelings openly--I'm too shy to, but I swore in therapy to try. My Miranda Oath!
• The oaths = swearing oaths that may not be fullfillable is risky, double-edged, but here the crew prefers that to playing safe. Commitments!
• ACTION: Don't swear to TRY to express my feelings openly, but to DO it no matter what. Stressful, but focusing on behavior strips away drama and simplifies tasks.

SOME DAYS LATER

Now I wonder if the dream was predictive. Not long after it, the news said the US Supreme Court had reconsidered the Miranda Rule requiring police to tell suspects they have the right to remain silent and get a lawyer. Cops had sought to allow some confessions by suspects "accidentally" not told their rights; human rights groups argued that this would encourage trickery, threats, even torture to coerce confessions.

As in my dream, the court upheld Miranda--cops can't merely "try" to remember to read you your rights, they must do it. No excuses.

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