Chapter Six – Recovery
Torres stood facing the back of the ship. It all started to come together in her mind. This entire scene seemed to strange to be real, because it wasn't real. She started at the flickering trees, and then suddenly they seemed to stabilize. They stopped flickering. B'Elanna turned and faced the command staff, all staring in different directions lost in thought.She realized they all must be holograms as well. I need to get out of here as soon as I can. She thought.
"Captain, I need to go back to engineering and get some kits. We need to start assessing the damage and logging what we need to fix." She lied. Janeway turned to her.
"Sure, round up as much of your crew as you can." She replied, and turned back to Cavit. B'Elanna hurried down, and got back into the ship. Moments later, she entered engineering, and looked around making sure she was alone.
"Computer, end program." She said aloud, only to get no response. "Computer, arch." Still nothing. "Computer, exit." Nothing happened. She looked around, wondering where the access panels were. Voyagers holodeck had access panels hidden throughout all simulations, and the only trick was to find them. She searched the room, and found nothing other than burnt out panels from the simulation.
"I need to find Hogan." She muttered in frustration, after not finding an access panel. She leaned up against a busted control panel, thinking. She called him from her comm badge, then remembered it was busted. Then she thought of something. This comm badge is fake, a simulated one. She clipped it off her chest, and looked at the different design. The simulated Janeway had told her to change her uniform and badge. This simulation must have started when the energy wave struck. She thought. I wonder if the holographic characters are in on this… if they are being influenced by some sort of alien. She stood there in the dark room thinking. I need my real comm badge. She turned and climbed the stairs to the second level of engineering. She had stored her original comm badge in a locker on the second level. She found her badge, and tapped it.
"Torres to Janeway." She said, only for it to reply by three short beeps, meaning its sarium krellide power cell was too low to transmit the message. She tapped it against her mouth thinking. She then looked at her holographic badge. Wondering if it would be possible, she snapped the back off of it and looked at the power cell. Identical to her regular badge! She carefully switched the power cells, and then tried again.
"Torres to Janeway." For a moment, nothing happened. She sighed, thinking she had been defeated. Suddenly, her badge emitted a loud burst of static. She held it in her hand, thinking. Something seemed to be interfering with the badge's reception. She ran back downstairs and searched for a microadjuster. After finding one, she opened her comm badge again and increased the power output to the subspace transceiver. She then reset the badge and allowed it to reconfigure itself. B'Elanna snapped the cover back on it, and tapped it again, activating it.
"Torres to Janeway, please respond." She held her breath.
"Janew…here… Lieu… odeck, we a… rescu… standb…" The badge emitted a garbled noise.She felt her body surge with hope. She needed to boost the signal gain of her badge to cut through the interference. She searched the room for a tricorder, and finally found one that worked. Holograpic tricorder or not, it still does the same thing. She thought as she flipped it open. B'Elanna set it to receive the signal, amplify it, then send it out to the comm badge. The tricorder beeped, and started instantly working. Her badge immeadetly cracked to life.
"Janeway to Torres, are you there?" Janeways voice said. B'Elanna had never been happier to hear it.
"I'm here captain! What's going on?" She said, as she looked around making sure nobody was there.
"Lietnant, something has gone seriously wrong with the holodecks. We have been trying to get in contact with you three ever since late yesterday when it happened." B'Elanna frowned.
"Us three?" She heard Janeway pause.
"Yourself, Ensign Hogan, and the Doctor…" Janeway said.
"I haven't seen the Doctor at all, and I have lost contact with Hogan when the ship crashed." B'Elanna said, looking up at the holographic warp core.
"The ship crashed? Looks like we have a lot to talk about. Life scans show you and Hogan are in there, but we are having some serious problems shutting it down. We… hold on a moment. Janeway out." She said, cutting the signal. B'Elanna looked around, thinking.
"I need to find out how to get out of here." She muttered. "And the Doctor… I wonder what happened to him?" She said aloud, thinking.
"Janeway to Torres. Do you have access to a tricorder?" B'Elanna looked down at the small black tricorder, with its holographic display.
"I have a very interesting futuristic one, but it seems to do most of the tricks ours do." B'Elanna replied.
"Try to set it to emit a holographic dispersion field, we might be able to transport you out through it."
"Good idea, I didn't think of that. Standby." B'Elanna said, as she looked down at the tricorder. She accessed a few commands, and initiated her new program. Suddenly, a few inches all around B'Elanna were disrupted for a moment, showing the hologrid. "Its working, but hurry I don't think its going to last." B'Elanna said.
"Stand by, B'Elanna. We have a lock." B'Elanna looked around the room one last time, and then felt the odd sensation of her body being broken down in to millions of particles. She had never been so happy to feel the transporter in her life.
--
The Doctor poured himself a drink, as he looked out the window of his suite. He looked around the great city, missing his life on Voyager. He remembered deactivating himself last night, and suddenly remembered waking up in a bed in this room. He was apparently a successful businessman in this city, with no proof of his existence on Voyager. He knew he wasn't insane though, and he was trying to play along with the locals as much as he could. Suddenly, his personal communication device started to ring. He picked it up and answered it.
"Hello?"
"David, its Jerry. Are you about ready for our meeting with the senate?" The man on the other end said.
"Sure, I have all my notes right here… I'll be down in ten minutes." The Doctor replied.
"Ok, I'll meet you in the lobby. Later." The Doctor heard the communicator click, as it disconnected. He pocketed the device, and grabbed his notes. Looking around one last time, he headed to a meeting he knew absolutely nothing about.
--
"The pattern buffer is overloading… reroute to secondary controls." Vorik said as he consulted his tricorder. Janeway walked into transporter room two, and noticed the amount of engineers in the room.
"Whats wrong?" She said, as she walked up behind Vorik to the control panel.
"There is a signal coming from the holodeck trying to pull B'Elannas signal back into the holodeck." Vorik replied. "Its causing a strain on the transporter systems, we need to get her out of the buffer quickly." Janeway nodded, and took control of the transporter. She tapped a few buttons, and isolated the transporter from the rest of the ships systems, causing it to cut all outside signals. She tapped another button, and slid her fingers down the panel, causing B'Elanna to materialize onto the transporter pad.
"Captain!" She said, as she jumped down off the pad. "Its great to see you, everybody!" She continued, as she looked around the room at her familiar staff. She looked down at the floors and walls- all the correct color. Janeway stepped down from the control.
"Its good to see you too, Lieutenant. Now, what is going on in there?" B'Elanna started to talk, then realized she was still holding the tricorder from the simulation. She held the small black device up, and flipped it open. The small holographic display shot out from the device, and it started beeping. She held it up for everyone to see.
"Well, we are at war with the Romulans, Voyager is the flagship of the Federation, and we had just crash-landed on a mystical planet named Aona." She smiled to herself at the look on everyone's face, especially Janeways, who seemed a bit sorry she asked.