Disturbing Fragments Surface...

Posted on Wed Apr 8th, 2009 @ 7:02am by

854 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
Location: Deck 6
Timeline: Current

ON:

‘What am I doing here?’ was the only thought passing through Kevin Larkin’s mind. A quick inspection of his surroundings told him that he was standing in a dead-end corridor outside of Deflector Control on Archimedes’ deck 6. “Lieutenant?� a voice caused Larkin to turn to face an Ensign with a look of concern on her face. Larkin recognized her as one of the ship’s Operations personnel, but he wasn’t familiar with her name.

“Ensign?� Larkin was trying to hide his confusion, and felt that he had done quite well.

“I asked if you needed any help, sir.�

“Oh, I’m sorry. I was rather deep in thought,� he forced an awkward smile onto his face. “Must of gotten lost in my thoughts. I was on my way to Cargobay 2.�

“Oh,� the Ensign smiled, slightly amused by the science officer’s eccentrics. “It’s on the other side of the deck, sir,� she explained, pointing back down the corridor.

“Thanks,� the CSO replied. That had certainly been a strange experience, Larkin thought to himself as he made his way to Cargobay 2. The last thing he clearly remembered was being on a turbolift heading for deck 6. Somehow he had managed to become so lost in thought that he didn’t even noticed that he’d left the lift and been walking around the deck. “I need to get some sleep,� he mumbled to himself, as finally arrived at his destination.

The CSO had come to the cargobay looking for a gel-pack that he could safely remove for a few hours. The bay was currently empty, and it had an auxiliary power system that certainly shouldn’t be needed any time soon. Nevertheless, he’d already informed Chief of Ops Jackson of his intention to remove the pack.

Larkin was not very familiar with this portion of the ship, and it took him a few moments to find the panel he needed to remove to access the pack system. After a quick tug, the panel fell away into Kevin’s arms, revealing a small section of Jeffries tubes. “Oh, for the love of…� Larkin trailed off. He wasn’t exactly what you’d call claustrophobic, but he certainly didn’t enjoy crawling around in small places.

“Why, exactly, did they feel it necessary to stick the packs back here?� he grumbled, as he crawled back into the tube system. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt particularly uncomfortable crawling through; an irrational fear in his mind that he would be unable to move. A few moments later, he was removing another panel that revealed a set of five neural gel-packs. “There we go. Computer, release clamps on gel-pack number,� he trailed off for a moment, needing to read the number off of the pack. “6253, authorization Larkin, 3-2-5-Beta-Gamma.�

One moment, the man was pulling the small blue pack away from the system, and the next he was lying on a cold, metal table; restraints held his arms across his chest where the gel-pack had been a few moments earlier. He could see little of what was around him, as everything seemed to be shrouded in a dense fog. Figures stood over him, but they too were too hazy to discern. He watched in horror, as a sharp syringe was slowly lowered down onto his chest. A moment before it would have penetrated his skin, the vision was gone, and Larkin was back in the Jeffries tube.

He scrambled to get out of the tube and quickly found himself collapsing against the wall of the cargobay. He was breathing heavily; his mind scrambled to understand what had just happened. A few minutes later, he was finally able to stand again. It had taken him time to understand, but he finally recognized what he’d just experienced as a memory which had surfaced during his hypnosis with Ensign Carter. He hadn’t fully understood it after the hypnosis; it had taken the experience of recreating the feeling of being trapped to completely bring it back to his conscious mind.

He didn’t understand what it meant, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He could have been remembering a medical procedure taking place on the Dragoon, but the equipment had seemed too simplistic for a Starfleet medical procedure. Larkin struggled to force himself to forget what had just happened. It wasn’t important at the moment. It meant something, he was sure of that, but he had important things to be working on at the moment.

His legs were weak, and, when he came completely back to reality, he was relieved to see that he’d managed to bring the gel-pack with him during his frantic escape from the tube. Venturing back inside was the last thing that he wanted to do. Kevin forced himself to remove the strained expression from his face, and took a difficult step toward the exit of the cargobay, his destination: one of this deck’s auxiliary labs. ‘Not now,’ he thought to himself. ‘Not now.’

OFF:

Lieutenant JG Kevin Larkin
Chief Science Officer
USS Archimedes

 

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