The Monster In My Mirror
by Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Huff
Chapter Five: The Unguilded Cage
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I'm not quite sure when they decided to take me Adigieon Prime. I remember them coming home from one parent teacher conference. All these years after the fact I'm quite certain that the teacher was trying to convince my parents that holding me back in school for a year would be in my best interest, At this point we'll never know if that would have been a better choice than the one they finally made. Though part of me suspects it would not have.
I remember my Mother kissing me goodbye that morning at the space port on Earth and telling me to be a good boy for my Father. The next time I saw her It was more than three months later and I was a whole new person.
I was excited by the hospital on Adigieon at first, with all the different aliens that I had never seen before, or even dreamt of. Then it became a frightening place. I didn't understand what the doctors were trying to do. I just knew that some times it hurt when they promised it wouldn't. I remember on more than one occasion trying to hide from them, and then my Father finding me. At first he would be angry, then he saw I was afraid and would try to comfort me. In the end he would always convince me that it was okay, and things would get better.
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The regimented life at the institute was hard for the first few days. Then it became easier. He got into a routine of following what schedule was set for the ward. There were daily fights between Jack and whoever refused to see things his way. It was unavoidable that Julian would take the brunt of it some days. Though Jack always lost interest them moment that something else caught his attention.
Julian still kept his journal in code, though now he changed the cypher each day so that the others in the ward who were as smart as him would not be able to read it as well. They were not kept informed about the outside world. So none of them knew he'd been convicted of murder. They just knew that he had been court martialed and sent here.
Loren grabbed the padd from his hand. "So why all this code stuff, doctor?"
He wasn't sure if the way she said that was meant to be mocking or not. "It's no ones business but my own."
"Is it some plot to overthrow the Federation?"
Julian grabbed the padd back. "Hardly." He went back to editing the code.
"Who is Timothy Andrus?"
Julian looked at her with a mixture of surprise and dread. "That's is none of you business."
Loren was uncomfortably close to Bashir with her head resting on his shoulder as she stood behind him. "You mention him five times in the last seven pages. Almost as much as this Elizabeth Burke." she pointed to a series of characters in the code.
Bashir gave her the dirtiest look he could.
"Even Rail Fencing I can see the names, but the original language of the text is not one that I am familiar with."
"They are people I haven't seen or spoken to since I was fifteen."
"Oh, so the great Dr. Julian Bashir is writing his memoirs."
This time there was no missing the mockery in her voice. "If I were just writing my biography I wouldn't be keeping it in code."
"Then what pray tell is it, dear Julian?" she asked.
Julian looked back over the text and caught something that he'd missed before. "The possible answer to why I'm here instead of back on Deep Space Nine."
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