Captain's Log Supplemental
The Enterprise has finished the exchange of personnel; Ensign Lak has been replaced with Ensign Sud. Currently we are at warp 7 having received a distress call from Lakun IV.
Riker stood next to his command chair, "What are your readings Data?"
The Androids fingers danced over his station, "The structures appear to be hydroponic stations"
"Appear to be?" Riker asked again.
"The structures power source does not seem to correspond with a hydroponics bay." Data supplied
"Cover?" Asked Riker
"Sensors can not penetrate the structures to get an accurate scan."
A nod from Picard was all that was needed to assemble an away team.
Dr. Crusher, Lt. Worf, Lt. Cmdr Data and La Forge were taking a shuttle to the surface Ensign Ro was going to pilot it. The region had appeared to be bombarded and fires raged on the surface. While Chief O'Brien could deposit them via transporter to a 'safe' area it would be more conservative to get an aerial view.
"Area up ahead looks good for a put down" La Forge informed from his station. "I see it." Ro replied and soon the shuttle was gracefully placed on land. When the hatch opened the stench hit the nostrils of everyone only Data was unaffected. All of the team reached for their phasors. Ro had smelled this particular odor before she was placed on Valo II. When the Cardassians had come and burned her home some of the inhabitants her world had burned too. They walked to the area of the distress signal was emanating from. La Forge wiped away the debris from a console and began assessing the panel.
"Well this isn't a hydroponics bay" Crusher noted. "This is medical equipment…I don't like this."
"What is it Doctor?" Lt Worf asked his phasor firmly gripped in his hand.
The doctor ran a hand through her hair, "This is bio-mimetic gel and those are growing tanks."
"Damn it" La Forge hissed.
"Sir?" Worf asked on high alert.
In the hands of the engineer was a stack of yellow chips coalesced into a cube, it looked incredibly pretty and fragile. "It's a holo matrix, they must use holography to store their information."
"La Forge to Enterprise, I need Lt. Barclay down here now. Get O'Brien to beam him to our location."
Shielding on the structure you are in precludes transport. I can get him 50 meters to your present position, scans show that area is clear.
"I'll wait for the Lt." Ro said and marched out of the facility.
Barclay nodded to O'Brien, out of habit he still shut his eyes when he was being transported. When he dematerialized he wished he still had them closed. As he looked around he saw devastation in its most primal form. Fires burned homes were vacated and an odd smell permeated the air. A shape caught his attention he was about to investigate it when he heard his name.
"Lt Barclay" He looked up and saw Ro. Her face was a solid mask it was then that he realized what the shape was—it was a body.
Immediately his lungs seemed to stop processing oxygen. Ro reached him and jabbed her fingertips into his chest. The points of slight pain made him focus on her. "We can't help them" she said softly, "but we need you."
Barclay nodded; he tried to take a deep breath to calm himself but the smell made him gag.
Ro brought his attention back to her, "Breathe through your mouth, I'm going to walk in front of you, keep your eyes on my heels."
Once inside the facility Barclay was lead to station La Forge was working on.
The Chief Engineer was relieved to see Barclay, his degrees from the Daystrom Institute focused in Holography. "Reg, this station seems to store its information on holo- matrices." He held up a yellow chip cluster as proof.
Barclay resisted the urge to chew on his thumb, "We'll have to disassemble the whole emitter and generator. I don't want to come back if we discover the matrices are incompatible with our systems."
"Agreed." Geordi replied.
Crusher spoke up, "Is there any way we can access the information now? Learn what has happened?"
Barclay crawled under the console, which was a feat in of itself due to the size of the Engineer. After a few minutes the center of the facility shimmered as holograms appeared.
There was no audio and the image was not steady. Nonetheless through the holograms actions it was clear that this facility was engaging in crimes against the Federation. The fact that these doctors were using Holography made it even clearer. This was a perfect media for teaching others how to clone and engage in other banned genetic experiments. The question now was who had put an end to this freak lab?
"Reg how long do you think you'll need?" La Forge asked.
Reg waved his hand, "This configuration I-I-I'm not too familiar with it. I also want to make sure this facility hasn't been tampered with."
Geordi rubbed his brow in understanding, "Yeah, yeah Reg…Worf! Have your scans shown anything?"
"No sir" The Klingon informed.
Barclay opened his kit, "Two hours to remove the necessary equipment that can go faster with your assistance sir."
La Forge smiled the first real smile since coming to this forsaken world. "Sure Reg."
An hour into the removal of Equipment had La Forge scratching his head, "What's this?"
Reg moved over to look at the device, "Looks like an omnidirectional holographic diode. Makes sense since the holograms were moving all about the area and there is only one emitter."
With the equipment free all that was left was to lug it out into open so it could be transported. Worf accompanied Ro to the shuttle so it could be returned to the Enterprise.
In Engineering a large table had been assembled to hold the materials. Engineers of all ranks were gathered around arguing.
"We need to download the data then we can use Holodeck…" A voice shouted
A rougher voice cut in, "No, No, No! We can simply place the matrices in our system and lose nothing in the download."
"And blow out the grid while we're at it?" Demanded another.
La Forge clapped his hands, "Hey! Look I'm not comfortable with just plugging in the matrices, if one of you wants to do it go ahead!"
All of the Engineers moved away from the table to work on other problems, no one really paid attention to the Trevu in corner.
Reg was in his quarters trying to make sense of his log entry. He was actually grateful for the door announcement. "Come in".
"Laren" he breathed her name, he stood quickly and grabbed her hand pulling her to him. This time he was the one to kiss her, taking his time to learn her mouth. When his exploration was complete he held her to him knowing it was what she liked.
"you did good today" She said praising him.
"I've never seen anything like that." He admitted.
"I have" Laren said and she began telling him of the destruction of her homeworld and life in the camps on Valo II. Through it all he listened, he heard in detail about food riots. The Cardassians and how her people were tortured. He didn't nod sympathetically he just listened trying to truly absorb what she was telling him. She continued with the conditions of 'The Stockade' of prison riots and what it was like to be incarcerated. When she was done he stood at the replicator, "Water."
Specify temperature
"I don't care just give me water." He ordered.
Ro laughed at him, she never thought that he would bark an order at the computer. She found it so funny that she laughed and laughed. She was surprised when Reginald set down the water and came to her side and held her. He whispered, "shhh don't cry."
She tried to tell him that she was laughing but then she felt the wet splotches on her cheeks she was indeed crying. She wept for her father. She wept for Reg and the innoncence that was stolen away from him on Darvos II and finally she wept for herself.
When she was done she turned away from him, "I should go but I don't want to."
"Then stay" Barclay crowed, "take my bed, I'll sleep out here."
"You're nearly two meters, that sofa is not… you'll kill your back." She argued.
Laren could see the wheels turning in his mind and he blushed. "my bed is big enough to share… just share…if you really don't want to leave." He strode over to his dresser and tapped the third panel. The drawer slid out smoothly and he retrieved two items. "Here you can sleep in these they'll probably fit."
Laren nodded and pointed into the bathroom, Reg stood and busied himself in the sitting area. When she was done he took care of his nightly routine. It was awkward at first, while Reg had had sex he had never slept with a woman. Between the two of them they climbed into bed. Amazingly it was Reg who fell asleep first, Laren knew he had when she heard his breathing change into deep even intakes. She let his cadence carry her into the realm of dreams.
