Dreamscape

Posted on 01 Dec 2016 @ 5:57am by Cadet Senior Grade Jody Scott

1,235 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Errand of Mercy
Location: USS Redemption, Cadet Scott's Quarters
Timeline: ED5 0100

Scene I: USS Redemption, Jody Scott’s Quarters

Jody Scott’s bare feet did not feel cold as they crunched atop the ochre-coloured pebbles that lined the path he found himself travelling – even though he knew that they should have been. A gentle breeze whipped past and caressed the exposed skin of his upper body; the loose-fitting pants he normally wore to bed every night fluttering around his legs for the brief moment the breeze existed. On either side of him were purple-blue fields of grass; and having never before set foot on the planet, Jody still knew that he now stood somewhere on Hadronus Prime.

Behind him, Jody felt a presence that he could not explain. He turned around almost expecting to see a person standing there but all he could see were more rolling fields of purple-blue grass. That didn’t settle the sensation that was growing up inside of him that he was being watched. It was as though there was someone standing just in the corner of his vision, but if he adjusted his eyes to catch him or her, they were gone.

The cadet chose instead to continue his journey. He didn’t know why he was on Hadronus, or how he had managed to get there, but he inherently knew that he had to get away from the fields and find somewhere less exposed to be.

Jody walked for an hour. Then two. After what seemed like four hours of walking, he lost track of time. The scene never seemed to change – the stone path and the fields remained. The spirit that haunted him continued to follow him along the way. Jody’s pace quickened. A walk became a jog became a sprint. Sweat began to bead down from his brow onto his bare chest. The breeze that should have cooled his skin did not. The creature that followed continued to keep pace with him.

There was no escape.

“What do you want,” the human screamed, stopping dead in his tracks and turning around to once again face nothing. There was continued silence except for the thudding of the heart in his chest. Despite the silence his fear did not regress – it only increased its hold on him.

“I want you.” A familiar voice surrounded Jody, coming from no one direction that he could discern. It was as if the voice had originated in his own head. He couldn’t quite pinpoint the owner of the voice either – it was distorted in some way, but definitely one he had heard before.

The breeze suddenly, without warning, disappeared. The once-clear sky clouded over and blocked the blue-white glow of the Hadronus sun.

Jody’s breathing was laboured. He spoke back to the disembodied voice, “Who are you? What do you want with me?”

“You will see when you arrive on Hadronus for real, Jody.” A hand grabbed him on the shoulder and turned the cadet around one-eighty degrees. In front of him was the emotionless – and yet sinister – form of Sarah Kaminski, her blue-tinged skin accentuated in the blue-light emanating from Hadronus’ star. He only saw her for a brief moment until – with superhuman speed – her other hand rose up and clawed him on the face…

Jody instantly sat upright in bed. Sweat was running down his brow and chest like rivers in a monsoon; the bed sheets both above and below him were saturated. The echo of his terror-fuelled shouts could still be heard bouncing off the bulkheads in the cabin.

Beside him the other occupant of his bed stirred and immediately wrapped his arms around Jody to calm him down. Despite Daniel’s best efforts – whispering calming remarks into his ear and gently stroking his sodden back – Jody couldn’t calm himself down. His pulse thundered in his ears while his heart threatened to burst out of his chest if it beat any harder.

Daniel’s embrace loosened and his hands manoeuvred themselves onto either side of Jody’s face. The ambassador – also Jody’s unexpected guest for the night – brought his face close to the cadets and tried once more to calm him down. “You’re okay Jody. You’re on the Redemption. You’re safe.” His lips abruptly met with Jody’s and then parted once more. Jody slumped in the bed, his head resting onto Daniel’s lap.

“It was her, Daniel,” Jody muttered, starting to feel the adrenaline-fuelled panic begin to abate. Unfortunately the feeling that he was being watched did not seem to be leaving him just as easily.

“Her?” Daniel asked, although it became obvious that he hadn’t needed to ask the question in the first place. “Sarah?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know what I can say to make things better,” Daniel commented, his voice soft and soothing – a practiced skill for a diplomat. “I’m no counsellor – that’s your gig - but maybe you should think about talking to someone again about what happened on the Nova. Clearly you’re not over whatever it was Marshall put you through.”

The presence in the corner of Jody’s eye was still there. He immediately sat up in the bed and turned his head expecting to see Sarah standing there. One of Daniel’s hands found Jody’s and squeezed it tightly.

“Are you really okay?” Daniel’s words sounded less like a question and more like a plead.

“I don’t know.” And he didn’t know. After all he had been through he probably should have been a psychological mess. Maybe he was a mess. But something about his dream – his nightmare, to be exact - was so realistic that it was hard to shake off. The image of Hadronus had felt real, but was distorted as though he hadn’t been taking in the landscape with his own eyes. And then there was Sarah’s voice – that booming voice that had appeared to originate within his head rather than from another location.

Jody’s eyes locked with Daniel’s. The same brown eyes that he had longed to gaze into for so long. “Don’t label me crazy or anything,” he said, pleading with Daniel, “but I don’t think that was a dream. I-“ He didn’t know how to finish the sentence.

Daniel finished it for him. “You think Sarah is on Hadronus, don’t you?”

Jody nodded in agreement. But he didn’t agree, exactly. “I don’t think. I know.” He sighed and gripped his lover’s hand even tighter. “And to make matters worse, I think she just used our telepathic link to give us a message.”

“A message?”

“Yes.” Jody paused, trying to find the right words to explain the thoughts and feelings that she had conveyed to him at the moment she had touched him – at the moment she had woken him from his sleep. “I think she is trying to tell us that she is expecting us – and we should expect a world of pain when she makes herself known to us…”

OFF: I’m back. Sorry for the very, very long disappearing act. Currently have Rhyan tied up with a JP so thought I would write a short post using Jody. Set the scene for our arrival at Hadronus. For those of you who haven’t met the Sarah character yet – she is such a treat to write for.

 

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