[Original story formerly published in paper by the Star Trek Italian Club, which graciously granted permission to publish it digitally. Cover and drawings by Chiara Falchini.]
Chapter III
Deanna looked around, ecstatic.
"It's wonderful, Viviana", she declared, "It reminds me of Betazed's woods."
"It reminds me instead of Normandy's forests", said Riker. Data, even if maintaining his usual neutral face, gave the clear impression to be frowning:
"To be precise, ladies, sir, in this wood I am able to distinguish five varieties of Terrestrial plants, eight Betazoids, seven Andorians, five Klingon…", catching the impatient glances of the other ones he cut it off, "I mean, it is a contradiction."
Vivian chuckled:
"Objectively you're right, Data", she admitted with no difficulty, "however, my aim isn't to reproduce a surrounding in a realistic way, but to evoke a sense of familiarity and atavism. The plants we see belong all to planets at least one of us visited; if among us there would be a Vulcan, the program would create also plants from Vulcan, for a Deltan, plants from Delta, and so on, more or less at equal climatic conditions."
A gigantic Andorian squirrel crossed bouncing the clearing opening in front of them, stopped for a moment to smell the air, then disappeared among the trees on the other side.
"Same for the animals", Viviana added, "to which some fantastic creatures have been added, but I won't anticipate anything in order not to spoil the surprise for you."
They set forth through the clearing; the sun was lukewarm and the air smelled good, and the brook, flowing on the western side of the wood meadow, murmured its unchangeable song.
Deanna plunged one hand in the water and retrieved it dripping.
"It's unbelievable!", she cried, "Not only I see the drops, but I feel my skin like wet. It's extraordinarily realistic."
Riker did the same, then he took a sip.
"Hey, it really has the taste of water", he stated, marvelled. Data intervened:
"Sir, I must point out that water has no taste."
Riker smiled:
"On the contrary, my friend. Sometimes it has the sweetest of tastes."
Again, perplexity passed on the android's face.
"I give you an example: you are in the middle of a completely arid desert, about to die out of thirst, then you find a spring and drink your fill", Riker tried to explain, "In that moment, I assure you that water, as flavourless it is, would seem to you more exquisite than any nectar."
Data elaborated briefly the concept.
"Even if I cannot die out of water lack, sir, I think I understand", he announced then, "It is like I could not change my lubricant fluids for a long time and then, unexpectedly, I would find a depot, allowing me to renew them. Yes, I think I would associate this fact to a sensation of pleasure."
Viviana had followed the exchange only distractedly, focused on trying on herself the effects of the holographic water. She dipped a finger in it, drank a little, then surprisingly she throw herself in. At the noise of her dive, everybody turned.
"Viviana, what are you doing?", Riker enquired, marching into the water to help her stand up. She was smiling out of satisfaction and accepted his help.
"I was testing the sensation of the wet clothes", she explained, "I must say I feel like I'm really drenched."
She exited the water along with the first officer, then she took off her tunic and squeezed it, put it on again and did the same with her breeches. She didn't feel embarrassed by the others' presence: Riker had her already seen even in more undressed way at the Academy times, Deanna was a woman like her and Data an emotionless android.
Riker asked her:
"Tell me one thing: if I'm a knight, where's my horse?"
"Good question", she replied, almost finished with dressing again, "To have a horse, you need money, and to have some, you must earn it. You and I could fight for money, for example; Deanna can use her magic arts to heal and divine; Data can kill some hunting game animal and sell it", she tidied up somehow her garments, "Shall we go on?"
They set forth, venturing into the wood. Riker watched his friend's wet clothes, worried.
"If the program is so realistic, won't you catch a cold?", he enquired, "Here there's no Doctor Crusher, armed with her hypodermic syringe…"
Viviana shook her head:
"No, the protection subroutine does not allow it, and it doesn't allow the simulation of other diseases, either. The adversaries can hit you, even kill you, but you wouldn't feel pain nor see blood; simply, proportionally to the seriousness of the damage you suffer, you'd see your counterattack capability diminished. In any case, it's always possible to heal oneself or to be healed – Deanna, being a sorceress, has already this capability, or the program makes you find some healing potion – or you can even be resuscitated by a high level sorcerer. The game is suspended and you must start it from the beginning only if all the players die. The adversaries we'll meet are adequate to the player's ability, which I set very low because you are all beginners. While your ability increases, the program will automatically adequate the difficulty level", she smiled at him, "If we defeat our opponents too easily, there's no fun, right?"
A hare crossed the path winding among the trees. Quick as a lightning, Data nocked an arrow and shot: the small animal fell, pierced, and the android went to take and put it in the game bag hanging from his belt. Riker and Deanna felt a little shaken: for over than two centuries now it wasn't necessary anymore to kill animals in order to feed people, because the food synthesizers recreated perfectly all and every kind of food starting from its atomic components; the program was so realistic, that for a moment they forgot it was only a fiction.
Viviana instead, being used to the needs of a fantasy game, paid no mind to it.
"Nice shot, Master Data", she complimented him, "You can make some money out of it, or we can eat it tonight for dinner", she addressed the other two, "Of course, even food is a holographic illusion and we wouldn't actually eat anything; however, if my modifications will prove effective, we'd feel sated like having really ingested food."
They resumed walking, and after some time Deanna asked:
"Viviana, you didn't explain yet how my character casts magic."
"Spells", Viviana corrected her, slowing down to allow her coming near, "There's your Magic Book in your backpack: it explains how you must move your hands and what keyword to use for the spell you want to cast. Not all the spells the Book describes are within your power: as your experience level increases, you'll be able to use more and more of them, until you'll arrive to the most powerful ones. Remember also that each spell consumes a given energy quantity: your reserve will increase with experience, the computer will take care to estimate each time consumption and remaining."
"And how can I recover the lost energy?"
"Food and rest", Viviana answered synthetically, "In our backpacks there are also some high caloric travel rations, let's say, an equivalent to the modern emergency rations."
"Very well. Can we stop for a moment? So I can study my spells, you never know when you'd need them."
"Of course, Lady Deanna. Lord Riker, Master Data?", Viviana called for them, "We take a little rest, our sorceress would like to study."
Deanna sat on a boulder, took out the Book from her backpack and began to study its contents. Following Viviana's suggestion, Riker pulled out his broadsword and exercised in an imaginary duel. Data had no need of training to use his bow, having more than enough strength and aim for it, while Viviana busied herself in exploring the world created by her and the computer, tasting, smelling, touching, listening, watching intently the smallest details, marvelling at the precision and realism the modified holographic generator had been able to give to everything. She kept however her enthusiasm at bay: it was still too soon, and she aimed always at more than satisfactory results, therefore she had to verify a great number of details yet.
Deanna had an eidetic memory, which allowed her to memorize the spells within her reach in about ten minutes. She was about to put away the Book, when a loud noise of cracking branches and a female scream made her jump to her feet.
"Let me go, you nasty beast!", Viviana was yelling. In an instant, Deanna, Riker and Data rushed to the place from where the shouts were coming, but the young woman had disappeared. A crash above their heads had them bolting in all directions, just in time to avoid being crushed by a big branch falling from an enormous sequoia. Lifting their eyes, they caught sight of a gigantic spider, black and hairy, holding Viviana in its monstrous mandible; it hadn't enough strength to crush her, however she wasn't able to break free, even if she was pounding her fists on the jaws closing around her body.
"Data, try to hit it with an arrow in a vital spot!", Riker shouted, rushing to the base of the tree where the monstrous spider was perched, "Pay attention not to hit Viviana, I climb up to her."
The android took the aim carefully, but Viviana was thrashing around furiously in the beast's grip and he wasn't able to get a safe shot. The protection subroutine wouldn't allow him to hurt her for good, but it wouldn't be realistic to shot it just for this reason. Riker would say it wouldn't be funny. The close intertwining of fiction and realism was very confusing for Data: humans were very complex beings, an endless subject to study… and a goal perhaps unattainable, for him.
All this shot through his mind in a few nanoseconds. He found a safe shot and fired the arrow, which plunged exactly between the faceted eyes of the enormous spider, but it didn't even shake. Maybe he had to hit it in an eye, Data thought, preparing to shoot again.
Meanwhile, Riker had reached the first branches, and Viviana was yelling curses and invectives to the monster.
Deanna extended one hand, traced a symbol in the air and whispered one word. The spider seemed to be stricken by a sudden paralysis.
Riker froze, lifting his eyes to check the cause of this unexpected stillness, and Viviana laughed, relieved:
"Good, Deanna, you used the right spell!"
Data lowered his bow and put the second arrow, now useless, back in his quiver. Viviana gave Riker a dirty look; he hadn't moved from the lower branches:
"Well, Lord Riker, would you get your ass over here and help me?!"
Deanna burst into laughter at this, and also the first officer grinned. Labouring a little, because he wasn't used to climb like an ape, he reached his friend and helped her to get off the spider's mandibles. Gazing it crookedly, he shouted a question to Deanna:
"How long will the spell last, Lady Deanna?"
"About ten minutes more", she reassured him from below, "You can take your time."
When they finally got down on the ground, Viviana complimented the group:
"You behaved very well, at your first adventure: well done! Your experience has increased, the computer will notify the passage to the next level, letting you find a note or sending you a message or whatever will be compatible with the game and the situation", she glanced at each one, "Did you have fun?"
"Like crazy!", Deanna admitted laughing, "I wouldn't have ever believed that playing a sorceress would be so exciting!"
Riker, too, was smiling:
"It's been incredible, even if I wasn't able to do almost anything."
"Your moment will arrive, Will, don't worry", Viviana replied, "We're just at the beginning."
Data was trying to reorganise the experience in a logical scheme, but he wasn't able to.
"I don't understand", he admitted, "The situation was, I think, appalling enough, with Miss Morgante… I mean, Sister Viviana… in the jaws of a monstrous being, however you affirm you had fun."
"But sure, Data", Deanna explained, "Until it's a fiction, you have fun in the most unusual situations. If this would've been real, there wouldn't be anything funny about it."
Data assimilated the news and added it to the already enormous mass of information he had collected over the years on the most disparate behaviours, often obscure to him, of Mankind, a real compendium about human nature, from which he hoped that one day would originate the key to his own humanity.
He didn't realize that, under certain points of view, he was more human than some human beings in flesh and blood.
"I think I understand, now", he said therefore, "The fun is because it's a game, and even in the frenzy of the moment, you never forget it."
"Forgetting it", said Riker, "would mean we are no longer able to distinguish between reality and fantasy, what would signify serious psychic disorders."
Data nodded, agreeing.
"Good, we better go now", Viviana intervened, "before that beast recovers."
They went back to pick up their backpacks, abandoned to run to the rescue of the nun, and then they set forth again.
Meanwhile, in the engine room, La Forge and Saunders were keeping an eye on the complex diagrams visualizing the efficiency of the running program.
"It's working perfectly", Saunders commented, "That girl is a true genius", he checked another diagram, "I bet they're having a big time, in there."
"I think so, me too", the chief engineer agreed, "Next time, we'll make sure to be in it, too."
The lieutenant nodded emphatically.