Dreamweaver

Posted on Sat Oct 25th, 2014 @ 11:20pm by Lieutenant Commander Robin Swift M.D., PhD & Captain Li Hawke

Mission: Breaking New Ground
Location: Deck 366 - Piper Medical Center - Dr. Swift’s Office
Timeline: Current

** Deck 366 - Piper Medical Center - Dr. Swift’s Office **

It was early yet. Barely 1100 hours. Robin sat at his desk staring at a painting on the wall on the opposite side of the room. Still no word on Drusilla’s location. It was at times like this that he wished he had Captain Hawke’s abilities.

The office was empty, aside from himself. All of his patients had been sent to other doctors until this blew over. He just couldn’t help but feel helpless and lost. So this was where he found himself...sitting in an empty, barely lit office staring at a painting of, well, he didn’t quite know what it was. But something about it was helping him remain somewhat calm.

Silence hung heavy in the office, leaving room for his thoughts to echo that much louder. The painting was one he’d had for a while now. The perfect piece of art - rather nondescript but created of a harmonious mix of colors that not only soothed him but his patients as well. As Robin stared at it, something in it shifted. The movement was faint and gone as soon as he sensed it but surely a light blue spot in the middle had moved.

He froze, squinting at the painting, wondering if he’d just imagined it. But, no--he’d owned that painting for almost a year and had memorized it. As he looked more at the painting, more of it moved. He gripped the sides of his desk. “Holy….shit.”

Holy….shit, something repeated in a hoarse whisper. Watch your step or I’ll do the same to you.” Behind the voice could be heard other, less distinct voices, some speaking, others wailing.

Robin didn’t know where to start. Freak out a little because the painting was not only moving around but potentially speaking to him? Hide under the desk because it seemed as if it were threatening him? Or melt into a puddle from the horrifying voices he could hear in the background.

He’d made a decision. “The same what? What step? Who is speaking?”

“They really did mess you up,didn’t they?” As Robin watched, the painting began to expand, first filling the wall, then continuing to spread until the whole office had been swallowed up and he was sitting in the corridor of a dank, dark prison. The voices were louder and all around him now. Once more the scene shifted and he was in a cell, stretched out on a floor that was cold and wet beneath him.

It suddenly dawned on him that he had seen this scene before. He groaned, “Aw, damn. Again?” Looking around the cell he was more sure than ever that he was, once again, living out Nico’s past as a prisoner of the Cardassians. “I wonder how much this one is going to hurt?” he muttered to himself, trying to add some levity to the situation, but truly scared, his hands already beginning to tremble.

Unsure if he was supposed to respond, he figured it wouldn’t hurt. “Uh, yeah. Messed me up pretty good.”

“Can you walk?” a new voice asked.

He looked around, trying to locate the source of the voice and saw no one. He then noticed his clothing. Torn, tattered and filthy. What he saw underneath was what caused him to begin worrying. “I...I don’t think so,” he said, realizing that the body he saw had been beaten pretty severely. That’s when he tasted the blood in his mouth. He tried to raise a hand to feel but even that made him wince in pain. “No. I can’t.”

He was now beginning to feel everything that had been done to the body he was wearing. He didn’t know whether to scream or pass out from the pain.

“Get him up, we have two minutes,” a female voice hissed and suddenly a pair of strong arms slipped beneath him, lifted and tossed him over a shoulder.

“Let’s go,” said the previous voice.

Just picking him up they way they did made his vision go dim. And he was unsure if these were friendly people packing him around or more Cardassian tormentors. He couldn’t chance the scream of pain that balled up in his stomach. Gritting his teeth he managed to keep it to a muffled, drawn-out grunt.

“Where--” He could barely talk now. “Where are we going,” he demanded, not in the form of a question.

“Anywhere but here, my brother,” answered the man. “Now shut up so your friends don’t get curious.” They stepped out into the corridor and began to slip along through the darkness. The talk from other cells kept to the same level, so as not to alert the keepers, but faint murmurs of ‘good luck’ followed them along.

The pain of being carried was unbearable, but if it meant that he--or more specifically, Nico, was getting the hell out of there, he did his best to keep it to a very low moan. Whoever the strong back and weak mind was carrying him around wasn’t all too concerned with the jostling, but each step they took was potentially one step closer to freedom. He did wonder, however, if he did something stupid, like scream out, if something would be changed or if he was destined only to play the part that had already been played by Nico. He wouldn’t chance it, but as a psychiatrist it was something that made him wonder.

“Here!” It was a new voice that spoke, soft and resonant. “You need this.”

The man carrying him paused and he felt a touch, the hand holding his leathery and cool to the touch. Something small and hard was placed in his hand. “See you soon.” Now he could see a tiny figure that somewhat resembled a woman. “You go now!”

As the walking behemoth walked past her cell he couldn’t help but turn his head to keep looking at her until she was out of sight. She looked familiar but the pain was confusing him, muddling his thoughts. Maybe she had been in the last vision of hell that he’d had, but he couldn’t recall. When he tried to commit more memory to remembering they took a hard right and he smacked his head on the corner of the rough, dirty wall. It really rang his chimes and he gave up on it.

“Watch it!” the female voice warned.

“Why? He’s so out of it, one more smack won’t do any more damage than’s already been done. Get the door.” The creak of a heavy metal door was heard, then a blast of warm air came, fresh and clean after the stink of the prison.

“HEY! Stop or you’re dead!” a deep voice bellowed behind them.

“Go!” The female shouted, then the sound of disruptor fire could be heard. The man carrying Nico took off at a gallop.

Each step was like another punch in the gut. At this point Robin figured there wasn’t much point in trying to swallow the pain. He was grunting and moaning quite loudly now. At one point the man carrying him was running so hard that his head began bouncing up and down off of the man’s back. It was making him nauseous but it was also exacerbating the pain in his face and neck. He didn’t know if he should vomit or scream and was even more concerned about trying to scream while vomiting.

The sound of weapons fire swelled briefly, punctuated by yells and then the cheers of the inmates. The door slammed shut behind them and the sudden silence was deafening.

“Almost there!” The female must have spoken into a communicator, because another voice answered.

“Almost there? So is Christmas!” Robin couldn’t help but yell between pangs of excruciating pain.

Moments later, or perhaps hours it was hard to tell, the man’s feet stomped up a metal ramp.

“Go!” he bellowed.

The whoosh of a hatch was heard, then all was blackness.

* * *

“Robin? Robin are you alright?” The man’s voice, a different man, slowly penetrated the blackness.

His eyes slowly opened and what he saw confused him. Feet and the rug on the floor. He managed to put himself upright from where he had been lying over the back of the large chair, face down. He assumed it was a recreation of being on that guy’s back.

Sitting in the chair now, he saw the face of Doctor Amari, another of the psychiatrists on staff. He was gawking at him now. “What?” Robin asked as he felt his face and pulled a hand back with blood from his nose and mouth. “Damn you, Nico,” he muttered. “Be a dear and hand me the small towel in the top right drawer of my desk, please?”

Amari brought it to him and Robin began applying direct pressure, shaking his head in frustration.

“I hate to state the obvious, but you’re bloody. What in the hell happened in here? You weren’t answering the comm.” He pulled a slim tricorder from his pocket, scanned Robin, and frowned.

“You have no idea how unbelievably long this particular story is, Amari,” Robin replied, trying to forget the pain he had felt. “I will say that it has something to do with one of my patients and this isn’t the first time this has happened.”

“I don’t much like the sound of that.” Counselor Amari shook his head. “But, there will be plenty of time to tell me while they’re patching you up in sickbay. Can you walk?” he asked, unknowingly echoing Robin’s vision.

He smiled with a grunt and tried to stand. “Looks that way,” he said. “Let’s go, but stick close.”

“You’ve got it.” Amari offered his arm as Robin slowly stood. “Computer, alert sickbay that we are on our way.”

“Acknowledged,” the computer’s voice answered.
******************
Lt. Cmdr. Robin Swift
Reliving Someone Else’s Personal Hell

Strong Back & Weak Mind
The Female
Strange Woman
Dr. Amari
all played by Peach