Holodeck Mishaps

Posted on Mon Nov 25th, 2024 @ 8:34pm by Ensign Liam O'Connor & Lieutenant JG Astrja Kyan

Mission: Character Development
Location: Holodeck 3
2131 words - 4.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Liam walked down the corridor, PADD in hand, glancing over the list of maintenance tasks he had picked up from the backlog. The holodeck malfunctions had been an ongoing issue for weeks, but somehow, only one of the holodecks seemed to be affected. It was an odd case of malfunctions: random weather changes, scenes flickering in and out, and a particularly troublesome glitch involving unexpected sound effects.

Holodeck 3. That’s where he was headed now. Apparently, this one had been the source of all the complaints, and he had been assigned to investigate and fix it. According to his orders, he was supposed to meet an Operations officer there to work together.

Arriving outside the holodeck doors, Liam checked the time. He wasn’t late, but there was no sign of the officer yet. He shrugged, tapping his PADD as he keyed into the system logs for the holodeck. It didn’t take long to see the pattern—just as suspected, the issue was localised to this one holodeck. The other holodecks were running fine.

“This is so weird,” Liam muttered to himself, leaning against the holodeck panel. “Why just this one?”

Just as he started sifting through the more detailed error logs, the holodeck doors hissed open.

Astrja stepped in datapad in one hand. She smiled, "So, Ensign O'Conner, we meet again." She gestured to the holodeck, "Are you finding anything on the engineering side to explain the problems here? I have checked and triple-checked the interface from the computer core and the problem is not there." She tapped on the wall. "It is something here."

Liam looked up from his PADD just as Astrja entered, offering a half-smile. "Lieutenant," He nodded, "Yeah, I’m digging into it now, but honestly, it's strange." He gestured toward the holodeck control panel. "The other holodecks are fine, but for some reason, this one's having a total meltdown. Flickering scenes, random weather changes, you name it."

He glanced at the doors as they slid shut behind her and chuckled lightly. "I even saw a report about a beach program turning into a snowstorm mid-simulation. That's... definitely not standard programming."

Running his fingers through his hair, Liam returned to the logs. "Whatever’s causing this seems isolated to this unit, but there’s no obvious hardware failure." He sighed, feeling the familiar wave of stress when dealing with stubborn systems like this. "It’s almost like there’s an interference pattern or something corrupting the data. But if that’s the case, we should be seeing it across all the holodecks, not just here."

Suddenly, he paused, staring at the holodeck panel as a grin tugged at the corner of his lips. "You know," he said, tapping the PADD thoughtfully, "after that whole ordeal with Q turning me into a mouse, I thought I’d seen everything weird. Maybe this is just the holodeck throwing its own tantrum after all that chaos. How did you fair with his... games" He asked, the crew had started to slowly exchange their experiences with Q.

Astrja plugged her datapad into the system. "We the Q did mess with the replicators, so it could be some left over interference. But that seems unlikely." She paused. "You were a mouse? Myfanwy became a humanoid cat and Dr Solis a rabbit, I guess I got off lucky as Alice visiting Wonderland."

Liam chuckled softly, shaking his head at Astrja's revelation. "Alice in Wonderland, huh?." He tapped a few more commands on his PADD, eyes flicking between the screen and the holodeck’s control panel. "Yeah, Q turned me into a prince. Then a mouse. Then... back to a prince again, just to mess with me, I think. And to make it worse, I still have this weird craving for cheese. I'm pretty sure that's not normal to top off I don't think I'll ever be able to look Lieutenant Ryan in the eye again"

He shot her a lopsided grin, picking up on the absurdity of the whole situation. "But hey, at least I skipped the Wonderland rabbit hole."

She diligently ran additional scans. "I am getting a weird signature from the secondary memory, can you check to see if there is anything modifying or attached io it?"

The PADD beeped, and Liam turned his attention to the strange signature Astrja had mentioned. "Okay, let me check that secondary memory core." He linked his PADD to the holodeck's internal systems and began running diagnostics. His brows furrowed as he analyzed the data. "You're right—there’s something off here."

Liam crouched next to the holodeck's access panel, prying it open to expose the inner workings. "It looks like there's a fragment of something stuck in the memory buffer. Maybe some corrupted data or a ghost file left over from one of the programs, but it's definitely not supposed to be there."

Astrja moved to take a look. "I hope it is not one of those Ferengi touchy-feely extensions, those are so creepy," she said. "And I wonder why it did not show up on the diagnostic scans."

Liam chuckled at Astrja’s comment, shaking his head slightly as he examined the exposed memory buffer. "Yeah, those Ferengi programs... let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised if one of those slipped through the cracks," he replied with a grin, but his tone shifted back to focus as he tapped his PADD, running a more detailed scan on the odd fragment.

"Okay, this is weird," he muttered. "This file... it’s not standard. It’s almost like it’s being masked somehow. It didn’t show up on the initial diagnostics because it’s running in some kind of subroutine that doesn’t trigger the usual system alarms. That explains why the central computer didn’t flag it."

Liam’s mind raced through the possibilities. It wasn’t unheard of for holodeck programs to leave behind fragments of data, but this felt different. There was something purposeful about the way it had hidden itself in the secondary memory core. He glanced over at Astrja, her datapad casting a faint glow as she ran her own scans.

"I’m going to try isolating the fragment," he said, his fingers moving quickly across his PADD. "If we can block its access to the rest of the holodeck’s system, we might be able to pull it out and figure out where it came from."

He initiated the isolation procedure, and for a moment, the screen flickered as the process began. "I’ve seen corrupted programs before, but nothing this... persistent," he added, a note of unease creeping into his voice. "It’s almost like it doesn’t want to be found."

He shot a quick glance at Astrja, his brow furrowing. "Have you ever come across anything like this?"

"No, and I do not like that fact one bit," she said, her fingers dancing across her datapad. "I'll have my QAI search for anything on file that might match this. I am sealing this holodeck system from the main network. Whatever this is, we cannot allow it to get out. Double-check your isolation protocol before trying to do anything with the fragment."

Liam’s fingers hovered over the PADD as he double-checked the isolation protocol, the weight of Astrja’s warning settling in. He tapped a few more commands, ensuring every possible safeguard was in place before proceeding. "Alright, the isolation is secure. This thing isn’t going anywhere," he muttered, glancing back at the fragment on the screen. His thoughts raced as he considered the implications—whatever this was, it had burrowed into the holodeck system like a parasite, unnoticed until now. "Let’s see what we’re dealing with," he said, a mixture of curiosity and wariness in his voice.

Astrja leaned in closer and held her breath, waiting to see what this strange piece of programming was.

Liam pressed the final key, and the screen lit up with a swirl of colours, coalescing into a bizarre image. He squinted at the code, frowning as a peculiar series of commands flashed across the display. Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine, and he felt a jolt of static energy in the air. “Oh no, I’ve tripped some sort of—”

Before he could finish his sentence, a tiny, glittering pixie burst forth from the screen, trailing sparkling green dust behind it. The creature flitted around the holodeck, giggling mischievously as it snatched the PADD from Liam's hands, holding it triumphantly above its head. “Mine now!” it squeaked, darting toward a nearby holographic plant while Liam stumbled back, wide-eyed. “Hey! Come back here with that!” he shouted, shaking his head in disbelief as the pixie blew a puff of green dust in his face, sending him into a fit of coughing and spluttering.

"Drokk!" said dodging back. "Oh! I know this! It is from a Terran cartoon! Fayrie Follies!" She tapped away at her datapad. "It has locked the system. Try to keep it busy while I work out how to override it." She worked furiously, tossing off holographic screens as she worked her way deeper into the program.

“All right, you little troublemaker, if you want a chase, you’ve got one!” he said, lunging forward with a swipe that only grazed the shimmering trail it left behind. The pixie darted higher, twirling in the air, and then zipped across the holodeck, blowing a raspberry over its shoulder as it circled him.

He stumbled, trying to grab it again, and the pixie laughed harder, spiraling up and looping around his head like it was playing tag. Green dust kept raining down, coating his uniform and face, until he could hardly see through the sparkling haze.

Liam’s attempts to swat at it only encouraged the pixie to zoom around faster, flicking dust like confetti until he was practically glowing green. His fingers brushed it once, then twice, but each time it slipped away, leaving him covered head to toe.

"Almost there," Astrja said. "And there!" she said triumphantly as the pixie stuttered and then froze in mid-giggle. She looked up to see Liam covered head to toe in sparkling pixie dust. She could not help but laugh and used her datapad to record an image of it. "You are amazing shiny, Ensign O'Connor. Would you like some help with that?"

Liam rubbed the back of his neck, his cheeks burning under the shimmering dust as he grinned. “Well, I always wanted to be a glowing green beacon,” he quipped, striking a mock pose. “What do you think? Should I start charging for tours as the ‘Emerald Ensign’? But seriously, I might need that help—this little guy was more slippery than I expected!” He chuckled, “Next time, I’m bringing a net!”

Astrja giggled and shut off all of the program, apart from the fairy, clearing the shimmering dust from Liam. "I am going to have to dig further into this code but I think it is an accidental problem. Now that we have it isolated, I think someone with a lot of talent and a limited understanding of programming tried to modify a publicly available holodeck program for Fayrie Follies and ended up creating this," she gestured to the floating pixy. "Which is an achievement."

He sighed, relieved that the chaos had subsided, and gave Astrja a wry grin. “An achievement, sure, but it feels like the kind you’d get with a ‘Most Likely to Accidentally Crash the Ship’ award. Someone’s creative impulse just gave us a full day’s work.”

He knelt beside the access panel, closing it up as Astrja finished her diagnostics. “At least now we know the problem wasn’t malicious. Just... ambitious. I’ll file a report, see if we can track down the original uploader and give them a friendly reminder about not tampering with system code.”

Standing, he stretched his arms above his head and chuckled. “You did great work, though. I’d say we make a decent team, but next time, you can be the one covered in glitter. I’ll stick to handling the tech while you wrangle the pixie." He joked.

"But you seemed to be having so much fun," said Astrja with a wink. "But, yes, I will happily take Fayrie chasing duty next time. I am pretty sure that tracking down our ace programmer should not be too difficult."

"So, would you like to get together sometime off shift?" she asked.

Liam considered the question quickly; “That would be great, I’ll meet you in lounge an hour after shift, gives me a chance to get this glitter off?” He said back peddling out of the holodeck smiling, after a quick wave he was gone.