The engineering workroom had none of the charm of the rest of Starbase Bravo’s shipyard. It was eerily similar to the cramped, windowless science labs she’d been excited to leave when she took an assignment to assist with the refits to ships involved in the so-called Lost Fleet incidents. The number of “incidents” occurring across the galaxy seemed to be increasing, and it gave Lieutenant Complis Libran a deep sense of unease. The dark little room did not improve the feeling.

The backup holographic computer core took up most of the room, and as she patched it into Starbase systems, the room seemed to shudder. The lights flickered for the briefest of moments. She shook it off. She knew that the Fourth Fleet’s ships had taken a beating — and she knew the Frontier Day attack had revealed even more vulnerabilities than Starfleet Command was willing to admit. But she was focused on the timeframe of the Deneb action, and as she accessed the computer’s backlog, she noticed alarmingly unusual data.

The ship from which this particular computer core was taken had seen combat, and it was clear that the core had seen some unusual action as well. It had been accessed by ship-to-ship communications systems during that attack, several times. Finding out how, and why, would take time.

What would anyone want with a backup holodeck computer?

“Let’s see if this thing still works,” she said to the empty room. She activated the unit and connected it to a mobile holo-emitter she had brought.

“Computer, show me… Zefram Cochrane.”

The gentle fizzing hum of a forcefield rose for a moment, as the man formed before her. This was Cochrane later in life, maybe around the time of the Warp Five project.

“Ah,” Complis said, “hello.”

“Hello,” he said in a scratchy baritone. He looked around slightly, not frightened, but not comfortable. “What is this place?”

Libran smiled. “Welcome to Starbase Bravo.”

“You’re—” he began, pointing to her nose ridges.

“Bajoran, yes. Or at least half. We’re from the Alpha Quadrant, beyond Terra Nova by several sectors.”

“Beyond…” he marveled. Then he changed, his entire demeanor turning hostile. His body, his expression, his voice, they all changed instantaneously, faster than any flesh-and-blood being ever could. He said nothing more. He lunged at Libran.

She retracted unthinkingly, but the hologram could move at the speed of light. He gripped her arm tightly. Something was wrong, he shouldn’t have been able to apply this much pressure.

“Computer.” It beeped. “End program.” The computer only responded with the high-to-low-pitched chime that meant something like “failure.”

She tried again, as the hologram of one of humanity’s greatest heroes began pushing against her tibia. “Activate safety protocols.” The same negative chime.

He was staring daggers at her with a haunting stillness. She noticed his focus. Acting on it, she whipped her free hand up as quickly as she could to tap her commbadge. After she did, he grabbed both arms and kept squeezing. Libran left out an involuntary cry of pain. “Complis to Security,” she panted, “…need immediate assistance in the ship…yard.”

Only then realizing it was a call for backup, the holographic Cochrane gave her a look of disgust which morphed into a wicked smile. This time the change was gradual and intentional.

The door slid open.

Cole had been “fortunate” enough to draw patrol duty at the shipyards. He was currently in the corridor when a call for assistance over the comms.

“Ensign Shepard to Security. I’m in the area. Do we have a more precise location?”

A few seconds later, the reply came back.

“The call is coming from Workroom 3 Delta.”

Cole had just past the corridor for the Delta wing. He quickly turned around and ran back that way. The doors parted at his approach. He quickly stopped in his tracks as the scene unfolded before his eyes.

“Is that…Zefram Cochrane?” he asked in disbelief before realizing the man had a grip on the scientist’s arms. “Sir. I’m gonna need you to release that officer,” he ordered as he took steps forward.

The hologram retained his smile and turned to the security officer. “You’re gonna need that, are you?” he snarled. He released his grip on Libran with a force that knocked her to the ground.

“He’s a hologram,” she shouted as she rose. She tapped commands into the console as the hologram turned to the door. “I’ve got him within character limits, but the safety protocol’s off.” She knew at least that now the computer would limit itself to exerting the kinds of force that Cochrane himself would have been capable of. “He’s just like a regular man.” She gave the ensign an imploring look. “I think he wants to kill me.”

For his part, the hologram simply glanced over his shoulder a gave Libran a look that suggested he didn’t understand what she was saying, but he didn’t like it. He then turned to Cole with a look of anger and a little eager anticipation. Libran continued to tap away at the console, racing to find a way to override the security codes or stop the program cold.

Then the hologram lurched toward Cole.

Cole still wasn’t quite sure what was happening but he did know an attack when he saw one. The Zefram Cochrane hologram was now solid according to the young scientist and was lunging toward him. His instincts quickly kicked in and he took a stance to prepare. As the other man got closer and reached out, Cole twisted his body sideways and grabbed the attacker’s arm. Using Cochrane’s momentum against him, Cole was able to put a hip into the now solid hologram’s midsection and toss him over his side. This sent Cochrane slamming into the bulkhead.

I’m so glad Mom insisted on those Jiu-jitsu classes. he thought as he turned around.

Cochrane was stunned but it would only be momentarily, which was enough time for Cole to check on the other Officer.

“Are you alright?” he asked as he stepped closer.

She was impressed by Shepard. He moved deftly, confidently.

“Yes,” Libran said, out of breath. She began working at an even faster clip, trying to find a way to force the projection to shut down. “Try to hold him back.” She paused to tap her commbadge again.

“Complis to Commander Tol, sir we have an emergency situation in Workroom 3 Delta. Can you cut power?” In her periphery, the holographic Cochrane was rising from the throw. “Repeat, requesting immediate power cutoff in Workroom 3 Delta.”

Cole turned his attention back to their assailant as he listened to the Lieutenant make the request. He had minored in Engineering but he had also only half-assed his way through the courses just to say he had his requirements.

“He felt so real,” he said without moving his eyes off of Cochrane. “Will cutting the power actually work to stop him?”

The all too life-like hologram had made his way back to his feet and was not looking happy, to say the least.

“Well. If it’s gonna work, I hope whoever you’re calling makes it quick. This guy is pissed.” he said as he took another defensive stance.

“Let’s hope.” Libran turned back to the workstation, running through personality subroutines. It was obvious — this hologram was only coded for aggression. Whatever other personality traits a holoprogram might have assigned had been deleted, like they never existed.

Renu was working on one of the ship’s systems when he got a panicked call from Libran. Raising an eyebrow wondering what the hell was going on. Moved out of what he was working on to get to the system that controlled workroom 3 Delta. Tapping a few controls he was having issues shutting the system down and moving to the manual override which took longer than was necessary. After a few minutes, he was able to shut the system down manually. “System should be down,” he replied as he began to make his way to the workroom to figure out what the heck was going on.

In the workroom, the power suddenly died, leaving the junior officers in total darkness. For a moment, all they could hear was their own heavy breath. The door opened, silhouetting the commander, as light flooded in from the corridor, revealing that Libran and Cole were alone in the room.

Upon arriving Renu Tol saw Complis Libran and what looked to be a young security officer. “Care to explain why I had to manually shut down this workroom?”

Libran hesitated. After a long career in civilian life, she still got itchy in chain-of-command situations. “Sir, I was running diagnostics on the backup holographic computer core from one of the drydocked ships. But someone built,” another hesitation, “some kind of backdoor into the holoprograms, and filtered out all non-aggressive subroutines.”

She cast a glance a Shepard. “Zefram Cochrane just tried to kill me, sir. I was lucky to have Ensign…” she paused, realizing she hadn’t remembered the man’s name.

Cole quickly straightened up after realizing he was still in a defensive stance and listened to the exchange between his two superior officers. It took him a second to notice that the Science Officer was looking at him and was inquiring about his name.

“Oh. Shepard, Ma’am,” he replied. “Ensign Shepard.” 

He must have looked somewhat strange as he stood there slowly closing and opening his eyes in order to adjust them between the sudden darkness of the room and the light that was now coming through the open doorway.  

“Right, I was lucky to have Ensign Shepard nearby.”

Raising an eyebrow having more questions. “Well we need to get to the bottom of this, Ensign Shepard you are free to go,” Renu replied thanking the security officer before turning his attention back to Libran. “If you will follow me,” Renu replied.

Cole nodded at the Trill Commander. “Aye, Sir,” he answered. But before leaving, he gave a glance back at the science officer who asked if she was going to be okay. When no one else spoke, he made his exit and headed out to write his report.

Libran sighed deeply. Solving this mystery might prove even more challenging, she thought, than hand-to-hand combat with a rogue hologram.