Star Trek: Emerging Enterprise

A June 07 Challenge (Photons and Force fields) fanfic

3 June 2407

Yarrabrai, Kamilaroi, New Australia, United Federation of Planets

Karen 'Kazza' Allenby had arrived at home after an arduous day of work as a zoologist at the local university (The University of New Armidale). Even about 150

years after New Australia had been colonised the Federation still hadn't catalogued all

of the animal species on the planet, a fact which it shared with a majority of the

Federation's colonies. Kazza put her hand on the scanner plate, and her house door opened. "Welcome home Karen, you have zero messages from your contacts and 1 million messages in your bulk folder" the computer said. Kazza knew what those million messages would be – spam.

"Delete contents of bulk folder" Kazza said.

"Bulk contents deleted" the computer said. She put her PADD down on the kitchen bench. She couldn't be bothered to make her tea and snack physically so she went to the replicator. "Lipton Tea, hot, with a teaspoon each of milk and sugar and vegemite on crumpets"

The requested items materialised in the replicator, and she took them out. She listened to her playlist of 23rd Century Neo-Rock Classical music, as she sipped on the tea and ate the crumpet.

After this, about 20 minutes later she went down to the basement, where her personal Holosuite was. She stopped at the door. "Access 'Age of Exploration 2260's Federation's Trials'" she said.

"Confirmed, accessing MMOHRPSUG" the computer said.

A few seconds later: "MMOHRPSUG accessed please input entry location"

Kazza input the entry location and the Holosuite door opened. She went through.

Age of Exploration 2260's Federation's Trials MMOHRPSUG

Simulverse Time: 5 June 2267

Location: USS Enterprise NCC 1701 presently exploring sector 1024

In an isolated area of the Enterprise's saucer section, Kazza's Holosuite door opened. Kazza entered the Enterprise, and the door closed her clothes then visibly changed into a 23rd Century Starfleet uniform. She looked about, she quickly found her quarters. She had been participating in this Simulverse for a few years, as far as she knew she was the only real person on the Enterprise. She went into her quarters, to rest before going on duty.

"Captain's log: Stardate 2627; the Enterprise is once more approaching the edge of explored space, in a few hours we will be in the unknown"

Kazza entered the bridge as Kirk had finished recording his log entry. Then the ship trembled.

"What was that?" Kirk asked. Spock raised an eyebrow, as Sulu put the ship back on course. Spock looked at the sensors.

"The sensors detect nothing that could have caused the disruption Captain" he said. The Captain was concerned, but there were no damage reports coming in so he decided to continue on course. Kazza looked at the sensors also but also couldn't see anything that could have had caused the trembling…

Dunedin, New Zealand, United Earth, United Federation of Planets

Andrew James had gotten home from high school and had been blasted by spam, most of it from a Ferengi Embassy somewhere near Cardassian space. To relax he went down to his family's Holosuite. "Access 'Age of Exploration 2260's Federation's Trials'" he said.

"Confirmed, accessing MMOHRPSUG. MMOHRPSUG accessed please input entry location" the computer said. Andrew chose the place he wanted to go. "Unable to comply; the vessel you have chosen is out of range" the computer said.

"What do you mean? 'Out of range'? Andrew asked.

"The vessel you have chosen is out of range" the computer said. Andrew sighed, even in the 25th Century some error messages were cryptic. Andrew tried and tried, but couldn't go where he wanted to go. Was there something wrong with the Massively Multi-user Online Holographic Role Playing Simulated Universe Game? He checked, he could go to many other places in the simulverse, but the Enterprise was 'out of range'. He decided to send a message to the organisation which supported the MMOHRSUG.

AoE 2260's Federation's Trials MMOHRPSUG

USS Enterprise NCC 1701

Kazza had been on the ship for about 3 hours so she decided to leave the Holosuite and then prepare dinner. She went to her quarters first. "Computer, exit" she said.

"Unable to comply, program malfunction" the computer said. This was most definitely what Kazza did not want to hear. She tried again, but still got the error message.

"What do you mean? 'Program malfunction'?" she asked.

"Unknown"

"Computer, arch"

"Unable to comply, program malfunction" the computer said, Kazza tried to get the arch again, with the same result. There were other options though.

"Computer, disengage MMOHRPSUG"

"Unable to comply, networking simulation programming won't disengage" the computer said. Kazza knew there was only one more option, but that probably still meant that she was stuck in the Holosuite.

"Computer, service" she said.

"Complying, service door will open" A small Holosuite door opened in the wall of the quarters. She went through it and put an instruction on the control panel there to keep the service door open at that location in the ship. She looked around the small room. There wasn't anything there that could really help, though she could stay alive there indefinitely if it came to that. There was a replicator and a bathroom, and that was it, no exit door or hatch that she could use to escape to the outside world. She turned to the control panel. She hoped she would find a way to fix the troubles with the MMOHRPSUG.

Ashalla, Third Republic of Bajor, United Federation of Planets

Orale Sarai was upset that she couldn't access the Enterprise in the AoE 2260's Federation's Trials. 'I guess I could take another ships shuttle…' she thought.

Alice Springs, Stuart, Australia, United Earth, United Federation of Planets

Delaney Egan had gotten home from the train station where she had commuted from work at Uluru. She was now at her Holosuite. "Unable to comply, the vessel you have chosen is out of range" her computer was saying. She knew not why the Enterprise was out of range when the rest of the 2260's Federations Trial's MMOHRPSUG was apparently working. She went back upstairs and made dinner as the sun was setting.

AoE 2260's Federation's Trials MMOHRPSUG

USS Enterprise NCC 1701

Some time had passed. Kazza had replicated dinner and eaten it; she had tried to deactivate the holosuite's networking connection, and also to disengage the MMOHRPSUG. (She had also attempted to communicate with the outside world, without success) All that she had accomplished was to confuse herself, and to discover that LCARS was very complex. 'It would probably take a pair of Bynars to make much sense of it' she thought.

She then looked out the door, the quarters lights went out, and there was the sound of trembling, it sounded as if the Enterprise was in some sort of trouble. 'If I am going to be stuck on it I may as well help' she thought and she leapt out of the service room. She could notice at once that there were a lot of vibrations in the floor. She was sure she was needed on the bridge.

"Report, Spock!" Kirk said.

"There are no detectable anomalies near the ship Captain, logically there should be something there" Spock said. Then the bridge trembled again, the bridge lights dimmed.

"Mr Sulu, reduce speed to Warp 5"

"Aye Captain" The Enterprise reduced speed from Warp 6 to Warp 5. "What does your 'logic' tell you about this situation Spock?" Dr McCoy asked. Kazza exited the turbolift as Dr McCoy was asking this question.

"Easy, Bones" Kirk said, he didn't want his two officers and friends arguing in the middle of a crisis like this.

"Logically there is something there that our sensors cannot detect" Spock said.

Kazza watched as Kirk and Spock hypothesised, about the situation. Spock eventually suggested increasing the acuity of the sensors, and Mr Scott was called to the bridge. Kazza took a seat next to Spock and looked at the sensors. There was still nothing that she could see that was causing the troubles that the ship was having. Soon she was going down to engineering to help in the improvement of the sensors.

Kolkata, Indian Federation, United Earth, United Federation of Planets

Local Time: 6:00 pm

SB was at one of the commpanels in his house, he wanted to a have a quick look at what was happening before his wife came home. He logged into the 2260's Federation's Trials MMOHRPSUG. Then there was an error message on the screen! "Cannot generate avatar, the vessel you have chosen is out of range" He looked at the screen as if the message was in Sanskrit, even though it was in plain Hindi. He tried to determine what was wrong but only got more error messages. Someone would hear about this.

First City, Qo'nos, Interstellar Klingon Empire

Leerella, daughter of Keroth scowled at the dishonourable error message that had appeared on the screen for the 7th time! She wanted to get away from her job at the High Council's Computech servicing bureau, now she was faced with more programming, and Federation programming at that. 'Why is the Enterprise 'out of range'?" she asked herself. She started attacking the Federation programming, and soon found a reason, but not a very satisfactory reason. "Someone will hear about this!" she roared.

AoE 2260's Federation's Trials MMOHRPSUG

USS Enterprise NCC 1701

Kazza had helped Scotty and the Engineering staff to increase the acuity of the

sensors, occasional trembling going on all the while. Then the lights dimmed and the

warp engine stuttered though it re-started and went back to Warp 5. "My Bairns!"

Scotty exclaimed. Then the ship computers showed signs of malfunctioning.

"We may need to turn around" Kazza said to Scotty.

"That is up to the Captain" Scotty said. Kazza went back to the sensor troubles.

"The sensor efficiency, has improved, there is slight evidence of disruptions in Spacetime,

though I find no logical reason that they are causing the troubles the ship is

experiencing" Spock said.

"Logic! My emotions are saying get out of here!" McCoy said.

"Relax Bones" Kirk said.

"Relax, how can I relax when the ship is shaking apart around us!" McCoy said. Kirk

thought, and then sat back in the captain's chair.

"Mr Sulu, change course to 30 degrees port, lets see if we can steer around whatever

this phenomenon is" Kirk said.

"Aye sir" Sulu said.

"There is a hypothesis that I am working on, but I will not divulge what it is until I

know more" Spock said.

"You sound as you are hypothesising something that would definitely be bad news"

Kirk said.

"It will certainly be bad news" Spock said. He then turned back to the sensors.

Kir'Sharr, Vulcan, United Federation of Planets

T'Sal raised her eyebrow at the error message on the Holosuite panel. 'It is not logical

that a part of the simulation would be 'out of range'.' She decided to find out what

was going on with the simulation…

Bethlehem, Federation of Autonomous Israeli and Palestinian Communities, United Earth, United Federation of Planets

Local Time 5:30 pm

Elias bar Josiah was slightly upset that he couldn't get to the Enterprise in the AoE 2260's Federations Trials MMOHRPSUG. He left the vicinity of the Holosuite and went up to his bedroom; he accessed the discussion boards run by the organisation that ran the MMOHRPSUG. He could see that many people from across the Federation and beyond had posted about the lack of access to the Enterprise. A post by a Klingon (or at least someone residing in the Klingon Empire) interested him.

Seattle, Washington, United Earth, United Federation of Planets

Age of Exploration Studios Headquarters

Local Time 12:10 noon

It had been a busy few hours as people in the headquarters had rushed to determine what was happening to one of their simulverses, when a rush of complaints had came in from across the Federation and beyond. Now the CEO was talking to a group of admins.

"So, what is happening? There are error messages saying that the Enterprise is 'out of range' and there is a role player on New Australia stuck in her Holosuite without communication? And more importantly, how could this happen?" CEO Robert Findlay asked. A young admin raised his hand.

"I have gone over the logs, and it appears that the Enterprise is running off the edge of the simulation, it has gone off the edge of the official simulation and is now in a 'buffer space' and will soon hit the actual wall of the programming" the admin, Theodore Goddard said. Many of the admins in the room agreed with what Goddard had said. They activated the holoprojectors in the room. Then above the table was shown a 3-D map of the simulverse in question. There was a blip right at the edge showing where the Enterprise was.

"Ok, can you zoom in to where the Enterprise is in detail?" Findlay asked. Someone touched a control and the screen zoomed in. It showed the Enterprise blip in between a plane of dotted lines and the edge of the simulation. "How were we apprised of the situation?" he continued.

"According to the forum, a Klingon computer expert hacked the programming after being angered by the error message that kept popping up" Goddard said.

"Our programming should be more secure, but then again it should not be so vague, I mean 'Program error, the vessel you have chosen is out of range' that is what the computers are saying when people tried to access the Enterprise after it had gone into that 'buffer space'" Findlay said, he gestured at the Enterprise blip in the holodisplay.

"But my main question is how could this happen?" he asked, almost shouting. Another admin timidly put up his hand. "How could this happen?" he asked the timid admin. The admin stammered as he began to talk.

"The, the sim-simulverse is m-meant to be modular, like most other simulverses, a module was due to be added next month in the direction the Enterprise appears to be going, we didn't expect the Enterprise or any other ship to approach the edge so soon. Not the least with a role-player on board" the admin, Harold Timms said.

"Is this new module ready?" Findlay asked.

"No it isn't, it has barely entered beta-testing, and even if it was ready, it would likely have had deleted the Enterprise, with unknown consequences for the Neaussie trapped on board, also if we just added the module to the simulverse without lengthy preparation, which hasn't started yet, it would likely cause chaos that could theoretically spread throughout the Federation's cyber systems, and possibly beyond that" Timms said.

"What would be the solution?" Findlay asked. Another admin put up her hand.

"Yes"

"Someone would have to enter the simulverse at the closest point to where the Enterprise is and then bring it back out of the buffer zone, then the Neaussie person can leave their Holosuite" the admin, Emma Fields said.

"Excellent! When can you be ready?" Findlay asked.

"Me, sir?" Emma asked.

"It is your idea, you can do it, and I know you don't have anything else to do at the moment" Findlay said.

"Right" Emma said. "I will be ready, with a few other people, in an hour"

"Excellent, report when the situation with the person from New Australia has been resolved"

And like that the meeting was over.

AoE 2260's Federation's Trials MMOHRPSUG

USS Enterprise NCC 1701

Kazza was now exhausted; she went back to her quarters. When she arrived the ship trembled again, much greater than the previous tremblings. She noticed that the door to the service was flickering. She leapt through the door, and saw that the programming problems were also affecting the service; she saw that the replicator was offline and the lights in the service were flickering. She went back out to the quarters, and then went to bed, though not before noticing some lag in the program. Even in the 25th Century there was lag.

On the bridge, Captain Kirk ordered a reduction in speed to Warp 4 and another minor course correction.

Seattle, Washington, United Earth, United Federation of Planets

An Age of Exploration Studio's Laboratory

Local Time 1:30 pm

Emma Fields and a few other AoE workers approached a Holosuite. "Can't we just use a few workstations?" one of the programmers, Tyrell Grant, asked.

"We could, but what would the fun be in that? A Holosuite is more personal" Emma said. She tapped on the panel and accessed the 2260's Federation's Trials MMOHRPSUG. She then opened the Holosuite door to open space about 100 meters from the edge of the 'buffer space'. She walked through stopping at the arch; the others followed her into the Holosuite, the door closed.

AoE 2260's Federation's Trials MMOHRPSUG

Open Space

"It is cold in here" Tyrell said.

"Of course it is cold, it is open space!" Emma said. She inserted one of the isolinear optical chips she had brought into the appropriate slot. Then a late 24th Century Danube Class runabout appeared. "It will be warm in there" She continued.

"The Nile?" One of the other people, Ilia, said.

"Sure, why not?" Emma said. She put the other isolinear optical chip into another slot, and what appeared to be a Tricorder appeared at her feet. "Ok, with the Nile, we can find the Enterprise, with this we can diagnose what is going on with the program" she said. She led the others into the Nile.

USS Nile NCC 72622

They boarded the Nile and went to the cockpit. Emma sat in the pilot seat, and set the ship off. There was a tremble as they engaged the impulse engines. "That was the edge of the buffer zone" she said.

"Ok" another said, knowing that they would not be able to exit the Holosuite until they had returned with the Enterprise. Emma engaged the warp engines in the direction that the sensors were sensing the Enterprise.