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"Blissful Peace"
[Previous post: "Dark Times"]
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Setting: USS ANUBIS, Sickbay
Stardate: 63073.1020

The agonizing pain that had taken such a complete hold of her mind and body had finally vanished and left Adriana with a sense of peace the likes of which she had never experienced or even thought possible. Her mind had become perfectly still, at rest, and her thoughts as calm as a gentle summer's breeze over a flowery field.

Adriana knew that her eyes had been closed but she felt no urge to open them, or move from the bed she had been laid upon if indeed she had been on a bed at all.  Her body felt as light as a feather, almost to the point of floating.  If this had all been some sort of dream, it had been one that Ensign Lopez had hoped to never wake from.

The idea of not knowing about her sister's whereabouts or condition had somehow lost all significance, as if it had no longer mattered. The endless questions and drive that had consumed her very soul had all disappeared in what had felt to be another life. That alone should have been enough for Adriana to be upset, even enraged, but instead the aCMO found the entire concept almost amusing.  She had been so obsessed with finding this sister of hers; a woman not even related by blood, that it now all seemed too absurd.

Memories of the time the two girls had shared as teenagers now seemed to belong to someone other than herself, as if she had been looking at a historical recording of someone else's childhood.  Even the idea that her adoptive parents had not known about her being alive and safe onboard the ANUBIS had not bothered the Ensign anymore.  Even stranger had been the total lack of interest in discovering why her biological parents had abandoned Adriana as an infant on CESTUS III.

A new wave of peace washed through her being and pushed whatever little bit of hesitation had remained beyond Adriana's thoughts. There had been no reason for the aCMO to worry about what had once been her life, her friends and her family.  The sensation of complete and absolute peace had replaced everything that had made Adriana who she had been and even hoped to become.

Slowly she opened her eyes, not truly having expected to see something in particular, and when Adriana saw an open blue sky the aCMO smiled as if the sight had been exactly what should have been there. Somewhere in the deepest recesses of her mind she knew that the ceiling of the ANUBIS' Sickbay should have greeted her, but she did not find the open sky to be at all strange, and even less unwelcome.

Adriana's muscles seemed to not even be needed to get the aCMO off the biobed and onto the ground where tall grass and beautiful flowers had been waiting.  The scene had been absolutely surreal and impossible; Sickbay had somehow vanished to be replaced by a seemingly endless field set beneath a heavenly blue and white sky.  The scenery reflected the inner peace that the Ensign experienced and it was without any issues that she turned to discover that her body had not moved from the bed despite her now standing amidst the grass and flowers.

"Am I dead?"

The question crossed her list as nothing more than a whisper and immediately after vanished from her thoughts once it had been spoken. This inner peace she had discovered had been far more than anyone could have expected or ignored.

As she began to walk away from the biobed the Ensign felt the tall grass against her bare feet and legs, her uniform having vanished as easily and completely as her troubles and worries had.  All that had remained had been Adriana and this endless field, all that had mattered had been this eternal blissful peace.

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Marissa Montonera-Lombardi (mmlm24@gmail.com)

Ensign Adriana Lopez
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS ANUBIS