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Nijil tr'Korjata

Dream a Little Dream of Thee

Dream a Little Dream of Thee

 

As a last ditch effort the now dead civilization transmitted their entire record into the station's memory cores. Computer access, what was not locked out, slowed to a crawl. No storage. Engineers littered the station shoring up systems accustomed to running smoothly. Jorahl sent Nijil to check out one of the holodecks. Despite being locked down it showed a spike in power and currently active.

 

While Nijil heralded the end of the broadcast, he could not forget the haunting ending. He wondered if the last cries of the Great Fire rang out with the same haunting last moments. Many Romulans survived of course, but billions turned to millions. Whatever happened to this civilization their number was likely zero.

 

Into a lift, down a corridor, and a long walk to the holodeck doors. Surprisingly few people, engineers or not, were making their rounds. He figured ears were still ringing from the audio blasts. Entry into the holodeck proved as slow as everything else on the station. Simply put, all of the computer storage was in use. The dangers of purging it were too great, and just in case the transmission delivered a gold pressed latinum mine of knowledge, engineering proceeded carefully.

 

In the wake of the computer crisis other problems arose, namely power fluctuations. This one in particular was odd since holo matrixes take a different kind of power apart from the main power system. Whatever the problem it locked the holodeck door as well. Old or new technology, Nijil prepared for this. He went directly for the manual override.

 

He removed a panel to the left of the main door to reveal a lever to release the magnetic seals. Either he was weak or the door was especially tough to open. "Not going to make this easy for me," the engineer said to the inanimate foe. Several pulls down to release the seals proved futile. He paused to think. If the manual release did not function, nothing short of a large blast would open it, by design. He moved back to the outside interface to try the normal way.

 

Nijil rubbed his temple at the prospect of hacking the entry code and the many safety overrides in place. The LCARS interface was running, the best news he had all day. The display did not recognize his finger presses. "Oh," he moaned. Voice input.

 

"Computer, is a program running on this holodeck?"

 

"Affirmative."

 

Though the interface did not show, the power signature must be from the running program. No wonder after the massive transmission wreaking havoc with all parts of the station.

 

"Okay, what program is running?"

 

"No holodeck program on record is running on holodeck 2."

 

"What? You said a program was running." Nijil did not understand. "Computer, further explanation."

 

"No Federation, Romulan, Klingon, or other known holodeck program is currently running on holodeck two. The program is of unknown origin."

 

Nijil looked away as he tried to bring the pieces together. Sometimes it took longer than he liked, certainly longer than puzzles took Annisha, but in the end he'd get there. The holodeck does not simply create new programs on its own. Not true to a point. It can be commanded to procedurally generate environments and situations, but...

 

"Computer, when did this program start and who initiated it?"

 

"The program started on stardate 2387.313 10:00 hours by Nijil tr'Korjata."

 

Eyes wide, Nijl disagreed. "I was not even here, your sensors should show that. I demand this program be unlocked."

 

"Access granted. Enter when ready."

 

"Annisha bet- what?" He stopped his demands after hearing those words. "Well, then," he picked up his engineering kit, "let's see what the matter is with the holodeck."

 

The holodeck stated it was he that initiated the program, but that was not possible. Database corruption, or worse, someone hacking into the holodeck systems. Great he thought, a station full of people cut off from their training and entertainment.

 

The door opened for him normally. He walked into the middle of the holodeck grid before looking up in awe. "What is this?" Unknown technology lined the walls from floor to ceiling. Directly in front of him sat a large rectangular table. It appeared configured for someone larger than himself. A vaguely humanoid indentation took up most of the surface. No profile of a species he immediately recognized. Nijil looked at the assembly above the table with interest, but nothing indicated their function. Iridescent lights shined down into the cavity.

 

He felt the table's cold surface along the palm of his hand. Better than machine smooth. Must have been from the replication process. Another oddity about this program. The dancing lights reminded him of a time back on ch'Rihan, at the war college, or between sessions. The table was a little high for an easy climb, so he holstered his scanner and pulled himself up.

 

"Cold to sit on too," he thought. After walking a good distance to get to the holodeck he needed the rest. From the looks of things this bed would not provide much in the way of comfort. Cold metal and strange indentations made even the cushion of a Klingon mattress preferable. He pressed his hands into the bed to push himself back. Annisha often commented about the differences between Rihans and everyone else. So many questions. She would have jumped up to compare herself, but in absence of that, he'd do it.

 

As Nijil moved into position he noticed how, if he was this alien, well the fit should be. No matter where in the galaxy, most sentient species shared a basic shape. He placed his behind in one of those universal locations.

 

"Oof." he called out. "Ouch," he moaned, but finally got into position. He laid back and sort of filled out the shape pressed into the table. As he went to lay back his head fell too far."

 

"Whoa, how large are their heads?" No one answered and he struggled to level his head. He reached to his side to prop himself up. It worked, but the angle now was too much. Better than the alternative. The sleepy engineer yawned at the light show over his head.

 

"I should get readings on this." Nijil's conversations with himself started to become more frequent. Such is the life of a lonely repair man. One engineer called him "Maytag" but that made no sense to him. With one hand he flipped open his tricorder. It blinked and chirped as the lights above continued their randomness.

 

Minutes of standard scans revealed nothing. The lights did nothing but make him increasingly drowsy. Another yawn. The tricorder scanned through all of its frequency bands, but found nothing of note. Much like acid in a glass jar, the lights above seemed inert to any of Nijil's prods.

 

"No pretty picture eh, perhaps you'll talk instead." Again he spoke into the holodeck's darkness. He opened up the hailing protocols, looking for a handshake to this alien technology.

 

Minutes passed. The comm badge startled him. It was SubCommander Jorahl.

 

"Report."

 

Nijil tapped his chest badge. "It's still early in the scans. The holodeck has constructed several technologies I am unfamiliar with. My best guess is a medical examination function. I've only just began my attempts to log into this technology."

 

"Do you need additional engineering personnel?"

 

"I don't believe so, nothing has really happened yet, I will let you know when I have found something, and if I can safely shut it down."

 

"Very well, report back in one hour."

 

He sighed. "Understood, tr'Korjata out." Thankfully Jorahl's comm got him on task again. The neverending radio blast caused a station-wide lack of sleep. Nijil, even accustomed to long engineering hours could not escape this drowsiness. The tricorder chirped and beep, sang and rang. It tried everything in it's tiny database.

 

Nothing.

 

Nothing.

 

Nothin--.

 

Chirp, chirp, beep.

 

The tricorder got an invitation and attempted another series of commands. More time passed and unseen to Nijil the lights above started to synchronize with the tricorder. First he noticed the repeating pattern on his scanner, then he looked up. He smiled. Then a forcefield fell from ceiling to floor and enveloped the table.

 

"Ahhh, fvadt." This was not good. He pressed his finger into the field expecting a shock. Nothing, not even a tingle. Just a smooth surface in mid-air. Fascinating as that was he needed to get out. He tapped his badge.

 

"Korjata to Jorahl." The comm badge made an odd failing sound. The field seemed to be blocking its function. He reached behind him for his kit. He fumbled to open it and dropped it past his feet. It slide down the smooth metal table, stopping as it reached the field perimeter. Nijil was losing patience and reluctantly went for his sidearm. He aimed squarely at the lights above and...

 

...dropped his phaser.

 

A yellow beam had hit him just before he fired. His arms went to his side and his entire body went limp. The pain from hitting the table would have been notable save for the numbness. His face kept some of it's feeling. "Uhhgh, hel-" Was all he could vocalize.

 

Beams of all kinds started to scan Nijil. Nausea passed through his body at the assault. Red from head to toe. Green from side to side. That yellow one traced the profile of his body. Any part not within the table cavity the beam moved within. He moaned loudly as a tingle swept through his bones. He thought he felt a mist as a tear ran down from one eye.

 

This assault continued for what seemed like an eternity. Only ten minutes passed. The beams stopped. A bright orange beam hit the table below his feet. It trekked slowly up the table. A powerful tingle hit his feet as the beam dematerialized his feet.

 

"Ah.."

 

Ankles.

 

"Ahhh...."

 

Knees.

 

"Aahhh...."

 

Thighs.

 

"Aaahhaa..."

 

Groin.

 

"Aaargh..."

 

Waist.

 

"Annis-!"

 

Chest.

 

Silence.

 

Shoulders.

 

Silence.

 

Neck, chin, mouth, nose, tears, eyes, hair...

 

Nijil.

 

***

 

"Ahh!"

 

The voice of a Rihan screeched out from the master bedroom of one SubCommander tr'Korjata. With eyes still closed he struggled against an invisible assailant, reaching out with both hands in an attempt to maul them away. Silently he waved his arms as his daughter in her borrowed nightgown entered.

 

"Daddy, Daddy! What's wrong?" She turned on the light above his bed and saw him wrestling wildly into the air. His face covered in sweat and fear, she moved into wake him up.

 

SLAP!

 

"Wake up daddy, you're having those dreams again."

 

SLAP!

 

"Daddy!" She placed her hands at his temples. His eyes opened wide. For a moment he froze in place. He was in shock.

 

"Daddy, it's alright. You just had a bad dream." He reached out with both arms, then embraced her. She woudl hug him tightly until he calmed himself.

 

"It happened again Annisha. It happened again."

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