Wakes

[tasha_yar]

The nightmares were particularly bad tonight. There was a smell to them. Burnt polymers, dry sand, and something decaying. Someone...or was it something? It was talking in a voice that sounded far away, yet at the same time cloying, choking, drowning. A death rattle voice.

An interesting notion I do not share. It rasped mockingly. You may leave now; if you wish.

But she couldn't leave. There had been a logic to the dream where she couldn't leave. She stepped in front of Data. She couldn't recall what she said. She was talking and moving, focusing this thing's attention on her. Then the dream shifted and she was flying and when she landed there was nothing.

She took a deep breath in and tried opening her eyes. Her chest hurt. Everything hurt. She redoubled her efforts, took the next breath in and opened her eyes only to discover she had a sizable headache. There was an unhappy gasp as she pulled herself up to a seating position and marveled at the fact she hadn't felt this bad since the day after the Tchaikovsky problem. Whatever this was, she'd check in with Dr. Crusher if she felt any worse.

"Computer, give me the time."

"The time is 0713 hours and 17 seconds."

Tasha spat out something short, scandalous, and to the point that covered her irritation with being nearly late. No time for a shower. Good thing she had fallen asleep in uniform again. She made herself leave the bed, throws on her boots, runs her fingers through her honey blonde hair, and starts out the door.

In her somewhat sleep-and-pain fogged state, she didn't notice some things she should have, like the differences in the few uniformed officers passing her in this early hour. It was only when she entered the lift and ordered it to the bridge that she encountered her first problem.

"Bridge."

The turbolift didn't budge. She repeated herself.

"Bridge!"

Still nothing.

She sighed. There must be some kind of maintenance going on. Damn annoying.

She touched her badge. "Yar to bridge."

Silence. The communicator was unresponsive.

She let out a huff and made a note to go to the gym this evening to take all of this out on the punching bags. Think, Tasha!

Most of the primary bridge crew would not be on at this hour. Will could be busy. Data could be up there, or he could be tinkering with the lifts. Either way, she wasn't much interested in presenting herself to his cheerful demeanor while she was like this. Same thing with Geordi. She could get Worf, but he would have just gotten off shift and he needed to understand what "time off" meant - even if she had a poor grasp of it herself. That left:

"Yar to Captian Picard."

[OOC note: Picard gets to be tortured first and without back-up. The next post is going to be open. Thank you.]

Comments

[tasha_yar]

She nods at Beverly's scanning and listens to Picard while trying to dreg up anything from her memory. Nope. Nothing there except working out, going to sleep, having another nightmare about fighting something bigger than her and then coming back to the much saner real world - even though two years were gone from her sane world.

She frowns, but her blood pressure visibly drops on the scans by the biobed. "As Chief of Security, sir, it would have been part of my duties to go down. Is that when I disappeared?"

[tea_earlgrey_hot]

Picard makes a move to speak, but pauses to let Beverly interject some mild counsel and inform Lieutenant Yar that she would like to run a few more tests.

He nods.

"You, along with Commander Riker, Lt. Commander Data, and Dr. Crusher went to the planet to investigate, and while you were there you encountered an entity previously unknown to us who referred to himself as Armus," Picard begins, pausing to gather his thoughts. "The entity at first appeared to be something like a pool of oil, but it could move and take shape, and eventually it spoke with us. We quickly discovered that Armus' intentions were ill; he derived pleasure from inflicting pain, you see, feeding on that energy, and therefore he showed no regard for our wounded or the away team."

He pauses, exchanging glances with Dr. Crusher. She looks concerned, but after a moment she gives him a small nod. He turns back to Tasha, eyes downcast, and lifts his chin to speak. "Tasha. You engaged Armus, and he wounded you. You did not survive."

[tasha_yar]

She nods to Beverly as well. The more she cooperates, the faster this will be over with. She then turns her full attention back to Picard.

She straightens, not at the announcement of her apparent death, but at the description of Armus. "Sir," she says slowly, puzzling something already trying to flee from her mind. "Is where we encountered Armus an arid enviroment or smell of decay?"

[ten_fwd_npcs]

The question brings Beverly to full attention, therefore it's she who answers rather than Captain Picard.

"Yes," she says, the memory of Vagra II fresh in her mind. "We didn't expect to see any lifeforms. The sensors read no vegetation, no life signs other than Counselor Troi and Lieutenant Prieto. Are you remembering something?"

[tasha_yar]

"It was a dream," is her automatic reply. Then, she growls at herself a little and shifts her attention between the two older officers.

"It's vague. I thought it was a dream. I went to sleep last night -" she says, not letting the truth of events slow down her perceptions. "And there was this nightmare of a dead world. I remember the smell of burnt polymers, sand, and something that smelled decayed. Something spoke in a voice that sounded -" She pauses for a split second, unable to find the word. "Dead. Like Death. It said something about not sharing our views." She shakes her head. "I didn't like the way it seems to be looking at Commander Data. I mean, I could sense we were all being sized up and -"

She rolls her eyes at herself. "I wanted its focus on me instead of them. I thought maybe -"

She deflates with another shake of her head. "It's gone now, sir.

[ten_fwd_npcs]

Dr. Crusher shakes her head, visibly shaken by Tasha's account.

"That's him," she says, glancing between Tasha and Picard. "That's Armus."

The grief she felt over losing Tasha and the pain from those memories comes back, as fresh as ever, but she swallows it down. Whatever this is, Tasha needs her now. There will be time to process what's happened later. For now, she focuses on her readings, and the information Tasha is providing her with.

[tea_earlgrey_hot]

He nods.

"That's all right, lieutenant. You've done quite well," he says, smiling tightly.

She remembers the events as though it were a dream, which suggests perhaps her mind is searching for a way to deal with the trauma of what happened to her. Or perhaps it suggests that what she went through on Vagra II has somehow been manipulated by Q. Only the results of her scan will truly tell. Is she alive? Dead? Is this in fact the real Tasha Yar? How far do Q's powers really stretch?

"You acted as any Starfleet officer in your position would, with honor," he goes on, to further reassure her. "However, lieutenant — I have delivered rather unsettling news. Are you sure you are all right?"

[tasha_yar]

It's a lot to take in, but all her mind can come up with is that Deanna is going to not take this well and is likely going to keep her away from duty much longer.

"Sir," she says slowly. "I've lived with death since I was a child. When I graduated the Academy I always knew I would die wearing a Starfleet uniform. My regret is that I caused the only family I have had grief."

"Thinking as an officer, sir, it may very well be I'm not 'me' under the circumstances." She slowly takes her com badge and holds it. "Until the investigation concludes, my rank is suspended." She sighs, moving her finger lightly over it. "You have to be through." She doesn't need to add the part about her wanting to return to her duties as quickly as possible.

[tea_earlgrey_hot]

She hardly needs to. Picard hasn't yet considered the effect this might have on Deanna, though that is sure to come sooner rather than later; he is, however, keenly aware of the difficulties Lieutenant Yar will be faced to endure in the coming weeks.

Part of him is relieved that she speaks first on the matter. While he could and would confiscate her badge along with her weapon, his mind is currently on the Tasha he first met and the child he never had the opportunity to encounter. The words, while realistic, are hard to bear when he knows how true they are.

He purses his lips, nods stiffly, and reaches for her combadge. "Quite right. You are hereby relieved of your duties and your bridge clearance."

Her codes have already long been replaced, but it is protocol. He pauses, perhaps to mark the weightiness of the moment.

"You will stay under the observation of Dr. Crusher until we can better determine what has happened to you," he goes on. After which point, she'll need to be informed of Q's dealings with the Enterprise and some of what has happened since her death, as she will no doubt have questions. But they will take this one step at a time. If she proves to be an impostor, it may well spare the ship, though Picard hopes that is not the case. Not solely for her benefit, and judging by the look on Beverly's face, for the benefit of the crew, but because her absence has been keenly felt and he himself would like to believe she has been given a second chance.

Perhaps this time not to die in her Starfleet uniform, but years ahead with it hanging proudly in her closet, well-decorated with all of her accomplishments.

[tasha_yar]

That stung more than she wanted it to, but hides it well. She is the kind of person that can and has questioned her best friend's loyalty on occasion when Starfleet needed her to.

"Aye, sir." She bites her lips. "Under the circumstances, I'll let you inform the crew. Since I'll be confined to civilian decks, is there anything I should know?"

She's fishing for something - anything - to do other than work out and hope for the best. Confinement is for prisoners and prizes.

[tea_earlgrey_hot]

And she is neither. He will have that made absolutely clear, but first he will acknowledge her question.

"Yes," he says, focus drifting momentarily as he determines the best way to present her with the news. She will find out sooner or later. "Q has returned to the Enterprise."

[tasha_yar]

"That...might explain a lot." If she is being used as Q's plaything again...She physically shakes the thought away.

"What is the game this time?"

[tea_earlgrey_hot]

Yes, he rather thought she might come to that conclusion, thus his reticence to mention it straight away. He wanted time to gauge her reaction, to see how she would explain the missing years without the influence of Q on her thoughts.

"It may well," he nods, before hastening to add: "This time he has agreed that no harm is to come to the Enterprise or any aboard her — a number which has been steadily increasing these past few months."

He sighs. "Ever since stardate 43289.1, people have been appearing on the Enterprise in the same fashion as Q, brought here by his unique gifts from a variety of not only worlds but universes, and told they must remain until he decides otherwise."

[tasha_yar]

"Then someone should be watching them," is her automatic reply.

"At least until we can do something, like find their old homes, or the Federation can create new homes for them. What has Starfleet said about them all being here, if I may ask?"