Double Booked / Hunted - Part II
Posted on Sat Aug 29th, 2026 @ 2:11am by Lieutenant Commander Nathan Lake & Lieutenant JG Tavian Rhos & Ensign Mara Anderson
Edited on on Mon Aug 31st, 2026 @ 2:57pm
2,075 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Mission 1: Through the Janus Gate
Location: Deck 6, Holodeck 3 - USS Resolute
Timeline: MD003 - 2000 Hours
As the door shuddered once again, Tav pushed back on the stack of furniture. The short pilot strained. "I don't think this is going to hold for long. Have you checked your pockets for this missing money? Or maybe it's somewhere around here? And let me guess, you tried calling Security for help or Engineering to shut it all down, and comms are disabled too?"
“I don’t have it. No cash. No debt ledger. No threatening letters.” Nathan patted down the pockets of his trench coat one last time as if he was wrong.
A moment later, a soft tapping sound drew both their attention to the back of the room. It was rain against the window.
“Ummm, was that window always there?”
Nathan didn’t wait for an answer. He sped-walked over to the window, surveyed the scene, and realized they were only three flights up from the street, and there was a fire escape just outside the window.
"Uh, better hurry." Tav's voice was rough as he put his back into pushing on the blockade they'd made. Somehow it was starting to shift and slide. "Any second now and those cheeky fellows might decide to take you apart just to be sure you don't have the money, and me along with you!"
Divines help him, he was not going to die in a holodeck! The scandal of it would be enough to make his soul hide in shame forever, and he was pretty certain his mother would somehow find a way to bring him back just to kill him all over again for the trouble it would cause her.
Another violent impact struck the barricade. The conference table lurched forward.
One of the filing cabinets tipped dangerously to the side.
A second later, the unmistakable sound of splintering wood came. Nathan didn’t need any additional encouragement.
“No argument here.”
He crossed the room in three long strides and threw open the window. Cold rain immediately blasted into the office. The sounds of the city rushed in with it. It was the sounds of automobile engines, distant horns, hurried footsteps, and the steady sound of rainfall against stone.
Nathan stuck one foot out and climbed out.
Cold rain immediately soaked through the sleeve of Nathan’s trench coat as he climbed out onto the narrow fire escape.
Tav followed a few seconds later, as the makeshift barricade began to fall apart. The door was cracking open now and multiple hands could be seen reaching in, trying to shove the furniture out of the way.
"Go, go, go!" Tav called, voice bright with adrenaline-fueled excitement. "They're coming through!" He tried pushing Nathan ahead of him down the fire escape.
Behind them, the shouts of the pursuers grew louder, as did the sounds of the desk sliding across the wooden floor. "You know, this may actually be more fun than the combat sim I was going to run," Tav said with a grin, wiping rain from his eyes. "Minus the whole getting cut to pieces thing."
Nathan shot him a look over his shoulder as they descended the fire staircase.
“You and I have very different definitions of fun.”
Nathan said as a crash came from the office window above them. One of the pursuers, wearing a similar trench coat, emerged onto the fire escape.
Then another.
And another.
“Run!” Nathan shouted.
Run they did, Tav even jumping the last two meters off the side of the rickety escape stairs, rolling with the impact. "Oof! Yep, safeties are off," he grunted as he got back to his feet and leaned forward as he ran as hard as he could, one hand holding his ribs gingerly. "That's going to bruise."
They had gained some lead on the pursuers, and Tav looked around a little frantic. "There's gotta be that internal control panel somewhere, right? Maybe we can use that to get the hells out of here!"
“Agreed”
Nathan agreed with Tav that they needed to find a way out of here. Communications being down was a problem. What was even worse was that the safety protocols were having an issue. But it was clear that they both didn’t want to be there.
They both rushed across the street just as the first of their pursuers reached ground level.
Nathan risked a glance behind them.
It was then that he saw something strange. The pursuing men had suddenly stopped. Not because they’d lost sight of them. Because they were staring at something farther down the street. Something much larger. Something more dangerous.
The sound came first. A deep growl. Wet. The pedestrians around them froze. Then Nathan froze. It wasn’t his choice. It was as if he was transfixed.
People began screaming, then started running.
Then the creature emerged. It came from a narrow alleyway between two buildings. It was enormous. Nearly three meters tall. Its body appeared vaguely humanoid but heavily distorted, with elongated limbs, thick muscle, and dark, mottled skin stretched over a frame that seemed to have been assembled incorrectly.
Jagged bone protruded from its back and shoulders. Its head was narrow and predatory. Its mouth opened far wider than seemed anatomically possible.
Rows of teeth filled the darkness within. Rain ran down its skin. Yellow eyes locked onto them, specifically at Nathan.
The creature approached slowly.
Nathan began to rise from the pavement and levitated as though an invisible field had wrapped itself around him.
"I take it all back! You have the worst holodeck programs I've ever seen!" Tav shouted when he saw what was coming for them. "What even is that?!"
He didn't stand around to wait to find out. Divines help me I'm going to need counseling after this. Tav ran not at the creature; that'd get him eaten alive, he was sure. He didn't run for Nathan either, he might get caught up in whatever was making him float around. He ran for the nearby alley.
Had he just abandoned the other man?
Tav skidded to a halt just inside and began trying to pry open the metal covers where the power lines connected to the building, at some sort of junction box. The first one didn't yield anything except holographic circuits of some sort, and a very primitive kind at that. The second panel, though, was a success.
The warm, familiar glow of LCARS shone out at him.
"Um...keep it busy for a minute?" Tav called back over his shoulder as he tried to figure out how to shut this all down.
The creature continued forward. Slowly. Nathan’s body began drifting toward the creature.
“Tav…”
Nathan strained against whatever held him.
“Anytime now.”
Nathan continued to be pulled toward it. Rainwater streamed across the creature’s distorted face. Its yellow eyes remained locked on him.
Then, in a deep, unnatural voice, it spoke two names:
“Emily”
Nathan froze. Then the second name.
“Sarah”
Nathan’s eyes widened. Those names had nothing to do with this holodeck simulation.
The creature stepped closer.
Suddenly, the entire simulation flickered. It began to go offline. The creature distorted before Nathan, its massive form breaking apart into fragments of static. Then everything disappeared.
Nathan dropped onto the hard holodeck floor as the familiar black-and-yellow grid reappeared around them. Tav was in the back of the holodeck. The holodeck doors opened immediately.
Nurse Anderson rushed inside, followed by a team of engineers carrying diagnostic equipment and emergency tool kits.
“Doctor Lake!”
Anderson hurried toward Nathan while the engineers immediately spread out across the holodeck. One moved directly to the internal control interface while another opened an access panel near the entrance.
Nathan pushed himself onto one knee, still catching his breath. Anderson reached him and grabbed his arm, helping steady him.
“Easy, Doctor.”
“I’m alright.”
“You’re bleeding.”
Nathan glanced at his torn sleeve.
“I’ve had better walks through Paris. Where’s Lieutenant Rhos?”
"Here!" Tav pushed his way past the engineers, muttering apologies as he made them scatter. He hurried over and helped Anderson get Nathan back to his feet from the other side. He'd sensed something from Nathan, something painful that Tav doubted had anything to do with the cut. "Slowly, slowly. You okay? What was that thing? Part of your simulation?"
Nathan steadied himself between Anderson and Tavian and looked at him,
“I don’t know.”
The answer came quietly.
Anderson glanced between the two men before retrieving a medical tricorder from the kit slung over her shoulder.
“What do you mean?”
Nathan answered, “My program was a walk through Paris. Eiffel Tower Park, early autumn, light pedestrian traffic.” He glanced around the empty grid. “No story. No antagonists. Definitely no creatures.”
One of the engineers looked up from the open access panel.
“Commander, whatever happened here wasn’t limited to the program. We had failures across multiple holodeck subsystems. Communications, safety interlocks, program termination, everything stopped responding normally.”
Nathan’s attention shifted toward him.
“What shut it down?”
“We did.”
Another engineer emerged from behind the internal control interface.
“Once Nurse Anderson reported that she couldn’t enter the holodeck or establish communication with you, we cut power to the entire holodeck systems onboard.”
Nathan looked at her.
“You came looking for me?”
“You were supposed to review the overnight medical duty assignments twenty minutes ago.”
Anderson closed the tricorder and gave him a pointed look.
“You don’t miss things like that.”
Nathan managed a faint smile.
“Apparently being chased through 1950s Paris qualifies as an acceptable excuse.”
Nathan turned to Tav.
“How are you?”
"I'm fine!" Tav said in a too-loud voice, black eyes too large. "Just fine. But that was... we just... you..." He shook his head, ran two hands through his hair and got a hold of himself.
"Just glad we're okay. Relatively speaking. That was my first holodeck malfunction, ever. Crazy! I mean, you hear about them, and think they are just fleet gossip. Never think you'll actually experience one yourself. Like transporter malfunctions, except more common, maybe."
Nathan watched Tav for a moment. The lieutenant talked quickly, most likely with adrenaline still coursing through him.
Just then, two additional medics entered the holodeck, medical kits in hand, and stood by for instructions.
Nathan gave Tavian a reassuring nod.
“Okay. Glad to hear you’re alright. But I still want you to report to Sickbay so we can check all the boxes, if you don’t mind.”
"If this turns out to be the most elaborate plot to get a pilot in for his physical..." Tav shook his head and started to laugh at the joke. Of course it wasn't. But Tav was just like many of his colleagues who would put that off as long as possible.
"I'll be there, Doctor."
Well, if anything, it had been exciting. That was worth sitting still for a few minutes to get poked and prodded and scanned down to his toes, Tav supposed. Shaking his head, he left first, intending to get this checkup over with as quickly as he could. He was fine.
Physically, at least.
Nathan turned his attention to the group of engineers working around the holodeck.
“I want every holodeck aboard the Resolute locked out. No one uses them until we know exactly what happened here. Run full diagnostics on all of them.”
His expression became more serious.
“Preserve the logs and document anything unusual. Send your findings to the XO, the Chief Engineer, and myself.”
The senior engineer looked up from the open access panel.
“Yes, Commander.”
Nathan nodded and steadied himself. He no longer needed Anderson’s support, though she remained close by.
Anderson pointed toward the holodeck doors.
“Alright. Both of you. Sickbay. Now.”
“Alright, let’s go.”
The three headed into the corridor, with the two medics following close behind.
The engineering team remained at work. Diagnostic equipment was connected to the exposed systems as they began the painstaking task of determining exactly what had gone wrong and, perhaps more importantly, whether it could happen again.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Commander Nathan Lake
Chief Medical Officer
USS Resolute
Lieutenant (j.g.) Tavian Rhos
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Resolute
Ensign Mara Anderson
Head Nurse
USS Resolute
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