Sink or Swim

Posted on Sun Oct 25th, 2020 @ 4:28pm by Ensign George Paxton & NVeid tr'Rehu
Edited on on Tue Nov 3rd, 2020 @ 5:25pm

Mission: The Shadow of Arachne
Location: Holodeck 2
Timeline: MD-04
1348 words - 2.7 OF Standard Post Measure

The turbolift gently stopped and George stepped out, twitching his fingers by his side. An unconscious manifestation of the uneasy feeling that had slowly crept in since their arrival in fluidic space. He strolled into the holodeck frequented by NVeid with the hope that a swim and some conversation would help to ease the unsettling feeling. “Hey NVeid, how are you this evening?” George asked as he threw his towel down and entered the pool.

"Good evening George," the Romulan greeted in return as he returned to the side of the pool with a few powerful strokes. "Are you ready for another race? You did pretty well the other day, we may yet make you a competition swimmer."

George chuckled, “I don’t know that I’ll ever be competition swimmer material, but sure. Let me warm up for a minute first though.” Without waiting for a response, he kicked off the wall and casually swam to the other end, loosening up his muscles. He stopped at the opposite wall and looked at NVeid before continuing his warm up, “How has your day been?”

"Pretty quiet, worked on some research with Doctor Reed regarding hybrid blood typing and immunology. And you?"

“Fine. Nothing terribly exciting, just continuing repairs. Though I’ve been on edge ever since we entered this fluidic space and I’m not sure why. I can’t quite shake the feeling that something’s wrong.” George paused for a moment as if lost in thought. “Anyways,” he continued, snapping out of his daze, “I think I’m ready for that race now. Are we setting any terms?”

"No, no terms, just practice." The Romulan smiled. "As far as on edge goes I think everyone is on edge, I can sense it without going through much effort to do so. It's all but giving me a headache, to be honest." He pulled himself from the pool and walked over to the starting block, waiting for his companion to do the same.

“Well maybe this race will do us both some good then,” George said as pulled himself out of the pool and lined up on a starting block. “Computer, begin a three second countdown.” Without hesitation, they dove into the water as the countdown ended.

As they touched water, there seemed to be a shift in gravity and Nveid felt himself being pulled towards the bottom of the pool. For a moment, he couldn't tell up from down and he couldn't find his way back to the surface. George! He had no choice but to use his mental prowess to reach out to his friend.

George sank towards the bottom of the pool, feeling as though his whole body had become an anchor. Every limb strained as he tried desperately to swim up to the surface. Seconds passed and then he heard his own name inside his head. Is that you NVeid? Can you...hear me? He thought, hoping that was how telepathic exchange worked. He looked around to get a visual cue on where his friend might be when suddenly the lights flickered and everything went dark.

The Romulan froze, his lungs burning as he held his breath. He didn't like utter darkness, it reminded him of terrible places. Places he preferred not to be reminded of, ever again. His worst nightmares happened in such a place. I hear.. I'm... His mental voice seemed to falter as he struggled to focus. scared he finished, wondering if this was going to be the end of them. No light, no way to find the surface, no air...

The seconds continued to pass, struggling against the cold black water. George changed direction. He was relatively sure that he had been fighting against the force pulling him downward before, perhaps if he swam downward instead then he could find the bottom of the pool and use it to kick upward to the surface. Me too. We need to find a reference point for direction. I’m going to try to swim down and kick off from the bottom. See if you can reach a wall or something, he suggested.

I don't know which way is what. His telepathic senses weren't going to help him there, he was no cetacean mammal who could use echo for location. Even his bionic eye wouldn't help him here as it wasn't designed to give him a super visional ability. I don't know where I am.

George wasn’t entirely sure where he was either, he just hoped he was getting closer to the bottom of the pool. Just then, the light flickered back into existence. He was only about a foot from the tiled bottom, but his lungs were on fire and he wasn’t sure he was going to make it. As he neared the tiled surface, he rotated. As soon as his feet were firmly planted, he pushed off with what strength he had left, hoping it was enough to break through the chains that the enhanced gravity had bestowed upon them. The gravity suddenly eased and George resurfaced, gasping for breath. Nveid?! He reached out to his friend.

Here... The answer was weak, dull. Nveid could see the light now, but his vision was swimming and he wasn't sure how far he was from the surface. Need help he thought as air escaped from his mouth. He had to or he'd burst his lungs holding his breath.

“Computer...end program!” George shouted between gulps of breath. Suddenly the pool disappeared and NVeid was lying there on the floor. He rushed over to him, “Are you ok?” George asked, putting a hand on his shoulder to help pull him up.

The Romulan flailed as he was suddenly touched, coughing madly as he suddenly could breathe again. "Fine," he gasped as he was helped up into a sitting position. He shivered as he realized he was sitting on the holodeck's cold deck plating. "What happened?" He shivered again. "Why did the pool go dark?"

Whoa, what was that? George thought as the Romulan seemed to thrash at his touch. Wait, can you still hear me this way? He curiously reached out.

Nveid nodded. "Yes, I hear you. Your touch startled me, I don't like unexected touch."

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t know.” George apologized. He wanted to ask more questions curious as to why NVeid was so scared when the lights went out or why he doesn’t like unexpected touch, but thought it best to leave it for now. “I don’t know why the pool went dark or what happened with the gravity. Some sort of malfunction is my best guess, but usually there are multiple safeties in place.” George responded to NVeid’s inquiry.

"We could have drowned..." He shuddered as he looked around. "We should report this to engineering." He slowly crawled to his feet, nearly slipping in the puddle of water that had formed beneath him. "But not like this, we can't go like this." He seemed rattled as he babbled on.

George instinctively reached out to help NVeid up, but quickly drew back. "Engineering is my territory, I'll get dried off and head there next to run some diagnostics and find out what happened. Are you sure you're ok?" He asked, his voice filled with concern. NVeid generally seemed quite calm and put together. To see him this rattled was unsettling and he hated to see him suffer and not be able to help in some way.

"Go, go.." Nveid waved him off, "I'm going to sickbay. I'll..." He paused, looking up. "I'll tell you... some day," he promised.

"Ok. You can stop by engineering later if you feel up to it and I'll show you anything I've found." George responded as he moved reluctantly towards the exit.

Nveid nodded slowly, waiting for the man to leave before getting dressed himself. He needed to get himself centered before he could function again.