SIM:Arriving On the Mercury

Main Archive - Sim Timeline
((Bridge - USS Excalibur))



::The bridge shook under him again, the floor lurching about, Kevin separate from everything. His hands brushed against the console and the computer registering his hands brushing up against the controls, ignoring any mistaken commands he might have given. The main viewer in front of him projected the image clearly. Falling lights, trailing behind them.::



Walker: Ok... what was that?



::The captain's voice rang through his mind like echoes through a large cavernous chamber. Something touched his arm, pushing at him gently.::



Breeman: I....



::He watched as one of the bright lights moved toward him, slowly at first, then rushing, Lindsay's voice still clear over his combadge. He blinked as his body grew numb and the being occupied his vision until only the white remained and the world went silent.::



((Several Weeks Later - Hospital - Starbase 118))



::Later on he wouldn't remember much. At least not during the debriefing. Something about a dark room, things moving around him. Sarah had been there, holding onto his right wrist. She'd not said anything as she'd done so.



When he'd mentioned seeing Sarah the doctors decided she must have been symptomatic of residual after effects. Not even a real memory. Of what? Sarah was dead. So her memory couldn't be counted on here as anything real. Maybe none of it was. After a while the debriefings subsided, presumably once the staff had gotten tired of the more or less similar sets of answers:



"Do you remember anything before waking up on Agurtha?"



Just the dark room. Nothing clear. And Sarah.



Mom had been in the room with him during one of the meetings. He'd seen her. She'd glanced at him, smiled. "Don't scare me like that again." Kevin promised he wouldn't. He never told the doctors about that.::



::On a few mornings he'd awoken to music. He thought he recognized some of the songs, usually quiet classical pieces. Beethoven's fifth symphony. It was unmistakeable the way it intruded on him with its forlorn determined pace forward after that brief violent bit. It demanded of the listener that he go somewhere, that the journey was inevitable. Kevin was never sure where he was going when the music played. And when he'd fallen asleep again those first few days on Starbase 118 the music would disappear, Sarah returning and pleading with him to stay alive, to let the dragon kill her again. Kevin would do all he could to undo whatever crime the young woman had committed to earn herself the place she now held in his unconscious, doomed to die there in engineering, her body ripped to shreds, resurrected again the next night to plead with him to let her re-enact the entire thing again so he'd remain alive.::



::During the day he'd undergone numerous tests. Therapy sessions. The psychiatric nurse on duty had told him on a number of occasions that she'd found him wandering. "They found you down in engineering again. Standing outside one of the old offices."::



::Sometimes he'd think that office had been the dark room. He'd have to read the transcripts from his debriefing again to realize it hadn't.::



"Old office?"



"Mmmm?"



"You said I was standing outside an old office."



"Uh yes. Somewhere on deck 1179."



::He wanted to say he'd woken up to Dvorak's Ninth the day he'd been released. But nothing of the sort had happened. Instead he'd just thought of the theme whenever his mind wandered. The second movement would quietly play through his head while the counsellor did his best to evaluate him.::



::For now he could not be trusted in a leadership position. His mind had become too unstable. Kevin had had to sit through a good number of sessions before he'd learned that. He could sense the way the counsellors were trying to push away his barriers, kneading him until he revealed everything, even the nightmares.::



::Slowly they helped him purge himself of Sarah.::



"It wasn't your fault. You don't have to stay in that room with her the rest of your life hoping things will go differently."



::And one day he'd decided to leave. Sarah's screams didn't fade as he left. They disappeared. And the corridor around him was bright again, the dragons completely gone.::



::The days had gone by, sessions and physical tests continuing until finally,::



N'vrahn: We've been reviewing your personnel file and your service record. It's quite impressive. But.. I'm sorry commander.



::He'd sensed it coming. But when the man said that he'd felt cold, shocked.::



N'vrahn: Oh lighten up man.  ::Laughing cheerfully:: You're not being discharged!



::Kevin had smiled, cocked his head.::



N'Vrahn: We feel you would be more suited to a roll less demanding of your... leadership skills.



((2 Days Later - Docking Bay - USS Mercury))



::Kevin Breeman blinked. The shuttle was docking now.::



Ribble: So Commander, I have to say, if what you're saying is true.. Doesn't that mean anybody could just build a bunch of nanites, set them free, and let them turn into little critters?



Breeman: It's not that simple. Nanites aren't programmed to do that by themselves. Building a body takes a lot of cellular cooperation. Reproduction at a cellular level needs to work perfectly for example.



Ribble: And nanites can't do that?



Breeman: Well... Obviously they can, but not out of the box obviously.



::He laughed half to himself.::



((Short Time Later - Corridor - USS Mercury))



::Kevin spent a while acquainting himself with his surroundings before he inquired with the computer after the location of a Commander Harrison Ross.::



Breeman: =^= Lt. Commander Kevin Breeman to Commander Harrison Ross.



Ross: =^= Response?



Breeman: =^= Uh yes, I'm reporting for duty.



Ross: =^= Response?



TAGS

TBC



Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Breeman

Engineering Officer (R&D)

USS Mercury