Posted by Lieutenant Commander Kastarak (First Officer / Navigation Officer) in Side Sim: Dawson’s Return (Open to all)

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Quentin “Q” Dawson (Communications Officer) in Side Sim: Dawson’s Return (Open to all)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Kastarak (First Officer / Navigation Officer) in Side Sim: Dawson’s Return (Open to all)
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Dawson woke with a start in his chambers. He was in a cold sweat and couldn’t remember how he had gotten there. The last thing he remembered was discussing the plan to deal with the cloaked Romulan Ship, and then… nothing. He stumbled out of his quarters, the light of the hallway a jarring shock from the dark interior of his room. He had to find Kastarak. He had to know what happened.

The crew he passed all gave him strange looks, either from his unkempt and wild appearance, as he was in his night clothes rather than his uniform, or from seeing him at all. Each face made Dawson wonder How long? How long was I gone? He reached Kastarak’s office and rang the chime. His mind was swimming from the mental strain. It was all too much. Something pushed at Dawson’s consciousness. Something important. Something hidden - stolen from him. He started banging on Kastarak’s door, needing the Vulcan to answer. To give him answers.

He could feel his mind threatening to burst open, like a newly stitched wound opening up from excessive strain. What would happen when these stitches popped? What would bleed out from his lost memories? How would he heal a scar of the mind?

He continued to bang on the door, hoping, praying, begging for it to open.

Lt. Q Dawson

OOC: Hey, welcome back!! We missed you. I’ll follow up shortly!

Kastarak, Lt Cdr
First Officer and Navigations Officer

Kastarak had gone to bed an hour earlier. This day, he had had the debrief session with his senior crew, where they discussed the disappearance of Mr Dawson, without getting any understanding. They had looked everywhere, and gone through all scanners. They knew that one escape pod was missing, btu they had no evidence that Dawson had disappeared along with it, or exactly when they last saw him. Such were the perils of a skeleton crew while under a Romulan boarding party.

Now, as he woke up from bangs on the door, Kastarak was confused. Bangs? Were the chimes off line? There was something frantic, human, about the bangs, desperate. Kastarak, who like usual slept naked, quickly put on a pair of sweatpants that lay on the bench closest to his bed. He hurried to the door, as he sensed the urgency of the situation.

“Open the doors,” he commanded the computer, and the doors opened.

He looked at the disheveled man in pyjamas before him. For a moment, he could not place the familiarity of the face, before it dawned on him: This was Dawson, but different.

“Mr Dawson?” He said out loud, with a rising eyebrow accompanying his rising intonation. He had hypotheses in his head. Was this really Dawson? Was this some kind of holographic simulation? Was this a shapeshifter? Had Dawson been beamed back to the ship, tortured, by the Romulans?

“I am relieved to see you again. How are you? Come on in.”

Kastarak, Lt Cdr
First Officer and Navigations Officer

As the doors opened, Dawson stumbled in, his hands grabbing onto Kastarak’s shoulders for support. “Kas…” He said, trying to focus on the Vulcan’s face, “…what happened? What happened to the Romulans? Where… where was I?” The questions spilled from his mouth as his head got dizzier and dizzier. He thought he was going to be sick.

Lt. Q Dawson

Kastarak looked at Dawson, again testing his various hypotheses of what was going on. He was not making much sense of the situation.

“You were last here on stardate 2273.309. It is now stardate 2274.35. In other words, you have been gone for…” Kastarak made a mental calculation quickly. “… ninety-two days in according to the Gregorian calendar. I do not know where you have been. The Romulans have left.”

Kastarak took a soft step closer to Dawson.

“What do you remember?”

Kastarak, Lt Cdr
First Officer and Navigations Officer

Dawson’s eyes widened even further. Ninety-two days!?! How could that be possible. He tried to fucus on Kastarak’s questions, but found his mind spinning. “I-I remember the bridge, we were discussing plans to avoid the Romulans. We were going to go down to the brig, and then… Then I woke up in my quarters not half an hour ago. How could I have been gone for ninety-two days?”

Dawson tried to stand, but he could feel his legs going weak beneath him. He knew he was about to collapse. It was just too much. His vision began to darken and he clung to Kastarak as best he could as he felt himself sway forward into darkness.

Lt. Q. Dawson