SIM:Nicholotti Terror in the Dark

((Sickbay, USS Resolution))

::The body of Lieutenant Kalianna Nicholotti lay motionless on the biobed in sickbay. There was still the hustle of those around her, tending to the other wounded, but Kali was not aware. Nor was she aware of the first officer sitting next to her bed, the other marine in cardiac arrest, or the fact that one of her men was now dead.::

::The voice of her friend had faded, and with it, so had the pain. She was vaguely aware of a dull burning sensation in her chest, but her senses had dulled as the darkness pulled her in. She did not surface again.::

::The silence was nothing less than deafening. Kali searched frantically for some point of reference, but all she could see, or feel, was a viscous blackness that went on forever. There were no stars, so sense of up or down, no reality. Only the darkness surrounded her, and the loneliness that accompanied it hit her with the force of an entire fleet of starships.::

::She tried to scream out into the darkness, but something was preventing her from making any sounds. She could not move, nor could she see her own body. Every sense of being seemed to be gone, and she drifted. It was the endless nature of her current state of mind allowed the fear to set in. There had always been very little that made her afraid throughout her life, but the suffocating environment in which she now found herself was unlike anything she had ever experienced before. Slowly, a feeling of panic crept up, overtaking her in a rush.::

::No matter where she had been or what she was doing, there was always action to take, something to concentrate on, and a way to fight. Now, with nothing near her or around her, she found herself out of control in a place where she was utterly alone. The team spirit of the Corps was gone, her family was nowhere to be found, her brother was in another world, and her friends were nowhere to be seen. Every ounce of her mind reacted to the flight response, and soon she found herself running.::

::Running...a point of reference. Reeling in the dark, Kali's mind fought to process the feelings that she seemed to feel. There still was a distinct lack of up or down, but she could sense her legs moving and her feet hitting some hard surface below her. Stopping, Kali turned around in the dark and immediately wished she hadn't.::

::The silence around her was suddenly broken by a blood curdling scream. A horrifying feeling filled her mind, as the image of Harris flying across the room suddenly played in slow motion. The monster who had shot him was coming for her, coming to finish what he started. Panic struck harder this time, and Kali turned and ran. She ran until the burning feeling returned and she could run no more. Falling, she screamed silently into the ever thickening darkness, desperate for someone to hear her pleas for help.::

::In sickbay, the body of Lieutenant Kalianna Nicholotti thrashed around on the biobed as if her mind were caught in some inescapable nightmare...::

--

TBC

2LT Kalianna Nicholotti
UFPSMC Marine Officer
USS Resolution - NCC-78145

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