Chapter 21

Taryn wasn't angry as much as disappointed. She had specifically asked if he had a hologram of her and he had led her to believe that there wasn't one although now she thought about it he'd said there wasn't one she needed to be jealous of. Well from what she was seeing there was plenty to be jealous about. The 'her' in a bikini was draping herself over him and caressing his chest in front of her.

"I don't like this place." the girl cooed in a soprano voice that clearly hailed from the other side of the Atlantic to her own. "Take me back to my glade Reg. I'll die without the forest." she pleaded. She was also a good six inches taller, the ultimate insult. As if that wasn't bad enough her backside was much smaller and her breasts were bigger too.

"Just, not now." he told her and tried to extricate himself from her grasp. "Taryn, look deactivate her program and I'll explain. Please?"

"You can explain?" she spat, "You told me a half truth and made a version of me that is clearly more to your liking. What's to explain?"

"It's not like that." Reg gave up struggling, picked the Dryad up under his arm and carried her over to Taryn's console as the Bastion's core wasn't accepting voice commands.

"You're so masterful today, Reg." the hologram whispered just before he shut down her program.

"I think you'd be happier if you shut me down and kept her." Taryn said coldly. "You wouldn't have to introduce her to your mother." She turned and walked away.

"T…Taryn just, p…please listen?" he begged as the doors closed behind her.

…

Geordi was busy when Reg appeared in Engineering, at least he was trying to look busy. They had an issue of too many chiefs in his department with B'Elanna there as well. He knew she was trying to defer to him and was well aware it was his territory but her formidable nature tended to drive her to take charge and Geordi had a more relaxed leadership approach. Reg was freaking out, he could tell that as soon as he left the turbolift and collided with an ensign, knocking the young officer on his butt and stammering a profuse apology. Geordi shook his head and approached the man before he wreaked any more havoc.

"Reg, what's…?" Geordi looked at his friend's face and knew this wasn't the usual fuss about nothing. "Let's find somewhere to talk okay?" He turned, "B'Elanna can you handle things down here for a while?"

"Sure." she replied, frowning at the expression on Reg's face.

"Okay, tell me exactly what happened." Geordi told him as they sat in a corner of the bar with a drink each.

"She found Program 9 on the Bastion's computer core." Reg fidgeted with his hands. "They must have taken it when they stripped my lab at Daystrom."

"And you haven't told her about it yet?" Geordi asked, "Or the painting?" Reg shook his head in reply. "Have you tried to explain?"

"She won't listen. She thinks I made the hologram after we met and it's how I want her to be. Taller, vacuous and half naked." He dropped his head into his hands. "When we first got together she asked if I had a hologram of her and I said it was a long story but there was no one she needed to be jealous of. She says I told her a half truth and well I did, didn't I."

"Look, I'll try and explain if you like. We can get The Doctor on board, she'll listen to him." Geordi reassured him.

"She'll never believe you. No one sane would believe it." He sighed deeply, "It's too late, it's over. She'll always think I'm seeing Program 9 in my head whenever I look at her. She'll never trust me again." He got up, "I might as well go back to work and find the program she wants me to fix. With any luck the damn thing will rip my head off. It's not like I can feel any worse." He walked away with his head down.

Geordi sighed. Aside from talking to Taryn there was no way to fix this, and even then? He believed Reg, but it did sound ludicrous. Saying that, who would make a story like that up?

"Computer where is Taryn Prior?" he asked.

"Lieutenant Commander Prior is on Holodeck 1"

Geordi winced, Reg was heading her way and she was liable to rip his head off long before the hologram got hold of him. He paused, if Program 9 was as far from Taryn as he described her Reg couldn't use it to convince her of the truth, it would only piss her off. What she needed to see was the painting. But it was a minor work by an unknown artist, not likely to be in the Enterprise computer. He needed to speak to someone who understood art and knew how to get information that was hard to find. He knew just the man for the job.

"La Forge to Data."

"Data here."

"I need a hand with a personal matter, are you available?"

"I will be available in eleven minutes. I will come and find you then if that is acceptable?"

"That's great Data. See you in a while."

…

She was sat at the console when Reg returned to the holodeck. She didn't look up. She didn't even react.

He sat at the other station and checked the status of the algorithm he'd left running. It was complete but had yielded precious little in terms of repaired data. He'd managed to retrieve seventy-four percent all told. Better than he'd expected.

She walked over and placed a mobile storage device next to the other two on his console.

"I found Hayley." she said softly. "You retrieved a lot from the core, you did a really good job, thank you."

"I…I didn't think you'd be speaking to me?" he replied.

"I have to, we have to work together." she replied and returned to her console. "How long?" she snapped.

"Sorry?" he asked.

"How long were you spying on me? I don't know how you did it but that… insipid bitch's outfit left sod all to the imagination and she had my birthmark."

"What birthmark?" Reg asked.

"Oh come on, you've seen me naked." she replied.

"I was a little preoccupied looking at your… I never noticed a birthmark." he blurted.

She pulled at her uniform, and pulled her trousers down at one side to show him her hip. She had a crescent shaped pigment mark on her hip bone around four centimetres long and not the most obvious of blemishes, just a slightly darker patch of skin. Reg thought it looked eminently kissable but was previously unaware of its presence. Nor was he aware that Program 9 had one but he hadn't exactly been looking. He could never get past the vapid gaze and the squeaky voice. To be honest, no matter how devoted she seemed and no matter how he tweaked her parameters she just didn't do it for him.

"Am I interrupting something?" Dan grinned as the doors opened and he walked in.

"Yes, go to lunch." Taryn snapped.

"I just had lunch. Are you guys about to do it?" Dan grinned.

"No, we're breaking up." Reg shouted.

"Don't shout at him." Taryn shouted. "It's not his fault you're a prick." The door whirred as Dan left the holodeck. "And thank you for dumping me in such a thoughtful way. You're even back-handed about that!"

"I didn't… I don't… Well isn't that what's happening here?" he asked sadly.

"No you idiot, we're having a row, and I doubt it will be the last." she shouted. "Do you want to know why I haven't agreed to marry you? Maybe it's because the first time I get justifiably annoyed with you, you come completely unglued and go running off to Engineering. I only went for a frigging pee."

"You didn't say." he defended.

"I wasn't aware I had to ask permission." She looked up, struggling to control her breathing and her emotions, folded her arm across her chest and covered her mouth with her hand. "I want answers. Straightforward, honest answers and a full and frank explanation. I think I deserve that." She sat down at the console and began looking through the files listed on screen.

"You do. And I'll tell you everything but you're going to think I'm insane and probably won't believe me." he told her.

"He's here." She looked up at him. "He's still dormant."

Reg stood behind her and looked at her screen as she brought up the raw matrix. It was big, but not too big for what he had in mind.

"Let's, try and keep him that way. That's…a nasty hologram." he said looking at its structure. "All these recursive loops and redundancies. No wonder you couldn't crack it. It's a mess of code."

"Can you do anything with it?" she asked, giving up her seat for him.

"I can try." he replied, sitting at the console. "I might need Dr Z's help."

The door whirred open and The Doctor walked in with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Dan just called me. He said Mommy and Daddy were fighting and he didn't like it." The Doctor said. "Is everything alright?"

"Is it?" Reg looked up at her hopefully.

"It's not like I didn't know you have issues with holograms so I suppose we can see where we stand after you explain yourself. I'm unhappy and hurt, but we have work to get done and we're don't have unlimited time."

Reg nodded, looking at it from her point of view it was more than he deserved, and to be honest, he needed to think about what he was going to say. Perhaps he should write to her? It might not sound quite so… no it was preposterous whatever way you sliced it and he was fighting a losing battle, but he was certainly going to fight. He looked at the screen, whoever wrote this program didn't want it to be altered, it wasn't uncommon with game writers who wanted to maintain their intellectual property and stop players cheating. This wasn't going to be an easy task.

"Get the other chair and tell me everything you've already tried." Reg said to her. "Perhaps you could take these modules to Dr Zimmerman Doctor? I'm sure he'll be glad to have them back."

"Ask him if he's missing anyone else, ask the others too. Reg managed to retrieve more than we hoped from the scrambled core." Taryn said. "But we couldn't save everyone."

"Bastion?" The Doctor asked. Picking up the cylindrical devices.

"He's there and he looks okay but I can't activate him, it would be cruel. He's designed to be part of a ship with sensors and a voice. It would frighten him, it would be like sensory deprivation." Taryn explained.

"I could probably come up with a holographic front end for his program." Reg suggested.

"Thank you, but that's not our priority." She smiled, "When we get back, I'll hold you to it though."

Reg was pleased she used the words 'when' and 'we'. Right now he needed all the hope he could get.

…

They were as ready as they would ever be and aboard the Bozeman. Reg was in guest quarters currently asleep, he had worked around the clock only snatching a few hours sleep here and there since they found the program. Taryn was so proud and pleased at what he had accomplished, even Dr Z had been impressed and said he couldn't have bettered it. With all the work they still hadn't found time to discuss the program Taryn had found but perhaps that was for the best. Her irritation had faded along with her jealousy over the version of herself with the up scaled bosom. The creation date on the program had been corrupted, but she knew he hadn't built it since they had become involved, he simply hadn't had time. Obviously he had created her after they met but there were so many details he couldn't have found out from her service record or the few interactions they had shared in the last year or so and it wasn't limited to a birthmark. Taryn never wore jewellery in uniform, yet the program was wearing T'Pandra's ring, one she was given following her death, on the only finger that it would fit her on. Taryn had her ears pierced, but not her lobes. Off duty she wore a ring through her tragus, next to her right cheek and a stud in her left upper ear. To her knowledge, Reg had never seen her out of uniform, and even on the day she visited home and Daystrom she hadn't worn jewellery yet the program had the same piercings in the same places. She may not be bothered on an emotional level, but she really wanted to know where he got his information from.

Data was deactivated on an anti-grav sled in front of her dressed in plain clothes, with the front of his clothing open. Taryn began to fasten it as Captain Bateson entered sickbay.

"What are you doing?" he asked indignantly.

"It's all part of the plan sir, and he doesn't have anything I haven't already seen." Taryn replied. "Although he's too coy to let me do this while he's conscious. He has a modesty subroutine."

"Do you really think this plan will work?" Bateson asked.

"Yes sir." she replied confidently.

"And Barclay?"

"He's more robust than he appears," she replied and finished fastening Data's clothing. "and far more capable than he's given credit for."

"Forgive me if I suspect that you're biased." he commented, "What will you do if it becomes apparent you're involved with him?"

Taryn smirked, she had Bateson pegged as perceptive when she first met him.

"I'm not going to keep it a secret, sir." He looked at her quizzically, "I'm going to lead Admiral Haftel to believe I seduced and manipulated him with my Orion wiles to get him to leave the Enterprise with me when I escaped on the Chekov with B-4."

"And will he believe that?" Bateson asked.

"You believe me capable of it sir." Taryn met his eyes with hers.

Bateson laughed candidly. "Touché Commander."

"May I speak freely sir?" she asked.

"You mean you haven't before now?" the burly man said with a snort, folded his arms and perched against the biobed nearby.

"Admiral Haftel and many like him look at my complexion and assume I have the sexual ethics of an alley cat on heat, then look at my ears and assume I have no feelings to be injured. Neither is the truth, but the Orion in me is more than willing to use the assumptions of others to my advantage if I need to. The Vulcan in me gives me the ability to hide physiological signs that I am lying and my humanity gives me my moral compass."

"And what is your moral compass telling you?" Bateson asked.

"That Haftel must be stopped and his activities investigated. That I will get this team out of the Annex when this is finished or die trying."

Bateson eyed her appraisingly. He was wondering if she was genuine, of that she was certain, but ultimately it didn't matter. It was the staff at the Annex she had to convince.

"Let's hope it won't come to that." Bateson smiled. "We'll be in orbit within thirty minutes. Your brother is making the final preparations to the Chekov and everything is on schedule. We have orders to leave orbit as soon as you've departed. You'll be on your own down there."

"We're aware of that sir." Taryn replied and turned as Reg entered the room.

"Captain, Commander." Barclay said in greeting.

"Mr Barclay." Bateson extended his hand. "Good luck."

"Thank you sir."

"May you continue to be misjudged Commander Prior." Bateson smiled and shook her hand. She thanked him with a smile and they both watched him leave the room.

"What did he mean by that?" Barclay asked, looking affronted.

"Believe it or not he's being nice." She smiled at him, "How did you sleep?"

"I missed you being there." Barclay forced a smile.

"I would have been if I didn't have things to do." she replied.

"Honestly? Only you've been…"

"We've both been busy." She smiled up at him, "We need to get going."

He grabbed the handle on the anti-grav sled and manoeuvred it into the corridor. Then stopped and turned to face her.

"I have to explain about Program 9. It's not what you think I…" he blurted. She grabbed the front of his uniform, pulled him down and kissed him.

"It doesn't matter." she whispered.

"It does, I know it does. You see there's a paint…" She silenced him with another kiss. "If I keep talking will you...?" He took her in his arms and returned her kiss then gazed into her eyes as their lips parted. "It doesn't matter. This is what matters." he said softly.

"Exactly." she whispered, "Now put me down, we have the Federation as we know it to save." He nodded and they headed for the main hangar.

"Can you take the helm? I'm really not a good pilot." she told him as they arrived in the main hangar where the delta flyer was prepped and waiting.

"Yes, if you want." he replied. "But I can't believe there's anything you aren't good at." They secured Data in the aft compartment and went through to the main deck.

"I've flirted or pheromoned my way out of five violations in the last year." she told him, "If I get caught again I'll have to bribe someone with a kidney and my first born child." she said as she took the Ops station at his left shoulder.

"I had a nightmare." Barclay said, "You asked how I slept, I was on the shuttle with Eden and Young and I saw the nacelle coming but I couldn't touch anything, my hand just passed through the console then I tried to wake them up, I couldn't touch them either and Young turned into you. And you were bleeding everywhere…"

"It's just a dream." she told him, "I know it's been preying on your mind. But Young wasn't a lovable buffoon or the hero he appeared to be. He dispersed five hundred sentient holograms piece by piece to try to prove a faulty premise. He was capable of cruelty you can't imagine and I hope you never see."

"Did you see it?" he asked.

"We have clearance to leave the hangar." she told him, "I saw one, I've wished I could unsee it ever since." She input her security code to get clearance through the Annex security screen.

"Taryn, if things go wrong down there…"

"Nothing is going to go wrong." she told him. "I have your back."

"I'm the goose that lays the mobile emitter. It's you that's vulnerable." he commented.

Taryn chose not to remind him that they cut the goose that laid the golden eggs open in the story to see if it had gold inside. "I think Data has the shortest straw. We get to stay conscious." Galor IV was a K-Class planet, inhospitable to human life. The annex itself was in effect a hole in the ground connected via a tube system to the Habitat Dome nearby. Beaming in was only possible in the residential area of the colony so all assets were brought into the Annex complex via shuttlecraft. She felt an almost overwhelming sense of dread at returning to this planet. The only good thing about it was the cat that had moved in with her and he was a serial rapist until she'd had him fixed. The Habitat Dome was overrun with blue furred or copper eyed kittens. "Okay, get your game face on." she said as much to herself as to Reg.

"I love you." he said looking over his shoulder at her.

"Daystrom Annex, this is Lieutenant Commander Prior requesting landing clearance." She winked at him and signed that she loved him too.

"Commander Prior you are clear to enter the pipe."

"Acknowledged."

Taryn was glad she wasn't the pilot. She hated the pipe. The doors slid open at ground level revealing a large tunnel that shot away at 45 degrees, on either side there were the tubes for the transit system that ferried staff between the complex and the living accommodation. Three of her recent flight violations had occurred in the pipe, one for speeding, one where she clipped the transit tube and one where she scraped the shuttle on the door on the way in. The fact they didn't end up on her record was a minor miracle. She really was an awful pilot but Reg was good, safety conscious maybe, but far from nervous. Mind you he'd probably logged more hours than your average flight instructor avoiding transporters over the years. The pipe reached a level three hundred metres below ground that resembled a hangar deck.

"Shuttlecraft Chekov, please proceed to pad five."

She recognised the pad number, it was the nearest one to the main entrance, it meant they were being fast-tracked into the complex.

"This is going to be quick." she muttered to him as they got out of their seats and the flyer was boarded.

Barclay was slammed into the floor face down with a knee between his shoulders and magnetic cuffed behind his back before being hauled to his feet and manhandled from the ship. Taryn walked behind them, her face impassive as she turned to see them unload Data on the anti-grav sled.

"Hey." she shouted as one of the henchmen grounded the sled taking it down the ramp. "Be careful with that." She knew to be careful with her pronouns at the Annex. It was a standing order, you weren't supposed to get attached to the assets. Two armed officers joined the four that were escorting the two men.

She went through security checks at a narrow gateway while Data and Reg were scanned. Then came the first hitch in the plan, they had changed the protocols and scanned her as well. The system chimed as the beam drew level with her navel and also her hips and she found herself surrounded by phaser rifles.

"What?" She smiled sweetly. "I got some new piercings on Earth." She eyed the most dominant looking guard. "It's a navel bar with a data crystal containing my great-grandmothers memories, she was a net girl. It's all I have to remember her by." She tilted her head and smiled, "Or is the other piercing the problem. It's in a rather… intimate place but I'd be happy to show it to you gentlemen."

"I'm reading small quantities of titanium, silver, beryllium and a memory crystal." a guard with a tricorder reported. "All inert."

"Okay Prior, no peep show today but leave the body jewellery at home tomorrow or we'll expect a pole dance."

She laughed playfully as she was waved through then the three of them entered a large turbolift along with the armed escort. She could see their guards exchanging raised eyebrows and smirks out of the corner of her eye.

"Level Eight." one of the guards clutching a phaser rifle stated. Taryn recognised it as the floor where some of the holography labs were. The doors opened and the two guards flanking Reg shoved him roughly into the corridor along with an armed guard.

"Level Nine." the other armed man said. "The Admiral is waiting to debrief you Commander."

"Thank you Lieutenant." Taryn smiled at the man. "What about the asset?"

"You're both going to Cybernetics Lab Alpha." the man told her. "The Admiral wants to see it."

The doors opened and they strode down the corridor, then took a left turn and entered the Cybernetics lab. Admiral Haftel's face beamed as he looked down at Data's still form, believing it to be B-4.

"Finally." He clapped his hands. "Good work Prior. Pity you couldn't bring everyone but…" he circled the sled, "this is excellent, and Barclay…" he grinned at her, "Masters can't get his emitter design to work so we really needed him. Was he difficult to convince?"

"Of course not sir." Taryn stated with a sly smile that hid the fact she wanted to bash the man's face in.

Haftel gave a dirty laugh, "From what I hear he's an easy mark, got led around by the dick by some Dabo girl, nearly blew Pathfinder out of the water. I expect he was happy as a dog with two dicks when you turned up. I bet you screwed the pathetic bastard to within an inch of his life you dirty little bitch."

"Charming as ever." she thought and kept up the smile, letting him draw his own conclusions always worked. He always concluded she was willing to throw herself on anyone's sword to complete a mission, or for any reason at all. Admittedly he wasn't far wrong in this case, but there was a first time for everything and she still wanted to deck the man and stamp on his knackers. He beckoned her over with a finger.

"I want you to see this," he said crossing the room. He pulled a sheet from what looked like a corpse on a table. "This is ECAO, Expendable Commissioned Android Officer. The Future of Starfleet."

"Who built it?" Taryn asked, already knowing the answer, it looked like Eden only younger and fitter but he still had the piggy eyes.

"Eden, what do you think?" Haftel said proudly.

"Does it work?" Taryn asked.

"I know you aren't the guy's biggest fan but he's a capable cyberneticist." Haftel said defensively, "It will work once you transfer Data's matrix for us."

Taryn grabbed a tricorder and scanned the android. She could have laughed. She'd expected to have to sabotage him but it was clear from even the most cursory of examinations that The Future of Starfleet would never work with Data's matrix, or one belonging to any Soong-type for that matter. They should have got Ruxia to build it, at least it would have been a challenge to discredit. Even the power unit was inadequate to support the neural net. She shook her head and handed the tricorder to the Admiral.

"Okay, so there are some kinks to iron out." the Admiral said.

"Kinks sir?" Taryn said picking up another scanning device, "To make this work it will need a complete redesign and rebuild. The net is depolarising because the power unit isn't giving it enough juice. It's unstable now and it's not even processing anything. It'll cascade before it opens it's eyes and says hello. Has anyone actually run a diagnostic on this thing? Because the memory unit isn't interfacing with the neural net properly."

"Let me see." Haftel snatched the device from her and pushed her aside roughly. He rapidly confirmed her findings and threw the scanner across the room followed by the tricorder then shoved The Future of Starfleet onto the floor. "If Eden weren't dead I would track him down and stick my foot so far up his ass it would come out of his mouth." He leaned on the bench glowering. "Okay, we'll move straight to phase two. Get you in the lab with Masters and Barclay, you can prepare the matrix for ECHO. You're going to love ECHO, it's a holographic version of this project. You might even get the pair of them to work faster if you're there waggling your ass at them. Spark some rivalry eh!"

Taryn was worried, this was all too easy. Haftel's filthy mind and Eden's incompetence was doing the hard work for her. Well, the less convincing she had to do the more plausible her performance would be. She followed the anti-grav back to the turbolift in silence as they headed for Level Eight. Now this would be more of a challenge. She had to find a way to get her ex-boyfriend Trey out of the picture without upsetting Reg.

Author's Note

Thank you to everyone who has commented so far, I hope you are still enjoying the story. The sequel is coming together well, it picks up were this one will ended and (I hope) has drama, angst, romance, eroticism and weird things happening on holo-grids of course. It's already longer than this story but I'm aiming for another 25 chapter story plus prologue and epilogue.