Dreams by Naesk

[Kheren]

A back story of a previous, self named character. I hope you enjoy it.



DREAMS
By Naesk



“Hello Commander”

I turned around in my seat in the mess hall and met eyes with this woman in an engineering uniform who looked so very familiar. I couldn't help from making one of those “Don't I know you from somewhere?” faces.

“Are you OK?” she said with a touch of sarcasm.
“Y-Yes, I'm fine.. Do I know you, Lieutenant?” I said clearing my throat.
“I don't think so, I saw you over here so I thought I would introduce myself. I'm Isabel.” She looked just like her, I could barely keep myself together.
“..Are you sure I don't know you from somewhere?”
“You could have seen me around the Starbase maybe, but I don't think we've ever officially met.”
“..Of course, you're probably right. Please, have a seat if you have the time.”
“Sure, I'm still off duty for a bit.”

She still had a drink in her hand and as she sat down she set it on the table in front of her. I caught a look at her hand when she set the cup down.

“I can see you're married.”
“I am, you are very observant, doctor.”
“So tell me a little about yourself, what do you do?” I said trying to regain my composure.
“I'm a holoprogrammer.” She said bluntly and with confidence.
“A.. holoprogrammer? Aboard the Lotus? I'm not sure why we would need—What did you say your last name was?”
“Alarm reached, 0600 hours. Alarm reached, 0600 hours.”
“...Computer, turn off alarm and reset.”

I lied in bed staring up at the ceiling with a blank face. It was just a dream, it wasn't her, it wasn't real.

“Computer, raise illumination to full.” I squinted as the light became brighter.

I sat up in bed and then got dressed for another day. I tried to not to think about the dream and as best as I could, but it kept coming from the back of my mind.

“Deck 5.”

The turbolift swiftly moved to deck five and the doors opened up to the deck. I stepped out and headed down the corridor to Sickbay. Hopefully I could get my mind off of this morning's events.

“Good morning Doctor.” Ensign Myla said as she was going about prepping what might be needed for the day.
“Good morning, Ensign. You are always here early, trying to take my job are you?” I said jokingly.
“Of course not sir, just trying to make you look bad so you'll get demoted.” She said with a smile. “...then I'll try and take your job.”

I smiled and sat down at my desk and turned on the access console in front of me. There was a test that still needed to be completed from yesterday so I decided to start there. I let the test run and sat back for a moment while it finished.

A wave of light swept across half of sickbay.

The sickbay doors slid open.

"Doctor! We need your help!" Shouted an off-duty Bajoran officer who was helping another crewman to carry a badly injured crewman.

I leapt out of my chair and ran out of my office into the main ward where Nurse Myla was already helping the bloody Lieutenant to the surgical bed.

"What happened here?" I said to the others as I helped the Lieutenant's leg up onto the bed.
"The holodeck safety protocols failed.. I-Is he going to be OK, Doc?" The Bajoran officer stated, sincerely concerned about his friend lying on the biobed who was almost bleeding out.
"What program were you running?!" I never liked certain programs, even when the safety protocols didn't fail.
"A Klingon dueling program.. by the time we realized the safeties had failed the Klingon had already got to him, and then we shut down the program."
"New rule: Nothing but parks on the holodeck! Myla, get him some--what the?"

I looked back down at the lieutenant lying on the surgical bed and he was fine, there was no trace of blood and he was regaining consciousness.

"Either I'm a miracle worker, or something's wrong here. My--.. la?" I said as I looked up from the lieutenant. My nurse, along with everyone else was gone.
"What's goin' on here?"

Tapping my combadge I made sure everything was fine aboard the rest of the ship. Maybe it was just me.

"Kirkpatrick to the bridge... Respo--" Everything went black from there as I fell to the floor.


I awoke on the biobed I was just standing over what seemed like a few minutes ago. I slowly opened my eyes, blinking at the brightly lit room. I tried to sit up but I couldn't move.

"He's conscious, good job." Nurse Myla said over her shoulder as she monitored my vital signs on the surgical support frame over me. She then leaned over and welcomed me back.
"Hello Doctor." She said in a greeting manner with a little smile. I looked above me and could tell that there were only a few things that could be there, none of which I particularly liked.
"Sorry for the isotropic restraint doctor. Your spinal cord is in a state of repair right now and we don't want to chance anything. The fact you woke up means that it's working." She said in a way that was very comforting, even though comfort is relative. A couple other medical officers and a few of the senior staff were now in sickbay.

"What happened?" I said weakly, moving my eyes back towards her.
"After you went into your office you started hallucinating and going on about the holodeck and about people disappearing, you then finally went into a coma. Ship's sensors picked up a radiation wave that whipped by this part of the ship, it affected you and a few others a couple decks down. It somehow dulled your nerve tissues and then did the same to the neurons in your brain. The rest who were affected came in and are now taking bed rest in their quarters, but you seemed to be the only one who was severely affected."

"Ugh.. Naturally."
"It looks like we're just about done. Let's set you free, doctor." She reached over, turned off the restraint and lifted it up. After a few seconds I slowly sat up and sat on the edge of the biobed with my hands on my knees.
"Glad to have you have back doctor." One of the senior staff put their hand on my shoulder and then left sickbay who was then followed by the other couple who were there.

I was back in my office looking at the results of the test I ran earlier when Myla came to the doorway.

"Knock, knock. Can I come in?" She said leaning in around the door frame.
"Of course, come on in." I motioned her in with my free hand and held a drink in my other.
"I'm happy you weren't paralyzed or stuck in a coma, doctor." She had a way with sarcasm.
"Yes, so am I. Thank you. You always seem to the one on the front-lines, Myla, and I appreciate that. I'll have to put you in for a promotion."

"Just doing my job, sir. I'm glad to be of service. I just wanted to check up on you and make sure that everything was alright. It looked like you had something on your mind."

"Now the Doctor is getting house calls, hmm? It was just a dream I had last night about someone I haven't seen in long time, it's nothing really."

"Are you sure it was nothing? I know the experience earlier was no walk in the park, but it still looks like there is something else you're thinking about."
"I wasn't aware you were appointed as ship's counselor, Ensign. There's no need to worry..."
"Alright, doctor. You win."

Myla left my office, but as she headed out through the doorway she said something quietly, but loud enough for me to deliberately hear her.

"I guess I won't be taking your job after all."