S01 E09: Chronicles of T’Avaya: Where There's a Will, There's a Way

 

Station Log. Stardate 45126.4. Chief Engineer T’Avaya reporting. I have spent the last ten years on Station Tyrellia as Chief of Engineering. I will soon be leaving that position for a new post with Starfleet Intelligence. My assistant engineer, Luruwa, will be the new chief engineer.

 

“It’s good to have you back. Even if it’s just for a little while,” Luruwa said. T’Avaya replied, “The familiarity of this station is quite satisfying. And it is good to see you again, Luruwa.” As they were walking down the station’s commercial strip, a juggler stepped in front of them. They stopped and admired the skill. They knew the juggler was a hologram, but it was still an impressive demonstration.

               “So do you think you’ll win?” Luruwa asked T’Avaya. She was referring to the holoprogram writing competition that was now happening in Station Tyrellia. It was a yearly competition. T’avaya’s holoprogram “Votev the Bold” had been nominated. It was about a fictional daredevil who steered his ship into random spatial anomalies.

               “I don’t know,” was T’Avaya’s answer. “All I can say is that writing the program was a rewarding experience.” Luruwa knew that T’Avaya had put a lot of thought into the program. And though she would never admit it, the Vulcan was proud to have been nominated.

               They continued walking through the station and saw many other holographic dancers, magicians, acrobats, and numerous holographic flying objects such as birds, flies, and butterflies.

***

               “So you’re really leaving?” Emac asked sadly.

               “Starfleet Intelligence has asked me to work in their headquarters on earth. I will be one of their engineering researchers,” T’Avaya told him. “They will still allow me to work here part-time in case there are any problems with the communications array.”

               “So you’re not leaving for good.”

               “Not at this time. But there are always…possibilities.”

               “What about us?”

               T’Avaya knew that question would come up. They had been in a relationship for awhile. She was fortunate that her parents had not made her bond with another Vulcan male when she was a child, as most Vulcans do. She was allowed to choose her own mate, or no mate. She had enjoyed her time with Emac. She did not want to end the relationship, and yet, she wanted her new career in intelligence. Unfortunately, being an intelligence agent meant that she couldn’t be close to someone. Emac couldn’t know that she would actually be going on missions for Starfleet Intelligence. She told him her decision. She saw the look on the Orion’s face. His heart dropped. But he would survive.

               He left her suite. She felt guilty for disappointing him. But guilt is illogical. They were both adults. He was a Starfleet officer on a starship that was assigned to this station. Even in a relationship, how often did they really get to see each other?

               T’Avaya turned on her terminal and checked the station’s news feed. Miris Hoturn, the sponsor of the current holonovel contest, had passed away from an unknown illness two days before. Miris was a Denobulan of fifty-eight years of age; not very old at all. Miris had written the Latinum Crown series, the most popular series of recreational holonovels in the quadrant. At Miris’ request six years ago, T’Avaya had programmed a holosuite program upgrade for one of Miris’ stories that had become very popular. When T’Avaya had met Miris, she had thought the holonovelist to be brilliant, though arrogant and aloof.  Miris’s will had been read yesterday on Denobula, and the contents of the will, at least parts of it, would be made public today.

               She went on to check her personal messages. She assumed something would be there letting her know how the competition would be affected by Miris’s will. She found her message from the contest organizer. There was something new. It seemed Miris’s will provided that, upon her death, there would be a special competition, separate from the writing competition, within a holoprogram that Miris had written. The competitors would be the three finalists of the writing competition—chosen by Miris before she died--of which T’Avaya was one. In this special competition on the holosuite, the contestants would be searching for the four pieces of a latinum crown. The winner would get the rights to the Latinum Crown holonovel series. Having the rights would mean getting to continue the series by writing her own stories. With that could come a gross amount of fame and recognition. T’Avaya knew she would never have time to write more holonovels, though it would be interesting to write the series. But she would like to participate in the competition because the holonovel adventure could be exhilarating. And it would be her own way of paying homage to Miris’s last wish. If she won, she could give the prize to someone else.

***

               Shrain, Tridara, and T’Avaya entered Holosuite 1. They were each wearing a green jumpsuit, the standard attire for visiting a Denobulan palace of the programmed time period. The holoprogram setting was fifteen hundred years ago on Denobula. It was a primitive time in the land under the rule of Kof Rixan. “Kof” was the Denobulan word for “king”. This Kof had been known to execute several of his subjects for petty offences. The three contestants were in the guise of spectators for the palace’s annual Gibarch games. As the three contestants stood before the palace, a holographic image of Miris appeared before them. Shrain and Tridara flinched at the sight of Miris. T’Avaya knew they both had a past with Miris, though she did not know the details.

               The image of Miris spoke to them in an amplified, ghostly voice. “Greetings travelers. You are about to enter the palace of Kof Rixan, the most brutal ruler that ever walked the planet of Denobula. Kof Rixan is most angry at this time. The four precious stones from his latinum crown have been stolen. Rixan has executed half of his royal guards for being so careless to let this happen. However, unknown to Rixan and his guards, the stones have been hidden in various places in the palace. Your task, brave travelers, is to find the four stones of the latinum crown and assemble them in the Helmet of Nedobis. Once assembled, the stones will quell the heart of the angry Kof and be transported back to the crown where they belong. Each of you has been given a shoulder bag with a magic mirror that can transform up to three inanimate objects into another object. To use the mirror, you must cite an incantation.” She told them the incantation, then continued her instructions.

               “There are four clues to find the stones. The first is ‘behind your twin’. The second is ‘where life begins’. The third clue is ‘in the warmth’. The fourth and final clue is ‘where the statue stares’. Now go, brave travelers, before the Kof executes any more of his guards. And beware the dangers of magic all around the palace.”

               The holographic Miris disappeared, and the palace door opened. As soon as they walked in, they saw merriment and joy, instead of sorrow and grief. “Well so much for an angry king,” Tridara said. Tridara was a Boslic female whose holonovels usually featured swashbuckling space pirates. They were greeted by a Denobulan woman wearing a red jumpsuit. “Come,” she said. “Enjoy the music with us before the games begin!” Shrain, an Andorian male who specialized in writing Federation mystery holonovels, said, “This palace is huge. It could take awhile to search it all.”

               T’Avaya noticed several brightly colored rugs that were floating vertically around the room. They were common objects in Miris’s programs. It seemed Miris had added more elements to this adventure than just the ancient Denobulan accoutrements. A small four-legged animal walked up to them. It raised up on its hind legs and spoke, “You seek the four stones of the latinum crown. They are scattered about the south wing.”

               Shrain said, “Uzaveh! A talking d’lan!”

               Tridara said, “Looks more like a vogid.”

               “Whatever the animal looks like,” T’Avaya exclaimed, “I think we should take its advice.”

               The trio walked to the south part of the palace. The first room they saw was an empty parlor. “Watch out!” Shrain yelled at Tridara. Tridara turned and saw an object floating toward her. It appeared to be a long stick with a round metal piece attached to one end. She ducked out of the way and the object flew past her toward the opposite wall. The talking animal from before—had it followed them there?--spoke again, “That is an enchanted bed warmer. Hot coals are put in the metal part, and then it is put on a bed to keep it warm during the cold nights.”

               “Enchanted indeed,” said Tridara. “Why did it attack me?”

               The animal did not answer.

               T’Avaya said, “The stories of Miris often have random occurrences, though I have never heard of them attacking. We should all be very cautious and stay aware of our surroundings.”

Tridara said, “But it fits one of the clues: ‘In the warmth.’ “

She walked slowly over to the warmer. It was now apparently stuck to the far wall. It did not move as she approached it. She held it in her hands and examined it. The round metal part at the end had a lid. She lifted the lid. There was nothing in it. “Folo!” She said. “Empty. I was sure this would have one of the stones.”

               T’Avaya noticed a fireplace along the wall. “Perhaps there,” she said, moving towards it. She examined the hearth. There was a metal grating around it. Behind the grating she found a small black box with a metal lock. She pulled on the lock. It was fastened securely. Perhaps this would be the time to use the “magic mirror”. She pulled out the holographic mirror she was given when she entered the holosuite. She held the mirror so that it reflected the metal lock. “Power activate,” she said. “Change the lock to the form of a hair pin.” The face of the mirror suddenly went blank. Then the lock seemed to ripple out of existence and was replaced with a hair pin. The mirror went back to normal. She put the mirror back in her shoulder bag and pulled the hair pin from the latch. She opened the box. There was a shiny brilliant red stone. She held it up so the others could see.

               “Remarkable!” said Tridara. T’Avaya put the stone in her shoulder bag. Shrain and Tridara started looking more closely at every object in the room and touching everything they could. They found no other stones in the room. The trio decided to split up.

               Shrain entered a kitchen. There was a bowl of what appeared to be large white eggs on the counter.

“ ‘Where life begins’,” he thought. He grabbed a knife, turned it so that the handle aimed downward, and smashed all the eggs with the knife handle. There was nothing but gooey mush inside the eggs. “Faas!” he cursed. He started looking around the room, touching and overturning anything and everything he could find.

***

               Security Chief Vedarem put in a call to Station Director Tab Nilo. “I’ve had several reports of pesky holographic flies. They seem to be spreading all over the station. Even places where there are no holographic projectors.” T’Avaya and her engineering team had set up temporary holographic projectors on various parts of the station as part of the competition festivities. But having these photonic flies everywhere was getting annoying. They looked like little points of light. Bright and colorful. But they were a nuisance.  And no one had found a way to “kill” them.

               Nilo responded, “I’ve gotten reports too. They’re in my office. I swat them away and they just come back. Who was the brilliant programmer who brought these things anyway?” Vedarem, a Zakdorn, said he did not have an answer. He was investigating it now. “One of the guests who is here to be a judge for the competition, a Doc Zimmerman, studied the photonic flies and said they are carried on oxygen molecules. They can react with the molecules and reproduce themselves on the molecules photonic flies, not just holograms. That’s why, once they are in existence, they don’t need holoprojectors, and that’s how they have gotten all over the station.” Zimmerman was a human who was an expert on holography. He had created the Emergency Medical Hologram, a holographic medical doctor that had been implemented on most Starfleet ships and proven very useful.

“That’s just great,” said Nilo. “So we are breathing them in?”

               “Apparently not,” said Vedarem. “As soon as they are caught in humanoid inhalation, they move on to another molecule. Really very clever. But it doesn’t appear to be a weapon or any kind of threat. Just annoying. And hard to get rid of, since we can’t just get rid of all the oxygen with all these humanoid lifeforms here.”

               “Well find a way!”

               “Yes sir!”

               “One more thing,” Vedarem continued. “I was informed by the Denobulans that Miris Hoturn’s death was caused by slow poison. Murder. I have reason to believe she was murdered by someone here. I did some research, and there are three people here who have a past with her. And all three of those people are in the holosuite right now, because she specifically chose those three people as finalists in the competition to play the game, and they are now in a holonovel that she wrote.”

               “So you’re saying she wrote the game with those three people in mind? One of whom is my chief engineer?” Nilo was fond of Chief Engineer T’Avaya. In fact, so was Vedarem.

               “Yes sir.”

               “Do you think they are in any danger?”

               “Unknown sir. The holosuite safeties should be on. But even then, some holonovels have been known to trap people for a very long time.”

***

Tridara walked up a long staircase to the top of the south tower. She saw what looked like several prison cells with iron bars. She examined and touched the doors, bars, and locks. Nothing. In one corner, she saw a large rock. She tried to lift it. It was too heavy. She reached into her shoulder bag and retrieved her magic mirror. “Power activate. Change the rock to the form of a key to open all the cells.” The face of the mirror went blank. Then the rock seemed to ripple out of existence and there on the floor appeared a metal key. The mirror went back to normal. Apparently, there had been nothing behind or underneath the rock. She used the key to open all the locked cell doors. She found nothing in any of the cells. There was a round opening in a wall. A window. It overlooked the castle grounds. She could see where they were preparing for the outdoor games. The window had an avian nest. The nest was empty. She fingered through the twigs of the nest and felt something cold and smooth. She pulled it out. “Aha! Another stone! At last!” She put the stone in her shoulder bag and rushed back down the stairs and out of the tower.

***

               Shrain saw a Denobulan wearing a gray uniform. It was a Denobulan guard. He was guarding the entrance to another room. Shrain asked him if he could pass and see the room. The guard did not answer; it just stared straight ahead. Shrain took out his magic mirror. “Power activate. Change the guard into the form of a statue.” Nothing happened to the mirror or the guard. “Faas!” He then remembered that the mirror only affected inanimate objects. Shrain looked back down the hallway he had just come from. He had found nothing in the rooms in the hallway. He examined a mirror on the wall in the hallway. He pulled the mirror off the wall and looked behind it. The mirror had covered a hole in the wall. Inside that hole was…Another stone! ‘Behind your twin,’ the clue had said.

               Then he decided to try another tack with the Denobulan guard. He used his magic mirror on the hallway mirror. “Power activate. Change the mirror into the form of a sword.” The face of the mirror went blank. Then the large mirror seemed to ripple out of existence, and then a sword appeared. The magic mirror went back to normal. Shrain waved the sword in front of the guard. “Let me in that room, or I’ll kill you where you stand.” The guard didn’t move or react in any way to Shrain’s threat. The guard was a hologram, so Shrain had no problem wielding the sword at the guard’s chest. The sword had no effect. It went straight through the Denobulan’s chest without causing harm. “Faas!” He uttered the Andorian expletive several times as he kept uselessly stabbing at the guard.

***

               Vedarem was reading the reports sent to him by Andorian security. Miris had told everyone that Shrain’s holonovels were written by one of his mates instead of Shrain himself. Shrain denied the accusation, but it severely hurt the popularity of his holonovels. When Vedarem looked into Tridara’s past, he saw that Tridara had interacted with Miris and her then-husband on Tandos V. So Shrain had a reason to try to kill Miris. And possibly Tridara did too.

               “Are you going to keep looking at your computer or are you going to do something about these flies?!!!” yelled a Ferengi entering Vedarem’s office. “You can’t just barge in here, Mr. Quark.”

               “Look,” Quark said more calmly, “I came here to judge a holoprogram competition. Not get barraged by photonic insects that light up the air like a radioactive sneezing Tellarite.” Quark, a Ferengi, had come to the station from Deep Space Nine, where he owned an establishment with several holosuites. Quark’s business had become very popular, one could even say profitable, since the end of the Dominion War.

               “I’m working on it,” Vedarem said as he waved his hand to swat the barrage of flies in front of his face. A call came in just then. “Chief, we’ve got something.”

               “Now if you’ll excuse me,” he told Quark.

               Quark let out a breath. “You’re just like my station’s previous security chief. Always trying to get rid of me. If these flies aren’t gone soon, I’ll be back.” He left the office.

               The Zakdorn security chief looked at his screen. “What is it?”

Malaka, his Vorta staff member, said, “Doc Zimmerman thinks he has a solution for the flies. He said a type of flypaper can be manufactured that attracts photons. Engineer Luruwa is working on it now.”

               “Excellent. Keep me posted.”

***

               The three contestants met in the hallway in front of the guarded room. They discussed where they had been. They agreed they had checked all of the south wing of the palace except for that one room that was guarded. Shrain said, “If we can’t get by the guard, maybe we can use one of our magic mirrors to transform the guard into something else.” T’Avaya answered, “The mirrors can only transform inanimate objects.” Tridara was looking around. “The fourth clue,” she said, “is ‘where the statue stares.’ I have not seen any statues.” “Except for our friend over there,” Shrain bellowed. “The guard,” said T’Avaya, “Stares.”

She looked in the other direction to see what the guard was looking at. It was a long hallway with a downward sloping floor and ceiling. There was a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Because of the sloping ceiling, the chandelier was directly in the guard’s view. And because of the sloping floor, the chandelier was too high to be reached and searched for a hidden stone. Instead of trying to find something to climb to reach the chandelier, T’Avaya pulled out her mirror. “Power activate. Change the chandelier to the form of a table.” The face of the mirror went blank. Then the chandelier seemed to ripple out of existence and there on the floor appeared a table. The mirror went back to normal. Just as the table appeared out of nothingness, a colored stone dropped from mid air onto the table. It had been hidden in the chandelier and appeared when the chandelier disappeared.

“That was remarkably clever!” said Shrain. “Now that we have all the stones, we need to take them to the Helmet of Nedobis,” T’Avaya told them. “I believe I saw it. This way.” She led them to a room that had a suit of armor lying in pieces on a table. She collected the stones from the Shrain and Tridara and laid all four stones on top of the helmet. They all stood and watched with baited breath. Nothing happened. Then, out of nowhere, an arrow flew across the room and hit Shrain in the chest. He fell to the floor in pain. “Whaaat!” he tried to shout. The others ran to him. “Where did that come from?” Tridara said. T’Avaya did not know. It must have been another random act in the program. She saw blue blood slowly oozing from the Andorian’s chest. That meant the holosuite safeties had been deactivated.

T’Avaya pulled the arrow from Shrain’s chest. She got out her mirror and changed the arrow into a towel. She pressed the towel into his chest to stop as much bleeding as she could. She shouted for help. Two Denobulans came in with bandages. “So is this typical of Miris’s programs?” asked Tridara, “They keep trying to kill people? How can these programs be so popular?” T’Avaya said, “No. Something is wrong with this program. Those stones on the Helmet of Nedobis should have ended the program.” The talking animal appeared again and spoke, “That is not the Helmet of Nedobis. ‘Nedobis’ is our word for…lower torso. The Helmet of Nedobis is what YOU would call a ‘cod piece’.”

“Of course,” T’Avaya said. She picked up the stones from the helmet and laid them on the cod piece lying on the other end of the table. Then, all the objects in the room disappeared. Then the walls, then the holographic characters. Another projection of Miris materialized. It spoke. “Congratulations. You have assembled all the pieces. You, T’Avaya, as the one who moved the pieces, have won the competition. You have won the rights to continue my stories.”

T’Avaya exclaimed, “No. We all worked together. And why did your program attack Tridara and Shrain?”

“I started getting ill. My physician told me I had been poisoned. He said there was no antidote. It was a very slow acting poison. I knew I had enough time left to design this program. I know it was either Tridara or Shrain who poisioned me. The attacks were necessary to scare a confession from whichever one did it.”

Tridara looked at the image of Miris and said, “You were a horrible person. You stole the only man I ever loved. And you didn’t even love him. You divorced him after one year. Since Denobulans mate for life, he was disgraced after the divorce and wasn’t allowed to remarry or pursue another relationship. You, Miris, should be shoved up Kof Rixan’s Nedobis. Those are my feelings, but I didn’t kill you.” Tridara was a very attractive Boslick, and she could never get over the fact that she lost a lover to another female.

Still lying on his back, Shrain addressed the image of Miris. “It was me. You…,” He struggled to get the words out, “ruined my writing career with your lies. It… was only after ten years that I was able to make a comeback…You deserved your death.”

“Well,” the image of Miris said, “It looks like you are also getting the death that you deserve. T’Avaya is the only one who deserves to get the rights to my stories. She beautifully brought my stories to life with her holosuite engineering programs.” Miris’s cheeks filled with air and poked out like two large balls on her face. Then, the image faded away. Shrain coughed up more blood as station medics came in to rush him to the infirmary. Station Director Nilo and Security Chief Vedarem entered the holosuite. T’Avaya told them what had happened. Vedarem apologized for not getting them out sooner. He felt he should have been able to prevent Shrain’s accident. Then, Vedarem placed Tridara under arrest. “What for?” Tridara said, “I had nothing to do with Shrain’s accident or Miris’s death or her holoprogram!”

“No,” Vedarem said. “But while you were in the holosuite, the station became inundated with holographic flies. They were considered ‘cute’ and ‘pretty’ at first, but they multiplied and became a nuisance. Any ongoing public nuisance is a violation of station laws. We traced the origin of the flies back to your station room.” Tridara was shocked. “So I’m being arrested for creating a harmless program.”

“It was hardly harmless,” said Vedarem. “The flies were right in people’s faces, causing them to trip and fall, or causing them drop things as they were swatting the flies. There were even incidents of people firing illegal phasers at the flies.”

Tridara explained that she had not intended for the flies to spread so vastly. She could have kept them under control if she hadn’t been in the holosuite for so long. Vedarem told her she could think about it while she spent a day in jail.

When T’Avaya left the holosuite, she saw what looked like several hanging ornaments around the station that had not been there before. The ornaments were cube-shaped, with each side of the cube being a different color. Director Nilo told her the cubes were a type of “flypaper” that station engineer Luruwa had made to attract and nullify all the photonic flies that had infested the station. “They seem to be working,” said Nilo.

***

“I’m glad Shrain will be alright,” said Admiral Grsow to T’Avaya. Grsow was finally glad to be able to converse with his friend. He had not seen T’Avaya in over a year. As one of the judges for the holoprogram competition, he had decided he shouldn’t talk to her on the station until the contest was over. Now that it was over, they could meet and catch up. He had been asked to be one of the judges because, before becoming an admiral, he was a Starfleet holodeck engineer who had designed many of the Starfleet Academy training holodeck programs. She had met Grsow at an engineering conference. He was the one who had encouraged her to write a holonovel.

 “Shrain didn’t die,” T’Avaya said, “but now he will face charges for murder. But of course, there will be some leniency since he confessed.”

“I met Miris once,” Grsow said. “She visited Starfleet Academy to promote her holonovels. She was very disrespectful to the students. She was like a sun, only without the warmth.”

“And you, I hear a career change is coming,” Grsow said caringly.

T’Avaya said, “Yes. I am going to work for Starfleet Intelligence.” She looked at her Caitain friend. He purred. “Excellent. If that is what you want, then I am happy for you. And I’m sorry you didn’t win the competition. The other judges seemed to prefer the Bynars.” Since Miris had chosen the two of the three finalists based on false pretenses—and because Tridara and Shrain had been disqualified--the judges (Quark, Zimmerman, and Grsow) had named their own finalists. T’Avaya was still a finalist, but had not been chosen as the winner. She was mildly disappointed. Winning would have been a satisfying ending for her first, and probably last, holonovel. Disappointment is emotional and illogical, she told herself. What is, is.

The Bynars, 1100 and 0010, had written several historical recreations. T’Avaya thought their programs had over- exaggerated warlike characters, and stories that only pretended to be based on historical facts. But obviously, the programs suited the judges’ tastes. She also gave the Bynars the rights to Miris’s holoseries. Miris’s legal office said that T’Avaya should be the inheritor of the holoseries because the holoprogram chose her. T’Avaya felt it was only logical to give the series to the Bynars.

She would be spending one more night on Station Tyrellia before she left to work for Starfleet Intelligence on a more regular basis. She looked forward to her future. As Vulcan philosopher T’Mee’an wrote, “Instead of trying to predict the future, you should create your own future.” That is what T’Avaya set out to do.

 

 -by the Honorable Kavura

 

Thank you for reading my Star Trek Adventures: Captain’s Log mission report using the Mission Brief Holographic Will by Tony Pi. Captain’s Log is a solo roleplaying game by Modiphius Entertainment.