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     Lt. SG Maiko D'rall |
"History truly is written by the victors. Some historians have even suggested that there is no such thing as an objective viewpoint, or even an objective observer. Human nature, they would say, precludes it." "Similarly, the consideration of good and evil is extremely subjective, and the closer the observer is to the situation, the harder it is to separate his perceptions from the absolute truths. Ineed, it is not even clear that there are any." "Dark Wing" by Walter H. Hunt (Reorsan House Reprint, 2397) -- With a gasp, Maiko's eyes opened, immediately taking in all around her, hands patting herself down. She was standing, clad in one of her favorite jumpsuits she wore when piloting shuttles on Reor, complete down to the worn kneepads and the Maiko Air patch sewn on one breast - a clear sign that this had to be some sort of a dream or vision. A breeze whispered past her face, grabbing hair and tossing it in front of her and into the void that was the no-man's land in the fourth chamber. The dirt road reduced to just a bare thread beneath her, singularities off to either side just as far. Beneath her feet, something that was not there yet was - a wall, separating the final vestiges of sanity from the chaos. *Am I dead? Have I been sent here to spend eternity trapped between two extremes?* A melodic laugh interrupted her - familiar and surprising, she whirled around to see a tall willowy woman standing before her with blond hair braided to mid-back. *Hardly, Mai. You're still in sickbay, only you've just taken a slight turn for the worse.* A tear ran down Maiko's chin as she ran forward and embraced the figure - Melissa Davion D'rall - with a single thought. *Mother...* The elder D'rall held her daughter close to her, then finally spoke with a humourous tone. "Funny, I don't remember my daughter being one for hugs and tears now..." The pilot couldn't help but laugh amid her tears. "I've missed you... ever since I returned..." "...and found me dead, you couldn't help but think about how you left me." Suddenly the two were apart, movement instantaneous. "You never got to say goodbye to me, and you've held guilt over not being in time to save me... or tell me you were sorry for things you had said in anger..." Maiko smiled sadly. "I am sorry... I guess you were right though. Look where I ended up in Starfleet. Dead. I'm sure back in the living world right now Commander Tal is happily using me as an example to get everyone to 'straighten up and fly right'..." Melissa clucked her toungue. "Still don't listen to everything said, do you? You're still very much alive - for now. In fact, Doctor Reed's working to make sure that stays a permenant condition for the rest of your natural life span..." With that she reached out into the mid-air of no-man's land and physically pulled reality, a bright shining hole that dazzled Maiko, forcing her to put her hands up to block the light. "...20ccs lectrazine!" Reed's voice, strong but clearly urgent, could be just heard over the beeping of the vitals monitor, and was quickly followed by the chuff of a hypospray before Melissa slid the two curtains swept aside back into place, leaving them in the relative silence of the fourth chamber. "But... if I'm not dead, then you..." "...are just a figment of your imagination, as is this place. I'm here because somewhere in your mind you felt the need to reach out to someone despite everything that's happened to you. That's good, but you have to feel that way out there too..." Maiko stiffened, turning slightly and looking out into the wasteland of nothingness. "I can't. It's my burden to bear. 'Despair perches on one side of him; / Madness on the other. Yet withal...'" "'He must find his inner peace again / With neither compass nor guide.' The Flight Over The Mountains." At Maiko's surprised look, she smiled. *You forget, that being a figment of your imagination, I know what you know, and you know that your friends are worried about you and want to help.* She crossed over to Maiko, gently holding her by the shoulders. *You can't do this alone Mai... Despite every discouragement I could make about you joining Starfleet I do recognize that among them, nobody stands alone..." The hands slipped off her shoulder, Maiko turning to see that the figure of her mother had suddenly moved back and was thinning out of existence. "Mother!" Despite knowing it was just her besieged mind, she lept for the figure for one last moment of consolation... and slid right through it, flying over the edge of the wall as the last words resonated in her ears again. "Nobody stands alone..." Twin blurs shot past Maiko on her way down, falling into the sanity of the fourth chamber, horrified to see the spheres, more so to see the roiling blue-grey cloud and its sharp peaks growing closer and closer as she fell towards it - a cloud she had seen the last time Coronado had encountered the spheres in Xanadu. The spheres that had passed her now flew into the clouds, and in her mind she knew it wouldn't be long before she would too. Evil - or perhaps good misguided - Maiko thought, the past experiences with subversions, looping, and feeling very much like cannon fodder in a fight that had nothing and for some reason everything to do with them. But deep down in her heart, even if she wasn't Academy, she knew she was Starfleet, and Starfleet *always* won for the greater good. What lay before her was her enemy, and if fighting it would mean her death... she steeled herself for the impact. Until a familiar nagging feeling slammed into her from an unexpected direction with the force of a gale wind, the intrusion into her mind so thick it had a physical presence. She had felt it before, invariably on the bridge, of being watched by some greater power. No explanation, and it seemed no-one listened when she tried to explain the feeling. Despair led to anger which birthed action. If she was truly trapped in her mind at the moment, then she had full control over the situation. Whirling around onto her back she "grabbed" at the presence, using it to halt her descent while she worked her feet in the same motions her mother-figure had used to hear sickbay. The blinding light poured out at her and she allowed her grip to slack, allowing her to fall through the hole in reality... Her location had changed, she decided upon opening her eyes. She wasn't looking up at the sensor cluster over the main bed, but lying on one of the beds on the fringe of sickbay, albeit a little uncomfortably on her stomach, her back apparently bare. She moaned, mostly out of discomfort, partially from what she could remember of the confusing and disorienting dream. "Stay still Belle, just making sure we got the last of the infection taken care of." The sound of the medical tricorder and sensor whirred softly behind her. "The sensors missed a section of fiber embedded in your central nervous system and started attacking you again... Dyson thankfully managed to catch it before it got serious - in fact, that's what was causing some of the arm spasms." Her arms... She frowned, giving her fingers an experimental flex, glancing over her shoulder to verify that she could actually move her arms and that they weren't shaking like a leaf. Relief flooded her features as she moved her arms to prop herself up and get off the bed, but again was restrained, this time by Reed's hand on her shoulder, gently pushing her back down to the bed. "I'm sorry Maiko... you can't get up yet; I'm afraid the damage done to your spinal cord can't be fixed so easily and right now moving around could just make things worse." "But I can FEEL them... I'm moving my legs right now! Can't you see them!" She frantically swung her legs up into the air, kicking at the knees. "Maiko... look behind you." She glanced back, still kicking furiously and was hit hard with the image of her legs still just lying there, unresponsive. "But.••••••••'s called phantom limb syndrome, and.•••••'s common in cases like yours. Your brain is still sending signals to your legs, but there's no connection. Your mind is filling in the remaining blanks by thinking it was successful." Reed slowly explained to the helmswoman. "Worse, because of the tissue removal, right now your spinal cord isn't strong enough to fully support your weight. Standing or even sitting right now could cause irrepairable damage." Calling Dyson over they gently managed to roll Maiko onto her back to make her more comfortable. "Just try to rest Belle. Tomorrow we can discuss treatment options..." Reed began, but was cut off by Maiko. "Doc... I just want to get one thing clear," she said, steeling her voice and putting her anger to use before continuing, "I *am* going to walk again. I don't care what treatments you have to use, how risky they are, or if I have to nearly kill myself doing it, I want to be walking out of here in 2 weeks." She fixed Reed with as best a glare she could summon from her position. "And let me get something straight with you Belle. I'm your physician. You will walk out of here when I say you're ready, not one minute before, and only if you give me everything you've got. No holding back. Understood?" Maiko nodded resolutely, crying, but this time with desperate hope. ((Apologies if this steps on toes - needed to get this out as I'll be pretty busy the next two days.)) |