Nightmare

Posted on Wed 30th Nov, 2016 @ 10:54am by Colonel Horatio Drake

938 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Murder on the Silent Night Express
Location: Deck 27: Drake's Quarters
Timeline: MD-01: 0435

OOC: Guys, for those of you who were with me on Protector you might recognise a different version of this post. Drake is a character with essentially the same background that Steele had... with some big differences, which I won't go into now. Over the next mission or two I'm going to rush through the back history so I can build where I left off with Steele. So, apologies if you recognise any posts from before... they are edited and changed to accommodate Drake!

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

Horatio 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 Tactical & Security 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!” Horatio 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 Horatio had never before witnessed.

Tapping the console on the side of his chair, Horatio gave the order that no one... Captain or otherwise... wants to give, “Abandon ship... I repeat... all personnel... abandon ship”.

As the Bridge Officers started evacuating the Bridge Horatio 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... Horatio went to place a hand on his shoulder.

Suddenly the unknown man span in his seat to face Horatio... his heart skipped a beat... he recognised this person, who was wearing Horatio’s uniform ... although his face was twisted with absolute anger...

“Patrick!” Horatio could barely let out more than a whisper.

“Why weren’t you there for me Horatio? 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...” Horatio 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...” Horatio was in shock and could barely form words.

===

“Arghhhhh!” Horatio 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 London, Sergeant Major Winchester”

The computer took a moment to locate and signal the requested vessel... Horatio took this time to empty his glass and refill it. A few seconds later a seasoned and experienced face appeared on the screen.

“Horatio... What sort of time do you bloody call this?” His thick Scottish accent bellowed over the comm. Channel.

“I’m good, thanks for asking” 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.

“He should be bloody grateful I’m running the bloody graveyard shift… there’s four of us left on this bucket who are Bridge qualified, it’s a disgrace” there was a pause... not an awkward one... Winchester always said things as they were and did things purposefully. A pause only meant he was taken longer than normal with the next insult.

“So… they must have been desperate to give you your uniform back… even more desperate to give you a command? Although I hear no one in their right mind would have taken that posting on Vanguard, so they probably didn’t have much choice, eh?”

“Well they were going to give it to you, but then realised it’d be tantamount to just scrapping the place” he looked down, analysed his glass and slowed his speech “to be honest Graham, 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...”

 

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