Ensign Jovenan – P.S. I miss you (part 1)

[+ Yalu]

Absolutely cracking sim from @Jovenan here. Multiple plot and character elements from the ensign's short but eventful Starfleet career were expertly woven together in this dream sequence. What a delight this was to read, and the greatness continues in Part 2.

Fantastic sim, Jo.

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They were gathered around a round table. Jovenan could see all her shipmates around her – MacKenzie, Dakora, Adea, Silveira, Hiro and all the others – each on their own seat by the table. They were all chatting with their next seat neighbours, but Jovenan couldn’t pick up any single discussion and make sense of the words; the voices were blending together, fusing into a single, fluctuating stream.

She felt safe among the people around her, living a happy dream. The lounge was dimly lit expect for the round table, as it was otherwise empty. Having just received her very first ribbons, the bashful pride coloured her cheeks red and tingled her smiling face. The chatter seized as the food was brought to the crew. A plate was placed in front of her before the metallic, bell-shaped cloche was lifted and the dish was presented.

It was a taco.

A sudden wave of anxiety run through her. She lifted her gaze from the plate and looked around at her companions. They had each been served the Earth delicacy, but the others had not hesitated to take it to their hands and eat. Jovenan wanted to shout, warn them, but no sound could escape her lips. Green gunk began pouring from the top of their heads.

Shouting. She turned to face the other side of the table, where she could see that Commander Adea and Lt Silveira had just stood up and were shaking their fists and spiting hateful insults at each other, like barking dogs. Unexpectedly, she could see Adea pull a sword from his cane and charge at Silveira. The sword went straight through his stomach, coming through from his back, blooded. It was entirely silent. Jovenan wanted to scream but couldn’t.

Adea pulled the sword from Silveira’s motionless, pale body that he pushed unceremoniously to the ground after the sword was out. Jovenan stepped backwards, but as Adea turned to her and pointed the sword at her, she tripped and collided against the transporter room wall. Speaking with eery, distorted voice Adea uttered threats to Jovenan, lifted the sword above his head and prepared to attack. She covered herself with her hands, afraid of the monster her colleague had turned to, but the strike never came. As she looked again, where the Commander had stood was now only a cloud of blue mist.

Legs unable to carry her, she crawled closer to the transporter pad. There she found Lorana, howling an inhuman cry of pain. Making her way crawling to the injured officer, Jovenan could see all her limbs were in unnatural position, broken in multiple places. Jovenan placed her arm under the patient’s armpit and around the back, ready to lift them up, but as soon as she tried to stand up, her legs gave in, and they both fell to the corridor floor.

Computer: Warp core breach in 3 minutes.

Jovenan spat out phlegm, as if she had been running for kilometres. Yet, she was still in the corridor, trying to carry now shapeless patient while the alert klaxon rang, and the entire field of vision was coloured in red. She rose up from the corridor floor, arm around the patient, but her legs couldn’t hold, and they fell to the ground again. Sharp pain radiated from her knees and elbows, but she refused give up. She tried rising from the ground again, but it was in vain, and she hit her head face first to the hard floor.

Computer: Core breach imminent.

Jovenan turned to the patient and looked right into their eyes. The patient was still wailing, their body broken and unable to move on their own. Crying, she had to force the words from her mouth.

Jovenan: I need to go.

Terror flashed in the patient’s eyes. Jovenan removed her arm around them, while they were trying to hold her there. Without the patient, Jovenan’s legs could carry her for a few more steps before she hit her knee to the deck. Getting up each time hurt, but she could run, as slow and clumsy as it ever was possible. Looking back at the patient, she could see them trying to move their body with only their arms, extending one at Jovenan, begging to be saved. She ran away.

Computer?: Please, don’t leave me!

She reached the end of the corridor, having fallen and risen up several time, finding a door that slid open. Stepping in, she recognized the wide hall as the Shuttle Bay 2, with multiple smaller shuttlepods and a giant runabout looming behind them. Several crewmembers, dressed in red and yellow, run on the shuttle bay floor, panicking. She looked up and could now tell why. The shuttle bay door was fully open, and the force field that separated the bay from the vacuum of space was flickering. At that moment, the field failed entirely, and the air sucked out with enormous force. Jovenan grasped the railing, but her hands slipped, and she was pulled to the space.

Floating around in space, she was accompanied only by a bright, blue and green planet with rings of multiple colours, and a beautiful star behind it. Having a calm moment, she observed the beauty of the world below them, scattered with seas, canyons, and giant smoking crater. It made her… sad, for some reason. Not anxious sad, not depressed sad, but a form of nostalgic sad.

Then there was a starbase. A mushroom shaped, grey structure hung in mid-space on the orbit of the planet, surrounded by small brown asteroids and glittering dust. She knew she couldn’t remain in space, so she began to swim towards the station. Her speed became faster and faster, and soon she realised she was moving too fast and would collide with the station hull. Trying to slow down, she moved her hands and legs in the opposite direction, but alas, there’s no air in space and it was impossible to swim in the vacuum.

An airlock opened on the station’s hull. Rocketing towards the station, she knew that her survival depended only on whether she could make it there and into the station. The airlock opened further, and revealed a dark, shapeless being. The form revealed a weapon, a sword glowing blood red, which it lifted against Jovenan. Unable to stop, she panicked as she was on the trajectory to the lethal weapon’s tip. The being opened its mouth and spoke.

Monster: Failure.

 

[Jovenan]

That was a quick appreciation! Thank you, Yalu ❤️