Beneath The Darkness Between The Stars

[Veloras Itana 0]

Beneath The Darkness

Between The Stars

Book II

Experiments In Terror

 

There was a sweetness to the air and a milky haze behind the sunlight that bored straight through my eyelids, as I slowly swam up out of an uneasy sleep. The room was bright and clean. Small machines whirred with an electronic rhythm somewhere beside me but, try as I might I could not turn my head to see where it came from or what it was. The walls were white with a series of benign paintings that you would see on almost any wall in a Federation installation. The windows were open and the scent of hyacinth and jasmine drifted on the light mid-spring breeze. Sunlight poured through the blinds of the antiseptic room as my eyes started to focus making them first sting and then burn. I closed my eyes tightly for a moment, steeling myself against the glare. Slowly, oh so slowly, I cracked them open again and tried in vain to look around. Unable to see anything beyond my direct line of sight, I remember taking that first cognizant glance at my surroundings in complete confusion with a hint of terror thrown in for good measure. It was a hospital room. I couldn't remember how I had gotten there but, if the skyline beyond the window was any sort of indication, I was on Earth.

 

I felt a scream welling in my throat that came from the pit of my stomach and erupted into the silence like a volcano. A man and two women in lab coats, carrying equipment kits rushed to my side, trying to calm me, and I remember reacting violently to the feel of their hands on my arms. Thrashing madly I tried my best to get up off the bed but the restraint of some form of stasis field held me in place from my head to my ankles and before long it struck me like a hammer. Wave after wave of dizzying nausea and a vertigo-like weakness grabbed me with such force I nearly lost consciousness again. I sank back into the pillows, gasping for air. There was a pressure in my chest that made breathing nearly impossible and the pain from that area coupled with my inability to move magnified the overwhelming sense of panic I felt as I tried to make sense of what was going on.

 

Struggling to force my mind into complete consciousness, I followed the sound of a woman's voice with my eyes but, being unable to turn my head, all I could make out were her arms. She wore a Starfleet uniform, doctor's blues and her hands were slim, pale and delicate.

 

"All right, that's better. Calm down now and let us do our job." She said softly. I wasn't sure why but her voice seemed hollow somehow, artificial. Maybe it was the panic, to this day I'm not sure but something in her voice only increased the uneasiness I felt as exhaustion set in and I stopped struggling against the force-field.

 

I choked several times, trying to form words but my throat was parched and my head was pounding with the intensity of a million migraine headaches. Nodding slowly in their direction, the men with her retreated from sight and the woman now stood over me, close enough that I could see her face. She was an older woman, human, perhaps forty to forty-five years old. Her smile was thin and pallid with one of those water-tight pursed looks that said she would rather be anywhere than here with me.

 

"Where am I?" I finally managed in a hoarse whisper that set off another series of brain stabbing coughs.

 

"You're in San Francisco, on Earth cadet Veloras." The woman replied in that same hollow voice that seemed to me to be more patronizing than comforting. "Try to relax. Your body has been through a lot and it needs time to heal."

 

Again I was struck by the almost artificial sounding concern in her voice but, it was soon washed away by feelings of elation as I realized what she was saying. I was on Earth. I was safe and the nightmare was finally over. "Earth." I muttered with a sigh of profound relief and drifted back off to sleep.

 

I don't know how long I was out, it could easily have been days as I was later told but, to me, it didn't seem more than a few minutes. I'm not sure what woke me up really but, as I made my way back to consciousness I could swear I heard it again. That low, barely audible clicking sound. Like insects in the hollow of an old tree. It stopped as soon as my eyes were open, replaced by the soothing whir of the machines to the left of my head. I still couldn't turn to see what it was nor could I hear anything beyond the walls of my room. Something was wrong. I didn't know what at the time but, I knew something wasn't right. There was still the persistent pull in my chest. As if someone had set weights on top of it. Breathing was a laborious process. Closing my eyes, I took a long slow breath and opened them again as I exhaled. That was when it hit me. The reflection of the sun hadn't moved an inch from the spot on the wall where it had been the last time I woke up. Still locked in a semi-conscious state of mild confusion I didn't know why that was important but, on some level, I knew that it was.

 

As if sensing that I was awake, I heard the door open and, for an instant, that clicking sound returned. It disappeared quickly, replaced by the sound of footsteps approaching my bed. It was the same female doctor with the vapor-lock smile and the sharp almost condescending tone. Today she carried a clipboard and was flanked by two heavier sets of footsteps in military uniforms.

 

"Why can't I move?" I croaked disdainfully as she leaned over me checking the connections to the machines I couldn't see.

 

"In time, Cadet, you are still quite weak." She dismissed me indifferently and stepped back, whispering to the two men with her. I still couldn't see them but, I could hear three different sets of voices.

 

"Who are you people?" I asked, attempting to speak more loudly.

 

No one replied. Instead, I suddenly felt very cold. Not just a chill but a bone numbing cold that coursed through my whole body, causing my joints to ache miserably. I cried out in pain, feeling my spine arc involuntarily as the full force of the blistering cold hit my nervous system. Over the course of the next two or three days my systems were subjected to varying degrees of hot and cold. I remember the ozone laden stink of my skin charring as I was subjected to numerous experiments, all the while unable to move so much as an inch in either direction. Periodically they would enter my room and ask questions about the Tobias. What I knew about how it had been destroyed. How much I knew about the people with me on the Antioch. The global population of Earth. The strength of the Federation force in the Gamma Quadrant. Whenever they didn't like my answer the "tests" would begin again. The whole time this was going on the pressure in my chest continued to grow, blossoming out from my sternum and spreading to my spine. On several occasions it felt as though my body would crack and split in two or, that I would choke to death on the building mass of fluid in my lungs.

 

Somewhere around day four the lights dimmed momentarily and those in the room with me suddenly disappeared into the hallway. The clicking sound I had been hearing periodically grew louder and the sunlight beyond the window vanished replaced by something similar to a holodeck grid. The machines beside me ceased their incessant whirring and I suddenly found myself struggling to draw breath. The pain in my chest was unbearable, as if all my blood vessels had suddenly seized. As my consciousness began to ebb again, I realized that I had regained the ability to move. Almost instinctively I turned my head in the direction of the machines and there, on a console beside my bed, was a bell jar. Suspended in some form of liquid was a heart, my heart, complete with the artificial valves and aortic implant installed after my accident at the school on Bajor. With what I was certain was my last breath, I screamed.