2370 Earth

Three o’clock in the morning, and in the relative silence of the night star-fleet medical headquarters lights burned brightly. Despite the late hour, hundreds of people were still at work like busy bees, all of them working on their assigned tasks without thinking, conscious thought almost set aside until it appeared the hospital was nothing more than a singular hive mind.

In this Hive one mind, not focused like the rest, was that of Lieutenant Colonel Eric Rowan. A stockily built young man- freshly promoted and looking rather disheveled as he ran his hands through his dark brown hair. His chocolate coloured eyes looked worriedly between the closed door he paced in front of and his companion.

The other man with him, tall and willowy with salt and peppered hair that was mostly greying and a rather bushy mustache leaned against a wall puffing away on an old fashioned style pipe. A strong smell of tobacco wafting from him that was sure to earn him a passing NEs glare, yet it appeared no one thought to correct this rather rude, archaic and unhygienic practice.

From inside the room the low sounds of moaning and the sudden occasional scream escaped the basic sound dampening and made both men look up and away again, Eric pacing faster every time this occurred.

“She’s been in there a long time…it’s been a long time…very long time..i told her a home birth was not a good idea…i warned her… I told her..” Eric muttered between laps

The man puffed his pipe, one eye squinting closed against the tobacco. ” Eric calm down, you should know by now Allison listens to no one. She is very much like her mother. Stubborn to the point of idiocy. We got her here and this is the best maternity suite star-fleet has to offer with the best medical staff I could round up at this hour. I had the attending transported here from his ship myself.”

“But she’s been in labour nearly 26 hours, Andrew ! Amelia was in labour for how long with Allison? Five?” He spat back.

The man removed his pipe “Do you presume to tell me how to care for my own daughter!?”

“Hah! Excellent word choice.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Pipe man growled.

“You know exactly what it means. You always put your career over Alison Always!”

“Listen here boy!”

“Don’t you boy me!” Eric swore and the man with the pipe ruffled even more.

“Who the hell do you think you’re talking to.”

Both men seemed ready to settle this argument with their fists. The tension was palpable, broken just as quickly as it came however as the door opened. Both men, almost nose to nose, shaking with worry and fury looked up. A woman in light pink surgical scrubs stood staring between them both.

“Eric ! Commodore Davies ! what is the meaning of this?!”

Both men stepped apart and had the decency to look abashed.

“May I remind you that this is a hospital ! put that foul thing out immediately!” the shrill doctor demanded, causing both men to look even more embarrassed and hastily Davies made his pipe vanish. The woman stared at them both.

” My wife…How’s my wife?” Eric asked.

“Your wife and your son are doing wonderfully Mr Rowan ‘’ she said, still none too happy. Eric looked relieved, he out his hands to his face and rubbed furiously at his eyes, tears streaming in relief as the woman continued. ” However, we have had to take your daughter into the NICU.”

….my what?” He asked confusedly

“daughter…?” Davies asked

“Yes.” The woman said, her eyebrows knitted as if she sensed something was amiss but couldn’t exactly put her finger on one. “Yes…well…as I was saying…your son was delivered with no complications but your daughter did not follow. Scans revealed she was laying double breach and could not progress as we wanted. We had to perform an emergency C-Section…but there were complications. She was without oxygen for a time. The doctors are working on her now…”

Eric blinked. ” But…the scans…she didn’t…we weren’t…there was just the boy…just one…” He shook his head and seemed to come to himself long enough to walk past the doctor and into the room to see his wife and Son.

She followed trying to explain something to him that his forgotten companion could not hear.

Andrew Davies puffed his pipe for another moment or so then headed down to the NICU to look at this unknown granddaughter.

2375

The first thing Paige could remember being consciously aware of was ‘seeing’ Drew,her twin, her womb mate being born. Long before her eyes opened and she could remember smells or sounds, the images of his birth were etched in her mind. Colourful and well defined on him, fuzzy around the edges. It was her favourite memory, She didn’t speak about it anymore though.

Mommy and Daddy had tried to tell them how babies came when Drew had asked. She had stood with him, holding his hand while Daddy talked about storks and babies coming when a mommy and daddy loved each other very much and she had said, quite innocently being five years old, ” But daddy, if the stork brought us why did the doctor cut mommy and have Drew in his hand?”

Mommy and daddy had been angry again. Not with Drew, who had brought the whole thing up but with her. It was so unfair! They were always angry with her for something or another. That was unfair too. It wasn’t her fault the pictures came. She sighed the exasperated sigh of a child bewildered at the injustice of adults and drew a red arch across the paper in front of her before picking up a yellow crayon to draw another.

“That’s a nice picture.” The woman kneeling beside her said suddenly, breaking her reprieve. Paige glanced up at her and gave a curt nod. There was silence and she picked up a green crayon to do another arch.

The woman waited then said “Paige, why do you think your mommy and Daddy asked you to come speak to me.”

She didn’t look up at the woman. Doctor Richards was a doctor who looked after peoples feelings. Mommy had told her that. Apparently Drew didn’t need to talk to her because his feelings were ok. That was unfair too. She realised she needed to say something.

“Because…” she sighed long sufferingly and drew a blue line. “I said the bad stuff again” A sudden impression of understanding and wonder crossed her mind and she looked up at the Doctor.

The Doctor made a note and observed the girl again. There was nothing extraordinary about her, she and her twin were identical with their fathers dark hair and their mothers blue eyes, or…in Paige’s case, eye. For the five year old before her had one icy light blue eye and one vibrant yellow one. One pupil was normal while the other seemed to permanently be constricted, a small black dot. She was an oddity because of her looks and because of the odd things she would say.

“And what bad things did you say Paige?” Richards asked gently

“I dunno.” The girl shrugged.

“I think you do. Will we try to remember? Do you remember being in school today?”

“Uhhu”

“And do you remember what you said to your teacher before lunch.”

“I guess”

“What did you say to your teacher?”

“I said Uhh…Billy Peters, Billy Peters had umm..chopped umm.. T’alara’s pig tails off with the..umm big scissors from the teachers desk.” she said in a monotone and drew a house in purple crayon.

“But Billy hadn’t done that had he?” Richards added.

“He was going to !” Paige said looking suddenly defensive forgetting her drawing

“Did Billy tell you this?”

“No, but I saw him…”

“You saw him? But he hadnt done it had he Paige?”

The girl shrugged and went back to her drawing. But the doctor would not be deterred. “When did you see him? ” the girl shrugged again “Mrs Adams your teacher says you said you saw him when you were ill. Do you remember being ill at school Paige And the Nurse had to come give you your medicine?”

Paige’s mind rewound to her last seizure at school when she had seen the hair being cut, had seen the scissors and the person holding them, laughing that laugh he did when he was naughty. She had seen Talara crying and of course then, when regaining consciousness, said what Billy was going to do. She had told the adults so they could stop him. So that Talara wouldn’t cry and wouldn’t have her pretty hair taken off.

Adults were so unfair. She closed down and pulled a clean sheet towards herself. She picked up a black crayon and furiously began drawing a black spiral with a long neck.

After a while Doctor Richards got up and went outside to talk to mommy and daddy. A wave of anger and fear washed over her and she pushed it away like an annoying fly buzzing around her head and sighed. It wasn’t her fault, it wasn’t like she could control it and it didn’t happen all the time only sometimes so when they asked her to do it again she couldn’t. But she wasn’t making it up. She shook her head. No it wasn’t fibbing she had seen Billy Peterson doing it! She had she has she had.

The same as she had seen Mommy kissing the man who came to fix the garden system, and had seen Mommy and the man spending grown up time together once Daddy got his new job next month.

Outside the room Doctor Richards tried to explain to the girl’s Parents her opinion. The father raged looking angry while the mother nervously twisted a handkerchief in her hands. An old man, the grandfather leaned against a wall smoking a pipe.

“She is perfectly normal, I assure you…she scored very well on the basic intelligence testing. All of her test results, her scans, have come back negative for any known issue. In my opinion these things she says are clearly a product of her being a keen observer and possessive of a highly developed intellect and imagination because she’s not being stimulated correctly”

“But why the nonsense about Allison? and the kid in her class? She wants people to think others are doing things they shouldn’t. It’s like she wants to cause trouble. That’s not normal for a kid.” The father raged.

“Perhaps she wants the extra attention. With her condition from what you’ve told me and her brother sharing your attention it’s likely she feels she needs to generate a little positive attention of her own. Some not connected with her seizures. “

“Humph…”

The argument continued and inside the room Paige ignored the shouting and instead finished a jagged edge of the black spiral as part of it smashed. She moved the drawing to one side and began to draw in a more relaxed fashion the ship her grandad told her stories about. The big spaceship he had been a captain on, where mommy had been born and grandma Amelia had died.

Outside in the corridor Andrew Davies pressed the tip of his pipe harder against his mouth and chewed it. His daughter was hiding something, he had raised her himself and he knew what to look for. It was times like these that he missed his wife and thought of what she would say. How she would handle the situation.

The father, his son in law, threw his hands up in the air and stormed out to ‘get some air’ as he pushed roughly through the doctor’s office door his shoulder hit an ornate spiralling vase which toppled, shattering with a smash into jagged pieces of black glass across the floor.

2385

Paige sighed as she thumbed down the page of her PaDD. ‘Psychiatric conditions of the 21st century’ she rolled her eyes. ” Drew, seriously come in if you’re coming in but don’t like hang outside the door like that, it’s creepy. “

Her brother, nearly 5 whole minutes older than she was, in his infinite wisdom deemed that it was necessary to spy on her while she was being quiet. Just in case, he always said. He entered the room and without the decency to look sheepish plodded over and threw himself down on foot of her bed

“Nah some nerve…You’re calling me creepy, priscilla queen of the damned? Not even.” He looked through another couple of PaDDs on her bed feigning interest. But then pulled a face as He read some titles “How did you know i was there.”

She sighed again and ignored his expression said. ” I didn’t, I felt an impatient vibe from someplace within like 100 miles of me. I just so happen to also have a mouth breather for a brother. Now i have three chapters to read for class tomorrow either tell me what you want or go away.”

He nodded, not grinning at her. ” You used to be able to tell who was feeling what when we were kids…”

”..Yeah well apparently it declines with age. If that’s what you’re coming to talk to me about, I’m not interested.”

“But i need your help! i think Gillian might be seeing Jake Montez behind my back, cant you like read their minds or tell me if you seen them together…you know…like in that …way.” He had the decency to look embarrassed as she felt her eyes flicker up at him.

“A, i am not a telepath I’m 1/10th empathic sometimes, nor am i a lie detector. B, oh brother dear you know that i don’t have those…things anymore so i wouldn’t know.”

“You still take the seizures, what about all the coloured pictures you used to draw with me. You used to tell me when you saw things…remember when we were twelve and you made me stand for three hours at that tree in the park because the man was gunna come with free ice cream?”

“He did come with ice cream.”

“Yeah....the next year…” Drew chuckled despite himself.

” I dont do that anymore Drew. Not since…”

“This about mom and dad again? Look its not your fault they divorced ok it was going to happen they had been unhappy for ages…”

Paige felt her heart catch in her throat and she looked down at the PaDD ” Three chapters…im sorry i cant help you.”

“Can’t ? Or wont help me Paige? I mean come on your own brother? “

She felt a sudden urge of fury. ” CANT AND WONT ! ” she yelled at him, the pupil of her yellow eye fixed on him while the blue one seemed to look everywhere else “What do you want me to say? You want me to say that i saw them together and you’re right? What then huh? so you can go punch his lights out or break up with her and be miserable and blame the whole thing on me like mom and dad do? Then what? gunna jet off to some mission in starfleet and come home at christmas every year like mom or is dad more your speed where you’d just run off and get married to the first thing with legs and boobs and have other kids and forget about the family you have already? “

A noise came from down the hall and Drew looked up startled. ” NO ! i didn’t mean that! Don’t be stupid!” His face and tone morphed into anger. “What the. F**&# Paige all I, asking for it your held dammit! Why is that so much to ask!”

But Paige was on a roll and could no longer restrain herself, his anger fueling hers. ” DO YOU THINK I LIKE BEING A FREAK ! LIKE HAVING THE KIDS AT SCHOOL LOOK AT ME AND TURN AWAY.”

He had turned red now. “WELL MAYBE JF YOU STOPPED ACTING LIKE ONE ALL THE TIME AND MAYBE IF YOU I DONT KNOW ACTUALLY TRIED TO GET IMVOLVED.”

“I DID TRY, I TRIED AND ENDED UP LOSIGN A FRIEND EVERYTIME OR THERE WAS. THAT TIME YOU TOLD HAANAH ABOUT ME SND SHE TOLD THE WHOLE CLASS. THEY DONT JUST FORGET THINGS LIKE THAT! OHHH ITS EASY FOR YOU THE JOCK BUT WHAT HAVE I GOT ? MY STUDIES? HAH AND YOU WONT LET ME DO THEM IN PEACE..” she threw the PaDD at him.

“ME?! DONT YOU DARE BLAME ME! IMDIDNT ASK TO NE BURNDED WITH A FREAK FOR A SISTER!”

As soon as the words were out he looked at her wide eyed and shocked. Regret rolled off the boy in waves. But he couldn’t take the words back once they had been said, meant or not. Tears rolled unhindered down her face as she stood in the tense silence that follows such an argument, it broke when the door opened and their grandfather stepped into the room.

“ENOUGH! ” he bellowed causing both twins to look at him. ” Drew go to your Room !” He said pointing as the girl ran a hand over her tears and dropped down onto her bed again. The boy slouched off mummbling darkly to himself.

Andrew Davies, retired commodore closed the door behind him and gently and carefully walked over the the girl. Paige hunched her back and put her head on her knees. She felt the weight as something sat down on her bed and without so much as looking threw her arms around her grandfather and bawled into his shirt as he soothed her.

2392

Around the dinner table, food passing from one plate to another, bread rolls dissapearing from baskets Paige took a sip of her wine and cleared her throat. Her Brother and grandfather looked up.

“I’ve…decided on something important..that i think i should talk to you both about. I’m joining star-fleet in the fall after graduation.”

Drew choaked on his own drink while Andrew sat back looking as he always did, neutral. His eyes burned with pleasure however that she noted and smiled about.

“you…in star-fleet? as what ? you hate phasers, you cant fly a ship for beans…i thought you were gunna be a counsellor and work as Doctor Richard’s intern this fall and see if you get a placement with her at medical?”

“I was. But i spoke to doctor richards, she thinks it might be a good thing for me to do by myself. I’ll have my degree, ill join the academy and train as a ships counsellor, then I’ll join a ship…meet people, see places…counsell…stuff.” She went back to her plate as Drew looked at his grandfather for some sort of back up.

“What about your condition? in space…you’re a liability…they wont let you in…”

Paige closed her eyes and counted to ten as she had been taught. “They have doctors on starships too, Drew, and as long as i take my medication, the seizures won’t be an issue. Besides counsellor, it’s not like im going ti be at the front if the action all the time. A lot of people join star-fleet with injuries and things. Look at the guy from star-fleet medical…remember gave that lecture we went to in Human bio in highschool…lasted three minutes then he just left…with the cane?”

“Grandpa…” Drew said loudly.

Andrew considered her. ” You have your heart set on this? and you are sure this is what you want to do?”

Paige nodded, looking up at him her eyes shinning and full of passion for the idea, the prospect alone making her heart soar. He nodded. ” Then i support your decision sweet pea.”

Drew pushed his plate and chair roughly back. ” Unbelievable…un fricking belieable… i wanna join the marines and you say no…”

Both his grandfather and Paige exchanged a look that he didn’t notice as he continued.

“ then she comes in and she wants to join star-fleet and you practically buy her her own star-ship.” He got up and stormed off leaving the two at the table.

Paige sighed and got up gently to go after him. As she passed her grandfather caught her hand and squeezed.

“He doesn’t know. I haven’t told him, I don’t think you should either. It’s a terrible thing to know for certainty…and an even worse thing to hear from your own kin. Even if it never happens…”

The surge of emotion made her swallow, she choked up and nodded not trusting her voice not to break.

2396

Paige tapped her fingers impatiently against the shuttle glass. Her uniform itched as she squirmed with the excitment of it all. This was to be her first real posting off of earth and its surrounding area. A real outpost in the midst of the second fleet. She felt as though her stomach would float away with the butterflys and her heart would implode it was beating so fast.

Looking around at the other passengers she was disappointed to see none of them peering out their windows to get a first glance at the Outpost itself. As the shuttle banked, quite suddenly there it was. And she gasped.

“Ohh look at you…” she breathed. ” You’re more impressive than i saw…” she glanced around quickly chastising herself for the thought as to her left the pilot began descending closer and closer to the Out post.

She sat back, closed her eyes and let out a huge breath, stroking the tiny ball of black fur nestled on her lap. The little fox didn’t so much as stir in his sleep and she smiled, enjoying the feeling of his little chest rise and fall under her palm. A parting gift from Doctor Richards who had come to be as good a friend as she had been a mentor. Her old life was behind her, the old Paige left on earth. Here she could be whoever she wanted with new people who did not know her and would only get to know what she wanted them to. New friends, a new job and a new life.

2398

Paige woke with a start and sat upright in a tangle of covers and sheets. She pushed her hands through her damp hair, sweat running down her forehead into the mass of material on the bed. She gave her self a moment to calm, even steady breaths and then set about disentangling herself. It had been a very long time since she had dreamt so vividly of her early life. Clearly her mind was a flurry of memory and emotion with her new posting.

She crossed the quarters and stood looking out of the window where in only a few hours time she would be able to see the ship as the rendezvoused for her to transfer over. This was it, no longer a junior counsellor, now a Lieutenant and a department head in her own right….all by herself. She began to shiver. She crossed her arms and rubbed them for warmth. Glancing around she smiled as a small mound of black fur lifted its head from its basket and watched her a moment before returning to its previous, snoring, state. She replayed the memory from her dream and recalled how small he had been when they had first started out together. He was much bigger now. Smiling again she shook her head and turning went back to bed herself. She would get a few hours more before the ship arrived and she had to report in in the morning.

Remaking the bed, she slid into the sheets and settled down. Sleep came almost instantly as if her brain had considered the interruption a brief intermission in her REM cycle. As she drifted off a short image of an NE in blue tripping over a box came to mind but was quickly lost in the swirl of images as she began to dream again. It would be forgotten by morning.

Paige Rowan
CNS