By the time she returned to Darcy's quarters, undressed, and slipped beneath the comforter, her wrist chronometer read 0407. She set its alarm for 0700, then lay on her back in the dark, unable to sleep, staring up at the invisible ceiling as if she could make out something there that would answer all her questions. She had come up against too much in the past hour and a half, facts and concepts she had not been able to absorb at the time. Now they bubbled up in her mind, jostling for prominence.
Foremost among them was the thought that Karl would accompany her on her mission to the Crab Nebula. He would join her on an assignment in search of a lost Survey ship, a ship that had been missing for nearly a full year.
She didn't want Karl along, but there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Hyatt had made it clear that if she wished to pilot his ship, it would be on his terms. It was either take Karl along, or not go herself. And that was no choice at all.
Again she would be responsible for his life. And again she thought of that strange vision.
It always came down to being responsible for the lives of others. And if it happened again as it had in Aldebaran system…
A shiver rattled up her spine and she pulled the comforter snugly around her neck. There was nothing she could do about any of it. She could chase the questions around in her mind all night, and by morning be no nearer a solution than she was now. She needed sleep-in only a few hours she would have to be alert, ready to absorb what little ship's familiarization Hyatt would permit.
Closing her eyes, she pushed the thoughts from her mind and forced her breathing into a regular pattern, then concentrated on relaxing her tense muscles.
Again the nightmare came, the dream/memories knifing into her sleeping thoughts. She was again in Aldebaran system, onboard the Fleet cruiser Defiant, and Karl's body worked gently against her own as she held him in her arms…