The Beginning Of The Story - Part Two

Posted on Sat Mar 1st, 2014 @ 7:10pm by Lieutenant Commander Nicolao & Lieutenant Commander Robin Swift M.D., PhD & Petty Officer 1st Class Drusilla Dupree

Mission: Breaking New Ground
Location: Counselor's Office

“Very well.” Nico crossed the room to Robin. “Sit forward and brace yourself. This is likely going to hurt.”

Hurt? Robin didn’t remember anything Eli had done actually causing pain, just a bit of terror for a while. But as he’d said, he was determined to help Nicolao. In for the penny, he thought.

He slid forward in his chair putting both arms, palms down, on the chair arms in case he needed something to hold onto. Not sure of what was going to happen, he was now just a touch nervous.

With a nod to Nicolao, he signalled he was ready.

Nico took a deep breath, then gently placed his hands on Robin’s back, between his shoulder blades. “Here we go,” he whispered, and closed his eyes. Immediately, the memories of Nico’s time at Elmspur began to pour into Robin.

Dru rose from her chair and slipped over to sit next to Robin. She wasn’t sure what for, but mostly ‘just in case’.

Immediately, images of darkness, horrible settings, people moaning and screaming in pain and people being manhandled, beaten and thrown down entered his mind. And it was cold, reminiscent of the old dungeons from England back on Earth in medieval times. Cardassian soldiers everywhere, landing blow after blow on prisoners for nothing more than looking up instead of down.

His view was as if he were being dragged down a long, dark corridor. He seemed to be struggling and then the first pains began. It was as if someone had punched him hard in the kidneys and he stumbled to the floor, but he was unceremoniously jerked back up to a standing position and whacked in the head with something hard and unforgiving. He was dizzy now, from the blow to the head, but still being led down the corridor, although not struggling as much.

Glancing to one side he saw a brief glimpse of a woman strapped to some device that held her arms and legs away from her body. Two Cardassians tortured her with what looked like cattle prods, and they didn’t even appear to be asking her questions! Just abusing her, almost for fun. The screams were something much more than agony. Almost as if there was hope that the next stun would take her life, to spare her from more abuse.

More rooms, with other beings, with more abuse was all he could see as they forced him down the corridor. His captors would kick at his legs, tripping him up, causing him to fall onto the hard floor, then punch or kick him harder for having fallen. Despite this not being his reality or past, Robin could feel a growing anxiety and fear of where they were taking him. He knew that nothing and nowhere here was a good place, but sometimes he was led to a higher ranking Cardassian who would question him and only torture him when he didn’t hear what he wanted. At least there was some pause between the pain and he could try to draw out his answers to give himself more time to recover.

But when they turned a corner and he saw the room in which he was headed, his stomach turned somersaults, the hairs on his body stood up and his anxiety level went through the roof. No, there was no questioning session today. He was about to endure hours of nothing but various methods of torture.

He could feel his eyes widening as his body began to protest just at the threshold to the room, his legs began trying to pedal backward and he called out, “No! NOO!” as the guards pummeled him more to get him into the room proper and onto the same device he’d seen so many other beings on down the corridor. He tried to fight, but he had been weakened to the point of near exhaustion and could barely lift a finger at this point.

Once in the device that held him, securely strapped in, a small device was placed on his head to measure brain activity, possibly to see if he was about to die on the table and to give them reason to stop long enough for his recovery. From out of nowhere his body seemed to be on fire. He couldn’t see straight and almost bit through his tongue as he hadn’t expected the pain to begin so immediately. They stopped for a mere moment and began again.

He wanted to scream. He was desperate to do so, but the electricity running through his body clenched every muscle and he could only grunt through clenched teeth.

In the room, Dru watched in terrified fascination as both Nico and Robin were linked. At first, all was quiet, but soon the tension in Robin became more and more obvious. She hurried to his desk and pulled out his medical tricorder, sweeping both men. Robin’s readings were off the scale, and Nico’s were not far behind. Panic flutter in her throat, then raced through her completely. If this kept up, Robin’s system would overload completely.

“Stop!” Neither one seemed to hear her. Dropping the tricorder to the sofa, she rushed around behind Robin’s chair, took hold of Nico’s hands and pulled them away from the Counselor. Robin collapsed back in the chair and Nico fell to his knees. Both were far too pale, but at least the connection was broken. Her fingers at Robin’s wrist told her that his heart was still rapid but seemed to be settling down and she breathed a sigh of relief.

“Robin?”

Everything went black for Robin. At least the sensation of pain was gone now, but it felt as if he were floating in mid air. He tried opening his eyes but it wasn’t his office. He was sitting on dry, parched earth underneath a single tree. What appeared to be a desert stretched out in front of him with a very angry, grey sky above him. He thought he yelled for help, but there was no noise. It was deafeningly quiet there, but he should have heard wind. He could see dark clouds swirling past and the branches of the tree moved slightly. But there was nothing.

“Robin!” he finally heard, which made him jump. He turned and could see no one, still just the tree. But he was weak now and fell to the ground, his eyes going black again.

It seemed like he was out for an eternity but when he opened his eyes again he was looking up at the ceiling of his office. He could feel and hear Dru as she shook him lightly and manually opened his eyes.

“Robin? Robin, oh, come on!” he heard her say.

“Stop.”

That was all he could manage to get out. But her jostling of him was making him nauseous and if she didn’t want to be wearing his lunch, he hoped she would heed his words.

“Oh thank god,” she breathed. Another quick scan of the tricorder told her his vital signs were beginning to stabilize, but she guessed he was feeling much as she had when she awoke from her nightmare. Turning her attention to Nico, she scanned him as well where he lay on the rug. Tears had left tracks down his cheeks and she gently wiped them away. He didn’t respond. “At least you’re both alive. Do you need Medical Robin?”

He barely shook his head, but instead asked, “Some...water?”

He tried to adjust himself in the seat and sit up but he became dizzy again and remained still. “Nico?” he asked of her, now concerned for his patient. “Is he okay?”

“His vitals are...interesting.” She requested water from the replicator and carried it back to Robin. “Drink slowly and don’t think too hard on it yet.” Once Robin had the water, she knelt down to scan Nico once more. His breathing had slowed down finally and he seemed to be stable. Reaching out once more, she brushed his hair from his face. At least if he wasn’t conscious at the moment, he wouldn’t know she’d touched him.

A few moments later, after the water which seemed to help, Robin stood slowly and went around to Nicolao. “Well, at least we don’t have to move him,” he said. “I don’t think he’d like it if we touched him, even for that. But he’s half on my extra pillows.” He looked at the tricorder. “How is he now?”

“Stable, at least physically. I can’t say on the rest. What about you?” She passed him the tricorder as she looked back at him, concern in her eyes. “How bad was it?”

A shiver went through him. “Horrible. Worse than what you said, but I did see what you saw in your nightmare just before waking.” He shook his head slowly. “What I saw definitely helps me get a feel for what he’s going through, but it was infinitely worse on him for actually having been there.” He turned back to Nicolao. “I wonder…” he said as he reached for the glass of water, looked at it and then tossed the last of its contents onto Nico’s face.

The effect was instantaneous. Nico was a blur of motion as he sat up and his fist made contact with Robin’s shoulder. It took a second for him to remember where he was and he looked around the office dazed, trying to reconcile it with what he’d just relived. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

Robin tried to smile. “Are you okay? I’m sorry about the water, but they did actually teach that as a last resort in medical school.”

He heard Dru trying to stifle a snort.

“Do you need help up?” he said, now standing.

“Gimme a sec.” Nico sat up and hung his head between his knees. “Tell me where we are.” His voice was hollow, stark with terror.

His question took Robin by surprise but he answered anyway. “The Delta Quadrant, Starbase 900. Counselor Robin Swift, my aide Drusilla. You’re in my office.” He couldn’t help but add, “On the floor.”

“Okay.” Nico groaned and rubbed his eyes, finally raised his head. “Sorry.” He shook his head to clear it and groaned again as pain bounced around his brain. “You alright?”

Now that Nicolao seemed to be on a more even keel, Robin had to return to his role as Counselor. “A bit disturbed, but I’ll manage. But you didn’t mention this potentially having the same effect on you, Nicolao. If I had known you would be totally reliving this with me I may have given pause to the idea.”

He offered a hand to Nico, who shook his head, and watched as his patient slowly stand while holding onto the chair to steady himself. “Dru, some water for him as well. Careful not to add to my contribution,” he said with a wry grin, trying to hide his amusement at throwing water on him.

“I think I need some whiskey.” Nico’s voice was rough. He moved over to the small sofa and sat down, leaning his head back. “So now you know how it all started. At least part of it. What do you think?”

“I think your time there was hellish, if the entire time was spent in that manner,” Robin said, sitting again. “And despite our reactions to it, I appreciate you showing me and sharing. Even that you’re willing to go that far in our sessions tells me that somewhere inside you, you want to figure all of this out somehow.”

“There are plenty of times I would’ve been happy to have someone wipe my brain so I could start over. Thanks, Dru.” He took the water and had a sip. “The idea had a lot of appeal early on. I have to say you are taking this better than your counterpart on Earth. I never..shared the vision with him you know.”

All the while, Robin wondered just how he would fare tonight at bedtime. What had transpired between he and Eli had been much less invasive and he’d had horrible nightmares from that. But with this, he may not get a wink of sleep for a week! And if he did, it would be fitful and not worthwhile.

“Well, as for my taking it better, get back to me in a few days and we’ll see,” the counselor said, trying to downplay it. “But we did make progress with this, I believe. I’m not sure why you opted not to share with the other counselors, but if you had maybe you wouldn’t be in the current status you’re on now. Then again, it may have driven them crazy and they might have locked you up,” he said, smiling, hoping Nicolao knew he was joking. “I think we’re done for today, however, unless you have anything else to add?”

A hint of a smile crossed Nico’s face at the joke, then vanished. “Don’t you think you’ve had enough for today?” His gaze fell on Dru and he nodded slightly. “I told Dru I’d stand guard tonight in case that nightmare came back. What about you?”

“Take care of her, I’ll be fine,” Robin said, standing to show that the session was indeed over. “Continue your journal and I’ll see you in a few days unless you require me before then.”


“Or unless you need me.” Nico rose and moved to the door. “See you tonight Dru and take care, Counselor.” The doors opened and he stepped through. Dru was silent until they closed behind him.

“You gave me a hell of a scare,” she informed Robin.

He nodded and slowly sat back in his chair. “Yeah. I may throw up.”

*****************

PO2 Drusilla Dupree
Classic Case Of Anxiety

Lt. Cmdr. Robin Swift
Soon to be called the Vomit Comet

Nicoloao
Purveyor Of Dreams...Bad Ones