<USS Avalon> Deception....Dissention....Destruction

Deception?.Dissention??Destruction

PT2

 

?Lieutenant Thomas, is there something wrong? I wasn?t expecting you to call me 
tonight. How is your cat?? Ensign Sirius Black smiled graciously. 

?He?s part of the problem. I can?t get any sleep--he keeps freaking out every 
time the lights go out, but when I turn them back on, it?s no better. I don?t 
know what?s the matter with him. You wanna come in??

?Sure, maybe I can help. I?m a whiz with holograms.?

?Yea, that?d be great. But even if you can?t, it?ll still be nice to finish our 
chess game.?

?I?ll just win again.?

?I don?t care, it?s still fun to play, even if it is a losing battle.?

?All right. Let?s see the little bugger.?

Dodge lifted the black holo-emitter from it?s place on the shelf and set it 
down for Sirius to look at. At the same time, Ed began an escalating howl that 
immediately set to work on Dodge?s last few nerves. 

?You see what I mean? The cat?s driving me insane!?

?We?ll fix him.?

?NO-NO-NO-NO-NO-NO-NO-NO-NO!? Ed screamed at the top of his lungs. ?NO TAKE! I 
NEED!?


?He seems to be getting better already. Now, at least, he?s using an 
understandable language.?

Dodge shrugged. ?He fades in and out. If this keeps up, I?m going to delete his 
program.?

Sirius perked up. ?Why not just delete him now? It would save us both a bunch 
of time and headaches, and we could finish that game of chess you were talking 
about.?


?Well?.I don?t know about that?not now at least?.Ed has been, well, he was my 
first friend on this ship, even if I did have to write his entire program. It?s 
not his fault that his programming and hardware has been disappearing. Even 
when he was semi-coherent, he couldn?t tell me why he was taking himself apart. 
I?ve never seen a hologram commit suicide, but I suppose there?s a first for 
everything.?

?So you want me to just pull the plug??

Several things happened all at once.

First, Ed lunged at Sirius, screaming at the top of his holographic lungs.

Second, the doors to Dodge?s quarters slid aside and the two Forensic doctors 
jumped inside. 

Finally, Sirius took advantage of the momentary blurb and began deleting Ed?s 
program.

Dodge gasped at everything, then noticed what Sirius was doing. 


?Stop that right now!?

Carson Fuller growled. ?Why should he? We all know what you use it for. It?s 
part of your whole disguise isn?t it? That poor girl said that a woman tried to 
kill her, but it was no woman was it? It was you in a holographic disguise.?

Dodge screwed his face up. ?I don?t know what the hell your talking about!?

Sirius jumped up. ?I knew it all along.? He turned to the two other people who 
were now leveling their weapons at Dodge. ?I?ve been tracking him for almost a 
month now, ever since I saw his little holographic playmate here.? He indicated 
the writhing form of Ed. ?The two of them have been taking information and 
schematics and selling them to the highest bidder.?

Lindsay?s face grew sour. ?Dodge, how could you. I can?t believe it!?

?Don?t!? Dodge pleaded. ?It?s not true?not a single word of it!?

Sirius continued. ?That?s why I?ve been trying to destroy this entire program 
of his. For weeks I?ve been taking it apart piece by piece, just so he wouldn?t 
notice.?


Carson lowered his weapon a few inches. 

Desperation took hold of Sirius?s features. ?What are you waiting for? Shoot 
him! Shoot him before he gets away!?

Ed twitched on the floor, and became reanimated for a few seconds. With a howl 
and a leap reminiscent of his feline base programming, he pounced on Sirius?s 
back, his claws digging deep into flesh. Sirius screamed.

?Get this little beast off of me! Don?t you see? He?s part of it!? He twisted 
around, flinging the creature off. Ed flew through the air, slammed into the 
far bulkhead and vanished, the damage overloading his matrix.

?NO!? Dodge screamed.

?Kill him now! I took care of the other one!? Sirius commanded, turning to look 
at where the hologram had dissipated.

?Oh my god!? Lindsay gasped.

?What? Aw shit!? Sirius jumped back. 

A patch of clothing, flesh, and hair was missing from his back where the 
holographic animal had attacked. But instead of blood and bone, black fabric 
and clean flesh shone through. The borders of the ?wound? crackled and fizzled, 
blue and purple energy moving rapidly around it. 

Exactly like a damaged hologram.

Sirius rushed Carson, who during the entire conversation had wisely shifted his 
weapon from Dodge to the real criminal. He let off a single shot from his 
phaser, almost instantly setting off alarms all over the ship. Good, he 
thought, security will be on their way any second now.

The beam of energy struck Sirius in the stomach, creating another gap in the 
disguise?s programming. More crackling energy and fizzling light.

?Damn you!? He screamed, his voice noticeably different. It was strained, 
mechanical in a way, but distinctively female. ?You?re ruining everything!?

?So sorry.? Carson spat before firing a third time. 


This time, instead of simply damaging the hologram, he collapsed it. The entire 
façade that had been Sirius Black vanished, replaced by the anything but docile 
face of an enraged woman. A skin-tight black suit covered her entire body.

?What is this?? Lindsay asked abruptly.

?It?s a holo-suit.? Dodge informed the group flatly. ?Starfleet had a few in 
the testing phase. She must have gotten a hold of one.?

?What the hell is going on here!? Javan Sierra shouted as he rounded the corner 
in the corridor. ?Who fired a phaser? I didn?t authorize--YOU!? He gritted his 
teeth, spotting Carson Fuller, who had backed out of Dodge?s quarters seconds 
earlier. ?I knew it!?

The woman smirked. ?It?s a pity none of you will ever get to use one. There so 
much fun. Computer,? She commanded. ?Interface with holo-suit and activate 
program Stealth One!? She turned to the group. ?I?ll see you all later. It?s 
too bad about your careers, but then as you say Dodge, it?s still fun to play, 
even it?s a losing battle.?

The computer beeped acknowledgment and activated the programming. The woman 
began to vanish, obviously her suit engaging some sort of cloaking camouflage. 

?Oh no you don?t!? Dodge shouted. ?Computer! Recycle program.?

The translucent woman?s mouth dropped. ?No! You can?t! It? won?t----Aieee!?

Her scream lasted several seconds as her body was slowly taken apart by the 
holographic emitters attached to it and then fed into the ship?s energy core. 



Javan stopped short outside of Dodge?s quarters, just in time to see the last 
wisps of the woman vanish. The holo-suit, now deprived of physical support, 
collapsed onto the ground, then vanished as the computer finished implementing 
it?s command.

?Mister Thomas? Doctors? What just happened?? Javan?s face had a look of 
genuine concern.

?You see, sir,? Dodge explained, ?Holograms and the holo-emitters on a holodeck 
or in that holo-suit of hers work on the same technology as the transporters 
and the replicators, changing energy to matter and matter to energy. Since she 
had obviously interfaced the entire device with the computer, I hoped she had 
overlooked the slight differences in the subroutines. Without directly defining 
each system, the computer just bundles them all into one operation. That?s how 
it?s stored in the computer until it?s activated by the holodeck or the 
transporters or the replicators. Luckily, she had overlooked the subroutines, 
so when the computer was given an order to recycle, it associated her with the 
replicator systems and fed her into the appropriate system. Since the 
replicators are designed to separate matter in concordance with it?s elements, 
the process is slower than, say the transporters, which are designed for living 
transport. She was broken down bit by bit and fed into the ship. I
 imagine it was quite painful.?

?Any idea of who she was?? Javan asked.

?Not a clue. But by admittance, we know she?s the one who?s been taking Ed 
apart. I?d bet that the missing pieces to his memory core are in her quarters.?

?And who was she?? Javan asked again.

Carson shrugged. ?She, my dear commander, is dead.?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

 

?Forensics log, response to the official inquiry posted by Lieutenant Commander 
Javan Sierra and the Command staff.? Doctor Fuller leaned back in his seat.


?It has come to my attention that several members of this crew were not who 
they seemed to be. First and foremost, the woman who has been posing for the 
past few months as Ensign Sirius Black. Apparently, after the initial incident 
was reported, the starbase last visited by this ship, the USS Avalon, conducted 
an extensive security sweep. The body of the real Ensign Black was found lodged 
in an air duct. Pity.?

Carson looked at the report.

?In light of this incident, the quarters of Lieutenant Dodge Thomas, Ensign 
Sirius Black, Ensign Hobbes Harvey, and Ensign Anilla Aguatequa were all 
extensively searched. A detailed testimony from the holographic feline known as 
?Ed? has been taken and is being considered for evidence. The cat?s program has 
been completely restored after vital parts were removed from a construct much 
resembling that of Dodge?s own design, although he swears he knew nothing of 
it. A similar creature who called himself Cocytus opposed deletion, but after 
attacking several security officers, was ?put down?.?

?Evidence shows that Ensign Harvey was assisting the unknown female in her 
exportation of information to an undefined individual or organization. However, 
his abrupt death prevents us taking a valid testimony from him. No such 
evidence has been found to show that Ensign Aguatequa has had any part or had 
any knowledge up to her being shot that anything was amiss in engineering. The 
same has been found of Lieutenant Thomas, much to my personal relief.?

He sighed heavily, and stared out the window of his make-shift office. The new 
forensics section of the Security Department was getting along just fine, 
thanks to the hefty support of Lieutenant Commander Javan Sierra. Carson smiled 
and mentally apologized to the Commander for any ill-feelings he had held 
grudgingly against the man. Sure, he was a hard ass, but he got the job done.

?Now we must ask ourselves: what information was stolen and who wanted it so 
bad that they were willing to kill for it?? He paused and thought for a moment.

?Would they be willing to kill again? How safe are we really in the complacency 
that seems to reside alongside us as we live day to day our lives on these 
ships? Are we really safe at all??

Carson ended the entry and sent it to the prescribed recipients. Realization 
struck him. He could have easily killed a man who called him friend, what?s 
more, an innocent man who called him friend. How safe were they, indeed. How 
safe from themselves?



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