Snip

“But I saw her earlier. She is supposed to be bartending, ancestors help them all,” he said looking at Bailey. He wasn’t a doctor but two of Thor’s past hosts were science and medical related. He looked at the Captain. “Are .. we holograms, androids?” Even with his head pounding there could only be so many solutions here. A person couldn’t be in two places at once and here Bailey was still in uniform. But what was that, a shared dream?

Looking to his left he saw Vanessa. Looking to the right side of the engineering officer he saw Reia. “Dagen,” Calvin signaled for him to check his wife as Calvin moved closer to the counselor. The pounding migraine made it feel as if Calvin could barely take a step without feeling like he was going to retch all over the place. “Lieutenant,” he stated in a firm tone. “Lieutenant Slade,” he repeated her name and tapped her cheek trying to arouse her.

Calvin Marius CO

Dagen was less ‘sick’ as he was feeling his motor control messed up and he was off balance when he moved. But seeing Reia there, he stumbled drunkenly. “I saw her out there not long ago too,” he said. Reaching the bed he leaned on it to try to keep his balance. Laying down right now was very desirable and almost overriding his thinking. He’d felt that kind of thing at Academy exercises where he had been without sleep for what seemed like days and the prospect of letting the ship explode around him then (even if a simulation) was powerful. Almost like now. He touched her arm. She was still warm; well to a cold Trill’s hands most people were warm but Reia was quite warm blooded. She too had that device on her. Was there some kind of control? Was ‘he’ there too? He glanced around quickly but not too quickly as a wave of nausea broke over him in doing that. “Reia,” he said. It made sense that he was in the same predicament. But what happened if he just turned that device off.

Reia did not react nor did Vanessa to either man touching them. Both women reacted as if in a deep sleep

Looking at the monitor attached to Vanessa’s forehead, Calvin posed a question. “Think you can turn this off?”

“If we turn this off,” Dagen said to the Captain. “Will the other Reia cease to exist? Will I if I find myself and turn that off?” He had no illusion that there was a solution here and freeing Reia and himself and the others were he to turn it off. But what about him? If he himself was a construct .. would he then cease to exist? He didn’t want to disappear. He was Dagen. Perhaps a different one? And the other Reia a different one too but he talked with her and kissed her. What then? He found his hands were shaking and not entirely from the pain.
- Dagen

Everything the CE stated was also running through Calvin’s mind. He had zero desire to blip into oblivion however remaining in this situation was not acceptable either. Leaning in, he examined the monitor on her head as if it was a landmine being careful not to touch it too much or shift it too much. “Have you seen a device like this?”

“Not this model,” Dagen said. “It is obviously some kind of neuralink but just what it links ‘to’ I don’t know.” It was funny in a way. Dagen was more open to turning it off on Reia than himself. Loss of a dual identity of Reia was of less concern for him than getting Reia back. But was ‘he’ even he. A fake Dagen wanting the real Reia back while sacrificing a fake Reia was .. there was some moral line crossing here he thought but with his pounding head he wasn’t quite sure what that was. His thoughts did come in fits and spurts and to him were not precisely concise.

His statement was for a dual purpose. Calvin needed his CE and there was a chance, Dagen’s would be too hesitant to try something if he thought it was going to hurt his wife. Vanessa was not unimportant but every Starfleet officer knew signing up for service was a risky proposition. Calvin and Dagen would take every precaution however if they could not release the counselor, then none of them would probably be getting out of this in one piece.

Suddenly Calvin realized why this device looked so familiar to him. “So a week or so back the counselor roped me into some volunteer work with a group of kids she knew back at the VA in Boston. We played paintball with them via linking into a game via our holodeck but the kids didn’t have access to a holodeck. They wore those civvie helmets and linked into the game that way.” Pulling back some hair off Vanessa’s face, Calvin could see that the monitor seemed to be attached to Vanessa’s face at her temple.

Calvin Marius CO

“So they are linked and unplugging would be like leaving the game?” he asked. Still there was a threat from the ‘matron’ and Dagen couldn’t quite figure what that meant. “Long ago I played a game that had people linked through multiple holosuites,” he mused. “All the Avatars met in the same simultaneous simulation. Captain are you saying we’re just game Avatars?” He glanced over and saw what he was seeing on the temple attachment and brushed back Reia’s hair to see a similar attachment.

Looking to the main one on her arm he leaned in. “It may be remotely controlled but there does look like it has a control interface. I think I can shut it down.” He was close to Reia’s lap. Just close your eyes and nap was what was calling to him ..
- Dagen, CE