Disclaimer – Still own nothing. Enjoy chapter 8.

Chapter 8

Crash and Burn

"Hal. Hal, come on, wake up sleepy head." Hal's eyes slowly fluttered open. He was laying on his bed in his room. Rebecca crouching down beside him, gently shaking his shoulder.

"Come on, you gotta wake up honey."

Hal opened his eyes. He wasn't in his bed, he was on the hard floor, beside the cot in the his and Tector's room. He sat up slowly, quickly feeling that the headache was gone. He was still alone in the room, so odds were he wasn't out that wrong.

However, Hal knew that something was seriously wrong. Anne said that the headaches might take a while to leave, that it was a common side effect of drugs and stress, but a headache that gets so bad that causes someone to pass out was not normal, at least for Hal.

So, deciding it would be best to get it checked out, Hal got up and headed to the infirmary.

FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS

It had over an hour since Hal told Anne what happened, and since then, using some sort of Volm medical scanner, Anne had run many tests on his head. Then she took a blood sample and left him alone, sitting on the medical table while she checked the results. Finally, Anne entered the room, and so did Cochise, to Hal's surprise.

"Cochise, what are you doing here?" Hal asked, a little worried that Anne seemed to have gotten his help.

"Anne came to me not long after she had discovered the Espheni drug in your blood system, when you were first rescued. I did not truly know what is was, until now, when Anne had informed of some of your symptoms." Cochise explained, pausing to make sure Hal was following, then asked, "May I ask you some questions?"

Hal stared at Cochise, thoughts running wildly in his mind. What questions could Cochise have? Have the Volm seen and know what the drug was? If that's the case, would he or Anne want to know what Hal remembered?

The dark haired man looked back up at the alien and his stepmother. They kept watching him, Cochise waiting patiently, and Anne failing to hide her concern. If Anne was worried enough to get help from Cochise, whatever was wrong, was pretty bad. Reluctantly, Hal nodded.

"When the needle was injected, did you lose consciousness?" Cochise inquired, Hal nodded.

"Did you have a dream, or hallucination of a memory that you had previously forgotten, or hadn't thought about in a while?" Again, Hal nodded.

Cochise stopped there, watching as Hal lowered his head. He looked over to Anne, and saw what he had seen to be human sadness, and concern. He wondered why Tom Mason's wife seemed to feel those emotions. Perhaps it was what Anne had told him was sympathy, feeling what someone else felt.

Anne stared at her stepson. He was staring down at his lap, not meeting her or Cochise's eyes and didn't say anything. That alone told her whatever Hal had hallucinated had more than freaked him out. Realizing it would be better to try and turn the attention off of those memories, she turned to Cochise.

"Is it the same drug that you had told me about earlier?" Hal's head shot up. They knew why he was getting headaches?

"Yes, it is. Hal, this drug is one of the Espheni earlier interrogation techniques. When they inject the drug, it's meant to enter the brain through the bloodstream, and causes the consciousness to slow in function and allow the subconscious take over. After injecting the drug, the Espheni use a machine, that attaches to their victim's temples and allow them to, somewhat control what they are thinking or feeling, so when they ask their question, the subconscious makes them automatically answer if the victim does know the answer." Cochise told him.

"But the dreams I had didn't have anything to do with the questions they were asking." Hal told him. Cochise nodded, "Maybe so, however, whatever you were dreaming had something in common with what you were feeling or thinking at that moment."

"Cause they didn't have a machine." Hal clarified.

"Correct, they wouldn't because they wouldn't have had the power to use it, with their power source on the moon destroyed, which is why those dreams may have been random and not what they were looking for. It is also why you are experiencing headaches and have started to have moments of losing consciousness." Cochise informed him.

"What do you mean?" Hal asked.

"Maybe I should explain this part." Anne cut in. Cochise nodded and Anne walked to stand in front of Hal.

"In the simplest of terms, the machine helped control the affect of the drug and was fine, in limited amounts and if they used the machine to restore the balance between the human's conscious and subconscious. Since they didn't do that, and they gave you very high doses in short amount of time, that's not happening. Your subconscious is basically fighting your consciousness, which is why you've been getting headaches and why you pass out. They are both being overactive, now that the drug has worn off." Anne did her best to explain.

"It'll go away though, right?" Hal asked. Anne shook her head.

"No, it won't Hal. Your brain is going to keep building up pressure, causing migraines until you pass out. Think of it like a computer, it's being worked too hard, it freezes, shuts down, then reboots. That is what is happening in your brain when the headache starts and you pass out. But, it's not going to stop. The pressure is going to keep building."

"Anne if that's it, I can handle that." Hal said confidently. He could handle having a few headaches

"Hal, if the pressure goes any higher than the tests I ran told me it did when you passed out, and it will, it will cause internal bleeding within your skull and even your brain." Hal stared in shock.

"You mean…"

"Hal, if we don't find a way to fix this, it will kill you."

Author's Note – And that's the end of chapter 8. I know, I'm very evil for leaving another cliffhanger. My friend actually nicknamed me 'Cliffhanger Becky' or was it 'Evil Cliffhanger Becky'? Can't remember. Oh well, chapter 9 should be up soon. Please review and tell me your thoughts or if you have any questions, I know this chapter can be a little confusing. I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far. Chapter 9 should hopefully be up soon, where the entire family shall be worried about Hal, while Hal struggles to process what he has learned.