Boogeymen - Mel Gilden [26]
“Tasha,” Data said quietly. It was an open secret that Yar and Data had been very close under peculiar circumstances, causing much speculation—some of it less scientific than vulgar. Data claimed that, being a machine, he had no emotions. Evidently his circuits were working overtime simulating them. He looked bewildered, but pleasantly so, like a man surprised by a birthday party thrown in his honor.
Lieutenant Yar was—had been—a serious woman, but at the moment, the small nervous movements of her lips meant that she was trying not to smile.
Picard was aware—as Data and Mr. Crusher certainly must have been—that the Yar before them was a hologram, no more real than the Boogeymen. Still, the effect was startling, and wishful thinking made it necessary for Picard to continually remind himself that she wasn’t real. Crusher looked at Picard for a clue as to how to act.
From the side of his mouth, Picard said, “The Boogeymen may have made their first mistake. If this Lieutenant Yar is as sympathetic as the real one would have been under these circumstances, we may have found our way into the main computer and from there a way out.”
“I believe you are correct, Captain,” Data said. “I will attempt to speak with her. It. Her.” He walked forward and stood within easy reach of her. “It is good to see you again, Lieutenant.”
Yar said, “Good to see you, too. Still fully functional?”
“Of course.”
This time Yar allowed herself a smile. It was as radiant as the smile of the original. Wesley whispered, “Hard to believe she’s not real.”
Picard nodded and raised a hand for silence.
Data said, “If you are a fabrication of the holodeck computer, you certainly know our problem.”
“Of course.”
“And perhaps a solution?”
“Of course. If you, Captain Crusher, and Mr. Picard will follow me, I’ll show it to you.”
Data glanced back and Picard nodded. Softly, he said, “Look sharp, everyone. This may be a trap.” Yar and Data set off down the hall together with Picard and Wesley following.
As they walked, Wesley said, “Sorry about that ‘captain’ stuff, sir.”
Picard said, “If everything and everybody on the holodeck thinks this is the real Enterprise and that you are the captain, perhaps the misdirection will work in our favor.”
Something fell onto Picard like a bag full of rocks. It knocked him off his feet, and in a moment a man was bending over him with his hands around Picard’s throat.
Ninja, Picard thought with the calm part of his mind. Must have been hanging from the ceiling like a spider. The attacker’s ill-fitting outfit, including a hood and a swatch across his mouth, was the same neutral brown in which much of the ship was decorated. While he thought this, Picard grabbed the cloth covering the ninja’s stomach with both hands and rolled backward, slamming the ninja’s head into the deck, knocking him out. While watching the ninja for signs of returning consciousness, Picard leapt to his feet and cried, “Exit holodeck!”
With clever use of his fists and legs, Data had knocked his own ninja to the deck, and Wesley was poking his ninja in the face with the outstretched fingers of one hand while he punched with the other.
Picard hustled them through the exit and looked back briefly. Yar stood among the three unconscious ninjas and gave him a mock salute. The holodeck door hissed closed. “Nightmares about ninjas, Mr. Crusher?” Picard asked.
“No, sir. Maybe the Boogeymen just pulled them out of the memory bank because ninjas are good fighters.”
Picard nodded. Wesley’s explanation might even be correct. When the captain turned, he saw that Data was still looking at the holodeck door.
Picard said, “That wasn’t really Lieutenant Yar.”
“I know,” said Data. “Still, it does seem a shame that an image that looks so much like her would be so deceitful.”
“Captain,” said Wesley, “where are we?”
Picard and Data stopped staring glumly at the door and took note of their surroundings. They were certainly no longer aboard the Enterprise, not even a holodeck version. They were in a small office whose walls were covered with faded flowered