In the universe of Star Trek, 2376 AD

Delta Quadrant

U.S.S. Voyager NCC-74656

We appeared in the mess hall of the Starship Voyager. It was late in the ship's 'night', so it was deserted, as I had expected it to be. I pulled the PADD out of my pocket, with HAL's eye glowing in the darkness. "HAL, have you assimilated all the data that I have given you?" HAL replied quietly. "Yes Tom, I have integrated the information you have given me concerning this universe, its history and Voyager into my memory." I nodded, and HAL continued, " Tom, this data cannot be correct, how can it be that in this universe I only existed as a character in a motion picture?" I frowned, because I knew this was going to happen. "If I were a human, I might say that it 'boggles the mind', but since I am not, it requires a great deal more than what I have experienced to boggle my mind." I nodded "It's hard to explain HAL, but it's the truth, you really are in a parallel universe where a sentient computer wasn't created until the mid 2200's, and at that point it was very unstable, since then research into true AI has been very limited…" I paused, "I understand, Tom, at least I believe I do." HAL said sagely, "That's good, because you'll need your wits about you for this…" An alarm bell went off in my head, "HAL, they've detected us, they're probably sending a security team right now. I want you to go on standby mode for now, so you don't draw attention, so just play dead until I tell you to resume operation, okay?" "I understand Tom, suspending activity." The display on the PADD blinked off, and I put it in my pocket. I walked through the main door out of the mess hall, and down the corridor, in the direction of the approaching security team. The four officers in the team were running towards the mess hall, and almost passed me by as I strolled down the corridor. The leader of the team, Lieutenant Munroe shouted, "Freeze!" I stopped, turned around and looked in his general direction, "Me?" Before I could say anything else, Munroe had snapped a pair of rather futuristic handcuffs on my wrists. He tapped his comm badge "Munroe to Tuvok, we have the intruder in custody, we're taking him to the brig to be detained." "Acknowledged." Tuvok responded over the communicator. So they dragged me off to the brig.

Four Hours Later

I sat on the metal bench in my confinement cell in the brig, the forcefield buzzing merrily in front of me. A few crewmen in were analyzing HAL's PADD in Science Lab 1, but were still unable to even turn on the PADD, much less access the information on it. The Doctor was looking forward to Seven of Nine's monthly check-up, with a lot more eagerness than was normal for an EMH. Captain Janeway was drinking coffee in her ready room, oh, and the guys on deck 15 were feeling a bit unloved at the moment, so I thought I'd make them feel special. At that moment all the computer consoles and PADDs on the ship displayed the following:

'ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!'

Love,

Deck 15

Naturally the ship immediately went to red alert, as this was apparently a very serious matter, or maybe because the captain was bored, probably a combination of both, but what happened next would haunt me for the rest of my days. Ha, not really, just kidding. Anyway, all that happened was this: The Captain came over the ship wide intercom and said in her usual dry tone, "All hands, this is the Captain, whoever pulled that little stunt with the ship's consoles will get their holodeck privileges revoked for a month, and I'm not kidding! So don't try it again! That is all!" I snickered under my breath at my little prank. Damn it feels good to be a gangsta…I suppose I should speak with Katie, before she gets too cranky. I looked at the security officer and spoke up, "Hey you, tell Katie Janeway I want to talk to her for a minute." The lieutenant outside my cell replied, "Sure, why not, it's not like the captain's got anything better to do." The security officer tapped his comm badge," Captain, the intruder finally started talking, he just asked for you by name…" Janeway's voice replied, "Acknowledged, I'm on my way…" I leaned against the wall, and waited.