Welcome to the Nightmare - Part 5

Posted on 03 Mar 2025 @ 10:18pm by Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater

2,636 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 21 - Helix
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 7, Arboretum and Main Engineering
Timeline: MD02, 0526 hrs

[ON]

Previously on...Welcome to the Nightmare

The fire deity squatted down beside Sera so she could be close to her face once again, a distance where she was able to be heard without having to raise her voice over the now roaring flames. "I don't know where I came from or what I am. I don't know why the divine spark of the temporal event imbued me with the capacity for reason and speech. There's so much I don't understand about my existence, so much of it that seems illogical. But from that first moment when I knew I could know things, I knew that I need to hurt Sof and that I also need to look after her."

It looked for a moment like she was about to carry on, launch into a further discussion about her existence but she stopped herself to look at the other woman more closely, to take in the pain she was suffering. "Sorry, I'm rambling, how are you doing?" She held out a hand to Sera through the flames.


And now the continuation...


This thing only seemed to know to damage, to hurt...to destroy. This was not a creative process, if the taste of Lamar and Sofie's distress in her mind were any indication. Sera was furiously working to construct something to detach the ongoing suffering of the nightmare from her mind.

Pain was a sensation she was familiar with. The level of intensity currently was rather...exquisite, however pain itself would not kill. She brought her now freed hand back to her core and trembled as the greedy flames licked across her.

The destroyer's voice helped, ironically. Its words galvanized. A mouse? That was a small Terran rodent...an outright prey animal. No! She was not prey!

"You do not understand the concept of love." Her voice was a ragged sound, an agonized scream harnessed to render speech. "Your ongoing behaviors are harming Sofi and Lamar. Pain and torture are not appropriate methods of demonstrating such a complex, nuanced emotion as 'love.' This will not encourage growth; it is damaging them." Sera pushed herself off the ground, rising up like a marionette being pulled by its strings in a jerky, uneven manner.

"So, are you the cause of the connection between Sofi and I?" Sera's form shuddered after she voiced her inquiry. The urge to scream and claw at herself was becoming rather urgent, but as The Flayed Man, The Destroyer...Ket-Cheleb had stated, this was a nightmare; it would stop when the 'dream' ended.

"Yes, little mouse! That is what I'm looking for." The nightmare creature clapped her hands together with glee as she watched Sera rise to her feet. She was clearly relishing the irritation that her nickname had caused her captive, the crackling of the fire was her laughter. At this point it was hard to tell where the fire ended and where the creature of the fire began. The edges were blurred as her clothes and hair took on the flickering quality of flame.

She almost looked sad when she spoke again, or at the very least apologetic. It was as sad as one could imagine such a cruel god could ever look. "I wish I could answer your question, tell you the how and why of Sof and Lamar and of the Little Mouse but that all happened before the temporal event, before I started knowing things and before I could protect her. I'm still waiting for her to figure it out so she can tell me and then I'll help her work out what to do. We're in the same boat on this one, little mouse."

Sera shuddered, and a low moan escaped her without due authorization. Agony, but more importantly...disappointment. This entity knew nothing; it could not satisfy her curiosity.

Lightheadedness. She swayed as she felt parts of her burning away. How much was left? Sera dared not look down on the ruin that was her dream form. Is it dream? "You...you are not protecting her." Sera felt a surge of something...possessiveness? "This...this is not protection. It is torture. Our consciousness does not thrive on such stimulation...I do not want to focus on you anymore."

Sera closed her 'eyes,' but she could not shut out the flickering of the light and heat from the hellish blaze. She idly wondered if these all too real feeling flames would burn away her eyelids...Enough.

Sofie? Sofie...can you hear me? ...I am here. I will not leave you to this alone. Reach out to me t’hy’la Sera inwardly projected, hoping the science officer could hear her. She was struck by her interesting word choice, but it felt right. Hysterical laughter threatened to bubble up her throat. That or an unending scream...she wasn't completely certain.

Sera? The response was weak and strained. One word and then it was gone and all else heard through the fire was all encompassing fear and pain and desperation. It was clear that whatever corner of this nightmare the real Sofie was trapped in she had already faced the fullness of the fire, and it had broken her. Without the flayed man or Sera there, Sofie's world of pain had been lonely and devoid of any hope or reason.

The voice of the Destroyer was distant when it sounded again but even from afar it could be heard, gently riding on the sea of fire to Sera's ears. "You're dreaming Sera, wake up. You can still help her out there."

And with that the 'spell' was broken. Sera's eyes snapped open, and it took everything within her to keep her form still. She looked down to find her hand cradled in Sofie's palm and then looked up to the science officer's face once she was sure the agonized scream that still echoed within would not escape her.

"Sofie?" Her voice sounded strained to her own ears, as if she had spent hours screaming in the winds.

-----

For a couple of seconds Sofie was still dreaming. Little twitches, a general trembling and a pained expression on her face gave a window into what she was still experiencing. Sera's voice pulled her out of it.

When her grey eyes opened, they were full of fear and the confusion one feels when waking up from a vivid dream. She was panicked and shaking badly. When she breathed, she gasped for air, gulping it down as if she had been suffocating. It took a long moment for her to force her breathing to calm but when it did Sofie looked up into Sera's eyes. She had no idea what to say, she was too overwhelmed. Tears were forming once again.

Sera watched Sofie's eyes open, and they were filled with an emotions she could identify although for an irrational moment she wished she could not. Kaiidth. Today had been a day of unsatisfactory reveals, but she was not one to let someone suffer alone. Especially her.

Through unexpected providence, Sera found herself sharing a connection with Sofie. She held no satisfactory explanation on how such a thing had transpired, but regardless of how it existed and, in this instance, could not be ignored. What was the saying...safety in numbers, perhaps?

Expression softening, she made a soft shushing sound deep in her throat as she reached out and captured one of the tears with her fingertips. "You are quite a resilient being, Sofie Ullswater. All might seem overwhelming, but we have something Ket'Cheleb... the Voice of the Fire does not...each other. I will do everything within my power to assist. You are not alone in this."

Sofie hated all of this. She hated the tears she could feel on her face, she hated Sera's patronising reassurances, and she hated that they worked, that the feelings Sera's words were inducing were of comfort and protection. Also hated was the compulsion she had to lunge forwards to hug Sera and cry until things got better. Sofie felt like a child, and she hated that most of all.

It didn't stop her though. Whether through the power of their bond, the overwhelming horror of the situation or just some ancient human instinct Sofie did end up with her arms around Sera, crying, like a child would. Her arms held on like her life depended on it and between quiet sobs she sniffled out the words "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I took you there."

Sera didn't move at first as Sofie clung to her and began shedding lacrimal secretions all over her jacket sleeve. Her hands came up and settled gently on the smaller woman's shoulder blades in what she hoped as a reassuring gesture. One never knew with humans. "You are not required to apologize for something outside your control. It was waiting for me to touch you."

Every single moment since Sofie had entered engineering had been an embarrassment to her. She lingered there for a moment, in Sera's comforting presence, but every second that passed the embarrassment that was building inside Sofie deepened, accompanied by rising bitter thoughts. Around Sera she felt like she had no control at all, things stopped making sense and she found herself acting irrationally. Sera's words pointing out Sofie's lack of control only served to feed the bitterness.

"Pull it together Sof," the voice of the fire rang in Sofie's head, interrupting her misery. She was at once grateful to hear it. "Don't cede control to this connection, seize it."

With a sigh Sofie detached herself from Sera. She wiped her eyes on the back of her sleeve. She knew she must look like a mess, she knew that any sense of authority she might have had before had evaporated. She looked Sera in her beautiful blue eyes and stated, plainly and factually, "You can't tell anyone what happened here. It would put both me and Lamar in danger."

"You do not need to feel self-conscious around me. All is Silence within the family." Sera responded, using a Vulcan axiom regarding keeping information private, especially with those who shared bonds with one another. "I will do what I can to protect you both." The words fell out of her mouth without any consideration of what the consequences might be. It had already been established in Sera's mind that she was not an ideal officer. This decision was yet another instance that showed her propensity for not following regulations.

"I would find it agreeable for you to come to my quarters. I would...if you would not mind..." Suddenly the words would not come. Sera wanted to suggest meditation, more specifically the exercises she had been taught to compartmentalize during her enforced convalescence at the Vulcan Healing Center during her...illness. However, Sera could not accurately convey when the last time she had a successful meditative session. Was it before the systems' test that went awry?

Instead of continuing, Sera instead stood up and returned to the pump repairs. This was something that made sense. "I will do whatever you desire so that you are more at ease."

"I wish I knew what that might be, I haven't felt at ease in a long time." Not since Latari maybe, even before that she wasn't sure. She was about to move to follow Sera back to the filter, but she stopped herself. She'd done nothing to help and had mostly just be a disruptive element in these repairs and she still had other tasks to perform here, checking on the health of the trees and waterfowl. Maybe it was best to leave Sera to her work.

Sofie glanced around the ducks, she had an order she liked to go in with the health checks. Once her eyes located her target she walked over and scooped up the majestic male shelduck and held him in her arms. "I would be willing to try whatever you suggest though. Things are not ideal currently."

"Are things ever ideal?" Sera replied with no little irony. "I can only speak from my personal perspective..." She continued as she began returning the now de-gunked filters back in their respective homes, "but, I would say that my life has been a bit of a...shit show? Yes. That is the correct idiom." She was rambling.

"Ah. Ultimately, irrelevant. Perhaps we could attempt meditation? I learned some techniques during my recovery that may prove beneficial. It..." Sera paused in her work and dipped her head, and her body became the subconscious physical expression of shame for a moment before lifting her head and returning to work. "It helped to restore my mental equilibrium after my first mate died, and upon seeing how orderly you are, I believe you could utilize the techniques."

With a duck looking up at her expectantly from her arms, Sofie pondered. Vulcan meditation was not something she was at all familiar with so there was some trepidation when she answered in the affirmative "I would say my life has perhaps been similarly shit filled. I would be interested, I think."

"Ah. Ultimately, irrelevant. Perhaps we could attempt meditation? I learned some techniques during my recovery that may prove beneficial. It..." Sera paused in her work and dipped her head, and her body became the subconscious physical expression of shame for a moment before lifting her head and returning to work. "It helped to restore my mental equilibrium after my first mate died, and upon seeing how orderly you are, I believe you could utilize the techniques."

With a duck looking up at her expectantly from her arms, Sofie pondered. Vulcan meditation was not something she was at all familiar with so there was some trepidation when she answered in the affirmative "I would say my life has perhaps been similarly shit filled. I would be interested, I think."

As Sofie had spoken she also walked over to the table where her tools for weighing, measuring and other examinations lay ready. She placed down the duck onto the scale and took a note, softly singing to it in a dialect of Romulan as she worked. Thanks to the fire that ended her career in opera her voice might no longer be able to fill a packed concert hall, but it still contained all that grace and beauty, now all given for the benefit of these little birds. She had found it helped them be calm and still while she poked and prodded and checked for health issues. It helped her too.

Once she was happy with the condition of this charge she marked down some notes and placed him back on the ground where he began to waddle excitedly back towards his mate. Looking again over to Sera by the pump she felt she had to admit something "When we were at the academy I met him a couple of times. I had no idea he was married." If memory served he certainly hadn't been one who acted like he was married. She left that unsaid, something told her that Sera already knew all about that and it would be a deeply impolitic thing to say about someone's deceased spouse. "I don't think I ever saw you there. I didn't know him or anything like that, there were a lot of people in sciences and the two of you were a year ahead of me. Just thought I should say."


To Be Continued...



[OFF]


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Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A

&

Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

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