A Cure for Nightmares

Posted on Sun Jan 29th, 2023 @ 4:14am by Cadet Third Class Aarfa Barakzay & Cadet First Class Pallas

Mission: The Goddess
Location: Deck 18, Crew Quarters
Timeline: Sometimes after "Running and Stopping"
3309 words - 6.6 OF Standard Post Measure

"Well, this is it," Pallas said as she and Aarfa walked into the quarters. Given the circumstances of the attacks, it was perhaps a miracle that there were even two cadets onboard. The space was designed so that perhaps up to a dozen could be accommodated at once, and it honestly felt much too big for Pallas alone. She was glad to have Aarfa here now, even if her Kainan friend had expressed hesitation and some concern for Pallas's safety. "What do you think? Big enough for the two of us?" she joked.

It was ...large. Aarfa's natural preferences were for something cozy, den-like, so she could see why Pallas would want company. Being alone is here would be eerie. But it fit the bill for having enough space that Aarfa could be far enough away that she shouldn't cause any damage if she got caught in a night terror. "Yeah. I think I can just about spread out in here," she joked, dropping her duffel on a lower bunk.

Pallas giggled. "If it gets to crowded, maybe we can knock down some of those walls. You would be amazed what they teach us in our Engineering classes... sometimes there are ways to rearrange starships without too much damage." She smiled at Aarfa before leaning against the bunk the other cadet had chosen. "Tell me the truth, though. How are you feeling about all this? I know; I didn't give you a choice, and I insisted when you said no at first, but I am not actually trying to kidnap you. If it does end up bothering you, I will not hold you here against your will."

Aarfa swallowed a laugh, imagining some CO's reaction to a couple cadets blowing out walls here. "This is fine. Honestly I'm grateful - not being alone in a room is a true gift. I'm only worried about disturbing you. If my presence becomes a problem, you have to tell me," she added sincerely. "I would not hold it against you either if you want ot go back to having this to yourself."

"I grew up with four brothers and one sister in a house," Pallas looked around, "roughly this size. Becoming proficient at getting sleep despite noisy neighbors was an absolute requirement for all of us if we wanted any semblance of rest. I am harder to disturb than you might think," she smiled as she placed a reassuring hand on Aarfa's shoulder. "I promise you, though, I will be direct; if I have any issues, I will tell you. Also, I'm technically your superior, what with all the experience that time at the Academy has afforded me," she chuckled before walking over to the bunk she'd chosen and starting to change into the clean pajamas she'd replicated in the morning after waking up. Their bunks were only a row apart. Close enough to hear each other at a normal volume, but hopefully given the new roommate enough breathing room, given how worried she'd seemed about disturbing Pallas.

"Okay then. Ma'am." Aarfa saluted with a grin, then ducked into her lower bunk and stripped off her uniform. Sleeping fur-only was most comfortable, but she'd learned that with a mix of species it was polite to wear something, so she put on a loose light fleece shift. She'd chosen a lower bunk because it had a more den-like feel, and also because jerking awake with a nightmare from an upper bunk could lead to a hard fall. "Good night. And thank you."

Pallas’s bunk was a top one, reminding her of the loft she had shared with her sister back home. “Don’t thank me yet: I have been told I snore,” she laughed as she dropped her head into her foam pillow, sighing contentedly as her face sunk in slowly. She pulled her comforter up around her chin, snuggling into them.

"Noise won't bother me - it lets me know someone is here," Aarfa assured and settled back with a contented sigh. At first she just listened, stretching toes and fingers, as she slowly relaxed, letting the soft susurration of Pallas' breath lull her. She hadn't expected to go to sleep easily in a new place, but it had been days since she'd really slept well or for long, so before long she was fast and deeply asleep.

Some time later a bunk shook from motion accompanied by a low dangerous rumble. "Grrrr ...GRRrr... rrwrrr..."

"Quiet, Kadmos..." Pallas muttered in her sleep. Insider her dreaming mind, her memory was recalling her younger brother, who had just learned about the Gorn, pretending to be an alien why she was trying to study.

The words eluded Aarfa, deep asleep and falling deeper into nightmare, bits from the attack on SB621 and Gladiator blending and shifting so that as she ran down twisting red alert lit corridors every turn throwing her into a firefight or blood-spattered walls or hull breaches - all filled with the scent of death. And then suddenly she was in a close room, a box with no opening, trapped, walls moving inward...

"Ah-whoo...Ah-whooo! Ah-whooo!" she howled in her sleep.

"Kad...mos... wha...?" Pallas sat up in her upper bunk so suddenly that she almost leapt out of it, her hands and fingers digging into the mattress so steady herself as her comforter flew up and off and tumbled down onto the ground. She turned with a start toward the noise, her brain catching up to her eyes as she realized where she was, and that it was her new roommate here on the Gladiator, not her younger brother back on Ardana, who was howling. "Aarfa!" she said as she dropped off the side of the bunk and in a few bounds was next to her friend's bedside. "Wake up, you're okay, you're safe here... it's just a bad dream!" she said as she shook Aarfa by the shoulder.

"Ah-whoo - Grrar!" The Kainan went bolt upright, teeth bared and a clawed hand lashing at whatever had grabbed her in the darkness of nightmare. Her eyes were wide, whites showing, and yet it took a beat before they registered waking reality. She pulled her hand back quickly, clasping it to her body as she nearly curled in on herself. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Did I hurt you?"

With the reaction speed that she usually reserved for the ring, Pallas slipped back, the sharp paw flying by. She pushed Aarfa's arm out of the way with her own, a firm parry, and hopped back out of reach, hands up covering her chin and lower face in her defensive stance, relaxing only when she saw her friend was fully awake. Rolling her shoulders back and exhaling slowly, she managed a half-smile, more worried about Aarfa than anything else, though her adrenaline was still coming down. "No, no, I am fine. Academy Boxing Team, remember?" She sat on the edge of her roommate's mattress and put her hand back on her shoulder. "Do not apologize for something that has been disclosed and was expected. The real question is: are you alright?"

Aarfa expelled a relieved breath at the verbal assurance, and the lack of any whiff of fresh blood that further verified it. "If you're okay, then I'm alright," she replied. "It was a nightmare. Just a nightmare," she repeated almost more to herself than to Pallas. "I'm sorry I woke you."

Pallas shrugged. "Apology accepted, but unnecessary. Uninterrupted sleep is overrated. I spent my whole childhood getting woken up in the middle of the night by one thing or another." She patted Aarfa's arm. "Want to talk about it?"

"It was a standard nightmare - disaster, death, chaos, combat, then stuck a room with the walls closing in..." Aarfa swallowed. " ...so not so much?"

A nod, and a deeper hug. This one with a gentle ruffling of the fur at the back of Aarfa's neck. "Not sure there is such thing as a 'standard' nightmare... my experience is that they are as terrifying and difficult regardless of how many times the same one is repeated." Pallas smiled.. "No need to talk about it then. Look, the walls here are staying in place. Ignore what I said earlier tonight about knocking them down. Do you want to try going back to sleep, or something else? Tea? A snack? Holodeck? Running laps around the corridor?"

"I could eat." It was a response so standard to her species that it came out almost casual despite a slight shakiness in her breath. "A walk down to the mess hall would feel good. Movement, open paths there." She nodded almost to herself, visualizing it, then looked over at Pallas, recalling that humans needed longer extended sleep, instead of several short sleeps like Kainans. "I'm sorry I woke you. I can get food on my own if you want to go back to sleep."

Pallas shook her head. "Like I said, I grew up in a very full household. Late night snacks and circuitous routes to get to a few hours of rest is very normal to me. Lights, 50 percent" she added, to the Computer, giving her eyes a moment to adjust before they made their way into the more brightly lit corridor. "I could eat, too," Pallas shared, taking on an upbeat tone as she stood and stretched. "Let me grab a jacket and then we can head out," she said before walking back to her bunk, stifling a yawn.

"Clothes. Right." Being covered in fur, Kainans didn't have the body taboos of a lot of species, so it hadn't been at the top of Aarfa's mind. She shook to smooth out 'bed body' and threw on clothes. "Okay. ready when you are."

At this hour, in the last shift, it was relatively quiet in the corridors. But there was definitely some activity: the ongoing repairs on Gladiator were around the clock, and others were continuing with all the activities involved in the mission at hand. As they exited the quarters, into the full light of the deck, and made their way toward the turbolift, Pallas tried to keep the conversation light, and off-topic. Aarfa hadn't wanted to talk about it, but that didn't necessarily mean she didn't want to talk. She tried to think of what was comforting for her, when she was recovering from a nightmare. "Can I ask you to tell me more about your home? You are the first Kainan I have met. What is it like, where you grew up?"

Aarfa smiled, grateful for the change of topic. "Kaina's environment is a lot like earth's, but we've preserved more park lands. Natural spaces are important to us, culturally. A lot of Kainans still follow traditional faiths that revere the natural world and see spirit in all things. I grew up near savanna lands - lots of room to run." She flashed brief grin. "Family packs usually all live together in big compound, and mine did too. You talk about having a bunch of brothers, but I have a brother and sister from my litter, plus two brothers and a sister from my parents next one, and eight older half siblings from their previous pairings. We all lived together, slept together, played and hunted together."

Pallas laughed. "That sounds familiar. Well, except for the part about hunting. The trouble that Kadmos and Tychon would get up to... those are the youngest pair." Ever since she left for the Academy, the thought of having all that life swirling around her every waking moment had always brought a feeling of fondness. Even sharing bunks at the Academy felt like a luxury. Finally having a physical space that she and everyone else understood was solely hers, even if not strictly demarcated, it had been a new experience. A relief, at first, but during long nights, it could feel rather lonely. Having the entirety of the cadet quarters here, until Aarfa joined her, had been downright disturbing. It wasn't always easy to think about in that way, but somewhere inside her, part of Pallas knew that she missed her siblings. "It sounds like you were very close," Pallas projected by way of asking about Aarfa's family. "You must miss them terribly."

"I do," Aarfa replied emphatically. So much so that she nearly surprised herself. "I really do. There was a time when I was looking forward to be out on my own, free of constantly have keep an eye out for pranks or being pounced or having half my dinner swiped off my plate." She chuckled as the entered mess hall. "Okay, that last part I don't miss so much, but I do miss the big fuzzy balls. Even Oona, my littermate sister, who always stole my clothes."

"Ha. That sounds familiar. Are you sure we did not actually grow up together?" Pallas laughed. "My little sister, Dameia, did the same thing, stealing my clothes, even when they were much too big for her. My father had to explain to me that it was a sign of how much she looked up to me and wanted to be like me. I, of course, just wanted my favorite jacket back. It was real leather, really scuffed up in places, but I loved that jacket." She sighed at the memory of how it felt against her bare arms. "I gave it to Dameia when I left," she shrugged. "Figured she would have just stolen it out of my duffel before I left, anyway."

Aarfa dipped her head. "Same. It's not like I need more than a couple items of civvie clothing anyway, so I left some of it for Oona." A sly smile crossed her face. "Though I expect she'll have to fight the rest of our female sibs for it now that's it's offically up for grabs."

The other cadet laughed. “I have often gone back and forth about whether having more sisters would have been a good or bad thing. It was always just the two of us girls, among a sea of brothers. Well, not a sea; there are only three of them, but somehow it always seemed that we were hopelessly outnumbered. Especially in the early years.” Her expression darkened slightly. “It is different, I think, when there is plenty and when there is not. Our parents always made sure we were fed and clothed, but there are degrees to that, too. That was only for a short time, though.” She brightened again as they reached the mess hall. “The Federation takes replicators for granted, something that has always been here are provided. But they are truly the greatest marvel of the galaxy.”

"There's not as much difference between males and females for my species, I think. Or at least girls are as much rough and tumble as boys." She paused a moment, thinking. "Maybe more so. If someone is going to go too far and draw blood in a fight, it's usually one of the girls. I guess that's why the males are usually more likely to back down when a female shows teeth," she chuckled, thinking that early training probably counted for more than just wanting to stay on females' good sides for when it came time to pick a mate. But that wasn't a subject to get into with a humanoid yet. Choosing comfort food - a bowl of maple bacon ice cream - from the replicator, she nodded in agreement with Pallas' observation about the technology. "Replicators really are blessing. Instant food! But I suppose they can become easy to take for granted. Maybe that's another reason my people keep the tradition of hunting - so we don't become so accustomed to an economy of abundance that we forget that scarcity and struggle were the rule for millenia, and still are for so many species, especially in pre-warp societies."

Pallas nodded in agreement. "Or in warp societies where artificial scarcity is enforced for the benefit of a few." She had been thinking of ordering something savory, but then saw her roommate's order, and the craving for something sweet quickly replaced her plan. "Warm apple pie, a la mode, vanilla ice cream," she ordered, the excitement palpable in her voice. The dessert materialized on a tray, accompanied by a fork and spoon neatly placed on a folded cloth napkin. "Do you remember the first time you had ice cream?" she asked, nodding at Aarfa's bowl as they made their way to an open table. "I can still remember it so clearly. It was the fact that it was cold that really baffled me," she laughed.

Aarfa sat down and sucked a taste of ice cream off her spoon, thinking about the question. "You know, I'm not sure I can. I think I probably got tastes almost as soon as I was weaned, honestly. It's a common treat for pups at the end of the day, partly because the milk fat helps make them sleepy." She paused a moment, scooping another spoonful. "I suppose that's why I picked it. Comfort food I associate with a peaceful sleep in a pile of siblings."

"That makes sense. For us, that was cheese. Stored well without refrigeration, no preparation needed, just break off a chunk and stick it in the mouth of a fussy child to gnaw at until they fall asleep," Pallas laughed. "Same on the high milk fat, I will need to look into how common that is across the galaxy..." she began to make mental notes to herself as she dug into her apple pie, the ice cream slowly but steadily melting over it, surrounding the crisp golden brown crust with a sweet milky white puddle.

"Mmm, cheese." Aarfa smiled. "Cheese is always good. Hard cheese and jerky were staples for snack packs if we were going to be out all day. I imagine any world with mammals will have worked out how to make cheese, and milk fat contributing to sleep probably keeps lactating species sane when their young are infants," she added with a grin.

Pallas gave Aarfa an long, approving look. "This is why we are friends," she chuckled, "that sounds exactly like something I would say." She happily finished her late night bonus dessert, not rushing it even as the ice cream melted, and used the loose bits of crust from her pie to sop up the puddle of melted vanilla ice cream, creating a sort of soggy mush that she ate just as happily as she had the rest of the treat. "Feeling better now?" she asked. Pallas hadn't been the one to have a nightmare, but was certainly happy for the unplanned meal.

"Yes," Aarfa said, nodding her head human style. Her ice cream was eaten, and though she had to suppress an urge to lick the bowl for every last molecule, the treat had done the job in making her feel better and ready for a good sleep. Provided her subconscious cooperated on that this time. "I can't promise I won't wake you with another nightmare," she said, head ducked and tipped a bit o the side in pre-emptive apology, "but I do think I can go back to sleep."

"If I get dessert every time you have a nightmare, you do not need to worry about that at all," Pallas laughed. "Seriously, no need to apologize for it. Ever. I imagine it will not be long until I wake you up with one," she frowned slightly. "We will take care of each other, friend."

"Thank you," Aarfa said sincerely. "For being my friend. I don't hope you have a nightmare, but I do hope I can return the care. It's what pack is for - we're stronger together, and if one falls there's always someone there to lift them up."

"Always," Pallas smiled back.