Dreamside Manner {backstory pt. 2}

Posted on Fri Oct 16th, 2015 @ 5:53am by Lieutenant JG Ricki St. Louis

Mission: Blooming Friendships
Location: Sickbay, Pargellis hospital

[ON]

"Ricki..."

The Thorian opened her eyes. She laid in a pool of light, but all of the surroundings beyond were blackness. Men sat quietly on each side of her. "Vulcan..." The other man had eye that glowed like iridescent pearls, "Tirredani..." For some reason, she didn't think of moving. "Where am I?"

The Vulcan explained, "In immediacy, this is a dream. Beyond that, you and your fellow pilots are safe in a hospital at Pargellis. I am Savesk. This is Emej."

"You must be mind melding with me. I didn't think that was possible."

He nodded, "It wasn't without Emej's help. With his help, I can now apply my healing arts."

"You're a mind healer." Her eyes glanced around, "Diagnosis."

"Severe mind shock. All of you are in comas."

"Prognosis."

"Up to this point, none of you could awaken. I believe that all of you will now be able to. Potential long term brain injury is unknown, but it is estimated to be improbable."

Emej asked, "Child, may I ask?" He received a nod. "You are a physician, a surgeon. You are not a fighter pilot. What were you doing flying those machines?"

"Starfleet experiment. We were trying to apply Thorian synaptics to Federation technology. It was working."

Savesk asked, "I am hesitant to ask you to remember such recent pain."

"It's all right."

"The extreme range flight from Adirkal. That was a dangerous attempt."

"No choice. We hit a dimensional storm and had to divert."

The Tirredani sensed emotional tension. "What is wrong?"

Ricki stared off, "I can't believe they sent us into that. How could they have not seen it?" She looked back to them, "Why a dream chat? Am I too damaged to awaken?"

"This is for privacy. Don't worry, computers won't make sense of our communal brain patterns, certainly not a Tirredani's."

She offered a wary stare, "You suspect it was deliberate."

"I can see no other logical explanation."

Emej's voice had a strange echo to it. "Thanks to generations of Borg fear, there is sharp division within the Federation over the issue of cybernetics. Someone wanted your test project to fail."

Ricki found emotions, "That makes no sense! Why set up the project with failure as the goal?"

The Vulcan suggested, "Failure could constitute pretext for abandoning further research."

"Not logical, my friend. Starfleet is going full guns on synaptic crew links aboard starships."

"There is one vital difference. The synaptic interfaces reside within the ship, not the individual."

"So? The end functionality would be the same."

The Tirredani explained, "Individual capability breeds independence. Authoritarian psyche doesn't like that. As long as you are dependent upon a starship, then you are deprived of that independence."

Ricki stared off for a while. "I cannot believe that the Federation or Starfleet would embrace such barbaric sociology."

"Officially, as a whole, I don't believe that they do. But there have always been renegade elements who functioned beyond accountability."

She smiled, "A working definition of hypocrisy, independent oligarchs stamping out citizen independence." She then felt threatened. "They'll try to kill us again?"

"We have no definite knowledge. However, if you move forward with synaptic functionality, then more drastic attempts are a possibility."

"I'm a cyber-surgeon, for heaven's sake! That's what I do!"

Savesk nodded, "And a century from now, your art will probably be commonplace. But for now, you are at risk."

Emej touched at her arm, "This is going to sound like blackmail, but it does not come from me. As long as all of you accept non-synaptic roles within the Federation, then you will probably be safe. Any one of you rebelling, however, might put all the others at risk of elimination."

She considered. "The others need to return home, but I can't just leave. Thoria has an agreement with the Federation. Besides, a few bad black ops eggs can't be allowed to keep the Federation in medical darkness in the name of social control." She looked to them, "I want to fight them. I want to drag them out into the sunlight and expose what they're doing."

"You... we... don't have the power to do that."

She sighed pensively, "There must be a way."

He smiled at the Vulcan, "Based on your profile, we anticipated your reaction."

"You can help us?"

Savesk gave a nod, "Persuade your friends to return to Thoria. To fulfill treaty obligations, you remain in Starfleet."

Emej instructed, "Request assignment to Starbase 332 in the Archa Sector. There is someone there who has the ability to protect you."

"Who? How?"

He shook his head, "She needs protection, too. What you do not know, you are unable to inadvertently betray."

Rick laid quietly in the peaceful dream for a time. "I want a name. Who's the skunk ops responsible for the mission planning."

"Admiral Rainer."

She threatened through solid eye contact, "If he ever harms my people, I'll show him what synaptic independence is capable of doing!"

Savesk shook his head, "Your sentiment is admirable, but you are naive. I believe that the expression is 'don't make waves'. And remember, wherever you go, you will be closely monitored."

Early afternoon, the first of the test pilots awakened from coma. The Starfleet doctor leaned over her bed with a smile, "Welcome back, Lieutenant! How do you feel?"

Ricki stared back with defencive emotionlessness, "Not so good."

[OFF]

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Lt. Jg. Ricki St. Louis
Starbase 332
Pegasus Fleet