Commisery

Posted on Fri Mar 1, 2019 @ 1:14am by Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Lieutenant Arashi Tanaka Mr.

1,154 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Plaga Navis
Location: Arashi's Quarters
Timeline: One week after the Pirates

Nicole smoothed her uniform and walked up to Arashi's door and rang the chime, hands behind her back, tapping her foot with mild impatience.

Arashi had had a nightmare and decided to wake up. He hadn't had the nightmares often since the discussion with Cassandra but he did have them occasionally, not being able to sleep after the nightmare. He was drinking his some coffee when he heard the door chime at his quarters. "Enter." He said and waited for whoever it was to come in. He was going to head to the holodeck to do some martial arts training when he had gotten a visitor.

Nicole stepped inside Arashi's quarters, looking around casually before walking up. "Good evening, Arashi," she said quietly.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" Arashi said with a bit of a smile, trying to hide how tired he was at the moment. "I am sure that you don't always make house calls like this. He showed her to a seat and got her a cup of coffee as well from the replicator. He had sat down and sipped his own coffee as well.

"Actually, I miss making house calls. It was something I used to do frequently back home," Nicole said, accepting the seat and the coffee. "And when someone on this ship is requesting a sleeping-aid five nights in a row," she said, giving him a pointed look over the top of her coffee cup.

She set her cup down on the saucer and looked at him, her voice gentle. "My staff reports everything to me, Arashi. And I know symptoms when I see them. "She gestured to the cup. "I'm guessing caffeine to keep you awake, then rigorous holodeck exercise to wear you out, then a little knock-me-out hypo to ensure you fly past REM sleep and don't have to dream so you can sleep through the night?"

Arashi wasn't surprised that she would find out. She was the ship's doctor after all. He didn't try to hide what he did or why he did it. "I thought that I was getting through this, that I was over this and not going to have these nightmares...But I keep seeing them in my sleep, and sometimes I hear them when I am awake. I wasn't not sure what to do, so I thought that doing this once would help. Once then turned in to twice, three times, four times and so on." He said, a bit of frustration rising in his voice. He calmed down and sipped his coffee again.

"I understand," Nicole said. "But you need to be careful. Too much artificial sleep aid is not good for the body, or the mind," Nicole said.

"I know that it wasn't a good idea, but me being a security officer and not a doctor, I felt like I was limited in what I could do." He said after a few moments of silence. "I just want this to stop and I want my life to go on as normal as it can be after this. Is there a normal after what we saw on that ship on our last mission? Is that even something that we can forget?" He couldn't drink any more coffee, his stomach was starting to hurt due to his frustration.

"No," Nicole said, flatly. "There isn't." She put her cup down and sat back, crossing her legs. "I once had to watch a mass killing on that level. We were being boarded, and hostiles were killing the crew over and over. It was senseless and brutal and the thought of it still haunts me to this day," she said.

"There is no 'going back' afterwards. I had to define a new normal for myself, so will you. I existed in that place for a long time, and it took a lot to yank me out of it. Do not let yourself get stuck there. You need to accept that it happened, and put it away. You need to let it go and accept that the universe sometimes is just awful."

He ran his hands through his hair. This wasn't easy and he was sure that he was going to have to go through the nightmares for awhile and he was expecting that. "The universe is awful all right." Arashi said. "I just wish that I could have helped them find some sort of peace, by finding out who did this and why they did this. If whoever did this is out there, I want to find them." Arashi took his now cold cup to the replicator.

"So do I," Nicole said. "This was a virus. That hits so close to home for me it hurts. But that doesn't excuse me from living. I don't get to hide in my quarters and wallow in my pain anymore. I did that for a long, long time. It's safe, but it's still painful. It's like ignoring a toothache. You can keep it off your mind for a while, but it'll always come back."

"I just hope that we find out what happened, the people that had this happened to them deserve justice." Arashi said. He was angry but did a good job hiding it because Nicole, Buddha bless her soul, did not deserve his anger. She probably noticed regardless, he knew she probably was good at things like that. He wanted to deal with those that had hurt innocent people and put them in prison or wherever they needed to go.

"They'll get what's coming to them," Nicole said. "I promise. I know it's infuriating, and I know that just sitting here is frustrating, but you are doing your job. That's all you can do. So do your job, and live your life. Go have a drink with some of your staff. Have a meal with a friend. Do something to be among the living. They are a lot more fun."

Arashi smiled finally and decided that he would take her advice. "You're right. Can I count on you to talk to if things like this come up again? You have helped me out alot and I really appreciate it. I know that I shouldn't depend on talking to one person too much but I trust you enough that I can talk to you about things that I wouldn't talk to anyone else about." Arashi said to her.

"I'm always good for a drink," Nicole said. She stood up. "Let's go."

Arashi stood up and followed Nicole. He decided that whatever happened that he would do his job, no matter how hard it got. That is why he joined Starfleet and that is what he would do. "After you, m'lady." He said with a smile on his face.

Nicole stepped out of his quarters and headed for the crew lounge. A few toasts were in order, and hopefully he'd sleep better tonight.

 

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