round 2 MAJ Pavlova: The Dream

[Oddas Aria]

(( Oddas's Quarters, Embassy, Duronis II ))

((Dream - 3.5-years-ago, Control Center, Planet Kjenta II))

PAVLOVA: Its true then?  It really has been over two centuries.

TRENG: So again I give you the choice. Drop your weapons, sit down and we can talk things out like grown-ups, or you will never leave this high-gravity paradise of a planet.

STAVINS: Don't be so sure...

::Irina just looked back and further between Captain Waltas and Dr. Treng.  The long-haired captain really was from the future, or rather she and her shipmates were from the very distant past.  What had the last two centuries seen pass?  Moretti was alive so obviously some of the stasis chambers were still working, was Katya still waiting?::

((Hallway outside the control room))

::As the away team entered the control room, Gunnery Sergeant Brown emerged from the other end of the hallway and with all eyes inside the room on Treng, he approached until the angle to the open door gradually afforded him a view of more and more of the interior of the room, like an ever-expanding slice of pie.

Finally he saw the back of the person he was looking for, raised his pistol and fired.

The first shot took Irina from behind in the left thigh, the second in the left shoulder and the third an inch lower into her middle back. He adjusted fire as he saw the large security guard Duquzieny, and quickly put a bullet into the man's throat, killing him instantly. He then saw the Amazonian woman from the comms, Lieutenant Amman with a weapon aimed at him and he fired, but his shot went high into the ceiling, thrown off at the last second as Hsina's first .45 slug struck him solidly in the chest before he had her in his sights. He tried to bring his weapon to bear again, but another shot from Hsina's .45 came a fraction of a second later, striking him an inch from the first shot. A third shot followed, dead center between the first two. Brown stood unmoving for an instant, then crumpled lifeless to the ground.

Another Columbia survivor emerged from the same direction Brown had come,this one with a rifle in his hands. As he brought the weapon up to take aim, Hsina's .45 barked twice again, sending rifle and man quickly to the ground as the bullets both hit true to center-of-mass.::

 

((Inside the Control Room))

:: Things were as if in slow motion. Irina felt the bullets strike her and saw as the world began to tilt. It wasn't really tilting, but she hit the ground so quickly that was the thought that came to mind. She could hear the exchange of fire out in the hallway and was vaguely aware of the sudden weight on top of her legs as Duquzieny fell across her, unmoving. 

There was panic everywhere, but strangely Irina was calm, strangely at peace. She thought of Dimitri back on Earth, dead now for centuries. Katya. The last she had seen of her daughter she was crying as Irina and Dr. Solis closed the lid of her stasis chamber. Irina smelled that shampoo Katya loved, as though her nose was burried in the toddler's hair. She too, likely dead for centuries.

oO But Moretti was alive, in stasis the whole time. Could Katya have survived as well? Nothing, not even Treng herself would get in the way of her seeing her daughter, alive or dead Oo.

As her vision narrowed and consciousness oozed, Irina reached her still good right hand inside the waistband at the back of her pants and pulled out the small pistol. When Irina left for Columbia in 2169 her father had given her the ancient German pistol. The gun was a prize some distant ancestor took from a German officer he'd killed in the second world war during the siege of Stalingrad. The weapon had been in the family since 1944, and in Irina’s possession for fully half of its nearly five centuries of existence.

The sights were increasingly difficult to see as Irina's vision darkened, but when she thought she had the sights lined up and Treng behind them, she squeezed the trigger. Sadly, nothing happened. Treng was hit, but did not die, and Irina’s arm couldn’t hold the weapon for a second shot.::

::The dream was more than a dream, it was a memory, and an accurate one, but where usually the dream would end and Irina would just sit upright, awake in a cold sweat, this time, for the first time, it didn’t end at all.  She remained on the ground, but her vision didn’t go black.  She was helpless, unmoving, but Treng wasn’t.  The woman, despite bullet holes, claw marks and even a a Dalid’s bite, was still standing, unaffected by her grievous wounds which seemed to heal themselves as though she were a hologram rather than a human.::

Pavlova: :: screaming :: No, you're already dead! Leave me alone!

::Treng reached down at the Daclid and with just a flick of her glance, sent the lizard-like creature flying against the opposite wall, his body striking with a sickening crunch and then collapsing to the ground, unmoving.

:: She could feel someone shaking her, but try as she may, her body would not response. ::

::One by one, Treng shifted her attention to each of the officers from Discovery’s away team, and with no more than a glance, she repeated her telekinetic throw with such force that their bodies had no chance against the ungiving stone walls of the control center.  Blueheart was next, his head cracking against the wall with such force as to splash its contents like water from a balloon.  Hsina Amman, the massive amazon was next, but despite her size and strength she was killed just as easily.::

::Irina could hear a voice just as Treng looked past her and locked her gaze on Captain Waltas.::

Oddas: :: softly :: Irina! :: there was no response, so more loudly and forcefully.  :: Irina! ::

:: Irina’s eyes focused and where once she saw Treng, now she saw Oddas, gripping her shoulders tightly and shaking.. ::

Pavlova: Quick, she’s got your captain.

:: Now it was Aria's turn to be confused, Irina was making no sense, unless she was still dreaming. Aria sat up and pulled the woman up with her, rubbing her shoulders and back, trying to soothe her as best as she could. ::

Oddas: :: whispering :: Irina, you're dreaming.  Wake up, whatever is going on, you're safe.

::Slowly it came back.  She was at Aria’s place, the engineer with the bumpy nose.  It had all been so real, and still was in a way.  She could still feel the blinding pain of the bullets in her shoulder, thigh an back, that sickening sound the bodies had made.  But it wasn’t right.  The Daclid, oO his name was Steve?  Who names a lizard Steve? Oo, Blueheart, Amman and Waltas weren’t killed in that room, Treng was.  Irina was confused, somehow still terrified though she didn’t know why.::

Pavlova: She’s dead.  She’s been dead for years.

Oddas: :: softly :: shhh, shhhh, I promise, you are ok. 

:: Aria began rocking Irina gently, and then gradually they leaned back.  Irina was so confused, but before she could process her thoughts any more, she was again fast asleep. ::

(( Some time later ))

:: The dream repeated again, but this time it ended the way it was supposed to, with Irina’s bullet hitting Treng, and then everything going black with Irina sitting up, wide-awake in a cold sweat.::

::She looked down at Aria sleeping peacefully and wanted more than anything to just lay back down and hold her tightly, but as was always the case after the extremely vivid memory/dream of Kjenta, she just had to know that the reality of the last three years, was just that, reality, and that she wasn’t still down on that high-gravity hell of a planet.  More than anything, she needed to see Katya and squeeze her hard enough to convince herself that she was real.::

::Irina got out of bad as quietly as possible and dressing as quickly and quietly as she could, she made her way out and sprinted all the way back home, finding Katya and Jazmine sleeping on the living room couch and Jessica, Sergeant Wilkins’ 17-year-old daughter and Irina’s preferred babysitter now that Kai’la was at the academy, herself asleep in the recliner.::

::Irina picked Katya up and then held her tight, waking her up, though her smile indicated that the girl didn’t mind.  Irina just stood there, squeezing her daughter and crying for the better part of an hour before carrying her daughter into her room and climbing into the child’s bed with her, never once letting go.::

(( Turner Residence ))

:: Irina made it to Turner’s house at the correct time and after a few minutes was showed to a changing room and given her bridesmaid dress.  A few minutes later Irina emerged in her dress and saw the chaos of women running this way and that, and noticed Aria standing there in the middle with a confused look.::

::Irina walked up behind her, not knowing what to say.  She had had a wonderful time, but Aria had seen with her own eyes what Irina had thus far kept hidden from everyone else she had met in this century, including her own late wife.  What would she think?  Irina wouldn’t be surprised if the engineer had already referred her for counseling, but at the very least doubted the Bajoran would want much to do with her after her “performance” last night.::

::Coming up behind, Irina slipped her arms around Aria’s waist and just leaned her face down into Aria’s shoulder and cried.::

 

Major Irina Pavlova
First Officer, USS Bronwyn
Author ID  0238908HA0