"What the devil is she doing? La Forge, cut off power to the engines. Data, get her out of there!"

"Aye, sir."

"No, Cap'n, ah'm almost-!"

I wake up, from either the realness of the nightmare or my own scream.

I bolt upright, arms and abs propping me up as my lungs heave like an out-of-control steam engine. For a long time all I can do is stare into space, literally, gazing through the universe out the window with eyes as wide as the twin full moons of Teneebia. I notice that I'm too warm, approximately the core of a blue star's worth of too warm, despite my only covers being a furry yet flimsy blanket. I can feel sweat drops eerily creeping down my brow and the side of my face, yet I can't bring my rigid limbs to do anything about it. My fingers clutch the mattress like the desperate last grips of a cat before declawing. My heart pounds as if I am freefalling off the side of a mountain. Every muscle is so tense it hurts. I feel like I'm trapped, I feel like I'm dying, and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it.

"Ensign, please remain calm."

I take a more normal breath in preparation of chewing whoever dares to intrude upon me a new one, but then I discover that I like being able to breathe normally so I keep doing that instead. It also occurs to me that I don't even know who's doing the daring, so I resolve to get my body to obey me in order to discover the culprit-or at least my neck vertebrae. Jerkily, uncertainly, like a broken robot, I turn my head to the right. Across the room reclines the one entity I do not expect and do not want to see.

"Data?" I exclaim, resuming a 'The &$#?' look with angry eyebrows and confused mouth set.

"Correct." he affirms, having the guts at least to look up from his book to look me in the eye. I can read his expression of polite interest perfectly courtesy of the lamp perched on the nightstand beside him, yet I squint at him in suspicion.

"The &$# are you doing here?" I demand. Even more infuriating than his mere presence is the nonplussed face he regards me with, as if I was as docile and well-mannered as a Vulcan pacifist. I mentally spit in his general direction.

"I am here with you to ensure your general well-being," he explains. What kind of a goody two-faced lie is that?

"Where's the doctor?" I interrogate. At that question, he raises his eyebrows, as if the very notion of a doctor being near her patient is unlikely enough for him to be mildly surprised at my question. % $#, I hate him.

"She is resting," he replies. "And judging by your inquiry, you seem to have some recollection of the...event at engineering. What else do you remember?"

His hesitation in speech is an instant red flag. He's an android, his speech should run as smoothly as this galaxy-class ship. What would make him stammer?

"Me memory's perfectly fine, thank you," I snap, to which he does not react. "Except for this 'event' yer referring to. Last ah remember, ah was in Engineering, and the good Cap'n was giving me an earful. As it should be! Nothin' happened. Not a thing. Ah don't know what Ah'm doin' in this bed, gettin' babysat by you!"

"Either your memory is not as fine as you believe it is, or you are lying," he observes candidly. %$#, what gave it away? "I suspect the latter, seeing as you are overelaborating, defensive, and referring to facts that I know are untrue."

"Fine, then!" I retort, angrily crossing my arms. "Tell me what happened, ya daft robot!"

He opens his mouth, shuts it again. The look on his face can almost be called something sad. The closest I'll agree with is indecision.

"I was instructed against explaining what happened to you," he repulses, dancing around my query in an all-too-human manner. "The best thing you can do right now is get some sleep."

"You'd think it's the middle o' the night and Ah've been on me feet since o'five hundred, the way yer carrying on!" I growl indignantly. "Even for a bot, yer actin' right strange. Fishy, even. Ah don't understand what's goin' on, it's almost like ah never even-"

Then the answer hits me in the stomach like a happy bullet.

"It's a dream." I realized, so shocked I forgot to smile. A ruddy dream! "That's what this is."

"I assure you, Ensign, this is not a dream." Of course Data would try to ruin it for me.

"That's exactly what someone in a dream would say!" I accused, jabbing a finger at him with angry eyebrows. Then he put on that puzzled look that was absolutely adorable to everyone but me.

"Is it?" he inquired.

"Ah, no, ya don't!" I rebuffed, refusing to get sucked into believing it. "Yer gettin' tricky on me! Funny, ah didn't think me subconscious was so devious."

"No, ma'am. I ask because androids do not dream-or at least I cannot." he lied. Well, could you call it a lie if your dreaming subconscious made it up?

"Ugh. One would think that a dream Data would be at least a little imaginative." I grumbled.

"It is not a dream."

"Yes it is, you daft robot! It has tae be! Ah don't even have me-"

Happy bullet's gone.

So are my legs.

Looking at the gap in my existence, the sight goes in one eye and out the other. I don't believe it. That's not right, it can't be. Where are they? The blanket slopes down from my waist, ignoring the space occupied by my AWOL limbs. I try to move them, to convince myself of this illusion's farcity, but there's nothing to move. Are they just asleep, and all this really is is a terrible nightmare? I have to know for sure.

I thrust my hands into that unreal space.

Please-

They never meet flesh.

For an infinite moment I only sit there in disbelief, not knowing what to say or do or think and so resolving on nothing. Hearing nothing, seeing nothing, feeling nothing. Nothing there. There's nothing left. Everything is wrong, nothing is as it should be, or ever will be again. Nothing is okay, and I can't fix it. I leave my hands in that awful space because I can't move. I can't move because I won't. There's no reason to. It's over, but nothing really happened. Things just decided to end. I couldn't do anything about it, and I can't now. I can't fix it. But if I can't move, what will I do? If I can't fix it, what can I? What am I?

"Go to sleep, Ensign."

For the first and only time, I do as he says without another word.