Captain Allensworth sat at the head of the table in the conference room with the rest of the senior staff. His concern was obvious. Although their current situation didn't cause any immediate threat, it could have serious repercussions on the crew.

"I know some of you have experienced weird dreams lately. I, myself have fallen victim to the dreams as well." He turned to Counselor Nycz, who was on his left. "Counselor, you've dealt with the crewmembers who have experienced these dreams, can you tell us anything they have in common or anything at all that could help us solve this mystery?"

"The one thing they all have in common aside from they all began around the same time is that they all had to deal with the death of someone close to the person who experienced the dream. Like I, myself witnessed the death of a friend on the USS Bonchune. While my past self was on the ship, she was not there to witness the event."

Allensworth nodded. "I see." He turned to his first officer. "Jason, what about you?"

"Well, I saw the death of my step-sister. I had lived these past few years not completely knowing how she died or even got to say goodbye to her. I was able to feel closure."

"Zofchak?"

"I saw my sister at AR-five five eight."

"Did you feel the same way?" Allensworth asked.

Dustin nodded.

"Counselor, who was the first person to contact you about their dream?"

"Commander Sparhawk, sir."

"Jason, do you remember when your dream occurred?"

"Probably around the time we entered the nebula. I was talking with Counselor Nycz after the dream and we had been in the nebula for a few hours."

"I think we may have something here but I'm not sure. Merriell, I want you to team up with Commander Zofchak and Commander Sato to dig up anything you can on this nebula and report to me once you find anything."

"Aye, sir." He and Zofchak said.

"If nothing else dismissed."

The officers stood up and exited the room.

Zofchak walked along side Merriell as they left.

"Man, if Data was still alive, we could just contact him and he could probably tell us all there is to know about the Shinjitsu Nebula." He said as the doors closed behind them.

Ensign Michelle Stull entered her quarters just after getting off of her shift from the bridge. She had running Ops this time instead of Navigation. She had run Ops only a few times and took over for Commander Merriell while he was at the senior officer meeting. Then she had to help a few people down in Astrometrics. It had been a long exhausting day. She just unzipped her uniform, revealing more of her yellow turtleneck and plopped down on her bed. She was pretty much asleep before she even hit the pillow.

The next thing she knew, she felt the cool breeze and could smell the salty San Franciscan air. She opened her eyes and saw that she was at Starfleet Academy in San Francisco. The only problem was she instantly remembered what day it was. It was the day the Breen attacked.

Zofchak, Merriell and Sato sat at a computer terminal on the right side of the bridge going over information of the Shinjitsu Nebula.

"According to this," Merriell said. "It was discovered by the Beloti in twenty-three nineteen. But they reported nothing out of the ordinary when they entered the nebula."

"Well, the word Shinjitsu in Japanese means both fact and truth." Hoshi said.

"That could be something to go on." Zofchak said.

"What do you mean?" Alex asked.

"Well, the dreams we've had were all based on past events that we ourselves did not witness but actual events."

"How do we know that they are actual events and not just some illusion making us think they're real?" Merriell asked.

"The thought had crossed my mind at first however some of the crew who has had these dreams actually had dreams where they were there but not actually witnessing the event. Such as Counselor Nycz, she dreamt that she was on her old ship the Bonchune when her friend from the academy was killed while they were chasing the Prometheus. She was there but not on the bridge at the time of her friend's death."

"And me as well." Hoshi said.

The other two Lieutenant Commanders looked at her. Dustin knew what she was going to say and he wasn't going to bring it up unless she was going to. He was actually glad that he was able to use Counselor Nycz's story instead of Hoshi's.

"I saw my own death."

"Like a premonition?" Merriell asked.

Hoshi shook her head. "No, I saw the Hoshi that lived in this universe. The one that was killed on Tarsus Four."

"Oh, I remember that story." Merriell said. "I hadn't realized that the Hoshi Sato of this universe was involved in that."

"So were two Enterprise crewmembers, Kevin Riley and Captain Kirk." Zofchak said.

"It's because of that dream alone is the reason we believe these are real." Hoshi said.

"It's still hard to conceive because none of us were actually present so it could just be our minds trying to put together the events."

"That makes sense and I did think of that until I contacted Kevin Riley, who is still alive and asked him about it. He confirmed everything I saw in my dream." Hoshi said. "He even confirmed the place where I saw a group of teenagers hiding in the dream. He was one of the teenagers."

"Computer," Dustin called into the air. "Make a list of all the elements that make up the Shinjitsu Nebula."

"Dust, hydrogen gas, plasma…" As the computer ran down the list, the feminine voice reminded Dustin of Counselor Troi's mother Lwaxana Troi. "Dimethyltryptamine…"

The word caught Dustin's attention. "Computer, stop."

"What is it?" Hoshi asked.

"Dimethyltryptamine."

"You mean the drug that is found in plants?" Alex asked.

Dustin nodded. "The human brain also produces small amounts. Since dreams are still a mystery today as they were four hundred years ago, people still speculate that Dimethyltryptamine plays a part in dreams. The fact that we found it here in the nebula almost proves that it does."

"Ok so we know that these dreams are based on past events and they were triggered by Dimethyltryptamine that is in this nebula. What are we going to do about it?" Merriell asked.

"We'll take it to the captain." Zofchak said.

Captain Allensworth sat in his ready room trying out a cup of earl grey. It wasn't the best tasting tea in the universe but he didn't mind it. However, it wasn't a drink that he'd drink all the time. He actually wondered why Jean-Luc Picard drank it so much.

It must come with age.

He took another sip just as the chime to his door rang.

"Come in."

The doors separated and revealed the three Lieutenant Commanders he had assigned to finding any information on the Shinjitsu Nebula.

"Captain, I believe we figured something out on why we've been having these dreams." Merriell said.

"What did you find?" He said leaning back in his chair.

"It's really more theory because no one has really recorded anything when they passed through here. There are no records of any other Federation ships passing through this nebula. We do believe that this nebula is responsible for the dreams we've been having." Alex said.

"We found traces of Dimethyltryptamine in the nebula." Dustin said.

Allensworth raised an eyebrow. "The substance that people believe has a part in dreaming?"

"The same. I don't think it's a coincidence that we found it in a nebula that is causing us to dream certain dreams."

"Ok so we're in a nebula that causes us to dream these dreams. Now what?" Allensworth asked.

"I do have a theory about it though." Merriell said.

"Oh?"

"Based on the dreams we've had. It's possible that this nebula gives people a bit of closure. All of us who have had dreams, had dreams based on the loss of a loved one to which we were not present for. Even if we were told the story on how they died, we still felt slightly empty. As Commander Sato has stated, Shinjitsu means both fact and truth in Japanese."

Allensworth nodded as he took in Alex's theory.

"Well, there's not much we can do. It appears that this nebula is harmless but I really don't want to subject the crew to further exposure to it. Dustin, do you think going to warp inside the nebula will have any effects on the engines?"

The chief engineer shook his head.

"Ok then, we'll increase speed to warp seven. We'll launch a warning buoy to the edge of the nebula, warning any passing ships of what this nebula can do. It is their discretion whether or not to proceed into the nebula. Good work, you three."

The three Lieutenant Commanders nodded in unison before leaving. Allensworth pressed a button on his table.

"Lieutenant McCabe, set a course for Earth and increase speed to warp seven."