Personal Log

[Cdr Alces 0]

Personal Log, Stardate 10809.10

 

A long line of people wrapped through the computer imaging lab and out into the hallway. Some were amazed at the spectacle before them, but most were simply annoyed. The object of their annoyance sat motionless, staring blankly ahead as hundreds of images sped past him on the monitor.

 

"Commander Alces, please ..." begged Lt. Bryant from the front of the line. "There's a very large holodeck project going on, and no one can do anything until you approve the resource allocations. We all just need a few moments of your time."

 

"I don't have a few moments," he replied in a trance-like tone. "I have to find his face before memory suppliment #278 wears off."

 

"Whose face," she asked?

 

"Kordov, the Inechian representative," he replied.

"I don't understand."

 

"That's because you've never experienced a zhin'tara. It's the most amazing sensation. One of your past lives actually leaves your body and inhabits another individual. YOu actually sit there and talk to yourself."

 

"Really, Commander," she scolded, not hiding the fact that she prefered Alces when he was in stasis. "I have work to do."

 

"The last time I checked, you worked for me," he replied dryly. "Now where was I? Oh yes, the zhin'tara. Memory suppliment #278 produced an effect similar to the zhin'tara. Except in stead of my past lives coming out to visit, there was this face. It wasn't Kordov, but I knew it as Kordov, and then I realized that is must be one of Kordov's ancestors. So I started with an image of the Kordov that we know today and I'm having the computer manipulate each feature one dna strand at a time to see if I can de-evolve him back to the face that I saw within thirty generations."

 

"Which means that we're not going anywhere," said Lt. Bryant. It was a statement, not a question.

 

"Exactly," he replied. "Not until #278 wears off or I find my face."

 

The collective groan emitted from the line could be heard all the way in engineering.

 

Cdr Zar Alces

First Officer

USS Arcadia, NCC-1743-E