Restless Nights

Posted on Fri Apr 26, 2019 @ 7:47pm by Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD

709 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Plaga Navis
Location: Camille's Quarters

Camille sat alone in her lab, eyes focussed on the screen of her microscope. There was something interesting happening. Cells that had characteristics of both plants and animals were evolving before her eyes. She couldn’t look away. The universe was shut out.

She looked up at a chronometer. 1255. She’d missed lunch. No problems. She could eat later. For now, what she was studying was more important. Was she supposed to meet someone though? She shrugged and looked back at the screen. Life was happening under her microscope slide. She cast aside the life happening around her.

She felt a slight rumbling in her stomach. She looked back at the chronometer. 0802. Did she miss dinner too? Huh. She almost looked back down to the screen, but did a double-take on the time. 0802? Since when did starships refer to 8pm as 0800? They didn’t. It was 0802 the next morning. She’d been working for close to 24 hours.

Camille pushed away from her station and left the lab. She was surprised to find the corridor filled with smoke, the red alert klaxon blaring. What was going on?

Medical personnel pulling stretchers rushed down the hallway passed her. She didn’t see Nicole, but recognized Commander Hunter walking behind the stretchers. “Lieutenant!” he bellowed. “Where the hell have you been?” He kept following the medics. It was only then that Camille noticed the XO was missing an arm.

Another officer in red, one she didn’t recognize, stopped next to her. “The Ranger was attacked when it was coming back from its mission. No one was at the science station, so tactical couldn’t get good sensor readings on our enemies. By the time we drove the attackers off, the Ranger was crippled.”

Another stretcher was being walked past, but much more slowly. Not at all in a rush. One person lay on it, a blanket covering their face. It stopped before Camille, and she pulled back the cover. She dropped it when she saw the battered form of the once-beautiful Penny Naroot, someone who she had become fast friends with. “I did this,” Camille whispered to herself.

“That’s what the Captain said,” the man in red told her, nodding.

She pushed the stranger away and ran down the corridor. She needed to find Nicole. Nicole would know what to do. Her quarters were just down the hall. She found the door and chimed it repeatedly.

Her eyes watered when Victor Crowe opened the door.

Nicole, wearing only a robe and barely at that, wrapped her arms around Victor and kissed him deeply before turning a sultry smile back to Camille. “Hello, Camille. Shame you weren't here. You missed our date, and I was so lonely I invited Victor over. I’ve come to realize I can’t be happy without a man’s touch.” She kissed the marine’s cheek and grabbed him by the waistband, pulling him back into her quarters. “You can go now,” she told Camille, closing the door in her face, laughing gaily.

No! Camille pounded on Nicole’s door until her fists bled. But no amount of effort would open Nicole’s door.

**

Camille jerked awake, covered in sweat. Nicole was next to her, sitting up, holding her shoulders.

"Cami! Cami, what's wrong?" Nicole said, trying to get her to focus, putting a hand on Camille's cheek. "You were having a nightmare; it's okay. I'm here."

Camille’s breathing was fast and laboured. Her eyes darted around the room anxiously. It was her own room, but she still didn’t know where she was. Nicole’s touch made her look into her eyes. The eyes of the woman who moments ago she had disappointed so terribly, and who had broken her heart. But Nicole just said it was a nightmare. Yes. She was dreaming. Penny was still alive. No one was hurt. The Ranger mission wasn’t over yet. Nicole was here with her. Nicole was still with her.

Camille pulled Nicole into a close hug and cried into her shoulder.

Nicole felt immediately guilty at having bothered Camille so badly and held her tightly. "It's okay," she said. "I'm here, and I've got you." She stroked Camille's hair and held her tight.


TBC

 

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