Finally, she asked, "How much do you know about my abduction?"
"Very little actually. I know that you were abducted, and that you
had a difficult time when you returned home. Not much else."
She met his eyes, daring him to look away as she spoke. "I was visiting
Starbase 17 for a conference. The conference went as scheduled. After the
last meeting, I was returning to my room to pack when someone attacked me from
behind. I never saw who, and no one knows how I was removed from the
starbase.
They do know that my absence was somehow undetected for a day until
Lorin told
the base commander he had been unable to reach me. They lost more time
ascertaining that I had not boarded the transport back to Earth, though
records
had been altered to suggest that I had.
"I awoke to a world of darkness and silence. I couldn't seen anything or hear
anything, not even the sound of my own breathing. I couldn't sense my heart
beating. I tried to speak. Nothing came. I tried to touch. There was
nothing to touch, not even my own body. The sensory deprivation was complete.
"You know, we train to withstand torture. That training helped. For a while.
Plus, I had memories I had once shared with a Delta-quadrant entity named
Hunter. I knew what it was like to exist as a being who called space home.
But this was different. I was just there, neither dead nor alive. And
I began
to wonder... where was Lorin? Where was anyone to rescue me?
"I needed an answer, and I finally got one."
She took another sip of tea. Taking a deep breath, she continued. "It was my
own voice. 'Did you really think they care?' I heard the question again.
'Did you really think they care?' Over and over. Over and... over.
"Other voices joined in counterpoint to the recurring theme. Friends.
Colleagues. Yours and Carrhae's, too. 'I don't. I don't.'"
"When Lorin and my daughter joined the chorus, I couldn't take any
more. It was
like something that I had been holding onto with all my strength broke loose.
The voices stopped abruptly, in mid phrase.
"I heard a new voice. 'Let me help' he entreated. I refused. No one cared,
wanted to help. He asked again. No one cared? When he asked for the third
time, I accepted. I whispered, 'Please help me.'"
"The records my captor kept of the sessions showed I screamed. After
two days,
I screamed.
"It was easy after that. The plan was to completely turn me. I would be
returned to Earth as originally scheduled. I would be there to perform any
task they wanted. I was nearly ready when Lorin, with Hunter's help, tracked
me down. My captor escaped, though. We still don't know who he was
nor who he
worded for.
"I do know what he took from me. I couldn't trust anyone, even myself.
When my
daughter called to check on me, I refused to talk with her."
Her voice broke. "I... couldn't stand for Lorin to touch me."
Tears slid silently down Candance's cheeks. Still, though, she held Matt's
gaze.
(reaction?)
Bedru ends
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
| Randye Jones
|) aka Adm. Carrhae t'Llhweiir and Adm. Candance Bedru
/| Spacedock Role-Playing Game
( | ) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
|
Boldly goin' where no musician has gone before!
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