Not Dead Yet
Posted on Wed Nov 26th, 2025 @ 6:17am by Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble & Lieutenant Mira Jayna
Edited on on Wed Dec 3rd, 2025 @ 10:39am
1,478 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Episode 17 - Going Home
Location: Sick Bay - Deck 5 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD002 1215 hrs
Neil felt warmth and light against his eyelids first and his brain reacted to that, pulling that warmth in to kickstart the lump that was his consciousness. His ears got into the game next, remembering that sound was an important part of awareness. He could hear low beeping noises and a hum that was, on reflection more felt than heard, surrounding him. His body felt stiff and he tried to move without success.
That caused even more distress as shadowy, trauma tied things wriggled free in his memory and his eyelids flared open with a start as his brain presented a scenario that he was back on Garalall or Cardassia Prime. His whole body heaved as he struggled to sit-up.
Gentle but firm hands pressed him back down. "It's okay. You're in sickbay and you're alive," Jayna said quietly. In her mind she added, "Thank goodness." "Are you in pain? Do you want me to call the doctor?" Since she was touching his skin, she added a mental reassurance that all was well.
Neil registered her voice first and he eased.
Her words took longer to soak through and he took stock. "Yes and no," he said after a few beats. He worked to get gunk out of his eyes and decided he'd been down a while. His eyes opened to take in her face. "Heyo," he croaked out. "What's shaking?"
"The mission was successful and everyone came back." She knew he'd want to know that. What she wasn't ready to tell him was that he almost didn't. "You're awake," she added. Yes, she was stating the obvious, but she was a little emotional and didn't want him to think there was anything wrong.
He belatedly realized his left arm was sore as he reached up to touch the side of her face as he took stock. "Looks like it." Memories began cycling back and he looked pointedly at where his leg used to be and winced. "Everyone came back, but what was the bill? I know more than I ended up...." He used his left hand to gesture broadly, then finished, "Here."
Jayna put a hand over his as she ran down the list of wounded, beginning with Gaagii in a cocoon and ending with the loss of Neil's leg. "You were the most seriously injured."
She continued to tell him about the Cure tossing Pseudo Borg into the portal, the Hawkeye flying in to help seal it, and the deal with the Silence. "So, we remember, but the official record is that we encountered Malificus again." She let that sink in for a moment. "As for your leg, you get to decide if you want one regrown from your DNA, or you get a bionic one."
Neil sifted through things, pushing himself into a sitting position awkwardly, the bed shifting automatically under him as it processed his moves versus the treatment plan. "I kinda remember some of that, though it's all jumbled," he remarked. "What about the Silence? They get pushy once we'd bled for them?"
"Not so much." A slow smile spread across Jayna's face. "Believe it or not, Alyssa Maren and Vura negotiated a...treaty of sorts. They are the only two who can contact the Silence, but none of us are having our memories wiped. The same can't be said for the main computer. All information on the Silence was deleted. It's progress. However..." She paused, not wanting to tell him the rest, but knowing she had to. "There's another thing you need to be aware of. Sobols are missing. No one knows what happened. Yet. I'm keeping an eye on the investigation."
Neil sat back and processed. "I remember about wiping the Computer. And Rommie being allowed to. Well." He paused as he decided how to put it. She wasn't human, after all. "We...I didn't have to delete the current Rommie and use a previous copy....but what happened to the General and Tempest?"
She was curious about what Rommie did, but she was pretty sure that was classified. Jayna squeezed his hand. "We don't know for sure. Kidnapping is suspected, but there have been no demands and no one has come out to say they have them. I'm looking wherever I can, but it's slow going. So far."
Neil pushed down a growing knot of frustration and looked into her eyes, "Right. And I should have asked before. How are you? That was your first experience in a Drop."
"Now that you're awake and alert, I'm doing better." She hadn't slept until she was satisfied that he was out of danger. "The Drop was intense for all of us. Especially when I spent a good part of it keeping you from being eaten by one of those creatures." She smiled wryly. "Apart from that, I'm good. I'm just glad you're doing better."
Neil let his head rest back against what was loosely termed as a pillow and kept his eyes on hers. "You lie." He grinned tiredly and said, "All that stress bleed over and mental noise had to soak through. It's part of why you hate crowds. And if that was a portion of Rowena's demon. Or one like it, then..."
Jayna shook her head. "Not the same entity, according to Alyssa. She spoke with Rowena's demon, as you call it. She said this one was different. So...one like it." She closed her eyes for a moment. "If that portal led to a dimension where such entities live..." She paused. "There may be other portals and other entities already here."
Neil crossed his arms.
Well. Tried. The one was lashed down and he frowned and ended up looking like a distressed teenager. "We'll burn those bridges and their trolls when we have to." He put his hand over hers this time, holding it against his chest (which actually did kind of hurt) and said, "So. How bad was all that mental voodoo. It's me here, so you don't need to keep it all bound up."
"I had a couple of nightmares about spiders..." She told him about that, but a lot had happened since. "And that's been amplified by the bugs on Wren IX." She shook her head, not reminding him that the spider of her nightmares had Vura's head. "I didn't have a problem with spiders before, but now they've merged with the entity from the research station. And then I saw you almost die..." She did not generally get emotional, but almost losing Neil hit her hard and she'd been trying to hold it in.
Nodding, Neil shifted as far to one side of the bio bed as he could, then took her hand and pulled her to sit beside him on the bed, slipping his good arm around her shoulders. He knew Rommie would be monitoring the readouts and trusted the AI to keep the medical staff happy. "I've at least got one good arm to still hold you with, Jayna. And death itself isn't going to keep me from coming back to you, no matter what."
"There's an old joke about Marines never dying you know. They just go to hell to regroup." He chuckled and shifted to give her more room. "I'll get some sort of leg back. Get used to it and then we'll see what's next, though I have to admit it's strange... my brain thinks it still there.."
"I hear that's pretty common. So are phantom pains." She settled more comfortably next to him. "They say that once you fall for a Marine, no one else is good enough. In fact, I've never been happier than I am with you." She grinned, feeling some of the stress lifting. "So, you're stuck with me."
"Suits me right down to the ground, which I suppose I'm lucky isn't piled over me." He let his mind sift through everything and said, "What the drahk? The General and Tempest...And Vura coming through in the ninth inning clutch. I know she's capable...but prickly as a cactus in heat...most of the time. Maybe I should have stayed in a coma?"
"Not a chance. I'm half Vulcan, remember? I'd come in your head after you." She was only half joking. "Vura has her moments. That was clearly one of them." She gently kissed him. "I've done some digging, but you need to get better so we can find Tempest and the General." And because they'd both sleep better when he was out of sickbay.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Battalion Commander, The Cure
Lieutenant Mira Jayna
Intelligence Officer, The Cure
USS Pioneer
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