Hello, all!

Hope every is having as much fun with their final exams as I am!

As a treat for a job at least successfully done here is another chapter for you.

Enjoy and thank you for your continued support!

~o~OoO~o~

Chapter Fourteen: Dreaming for Seven

Double checking that all her vials were still hidden along the underside of one of the shelves, Seven was pretty sure she was finally going to get some real sleep. Until a beeping let her know that someone was at her door.

She wasn't surprised to see Three there after the warning Four had given her earlier. "Morning, Lucky. I was hoping you might be able to help in a bit of a debate that I was having with the rest of the crew."

"Sure, let's hear your side of it," Seven crossed her arms and leaned against the door jamb.

He grinned and gestured to the room. "Are you going to let me in?"

"Nope." Making a point to audibly pop her lips to add to the finality.

"Alright, right to the point then." He shrugged, not discouraged in the slightest. "What do you think about selling the ship once we get to the station and parting ways with the left over cash?"

"Nope."

He scoffed. "Any particular reason why?"

"I'd rather have my own ship than hitch a ride with people I don't know," she frowned and gestured to the books around her. "Besides, I just got all this nonsense cleaned up."

He frowned back at her. "Not even going to consider it, are you?"

"Nope."

His disappointment was real enough, but he brushed it off. "Well, there is something else I've been meaning to talk to you about."

"And that is?" the hair stood up on the back of her neck as he leaned in a little closer.

"Well, Lucky, as in hoping to be," he slipped his hand to her waist and dipped his head down towards hers. "I was thinking there might be a better way to spend the trip to the station than just sleeping. Better than hopping around that training room too."

She felt the bile from her earlier issues with the meal bar start to creep its way back up her throat. "Nope on so many levels."

"Seven." The sound of a much more welcome voice made her turn to look down the hall just as Three tried to come in a bit too close for comfort.

She'd barely registered Four's dark eyes boring into them when those lips made contact with the side of her neck, unkempt facial hair scratching the sensitive skin as Three chose to ignore their audience. She felt the revulsion contort her face just as bile reached the top floor and spewed right out onto Three's shirt.

"Agghh! Damn it!" he flung himself back, holding his vest and shirt away from his chest. "What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you do that?"

Seven coughed as she wiped her mouth and leaned against the doorway for support now that she was more than a little lightheaded. "Pretty sure you needed a shower anyways."

Three just snarled at her before pushing by Four on his way to his own quarters. Four stopped next to her and they listened as Three stomped and cursed his way down the hall. Seven took a deep breath as her stomach made more complaints. After a minute, Four finally looked at her with a gleam in those dark eyes and his lips nearly curving into a grin.

"Maybe I shouldn't have interrupted," he said. "You looked like you were having fun."

Seven glared at him and wiped some more bile of her lips, flicking her hand in the direction Three had gone. "So much fun. Did you need something?"

Those lips twitched and that eyebrow went up. "I need the staff."

"I thought you already had one," she raised an eyebrow back and his eyes got a little wider when he realized what she meant. "Sorry, I'm not feeling well at the moment. That meal bar was awful. You should check the dates on those things."

"He asked about the ship," a statement, humor gone.

Seven nodded as she slipped back into her room to get the staff she practiced with. "Just like you said he would."

"What did you tell him?"

She shrugged. "I told him I'd rather keep the ship than hitch a ride with people I know even less about."

"Why?" He accepted the staff when she passed it to him.

She did her best to look him directly in the eye. "I have a feeling that I'm here for something important and I'm not about to leave until I find out what that is."

His gaze penetrated her to the core as he thought about her answer for a moment and finally he nodded. "What if you hadn't gotten sick?"

"Huh?" She just blinked confused.

"What would you have done if you hadn't been sick and I hadn't walked in on the two of you?" He elaborated, a bit more serious than before.

"I might have still thrown up," she frowned and rubbed her arms. "Being around that guy makes the air feel greasy."

Those lips curled into a smirk and her eyes went right to them. She didn't realized she'd been staring at them, thinking about the dreams she'd been having among other things, until she looked up and was startled that he was watching her eyes zone in on his mouth. Seven looked away and tried to fight the blood rushing into her cheeks.

"Get some rest, Seven," he shook his head and moved toward the hall. "Or should I call you Lucky?"

She glared at him as he headed down the hall, his shoulders tight with contained laughter. "Use your own staff next time!"

~o~O~o~

Just an hour. Couldn't a girl get just an hour of sleep on this ship? Seven muttered curses as she made her way to the mess hall. Upon arrival she plopped down into a seat and put her head down on the table. Two, Five, and Six were already there. The others trickled in shortly after she did. She noticed that Four didn't have her staff with him so she assumed he'd left it in the training room. When they'd all gathered, Two stood up and faced the group. She explained the situation.

"She's been having dreams." Two started. "Dreams she thinks might be memories, except they're not just hers."

It was like someone was dragging an ice cube down her spine. Seven sat up straighter, trying to be casual by acting like she was just stretching. She chanced a look at Four, but he was thankfully too focused on Two for the moment.

"What?" Three asked skeptically.

"I think all of our memories may have somehow been transferred into her subconscious." Even though it was her theory, Two's hesitation spoke volumes on how valid she thought it might be.

"How's that even possible?" One didn't seem as though he though it were any more real than she did, than Seven hoped it was.

Six shrugged. "How's any of this possible?"

Two ignored the questions. "There's something else. One of the dreams she experienced was of one of us sabotaging the stasis pods."

"Son of a bitch." Three leaned forward in his chair, throwing an accusatory look at Five.

"Hang on," One interrupted. "Just because she dreamed it, doesn't make it real."

"I had the Android search through all terminal activity prior to our last deep sleep," she explained.

"And?!"

Two looked to the Android and let her explain this time. "I recovered portions of a self-deleted subroutine that was initiated prior to all of you entering stasis. Although it's specific intent is unclear, it would appear your memories were targeted."

Everyone seemed to take a breath, except for Three. "Oh come on, guys. How hard can this be? The kid remembers doing it. She did it!"

"If it was her, why would she tell us about it?" Six came to the younger girl's defense. "Think about it."

"Alright, alright, come on." Two tried to diffuse the tension, but One wasn't having it.

"Why didn't you tell us about this sooner?"

"I wanted to see if her dream about tampering with the ship's systems checked out." Two looked to Five apologetically. "It did, which means this goes far beyond that one memory. She could have all of our memories tucked away in her head."

One turned to Five this time. "When you dream, you have no idea whose memories you're experiencing?"

"No." Five seemed scared, probably regretting telling Two and thinking about the reputation of the crew. "In the dreams, everything is happening to me, but sometimes I can tell I'm not me. It's really confusing and, a lot of times, kind of hazy. I have trouble remembering it when I wake up."

Seven's relief almost overwhelmed her as images from her own dreams flooded her mind. That may not been her life anymore, but that didn't mean the others wouldn't hold it against her if Five held any of her memories about the man and the room full of poisons. Especially with the tension rising about them all like a dark cloud.

"So someone in this room wiped our memories and probably killed that kid." Six deduced.

~o~OoO~o~

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I look forward to hearing your input.