'With The Sleep of Dreams, Comes Nightmares...'

Posted on Fri 13th Jul, 2012 @ 1:44pm by Colonel Horatio Drake

1,305 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: http://sb109.sim-station.net/index.php/sim/missions/id/2
Location: Drake's Quarters: Deck 27
Timeline: MD-02: 0429 Hours

ON:
The explosion ripped through the left side of the Bridge... a crewman went flying... an officer ran to his aid.

Ashton glanced to take in his surroundings... he was confused... where was he?

“SIR! What are your orders?” A voice from behind him yelled over the noise.

He was on a Bridge... it was the Bridge of the Liberation... he was in the Captain’s chair. Confusion now turned into panic, he had never commanded the Liberation, he had been her Chief Security and Tactical Officer.

“Captain, shields are down to 10%, we must take action now... shall we return fire?” The same voice yelled even louder from behind him, getting more frustrated.

He turned to see a Lieutenant Commander standing at the Tactical console, he didn’t recognise him.

“What the... yes, return fire... report!” Ashton felt himself slipping into autonomous mode, his training was kicking in.

“They’ve taken down both warp and impulse engines...” another hit shook the ship “secondary power failing, switching to emergency...” the unidentified crewman from the ops console at the front of the Bridge informed him.

“Firing phasers... no discernable effect...” Once again, the ship took another blow... a harsh one... it shook the vessel to it’s foundations.

“Sir” the Tactical Officer piped up once again “that last hit took down our shields, we’ve got hull breaches on multiple decks and... Jesus ... we’ve got a warp core breach in progress...” he said with fear and panic Ashton had never before witnessed.

Tapping the console on the side of his chair, Ashton gave the order that no one... Captain or not... wants to give, “Abandon ship... I repeat... all personnel... abandon ship”.

As the Bridge Officers started evacuating the Bridge Ashton suddenly noticed someone sitting in the XO’s chair, next to him, facing away.

Amid the panic and confusion, this person was sitting perfectly still... Ashton went to place a hand on his shoulder.
Suddenly the unknown man span in his seat to face Ashton... his heart skipped a beat... he recognised this person, who was wearing Ashton’s uniform ... although his face was twisted with absolute anger...
“Patrick!” Ashton could barely let out more than a whisper.

“Why weren’t you there for me Ashton? Why did you let me die?” his voice was contorted with malice.

“Patrick... I... it was an accident... a shuttle accident... I had no way of knowing...” Ashton tried, in vein, to explain.

“If you hadn’t postponed your shore leave you would have been there... I would never have boarded the shuttle... you weren’t there for me... you were never there for me.”
“Patrick... no... it wasn’t like that... I was going to leave Starfleet for you...” Ashton was in shock and could barely form words.

===
“Arghhhhh!” Ashton shot up in bed... drenched in a cold sweat... another nightmare. He started having them a week or so after Patrick’s funeral, but they were getting worse and more vivid now.

“Computer, time” He said, still barely able to speak.

“The time is 0429 hours” it replied in it’s monotone voice.

Taking a quick scan of the room he noticed an open bottle of scotch on the dresser opposite him... the remnants of last night’s session... he jumped out of bed and made a beeline for it.

Grabbing the empty glass next to the bottle, he filled it up.

Tapping the console in front of him, he once again addressed the computer, “open a channel to the USS Valkyrie, Lieutenant McNab”

The computer took a moment to locate and signal the requested vessel... Ashton took this time to empty his glass and refill it. A few seconds later a young face appeared on the screen, the worry was evident.

“Ashton... how are you?”

“I’m ok Scott” he replied, trying to wipe the sweat from his brow without being too obvious.

“How are you? I see you’re in the Captain’s Ready Room again... does he know?!” He tried to muse.

“Ha! Indeed... graveyard duty shift I’m afraid” there was a pause... not an awkward one... but it was as if his old friend was trying to carefully select the next words to say.

“Ashton... it’s good to hear from you... it’s been months... how are you holding up? I heard that you were deemed fit to return to duty?”

“Yea, I’m back at the reigns again” he looked down, analysed his glass and slowed his speech “to be honest Scott I just told them what they wanted to hear... I thought coming back to Starfleet would be a distraction... now I’m not so sure...”

“What do you mean you told them what they wanted to hear?” Scott said, his Counselling ego had taken a blow.

“Well, I’m not being funny but when you spend the best part of every day in these sessions for over a month you kind of get an idea of what they are after and what they need to hear! Plus the fact that my best friend is a Counsellor!”

“You make us out to be interrogators” he said, lowering his head slightly.

He and Scott had been friends before the Academy, joined together and had pretty much gone through everything since then together. Both having served on the Liberation, they were inseparable... but, through fate or chance, the two went their separate ways after that. Ashton had, obviously, chosen to study weapons, tactical analyse, ship configuration etc – basically all the subjects that most young, enthusiastic cadets would think it cool to study... Scott went down the Counselling route and had graduated from the Academy a more rounded and capable officer than Ashton, despite initially having less promise.

“Oh Scott... you know I didn’t mean it like that... in fact, it’s your skills and knowledge that I need right now.”

“How so...?” Scott was now interested.

“I had a nightmare... just now... it was different from the others...”

“If I remember correctly the usual was Patrick and yourself on the civilian shuttle where the accident occurred... “He hesitated at the next part slightly “... and Patrick was insatiably angry...”

“That’s right... but the nightmare I had tonight was on the Bridge of the Liberation... we were under attack...” Over the next few minutes he recanted the horrible event to his friend in the most minute of details... Scott started jotting notes down on a pad next to him.

Ashton never had anything against Counsellors, as most officers do... in fact he thought they were a valuable part of any crew... he just never felt the need to go to one. However when he was virtually forced to do so, his seclusion was broken and his pride took a hit... he now secretly harboured a disdain towards them and would only trust Scott with this kind of information.

“Well...” Scott took a moment or two to really taken in the most recent of these nightmares ...” I doubt you’ve checked your expected arrival list but the Valkyrie is expected in Protector for a minor refit next month... we were originally intended to dock at Starbase 72, but I had a suspicion you might need to talk so I bent the CO’s arm!”

Ashton smiled, a rare thing these days... “Scott, that’ fantastic news!”

The two carried on talking for a while longer, discussing what they were going to do on arrival – most of seemed to centre on drinking and the use of holodecks during and after this tradition. Ashton looked forward immensely to seeing his old friend, but he hoped he wouldn’t be stirring up too many ghosts and memories because he honestly didn’t know if he could handle salt being poured into the wound that was Patrick’s death.

OFF:

 

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