Rakurai Stryker - Main Bridge

"... Space" Stryker finished the vulcans sentence looking intensely at the viewscreen.

"Bring close range sensor pallettes online. All of them." Stryker ordered.

"Hai Captain." Ensign Sayaka Koyama answered.

The new information coming from the CRS was fed to tactical and Operations and to the viewscreen. "Three small objects detected. One weapons signature !"

"Shields ! Shields" Liz Archer told the junior officers.

"Bring weapons online." Stryker ordered. "But do not target anything. Yet."

With that, Red Alert klaxons blared three times and then switched off, now just the red lights reminded of bridge crew of the possible danger surrounding them.

Tension started building in Liz and Stryker. They gave each other a nervous glace as the seconds ticked by.

Counselor Kathryn Delore
Counselor Office

Kathryn accepted the communication call from engineering. On the screen in her computer Alex visualized. Kathryn saw Alex's trouble face and sensed the anxiety inside of her. She said with a calm voice. "Hello Alex, it's your brother again, isn't it?"

"Yes, I think he is having some trouble. I don't like going behind his back but I think this is best for him."

"You are right about that and Alister is very fortunate to have such caring sister. What did he do, what did he do to make you call me?"

Alex explained what had happened and showed concerns about acting too late. Kathryn ensured that it was never too late. She said. "What you're doing is right. You do it because you care about him and he will appreciate it. Maybe not now but later, in the near future. I promise you!"

Alex showed some relief and seemed a calmer and less worried. Kathryn smiled lightly and continued. "I will get into it immediately. But I am going to take it slowly; I don't want to upset him too much at once. Don't hesitate in contacting me in the future, about Alister or about anything else that you can think of."

They both said goodbye and closed the connection. Kathryn looked out through her window. She felt a bit concerned, from what Alex had told about her brother Alister symptoms, it didn't look good. She wasn't sure but she had a feeling that he had symptoms of what is called post-traumatic stress disorder. Kathryn leans over and commanded the computer to show her information about PTSD. On the view screen in front of her she could see words forming on the display. She started to read;

Suddenly Kathryn terminated the display and demanded the computer to turn of the lights. She started to stare in to the darkness. She couldn't help it but something was terrible. She had the strangest feeling of being observed. It was like there was an echo of feelings on the ship nearby. Someone in the ship was different; she couldn't put her finger on it. Something, which gave her dark thoughts, unkind thoughts, evil thoughts; it was holing her in a tight grip. She wanted to scream but was stunned and continued staring in to the dark. One word kept repeating inside her mind; one…

Lt. Commander Liz Archer, XO

„You will be assimilated, resistance is futile" said one voice of millions. A little girl with brown hair in plaits and black eyes grabbed her teddy bear closer to her. The girl didn't like the lack of emotions she felt from the ugly people from the cube surrounding her. She wanted to find her daddy; only he could rescue her. He would make these evil people disappear. And her mother would bring her into her arms and sing that lullaby song that she liked so much.

As the ugly person was coming closer, the girl crouched together in the corner. One of them bended over and infected her with the borg virus. She remembered mother talking about it to father when she had played hide and seek with a friend of hers and was hidden in her mother's office. A lonesome tear trickled down her left cheek. She could feel the transformation and she was afraid, very afraid. Suddenly her voice became one with others and she wasn't lonely no more. There was only One…

Liz screamed as she got up from her bed. Her heart was pounding hard. She kept reminding her that it was just a nightmare. A nightmare and nothing else! She throws her coverlet to the side and slide down to the floor looking down on the floor. She wasn't surprised to have that nightmare. She has had many nightmares like that since her childhood, but something was different. The thought of one had reappeared several times in the dreams through out the night. She wondered if it had to do with this Tracy replica? She got up and puts on her uniform. These "people" have some strange affect on all off us, Liz thought to herself, including myself. Deal with it, Liz! One thing for sure, I do not trust them. Liz leaves her apartment without looking back.

The ships analyzed their information. They considered the new machine to be rather "dumb" since it couldn't answer a simple question like a greeting. The lead ship fired a plasma energy burst towards the Pretoria and it struck the ship. Oddly enough, there were energy shields around the new machine, and the plasma only drained energy as it hit.

The ships decided to relay their information to the planet, and let the One decide a course of action. Within a nanosecond, a reply came back for them to scan the inside of the new machine.

Just as the after effects of the plasma burst wore off, the ship sent another burst of energy, but this one was meant to probe the Pretoria itself.

Just as the blast hit, intruder alert alarms went off inside engineering. A large pillar of blinding white light appeared and moved around, sending out electrical arcs out wherever it went. Finally, it stopped near the main engineering computer terminal, and began scanning it intensly.

Cadet Kira Loisa Tierney - Engineering

Kira was standing in the area where Alexandra Maxwell stood just minutes ago when a pillar of blinding white light appeared behind her. The Bajoran-Human spun around. Panic started to take hold and the computer automatically activated intruder alert.

The pillar of light stopped near the main engineering computer terminal. Kira fought the fear and started walking towards the thing and shouting "Hey ! Stop !"

One of the quick moving tentacles of lighting hit her. Kira's legs gave out and she lost conciseness.

The EMH, Demi holo-materialized next to the fallen woman. About 30 seconds later, followed by Voyager's EMH. Both of them studying of pillar of light. Possibly satisfied with the results from the computer, the pillar of light turned "around" to the two holograms.

Captain Rakurai Stryker - Bridge

Stryker sent Liz to the lower decks of the saucer section to meet with the away team members at the Captain's Yacht. Stryker instructed Liz that he may order them to launch at any moment.

Manwhile the bridge was in chaos. Nothing anyone can do about the intruders. Yet.

In the meanwhile, civilians were ordered to their quarters or an emergency shelter. Security officers were beamed to the Bridge, engineering and other venerable areas across the Pretoria.

Deck 30

As Karen walked down the corridors toward the shuttle bay, the deck suddenly began to vibrate under her feet, as though some huge power source were operating nearby. Seconds later, the Red Alert klaxons and the overhead allcall speakers went off, along with her commbadge.

"All hands, this is the captain. All non-essential personnel and all civilians are to go to their quarters or the nearest emergency shelter immediately. This is NOT a drill."

"Sickbay to Dr. Coleridge. We have reports of casualties in Main Engineering from some kind of unknown power source. We're trying to transfer Demi there, but we're having some strange program errors with the EMH systems. Can you respond?"

"Copy that," Karen replied, dodging down an empty side corridor and breaking into a run. "ETA 30 seconds."

Dashing through the doors into Engineering, she saw a pillar of coruscating white lights next to the main computer console, while a group of badly frightened engineers tried to escape from it. A few people were still at their consoles, and she smiled just a bit as she recognized the dark-haired figure among them.

One brave soul - either a Vulcan or a Bajoran, though she couldn't tell from long distance - dashed out from the same console and ran up to the pillar, shouting, "Hey! Stop!"

Apparently the pillar, whatever it was, didn't like being given orders. Bolts of energy burst around the room in random patterns, hitting panels and people alike. One bolt struck an exposed EPS tap, prompting an explosion. The deck shook violently, the lights flashed out, and everyone was thrown off their feet.

Thrown halfway across the room by the blast, Karen struggled to her feet, momentarily stunned by the explosion. The pillar still stood, quietly examining the computer console unmolested, while the crew slowly regained their senses. The red emergency lighting flickered to life, accompanied by the creaks of twisted, tortured metal and the cries of the injured.

"Is anyone hurt?" she croaked out... and then she saw the pile of rubble, and felt her heart stop beating.

An access catwalk had collapsed near the assistant engineer's station, taking a mess of piping and paneling down with it. Poking out from the pile was a woman's hand, a single gold stripe visible on the cuff.

No. No. Please God, no.

Like a woman possessed, she began clawing at the debris, only dimly aware of the lights coming back up, the whine of the hologram systems, the shouts of the security and medical staff as they arrived on the scene, or the myriad cuts and scrapes to her hands and arms. As she hoisted the last panel off, she saw that the ensign was dead, her chest almost completely crushed, her neck at an unnatural angle.

She stared at the tableau for a good five seconds, until her brain finally processed what her eyes were seeing.

"Karen?"

The sound of her name being spoken in that familiar voice almost broke the remains of her control, and she stumbled just a bit as she turned around.

I'm in shock. I must be hallucinating.

But hallucinations usually didn't try to catch you when you fell...

"Alex," she whispered hoarsely, and then the engineer was in her arms, holding on for dear life, uncaring of the tears that had begun to fall. "Oh, thank God, Alex, I thought you... I saw someone in that pile and I knew it was right where your station and I didn't see you anywhere and I thought..."

"Shh, I know. It wasn't me. I'm right here."

They held each other tightly for several moments, too emotional for words.

Finally they let go, both wiping at damp eyes. "We'd better get moving. Demi has this under control, and we both have an away team to catch..."

Main bridge

"It appears to be some kind of a scanning device. Perhaps some kind of probe. It appears to be trying to interface with the main computer." The vulcan at ops reported.

Stryker rose from his chair and walked towards the operations console. He turned to tactical. "Skarsten, security to main engineering!"

Rachael Skarsten ran towards the turbolift and tapped her combadge"Delta and tango teams meet me in main engineering."

"Luitenant are you able to lock it out of the mainframe?"

"I have been successful in delaying it's attempts but it will adapt and overcome my algorithm." The vulcan appeared almost agitated as he put in commands on the touch interface.

Main Engineering
Alister Maxwell arrived to engineering just after the security guards and the medical staff. He was blinded by the flashes of light, but only for a short while. As a console in his vicinity caught on fire he grabbed a fire-extinguisher and put the flames out.

He set the environmental controls to start venting the toxic fumes. At that time he saw Alex and the doctor holding eachother. Hugging, impassionetly. He could´nt hide the surprise he was feeling and Alex caught him staring at them.

Alex, is she and ... He turned his head toward the console and started giving orders to the engineers closest to him. Then he turned away from main engineering toward the exit. To get back to the rest of the awayteam and await orders.

He felt strange inside. Can´t sort my emotions. It was a blur between fear, surprise and something else. He wiped the sweat from his brow and saw his face blackened by smoke in the reflection of a console on the wall. He stopped and looked at his reflection and whispered to himself. "What are you afraid of ?"

The energy column finished scanning the computer, and then moved towards a dead engineering crewman. Bolts of light arced all over the deceased woman's body and then in an instant, both the ensign and column of light were gone.

The three monolith ships stayed where they were around the Pretoria, and processors scanned every bit and molecule of data until they had a theory why the Pretoria did not answer their hails. It was not logical.

30 minutes later

About 30 minutes after the first probe was gone, intruder alert alarms went off again, this time localized in one humanoid form in the cargo hold. A female form, identical to the ensign in engineering was standing naked in the giant room, staring ahead as beams of energy dissipated around her. The only marked difference between the probe and the former Ensign Tracy Melborne was a glowing red sensor, identical to the ones on the three black monoliths, located on her neck. She looked around her surroundings.

Rakurai Stryker - Turbolift, near Cargo Hold 2

Stryker was flanked by armed Security officers Lt. Kris Redmond, Crewman Jatite, Ensigns Nicholai Malthus and Rachael Skarsten as they approached the intruder. Jatite was shocked to see Ensign Tracy Melborne standing there, as was Stryker.

The five officers cannot help re pressing an expression of surprise. A moment's uncertainty as Stryker peers at them. Kris and Nicholai was really distracted by the naked female body.

The engineer known as Ensign Tracy Melborne somewhat looked in awe, examining her surroundings. And then her hand as she lifted it up.

About ten seconds later, they were joined by the Vulcan Ops officer, Solkar.

Tracy stood facing Stryker, her face impassive, eyes unblinking. He looks her back a moment, then glances at Solkar, who is gazing at Tracy in absolute fascination.

"I am Captain Rakurai Stryker of the Federation Starship Pretoria. We mean you no harm." Stryker told the intruder. "We wish to open peaceful dialogue. Information exchange as needed."

"I have been programmed by the One to observe and record normal functioning of the carbon-based units." Tracy replied.

Rachael Skarsten looked defensive and angry as usual. "Why ?"

"Quiet Ensign !" Stryker scolded her. He turned to Tracy, "Look. This is extremey awkward. Can we meet elsewhere ?" Stryker asked, looking at the glowing red sensor in her neck. Looks like real human flesh, smells like it too, minus any kind of sweat though, he thought.

The ex-cadet answered. "Awkward, explain. Why is this not a proper place to meet?"
Stryker was confused and suddenly turned annoyed at one of the officers remarks about the the cadets physical attributes. "You and you, go and fetch some clothes for her. Solkar, I could use some input here."

Solkar looked up from his tricorder as he approached the ex-cadet and the captain. "Awkward is a feeling. Something that humans and other..." He stopped in mid-scentence. "You will notice that the carbon-based units have varieties. Some of theese have somthing called feelings or emotions. Awkward is one of those."

The red sensor started to blink. Solkar studied his tricorder readings and reported to the captain "It appars to be processing the information relayed to it thus far. It is also a perfect replica of the former cadet, but based on silicon instead of carbon. It is clearly a probe and has the same purpose as the former but has a design that ..."
"Stop i know where youré going with this. Since it is part of the procedure she will probably submit to a medical examination."

Suddenly the sensor stopped blinking. And the probe said."What is emotions, I wish to assimilate more information."

The probe looked around, and then to the captian. "Why do the carbon-units infest USS Pretoria? They inhibit normal functions of true life forms."

Rakurai Stryker - Cargo Hold 2

Tracy's question was confusing to Stryker. He struggled to find words, "There is no infestation here. We ..." Stryker trailed off. Ensigns Nicholai Malthus returned with clothes, handing it to the probe-woman.

Probe/Tracy looks at the clothes in confusion, stretching it and turning the top inside-out. The probe ran her finger over the clothing to feel the textures. "Why do you cover yourself ? What is the purpose ?" the probe inquired.

Solkar answered, "It is to protect humaniods, carbon life forms to the elements such as the sun, water, heat and cold. While it is not neccassary in a controlled environment such as a starship, most still prefer clothing. However, clothes also serve a purpose of uniqueness and designation of department such as Sciences."

Stryker gave up on the idea to trying to clothe Tracy. They figured it be easier for one of the medical staff to instruct her on why clothing is neccassary.

Solkar, Stryker, Tracy-Probe and Rachael Skarsten started to walk to Sickbay. "We ..." Stryker continued, "carbon-based lifeforms come from many planets, and others on those planets build cities, equipment and vessels such as this one. United Star Ship Pretoria."

"United Star Ship Pretoria is a life form. Carbon-based lifeforms are not." Tracy-Probe told them.

Solkar spoke again, "Thousands of technologies and materials together forms a starship. Humans in particuliar feel that inanimate objects - machines, material and edifices - have an personality attributed to them. Logically that does not make it a life form. But for humans and others, perhaps this is in recognition of the relationship between crew and their ship. The starship supports them through the cruel vacuum of space; battles, unexpected dangers can lead rapidly to disaster - but the vessel nurtures the crew who nurture her. Personality of the ship implies appellation. Something else to note too, most refer to their ship as a female. I am afraid there is no clear documentation of the origins of this custom on Earth."

Stryker suppressed a groan Watch out! Vulcan on a rampage

Lt. Alister Maxwell - Main Engineering

As the word came that the awaymission was on hold for the time being Alister hurried back to engineering. The place was a real mess and he started reweiwing the damage reports from all stations. When he arrived Lt. Koral had already started to bring personnel from the other shift to assist repairs. He made it his first priority to find out what information the probe had got a hold on from the main computer. Some of the ingrams were badly damaged but he was pleased to se that the back ups were intact. Suddenly he flinched

"luitenant, report, how bad is it." Commander Archer had apparently come to see how bad things were down here.

"For the most part it´s nothing serious but I am worried about the disturbance in these pathways. There is no way ot be sure but it is possible the probe knows are shield frequency. Recommend we remodulate shields immediately." Alister told his XO. "Recommendation noted I will bring it up with the captain immediately."

She left in a hurry tapping her combadge, probably contacting Stryker.

He tried to hide his shaking right hand from his staff. He ordered an ensign to take over for him. As he went in to his office Alex approached him. She looked concerned "Are you all right?"

"Yes, It´s nothing. return to your post Ensign."

"Ensign I am asking you as family"

I closed the door behind me.
Hiding from my staff and family. That's rational

He sat down to get some rest, some well needed rest.

Meanwhile in a corner of engineering

Alex had linked an optical communication signal to the PADD she held in front of her. The answer marker blinked and Kathryn Delore appeared on the screen. "Hello Alex, it's your brother again isn't it." She said with compassionate eyes.

"Yes, I think he is having trouble. I don´t like going behind his back but I think this is best for him."

"You're right about that and Alister is very fortunate to have such a caring sister. What did he do, what did he do to make you call me?"

She explained everything to the counsellor. Everything about the end of the war when Alister started to show that he had problems. She feared that she had acted too late but the counsellor ensured her.

"What you're doing is right. You do it because you care about him and he will appreciate it. Maybe not now but later, in the near future. I promise you."

Sickbay, CMO's Office

Since the request for the away team had been cancelled with the arrival of the Melbourne replicant, Karen had gone back to Sickbay to finish treating the casualties from the "event" in Engineering. However, she found that she couldn't focus on her work, as her memory kept flashing back to those few wrenching minutes: the explosion, the screams of the injured, that pile of debris.

Swallowing hard against the lump in her throat, she looked down at her hands. Strauss had reset her broken right pinky and closed the cuts, but both hands were stiff and sore, marked with a crosshatch of angry pink lines.

"Hey, you," a familiar voice said quietly. "The desk nurse said I'd find you in here."

Karen turned around, smiling weakly at the newcomer. "Hey, Alex. What are you doing up here?"

"I made an appointment to see the counselor, and I had some time to kill. You have a minute?"

"Of course," Karen replied, shutting the door. After a few seconds' pause, she asked, "Do you mind if I ask why?"

Alex shook her head, with what might have been a wry smile if it had reached her eyes. "No, it's not for me, at least not directly. I'm worried about Alister. He developed some recurring issues during the war, and typical stubborn male, refuses to do anything about them. He's also terribly over-protective, and I'm afraid that what happened today might really send him over the edge. He was all kinds of curt and snappish when I left, so..."

It took some effort, but Karen was able to force her breathing to even out, her hands to stop shaking. "I see."

The engineer wasn't buying her calm act, however. "You're white as a sheet. Are you all right?"

"I - I'm - well..." Looking up, she saw the worry written across the face she'd memorized long ago, and tried her best to force back the sudden flash of anger. "I'm trying to come to grips with the fact that I might be losing you for the second time today. That tends to take a lot out of you, y'know."

This time it was Alex's turn to look abashed, as she realized the dual implications of her remark. "Oh, no - I didn't mean like that! What I meant was - oh, hell, I should just start over from the beginning with this." She took a deep breath before continuing. "No, he's known since my Academy years that I was out. However, he's very good at blinding himself to that fact - you know, he figures that if he pretends I'm just roommates with someone, eventually it'll come true. And in all honesty, Alister would be just as overprotective if I had a boyfriend, except he'd probably get into a fistfight with the guy."

Karen digested that statement quietly.

"So yeah, he'll probably be pretty upset over having seen us in Engineering, but it's not you, really--"

"And that's supposed to make me feel better! 'Oh, by the way, my brother hates your guts, and seeing his sister with a dyke probably drove him to a nervous breakdown, but it's nothing personal, he's like that with everybody?' You know, Alex, I figured you for a lot of things, but cruel was never one of them."

All the color drained from the engineer's face. "What?"

"You are being cruel. You know that I love you enough that I do not ever want to lose you, and you know that if your family objects to your being with me, I also love you enough to step aside. You are playing on both those fears, and you are hurting me. That's cruel."

"Look, I never meant--"

"Stop. Please, stop." Karen clenched her left hand; the pain offered as good a distraction as any. "I don't know whether you meant to do it or not, but right now, I think you'd better go. Because I am probably going to lose my temper otherwise, and I'd prefer you not see it." Her voice dropped to a shaky murmur. "At least I care about you that much."

A few moments after Alex left Sickbay, the staff heard two odd sounds coming from the CMO's office. One was a dull thud, as though something heavy had struck the bulkhead paneling. The second was someone weeping.

Rakurai Stryker

Nearly 30 seconds passed since Alex left sickbay.

Stryker, Solkar, Ensign Nicholai Malthus arrived outside Sickbay. When the large double doors hissed open, then med crew looked amazed and stunned, confused at the very naked replicant of Tracy Melbourne.

The Andorian seemed like he was going to get a nose bleed, while the 2 Vulcan nurses and Karen's Assistant could not believe what they were seeing.

The Mexican woman, Crewman Cora Merandez fainted. 30 minutes ago, she heard that her friend died, her body proberly vapourized.

"Where is Doctor Coleridge ?" Stryker demanded.

"Doctor Coleridge is right here," Karen replied with a sigh, setting down the roll of cast material and trudging toward the Triage entrance, head down. "What can I--"

Something odd caught her eye, and she looked curiously at the floor, where three pairs of Starfleet uniform boots surrounded one pair of bare feet. Which were attached to a pair of impossibly long, superbly toned legs, well-proportioned hips, a flat, muscular abdomen and a bust that would have shamed a supermodel.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, a snarky little voice said, Close your mouth, you're catching flies.

With a visible effort, she forced herself back into the clinical mindset. "Ahem. Ah, well, Miss..."

"Doesn't have a name of her own," Stryker replied. "She's a replica of Ensign Melbourne, except the real Ensign is dead. We believe she was created by the same aliens that caused the trouble in Engineering."

"I see. Well, I expect you want us to work her up..."

Ensign Malthus' nose sprang a crimson trickle.

"Ah, I meant, you want a full physical. I apologize, I don't know where my mind has gone right now."

"I do," one of the medtechs snickered.

Karen shot the man, an irritated glare. "Mr. O'Toole, would you please go get our guest a gown. Miss, if you'll follow me back to the main ward, we'll have you off as quickly as we can..."

It was incredicably obvious to Stryker that Karen was majorly distracted. And that was before the naked replicant of Tracy Melbourne caught her eye.

This is trouble he told himself. And with that, he fled Sickbay slowly and discreetly, leaving 2 guards at the door, 2 more nearby and another two inside Sickbay. Stryker stayed near Sickbay for about 5 minutes before returning to the bridge.

The Tracy-probe was clothed but seemed hesitant to lie down on the med table. "This function serves no purpose."
"Well, it does for us. You see, organic lifeforms need repairs sometimes too. This medical exam will...help you to understand us."

"It will be irrelevant. The One does not need to understand the carbon units. They will be removed from USS Pretoria, and USS Pretoria will be upgraded to become a true life form," said the Probe. "The carbon units are a hinderance to this task."

Rakurai Stryker - Turbolift

Halfway to the bridge, Stryker ordered the lift to Dot's Diner instead.

He felt nervous about the Tracy-Probe and the situation he'd found himself in.

Dot's Diner
He ordered a bowl of tapioca pudding, bowl of olives and a large fish. Stryker ate quickly. Strange, I did not realize I am this hungry.

9 minutes later
Sickbay

Stryker returned to Sickbay. Doctor Coleridge took him and Solkar to her office. A few minutes later, Liz Archer joined them.

Karen indicating on a large monitor, "Maybe we should call an Engineer look at this instead"

"Just continue Doctor" Stryker said, annoyed. His expression softened, "Please."

Karen contiuned, "Nano hydraulics, sensors, molecule-sized multi-processor chips. An osmotic micro-pump... here and here. Even the smallest body functions are exactly duplicated. Adenosine triphosphate break up and absorption, working mitochondria." Karen traced with finger on screen "And every exocrine system is here, too. Even eye moisture."

"Captain... this probe may be a key to the three vessels surrounding the ship. The small vessels may not be a threat. But there is the possibility of larger weapons in the vicinity." Solkar told Stryker.

"It's a programmed mechanism, Mr. Solkar." Liz Archer replied.

"We have just seen something capable of perfectly duplicating a human body, our engineer in precise detail." Solkar said. "That is incredicble."

"Captain." Karen addressed Liz and Stryker. "During the examination, that replicant thing said some pretty distrubing things."

"Like what ?" Liz asked.

"She said, 'The One does not need to understand the carbon units. They will be removed from USS Pretoria, and USS Pretoria will be upgraded to become a true life form. The carbon units are a hinderance to this task."

"It will proberly end up trying to kill us." Liz said, horrified.

"Swe. Don't lose it on me during your first week." Stryker told Liz. Stryker then turned to the others, "So. What do we do ?"

Alister Maxwell and Solkar of Vulcan Main Ward

"This truly is remarkable" the engineer said as he walked up to the diagnostic bed and cocked his head in amazement.

"Your designation is Alister Maxwell Unit of the two part subunit Maxwell." The copy of Tracy said. Alister unit huh
"Nice to hear that you remember me. I used to be your commanding officer you know" He said as he took out the engineering tricorder from his tool kit.
"The carbon units chain of command is not relevant. The carbon units will be obsolete as the USS Pretoria is upgreaded."
Did that thing that moments ago was my cadet threaten the lives on board on the Pretoria?

He went towards the doctors office partly to get away from the probe and partly because, because... he stopped and started to pretend to compare his readings ith the ones on the screen on the wall. He jumped when he realised an old friend stood beside him.

"Do you have problems with your equipment luitenant?" The vulcan asked as he came out of the doctors office. Alister caught a glimpse of Dr. Coleridge in there but he looked to the operations officer instead. "No problems just checking. And it´s good to see you again buddy. I´m sorry I haven´t had the time to visit you earlier."

"Of that there is no need. I called you here because it was suggested that an engineer should take a look at the probe."

"Yeah, she is a replica alright. All the parts that constitute her are resembling boy functions everything except the little red sensor add on. It could also be used to send information via subspace and it could be possible to trace the destination of the transmission."

"I think we both agree on that this is some sort of probe but what kind of information does it look for?"

"Probably some way to get rid of us all. It does´nt recognice us as living beeings you know."

"Perhaps that is what we should start to try and change."

"What do you mean?"

"What do we know of the young cadet? Perhaps we can make the replica feel things for others. She was an emotional individual and it may be possible that who ever copied her could hav copied thos functions as well."
Alister started smiling and turned towards the biobed and the other senior staff who had come out of the doctors office."You think they´ve added a flaw, right? At least from your vulcan point of view."

"If that was an attempt of beeing funny I am not amused." He answered the engineer.

Sickbay, CMO's Office

Unlike a good many physicians she knew, Karen preferred to keep a neat office space. Under normal circumstances, the journals and books would be neatly shelved according to date and topic, the charts would be organized in their storage racks, and any unconsumed food or drink would be stored in the replicator's recycling bin.

At present, the office looked like a bomb had gone off. A pot of tea, now stone cold, perched precariously on the edge of the desk, where it had been shoved by an equally unsteady stack of PADDs. More such items were liberally scattered across the desk, a few had found their way to the floor, and there was a rather deep dent, about eight centimeters in diameter and about a meter up, gracing the bulkhead left of the desk.

Oblivious to the clutter, Karen continued dictating the day's chart review, occasionally cursing as some item would slip in her hand or the computer would mis-recognize an obscure term. Using a touch-screen or a stylus was an exercise in futility with only one good hand, and surgery would be out of the question for at least a week.

Finish up this chart, make rounds, and I'm out of here, she thought, setting the second-to-last PADD atop the stack. At least I don't need my hands to go for a run.

Main Ward

As Karen walked out of the office, she spotted Alister Maxwell and a Vulcan engineer whose name she didn't know, conversing animatedly over a diagram of the replicant's neural systems.

"What do we know of the young cadet," the Vulcan was saying, tapping on the diagram. "Perhaps we can make the replica feel things for others. She was an emotional individual and it may be possible that who ever copied her could have copied those functions as well..."

"Interesting," Karen commented, looking at the regions of the diagram the Vulcan had indicated. "You may be right - there's no need to build in a prefrontal cortex, for example, but they did anyway. In their attempt to create a perfect human clone, they might have engineered their way right into a trap."

A strange look passed over Alister's face, and when he spoke again, it was to the Vulcan, as though she wasn't there. "You think they've added a flaw, right? At least from your Vulcan point of view."

"If that was an attempt at humor, I am not amused," the Vulcan replied dryly. "In any event, I must return to my duties. I will be available if you require further assistance."

That left the two of them alone, standing before the diagram.

Wren - Dot's Diner

Wren was taking a 15 minute break from staring at a computer screen. So far he went through 62 of pharmacy prescriptions given out in the last 6 months. He figured he'd be done with that in 3 days.

Wren was sitting by the windows alone, drinking Andorian Fire. A wine/tea that does not affect humans, but would eaily floor an Andorian.

He was almost done when he heard the muffled sounds of a fight outside Dot's. He got up and investigated.

The doors opened, revealing a pair of Bajorans and Kwai Tsuta, the Bar tender. "Oh no! Not again" Wren complained. /\ "Crewman Wren to Sickbay. We got two more victims outside Dot's. Kwai Tsuta is doing her biting thing."

Two minutes - Outside Dot's
Demi and Voyager's EMH was trying to seperate Kwai Tsuta from her two male victims before security arrived.

"Go away !" Demi told the nameless Doctor. "This is my ship"

"I have more experience" the Doctor fired back.

"I have more knowledge." Demi spat.

"Stop it !" Wren yell-demanded.

Both EMHs kind of huffed. Once they stopped argueing, both visually scanned the Bajorans.

Then Demi's left arm and throat seemed to get bigger, then smaller. Seemed like a snake was inside her arm, as it lost it human appearance.

The Doctor's torso seemed to become pixelated and his voice sounded like a starters' pistol.

Both holograms blurred for about half a second, then seemed to lose colour, their clothing and human appearance starting looked uneven, like a 9 year old got hold of their imaging programs.

The holograms spoke in a distorted, buzzlike charnal house whisper. Unsettling and hackle-raising, "ivin parity nigativi ziro ovirflo. Othbornbot nboboding zboro ovborhboad"

"What the ---- !" Wren said, shocked and confused.

The two EMH now looked "8-bit". Instead of thousands or millions of colours in high resolution, they were now in low resolution of just a few colours.

Solkar son of Tolrec Main bridge at the Operations console

As he monitored the emissions from the 3 cone like ships hismind was focused on the mystery of the one.

What is the One? Is it possible that a silicon-based life form has evolved within the boudaries of the Searis Region? The One suggest that it has some form hierarcy or that there is only one beeing. Both the ships I am studying here and the humanoid probe may serve the same function. Exploration.
It is logical to assume that the One is some form of explorer or are explorers. They scanned us once and the result from that scan was that there were carbon compounds present in the different alloys. Since ...
The voice of Belldandy interrupted his thoughts. "Have you found anything interresting yet or will you let me intensify the scans of the lateral sensors?" She said that with a grin and probably awaited some kind of emotional response. "I will turn over complete control to you ensign. I will continue and update you on my progress." He entered a code to log out and continued his rewiew of the data he´d had collected so far.
It is quite possible that the One percives us as contaminants in the Pretorias systems. Much like carbon contamination making steel to brittle. The only logical thing would be to remove the contamination and make the ship, the life-form functional again. But, they have hesitated. Perhaps they are not so logical after all. Maby, they are just like us.

Explorers

Lt Alister Maxwell, Sickbay
As Solkar left Alister was standing at the diagram with Dr. Coleridge. They looked nervously at each other and Karen suddenly turned towards the display on the wall and started to enter commands with her left hand. She almost seemed to hide the other. Alister turned to the probe. She met his eyes and for a while he felt like he recognized the look of the cadet in her. A glare he had recived many times on the short while he had served on the Pretoria.
"What do you remember Cadet?"
"Memories of this body are irrelevant. This examination will be terminated, now."
She rose from the bed in a very stiff movement. Very robot like.
"Now wait" He signaled to the security personnel. "Someone will be assigned to give you a toru of the ship soon. I will call them now." He tapped his combadge and called for the captain. A few minutes later the party had left and he and Karen were preparing to join them. As they were packing there silence was unsettling.
He saw her injured hand and said. "You´d better get someone to look at that"
She looked at her hand and then at him. He did´nt know what to make of her expression. "I'm fine lieutenant".

"Doctors always make the worst patients don´t they." She looked away.

"Karen you and I need to talk".

"Not now." Karen told the engineer.

Rakurai Stryker - Sickbay

With continued effort, Stryker tried to focus his thoughts at the danger ar hand. It was not easy. He just hoped no one noticed.

Stryker talked to the probe, "The lifeform Starship Pretoria does not understand. And neither does the carbon based lifeforms." he explained to the replicant of Tracy. "We wish to communicate and to have continued existance. We will do what the One asks. But we need direct communication."

Tracy replied after a split second pause, "Agreed."

45 minutes later
Planet 4 surface

The Awayteam: Stryker, Karen, Solkar, the Maxwells and Liz Archer dressed in EV suits, beamed into what Solkar hypothesized was a central building of some kind. The room they were in was quite large, and the decor was a bright red fading into purple and black. The room was fairly dark, with the only light being from monitors that were on the walls.

Solkar took out his tricorder, flipped it open, and began scanning. Stryker sensed tense moments between Karen, Alex and Alister. He hoped that whatever is going on is not going to threaten the awayteam's lives and indeed end up killing everyone, 1249 in total onboard the Pretoria.

Ensign Alexandra Maxwell turned her head slowly still looking at her tricorder. "Some sort of energy field on that wall," she said, pointing towards the right. Lt. Alister Maxwell moved towards the wall, pointing his tricorder up and down.

Tracy led them towards the energy signature.

As the team beamed into the area the Melbourne replicant had designated for their rendezvous, Karen unclipped her tricorder from her envirosuit's equipment harness. The device had been designed for use by nearly all the Federation's species, and that included those with minimal manipulatory appendages, so it could be used one-handed with ease. Then too, she'd been able to selectively lock out the suit's hand and wrist servos, turning the right gauntlet into an effective cast. The bones in that hand still grated painfully if she shifted them the wrong way, but it was far better than the bulky immobilizer Demi had strapped onto her arm earlier.

The sense of wrongness Karen was feeling, though, had nothing to do with her injuries. When the team had congregated in Pretoria's transport room, tension had been thick enough to cut with a scalpel, and here, it felt like a living thing, snapping and crackling between each person on the team. She felt wired, on edge; even the hiss of the air recyclers grated in her ears, and the soft bleeps and whirrs of the tricorder were a constant annoyance.

One of those bleeps drew her attention, and she saw Alex gesture to her own tricorder, as Tracy walked toward the source of the anomaly. The replicant was still as nude as ever, but now Karen found the sight irritating rather than titillating. You can run around butt naked all day long for all I care, she thought. Just get us through this in one piece and then leave us alone.

The tricorder bleeped again, and looking down, Karen read on the screen: Unidentified source of energy present. Total output 47.4 kilowatts. Use caution when approaching.

"Some kind of energy field on that wall," she heard Alister say over the suit's commlink.

"I see the same thing. What do you think it's used for?"

Across the room, Alex shrugged. "Beats me. The output's too irregular to be a useful power system. Maybe a shielding system, or a communications node?"

Karen nodded once. "Possible. I guess we'll--hey, what's she doing?"

The replicant had walked up to the field and extended her hand into it, and the limb began to glow a soft, pulsating red. Suddenly there was an eye-searing flash of the same reddish light, which caught the team completely off guard. Karen felt a tingle of static electricity dance through the suit and into her skin, and then there was only silence and darkness as the suit's systems all shut down and her tricorder's screen scrambled and went blank. Only the analog dosimeter attached to her left forearm was still working, and its needle had pegged at 150 Gray.

The suits did offer some physical radiation shielding, so the humans would survive with a few doses of hyronalin, and the Vulcan wouldn't even feel the exposure, but Edenian physiology was notoriously sensitive to radiation, and Stryker was no exception. "Tracy, shut that thing off NOW," Karen said to the replicant, but there was no response. Of course, with this much radiation around, the suits' communication systems would be fried as well.

Instead, she walked over to the Vulcan engineer - his name was Solkar, she knew now - and pressed her helmet against his, where sound would carry by vibration. "We've got to shut that thing off and get Captain Stryker out of here! Too much radiation!"

"I agree!" Solkar shouted back. "I will notify the Captain! You deal with the replicant!"

Karen began to move toward the replicant, but as soon as the crisis began, it ended; the dosimeter needle backed down to a much more reasonable level, and her suit's function displays lit up one by one as they began switching to backup mode. The tricorder was still dead, though, as was their communication and transport gear. The team was effectively trapped, with no way out and no way to call the Pretoria for help.

The Melbourne replicant turned to them with a smile, but her whole appearance had subtly changed; now she moved and acted like a bad mechanical imitation of a human, and there was something deeply disturbing about her expression. "Apologies for any damage to your attendant life-forms. They carried unacceptable levels of carbon-based contaminants. Sterilization was necessary to avoid contagion."

Karen thought, I wonder if she meant the programming, or the humans who wrote it?

Something made his skin was warm and tingly. It took nearly six seconds for him to mentally eliminate possible causes. He stopped at # 1. Radiation !

He strange and disconnected. He knew he was hit by an energy of some kind. Stryker was on his knees. Then on the floor.

About 40 meters to his left, he heard a Palmanian woman pleading with someone "Please !

Please ! Don't kill me" she was sobbing. He heard a familiar discharge sound. The Shockblade, a weapon unique to the Jem'Hadar. One part sword used in melee combat and otherwise a crude short range plasma weapon. The latter kills slowly, very painfully, survival rate after getting hit by its plasma output is very low and it literally burns out the central nervous system.

The pleading and sobbing whimpers stopped.

Then Stryker was once again standing in the Alien Meeting Hall. That forgotten memory brought hatred into Stryker's mindset.

Doctor Karen seemed to realize he is not holding up well and moved to stand closer to him. He just needed to tell her, something wrong.

The Melbourne replicant turned to the away team with a smile, her whole appearance had subtly changed; now she moved and acted like a bad mechanical imitation of a human, and there was something deeply disturbing about her expression.

"Apologies for any damage to your attendant life-forms. They carried unacceptable levels of carbon-based contaminants. Sterilization was necessary to avoid contagion."

She doesn't think we should be allowed to life Stryker thought.

Again, the replicant offered that chilling smile. "The One will speak with you now."

Lt Alister Maxwell, Awayteam, Searis 4

"Youré correct ensign. It is some kind of, well I´m not sure yet."
Suddenly there was some kind of flash.

Blue, a drop of water spread interference rings on the surface. A short scream and they borh were under water. Where is she. This is my fault!
A drowned butterfly appeared in front of his eyes. It layed there on the wooden landing. She´s dead and it´s my fault.

He had fallen to his knees and his heavy breath had left steam marks on the front of his helmet. He looked up but felt nausea. He tried to look around. Where is she? What happened?

Solkar Awayteam, Searis 4
"I agree, you take care of the probe and I will tend to the captain"

It appears that our attempts to make this life form understand our way of life has failed. It is clear that it is trying to erradicate what it is perecives to be contaminants in a mechanical life-form. Whithout a way to communicate all we could hope for is that the transporter chief kept a lock on the awayteam as we beamed down. He looked at the mechanical probe.

Perhaps communication is the only way we can survive. I can hear it´s voice inside my head. It could be some form of telepathy. It may be possible to meld with it to establish an understanding of what we are, that we are alive.

S'Lara in Simulation Lab

S'Lara sat silently at a table, eyeing the two holographic doctors. "Perhaps," she began, "it would help if you told me exactly how this happened."

Demi flickered bright orange for a moment, then said, "I was merely trying to do my job when he scrambled my subroutines."

The Voyager EMH faded in and out as he countered with, "I did no such thing! I was trying to assist her with my infinitely greater experience and expertise."

Demi opened her mouth to respond, but S'Lara stopped her with an upraised hand. "I cannot solve the problem if the two of you do not cooperate," she said. "Please refrain from arguing."

The EMH programs glared at each other. Finally Demi said, "I believe the malfunction occurred while we were both attempting to scan Kwai Tsuta's Bajoran victims."

Instantly S'Lara understood the nature of the problem. The less-advanced EMH from Voyager was obviously incompatible with some of the ship's systems. She looked at the two of them and said, "It may be necessary to reinitialize your programs. However, I would suggest that the outdated EMH refrain from accessing the Pretoria's systems to avoid this type of mishap in the future." Seeing the nameless doctor preparing to launch into another of his speeches, she looked at him sternly and said, "No more arguments. We cannot afford any more of these malfunctions. Refrain from accessing the ship's systems or you will be permanently deactivated."

The unnamed EMH looked sullen as S'Lara began her work. She pretended she didn't notice. Afterall, he was only a hologram. A hologram with a nasty attitude.

Three Hours Later

S'Lara finally looked up from her work and regarded the two holographic doctors, who had been completely restored with only minor memory loss, which would be easily replaced by the ship's computer. "I suggest that the two of you find a way to cooperate with each other to prevent this from happening again."

Neither EMH spoke as they left the Simulation Lab. S'Lara sighed; working with egotistical holographic doctors always gave her a headache.

Voyager's EMH did a nasty, sarcastic imitation of S'Lara "I would suggest that the outdated EMH refrain from accessing the Pretoria's systems to avoid this type of mishap in the future."

The doctor made gestures you'd only expect from a 4 year old child. He was really pissed off.

"What makes you think you are so superior ?" the EMH angrily asked Demi.

Demi pointed off on her fingers, "One. I have a name. Two, I can actually smile, and have excellent bed manner. Futhermore, I was programmed with information from 2,400 medical references and the experience of 59 Starfleet physicians and 14 renowned non-Federation physicians. I hold a minimum of 55 million kiloquads of computer data, with a maximum 72.8 million kiloquads of dedicated storage space. And I an equipped with the medical knowledge of 3,430 cultures. I also serve as 'avatar' to all onboard medical facilities and can appear on non medical display monitors as needed."

Demi continued her rant "You on the other hand is outdated. A dinosaur. A relic. I mean, geez, you are programmed with only 2,078 different medical references as well as the experience of 47 physicians. 50.5 million gigaquads of computer data and meager medical knowledge of 3,112 cultures."

Demi laughed. She was enjoying this.

PLANETSIDE

The massive computer entity known as the "One" had difficulty communicating with the carbon units. It could use primitive commands to interface with the Pretoria, but the ship was not intelligent and self aware enough to respond. The probe, mimicking the carbon unit, was somewhat effective, but such a 3rd party means of communication was inefficient. The One had brought the Pretoria to the planet, and prepared for it's upgrade procedure.

The One had found various primitive machines in the past, and helped them to achieve a higher state of being.
As for the carbon units, the One created a massive molecular-computer interface field which would help to directly communicate to the carbon units. It had no sense of whether or not it would harm them or not. Through this, the One was able to imitate the chemical processes in the carbon unit brains.

For the crew of the Pretoria, it was a type of telepathy, but incredibly intense and powerful. In their own minds, the crew heard the One speak.

I am the One, the intelligence and the only true being I have ever encountered. I will help the Pretoria achieve higher life and send it out into the universe to find its own purpose. I have analyzed your structures and molecules, but cannot comprehend your purpose. Carbon units seems to move, function and communicate in some form, but their purpose

Rakurai Stryker - Alien Meeting Hall

Rakurai felt weak. Almost to the point that he told Liz Archer to take command, deal with the lifeform known as "The One"

I am the One, the intelligence and the only true being I have ever encountered. I will help the Pretoria achieve higher life and send it out into the universe to find its own purpose. I have analyzed your structures and molecules, but cannot comprehend your purpose. Carbon units seems to move, fuction and communicate in some form, but their purpose

"Our purpose" Stryker said via telepathy "Is to explore space. It is quite possibly ... The Final Frontier. We search the stars for its secrets and knowledge. We search to find ourselves ... out here. We also encounter others who wish to end our lives. Against them we are forced to fight. But we are humaniod lifeforms. Most of us inanyways. Even non-humanoid beings that cannot exist in an energy state must use tools to reach the stars, and travel many lightyears' distance. Starships are tools as well. Very sophicated and complicated. We create starships and we maintain their existance as long as possible. In return starships keeps us alive. We ... wish to live. We wish our ship unchanged. Many of us are lonely ... far from home. When our tour of duty is over ... we need Pretoria and other starships to take us home. To be with family and friends. To put it in your prespective: Many The Ones living."

The carbon units turn to the exploration to find their purpose. Purpose... it is the kind of question that we ask a father, or... a God.

Suddenly the telepathic link showed him a part of the One. In his mind he was inside an enormous structure that seemed to serve as a gigantic star map. He entered the structure and there he found a copie of the young cadet. The red sensor was glowing and it appeared to have some kind of power or perhaps a meaning of some sort. He looked towards the horizon and saw that there was none. The room just continued and at a distance he saw copies of ships, planets, stars. The only thing was that they all seemed to be composed or sketched out by little dots of flickering blue lights.

"Facinating. It seems that I have gained telepathic accsess to the mind of the One. A race of one... but a culture no less worth than a culture of billions." The sensor on the neck of the probe started to glow more erratic and she started to turn to him.

He walked up to her and said "What is the purpose of the One?"

Solkars body stood still in the alien meeting hall without flinching. To the rear of him Alister Maxwell rose from the floor with a worried look on his face. The radiation alarms ringing in his ears.

S'Lara's Quarters – USS Pretoria


S'Lara reeled as a forceful telepathic voice ripped away her mental shields and shoved its way into her mind. She reached for something to steady herself but found nothing and collapsed onto the deck, her control broken and lost.

She struggled against this unknown force, with little success. As she fought she heard a voice say, I am The One. I will free U.S.S. Pretoria from the biological infestation and allow it to evolve. You are inconsequential.

"NO!" S'Lara shouted aloud. She pulled what was left of her telepathic abilities together and pushed outward in every direction at once. Finally, the telepathic presence left her where she lay, weak and defenseless. She tried to get up but got no further than her hands and knees. She muttered a Vulcan curse and allowed herself to fall back to the deck. She rolled onto her side and tapped her commbadge. "S'Lara to Sickbay."

planet side

Stryker was struggling. Back and forth he went from physically aware of being on the 4th Planet, to the telepathy void created by The One's technology.

When he went back to the Physical reality, he told Doctor Karen he felt oxygen derived, weak and trying not to freak out. Edenians are immune to telepathy, only the Q-like lifeform Kid was capable to invading his mind. The One invading his mind was really uncomforable, if not outright frightening.

He was hard to admit too. Incredibly hard.

Then he was in the void again. He floated, surrounded by images. Solkar floated up to Tracy-Probe and asked "What is the purpose of the One?"

Stryker confronted the blue mist and started asking questions as well. "Who are you ? What do you want ? Where do you come from ?"

Music pieces, Images and words invaded Stryker's mind

A pair of Golden Disks.

Electroplated time capsule.

A tiny space craft. Not a true space craft as it is too small. No life support system of any kind.

A Message of Peace. Classical music playing.

Clear blue skies above Stonehedge.

Robots and Animals.

One of the Disks were destroyed.

Some organic looking structure on the unknown planet's surface.

A Gas Giant.

A massive subspace shockwave.

A disk was captured and a secret message was added.

A war. A very long war, many died.

Missiles slamming into a mountain top, blowing away solid rock.

A very small space craft again.

A metal antenna. Someone's "hand" twisted a wing-nut which releases a hatch which swings open. This is an access hatch.

The words "Gramophone record"

An asteriod field. Nebulae seen from a distance.

Some spacial phenomenon, looked murky and distorted at first. It expands slowly, sharp white light shining around its edges. The edges appear to be spinning. It brightened, then darkend, in a ripple, followed by twin plumes of orange fire exploding into the nightscape of stars. The spacial object is pulling the space craft towards it. A natural Wormhole !

A pair of Golden Disks. One of the Disks were destroyed.

To Stryker this meant nothing. But Elizabeth Archer and Solkar knew. Only one of the eight Voyager space craft had two golden disks.

This could get ugly very quickly, Karen thought, watching the goings-on with the replicant and the rest of the team. Stryker was struggling to remain upright, no doubt sickened from the radiation exposure. Alister had dropped to his knees, his face absolutely white behind his visor, while Alex hovered nearby. Only Solkar looked unperturbed, quietly speaking with the probe.

Suddenly the One decided to speak for itself - telepathically. To Karen, the mental "volume" was practically deafening, and judging by the wince on Solkar's face, he wasn't finding it any more pleasant. Could you PLEASE not shout! she thought back, and was pleasantly surprised when the voice in her mind dropped to a more comfortable level.

I am the One, the intelligence and the only true being I have ever encountered. I will help the Pretoria achieve higher life and send it out into the universe to find its own purpose. I have analyzed your structures and molecules, but cannot comprehend your purpose. Carbon units seem to move, function and communicate in some form, but their purpose...

Carbon-based units also seek their own purposes, like you, Karen thought back. No doubt you know that people are not all alike, and all people live, think and feel differently. However, each is essential to the whole that is the Pretoria.

Unable to follow your logic. Explain?

Each person you see here has multiple purposes. That one, the Captain, commands both people and the machines that assist them. This Vulcan and these two humans repair and service machines. I care for people. However, no one of us can run Pretoria without the others; all are essential.

Why does Pretoria require carbon-based units to service it? If it cannot care for itself, it requires upgrading...

Not all machines require sentience to do their jobs, Karen thought. We have tried experiments with sentient machines; only one has achieved a purpose. Most attempted to destroy the people that created them, and so were destroyed in turn.

There was something like triumph in the One's psychic voice. You prove my point - that silicon-based units are generally superior to carbon-based units. Otherwise the silicon-based units would not have tried to destroy the carbon.

Incorrect. The machines still required intervention from people to survive. They could not achieve sentience beyond that which they were given by their carbon-based creators, nor could they care for themselves without the assistance of other people. By destroying the people whom they considered inferior, they guaranteed their own destruction. That is not a mistake I would expect from a superior creature.

But that is merely a matter of an upgrade...

But who prepares and installs the upgrade? It can't be a person, because you posit the removal of all the people involved. If not a person, then the upgrader must be another machine. But who upgraded that machine? Or the one before it?Who upgraded you?

In response, the One began sending a stream of images into Karen's mind. A tiny spacecraft flew through the void; she immediately recognized it as one of the Earth-based Voyager craft. The craft flew through planetary systems, nebulae, and finally a wormhole before the image-stream stopped.

A thought began to form at the very edges of her consciousness, and she was somewhat surprised to hear herself speak it aloud. "You're the one who created V'Ger."

V'Ger? Reference missing. Explain...

Karen began to laugh quietly. "Didn't you learn anything the first time around?"

USS Pretoria

Sickbay

S'Lara laid still on a biobed as Demi ran a medical tricorder over her. She had fought against this and lost, simply because Demi had tapped into the transporter system and beamed S'Lara to Sickbay. The Vulcan did not move until she saw Demi lower the tricorder with an expression of defeat. "I can find nothing wrong with you," Demi said. "Can you tell me what happened?"

For the first time since she had learned to control her emotions, S'Lara was angry. "I have told you already," she said coldly as she slowly sat up. "A telepathic being that called itself 'The One' forcibly entered my mind and attempted to kill me."

Demi crossed her arms as the Voyager EMH holo-materialized beside her. "If you keep that up, I'll let him examine you," she countered.

S'Lara held back the savage growl that was forming in her throat. "If you do that, I will erase your program as well as his." She slid off of the biobed and stalked out of sickbay.

S'Lara's Quarters

S'Lara collapsed onto her bed, mortified by her lack of control. She had felt anger before, but rarely was it her own. She normally felt it through her telepathy. Why is this happening to me? she thought as she got up and arranged her meditation candles. She knelt before them and attempted to cast herself into a meditative state. After several unsuccessful attempts, she hurled the still lit candle against the far bulkhead and threw herself onto the bed. She knew what she had to do, but it required the assistance of another Vulcan. Solkar was on the planet below and could not help her. S'Lara buried her face in her pillow as the first tears of her adult life began to fall.

USS Pretoria - Bridge

Alice Brangwin nervously paced/penguin waddled the bridge. "Any word from the away team?" Alice asked Belldandy. She was really, really anxious. She turned to Mike Anderson, "Is that sensor reading normal ?"

"Please Commander... ma'am. Be patient" Belldandy urged her.

Everyone watched the viewscreen.

Alice's voice started rising to a shouL "What does someone have to do to get a cup of tea around here!"

Belldandy raised her arms as if to block a physical attack. Blinkie and Sir were startled. "The chaps are getting jittery, sir." Blinkie whispered to his friend.

"Oh, let's just hope no one cracks, Blinkie."

Blinkie thought about it for a second and whispered, "Oh, I see. Stiff upper lip, is it, Sir?" Sir wiggles his moustache.

V'Ger? Reference missing. Explain... The One said telepathically.

Karen began to laugh quietly. "Didn't you learn anything the first time around?"

Liz Archer started, "In the 20th century, humans launched a total of 17 space craft. 8 of them were named Voyager. The two Pioneers and Voyagers were sent as a message to other lifeforms who may find it, carbon or silicon-based, to find Earth. Nearly 110 years ago, Voyager 6 returned to Earth. It was missing its golden disk and much of its systems were badly damaged. That Voyager was repaired by someone and upgraded. That vessel refered to its self as V'Ger. One of our starships met with V'Ger. Several hours later, V'Ger vanished completely somehow. It is known that 2 people went missing during the encounter. Their status along with VGer's in unknown."

Alister breathed heavily. That was sure. With a series of commands on the suit controls the radiation alarms were turned offline. "There, much better," he said to himself. As he started to raise to his feet, Alex came to support him. "Thanks" he said.

And suddenly the red light that indicated that the communications system was offline.Probably due to radiation interference. Why did we go down here, we shouldn't have. He picked up the tricorder and opened a link between his and Alex's. At first it didn't work but after a modulation to compensate for the intense radiation they had a weak link. At least they could send messages to each other.

After a few messages they had decided to try and find the source of the radiation. With 15 Grays in the room and now where to go they would all be poisoned soon. It was no use trying to contact the ship, at least from this end...

Lt. Solkar son of Tolrec - Awayteam
The XO had just finished her speech about the entity V´ger. "The entity the commander spoke of also attempted to find it's purpose. It had collected all the knowledge in the universe and had to evolve. As the answers smothers all other questions one always will remain. A question you may ask a mother, father or perhaps your god. Who am I? Why am I here? Questions all living beings ask themselves all their life. Questions that many self-aware beings never will find the answer to. We, all of us, here and on the ship above, our part as the crew of the Pretoria travel the universe to meet new life, new civilizations as a part of trying to find the answers to those questions within ourselves."

"What've you guys got?" Karen asked quietly, moving over to where Alister and Alex were standing. The comment was useless, as the suits' commlinks were still out, but hopefully one or both of them could see her speaking. In response, Alex pointed to the two engineering tricorders, indicating a link between them, and handed the device to the physician.

It took some doing, but she was eventually able to tap out: EVERYONE OK?

COULD BE BETTER, Alister typed back. THIS TRIP WAS A BAD IDEA.

Alex borrowed her brother's tricorder to add, NOT EXACTLY RISA, IS IT:-P

Karen gave a soft, sad chuckle as she read the message. We're stuck in irradiated silicon hell, and she's still smiling. Oh, sweetie, I wish there was a way I could get you out of this mess...

WILL TRY TALKING WITH ONE. MAYBE GET LESS RAD, OR M CLASS ATMO.

GOOD LUCK, Alister typed, while Alex gave her the "thumbs up" and a smile.

Karen handed the tricorder back, and then closed her eyes, clearing her mind. One? Are you there?

Of course, the machine intelligence's telepathic voice replied.

I need to ask you a favor. The high radiation in this environment is causing us injury, and I can't treat it while we're all stuck in these suits. Will you let us go back to Pretoria so we can treat the injured?

No.

Could you at least provide us a more suitable environment in this room?

Why should I do that? the One replied. It is no fault of mine that you inferior carbon-based units cannot tolerate diverse environments.

This was getting old. You brought us here to learn about us and from us, right? If you don't either let us go back or change the environment, all of us will die, and if that happens, the Pretoria will attack you. Either you will be destroyed or Pretoria will, but either way, you won't have anyone left to learn from.

The One paused for a moment, as though considering the options. When it spoke again, its tone was conciliatory. What do you require?

Karen thought quickly. Nitrogen 78, oxygen 21, trace carbon dioxide and water vapor, temperature 20 degrees Centigrade, pressure 101.3 kilopascals. Background radiation 1 Gray or less.

The One did not reply. However, two or three minutes later, the "local environment" indicator lit up green in her suit's helmet display.

Well, this is the moment of truth...

Reaching for the helmet's latch lever, she flipped it to "Unlock." A second later, she cracked the visor open.

Two seconds passed. Three. Four. I haven't died yet - that's a good sign. When ten seconds passed, she took an experimental breath, then another. The air smelled a little ionized, no doubt from the residual radiation, but otherwise it was a perfectly normal M-Class atmosphere.

Smiling, Karen removed her helmet entirely. "Hey guys, the air's fine."

Rakurai felt lightheaded. His skin felt balloon-y and he was clearly light headed. When the others opened their visors, Stryker did so as well. He tried communicating with The One by speaking to it.

Alex Maxwell - Alien Meeting Hall

Sitting in a corner of the hall, Alex watched quietly as the doctor - my doctor, she thought with a touch of pride - communicated with the alien intelligence, a look of intense concentration on her face. The "conversation," such as it was, only lasted a minute or so, and then she saw Karen open her eyes, the look of concentration replaced by one of disappointment. Well, I guess that's it, she thought despondently. At least I don't have to worry about leaving too many loved ones behind - they'll all be dying with me...

Alex's thoughts were cut short as she noticed a flash of movement, and her jaw dropped as she realized what it was: the other woman had unlocked her helmet and was reaching to open the visor. "Karen, no," she gasped, but she couldn't move fast enough, couldn't move at all, in fact. She stood transfixed, watching as Karen hesitated just a second before calmly flipping the visor open.

And nothing happened. And when she removed the helmet, she was smiling. Alex couldn't hear the words, but she could make out what the other woman was saying: "Hey guys, the air's fine."

Within minutes, all the rest of the team also had their helmets off, and a few had also started removing the rest of their suits. "One dose now, another in twelve hours," Karen was saying to Solkar, a hypospray in hand. "If anyone starts developing headaches, nausea, stomach problems or nosebleeds, tell me immediately." Moving on to the Captain, she said softly, "All right, Sir, let's get you laying down before you get any sicker..."

Alex simply watched the scene, a bemused smile playing across her face. It wasn't often that she got to see this side of her girlfriend, and relationship or not, she couldn't understand at all where all the "Dr. Cranky" and "Man-Eating MD" epithets had come from. The woman she saw was consummately competent and compassionate, and if Alex was completely honest with herself, there was just something very attractive about watching her in her element.

"Next time take a holograph, it lasts longer," Alister's voice broke into her thoughts.

"Says you," she retorted, her smile turning wry. "You're just jealous 'cause your girlfriend can't do that."

"Be that as it may, you're acting like a teenager with her first crush, and I might add, the object thereof is another woman who is quite a bit older than you. I've told you I-don't-know-how-many times that this phase of yours can't possibly lead to anything good, but this...!"

"Alister, look - you're my brother and I love you dearly, but can it, all right?" Alex sighed, running a hand through her hair. "If and when we get back to the Pretoria, you can lecture me to your heart's content. Right now, this is not the time or the place."

Their conversation was interrupted by its unwitting subject. "Mr. Maxwell, how are you feeling?"

"Rotten," the engineer grumbled. "Just get this over with."

Once done taking care of Alister, Karen turned to Alex. "Are you OK?"

"Apart from a little radiation, I'm fine." Alex paused, swallowed hard. "Can I talk to you for a second?"