55 The Soldiers of Fear by Dean Wesley Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Author:Dean Wesley Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch [Smith, Dean Wesley & Rusch, Kristine Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Fiction, Science fiction; American, Science Fiction, Space Opera, Star Trek fiction, Media Tie-In, Space exploration, Picard; Jean Luc (Fictitious character), Picard; Jean Luc (Fictitious character) - Fiction, Starship Enterprise, Horror, Radio and television novels, Picard; Jean-Luc (Fictitious character)
ISBN: 9780671541743
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 1996-05-31T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

THE AIR WAS WAY TOO HOT. Deanna had to breathe through her mouth in order to get any air at all. Things coated her tongue and slid down her throat.

Small, slimy things.

Living things.

She tried to spit them out, but couldn't. Part of her craved them, needed them, like she needed the air.

Concentrate, Deanna, her mother said.

Go away, Mother, I'm sleeping.

One should never cling to sleep, dear, when one is having a nightmare.

Deanna peered at the screen in front of her. The Enterprise was a small disk in the distance, its main section a thin line beneath the saucer. It seemed insignificant.

Easy to conquer.

She hoped.

Deanna.

Leave me alone, Mother.

I will not, darling. You know I hate to see you upset.

Mother, you never even notice when I'm upset.

I feel your pain as if it were my own, my child. Wake up, now.

A bead of sweat ran down her cheek, and onto her lips. She licked it away, and something small with legs climbed down her throat.

She choked.

Coughed.

Opened her eyes.

Into Beverly Crusher's.

She felt the thread of worry pass through her even as Beverly covered the feeling with a smile.

"Glad to see you awake."

"Mm," Deanna said, not quite willing to say anything yet. The dream still felt close, too close, as if it weren't a dream at all. If she concentrated on it for a moment, she would know what she had missed. Something, something important ...

"Nightmare?"

Deanna nodded. Beneath Beverly's worry, Deanna felt other emotions swirling, both nearby and far. Fear. Terror. Deep, deep horror. Red hot, burning, able to dissolve her if she let it.

The dream dissipated. "What happened?" she asked, breathless with the emotions swirling inside.

"The Furies sent an interspace beam at the ship"

" 'Carrying terror on its wings,' " Deanna said.

"What?"

Deanna shook her head. "Just something I dreamed."

"No dream," Beverly said. "An attack through interspace. It overwhelmed you. I found you just in time."

Deanna remembered removing her comm badge, making instructions to the computer, heading toward the bridge and nothing else.

Except her mother's voice.

"My mother's not here, is she?"

"No," Beverly said. "Why?"

Deanna shook her head. An old terror, that of her mother knowing everything. "These fears people are feeling, they're deep, aren't they?"

"Too deep," Beverly said. "I've managed to block the worst of it, and Geordi has developed a screen to block the beam, but we don't know how long that will last." She looked up, checking the medical panel over Deanna's head.

Deanna wanted to ask her what she saw, but her mouth was dry. The emotions swirling underneath were growing. She could feel them below a haze, as if someone had laid a gauze blanket over them.

"Your levels are rising again. I'm going to have to sedate you, Deanna."

"But you woke me, didn't you?"

Beverly nodded. "As things eased. I needed to ask you a question. Then I'll put you back under, deep enough to block the empathic response until you can gain a little more strength. You just need the time."

Deanna could isolate the fears now. Lieutenant Kobe was nearly paralyzed with fear.

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