Dream a nightmare

Posted on Sun Dec 18th, 2022 @ 4:53am by Captain Addison 'Rico' Leyton

Mission: Season 6 : Episode 1: Circinus
Location: Deck 25
Timeline: MD 3; 0330 Hours
636 words - 1.3 OF Standard Post Measure

The air was warm with a slight breeze that brushed against her body as she sat in the saddle, resting her hands on the horn of the saddle. The sky was burning orange as the sun rose above the horizon. Dressed in jeans, boots, and a blue/white open flannel shirt with a white tank top underneath with a black Stetson hat on her head, Addison Leyton gazed at the valley below her. She was in the Shenandoah National Park near Mooreman's Point. Clouds clung near the tops of the not-too-distant mountains, making it seem like the mountains were smoking, giving the chain of mountains their name--Great Smoky Mountains. It had always been one of her favorite spots to visit when riding.

A stench struck her nose--it was smoke. Was there a forest fire nearby? Looking around, Addison couldn't see anything. She then spotted flames within the nearby trees. "Shit," she cursed as she spun her horse in the opposite direction and gave the horse a mild kick to send the animal into a sprint down the trail, away from the flames. She leaned forward, taking a chance look back. The flames were gaining and spreading. Were they chasing her? A fire couldn't move this fast.

"Come on, Casey!" Addison spur the horse on down the trail, kicking up dirt behind the animal as she carried her handler to safety. Trees were a blur on each side of the trail as the horse grunted loudly with each stride. Taking another look back, the flames were still gaining on her. She never saw the hole in the ground, causing the horse to flip, sending Addison flying through the air and as the ground rushed at her, everything went black.

A moment later, she gasped for air. She was on the deck of her quarters aboard the Elysium, dressed in the grey shorts and a white tank top that she had fallen asleep in. Her head hurt as she blinked several times, taking in the fire in her quarters by the replicator and was spreading--at least half of her quarters was on fire. She moved her hands to push herself up off the deck. What happened and how long had she been out? She grunted as she pushed herself up to her feet. Smoke from the fire was filling her quarters as she coughed and made her way to the door of her quarters. It looked like main power was offline as well as the environmental systems. Pressing the button to open the door didn't work as she tried again with no success. "Dammit," she cursed, kneeling down to open the emergency override panel. After several seconds, the got the panel open and reached in, grabbing the lever. Pulling it was slow going. Whoever the idiot at Starfleet Engineering that designed this system, I'm gonna kill him,' she thought as she finally got the lever pulled down, causing the doors to jar apart.

Standing, Addison moved to the door, using both hands to pull one side open just enough for her to exit. As she stepped out into the corridor, she stopped dead in her tracks as the starboard side of the corridor led out to open space. 'Thank goodness,' the emergency forcefields are working at least, she thought as she began to slowly back away in the opposite direction before turning to run down the corridor, wanting to get as far away as possible in case the field did fail. Smoke also lingered in the corridor as she made her way deeper into the interior of the deck. Not seeing anyone, caused her to begin to panic. Were they dead? She had to find someone. She would try to go up a deck to the shuttlebay--surely someone had to be alive and in the shuttlebay.