Comes the Sandman

Posted on Fri Dec 14th, 2012 @ 7:57pm by Commodore Samantha York & Commander Alexandra Vance

1,386 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Enemy Within: Lying in Wait
Location: Captain's Ready Room

ON

Sam sat on the couch in her office, reading over the information Damon and Tallas sent her. Although the Borg they were dealing with now bare only slight resemblance to its predecessors, there were still enough similarities to make it worth their while.

The stress and lack of sleep, however, was beginning to take its toll. Sam found herself dozing off as she read.

"Captain."

Sam looked around, wondering who spoke to her. The voice was vaguely familiar, but she wasn't sure from where.

"Behind you Commodore." she said sternly.

There was nothing behind her but a painting of Maccu Picchu. Still, she turned around to look. Nobody.

"Trying to black me out already are you? Is this how you deal with lost officers?" the voice was now audibly angered.

Vance.

"I was, until you decided to let the borg take my life from me."

This was wrong. Sam had no idea the Borg were on Tiberius IV. No one did. "No one lets the Borg do anything. You're trying to shift the blame." And she was arguing with herself. Vance wasn't here. She was on the Rhombus.

"Am I really or are you just trying to justify your actions? A good Commanding Officer knows her crew." Vance's voice replied angrily.

"How could I know my XO? She came aboard unannounced and insulted predecessor." And Sam's husband. "She did her best to alienate me and the crew. However, that had nothing to do with what happened. She chose to leave her team and explore alone -- against orders. If you'd followed orders, you would not be Borg now."

"How easily you pass judgement, you mind is so small and singular. You had the evidence right in front of you. My personnel file would have easily told you that was happened was.....inevitable. You also had ample opportunity to liberate me whilst I was on the ship, instead I was left unimpeded by anyone to do as I pleased while all you did was rely on the word of a simple doctor."

"Your words try to justify what your mind cannot. I know how you really feel Commodore, you can't even look me in the eyes." Vance replied in a disgusted tone, talking down to the Commodore with ever word spoken.

"YOU ARE NOT HERE."

"I am, but you do not wish to believe it. You cannot bear to see the results of your failure!" Vance said in an increasingly loud tone echoing throughout the room.

Sam looked around and saw nothing. She reached out telepathically, just to make sure. No one was in the room with her. She reached out with her mind, seeking the thoughts of those around her. There was nothing. That, too, bothered her.

"You still fail to find the answer that sits right in front of you! You devote hours of your time attempting to solve a simple problem with a complex solution. Even I would have expected your feeble mind to have figured it out by now. Instead you keep searching for something that isn't there."

"You aren't here." She would not allow Vance to make her feel guilty for something that was not her fault. Sam ordered Vance to stay with her team. No one suspected Borg activity. As far as anyone knew, the Borg were gone. Sam felt no guilt for what happened. However, she hated losing people under her charge, but that was a different matter.

She sat up abruptly, the PADD falling to the floor. It had been a nightmare. She could once again feel other thoughts; the bridge crew, Damon doing research, people on the deck below her. Of Vance there was nothing.

Sam's heart was racing and she sat back on the couch. She reached out mentally to Damon, finding strength in his presence. Vance's presence was far stronger than a dream warranted. There had to be something there. It wasn't guilt, like Vance said, but there had to be something behind it. She began to review the conversation and closed her eyes to concentrate. Again, she felt her mind drifting...

"I'm still here Samantha." Vance's voice said once again radiating through the Commodore's mind.

"What do you want?" Sam asked.

"I want you see yourself in the same light as I do. To acknowledge your shortfalls as a Commander and to know that had you been one step ahead, I would be here standing beside you and not as your opposite."

"And what of your shortfalls?" Sam asked.

"I believe I have paid the price for those don't you?" Vance shot back.

"So, you think this is some form of just desserts? A penalty for past crimes?" Sam asked. She was certain this was a dream. Now she wanted to figure out why and what she could learn from it.

Vance came from behind York appearing before her. Her face was heavily bruised and her right eye blackened. Her uniform was torn in multiple places and the back looked as though it had been striken by a whip. Blood seeped down from the wounds. She walked up to York bringing her face only inches from the Commodore's. "What would you know about penalties! You've avoided them your whole life. Or did you forget that little trip you skipped to Betazed as well?"

Sam gasped, partly at Vance's appearance and partly at her comment. Sam had long ago come to terms with the death of her entire family in a shuttle crash. A trip she should have taken, but missed to go on an archaeological dig.

Sam carefully examined her XO, at the signs of being beaten. What was the meaning behind this? "And what of you?" Sam asked.

"The mission always comes first, you should know that."

"Not always. Sometimes the cost is too high and you have to pull out, regroup. Do you always put the mission first?" Sam asked.

"For someone whom is supposed to trust me implicitly, you know very little about me. The very outcome of a mission can be changed by what you know. Knowledge is power Samantha, more power than any phaser." Vance replied with a slight cough.

"No, I don't know you. I think I should remedy that," Sam said, watching this other Vance intently, trying to read her thoughts, if such could be done of an illusion.

"You're tricks don't work here Commodore, it is not as simple as that, you're going to have to work for this one."

The side of Sam's mouth quirked up. "I'll get there, don't worry."

"You had better Commodore, because you might not like the consequences if you don't....."

"Indeed," Sam said. If she didn't figure this out, the consequences would be dire. The loss of everyone on the Calypso and the planet. "Anything else you need to remind me of?" It wouldn't hurt to ask. Maybe she'd get another clue.

"Now that you ask....." the battered figure of Vance suddenly disappeared.

A hand grabbed the Commodore's shoulder and spun her around. Now standing before Samantha was a borg version of her former XO. Her brown eye replaced by the borg ocular implant. Various other technological implants now exposed to sight adorned her body. Vance wrapped her hand around Samantha's neck. "If you don't, I will take pleasure in adding the distinctiveness of you crew to our own.....and I will make sure that you are present when I wrap my hands around your husband's neck just like this and make you watch me take EVERY....LAST...bit of individuality from his body." her words were cold, just like the metal from her implants. Her eyes filled with a morbid joy as if it had been her life's goal to bring misery to the Commodore.

A smile spanning both her cheeks formed as she continued to look into Samantha's eyes with bloodlust.

"and then you will know what it feels like to be alone......"

Sam woke with a muffled scream. She'd fallen asleep again. Not while I'm alive, she promised silently.

Sam walked quickly to her desk. "Computer, find everything you can about Commander Alexandra Vance. Authorization code delta 0031 alpha."

OFF

Commodore Samantha York
Commanding Officer
USS Calypso

Commander Alexandra Vance
XO of Borg

 

RSS Feed