Title : Midnight At The Oasis
Author : ‘Goji’ Rob Morris
Series : ENT
Type : Episode sequel and 'fix-fic'
Part : 1/1
Characters : Archer, Tucker, Crew, guests from S1's 'Oasis' including Ezral (Rene Auberjonois)
Rating : PG
Summary : When Archer and his crew try to exploit a new breakthrough technology, they discover an old mystery has yet another layer.
Midnight At The Oasis
By Rob Morris
STARSHIP ENTERPRISE NX-01, 2151
Archer anxiously awaited the trial run. T'Pol stated that her response from Ambassador Soval seemed very nearly an excited one, and all knew that Admiral Forrest would want this to succeed. Trip and Reed set up the tech, Hoshi made sure the makeshift console would neither implode nor explode, and Mayweather worked every inch of the basic math. Tucker looked at his friend, smiled and hit the main switch.
"Jonathan Archer-meet Henry Archer!"
The image formed, and never once got past the fuzzy stage before de-rezzing entirely. All stood stunned, and all were silent, until Archer shrugged.
"That-dad of mine. He's---something else?"
-----------------------
Tucker sighed openly.
"We were sold a pig in a poke. Plain and simple."
T'Pol chose to ignore the metaphor, at least in part.
"We were not sold anything. The technology was freely given. I will concede, though, it clearly did not perform as advertised."
Hoshi threw up her hands.
"Not a single nano-relay failed to connect. All systems were, for want of a better term, talking to each other in the same language, and on the same comprehension level."
A bleary-eyed Mayweather pushed away his data-reader.
"There is not so much as a slash in the middle of a line out of place. I will be a while before refocusing. Forget guiding the ship. I may need some help getting to my quarters."
Reed seemed like he had been shaking his head for days, not hours.
"There is no reason it should not have worked, just as it did for Liana and Ezral's people."
The disappointment was tangible on all fronts, and when Archer was forced to write the report, it was done so reluctantly.
"We had hopes that the technology given to us by the crew of the Kantaran vessel would propel us perhaps two centuries forward in terms of holographic technology. We had ideas about holographic crew, adventures in truly interactive, totally immersive environments, and, for those that needed it-companionship, even if it is just someone to talk to. But despite an able crew of my own and access to scientists across allied space, the Kantaran technology failed to work on our ship because---because---"
Archer stopped inputting the document and saved it. He walked out of his quarters, and up to the Bridge, where most of those who had tried to adapt the would-be breakthrough technology. He looked around, and raised the one valid question no one had yet asked.
"Why didn't it work?"
Once they realized what he was talking about, Tucker stated the obvious.
"Sir, if we had the slightest idea why it didn't work, we'd be-making it work. I know the kind of optitronic relays that ship's core uses. Didn't help a damn bit, though."
Mayweather refused to even think about all that data again, unless someone was to pin the failure directly on him. No one did, so he kept to his station. T'Pol could add no more to the mix.
"It is not enough to state that the technology was incompatible with ours. It accepted power from our systems, without detriment or incident. Technology that was truly incompatible yet accepted power from our systems should have damaged, perhaps severely, both input and output."
Hoshi had moved to do something the instant Archer had shown up. She broke a link just as her turn seemed to come around.
"I managed to contact a colony very near the Kantaran homeworld. I asked them about the holographic technology in question."
Archer knew he was not going to like the answer.
"Say anything except ‘They said what holo-tech?' Miss Sato."
She shrugged.
"They did mention greeting cards that use holograms. They even recommended a good store to get them at. On Kantara Prime."
Archer prepared to go back to his ever-more daunting report.
"Where's Reed?"
Emerging from the lift with Phlox in tow, Reed answered.
"I was down with the Doctor getting something for the headache this thing has given me."
Phlox nodded.
"A headache he has then kindly passed on to me. Fortunately, mine was of a much shorter duration."
Archer breathed in some hope.
"You know why the holo-tech didn't work."
Phlox's face didn't quite show that.
"I have a theory."
--------------------------
"Captain, I don't see why I have to leave the room."
"Captain Kuulan, if we reveal this potential flaw to any of the holographic crew, it could cause a logic loop that will disrupt the integrity of your programs. Ezral will decide if our concern is warranted, and then he will tell you. Alright?"
For a moment, it seemed that Enterprise's trip back to the small planet was to be in vain. But at a nod from Ezral, Kuulan relented. When they were alone, the non-holos spoke freely.
"Captain, I'm glad you're here. Unfortunately, repairs have not been going well."
Tucker tried to keep the burden of explosive information from his face.
"Just how not well is not well, Ezral?"
"Why, Mister Tucker, do I believe you're keeping something back from me?"
Archer cut back in.
"Maybe you should go into police work, when you get back home-if you get back home. Ezral, we tried like anything to make your holographic matrix work on our ship. But what seemed simple down here proved impossible up there-and then we contacted some other Kantares. Sir, they had never heard of any holo-tech remotely approaching yours."
Tucker nodded.
"Kinda makes sense, when you think about it. With Vulcans and traders hitting every spot you can think of at least once, tech like yours should be the genie in the bottle. Other holograms should at least be near to yours, but none are."
Ezral did not look like a guilty man, but he did look like a cornered one.
"I'd like to ask you two gentlemen just what you're driving at."
Archer sat down.
"Doctor Phlox had the time to really sort through those scans he made of you and Liana. Those people aren't holograms, anymore than they are flesh and blood. You created them-or recreated them, using the power of your mind."
Ezral looked faint.
"But you saw the holo-emitters!"
"Yes. But we think they were just set up by you to stabilize your basic fantasy. Phlox believes the ion storm that marooned you may have given you these abilities."
"Can they do that?"
Archer shrugged.
"Mister Reed thinks that, under the right conditions, they can tear a whole in the universe itself. Ezral, your repairs aren't going well and they never will go well. Those people aren't able to do anything you can't do yourself, or know how to do. Your power, for want of a better term, must have limits."
Ezral sat down with his guests.
"Weeks ago, after you left, I finally resolved the difficult choice I made between my daughter and my responsibilities to the crew. My guilt is something I'm at least at peace with. Why wouldn't I realize then what they were?"
Tucker breathed in.
"I think the simple answer is Liana. Only part of your recreation of the crew came from guilt. The other part came from fear."
"Fear?"
Tucker braced himself for what he had to say.
"Your daughter is becoming a woman. You have eyes, and you saw that. You like as not also worried about what can happen to children and parents who are in isolation when the children start to grow up."
Ezral showed in his face that he felt the truth of it all.
"You must think I'm a monster. But she looks so like her mother at that age. I had noticed, but I swear to you..."
Tucker cut him off.
"You're not a monster. You're a man who missed his wife, his friends, and who desperately wanted to protect his little girl-even if you felt that you needed to protect her from yourself, should the loneliness prove too much to stay sane."
Ezral at first seemed heartened, but then his face sank again.
"Is even she real? How can I be sure she didn't die too, and her not being a hologram was, as Captain Archer said, just an anchor to keep my fantasy world grounded?"
Archer bit down.
"Doctor Phlox has some herbs that will temporarily and safely shut down your brain entirely. Anything you created at that point would fade away, and the odds are, you would not be able to simply recreate them."
"I must know. But the crew? Can't I just wish them up with me?"
Tucker shook his head.
"You anchored them in the false-premise holographic matrix, in your own mind. You would have to know how you did all that to start, and I'd lay odds it was mostly subconscious."
"So-I built a box with circuits and data cards and told myself I'd made a scientific breakthrough. Captain-let's get aboard your ship. I and Liana. It would be unfair to have her realize suddenly that she isn't real, should something happen to me. Better that it happen swiftly, if it does."
---------------------------
Phlox rang the chime to Archer's quarters, and was bid to enter.
"I am delighted to report that Miss Liana is and always was with us. Mister Reed descended to the world below-the ship had years worth of decay. Ezral is for the moment, so delighted by his daughter's reality, he is taking it better than he might later. While he is resting, she is in the fine hands-or is that clutches?-of our own Mister Tucker, who is regaling her with a humorous ditty apparently about an ancestor of his named Old Dan."
Archer tweaked the existing report, written in an optimistic mode that happily proved accurate, and then transmitted it. He was glad to have it done before they reached the nearest Kantaran world.
"I'm glad for both of them-sorry for their crew, whatever their true existence, but selfishly enough, I am really sorry that the technology did not pan out. Holograms on that level could have given us so much. The mind really boggles."
Phlox seemed skeptical.
"For both good and bad, Captain. Some forms of entertainment, like narcotics, can prove addictive to the marginalized."
"C'mon, Doc-a Holo-addict?"
"Why not? Ezral will need to take Psi-inhibitors the rest of his days to keep back from his own addictive fantasy. He wants to let his wife rest in peace, but he doesn't know how he could do without her touch. Yet even if carnal companionship is taken out of the equation, a lonely awkward sort with no friends could lose themselves in such a world."
Archer remembered a comment made during their initial investigation of the Kantaran transport vessel mystery. In a lighter and snarky mood, he also recalled the comment had not gone well with Phlox.
"Maybe your holo-addict will just have to make friends with a Holographic Doctor."
Author : ‘Goji’ Rob Morris
Series : ENT
Type : Episode sequel and 'fix-fic'
Part : 1/1
Characters : Archer, Tucker, Crew, guests from S1's 'Oasis' including Ezral (Rene Auberjonois)
Rating : PG
Summary : When Archer and his crew try to exploit a new breakthrough technology, they discover an old mystery has yet another layer.
Midnight At The Oasis
By Rob Morris
STARSHIP ENTERPRISE NX-01, 2151
Archer anxiously awaited the trial run. T'Pol stated that her response from Ambassador Soval seemed very nearly an excited one, and all knew that Admiral Forrest would want this to succeed. Trip and Reed set up the tech, Hoshi made sure the makeshift console would neither implode nor explode, and Mayweather worked every inch of the basic math. Tucker looked at his friend, smiled and hit the main switch.
"Jonathan Archer-meet Henry Archer!"
The image formed, and never once got past the fuzzy stage before de-rezzing entirely. All stood stunned, and all were silent, until Archer shrugged.
"That-dad of mine. He's---something else?"
-----------------------
Tucker sighed openly.
"We were sold a pig in a poke. Plain and simple."
T'Pol chose to ignore the metaphor, at least in part.
"We were not sold anything. The technology was freely given. I will concede, though, it clearly did not perform as advertised."
Hoshi threw up her hands.
"Not a single nano-relay failed to connect. All systems were, for want of a better term, talking to each other in the same language, and on the same comprehension level."
A bleary-eyed Mayweather pushed away his data-reader.
"There is not so much as a slash in the middle of a line out of place. I will be a while before refocusing. Forget guiding the ship. I may need some help getting to my quarters."
Reed seemed like he had been shaking his head for days, not hours.
"There is no reason it should not have worked, just as it did for Liana and Ezral's people."
The disappointment was tangible on all fronts, and when Archer was forced to write the report, it was done so reluctantly.
"We had hopes that the technology given to us by the crew of the Kantaran vessel would propel us perhaps two centuries forward in terms of holographic technology. We had ideas about holographic crew, adventures in truly interactive, totally immersive environments, and, for those that needed it-companionship, even if it is just someone to talk to. But despite an able crew of my own and access to scientists across allied space, the Kantaran technology failed to work on our ship because---because---"
Archer stopped inputting the document and saved it. He walked out of his quarters, and up to the Bridge, where most of those who had tried to adapt the would-be breakthrough technology. He looked around, and raised the one valid question no one had yet asked.
"Why didn't it work?"
Once they realized what he was talking about, Tucker stated the obvious.
"Sir, if we had the slightest idea why it didn't work, we'd be-making it work. I know the kind of optitronic relays that ship's core uses. Didn't help a damn bit, though."
Mayweather refused to even think about all that data again, unless someone was to pin the failure directly on him. No one did, so he kept to his station. T'Pol could add no more to the mix.
"It is not enough to state that the technology was incompatible with ours. It accepted power from our systems, without detriment or incident. Technology that was truly incompatible yet accepted power from our systems should have damaged, perhaps severely, both input and output."
Hoshi had moved to do something the instant Archer had shown up. She broke a link just as her turn seemed to come around.
"I managed to contact a colony very near the Kantaran homeworld. I asked them about the holographic technology in question."
Archer knew he was not going to like the answer.
"Say anything except ‘They said what holo-tech?' Miss Sato."
She shrugged.
"They did mention greeting cards that use holograms. They even recommended a good store to get them at. On Kantara Prime."
Archer prepared to go back to his ever-more daunting report.
"Where's Reed?"
Emerging from the lift with Phlox in tow, Reed answered.
"I was down with the Doctor getting something for the headache this thing has given me."
Phlox nodded.
"A headache he has then kindly passed on to me. Fortunately, mine was of a much shorter duration."
Archer breathed in some hope.
"You know why the holo-tech didn't work."
Phlox's face didn't quite show that.
"I have a theory."
--------------------------
"Captain, I don't see why I have to leave the room."
"Captain Kuulan, if we reveal this potential flaw to any of the holographic crew, it could cause a logic loop that will disrupt the integrity of your programs. Ezral will decide if our concern is warranted, and then he will tell you. Alright?"
For a moment, it seemed that Enterprise's trip back to the small planet was to be in vain. But at a nod from Ezral, Kuulan relented. When they were alone, the non-holos spoke freely.
"Captain, I'm glad you're here. Unfortunately, repairs have not been going well."
Tucker tried to keep the burden of explosive information from his face.
"Just how not well is not well, Ezral?"
"Why, Mister Tucker, do I believe you're keeping something back from me?"
Archer cut back in.
"Maybe you should go into police work, when you get back home-if you get back home. Ezral, we tried like anything to make your holographic matrix work on our ship. But what seemed simple down here proved impossible up there-and then we contacted some other Kantares. Sir, they had never heard of any holo-tech remotely approaching yours."
Tucker nodded.
"Kinda makes sense, when you think about it. With Vulcans and traders hitting every spot you can think of at least once, tech like yours should be the genie in the bottle. Other holograms should at least be near to yours, but none are."
Ezral did not look like a guilty man, but he did look like a cornered one.
"I'd like to ask you two gentlemen just what you're driving at."
Archer sat down.
"Doctor Phlox had the time to really sort through those scans he made of you and Liana. Those people aren't holograms, anymore than they are flesh and blood. You created them-or recreated them, using the power of your mind."
Ezral looked faint.
"But you saw the holo-emitters!"
"Yes. But we think they were just set up by you to stabilize your basic fantasy. Phlox believes the ion storm that marooned you may have given you these abilities."
"Can they do that?"
Archer shrugged.
"Mister Reed thinks that, under the right conditions, they can tear a whole in the universe itself. Ezral, your repairs aren't going well and they never will go well. Those people aren't able to do anything you can't do yourself, or know how to do. Your power, for want of a better term, must have limits."
Ezral sat down with his guests.
"Weeks ago, after you left, I finally resolved the difficult choice I made between my daughter and my responsibilities to the crew. My guilt is something I'm at least at peace with. Why wouldn't I realize then what they were?"
Tucker breathed in.
"I think the simple answer is Liana. Only part of your recreation of the crew came from guilt. The other part came from fear."
"Fear?"
Tucker braced himself for what he had to say.
"Your daughter is becoming a woman. You have eyes, and you saw that. You like as not also worried about what can happen to children and parents who are in isolation when the children start to grow up."
Ezral showed in his face that he felt the truth of it all.
"You must think I'm a monster. But she looks so like her mother at that age. I had noticed, but I swear to you..."
Tucker cut him off.
"You're not a monster. You're a man who missed his wife, his friends, and who desperately wanted to protect his little girl-even if you felt that you needed to protect her from yourself, should the loneliness prove too much to stay sane."
Ezral at first seemed heartened, but then his face sank again.
"Is even she real? How can I be sure she didn't die too, and her not being a hologram was, as Captain Archer said, just an anchor to keep my fantasy world grounded?"
Archer bit down.
"Doctor Phlox has some herbs that will temporarily and safely shut down your brain entirely. Anything you created at that point would fade away, and the odds are, you would not be able to simply recreate them."
"I must know. But the crew? Can't I just wish them up with me?"
Tucker shook his head.
"You anchored them in the false-premise holographic matrix, in your own mind. You would have to know how you did all that to start, and I'd lay odds it was mostly subconscious."
"So-I built a box with circuits and data cards and told myself I'd made a scientific breakthrough. Captain-let's get aboard your ship. I and Liana. It would be unfair to have her realize suddenly that she isn't real, should something happen to me. Better that it happen swiftly, if it does."
---------------------------
Phlox rang the chime to Archer's quarters, and was bid to enter.
"I am delighted to report that Miss Liana is and always was with us. Mister Reed descended to the world below-the ship had years worth of decay. Ezral is for the moment, so delighted by his daughter's reality, he is taking it better than he might later. While he is resting, she is in the fine hands-or is that clutches?-of our own Mister Tucker, who is regaling her with a humorous ditty apparently about an ancestor of his named Old Dan."
Archer tweaked the existing report, written in an optimistic mode that happily proved accurate, and then transmitted it. He was glad to have it done before they reached the nearest Kantaran world.
"I'm glad for both of them-sorry for their crew, whatever their true existence, but selfishly enough, I am really sorry that the technology did not pan out. Holograms on that level could have given us so much. The mind really boggles."
Phlox seemed skeptical.
"For both good and bad, Captain. Some forms of entertainment, like narcotics, can prove addictive to the marginalized."
"C'mon, Doc-a Holo-addict?"
"Why not? Ezral will need to take Psi-inhibitors the rest of his days to keep back from his own addictive fantasy. He wants to let his wife rest in peace, but he doesn't know how he could do without her touch. Yet even if carnal companionship is taken out of the equation, a lonely awkward sort with no friends could lose themselves in such a world."
Archer remembered a comment made during their initial investigation of the Kantaran transport vessel mystery. In a lighter and snarky mood, he also recalled the comment had not gone well with Phlox.
"Maybe your holo-addict will just have to make friends with a Holographic Doctor."
