Ghost In the Wiring I
Posted on Wed Oct 4th, 2023 @ 9:24pm by Petty Officer 1st Class Leon Meier & Lieutenant Sovas Nyseth & Lieutenant JG Revana Nazar & Lieutenant JG Nairobi Ellis & Immy
Mission:
In-Between (S1:E5-S1:E6)
Location: Holodeck 2
Timeline: Date 2371-09-02 at 1540
7222 words - 14.4 OF Standard Post Measure
Blackness.
All was dark, and she was nowhere. Was she dreaming? She didn’t even remember falling asleep.
The last thing she remembered, she was doing her job, standing in front of a console. There was a flash of light; the feeling of pain and dread all closing around toward peace and silence, and then, with a pop, the world went away. Where was she now?
She wished for something familiar. Something she could understand and hold in her shattered mind. As she wished, a light began to shine and a room slowly materialized around her. It was familiar. It was a corridor on Vengeance; the one outside the slave quarters, but no one was here but her. She was all alone. Was she dead or alive?
As the Vengeance traveled at warp, Engineering worked as hard as ever to keep up with their scheduled maintenance. As they couldn’t expect a proper refit for the foreseeable future, it was their job to make sure they wouldn’t need one. It was thankless work, and often quite tedious as they fixed things that were not yet broken.
Revana stood in the CEO’s alcove running her green fingers and manicured nails over the report on the screen. So much paperwork went into being Assistant Chief Engineer of a starship that she started to dread the day of her next promotion, if it would ever arrive. She never remembered her father doing paperwork. Then again, he never let her watch him work at all.
In the repair request log next to the report, she saw a new entry appear. She sighed and looked for the nearest grunt to her.
“Meier, come here, would you?” She asked, her voice smooth as she looked at him, her eyes looking upward in that way she had been trained since she was old enough to speak.
Leon didn’t respond, he simply walked over when summoned and gave Revana a warm smile. His eyes settled on her own and didn’t even for a moment wander from them. They simply weren’t inclined to. “Yes, Ensign?”
“Holodeck 1 is malfunctioning. It says the doors won’t open. Go on down there and take a look.” She said, placing a few fingers on his arm as she moved past him. “If you need anything else, contact Chief Ellis. She’s working with a maintenance team in the area.”
He glanced down to her fingers when she touched him and his brows raised slightly, but he didn’t react beyond that. “Of course. I’ll get on that now.”
Needing no further orders, he went to grab one of the maintenance kits and set off. A broken holodeck really just was not acceptable. Even if it wasn’t supposed to be a necessary system in their situation, it was truly necessary. The crew needed their moments of escape.
For the next thirty minutes or so with no success at all, Leon finally tossed the hyperspanner down back into the toolkit out of frustration. He let out a loud sigh and rubbed his face. He hated it when he couldn’t figure out a problem. Looking into the open bulkhead, he finally surrendered and tapped his comm badge.
“Meier to Ellis.”
“Ellis here.” came Nairobi’s voice, commanding and professional in its tone.
“Chief, I’m outside holodeck one and I’m having trouble figuring out what the problem is here. I’ve tried everything that I can personally think of and could use the help if you’re still on deck.”
Nairobi stifled a sigh of annoyance. She did, however, roll her eyes to no one in particular and stand up straight. So much to do; so little immediacy.
“I’ll be there in a few, Leon. Just hang tight.” she said and then she made a gesture to a petty officer nearby. Though obviously pretty, Nairobi was sporty and gave the impression of a woman who played basketball. If she’d been taller, perhaps she would have enjoyed it more. “I need to go pop open a door. Keep things under control while I’m gone.”
Just under a minute later, the Engineer’s Mate rounded the corner near Holodeck 1, her face communicating little more than vague irritation.
“You’re making war with a door over here, Meier?” she asked mirthlessly.
“Yeah and I’m losing horribly.” Leon admitted, looking up at her from where he was kneeling. At least he had the decency to look apologetic about his failings. “Sorry to drag you down here.”
“You’re doing your job.” she said, as if it were some kind of answer, and then she knelt down next to him to look at the open door relay. She studied it for several long minutes before finally speaking. She tended not to think aloud. “The door isn’t jammed. It looks like its been locked from the inside by command. Did you check if anyone’s in there?”
“Yeah there’s no life signs in there, but there appears to be a program running? So unless someone is in there and really just doesn’t want anyone to know…” Leon shrugged and looked back to the door. “Only thing I didn’t try was trying to manually force it open. The release didn’t do anything, and given the force option tends to break the doors completely, I figured I’d exhaust all other options first.”
“Good thinking. Trust me, you don’t want to walk into some people’s holodeck sessions unannounced..” she said, standing up and smiling a pretty thin smile. She tapped her commbadge. “Ellis to operations. We’ve got a situation down here outside holodeck 1. Could you peek at the schedule and tell us who booked it.”
"Copy, Chief, give me a moment to investigate." The half-Vulcan replied while he began to look over the recreation logs, checking to see if there was anyone scheduled to be on the holodeck but found nothing on the schedule. "You're certain that the holodeck is active?"
“It seems someone’s inside running a program but we’re not getting any lifesigns from inside the room. I’d like to override the lock and take a look inside, but I figured operations would want to be present or, at least, aware since Holodeck assignments fall under your purview.
"I'm coming down to investigate," Sovas motioned for one of the bridge officers to take his place as he logged his location. Quietly he considered the situation, wondering if someone might have hacked their way into the holodeck to steal some rec time. The lift ride down was swift and a few moments later he was standing in front of the holodeck. "Report."
“We received a report in Engineering of the doors malfunctioning, sir.” Leon began to explain since he had been going at the problem the longest. “I’ve been trying to get in here for thirty minutes or so and just haven’t been able to do it without forcing matters. Like the Chief said, no lifesigns in there, just locked with a program active. Only way I see in is opening it with an override.”
“Then force it open, we don’t have the resources to maintain an active holodeck and I’d rather not have an unpleasant surprise at an inopportune moment.” He replied to Leon sternly while glowering at the door as if it had done something to offend him personally.
Leon stood from where he was to do as he had been ordered. He input the code to unlock the door and the mechanics shifted inside with a loud protest, but the doors did open for them.
As the doors swished open, they were welcomed by the mirror-image of the place where they were standing. On the other side of the open archway was a holographic projection of the hallway outside the Holodeck.
“Okay…” Nairobi said as she gestured toward the door. “After you, Lieutenant.”
Sovas didn’t bother to give Nairobi a glance as he paused briefly to retrieve a wrist light, tricorder and phaser from a nearby wall locker before stepping past the threshold of the doorway, not certain what to expect but if it was a joke, he would make certain that the person playing it would understand their mistake.
Leon followed Sovas in with Nairobi, looking around and frowning at the scene that now surrounded them.
The arch disappeared behind them, leaving them standing in the same place from which they had entered.
“Deck 6…” Nairobi said, turning and looking down the hallway. “And silent as the grave. Why do I feel like we’re all alone here?”
“This is like the start to every horror movie I’ve ever watched.” Leon said and looked around more.
“Then we’d best not split up since that’s how the killers of those movies pick off their victims.” Sovas replied dryly while stepping forward to look around and consider the situation since it was more than a little too quiet.
Back in Engineering, Revana continued to review the reports as she did on a daily basis. She’d pulled up a stool and scrolled through the list, making notes in some places, assigning tasks in others, and dismissing others still. Her finger was moving up the console over and over again at a slow pace, giving her the time she needed to read the endless train of notices when suddenly the list stopped moving. She moved her finger again, and still nothing was happening. Computer skips and glitches weren’t a thing that ever happened for an Imperial Starship, but it was certainly happening here. Could this be a ghost of the computer problems they’d had before when power surges killed and injured a number of people?
“What the hell is going on?” came a low voice from the console by the warp core. The crewman was standing by the red railing as the core surged in front of him, active. They were traveling at warp with the rest of the Shadow Fleet. “Ensign, my console isn’t responding. I can’t access warp core functions or..do anything.”
“We’re locked out too.” came a female voice from the wide isle that served as the central part of the room. “I don’t think we can drop out of warp, ma’am. Or access life support.”
Great.
“Computer, arch.” Nairobi said. But nothing happened. Nothing at all. “Computer, arch.”
Again, nothing.
“Oh, fuck me. This isn’t how I saw today going..”
“The hells…” Leon breathed out in irritated confusion. After a beat of looking around, he walked forward toward the holographic holodeck door and knelt down by it so he could take off the door panel he had been working on originally. All of the wiring was perfectly replicated, but he was after the much more basic control panel that had now appeared in the bottom recess. It wasn’t there normally, it was strictly a holodeck control panel. He touched it, trying to input commands to bring up the arch but it wasn’t even making any sounds signaling it was receiving any sort of input. He knew he hadn’t made a mistake and this was some sort of hologram, so what was going on.
“Nothing.” He said as he looked back up to Nairobi. “This console isn’t responding at all.”
The Chief looked at Sovas, a hint of concern on her brow. Her caramel hand shot up to her commbatge and she tapped it quickly.
“Ellis to Engineering. Engineering come in.” she said, and a rather unfamiliar chirp followed her call. It was the commbage busy signal. She sighed. “Whatever is happening, I would guess it’s not just happening here. I can’t get through to engineering because of high comms traffic.”
She looked at Sovas then. He was the senior officer among them.
“What should we do, sir?”
“Not panic,” He stated simply while looking around before stepping up to one of the consoles mounted in the wall as he reached out to touch it. The panel flickered under his touch for a moment as if it was only receiving partial power, when the half-Vulcan tried to enter commands, there was no response of indication of activity.
“Computer, is there anyone else present in the holodeck aside from myself and the two other crewmen?” He spoke up for the computer to see if he could get it to respond, possibly have it give them some answers.
Leon really, truly wished that officers didn’t feel the need to confirm what had already been made obvious just because it had been done by an NCO, but he also accepted it was simply a part of their reality. The computer remained silent as the grave when called on of course, so Leon stood and spoke. “Well, if this is some sort of program based on the ship it is likely that we might have better luck issuing commands in the program from either the bridge or engineering - at least in my experience with programs like this. Maybe we should go to one of those?”
“We’re more familiar with Engineering, but the Bridge has a higher chance of having command function access. I recommend we go there, sir.” Nairobi said, turning to Lieutenant Nyseth. Her tone was straightforward, professional, and confident, giving her the impression of someone who would have been perfectly comfortable giving the command herself if that were her lot.
“Let’s go to the bridge,” The half-vulcan stated as he moved to find the turbolift.
The three gold-collared military personnel stepped into the nearest turbolift and the doors closed behind them. It seemed things were working on this end.
“Bridge.” Nairobi ordered, and the ship started moving suddenly. They waited in silence as the turbolift assented to the command center of the ship. When it arrived, the doors swished open to reveal a completely empty Bridge.
Sovas stepped out onto the bridge, looking around as he took in the familiarity of the setting while seeing everything was in a state of shut down or no power. It was a curious sight to him but he intended to figure out what had happened here.
As they stepped out of the lift, they noticed that every screen, including the main viewer, was deactivated and blank. Only once they stepped out far enough, did they see anything else out of the ordinary. A shock of red hair became visible. When they looked, they saw that it was attached to a woman in the slaves uniform with long red hair. They could only see the back of her head from where they were standing.
Sovas lifted his tricorder to see what it might reveal about the redhead, though he found it decidedly a bit unnerving with the woman standing still as they stepped onto the bridge.
The tricorder read that he was seeing a holographic projection and nothing more sitting before him, but she seemed to be the only holographic figure on the Holodeck meant to represent a living being rather than an item. They rounded the Bridge slowly, a sense of foreboding keeping them quiet, giving them the feeling they might want to have the jump on this holograph somehow.
Leon frowned as he walked in, his eyes immediately going to the shock of red hair in front of him. He noticed the slave uniform next - they weren’t allowed to be on the holodeck so what was this one doing? She was going to be severely punished. He cleared his throat and called out to her, his voice lacking any bite to it. “Slave?”
The hologram turned her head sharply, her shiny red hair tossing somewhat wildly as she did so. Her green eyes were full of surprise and fear. It was Immy, the slave that had died in the power surges a few weeks before.
“Lieutenant Sovas?” She asked, addressing the only person she recognized, though her eyes flitted over the other two. She stood from the command chair, her body tense. “What’s going on? Where is everybody?”
“Everybody?” Nairobi said, and then she realized Immy must have meant the other holograms which represented the crew. “There is no everybody.”
The statement was dismissive as she moved quickly to the Engineering console. She was just speaking to a hologram after all. She touched the black screen which failed to come to life. She sighed, her irritation mounting as she fell to her knees and opened the panel at the base of the console to check the wiring.
“Damnit, there’s power going to this console, but it’s still not working. It’s like the computer on the holographic ship is offline.”
“Holographic ship?” Immy asked, looking between the three of them, still frightened. Her perfectly shaped lips parted as she took in air more sharply. “Is this the Holodeck?”
Leon frowned slightly where he stood as Nairobi moved to the console and Sovas was engrossed in his tricorder. He walked forward and stopped behind the auxiliary console behind the command chairs to look down at Immy. “What’s your name, slave?”
“Imogen Tiger, Class I, Rank 2.” She said, her curious eyes looking up innocently at him. Her lips pouted cutely as she showed signs of being more distressed than she had so far consciously shown. Her strikingly shapely body was aligned formally as she was addressing a master, no matter how low in rank. “I'm a command slave; they call me Immy.”
“Immy…” Leon repeated and frowned. He looked down and his eyes moved back and forth a moment, then he looked at Sovas. “Sir… isn’t that the name of the slave that…?”
“Yes, it was, though I’m curious as to how she ended up here, with this program running.” Sovas confirmed for Leon as he tucked his tricorder away. “What is the last thing you remember, Immy?” He wasn’t going to say anything about her having died despite Leon all but stating it himself.
“The slave that what?” She asked, her eyes growing wide at the merest suggestion that something happened to her which was so bad it couldn’t be modestly spoken. She couldn’t make heads or tales of what was going on with her. All she knew was she was in the holodeck and she couldn’t leave. So she took a deep breath and looked between the two men. “The last thing I remember is tending to my duties in the command office. I walked up to the console to input some commands, and then I couldn’t move. There was light, darkness, and pain. Then nothing.”
Nairobi had returned from the Engineering console and now looked at the slave, her brows knit in concern. Was she a ghost? A saved holodeck program left as a joke by someone with a sick sense of humor?
“I don’t know how to tell you this, girl…you died that day. Vaporized by the surges resulting from that computer glitch.” She said, blinking, something coming over her features like intense guilt.
“What?” Immy asked, incredulously, all her learned slave meekness evaporating in the seat of tumultuous feelings. She looked at the woman like she was stupid. “What are you talking about? I’m not dead. I’m standing right here!”
“Yes, that’s the mystery, sweet heart.” Nairobi responded. “Our scans read you as a hologram.”
Immy fluttered her eyes in a blink, seeming to flinch from the information Nairobi had given her. She believed what she was being told, that much was clear, but the pain and fear in her eyes was only growing.
“I’m not a hologram..” she said, looking back and forth between the three officers.
“Immy, please. We are trying to figure out-“ Leon began but was cut off.
“I said I’m NOT a hologram!” She shouted this time, the veins in her slender neck, jutting out and adding something intimidating to her beautiful appearance.
Suddenly, the redheaded woman disappeared and the bridge followed after her, replaced immediately by the dark shadows of a small room. The three of them were now standing between wood and dirt with rays of light pouring through the random openings that exposed the world outside where the wood was broken or bowed in or out. They appeared to be in some sort of shed. Outside, they heard the sound of metal, eating wood and wheels sliding across the ground. They heard the sound of men speaking, but only in quiet whispers.
“What the fuck is going on now?” Nairobi asked, her voice indicating her exasperation.
“Well, different program, obviously.” Leon said, his voice not condescending but instead seeming pensive in a way. He looked around where they were and tried to see if he could get a look outside through some of the cracks without leaving the room.
“Engineering to Holodeck 1.” Revana’s voice descended into the primitive environment. “Holodeck 1, come in.”
“We are here, Ensign, it seems that the situation is a bit fluid on our end,” Sovas stated plainly as he quietly struggled to maintain the hold on the roiling emotions that he was feeling at the moment being brought out by the entity in his mind. There was anger, frustration, excitement, joy…it was all extremely overwhelming as he did his best in this situation but he didn’t know how long he could hold onto what felt like the fragile moment of sanity in an increasing sea of insanity.
“The computers are frozen and we can’t access any system on this ship. Currently, we’re heading toward Sikkaris at warp seven and can’t slow down. Everyone down here is working hard on figuring out what the hell is going on, but my theory is that whatever is happening out here is somehow related to our trouble with the Holodeck since it all started once you started tinkering down there.” She said, the stress in her voice quite obvious. “What’s going on in there?”
“The simple answer? The slave Immy was somehow turned into a holographic being at the moment of her death and has reappeared in the holodecks, I suspect that her presence might have something to do with our troubles at present.” Sovas answered, his voice clipped as there was too much stimulation around him and he was increasingly feeling like he just wanted to throttle and smash everything around him as he growled deep in his throat. “We were on a recreation of the ship when she panicked and transported us to another program, we can’t access any systems from within the program, so it looks like we are just along for the ride until we can find a solution.”
Leon hadn’t necessarily been feeling anxious about what was going on. Was he annoyed? Sure, but his sympathy had been stirred for the hologram of the dead slave girl. Maybe he was a bit of a soft heart for it, but it was just how he was. When Revana told them what was going on outside of the holodeck however, he frowned and concern entered his expression immediately.
“We need to go find Immy then.” He offered up to the two more senior personnel.
“Agreed, at the very least our road to freedom seems to lead to her.” Sovas agreed while looking to the other two.
The three Terran officers exit the room onto a wide dirt road. Their eyes are drawn down to the coast, and then back up again toward the huge walls of a city. Before the walls is a giant wooden horse on wheels, being pushed by men in tattered clothing.
Nairobi blinked in confusion, wondering what all of this had to do with their slave, and what their slave had to do with the problems they were having on the ship. She spotted a blonde man walking toward the city and reach to hand out to grab his wrist.
“Where are we?” She asked.
The man had the bearing of a soldier, but not the uniform, as he was closing rags. When he spoke, he did so, with a gruff voice that commanded some respect.
“We’re outside the walls of Troy, ma’am. Here to bring our enemies a peace offering.” He said, winking and snatching his wrist back. “Come on, we need to climb inside. We’re the welcome party, after all.”
“The Sacking of Troy,” Sovas clenched his hand into a fist as he remembered his antiquities tutors teaching him about the violent and bloody ambush; The gates had been opened, carnage had ensued and the victors had so thoroughly razed the city to the ground that there was only the evidence of the city’s existence in the writings of ancient scholars. “I’m not sure why Immy brought us here but be ready, this will be violent and brutal,”
His attention turned to his fellow crewmates as they followed after the man Nairobi had stopped. “I don’t know why Immy brought us here, but if we are to be going into the city it important to remember to give no quarter as you will be given none by the Trojan defenders, according to the ancient texts, they were infamous for placing those they captured on the walls to taunt the Greek armies, left there to slowly die of exposure.”
“Its also important to remember we don’t know if there are any safety limiters turned on due to Immy’s unstable mental state and her control of the ship systems,”
“Do we actually know if she’s controlling the ship?” Leon asked, frowning. “She doesn’t seem to be aware of anything at all; she has no idea what’s going on.”
“I agree, we don’t know anything for sure yet. We do know that she has control over the holodeck though and Ensign Nazar expects there’s more going on here. Our only option now, really, is to try to find her again. But where could she be in all this mess?”
“Well, if she is in control of the holodeck, she is probably in the city.” Leon rubbed the back of his neck and looked toward the towering horse. “Women didn’t travel with the Greek army unless they were slaves, and what slave would make herself a slave when she has the option of being something more?”
Nairobi nodded then, her mind working.
“If I was her, I would make myself the highest think I could think of here.” She said.
“She would be Helen of Troy, obviously.” Sovas replied as they moved closer to the wooden horse, watching the other men climbing up inside of it. “She was the most desired woman in the world and this whole war was started over her.”
There was a commotion and soldiers began to hoist themselves up into the wooden horse. Leon took notice and nodded toward it. “Well, if we want to get into the city that would be the fastest way.”
With unspoken consensus immediately between them, the trio quickly moved to join the soldiers waiting to get into the gift horse.
Sovas moved up inside the space where they were going to be hiding with the other Greek soldiers, looking around before turning to help the others up. It would be cramped but it was what they would have to deal with until they could find Immy again.
Leon waited a moment for Sovas to make room and then climbed up as well, accepting the help the hybrid had offered and once he was inside, he turned to offer the same help to Nairobi to get her in.
Nairobi was the last of the three to pull herself into the Gian wooden gift horse. As soon as she was inside the dark structure, the hatch was closed and they felt it start to move.
“I’m realizing all I have on me to fight with is my dagger.” She said in hushed tones. “And…let’s say I didn’t quite make the cut on my slashing classes at the academy. We need a plan that doesn’t involve us fighting angry Trojans as soon as we’re out of this thing.
“Yeah, I didn’t either.” Leon admitted with a frown. He really wasn’t a fighter; he was an engineer. “We should let the holograms go first and see if we can sneak out after while the fighters are mostly all engaged.”
“The question is, where would we find her? Is there a palace here if some kind?” Nairobi asked.
“I would think so. This is about the Trojan War… there was a king and at least a couple of princes that I don’t remember the names of because one of them stole Helen from her husband and brought her back here… that was what started the war. Kings live in palaces, yeah?” Leon reasoned.
After several more seconds, the creeping horse stopped, and all was quiet for a moment. Some unintelligible conversation was happening outside, and only when it was done was the horse brought through the gates, and into the city. Whoever had written this program was a bit light on the details. It was quite likely some crewman with a love for reenacting famous battles with no love for history or mythology.
A few silent moments hung between them as they waited for whatever happened next. Then, with a clunk, a hatch at the front of the horse opened, and the soldiers in front of them started to pour out in streams of screaming men, wielding swords, spears, and bows. The killing began, and the town was in a panic.
Nairobi looked at the other two.
“That’s our cue. Now, who’s going first?”
“Follow after.” Sovas stated simply, hefting a spear and shield he found lying nearby, moving towards the open hatch and the sound of the carnage taking place. It seemed that whomever the program had been created by was wanting the excitement of the action, a more cinematic experience than what might have actually taken place as the half-Vulcan swiftly moved forward, raising his shield to deflect a blow from one of the Trojan defenders that had managed to get past the rest of the Greek warriors. There was an ugly clanging of metal before Sovas managed to land a strike with his spear on the man as he tumbled away.
He glanced back momentarily to see if Nairobi and Leon were following.
Leon had given Nairobi an awkward glance when Sovas had just randomly picked up the shield and spear and then picked up a shield and sword for himself. He had no idea how to effectively use either, really, but some defense was better than having nothing at all, he reasoned. He followed after Sovas, but hung back to be with her instead of with Sovas who was apparently a more competent fighter.
Nairobi sighed and grabbed just a shield. As she didn’t know what she was doing even remotely, anything else would only distract her from the important task of defending herself. She stepped out with Leon as they both followed Sovas. The Greeks were all busy fighting each other, and as they made their way toward the margins of the battle area, none of them had taken any specific interest in them. As they turned into a narrow alley and moved down covertly, a strong man in scale armor appeared to block their path where the alley met the next street.
Sovas growled as he saw the man blocking their path, he could feel the surge of intense emotions and ancestral rage welling up within him that the fighting in the streets had done nothing to quell. He rushed forward, shield covering him as he jabbed out with his spear to test the man and attempt to land a killing blow.
There was a brief exchange between Sovas and the holographic opponent, but the half Vulcan was able to vanquish it easily enough. It seemed whoever this program was designed for may have indeed been a fighter… but not a particularly skilled one. They continued to move to the palace, avoiding the fights rather easily while doing so.
“Here it is.” Nairobi said as they came to the unguarded door of a tower which was attached to an ornate building of obvious palatial design. She reached for the door handle, unceremoniously and pulled it open. It fit easily in her hand, and then she motioned for Sovas to go first again. “You first again, sir. No point in ruining a good thing.”
Sovas stepped past Nairobi as he moved into the tower and made his way up the stairs, looking about for threats, though it didn’t seem there was anyone else here as the trio ascended the stairs, finding the outline of doors that didn’t open or opened onto a stone wall. Eventually they reached a landing several stories up from where they had started to a door that was unguarded and unlocked. The half-Vulcan tried the door, finding it opening with no protest and as he stepped inside, he found himself looking at Immy, or the holographic recreation of her dressed in a fine white chiton as she brushed out her vibrantly colored hair.
“Enjoying having a city burn around you, Princess?”
Leon couldn’t help but roll his eyes from behind Sovas. If Immy was controlling this, it seemed like a poor choice to antagonize her. He stepped out from behind the officer while casting down the sword and shield. He lifted his hands up slightly in a non-threatening gesture. “Immy, please. We are just trying to figure out what’s going on.”
Immy had seemed totally attached when they came in, but the opening of the door, and the explosive nature of Sovas’ entrance shook her from her make-believe state. She looked at them, her green eyes reflecting, surprise and dismay.
“Please just leave me alone.” She said, a flickering of juvenile pleading in her voice. “I have nothing to tell you; I have no idea what’s going on. I would think you would be able to figure that out more than I could.”
Immy licked her lips and put her brush down, frowning.
“I tried to leave the holodeck but..I couldn’t.” She said then, her breathing and the pace of her speech increasing excitedly. “But I can’t be a hologram. I know I’m not a hologram because I have memories and feelings…I know who you are. Something awful has happened..”
“What happened when you tried to leave the holodeck?” Leon prompted, keeping his voice gentle as he spoke to the scared woman while maintaining a distance from her.
Immy blinked one breathing space, seeming to hold back her grief with an act of her will again. She was radiant in the white dress, now unburdened by the slave uniform that had so limited her potential appeal. It fit loosely in some places, yet hugged her curves perfectly. She took a step away from them with bare feet.
“I stuck my hand out first and it just…it just faded away.” she said with a wide-eyed frown. “That’s when I discovered I could control the holodeck with my thoughts. I created a world that made sense to me and hoped I wasn’t dead.”
“Well, we really aren’t sure what is going on right now but we are trying to figure it out. Do you mind if I scan you?” The blonde haired man prompted again. Many probably would have thought he was wasting his time speaking to a slave like this, but she was a person too.
Immy blinked, seeming uncertain for the space a few seconds. Then, eventually, she nodded. It wasn’t as if she really had a choice. She couldn’t run from this…whatever it was…forever.
Nairobi drew near her and placed a hand on Immy’s back, leaning in a bit and pulling the stranger into a half hug. She wasn’t the most affectionate person in the world, but she could tell that a woman’s touch was needed with this one.
“Don’t worry, Immy. We’ll figure this out.”
Leon was surprised when Nairobi stepped forward to hug Immy; she had never seemed like a particularly nice or warm person - not mean, just not particularly nice. He set that thought aside, a pleasant smile remaining on his face as he took out his tricorder and began a more detailed scan than what Sovas had run. He looked for any indication that somehow she was different from a normal hologram given obviously, somehow, she was… he just didn’t know how yet.
As the readings came through, he could see that while Immy was being projected into the holodeck, the holodeck was not the source of her program. It was like her file was physically stored somewhere else but being projected there. He offered the tricorder to Nairobi. “Take a look at this.”
“Oh..” was all she said as she looked down at the information. More than most, she knew the computer of the Vengeance, but she had no idea how something like this could be happening. A computer program that supposedly had the power to project into the holodeck and control all aspects of its functioning might also be able to control other systems as well. “Lieutenant Sovas, I think whatever program is projecting into the holodeck is responsible for freezing the computer and the ships’ controls. We should let Revana know.”
She handed the Lieutenant the PADD and looked at him, furrowing her brow.
“What’s going on?” Immy asked, her breathing quickening again. “What is it?”
“Sovas to Engineering, it seems we’ve found the source of the issues with the ship.” The half-Vulcan spoke up after tapping his commbadge, still feeling considerably less than stable at the moment, but he could find another way to work off what he was feeling. Maybe. Possibly. “It appears that there’s a computer program that’s responsible for freezing up the computer systems and ship’s controls, you should be able to back trace it from the holodeck as it is also projecting a recreation of Immy.”
“A computer program?” Revana asked, her voice seeming discordant with the ancient setting of the holodeck environment. Things are getting a bit hectic out here and we still can’t stop the ship. I have been able to access computer systems and secondary functions. Do you happen to have the file location?”
Leon was about to speak, but his eyes shifted to Immy and instead of giving the exact location out loud, he took the tricorder again and tapped on it. “Sending it to you now.”
“That’s a pretty big folder.” She said, accessing the location on her computer. “We’ll comb through it here to find it. Maybe, when we do, we can get control of the ship again. Just try to keep the hologram busy in there. Nazar out.”
“I don’t understand.” Immy said, lifting her pale hands to her head and grabbing fistfulls of silky red hair. “What are you going to do to me…to that file when you find it?”
“We’re just trying to find the file right now, Immy, so we can figure out what’s going on.” Leon tried to reassure her. “Until we know that, there isn’t really a good answer to give.”
“I might be a slave, but I’m not stupid.” Immy said, her expression showing fear and defensiveness as she took another step away from them. “Somehow I have the power to lock you in here, to shut down the computer, and to control our systems. That means I’m an inconvenience. And believe me…this wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been thrown away.”
“Immy, we just don’t know what is going on. Please, don’t get ahead of yourself or do anything rash. Yes, there are things going on but we just don’t have enough information right now. We aren’t going to throw you away.” Leon implored her, taking a step to her.
She stepped back again, her eyes harder now.
“I don’t believe that for a second. It sounds like I have a lot of power over you right now, and I know that Captain Petrov won’t allow that to continue, even if it means killing me.” She shook her head. “I don’t know how to stop you..but I think I have to find out.”
Before anyone could say anything else to her, all went black for an instant. In the next moment, the castle tower room was gone, she was gone, and the weapons they had procured during the siege of the city of Troy were gone. All around them, people milled about in a festive environment, but this time it was on a street in a quaint suburb and seemed to be in the current year. All around, children played with each other from lawn to lawn and adults spoke with each other and moved freely across the small neighborhood. It appeared to be an idealized Irish suburb, like one from a woman’s fantasy.
Nairobi side loudly, placing her hands on her hips and leaning against a short pillar that framed a walkway and lawn.
“I can’t believe we have to do this again..” she said, her frustration beginning to show. She looked at Leon, an expression of wordless blame on her face. It gave the impression she believed this was his fault in some way.
Leon was momentarily blissfully unaware of Nairobi and the look she was giving him - he was too busy looking around - then when he finally had the feeling he was being looked at, he turned to her and frowned deeply. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You just fucked up at the ‘calming down the scared hologram’ project and now we have to dodge flying basketballs or whatever is going on here. Did you seriously think she would believe we would protect her? Whatever she is, she’s toast just as soon as we can find the program.”
“And you wanted to what? Tell her that?” Leon retorted, scowling. “Your hugs and kisses weren’t cutting it and the open line to engineering where she could hear everything happening wasn’t exactly winning us any prizes.”
Nairobi grimaced at his criticism, but before she could respond, their combadges chirped and cut her off.
“Nazar to Holodeck 1.” Came the sultry voice of the assistant chief engineer over the comms, “We think we found the program.”
“Then delete it.” Sovas growled as he looked about at the milling party-goers who seemed oblivious to their presence except to say hello to give a greeting, often being met by the heated glare from the half-Vulcan. “I’m done with these shenanigans.”
TBC
