Unintended Consequences Part 3

Posted on Sat Nov 20th, 2021 @ 2:44pm by Lieutenant Aiko Kato

Mission: Breen in Paradise
Location: Quarters

For the briefest of moment- something akin to the intermission between the retreating form of a wave recoiling back into the ocean- Aiko came to her rational senses. She checked her surrounding realizing she was still in the restroom of her quarters. She could feel the cold hard floor on her cheek and realized that she was lying on the ground. This close to the ground, she could hear the hum of the engine, pulsing with bridled power.


However, the moment lapsed. The trauma-induced wave of oblivion soon returned, crashing against the shores of her mind, drowning out her rational inner voice and once again tossing her into the deep of madness.

Only this time, she saw faces of children...

She saw imagines of young children and fetuses, atrocities committed by her Breen captors. She thought she saw the Breen that had tortured her snicker as he protruded a fetus in a vat, which in and of itself was confusing because she had always known the Breen to be faceless, by virtue of their environmental suits. Even when she had been a prisoner on one of their worlds, her captors had kept their form hidden beneath their suits.

She saw more of the vats that encased experimental subjects...innocent children. She heard the words of Dex, reading out the atrocities that were being committed and those that had died...

“Captain, this is monstrous…it appears, and I have nothing to say it is not true, they are using fetal tissue from many of these races in their testing and making of the virus.” she heard Dex say.

She heard her Breen captor laugh hysterically as if unbothered by the pronouncements that Dex had made.

Dex's voice continued undeterred, “Did I say the horror would get worse well it just has. There are countless specimens here suspended in what looks like a nutrient broth.”

Aiko tried to shut off the words, but they would not stop... “Everyone, these ‘samples’ have been taken from both male and female almost full term….sorry….Captain when these were taken it would have brought on premature labour, I doubt if many of these…and I will say ‘children’ were born alive.”

The images of the children came flooding back, the precious and innocent lives too young to have known such level of brutality at such a delicate age. Then the image of the infant Caitian that had died hung there in the centre of her vision…a precious flower bud that was forever stifled.

Her Breen captor laughed, and she screamed…


Aiko awoke screaming and found herself in the restroom of her quarters. Confusion set in and she did not quite sure how she had got there let alone where she had been prior. She tried to search her mind for what she last remembered s.

"What happened to you?" came a voice that Aiko soon realized was that of her roommate. The Bajoran woman was looking at her with obvious concern on her face.

"What?" Aiko asked starring at her. “Where am I? Who…who are you?”

"Is this another one of your pranks Aiko?” Jaro Neela asked. “Because if it is, I am in no mood for it. It's been a freaking busy shift and all I want to do is enjoy the company of my bed."

"What?" Aiko asked again and slowly began to feel her memory tickling in. She knew instantly she had been caught in one of her "episodes". The last thing she remembered was trying to make it to the restroom to get to the toilet because she knew she was about to puke, and afterwards, it was a jumble of bad memories.

Realizing what had happened Aiko feigned a smile and laugh as best as she could. “You caught me Neela…another prank gone wrong.”

“Damn it, Aiko! I knew it,” Neela replied in obvious frustration.
“I’m going to bed. You better not wake me up or Prophets help you, Aiko.”

Aiko raised her hands up in feigned surrender. “Scouts honour Neela.”

Neela signed rather loudly and wheeled around before heading out of the restroom, but the science officer paused long enough to glance back at Aiko as if suddenly sensing something was amiss. “You sure you are okay?”

She was far from okay…her psychosomatic episodes were back, and she just lapsed into one for gods knew how long. What did this mean? She wondered. She suddenly realized that she was due back on the Bridge as per the Captain’s last instruction to her.

She feigned another smile as she glanced at Neela. “I’ll be better when my prank actually works next time.”

“Argghhh…you’re so insufferable Aiko!” Neela retorted and disappeared from the room.

Aiko was left alone to herself and her thoughts. She felt tears welling up in her eyes as she realized what this meant. It was shameful how fragile the human mind could be. For years she had gone on with her life like a “normal” person, thinking the worst of her life was behind her. However, all it had taken to unravel all that confidence and remind her rather poignantly that she was a broken woman, was just under an hour spent on some backwater planet.

"Lt. Kato, I believe we can use your expertise on the bridge."

The Captain’s last words to her stilled her self-loathing, for the moment. She still had a job to do, and she was damn well going to make sure she did it to her best of her ability. However, she realized now that she needed help, and she made a mental note to reach out to the counselling department of the ship.