Chapter Text
Darkness.
Complete and utter darkness.
Not the slightest ray of light, not one spark of hope, not one familiar shape; just total and absolute gloom.
And it was painful.
Depressing. As though it engulfed not just his body but also his soul. This was no ordinary absence of sunlight during the night, this wasn’t a room with no windows; this was pure nothingness, the absence of not just light but of anything.
And this nothingness pushed down on him like an immense weight against his shoulders. It felt as if it was going to crush him like a boot would squash an insect. He felt trapped, helpless, doomed. There was nowhere to go and there was no use for words for there was nobody to hear them.
And then something changed.
A voice.
Faint at first, it gained intensity as it began to penetrate the void.
It was a monotone singsong voice that spoke in a language utterly alien to him. And yet he could tell that it was filled with pain and fear. Somebody who had been exposed to this nightmarish world for much longer than he.
He didn’t know how long he had been here. But he did not doubt that the darkness would drive any person insane.
He took a few steps toward what he believed to be the source of the voice. Perhaps if he could find whoever was out there, together they could manage a way to escape. But as he moved, his surroundings refused to change.
The voice did.
It became more desperate, more piercing until it resembled nothing but a desperate scream.
Others joined in.
And then he was at the center of it all.
The voices were all around him. So loud now that he could feel the vibrations inside of him. And soon it overcame him as well. He could sense their pain. He could feel it in his bones.
He opened his mouth and the sounds that poured out it terrified him. It wasn’t his voice and yet it was. It was alien and yet familiar. He had never spoken like this before and yet he knew exactly what he was saying.
It was an extension of the voices around him. It was fear and desperation and agony and it was all because of the darkness surrounding them all.
His own voice became a scream that joined the choir of anguish around him.
And it was going to drive him mad.
Michael Owens awoke with a start.
His eyes opened like saucers, sweat was dripping from his brow and covered his entire body. His breathing was labored.
The bedroom was dark but to his eyes, it was as bright as a sunny summer day. His first urge was for more.
More light.
“Computer,” he said but then stopped, startled by the normalcy of his own voice.
A short trilling sound indicated that Eagle’s computer was awaiting his request.
“Increase illumination to fifteen percent above standard.”
Another quick trill and the room lit up as though somebody had pulled the non-existent shades.
Michael threw off the covers and got onto his feet, slightly uneasy. But the bright room gave him strength and comfort he didn’t immediately understand. The nightmare, of course, had been much more intense than what he had been used to. It hadn’t been the first.
They had come only very recently and they had become more intense and disturbing each time. Perhaps because with each dream he managed to remember more details, managed to remember how terrified he had felt.
He shot a glance out of the window and winced when the dark void of space caused him to recall his twisted nightmare.
He also spotted the planet.
It had all started after the accident, he recalled.
One of the most amazing finds of modern archeology had awoken a new sense of adventure and discovery amongst the crew. And that certainly was a good thing. Times were dire. A short yet bloody war with the Klingons had shattered the peace amongst the powers of the Alpha Quadrant and caused many to question the wisdom of the Federation’s policies and alliances.
At the same time another and quite possibly even greater threat was looming in the Gamma Quadrant where many believed the Dominion had set its eyes on a full-scale invasion of the Alpha Quadrant.
Michael welcomed Eagle’s latest mission of exploration beyond the borders of Federation space. And nobody could have expected to find what they had stumbled across.
But for him, this discovery had brought only pain.
He looked at the planet and immediately realized, no matter how marvelous their discovery, no matter how significant to the archeological community, he would never set foot on that planet again.