Welcome starpilot.
Select your destiny...

www.lostinflatspace.com

Fan Fiction

Just My Imagination: Part 2 - The Edges Blur by Andrew Williams "Scott!" He blinked. The slightly tatty wallpaper of his bedroom swam into focus. "Scott! Talk to me!" "Mum?" His mother sighed with relief. "Thank goodness," she sighed. "I've been trying to talk to you for the last ten minutes." Scott looked around. His computer sat in the corner, the Flatspace main menu awaiting instructions. He lay on the bed, with no idea how he'd got here. "It's like you'd gone to another world," she said. "Don't scare me like that, Scott. Please don't." "I'm... sorry, mum," he said, not sure what to say. "Has this happened before?" she asked. "Waking up from a daydream and not knowing what happened?" Scott had noticed this happening for the last week, increasingly often, but he didn't want to worry his mother further. "No," he said. "Why?" There was silence for a moment. Then his mother said, "I want to take you to a doctor." "Right now?" "No, no. I've booked an appointment for tomorrow. If you don't want to go..." "No, I'll go," he said. "What about school?" "I'll call the school," she said. "Scott... I'm just worried about you." Scott looked up at his mother, and said "I'm fine, mum. You'll see." "What?" Scott blinked. Console lights flickered at him frantically. "What?" he echoed. "You said something, sir," said Jenny. "Don't you remember?" "No," he said. "I think my mind was somewhere else." "Sir," chastised Jenny. "Now is not the time." Scott looked at the viewscreen, and into the plasma cannons of the biggest Scarrid warship he'd ever seen. "Scott!" "Jenny?" A look of shock, then confusion and finally relief crossed his mother's face. "Jenny? Who's Jenny?" For a moment he thought she was hiding something. Then the feeling passed, and she was just his mother, worried about him. "Did I... go away again?" he asked. "Oh, my baby," she wailed, hugging him tight as tears rolled down her face. "I love you, Scott. I don't want anything to happen to you." Scott could do nothing but hug her in return. Who was Jenny? Where did he go during his daydreams? Why couldn't he remember? "Mum," he said. "I think I could use some sleep, okay?" His mother nodded, then let him go. "Alright, Scott. I'll be up again later. You get some rest, okay?" She stood up. "Don't forget to turn this off." Scott followed her gaze to the computer. "I'll turn it off," he said. She smiled, her eyes still damp, and closed the door behind her. Scott sat on the bed and fell from his chair as the missile detonated. "That was close," he muttered. "A little less fine with the flare launcher please, people." "Sorry sir," smiled Jenny. "I'll ask them to give us a warning next time they're going to fire at us." "Mike!" he shouted at the radio. "You still with us?" "Just about," came the reply. "I wasn't expecting that barrage." "Focus your fire on the rear quadrant," said Scott. "It looks like the armour is weaker there." "Roger that." The Warning Forever broke away in a smooth arc while Scott launched a salvo of rockets at the warship's front. A series of explosions detonated along the hull, leaving scorch marks and small dents over the armour plating. He signalled for evasive action and his ship banked aside just before a salvo of plasma bolts came back in reply. There was a much larger explosion from behind the warship. "We got him, Scott!" cheered the radio. "Nice one, Mike," Scott replied. "I think we've nailed him." The warship turned to flee, but whether because of the damage they had inflicted or for some other reason Scott did not know. His ship fell in alongside Mike's, angling for that clear shot at the damaged section. "Captain, wait a moment." "What's up, Jenny?" "I've got an idea. I think that ship's about to jump out of here, and there's nowhere for it to go." "Of course," smiled Scott. Nowhere to run to... except the mystery base they were searching for. "Mike - hold your fire. We want to follow this ship, not destroy it." "Nice plan, Scott," Mike replied. "Tell Jenny I said so." "How'd you know it was Jenny?" Mike laughed. "We both know she's the brainy one here." Scott looked over at his security officer, who pretended not to have heard. The blush on her cheeks said otherwise. Green sparks rippled over the enemy hull. "Here we go, people," said Scott. "Follow that camel." As they shot into hyperspace after their foe, Scott briefly wondered what a camel was, and why his ancient ancestors wanted to follow them. He woke up on the floor, vaguely thinking about a desert. Oh no, not again. He stood up, turned his computer off and got back into bed. Unable to sleep, he lay back and listened to the birds singing. Birds? Was it morning already? He checked the alarm clock. A couple of hours until he had to get up for school... Except he wasn't going to school today. Last night's conversation came back to him. Mum was taking him to a doctor about his dreams. If only he could remember them! All he could think of was Flatspace, and something about a Jenny. Jenny. His mother said he'd been talking in his sleep or something, and he'd mentioned a Jenny. Lost in thought, he lay back and waited for the alarm to ring. "Still waiting." "How long does it take to recharge a jump drive?" Scott blinked. Not again! "Jenny? Where are we again?" "Captain? Has it happened again?" Scott nodded. "I... went somewhere else again. I remember we were following the Scarrid warship through hyperspace, and then..." "Come on," she said. "Mike will keep an eye on the ship, and the crew can keep an eye on things here. I'm taking you to the medical bay." Scott followed her without complaint. "How long has this been happening?" buzzed the doctor. "A few days," answered Scott. The doctor clicked and whirred a few times as it processed data. There were no moving parts inside the medical computer, of course; it was all affectation. It was long ago discovered that humans found realistic doctors unnerving and so, to make them more comforting to their patients, they tended to be more 'robotic'. "I have detected no abnormal symptoms," reported the doctor. "This appears to be a psychological condition." Click, whirr, click, click. "These dreams may be a subconscious manifestation of an external problem. I would recommend a course of hypnoregressive therapy." "Now is not a good time," started Scott, rising from the examination table. "I need to be on the bridge..." Jenny pushed him back down. "And what if the captain suffers another blackout during an attack? We need you well. That ship isn't going anywhere for the moment, and if it does, Mike is tracking it." Scott thought about arguing, and then remembered Jenny's proficiency in eight forms of unarmed combat. "He's ready, doctor," said Jenny. She turned to Scott. "I'll be here. Don't worry. We'll find out what's up and we'll fix it." "Look into my eyes," said the doctor. "Deep into my eyes. You are getting sleepy." Scott found this difficult, as the doctor had no eyes to look into. He said so, and the doctor revealed a monitor screen displaying several dozen eyes. "Okay then, doctor," he said. "Do your worst." "Scott? Are you awake?" He blinked. "Yes, mum," he called to the bedroom door. "Come get your breakfast, Scott. We've got to go in half an hour." Scott pulled on some clothes and headed down to the kitchen. After breakfast they got into the car and headed off. Mum told him they were going to see a Dr Morrison, and that he was a specialist in psychology and neurology. Scott took this as meaning he'd be able to tell if he had a brain tumour or was just going mad. "Mum? I had another dream last night." She seemed to start at that, but she hid it quite well, and the car barely shuddered. "Don't worry, baby. We'll soon get you sorted out." "Who's Jenny, mum?" That got a reaction. Mum slammed on the brakes, getting a few honks from the cars behind. She got herself under control, pulled the car over to the side of the road and turned in her seat to look at him. Her face had gone white, her eyes wide and frightened. "What do you know about Jenny?" she asked. Her voice was low and shaking. "Who told you about Jenny?" "I don't know anything!" Scott shouted. "All I know is she's in my dreams and I don't know who she is or why I'm dreaming about her. What aren't you telling me, mum?" She turned back to the wheel and said nothing for a moment. Scott suddenly realised she was crying. He wanted to comfort her, to say something that would make it all better, but he couldn't find the words. That low, shaky voice came again. "Jenny was your sister." Scott had grown up an only child. His sister? "When you were very little - you would have been about two, Jenny was about four - we went on holiday. To the seaside. You, Jenny, me, your father. When we were there... she was always a bit of a tomboy... I only took my eyes off her for a few seconds..." She swallowed, took a few seconds to compose herself, then continued. "Your father was with you, making sandcastles, and Jenny was with me getting ice cream. I was just getting my purse out when she ran off... she wanted to go swimming. I couldn't see her anywhere. I thought she'd gone back to you two, but when I got back..." "What happened, mum?" "She... she drowned, Scott. Some men tried to save her but they... It was too late. "I think that's the main reason your father left." Scott sat in stunned silent. She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue, then restarted the car. "Now you know why I worry about you, Scott. I don't want to lose you too." "I love you, mum," said Scott. "I love you too, baby. Now let's get you to Dr Morrison." "Interesting," said the doctor. Scott blinked. "What? What happened?" "You blacked out again," said Jenny. "We've got some weird brainwave readings from you, and because you were under hypnosis, you told us a bit about what you were thinking." "I did...?" "You were telling us about your sister." "I don't have a sister," said Scott. The doctor clicked in agreement as it checked the next of kin records on his medical file. "That's what you thought in your dream. Your mother was telling you that she drowned when you were little." "Drowned? What does that mean?" The doctor gave a series of clicks that approximated a polite cough. "Drowned. Life functions were terminated by the flooding of respiratory cavities with water." Scott had never heard of drowning before. Water was a valuable commodity and expensive to synthesise, so stocks were conserved wherever possible. The idea of someone swimming in the stuff was ridiculous - the sort of thing only celebrities with more money than sense did. He heard the roar of ocean surf in his ears, thought of endless waves stretching to the horizon (the what?) and he jumped. "Jenny!" he shouted. "Don't go in the water!" Dr Morrison jumped. "What is it? What's wrong?" he asked, silencing the tape recorder. The ocean noises stopped abruptly. Scott looked around, breathing fast, wondering where he was. "Scott, it's okay, you're alright." That was his mother. But where was he? "Mum? What is this place?" "You're at the doctor's," she said. "This is Dr Morrison. He was just putting you under hypnosis when you had another blackout." "Welcome back, young man," said Dr Morrison. Scott looked at him, wondering why the grey-haired, thin-faced man with the neatly trimmed beard wasn't clicking and whirring. And where did that thought come from? Memory began to return. Jenny had brought him to the doctor... no, his mother had brought him to the doctor, and after a few scans and some simple tests the doctor had tried to hypnotise him. And then blank. One of those blackouts had occurred, though whether that was because of the hypnotism he really didn't know. "Do you remember anything?" asked Dr Morrison. Scott started to answer, but his mind was blank. He shook his head. "No. Nothing real. Just weird feelings, like... like I've done this before, but it was different." "Do you remember talking to me at all?" "No." "Well, you did. You said a lot of things. I didn't understand all of it, but I think a lot of your problems are stress related. You spoke of a girl called Jenny; your mother has told me about her and about your journey here. You also spoke about being put under hypnosis by a doctor, which is probably just your worries about being here." "Why do I keep blacking out, doctor?" "We've ran a series of tests and there's nothing physically wrong with you. I think these blackouts are due to stress - and they're getting more frequent because you're worrying about them. I'm going to give you a prescription for some tablets that'll help calm you down, and if you're still suffering blackouts in a fortnight, come back and see me." Scott nodded, glad to be leaving. "Okay." They walked out of the doctor's office, heading back to the car. Mum held the prescription in one hand, trying to decipher the tightly scribbled handwriting. "So what do you think, Scott?" she asked. "I think he's an idiot." Scott spoke the words without thinking about it, then wished he could take them back. His mother had gone to a lot of effort to get him here. She surprised him then by giving his shoulder a squeeze, then whispering two words in his ear. "Me too." He woke up in familiar surroundings. His bedroom. He didn't remember getting here - had he had another blackout? Had his mother brought him here? Mother? His mother was dead - had been for fifteen years, killed in a pirate attack on the Nova outpost. "Welcome back, Captain." "Jenny! So I'm back on the ship?" "What?" Scott blinked. Something was different this time. He could remember... it was vague. A lot of it seemed to be nonsense. "Jenny... I think I'm starting to remember my dreams. Just vague impressions... but something." "The doctor said this was possible. He planted a post-hypnotic suggestion during the session. It'll take time but hopefully you'll remember more each time, and we'll be able to find out what's causing these blackouts." "He did better than the other doctor, then." "You remember that?" "I remember..." Scott paused. "Not much. I remember a... beard. Grey hair. I said he was an idiot. Doctor... doctor... I don't know." "What else do you remember?" "My mother was there. And I was younger - just a boy." "Maybe we're dealing with a repressed memory, then." Maybe. But nothing else he remembered was anything like Scott had experienced. He'd certainly never lived on a planet before - none had existed for countless centuries. "Did he give me any pills?" Jenny blinked in surprise. "Pills? Whatever for? Anyway, come on. You're needed on the bridge. Mike's got news for us." Scott smiled. "Then let's go."