Intruders

Hansen was thrilled. He had not only just been promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade, but he had also been appointed as chief engineer on Starfleets most advanced ship. True, he had been acting as chief engineer ever since the ship was launched, but the actual title brought a great deal of satisfaction. He knew that at the present time there was little work to be done in engineering since they had just come out of space dock, so he decided to take a breather from his double shift in his quarters and left Ensign Ipson in charge. He had just managed to get comfortable when the all too familiar chime of his commbadge sounded.

[Shaka to Hansen.]

*What is it now?* "Yes, go ahead."

[Jon, we've been waiting for you for the past 20 minutes!]

"Are you sure you've got the right person?"

[The holo-communicator overhaul, remember?]

"Right..On my way!"

Location: Bridge

"Glad you could finally make it, Lieutenant." Said Captain Devore.

"I'm sorry sir. It won't happen again."

Lieutenant Shaka decided to but in at that moment.

"Unless you'd like to waste yet more time with pointless excuses, I think we should get underway. Computer, display standard test picture alpha."

The small hexagonal holo-communicator on the floor started to glow, and eventually an oversized Starfleet delta appeared above it, and began to spin. Perfectly. By now, Captain Devore had left for his ready room, and so Lieutenant Shaka was free to scream Andorian swear words at the communicator. Jon was just as annoyed.

"I thought this thing was supposed to be broken?" said Hansen.

"Well it was," said Shaka, "right up until now!"

"What exactly was wrong with it?"

"It simply wouldn't start. We thought the stress of your little accident on the holodeck a few weeks ago had burnt it out."

"Computer, run a level one diagnostic on the holo-communicator."

<Diagnostic complete. No unusual readings.>

"Perhaps it was just having a bad day!" said Shaka.

"Perhaps."

Location: Hansens Quarters

Hansen didn't like it when things like this happened. After three hours of diagnosing every system linked to the holographic memory core, nothing had been found to be wrong.

"Computer, open a channel to Lieutenant Commander Tom Geiger on Starbase three."

<Channel opened.>

[Jon! How are you?]

Lieutenant Commander Tom Geiger was the federation's leading expert in holo-communications, and a friend from the academy. Geiger graduated after his fourth year at the academy on Hansens second day there.

"Fine thanks."

[I hear you've just been posted as chief engineer on the Leviathan.]

"That's right. But there's one little thing that I'm having a problem with."

Location: Bridge

Geiger couldn't find anything wrong either.

"I'm only sorry I couldn't help."

"That's OK. The main thing is that it works right now, even if it didn't earlier."

The picture suddenly flickered to reveal a distorted image of a Talaxian with Vulcan ears, Andorian antennae and Borg implants.

"Live long and prosper," said the talaxivulandoriborg.

Hansen and Geiger burst into fits of laughter. After they managed to gain control of themselves, Geiger was the first to react.

"Computer, what is this thing?"

The computer didn't respond.

"Resistance is futile. Stroke my antennae. Try my cooking. Peace and long life!"

"Are you a sentient projection?" said Hansen.

"I don't know, but I prefer the unleaded myself."

"Ill take that as a no."

<Warning. 90% of computer core is full. 93%. 98%.>

<Warning. Total core capacity reached.>

The ship suddenly initiated red alert, and accelerated to warp 20. Captain Devore appeared out of his ready room, stopped to look at the strange being living in his holo-communicator and started to move towards his chair.

"Report."

"Sir," reported Hansen, "this thing just materialised in the holo-communicator, and the computer core completely filled and took us into the stream."

"Filled? With what? Computer, what is the largest file currently stored in computer core?"

An alarm sounded at the engineering station. The screen reported that due to memory limitations, output could not be given audibly.

"The computer reports that the holographic memory core has taken 99% of the main computer core for additional space."

This worried Devore as with only 1% of the computer core free, helm control would be impossible, and if they couldn't slow down, they would destroy the slip stream drive years away from federation space at normal warp. "What could the holographic memory core want with all that space?" Asked Devore.

"Perhaps I can answer your question."

The voice didn't come from any of the Bridge crew, but from the Talaxivulandoriborg.

"Perhaps I should introduce myself. I am, or rather was Ensign Xavier Holman. I have borrowed your holo-communicator to make my presence here possible. The extra large file in your system, is me."

With that, Holman stepped out of the holo-communicator, something a hologram could never do.

"Intruder alert! Security to the Bridge!"

<Core space restored.>

"Why?" asked Devore, "Why did you bring yourself here, putting the lives of my crew at risk?"

"That is simple, Commander."

"Its Captain, actually."

"Whatever. I was a crew member on the *USS Odyssey*. When it was destroyed during a confrontation with the dominion, I was able to transfer my consciousness into the memory core of one of the attacking JemHadar ships. I then transferred myself to another Federation ship which passed, which was eventually towed back to Starbase."

"Why spend all those years in a Starbase computer?"

"It was the only core large enough to store an entire being without being noticed. I was there to help the federation. Why do you think we suddenly started to win the war?"

It suddenly dawned on Lieutenant Harris what was going on."

"You mean to say you've been influencing the decisions made by Starfleet command?"

"I have just influenced them. I completely changed them."

"This is all very nice," said Hansen, "but what does this have to do with you appearing in my holo-communicator?"

"Last time Starfleet made an amazing discovery in the field of propulsion, a war started which eventually killed my physical body and thousands of other officers."

"You mean the wormhole?"

"Precisely"

"So you're worried that we're going to make some enemy in the beta quadrant, and history will repeat itself!"

A slight grin reached across the intruder's face.

"So destroying the slipstream drive would be in the Federation's best interests, saving people like me in worthless battles."

Devore didn't know what to do. The ship was hurtling towards its doom, and there was nothing he could do about it.