Taiga's Terrors (Part 1)

Posted on Thu Oct 3rd, 2019 @ 4:59am by Captain Taiga Aisaka & Jennifer Daxer

1,373 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Demons in the Dark
Location: Ready Room

Taiga had retreated to her ready room. It was still dark, with only emergency lights illuminating the room casting a red glow. The ship was playing up, systems were going on and offline. She had no idea what to do, and she wasn't happy about being stuck in a potentially dangerous part of space. Right now the Tokyo was a sitting duck for any scavengers that wanted a spare piece of hardware.

The ready room was silent, she needed to get some rest. She sat down in the couch and sat back staring up at the ceiling. She felt a little sick, maybe it was the nerves or the head injury she had sustained. Taiga didn't want to look weak in front of her crew. Shaking it off she pulled herself up, crossed the room and into the small head.

The cold water was soothing when splashed to the face. At least it was helping her focus. Breathing erraticly she looked up at her reflection looking back at her in the mirror.

Along with her own reflection, she saw something else... someone else, standing just behind her, and off to the side.

Her first XO, Jennifer Daxer could be seen standing behind her in the mirror, holding a gun to the back of her head. Just as with the first time she'd met the Vulcan woman, Daxer wore black jeans, a black t-shirt, and a black leather jacket. "I still can't identify your rear..."

Taiga turned around quickly and instantly tried to grab the gun. However she failed instantly. There was no one there. She looked into the darkness, no doubt that if Jennifer was here, she would have anticipated Taiga's response and jumped back.

The red lights slowly flashed, casting shadows over the room. Taiga reached down to her belt to feel for her phaser, but it wasn't there. It must have unclipped on the couch.

The red lights slowly flashed, she saw a shadow. What seemed like the shape, an outline of someone, or something. Sweat began to run down her forehead, she slowly turned back to face the mirror. It had misted up.

She held a hand out and placed it on the mirror's surface, freezing cold. Then with one movement she wiped some of the condensation away to be looking back at herself.

This time, she saw the woman again, but there was no gun in her hands. As she looked at Taiga in the mirror, she raised an eyebrow. "Why did you make me pick up my own gun?"

Taiga sighed. "What exactly do you mean by that. There's no way you can be who you appear to be. Who are you exactly?"

"Lieutenant Commander Jennifer Daxer, reporting for duty." Jen said, before side stepping out of the mirror's reflection. "If you had been paying attention, instead of rummaging around under your chair, you'd know that."

"T... That was..." Taiga stuttered. It had been nearly three years since Taiga had first met Daxer. "You can't be here. We're in deep space. You're obviously... not real here!" Taiga said. She stepped back away form the mirror holding up both hands and backing off slowly.

"What, do you, want with me?" Taiga asked nervously. Jen disappeared, Taiga turned around to leave but was stopped dead in her tracks.

As she turned around, she was face to face with Daxer. This time, she was wearing an outdated unirofm, and again holding a gun, pointed at the woman's head, and standing out of arm's reach.

"Now you listen to me, and you listen well!" Daxer snapped. The look on her face, as she looked at Taiga was one of dead seriousness. "You're arrogant, impulsive, and have no regard for the law! You're lucky I don't shoot you right here!"

Taiga began to shiver. She was starting to feel cold. Was this really Jen's ghost coming back to haunt her? Was it her fault, but wait... was Jen dead? Taiga didn't know.

"Go away!" Taiga said. She could see her breath in the cold air. "I thought you were my friend?!" Taiga asked. "You told me that if I needed a friend... I would have you! You told me you'd stand by me! You supported me when I accidently let it slip that Ryuuji and I were trying for a baby damn it!"

"And I meant it..." Jen replied. She flinched only slightly, before various Borg implants sprouted along her face, and neck, beginning the process of a standard Borg assimilation. "But you just had to send me down onto a Borg infested station... Didn't you!?"

Taiga took a step back in shock. "You knew the risks that you signed up for... when... you put on the uniform..." Taiga said nervously. "You were determined; I couldn't have stopped you if I wanted to..." she tried to explain. She didn't like how this was going. This couldn't be real, but it was causing the hairs on Taiga's skin to stand on edge as if being hit by a charge of static.

"You can't... blame me... for that..."

"You didn't even try!" As the words came out, her voice was distorted by the Borg implants, a good bit of her assimilation completed by this point. "Neither you, nor the crew had any experience with the Borg, and so you put this on me... You did this!"

Taiga was starting to shake a bit more. "Listen..." Taiga said. "We beat The Borg. We got you out... we saved you..." Taiga explained. She backed a bit more, only to find her desk. She reached behnd her. The surface of the desk was smooth and freezing cold.

She felt something, it was a little warmer and seemed like some sort of liquid. She lifted her hand up to find it stained red. "B...B...Blood?" Taiga asked. "Why is there blood? Who's is this?" she asked nervously staring at her hand.

Daxer's voice came from a different direction this time, and sounded fully Borg, and emotionless. "You should've killed me, when you had the chance." She said simply. "Instead you put lives at risk to save me." She took a few steps from where she had appeared this time, the sound of metal clopping against metal. "The blood of the innocent lives lost that day is on your hands."

Taiga tried to look away. "I did what I had to" she snapped back. She locked eyes with Jen, fire in her eyes as if it was like the good old days. "I did my duty as a Starfleet Captain. I didn't want to sacrifice anyone, but sometimes it is necessary!" she shouted back. "That includes you!"

"You sacrificed many members of the crew, but no one really takes Vulcans seriously, when they mention mercy killings." Daxer said, and a single tear escaped the woman's unassimilated eye, streaking down the skin that was left on one side of her face. "My logic was sound... you know... Needs of the many, blah blah blah."

"That doesn't matter now" Taiga said back. She shivered again as the red light that cast over the room flashed slowly again. She looked down, but it didn't seem right.

"My uniform..." she said. There was a large rip in her uniform right down the center as if it had been cut by a knife. Below her was her own blood, it ran down her legs and pooled around her feet. "What... what the hell... is this?" she said.

Taiga couldn't move. "This... can't be my own blood..." she crouched down, as if to protect herself by curling up into a ball. She held her arms in close to her body, she didn't know what was going on or why she was covered in all this blood. Why was her uniform sliced open? Why was she standing in a red pool? She was beginning to shake in fear. "Whats g...g...going on?!"

As if in answer, the sound of lighter Borg foot steps came from behind Daxer, as a shorter, half assimilated young girl stepped into view.

"Mommy?" The young girl called, but her voice too was distorted by implants. "Why did you let them take me, mommy?"

To be continued...

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