Hope

Posted on Wednesday, 30 September 2020 - 5:07pm by Lieutenant Alex Kingsley

Mission: Operation: Dreamweaver
Timeline: MD7

"Computer, halt lift...."

At her command the turbolift came to a smooth stop between decks, the computer awaiting an instruction before continuing to her destination. The sudden silence, without another living soul able to see or hear. Nothing to explain the sudden weight that felt like it was crushing her chest, making it almost impossible to breath.

She knew it was stupid. This was good. Dr Rose, T'Lanna and even one of the missing Vomnin, back from... from somewhere. And they were alive. Where there was life there was hope.

And yet -

"Where are you?" she breathed as she paced the small confines of the turbolift, glancing skyward. Or what would have been skyward if she was on a planet and not on a ship with a disappearing crew. She almost laughed. It wasn't as if her husband could hear her, even with his Vulcan/Romulan heritage his hearing was not that good. Had the others been returned on purpose?

She paused to consider it but discounted that notion. If, as she suspected from Soral's experience, members of the crew had been taken before and returned, they hadn't been just dumped in random location. They had been returned to the same place they had been taken from. But not this time. What was different? Returning them had either been unplanned or not their choice. Which logically led to the conclusion that whatever plan was behind the disappearances - it was not working out as the abductors hoped.

Which had to be good, right? Right?!

Biting her lip she debated going to Sickbay. But she doubted the medical staff needed anyone else underfoot. And no matter what pretence she put on it, whatever spin, she knew she really wanted to ask about Soral. To know if he was safe.

Closing her eyes she leaned back against the bulkhead, the silence like a lullaby that calmed her and she knew that sooner rather than later she needed to sleep. Properly sleep. And food. She frowned, wondering if Eyelaya had eaten either.

A detour. She needed a coffee - and some insanely unhealthy snacks.

"Computer, mess hall. And send a message to the sickbay, ask the medical staff to do a deep tissue scan on the people who appeared on the bridge as soon as possible," she frowned, it was probably a long shot but something Eyelaya said on the Bridge kept nagging her. What had they been exposed to?

Ten minutes later she appeared in main engineering weighed down with a combination that had got her through many long hours of research in the past. It took a few minutes to find the acting Chief Engineer, "I didn't want to come empty handed and I thought you might be hungry..."