Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile
Episode 55 The Dreamer
By
Jay P Hailey

Stardate 51520.1

I opened my eyes and squinted into the bright sunlight. Having been raised in a sun drenched land, I enjoyed the feeling of solid heat, dry air and a sort of desert stillness.

I was inside, in an office. It was made of wood, with handcrafted details. I could smell wood, oil, coffee and a few other smells that I couldn't readily identify.

I was seated at a desk. There was an old fashioned inkwell and fountain pen in front of me. The huge wooden desk was littered with papers. I picked it up. It read

Fuel Consumption report Stardate 51520.1
Lt. Commander Mishimi Miatsu reporting

Fuel consumption continues to be consistent with the current condition of the USS Discovery, See report of Stardate 51510.1. Between Stardate 51401.1 and Stardate 51419.9, the Discovery used….

The interesting thing was that the report was hand written on old fashioned paper. And the handwriting was exactly what I'd expect from Mishimi. It was flawless, nearly perfect, but with a faintly oriental air. Like someone who grew up writing in the kana but became fluent in English afterwards.

It dawned on me that I could not confirm or deny that this was written by Mishimi Miatsu. I'd never seen his handwriting. The report belonged in a PADD, as displayed by the computer.

As I blinked at the paper, a giggle flew across the room at me. It was a little girl's giggle. It seemed to sparkle like a small stream of water in the sunlight on a happy summer's day. That wasn't too unusual. Little boys laughing always made me think of how deliriously and unabashedly happy puppies can be. I am sentimental that way.

I cocked an eyebrow at the source of the giggle. A little girl in a pink dress sat in my old fashioned office with me. I didn't recognize her. The Discovery had no children on her, anymore.

"Hello." I said. I did my best not to spin my inflection in any way. Children hate to be patronized and are people as much as anyone else. But it was a struggle. Something deep inside of me wanted to say "gootchie-goo" at her.

Her eyes widened and she giggled again. Evidently it was a very amusing greeting. I tried again. "Hello, there. I'm Jay."

Her smile was very large and she giggled again.

I didn't feel terribly threatened, but the skin was trying to crawl off the back of my neck.

I know what dreams feel like. This wasn't one. The sensations, the images, the sounds were as real as anything I have ever felt.

"Holodeck, freeze program." I said.

The little girl laughed like I'd just said "booger."

I looked at her again. "Who are you?"

She looked at me with dancing eyes and then got up and walked towards the door of my office. "I am here." She said, as if that explained everything.

"Oh, really?” I couldn't think of much else to say.

She laughed again. At least I was amusing her. She left my office and skipped down the boardwalk to my left, the east. I could hear her shoes against the wooden walk.

I didn't pursue her. What was it about her eyes? They seemed so familiar.

Stephanie Anderson came into my office. She was wearing khaki pants, a tan shirt and a dark vest. Her cowboy boots clumped on the wooden walk. Her cowboy hat shielded her face. A badge hung on her vest and complimented the huge revolver she wore on her hip.

She looked into my office and then came in with a relieved look. "Captain, are you alright?"

"I'm not sure yet." I said honestly. "How are you?"

"Except for the cowboy clothes I'm fine." She said "Where are we?"

"I have no idea." I said. Actually it looked like we were in one of my Gunsmoke holodeck adventures, except that the details were all different, and whatever was happening had a fidelity no holodeck of the day could match.

I stood up from my desk. "What's the status of the rest of the crew?"

"The people I have seen are physically intact, but everyone is confused." Stephanie said. "No sign of hostile action, no sign of injury, no sign of anyone around here but us. So far I haven't seen Spaat.”

I noticed that I was wearing boots and a pin stripped suit of the kind usually associated with big wigs in the Gunsmoke program.

There was a pistol and belt on the wall.

"Let's go take a head count, and then we can try to figure out what happened." I said. I got up. As I walked over to the door I shrugged and put the belt on. It didn't make a lot of sense, but it did. I also put on the hat that was hung on the other side of the door. It would make walking around in the bright sunlight more comfortable.

-*-

Nightfall. The smells were interesting. The Saloon was lit up and people were moving in and out. Some music was playing. Someone knew how to play the piano in the Saloon.

Voices carried, discussion moved. Plates and dishes clinked and rustled.

On the street, torches and gas fired night lights lent a dim, warm orange and yellow glow.

The Vulcans were missing. All I could think of to do was to wait for morning and send a search party out for them. Were they even in this place?

I saw Mishimi Miatsu come out of a shack in the middle of the street on the west end of town. He was wearing brown pants, and a leather apron. His sleeves were held up by gathers.

“Mishimi!” I called. He looked at me and nodded sharply.

“Captain. I believe that I have discovered the warp core.” He said.

“Really?” I asked. “Show me.”

We walked into the shack. There was a huge cylinder there. It must have been 15 feet tall. Some of the Details were suggestive. The two conduits leading away from it, to the west had exactly the same angles as the plasma conduits on the Discovery's warp core.

“We burn coal here.” Miatsu pointed to the bottom of the cylinder. “The heat is absorbed by the reaction mass, water here,” He pointed at the main Cylinder “We monitor pressure here.” He pointed at a small set of gages on the front of the boiler.

I looked around. Suddenly the layout of the town clicked for me. “We're still on the Discovery!”

Mishimi nodded sharply “Yes Sir.”

-*-

The steam core screamed. Its whistle must have been audible for miles.

I was west of the steam core, watching the paddle wheels. They were the size of Ferris wheels. They were turned by steam from the steam core. The outer ends of the paddle were painted blue; the bodies of the paddles were painted white. The hubs and axles of the wheels were painted red.

Each had a large sign that said "Discovery" on it, in the old west font.

The paddle wheels were driven by direct steam impact on the vanes. There was a spray nozzle on the end of the steam conduit that reminded me of the plasma injectors on the Discovery's real warp drives.

The steam conduits were mounted on frames. Usually they aimed at the bottom of the wheels to drive them in a "forward" direction. We used chains to hoist the steam conduits up until they were pointed at the top vanes. When the steam flowed, it would push the paddle wheels backwards.

The unspoken hope was that doing this would cause an analogous reaction in the USS Discovery, and run her warp drives in reverse.

It bothered me that upon finding ourselves in the black-powder and steam engine technology of the 19th century that we went right for the sympathetic magic.

But I really couldn't think of anything better.

Kamaline and the Navigational staff were using telescopes out on the east end of town to view the stars and try to interpret our location.

Mishimi Miatsu was covered in grime, sweat and condensed steam. He was dressed in a leather apron that actually looked functional for dealing with hot metal parts. He stepped out of the engineering shack and gave me a thumbs up. The steam core seemed to be at its best sustainable pressure.

I waved my hands over my head and pointed west. "Warp Speed! ENGAGE!" I shouted.

Engineers on the steam conduits opened their vents and steam screamed out of the system.

The paddle wheels started rotating. Slowly at first, but they picked up speed.

The paddle wheels were linked by an axle, a three inch round piece of metal that stretched from one hub to the next 20 feet off the ground over my head

I was grateful for that. If the wheels could turn independently, then you'd have one warp drive nacelle going at a different speed than the other. In engineering terms we call that "bad". As in vaporize the ship in a fireworks display bad.

The wheels picked up speed.

"Very good!" I shouted "You people are marvelous!!"

What else do you say to an engineering crew that successfully transitions across 500 years of technology in one day?

Ten minutes later the steam core was roaring, the whistle was blowing and the paddle wheels were making about thirty-five revolutions per minute. Not bad for wooden structures thirty five feet across.

Black smoke belched out of the smoke stack and I resented every unburned particle of it.

Ten minutes after that, the paddle wheels were making about forty-five revolutions per minute and the steam core was a solid mass of noise.

Then at the top of the starboard steam conduit the starboard steam injector made a very loud cracking noise and steam started escaping around the fitting.

"SHUT DOWN!" I bellowed. "SCRAM THE STEAM CORE! VENT REACTOR STEAM!!"

Fortunately Ensign Adkivornak was present to act as my runner. He got the message to Lt. Commander Miatsu.

I turned to the rigging crews "DISENGAGE THE STEAM!!" I also drew my finger across my throat signaling them to cut it.

Each team hauled on the ropes attached to the rigging chains, and turned the steam conduits slightly so that all steam was being directed past the paddle wheels.

The whistle screamed, and steam blasted out of the smokestack of the steam core.

Within a few minutes the noise was dying down and the rotation of the wheels was visibly reducing.

Since we were still in the old west town of Discovery I had to conclude that our first escape attempt didn't work.

I turned towards the engineering shack to get a damage and casualty report.

-*-

"Any luck?" I asked

East of... well, Discovery town, we had two telescopes set up. Several members of the crew were discussing their sightings heatedly.

Off to the east I could see a soft golden glow on the horizon. "Is that a city over there?"

"Where?" Kamaline asked.

"That golden glow to the east."

"I don't see anything, Sir" Kamaline was looking for the glow.

"Anyone else?" I asked.

They shook their heads.

"It's right there." I said, "Surely I'm not the only one seeing this."

Parker replied "I don't see it, Sir."

I took one of the telescopes and turned it eastward.

I could see the horizon and the golden glow coming from behind it.

I pointed the telescope at the center of the glow and stood back "Take a look."

Kamaline peered. "I am not seeing anything, Captain."

The rest of the science people and navigational crew looked. No one could see anything.

I nodded. "Alright. Come on back to town. We'll need to stay rested and fed as well as possible."

We broke down the stargazing party and carried the equipment back to Discovery-Town.

-*-

My eyes were scratchy and I was feeling very rumpled. It was mid- morning.

I'd spent the night wandering around the town and thinking. I wasn't alone, but I was given my solitude.

Until the dawn the golden glow was clearly visible to me but not to anyone I asked.

Now, strong sunlight poured down and blasted its way around the town. I liked it, but it's hard on the eyes when you haven't slept.

The shuttle bays of course were stables. The horses were branded with the numbers on our shuttles and pods. A few of them answered to their names. The Horse analog of the shuttle "James Cook" seemed to like the name Cookie and "George Vancouver" seemed happy being called George.

The Robert A. Heinlein and the Phillip K. Dick were represented by two buckboard wagons, with their names stenciled on the sides.

My office in Discovery-Town was analogous in many ways to my ready room on the Discovery. After sending out scouting parties, I spent the morning going through it object-by-object to try and find some clue. All I discovered was that almost everything was recreated metaphorically to be consistent with the old west feel.

Now, I was sitting on the front porch, enjoying the outside feeling from the shade of the awning, and trying not to worry myself about what was happening. I felt that with some time, my subconscious could find some clue or train of thought to follow.

Mendez and his away team appeared riding up the street.

I noticed that the away team members were riding double.

Each rider of Mendez' party was riding with a Vulcan in classical Vulcan robes.

They rode up to where I was sitting out in front of my office. "Captain," Mendez nodded. "We found the Vulcans."

"I see that." I grinned. "Welcome back to the Discovery."

Ambassador Soren looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Indeed."

T'Sing climbed gracefully down from behind Stephanie. "Captain, I have a report."

I looked at them carefully. Most of a day and a night out in the desert were probably refreshing to the Vulcans, but we needed to maintain our functionality for as long as possible.

"Let's go into the lounge" I gestured at the Saloon "And you can report while you eat and drink."

"Thank you Captain" Soren said. I noticed he looked a little careworn. Maybe the desert hadn't been as refreshing as all that.

"I believe the term is 'My home, my water, your home, your water', but it's hardly appropriate." I said. After all we were operating on the assumption that Discovery-Town was in fact the starship Discovery.

This raised disquieting questions that I banished from my mind. It was too horrible to contemplate.

As we crossed the street towards the saloon on the corner, I said to one of Stephanie's Security people, Nagarajan "Round up the senior officers, please. Tell them we've found the Vulcans and we're briefing in the saloon."

"Aye, Sir." She jogged off.

Two more Security people took the horses and began to lead them back to the Horse Bay. No doubt they'd need horse maintenance. Brushing, feeding, careful watering and so on.

Slung on the outside of the Vulcan's robes were something resembling a Sam Browne belt, slung across their backs, variations of a sort of a long handled sword. At their side, hefty long barreled pistols.

I thought I sort of recognized the pistol design.

"Le Matya hunting, Lieutenant?" I asked

Spaat held a step until he was even with me. "In Vulcan's pre-spaceflight days, Captain, such weapons were considered routine equipment. The gun is for Le-Matya. The sword is for bandits and other dangers."

I looked at him carefully. "This was all pre-Surak?"

"Yes, Captain. By the time of Surak the Le-Matya was rare."

"And how are you feeling?" I asked him. I was worried. Were our Vulcan comrades reverting to a violent frame of mind?

Spaat looked at me for half a beat and then cocked his eyebrow "I am feeling quite post-Surakian, Captain. However, the Healer T'Sing will be able to shed much greater light on what is happening."

I grinned at him. "Logical." It takes awhile but the Vulcan sense of humor grows on you.

Spaat raised both eyebrows at me. Obviously he'd be horrified if I suggested he'd been joking.

-*-

"We are under psionic assault." T'Sing reported. "I am unable to defend myself, let alone anyone else."

"Is that what's causing this?" I asked

"Indeed." T'Sing replied. "All we are seeing and hearing are illusions forced upon our minds by an outside force."

"How do you know this T'Sing?" Marcella Burlington asked.

T'Sing looked at Burlington with faint surprise showing. "I can feel it, Doctor. Can you not?"

Burlington shook her head. "Nope. No one has reported this feeling."

"Can the rest of you?" I asked the rest of our Vulcans

They nodded. Ambassador Soren explained "I am in the field of diplomacy because I have a rather low psionic... strength, if you will. It actually aids my professional duties not to be able to hear the thoughts of others clearly. Svorak is much the same, although his psionic strength is closer to normal. Spaat and T'Sao rate as average Vulcans on such a scale. However, strong psionic potential is a requirement for being a Healer. T'Sing must be equipped to handle telepathic and mental damage as well as physical damage."

"Ah." I said. "So T'Sing is the one with the best chance to understand and defend against the intrusion."

"That was the theory." T'Sing replied. "However, I am not strong enough to break out of the illusion which dominates us."

"Do you have any impressions that might help us?" I asked, "Any feelings or information?"

"Only that the source lies in that direction." T'Sing pointed due east, where I saw the golden glow the night before.

I nodded. "Good, great. Okay then."

I looked around. The little girl was looking in the window at us.

I looked at her. "Hello" I said.

She smiled at me.

"Please come talk to us." I said.

Looking somewhat shy she came around the corner and through the swinging doors.

I heard chairs shuffling behind me.

"Would you like something?" I heard Mendez ask.

The girl smiled a dazzling smile. "Ice cream?"

I turned and nodded at Mendez. "I'll see what we have" Mendez said, rising and moving towards the kitchen.

"Please don't be shy." I said, gesturing to a seat.

The little girl moved up and took a seat. "I like you." She said to me. "You're funny."

"Thank you," I smiled and gestured towards the officers at the briefing. "That's Marcella Burlington, that's Kamaline Darvon Ahk, that's Spaat, That is Svorak, That is Soren, that is T'Sao, that is T'Sing and that is Stephanie."

Lucas McCoy and Miatsu were resting up to take Delta and Gamma shift.

The little girl grinned merrily at each name. She stood up, bobbed a little curtsey and said "Pleased to meet you."

"Do you have a name?" I asked her.

"No!" The little girl's tone was one of amused and outraged denial, as if I had just asked her if she had a booger.

"How do other people know how to address you?" Soren asked.

The little girl thought about this.

For a very brief moment she scared me. Something about her was scary, as bad as anything I have ever seen. I felt my face go pale, but as I felt this the moment was past.

"They just do." She said.

I blinked and grabbed a glass of water. I had to do something about my throat being completely dry.

"We are very curious, and there is much we don't understand." Soren pointed out to the girl. "Would you help us to understand?"

She giggled at him. "You can't."

Soren raised his eyebrows at her. "Indeed?"

She shook her head. "Nuh uh."

"Where are we?" Stephanie asked.

The girl looked bashful and struggling, the way a child asked a complex question might. "You're in the dream."

T'Sing nodded. "We are experiencing another's dream?"

The girl twisted her hair. "Sorta."

"You're not like us, are you?" I asked her.

She looked at me. "Noooo."

"Why the Old West?" Marcella asked.

The girl was big eyed "I don’t know…"

"Why the guns and swords?" I asked.

The girl shrugged. "You brought them. I don't know."

The weight of my revolver sat heavily on my side. I brought it?

Mendez reappeared followed by a crewman with a tray.

He set down a silver serving cup filled with ice cream in front of the girl "here you go, young lady."

She smiled at him and started wolfing her ice cream.

The crewman with the tray had more ice cream dishes.

"The iceboxes are metaphors for the replicators." Mendez said. "Speak what you want and it will be present."

I heaved a large sigh. That took a load of pressure off. Discovery Town was not within days of starvation.

I took a bite of ice cream. It tasted home made and has chunks of strawberries in it. It was absolutely wonderful.

"Whose dream is this?" Svorak asked the girl.

She giggled at him.

We waited for a bit and then ate some more ice cream.

The little girl stood up "Thank you. I'm going to go play now."

"Have fun," I said, "Please come back whenever you like."

The girl skipped out of the saloon "Okay!"

She stopped in the door way. "You're not the only ones in the dream. Maybe that's why you have your stings and bites."

Then she skipped merrily out and down the street.

I looked across the table "Wonderful."

Stephanie spoke around the careful mauling of her ice cream. "I'll get the Sergeant Major and we'll work on a plan."

I nodded gratefully.

"The quality of the ice cream is superb." Soren said.

-*-

I found the analog to my quarters about that afternoon. My cat was there, perched on the bed. She had a lot to say to me when I came in.

"I apologize" I said to her.

She didn't care how I felt. She wanted to be fed and then reassured in that order. As long as I was willing to be large, warm, supply the food and protect her from life's vagaries. Purr-Bot was just fine with any emotion I cared to have.

I said "Cat food" and opened the ubiquitous ice-box. The Gunsmoke program didn't have these. However, they fit the décor nicely. The cat food was there, along with a bottle of milk and some cheese, and other things you might find in an icebox.

I placed the food on the floor in front of my cat and she dug in with gusto. Happy cat.

Then I had to figure out the restroom and bathing arrangements.

After that, the ancient bed was a relief.

-*-

Mendez and I were having an old argument. We were sitting in my office, under the gentle light of lamps, sipping some wonderful coffee, and talking like old friends. If we'd been able to stay there, that wouldn't have been too bad.

"But I can see it, Carlos." I said. "No one else seems to be able to."

Mendez shook head "If what you're seeing is the same thing as T'Sing is sensing."

"What are the odds?" I asked. I noticed Mendez was smiling, too.

He shrugged gently. "There is still the issue of protocol. First Officers lead away teams. It's done this way for a reason."

I spread my hands theatrically. "That reason is to protect the Captain's valuable skills and experience. Not only do I consider that point debatable, but I am already under mental attack. Staying here wouldn't put me any further away from harm."

"Ahh, but going would put you closer to danger." Mendez said.

"Perhaps, but it seems that I perceive something about our situation no one else does." I said

"Is that a reason for you to go, or is it a reason to hold back so we don't loose that perspective?" Mendez asked.

"What good is that perspective if we don't use it?" I asked.

"What good is it to the ship if you get killed?" Mendez asked.

"If something here is deadly to us, it will be deadly here in town our out in the field." I pointed out

"Yes, but you have more back-up here." Mendez pointed out.

"Are we plotting a battle, or an investigation?"

"If we decide on one or the other, we should be sure to let other residents of this dream zone know." Mendez smiled.

I leaned back "It doesn't seem so bad from this angle, does it?"

Mendez poured himself some more coffee and then sweetened it with some honey and added a dash of cream. "Not since we discovered that the replicators are working. However, we're trapped and not moving."

"Not that we can tell." I said.

Mendez sighed. "I'd hate to stand pat for a couple of years to test that hypothesis."

"How long can you dream before you wake up?" I asked.

"That is a good question."

"I'll be leaving with an away team at first light." I said.

"I know." Mendez smiled at me, "You only try to convince me when you've made up your mind that you're going. When you decide I'm going, you just say so."

I blinked at him. "Really?"

He shrugged "I guess you don't think I need to be convinced to go myself."

"Would you?"

"No."

I grinned. "We should talk like this more often."

Mendez smiled. "Hopefully we won't have that kind of time to kill here in Discovery-Town, Captain."

I nodded and jotted it down on some paper. "The mission will be to reach the source of the glow or the mental emanations that T'Sing senses, and investigate with an eye towards making contact."

Mendez grinned "Go east, young man."

-*-

We were saddled up on horses from the Horse bay.

There were ten of us, a regular posse. Old jokes skittered through my mind. Fortunately I was too adult to repeat them.

Our party consisted of me, Spaat, T'Sing, Kamaline, Stephanie, Rogan and four security people, Keller, Danner, Vaughn and Nagarajan. They got the luck of the draw to be Stephanie's security quad for this trip.

Packing for the trip was an interesting process. Rogan and I, being old hands in the Gunsmoke program helped everyone, but then there were questions of taking along analogous equipment.

I nixed most ideas. When traveling through a dreamland it didn't seem like an advantage to carry too much.

As the morning was full on, I waved my hand over my head and yelled "Ho!" and we rode off to the East. It was fun, in a surreal sort of way.

-*-

The first morning was no fun at all. I ached pretty much all over. I had this completely nasty taste in my mouth and my hearing was not fully recovered from impromptu marksmanship practice.

I rolled over and tried not to whimper. My nose... my nose reported wonderment and heaven nearby.

I opened my eyes and after a few moments of struggle with them I saw Kamaline preparing a pot of coffee.

"Ugghhhhh." I said.

"Breakfast." Kamaline chirped. She had far too much energy. I couldn't recall where I left my gun, and I made a mental note to put it out of reach before tomorrow morning, just in case Kamaline was perky every morning.

-*-

The landscape rose gently to the east. It rolled some now. There was also slightly more vegetation. We found a beautiful spring, marked by a handful of green trees that seemed anomalous in the desert.

As we rode, Stephanie assigned Nagarajan to ride next to me. Stephanie and Kamaline took the point.

A lot of conversational gambits didn't sound like they'd work out to me. "Where are you from?" didn't sound right. I should know that about her already, but I didn't.

"Tell me about yourself." I said. Nagarajan was tall and lanky. Her face was angular. She had a lot of muscle definition in her forearms. She looked older than most enlisted people, not quite as old as me, but closer than usual.

She slid a look at me "Not much to tell, Sir."

I shrugged. "I grew up in Southern California. I was in Riverside for some of it. It was a lot like this."

"Mmmm." She replied.

"You know, I'm sort of embarrassed, but I have forgotten your rank." I said.

"Specialist First Class, Sir." She said. It was about as high in the enlisted ranks as one could go.

I nodded "Thank you." I considered ordering her to make small talk. I didn't think that would work.

"How long have you been in Starfleet?" I asked. I had to bite down a sour expression. I was trying to come on to the woman.

"Eleven years, Sir." She replied.

I took a flyer. "What did you do before you joined up?"

She sighed deeply. "I played tennis, Sir. I was the Izarian world champion and I placed third at Wimbledon on stardate 35561."

"Wow." I said.

"I knew I plateaued as tennis player, but there wasn't a lot of call for people with my skill set. So I joined the Fleet." She said.

I looked at her. "Go ahead."

She looked right at me. "I'm not having fun any more. I want to get back to the Federation, muster out and go home."

I looked back. I nodded. "One day at a time. We'll make it," I said it with the utmost of sincerity.

She slapped a fake smile on her face and said "Yes, Sir," in a very fake sounding version of gung ho enthusiasm.

I smiled wanly at her and we kept riding. I knew we'd get back home in time. Nagarajan just didn't believe the Starfleet thing any more.

Fortunately about mid-afternoon an hour after we stopped for lunch, I was saved from the silence by the ghost town.

-*-

It was obviously abandoned. Weeds grew in the traffic areas. The buildings were run down and damaged. The paint was flaking away.

The buildings themselves were interesting. They had a more circular motif than the buildings in Discovery town, and the doors were circular. The windows were ovals. The buildings looked like ship building[s] with swooping warped wood, more that the flat sides and ninety-degree angles of Human construction.

Stephanie and her quad formed a skirmish line and rode in ahead. Spaat, T'Sing, Kamaline, Rogan and I rode behind them somewhat.

Stephanie and her people checked the town over while we waited and then waved all clear.

We entered what was left of another small town. I could see signs in no language I knew.

"Any clue about who inhabited this place?" I asked Stephanie.

"We have some bodies, but they've been here a while." Stephanie reported.

I pointed to a long hull-building with many oblong windows in it. "Let's try this one."

I slid down of my horse painfully, and hobbled across the dilapidated street and into the building.

As we entered, I noticed that there were a lot of aged bullet holes in the doorway. They weren't immediately visible because the wood aged until the colors all matched.

I moved in and then stepped away from the doorway. I didn't want to be framed in the sunlight.

I needn't have worried. The broken windows let in plenty of strong sunlight.

The place was ransacked. There were broken bits of furniture all over, debris on the floor.

There were skeletons.

I looked at one. It was a humanoid, but definitely not human. It had large eye sockets, now empty, ear holes and connections on the top of its skull I thought I saw attachment points for muscles there. The teeth were odd. Two large ones in the front and small ones filling out the rest of the jaw.

It had a digitigrade's feet. Thick foot pads were still present, although they were rotting away.

It was dressed in a rugged looking large over shirt and knee breeches. There were holes in the front and what looked like ancient blood stains.

The skeleton still had old strips of flesh on it. They looked like ancient pieces of jerky.

In the dead person's hand there was a gun. It had a lot of thin barrels in a cylinder pointing forward. A sort of micro-gatling gun. It apparently hadn't done enough good.

"Captain." Rogan's voice was rough. "These are Kamla."

I looked at him. "Are you certain?" The Kamla were one of the races of the Kurr association.

He nodded. "I know Kamla physiology. These are Kamla skeletons, or the skeletons of someone very like them. I believe I recognize the writing, as well."

I looked back at the dead person on the ground in front of me. I had a picture now.  They had faces and ears that reminded me of bunnies. They had short fur all over that was said to be very, very soft. They had colors like bunnies as well, from the brown mottled dry grass pattern of southwestern jackrabbits to the black and white mottled fur of the more domestic kind. Some had deep rich brown colored fur.

It took a conscious and sustained effort to keep from calling them bunnies in front of Rogan. They were one of the founding races of the Kurr Association. They were technologically advanced, ethically developed individuals worthy of respect.

I looked around. "This was a Kamla ship I take it."

Rogan looked around "The design seems vaguely familiar. They do like a circular theme. But this would bear the same relationship to a Kamla ship that Discovery-Town bears to the real USS Discovery."

Looking around me I grew frustrated "We have no way of telling from the artifacts if this ship predates the englobement."

Stephanie had a pocket knife out and was digging in the wall. She pulled a spent slug out of its hole in the wall and came over to me.

She picked up the Kamlan Micro-Gatling and compared the spent slug to the barrel

The rear part of the slug was still intact and was obviously about twice as large and tiny bores on the Kamlan gun.

"It's not this fellow's gun that fired this bullet," She said.

"No," I agreed. "What your point?"

"Did these people kill each other, or did someone else kill them?" Stephanie asked.

"Good question" I said.

-*-

We searched the Kamlan ship-town carefully.

I discovered the steam core lying on the ground in the ruins of the engineering shack. This bothered me a lot. Most of the fittings were rusty, as if they'd been lying out for a very long time.

The town had a single paddlewheel. The finish on the wood was excellent. This allowed the remains of the paddle wheel to survive the time with much less damage.

Several vanes were pulled off the Kamlan paddlewheel

Many buildings were vandalized, missing sections that could not be found nearby.

There were no other bodies other than the Kamlans.

Rogan appeared with a leather bound book. "The log of the ship. They wrote it in modern Kamlan. I can read it, Captain."

"What did they say?" I asked.

He looked down cast. "It was one of our sister ships. I knew the Captain. We trained to be deep space scouts together."

"My condolences, Rogan. I'm really sorry" I said.

He looked around. "We all knew it would be dangerous."

I looked at the horizon off in the distance. Plants grew and a gentle wind wafted passed. The distance seemed to eat all noise.

"Yeah," I agreed, "but who could prepare for the weirdness?"

He looked at me for a moment. "I have skimmed the log. They never discovered that this is a telepathic intrusion. Numerous theories were advanced, but they couldn't test any of them. In the end Commander Darlo took a crew out to explore and did not return."

That was unpleasant news "Any idea who attacked them?"

Rogan opened up the volume. "They describe them as machine men, a usage implying people who are owned by or stem from a machine."

I blinked "Androids?"

Rogan shrugged. "I have no idea."

I looked at the ghost town. It was very ghostly now. "Rogan, with your permission, we'll take what we can use and press on."

Rogan nodded. "I concur."

-*-

The sound of gunfire woke me up. That's not a nice way to wake up. I flopped over and hoped I could get coherent before what ever was happening was already done.

It was black, except for the dim coals of our fire.

I couldn't hear a thing. But then another gunshot went off and I saw a brief flash from it. Keller and Vaughn were shooting at something.

Nothing for it. I retrieved my own weapon and did my best to cover the other flank. I was crouched down. I thought I could almost see things moving, I thought I might be able to hear something, but not enough to target an attacker with.

In time, Keller and Vaughn stopped shooting.

I looked around. We were all up and facing outward, weapons in hand, back to what was left of our fire.

I sidled over to Spaat. I noticed he already had ear plugs in. Very logical. I tapped him to let him know where I was going.

I moved over to Stephanie. The beautiful smells of the night were obscured by the smell of the gun fire. "Real Gunsmoke" I thought to myself. It wasn't as romantic as the holodeck had it.

"Report."

"An unknown life form attacked." She pointed to a dark shape on the ground. Nearby it, T'Sing was patching up Keller. He had wicked cuts down both arms, and had the pale, clammy, shaky look of post combat reaction

I moved over to him, stood behind T'Sing and looked.

"Specialist Keller has sustained lacerations on his arms." T'Sing said. "He is not showing any physiological symptoms of poison at this time."

"Will he be alright?"  I asked.

T'Sing nodded sharply. "The cuts will be painful and leave scars, but he should not be impaired for long."

"Very good." I said to her. "Very well done, Mister Keller." I said to my security man.

He nodded at Vaughn. "She's the one who shot the thing, Captain."

Vaughn had Keller's weapon and was recharging it with fresh cartridges. "Well done, Vaughn." I said.

She looked up and flashed me a smile. There was nothing false about her enthusiasm.

Kamaline was examining the remains of the creature.

I went and joined her.

It was a horrible sort of pig/bird, colored glossy black. It had three large holes in it and it lolled utterly lifeless on the ground. I know for a fact that Vaughn and Keller fired more than three shots. It had a vicious looking predator's mouth, and an evil, slimy looking tongue drooped out of its mouth limply.

"What in the hell is this thing?" I asked.

Kamaline was poking it with a stick, wanting to avoid getting any of its bodily fluids on her hands.

"By the appearance, it can fly, if just barely. It would be better off in a lighter gravity." Kamaline said. "The color is excellent camouflage at night."

I nodded "have you ever seen anything like it?"

She shook her head. "Nope."

I sighed. "Alright, let's keep our eyes open."

-*-

In the daylight, the dead bird/pig looked sad. We found two more dead in the area surrounding our campsite.

One of them was only the front half of a bird/pig. It was partially eaten, messily so.

"Let's watch each others backs, shall we?" I said, looking around.

Stephanie nodded very definitely.

A few minutes later Kamaline came to me red in the face, and looking very angry.

"Captain."

I blinked. I hadn't done anything to annoy her. "Yes, Lieutenant?" I clung to my superior status as a shield against her anger.

Kamaline's anger was not aimed at me.

She opened her leather bound science book and showed it to me. The entry was a description of the bird/pigs. Not only did it show a neat cut-away of the physiology, but had technical charts of the creature's biochemistry, and chemical make up.

I flipped through the articles. "Very nice."

Kamaline looked frustrated. "That wasn't there before."

"Huh?"

"I held the book over the dead creature and wondered aloud what I might find in the book. And this information appeared." Kamaline said. "That book is my tricorder! I've had it with me all along!"

I grinned "That's excellent news Kamaline!"

"I feel dumb not to have discovered it before!" She snarled.

I handed the book back to her and grabbed her shoulder "Don't waste time with might-have-beens. We have a lot of our leverage back, now. We're in much better shape."

Kamaline looked up at me. "You don't think I was dim for missing it?"

I smiled "Kamaline, you are one of the least dim people I know. You are the best science officer in the fleet; don't let anyone tell you different."

She smiled at me "Thanks. I'll believe you someday."

"I'll keep saying it as long as it's true and you need to hear it."

-*-

As it turned out, T'Sing had a similar book labeled "Medicine". She'd left it back in Discovery-Town, not seeing the value of carrying it.

Her reaction was a raised eyebrow and a return to her business.

-*-

The ground was starting to get rougher now and we were forced to find the best path through.

As we climbed the butt of a hill, Stephanie and Danner spotted a figure ahead of us, further up the hill.

We waited there to see what he would do.

He was wearing large brown robes that covered him all the way; they looked almost Vulcan in pattern.

He came down at a measured pace, exchanging speed for sure footedness.

The voice was male. "Greetings. I am T'Vardas."

I replied. "Greetings T'Vardas. I am Captain Jay P. Hailey of the Federation starship Discovery."

"A Federation starship." T'Vardas seemed amused by the concept.

"Yes. We are on a peaceful mission of exploration." I replied.

"Well Captain JayPeeHailey, I would warn you that not all in these lands are interested in peaceful coexistence. At least, not as you're conceptualizing it." T'Vardas said.

"May we see your face, Sir?" I asked. I felt really uncomfortable talking to a man whose hands and face were hidden.

He stopped to think about it. "In time, perhaps. At this moment I am on my way elsewhere. Be advised. There is another ship ahead of you, approximately 4 kilometers away. Approach it with the utmost of caution."

His voice carried a wry smile "Or, if you feel trusting, you can alter your course to the southeast and avoid this other ship in its entirety."

"Thank you, Mister T'Vardas." I said. What else was there to say?

"We'll see each other again." And with that he continued on down the hillside away from us.

Stephanie and her security crew looked at me, and I shook my head. Let him go. We weren't in the hostage taking business, yet.

We watched the mysterious figure disappear down the arroyo.

Then I said "Let's proceed."

Stephanie grinned at me "You're not feeling trusting today?"

"Sure I am" I replied, "I'm just too curious for my own good."

-*-

We slid up the hill on our bellies and the scene unfolded in front of us. I felt a grimace lock itself on to my face and stay there.

The ship wasn't a village. It was a cube shaped frame of heavy timbers some ten stories tall. Random artifacts seemed hung off it. Some of them were working. Steam engines pumped. Gears spun.

People milled about the thing.

They bore a startling resemblance to the Tin Woodsman from the Wizard of Oz. Their left arms were metal with various grippers, drills and doo-dads.

The right sides of their heads were covered with an iron plate. Doo-dads were hung off this plate as well.

A few unfortunate beings were chained up and laboring away in fields surrounding the cube.

Groups of the people with metal parts stood around talking, laughing or shouting at the slaves. The tone sounded mean.

I slid back down behind the rise and hissed a breath out. "It's the Borg."

Stephanie glowered over the rise at them. "Steam fired punks."

"How many?" I asked.

Stephanie replied "Latest intelligence estimates put the crew of a Borg cube at over 10,000 drones."

I shook my head. "There's nothing we can do about this, except to avoid it."

Rogan slid down beside me. "Captain I think I see some of the Kamlan scout crew there."

I looked at him. He was looking at me with hope in his eyes. Could we rescue his people? I shook my head at him. "No promises, Rogan. We don't even know how these Borg drones are armed. If they are armed comparably to us, then they have an overwhelming advantage in numbers."

He crawled back up and looked again. "There must be something we can do."

I grabbed his arm "This is a dreamscape. We have no idea how this reflects physical reality. Let's find out more about what's happening. Then we can make a plan of some kind."

Rogan looked at me. I could see the frustration in his eyes. He knew I was pedaling for time. In a few moments the math made itself apparent to him. "If they should launch an attack on the Discovery…"

I nodded "We left about two hundred and ninety people back there. It wouldn't take a large proportion of ten thousand Borg drones to swamp them."

He slid back down. "Most unpleasant."

I nodded grimly. I didn't especially like the Borg myself.

-*-

We managed to sneak away without getting caught, at first.

We made about two kilometers to the south east. The ground rolled into a series of culverts and arroyos, covered with reddish brown earth, sandstone and scrub brush.

We stayed low in the ravines, trying to avoid being noticed at a distance.

So we didn't see the Steam-Borg work party until we were essentially right on top of it.

Stephanie and Danner in the lead stopped and wheeled their horses back towards us. "Borg. They've seen us." Stephanie reported

I looked around. There was no way out except the way we came. "We retreat!" I called.

We rode at quite a clip back up the small canyon, and then where it forked; we took the southern fork and slowed down. We rode at a fast walk down the southern off shoot of the canyon.

Stephanie made us slow down and sent Danner and Keller up ahead. Vaughn, Nagarajan and Stephanie covered them with the Winchesters.

As we rode, the southern canyon turned east, and I began to worry. It seemed like the two canyons turned parallel and ran in a south easterly direction.

Could the Borg have just crossed between one canyon and the other on foot?

I watched the canyon walls nervously.

All at once there was the cry "NEW MEAT!!" and several Borg drones popped up from behind ubiquitous rocks.

They had various weapons attached to their left hand mechanisms. They pointed them at us.

"We are the Borg!" a leader called "You will be adapted to serve us! Resistance is futile!"

I called back with my best projection: "We're just passing through, Gentlemen! There's no need for this to turn ugly!"

"Your needs are irrelevant!" The leader shrieked "Throw down the hardware meat! You're new Drones, now!"

"Denied!" I called "Prepare to return fire." I told my crew.

One of the Borg up and to my left fired at us. His projectile whizzed past my head. I felt the same electrical shock feeling up and down my nerves that I get when people fire phaser beams at me. Dead is dead.

"You will be Assimilate-- AIIEEEEE!!!" The leader shouted and was cut short by a shot from Nagarajan.

My horse wanted to panic about as much as I did. He wheeled around and sort of sideways skittered westward up the canyon the way we came.

Stephanie and her Security people laid down withering fire. I couldn't tell if they were hitting any Borg but they were throwing a lot of lead around.

A lot of lead was coming back our way. We'd been lucky so far. It took some effort for me to focus and search the surroundings. There. A few feet up the wall to my right, there was an indent, with a rubble drift looking thing in front of it. It was covered from the right wall, and offered some cover from the left hand wall as well.

I made my horse move towards T'Sing's. He wasn't very happy about this but he went. "Cover!" I pointed at the indent. "Get to cover!"

T'Sing slipped off her horse and skittered up the wall and into the covered area. I kept forgetting that for Vulcans, one Earth gravity was a touch light.

While Stephanie and her crew laid down covering fire, Kamaline, Spaat, Rogan and I joined T'Sing under cover. Then we gave the Borg Drones some lead while our security people got to cover.

We had to abandon the horses.

They ran off to the west, back the way we came.

Stephanie came into our hiding spot cursing. She'd taken a graze across her hip. It hurt like hell, from the sound of her.

I picked up Stephanie's rifle and took careful aim at a Borg drone picking his way down the embankment on the northern side of the canyon. I shot him and he went down. I could feel the shakes and the nightmares and throwing up for that one start and stop in my mind. Later, I'd pay. But not as badly as that Borg drone did.

I racked another round into the rifle and waited to see another target

-*-

After twenty minutes of sporadic firing, the shooting died down. We couldn't see any targets. There were fewer and fewer rounds fired at us.

After five minutes of no firing. A body rolled down off the ravine above us and impacted with a heavy, wet, limp thud on the rubble bank we were using as cover.

It was another Borg drone; she'd had her throat cut. Purple blood leaked out everywhere.

Another ten minutes of nervous waiting passed.

"People of the Discovery. Do not fire." It was T'Vardas.

"C'mon in" I said. Stephanie and Vaughn covered our southeast entrance.

T'Vardas came into our position. He was alone.

"Where are the rest of the Borg?" I asked him.

"They went back to get reinforcements, Captain. Soon a hundred Borg will be here pursuing you." T'Vardas said. "I managed to eliminate the sentries. We can escape now, but only if we hurry."

"Who are you?" Stephanie demanded.

He threw back his hood to reveal a Vulcanoid face, with a steel plate over his right eye. "I was T'Vardas of Romulus. I am now T'Vardas, a free Borg drone."

"A free Borg Drone?" I boggled.

"The collective doesn't function here, Captain. Each mind is on its own. Less than a quarter of the Borg Cube's original inhabitants now live. Most of the ones who you will see were raised Borg; they are culturally Borg as well as physically Borg. A few of us escaped into the wilderness." T'Vardas said. "Come now. There is little time."

"Our horses..." I began

"Have already been captured." T'Vardas said. "Come. Quickly."

I hung my head for a moment. "Follow T'Vardas." I ordered.

Leading us up a goat path, T'Vardas showed us the way out of the canyon.

"All in all." I told myself wryly, "not too bad for my first engagement versus live Borg."

But it felt like we were in deep trouble.

-*-

That evening we camped in an obscure ravine, some distance away. We had some water, no food and very little equipment of any kind.

T'Vardas forbid any fire, and I backed him. I didn't want the Borg to gain on us in the night.

I slept heavily. When I awoke, I was cold and the ground was painful.

I could barely hear talking.

Spaat, T'Sing and T'Vardas were speaking.

"… This place is a wasteland." T'Vardas said. "It is spotted with the remains of towns that I suppose are analogs of ships. But they age very quickly. Their people disappear. That or they get enslaved or killed by the Borg."

"What is it you hope to gain by helping us?" Spaat asked.

T'Vardas' voice was harsh. "Hope is a foreign concept in these parts, Vulcan. My motivations are my own."

"I may be able to help you, if we can return to the starship Discovery." T'Sing pointed out. "We have good records on the procedures for eliminating Borg implants."

There was silence for a moment.

"I am reasonably certain that I will end up being dissected by Starfleet Intelligence, vivisected for the secrets of the Romulan Empire and the Borg Collective." T'Vardas said quietly "Understand me carefully when I say that this may well be an attractive alternative to resuming my existences as a Borg Drone."

Spaat's voice was deeper with emotion he didn't want to show. "Logical. While we're under the influence of the Dreamer, you are free. This effect may end with the Dream."

T'Vardas' voice was wry. "Young man, I have seen many strike out to the east to attempt to discover the true nature of the place. I have seen none of them return, and I have seen no changes to this place."

T'Sing asked "Have you an alternative course of action to suggest?"

"It is irrelevant." I hated that phrase coming out of a Borg Drone's mouth, even a reformed one. "Heading east is suicidal. There is a great wall two day's travel ahead of us. I have yet to discover a path through it. You will wind up pinned between it and pursuing Borg."

I rolled over. "Mister T'Vardas."

The Romulan and the two Vulcans looked at me.

"Help us, and I promise that I will make every effort within my power to see you liberated from the Borg collective, and returned safely to the Romulan Empire." I said.

T'Vardas snorted gently. "If your goal is to proceed east, it is probably an elaborate suicide."

I sat up. "You're here for a reason T'Vardas. You already know that. The way I see it, dying while trying to escape is no worse than where you are now."

He smiled grimly in the moonlight. "You begin to understand, Captain. I will join your quest, if only so that I can face my ancestors and say that I died fighting the Borg and fighting to escape this…. Hell."

I stood up "Them or the Tal Shiar."

T'Vardas shrugged elaborately. "One invincible opponent at a time, please. I am only Romulan."

-*-

The next day reminded me strongly of Starfleet survival training. I hated Starfleet survival training.

Kamaline was able to open her science book to the entry "Scan for life forms" and then read up a detailed article about life forms nearby us.

With no Borg within the range of the book, but animals from several planets peacefully existing nearby, we used one of our limited rifle charges and shot one.

After it finished screaming and dying, Kamaline and Keller took out knives and started a bloody, bloody process of dressing the carcass down and making it into food.

Spaat and T'Sing again looked decorously offended in the Vulcan way.

Kamaline pointed to her book "T'Sing I am sure you can scan for edible vegetation with the Science book."

T'Sing snapped up the book "Spaat. Will you accompany me on a foraging expedition?"

Spaat leapt to his feet right behind her "Indeed, a most logical suggestion."

"Stick together, watch each other." I said.

Spaat and T'Sing nodded at me and left as quickly as logic would allow.

T'Vardas grinned at me as they left.

-*-

The preparation of the food was a total horror show and I was sure I would be joining Spaat and T'Sing in the vegetarian category the whole time.

Until the smell hit me.

I ate freshly massacred, dead innocent animal roasted over an open fire. I understood for the first time *why* humans could be so mean.

Meat tasted like murder, and murder tasted *good*.

Spaat and T'Sing returned, at length, from their foraging trip, using Spaat's robe as a bag for an armload of edible plants. Murder with a side of veggies tasted almost civilized, but lots better.

-*-

Unfortunately, our civilized repast and rest gave Borg hunting parties time to catch up with us.

We quick marched all the next day. We had one good stop next to a stream to refill water and to wash the gore of the murdered animal off but then we were off again.

Stephanie, Keller and Vaughn began to look beat. I didn't even want to know how I looked.

Rogan and I commiserated, exchanging miserable looks every so often. But we kept on.

Nagarajan, Danner and Kamaline looked like they were having a grand adventure. I almost demoted them for it.

T'Vardas simply kept stepping. His gait was unvarying, untiring and machine like. No real surprise there.

That night we camped in a copse of trees, again, with no fire and no food. I could hear my ancient ancestors whispering in my head. They told me they missed the Discovery and her replicators, too.

-*-

The next morning we sighted the wall that T'Vardas warned us about.

The ground kept rising to the east, with rolling hills. As we crested one hill that apparently had it in for my calves, I could see a black line that ran across the top of the hills to the east. It ran unbroken from the south to the north for as far as I could see.

All day it was down a hill, then up a hill, and the line would be a little closer and look a little less approachable.

Kamaline's book described cybernetic life forms as closing on us all day. They were in small clusters of 6 to 20 individuals. I spotted 7 groups. They were to the north and south of us as well as being to the west.

Once we got to the wall, they'd have us pretty well boxed in.

I had no idea how we were going to get over that wall, let alone out distance the Borg once on the other side of it, but we were kind of stuck now.

That afternoon we got to the wall itself. It rose 40 feet over us, and had no breaks. It seemed to be made from cut flag stones. The design seemed medieval.

There were thicker sections of the wall, and that led to angles between the thick parts and the main run.

We walked along it. I looked at it with some apprehension.

"I could climb that." Keller said confidently

I looked at him. Nagarajan, Vaughn and Danner nodded as well.

I looked back at the wall. We were running short of time.

"We climb." I said.

"Captain Hailey" T'Vardas said "I can not climb that wall." He held up his left hand. It was a collection of gizmos, none of which looked suitable for climbing a wall with.

"I will help him scale the wall." Spaat said.

I looked at Spaat. "Are you sure?"

He nodded with confidence. I noticed T'Vardas looked at him with somewhat less confidence.

There was nothing for it, unless we wanted to be guests of the Borg for a while.

"Vaughn, Keller, Go." Stephanie said. They would blaze the trail.

While Nagarajan, Danner and Stephanie watched our backs, we watched the security specialists climb the wall.

They made it look too easy. I was watching the hand holds, and mentally noting them. I didn't realize how athletic and well trained my security people were.

As they reached the top and slid over the edge of the wall, the little girl appeared at the top of the wall.

"C'Mon." Kamaline said to Rogan.

"This wall is here for a reason!" The little girl sounded irate.

Nodding grimly, Rogan stepped forward.

"The Borg are going to hurt us, Honey. Are you sure we can't just climb up to get away from them?" I called up.

Kamaline was as at home on the wall as the security people were. Rogan struggled a bit.

The little girl rolled her eyes in obvious frustration. "Okay, but just for a little while."

"Thank you." I said to her.

She left with a disgusted expression.

Kamaline slid over the edge and then helped Rogan over.

It seemed to take a long time.

"Proceed." Spaat gestured to T'Sing.

T'Sing walked up to the wall and with direct, logical steps, climbed it to a height of six feet or so.

Then she looked back at Spaat and T'Vardas.

T'Vardas approached the wall much more grimly than Rogan did.

Spaat accompanied him. "We shall climb in combination. We shall balance against each other, and I will support you in finding handholds."

T'Vardas looked at Spaat. "I must warn you-"

Spaat interrupted. "There is little time. Proceed."

T'Vardas gripped the wall and began his climb. Spaat intertwined himself intimately with T'Vardas and climbed as well.

T'Vardas seemed pleasantly surprised as it seemed to work. When he reached for a new hand hold, his weight was braced against Spaat, and Spaat quietly took the load.

It seemed to take forever for them to make the ascent. I fidgeted and dithered at myself.

T'Sing slid over the top of the wall and then turned and grabbed T'Vardas. She didn't haul him bodily over the edge of the wall, but it looked like she could have if she wanted to.

Relieved of the weight, Spaat easily crested the wall.

"Danner, Vaughn, Go." I said.

Stephanie interrupted me. "No, Captain. You go."

I looked at her. Now was not the time to be countermanding the Captain's orders.

Well, okay, yes it was. They were Security and it was their job to see I made it over the wall safely. I nodded quickly.

"Nagarajan, help him." Stephanie said.

I approached the wall and grabbed the first hand holds. My shoulders yelled and complained. Hmmmm. It wasn't as easy as they made it look.

I climbed anyway. It didn't seem to take long. Halfway up the wall I was soaked in sweat and breathing hard.

"Are you okay, Sir?" Nagarajan called from below me.

I gritted my teeth. Stephanie knew what she was doing to pair me up with the female security specialist. My pride wouldn't let me quit. I took a deep breath and said smoothly. "Just fine."

I kept going.

Something spanged off the wall right next to me. It was moving fast and it slapped the wall with flesh cutting force.

I craned my head over my shoulder and looked. The Borg were there. 500 yards away they were approaching in that quick, mechanical, repetitive gait.

"Don’t look, Sir. Climb!" Nagarajan said, sharply.

Suddenly I felt a lot lighter. I recognized the effect of an adrenaline rush. A small part of my brain noted that it was the first one I'd ever had that was entirely helpful and appropriate.

I focused on the climb.

Just shy of the top I felt something wet and sticky on the wall. I looked at my hand. Green Blood. The climb wasn't as easy as Spaat made it look. I kept climbing anyway.

I wasn't able to negotiate the edge of the wall well. I got painfully stuck, when Spaat and T'Vardas hauled me up.

I rolled over. "Security, four charges, fire to cover for Stephanie and Danner."

Vaughn and Keller took position and started to fire their weapons.

I heard distant pops. The wall rattled. It sounded like hail, but much worse.

I looked over the side. Stephanie and Danner were halfway up the wall.

A bullet zipped by my head about a foot away from my right ear. I'll never forget that sound as long as I live.

Danner yelled and fell off the wall. I grimaced. Stephanie looked back down at him.

"Keep climbing!" I bellowed at her.

Danner landed and rolled in a controlled way, but he stayed down

She looked up at me. I could see it in her eyes. "But I'm responsible for him!"

I held her gaze. Me too.

She kept climbing.

Danner scrambled to his left foot. He was not using his right leg.

He half crawled, half hopped to the wall.

"Meat!" The Borg called "You're gonna be assimilated!"

Danner looked up at us as Stephanie got hauled over the edge of the wall. The red on his leg seemed to glow at me with radioactive evil. He'd been hit in the leg and then damaged it in the fall.

Without expression he unslung his rifle and heaved it up to me. I caught it out of mid air. I didn't have time to be surprised.

I quickly checked the weapon and brought it to my shoulder. I got my first shot off. A Borg flopped to the ground. Danner's ammunition came over the wall and almost brained me.

I moved to the side. The popping noises were continuous now, and it sounded like a picnic under a beehive.

Vaughn grabbed my shoulders and twisted while blocking my feet with one of her own. I went face down on the wall hard, and then she covered me. It might have amusing and interesting excepting that this wasn't the time, and I could sense nothing from her but grim determination to do her job.

I started to curse and wriggle. But then my brain caught up with me and I laid still.

Danner was yelling "I surrender! Don't shoot!"

Everyone else was down taking cover behind the edge of the wall. The occasional loud pops still sounded and the occasional sound of lead hail on the wall.

It tapered off.

"Meat! C'mon Down!" One of the Borg called.

A moment later Danner cried out. Stephanie and Vaughn risked a peek. I was going to as well, but Vaughn used me to push off to get her peek jamming me back into the wall.

"Meat! We're gonna git ya! Resistance is futile! You will be assimilated!" The Borg yelled.

I didn't say anything. I looked up and everyone was looking at me. I held my finger to my lips. Silence. We would give nothing away. I pointed to the south and made a sort of crawling motion.

"We already got one of ya! He'll tell us everything about what you're doing sooner or later. If ya run, you'll just be assimilated tired!" The Borg liked this line. They chuckled at it.

"Danner! Tell them everything they want to know!" I bellowed. "Cooperate for now! We'll be back!"

"One way or the other, Meat! You'll be adapted to serve us!" The Borg yelled back.

We crawled away.

"We go get the ladders, this time. I'm tired of doing this halfway." The Borg leader growled.

-*-

We kept moving. The ground got steeper and steeper as we went; we were definitely closing in on the mountain that dominated the eastern sky now.

We climbed a ridge about mid morning. I turned and looked behind. The view was stunning. I could see the horizon hundreds of miles away. I could see the flats of the desert behind us. It was almost disheartening, because I could still see the wall in the distance behind us. It didn't seem as far away as my legs were telling me.

I almost thought I could see the wreck of the Kamla ship. I thought if it were night and they had it lit up I could see Discovery Town from there.

I could also see a group of Borg about an hour behind us. I didn't know if they could see us.

Then I saw another group and another.

“Damn.” I breathed. I was going to die of a heart attack before the Borg got me.

“We should keep moving, Captain.” Spaat said. I could see him looking at the Borg, too.

“Vulcanness is wasted on the young,” I grumped at him as I turned.

He raised his eyebrow. “Indeed.”

-*-

The climb got steeper and we got slower. The landscape was dominated by rock and cliffs. The trail wound always upward and always steeper.

T'Vardas took the lead, his legs pumping tirelessly. I didn't like that. That was also a reflection of how our pursuers were taking this climb.

-*-

By evening I was more tired than I thought I could ever be. I was struggling to keep moving.

A gunshot woke me up all the way.

I turned to see three Steam-Borg grinning at me and leveling weapons. They must have enjoyed the look on my face.

I turned and ran.

Stephanie, Keller and Vaughn returned fire.

-*-

We ran across a rare flat place to a narrow opening between two huge formations of rock. I took cover.

I checked my huge revolver. It was heavy. The weight helped control the recoil. I liked it and hated it at the same time, a feeling that was familiar to me from Starfleet phasers.

The object in my hand meant pain, death and fear, lots and lots of fear. But it was also a tool to help cope with all of these.

I liked Phasers a lot better. They had stun settings. Phasers also had a much, much larger supply of shots available.

I was down to my last twelve bullets.

I noticed Rogan was there, looking grim, waiting for a shot.

Stephanie, Vaughn, Keller and Nagarajan were covering our retreat.

I could hear the gunfire as they backed up the hill to the flat spot.

I wanted to cry, shout and scream. How long had we been stuck in this awful place? I looked above us. I couldn't see any more mountain. How close were we?

I even missed Discovery-Town. Sure it was a rude, dirty little old west out post metaphorically modeled on the starship Discovery. By comparison to what we'd seen since, it made perfect sense, in a wooden, hand carved, completely un-ergonomic way.

Stephanie and Vaughn appeared firing slowly. I knew they were low on charges, too.

Then Keller and Nagarajan ran around and took up covering position half way to our cover.

The fire coming from down the hill was a lot louder. You could tell the Borg weren't worried about how many bullets they had left.

Stephanie and Vaughn turned and ran to our crack in the rocks.

Borg topped the rise. Nagarajan and Keller shot two of them.

But there were five Borg, they fired. Across a flat space with no more than a few meters between them, there was no way for the Borg to miss.

Keller and Nagarajan went down.

I howled and fired all the bullets in my gun.

Stephanie shook me. “Cover us! Cover us, Sir!”

I started reloading my gun. I was shaking and it was taking far too long. I had to blink tears out of my eyes. Spaat, Kamaline and Rogan fired carefully. No more Borg made it over the rise alive

Stephanie, Vaughn and T'Sing ran out for our injured.

I some how got the slippery bullets into my gun and added my fire to the rest.

Stephanie and Vaughn hauled Keller back. T'Sing casually draped Nagarajan over her shoulders and came back at a deliberate walk.

Keller grunted when Stephanie and Vaughn put him down. There was a lot of blood but he was alive.

T'Sing put Nagarajan down. There was still more blood. A lot of it covered T'Sing. T'Sing quickly, methodically checked Nagarajan. “She is dead.”

She moved to work on Keller.

I found myself staring at the empty shell that used to be Nagarajan. It was getting much harder to focus on doing the job. I turned looked for a target. The Borg were taking cover behind the rise and winging shot at us almost at random.

We had to fall back. We had to go. We had to try to find the end of this thing before it killed us all.

"Get up there." I barked at Rogan. "Move!" I jerked my head up the trail.

He looked at me grimly.

"Go, Captain!" Stephanie barked right back at me. Vaughn looked over her shoulder and nodded vigorously.

Something in me rebelled. Stephanie and Vaughn were prepared to play Horatius at the gate. It seemed fundamentally wrong for me to leave two women to guard my escape.

"You cannot stay" Rogan said, "Too many depend on you. More than you suspect I think."

Damn Rogan and his hero worship!

And damn them all for being right.

"The Discovery can survive loosing us, but not you! You're the Captain that means you have a duty to go!" Stephanie snarled.

The Borg rose and tried to rush our position. A hail of gun fire killed a number, the rest went for cover. They didn't know it was very nearly the end of our ammunition. One lay and screamed among the others

Gritting my teeth I gave in. "No more command classes for you, Stephanie." I handed her my gun and my remaining ammunition.

I turned and stomped up the path. I didn't want to leave them behind. I hated that with all my heart.

“You will be assimilated, Meat! One of the Borg said.

"Nope." Stephanie said grimly

As I stepped around a sharp bend in the path, Kamaline, Spaat, T'Sing, Keller and T'Vardas were waiting.

I was about to start yelling at them, but something bugged me

There had been no shots fired.

I glared at my crew.

"How are you doing Keller?" I asked

"Bad, Sir." Keller said.

T'Sing said with quiet, implacable logic "I cannot stop his bleeding with the materials at hand."

I had to go. I had to find the center of the effect and find out what was going on here. If I hurried, maybe we could fix this before Keller died.

Still no shots from down below. Was that good, or was that bad?

"Follow as you are able." I snapped

T'Sing and Kamaline joined me, while Spaat and T'Vardas lifted Keller. Keller grunted and tried not to yell.

I glared at Kamaline and T'Sing. Was I going to have to leave them behind, too?

I stomped up the narrow trail. It was barely one person wide. It looked chopped into the stone cliff side by hand.

No shots fired yet. I prayed that was a good thing.

-*-

We crested the trail onto the top of the mountain. It was like a volcano, with a circular crater at the top. The area was more open.

Evening was setting in. Off to the west I could see the secondary glow of the sun behind the horizon. Off to the east it was dark and the gently sliding stars could be seen, coming out for our third night.

The little girl was there. I was beginning to get annoyed with her. I did my absolute best not to show it.

"Hello." I said to her. It came out harsher than I wanted it to.

She said "Stop now."

I looked at her. She had to be kidding.

"You have gone far enough," She said. "I don't want you to go any further."

From down the hill, small globes of light, maybe a foot or eight inches in diameter appeared and floated towards us.

"What the hell?" I said.

The little girl didn't even turn and look. "My friends. You can be my friends, too. But don't go any further until they explain to you."

I glared at the little girl. "What in the hell is going ON HERE!?"

She flinched and stepped back. I felt like a heel. "I don't know how to tell you." She started to cry. "You're so hard to talk to."

The glowing balls came upon us then.

**Greetings, Captain Hailey.** One of them thought to me.

"Greetings yourself." I said.

**We represent what you can become in this place. We have become one with the dream.** the Ball thought at me. It hovered at about eye level. More seemed to swirl around like glowing balloons.

"I'd like my ship and my crew released from this place, please." I said.

**Sadly, this is not possible. The Dream continues while the Dreamer Dreams.**

I looked down into caldera. I could see a golden glow shining out of a ring of stones at the very center. The glow reminded me a lot of the way the balls were glowing, but larger, with much more energy.

"Is that the Dreamer there?" I pointed.

I sensed a wash of surprise. **Interesting. You can perceive the dreamer?**

"Yeah." I looked for a path to pick my way down into the Caldera.

The ball swooped in front of me. **I must ask you not to disturb the Dreamer or the Dream.**

I yelled at the glowing ball "I have people dead and dying! I have no time for dreams!"

A faintly blue glowing ball moved over to Keller.

It merged with him. Keller began to glow. Immediately his wound disappeared. He stood up and chuckled. "Captain! This feels wonderful!"

Then he turned into a glowing ball. I noticed that he was a shade of pink that corresponded to his red hair and complexion.

The blue ball separated from the pink one.

They drifted off towards the western sky.

I looked at T'Sing. She looked blankly back at me and then raised her eyebrow.

"What just happened?" I asked the golden ball in front of me.

**One of our people helped the one you call Keller to become one with the Dream. He is no longer in danger of dying..** The golden ball thought at me warmly.

"Keller! Report!" I bellowed at the receding pink ball of light

**It takes some time to get used to, Captain, especially for someone who has undertaken a premature transformation. Keller will speak with you again as soon as he is able.**

Stephanie, Rogan and Vaughn appeared on the trail behind us. I watched them approach with my heart singing.

Stephanie approached me. I wanted to give her a hug, but it seemed inappropriate. "How did it go?" I asked.

Stephanie looked at me for a moment. “These globes appeared and then the Borg left, Sir.”

**It is not hard to influence the Borg once you know how.** The golden Balloon explained

I felt my shoulders slump as tension I didn't know was there left. “Thank God."

Stephanie smiled at me. "Yeah, Me too."

**Rogan, my old friend.** a greenish ball hovered over to Rogan.

"Do I know you?"

**I used to be called Darlo. I was Balar's second in command.** The greenish ball informed him.

Rogan put out his hand and it went right through the glowing ball. "Darlo, what has happened to you?"

**I have become one with the Dream, Rogan. It is wonderful, the way we are truly meant to exist. I am now a being of pure thought, not limited by flesh.** The Greenish ball enthused. **I am a quantum step closer to perfection than any material being can ever be.**

The little girl nodded solemnly "They play with me."

**For her it is merely play. This is how far we have yet to travel towards perfection.** The Golden Ball said reverently.

The girl smiled at it radiantly.

I directed my anger at the Golden ball. "This isn't a GAME!! People are dying back there."

The Golden Ball pulsed with empathy and sadness **Captain, can you not see? It is their choice. The Dream the Dreamer Dreams is a Dream for all.**

I stared at it for a moment. "What in the hell are you babbling about!?"

"It sees but it does not understand." The little girl said at me with big eyes. "I've never seen one stuck halfway like that before."

**Indeed, a most curious being.**

"Captain, I think I see what they are saying." T'Sing said. "Recall that this is a telepathically induced experience. It may be that the distance to the dreamer is a metaphor for something else, perhaps understanding of the nature of our situation."

**Excellent, young Healer. I look forward to you joining us.** The Golden Ball said.

I found the trail down.

"Screw this. I'm going down there." I said. I started sliding down the path into the caldera.

**Do not, Captain.** The Golden ball swooped up in front of me. I swear it was bobbing aggressively.

"Step away from him!" Stephanie barked. She had her gun and my gun in hand and was pointing one of them at the Golden Ball in front of me.

**As we are more perfect in form and perception,** the Golden Ball said mildly **we also possess more perfected defense mechanisms, Lieutenant Commander Anderson.**

Stephanie slumped to the ground as though she were stunned.

"Damnit" I hissed, and kept sliding

There was a gun shot and the little girl screamed in real fear.

But the bullet whipped passed me and through the Golden Ball like he wasn't there.

There were no more shots. I assume Vaughn went down the same way Stephanie did.

**Uh oh** The Golden Ball seemed concerned at me.

It hovered again and then said, **Interesting**

I got to the bottom and was bowled over by Spaat. He rolled right over me and came to a stop down the slope a bit. I scrambled towards him. He looked bruised and scraped up. I felt for his pulse, way too fast and thready, burning with fever beyond any human endurance.

He was fine, just unconscious.

As I checked him, T'Sing came up behind me. "Captain." She sounded pained. "I am under severe telepathic assault. I believe the beings are trying to mentally disable us."

Her face held strain and effort.

"Spaat seems fine, but unconscious." I said. "Are they stunning us?"

T'Sing shrugged "I can only guess, but I surmise this is the case."

The Golden Ball thought to me **We are not monsters Captain. We shall not seek to tear you asunder with rounds from firearms.** The unspoken side of that was clear "like you just did to us."

I stood up and walked across the caldera. Full night was on, now, the slowly sliding stars littered the sky. But I could see by light of the dreamer ahead of me.

T'Sing and T'Vardas lay behind me, finally over come by the gentle balloons.

**No.** The golden ball placed itself right in front of me. **Proceed no further. You risk all of our lives.**

"If you have a compromise, I am willing to listen." I said, "But the Discovery cannot stay here."

The ball bumped me gently **You must not proceed. The Dreamer must not be awakened.**

"What good is finding your new form if it's only valid for this dream?" I was frustrated. " What about reality?"

**Reality….** The Golden ball said. **That concept is so limited, a brief spark of life in a fleshy shell, gone in moments, no closer to true understanding.**

Another ball gave a very female sounding kamikaze yell and swooped into my leg, bumping me gently. I think she was trying to shoulder check me from behind.

"How close are you to understanding reality here in a dream?" I asked. "None of this is real!"

I was surrounded by balls now. They were all thinking *No!** or **Please don't** or something like that.

The golden ball bumped me gently in the face. I think he was trying to punch me.

I batted at it. My hand made contact and the Golden ball grunted and flew about a foot away.

I was fist fighting with balloons.

At least I was winning.

As I got close to the center of the Caldera, the Balloons fell back and there was the little girl. She looked so familiar to me now.

"No." She said "Stop."

"I can't let this dream hurt and kill my people any more." I said "It's time for the dreamer to wake up."

Something of the little girl's true face showed and I felt my guts liquefy. She was incredibly scary

"I don't know why my friends can't hurt you, but nothing will stop me." She said. Her delicate hands were balled into fists.

"You're the dreamer aren't you?" I asked "You're really there." I pointed at the golden glow.

She nodded solemnly.

I was so dead. I was already gone. My voice quavered. "Why don't you want to wake up, Honey?"

"I don't want to." She said.

"I know that sweetie, but *why*?" I asked.

"I… I can't tell you! You're too small!" She started to cry.

"You're afraid, aren't you? You think you're safe here from the scary things outside." What in the galaxy could scare this monster?

The little girl looked at me sideways "Sorta."

"The Harmon?" I guessed. Suddenly it made sense. No wonder. "Did they scare you?"

She blinked at me. "Yeesss. You know of them!"

I nodded. "I'm so sorry." I sank to my knees in front of her. "I know what you mean about being too small now."

The scary visage was gone. The girl stepped in and nodded "uh huh."

"But I know some people who might be able to help you." I was thinking of the Organians.

"But they are other…" The little girl said, her fear was palpable.

She stepped to me and gestured towards my head.

"Go ahead." I said.

She touched me. I was assailed by memories of my two encounters with the Harmon and the brief visit from the Organians. I could tell she perceived far more from my limited memories than I did.

She snatched her hand back. "You've spoken with them!"

I nodded, "As much as possible given my limitations."

She screwed up her face. "I'm scared! I'm so scared!" She started to cry.

"Sweetie, I know it's scary." I gathered her into a hug. "But there's no other way to go."

She grabbed me tight and cried like the world was coming to an end.

I suppose, for her it was.

-*-

In a stone temple, a huge glowing golden ball hung, sleeping and glowing like a mythical sun, ready to be hauled by a chariot through the sky.

We stepped up to the carved stone dais that surrounded the glowing sphere. It must have been 15 feet across.

The little girl squeezed my hand until I worried she'd break it, or hurt herself.

"You know where the Organians are? You know where the Harmon are?" I asked her.

She nodded. "I know the way."

"Can you get there?" I asked.

She nodded. "It's not that far."

Standing next to the radiant ball, I could sense all sorts of things. Intellect, knowledge perception that made me feel even more insect like. No wonder the globe people dove into it.

"What's going to happen to your friends?" I asked. "What's going to happen to all the people?"

She shook her head wordlessly. She had no more idea than I did.

I touched the ball. It felt warm and very alive "It's time to wake up."

-*-

I had a brief flash of being an insect, and looking at the insect ships around me, I could see things very clearly out to an enormous distance, and I knew things about the bugs around me. That Hailey bug was interesting. Did he even know that he was someone's pet bug? It didn't seem likely. But he was a very good bug as bugs went.

-*-

I woke up when I found myself slammed across space and into the Command chair of the USS Discovery.

The neural overload feeling was there but not as strongly. I reeled but held on.

Red alert sounded.

I looked up into the maw of a Borg cube. "Oh Hell."

"We're being scanned by a Borg Cube!" Lt Zuma said. "Raising shields, arming weapons."

Spaat was on the deck, down. I looked around the bridge and spotted Kamaline and Stephanie down.

"Sickbay here! We have people down all over the ship!" Marcella Burlington yelled

"We're being hailed, Captain, it's the Borg. " Lucas McCoy said.

I could hear Carlos Mendez suck his breath through his teeth.

"On screen." I said. I was hoping to buy a moment of time while they gave their common assimilation speech.

The Discovery rattled. I could see on the tactical repeater, several explosions were happening.

It was T'Vardas. He looked much more classically Borg. "Hailey!  The Collective is gone! Some of us are calling out but all we hear are echoes and distant murmurs! The Collective has been eradicated! It is no longer present!"

An explosion happened behind him. "The loss of contact with the Collective is triggering self destruct mechanisms. We are fighting them but chances are not good!"

"Helm, get us out of here!" Mendez barked.

Another explosion. I could see the main cube brewing up.

The deck tilted, as the Discovery turned and ran for her life

"Tell them! Tell Romulus! Tell my family! I never left the way! I never stopped fighting-" Everything organic about T'Vardas was flash fried in a plasma leak. The image of his endo-skeleton screaming for a moment before the picture was lost stays with me to this day.

The Cube exploded, burning bits flew in every direction. Then it really let go and splattered itself in a series of explosions, any one of which was bigger than the Discovery doing a full warp-core breach.

The debris thinned out the flash from the explosion cleared. I could see a golden ball, shining brightly. Accompanied by a double handful of much smaller spheres, she rocketed into warp space at breath taking speed. We later plotted her course. She was heading for the Federation.

-*-

Nagarajan was dead. There wasn't a mark on her body, but she was stone cold dead.

Danner was there. He told of being captured by the steam powered Borg and forced into slavery in chains. His dry recitation was awful. They weren't very nice to him.

Keller was present as well. He woke up and said "What happened?" He had no memory of our time in the Dream.

I envied him.

-*-

We found debris. It seems that starships didn't take well to being looted and abandoned in the dream world. Nearly all of them blew up as soon as the Dream world was dropped.

We found and cataloged seven wrecks, including Balar's scout from the Kurr Association. There were no survivors.

-*-

I sat in the lounge of the USS Discovery and drank coffee from an enameled metal cup and listened to the piano which was replicated and added to the lounge.

Over night the Discovery grew a western theme. I said nothing.  If it made the crew happy, I didn't mind.

I looked out the windows and pictured glowing spheres.

The little girl was a Harmon.

What else had the Harmon added to my brain? I could see her presence and talk to her because of additions to me the Harmon left the last two times we spoke.

What else had they done to me? T'Sing and Marcella Burlington could find nothing unusual about my brain, but I knew different. The girl's friends, the Perfect Ones, they were copying Harmon ways in an imperfect way and couldn't even touch me. The Harmon changed me somehow.

It left me wondering. Was I even part of the human race any more?

Rogan approached me.

The piano tinkled "Yellow Rose of Texas."

Rogan sighed "The Gun Smoke Program seems sort of redundant now, doesn't it?"

"Yeah." I said. It rasped coming out. "Let's play something else, shall we?"

Rogan smiled at me gently. "Something without gun fire."

"Definitely."

-End-

Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Star Trek. I claim Original Characters and Situations for me.