<USS Avalon> Log-Of Sound Mind

Of Sound Mind

-Dodge Thomas



 

 

Peace and quiet...Peace and quiet...Peace and quiet.

Dodge's head was pounding out the silent little message into itself. After 
finishing evaluations, he had been flagged down in the halls no less than three 
times, each time by some meaningless person with some meaningless problem.

He had intended to go grab a bite to eat in the crew lounge, but then 
remembered that Sirius Black was holding his little get together in the lounge. 
With little other choice (all the holodecks were booked solid), Dodge headed 
grudgingly to his quarters. 

The door opened with a pneumatic hiss, admitting him to his little room. Three 
days before, security teams had upgraded the room to occupied and had enabled a 
more secure lock. It was a good thing, not that Dodge had anything of any 
particular value except maybe Ed.

Ed.

Dodge sighed heavily. He didn't have the energy to deal with the tactless 
holographic pain in the ass.

"Ed?" he called out cautiously, as he had not yet been verbally assaulted. 
"Hello?"

Ed sat on the couch and stared at the window. Not out the window...just at it.

"Ed? Are you okay?"

"I'm...I'm not sure. I don't feel...well? I am not...help?" His eyes were 
almost pleading.

"What happened?"

"I am not certain."

Dodge recognized some of the symptoms. "Do you remember anything? What's your 
name?"

"Ed. I don't know. Yes?"

He flickered for a moment. 

"Ed!"

Ed looked somewhat sleepy. "Yes? What do you want? How long have you been 
standing there?"

"Ed? Are you feeling quite okay? You seemed....distressed."

"Distressed? What the devil are you talking about?"

"I need you to turn your program off for a few minutes."

Ed eyed him warily. "Why?"

"Just to see if you're working properly. Your program isn't running 
consistently."

Ed nodded, and vanished.

Dodge took the little black box down from the shelf and opened it. Several neon 
yellow isolinear chips glowed dimly from within. An access panel slid out and 
Dodge interfaced with his tricorder. For a few minutes he traced pathways and 
circuits, trying to find out the cause of Ed's memory degeneration.

"Hold on." He activated Ed's program.

"Did you fix it?" Ed demanded.

"Yea, but there's really nothing to fix...except the fact that you're missing 
several memory engrams."

"What?!"


"Have you been messing with your emitter?"


"I can't, remember. You have the holographic disabling device installed. I 
can't do anything to modify my program physically."

"But you can rewrite your program."

"And that effects the real world how?"

Dodge paused and pondered. "Good point. Do you remember anyone coming in and 
taking them?"

"If you're asking if I 'felt' it when they disappeared, then no. I can't feel 
anything."

"And you didn't see anyone take them?"

"No. I just told you that I--" His program flashed and when it reestablished 
itself, he became catatonic. Nothing Dodge could do caused him to give any 
response either to outside stimulus or internal commands. Ed was out of 
commission for an undetermined amount of time.

There was a loud whumping sound quickly proceeded by a loud thud outside his 
door. Dodge quickly walked to the entrance, the doors sliding apart to let his 
out.

Karen Ross sat on her fairly rotund hindquarters. She spoke loudly in her 
rather whiny voice, attracting the attention of passers by everywhere. "Why the 
hell d'ya lock the door for?!"

"Hmmm...let me see." Dodge rubbed his chin in mock thoughtfulness. "Oh yea. To 
keep people like you out! God, the nerve of some people."

He left Karen sitting on her ass in the hallway with a look of shock on her 
face.

Dodge returned to his room, feeling more recluse than ever. 

"Damn, damn, damn."

Ed still stared catatonically at the ceiling. Had he been an organic, Dodge 
felt certain that his eyes would be very dry and he would possibly have a 
silver trail of drool seeping from the corner of his mouth.

"To coin a phrase," he sighed sadly, "I do believe I've grown accustomed to 
your ugly little sonuvabitch face."

He leaned over and patted the cat on it's head before deactivating him.

"Goodnight," he whispered, uncertain of the permanence of the word. "Sweet 
dreams."



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