The Heartbeat of Loneliness

Posted on Wed Jan 5th, 2022 @ 5:03pm by Game Master
Edited on on Fri Jul 5th, 2024 @ 4:14pm

3,433 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Interdimensional Archives
Location: Station 616, Stasis Pod Storage

“Contact, Captain!” Jeremy said, his pitch slightly raised. He brought the rifle up to his shoulder as he said it but kept his finger alongside the trigger guard to prevent unintentional discharge. He peered in the area where he first saw movement but now there wasn’t anything. Scans were still showing negative except for the faint lifesigns coming from the pods, and that of Captain Bran. The gas continued to issue from unseen vents, rising as a thick white mist which obscured visuals.

Scans weren’t much better. He took several steps back, keeping his gaze focused on the area where he knew there was movement. Shadowy and indistinct, it nonetheless seemed humanoid but aside from that he couldn’t make out any distinct details. He couldn’t even tell if the figure was armed. “Captain?” he asked, taking two more steps back, just able to make out the gurney in his peripheral vision.

“Captain?” he asked again, this time turning his head. Captain Talrian Bran lie on the gurney, his eyes closed and his head lolled to the side. Jeremy moved to the side of the gurney and scanned just to be sure. Talrian’s lifesigns were faint but strong. He must have succumbed to the anesthazine gas, his system weakened by the infection threatening his leg and running through his body.

Jeremy turned back to the area by the door, once again scanning and once again coming up with nothing. Even now, sweeping back and forth with visuals he failed to see what he believed was so clear before - someone else in the room with them. The cargo bay door was shut and remained so since they entered the room. He would have noticed it opening by both the sound of the door moving and the change in lighting from the general area. Reluctantly, he stepped forward, away from the gurney and his unconscious CO. The controls for the door weren’t that far away. Maybe if he could reach them, he could find a way out of here and back to Medical. There he could make sure to put Talrian into one of the biobeds and if he failed to find medical personnel, do what little he could for the Trill captain.

Then, stabilizing Talrian’s medical condition, his next step would be to make his way to Command and find out what the hell’s going on here. If all else failed, he would do what it took to save Talrian then the two of them could get back to the docking bay. If they couldn’t fuel the shrike, there were other options. Maybe, as he thought about it, they could abandon the shrike and take one of the station’s shuttles. With a functional warp drive, they could make it back to Systems Alliance space in a matter of days and without worry of running into Federation attack ships.

He reached out to engage the door controls only to be blocked by the sparkling energy of a security field. He pressed harder but found the same result. Stepping back, one hand remaining on his rifle, he looked around. There was a half meter gap between where the gas was building up and clear space before the doors. The gas had a rectangular shape only eight feet wide but stretching down the cargo bay until just beyond the last two pods. The ones that remained opened and - presumably - waiting for them.

He was where he saw the unknown figure but still, even standing in the same lighting, there wasn’t anything to see. Stepping from one side to the other, he confirmed that security fields enclosed him on at least three sides. At least, he saw, the levels of anesthazine gas were no longer rising. The thick mist of the gas wasn’t reducing that he could tell. He furrowed his brows as he tried to remember the effective efficacy of anesthazine gas in a contained environment. He thought it was six hours, the substance was very potent which is why it was the preferred solution for pacifying large areas on starships and stations.

Checking his system, he realized he had four hours of environmental containment left. He set the rifle in its holder on his back and placed his hands on his hips, staring around once more. Talrian remained on the gurney, his vitals remained unchanged.

“Captain,” Jeremy muttered. The Trill's leg was straight ahead of him, the tissue around the knee and ankle too swollen to bend much. Jeremy glanced at the open pods as he returned to the gurney. “What am I supposed to do?” If Talrian issued orders for him before the gas got to him, Jeremy didn’t hear them. What had Talrian wanted him to do in this situation? How much of what was happening did the captain even know? How much did he suspect and how much was he guessing and speculating?

Why was any of this happening? Why wasn’t anyone talking with them? Why bring them aboard the station only to ignore them and then force them here? What was the point of putting them into stasis? For that matter who were these others?

Jeremy moved up and down the rows, trying to get more information. While the interior of the pods were obscured, he managed to get general lifesigns such as species, gender and general medical condition. There was a mix of the first two, but for the most part all of them appeared healthy enough. At least none of them exhibited indications that they were in distress.

“What the hell?” he asked, coming back to the gurney. He shook his head, still unsure about any of this. “What would you do in my place?” he asked, always trying to figure out how Talrian would handle situations. About a week and a half ago, Talrian asked him to place him into a form of suspension. It would have stopped the escalation of the infection in his wounded leg and allowed Talrian much more time for help to find them. He refused because the shrike class ship wasn’t equipped for the suspension to be safe. He was more than certain that Talrian would have died when the balance between his system and the suspension tipped. At that point nothing would save the captain. But it was equally true, Jeremy didn’t want to be alone.

More than that, he admired and respected the officer that, though at times cold, distant and grumpy, nonetheless ensured he succeeded as both a soldier and a medic. He knew Talrian fought with SA Command to keep his team together. It took all of them years to become fully comfortable with their new reality but at least they were all learning it all together. Because Captain Bran refused to let them be split up. Jeremy missed his family, at times the idea that he’d never be able to see them again was almost unbearable. But he still had the captain. In a way he still had a father and the rest of the team were brothers. He had a family of sorts to help patch the hole in his heart torn wide when he realized he’d never see his parents or siblings ever again, nor his nieces and nephews. Even if he found a wife in this universe, his children would never know their cousins or anyone on his side. His parents would never get to know their grandchildren.

He gripped the edge of the gurney, the thoughts of his missing family threatening to overwhelm him. He, like Talrian, was put through too much over the last two weeks. Granted, most of that time was spent floating in the middle of endless space and didn’t seem like much. But with each day and each hour their demise came closer. They’d die in the cold, uncaring depths of space. Eventually, he was sure, the Federation would come across their vessel and find their frozen, desiccated bodies and little else. Their only ‘burial’ at that point might be the end result of a Federation torpedo. What would take decades to happen under their current engine speed would take centuries, if not longer, to arrive back in SA space. Even then there was very little to suspect they would be remembered or honored by anyone that knew or cared about them.

He didn’t want to be left alone - bereft of anybody the knew and cared about him. He’d had to mourn members of his team and over the last few weeks tried to take a page from the captain’s book and set aside his feelings for the last two of them to die on the station - their funeral pyres committed in the destruction of the station. He found it hard to hide his mourning from Talrian. He didn’t know how the captain was able to so thoroughly and effectively compartmentalize his feelings.

Except…

Jeremy asked him to not order him to put him into suspension. He begged the captain to not leave him alone. Talrian agreed and never brought up the discussion again. “Captain,” he said again, squatting to reach for the emergency medical kit attached to the gurney. “What should I be doing now?” He wasn’t asking for directives or orders, or even advice. Mostly he was talking to Talrian only so that he wasn’t talking to himself.

“They brought us here,” he said as he opened the kit and looked inside at the contents. Fortunately, the contents were as he remembered. A dermal regenerator to heal up minor lacerations. A variety of bandages and sponges, a laser scalpel and limited other surgical tools. Most importantly, though, was the hypospray and limited power dosing module. What Jeremy told his captain in the docking bay was true, the emergency kit couldn’t fix his leg. It was designed for stabilization until the patient could get to advanced medical care. That was still true. But it could help out a bit here.

While the dosing module couldn’t generate the full spectrum of medications that a hypospray could administer, it had a good amount that were important for field medicine. Which included an antidote to the gas. He could revive Talrian. But the antidote wouldn’t stop Talrian from succumbing to its effects once again, and quickly.

No, Jeremy picked up the hypospray and inputted the code for a powerful antibiotic. The dosing module lit up indicating that the medicine was replicated and the hypospray filled. Jeremy pressed the hypospray against Talrian’s neck and administered the antibiotic. He replaced the items in the kit and squatted to replace it.

As he stood he pulled his sidearm from the holster and turned, the movement causing a swirl in the white gas settling along the deck at his feet. He swiveled at the hip, slowly, covering the area by the door. He’d seen faint movement, a shadow moving to another shadowed area. But still nothing. His HUD showed scans were still negative. “Who’s there!” he called out, keeping the pistol raised while he continued to scan the area by the door. He didn’t hear a sound when he spotted the movement from the corner of his eye. There wasn’t any reason to believe he was imagining the intruder.

Minutes passed by without further movement and Jeremy finally holstered the pistol. He turned back to Talrian and initiated a medical scan. His oxygen levels were still low, his heartrate indicating his heart was still working too hard and the fever that alternated between being elevated and spiking still ravaged his body. It was too early for any reasonable indication that the broad spectrum antibiotic was reducing the infection. Now that he considered, it was possible they were in a universe that contained infectious agents that Starfleet antibiotics weren’t able to combat and conquer.

He had to have faith that he was doing something. “You don’t want to lose your leg,” he said as he glanced down at the pods again. “You didn’t say so, probably didn’t want to worry me, but even if Medical could restore your leg, they’d retire you.” Jeremy knew what that meant. Talrian would then be alone in the universe. Unless Jeremy also walked away from military service. Something he was sure Talrian would never let him do. He was sure the captain would issue orders preventing it.

“Would I do it?” he asked out loud. “Quit and go wherever they put you? Find work there?” It was a question he wasn’t sure he could answer. He’d most likely think about it. He’d probably even voice it as an option to Talrian. Did his respect and admiration for Talrian as a father substitute mean he would sacrifice the rest of his career in order to ensure the Trill wouldn’t be left without a single person he knew and cared about?

He didn’t hold a single doubt that Talrian cared for him. If nothing else the last two weeks proved that out. He turned his head quickly but saw nothing, not even the imaginings of something moving beyond the security field in the shadows. It may not be obvious and Talrian worked hard to maintain a distance between him and the team, but Jeremy saw enough to know that his captain cared about everyone in the unit. He glanced down at the pods once more.

Moving away from the gurney, he went back to the pod nearest him. It contained a human female who appeared to be young and in excellent health. Wny she was here and placed into a pod was a mystery Jeremy couldn’t even hope to solve. He didn’t even have a name to go by. The question of why they were brought here came back to him. It wasn’t a fluke. The station appeared out of nowhere and right next to them. They were brought into the docking bay and then led here through the use of a preplanned and secured path. That the pods at the end were meant for them was obvious. He knew other pods in the room were empty but none of them were open and waiting.

What’s more, he knew the station was monitoring the pods and those inside. Which meant someone was watching out for the health and safety of those contained inside them. That much was clear and obvious. What wasn’t obvious was the intentions for keeping them. Or bringing more aboard. Why were they being collected by this nameless, empty station?

He didn’t react as he detected movement again. It wouldn’t matter, the other times he was unable to follow whoever - or whatever - it was. They didn’t seem inclined to make contact with him either. He gave Talrian a visual inspection. He appeared fevered still, his breathing still wet and labored, but also appeared to be sleeping. It wasn’t exactly restful because of the anesthazine gas, but at least it was giving his body a chance to fight. Hopefully the antibiotic would help as well.

Jeremy sat, putting his back against the pod. He checked his suits containment systems. Then, with nothing else to do but pass time, he put his arms across his chest, crossed his ankles and closed his eyes.

When he woke, the chronometer on his HUD told him a little more than an hour had passed. He stood, groggy, wanting to take off his helmet and breathe freely. Further he wanted to remove the armor and stretch out the stiffness in his body. To do either would only ensure that he too succumbed to the gas. Instead he moved to the gurney. Talrian hadn’t moved during the time Jeremy napped. Again, not much of a surprise due to the gas’s anesthetic effects. Jeremy shook his head, cursing under his breath.

If anything, Talrian’s fever spiked in the last hour. If the antibiotics were capable of helping, it wasn’t going to be a slow process. Jeremy removed the hypospray from the kit and injected Talrian with another dose. As he put the kit away, he glanced at the open pods once more. Talrian asked him once before to put him in suspension. If they weren’t on the shrike and too far away from competent medical facilities, Jeremy would have done it then. Put Talrian in stasis to arrest the infection and injuries.

Jeremy shook his head. It was obvious that whoever brought them here intended for them to be placed into stasis pods. The station personnel, or whoever brought them here, cared for the health of those in the pods. Jeremy couldn’t be sure, but that the people already in the pods were in good health indicated that whoever brought them here cared to keep them alive. For what reason Jeremy didn’t know but…

He gripped the gurney and moved it down the long row of pods until he came up to the last. Carefully he positioned the gurney to make it easier to manipulate Talrian off the gurney. The interior of the bod was slanted so the figure inside was still prone but also reclined. There were various attachments inside the pod and their placement was fairly obvious.

“I hope I’m not making a mistake,” Jeremy said as he placed Talrian inside the pod. Hooking up the system wasn’t difficult. Jeremy stood back then. He wasn’t sure how to activate the device but wasn’t sure that was a concern. He closed the door and stood back. The window was still clear and Talrian easily seen. As he suspected, it didn't take long. The panel on the side of the pod lit up and he heard a hissing as the pod sealed itself.

He wanted to pace the available space but found that the security field was shortened so that he could only go down two pods before he was forced to stop. Already the white mist of the anesthazine gas beyond that point was breaking up and dissipating. Jeremy sighed then sat, leaning against the pod that held his captain.

Within minutes he was up and pacing the few yards he had to move, feelilng like an animal caged at a poorly run zoo. Silence pressed around him. People surrounded him but he felt so very much alone. He forced himself to wait an hour before performing another scan. If there was any change it wasn’t immediately noticeable. If the antibiotics or pod were going to help Talrian, it would take time.

Jeremy’s view of Talrian was being obscured as the glass of the pod was being obscured like all the others.

Long ago, when he enlisted and discovered he was going to be sent to medic training instead of security, he was given an oath to do no harm. He couldn’t be sure he’d done the right thing putting Talrian into the pod. But it seemed the only option he had to save Talrian’s life and to keep from amputating his leg.

He stood and moved to the second open pod. He was both a soldier and a medic. He served for years under Talrian. Over the course of his military service he’d lost his family and then his military family. Talrian was all he had left and without him, he was truly alone. He stared at the interior of the pod.

Why were they brought here? Why were they placed into stasis? What was the point of all this? Jeremy asked those questions as he removed his helmet. Leaning into the pod, he placed the helmet between his booted feet. The attachments were just as easy for him to attach to himself as to Talrian. The last thing he did as he felt the anesthazine begin to affect him was close the pod door. He stopped with the door halfway closed. There standing just beyond where the security field enclosed him Jeremy saw a humanoid figure standing, watching him. As the gas was numbing him into unconsciousness the figure was hazy and indistinct and unmoving. He continued to close the pod.

He leaned back against the cushioned rest inside the pod. Within moments the world grayed as he heard the pod sealing itself. If putting Talrian into the pod was a mistake, then he was going to make it twice.

 

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