Christmas Surprise Two

Logan and Rahel walked through the streets of Serenity City towards the home of Doctor Hancock and Karissa Bentara. Unlike many planetary-based Starfleet facilities, the Starfleet personnel lived side-by-side with the other residents of Serenity City. Finally they reached the residence of their hosts and Logan pressed the door chimes. Moments later a young man appeared at the door, someone Logan didn’t recognise, but Rahel did.

“Hello Will.” Rahel said.

“Welcome to our home Rahel and you must be Logan, I’ve heard a lot about you from Karissa.” Will replied, presenting his hand out to Logan.

Suddenly from behind Will there a loud scream, followed by the flashing images of two small children running across the doorway. Seconds later a third child, this time about six appeared, paused for breath and then called out to the first two.

“Maya, Luc slow down.” The young boy called out, before setting off once more in pursuit.

“That was Karissa’s kid brother and the twins.” Will explained. “Please come in, Karissa and her mother are in the kitchen preparing dinner, Shara and Doctor Bentara are in the living area.”

Logan and Rahel stepped into the hallway and Will led them down into a larger room, which obviously served as both the main living space and the dining room. Unlike Logan and Rahel’s quarters, the room was large and airy. The room was also decorated for Christmas, with a tree stood in the corner. Across the room, a large table was laid out for a meal, again decorated for the season.

As the moved further in, a middle-aged man and a young female both rose from the sofa they had been sitting on to greet them.

“This is Karissa’s father Doctor Ryan Bentara and Shara Mikori” Will introduced their other two guests.

“Pleasure to meet you both.” Ryan remarked.

Shara looked at Logan for a moment and then at Rahel, concentrating on he left hand.

“So I see Logan gave you your Christmas present.” Shara remarked.

“Yes….” Rahel replied. “…but how did you know ?”

“ Logan showed it to me just after he and Karissa had bought it.” Shara answered. “It looks even more beautiful now it’s on your finger.”

Instinctively Rahel reached for her engagement ring and felt it, as if she couldn’t believe that it was there.

“I just wish I could find someone who felt the same way about me.” Shara added.

“So you’ve just got engaged !.” Ryan commented. “Then I guess congratulations are in order.”

As if on cue, Will appeared with a tray containing a large bottle and several glasses.

“Karissa thought we should celebrate with this.” Will announced as he popped the cork out of the champagne bottle and poured out seven glasses. “2369, I’m told this was a good year.”

“Shouldn’t we wait for the girls.” Ryan suggested.

“I’ll go check on them.” Will replied. “Take a glass anyway, I’m sure dinner won’t be long.”

Will headed out of the room and towards what Logan thought was the kitchen. Everyone took a seat and moments later, two small children appeared followed shortly by the young boy they had seen run past the door moments earlier. The two smaller children, a boy and girl stopped dead in their tracks and examined these two new arrivals, concentrating their attention mainly on Rahel.

“Hello kids.” Ryan remarked. “May I introduce Luc and Maya, my grand-children and the young man chasing them is Joshan my son.”

“Hello.” Joshan said.

The twins just continued to observe Rahel, until their grandfather noticed.

“Kids, it’s rude to stare.” He announced. “Aren’t you going to say hello to our guests.”

“Sorry.” The boy said. “Hi.”

“Hi.” The girl added, never taking her eyes of Rahel. “What’s your name ?”

“I’m Rahel.” Rahel answered. “And this is Logan.”

“Dinner won’t be long.” Will announced as he re-entered the room. He noticed the kids had finally arrived on the scene. “I see you’ve met the younger members of the family.”

A couple of minutes later, someone appeared from the kitchen. Doctor Bentara rose from his seat and introduced the woman as his wife Amalie.

“Please take a seat, dinner will be served in a minute.” She announced.

Everyone rose from their seats and headed for the table. There was a noise from the direction of the kitchen as Karissa emerged pushed a trolley on which was served a large turkey, surrounded by roast potatoes. The small of the meal filled the room. Karissa smiled and looked across at her guests, then something happened.

Karissa dropped to the floor with a thud. Instinctively everyone rushed to see that she was OK.

“What’s happening ?” The twins asked, trying to get to their mother through the adults. “What’s wrong with mum ?”

“Joshan…” Amalie said. “Let’s take the kids to their room.”

Although the twins protested, between them Joshan and his mother managed to move them away from the chaos. Will and Ryan started to examine Karissa.

“Rahel there’s a medical kit in the kitchen……” Will stated.

When he didn’t get a reply he looked around and saw that both Logan and Rahel were sat on the sofa and it looked as if Rahel too was unconscious.

Whilst all attention had been on Karissa and her faint, Rahel had also fainted, silently falling back down onto the sofa she had been sitting on only moments earlier. Only when Logan had looked around had he noticed Rahel slumped on the sofa and returned.

“Will……” Logan called.

Shara, having also noticed that Rahel was down had headed into the kitchen and returned with the med-kit. Will checked with Ryan that he had the situation with his daughter under control, passing a medical tricorder to him. He then took the second tricorder and ran over to Logan and Rahel.

“She’s OK.” Ryan announced. “All vitals are normal, there’s no explanation for her faint.”

“Same over here.” Will announced. “All vitals are normal; they are just unconscious for some reason.”

“But what ?” Logan asked. “It’s strange that both Karissa and Rahel should collapse at the same time.”

“We’d better get them to the infirmary.” Will suggested. “We can make a more thorough examination there. Ryan, can you and Amalie look after the kids.”

“Sure.” Ryan replied.

“I’ll let you know when we find anything.” Will stated. “I guess you should hold Christmas without us. It would be a shame to waste all the food and it might keep the kids minds off their mother for an hour or so.”

Will tapped the comm badge he had in his hand.

“Doctor Hancock to transporter control.” Will announced, looking across at Logan. “Three…..make that four to beam directly to the Infirmary.”

[Prepare for transport.] A voice announced.

Moments later the four Starfleet officers re-emerged in the Infirmary and like clockwork the medical team got to work, placing both patients onto adjacent biobeds. Will started to examine first Karissa and then Rahel, but could find no cause for their unconscious state.

It was an hour before Will finally discovered something and headed out of his office. He saw Logan sat beside Rahel, holding her hand and speaking to her softly. The scene pulled at Will’s own feelings, feelings that he should be doing exactly the same, but his medical instinct said he needed to discover what was happening.

“ Logan, I think I’ve found something.” Will announced, stepping over to a console.

Logan gently laid the hand he had been holding onto the bio-bed and walked across to where Will was.

“This is a scan of Karissa’s brain.” Will explained. “Karissa has a unique brainwave pattern, she shows much higher brain activity than most humans. And this is Rahel’s scan.”

Logan looked at the two patterns, but could see nothing unusual.

“Rahel has a higher level of brain activity as well.” Will continued. “But what’s odd is when I do this.”

Will hit a couple of buttons on the console and the two patterns came together until there was only one pattern.

It took Logan a few seconds to realise what he was looking at, but suddenly it hit him.

“The two patterns are the same.” Logan remarked.

“Which is impossible.” Will replied. “Everyone’s brainwave patterns are unique, even if they are identical twins or clones. There’s only one way that two people could have the same pattern……”

“Which is ?” Logan asked.

“Some kind of synchronous telepathic link.” Will answered. “Somehow Karissa and Rahel are linked telepathically, they are of one mind so to speak.”

“So why are they unconscious and why did they both faint at the same time.” Logan said. “And can you separate their brainwave patterns again ?.”

“I have no idea why they are unconscious, but I would say that it’s a good guess that this link is the reason they both collapsed.” Will replied. “As for whether we can wake them, I’d be cautious about using any artificial means of bringing them out.”

Suddenly the patterns jumped.

“What’s happening ?” Logan asked.

“Looks like they are dreaming.” Will replied. “These readings are consistent with REM sleep. Interesting…..”

“Interesting !” Logan remarked. “Why ?”

“Because the only time I’ve known Karissa to dream is when she has the nightmare.” Will explained. “She normally only sleeps for three to four hours, enough for her body to rest, but not long enough for her to enter REM.”

“Rahel is the same….” Logan commented. “…….When was Karissa born ?”

“We’re not exactly sure, but somewhere around May 2356.” Will stated. “She was adopted by Ryan and Amalie in August 2357.”

“Want to hear something odd.” Logan asked. “Rahel was also born around May 2356 and she was also adopted in 2357.”

“You know this nightmare of Karissa’s, recently it’s changed.” Will remarked.

“Trapped in a fire, alone.” Logan said. “Only now she isn’t alone anymore, there’s another child with her, with blonde hair and green eyes.”

“How did you know ?” Will asked, looking at Logan with amazement.

“Rahel has the same nightmare and it too has changed recently.” Logan explained. “The only difference is that the other child has dark hair and brown eyes.”

Will looked at Rahel and Karissa lying on the bio-beds. He was shocked for about a minute, looking from one patient to the other, realising what Logan was suggesting.

“You’re not saying that Karissa and Rahel were those children !” Will exclaimed. “That the other girl in Karissa’s nightmare is Rahel.”

“It would explain a lot.” Logan remarked. “We’ve been searching for Karissa for over a year now and the first time they set eyes on each other in thirty years they both collapse. Strange to think that we’ve been so close to her for all this time.”

“Well these readings look fairly normal for REM sleep, so whatever they are dreaming it’s not the nightmare.” Will suggested. “All we can do for the moment is wait and watch, hope they come out of it.”