And now, at long last: The Conclusion! :D
Part VIII
"I'm receiving a signal, Captain," Ensign Giusti called from the ops station. "It's from the planet!"
"One of the away team?" Picard demanded.
"It's not a standard frequency, sir..." the ensign reported as she worked. "I have no way to tell..."
"Mr. La Forge," the captain said, "is the scattering field still in operation?"
"It is, Captain," the engineer responded, leaning over his console on the upper bridge. "The signal is coming to us via a complex, shifting set of variable frequencies. The computer is having a little trouble deciphering it…"
"Can you put it onscreen?" Picard asked.
"I'll need another moment, sir…"
La Forge tightened his jaw, watching the shifting energy waves and graph spikes on his monitor screen as he tapped at the keypad.
On the forward viewscreen, the orbiting view of the planet below shifted to fuzzy gray-white static. Very gradually, the static cleared, revealing a slightly pixelated, somewhat jumpy image of a vast, well-lit, silvery space with a high, domed ceiling.
A small, plump man stood in the foreground, dressed in a long, pale blue silk-like tunic richly embroidered with a repeating pattern of golden swirls. He had a trim, white beard; dark, twinkling eyes; and a broad, beaming smile, which he immediately turned on the captain.
Picard stepped forward, tugging the wrinkles from his uniform as he announced: "This is Captain Picard, of the Federation starship, Enterprise. We—"
"Welcome, welcome, Captain Picard!" the man exclaimed, spreading his arms out wide. "Welcome, Enterprise crew to the Planet of Living Horrors!"
Picard furrowed his brow.
"The Planet of… I'm afraid I don't understand," he said.
"Indeed," the man said with a jolly chortle. "We're just starting to reach the same conclusion ourselves. It seems a frank discussion is in order. I insist that you join us!"
"I'm afraid that is impossible at the moment," Picard said, his expression sharp and wary. "A particle scattering field is in operation on the planet, which interferes with our ability to—"
"That's no obstacle, Captain! No obstacle at all!" the man said cheerily. "We'll have you down here in the blink of an eye! Oh, and your Engineer is welcome too!"
Picard and La Forge shared a leery glance.
"I appreciate your invitation," Picard said, "but, before we agree to anything, I would like to know just who—"
Ensign Giusti listened for a beat, then a beat longer to see if the captain would finish his sentence. She glanced to Ensign Gates at navigation, then they both turned around to find the captain and Geordi were gone.
"Everything you see here is fully automated," the plump little Caretaker said, jauntily waving his arms as he led Picard and La Forge through room after shining room of highly advanced technology. "This planet was constructed for our people to come and play out their fantasies - one of a series of constructed worlds, each with its own unique theme. All designed purely for amusement, of course. Simply imagine, and a personalized scenario will be projected just for you! You become the Player on our world-scale Stage, set to battle whatever monsters may be stalking your dreams!"
"Then, this place," La Forge said, staring curiously around at all the vivid screens busily displaying data he could barely follow, let alone understand. "This whole world is like…some kind of amusement park? A planet-sized House of Horrors?"
"Now you're getting it!" the man said happily. "This way, this way!"
The little man led the two officers along a wide, curving corridor lined on both sides with gleaming, heptagonal doors. He turned toward one, which twisted open from the center like a flower, and gestured that they should both precede him in.
"We used to be active all year round," he continued as they entered a whole new spacious complex of polished metal and glass. "But, I won't lie to you, it's been mighty slow going these past three or four centuries. Mighty slow. So, we cut back. Now, we activate our facility only at this time of year, when the leaves begin to change. The days grow cold, the nights grow long and, as our ancient legends would have it, the fabric separating our world from whatever supernatural mysteries may wait in the beyond grows worn and thin. It is a time for stories of spirits and monsters - stories told to chill the blood and thrill the thundering heart!"
"Our culture has similar legends," Picard said, scanning his eyes over the the glass and metal chambers they passed as they walked.
All were empty.
"Yes, yes, so we've seen!" the little man enthused. "Halloween, I believe you call it! You know, it was quite a surprise to come online this season and find your lot already here, those odd, boxy buildings your people constructed up above all decked out with images of monsters and crawly things! Naturally, we presumed you had come to enjoy our services, but now— Ah!"
The plump little man scampered over to a broad, glass window that stretched about two stories high.
"Here we are, here we are!" he said. "We've kept your people all safe and sound, right here."
Picard and Geordi peered through the expansive glass, and gasped.
Hundreds of humanoid bodies lay suspended in the dimly glowing space beyond, each enclosed in their own transparent 'bubble'. The bubbles were arranged in perfect vertical and horizontal rows and columns like an abstract cube, with plenty of negative space in between.
Picard recognized some of the faces; women, men and children from the newly settled colony. They all appeared physically unharmed, but there was no way to tell if they were unconscious or—
"Captain, look! There, at the top!"
Picard craned his neck and took a few steps back so he could look where Geordi was pointing.
Through the dim shadows above, the captain could make out four prone figures in Starfleet uniforms. They were too far away for him to make out their faces, but he knew his officers at a glance. Riker, Troi, Worf... Even Data. Like the colonists, all four seemed stiff and disturbingly still.
He did not see Lt. Doe. But, there were so many bodies there, so many people...
A jolt of anger ran through him and he turned on the grinning Caretaker.
"What have you done to them?" Picard demanded. "What is the purpose of all this?"
"Why, Captain," the little man said, "this is where we store the Players who died or suffered some terrible transformation while immersed in the scenarios we provided them."
"Died?" Geordi exclaimed, raising a hand to his VISOR as he struggled to pick out specific readings through the hodgepodge of electromagnetic gibberish the storage system was emitting. "You mean...these people... They're all—"
The little man laughed.
"Dead? Oh, no, no, no," he said. "They're plugged into the system is all, their minds free to wander the lands above in whatever form their imaginations fancy. It's what that energy field up there is for, you see. Some are ghosts...howling, insubstantial wraiths! Others roam the night as vampires, werewolves, zombies, giant apes, swamp creatures, mad scientists, supernatural killers - even cyborgs! Those who do believe themselves dead - consumed or mauled by their nightmare monsters - they lie at rest here, wounds healed and clothes mended, until the session cycle ends and they have the chance to play again. Just about all your people have become immersed by now. Well, save one. The lone survivor, you might say."
He smiled broadly and gestured for them to follow, scurrying diagonally across the wide, open complex to another glass and metal chamber. Through the petal-like door, they found a luxurious space of tile and columns and billowy, cloud-like curtains. Potted palm and papyrus-like plants lined a gently flowing stream that flowed through the chamber and, presumably, into another beyond. Small songbirds in vivid colors chirped and fluttered among the intricately twisted glass rafters, and delicate translucent fish splashed and swam.
"Captain! Commander La Forge!"
"Lt. Doe," Picard gasped, as deeply surprised as he was relieved to see the young woman rushing to meet them.
"You're alive!" Geordi exclaimed, reaching out to warmly clasp her hand. "We thought you were— Well…"
"Villain fodder?" Doe smiled and shook her head. "No sir. Starfleet doesn't train its security officers to be hapless victims."
"Indeed, it does not," Picard said proudly. "So, Lieutenant, with all the nightmarish business that's been transpiring on this world, how did you manage to survive the night?"
"Brash wits and dumb luck, sir," Doe said. "The others—"
"The other members of your party are just about ready to wake, if you would care to join them," the Caretaker said. "We have much to discuss. We, and all of you. Having been so long offline, we knew nothing of your colonization efforts on this world. If it is your intent to remain here, our role...or lack thereof...will have to be made clear."
Picard wrinkled his nose.
"Are you saying you do not object to the colony?"
"Our people created this world, Captain," the little man said sadly, "but they do not live on it. Even I am but a projection - an intelligent interface designed to ease communication between our program and our patrons. We, the integrated computer systems of this world, have long suspected this...amusement park...had been abandoned by those it had been designed to serve. But, such abandonment is a hard thing for a hospitality program like ours to acknowledge, let alone accept. For some years, we have debated whether it would be best to go on waiting, or to finally offline for good. And now, we learn from your Lt. Doe that, when they settled here, these colonists of yours did not even know of our existence. That our planet's purpose and reputation truly had been lost to time..."
"Maybe it doesn't have to be that way," Doe said. "I've been telling him, Captain, that once we explain all this, it's possible all these computers and things won't have to offline. That they and the colonists might be able to work something out."
Picard glanced at the little man, finding it disconcerting to see such a lively personality suddenly appear so deeply dejected.
"You swear that no one has been harmed?"
"Oh, Captain, no, nothing of the kind!" the Caretaker said. "We regret that, through our mutual ignorance, some of you may have been made uncomfortable. But, if you use the proper caution, this planet could be an ideal place for your people to amuse themselves! As ours once did. That is, if they wish..."
A soft, musical signal filled the chamber, and the little man blinked.
"Your people are awake," he said. "They have been transported to the primary auditorium. If you would follow me? We have decided to leave it to your Federation settlers to determine our fate. A fate that may be long overdue..."
"It was like the ultimate holodeck, Captain," Riker said. "Everything about the experience was so real! The enhanced senses...the need for fresh blood. The cravings were as physical as they were mental. I'm telling you, in the hours after those women bit me, I honestly believed I was a vampire."
"It was the same for me," Worf spoke from his position at tactical. "On that world, I experienced something...almost spiritual. For a time, I knew was it was to be a Hunter."
"Well, I found it immensely disconcerting," Troi said. "When that lagoon monster grabbed me, I was convinced that I was drowning. The pain I felt, the terror— On the holodeck, no matter how immersed you may become in the story, there's always a mental barrier, a sense that it is all a fantasy. There was no such barrier on that planet, Captain. When that monster drowned me, I believed that I had died. There is nothing amusing in an experience like that...or in waking up from so terrible a nightmare."
"Then, you don't believe the colonists should have allowed the planet's 'hospitality program' to continue running?" Picard asked curiously. "Albeit, only during the Halloween season."
Troi pursed her lips.
"I'm not sure," she admitted. "Perhaps it will be different, now that we know the program exists. I'm just not certain our brains are currently...sophisticated enough...to fully process the impact of such a deeply immersive experience. Even if the scenario is meant to be 'all in fun', the psychological trauma can be very real, and long lasting."
Picard nodded thoughtfully.
"Your opinion, Mr. Data?" he asked the android at ops.
Data swiveled his chair around to face them.
"I found the experience...curious," he said.
"Yeah?" Geordi asked from the upper bridge. "How so?"
"The Caretaker explained that the planet's immersive program is designed to identify and project a Player's fears, so that the Player might confront them," Data said.
"But, as an android, you don't feel fear," Geordi said.
"Not as such," Data said. "Yet, the scenario the program created for me did draw on several concerns I have been considering of late. Namely, my role in the deactivation of my brother, Lore. The views Lore touted regarding our questionable kinship with cybernetic life forms, such as the Borg. The lifespan of my cat, Spot. My own vulnerability to certain piggyback frequencies, such as those Lore used to manipulate me while in possession of the emotion chip he stole from our father's laboratory."
He furrowed his brow over his nose.
"That sounds natural enough," Geordi said.
"Perhaps..." Data said. "But, I do not understand. Since his dismantlement, Lore no longer poses an active threat to me or anyone else. Logically, therefore, my brother's image should not have appeared in such a scenario. And, yet it did."
He looked up at Geordi, his head slightly tilted.
"There may be a glitch in the Caretaker's program," he said. "Perhaps we should inform the colonists."
Troi smiled, just slightly, sharing a glance with Picard, Riker, Geordi and Worf.
"I don't think that will be necessary, Mr. Data," Picard said, and leaned back in his chair. "Ensign Gates, set a course away from TerraLuna XIII. We have a few weeks' shore leave coming up and I, for one, would prefer not to spend that time as a zombie or a werewolf."
"Or a vampire," Riker said through a cheeky grin.
"Indeed," Picard acknowledged and raised a hand, his finger pointed toward the stars. "Engage."
The End
References include - Red Dwarf: Better Than Life; TNG: Descent I/II, and TOS: Shore Leave! Shore Leave is the episode that provided the inspiration for this whole story, and some of the wording in this chapter was directly adapted and/or paraphrased from that episode.
That's it! Sorry it took me so long to get to the end, but I hope you enjoyed my story! Thanks so much for reading. Your comments and reviews are always welcome and appreciated! :D
