Chapter Text
Were it possible, Doctor Emmett Hall believed his holographic matrix would be radiating pride. The three other crew standing with him at the front of the holodeck—Crewman Li-Paz, Ensign Keith Ashmore, and Crewman Zayra Cabot—stood a little to one side, and he gestured to them, now that the rest of those who’d gathered had settled down.
"Welcome, welcome," Emmett said. "While I know you all know me quite well given I’m the one chasing you through the corridors to make your yearly physical appointments—" He paused for laughter, but didn’t allow the general lack thereof to slow him down much. "—I’d like to take a moment to ensure you’re as familiar with Voyager’s own Three Musketeers of Holography."
This garnered applause. Cabot bowed with a flourish. Ashmore remained more stoic, though he smiled. And Li-Paz frowned.
Emmett made a mental notation in his temporary memory storage to ensure he passed on the piece of Earth literature to the Bajoran man in the name of cross-cultural literacy.
"Ensign Ashmore and Crewmen Cabot and Li-Paz and I have been working on a project here in the holodeck with our free time for roughly two years now—"
"Seems longer, sometimes," Li-Paz interjected, this time earning laughter.
"—but as of today, our efforts are, we feel, complete enough for those of you gathered to experience." Emmett spread his arms, and the applause filled the holodeck, which Li-Paz had suggested they leave completely bare, rather than in some sort of partial, paused state, and Emmett was beginning to see the reasoning behind it.
Their program would be all the more invigorating and awe-inspiring when they powered it up.
"Now, before we begin," Emmett said. "We’d like to take you on a journey through the stages of artistic creation that went into the project itself."
"We would?" Cabot said quietly to Ashmore.
Ashmore bit his bottom lip, a habit Emmett had noticed the man took when feeling uncomfortable. Perhaps he didn’t enjoy public speaking.
"Or—" Li-Paz strode forward. "We can thank Doctor Hall here for allowing us to both model some of the complex interactive characters in the program off his own core programming, as well as offering his thorough and detailed insights on the process of emergent complex intelligence matrixes, which drove a key point in the story—one I won’t ruin by telling."
"In fact," Cabot said, moving forward and taking Emmett’s arm. "If it wasn’t for Emmett here, we’d probably still all be running through the same old programs as before, rather than having the opportunity to experience something new." She turned to Ashmore, waving him over, and he joined the other three at the front of the holodeck.
"Kieth," Cabot said. "You want to do the honours?"
Emmett wondered if this meant his speech would not be required.
Ashmore bit his lip again, but nodded. "Computer, load program 'The Paradox Paradigm,' passive exploration mode only, and begin."
Around them, the holodeck was replaced by the interior of a starship, specifically its Bridge, but not one like any other any of those gathered might have served on. The interfaces were familiar enough, but the MSD at the rear of the Bridge listed the vessel’s name—USS Paradox, NX-80808.
Timeship class.
"Feel free to explore the ship," Cabot said. "It’s your base of operations throughout the holonovel, and comes complete with holographic crew in any positions your group doesn’t fill."
"You can play it solo," Ashmore said. "Like most holonovels, but we designed it for groups of six."
Lieutenant Honigsberg noticed the MSD first, and turned around again to face Emmett. "It’s a time travel story?" He rubbed his goatee. "What’s the premise?" Beside him, Captain Aaron Cavit was peering at the display as well.
"You are intrepid members of Starfleet’s Temporal Corps," Emmett said, excited to finally be able to share their work. "And our story begins with Starfleet’s sudden—and untimely—end." He grinned at his own word choice.
"So we have to fix the timeline," Honigsberg said, exchanging a glance with Lieutenant Commander Veronica Stadi. "You think you could fly a timeship?"
"If it flies…" Stadi lifted one hand, smiling.
"Six crew positions," Cavit said, turning away from the MSD. "The program can handle six crew all interacting with the storyline at once?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. I knew you’d be impressed," Emmett said. It had been the key reason Cabot, Li-Paz, and Ashmore had reached out to him specifically, and been the start of their long and fascinating experience as holonovel creators: finding a way to make the program multi-adaptive.
They key, of course, had been to model things on his own programming, which by very nature of the precision required in medicine meant he was the most adaptive holographic program in Starfleet history.
"We had to program in some gentle guidance—hopefully nothing too obvious—but it functions adaptively with the idea that even if you do have all six positions held by crew running the program, they’ll be working to the same goal," Ashmore said.
"In other words, the program will resist, say, letting you split any Away Teams," Li-Paz said.
"Definitely good advice in general," Stadi said. "So what changed in the timeline?"
Emmett shook his head and held up one hand. "That would be telling, commander. But if in doubt, the ship’s Emergency Temporal Hologram can offer advice on where to start."
"The Emergency Temporal…" Honigsberg laughed. "Oh, I can’t wait to meet that character."
"We’ve loaded the program to both Holodecks," Cabot said. "But Emmett wanted to have something a little more formal."
"Literature requires a launch," Emmett said.
"Speaking of launching," Stadi said. "I want to sit at that helm." She nodded a quick farewell and headed to the front of the Paradox’s Bridge, where Ensign Louis Culhane and his wife, Ensign Mary Harper, were both eyeing the controls together.
"This is going to be great for morale," came another voice, and Emmett turned to see Doctor Jeff Fitzgerald—his predecessor as Ship’s Medical Officer—approaching, along with Dr. Li-Kes Aren, their protege and ship’s surgeon. "Holodeck programs never made it to the top of the list back when we were still in contact with Starfleet, and this will be a breath of fresh air."
"Well, I’m sure we’ll get right to work on our next holographic experience," Emmett said.
Ashmore coughed, and Cabot’s smile grew a little fixed. Her dark eyes flicked to Li-Paz.
Li-Paz said, "We might take a brief hiatus first. Hi, love." He kissed Kes on the cheek. "Want to see what we think a timeship’s sickbay would look like?"
"I’d love to," Kes said, in her warm, soft voice, and the two of them left together.
"I was thinking something in a more classical sense," Emmett said, turning to Cabot and Ashmore. "Perhaps something akin to an Andorian early-era classic."
*
Fitzgerald poured two cups of Jeta-blend Ocampa tea and returned to the Mess Hall table where his husband had already sat and had been joined by the Mess Hall’s very own black-and-white feline, Marble. She’d jumped up into his lap the moment he’d sat down, which invoked the unspoken Mess Hall rule: if the cat is in your lap, no moving unless the alert level was at least yellow.
"Thank you," Cavit said, as Fitzgerald put his mug down in front of him.
He watched Aaron check the writing on the mug—a habit so many of the crew had, seeing if the mug had come from Voyager or the alternate timeline version of the USS Venture’s captain’s yacht, the Amundsen—and then both of them finally took a sip.
"Do you think you’ll try out the program?" Cavit said, with an expression that Fitzgerald wasn’t entirely sure he could decode. He almost looked concerned, but mostly the question seemed genuine.
"It’s maybe not something I’d choose to experience as a plot device," Fitzgerald said, thinking that might be the cause of Aaron’s mild concern. "What with the whole…" He waved his bad hand in front of his face.
"I wondered," Cavit said. "I have to admit, though, I’m really tempted—I want to see that multi-participant adaptability in motion. Most interactive holo-novels limit the active main protagonist to one individual, allowing for others in support roles, sure, but there’s a hierarchy…" His pale blue eyes flicked back and forth, and suddenly he was smiling widely. "And this is the part where I realize I should have this discussion with Alex or Sahreen, not my wonderful husband who will pretend to be fascinated by programming talk."
"I love you," Fitzgerald said, which was a confirmation of the assumption in and of itself, if indirect.
Cavit smiled, and took another swallow of the tea, pausing to look at it after. "I still can’t believe Jeta came up with this on her first try."
"She’s her mother’s daughter in many ways," Fitzgerald said. "You should see her at the Conn."
"Have I told you lately how lucky we are we have you and Cing’ta?" Cavit said. "Scott said Karden was incredible down on that planetoid when the Flyer was stuck, and Seven of Nine sent me a proposal for how we could get the last of the Pathfinder communication upgrades implemented ahead of schedule and her plan didn’t break a single protocol."
"The new class is really hitting their stride," Fitzgerald said. "Ennes cracked a joke yesterday. An actual joke."
Cavit laughed.
Voyager rumbled beneath their feet, a vibration that made their cups rattle on the tabletop. Marble rose on Cavit’s lap, her head appearing above the edge of the table and offered a single, confused, "mew?"
*
"There’s a massive energy wave nine hundred thousand kilometres off the starboard bow, coming this way," Lieutenant Sahreen Lan said, tapping on the Ops console and trying to do better than the vague information she currently had.
"Where’s it coming from?" Commander Ro Laren asked from the big chair.
"I’d love to tell you," Lan said. "It’s not acting like an expansion, more like a wave—soliton, maybe?"
"Raise shields," Ro said. "V’Los, evasive."
"Aye Commander," the young Vulcan ensign’s reply came at the same time as Lieutenant Scott Rollins’s "Shields are up."
"Ro, the wave just changed course," Lan said, eyes widening at her display data. "It’s adjusting to intercept."
The doors at the rear of the Bridge opened, and Ro glanced back to see Cavit arriving, but there wasn’t time to explain their situation. "V’Los, go to warp."
"I cannot form a coherent warp field—the energy wave is disrupting my attempt," V’Los said.
"All hands," Ro said, tapping her console comm. "Brace for impact!"
Behind her, she saw Cavit grab at the command rail, leaning against it.
On the viewscreen, the wave of energy crashed into them—
Voyager rocked gently.
—the wave passed them by.
"What the hell?" Lan said.
Ro could relate. That was… nothing.
What just happened?