Misadventures of Jason Haines - Pain (Part 1)

Posted on Mon Dec 28, 2020 @ 10:53am by Lieutenant Jason Haines

711 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Things Past
Location: Pangaea
Timeline: MD 1 minus 3 weeks

Jason’s second day at his camp site was spent creating his training area. In his mind, he was weak. If he had been stronger, he would have stood up against both Beckett and Ryan. If he had been stronger and faster, his father would be alive. If he had been stronger in his resolve and listened to his gut, he would have gutted Sovok before they stepped into the dimensional portal. If he had been stronger and faster, Alanna wouldn’t have been abused.

So, through the day he made his ‘sparring partner’ out of a small tree. He made weights out of rocks and branches. He made an archery range and he checked out several difficult, natural cross-country trails. And of course, he had the whole ocean for a swimming pool.

His next few days were spent in his ‘gym’ training and swimming in a pool of self-loathing. With every hit or kick of his sparring dummy, he saw the faces of those he was mad at; Beckett, Ryan, Sovok, Xeod, himself. All the hits brought were pain and blood. When he shot his bow, all he saw on the target was either Sovok’s face or his own. When he ran in the areas he had marked out, he chastised himself for not running faster, not avoiding the terrain that tripped him up and sent him to the ground.

The only time he was at peace with himself was when he took his morning and evening swims. As always, he found the water soothing and it was an ocean he had never been in before, so there was a lot to take in. Even relatively close to the shore there were so many different species of creatures he had never seen before. It also looked like he had camped near where there once may have been a village of some sorts as there was evidence of structures and what seemed like it could be a statue. He would have to bring Alanna here sometime in the future.

At night he did two things. The first was to try to meditate. It was difficult and he had little luck quieting his mind. He couldn’t keep people’s faces out of his mind. The second thing he did was dream. Although the details were different, just about every dream had the same theme, his failures. There was one dream that was the same always, the storm, the strange individual on the shore, and Deep Space 5 falling from space into the ocean.

The fifth night the dream was just like the previous nights, but this time when Jason jolted awake, the sound of thunder was echoing in his ears and it was raining hard. Despite his best efforts, the rain was dripping through his sheltered. Lightning flashed again and he saw something odd out on the beach. Before the thunder rolled, he heard a loud groan. There was someone out there.

Grabbing his flashlight, he moved down to the beach and on the edge of the tideline where the waves were crashing down there was a body lying in the surf. He went and dragged them out of the surf line and looked them over. He had never seen anyone like this before. They were humanoid, had greenish – blue skin, webbed hands and feet, and gills in the side of their neck. There was a deep wound in their shoulder that looked like something had bit them. Jason plucked a stray tooth out of the wound. He ran back to his shelter and got his med kit. It took him a few moments to pull his mother’s medical teachings along with his Starfleet training from the depths of his mind. He hadn’t ever seen a wound this bad before up close, except his own, and well he was drugged up then. Despite the rain, he managed to patch up the wound enough so that the individual would have a chance to live. He dug out a tub and got it filled with the ocean water and set them in it. Now it would be a matter of time to see if they lived.


To Be Continued…


[OFF]

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Jason Haines
Resident Beach Bum
Deep Space 5

 

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