Disclaimer-- I really wish I did own these characters. Paramount owns most of them. I just write about them.
I decided to try my hand at this style after reading The Nightmare. Thanks Puffin for stirring me to try this.
The Dream
What? Will jumped out of his bed with a start. He could not fathom why he had awakened so suddenly. Deanna was sound asleep next to him and at first glance sleeping peacefully. As he watched her he found she was moaning slightly. It was then that he understood that she was having a rather intense dream. Imzadi, wake up. You are having a nightmare. He disliked trying to wake her physically, she tended to swing at the closest thing to her, usually him. This way she would wake just enough to stop the dream. Unfortunately though she continued to grown.
Deanna. This time he tried to shake her. She still did not respond. As he was reaching for his combadge to call for medical assistance he found himself falling. Help! The mental cry heralded his falling back into bed, unconscious. A scene unfolded before him. A dark forest that seemed very familiar. He was in the nightmare of his youth, dark foreboding trees from when he was a small child which were found later to merely be the lovely forest surrounding his home. He looked around feeling very uneasy, almost scared. He had dealt with fear many times in his life, but this time the emotion was as nearly uncontrollable as it had been when his mother had died. For some reason he knew that it wasn't his fear. He knew his own reactions enough to be fairly certain that he wasn't the source of this overwhelming urge to scream.
Deanna was nowhere to be seen. But he knew that she was here. I'm in her dream. The last thing I remember was reaching to call Alyssa. Why am I here, better yet, how is it possible?
A scream pierced his thoughts. Not Deanna's as he would have expected, but both of his children. Even though Deanna was currently pregnant with his son, he was certain that he heard two children cry out in terror, and instinctively was sure that one was Julie and the other the unborn son they planned to name Kyle. Without giving it conscious thought he was running after the sound, which only became more frantic as he ran.
WILL!!!! Deanna was horrified. How could they do this to me? Why won't they leave me alone!! She watched in helpless horror as her Little One was tied to a stake with wood lined around her. Whoever these monsters were, they had decided that her and her child were both heretics. She watched as they lit the fire. Her child screamed in pain as the flames began to engulf her. Deanna howled with her as she felt the searing heat and fear from her daughter and the painfully shrill incoherent wail of her unborn son as he caught the backlash of his mother's empathic overload. She fell into hysterics, unable to fight anything else, when she heard Will screaming as well.
"Deanna!!! My Imzadi!!" Both with voice and mind Will screamed as he entered the clearing to see his wife hanging from a witch's cradle straight from medieval times. The metal cage hugged her tightly, keeping her from moving. Her arms were confined above her head as the formfitting cage held them in place. She barely fit with her swollen belly. She was screaming wordlessly now, unable to do anything to stop what else was happening around her. His senses took in the whole scene as one. Unthinking, Will leapt into the fire where his little pumpkin was burning to death. The ropes that held her were nowhere near being burned enough to pull her free, and Will was caught with her as the flames licked ever higher. His last thought was of his family and how they would never see the light of day again. Deanna fell unconscious as she felt Will's life ebb from him, followed by her daughter.
Mommy? Mommy? It was the first thought that ever made sense to the infant's developing mind. He was scared. He did not know why but he could feel it and knew that if mommy didn't answer soon, she never would. Mommeeeee!
Julie Riker woke screaming. She did not even remember getting out of her bed, or going straight to her parents room. She would remember the scene that she saw for many years and it would cause her nightmares well into her teen years. On the bed were her parents, both staring into the semi-dark room with eyes that saw nothing. They were still alive, she could feel the fear coming from both of them. Their faces held a mask of terror that she had never experienced in her few short years. She had used the computer systems to call her parents so at least she knew how to get help. Summoning all the courage she could she opened her mouth and all but yelled. "Tina! Medical emergency in the Captain's quarters." Then all she could do was cry.
Mommee? Mommee? The little voice kept crying. He was hot, ad unbearably hot. He was scared.
Kyle? Mommy's here. Deanna did not know where here was but she had to soothe her son. The grief she felt consumed her as she tried to rock her baby and found him not there. She heard him, but he wasn't there. None of them were. They had killed her daughter, and now they were taking her son. Her husband was gone as well. Her Imzadi and best friend. Even the feeling of the small life inside her was not enough for her to regain her sense of self enough to do more than notice the cry.
As if she were being fed a story in her mind, she watched again as her family burned, the way witches once were. And again. Then the forest caught fire, then she saw her room on the Titan burn, then the ship itself. She never exploded, but Deanna watched as the entire crew died slowly from fire and asphyxiation, and still she watched. The fire consumed the ship and flew on like a phoenix spreading death wherever it went, with Deanna riding it between its wings.
"They are both in a coma. I don't know why or how to wake them. Neither will respond to the stimulant I gave them and I dare not try another dose." Dr. Ogawa looked at the first officer as she tried to keep her own emotions in check.
"What should I tell Julie? You and I both know that she knows that her parents won't wake up. She keeps insisting that they are locked in some sort of nightmare."
"She might just be right. If she is, there is not much I can do at the moment. If we had a strong telepath on bored or a Vulcan they might be able to help. The last time I remember Deanna being in this kind of state we were dealing with beings from another dimension. But even then we could wake her. And I want you to look at this." She pulled the sheet off of the Captain, revealing a section of skin on his abdomen. The flesh was charred and peeling, as if he had been caught in a fire. "He came in with a smaller area on his hands. I repaired those wounds only to hear him moan again, clutch his stomach and fall deeper into this state. He biological readings at the time indicated a response to extreme heat in the same area. His mind is reacting to his dream in the same manner it would in a waking state. I have to get them out of this before they both cause themselves more damage, or hurt the baby."
"What about putting them deeper to sleep, past the dream state?"
"I was thinking of doing that. But since we are talking about the Captain I need to inform you of what I plan to do. We need to find a way to reach them but until then I need to stop what I can. With your permission, but I think you need to talk to Julianna first. She is going to know when I do this and I don't want her to think her parents are dying, they should be safe but to an empath, especially a five year old one, the lack of input from them will be rather disconcerting. She may even insist on being in her, which I don't want. Unfortunately she is too much like her parents in that respect." Alyssa sighed.
"I will tell her. If she gives me the famous Riker grief I will take responsibility for her. I can't deny her what she really wants to do. It is just as useless as telling Will no." Tina LeBeau went to retrieve her niece, only to find the girl staring out into space. She was sitting in a chair with her arms hugging her legs and rocking. She was whispering to herself almost rhythmically. Tina strained to her what she was saying. The language was not Standard or any variant of Terran language she had heard. She nearly had to cradle the child for the translator to pick up the soft speech. Julie was singing to herself, and totally unresponsive otherwise. LeBeau guessed the language to be Betazoid, and was only sure after hearing the one word she knew; Imzadi. Picking Julie up she returned to the other room. "Alyssa, we have a problem."
Julie saw both of her parents. Lying next to her on the ground was a newborn baby. He was wrapped in nothing more than a towel. She began to sing to the little crying babe, sitting down and taking him in her arms. She was such a tiny girl that the babe was nearly too much for her. Her parents never noticed her. Julie was so fixed on comforting the child that she never saw her parents being tied to a stake, and burned alive.
What she thought had been hours passed as she rocked the baby, watching in terror as he began to have trouble breathing, and finally not even trying. It was then she was whisked away on a flaming bird, a phoenix she knew would destroy every thing in its path. And her mother was guiding it. They flew and flew, bursting every thing they touched into flame. Finally the flaming bird found what it was looking for, a hole in space, being guarded by two ships. A part of Julie's mind knew they were Starfleet. Another only knew people were going to die. TOM!! She cried before she fell silent from the pain of feeling two thousand people succumb to the fire that was ridden by her mother.
"Julie, wake up." The familiar voice cooed in Julies ear, bringing her back to the hear and now with a start. An incoherent scream accompanied her bolting upright on the biobed. Strong but slender arms gripped her as she began to sob. Tina let her cry for a few minutes before trying to get her to listen.
"It's ok Jules. Tee's here. It's ok." Over and over the words came from the first officer's mouth as she soothed the little girl. Finally Julie began to pull herself together. Then suddenly she was looking at Tina with the same professional air of her parents.
"Mom and Dad are being held in the dream by something that is after Tom. I don't know how but they are flying a giant bird at him. And the bird is on fire."
"How did you know this?"
"I was thinking out in the hall and I heard a cry. I think it was my baby brother. They are all in a lot of trouble. We have to wake them up, or my brother and Mommy and Daddy will die like grampa." Gone again was the midget counselor to be replaced by the frightened child.
"Doctor, what else can we do to wake them?"
"The only thing that I know short of trying more drugs that may cause more damage than help them is through telepathy. Whether it is the form similar to Betazoid or more akin to the mind meld of Vulcans I am not sure which would help. It would definitely be dangerous to whoever tried it. Julie fell into it by accident, we were just lucky she was able to come out of it."
"What if the two of us tried. I don't know if it would work, but the other choice is not know why this is happening."
"I can only give you one shot at this. If you don't have anything within the hour, I am going to have to place them into a deeper coma. If that doesn't stop it the only thing left until we could get to a specialist is stasis."
LeBeau knew the ships as soon as she saw them. She could not see their designation, but in the induced state dream language reigned. One ship seemed masculine while the other had a feminine touch. They seemed mated to one another. The conscious mind which was in control of the situation knew this could only be one pair of ships in the Fleet; The Trident and the Excalibur. They were the only ships which could be mated to each other, since their respective Captains were spouses. Julie told her Tom was in danger from Will and Deanna's dream, now she could see the destruction for herself. Unable to pull away from the scene in front of her she watched as first the Excalibur and then the Trident fell prey to this giant phoenix. In her mind she heard the screams over and over again, felt the pain and death throes. She experienced every death over and over again. From Xyon, the son of the Excalibur's first officer, to Tom Riker and Captain Shelby. Every death came with a name and life. She felt herself screaming as the pain racked her body. A hand gripped hers as she was beginning to lose her battle to remain sane. The small hand held fast to her and together they claimed a small anchor, one to the other. As long as they knew the other was there they could remember they were in a dream which wasn't their own. Together the plunged toward the ships. Tina knew they had to wake the two whose dream they invaded. The problem was she did not know how to reach them. Will was nowhere to be found in the dream. She hoped that by finding the dream version of Tom she could reach Will. Deanna was lost in the fury of the beast. The aerobatics were spectacular and Deanna appeared to be in control until Tina forced her view point to change and she could see her eyes. They were glazed in a primordial terror which Tina had only seen once or twice in her life.
Julie motioned for her to look at the more feminine of the ships. She knew Tom was there. Following dream thought she changed the focus of what she wanted to see. She found herself on the bridge watching as the scene of destruction played on. "Commander Riker!" Tom did not respond to Tina's order. Instead he spoke hurriedly to someone Tina did not know.
"I thought you said the dimensional barrio was stable here?"
"It was sir, but in the past thirty seconds there was a cascade reaction to our probe. Not only has the barrier breached something is coming through." Then the phoenix engulfed them again.
"Commander. Tina." The sound of her name brought her to wakefulness.
"Where's Julie?"
"I'm right here Tee. You were deeper than me, it took Alyssa longer to wake you up than me."
Tina sat upright. "Doctor, I want them woke up now." She hugged Julianna tight. "Putting them deeper or in stasis will make it worse. If you don't not only will they die, but so will a lot of others, including Calhoun and Shelby's crews." Again she hugged Jules to her. "I'll accept the consequences for the order."
"Aye sir." She took a pair of hypos from the tray. "I think this combination of stimulant and neural depressant will work. The idea is to wake them up while shutting down the subconscious. What this will do is cause the release of large amounts of dopamine and seretonin into their blood stream. This should shut the receptors down in the areas of the brain which process dreams. Overload them with hormones and the shift gears. Instead of inducing a dream it sends the patient into a waking dream. Once they are conscious I will have to administer an anti-psychotic to reverse the chemically induced episode. This will either work, or will send them into a deeper coma, or worse a waking fugue state which requires them to be restrained and subsequently resedated."
"Julie, do you want to leave?"
"No Tee. If something happens I want to see it, not just feel it."
LeBeau nodded at the Doctor to begin. At first nothing happened. Then Julie buried her head in Tina's legs. She felt it just after Julie. Tina had very little empathy except with close friends. When her two friends began to thrash against the restraints Ogawa place on them she buried her head in Julie's hair. Several minutes later they were calm again.
"I think it worked. They should sleep another couple of hours, maybe up to a day. Deanna nearly burned herself out trying to protect the baby. But both of them will make it. I would suggest they both see a counselor after this, but Deanna is the counselor and her assistants just aren't trained in the advanced techniques."
"Either way they won't be fit for duty for a couple of days at least, am I correct?"
"Yes sir."
"Can you keep Julie for a bit. I need to go to the bridge."
"Of course Tina."
The dream was different now. Will stretched out on the beach holding his wife's hand. She lazily stretched on the sand, sighing as she did so. Neither saw the flaming bird in the distance.