Lt Karen Stendhal - Rock around the CloQ!

[KRN STDL]

((Deck 14, Psychiatric Ward | DS224))

Stendhal: It's a shame that Lieutenant Yinn is back on Bolarus; she was great at this kind of thing. She and I even traveled to the future once, and we ended up on some kind of Orion-Betazoid disco moon. Terrible stuff! ::Karen was trying to distract Braya from her looping.


Braya: ::Brow knitting:: Ya’ think it’s all in my head, don’t ya’? This ain’t some dream to analyze. I know what happened. I can feel the ship explodin’ around us. A hundred thousand times. The heat of it. Metal comin’ apart. Blastin’ into me. And them were the lucky ones. The times got ejected into space. Dyin’ out there. Cold. Alone. No air. Those…those were the worst.

Karen rised an eyebrown listening carefully.
Stendhal: I don’t doubt the pain you’re talking about.. The way you describe it... No wonder your whole body reacts like it’s still happening.

Braya: ::Voice cracking:: I can’t fly. I can’t walk outta’ this room. I can’t even sit up. Every time I try t’talk about it, folks look at me like I’ve lost my mind. I didn’t go through that hell just t’go insane. I’m just the only one who remembers. I punched that miserable CloQ in his smug face, and he wants me t’suffer for it. Fine. I’ve suffered. Now I need to get free.

Karen was wondering who or what this CloQ was—some sort of alien entity. The name itself sounded disturbingly like "Q."

Stendhal: I'm not ignoring what you lived through. I'm just saying you don't have to face it alone. A while ago, when I was still serving aboard the USS Butler, we traveled into the future. So, in a way, I know exactly what you mean.

Karen watched as Braya's expression changed. She was finally looking directly at her.

Braya: Ya’ really went there? The future? ::Lifting her head, just to tap it back down on the metal bed:: The other docs tell me it’s all up here. In my skull. But…how do I ever know? For certain? That I won’t loop again, I mean. When I die. ::Eyes red and wet, searching Karen’s face, tone desperate:: How do I figure that out? How do I prove the cycle's done? Can you help?


Stendhal: One of the clearest ways to tell the cycle is broken is that time is unfolding instead of snapping back. You’re here, having a new conversation with me, with someone who wasn’t even on that mission.

Braya: Response?

Stendhal: I felt something like a temporal distortion here. When we first met, I thought I was in a turbolift opening into some kind of Hangar, surrounded by some mustards security officers... then, like a hiccup, we were just here.

Braya: Response?

Stendhal: So, well, it's possible that the loop is over, or maybe now I'm included in your time loops! Wow! That's my secret closet dream, sort of. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens now.

Braya: Response?

Stendhal: Tell me, how can I help you? Maybe we can ask help to someone?

Braya: Response?

Tag/TBC

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Lt. Karen Trisha Stendhal
Counselor  
USS Eagle

ID: C239604KS0
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https://wiki.starbase118.net/wiki/index.php?title=Karen_Stendhal