All Alone in the Dark

[Cmdr Ayers 0]

            Nick follows Lt. Hawke out of the Captain's office but whereas she moves towards the congregated group, he boosts his mental shields and steps towards the Observation lounge doors.  He steps silently through the door as it opens and it's only when he hears the doors slide shut behind him does he allow himself to relax.  

 

      He steps over to his chair at the table and turns it to face the stars outside the window as he sits down.  He settles himself into a comfortable position and closes his eyes.  It wasn't like him to be as open to people about certain things as he was a few minutes ago with Lt. Hawke but then he chose to be so for two reasons.  He needed to tell someone that could hope to understand what had happened and that was either Hawke or the Doctor for the most part.  If only so they didn't think it was a recurrence of the prior...incident.  Secondly..and with a certain amount of regret over the deception, he told Hawke because he realized that if he didn't she would proceed to be more inquisitive to the point that she would mind him constantly or have Muon or someone else mind him.  And right now what he needs is time alone, to do some thinking and to do some searching.

 

      He carefully clears his mind as he runs through the mental exercises his mother had taught him.  Slowly he stretches out his senses, searching for the thread of the contact..the voice that had called out to him earlier.  For a brief instant the wash of emotions of those in C&C and the others elsewhere on the station and even the emotions of the aliens threatens to swallow him and it takes him some effort to maintain his sense of self-identity against the tide.  

 

      He's stretched his senses out as far as he can when he peripherally becomes aware of activity near one of the alien stations.  Through his mind's eye he watches the events unfold, the alien station exploding, the attack by the Cardassian ship, the response of the alien ships and finally their departure.  With some relief he notices the particles that had caused so much trouble be dissipated by the solar winds from Cardassia's star.

 

      With one last futile attempt he tries sensing the thread of the voice from earlier.  It's during that attempt that he notices the sudden spike of emotions from those in C&C, especially the Captain's sudden increase in erratic thoughts and emotions.  

 

      He blinks his eyes open and it's only when he tries standing does he realize that he's freezing to the point of being numb.  He tries standing again to no avail so he tries tapping his commbadge but his arms are as numb as his legs.  His voice dies in his throat even as he tries saying the words.  A momentary sense of panic rises up within him.  Of all the scenarios he had envisioned him dying in, going out alone without even the ability to attempt to rectify the situation was not one of them.