The Dharma Revelation

Chapter 16

Daniel was late for class.  In fact, he had forgotten to go to class all semester. He struggled finding the correct classroom. The halls were littered with people going to and fro, mostly easygoing, and not worried about the time. Daniel, however, was in a panic.

He was not sure why he had forgotten to attend class all semester, but he knew he had to be there now. He felt as if he had a conflict and was unable to attend that class because he was going to an alternate in that same time slot.

He entered a room he thought was a classroom, but instead his sister Jessica was seated at a computer, alone. She was intently working on something and waved for Daniel to not speak or else it would break her train of thought.

Daniel approached cautiously. He watched Jessica work on the computer, but there was an incessant loud beeping coming from the computer. The beeping didn't seem to interfere with her work, she kept right on typing. But it seemed as the beeps got louder, Jessie began to disappear.

Daniel began to panic again because he knew she was working on something really important to him, and he needed her. The beeps got so loud it hurt his head, and she faded almost to nothingness.

He hammered his fist on the table in frustration, and his arm exploded in pain. It hurt so much that he screamed.

The beeps became consistent and so loud there was no other sound at all. Jessie disappeared entirely, and Daniel tasted something metallic in his mouth.

He opened his eyes.

He was in a hospital room. There was a monitor of some sort next to his bed, which beeped periodically. His right arm was in a cast and completely immobilized, and he could tell his forehead had a large bandage—and there was the taste of blood in his mouth.

As his eyes focused on the rest of the room, he saw an IV setup, and against the wall, there was a man reading a magazine in a chair. He had gray hair, but his face was young.

Daniel tried to shake the cobwebs out of his mind, but as he tried to shift his weight his whole body exploded in pain, especially his arm.

A low moan escaped his lips, and the man in the chair turned his attention on him.

He jumped out of his chair, appearing extremely relieved.

"Sheppard!" the man said passionately. "Thank God you are awake." He turned his attention toward the door, "Nurse! He's awake!"

He looked back at Daniel, "They told me to inform them when you awoke. You were in a terrible explosion," he explained.

Trying to get his mind to focus and relive that memory was very difficult; his body felt drained and in extreme pain. However, it all came back to Daniel. They were reconstructing the Plato data and a van crashed into the house, then exploded. This gray-haired man, it was Carl Peterson.

He tried to sit up again, but barely moved. Amid the pain, Daniel tried his best to talk, to formulate a word.

"Jessie," he slurred. "Where is Jessie?"

The man paled but didn't answer.

The nurse arrived and abruptly shooed Peterson out of the room. "Wait outside please," she said, before turning to Daniel and checking his vital signs. She smiled at him professionally, "I'm glad to see that you're awake. You are going to be just fine, but you need to relax. The doctor will be here in a minute."

He repeated his question to her, "Where is Jessie?"

As she checked his IV, her eyes met his momentarily, "Your sister is here, in the hospital, but you must worry about yourself. You are very lucky to be alive."