Inside the Mind
Posted on Fri Nov 28th, 2025 @ 2:38am by Captain Remy Johansen & Lieutenant Alexandra Blackstone MD/DSAPM
Edited on on Sun Dec 21st, 2025 @ 4:04am
1,769 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Peril at the Unification Accords
Location: Sickbay, Deck 12
Timeline: MD 08, 1740, (Following "Medical Emergency")
ON
Alex searched the rapidly dimming light of the Ambassador's psyche searching for anything to latch onto, hoping to catch the Ambassador herself and aiming to stabilize her neural activity and prevent psychogenic shock from setting in fully. In the back of her own mind she felt the tingle of her own consciousness and it's dim awareness of her physical surroundings. Not alot of time... come on Ambassador. Give me something!
The light began to envelope Alex in a warm cascade of oranges, yellows, greens. The colors swirled and danced in an erratic display of chaos, occasionally creating the illusion of a malformed tunnel before shifting and dissipating into nothingness again. The light itself although colorful was bright, almost blinding, but a figure of a small child could be seen just beyond the light, somewhere ethereal - like trying to find the end of a rainbow.
Alex stepped, willed really herself forward after the child. It was far from her first time working through a meld though perhaps one of the most dangerous. She had a suspicion that the child would reveal at least some part of information that might be vital so she pursued; careful not to get lost within the psyche of her patient.
The light grew dim as Alex drew closer to the child, the figure began to fade slightly as if turning into a mist, then began to form again.
"Ambassador T'Val!" Alex called out, hoping to catch the attention of the child that she could feel very well was in fact the remnants of the Ambassadors essence. "Ambassador; wait. What happened to you? What did you feel or see?"
Alex was hit with flashes of light, like a camera flash going off in rapid succession, with each one she saw a different image flash and disappear just as quickly, lasting less than a millisecond. She saw a classroom, first from the perspective of a student, Vulcan writing on the board, the hot dry air of Vulcan hitting her skin. Then an animal, a beast of of some kind, it was captive, but unclear if it was tame, people in sand colored robes. She saw an elderly man on a bed and a feeling of grief so powerful that it threatened to knock her down washed over her, but the feeling was gone as quickly as it came when the image was replaced with a scene from Earth - Paris - The Palais de la Concorde and what appeared to be numerous delegates. Dozens of images, each one bringing its own sensations, some carried strong emotions, others carried none at all.
Alex brushed aside the chaos; storing the impressions and images in the recesses of her own mind to be process later. She focused on the Palais de la Concorde and the delegation. The wash of emotion was far from easy to wade through but she persisted determinedly and stubbornly. I can't fail now... I am our last shot for answers.
As Alex pushed past the images, one final one of the conference center corridor, Commander Seya's face, and then darkness before Alex was gripped with a sensation of falling.
Alex memorized Seya's face and when the falling came her world spun in a whirlwind of colors and blurring images. She fought through it, extricating herself from the whirlwind slowly and retreated back to her own mind, dragging along the recovered images, thoughts, and memories. She centered herself, adopting a form of internal meditation as she released her hold on the Ambassador so that she didn't get dragged down with her.
As Alex pulled away and began releasing her hold on the Ambassador, the Ambassador's world in front of her burst into flames, hot, she sensed a searing pain behind her eyes from the scorching heat of the blaze. The sensation turned into a whisper as Alex focused on releasing the Ambassador, turning instead to a vision of the Ambassador against a black backdrop, her eyes burning, black soot replacing the smoldering flames as her face began to disintegrate into ash, starting around her eyes, moving into her forehead and temples, before it began to consume the rest of her.
Alex paused; letting the vision sink into her and engraving the feelings and the images into her mind for later examination. She made herself watch it unfold. Some part of her felt recognition but could not place it. After it ceased she turned away; fully releasing her hold and stepping fully back into consciousness.
As the doctor stepped back into consciousness there was a small, almost insignificant failure in the charge diffuser. Had Alex been fully aware and composed it would have hit her as nothing more than a slight jolt - an irritant, but nothing dangerous. However, in her compromised state of being not completely aware of her surroundings as she tried to pull herself from the mind meld, the jolt was enough for her to lose her footing, her external reflexes still too dulled to catch her fall. The world went black again
**~Later~**
The void of darkness shuddered; then shook violently and distantly Alex registered pain; though it was dull, as though just a distant memory of it. She tried to take mental stock of herself and found that she could not quite feel things in her body and she frowned at herself internally. That.... is not good; not good at all...
She tried again to get a mental stock of herself to no avail and then looked around into the blackness of her mind, wondering why it was so.... empty. She tried to focus on an image; feeling that memory of sharp pain again. Slowly she let go of the idea and closed what served as her eyes in the void. She focused on "breathing" and though she could not feel the air flowing the methodical count brought some measure of serenity to her being. After a few more minutes she attempted to conjure an image again and slowly the blackness began to fade, being replaced gradually by the evergreen courtyard of a castle; though it was of sleek alabaster metal rather than the large stone constructions of ancient Earth.
Once the image grew to a point that it was more present than the void sounds and smells filtered in around her. She opened herself to the image again and smiled at herself as several panels that glowed with holographic images; begging for her attention with flickering light. She raised a singular brow and shook her head. "Seems that I have grown too used to touch displays... I should take some time to pick up an actual book again."
As if she had manifested the object into existence a large wooden bookshelf appeared on the far wall, out of place among the sterile metal walls and holographic plates. Some of the shelves were empty, others held old, very old books. Some shelved in rows, others stacked as if they were being sorted.
At the appearance of the bookshelf Alex chuckled. "Straight out of the Berlin University, eh? Those are some old memories." She perused the bookshelf for a moment before reaching out and inspecting one a little bit more closely. The title of it was A Life of Diplomacy but something tugged at her mind as she handled the book. Slowly she opened it, her eyes settling on the name 'T'varel' beyond the name the page was completely blank though that didn't seem quite right.
The pages turned, several pages fluttering over as if being blown by the wind, letters dancing across the page, but then turned into image. A discussion. Security at the conference. The book became a PADD, and she was reading a memorandum now. A memory that had flashed before her in miliseconds during the meld, but if she focused now, she might be able to read what it said.
Alex blinked for a moment and then zeroed in on the memorandum, paying close attention. Her mind raced as she read and she could feel a surge of excitement.
In the text was a request for a private meeting, the sender's name clearly spelled out: S-A-P-O-K.
"Saipok.... why do I recognize that name?" Alex wracked her brain, her thoughts whirling for a moment while she tried to recall the face of the names holder; as well as any distinguishing marks.
The face, gray eyes, and the subtle hint of the brow ridges indicating Romulan descent. They, yes they were inside a room. A kitchenette, a small table, a love seat. They were standing.
Alex memorized the face before her, etching every detail into her mind. Afterwards she examined the room around them. Slowly she pieced together the clues, nodding to herself as she examined them. T'Varel's room on Barisa Prime... simpler than I expected for someone of her reputation. There is more here... I just.... need to put it together.
The walls slowly rotated around her, the room shifting in orientation so that she was standing at the door. Saipok was gone. The corridor wasn't empty though. An older man with thinning gray hair slipped quietly into his room. A young cadet with Trill spots and short black looked quickly away as if she'd been caught cheating on a test. Long brown hair cascading down the back of a woman with a familiar figure - not just her figure, there was something else familiar.
The sounds of the corridor and the quietness of her mind soon became polluted with the sounds of medical equipment. The sterile scent of sickbay gently nudge Alex away from the memories inside the hotel room.
Alex clung to the memories as long as she could; searching the scene for something familiar; either to her or T'Varel. Slowly she let it fade, at least for now. Everything she had witnessed would need to examined further but the tug of sickbay echoed louder and she began to be able to feel her own body again, leaking back into her consciousness and blurring the edges of the void she found herself in again. She shook her head and turned into the dark, stepping off in a direction that felt... less than wrong.
OFF
Captain Remira Johansen
Commanding Officer
USS Astrea
Lieutenant Alexandra Blackstone
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Astrea
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