The Eyes of the Beholders by A. C. Crispin

Author:A. C. Crispin [Crispin, A. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction:Star Trek
ISBN: 9780671700102
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 1990-08-31T10:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

“DOCTOR?”

Beverly Crusher looked up to see Lieutenant Selar standing in the doorway to her office. “Come in,” she said.

Selar entered. “You sent for me, Doctor?”

“Yes,” Crusher said, indicating a seat. “I wanted to find out how the staff is doing. In regard to Johnson’s death, I mean.” She smiled wanly. “People always tend to put on their best face when the boss is inquiring.”

The Vulcan nodded, understanding. “The staff is reacting as well as could be expected, I would judge. Nurse Johnson was well liked, but her death is regarded as an unfortunate by-product of our current mission, not as any reproach for words or actions left unsaid or undone by her friends. I have not observed any of the typical human ‘if only I had’ behavior that is characteristic of a guilt reaction in any of her coworkers.”

“Well, that’s something.” Crusher slowly shook her head, biting her lip. “I wonder what made her do it?”

Selar raised an eyebrow. “There is little point in indulging in speculation. No matter what dream or hallucination initiated Johnson’s unfortunate reaction, the artifact is ultimately responsible.”

“Have you had one of the dreams, Selar?” The chief medical officer’s gaze slid away, not meeting the Vulcan’s eyes.

“My people rarely dream,” the lieutenant replied evenly. “So far, I have been spared.”

“I had one,” Crusher announced, raising her greenish-blue eyes to meet the dark ones opposite hers, straightening her shoulders with a sudden air of decision. “It made me understand why Penny might have been moved to do what she did.”

“Logically, you would not have mentioned that you had been the recipient of one of the artifact’s dreams if you did not wish to discuss it,” Selar observed, relaxing her official stance somewhat in the light of Crusher’s personal revelation. “What did you dream, Beverly?”

There was a long pause. “I dreamed about the happiest day of my life,” Crusher said finally. “Only at the moment I didn’t know that it was, of course. It was only later, after Jack died, that I realized that that day had been the closest I’ll ever come to achieving perfection”—she smiled faintly, sadly—”at least in this life, I suppose.”

“You dreamed of your deceased husband?”

“Yes …” Crusher clenched her fists on the desktop. “Selar, it was so real. I thought I was there. There was no sense that this was a dream—and no worry, as is so often the case with pleasant dreams, that I would awaken and it would be gone. While I was there, I was there.”

She took a deep, steadying breath. “It was when Wesley was just a little fellow,” she said, an unconscious note of maternal wistfulness tinging her calm delivery. “Jack was home on leave—a long leave, the longest he’d ever gotten since Wesley was born. One day we took a flyer out to the Black Hills. It was summer, the most beautiful part of summer, and there were blossoming plants everywhere. The sky was the bluest I’d ever seen, and the mountain slopes were green with pines and hemlocks and spruce.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.