Bad Dreams
By: The Genital Engineer


   "No!  Don't, don't!" yelled Barkley as his uniform
was mercilessly ripped from his body.  "Stop!!!"

   The buzzer rang.  It was early morning by the 
Enterprises computer.  An wretched repeating nightmare
had once again given him a hellish night.  Staring at
the ceiling he moaned and shivered from the glistened
sweat all over his body.
   "I....  I...  Uh..." he mumbled, "I've got to stop
this."  Jumpin up he ran into the sonic shower and 
cleaned himself off, threw on his standard Starfleet
uniform and ran hastily out the door towards Couselor
Troys office, which was by now almost his second home.

   As he entered the room, almost knocking himself
clumsily into the door, his hair clumped down over his
eyes.  Too late, he thought.  The counselor had already
spotted his uneasiness.
   "Nightmares again, Luitenant?" she said in a caring
tone as she looked up from a book of ancient greek 
poetry.  It was simply a rhetorical question, as the
answer was self evident in his twisted face.
   "Well....  I...  Yes..  Ya, I had that dream again.
I don't know what to do about it, I feel so...  I feel
trapped.." he tried to murmer as he turned his face
back and forth, not able to look her straight in her
dark, Betazoid eyes.
   She took him and sat him down almost as a mother takes
in hand a small child.  Habitually, she looked at his
emotions and thought of all the possible ways she could
help him.  "Perhaps," she said, "one way you can cope
with these fears you have, these fears you dream about,
is to desensitize you to them.  Confronting your inner
fears."
   Barkley looked at her startlingly.  "You aren't 
suggesting?!  You couldn't possibly mea...."
   "No, no," she said as she applied a finger to his 
lip.  "You do not need to confront in in the real world,
the holodeck might serve as a good place to confront 
your fears.  It might eventually make you begin to 
enjoy these dreams of yours."
   Barkley looked confused, as he normally did at times
like this.  His mind batted back and forth between
acceptance and denial of this new idea.  And every time
he thought the idea might work, simply because he 
trusted Dianna's opinions, he had to confront his fears
and he was instantly confused again.
   Troy took his arm into hers and said, "Come, I'll take
you.  Everythings going to be ok.   Tonight you won't
be having nightmares any more."  And they walked out
of the room and towards the main holodeck.

   "Do I really need to do this, counselor.  Maybe the
nightmares aren't that bad. In fact, I'm sure I'll get
over them.  See?  I'm over them already," he turned
and began to turn around and started to walk away but
hesitated at Troys assuring smile.
   And she just gazed into his eyes.
   "Computer.  Create program, Barkley-Nightmare-Alpha."
troy told the ships computer.
   Instantly the user friendly computer stated, "Please
specify program perameters."
   She looked back at burkley, took his hand, and gave 
him a hug.  "Come tell me how you feel after you are
done."

   Luitenant Barkley slowly entered the holodeck.  The
doors closed and disappeared behind him.  He turned
and looked at the blank wall where they had been.
   He was standing in the middle of the bridge.  No 
bridge crew was evident, just the silent hum of the
computers running the ships systems.  What now? he 
thought to himself.
   "Barkley!!!" yelled out the voice of Riker.  Startled
he turned around to be met with the strangest view of
Riker he had ever seen.  Riker stood there, just outside
the turbolift door, wearing nothing but a black leather
bikini and holding a black whip.  He smiled and heaved
his hairy chest in and out and licked his lips. "The
captain will see you now."
   Barkley fainted.

   "Wake up dear.  Everything is going to be alright."
   The Luitenant slowly came to.  "Mother, I just had
this terrible nightmare."
   He felt a kiss on his forhead.  "That's alright, I'll
take care of you.  That's my job as captain of this
worderfully orgasmic ship."
   Barkley's eyes snapped instantly open and he found
himself inside the captains ready room laying on the 
couch.  Fear struck him and he turned white.  The 
captain began stroking his head.
   Barkley could not believe his eyes.  This was almost
more nerve wracking than that mornings dream.  Picard
was totally in the buff, no hair on his naked body what
so ever.  He was holding Barkleys head and saying soothing
things to him.
   Gotta confront my fear, Gotta stay in the holodeck,
he told himself as he fought an irresistable urge to
halt the program.
   "I have a mission for you Barkley," said the captain
in his deep, authoritive voice.  The shaken Luitenant
could do nothing but comply.
   
   "So," asked the Counselor, "how was it?  You look 
much better.  A smile even." 
   All Barkley did was smile back, and say thankyou.

   At fourteen hundred hours Barkley entered the bridge,
actually on time for his shift.  He walked down to
the con with almost a skip to his walk.  He relieved
the current con officer and sat down.
   "Barkley!!!"
   Turning around he smiled at the face of Riker sitting
in the captain's chair.
   "The captain will see you now."
   Good.  Thought Barkley, I've been waiting all day.