Confusion and Pacing

Posted on Fri Jun 17th, 2022 @ 5:15am by Commander Benjamin Jamesson & Petty Officer, 3rd Class Lottie Daglish & Ensign Isaac 'Zac' Hughes

Mission: Mission 6 - Memory
Location: Deck E - Sickbay
Timeline: DAY 300 14:00
2537 words - 5.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Benjamin was pacing now that his arm was in a sling and he was feeling a little less anxious about everything he had so many questions for everyone but no one had come into sickbay other than the Andorian Doctor and Daglish who he knew from experience would not tell him anything in the slightest. He kept glancing around trying to work things out but his mind every time flickered back to him being dead and this being heaven. He was not a religious man but what were the chances of all of this? “So what are we thinking Doc?” He questioned looking back at the doctor who sat there a lot less anxious or at least not showing it compared to him. None of the systems accepted his codes or anything so it was useless in trying to do anything after the first five attempts to work out what was going on.

Hughes, far from immune from anxiety, nevertheless had a tendency to exude a placid calmness even in the face of significant adversity. He'd been worried in the escape pod, primarily for his three critical patients, but hadn't seemed to spend much time fretting about the situation beyond the problems that existed right in front of him. Now, having been denied access to continued treatment for the three sleepers, he was perched on a biobed with little more to do than ponder. Problem-solve. Reason. Reason? He'd been accused of having an overly poetic soul at times but the whimsy of what seemed to be the currently favoured speculation of their circumstance seemed far too ludicrous for even Isaac to fathom.

He glanced up at Jamesson as the other man spoke and, in typical fashion, took several seconds to gather his thoughts before replying. "I'm not sure I know what to think, sir. This definitely feels like my sickbay, and there are plenty of familiar faces here. They seem to think you don't belong, and even fewer of them have any idea who I am." The doctor's brow furrowed. "I'd say it was an unprecedented mess except, to the best of my knowledge, we just survived the total destruction of ship and crew. It feels connected," he explained, referencing the string of events that had brought them this far. "Either that or it's one impossible catastrophe followed by another."

“Well, I do not think several of them belong here back.” The man countered as he stopped pacing mid-stride to take that thought in. Bethsabee died 295 days ago fixing the problem in engineering that had nudged free when they had ended up so far from home and Sloan not long after Michael had perished from some type of mental torture from the Vrav on the planet when they had gotten the algae. It all seemed very much impossible and confusing. “But the ship is still here. That creature has not caused destruction here.” Benjamin said simply still not able to figure out how.

Not for the first time, Hughes closed his eyes and tried to reassemble an accurate recollection, not only of recent events, but the last year or so of his life. It had been coming back as a trickle, icy cold in places, as his mind unjumbled the mess of invasive suggestions from the admittedly-abnormal aspects of reality that their unwelcome visitor had inflicted on him. He knew their rescuers were supposed to be familiar to him, and his wits had returned enough that Zac could recall their presence, even though he'd not had cause to interact with any of them on any deeply personal level. But it was like looking through someone else's photo album and only recognising the familiarity of the single instance frozen in time. Connections were missing. Conversations he must have had. His brow furrowed.

"Either we all died," he eventually reasoned, "Or none of us did. With everything that's happened, sir, we can't discount flawed perception though. It doesn't feel like one of the creature's hallucinations." Isaac knew perhaps better than any aboard the escape pod how those felt. "But neither did watching the ship explode, and it clearly isn't in a million cosmic pieces now. Surely both statements can't be true. Atlantis was destroyed, and now it's not. We've seen crew who died months ago, and they're just as confused by our appearance." Hughes hunched a shoulder. "Sounds like someone's dreaming."

Benjamin could always rely on the young man to be more of a realist than him at the moment as he had little memory of all the events presiding the pod. “Hopeful as ever.” The engineer and executive Officer said as he sat down finally opposite. “If we were dead this is not my afterlife. I would be building an old classic car in the middle of nowhere.” He explained his idea of heaven and shook his head. “I feel too much pain in my head and arm for it to be an afterlife. Plus I would not end up with you in it.” He joked trying to calm his nerves.

Hughes grinned, a slow blossom of amusement as he pondered the concept and enjoyed the visual for a moment. "I happen to think I'd look great with a halo. Set of wings. I could play you the harp."

“So the ship is not in a million pieces so that leaves us with one option alternative universe.” He said it with a quick shrug. It was the only logical route left to them. People died on his ship and not there. People lived on his ship but not there. “There have always been rumours of alternative universes and parallel worlds.”

"I honestly doubt that's the only explanation, but I've nothing better to offer as an alternative." It was a gigantic leap of logic, especially given their recent issues with mind-invasive delirium, but Isaac was struggling to grasp the slippery ribbons that, when bound together firmly, would have resembled his train of thought. Whenever he tried to focus on something linear and sensible, whatever faculty he had for determining logical sequence slid away as oil would from a puddle of water. He felt disconnected, enough that it wouldn't really have surprised him to wake up on a biobed somewhere to be told this whole debacle was just a figment of his fractured mind.

“Well I have not got anything better.” He admitted normally sounding like it was something that could have been said in a snap but it was a simple sense of understanding what he could not even start to understand. Benjamin looked the man over and leaned over to rest his head in his hands for a moment trying to process everything. “And neither do you. Different universe but how did we end up here?” He wondered if going from one universe to another was not a simple feat.

"I feel like 'how' is a great start to any number of questions you could ask about recent events, sir." Hughes sounded tired because he was. Quite apart from everything else, there hadn't been much sleep in those five days adrift, not with three patients occupying what remained of his sole function. "We still don't know much about this region of space, and even less about our uninvited guest. If we wandered into a nest of them..."

“No, he vividly told me how he was the last of his species. Why he needed other life forces as it was impossible to live without that energy with his mate and species gone.” Benjamin commented looking up. It was going to stay with him for a long time the realisation of what had happened how the man who they had all thought of as a brother in arms had been nothing but a stowaway and feeding on them. “You were the last person I found him feeding on and shot him so I have no clue really but the how has to be some type of simple explanation.” Benjamin was hopeful of it all. He needed simplicity for a few hours to rest.

Curbing the desire to wince at the mention of 'feeding', Zac glanced across at what remained, as far as he'd thought several hours ago at least, of his command team and offered the faintest of incredulous smiles. He commended the Commander's optimism and normally would have favoured it himself, but the universe could only stack the odds so high before the house of cards came tumbling down. "I don't think 'simple' belongs in a conversation about interdimensional travel, sir."

“Thank you for the reality check Ensign.” The man said finally looking up and just looked tired. He slowly decided to lie back in the biobed and get comfortable. “I feel like we both could get some rest after the last few days,” Benjamin commented as Lottie came back in and offered smiles to the pair.

“I can get you something to rest?” She offered hearing the tail end of the conversation as she held up two trays filled with food.

Isaac turned his head towards the interruption and hesitated a moment before his features relaxed into a smile. As with nearly every other person he'd met so far, the nurse held a familiarity that remained just out of reach. Looking at her evoked recognition, and he could recall her name, or at least he hoped it was her name, but trying to recall the last conversation they'd had was like trying to catch a wet bar of soap at full speed. "A full stomach will be a great start," he reassured her. "Lottie, right?"

The woman nodded as she stood there watching them both for a moment. She did not know the ensign in the slightest but the commander she vaguely knew him by sight so in brought up nothing other than intrigue. “Petty Officer Lottie Daglish.” The woman agreed and put a tray down in front of him.

"I wish I could say I remember more than your name." Isaac's brow furrowed before he gave up and hunched his shoulders in gentle defeat. "It'll come back to me, I'm sure, though that doesn't help you much, I suppose. Isaac Hughes." Like so many times before, the doctor left off his rank, which felt oddly alien to him at the best of times anyway. "At some point, I think I was a doctor here. Or somewhere like here. We likely worked with each other." He dipped his head to one side and smiled ruefully. "Or not," he conceded. "It's all pretty confusing."

Lottie smiled patiently and held out her hand to him as part of an introduction. “Pleasure to meet you, Isaac Hughes. I have never met you before if that helps.” She said brightly hoping that helped the confusion just a little bit.

It didn't, but Isaac appreciated the effort. As far as he could tell, nobody here had ever encountered him, with the exception of the Captain who at least could account for his counterpart's absence. There had been no time to process that. No time to reflect on what it would mean to be displaced once again. As much as Jamesson wanted to cling to his alternative universe theory, Hughes was just as stubbornly voting against it because, if it was true, then everything was gone. Not just 150 years away; gone.

And, to deal with a more immediate sense of guilt, it was hard to look the crew in the face and represent the solid, irrefutable proof that he hadn't been able to save them. All five of them, to the best of their ability to tell, had been the only escape pod to make it. If Ben's theory was correct then Lottie hadn't made it; none of them had made it. It made it difficult to look her in the eye. "Then it's a pleasure to meet you too, Lottie Daglish."

“I have some uniform for you that should be fresher and once you’ve eaten and everything comes back clear I can show you to some quarters,” Daglish said just as calmly and brightly.

"What about my patients?" He may have abandoned the rest of the crew to their fate but it was his three critical-care patients that had allowed him to make that choice. Maybe this wasn't his Sickbay anymore but they were his responsibility.

“They are being well taken care of. Your watch is over.” Lottie said kindly already having thought of what to say when they asked about them. “They are all in stable condition. You did a fantastic job so eat up and get yourself some rest.” She pointed at the tray as she moved through to the office.

A doctor's watch was never over. More to the point, he'd been Chief Medical Officer last time he'd blinked, and now he was...nothing. Obligation twisted its blade into Zac's stomach. "I appreciate that, but they're my crew." His tone, whilst soft, was also adamant. "My patients, under my care. I'd like at least to speak with your doctor."

“You are also our crew,” Lottie said over her shoulder as he followed her which made Benjamin follow. “She is busy right now helping them. If you wanna talk to the captain I can grab her but you guys have been awake a long time and cannot keep going at this speed.”

“She is right,” Benjamin said quietly. “Come on, I'm starving.” He said pointing to the trays.

That wasn't how it worked. Typically, it took quite a lot for Isaac's hackles to rise, but there was enough about this situation that already didn't make a heap of sense; being forced to integrate so rapidly, especially when it involved him being entirely removed from his position, didn't make things any clearer. This wasn't his ship, it wasn't his crew, but the three critical-care cases that he had escorted to the escape pod and managed to keep alive on emergency power reserves, were.

So why were they so keen to dismiss his input? Nobody had even asked him for a treatment summary, there had been no handing over of information, no official transfer of duty of care. Suspicion anchored his furrowed gaze on the cheerful nurse just a little longer than was likely comfortable. What the hell reason did he have for even trusting these people?

'I would like to speak with the doctor who has assumed authority over my patients without consultation." The doctor's tone was steady, gentle, and about as flexible as cold steel. "If you could pass that along, I would appreciate it." Then, settling back, Isaac opted for the glass of apple juice first and retreated into his own thoughts.

“Of course. But for now, you are the patient Ensign.” Lottie replied without even flinching.

“Don’t antagonise the nurse, Hughes. She’s brought food.” Benjamin said ducking his head in thanks to Lottie as she returned her attention to her work and he himself to the pasta salad that was on his plate. It was perfect for his starving body but he would have likely said that about a piece of toast right then.