For Whom The Bell Tolls

Posted on Fri Mar 18, 2022 @ 7:16am by Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Civilian Jason Haines

2,406 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Si vis pacem, para bellum
Location: Bag End Research Cabin

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. BONG! BONG! BONG!

Jason’s eyes snapped open and he sat straight up. He looked around and shook his head. He was sitting on a bench in a city with buildings of various sizes. The streets were devoid of any sort of activity or sound except for the constant sound of clocks ticking. All about there were clocks of various sorts and sizes positioned randomly.

Analog, digital, sun, water, hour-glass, if there were some sort of way to tell time, it was there. On the sides of buildings, embedded in the walkways and streets, tied to signs, sitting freely on benches, and some even flying through the skies on wings. The clocks had one thing in common. The clocks were stuck and straining to make the last ‘tick’ to midnight.

“That’s something you don’t see every day, is it kid?”, came a familiar voice.

Jason spun around and quickly and got to his feet. He was looking at the individual he had dubbed, ‘George’, who, if Jason weren’t crazy, was some sort of messenger for the Fae. That said, Jason often wondered if he were crazy after his “dreams” with George in them.

“New duds?” Jason asked looking at George who this time presented himself in the attire of a janitor.

George leaned against the broom he had in his hand and shrugged.

“What can I say? It pays the bills”, George replied with a chuckle.

“What is this place?”, Jason asked, calming down slightly.

“How the hell do I know?”, George asked, spitting off to the side. “It’s your dream.”

“Great, now I am dreaming about you”, Jason said with a sigh, shaking his head.

“Nah”, George replied. “It’s just easier to get in here when you are asleep. “Not as much resistance. You think way too much kid, hard to get a word in edgewise.”

“So, what did you want to discuss”, Jason asked, looking at the clocks, fascinated.

“Well, there are some of us who are a touch worried about the apparent change in leadership”, George replied.

“You and me both”, Jason replied.

“Things were left in Soran’s hands for a reason”, George said.

“Why is that?” Jason asked.

“Above your paygrade I am afraid”, was George’s answer. “Of course, there are some who don’t really care”.

“And you?”, Jason asked, watching George’s face closely.

“I’m just the messenger”, George replied with a smirk.

“Alright, so let’s get to the million latinum slip question”, Jason said, with a slight cock of his head. “What exactly.do you want out of me?”

“You need to let her know that it’s almost time”, George answered.

“Time for what?”, Jason asked, his eyes narrowing.

“Would you look at the time”, George replied and disappeared.

In the distance there was another loud sounding bell ringing and Jason bolted up in the bed he and Alanna were sleeping in.

“Damn it, George”, he cursed loud enough to wake Alanna up.

Alanna rolled over and put a hand on Jason's arm. "What's going on? Are you okay?" She reached out telepathically to make sure she felt nothing amiss in and around Bag End. Then she focused on Jason.

Jason looked about and let out a big sigh.

"You are going to think I am nuts", Jason said. "Hell, I'm beginning to wonder if I am nuts."

"We're in a research cabin named after a place from an ancient earth book, on a planet occupied by Cardassians, plotting how to cause them the most distress." She smiled. "We're both nuts." Then she sobered. "It's not an ordinary dream, is it?"

"Good point", Jason replied. "Yeah, no ordinary dreams here. Mind you I didn't start remembering them until after I got back from dealing with that psycho Daniels. So, number one. Remember the night of the poker game when I died and we didn't know how I came back to life? Well, an individual, who calls himself George, for ease of pronunciation, according to him, who according to him is a Fae, saved me. According to him, my mother is part fae, which of course makes me part fae. If this is all to be believed."

He paused giving Alanna time to take it all in.

She remembered that night, and the nights after. It was hard to believe, but it also explained a lot. "You believe him." She looked at Jason. "And if I know you, you asked someone...your father?"

"Oh, we are not even there yet", Jason replied, his head in his hands, scratching it. "So, the day I got away from Daniels and jumped into that little warp conduit and almost slammed into the station, I was mostly passed out due to smoke. Mr. George showed up, at least in my head and woke me up enough to stop the shuttle and call out for help."

"Thank goodness for that." She gently rubbed his back. "What else?" There was clearly more. Jason's whole demeanor told her that.

"Ok, so now we get to my dad", Jason said. "So, you already know that my dad was in special forces and that's where he met my mom. She hated Starfleet, but apparently, she was being blackmailed into service. Originally, she wouldn't tell anything to my dad as they hadn't gotten together yet, but he was a bit of a snoop and he found out. She had been unwittingly involved with some bio-genetic engineering. Eventually, my mom started to trust my dad and told him about it. She and him went to find the individual blackmailing her. They dealt with him and in the process, they found a clone of my mom."

Jason let her digest what he just told her.

She blinked. "A clone? Why a clone? Because she was Fae?"

"Oh, this is where it gets more fun", Jason said. "So, normally when a Fae mates with a human, any power from the Fae is diluted", Jason said. "My mom is an exception, according to George. There is another Fae who wants that power. Apparently, some fae can disperse their power, essentially sending out clones so their power can't be taken like this other Fae wants to do. So, the clone my parents found weren't clones as we think of them. So, if all this is to be believed, my mom, or a version of her, is still alive."

Alanna sat back. "That..." She shook her head. "That brings up a lot of interesting questions. What abilities does she have, what memories does she share, and could she be a help or a danger?" She paused again. "And how can you find her?"

"Don't know, don't know, don't know, and last but not least, I don't know", Jason said, shrugging his shoulders and holding his hands out to his side. "but all of this has just been for background, so you know where tonight's dream is coming from. So, in my dream tonight, I am woken up by loud clock bells. I am in a deserted city, but clocks are everywhere, I mean everywhere. On the ground, flying through the air, on buildings, everywhere. On every clock, time is stuck just before midnight. Guess who is hanging out in this dream? None other than George."

"I'm not an interpreter of dreams, but that definitely sounds like time is running out for something." Just the thought made her more anxious, and she carefully kept it from showing.

"According to George, some of the Fae are worried about all the events and how Soran has handled it", Jason continued. "Some don't care if there is a change as to who controls the planet. Regardless, George said I needed to deliver a message to the Captain. The message is, "It is almost time." Then I woke up."

Alanna looked up at the ceiling. "How do you even contact her? I haven't heard where she is. The only thing I'm certain of is that she's not dead. They thought she was at one point, but it wasn't her." She looked over at Jason. "I agree that she needs to do something soon."

"Well, that may be so, but I am trying to figure out if my source is real or if I am just having hallucinations", Jason said. "Which is why I haven't said anything before now."

She looked at him intently. Alanna wasn't going to read his thoughts, but she was also an empath, and she was familiar with how Jason felt. "I don't think you are. So, if we go with you're not hallucinating, where do we go from here?" There was no question that she'd let him do this alone.

"To be honest, right now is one of the few times I don't have a clue", Jason said as he laid back down on the bed. "Cryptic messages in dreams don't really help right now. We could probably get off planet, but to what end? Plus, I feel like I would be fleeing home. I wish the temporal flow around here hadn't been disrupted. At least I could get another communication out."

"I don't think leaving is the answer, either," Alanna said. "This place is shielded and doesn't look like anything from the outside. We can stay here for now and wait for the right opportunity. I can't believe the Federation will abandon us, so something is going to happen before long. And Captain Soran is still alive. As long as she is and remains the rightful commander of DS5, we can defeat the Cardassians." She looked at him. "And if not, you have that map, right? And I know how the portals work, even though the sentries don't respond to me. We can cause plenty of trouble until you can find a way to get that message out. And there are the Marines. We can't forget about them."

"Well, until the temporal flow comes back, I can't get around the Cardassian's jamming", Jason said. "At least not from here. See, how I got through to Ryan when the crap started was based on what we learned from Borg technology in TI. We don't quite have the technology yet to take advantage of it, but with the temporal flow I was able to wing it so to say."

Alanna nodded. "Makes sense. So, until the temporal flow returns-which I don't think will happen until the Cardassians are removed from Pangaea and DS5, we're stuck here." She paused, thinking for a moment. "Do you think the temporal flow will affect the map? Or will having the portals shut down do that? Last I heard, they weren't working, but that was before the Marines evacuated the portal complex." She wasn't sure if she could use the shuttle to send a covert message. And if she could, she wasn't sure where to send it that would do any good. Right now, the risk of the Cardassians noticing was too great.

"Yeah, I don't think any of that will work until that flow is going again", Jason said. "What's intriguing to concerned is what turned it off. A lot of things to ponder."

"I think it's the Cardassians. They aren't the rightful owners or rulers or whatever you want to call them of the planet." She sighted, expressing her deepest fear, "At least not right now. I don't know if that will change."

"That's the catalyst", Jason said. "but who or what flipped the switch off? If it is purely because it isn't Soran there, how has she been tied to the complex. And will it have a long-term impact on her. If it isn't that, what is it? Without some sort of interference, long time flows and portals don't just turn themselves off."

"Good questions." She shook her head. "All I know is that the sentries respond to Soran like she's their ruler. The planet was given to the commander of DS5, and that's Soran. I really don't know how it works beyond that. Something to do with the Fae."

"Something like that", Jason replied, sinking back into his pillow.

He rolled to his side and asked Alanna, "Do you really think I'm not crazy. It seems like everything that has happened since I've gotten here, is absolutely nuts. I mean you have to admit, supposedly dying, be resurrected, sent on some nut mission by the CO and almost dying again, then another guy wanting to kill me, and trying twice, and being caught in a warp conduit for eight months, and then everything I've experienced on the planet, oh yeah, let's not forget someone has told me, I am not all human."

He laughed.

"If I had written down that all of that would have happened, before I came here, I would say I was nuts."

"Well, it does seem far-fetched. I watched you die once and was told you were dead once, was kidnapped by a Vulcan from a parallel universe to be his slave, and climbed a beanstalk to a cloud world." She shook her head. "This place seems to be rife with odd events. And there are the odd things that just appear on Pangaea, like the pit of bones. So, everything you've experienced here fits in." She looked at him seriously for a moment. "So, no. I don't think you're crazy. I think you're remarkable."

"Remarkably crazy?", Jason asked with a snort, putting his arm over her.

"Remarkably, wonderfully crazy," she amended, chuckling. She cupped his cheek with her hand. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

Jason chuckled and then kissed her hand.

"You know, when I get back and the station is back in Soran's hands, we need to go on a vacation far away from all this", Jason said.

"We do. Anywhere you want." Alyssa kissed Jason and then cuddled up to him. "Maybe you can figure out the dreams by then, too."

"How about Montana?", Jason asked.

"Montana...I don't think I've spent any real time there," she said. "But I'd love to go there with you." Or anywhere, for that matter. "Let's see what we can find out tomorrow." She had no idea what the dream signified, but she knew it meant something was coming, and it definitely involved Jason, Pangaea, and the captain--if they could get ahold of her.

____
OFF

Jason "Beach Bum" Haines
Fisher-mon
Pangaea

Lieutenant Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer
Deep Space 5

 

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