Chapter Fourteen: Breakthrough
Dax had been right, Miles reflected as he walked through the corridors back to the computer lab; his mind did feel sharper after a night's sleep and the meal Keiko had insisted he eat. Jake's eyes were no longer an accusation, but merely an incentive to do his best to get Sisko and Bashir back as soon as possible.
The technicians had been working on rotating shifts, and a different group sat at the computers than when he had left.
"Find anything yet?" O'Brien questioned, expecting the answer to be no. After all, Dax's words notwithstanding, he was sure he would have been called if they had found out how to get the commander back in his absence.
"I…don't know, sir," one of the technicians said without looking up from his screen, his voice puzzled.
"What is it?" Miles questioned, crossing to look over the young man's shoulder.
The technician twisted to look up at him. "I've been through this three times, sir, and this sequence looks familiar, but I can't think why."
"Let's have a look," Miles said, already focusing on the lines of programming as the young man slid out of his seat to make way for his chief.
"Which program sequence is this?" O'Brien questioned.
"Characterization and inhabitant animation. If I had ever worked as a holosuite programmer I'd assume it was just familiar to me from that, but I haven't read holosuite programs often enough for that to be the reason."
"No…" O'Brien murmured. "I agree; this particular section is different from the rest — but it does look familiar. Computer, cross-reference section two eight seven A with all computer systems on the station, and flag similar sequences."
"Calculating."
O'Brien held his breath, half expecting the patched-together computer to find the task too onerous. It groaned and whirred as if it would shut down from the strain at any moment, and O'Brien jiggled his foot impatiently. Most days he enjoyed the challenge of keeping the station's computer systems up and running, but at times like this he longed for a complete refit and a state-of-the-art Starfleet computer.
"Match found," the computer announced at last. "Do you wish to continue search?"
"Display results," O'Brien ordered.
The sequence that scrolled across the screen, while not identical, did indeed bear striking similarities to the one from the holosuite.
"Computer, which system was this sequence found in?"
"Transporter room."
O'Brien smashed his fist into the palm of his hand. "A transporter holding pattern — of course!" he exclaimed excitedly. "That's the transporter signature for either Sisko or Julian." He touched a key and toggled back to the original sequence, almost unaware that the other technicians had risen and now stood grouped around his chair.
Now that he knew what it was, it seemed so obvious that he wondered how he hadn't recognized it before. Studying the string of figures, he was nearly certain he could recognize it as Dr Bashir's. Grinning, he tapped his combadge. "O'Brien to Dax."
"Dax here. You got something, Miles?"
"Yes. Still no definite way to get them back, but Hawkinson just found Sisko and Julian."
"I'm on my way," Dax responded, the excitement in her voice's matching O'Brien's own.
Moments later, she appeared in the room, hurrying over to stand behind O'Brian as the technicians made way for her. "You said…you found them?"
"Aye, Hawkinson did. Why don't you tell her about it, lad?"
"Oh, well…I just noticed that one section of the programming sequence looked familiar, but I couldn't think from where. So the chief checked it out, and it's a transporter holding pattern."
"So the portal causes some kind of transporter effect?"
"Essentially so, yes, though I haven't had time to look at the details of that part of the program since we found out."
"But you said you don't know yet how to get them back…can't you just use the station transporters to retrieve them, the same as a delayed transport?"
"I wish it were that simple," Miles said grimly. "But the transporter computer isn't tied in to the holosuites — there's no reason for it to be."
"The holoprogram is on a data solid; couldn't you plug that into the transporter?"
Miles shook his head. "I don't want to risk removing it. I can't tell if their signatures are stored on the data solid, or on the holosuite computer, or even some of each. And even if they're completely on the data solid, it's possible it was programmed to scramble the signatures if it was removed from the holosuite."
"But all this is academic, surely. You have the signatures right here; can't you just enter them into the transporter?"
Miles chuckled mirthlessly. "It doesn't work like that, I'm afraid; there can only be one real copy of their…well, program, for lack of a better word. If I put this sequence into the transporter, we might get something that looked like Sisko and Julian, but they wouldn't have any soul, any personality. And even if they did think and act just like the real ones, do we really want to make do with copies knowing that meant leaving the real ones trapped in the past?"
"No, I see what you mean," Dax admitted. "All right, if we can't remove the data solid what about tying the transporters in to the holosuite computer; could you do it?"
"Technically, yes; practically, I'm not so sure."
"Why not?"
"Because of the distance involved," O'Brien explained. "It's a complicated tie-in involving at least ten wires; running them across the whole station would be prohibitive in itself, not to mention trying to keep straight which wire was attached to what at the other end. I don't like to even think about what could happen if even one pair of wires got crossed."
"All right. So you can't bring the holoprogram to the transporters or hook them up as is; is there any possibility of bringing the transporters to the holosuite — at least enough to work?"
Miles shook his head slowly. "Not with these old things. Some new transporters you could practically pop the computer out to replace it, but these have been patched and jury-rigged so many times that I hardly dare touch them unless I need to."
"I know where we can get a new transporter, sir!" one of the technicians burst in eagerly. "The Cygnus — it's docked on the station."
"Excellent!" Dax praised. "What do you think, Miles; would it work?"
"If they let us borrow their transporters, I don't see why not," Miles said slowly. "We could even use our transporter to deliver it right to the holodeck."
Dax nodded crisply. "Get what you need and prepare to beam to the Cygnus to get the transporter; I'll contact the captain."
Next chapter coming next week! …hopefully. The library is closed due to the coronavirus threat, so I'm trying posting from my phone with the wifi at work. If I end up not having access to that (I don't think they'd close grocery stores, but some people are afraid they will), posting will be delayed until the library opens again.
I proofread all my stories at least once before posting, but if you see any mistakes I might have missed, please let me know!
Please note that I have internet access only once a week, and may not have time to respond to all reviews/messages. If you have questions regarding my Deep Space Nine alternate history, check my profile first to see if they're answered there. Thanks for your understanding! Barbie
