Mind The Gaps, Part 3

Posted on Thu Dec 11th, 2014 @ 9:47am by Commander Rylie Cattmor & Lieutenant Jensen Foster & Lieutenant JG Heather Quinn

2,362 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: What Dreams May Come
Location: Holodeck Two

Excerpt from "Mind The Gaps, Part 2"

Rylie gasped in pain, still pressing her palms into her head, her knees now on the floor as she went down from her seat opposite Jensen. "Shut it off, get out, get out, GET OUT!!!" she screamed unable to break the connection the two of them were sharing, it seemingly causing some sort of feedback loop between both their minds.


And now for the conclusion...


Jensen couldn't tell where his thoughts began and Rylie's ended. Made even worse was the fact that their combined pain was enough to send him falling to the floor, coiling into a fetal position, and clutching the sides of his head as tears rolled down his face. It was too much, all at once, for him to really compensate for this, and, with his vision beginning to blur, he knew instinctively that if they didn't somehow break this connection -- well, things were going to deteriorate quickly.

Mouth agape, Rylie tried to scream from the pain and the continuing onslaught of images, memories from both sides intermingling to form an impossibly fast montage of imagery. Like Jensen she'd collapsed to the floor as the pressure in her head stemming from everywhere else in her tensed body continued to rise. Her temples burned ferociously, the molecules of sweat practically steaming off of them as her hereditary marks almost glowed in sharp relief. No... she yelled with intent from her mind before managing to repeat the word from her mouth without the sound, just miming it.

"No..." That one word tore its way out of his chest in reaction to Rylie's mental yell. Jensen was crying in pain and his empathy was on overload. He felt everyone with a hundred foot radius, but more acutely felt Rylie's confusion and pain and his own fear. And all those emotions were only a fragment of the hell he was going through. Not only was he getting empathic flashes, but he was catching snippets of thoughts and images from others, not just Rylie. It was all a steady hum in his head and he wanted it all to stop. Nothing was making sense and then for a split second time itself seemed to stop. The voices, the emotions, all of it stopped. And then the moment ended with a force like a hurricane and the roar and heat of a volcano...

At this point, Rylie could do nothing else but tightly hug her head in her arms, let go and hope for the best. Her cup smashed instantly into tiny fragments, the glaze practically lighting up as the shards sparked together; the ornate wooden coffee table split right down the centre, the two legs closest to her splintering, their molecules practically dissolving into nothingness. The chair behind her was summarily smashed as it flew into the back wall by the replicator, causing a shower of sparks to erupt from the bulkhead, exposing a twisted remnant of the holo-grid. Cracks started to appear in the walls, feeding back into the actual Ranger bulkhead as the holo-grid's piping structure twisted, bent and broke clean off from virtually any point. The damage being caused to the holodeck finally caused the arch and doors to reappear, as a burst from Cattmor's mind caused one of the doors to be completely ripped from the supports and thrust back into the opposite corridor wall, and the other to be bent back outward to such a degree, it was blocking off access from one side.

While Rylie's telekinetic power ravaged everything on the holodeck and even a bit beyond, Jensen's pyrokinetic power chased after it, lighting everything it could on fire. The walls were covered in hungry flames, the couch was engulfed in an inferno that roared like a mightly lion, and then Jensen sensed in that moment a fear so strong it eclipsed his own. Opening his eyes, he stared about for a moment. He still couldn't seperate his thoughts from Rylie's, but he had regained some control over his faculties. The holodeck was a disaster zone: broken furniture, tears in the walls, doors blown open. Fire raged everywhere and ate at everything, swallowing everything with a purring roar. The walls were beginning to blacken, the furniture following suit, while some of it had already turned to ash. Smoke billowed about as pieces of debris flew about, which then his attention returned to the intense fear and pain that had caused him to open his eyes. Rylie was laying there, the markings on her face standing out in brilliant beauty while her psionic abilities still tormented anything it could. But what was most terrifying was that the fire Jensen had unleashed had found its way to Rylie and some of her clothing was aflame as were a few tendrils of hair. And while she may have looked oddly beautiful, Jensen knew that in a moment those flames would eat her alive.

He rushed to her, dodging debris and even ignoring the onslaught of their still shared telepathic link. While he may have been in pain, he wasn't the one in immediate danger. And that need to protect, to save, overrode anything and everything else, pushing it down and attempting to shut it all down. When he did get to her, he quickly smothered out the flames on her clothes, ignoring the fact that his hands would form blisters. After that, he gathered her up in his arms, and looked about for a way to exit the room they were in. But her power still raged and he didn't know how to put out the fire he'd started. The fire that was now licking at the holodeck arch and opening from the torn door. He could do nothing but hold Rylie to him, attempting to protect her at all costs.

Throughout all this, the ceiling was the last thing to give way, the holodeck structural supports and grid linkages raining down on the now bare area, the program no longer functioning. One of the linkages scoring a well placed blow diagonally across Rylie's neck and the back of her head and despite the severity of the blow, the back of her head by her ear bleeding, what with everything else, she barely registered the impact.

He was just beginning to feel terribly horrible for not protecting Rylie as well as he'd intended, when his mind was suddenly silent. Even the onslaught of emotion ebbed. And with this sudden reprieve Jensen attempted to get up. Once he'd maneuvered so that he could retain a good hold on Rylie, he tapped his combadge, saying: "Foster to sickbay. Medical emergency on Holodeck Two."

She couldn't understand what was happening, what was going on. Her head was as fogged as a chab addict on a three week high. She tried to brush Jensen off of her but only succeeded in causing herself more pain and she thrashed to her other side and let slip another psionic burst, managing to have some small amount of aim with it toward the back wall; the result was a hole you could park a Type 16 shuttle in, moving into a storage bay next door, and an empty set of quarters below.

Jensen's whole body spasmed terribly the moment Rylie let loose the second burst of psionic energy and felt his head throb so acutely he wasn't sure if he was going to remain conscious for much longer. The telepathic bond was becoming too much. And coupled with his own empathic ability and the fact that he'd set everything on fire, well he just wasn't in that good of shape. His vision was beginning to blur and his mind alternated from hot and cold every second. This was just too much. The only thing that made sense was to attempt to sever the telepathic link between the two of them, before things got even worse.

Breathing as steadily as possible, Jensen made the attempt, feeling along the link and finally finding some give -- at least he knew now where his thoughts ended and Rylie's began. But the moment he went to untangle the fragile link, pain exploded with such ferocity that everything went white and he involuntarily shoved Rylie away. A scream tore through the air and it took him a moment to realize it was he who was screaming in such agonizing pain.

And then he felt his power react with such force that the air was knocked clean out of his lungs. Fighting to breathe, he opened his eyes and gazed about. What debris was near him thrashed about as if gusted by a harsh wind and Rylie was now a good five feet from him. He wanted to go to her, to see if he'd caused her any more pain, but as he attempted to get to a crawling position, a piece of debris socked him hard in the abdomen. Winded, he fell to the floor in a heap. Breathing hard, he attempted to shut down his empathic ability, if only to alleviate some of the psionic energy bombarding his psyche, but only succeeded in amplifying his empathic reach -- everyone on the deck above and the deck below was suddenly, loudly, feeding their emotions into him. And in reaction to all of them, his mind lashed out. But instead of attacking them, his pyrokinetic ability roared even louder and he felt flames lick at his body and hair.

That was just too much for the poor half-Betazoid and he blacked out. All of his abilities shutting down at once; debris fell to the ground around him, his empathy effectively lashed out at those he was still feeling, and his pyrokinesis simmering down to a minor heating of his body. The only ability that still remained was the telepathic link...

It felt as if her body was still on fire as she lay there curled around herself wishing for better times. It was just unbelievable, the trouble and the pain and the confusion she found herself in. She managed to steal a few quick glances at the damage they had wrought to the holodeck and none of it was pretty.

The fire suppression system finally kicked in though not all that effectively. It was successful in filtering out a lot of the smoke and extinguishing about half the flames, the internal damage in the area just being too extensive to do much more.

The injuries from the licking flames also finally caught up in Rylie's senses and she could feel the stinging of her arm, leg and her jaw line reaching round to the back of her neck. Their telepathic connection was still very much active but it was abating slightly, enough to get a modicum of control back, but her head still throbbed, her mind still fogged, and she still lay there covering her head and face with her arms, silent sobs jolting her body every few seconds; and not aware of very much else. That was until Jensen's mind went oddly quiet.

Without conscious thought from one side of the connection, the telepathic link between them was forcibly severed and shut down; not a moment too soon before any further damage was caused. But the damage had already been done, and she still hurt, her head spinning and feeling as if it was split open. She painfully rolled over to face the direction where Jensen had collapsed and tried in vain to get up on all fours to go over to him, to check on his own condition. Ultimately though, she barely made it a few feet before her limbs turned to the consistency of jelly, and she collapsed to the floor herself, her bloodshot green eyes rolling back as she allowed the blackness to take her as well.

As she ran down the corridor, her heart beat fast and her adrenaline kicked into overdrive. After receiving Foster's alert to a medical emergency, Quinn had quickly assembled a medical team and headed for holodeck two as quickly as her legs would carry her. But when she reached the area, she stopped cold, alarm and fear flashing across her face. She'd never seen damage of this magnitude except during a skirmish.

Abruptly snapping herself out of her stupor, Quinn motioned for the medical team to follow her lead. Stepping carefully through what was left of the doorway, she almost gasped aloud at the amount of damage to the holodeck. Once again, she knew this kind of structural damage was normally the result of a battle. Except, the Ranger hadn't been in a skirmish or battle for survival. They were trapped in a gas cloud. This just didn't make any sense. Quickly, she scanned the area for her superior. Within a few seconds she located him, laying on the floor, surrounded by damaged and smoking debris. Even his clothes were faintly smoking. As she made her way towards him, she caught sight of Lieutenant Commander Cattmor. The XO looked even more worse for wear and she felt fear take hold.

Going to the Frian woman, Quinn did a quick scan with her tricorder before yelling out: "Rehema, you and Valera get Commander Cattmor to Sickbay! Prep the main biobed as soon as you get there; I'll get Lieutenant Foster with Collins and Zorja" She watched for a moment as they loaded the XO onto a stretcher and quickly exited.

Kneeling down beside her colleague, she hurriedly scanned him with her tricorder. When her results didn't reveal anything life-threatening, his vitals were low and his brain activity was nearly non-existent. Quickly, she loaded a hypospray and administered. A few seconds later, Foster's eyes flickered, but he remained unresponsive. Calling out to the rest of her medical team, Ensigns Collins and Zorja, "Alright, get him up and to sickbay. I'll alert the Captain to what's happened, but we need to get these two out of danger first!"

The two medical officers loaded Foster onto a stretcher and exited quickly, Quinn following on their heels. She would alert the captain as soon as her fellow officers were treated and cared for.

 

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