The Eerie Night

Posted on Thu Jun 9th, 2022 @ 3:20am by Lieutenant Kennedy Ryan Walsh & Lieutenant Irynya

Mission: In the Aftermath
Location: Kennedy's Room, Senior Officer's Quarters
Timeline: Mission Day 3 at 0130

[ Mission Day 3 - 0130 HR ]

Kennedy had fallen asleep with a smile across his face and his girlfriend Irynya in his arms. He had fallen asleep with a yawn of relief that there had been a resolution between them. In the moments of falling asleep, he returned to a…

ON AN EERIE SHORE…

Kennedy stepped into the Holodeck arm-in-arm with Irynya. He had told her about how he wanted to lose his virginity and to make their first mutual Jamaharon experience something special. They needed to choose the location. Irynya had told him that she had a couple of ideas that could work for them.

He looked around with curiosity as they walked up the beach to the ocean. There was something with the familiarity of it all. Yes. It was the same beach that he had disrupted Doctor Emni t’Nai the night he had walked out due to a simple misunderstanding on his part of the information that Irynya was trying to convey. He looked over at her, “This is… on… Risa?”

The Risian scanned the beach, a placid look on her face turning to a brilliant smile that she turned on him. “Of course,” she said, a bit of confusion in her tone. “Isn’t it?”

He gave her a flabbergasted-yet-conflicted look while his eyes returned to observe the surroundings and his horizons. The program was uncanny to Emni’s holo-program he had witnessed before they were on Talbeethia Prime. He didn’t know what to believe or who to believe as they continued to walk closer along the water’s edge. They moved down and then back up the beachhead to the exact same spot where Emni and he sat crossed-legged on the beach while they spoke about a cultural translator, “I’ve… never been here… On Risa… yet… it seems… very familiar to a place I visited with Emni on Romulus.”

The Irynya in his dream turned her gaze back on him when they stopped at that spot and when she did there was an uncertain moment where her gaze was not her own, but Emni t’Nai’s, tired and sad as she considered her lost spouses. It was momentary, though, and Irynya’s visage returned promptly.

“Oh, Kennedy!” she exclaimed. “It’s beautiful here. I don’t recognize this place though. I don’t think it’s on Risa.”

He looked at her oddly and uncomfortably at her response. And the dialogue. The look across her feature was the same look that Emni gave him. If Irynya was Emni, she would know that he was nervous, scared, and desperate while he looked over his shoulder as the archway to the corridor fizzled and went into a bizarre mixture of sharp colorful pixels before they scattered down on the sandy dunes of the beach. He looked back at her. He felt sweat dripping down him as he looked back out to the ocean, “I…”

For a moment it was as though Irynya was suspended with the dissolution of the Arch. But almost as though she, too, were part of the program, there was a blink and she tilted her head to the side, eyes traveling his face. “What’s wrong Kennedy?” she asked.

Kennedy’s hands were clammy while he held his hands together in front of him while he looked out at the sky. The sun. The sun was different. That wasn’t the Risian Sun he was familiar with. He hadn’t seen the sun when he was on the Holodeck, “You… you loaded the holo-program… how do you?”

Then the ground began to feel warmer, “Do you… feel warm? It’s feeling very warm… Computer…. Turn down environmental settings…”

There was no response from the computer.

Irynya’s gasp was unmistakable. It wasn’t a gasp of excitement or surprise. Instead, it was fear, pure and unadulterated. “Kennedy…” her voice pitched upward in an anxious question. “Where are we… when are we… I don’t know what this is… but… that star…” Her eyes were fixed on the horizon looking at the sun with unnatural directness, her whole body shaking like a leaf.

They were just seconds ago arm-in-arm and now the distance automatically stretched them farther apart. It was quick as they were moving apart but he could still clearly see the fear in her face. A look that he had never seen across her Irynya’s face before. It felt so unusual and frightening all at the same time.

His hands reached out screaming but it didn’t help as the shockwaves from Romulus’ Sun slowly disintegrated the love of his life. He fell to the ground with his arms reaching toward her.

He felt like he was being pulled into the vacuum of space only seconds later. The unfamiliar pixelated colors had returned as he fell into some sort of gate, a time bubble, he didn’t know the jargon or the terminology for it. He wished Noah was here. He would know….

INTO THE ABYSS…

Kennedy rolled backward in various different angles and rotations as he fell towards somewhere else. He suddenly felt his back fall against the earth. He could hear unfamiliar avians chirping in the distance and the faint voice of someone calling his name, “Kennedy?”

Another voice called out, “Kennedy?”

The footsteps seemed to rush up to him. He reopened his eyes as he looked around with curiosity who could be calling for him. He didn’t know where he was. His father Doctor Franklin Ryan towered over him, “He’s over here Quinlan and Frank.”

His brothers came running up to join the two. They both reached out. Except they didn’t seem to have aged since he last saw them when they visited in San Francisco during their attempt to lure him to leave Starfleet Academy and return to Ireland. He froze. He looked at the three men with curiosity.

“You scared us, son. Let’s get him up, boys.”

His father and brothers were dressed up in gear akin to Indiana Jones. He remembered watching those movies from a bygone era of Earth Cinematic History… but… why? His father… never left Ireland. He began to panic as he was lifted to his feet. He looked over. He was still in his Starfleet uniform. He looked over and saw the familiar Changeling ruins on… no… they weren’t… He froze as his twin Quinlan brushed off the dirt “Why are… you guys here?”

“We’re on a family trip to meet your fiance Irynya… son… are you okay? Are you concussed?” His father spoke in a calm, Emniesqe way.

You aren’t my father, Kennedy thought as he looked over him and then his brothers. And they are not my brothers, “Dad… Irynya… where is she?”

“Oh, Kenny… Always straight to the point where is his Missus be,” Franklin Junior spoke while Quinlan finished wiping his twin off.

“She’s this way with your sister,” the three Ryan Walsh men lead Kennedy through the jungles.

They were on the alien world where he witnessed Georgiou gunned down. The place that gave him nightmares. Was this a nightmare in a nightmare?

Why in all places are we here on this damned planet… Kennedy thought and he gulped, “And Mum?”

“No. She refused to come. Said she didn’t want to see you,” his father replied.

“Then why did everyone else come?”

“Because we’re Dead…. Or about to be,” his father spoke hauntingly. A voice that felt sinister and evil. A low maniacal laugh began to creep through the planet’s jungles. Kennedy collapsed to his knees and covered his ears. His brothers joined in chorus with the maniacal laughter along with their father. They both took him by the arms and started to drag him to the same area that Georgiou had been shot through the chest.

Irynya turned she was being held at gunpoint by his sister. Her skin was olive green like an Orion and she grinned evilly, “Oh… Brother Kenny is here…. She’s very pretty, Kenny.”

Irynya's face was a rictus of fear and from where Kennedy stood he would be able to see her shaking. "I'm fine Kennedy," she said, voice trembling. "Just do as she says."

The similar pixelated colour distortion reappeared as at the same Orion in an uncanny Timmoz appearance beamed. It wasn’t the Orion he had sought counsel. But the Orion that had gunned down Georgiou. He was frightened as his brothers took him to the side. He looked as the faces of his brothers were now that of decaying goblins and his father was now dressed in the garbs of a necromancer with a dark sinister sigil on his robe.

He turned back to Irynya, now dressed as a princess and he looked down at his own. It was his uniform but the distortion of pixelated colours slowly faded it into the garbs of a beggar. His body felt like it began to churn and shrivel at a moments notice as his gut cried out. The voice of his sister’s turned into that of his own mother’s, “Come to Mother for a kiss!”

The face of his sister and mother had morphed into something that of a witch. With a long pointed nose and her fingernails grew repeatedly. He wanted this nightmare to begin as she raised the disruptor, “Tell me, Kenny… is she your precious?”

“Yes… yes…. Yes… leave her be,” Kennedy tried to plead.

The Risian princess’s eyes were wide, face beseeching–begging even. “Kennedy,” she whispered, and the whisper was like a scream for as well as it carried. She squirmed against the restraining hands of the sister/mother/witch.

Kennedy screamed as the sister, mother, witch pushed her away and her hands started to twirl around together casting a spell sending the Risian Princess high in the sky. He reached out but his brother goblins had him restrained and they pulled him backwards into the dirt. He began to swallow into the earth.

The color of disruptor fire was unmistakable. As not-Timmoz, who for a moment had been forgotten, raised his weapon and fired on Irynya where she was suspended in the air. The result was immediate as her body went limp and she dropped from the air to land with a thud of dust on the ground. For a moment all breath held and then, everything rushed back in. Irynya, however, lay unnaturally still.

“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!” Kennedy cried out as he struggled to unearth himself from the soil and the vegetation that had rapidly grew over him as his body began to be swallowed whole from the earth. The familiar pixelated colours had returned as his body felt like he was falling in freefall. Memory fragments of his time with Irynya. They briefly laying eyes on each other on Risa to the two of them sitting beside each other on her bed when they were coming aboard unfamiliar that they were to become roommates. He froze as he tried to yell. He yelled but no sound came out as if he was in the void of space and time.

THE FRAGMENT OF ONES PASS SHALL NOT PAST…

Kennedy was wearing garments in the same white garb of his uniform with a slight blueish tint in the felt and silklike patterns. He wore a crown which he found suspicious. He looked around as he was on an animal familiar to Earth’s camel but not quite. He tried to remember where he recognized the fauna… the alien world in the memory of the Chief Operations Officers memory for when they were on Talbeethia Prime… His heart sank. Was he to relive through the horrors of Irynya’s death yet again? He cried out as one of the men looked over at him. The face was familiar. It was Giorgou but he wasn’t… alive… his eyes were white as snow and his once olive drab skin tone was now gray. He cried out.

“Seek out young doctor of these strange lands,” The voice of Dogrov came out of his mouth but not. The voice was booming from the clouds above.

Kennedy looked up to the skies, a twin binary star in the distance. It was a hot day, so familiar to the first sequence in whatever this was. This neverending terror, “Why have you forsaken me?” Kennedy cried out.

The face of Giorgou was no more. The face had slowly morphed into his mother’s and she laughed sinisterly, “You're nothing but a child. What do you know about doctoring in space and love?”

The voice of cackling laughter filled his eardrums and his hands came to cover his ears as he cried out once more in an agonizing way. The camel disintegrated below him, causing him to stumble into the snow.

“Weary traveler,” a voice came as a new hand came into the view of Kennedy’s eyes and reached down. It was Emni but not her voice. The voice was male yet… it sounded like someone he knew. He took her hand and she pulled him to his feet, “You seek riches in these lands and yet you traveled a great distance. Come. Now. The Duchess of these lands has summoned you before her court.”

Emni shifted into that of his Academy pupil Gosia. He stepped backwards as his brother goblins had returned, “Yes… Brother Kenny… time to see the Duchess… hehehehehehe…” they said in unison.

Moments later they brought him to the court. Irynya was there on her knees with her arms held up in the air by two guards. He screamed, “Irynya!”

She lifted her head slowly, as if she were dazed or perhaps concussed, eyes unfocused until she managed to hone in on him. “Kennedy?” she asked, voice weak. “They won’t… You need to go… You can’t see this…”

“Behold!” The Magistrate now taking the form of his mother stood from her throne and approached Kennedy, “Oh my little poor boy. You’ve found yourself quite the catch. I won’t allow my son to get involved with the likes of this Risian!” She pointed at her and a long snakelike tail grew and she began to hiss loudly. She turned to Irynya, “I won’t let you cuckold my son!”

Beneath the glare of Kennedy’s mother Irynya cowered, her head turning hard to her shoulder away from the woman’s glare. Her hands were still held so she couldn’t bring them to defend herself, but her shoulders flinched from the impulse all the same, straining against the hold of her arms.

As he saw the blade from his brother's stroke, time slowed down for the killing blow. Kennedy jumped to a run as he slowly navigated across her. The colourful pixelation began to start. But it had slowed down. He needed to save Irynya… was that the only way these dreams would end?

The blade was almost at her neckline. He pushed her away as the blade cut down into him. Kennedy screamed in agony, “I love you Irynya!”

The scream that tore from the Risian was almost a presence in its own right. It was a high keening sound that would make any listener flinch and raise dread in the hearts of anyone within hearing distance.

His body fell backwards once more as it had done several times but his body felt limp. He couldn’t move himself as he looked up to see his parents, siblings and Irynya standing all around him. They are all old. He looked down at his hands as they were wrinkly with age.

He knew his eyes were closed but somehow they were all around him. Laying their hands on them as his Catholic mother led the family in prayers.

Only Irynya held back from the prayers. Instead she held a set of brushes and a small crock of gold paint. As the prayers wound on she brought the brush to the corners of his eyes, the feel of it running downward like fingers brushing away tears. “Kennedy,” she said softly, her tone gentle but firm. “Kennedy, wake up.”

Kennedy’s body remained frozen. He wanted to open his eyes but he couldn’t open his eyelids the brushing of the paint brush against the corner of his eyes felt like a feather.

“Kennedy,” this time her voice held concern and the gold tipped brush stroked down to his shoulders. He shuddered and her voice came closer to his ear. “Kennedy, it’s me. It’s Irynya. Wake up.”

Kennedy’s eyelids began to flicker.

THE REALITY OF…

Kennedy woke up to Irynya gently stroking his face. His body was drenched in sweat. He sat up quickly. The bedsheet almost clung to him while he pulled himself at her. Irynya had been sitting upright; he wrapped his arms around her tightly, not wanting to let go. He was still quite half asleep and woozy and still terrified of the series of night terrors that had occurred. He hung tightly around her not wanting to let go. Ever.

The Risian looped her arms around him, one tightening to hold him firm while the other stroked circles against his back. She shushed him as she stroked, whispering in his ear. “You’re ok. It was just a dream. You’re ok. I’m here.” She repeated herself, feeling the thud of his racing heartbeat through his chest and, in response, carefully controlling her own breathing–a countermeasure that she hoped he would respond to. It was slow, painfully slow, but as she continued to wait, soothing motions, words and breath all in alignment, the tension in his body began to unwind.

He found her arms around him comforting and her breathing helped regulate his own. Tears had welled up in the tear ducts and a few started to stream down his face as he relived the horrors of his night terrors. He pressed his face against her shoulder and held onto her tightly.

Her t-shirt was wet where his tears fell, but if she noticed that she didn’t give any indication. She was no stranger to the kind of nightmares that left a person screaming themselves awake. Still, she had thought that these were starting to come back into line for him as he met with Dr. Bracco and worked through the events at Cho’thil. She wondered what had set him off anew. Gentle hands continued to stroke, running up into his hair and gently playing through the strands. She would wait like this until he was ready, even if that meant holding him the rest of the night.

Kennedy whimpered lightly when he closed his eyes. Flashes of the memories of the nightmares he had flashed before his eyes. He reopened them quickly to avoid the horrors and their meaning. He spoke faintly, “They were all horrible. Horrible. I don’t know if I can go back to sleep.”

She nodded against him before voicing her acknowledgment. “You don’t have to,” she said gently. “Would you like to lay down, though? Let me hold you?” The position they were in wasn’t the most comfortable and while she’d certainly hold it as long as he wanted, even if he didn’t think he could sleep there was no way he was going to in sitting up like that.

He nodded his head against her shoulder and laid back down into his bed. He hadn’t noticed that his hand was now on her thigh. He pulled it away while she shuffled herself on the bed to lay back down beside him. He wasn’t sure how she wanted to hold him so he waited for her lead.

A soft chuckle escaped her as she pulled his hand away. “Head up,” she instructed and then looped her arm underneath his neck, arm and hand sliding down his back to wrap and hold him. Her free hand moved downward, tugging one of his legs up and nudging so that it was between her own. When she had him where she wanted him she brought her free hand up and returned to rubbing soothing circles. “Put your hand where it’s comfortable,” she mumbled into his hair.

For a moment he held both of his hands close to his chest before he moved them freely. One placed on her hip and the other wrapped around her. He found the motion of her hand rubbing in circles soothing as he found he started to breathe more calmly.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked softly.

Kennedy froze and his face turned slightly pale at the thought of telling her. He nodded his head, “I will. I do want to talk about it. But can we please just lay here for now? And then I will.”

Irynya nodded, pressing her lips to the top of his head softly. “As long as you need,” she said simply.

They laid there for fifteen minutes in bed. Kennedy was wide awake and afraid if he fell back asleep the dreams would return. He pressed his lips to her shoulder kissing her before he nodded his head, “It was a series of different locales… it felt like many nightmares… but it was one ongoing one.”

“Mmm…” she murmured against his hair. She waited, giving him space and time to parse out what he would or could share. Whatever it was she hoped talking would get it out of his head so he could sleep.

“You were in them. My brothers. My sister. My parents. You were all in my dreams. It started off on Romulus as a stand-in for Risa. Oddly. Then we were on Cho’thil. Together. With my brothers, sister and my Dad. And my Mum. And then… we went to another place where we were sent on Talbeethia… I forget the name. All were horrible,” his voice had cracked long as he opened up, “In every one of them you are killed before my eyes, Irynya.”

Irynya stiffened slightly, but forced herself to relax. Her gut twisted at the thought. Dreams like that were gut wrenching when your brain manifested the death of a loved one once, but several times? It felt impossibly cruel. “I’m right here,” she said softly. “I’m not going anywhere.” The words felt small and useless against his fear, but it was what she had. She could only remind him of what was true. “I know it was horrible, but it was a dream love. Just a dream.” Her lips found the top of his head again and her hand shifted to tracing up and down his back.

He nestled his head against her shoulder as her arms pulled her in closer, “Then you were all around me. My family. You. Surrounding me. You’re all old. You told me to wake up. And I woke up.” His voice trembled.

That last part didn’t quite fit in her head, but then this was a dream. Dreams were rarely representative of the exact thing that happened. “I’m sorry Kennedy,” she said. “That sounds terrible.”

“My sister called me when we were just about to depart from Pathfinder Station. I haven’t spoken to her since I joined Starfleet. It was good to chat with her and my parents and my siblings have all been on my mind lately since that call. I don’t know what to do. My mother was so angry that I joined Starfleet. Against her wishes. I haven’t spoken to her since I left Ireland. She hasn’t made any attempt to contact me either. She was so angry in my dreams.”

Irynya was no counselor, but she knew enough to think for a moment before responding to that latest revelation. “What do you think will happen if you contact her?” she finally asked.

He didn’t know how to answer that question. He didn’t know the answer. He was mostly worried that the call would be left unanswered. He froze as his bottom lip trembled, “I’m worried she won’t answer or call me back.”

The Risian nodded, her nose bumping the top of his head as she did. “And that’s different from now in what way?” The question was pointed, though it was delivered gently.

He slightly nodded his head. He knew what she meant by that. His stomach tightened and his heartache at the thought of calling his mother. He nodded his head once more, “I’ll speak with Doctor Bracco and schedule an appointment before I do. Or maybe should I seek out Karim?” He shrugged his shoulders with uncertainty in his voice. He knew Doctor Bracco and meeting new people always made him incredibly nervous.

“Go with what feels safest,” she told him. “I don’t know Commander Karim well, but he has a reputation for being… acerbic. Maybe start with Dr. Bracco.” She sighed then, pulling back slightly so she could see his face. “It’s going to feel like this big unknown until you do it. It sounds like you’re worried about how she’ll handle news about me.” She knew she was reading into the dream, but then, maybe sometimes it was that simple.

Kennedy gave her a small peckish kiss on the shoulder. He was silent for a while as he processed her point about his dreams. That seemed pretty accurate. His sister had told him that she was seeing someone and had dropped out of medical school to move to San Francisco so they could live closely. He wondered how his parents, particularly his mother, reacted to the news but wasn’t certain if Saorise had told them about this development yet. “Doctor Bracco it is.”

Hazel eyes flitted across his face, studying. He seemed calmer now, though she could see the lingering haunt of the dreams still in his eyes. “Kennedy,” she said, quiet, “I love you. Whatever happens we’ll figure it out together.”

“I love you too. Do you need anything from the replicator? I think I need to get myself a glass of water before I try to sleep again.”

She shook her head, no. “I’m ok,” she said. Gently she released him, dropping her leg and her arm so he could roll away from her and leave the bed.

He repositioned himself as he lightly kissed her on the lips before pulling away. He left his room for a few minutes. He had quickly drank two glasses of water and brought in a third in case if he needed another sip throughout the evening. He returned to bed after setting the glass down on the bed’s side table.

She’d waited, but truth be told Irynya’s eyes were heavy. As he entered the room she stretched luxuriously in the bed, her t-shirt riding up annoyingly on her hips. Without thinking she reached to tug it back down. “How do you feel now?” she asked, fighting back a yawn.

“Better. Thank you. Sorry that I woke you up. I’m very glad you were here tonight,” he smiled and gave her one light kiss on the forehead before he slowly closed his eyes. “Goodnight, Irynya.”

She ignored the apology. It wasn’t necessary. “I’m glad too,” she said quietly, wrapping an arm around him and closing her own eyes. “Goodnight Kennedy.”


A Joint Post By:

Lieutenant JG Irynya
Assistant Chief Helsman
USS Sojourner

&

Lieutenant Kennedy Ryan Walsh
Chief Medical Officer
USS Sojourner