<USS Avalon> "The Places We Call Home"

The Places We Call Homeby Lieutenants Joshua Garrity and Sussanna Jameson 


Her quarters were quiet and empty. Nothing was right here anymore, nothing felt 
normal. She needed to feel something, but her whole body was numb. Looking at 
herself in the mirror on her bedroom wall, Anna saw a hollow eyed failure stare 
back. I gotta get out of this bloody room! She needed to do something, 
anything, just to get Lissi out of system. She could still taste her, feel her 
touch and it was making her sick with the longing.

Heading to the main room, Anna grabbed a long, thin box, elaborately carved in 
dark wood and inlayed with ivory images of chinese-style dragons. Her mind set 
on one of her favourite holo-programs, she strode out and down to the holodeck.

Josh finished his shift and headed toward the turbo lift. He was tired and achy 
and angry and sick to his core, yet still could find no rest. He hurt. Inside. 
Every part of him. God, did he hurt. He needed it to stop. He needed it to 
finally end. Stopping the lift, he changed its directions, heading to the 
holodeck yet again. Loading his program, sans-safeties, he entered without 
looking back. Maybe today. Maybe...

It was occupied! "Bloody hell," she muttered. "Oh to hell with it." She opened 
the doors, hoping she could barter with the occupant to get a little bit of 
time, maybe even convince them to join her in a little action.

As the doors opened, she was greeted by the smell of decay and rotting flesh, 
the wafting of an oppressively humid heat, and the drag of a painfully high 
gravity. And screams. Terrible, frightful, painful screams. The screams of 
children.

Jesus Christ, what kind of program was this? Maybe she would just go, maybe she 
would just leave it... A hand grabbed her from behind and she almost screamed. 
Instead, instinct kicked in and she flipped the owner head over feet. A huge 
lizard of a man skidded across the gangway. Anna flicked open her box before 
another could come at her and withdrew a samari sword, which she unsheathed. 
Raising herself to a fighting stance, she welcomed the attack when it came.

The lizard-man roared, leaping with surprising agility to his feet and raising 
his staff as two men..well, almost men...joined him to surround her. The 
screaming grew louder from an alcove to her right. They approached her from the 
front, from her right and left, forcing her back where she almost tripped over 
the half-decayed body of a very very small child.

A scream of rage consumed her as she forced herself not to throw up. Bringing 
the sword down in a swift motion, she removed the head of the first attacker 
before setting on the other two. The first sign that something was wrong came 
when one of the lizards managed to get under her guard and swiped across her 
stomach, leaving a set of deep scratches that started to bleed freely. 
Stumbling back a step, it began to dawn on her that she wasn't just fighting a 
simulation anymore.

The scream carried up the surrounding alcoves, startling Josh so that the staff 
that was coming swiftly down at his head very nearly made contact. As it was, 
it still crashed painfully across his left shoulder. Gritting his teeth, he 
gripped the staff with his right hand and pulled, dragging the creature 
off-balance as he rolled back, and used his legs to propel him up and over into 
the wall. Rolling back to his feet, he called out, his voice only just audible 
over the sound of the screams, "Computer, change program, Garrity4 subroutine 
two. Engage." Abruptly the caves changed around him, the oppressive heat blown 
away by a sweet, salty breeze, the screams replaced by the sounds of crashing 
waves. Josh reeled slightly, then sat, lowering his head, attempting to catch 
his air, hoping the intruder hadn't seen too much of the program as it had been.

"What the..." Anna looked around at the stunning seascape and then over at 
Josh. "What the fuck did you do that for?" She was angry and now her blood was 
boiling. Glancing down at her wound, she called for the computer to give her 
some bandages. Sword still in hand, she marched over to Josh. "Bring it the 
hell back!"

Josh barely heard her. Somehow the sound of the crashing waves seemed to be 
coming from inside his own head. The room was tilting and reeling oddly. 
Reaching into his pouch, he withdrew the subdermal regenerator and began 
absently repairing the damage to his shoulder. He was vaguely aware of a second 
presence there with him, but no longer cared if it was friend or foe.

"Damn you!" Anna wanted to kick at him, punch him and yet a small part of her 
saw the way he was moving: odd, as if he weren't entirely aware of his 
surroundings. Her inner Doctor kicked in and she reached over to take the 
regenerator from his fingers. "Josh?"

He didn't respond. He wasn't sure he could right at that moment. The 
regenerator was withdrawn from his fingers unnoticed. He tilted his head back 
against the side wall of the cave, forcing himself to breathe deeply.

Okay, not good. Anna knelt down beside him and brushed his curls away from his 
eyes, feeling his temperature. "Computer, create a medical kit with tricorder 
and programmable hypospray." It appeared at her side and she started her scans. 
"You've still not been sleeping, have you?" Continuing his work on his 
shoulder, she programmed the hypo with her other hand.

He looked at her oddly, drawing away slightly from her touch. From within his 
pouch he removed a small portable medkit and handed it to her. She was talking. 
He could see that...almost hear it. What was she saying?

"Thanks Sport." Searching through it, she discovered everything she needed. 
"Well, aren't you the little boy scout?" Setting out a few things, she smiled 
at him. "So do you come here often?" Stay awake, oh god, stay awake.

He nodded absently. More often than he should, perhaps, but it was the only 
place he still existed. They existed. Outside this place, Zachary was gone. 
Then he remembered. No. Not here. These were different caves. Caves for them, 
the intruders, those who came unannounced. He shook his head. No, this was not 
his place.

"No? The other place, do you go there?" She needed to get him to talk or at 
least respond.

He drew a breath, trying to focus. The other place. Yes. That was it. That was 
the one. He nodded slightly.

"Tell me about it." His reading were looking worse and worse. Horror slowly 
dawned on her. The safeties had been off and the second anyone moved they were 
set upon by those lizard-monsters. In Josh's current state, she was surprised 
he was still alive.

He took another slow deep breath, forcing himself to focus. He pulled farther 
away from her, closer to the cave wall, drawing his knees up to his chest. 
"Taursus." He answered quietly. "It's called...Taursus."

"Is it real? A real place, I mean." Keep him talking.

He nodded. It was real. "I...grew up...there." He put his head down on his 
knees as the room tilted oddly in first one direction then the other. He'd 
begun to shake and couldn't seem to stop, though his mind failed to register 
the cold.

Scuttling up beside him, she pulled him closer and began to rub his arms. 
"Computer, change program to Jameson outback 4." The walls of the cave 
shimmered and were replaced by an open desert plain, the sun beating down on 
their heads. In the background, a huge, slablike rock formation dominated the 
horizon. She pulled him to his feet and forced him to start walking. "You know 
where this is, Josh?"

Josh shook his head. He'd never seen this place before. He couldn't think. He 
couldn't breath. He couldn't move any longer. He closed his eyes, sinking to 
his knees, shaking violently.

Yanking at him again, she forced him to keep going. "This is Australia, on 
Earth. I grew up here. Well, not here, I grew up in Sydney, but I came to this 
particular part so often that it sometimes feels more like home. That hill," 
she pointed at the slab, "is Ayres Rock, Uluru. I've climbed it a few times." 
She aimed them towards it, hoping to keep him moving and talking. "Jameson to 
McEntire, kinda need your help here, holodeck, now?"

Mac heard the urgency in her tone. "On my way." He was there in moments, 
running to his friend's side, lifting him easily. "Shit. What happened?" He 
listened closely while she filled him in then nodded. "Let's get him home."

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