Paul got onto the turbolift and leaned against the wall... he'd been having visions again throughout the day. Things that kept him busy such as the Ronin's sensor logs and the Pikachu fiasco seemed to keep the visions at bay. However, nothing of any importance had happened today. The turbolift entered the long glass tubing of the promenade and deposited a few crewmen off. Paul, instead of getting off and heading for the easy inn as he normally would have done, remained. When all the other passengers had left, he stated.
"Kassia's quarters."
The turbolift quickly deposited him on the right deck. He knew his way from there. It wasn't long before he was a her door. He hoped that this time she would be home. He rang the bell, and success, she invited him in. She offered him a seat.. his usual seat when he was in her quarters and he sat down.
"Kassia, I need your 'elp," he said.
"What is it?" she asked with a bit of concern. She go the sense from him that something troubling was going on.
"About three weeks ago, I woz in Soma. Zhere woz zhis girl. She.. we... we spent zhe night at my quarterz, and when i woke up, she woz gone. I didn't sink anysing of zhis until she kept showing up in dreams, and I keep seeing er in visions abou zhe station... I sunno what she az done to me, or what to do about it." He pleadingly looked into her eyes. "Elp me?"
"You have a connection to this girl then," Kassia stated, her green eyes looking at him intently. "I'll do what I can, but first I have to get a sense of what's going on with this connection. These dreams you're having, are they always the same?"
"Every time. Alzhugh, every now and again, zhere iz somesing a litle different... zhey are like a ztory, and now and again, I see zhat little bit more."
"And you didn't know this girl's name, did you?" she said with the hint of a soft smile. But just as quickly the smile was gone as she looked at his face. She sighed. "This connection concerns me... Well, without more to go on, it looks like it will be up to my visions to give us some answers," she replied.
"Well. let'z zee what anzwerz you ave zhen"
Kassia took his hand in hers and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath in and then letting it out. She allowed her mind to gently reach out toward the visions. Toward whatever her gifts would allow her to see... She saw the night Paul met this woman. Them together... Then she saw some of the visions... They were troubling... She could feel how much they were disturbing Paul, which made this even more imperative that something be done... Something... but who was the woman? Who was the woman?
"What do you zee?" asked Paul impatiently
Kassia kept pushing forward, but the more she kept pushing forward the more blurry things got. Then suddenly, something she had never felt before. It was as if she were in a struggle with something! Suddenly she gasped as her hand flew off of Paul's and her eyes flew open with a look of utter shock on her face. "I don't believe it..." she said. " I have just had the door slammed shut on me, Paul... I can't get anything from you. She... she's done something to you to keep telepaths out of your mind..." Kassia looked bewildered. "I've never experienced anything like that before in my life..."
"You mean you can't zee anysing?"
"Nothing..." she replied with a hint was dispair. "I'm really sorry, Paul... My abilities are strong, but not strong enough to get past whatever she placed in your mind."
"Damn er...." Paul rubbed his forehead... "I need zleep zo badly. Do you sink some kind of neural inhibitor may elp me sleep?"
"It's a possibility," Kassia said. "It will shut down the dream centers of the mind. But if these are visions...?" She shrugged her shoulders. "It's worth a try though, I think. I just wish I could have been more help."
"You did your bezt... It'z not your fault. I will go to zick bay and zee if zhe doctor will not give me somesing to zleep." Paul got up and headed for the door. "Good night Kassia."
"Goodnight..." she replied. "I hope that you find a solution to this soon."
"Thankz."
Paul found no luck at sick bay, the doctor wouldn't give him a neural inhibitor without knowing the reason he needed one, and Paul didn't particularly want to let anyone else know about this "link" between him and this girl.
For now, he had found comfort in a quiet corner of the easy inn with a bottle of Jack Daniels. He downed another glass and shut his eyes. He opened them again, knowing that if he drifted off to sleep, he would get more dreams. He decided to take a walk... see if he could keep himself awake.
Paul spent hours walking around the station, deep into the night. He came across places he didn't even know were there. Who'd have thought the station would have had a tribble containment area in case of emergencies!
Paul was now deep in the depths of the station, on the lower decks. He sat down in a room, now unable to fight off the inevitable sleep.
"What do you want?" came a deep gruff voice.
Paul sat up with a start and strained his eyes in the darkness to see who had spoken to him. In the darkness, he could see a person, sitting cross legged on the floor opposite him. On closer inspection, they were wearing a Starfleet uniform.
"Oo's zhere?" Paul asked
"None of your business. Leave me be," the voice replied.
Paul got up and approached the figure, he grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him up.
"Oo are you?"
Paul was answered by being thrown clear across the room. The figure stepped into the light and Paul could now see it was a marine. But of a species, he was not familiar with.
"If you must know, my name is Piccolo, but you are disturbing my meditation, so would you please leave?"
"What are you?" was Paul's next question.
"Full of questions aren't we Human? I'm a Namek."
"Ahh yez... I ave eard of your kind... " all of a sudden, an idea came into Paul's head. "You ave telepathic abilitiez yez?"
"Hmmph. What's it to you?"
"I am aving zome problemz... normal telepathz cannot elp me, but az your phyziology iz zo different, maybe you can elp me."
"Help you with what."
Paul explained to Piccolo the situation he was in. (Not forgetting of course to go into great detail of how beautiful the woman was.)
"Why should I help you?"
"Coz if you do, I'll leave you in peace."
"Fine."
Piccolo got up and walked over to Paul. He towered over Paul... he must have been at least six foot five! He reached out his arm and placed his enormous hand on Paul's forehead and closed his eyes. For a long while he stood there, he seemed to be having some difficulty... he was straining and breaking out in a sweat.
"I can see why other telepaths have failed. This is quite... difficult," he managed to say.
"Ave you...?"
"Quiet!" he growled. Piccolo eventually released his hand and stood up again. "You need to go to the Swavar system."
"Where zhe ell is zhat?!"
"I dunno. You're the scientist... now live up to your end of the bargain and leave me alone!" he said returning to his spot on the other end of the room.
Right.... let's find out where Swavar is. Thought Paul as he headed for the astrometrics lab.