Chapter
Four
"It
isn't a dream!" He said firmly. "She told me...She's a prisoner and
we've got to save her."
A
strange atmosphere reigned in the conference lounge of the Valiant.
Everyone could feel it. The exhausted Captain was before his senior officers,
speaking of his dream and how the crew needed to put every resource available
into finding this woman.
"How can we find her?" John
Stevenson asked, frowning deeply.
"I
don't know..." Kline said. "But we've got to try...They're
dying."
"And
who is 'they', exactly?" Greg Eskina asked with his expression skeptical.
"I..."
Kline sighed. "I don't know...But what does it matter? A living being is
in danger; it's our duty to do something to help."
"The
question is: How can we help?" Sutter said slowly. "We have nothing,
absolutely nothing."
"I
don't know." Kline said annoyed.
"Well...I
think maybe we should just run a sensor sweep of the area for starters."
Stevenson suggested.
"Do
it," Kline nodded. "And keep me informed. Dismissed..."
Everyone
exited the conference lounge, except Tarses, Davies and Sutter.
"What
do you think?" Sutter asked after the others had left.
"I
don't know..." Tarses sighed. "But I'm scared he's beginning to be
pulled into this strong fantasy."
"This
fantasy..." Sutter repeated. "And what can we do?"
"We
need to make him forget," Davies said. "The only way to cancel out a
simple fantasy like this one is to let the subject let his fantasy dissipate. It
might take some time but if we bring him enough proof that there's nothing to
worry about and if his dreams go away...In time he will forget about it."
"Sounds
stupid," Sutter said.
Davies
shrugged: "What else can we do?"
Sutter
pondered a moment, and then sighed: "Yeah...We'll wait then."
* * *
"Yeah...We'll
wait then."
His
crew was still convinced he was crazy.
He
removed his ear from the door of the conference lounge. He had grown suspicious
after seeing the three officers stay in the lounge after he had said:
'Dismissed' so he had stayed and listened in on the conversation.
What
was he going to do?
He
would also wait...
* * *
"We
have the results of our scan..." Stevenson said. "The Udus pulsar is still passing through a period of solar
instability but I don't believe that we can relate this to any...uh...any
dark-haired women I don't think."
"Continue,"
Kline said.
"We've
also detected something else..." Stevenson said. "A
small subspace instability six hundred million kilometers from our
current position. These kinds of instabilities appear often near red giant suns
and supernovas due to massive disturbances in space-time curvature."
Kline
smiled weakly: "I see..."
"But
it's nothing we should worry about actually; there have been numerous reports
of these kinds of instabilities all over the Federation for the past two
hundred years. I can't see what we could learn from this instability."
Kline
chewed on the inside of the cheek as he pondered the situation.
"Set
a course for that instability…I want to take a closer look."
"Captain,
I…" Sutter began.
"Maximum
warp speed, we don't have much time." He continued. "Dismissed."
He
stood up quickly and began walking away but Sutter touched his arm:
"Captain,"
He
sighed and turned around: "Yes what is it, Commander?"
The
rest of the crew left, leaving them alone. "Stevenson said that we
shouldn't worry about this instability." She said.
"It's
the only thing in this star system that could lead us to her." He said
matter-of-factly.
"I'm
not questioning your orders, captain…But I'm asking you to consider that
this…this situation could be the creation of your mind…"
He
laughed: "You think I'm crazy?"
"I
don't know what to think, sir!" She said. "Look at yourself."
He
frowned.
"You're
exhausted…We are searching for something which has been hypothesized from a
dream, a hallucination…What can we do but be suspicious?"
Kline
shook his head: "I don't know what's out there...But if there is even one
chance in a thousand that I can save lives by doing this, and then I think it's
worth the detour. Am I putting the ship at risk by doing this?"
She
shook her head slowly: "No…"
"So
trust me…" And he left the lounge.
* * *
"I
really don't know what to do, sir…He's right: He isn't endangering the ship and
crew but I'm still afraid he's losing his mind."
Rear-Admiral
Patrickson nodded his understanding on Sutter's computer screen: "If
Captain Kline is no longer apt to command Team One I believe the only option is
to relieve him of command."
"The
problem is…We don't know if he isn't apt to command…" Sutter said.
"The
way you described these past few days to me has given me a pretty good picture
of what state Kline is in. I think it would be best for everyone if you get him
to a specialized facility where we can examine his condition. I don't want a
madman in command of our best Intelligence operatives…" He frowned.
"I hope you understand…"
She
nodded slowly: "Of course…"
"Your
duty is to relieve Kline of command…You will need the medical consent of Doctor
Tarses and I'll send you a Command order with my name on it so you'll have an
official paper to make Kline step down."
Sutter
felt as if she weighed a ton: "I understand, sir."
"Good
luck, Commander…" He noticed her uneasiness. "And don't worry
about it…Everything's going to be fine. It's not as if you're killing him or
something…" He gave an encouraging smile.
"Yes, sir."
* * *
Where
the hell are you…?
Kline
felt as if his brain was playing baseball in his head, the headache had started
half-an-hour ago and hadn't stopped. Stevenson's scan was about to end…
"John,
what've you got?" He asked.
"Hmm…"
Stevenson studied the readings on the Ops console over Eskina's shoulder.
"Just a second…"
The
next few seconds seemed like hours to Kline as he felt his skull being hammered
violently from the inside by the headache.
"There…"
Stevenson said. "Scan complete…"
"What
do you have, then?"
Stevenson
opened his mouth and the turbolift opened also at the same moment.
Sutter
and Tarses stepped onto the bridge.
Kline
saw the look in Sutter's eyes.
"Awful
timing, Commander…" He groaned.