Stardate 52039.3

     Ensign Jack Hindman sat in a dimly lit, far corner of the Equilibrium.  He
ate, whatever it was on his plate, silently.  Hindman rarely sat with anyone, 
except when he had no choice.  The Ensign shied away from people a lot.
     He had been a crew member of the Equinox for about a week now, working on 
the Engineering team.  Hindman never engaged in conversation unless someone 
else spoke to him first, then he would have no choice.  The Ensign found the 
crew to be polite and helpful when he didn't know where he was going.  Even 
though he had only been there a week, he had put in 13 hours of overtime. 
People told him that he worked too much.
     Hindman didn't always work. Other times he was either in the holodeck or 
reading quietly.  He stared over at a nearby table.  A few Ensigns were 
laughing and telling stories.  They had asked him to join in a while ago, but 
he had refused.  Jack didn't like to be around people.  That was probably 
because when he was younger, and an orphan, whenever he would try to talk to 
other people they would give him the cold shoulder.  He hated that.
     Jack ate the rest of his meal and got up.  He had to get back to work. 
Hindman walked out of the mess hall and out into the empty corridor.  He walked
silently so people would not hear him.  If someone heard him they would 
probably try to engage in coversation.
     Suddenly, a burning pain ran through his body.  He gasped loudly.  "What's
going on!?", he screamed in his head.  Then he collapsed to the floor.  Hindman
tried desperatly to crawl somewhere.  He forgot completely about the mess hall.
"Must get to sickbay!", he yelled in his head.  Then everything got hazy.
     He screamed out suddenly.  The people in the Equilibrium heard the scream
and rushed out into the corridor.  They found Hindman sprawled out on the 
floor.  He had blacked out.
     "Help me get him to sickbay!", someone shouted.  There were various voices
and sounds as they carried him into the turbolift.  Hindman woke up once and 
saw the gawking faces of his crewmates, then he sank into an inky blackness 
once again.