Title: An Imaginative View Of The World
A Star Trek / Pretender / Profiler / Reality Crossover
By: Chris
Rated: G
Spoilers: None
3/?
They re-entered sickbay. Kyla had no idea what would happen next. She had clearly disobeyed orders from the CMO. Would they reduce her rank to crewman? Take her pip away? Somehow she was afraid. But afraid of what? She still had no idea what was real and what wasn't. Nothing really bad could happen, she hoped. She was deep in her thoughts and didn't hear Dax and Bashir talking about her, about the possibility of her suffering from some kind of multiple personality.
"She's been talking to herself and to someone called Dr. Green. And she insisted on being from the 21st century."
"I don't know what happened to her. One minute she was working on her computer terminal, the next she started to talk to herself. Then she jumped up and ran around the room. She looked like a caged animal. Can you do something about her condition?"
"I have to conduct some examinations to find out what's been happening. I'll call you when I know more, OK?"
"Alright. Kyla, I'll leave you again. Don't you run away again! Kyla? Kyla, are you listening to me?"
Her head snapped around and she looked at Dax.
"What?"
"I said, that I'll leave you again. Don't run away again," Dax said and shook her head in disbelief. How could someone change that much in such a short time? She walked out of the room and Kyla retreated into her memories.
"Lie down and relax, Ensign. We have lot of work to do to find out what's the matter with you."
*RELAX?? You must be kidding,* she thought and closed her eyes. What a day. What the hell was real now? Was she already lying somewhere in a loony-bin, imagining all this? Think back, she told herself. What was the last thing, you remember from the real world? Right, Dr. Greene, the head-shrinker. It was all his fault! He had drugged her and brought her to the lunatic asylum, that's why she had these hallucinations. Another ridiculous thought. Was this real? The beeping of the computers around her made her sleepy and she dozed off.
"Wonderful story, Kyla, but are you sure that that makes sense? Slipping from one reality to the next? I don't think so. Your mother was quite right, we have to do something about it. You won't like it, but I have to set you under psychological supervision."
Kyla looked around, completely confused. Where was she now? Did she tell all those things to Dr. Greene? She didn't imagine it? She just told it to him and to her it became real? What did he just say?
"What did you just say?" she asked.
"I have to send you to a clinic where you will be under constant psychological supervision."
"You're kidding, are you? You can't force me to go there."
"I'm sorry, but I can. First I'll call your mother and then an ambulance, they will bring you there."
Kyla hid her face behind her hands, tears starting to run down her face. She heard Dr. Greene get up and expected to feel his hands on her shoulder or something like that. But he rummaged around somewhere behind her and she suddenly felt the prick of a needle at her upper arm.
"You'll calm down", he said and went to his phone. She could hear him talk to her mother and then asked his assistant to call an ambulance. The world around her seemed to be wrapped in cotton wool. Voices began to sound hollow, her surroundings seemed out of focus. Had he really drugged her to bring her to a loony-bin?
She felt strong arm lift her up, felt a blanket being wrapped around her and the she was carried out of the room. They went down the stairs, out into the cold air. Hadn't it been warm, when she had arrived? She opened her eyes a little bit to see where she was. She closed them again. That wasn't real! She opened them again, only to see the same face as before. She was carried around by Jarod! It was dark outside and he heaved her into the car. She was lying on the backseat, her head in Jarod's lap. Whoooooooooaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!! No, she was definitely dreaming.
"Is she alright?" she heard her mother's voice from the driver's seat.
"She will be", Jarod assured her.
Oh God, they were working together. So this had to be real, she'd never imagined her mother before. True or false? Well, her mother had appeared in her dreams before, but always as the bad guy. Now she was the good guy. Once again she opened her eyes and looked directly into Jarod's dark brown eyes.
"Hey there. How do you feel?"
"Where am I?"
"You're save. I had to kidnap you from the hands of the psychiatrist. Well, I think that the police will be searching for us soon."
"What's gonna happen to me now?"
"We'll meet with Rachel to find out what really happened."
"With whom?"
"Rachel Burke, she's a Profiler and I hope she can help us. She can somehow reconstruct the happenings of the past."
Definitely a dream or a hallucination. First Star Trek, then a alternate Pretender universe, then back to Star trek and now another reality where all of her favourite series were mingled? This couldn't be true.
"But why are you here?"
"Me? Your mother called me to ask for my help. She has asked me to stop the psycho doc. She didn't want you to end up in a lunatic asylum."
The car stopped and Jarod helped her to sit up. Her mother got out of the car and stretched her body. Kyla watched her and knew that something was wrong. That wasn't her mother, the woman only had her mother's voice. Slowly she got out of the car on wobbly legs. Jarod got out as well and fetched a bottle of water from the trunk. He gave it to Kyla who smiled thankfully. The woman had stopped her stretching and came to stand beside the two of them. A familiar face but at first she didn't know where she had seen the woman before. It definitely wasn't her mother, even if she had her voice. She was thinner and a few years younger. The hair-do was nearly the same, but she had brown hair instead of blond and her eyes were brown while her mother's were blue. That was -- yes, now she knew where she had seen the woman before. It was Kira Nerys, the First Officer aboard the space station DS9. But what was she doing here? Dream. Definitely.
"Kyla, what's the matter?" she asked, "Anything wrong?"
"You're not my mother", she stated.
"Not that I know, why?"
"You have her voice."
"Do I have to apologize for that?"
"No, it's just -- it seems somehow wrong. What's your name?"
"Kira. Kira Lewellyn."
Kyla tried to figure out what was happening around her. She knew how it would be possible to find out whether she was in her own reality or somewhere trapped in her mind or something like that. The Internet and the pretendfic group. They could answer her questions, hopefully.
"Do you have access to the Internet?" she asked Jarod.
"My laptop is capable of establishing a communication link, yes. Why do you ask?"
"Would you mind if I use this to ask someone a favour?"
"As long as you don't tell them where you are. I'll show you how it works when we're back in the car."
"It's working in the car as well?"
Jarod nodded and got into the car. Slowly Kyla followed him. She couldn't help but think of being somewhere else, and all this being a hallucination.
"She's slowly regaining consciousness", she heard a voice from somewhere far away. It was bright day, the light was too bright. Keep your eyes closed, she told herself.
"Kyla, what's the matter?" Jarod's voice whispered close to her ear. She opened her eyes. She was sitting in the car beside Jarod, Ms Lewellyn in front of her.
"Wanna lie down again?"
"No, I'm fine. Fine - really. May I use your computer?"
Jarod only looked at her and handed her his laptop. Kyla only hoped that it wold work the way she had thought it would. She was able to access her mail account, ok, so far it was working. This had to be real, her mailbox was filled with mails from her mailinglist. So what now? Should she tell them what had happened to her? Maybe they would see it as a new story or ban her from the group for talking such nonsense. It was worth a try. She wrote about her day, about sitting next to Jarod (and it was the real Jarod, not the actor). Now she could only wait for an answer. And that answers came only minutes later. Myra had written back. She said that she were in the same universe, that she was trapped there as well and had no idea how to get back to her own reality.
*Maybe we can meet,* she suggested.
Jarod, who had read along only shook his head when Kyla looked up at him.
"It's too dangerous."
"Oh come on, you don't even know her."
"Do you? You only know her through her mails. How can you tell that this is not a trap? That she's really the person she pretends to be?"
"Jarod, who knows that I'm a member of this list? What are we playing? Hide-and-seek? You're not telling me the whole truth, are you? There are some things you're keeping to yourself. Why don't you tell me what's the matter here?"
"OK, arrange a meeting with her, we'll talk about that topic later."
Kyla went through her other mail. Four more girl had written, telling her that they were experiencing the same dislocations. They arranged to meet the next day. Something was wrong, she just couldn't put a finger on it.
"Jarod, where are we?" she asked.
"What do you mean? We're in the car."
"No, I mean, what country."
Jarod looked at her as if he hadn't understood the question. After a short pause and exchanged looks with Ms Lewellyn, he sighed.
"We're in the US, what did you expect me to answer?"
"I don't know. But something's wrong. I've arranged a meeting with KB, Mandy, Mallory, Kylie and Myra for tomorrow. KB, Mandy and Kylie are definitely Australian, how can we meet here in the US?"
"Maybe they're on holidays?"
"That sounds stupid," Kira said from the front.
"Exactly," Kyla said, "Something wrong. Jarod, are you real?"
"Uuuh, what?"
"Are you real or are you an hallucination?"
"Of course I'm real. Do I look like a hallucination?"
He took her hand and placed it onto his chest.
"Do I feel real?"
Kyla nodded and instinctively pulled back her hand. Somehow she was afraid of him, even though she had often dreamed of being with him. What if this was a dream? What if she was lying in her bed and dreaming all this fuss? Maybe it worked the way it sometimes did, if she just told herself to wake up, to open her eyes and make the dream end. She tried but it didn't work. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. She only got some confused gazes from Jarod and a concerned question if she were alright. Well, so much for the dream-theory. That only left the hallucination or the fact that she had gone completely nuts. She preferred the hallucination. What would Michael think about her now? He had often told her that she were crazy, what if he was right? Would there be a chance that he would love her again? Would she ever come back into her own reality to see him again? That kind of thinking somehow made her sleepy. She closed the laptop and gave it back to Jarod. Then she leaned her head against the window and looked outside into the pitch black darkness. She closed her eyes and dozed off.
"Ms Parker, will you open your eyes", an unfamiliar voice barked at her. Slowly she opened one eye only to squeeze it shut again as the light blinded her. Where was she now? Maybe back in her own reality? Or did she jump to another world? Another TV series? She'd never imagined being in another series before. No, wait a second. That voice was not that unfamiliar. She had heard it before, somewhere. But where? She opened her eyes and blinked into the light. She was lying on a hard bed and wasn't able to move. Several people were standing around her, staring down at her. She knew that face. A young woman, about 5 1/2 ft tall, with grey-blue eyes and short brown hair. Her long fingers were playing with a syringe, she was holding. She smiled and it seemed to Kyla that she had seen that face before. Somewhere on a photo. Photo - wait a second - yes! That was Myra.
"Myra?"
She only smiled, not saying a thing. She looked up at the man standing beside her. The man that had been talking to her earlier. It was Mr. Lyle. What was he doing here? And where were Jarod and Ms Lewellyn? Had they been abducted while she had been sleeping? Or was this another reality where Jarod was one of the bad guys? Or was she once again in another reality?
"Where am I?" Kyla asked in a hoarse voice.
"Where do you expect to be after all what you've done?" Lyle asked.
"After all I've done? What did I do?"
"You spied on us, you were collaborating with the enemy and you worked against us. You know what that means for an employee of the Centre," he said and grinned wickedly.
