Physical awareness was returning in quick and painful stages: headache, nausea, and an overwhelming thirst. For a moment he felt a fleeting sensation of disorientation. Where am I ? What happened ?
The effects of a concussion had still not subsided, which was making it hard to recall the required information. His memories were fragmented, chaotic. None of them clear, all like a waking dream, hazy and unconnected. He wondered if he was still dreaming. He did his best to recompose himself, What was the last thing I remember ?
Something about the Aurora being defeated in battle and everyone was being beamed to somewhere. Then some type of gas, alot of coughing and yelling. Confusing memories did not make much sense right now, all come rushing at him.
And there was pain. That was all he was aware of. Constant throbbing pain. His whole body felt as if it had been burnt to a crisp more than once, his lips were parched and cracked from the lack of water. His back was laying on something hard. Very hard. Slowly, he dragged himself to a sitting position. His whole body ached with the effort, but at least the pounding in his head let him know he was alive.
The pain ebbed away. Cautiously, he sat up the rest of the way and opened his eyes. His eyes slowly began to focus as his surroundings became apparent. There was light, but it was dim. He was in a long, dark room with the others, all of them laid out on crude metal cots. Most of them were still out for the count, but a few were groggily trying to wake up.
He slowly got to his feet. There was a cracked mirror hanging on the wall. Hesitantly he looked into it. His uniform was caked in sweat. He saw a foreign object in the mirror, a small metal disk attached to the left side of his neck. He tried to pull it off, but it seemed embedded into his skin. Impossible to remove. He wiped soot from his forehead in resignation.
At least it is pleasantly warm, he thought thinking of a summer's day.
Images and sensations suddenly resolved themselves, his memory in its entirety returned and fear swept over him. Romulans! Taken as prisoners!
"Alice!" Stryker croaked as loudly as he could manage. He started to panic, "Alice, Alice!"
"Over here, " said a voice. Stryker searched the near complete darkness for the sound of her voice. He found her on the floor, her straggly red hair fell in all directions, mostly in her eyes.
She had tossed aside the top of her uniform, in favour of the light pink vest she was wearing underneath. She too had to a small metal object on her neck. He could tell she was very thin. That reminded Stryker of the pain in his own stomach. "How long has it been ?" he asked.
"I do not know. Must have been two, maybe three days now." she replied. She felt violently sick to her stomach, but managed to hid it well. I am so hungry, she thought.
"What is going on ?" he asked.
"I wish I knew. As far as I can tell there is about fifty of us in this room. I guess we are somehow separated throughout a number of rooms like these." she whispered. He sat down, his back against the wall.
"How do you feel ?" he asked.
"Tired. Hungry. Thirsty. Tingling and aching. Like every part of my body is asleep."
He held her hand in his. "Still mad at me ?" he asked.
"No." she smiled faintly. Alice lifted a hand towards the bruise on his cheek. "Does it still hurt ?"
"Yes." he said. "Our natural healing factor is pretty lousy."
She sat up and curled up with Stryker against the wall. A short while later Alice fell asleep in this position. He did not fall asleep immediately. He shook his head in confusion when a dozen beavers appeared in front of him, dancing the Jiji no rag. He tired to ignore the hallucination by closing his eyes. Sleep eventually claimed him.
He snapped out of his deep slumber several times. Alice seemed to have terrible nightmares. She was kicking, breathing irregularly and at times looked as if she were screaming, but only small whimpers escaped her mouth. He stroked her hair gently.
She continued to toss and turn in her restless sleep, her lovely face shining with cold sweat. Her eyes were squeezed shut, but tears seeped out from under the tightly shut eyelids.
He started talking to her, reassuring her and she seemed to respond. As the hour grew later, she had calmed down again, her breath no longer came in chokes and gulps. She fell sleeping peacefully once more.
Alice woke up for a brief amount of time, and turned her head slugglishly. I feel awfully tired. Must be the stress, she decided as she looked at Stryker.
He was sound asleep, his arms wrapped protectively around her waist, and for once he looked peaceful. "Guardian to the end, eh ?"
Smiling at the rare image, she laid her head on his chest, listening to his slow, even breathing and the steady beating of his alien heart. Nice to know someone I trust is watching over me in a place like this. Life could be worse than being trapped in some jail cell with one's friend.
. . . But he is more than a close friend, is he not ? I am so stupid, he's always been under my nose for over 4 years now.
"We will have a long talk afterwards about this, you hear me ?"
He muttered about something about a fanbite. What the hell is a fanbite ? she wondered as she dozed off, sometimes reaching the point of wakefulness, then drifting back into deeper slumber.
Mouse stirred as she come to.
She felt hot and sticky and smelly. And the little ill. The room temperature was too warm, the air as dry as a desert. She tired moving. Instead found herself struggling against the rock hard restrains. Dammit, the restrains must be made of duranium or something.
Antonai gasped as she woke up with a start. The air above her shimmered strangly for a second before returning to normal. She heard popping noises, the bright lights above her bed went dark. The thin glass of the examining lights above her shattered and come raining down. She tried to protect herself, but cold metal bindings on her body, arms and around her waist prevented any kind of movement.
Instinct told her she is in extreme danger. She heard a sound and turned her head to the right. Antonai saw Mouse was awake and strapped on a similar bed. Antonai used her telekinsis to free Mouse of her restraints. The effort left her feeling very drowsy.
Mouse thanked Antonai. Her latent telepathic ability alerted her to a Romulan standing outside the room, taking a break. He could return at any moment. I have to work fast. We have to escape, Mouse thought.
The only other occupent of the room was Wiuen. Mouse shook him awake and told him of her plans as she freed him. The Romulan was returning. "Quick, someone's coming!" she told him.
"Distract him." Wiuen whispered as he crossed the room quickly and quietly. He opened a maintance closet, got in and almost closed the door completely. Mouse got an idea. I look almost Romulan, might as well use it to my advantage.
She quickly discarded her uniform top and the blue turtleneck underneath revealing a form-fitting black blouse. She sat on her bed as the young Romulan male entered. Mouse winked and sat back on the bed's surface, clasping a knee with both hands. This had the intended effect of raising her skirt provocatively. He stood there staring, what felt like ages to Mouse.
"Excuse me, I think I am lost." a mysterious voice said from behind him. The Romulan spun around just in time to see a metal tray hit him on the head. Mouse used the opportunity to mindbrush the scientist and extracted security codes from him. Mouse and Wieun moved quickly, she used the first stimulant she could find to revive Antonai.
Together the trio, freed Commander Ciro and Ray in the next room. Ciro took command, much to the Ensign and the cadets' relief. The door to the next room looked like the others. No identification markings were present. Ciro led them into the room.
But it proved to be an unforseenable mistake. They found the mess room. And nine Romulans staring back at them. Someone then sounded the alarm.
The five would-be escapees was recaptured eventually, but not before they put up one hell of a fight.
Scream
Their peaceful slumber were interrupted again as Alice woke up screaming. Small electrical sparks ran from the small device to her neck, paralyzing her. Pain welled up between her temples and the world went dark, but she could hear Stryker screaming as she dematerialized.
With a flood of adrenaline kicking in, mixed with rage as Stryker ran to the door. "You bastards, I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'll kill you!" he shouted, pounding the door. He repeatedly punched the door with such force, his knuckles become lacerated; blood flowed from the numerous cuts and covered his fingers so thickly that hardly any skin could be seen.
Someone stood behind him, but he did not notice the person placing his hand on Stryker's shoulder and squeezing. Stryker span around and punched the figure on the jaw, knocking the Vulcan to the ground.
Stryker felt lightheaded, nauseous from hunger and the thought that Alice has been taken from him. Worse still, there is nothing he can do about it. He dropped to his knees, holding his head. His entire skull was filled with an incredible pounding. The world echoed that loud organic beat, swirling around him. He passed out soon afterwards.
"Stryker!"
Alice found herself standing in the field of flowers. Not one of them looked alive. They must have beamed me down to a planet. But why ?
Dark, sooty clouds blocked the sun. She called for Stryker again but got no reply. Her nose wrinkled at an unpleasant, stomach churning odour.
She started exploring her surroundings. To her left, she found a patch of flowers struggling to live. Ray, MRess, Specky, Mouse and Stryker was laying in the center of them, their clothes charred and covered in blood. Wide, open lifeless eyes staring at the sky. Alice dropped to her knees, her hands over her eyes and started to weep at this horrible sight.
An icy hand grabbed her shoulder from behind, yanking her to her feet. "Hey, that hurts !" Alice said. A second later, the same hand whirled her around.
What Alice saw next, made her suffocate: Jubilee and Sakura !
The same two mangled, blood covered bodies of her sisters, that laid on the burning surface of SR Four over seven years ago, now stood in front of her. Alice backed away and let out a choked sob, "No. This . . . this is not possible. God. No."
One of the triplets pinched her, "Ow!"
"This is very real sis." said the other.
The two girls started walking forward, each aiming a phaser at Alice. "You left us to die dearest sister. Your fault we are dead. Your fault. You should be dead, we should be the ones living right now!" their voices echoed loudly.
Alice cried, darting away from them. She tripped across Stryker's body and fell. Alice tried to get up but her legs seemed to stop working. She screamed, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" as the two dead girls advanced on her.
A powerful howling wind was all Rakurai Stryker could hear. When he opened his eyes, he found himself standing in an open field. Its cold. Big and empty. Chaotic lighting and strong winds moved through the night air, surrounding the intermediate area around him and swirling in a thousand different patterns through the air, like groans at Wieun's Comedy Night.
He raised his hands to shield his eyes from the twirls of bright light. He saw something, there in the eye of the storm she stood, while the winds were blowing against him to keep her away from him. She was smiling at him, her long red hair and matching dress gently flapping in the wind.
He was struggling he moved forward, in utter defiance of the wind. Now getting closer to her, and being buffeted from side to side by the invisible currents, and fallen down several times. He got closer, and closer, advancing slowly. Behind her a Jem'Hadar suddenly unshrouded.
It embedded a long blade through Alice's stomach. She screamed, every muscle in her face registering pain and horror. She then looked down at the source of her pain and slumbed forward. With adrenaline enhanced strength Stryker bore down like a rogue elephant on the Jem'Hadar and broke its neck with a loud snap. He caught her before she fell and held his beloved Alice in his arms. "I love you." she said in a weak voice.
Then staying perfectly, perfectly, still ... slumping, the life gone -- and all he could do was continue staring into her eyes, contemplating those three empty words.
He cried out in soul-shattering agony. He wanted it all to end. Stryker picked up the blade and shoved it into his ribcage.
Next Chapter
Frightened and alone
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