The Life of Silurian #4

Posted on Sun Jul 22nd, 2018 @ 10:46am by Lieutenant Vaemyn & Akira Zhuri & Chief Warrant Officer Daytona Ral

Mission: Holographic Horrors
Location: Various - USS Hera
Timeline: Current

Daytona had been looking throughout the ship for Akira for hours with no luck. Well, the portion of the last seventeen hours that wasn't stuck in the Iotian Outfit's version of a 1950s gangster movie, that is. That little adventure had fried most of the holoemitters on Deck 8. Communications were buggy, so he'd resorted to looking for Akira the old fashion way, corridor by corridor, stopping now and again to try and locate her using the computer to track her program. The ultimate result of those were to give him slightly sore feet and a bit of a headache. Only centuries of training and experience kept him from panicking. His search finally took him to the holodeck. He hadn't looked there because Akira really, really didn't like the holodeck and he thought it unlikely that she would voluntarily go there. When he arrived, he found Lieutenant Vaemyn outside, along with a civilian he'd never met, or at least a crewmember in civilian clothing.

"Lieutenant," Daytona said. "Sorry to interrupt...whatever this is you have going on here, but have you seen Akira? When we encountered the dark matter storm she popped into her uniform and ran off towards the conference room, I assume, but she never arrived. I got caught in a holographic scenario glitch on Deck 8, but other than that I've been searching for her pretty much since Commander Xustos told me that she was missing from the briefing, with no luck...why are you all looking at me like that?"

“Oh,” Vaemyn said uncomfortably, shifting on his feet while the man in the bow-tie and suit pointed an odd cylindrical device at an alcove that bore a Jeffries tube hatch. “Chief Ral. I was about to start looking for Akira, so you have excellent timing. She just fled down that Jeffries tube.”

Daytona's eyes narrowed. He looked at the tube and almost jumped in after Akira, but decided he'd probably better figure out what was going on.

"Fled down that Jeffries tube?" he said, just a bit of menace in his voice. "Why did she 'flee' down a Jeffries tube? What or who was she fleeing? What did you do? Quick explanations, if you would be so kind, Lieutenant. She can move faster than me if she wants to and she doesn't have to get tired or fatigued if she doesn't feel like it. I don't have time to dally here."

Before Vaemyn could even open his mouth, the man in the bow tie stepped over to them, fiddling his cylindrical device. “Guessing you’re the boyfriend, yes?” At Vaemyn’s confirming nod, the man winced. “Right. Well, I’m the Doctor, a self-aware holoprogram, nice to meet you, and I’m really very sorry to inform you that your friend had a slight mishap in the holodeck. The holodeck program infected her core routines through her audiovisual receptors, bypassing her firewalls, so now Akira thinks that she’s...well...a Silurian warrior.”

Daytona looked at the blonde man calling himself 'The Doctor'.

"Doctor?" Daytona said. "Doctor who? Never mind, I really don't care. What in the name of the Prime Number is a 'Silurian'?"

Daytona didn't even want to get into the idea of Akira being a warrior. As a sentient hologram, she could make herself very strong and vast and nearly invulnerable. You couldn't really hurt a photonic being with your fists, and not with normal phaser fire or melee weapons or projectile weapons, either. Any damage would be simulated and a sentient hologram could simply repair it. Akira blink around the ship at will (at least to anywhere there were functional holoemitters), directly access any of the ship's systems and turn them up or down, on or off, at will. In other words, she could cause utter mayhem if she went hostile.

The Doctor opened his mouth to reply but Vaemyn interrupted him, realising that Daytona wasn’t in the mood for a long-winded story. “A reptilian biped, Chief. She’s armed with some sort of energy weapon which she discharged at us, but her behaviour suggests fear, not true hostility Moreover, I am certain that the code infection cannot erase or overwrite her program, but merely supress it. We can help her, I assure you. Repairing her matrix will be relatively simple when we find her.”

Daytona took a deep cleansing breath. His impression of Vaemyn was that he was a competent officer, possibly more, but Daytona hadn't had the opportunity to assess the man in action.

Well, he'd damned well shine brightly here today!

"Alright, Lieutenant, Doctor," Daytona said. "How do we catch up to her and then contain her long enough that we can try to talk some sense into her, get her calm enough that we can try to reboot her? Does she realize she's a hologram? If she starts blinking around the ship...there are ways to track her, but we'll have to work very hard to keep up with her, let alone get ahead of her."

The Doctor and Vaemyn glanced at each other, plainly uncertain, before the former shook his head. “No, that shouldn’t be an issue,” the Doctor said with dismissive confidence, smiling reassuringly. “The Silurian in your girlfriend can’t flick around the ship any more than Akira can consciously flirt with a tyrannosaur. The two consciousnesses are at war with each other, fighting with each other, but they can only steal data from the other, not abilities.”

Vaemyn nodded in agreement, although he looked at Daytona with sympathy as he spoke next. “This is the difficult part, however. I can do some emergency surgery on her matrix to mitigate the damage, and we can probably fabricate a digital cage to keep Akira contained for that, but it will be impossible to force her into that cage. We cannot harm or incapacitate her, not with the ship’s computer so compromised by the dark storm.”

Which was an unpleasant reminder that Vaemyn was taking time from that task to focus on Miss Zhuri’s plight, and he suddenly fell silent upon realising it. The priorities were plain: get back to work on the Hera’s escape from the dark storm before it killed them all, and leave Daytona to deal with Akira alone. The survival of the entire ship clearly outweighed the survival of one hologram. Indeed, Vaemyn felt that niggling little biological subroutine in his brain, designed by his creator, reminding him to stop dallying, abandon Daytona and get to work.

But Vaemyn could see Daytona’s eyes.

“Essentially, Chief Ral,” Vaemyn continued with a sad smile, “we will need to convince Akira to submit voluntarily.”

Daytona's face took on an expression of grim determination.

"That I think I can do as well as anyone we have on this ship," he said. "Probably better than anyone except maybe Maica III, and with the holoemitters on the fritz, I'm reluctant to enlist her aid. Alright, what do you want me to do. I can try to contact her by texting her directly. When she's in her right mind, she usually responds to my texts, even if it's just to tell me she's really busy and politely tell me to bugger off. Should I try that now?"

“Hang on!” the Doctor said energetically as he flipped his little high tech screwdriver into his hand, pointing it at Daytona’s wrist, and after a quick bit of humming, Daytona’s bracer beeped cheerfully. “There. The text message should be big and bold in her program now, understandable to both Akira and her Silurian other self. She can’t ignore it even if she wants to.”

"Excellent," Daytona said. "Now let's see if I can get her attention..."

Daytona took a breath and then started typing on his device.

Akira, my love, it's me, Daytona. I know something happened to you, something that you don't quite understand, and that it's changed you. I'm sorry I couldn't find you in time to help you, but I'm here now.

Akira stopped her race through the maze of tubes when these words filled her head. She hissed as she tried to ignore them, but they wouldn't go away until she fully took them in. Under the Silurian persona, the true Akira stirred, but the Silurian shook her head and continued moving, but not before Akira managed to get out a return message:

HELP!

Daytona's finger's flew over the little keyboard.

I'm here, Akira. I'm outside the main holodeck. We can help you, but not without your help. I know you're stronger than the Silurian. Can you get control of your body? Even if you can just slow her down and tell me where you are, I can try and catch up to you!

"She's in trouble," Daytona said. "How do we get her into this digital cage? Do I need to catch up to her or can I talk her into it somehow from here?"

“You’ll need physical contact with her holo-body,” the Doctor explained seriously as he rummaged around his jacket pockets. Soon enough he pulled out a white ornate cube out of a pocket, despite the box clearly being too large and bulky to fit inside his brown jacket, and after more bizarre fiddling with the cube using his screwdriver, the Doctor handed it to Daytona. “It is essential, essential, that Akira chooses to enter the cube of her own volition. I’ve twiddled with the code of the cage so that it’ll accept her holomatrix, but she has to choose to go in there.”

With that, the Doctor winked. “I have every confidence in you. Now go get her.”

"Thank you, Doctor," Daytona said. He quickly adjusted his wrist device for voice to text. "Akira, I need you to tell me where you are. Can you do that for me? I'm going to find you and help you but I need to know where you are."

Trying...

As Daytona turned and rushed down the corridor, Vaemyn sighed as he watched the El-Aurian go, Vaemyn feeling horribly concerned for Akira and Daytona. “How did you even fit that cube in your jacket pocket, anyway?” the Vorta asked distractedly, but then as he glanced at the Doctor again, Vaemyn’s eyes widened in shock at the holo Time Lord’s new headwear. “And where in the Founder’s name did you get a fez!?”

“Elementary computer trick for a self-aware hologram,” the Doctor replied, grinning smugly. “Besides, fezes are cool.”

---

It took a while for Daytona to get another response for Akira, but it was not for a lack of trying! Even getting that one small message out had been taxing, and not only was she trying to get out another message, but also stop the Silurian in the process. When the Silurian paused in a junction to consider her options and what she should do, Akira seized this moment to get her message out.

Deck 10, Junction J22-Alpha, now moving aft

Daytona almost shouted in joy when he received Akira's message. He had almost lost hope.

"I'm on my way," he said into the wrist device as he came to a short stop. He went over to a wall panel and called up the ships schematics for this deck, reducing the display to the Jefferies tubes. Akira was below him, headed aft. There was an access at Junction J30-Alpha and he could get there faster through the corridors than the Jefferies tubs, enter the tubes there, hopefully before Akira passed it by. Daytona took off at a sprint. When he arrived at the tube access he was looking for, he quickly opening the hatch and climbed down. He landed in a crouch and saw, coming at him, a very determined dinosaur woman.

Actually, she looks kind of hot like that...eyes on the prize, Daytona, eyes on the prize.

He waited for her to acknowledge his presence, though he didn't know if it would be his lover looking at him or the dinosaur woman controlling her matrix at the moment.

'Akira' hissed at Daytona and the way he blocked her path. "Out of my way, monkey," she declared simply. "A monkey with pointed ears, what are you?"

"Actually, I'm Akira's pet monkey," Daytona said. "And only she gets to spank me, so don't get any ideas. Now, just sit there like a nice dino-woman who has the audacity to possess my lover and do nothing."

He continued to look the Silurian in the eyes as he raised his wrist so his device would pick up his voice and put it in text form to send directly to Akira and bypass the Silurian.

"Akira," he said. "I'm here. I caught up to you. I have a device here. I need you to put your program into it so we can help you. Can you hear me, love?"

"She can hear you, but she can't do anything about it," the Silurian hissed in response. "Do not make me go through you, ape." Somehow the idea of going through this man, of causing him harm, made her feel sick, and her hand clenched against the deck plating; why did she feel this way when he was not her love! But the line between Akira and the Silurian were blurred, it was impossible for either of them to separate those feelings from the other.

The look of grim determination returned to Daytona's face.

"Akira," he said. "I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere...well...if dino-woman makes a run for it, then I'm going to chase her, but you get my point. Look, Silurian, this isn't your body. It isn't your matrix. You have to know that. You have to feel Akira fighting you for control. Otherwise, you would have attacked me by now. But Akira doesn't want you to attack me. She's not letting you. I can see the conflict in your face. She's fighting you and she's going to win. She's stronger than you and she has more to fight for. She has a life here on this ship, family and friends who love her. She has me, and no matter what I won't give up on her."

"You don't know what you're talking about, you filth!" the Silurian retorted. Suddenly, she was feeling quite boxed in and vulnerable here, yet Akira herself felt oddly at home. Akira wanted to get another message to Daytona to tell him his efforts were working, but the Silurian's panic was making things difficult.

"But I do," Daytona said. "You see, I'd know Akira anywhere, no matter what form she takes. I can sense her in you, fighting. And...I know you don't want to be here, either. This...malfunction we're experiencing, it took you from somewhere you belong, ripped you away from a place where your mind was at peace and put you here, in Akira's matrix. Your presence is causing conflict in Akira's matrix. There's more of her here than you. You can't maintain control. Control is slipping from your grasp bit by painful bit. Surrender to Akira. Give her back control of her own matrix and I promise we'll do everything we can to separate you and return to you your peace of mind. Akira, if you can here me, I'm still here, right in front of you. Actually, I'm still here in front of you even if you can't hear me, but that would mean I'm talking to myself and that would be silly. Anyway, I'm still here. Fight, my love...I'm here. Reach out to me."

I'm trying, my love!

The Silurian was having a hard time maintaining control over her host matrix; Akira was a clever one and she was giving this fight her all! The Silurian's posture grew rigid as she felt torn between running and.. something else, but neither of those options seemed possible with Akira fighting her, and suddenly her expression softened, and she looked at Daytona like she was finally seeing him, really seeing him for the first time.

"Daytona?" The strange accent was gone, this was Akira speaking, but it did not last long as the Silurian hissed, taking a swipe at Daytona before darting down the tube she had come from.

Daytona pulled back, but not quite fast enough. The Silurian managed to scratch his face. He gave his own hiss, this one of pain, before taking off after the Silurian wearing Akira's matrix.

Damn she's fast! And she doesn't have to worry about cutting up her knees in here, or bumping her head and knocking herself out. Enough of this crap.

"Computer!" Daytona said. What he was about to try would be pointless if dino-Akira figured out how to blink from one set of holoemitters to another, but really didn't see another way. "Raise containment field at Junction J23 and J24! Trap Akira Zhuri's current form between them!"

The Silurian slammed into the containment field that suddenly went up in front of her, then when she turned around she saw the one behind her go up she knew she was trapped. She hissed at Daytona, then turned her attention to the field in front of her, tapping it here and there to test its weaknesses. She searched Akira's memories for a way to bring these fields down, but Akira was blocking that information; there was another way around these fields, but whatever it was, Akira was doing a good job of blocking that too.

"What do you want from me?" the Silurian finally said to Daytona in a defeated tone, not bothering to turn back around to face him.

"I want Akira back," Daytona said. "She's...she means everything to me, Silurian...do you have a name? We've been arguing with each other for a while now, and I don't even know your name. In case Akira hasn't told you, my name is Daytona. I'm Akira's...well, I guess the best way to say this is that I'm Akira's. And, if I may be so bold, she's mine."

"'Random Silurian #4'" the Silurian replied after a long silence. "I wasn't aware of what I was before, but now I am, and if you return me to that program in that room, I'll go back to being a nobody, a nameless extra with no purpose."

"But that's exactly what you're doing to Akira," he said. "You're taking over her matrix, taking her life and turning her into a nobody. And you still won't be your own person! You'll be what little there is of you plus whatever you can steal from Akira. I can't let you do this..."

Daytona stopped for a moment, then spoke.

"What if I could help you be more than Random Silurian #4 without you having to take over Akira's matrix?" he said. "You'd have to trust me. You'd have to wait until we successfully separate your matrix from Akira's and we may need help to do that, help we don't have on this ship. But...what if I could make you into someone, expand your program and the program you were in? What if I could have someone create as open ended a program as possible for you, one that grows and evolves, where you could be more than just Random Silurian #4? Would you trust me to do that for you? It's been done before. It's going to take some very clever and creative people doing very clever and creative work, but it could be done. But you're going to have to trust me. Will you? I know that you don't know me, but Akira does. She'll tell you that I wouldn't go back on my word for something this important. Ask her!"

Daytona wished he could quickly type a message to Akira telling her to convince Random Silurian #4 that he was telling the truth, but Random Silurian #4 would see the message and that would erode Akira's, and Daytona's, credibility.

"This you can do?" the Silurian said, finally turning to look at Daytona. The she scowled. "No, you wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice me to get your woman back, you barbarian! I won't-"

The Silurian suddenly stopped, and she seemed to be straining.

"The Doctor!" Akira finally spoke out. "The Doctor knows what he is and he is happy, and you can play with him and the people who run that program over and over and over, you could be adored, you can have your name! But we'll both perish if we're not separated, my mother can he-"

Akira's words were cut off as her matrix flickered; her eyes were wide as the Silurian realized this truth.

"That was most unpleasant," the nameless Silurian remarked once she stopped flickering. She looked back at Daytona; did she really want to risk dying as a nameless nobody, or was she willing to take a leap of faith that Akira and Daytona's words were true and without deceit. "What would you have me do, monkey? How do we stop this?" she asked Daytona.

Daytona relaxed, but only a little. He didn't want to jinx anything. He pulled out the box the Doctor had given him.

"I need to get Akira's matrix into here," he said. "It was only designed to prepare you for separation, so you should both be able to exist in there, only you'll have to let Akira have control. Once we're out of this dark matter storm, we'll rendezvous somewhere with a ship called the USS Merlin. One of Akira's mothers, Andrea Carter will be there and she can separate you two without deleting either one of you. In the meantime, I have family that own a small holoprogramming company. They create interactive holonovels, including open ended ones. I'll contact them and I'll send them the Doctor's program. Using that, they can start creating a new, ever expanding world for you. Once you've been separated from Akira, I'll send your matrix to them as well. They'll work you into what they've got and expand it from there. They can maintain it there, they have a massive data farm, and they can keep the program running indefinitely. But I need you and Akira to place your matrices in this device...please...I thought I had a life before I met her, but I didn't. I only really came alive for first time in centuries when she smiled at me. I can't lose her."

"You will have to lower this field, she is preventing me from doing it," the Silurian replied.

Daytona hesitated, but only for a second.

"Computer," he said. "Lower the containment field on this side of Silurian #4. Leave the other one in place. No offense intended Number 4."

Daytona held the box out towards Silurian #4.

The Silurian crawled forward and reached out to touch the box, then hesitated.

"Daytona," Akira said as she looked at him. "When you get the ship back under control, make sure you check the holodecks for a body; without the safeties, one of the creatures killed the room's occupant. I couldn't recognize who it was, but regardless that person deserves better than to be left in there."

"Of course, my love," Daytona said, taking a moment to touch her face and then give her quick, gentle kiss. "You won't be in there one second longer than you have to be. I swear it."

"I know," Akira said softly, offering a warm smile to affirm her trust in him. With that out the way, Akira touched the box and promptly vanished. The box cycled through a few colors as it processed the intertwined matrices, then finally settled on a green color to indicate that the transfer was complete.

Daytona sighed.

"Ral to Vaemyn," he said. "I've got her. And we're going to have to make some special arrangements...."