Night Terrors

Posted on 23 Dec 2012 @ 3:00pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley"
Edited on on 23 Dec 2012 @ 3:00pm

2,307 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: USS Galileo Deck 3, Lieutenant Cho's Quaters,
Timeline: MD6 0630

[ON]

For a moment it was silent. A dark nothingness, no light, no sound, floating, cold. That was something that could be dealt with, unpleasant but not bad, yet she knew it would come. A single drop, drip, drip, drip. It sent a shiver down her spine. No and up or down, no world but the sound. Faster, more, water on stone, water on water, closer and closer but never a drop on her. All around up and down with echoes, then a haze of dust. Her eyes were already open yet now she could see colours, first red, drips flying in every direction before impacting on invisible surfaces. Breathing was harder now, her chest so light it make her ribs hurt, so scared. Red mixed with green and then blue, there was always more red though. More and more colours, purples, yellows, oranges, then her eyes hurting from the colour flashes of the impacts, more still. Colours that couldn't be, couldn't be comprehended. They sent bolts though her mind, each flash a flavour, a sound, a touch, how her brain interpreted them, they were wrong. Some of the sensations were pleasant, sweet sugar, a brushing finger, cool wind, most were not. Pins pricks, the iron of blood, rancid meat, faster and faster. Stronger, the ones she feared more, shaking, knees to her chest as tight as she could, already she was crying. Tastes and smells that made her retch, filling her mouth, so foul, she sobbed, there was no fighting it. Beautiful colours all around, every single one of them, cut across with violent screams, thrashing limbs, the terror that took her over. Pain of every type, rending flesh, burns all over, itches that burrowed to the core, stabling pains in her heart. A warm feeling cascading down her, then there was darkness.

Sometimes she could take more, Kiri knew there was more to the dream. Her heart was pounding as if it would burst, her chest muscles cramping from breathing so fast, safe she was still flooded with fear. It was cold, hard, she was on the floor again. Her voice lost between breaths that pummelled her small body she struggled to her feet, limbs like lead, head ablaze with warnings. There was other pain, her hands, fingers, knees, feet, her back, they stung, her front was warm, she knew what that meant. Staggering she reached the control panel, falling against the wall, brining up the lights. Blurry eyes told her what she already knew, her bed was a mess. The covers thrown aside, smeared with blood, so was the floor. It came now, trying to swallow between her raw breaths she staggered the other way, trying to rush she slammed her shoulder into the doorway to the bathroom, falling. Dragging herself to the toilet she gasped, feeling like she would explode. She was a state. Emptying her stomach she could take small account, this was the worst. Both nostrils were bleeding, blood all over her bedclothes, that was normal. The bruises were worse, but she had snapped a nail clean off, the skin under it raw, making her judder. Once there was nothing left other than spit Kiri packed her nose with cotton and crawled into the shower.

She was still shaking, leaving her bloody clothes she curled up in the corner, reaching up to turn on the water she started to cry, letting the water warm her. It was just a dream, it didn't mean anything it wasn't real, yet it scared it more than anything she had ever experienced. It was several minutes before she could catch her breath, her eyes running dry, she stood up, washing blood from her matted black hair, the bruises were everywhere. Still in a state of shock she moved back to her normal routine, drying her hair, brushing it and putting on her uniform. Her index finger throbbed, already it was turning blue under where the nail had been, the rest of the bruises that dotted her body were still red, fresh, some quite big. Matching others that were older, yellow and green, they all hurt. At least the bleeding from her nose had stopped, wincing as she slid her jacket on she considered what to do. Really she had to go to sickbay, have them treated, see if they could regrow the nail? Yes, she should, but how could she explain? What would they do? Would they stop her working? Think she was crazy? With only two hours of sleep she started, eyes red and raw, huge bags under them that crossed a pale face. This time her hair was down, loose across her shoulders, her body was still shaking. Entering Kiri remained by the door, closing her eyes for a moment that threatened to pull her back into sleep, into abject terror.

Snapping her head back up she pulled her eyes open but it wasn't easy. The room had lit up when she entered but no one was here, she was still alone. Flushing her voice from its hiding place she rasped at the air, "Hello?" There was no answer, the truth really was that at this hour there was no one here. For a moment she contemplated returning to her room but she had already come all this way. Head fuzzy and still not really awake she asked softly, "Computer, activate EMH."

After a few moments, the computer replied with a courteous bleep, before the holoemitters powered up and the fizzling of forcefields establishing buzzed into life, giving rise to the formation of Galileo's resident hologram.

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency."

Kiri didn't like talking to holograms all that much, there was something about them that just struck her as not right. Blending the lines between people and computers made her worse rather tense, "Not an emergency, but could you take a look at some bruises and my finger nail." By reflex she cradled her left middle finger, wondering what the program would say.

The program's medical subroutines leapt into action almost immediately, as the hologram darted off to one side to collect a medical tricorder, ushering the Lieutenant to take a seat on one of the biobeds as he began his investigation. With a moment's delay, he flipped open the device and collected the probe from it's receptacle, before passing it over the injured area.

"Hmm...no serious damage...a few minor lacerations in the nail bed, and some light bruising around the ligaments...an analgesic for the discomfort and a vascular regenerator should be sufficient. Please wait here."

Again disappearing without waiting for a further comment, the hologram disappeared into the medical stores and came back with a loaded hypospray, which he quickly administered, before picking up the conical device that would repair the damage to his patient's hand.

"How did these injuries occur? Perhaps there is a gap in shipboard safety protocols that the Chief Medical Officer should be made aware of when she arrives for her shift?"

Kiri didn't really want to risk it thinking she was crazy, she had to say something though, "I had a bad dream and fell out of bed." Even if he wasn't real she couldn't look him in the eye as she said that. Perched on the edge of the bed she shivered slightly thinking about all of it.

As he continued to pass the regenerator over the damaged area, the EMH began running his diagnostic subroutines over the data his visual subroutines were gathering. Something didn't add up to the information that the program was being given.

"Are you sure that's all? If you had fallen from a state of sleep there would be damage to more areas than just your hand...similarly some of these wounds to your hand are conclusive of an abrasion rather than a blunt force impact which would be difficult to produce through a simple fall."

"Oh," Kiri didn't know how that had been, maybe she had thrashed for longer than she thought. As for other bruises, they didn't matter so much. She was tender but they didn't give her excessive pain, unlike her fingers and wrists they would be hidden. She also thought she might have to take her clothes off for the other bruises, "They aren't as bad." She wasn't exactly sure why she was trying but by not answering the question maybe it wouldn't ask more about it.

"Well with your permission I'd like to undertake a deep tissue scan to check for any other injuries that might not be apparent at this stage."

The hologram replied, smirking with satisfaction at the repair work he had just undertaken which had, in the space of a few minutes, returned his patient's hand to full working order. His program was designed to be as thorough as possible, and it would simply be negligent of him to not check every avenue of investigation.

Fidgeting slightly Kiri couldn't think of a good way to refuse, "Okay." Her new fingernail tingled but didn't really hurt, that was a good start. There was always a small chance that something else had happened on the inside though she felt fine.

"Very well. Please relax."

The hologram placed the small instrument back down on the tray beside the biobed and once again picked up the tricorder that had served him so well during his diagnosis only moments ago. Again the program passed the small detachable scanner across the Lieutenant, this time moving from the top of her head to her feet, allowing the software within the tricorder to build up a picture of her body for further analysis.
After a moment, he frowned, before returning the probe to the tricorder housing and tapping a few keys on the display.

"There is significant bruising throughout your epidermis...have you been engaging in sparring activity over a prolonged period? Or has there been a shipboard disturbance that no-one elected to tell the less flesh-based members of the crew about?"

"I did some sparing with Cadet Mor'an," She hadn't been bruised at all during that but she'd rather not tell anyone it was all due to having nightmares.

"In which case I suggest that you aim for a less intensive session. I'm a doctor not a builder - long term damage to body tissues is extremely difficult to repair, and I'm not here to put you all back together every time you put yourselves in harms way."

The hologram almost seemed to be annoyed at someone deliberately causing injury to themselves. It was nonsensical that an organism that was as frail and easily damaged as organic beings would pursue a course of action that would lead to their own bodies eventually failing.

"A good cardiovascular workout is more than sufficient to meet the physical needs of most humanoid species. May I suggest a period of time on a treadmill next time?"

That wasn't the point, was it? Kiri visibly considered what he had said before answering, "I wasn't really exercising, I was trying to learn how to defend myself." When she thought about it, Kiri really didn't spend any time exercising at all

"No matter what the final aim - organic bodies are not quite as durable as my own holographic matrix. I can just be rebooted from a backup copy, you however wouldn't be quite so lucky."

The hologram closed the tricorder and placed it back down on the instrument table, satisfied that there was no further work he would need to do to repair anything more than minor injuries that were already on their way to healing naturally. Whilst not quite as expediant as using 24th century medical tools, the human body could heal bruising quite well on it's own.

"I am careful not to have any permanent damage," Or any damage for that matter but she had come here injured. At least fingernails normally regrew, bruises would fade in a few days or a week, the problem for her was what other people would think if she was injured. Looking up at the hologram she struggled to meet his eyes, "Are you finished?"

"For now....unless you decide to have another...bad dream in the near future. In which case I'm here when you next need me...just activate the program and I'll appear. However....if this becomes a long term situation....I recommend scheduling an appointment with someone more..specialised in psychology than a simple EMH."

Kiri knew that she should do. Yet now that Brayden had left, the trouble she had had with Blake and Carlisle that didn't seem very appealing at all. Talking to them about her problems seemed more of a trial than something that would help. They were just dreams after all, how could talking about them help? They might say she was crazy, send her away. Maybe she was, that thought made her shiver, "I, think I might." Nodding her head she stood up straight and tried her best to look confident.

"Well, if there's nothing further I can assist you with, I'd appreciate if you would deactivate me?"

The EMH looked over with both a look of frustration and also a hint of humility as he requested his program be shut off. His primary function was medical care, and if this was no longer necessary, there was no need to continue running his subroutines.

"Computer, Deactivate Program," Kiri didn't know how to treat it, settling on just another program that happened to take physical form. It was silly to treat a computer with manners wasn't it? Now she had to face the day and mull over if she was going to see a counsellor or not.

[OFF]

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EMH Mk-X (NPC'd by Holliday)
Emergency Medical Hologram
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Kiri Cho
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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