Everything is Wrong

Posted on 05 Sep 2020 @ 12:10pm by

855 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Ab Intra
Location: Shuttlebay, Sickbay
Timeline: MD 01 ~ 1715 hours

Everything moved in a blur.

Right as the shuttle touched down on the deck-plates of the Odin's shuttlebay, Lorelei passed out over the controls. Commander Petrova seemed to be out through the hatch in an instant, not even noticing what had happened to his sister. Quinn, however, noticed. He would always notice. He rushed forward, calling her name and checking to make sure she wasn't...dead... He would know without checking, though. He was sure of that. They were twins, after all.

Lorelei was still alive. Her heartbeat and breathing were soft but steady.

"We need to get everyone to sickbay," the CMO announced from the back. With two unconscious and one dead, they were running short of hands. Although transporting anywhere outside the ship had been advised against by General Stanton, it was quickly determined to risk a transport inside the ship to move everyone from the shuttle to sickbay in an instant.

Fortunately, it worked fine and everyone arrived in one piece.

Doctor Warner came rushing out of the chief's office moments after the whole group materialized. She was immediately asking questions while simultaneously pulling her tricorder to run scans, discussing the situation with Dering. Quinn hovered around his sister, but he tried to stay out of the way. He didn't understand any of what was happening, but he hoped that the doctors could figure it out.

Then... Then the blur happened again.

This time, though, it felt different. Something was...strange about it.

Quinn felt this sort of swirling sensation in his mind, but he didn't understand it. It didn't feel like anything he had ever felt before, but it was fucking disorienting. He didn't really believe the feeling, as if there was someone else with him in there, but he didn't believe it. How could he? Yet his disbelief didn't change how it felt at all. He felt an instinctive resistance rise up at him, like when his sister tried to tell him what to do.

After what seemed like just a few moments, it passed. Yet when it did, when the dizziness faded and he could look around, it seemed like everything had changed.

Dering was on the ground, and Warner was standing over him with a strange look in her eyes. The two surviving security guards were also...not right, and they were staring at Quinn. He frowned, his eyes swapping between them all. "What... What's going on?"

"We need you to accompany us down to the cargo bay," one of the security officers said.

"It would be easier if you cooperated," the other said. He couldn't keep their names straight, so he wasn't sure which was which.

Quinn looked quickly at his sister, still unconscious and laying on the biobed, and then back at them. They had their hands on their phasers, although the weapons were still holstered on their hips. For now. "Why?" he asked.

"You don't need to know that," the doctor said. He saw her reaching for a hypospray on the small table beside his sister. Her movements were slow, a little strange. He just knew that she wasn't reaching for something that would treat any of the unconscious persons. It was probably a sedative. For him. Why? His brain raced, but all the thoughts pouring through it and the spike of adrenaline to go with them was just too much.

It hurt. His head hurt terribly.

He didn't want to leave his sister, but he knew that he suddenly didn't have a choice. Either he left with them and went to the bay, or he ran. It wasn't his nature to run, really. He was a stubborn cuss, he and his twin both, but he just knew that something was really wrong. Okay, so, that was obvious. Anyone aside from the densest fucker on the planet would be able to see that something was wrong. It was what was wrong that he couldn't figure out.

Quinn's mind felt like a computer core getting too much input. Overheating.

The pilot was contemplating fleeing from fellow Starfleet officers. Why? Something was wrong with them. Their sudden change, the aggressive posture. This wasn't good, and nothing good would come of going to the cargo bay. To be locked up. Why? Quinn didn't like being trapped. He was a pilot. He flew. He liked the freedom.

His breath caught in his throat. "I, uh..." he began, stumbling and looking at his sister again. "I don't think I can do that, fellas." He turned and sprinted out of sickbay. He heard the sizzle of a phaser beam hitting the door frame as he rounded around it and booked it into the hallway. So far, the coast was clear. He did not expect it to remain that way, so he needed a plan. He heard their footsteps behind him, and he knew that plan had to come together real fast.

Tossing his comm badge on the ground, he sprinted around a corner at full bore and then found the nearest access hatch. He climbed in and closed it behind him just moments before the security guards rushed by.

 

RSS Feed