=Living Dream Hotel= “What the hell?” Rick yelled as he found himself in a dark room after being forcibly dragged here by an unknown assailant moments earlier. “Please be quiet, or somebody will hear you,” Rick heard from somewhere in the darkness. Rick tired to get a look at the other person, but his eyes hadn’t had a chance to adjust. “I don’t know who the hell you are, but I’m a starfleet officer and ...,” Rick said before being interrupted. “I know who you are, Lieutenant Rodgers. I’ve been following your movements since yesterday.” “Okay, you seem to have me at a disadvantage, so if you could please answer my question,” Rick said, still unable to see more than a couple of feet in front of him. “Very well.” A small light appeared in front of Rick and a man wearing a old, tattered starfleet uniform appeared in the light. His face was covered with a ragged beard, his eyes were sunken and his hair was a mess. He looked like holopictures that Rick had seen of prisoners liberated from Cardassian POW camps during the Dominion War. “My name is Ensign Lee Okara. I am ... was ... a security officer on board the Starship Reynolds before we came here.” “The Reynolds ...? Isn’t that one of the other starships docked with the hotel?” “Yes,” Okara said. “A Nova-class ship. We arrived here ... I don’t know how long we’ve been here. One day is just like another in this place and one can quickly lose track of time.” “What happened?” Rick asked. Okara leaned up against a wall and slide down, sitting on the floor. He was exhausted, there was no doubt about that. Okara closed his eyes before he spoke. “We were passing through this sector when our ship’s systems started to go haywire. Things got so bad that engineering was preparing a level one diagnostic when we received a communication from a nearby station ... this place. They offered our crew a chance to rest and relax. Well, it had been months since we had a chance for anyone on the Reynolds to enjoy some shoreleave, so the captain, deeming the station safe, accepted their offer.” Okara rubbed his hands through his disheveled hair as Rick sat down next to him. “Things started out well enough,” Okara continued. “The hotel’s staff were courteous and went out of their way to see that we were comfortable and enjoying ourselves. That’s when I became suspicious. I mean, if things are too good to be true, then they most likely are.” Okara laughed to himself and shook his head. He leaned his head against the wall. “After a couple of days, when the first of our crewmen were scheduled to return to the ship, we were told that it was no longer there. Most of our crew didn’t seem to care as they went back to having a good time. There were a handful of us, though, that weren’t content to just accept the Reynolds’ departure. We started to ask questions and, after awhile, the captain and first officer ordered us to stop. That’s when we realized that our crew mates, almost all of them, had been brainwashed for the lack of a better term. When we refused to end our investigation, the captain ordered his chief of security ... my boss ... to arrest us. Six of us alluded arrest, but that’s when the hotel staff got involved. After a couple of weeks, I was the only one that hadn’t been caught. I’ve been hiding out in this prison ever since.” Okara finally looked over at Rick, “That’s what this place is ... a prison. They may fulfil your every fantasy, but your still trapped here. There’s no way to leave. I’ve tried. I even learned that the Reynolds didn’t actually leave, but it doesn’t matter. There’s no way to get from here to there.” “Why did you grab me?” Rick asked. “You were heading to the power distribution center,” Okara explained. “If you had continued there, then the Hotelmaster would’ve had your captain to have you arrested.” “So, that place is the key to us being stuck here.” Rick said. “Yes ... no ... I don’t know. I haven’t been able to get close enough to it,” Okara said. “There’s a whole lot about this place that I don’t understand. Just trying to stay hidden has been a considerable effort. Those that were with me, I haven’t see or heard from them since their capture. I can’t allow them to catch me.” “So, how do we get out of here?” Rick asked. “We don’t.” Okara said with resignation in his voice as he closed his eyes again. Acting Lieutenant Rick Rodgers Chief Engineering Officer U.S.S. Chimera