The BLTS Archive - Dreams
#2: A Waking Dream
by Kalita Kasar (kalitafic@hotmail.com)

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Archive: ENT Slash; WWOMB; connortrineerfans. BLTS Others by
permission.

Feedback: yes

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. They were born in other
creative minds, but they keep intruding into mine, so what's a girl to
do? I don't make any money from this; it is just a labour of love for
me and them.

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'Is he all right? - Are they going to be all right? - Is Rostov alive?
- I'll call a medical team! - He's safe...he's safe...thank God. -
Should I touch him? - Is he going to be ok? - Is it over? - Where am
I? - What happened? - T'Pol?'

A jumble of confused voices filled his head and the commander
struggled to escape them.

Trip stirred weakly as he opened his eyes. Hoshi was crouched beside
him; she smiled as he looked at her.

"Are you all right, Commander? Don't try to get up; the medical team
is on their way."

Trip stared into her eyes for a moment as he tried to make sense of
the thousand and one thoughts and feelings that clamoured for
attention. He felt as though he could hear and feel inside of every
person in the room.

Someone was missing; one of the voices that had come through stronger
than the others. Trip rolled to his side looking around with eyes that
refused to focus. He had to find the owner of that voice, it was
important.

'We reached for him, we wanted to embrace him; we wanted to take away
the singleness... but we could not touch him. He stopped us when we
tried. He did not want to be one.' Trip blinked, struggling to make
his eyes focus as he searched the cargo bay. Trip groaned with the
intensity of emotion attached to those thoughts; loss, desolation,
confusion.

Suddenly, he found himself lost in gentle grey eyes that met his own.
'Malcolm.' Trip drew a deep breath as their eyes met. Malcolm's was
the voice he had heard - the one who thanked God that he was safe.
Trip stared into the lieutenant's eyes; he blinked and parted his lips
to speak.

Malcolm smiled at him and then turned away.

'No!' Trip pushed weakly against the floor with his hands, trying to
get up, but Hoshi gently held him down. He could only watch helplessly
as Malcolm spoke briefly to a crewman and the two men left the cargo
bay.

'He did not want to be one.'

Trip closed his eyes with a small moan and sank down on the floor. He
was too weak right now to even think straight, much less try and work
out the jumble of thoughts and emotions. At least, he noted with
relief, the myriad of voices that had flooded in on him initially was
subsiding.

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Released from the sickbay finally, Trip Tucker walked the halls of the
ship restlessly. He'd been advised to go back to his quarters and rest
but he was not able to. He felt a dull sense of something that was not
quite loneliness, but not a pleasant sensation either. It had plagued
him since the entity in cargo bay two had gently lowered him to the
floor.

Separateness. That was the only word he could find that even came
close to being applicable.

Trip sighed, walking the too-quiet halls of this too-empty ship. He
was alone, and he didn't like it.

Alone- it was wrong. We reached for him, we wanted to embrace him; we
wanted to take away the separateness... but we could not touch him. He
stopped us when we tried. He did not want to be one.

Commander Charles Tucker III stopped in his tracks as the voices - it
was more than one voice, neither male nor female but somehow both,
echoed in his mind again. He blinked and shook his head to clear it
away.

Phlox had told him that he might retain some memories of the
experience. That such a joining of minds was often permanent, but that
it was also harmless and may fade with time.

Trip sighed. Strange how Jon didn't seem to have those memories;
neither did Rostov, Kelly, or Zabel. He had asked them if they
remembered anything about reaching out to someone who wouldn't allow
them to touch, and all had denied it.

He palmed his face with one hand and walked on. Before too long his
restless feet carried him to the one place that had always been a safe
haven. He felt the tension ease from his shoulders as he stepped into
engineering and was instantly surrounded by the deep, resonant throb
of Enterprise's heartbeat.

It was like re-entering the womb sometimes. Although Trip didn't
recall back that far, he imagined that the all-pervading throb of the
engine would feel pretty close to the beat of a mother's heart to a
foetus.

Climbing the ladder to the upper level of engineering Trip rested his
head against the side of the warp drive. He closed his eyes, letting
the gentle beats pulse through his body. It was almost the sensation
he wanted. He could almost imagine the soft enveloping tendrils of The
One surrounded him and he felt his breathing steady.

'Get outta here! Trip stared into terror filled grey eyes as he
struggled against the tendrils that caught and held him. He watched
the sharp features of the Armoury officer, as the man seemed to
freeze, horror evident in his face as their eyes met.

Zabel scrambled up a ladder but was too slow and the tendrils caught
him. There was a desperate struggle for a few moments before Mark was
dragged from the ladder, his rifle clattering to the floor; still
Malcolm didn't move, his grey eyes wild with terror and the dawning
light of something else...

Go! Trip pushed every ounce of strength he possessed into that command
as he was lifted bodily into the air and finally, Malcolm seemed to
come out of some kind of trance. He stumbled backwards, eyes still
glued to Trip's face, and then he ran as though the furies pursued
him; bolting for the hatch, he lunged through it and slammed it shut.'

"God!" Trip's eyes snapped open and he pushed himself away from the
reassuring presence of the warp reactor; stumbling backwards for a
couple of paces before he was brought up short by the safety railing.
His heart pounded uncomfortably in his chest, and he could feel
tremors all through his body.

The sheer terror in Malcolm's eyes as that creature had pulled Trip
off his feet still haunted the commander and he leaned heavily on the
safety railing for support. Even more haunting was the other emotion
Trip had glimpsed just moments before Malcolm bolted.

Trip swallowed hard and shut his eyes. "Oh my god..."

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The End

All characters and scenarios not appearing in the original series are
copyright ©2002 kalitafic