Star Trek PBEM Sim / Star Trek RPG
TO SLEEP, PER CHANCE TO DREAM...AND REMEMBER
Title: To Sleep, Perchance to Dream... And Remember, Part Four
Location: Pandora's Box
Setting: CO's Quarters
Captain Nikolai Kamranov went to his quarters to retire for the evening. There
was much on his mind.
He reached his stateroom. The biometric reader confirmed his identity and his
codes. The doors swished open.
Kamranov pulled off his boots and lined them up neatly at attention. He went to
his terminal and updated his list of higher priorities that would trump his
serious need for a good night's sleep. A visit with Dr. S'Traht was noticeably
not on there and clearly relegated to a lower level. He activated the comm to
contact his XO.
+Harry,+ he said.
+What's up sir?+ the Executive Officer asked.
+Me for the moment. I need some decent sleep. Please screen and field. Contact
me personally when anything hits my red list. I've updated it,+ he said.
+Aye will do sir. Checking... Got it,+ the XO said.
+Thank you. Good night,+ Niko finished.
+Good night, sir,+ Harry replied, relieved his old friend and benefactor was
going to finally get some sleep.
Nikolai ended the call, sighed and got ready for bed. He didn't check any new
messages and took off his socks. He studied the scars on his foot for a moment,
knowing that earlier in the day when he put his uniform on he remembered where
they came from but now he could not recall anything other than what he had read
studying his notes. The scars from the Borg on his chest were different and he
could still recall those as he took off his shirt and the battle that brought
them. He wondered for a moment why he could remember one thing and not other and
then got ready for bed.
Niko finished and showered. It was a more difficult task because of the rash on
his hands but he managed well. Then he put on an application of the cream that
the CMO gave him, some comfortable clothes for sleeping and sat down for the
chamomile tea that the CMO had recommended.
Several minutes later, very tired and sleepy from a long day and a blissfully
uneventful evening in his quarters, he put the tea away and started towards his
bed. He suddenly stopped and his adrenaline raced.
"All right, who's there?" he asked as an order. He didn't sense any danger but
was annoyed. Sleep didn't look so soon now.
"Your best friend and worse nightmare, Emma," a young woman said becoming
visible. She was a brunnette with long straight hair,dresssed in her Shadow Ops
jumpsuit. She had a small device in her closed left hand and a gear sack on a
long strap over her shoulder.
"LT Teresa .. Emelia... di Vicenzo Peel," he asked as if he was fishing for
something to attach to the name Emma.
"That's not funny," she said without thinking. Then Emma's eyes grew wide and
sad as she examined his eyes and face. "You don't remember me from before?"
"I know we served together on the Victory," he said a bit robotically.
Emma was noticeably upset. "I expected your last three months to be difficult to
recall for the first few days here, not more than that give or take another
three months. You are forgetting more than when you first came here after the
restoration. You at least knew who I was and what I mean before. Do you remember
anything about us before that?" she said. Her voice was not accusatory but full
of great concern. She had seen her old partner in a lot of bad situations before
and anything now that seemed to tamper with his memory made a harder and harder
recovery for him. Emma worried that one day she'd wake up to find out he ended
up like Smiley Pete and some of the others they had worked with during their
careers.
"No. Nothing," Niko said honestly. "I have some notes that explain things to me
where this [memory loss] to have happened so I know you are one of a few to have
the codes and authorization to enter my quarters and other things and not to
call security. You're in charge of my personal security detail and you'd just
tell me you were fine," he tried to joke.
"That's what? Two decades missing?" she said thinking outloud, scrutinizing him
and ignoring the joke. She had guessed from his mannerisims that he had lost
more memory that came before she first met him. "Good Lord, what did they give
you this time?" she asked.
"I don't know but apparently it works to do something..." he joked, referring to
having more wiped out of his memory than he was told would be gone.
"I am surprised they let you come back here alone much less expect you to be
working or haven't been removed for medical reasons," she said, ignoring his
attempt at a joke.
The Captain ignored part of her question, not wanting to go into the
reassurances by Dr. S'Traht that he was fine for duty and lose even more time
for his precious sleep.
"I am not alone. You are here," he said wryly.
"That's for sure. Whether you can remember it or not or wrote notes or not, we
are all we have sometimes and that's all we can count on. I'll mindsit you
tonight and the next if you need it. I've done it before a few times for you.
This restoration period for you isn't going right for you. No more knocks on the
head for you, you old spacebarge" she said, taking her turn for banter and
joking.
"What happened to the training off the ship you were supposed to be doing?" Niko
asked.
"Oh that," she said. "Yes, that is where I am if anyone asks."
"I see," he said, knowing better than to alert the computer to her presence if
she was masking it for reasons to be revealed to him later.
"How long have I known you?" he asked.
"Over a decade," she replied. "We were partners for a time," she tried to state
it matter of factly, but she was very upset to find her best friend this way and
her voice cracked.
"Bedtime story?" he asked with the same sense of humor that his previous
identity had.
Emma noticed that and felt a little better. Niko got into bed and in between the
covers, making it clear he intended to sleep soon unless she had something more
to tell him than the obvious, that things weren't right. Niko hoped some good
sleep might make it right or at least keep it from getting worse.
"Us meeting is not the sleep at night kind of story to tell but one that lets
others be free to sleep at night," she explained. Emma knew there were limits to
the coded notes he could have left for himself and how they met was definitely
one of them.
"I'll take a dull one now. I haven't slept right for several days. I need this
one," he said punching the pillow. He gave her a look that said both "thank you
very much" and "now make yourself scarce."
"I'll give you a briefing on crypto protocols," she quipped back.
"That will do it. I read those earlier today. All right then. I have XO as gate
keeper first level. You can take it from here if anymore unannounced visitors
arrive," he said scrutinizing her briefly to see if she knew of any other
visitors to keep him from sleeping. Satisfied that she was it or at least she
wasn't bringing anyone else with her later, he finished, "I got maybe six
hours. I'll take ten if the galaxy will let me."
"Night spacebarge," she said.
"Night... Emma," he said haltingly hoping that some memory would come back by
deliberately choosing a phrase he had most likely used before. Nothing. He
sighed again.
Niko rolled over to put his face away from Emma's to make his intent completely
clear. He tried to dismiss her presence for now, which he knew was necessary and
think of two people with golden ringlets as Dr. S'Traht described earlier.
He was hoping to see if he could remember in sleep per chance in a dream, what
his wife and young son looked like or anything about them. They were gone to him
just like Emma was...Emma. As he shut his eyes, he smiled. He wasn't sure why,
but he was very relieved that he had noticed that Emma had brown hair and was
not blonde.
