Jason Devron’s eyes flickered; he was in a bed, a bio-bed in fact.  He could hear the rhythmic pulse of the monitoring system behind his head, indicating his heart, lungs; brain etc. all appeared to be functioning relatively normally.  The image was a bit blurred and rather bright, Jason trying to look through half open eyes.  He wanted to cover them with his hands, but discovered his arms where strapped to the bed, as to where his legs.

“What’s the meaning of this?” He half yelled hoarsely. “Where am I?”

“Where do you think you’re going to be?” Came a female voice reflecting both annoyance and concern in that one sentence.

Objects began to take form, one of which was a shadowy blob towards the foot of the bed. “Doctor?” It was both question and statement.

“Oh, so I’m just plain old doctor today am I?” The shadow replied.

The light was starting to hurt Jason’s eyes just a little less, and the blob took on a fractionally more humanoid appearance.  But he still couldn’t understand what the doctor had meant by that last comment or why he was strapped to the bed.  Was he back on the Jaxartes?  He must be, but how and when?   The more he thought about the Sickbay aboard the ship the clearer his surroundings became.  Yes he was undoubtedly back, there was no denying it.

“What happen?” He asked considerably more calmly. “Why am I strapped down?”

“Don’t you remember anything?” Doctor Andrianakis asked, running a medical scanner up and down his body, before feeding the data into a PADD.

“Last thing I remember was being up a mountain on New Alberta.” Devron continued to go through the details. Beaming down; the old man outside his log cabin and then the young girl that ran up to him.  Followed by the feeling of being invisible and no longer part of the world.  He recalled walking amongst the search teams, like an unseen ghost.  Had they been looking for him, he assumed so.

“And you think that was real?” Asked Andrianakis

“It felt real to me.” 

“More real than this?”  She touched him softly with the back of her hand across his forehead.  Yes that definitely was real.  He’d felt her hand before and knew what it was like, there was no mistaking this was real.  But then what had happened to him?  Trying to think too much was starting to make him feel tired, all that recollection of events which he could no longer be certain had actually happened was having an effect on him. Jason closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

            **********

Jason woke up; he was clearly in bed, but the bed felt different, bigger and softer; he wasn’t strapped down either.  This wasn’t Sickbay, or his quarters on board the ‘Jax’, in fact this wasn’t a room on a starship at all. This was somewhere on a planet.  But which planet and how did he get here.  Had he just been dreaming about his time on the ship; why did it feel like so much time had passed?

The room was beautifully decorated with flowers in vases; mostly white lilies and classical style paintings of gods and mighty hero’s on the two longer of the walls.  A status of Hermes the Greek messenger stood on a stone plinth in one corner, next to a pair of large French windows.  Soft dappled sunlight played across the closed curtains. He knew this room from somewhere.  It was part of a memory, but what memory? 

He slipped out of bed; wearing just a pair of shorts and ambled softly across the wooden floor in bare feet.  Pulling back the curtains; his eyes were greeted by the beautiful sight of Athens.  Just the way he remembered it when he’d been there with Phoebe during their time together on Earth.  Yes this was the hotel room.  The one he’d ended up with after the hotel had booked them in one room together.  That made him smile; everyone seemed to think they were a couple during that last visit to Earth. Imagine that though, the two of them sharing a life. Jason stood there for a few minutes taking in the view, before feeling a pair of bare arms wrapped themselves around his waist.

“I’m glad you thought of this place.” The Greek woman said softly. “The perfect place for our honeymoon.” She kissed him tenderly on the cheek.  The memory came back to him.  Yes, there’d been a wedding, their wedding, how could that have slipped his mind.  He was always forgetting things.  It was why he’d taken early retirement.  Yes that was definitely it. The stresses and strains of being a Starfleet captain had proven too much, and this young woman had stayed by his side through all the trials life had thrown their way.  Four years had it been?  Yes it must have been, or at least that’s what his brain was indicating, how time seemed to fly.

He had such a wonderful life, such a perfect beautiful life, with a perfect and gorgeous wife. What could possibly be better?  The answer came to him a few moments later.  Thought that was just a trick of his imagination, more than fleeting moments had past.  The honeymoon had been years ago, that was clear by the two young boys that came running in. Alan 5 and George 7.  They had their mother’s eyes and their fathers thirst for adventure.  George as always was chasing after his younger brother, claiming he was a Starfleet officer and Alan a filthy Orion Pirate.  The younger boy was complaining about always playing the part of the one who got arrested or shot, and didn’t feel it was fair.

Jason comforted the young boy and playfully ruffled his hair, reassuring Alan that everything would be ok and telling George to be nice.  He’d known an Orion once or at least seemed to recall one.  Part of the crew may be though; the name escaped him.  So much of life seemed a blur, day’s, week’s and year’s had raced by.  He could remember them being born, their first words and their first attempts at walking. All the toys they had and were constantly leaving scattered across the floor, just waiting for someone to trip over.  Even that weird creature that looking like a deer with an elephants head and a fox’s tail.  He felt a shiver run up his spin.  Why didn’t that image fit?  Why was that memory so wrong and out of place?

Their mother called the two boys to go and wash their hands as dinner was almost ready.  They both rushed out of the bedroom, but not without squabbling over who’d be using the sink first. 

The bedroom was different, yet so familiar to him a huge four-poster bed sat at its centre with red satin sheets and a half dozen pillow resting against the calved wooden headboard.  He was wear a suit now, though he thought it had been draped across the bed only moments before.

‘I’m Going Slightly Mad’.  He laughed to himself, as he turned to look in the mirror on the vanity table by his wife’s side of the bed.  He caught sight of a young girl reflected in the mirror, Blue coat, and mustard beret.  Yet she was clearly not in the room with him.  She wasn’t there long, just a brief moment.  He sat down on the bed, hands clasped against his cheeks.  He knew that girl, seen that face before, but were?

“Remember what’s real, she will create a world for you to be happy in, and if you accept that world she will take everything you are. You must remember.”  Jason jumped, why had those words come it him? Was he in a dream or nightmare?

Then he heard the kids screaming from down stairs. “Don’t make us go daddy!” Devron jumped up and ran to them missing out a couple of the steps in his haste to reach the bottom. The dining room was dark and filled with long dancing shadows.  Phoebe was in the middle of the room clutching the two terrified children.  There was something very weird going on!