Conversion Bureau: St George

by kryxel

episode 3 part 2: brain trust.

Hewn out of the rocks found only atop the Mount Everest by Kryxel.
Polished to perfection by Ray10k.

TCB: SG E3P2: brain trust
(Thank you for all those who pointed out I don’t use capitals where I should, I will try to do better.)

The Doctor set down the toy gun, and sat behind his desk.
"So, Grace right?" he said, putting his feet up on the desk.
"Yes. I came to you to see if you could help me with a personal problem. I don’t know if my problem will affect the conversion, but I just wanted to make sure before my appointment later today. Plus, it is something I have been dealing with for a long time, and I just need help," Grace said after sitting down in a chair on the other side of the desk.
“Grace, the conversion bureaus were made to help all of humanity, so if there is any way I can help, I will do so if you let me,” the Doctor replied. “So, what is the problem, and how long have you had it?”
“I... I’ve been having these terrible dreams, these nightmares, ever since I went away from home in order to get converted,” she said. “nightmares that just... linger, as if they are not dreams, but memories. And though I never dream the same thing twice, the end is always the same. Me dying, a moment before I wake up screaming.”
The Doctor thought about the presented information for a moment. “Is there anything else about these nightmares? Any recurring themes, people or ponies who show up more than once?”
“Well, my parents often play a role in them. Not always, but they do appear more often than anyone or anything else.”
“hm… Can you tell me something about your parents? Are they nice people? Did they support your decision to convert?”
“Oh, sweet Lord no! My father was, is, a pastor in the One World Church, and my mother a nun. If they knew I was here, they’d probably have the place leveled before you could finish your prayers!”
“I see... So, back to your dreams. When exactly did they first start?”
“I... I don’t really remember. Sometime before I heard about this center being opened. But Doctor, I was wondering, will my... problems interfere with my conversion?”
"Well, I don’t really know, but it is possible. Magic is a bit tricky at times, from what I’ve heard. I think there is something I can do, but it is a bit dangerous. More dangerous for me than for you, in any case, but dangerous none the less.”
“Ok, so, what is it? If it can help, I’m willing to let you at least try it.”
The Doctor got up from his seat, and started to rummage through a few drawers with, as far as Grace could see, seemed to be filled with all sorts of electronic doodads. “Ok, see, the point is that, even with what you told me, I lack some information which can point me to the root of the problem. I can obtain that information, but the process is a little... invasive, so I’ll need your consent first,”
"Well, if you think it could put a stop to these nightmares, I am willing to try just about anything," Grace nodded as the Doctor picked up something that looked like a top hat crashed into a clock factory and then fell into a bucket of glue mixed with lights.
"All right then, put this on and lay down on that couch over there. The readings from this gizmo should be all that I need to be of any help..." the Doctor replied, as he put the contraption on Grace’s head and fixed it in place with a pair of straps.
Grace laid down on the old sofa, briefly wondering how they managed to get the huge beast through the door.
The Doctor pulled something out of his pocket. Taking a closer look, Grace thought the item looked like a screwdriver someone had slapped a small LED on.
“Are you comfortable?” the Doctor asked, to which Grace nodded. “Good. I need you to look at this little light here,” he said, pushing a button on the strange screwdriver, causing the device to light up and make a strange, whistling sound.
Grace focused on the light, as the whistling echoed in her ears...
The girl soon fell asleep on the couch she was laying on.
---------------------------

The room is white. A pristine white all over. Nothing inside it at all.
I look down at myself, and see I am human still. I see myself standing in a large room, but the flawless whiteness of the walls and strange absence of shadows makes it hard to tell where the floor ends and the walls begin.

I looked around, not seeing anything. No walls, no doors, no ceiling, nothing. Only the stark whiteness.
I am abandoned.

So, tonight I die hungry and thirsty? No, Lord, please, no!

I thought I would die, starving and alone, until I saw something I was sure was not there before.

A blue box, a few feet away from where I was standing.
It was not there before. I am sure it was not there when I was looking around.

The door opens, revealing the Doctor walking out. "Now then! I am now inside your mind, and can see everything you dream. But, I don’t know who they are or where we are."

"But Doctor... we are stuck inside this, endless white void! There is no-one, nothing here. we are nowhere."

"Look again" he says, pointing behind me.
I turn... and see that we are suddenly standing inside a room.

I see beds, monitors with squiggly lines on them, stands for IV bags.
I am in a hospital. A disturbingly familiar one.

"Every night you die. Or, at least, you perceive yourself doing so," the Doctor said, standing next to me now. "But the truth of the matter is, you don’t. It is just your mind telling you so, in an attempt to hide certain painful memories. So, tell me, what memories are so painful, your mind would prefer death over reliving them?"

I calm down, and start to speak.

--------------
Five minutes earlier.
--------------

“Ok, that seems to be holding...”
After the Doctor had put Grace into a deep sleep, he had rushed over to the garage where the TARDIS was parked, hidden just a second out of sync with the world.
"Now then my dear, we have a problem. A problem we need to solve. Bad, BAD dreams. We have a soon-to-be mother, who dies every night in her dreams, and if we don’t fix it then we could have her conversion going haywire at the worst possible moment, leaving us with a very dead mother-to-be. However, I need to know where her nightmares come from, so I’ve set up a psycho-temporal beacon inside what I hope is her somnial psychoscape, don’t want to end up in the subconscious AGAIN.
Anyhow, the beacon is set, so if nobody messes with it we can get in there and figure out what is killing her every night!" the Doctor said to nobody in particular while rushing inside and throwing or pushing what seemed to be several levers and buttons chosen at random, before pulling The Wibbly Lever.
The TARDIS rumbled and moaned, as she started to de-materialize with a sound, strangely much alike the sound of a key being pulled along a bass-string, or a car stalling in the middle of a freefall at 300mph.
The Doctor rolled his temporal differentionator into the local setting, and bashed on the red stabilizers with the rubber mallet before pumping the bike pump and dialing the number for the White House, 2415 AD.. on the phone.
"Now.. be a good girl and don’t go anywhere. And let’s hope I am wrong," the Doctor said as he opened up the doors and looked into the slightly confused face of Grace. "Now then! I am ins-"
---------------------
Colgate trotted towards the kitchen, to speak with Mrs. Cake in regards to the human that would be converted later today.
"Mrs. Cake? are you there?" she asked as she walked through the swinging doors of the kitchen.
"Over here dear, I’m just trying out a new recipe one of the humans gave me. I think it was called a "ca-no-lee". Want to try one when I’m done?" Mrs. Cake said, calling from one of the stoves.
"I would be delighted to... But I came to ask you if you know how to teach someone to take care of a foal? You are the only ones here who were not at the Salt Lick City 2 bureau, so I don’t know if you can."
Mrs. Cake cheerfully twittered, "of course I can. I ‘technically’ have to take care of Three foals."

Somewhere in Mississippi, a pink pony with a penchant for pranks and parties stopped saying "kumquat," and sneezed. She then decided that sneezing was a silly thing, and started to look for some pepper, to let her friends feel just how silly a thing it was.

Back at the bureau, Colgate nodded. "Well, the newfoal who is supposed to be converted today is a pregnant woman, due any day now. But she is not a city pony like one of her room mates, Jane I believe? Anyhow, she would probably not even know how to birth a foal. So, we kind of need you to... be a nurse. To help."
"Oh. I see. Well, I will help the best I can. Carrot can handle the kitchen while I am helping. So, who is the soon-to-be mother?”

-----------------------

"Grace."

I turn, and see the man I once called father standing like a soldier, next to a door. The door to the room I hoped never to remember.

"Oh... no. no,no, nonono! Doctor, please tell me I am going to die, please tell me I’ll get shot, or stabbed, or injected with a deadly nurotoxin. Just t-tell me I don’t have to go into that room!"
"Well, the only way we can tell is if we follow through," he said. "But maybe it is best if I go in first..."

He walks into the room, and I wait.

-------------------------

The doctor walks into the room and looks around.
An ordinary hospital room.
Well, as ordinary as a hospital room can be with a replica of the girl he just left sleeping on a sofa.

"D-Doctor?" Grace calls to him from the hallway. "W-what’s in there?"
"An event waiting to get played. I may be in your mind, but it reacts only to your presence," the Doctor said while glancing around the room to see what could be out of place.

"Do I have to?" Grace says, slowly edging towards the entrance of the room.

"Oh yes. See, this is a memory you have been repressing, but all that time you have been having nightmares you were just preventing yourself from facing what happened, delaying the inevitable. Come on in, nothing here will bite you. Besides, the sooner you face this the sooner your nightmares end, and you can go pony," the Doctor said.

-----------------------

I take one last breath, steeling my nerves, and take the last step through the doorway.

I see a scene like a holograph, frozen in time.
The moment I walk in, the scene starts moving.

I see myself on the bed. Dad and mom are on a couch next to my bed, and the Doctor is standing near the foot of the bed.

The nurse smiles, and leaves the room.
She just delivered the good news. I am pregnant.

She exits the room via the door I just entered through. I, the me reliving the memory, look over at my mom and dad.

"I am s-sorry," I stammer at them. They look horrified.

"How.. How COULD you do this? I am a Pastor for JHC's sake. I can’t have my daughter, my own flesh and blood sleeping around like, like a common WHO-"
"DARLING! Calm down," mom says as father sighs and sits down, looking furious.

"I am not sleeping around! Dan is a good man and he would ne-"
"DAN! DAN MCMULLEN! I knew it was- I knew it was him!"

"Dear. calm down." mom said "What are we going to do with the baby?"
"Do? I will TELL you what she is going to do! Abort that thing RIGHT NOW, or leave this place! She did not ask for it, and all it will do is increase our chances to fall under the scrutiny of the corporations. Now, I will call the doctor and we will-"
"NO!" both my current and past selves yell at the same time.
The past me takes a breath, and continues. "I want to keep it. I did not ask for it. But the baby will be born, and I want it to have a good fam-"
"No darling. We have decided. We will tell the doctor, and by tomorrow morning it will be gone."

The scene freezes once more, as the walls start to fade.

"D-Doctor?" I ask, looking at the Man in the brown pinstripe suit.

"You're waking up... go out into the hall, and wait. Try to stay asleep as long as you can!" he says as he starts to run down the hall, to where the blue box was.

I see him vanish around the corner, the walls fading to white.

I can feel the whiteness creeping toward me, reaching me.

I scream as it touches me.

Today, I do not die. I wake up.

--------------------------
Grace jumped up as the Doctor ran in, catching his breath. "A little more time would have been helpful," he said as he sat down behind his desk once again.
"Well, did it work?" Grace asked nervously.
"Mostly. I managed to ascertain that the cause of your nightmares has something to do with how your parents responded to your pregnancy, so I did a bit of research. It says you came from one of those small very religious sects. So, I would like to know however how did you get away from them? Those groups are... well you know."
Grace looked a bit upset, and slightly confused. "That is a story I’d rather save for when I’m less tired, Doctor. I think you should get back to your regular job. I need to go talk to the girls, before I get sized for horseshoes.”

//////////

Ray10k here, and another lengthy dream sequence done YAY!
(sorry. they are just too fun to write. :P)

Comments

[Midnightshadow]

Btw, glad to see you're having fun with this - but yes, you need to fire your current/previous proofreader.

out of a cannon.

to the moon.

Read a lot more, see how it's done right, and learn the basics - once you've got that, everything else will follow. Capitalization, punctuation, sentence structure - to ignore these rules and conventions takes a defter hoof than yours. having said that, practice makes perfect, you just need a lot of practice.

[kryxel]

172421
coming from you midnight that is a great thing

as for the proof-reader.. i did not have one and techically still dont have one.
but this right now is to get it out on paper. i will fancy it up later.

>>steben
i am trying my best and with me i usually fall back on which point of view i was focusing on the most.
usually it is human ten but as that chapter tosses in Victor it could also be him.
i will try harder and also include the doublespace... if i remember.

[kryxel]

172583
okay. ray10k has become a "post proofreader" so i will make sure his fixes are put in the story after i edit it. so far he has done the full first episode (chapters 1&2)

so lets give him a grand YAY!

3rd line has a missed cappitalization

[kryxel]

175165

fixed