The Morpheus Game

Posted on Thu Apr 10th, 2025 @ 3:46am by Captain Malcom Llwyedd & Lieutenant Commander Elias Ford & Lieutenant Gale Deekros & Ensign Emilynn Dove & Crewman Thyra Kevensdotter

3,753 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Interlude 1 Gamma Quadrant
Location: Various

[ON]

Emilynn had been assigned to repair a plasma conduit in the astrometric lab. It was midday, and she was alone in the lab. She had installed the new conduit and was now running a diagnostic to make sure everything was working as it should. She sat and watched as the estimated time to completion decreased percent by percent—a very mundane task, but one that was necessary to ensure it functioned as it should. 

She had already been sleepy and waiting while doing nothing had not helped matters. She had woken up that morning refreshed and ready to go and her normal morning run had gone great, she had even managed to beat her runtime by almost one full minute. She had eaten her morning meal and played with the new puzzle game Baris had let her borrow.  

With approximately 23 more minutes to wait for the diagnostic, Emi pulled out the puzzle game and began manipulating it. It had taken her nearly 15 minutes to solve it that morning, she wondered if she could beat that time. Each time she failed to make it past an obstacle, she had tensed up a little more. She enjoyed the challenge but disliked losing.  Over and over, she would restart. She focused intently on the tiny ball of liquid within the sphere. She watched it make its way along the inner workings of the sphere, and with each flip and twist, she could see she would beat the game again.  She smiled when she heard the sound.

‘Click. Whoosh. Click click.’ went the sphere before the simple flash occurred and it had reset once again. Emilynn grinned at the tiny device, happy she had solved it once again. Looking down at the console, she had only four more minutes to wait. There was no time to try again, so she sat and waited.

Emilynn began to feel irritated the diagnostic was taking so long. The last four minutes felt like an eternity. Her eyes were heavy and she felt like she could lay down and sleep.

"Finally," she said as the diagnostic was completed with no errors. She packed up her items and left the lab in search of food that would hopefully provide her energy to get through the rest of her work day.

After retrieving her food from the replicator, Emilynn found the nearest table and sat down. She took a bite of her sandwich and chewed slowly. With her elbow on the table, she rested her head in the palm of her hand, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

‘Geez, why am I so tired?’ She thought as her head bobbed.

“Might I join you, Ensign Dove?” a woman asked.

Emilynn opened and focused her eyes on Crewman Kevensdotter wearing a dark blue tunic with intricate gold embroidery along the cuffs, collar, and hem. Her hair was bundled up in a long lace snood whose color matched that of her dress. A belt clinched around her waist held her ever-present pair of hand axes and a long knife. Thyra was carrying her own lunch tray as she looked inquiringly at the operations officer.

Emilynn gave her assent with a nod of her head and Thyra slipped easily into a chair opposite her.

“You look tired,” Thyra observed bluntly. “Did you not sleep well?”

“I thought I had a good night's sleep, but I can’t seem to shake this fatigue. I guess I didn't get enough.” She managed a brief smile, but even that seemed to sap her weary body's last reserves of energy.

Emilynn shifted restlessly in her chair, searching for a position that might offer some comfort. Each slight movement felt like a chore, as if finding relief was a battle against her exhaustion. The sphere located in her pocket jabbed into her side. She took it out and placed it on the table before she took the last bite of the sandwich.

"What is that?" Thyra asked, indicating the glassy sphere next to the Ensign's tray, "Some sort of diagnostic device?"

“Oh, it's a game Baris showed me. It’s fun but challenging. I’ve solved it twice now. I’m so tired I doubt I will play it again anytime soon. You’re welcome to take it for a few days and give it a try. I think I’m going to go finish up one more assignment and get some rest.”

"How does it work?" Thyra asked between bites of her protein-heavy meal. Emilynn demonstrated how to manipulate the liquid within the sphere, moving it about through the maze before resetting the device and handing it to Thyra.

"Take it with you and make sure to enjoy yourself a little after your shift ends. Just a word of caution: if you're anything like me, you might find it difficult to put down. I think I'm going to head back to the operations lab and finish my work so I can go rest. I'll talk to you later."

Emilynn stood up from the table and made her way out of the mess hall. The thought occurred to her that she had actually just had a conversation, despite how brief it was, with someone that didn't involve work. It had not been that painful; in fact, she hadn't even thought much about it till it was over. Either she was getting better at socializing, or she was too tired to care.

Thyra looked at the game as she finished her meal. She had another hour before she was scheduled for duty, so when she finished, she picked up the spherical device and began to manipulate it as Ensign Dove had demonstrated. The ball of liquid within the sphere rolled back and forth in the maze within the translucent sphere. She was careful to avoid the various holes in the surfaces of the maze as she navigated her way to the end.

The puzzle reminded her of a wooden ball and maze game that she had possessed as a child but rather than merely exploit a plane in two dimensions, this sphere required the player to think in four dimensions with the ability to move time forward or backward much like the playback of a digital recording. It was difficult to the point of being maddening but Thyra found herself unable to put the device down.

Click. Whoosh. Click click boop. The sphere glowed red for a moment before the surface became opaque. Thyra had failed to properly negotiate the puzzle within the maze and had lost. She frowned. She wasn’t good at electronic puzzles normally and this one was many levels more difficult than others that she had tried. She wanted to put the puzzle down and get ready for duty but found herself resetting the device to try again.

Again, she failed to solve the puzzle. Again, she reset the device.

Boop.

The device mocked her. Thyra tried again. And again. And again.

The results were similar and the Okinkus woman was getting frustrated. The impulse to throw the sphere against the wall was strong but the pull of solving the problem was stronger and she reset the device again.

Click. Whoosh. Click click. Then, the sphere glowed blue. She had solved the puzzle.

Thyra was surprised. She was certain that she had tried the same solution several times before, and it hadn’t worked. It was almost like the device had learned from her and changed the conditions to allow her to win. A nagging voice at the back of her mind reminded her of the Odinkus tales of inanimate objects possessed by evil spirits, leading the unwary to their demise. But she was too fatigued by the mental exertions to give it much consideration. She let out an involuntary yawn.

Gale didn't mean to be nosy. He really didn't. But it was hard to suppress his natural curiosity, and the glowing blue sphere in the sleepy crewman's hands certainly had his. Gale was inordinately fond of any sort of puzzles or games that demanded full and creative use of his brain, and if the sphere was indeed a puzzle...

"Is that some sort of puzzle you just solved? If it is, it's nothing I've ever seen before," the Trill said warmly as he approached her table. "How did you - no, wait, I don't want to know. How long did it take you to solve it?"

Was he going to use the crewman's answer to the last question to be sure he solved it faster? Well, yes, of course he was.

Thyra looked blurrily at the Lieutenant wearing science blue and shook her head to clear the haze that had descended over her. What did he ask? How long had it taken her to solve the puzzle?

"It was very difficult," she replied as she pulled out her PADD," I spent...Gods in Heaven!" The chronometer on her PADD showed that she had been working on the puzzle for almost two hours. She was late to her duty shift and would catch the devil's own wrath from the Chief Security Officer.

"I must leave," she said hurriedly. "Please return this to Ensign Dove." She shoved the metal sphere into Gale's hands and ran towards the exit, leaving her dirty tray on the table.

Gale let out a soft 'oof' as the metal sphere fell into his hands. As Gale turned the sphere, he caught the glint of light as the liquid in it moved. But only so far. A grin came to his face as he looked at his PADD's chronometer and started a timer. His deft hands executed a series of half, full, and quarter turns across multiple axes as he tried to gauge the dimensions of the maze inside.

And then it flashed an angry red, and the glowing liquid vanished. Gale swore - softly and eruditely - and only let out a sigh of relief once the surface became translucent again. Thankful for his excellent memory, he repeated his earlier sequence, but where he'd erred before, he rotated the sphere in the opposite direction. He let out a triumphant little laugh as the sphere pulsed a brighter blue and returned to its original point.

Surely, the smart thing to do would be to stop here, eat his meal, and then look up where Ensign Dove was stationed.

But the better thing to do, clearly, was to reset his chronometer and try to beat his current time.

Gale's meal grew increasingly cold, likewise the replicated tea in his cup. The part of his brain that would have noted that, however, and might have drawn alarming similarities to the likewise cold dirty tray the crewman had left before thrusting the sphere into his hands, however, was busy with the puzzle in his hands.

He had to solve it faster, even as each iteration knocked time, whether seconds or milliseconds, off his score. For days and weeks, he'd been consumed with the puzzle of bringing the wormhole and their runabout back. This wasn't the echo of a device that could alter the fabric of spacetime etched inside of an asteroid, it was a simple game, but with each flash of red, Gale only grew more determined to beat it faster. To be better. To live up to his potential.

As he finished the puzzle in his shortest run yet, the sphere slipped out of Gale's hands and thudded on the table, letting out an eerie ring as a wave of exhaustion dampened his triumph. He blinked, heavily. Hours had passed, and a shift he didn't even recognize was eating now. He stood slowly - his legs felt as heavy as the rest of him - as he cleared his throat. "Computer, locate Ensign Dove."

=^= Ensign Dove is located on Deck 5, Subsection C, Corridor B =^=

When Gale exited the turbolift on Deck 5, he let out an enormous yawn, nearly dropping the sphere cradled in his arms. By the time he made it to Subsection C, he was visibly dragging his feet across the deck. By the time he lurched into Corridor B, he all but listed into the wall, shaking his head to clear it from where it had brushed against the corridor. He blinked at the woman working on a control panel outside what he now realized was Sickbay. He sluggishly lifted the sphere from where it was cradled to his chest to her. "Ensign Dove?"

Emilynn turned her gaze towards the figure calling her name, her heart tightening with worry. “Lieutenant, are you okay?” she asked softly, her voice laced with concern as she reached out to take the device being returned to her. Gale’s face seemed pale to her, his breath was shallow and he swayed slightly on his feet, making her fear he might collapse at any moment.

Gale blinked heavily, trying to shake his head to clear the exhaustion from his mind and body. But he didn't want to make the Ensign worry! Despite his tiredness, he managed a charismatic smile. "Nothing a long night's sleep won't cure," he said. Nonetheless, he leaned on the corridor wall, thankful for its stability. "An Andorian crewman - I don't think I ever got their name - was playing this in the mess hall and seemed to have lost track of time. They asked if I could return it to you."

A deep yawn escaped the Trill's lips, and his shoulders rose and fell as he tried to wake himself up. "I might have played it, well, more than a few times and lost track of the hour myself. Apologies," Gale says, inclining his head even as his eyelids start to flutter.

Ford exited the sickbay with his duffel bag in hand, though he was in no hurry to return to the most cramped quarters he had ever seen for a department head. he was indeed in a hurry to escape from his shift. The breath of fresh air he took in as the doors closed behind him was silently breathed out as he noticed the signs of extreme fatigue from an officer right outside sickbay. And a trinket that was all too familiar.

The nagging feeling of needing a smoke slowly crept up on him as he asked a question he knew would not like the answer to. "Are you having trouble sleeping, lieutenant?" He did not go through every single crew member's medical history, but he was sure no Starfleet doctor would prescribe this for insomnia.

"I...have been getting less sleep than usual lately," Gale admitted with a weary smile. "Lt. Solomon and I have been tasked with discovering the workings of the technology that closed the wormhole and caused our shuttle to go missing and late nights have become the standard."

Gale paused, his brows raised into his spotted forehead. "There have been a few all-nighters, if I'm honest. And yes, I'm hardly a young cadet anymore," he said, trying and failing to stifle a yawn, "but this tiredness still seems, Gods, a bit excessive."

Emilynn held a hyperspanner in one hand and the game that Gale had returned to her in the other. A knot of unease twisted in her stomach, apprehensive that the doctor might glimpse her with the game and assume she was indulging in play while she should be focused on her responsibilities. She glanced at Gale and then at the doctor, waiting to see what would happen next.

He was going to speak up and even ask Gale some follow-up questions to make sure but he didn't have to. Seeing the device change hands so carelessly and without gloves jolted him. He was now sure of two things: they didn't know what they were playing with, and his shift was far from over. He stepped back to make the doors of the sickbay open. ''This way, please, both of you. While you can still walk. You're accidentally sedating yourselves."

Emilynn looked at the doctor, confused, then down at the device still in her hand before doing exactly what she was told. She walked behind Gale, attempting to steady him.

"I've had....far too much tea today for that to have any effect..." Gale blinked heavily as he paused, listing against Emilynn before he stumbled awake again. "No, no, I stand corrected," the Trill murmured as he followed the doctor into Sickbay, trying his best not to collapse against the ensign behind him. He couldn't help but feel a prickle of dread beneath the exhaustion. He'd had quite enough of sickbays for one lifetime, which made him loathe to step inside them.

He dropped his bag in a corner and motioned them over to a couple of biobeds. With a tricorder he retrieved from his desk in hand he began to explain briefly as he scanned. "Your fatigue is not natural. Your body is trying to metabolize an alien stimulant. And it is having the opposite effect." As the scans came through, he debated internally whether to synthesize an antidote or let the body fully metabolize the stimulant. Both options would mean a long night for him. "We're lucky, at least you bumped into me before collapsing." At least it was just the two of them. "Oh". He stopped the scan. "Where did you even find this exactly?"

Emilynn’s heart raced at the doctor's unexpected question. Caught off guard, she felt a grimace of apprehension. “It was almost two weeks ago I think,” she replied steadily. “I was troubleshooting a complex replicator issue with the Quartermaster,” her voice steady.

She took a breath, trying to recall the details of the project. “There was an unexpected power source problem that we needed to figure out, and we discovered that the source of the problem was-”

Emilynn lifted her gaze to gauge the doctor's reaction, only to find that he appeared completely uninterested in the specifics of her technical explanation.

“-the sphere was found in a box of alien parts we were recycling,” she said nervously, picking it up again. “If you manipulate it just right, like this,” she demonstrated, carefully twisting the sphere, “you can transfer the fluid from one end to the other. It lights up and emits a sound to indicate you’ve won. It’s quite satisfying when you get the hang of it,” she added with pride. “I managed to complete the challenge four times, which I think is impressive given how tricky it can be.”

As her enthusiasm spilled out, she noticed the doctor's expression, which showed her pride in the accomplishment wasn’t shared. “Oh, right,” she said, her voice dropping. “The Quartermaster let me borrow it. We didn’t really consider…” She trailed off.

Gale let out a long stretch as he pulled himself onto the biobed, keeping himself steady by gripping its side. "Wait," he said, with a squeak of offense in his tired voice, "what's making us so exhausted is...a stimulant?"

The Trill let go of one hand to rub at his eyes and suppress a long yawn. Gods, he just wanted to sleep for hours. Maybe even days. He listened to Emilynn and frowned as he tried to remember how many times he played the game.
I may have completed the game...five times. Perhaps six. Is this why I'm so -"

Gale's head drifted towards his chin, and with what little energy he had left, he slowly lowered himself to curl up on the biobed, laying on his side. "Just...closing my eyes a bit. Wake me up....before my...."

The Trill's next word was a soft, gentle snore as sleep finally claimed him.

''Oh no," Ford repeated several times internally. ''Computer, type 2 gloves." As the gloves materialized, he gave up any hope of clocking out. "Ensign, who else might have also played with this?" With gloves in hand, he touched various points on the device. The device was still in Ensign Emilynn's hands. Each one responding with a click. He did not know how to ''beat it'' but he had seen a similar model in a private collection.

Emilynn watched the doctor handle the device with gloved hands, realizing the seriousness of their situation. “You mean aside from us?” she asked, glancing at Gale, who looked comfortable on the biobed. She wished their roles were reversed and he was the one being questioned.

“It was just the two of us, and there was also Crewman Kevensdotter.” She paused for a moment. “And I suppose Baris, the Quartermaster, as well.” She let a small frown cross her face before finishing her sentence. “I can’t really speak to who might have had contact with it before that."

He squinted at it, trying to explain as quickly as he could. ''This thing here you see is not a toy. Think of it as an alien hypospray of sorts. It's supposed to help a hypersomnic species stay awake." He placed it on a metal tray and removed his gloves. "Ironically, most species do not react to their stimulant in the same way they do. It keeps them awake but to everyone else, it's practically a sedative." He was starting to feel a bit lightheaded himself. The ship had not even left dock yet, and he almost had an uncontrolled substance contagion incident on board. He blinked twice. "How do you feel? If it activated while you were holding it then it is already in your blood."

“I feel perfectly fine, Doctor.” Emilynn looked over at Gale, he certainly did seem to be enjoying his nap. “I had no intention of causing any problems, we honestly believed it was just a harmless game, something to do for fun.”

The sleeping Trill let out a content sigh as he sank further into artificially induced yet much-needed sleep. But Gale's last sliver of consciousness must have heard Emilynn, as he raised his hands in his sleep, his fingers moving in a familiar pattern.

"Just once more," Gale murmured from his dream. "I know...I can...beat my time."

[OFF]

Ensign Emilynn Dove
Operations Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Crewman Thyra Kevensdotter
Security Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Lieutenant Gale Deekros
Science Office
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Lieutenant Commander Elias Ford
Chief Medical Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

 

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