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Stardate 54338.2 Personal Log Entry, Cadet Icheb
Lieutenant Torres is back safe on board the ship. Many times, I must wait a long time to find out what happened during an action, and then, only through the ship's "grapevine," as Naomi calls it. This time, I learned about what happened directly from Lieutenant Torres. She explained how the leader of the holograms, Iden, became dangerous to everyone, not just to the Hirogen, because he developed what our EMH diagnosed as megalomania. The Doctor finally had to kill Iden in order to save the few remaining Hirogen from being murdered by him. This must have been very difficult for our Doctor, because of his Hippocratic Oath, but in this case, he had to do it or see others die by Iden's hand.
Lieutenant Torres told me that most of the holograms she'd met on the holoemitters-equipped ship didn't seem really bad to her. They were being misled by Iden. The Doctor was led completely astray by him, too. She admitted Iden sounded reasonable for a while, when he wanted Lieutenant Torres to help them set up a field generator to permit the holograms to live on a Y-class, or demon-type planet. Later, they learned the Iden hologram lied to everyone, especially our EMH, about what his true intentions were. With Iden gone, and once the surviving holograms are reprogrammed, Lieutenant Torres believes they will not be dangerous to "organics" like us.
Lieutenant Torres also told me her opinions about Cardassians were altered when she worked with one of the holograms. Kejal, their engineer, was formed in the image of a Cardassian. Lieutenant Torres doesn't know if Kejal is more representative of what Cardassians are really like than what she thought from her experiences as a member of the Maquis. Her previous contacts with Cardassians were always with warriors trying to kill her. The only other Cardassian she'd spent any time with before meeting this hologram was Seska, and she was masquerading as a Bajoran engineer. "She was a spy. The engineer part of her was just a cover," Lieutenant Torres told me. "I can't judge all Cardassian engineers by Seska. It's possible more of them might be like Kejal. I doubt I'll ever find out for sure."
We've now left the Y-class planet Iden called Ha'dara, the "Home of Light," behind us. The holograms hoped they would be allowed to live in peace there, since the atmosphere on Ha'dara is poisonous to almost all non-holographic forms of life, but the Hirogen know its location. They could easily return with an overwhelming force and destroy them after Voyager resumes its journey to the Alpha Quadrant.
The Hirogen technician Donik has chosen to remain with them on their holoemitters-equipped ship. He wants to work with Kejal, the only hologram who is currently active. Kejal is now their leader, since Iden's program was unrecoverable, according to Lieutenant Torres. Donik wishes to undo the damage he did by blindly following the orders of his Alpha. It led to the deaths of many other Hirogen - including this Alpha.
I can relate. I wish to dedicate my Starfleet career to those who lost their lives on the Borg cube I came from, because of the pathogen which lingers inside me. I understand what happened isn't my fault. My parents put it into me without my knowledge or consent. Since the drones on the cube had already lost their individuality, their lives had also been taken away. I do sometimes wonder if any of the drones on my cube ever went to visit Unimatrix Zero while they were regenerating. Maybe they would have become part of the Resistance, too, if things had gone differently. Or perhaps, if they had been rescued by Voyager, the way our Children's Collective was, they could have learned to become individuals in the way Seven has. I know I'll never find that out either.
After all the stories I'd heard about the bloodthirsty Hirogen, it was good to meet one who was nothing like I'd heard about. It reminds me I must always judge all individuals on their own merits and not to think all of them are alike, just because they belong to the same species.
I must admit, when Lieutenant Torres told me Iden's program was "unrecoverable," I perceived a bit of prevarication in her response. It would not surprise me to learn that Kejal, Donik, and Lieutenant Torres had agreed to delete his program instead, rather than try to repair it. They may have felt his megalomania was too deeply ingrained in it for them to repair.
Only five Hirogen hunters survived Iden's massacre on Ha'dara. The Beta insisted they would not leave the ship and its database behind, since it was "Hirogen property." No one doubted the Beta really wanted to exterminate the holograms (and, I think, he would have been pleased to destroy Donik as well), but Neelix asked him a critical question. What story did the Beta want to be remembered by? Would he be remembered as the Beta who only survived because his life had been saved by a hologram? Or would it be the tale of the Beta who heroically took over the hunt and destroyed the holograms and their ship? He could be "a legend." Neelix didn't say anything about the first scenario being a "cautionary tale," but the Beta was smart enough to know that's what it would have been.
I'm also sure that if the Hirogen had wanted to continue the hunt, the captain would have been forced to reactivate the holograms so they could defend themselves and Donik. From what Lieutenant Torres and the Doctor told me about the Starfleet hologram called Weiss, there's no guarantee the Hirogen would have beaten them. Only five Hirogen were left, and all of them might have died if Weiss had the chance to attack them. By leaving the holograms alone, the Beta and the other four survivors could maintain the fiction of their heroism in overcoming the holograms.
The Beta picked the legend. It's a lie, of course, but as Tom told me afterwards, history is recorded by the victors. If there's no one around to contradict it, that's the way it remains. The holograms don't want to fight anyone, Kejal insists. They just want to be left alone to discover what sort of people they really are. They have their own history to create. They will preserve the real story, but they don't mind if the Hirogen maintain the fiction of their victory.
End personal log entry
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Stardate 54347.2 Personal Log Entry, Cadet Icheb
We are in orbit over a planet Seven and I identified, similar in some ways to Ha'dara, on which the holograms will settle. One of the advantages of this one is that it isn't a Class-Y, where Donik would be unable to survive on the surface. It's a Class-H. There's a barely breathable, very dry atmosphere, and no surface water at all. Donik said he has the technology to be able to extract a sufficient supply of water from the rocks for his personal use. The holograms have no need of any. While the gravity is a little greater than most humanoids would find comfortable, Donik's Hirogen musculature can handle it easily.
We identified a system of caverns, very extensive, with a space large enough in which to hide their ship. Our crew is helping them excavate an entrance so they can land the vessel inside the caves. Dense magnesite deposits overlay the system. That substance blocks scanner technology. If we hadn't detected a small passageway leading to the outside, the caverns would never have been discovered. Once the ship is inside, Donik and Kejal plan to use masking technology to hide the entrance from view.
After that, the entire cave system will be fitted with holoemitters, and all the holograms can be reactivated. A few may need reprogramming, but Kejal believes most will understand that organics are NOT all bad, once they learn of the assistance the Voyager crew gave them to create their sanctuary. With the abundance of minerals found on this planet to construct more holoemitters and field generators, Kejal and Donik believe they will be able to build an extensive underground city, well-hidden from the prying eyes of "organics" like us.
Kejal doesn't know what the planet will be called once the others are reactivated. While the name Ha'dara, or "home of light" is very appropriate for a world settled by photonics, she's not sure she would like this one to be called by the name Iden had picked. We'll be on our way tomorrow. I guess we will never know what to call it, other than the "Hologram Planet." Maybe that's the right name, since it's a Class-H world.
When Donik visited Sickbay to complete scans of the Doctor's mobile emitter, I went to say hello to him. He told me he hopes to find a way to reproduce the mobile emitter technology. He doesn't think he'll be able to create anything as small as the Doctor's, but he'd like to build something that will allow the holograms to visit their outer world without building so many field generators, organics will be able to detect a holographic presence on the planet. He also took readings of Seven's and my Borg technology. Under a great deal of pressure from Seven and Ensign Kim, the Doctor related the story of how he eluded detection by the Lokirrim when he "possessed" Seven's body. Donik became excited by the prospect of building "housing" which will allow the holograms to inhabit the electronic system of a robot. That would hide their true nature even more, and would also provide the ability to move around in areas outside the generator's range.
When Tom called his wife to tell her about this, she came to Sickbay and provided information about several robotic systems she's worked with in the past. "Just don't turn them into talking bombs," she said. Tom laughed when she said it, but the Doctor and Ensign Kim were mortified. I think I'll have to review our logs to find out why. I'm sure there's a story here they weren't willing to share with me just now.
Kejal says the holograms will be happy if no one ever finds them again. From what I've seen of Donik, I think he's had enough of Hirogen hunters to last a lifetime, too. His only regret was that his mother would never know of his survival. When he said this, Captain Janeway asked him for the coordinates of his mother's home. If our path to the Alpha Quadrant should take us near enough to send word to her, we'll forward the private message he's placed in the captain's possession. Donik wished his mother to know he'd found a way to utilize the skills she encouraged him to learn, allowing him to turn his back on the Hunt forever.
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