Tymber Dalton - Bightmares

Relived that fucking horrible day. The months of agony after.

The two suicide attempts, both interrupted by Ford and Caph.

And, when he couldn’t cry or talk anymore, he finally realized he was lying with his head in her lap as she stroked his hair.

“Why didn’t you talk to me sooner,” she softly asked.

He didn’t answer.

She changed position so she lay next to him, still cradling him, still holding him in a protective embrace he didn’t need to be empathic to recognize. “You can’t keep this bottled up.”

“You’ve got enough to worry about.”

“I’m going to kill Ford for not telling me. You realize that, right?”

He rolled over and looked up. Even in the dim light he spotted her playful smile. “Don’t be mad at him. I ordered him to keep that mouth of his shut.”

“Pulled rank, huh?”

“Yeah. Being captain has its perks.”

She leaned in and kissed him. “Well, guess what, buddy? Being wife and med officer has its perks, too. We get back, we’re all sitting down and having a long talk about this. All of us.”

He sat up. “No. We’re not telling Caph. I’m serious, Em, I don’t want him knowing.”

After several long moments, she let out a sad sigh. “I guess you’re right. The big guy doesn’t need to know everything.”

He stroked her cheek. “Not when it would only hurt him. He’s not like you or Ford. You know what I mean.”

“Okay. But you, me, and Ford will sit down one night while Caph’s asleep or on the bridge on watch. We’ll talk this out. Agreed?”

“Yeah.”

She kissed him before letting him pull her into his arms as they settled back on the bed. “Now go to sleep and have good dreams, Captain. That’s doctor’s order.”

He chuckled and kissed the back of her neck. “Yes, Doctor.”

By the time the Petrovis Skye achieved orbit around the planet late the next day, Emi, Donna, and Sascha still hadn’t isolated the exact cause of the rages, even though they had eliminated individual ingredients like eggs, sugar, and salt. Their suspicion focused on the hard spring wheat, even though they found nothing to distinguish it from wheat grown from Earth seed stock. Flour eaten raw didn’t trigger the rage.

Donna sounded as tired as Emi felt. “What if it’s some sort of Celiac Disease-like reaction? Only it’s affecting the brain?”

“What does that mean?” Aaron asked.

“It means we need a brain scan,” Sascha said. “We need to trigger a rage in someone while they’re in a scanner so we can see what’s happening. That might help us narrow down the trigger.”

Aaron nodded. “Then let’s do it. Use me.”

Emi didn’t want to but knew it had to be done. Twenty minutes later, they had energy shackles on Aaron, and he was securely loaded into the large, full-body scanner. He smiled at Emi as he started eating a slice of Ilse’s cinnamon bread. “Don’t get too used to tying me up, babe.”

She forced a smile but stood waiting with a sedative bolus. Taber stood by, ready to help hold him down. They had to let the rage go as long as possible to get the best results.

Within a few minutes Aaron’s eyes darkened as Emi felt the rage take hold. “Get ready,” she warned Sascha, who manned the scanner controls.

As Aaron let out a deep, enraged roar, Sascha cried out from the control room, “Holy fuck! Emi, you’ve gotta see this!”

She handed the sedative hypo to Taber, then went to join Sascha at the scanner controls. Aaron’s prefrontal cortex had totally lit up, indicating massive overstimulation. Before Aaron ate the bread, the brain scan had showed normal levels of activity.

Shocked, she stared. “What the hell causes that?”

“I don’t know,” Sascha said. “Okay, Shel. Dose him.”

Emi watched the screen in live time as Aaron’s thrashing slowed and stopped as the sedative took effect. Almost immediately, his brain functions returned to normal.

She ran a hand through her hair and closed her eyes to think. Whatever caused the rage interfered with the nervous system somehow. It overstimulated the prefrontal cortex, resulting in the rages.

Her com link whistled. “Dr. Hypatia, this is Captain Eckhart.”

“Just the man I want to talk to. We know what the pathogen is doing.”

There was a pause. “So you have isolated it and created a cure?”

“No, but—”

“Then the evacuation will begin tomorrow morning. Tell the governor to have her uninfected people ready to leave. Good evening, Doctor.” He cut her off before she could reply.

What. The. Fuck?

She hailed Rob. “What the hell is going on with this guy?”

“I’m not sure, but I think we have an even worse problem.”

She kept an eye on Aaron. Taber had already removed the energy shackles from him. “What?”

“Let me patch John through for a conference call and switch us to a secure channel. Is Aaron there?”

“He’s still out. I’ll fill him in later.”

“Okay, hold on.”

A moment later, Captain John Tarrence from the Braynow Gaston spoke. “Emi, we need to stop this guy. You’re the only one who can do it.”

“Okay, what the hell did I just miss?”

“You’re the top ranking fleet medical officer here. You have privileges in both the DSMC and ISNC. You can declare their captain unfit for duty and override his orders.”

Emi felt two breaths away from a scream. “Quit screwing around and tell me what’s going on!”

“We were working on trying to figure out what’s wrong with the trans-light satellite, see if it was off-line or just needed a maintenance reset or what. We pinged it and found out it was recently accessed on-site.”

“And?”

“We tracked the jump path of the Petrovis Skye , Emi. They had a two-jump pattern. They stopped at the satellite. I think they had something do to with why it’s off-line.”

Her heart chilled. “You’re telling me this guy deliberately sabotaged the thing, or turned it off, or whatever?”

“Yeah. They were scheduled for a single long jump to get here. When I tapped into their ship’s nav beacon, it showed a much shorter jump result than they should have had. Before they locked me out.”

“You guys are confusing the shit out of me, and I so don’t need that right now.”

Rob broke in. “We have access to nav beacons on friendly ships. There’s no reason to hide the info, it’s a separate, self-contained computer system. After John got the info, when he went back to confirm it, there was an executive override on their nav beacon, locking access so he couldn’t get back in.”

“Executive?”

“Only the captain can do that,” John said. “He might not have realized I’d already pulled their data. There is no good reason for him to override it in a situation like this.”

Emi stared at Aaron. She trusted her instincts, but being unable to read this Captain Eckhart in person had put her at a distinct disadvantage. “What do I have to do?”

“I’ll come get you tomorrow,” Rob said. “We’ll go to the Petrovis Skye . You can make the declaration there. Put me in charge of their ship, and I’ll override his orders.”

“Isn’t that a little dramatic? Can’t we just have their first officer take over?”

“Not until we find out what the hell Eckhart’s game is. John can jump back to the satellite, but it’s a two-day jump. We need to buy some time. Once he gets the relay satellite up and running, we can have the ISNC rescind the orders.”

Her mind spun. She couldn’t deal with this and solve the medical mystery all at the same time. “Okay. I need to focus on Aaron right now. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”