The Walking Dead

Posted on Sun Jun 23, 2019 @ 7:56pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Lieutenant Annora Tessaro & Civilian Jason Haines & Lieutenant Commander River Morgan

2,618 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: Deep Space 5, Intelligence Offices
Timeline: MD9, 0800 Hours

[ON]

Jason woke up from what seemed like the best sleep of his life. He couldn't remember when he had felt so good. He ate, got a shower, put his uniform on and headed to work. He was smiling all the way. The stationed seemed more alive to him than it did yesterday. Maybe a lot of other people had gotten some good sleep. Maybe he had just been running too hard lately. He had been on the station about a week and he had barely stopped between personal engagements and business. Getting more sleep would have to become part of his daily routine. He would be more effective and just feel better, which was always a good thing.

He took his time as he went to the office. He wanted to take in all the 'energy' that seemed to be coming from everyone before hitting the desk and reports. He got to the Intel Offices where Petty Officer Tim Barnes, a regular on this particular area assignment was standing guard.

"Good morning Tim", Jason said to him with a smile.

"Good morning sir", Tim replied, having no clue the Lieutenant was supposed to be dead. "Your look to be in a good mood. Luck with the ladies last night sir?"

Jason chuckled, "No, luck with sleep. I got a ton and I feel great."

As Jason stepped up to the door to go in, the computer chirped, "Access denied."

Tim looked a touch concerned and said, "Computer glitch?"

"I hope not. I don't need my good day to be de-railed", Jason replied, backing up and stepping up to the door again.

"Access denied", the computer complained again.

"Will you get Lieutenant Gazan please?" Jason said. "I swear if Tezak put him up to some prank I am going to kill them both."

Tim nodded and moved into the Intel Offices, right near the door were Jason's Andorian second in command, Lieutenant Gazan and Chief Petty Officer Zaven, one of his analysts. Both looked up, saw Jason in the doorway and both of their faces looked like they had seen the proverbial ghost.

"Barnes, detain the Lieutenant", Gazan said as he tapped his communicator.

"Lieutenant Gazan to Commander Soran and Lieutenant Tessaro", he said. "I need you in the Intelligence offices right now. It is very important, regarding Lieutenant Haines."

While there didn't appear to be any ill-effects from what ever had happened the previous night, it was still recommended Annora take the day off. With no major crises, she agreed to the recommendation. She'd just sat down for breakfast when her comm-badge chirped. Quickly washing down the forkfull of pancakes with a glass of orange juice, she responded.

=/\ Roger that. I'm on my way. Tessaro out. =/\=

Dressed in jeans and a Mars Marathon T-shirt, she grabbed her phaser and tricorder sitting on the nightstand.

=^="On my way."=^= Soran said crisply, and cut the line.


"What's going on? Why are you freaking out." Jason asked as Barnes pulled out his phaser.

"I am not sure Lieutenant what is going on", Gazan replied, wondering if the portal had activated without being detected and this was someone allied either with the Andorian visitor or the Vulcans. "but, that is something you will have to talk to Commander Soran about. We don't need anyone in the corridors seeing this, so please, come in, have a seat at the desk, keep your hands where we can see them."


Jason could see how serious everyone was, so he decided that he didn't want to get shot and did what he was instructed to. Soran would be here soon and this would all be cleared up.

As she entered the Intelligence center of the station the officer at the front desk waved her on through. She joined the group in the CIO's office. "What's this about Mr Ga-"

She broke off, staring at a dead man. "Who is this?" She asked Gazan sharply. She had heard from Tessaro and Dr. Morgan The night before.


"What the hell do you mean who is this?", Jason asked. "I'm freaking Jason Haines, you know worked here for about a week."

He started to get up out of the chair, but a motion of the phaser from Barnes got him to sit back down.

Gazan sighed a little and replied, "He does appear to be Lieutenant Haines."

Jason scowled at Soran and Tessaro and said, "Would someone please tell me why you are all in a tizzy-fit? There is plenty of crap that needs to be done and you are ruining what started out as a great day."

Soran mouth compressed into a thin line. "Mr. Haines was reported dead this morning, by two individuals I trust implicitly. So either you are an imposter, and therefore trespassing at the very least, or, you are who you say you are. In the latter case you will remember who you are talking to. Either way we are continuing this in the brig. Mr. Gazan, please escort the prisoner to where he belongs."

Jason looked at her dumbfounded. Dead? How could that be? What had happened? He didn't remember doing anything that would have killed him.

"I'm not dead", he quietly said and then looked at Gazan. Gazan just dipped his head towards the door, wondering if the brig was a bit of over-kill by the Commander, but he wasn't going to go there.

"Let's go boss", Gazan said to Jason and escorted him as the Commander had instructed.

"You sure seemed dead a few hours ago. You were shot by an unknown energy weapon by thugs who interrupted our poker game."

While she wasn't sure what was happening, Annora was still going to treat him more or less as the real person. Quickly running through the occupied cells, Annora picked an area she was sure didn't have any prisoners.

Use the brig on deck 578, it should be unoccupied. The less publicity this gets the better. I'll contact Security Control and ensure that brig is empty."

Ten minutes later, the maybe is/isn't Jason was secured behind a forcefield, and Soran, Annora, and Gazan were looking at him with deep suspicion.

"Talk." Soran said briskly. "If you're Jason, why aren't you dead?"

Jason looked at her and thought a few moments and then said, " I thought about this on the way here to the cell. Commander, I know this is going to sound flippant, but it is not meant to. If we look at this logically, I can't prove that I am Jason, as apparently a number of people saw what seems to be my death. Even a DNA scan and blood test, in this case could only prove that I have the same genetic structure, whether it is the Jason you knew before or a totally different Jason, who knows. Hell, in that mindset, anyone using the portal here can't prove they are themselves. What I can say that I know is that I woke up this morning in my quarters. I don't remember anything from yesterday what so ever, the day before is a tiny bit sketchy, but I do remember all of the rest since I have been here."

He paused before continuing, "Also, you can't prove I died as I am standing here talking to you. So, whether this is an afterlife, limbo, near death experience where I am just about ready to die, or hallucination that one or all of us are experiencing, who knows, but from all appearances I am alive. We seem to have a quasi-Schrödinger's cat situation and right now I can't offer you any sort of solution to the situation as I have never experienced anything like it. Until about twenty-five minutes ago, I thought I was upright and breathing and having a really great day. Now I don't know if I am alive, dead, or perhaps some creature impersonating Jason Haines."

He shrugged his shoulders.

Soran crossed her arms over her chest. "Get Dr. Morgan up here," she said to Gazan. "We'll test the physical body, verify that its not some changeling, or someone surgically altered."

'Test the physical body?' Jason thought, now even more angry given he had been deemed a prisoner. The Commander was starting from the position of disbelieving him. There were so many ship's logs about the incredible, the improbable, and the impossible happening that he couldn't believe it. Even Captain Kirk had 'died' and then showed up a few decades later.

She turned to Annora. "Any questions you can think of, that would determine it was really him?"

While it was a legitimate question, she didn't have an answer right away. She could at least get an idea of where the memory gaps were.
"What do you remember about the security training from the other day?"

"Let's see", Jason said. "It was early, it was you, Ensign Mayhew, Ensign Crietzer, Chief Caspara, Petty Officer Nottingham, and Petty Officer Balaan. It could have gone smoother, but we did manage to accomplish our objectives."

Gazan nodded to the Commander and moved to the outer officer and tapped his communicator, "Lieutenant Gazan to Doctor Morgan."

=^= Morgan here, how can I help you Lieutenant Gazan? =^= River responded chirpily.

"I am sorry to disturb you doctor, but Commander Soran needs you in the deck 578 brig", Gazan said. "You'll want to bring a tricorder and anything portable you can use to test DNA."

=^= Curious - I'll be right there. =^= she responded and picked up her med kid, making a very brief emergency hand over, she left Sickbay and made her way to the Lower levels and deck 578, wondering what this was about.

Whilst Gazan contacted the doctor, Soran watched the man who claimed to be her CIO. "What were the objectives?" His answer lacked specific, but sounded like it fit most training exercises.

"It started as a basic response to an unknown, but volatile situation", Jason replied. Ensign Mathew was in charge. We were transported to the promenade where we encountered hostile Cardassians. They were converging on a shop MonarcTronics. Some of the Cardassians were stopped outside. Inside we encountered the remainder of them and a criminal Ziangam. During the encounter the simulation was apparently design to put us in a situation where our phasers were useless. A hostage situation ensued and with only using our combat batons, we saved the hostages, apprehended the criminal, and only sustained damage to the team and facilities beyond what had already been preprogrammed into the simulation."

He was correct, and Annora said as much.

"He's right ma'am. That's an accurate summary of the mission. Although Ensign Crietzer was technically killed in the simulation, it happened on the tail end so it wasn't directly obvious. I don't normally recommend tackling the person holding a hostage, but the Lieutenant lucked out and it worked."

River arrived quite quickly as the turbolift she wanted wasn't too far from where she started out and the decent was it's usual stomach lurching speed, dumbed down and softened by the stabilisers installed by design.

"You wanted to see me Commander?" River approached Soran directly as Gazan had said it was the CO who had requested her presence.

"Its about that death by misadventure report you filed a few hours ago," Soran indicated the cell with Jason. "It may have been premature."

River stared for a moment and then got out her medcorder quickly. She scanned Jason.

Jason nodded to River, but didn't do more as he figured he would irritate the Commander if he tried to say anything. He wondered exactly what 'death by misadventure' actually entailed. He would have to ask the doctor later.

"So doctor?" Soran said , "Is it really Jason Haines?"

Jason almost said, 'No, I'm Captain James T. Kirk', but bit his tongue. He figured he would get into a lot more trouble if he did.

"Medically this is Jason Haines. His DNA matches and he is physically exactly as he was when he left.... well, not EXACTLY... there is bruising around his heart it seems with some rib damage too. If someone tried to resuscitate him manually that would leave this kind of after effect. I was out cold when the actual death occurred but .... " she shrugged. "I don't expect they wouldn't have at least tried to get him breathing again. It is odd that he isn't in pain from those ribs" she added, peering curiously at the med-corder.

Maritza lead the two women away. "Opinions. How can that be the deceased Jason Haines? With a pulse and and brain stem activity? People don't come back from the dead. Not like this anyway." She looked from River to Annora. "Would you count him a security risk?"

"I don't have an answer to the first question ma'am. This whole experience is odd, and his supposed resurrection is just another aspect of the mystery. As for a security risk, I don't believe he is one. It wouldn't be hard to restrict his access until this all gets sorted out." Annora considered recommending confining him to quarters, but wasn't sure it was necessary. As far as anyone knew, Jason was still a Starfleet Officer and should be treated as one.

River shrugged but not in a disrespectful way. She wasn't sure how this person had been resurrected either but she had been in that other dimension and it seemed that nothing there had been explicable so she wasn't ready to deny it was possible, or that it wasn't... both were odd but then the whole experience had been bizarre so what was real and what wasn't?

"It's hard to understand but if you had been there, it was hard to actually experience too." she tried to explain. "What happened wasn't possible. This isn't possible but here we are." she looked across at Jason. "If we were in another dimension.... however that could have happened or why it did, then anything is possible. The rules in the dimension would be different and things would happen in a way we don't have full conception of." she shrugged her shoulders again. "Perhaps I should have been killed by that blow to my head? Perhaps none of it really happened in the way we understand happening...... who can say? I'm sorry, I'm as much of a scientist as anyone but I can't explain any of it."

"Dr. Wells has her hands full with our new visitors right now." So she would have to make a decision without her. She went back over to the cells.

"Mr. Haines. I'm prepared to accept that you are who you claim to be. As such, for your lack of good manners a few minutes ago, you can cool your heels here for twenty four hours." And if he wasn't who he said he was, she was sure the ships systems would pick it up by then. Trust, but verify. Wasn't that the Intelligence way?

Jason had all he could do not to lose his cool.

'Lack of good manners', he thought. What was he supposed to do? She had been talking as if he weren't even there numerous times. Talk about lack of manners. He couldn't believe that he was getting 24 hours in the brig for this. He almost started to say something, but the part of him that kept the 'thought bubbles' separated from the 'talk bubbles' stepped in and didn't allow him to dig the hole much deeper.

"I apologize if I offended anyone", he replied simply. "Twenty-four hours it is."

[OFF]

Lt.(jg) Jason Haines
Chief Intelligence Officer
DS5

Lt Cmdr River Morgan
Locum CMO - DS5

Commander Maritza Soran
CO
DS5

 

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