Disclaimer: I don't own Enterprise or it's characters.

Chapter 5: The Nightmare

It's cold and dark; I'm in a desert at nighttime. I'm alone… completely alone, but I'm not alone at all. There's something out there, and it wants me, and it knows this desert better than I do… this desert is its home. I run, needing to get away from the desert, needing to get to water. Water is safe… it is a desert creature; water is its enemy. But there is no water… water is rare here, which is why I am afraid. I have only one thing to cling to… one thing to give me strength. It is a small feather, in a shade of impossibly bright pink. I know of no creature with feathers like this… it is a magical feather; it is the only thing I have to keep me safe. As long as I have the feather… I can believe in colour and light and beauty and love and happiness. I can hope. But it wants to take all of those things from me… it wants to make me cold and dead – no appreciator of beauty, no giver of love.

So I run through this silver-lit landscape, knowing it can track me wherever I go.

Give up, child. Come home. You belong here…

"No." I keep running, faster now.

You grow tired, child. You should rest. You have much to learn.

My legs grow tired, but I dare not slow my pace. Commonsense and logic say I should rest… but if I rest it will catch me. Stubbornness keeps me going, drives my legs onward even as they cry out. I will not quit… I will die before I let it catch me.

Dying would be such a waste… you have so much you can accomplish. Come home, child. We can teach you.

"No!" The thought of learning from it scares me.

We can take away your fear. You need never be afraid again, child.

"No!" I would rather be forever afraid, forever filled with sorrow than to lose them. They are my colours, my shades, and I will not have them fade to black and white. I have seen myself in black and white… it is a picture that cannot be developed.

Suddenly the ground begins to sway, and I stumble, falling…

My pillow is wet beneath my cheek, wet with the cold sweat of nightmare. The world is still swaying though… my dream has been made real.

"It's okay, punk. It's just a light one." Daddy's voice reaches out from the darkness, reassuring me with its presence. Daddy is a creature of the ocean… he is no kin to the desert.

The swaying stops, and he switches on a light so we can talk. "Kind of scary, huh? My first one… I thought it was the big one, and that we were all going to die. I was born in a hurricane… but a tiny tremor freaked me right out."

"What was it?" I've never felt anything like that before… it was like the world decided to suddenly change position.

"Earthquake." Daddy smiles. "California gets them sometimes… you get used to it after a while. Jon probably didn't even wake up. You okay, punk?"

I shake my head. "Nightmare." I can never tell him what they are about… I don't think he'll understand.

He nods, and sits up, patting the bed beside him. "Come here, then."

We sit for a while; just the two of us thinking our own thoughts, but knowing the other is there to keep us safe.

"Daddy, are we near the ocean?" I haven't seen much of San Francisco… we came straight here from the shuttleport… and I've only been downtown and to the grocery store since.

"Right next to it, punk. Why?"

"Can I go see the ocean, Daddy?" Something in me needs to see it, to touch it and know that it is real.

Daddy smiles. "Sure, punk. I don't know why we haven't already. I've missed it… that's one of the big things I've really missed." He sighs. "I almost forgot how much I love it… just the sound of it, the smell of it." He pulls me in for a quick hug. "I bet you wouldn't like the smell so much… you can probably smell a lot more of the real stuff in there, than I can."

"Real stuff?"

He grins, like he does when he's playing a joke on someone. "Dead fish… whale poop…"

"Daddy." I punch him in the side and he begins to tickle me.

"What? You think the whales get out of the ocean to go to the bathroom? There'd be no room left to walk on the beach."

I squirm to get away from him, laughing. Daddy always knows the best cures for my nightmares… Mother used to tell me to meditate more before sleeping, and I wouldn't have them… but sometimes the meditation makes it worse.

"We'll go see the ocean tomorrow, punk. Right after your test… we'll head on down to the beach."

"And watch out for poopy whales?" If Daddy can be ridiculous, then so can I. I don't have any idea what a whale looks like, but it sounds interesting.

"Absolutely, punk." He laughs, and I realise how much I've missed that. Daddy hasn't laughed in a long time… he's starting to be happy again. It's the ocean – I know it must be. It's just like they taught us in school: it's in the ocean that life begins.