Double Booked / Hunted - Part I
Posted on Sat Aug 29th, 2026 @ 2:07am by Lieutenant Commander Nathan Lake & Lieutenant JG Tavian Rhos & Ensign Mara Anderson
Edited on on Sat Aug 29th, 2026 @ 9:18pm
1,527 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Mission 1: Through the Janus Gate
Location: Deck 6, Holodeck 3 - USS Resolute
Timeline: MD003 - 1930 Hours
The doors parted with their familiar sound. Dr. Nathan Lake stepped inside. After an intense departmental briefing, mission planning, and enough medical reports to fill a small library, his mind needed something that didn’t involve chroniton particles or Dominion technology.
The black-and-yellow grid stretched endlessly around him. He smiled.
“Computer, load Program Lake Four-Seven.”
Two seconds passed.
“Program selected.”
Nathan loosened his shoulders.
“Elements: Eiffel Tower Park. Paris. Early autumn. Twenty-one degrees Celsius. Light breeze. Civilian population at thirty percent. No interactive story.”
“Program accepted.”
The computer acknowledged. The grid dissolved to begin his simulation.
One hour later Rhos approached the doors and control panel for Holodeck 3 and noticed it was running.
"Computer, please confirm my appointment with Holodeck 3."
Just outside the holodeck, Tavian knew he didn't have to say 'please' to the computer, but on the off chance that it developed a personality someday and went mad, he wanted it to remember him as being polite. Crazier things had happened, in both the stories he told and on Starfleet vessels. M-5 anyone?
"Confirmed - Lieutenant Tavian Rhos, Holodeck 3, 1930 Hours today."
"And could you just double-check the chronometer too please?"
"Confirmed. It is 1930 Hours, ship time."
"Then why is the holodeck currently still engaged and occupied?" He asked rhetorically with a sigh. The control panel was lit up with a status report of current power usage and occupancy, though it didn't tell him what program was being run.
"Unable to comply. Motives of the current user are not available. A duplicate booking has been noted on the schedule. Beginning diagnostic on scheduling programming to ascertain the cause of the error-"
"Computer, ignore my inquiry, sorry." Tav waited, pacing because standing still was boring, and mulled over his own thoughts for the next five minutes, reviewing his ideas for what he wanted to test in a simulation. The doors still didn't open, though, and no one had responded when he'd tapped the comm button to send a signal inside.
Well, he just hoped whoever was in there was decent and wasn't going to get too excited. "Computer, open the doors," he said, and strode on in to see what was going on.
The Starfleet officer who wore red command overalls entered the holodeck and into an old office. He now wore a charcoal-colored suit with a tie and a white shirt buttoned tightly at the throat. A long wool coat covered him warmly.
"What the-" Tav looked down at himself, ran a finger along the sudden collar between simulated fabric and his neck. He felt ridiculous and was sure he looked it too, in this get-up. Okay, so the shoes were actually kind of nice, he noticed, and slid hands into the pockets of the coat, those were okay. But still this was a far cry from the program he'd intended.
Nearly everything around him was made of wood. Dark-paneled walls. Heavy desks. Filing cabinets with brass handles. A long conference table. Even the radio, sitting on a small side table, was polished walnut, and its speaker grille hummed.
A ceiling fan turned overhead. The air smelled faintly of cigarette smoke, furniture polish, and old paper.
Tav wrinkled his nose at that smell, acrid and unpleasant, and had to assume this was some kind of human recreation. Humans did seem to have an odd fixation on bad smells for whatever reason. He began to look around curiously, rubbing his nose with a pair of fingers.
A calendar on the wall read:
JANUARY, 1957
Suddenly, the door flew open. Nathan Lake ran into the room and slammed it shut behind him.
His appearance was nearly the same - a dark three-piece suit beneath a tan trench coat. His hair, usually only slightly disordered, had been flattened by rain. A cut ran along his right cheek, and one sleeve of his coat had been torn near the shoulder.
In his right hand, he carried a black leather briefcase.
In his left, a compact pistol.
Nathan pressed his back against the door. Heavy breaths.
Surely this must be part of the simulation, Tav reasoned. This holographic man had a cut on his cheek, and that just wasn't normal. That was the first thing the Betazoid thought as he stood there, bemused, and took in the sight. Similar clothes to his, some kind of case in his hand, what looked like a primitive weapon in the other, running from something, it seemed.
"Hi there," Tav said brightly, unconcerned. "Would you know where-" Wait a second... his senses snapped into focus, that was definitely not a hologram, unless they had started leaving empathic impressions all of a sudden.
A tremendous impact struck the office door.
BANG!
The wooden frame shuddered violently. Nathan didn’t even flinch. Instead, he crossed the room and grabbed one end of the heavy conference table.
“I know this is an odd way to introduce ourselves…”
He looked toward Tavian.
“…but would you mind helping me barricade the door?”
"Right!" Tav moved swiftly to help, grunting a bit as they lifted the wooden table. The simulation was impressive, right down to the weight of such a dense piece of furniture and the texture of the wood grain. Together, they could shove it into place in front of the door.
"I don't recognize this place. Is there going to be some kind of horrible monster coming through the door any second maybe?"
The pilot glanced around, then started to drag a filing cabinet over with the teeth-aching shriek of metal against the floor. "And why are you bleeding?!" Tav was afraid he knew the answer the latter.
Nathan glanced at his arm - blood seeping through the coat.
“Yes, that is a problem and seems to be the problem we have here. I’ll be alright. And no monster, just some cheeky fellows harassing me about some money I owe them.”
Nathan helped shove the furniture in place, wedging it tightly against the door.
“Oh, and I’m Nathan Lake. You are?”
Tav was panting after wrestling the filing cabinet into place, which had been heavy. "Tavian Rhos," he answered as the door shook some more from the pounding. "So, just to make sure I understand fully..."
The pilot lifted a chair and set it down on top of the table. They'd be out of furniture soon. He reached up to loosen the tie he wore a little. "Somehow we both booked the holodeck for the same time. Someone's trying to hurt you over a currency debt. And the safeties are off?"
Nathan gave him a look that suggested Tavian had summarized the situation surprisingly well.
“When you say it out loud…”
He glanced toward the barricaded door as another heavy impact reverberated through the office.
“…it sounds considerably less reasonable.”
A sharp crack echoed through the wood. One of the hinges groaned. Nathan immediately shoved another filing cabinet against the entrance.
“The holodeck being double-booked means one of two possibilities: either the computer developed a sense of humor or the malfunction started before either of us walked in.”
Nathan continued, his tone surprisingly calm given the circumstances.
“When I arrived, I loaded one of my usual programs. A walk through Paris. Nothing exciting. It’s a simulation I use to decompress.”
He gestured vaguely around the office.
“Then the power cut out for about five seconds. Everything went dark. When it came back online, I was here somewhere in the mid-1950s. Communications are down, the holodeck controls aren’t responding, and the safety protocols are only partially functioning.”
Another heavy slam struck the door.
“We can’t die immediately, but we can get seriously hurt.”
He glanced down at the blood staining his sleeve before lifting the pistol slightly.
“And for reasons that remain entirely unclear, I seem to be the target of a very determined group of armed gentlemen.”
Another violent impact shook the barricade. Nathan let out a long sigh.
"Oh, that's a relief," Tav replied sardonically as he uselessly set a wicker basket on top of the pile in front of the door. "I had thought for a moment you'd turned off the safeties on purpose."
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?”
A 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 (NPC)
Head Nurse
USS Resolute
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