String Theory_ Fusion (Book 2) - Kirsten Beyer [95]
His hard work was initially rewarded when the miniature gel-pack network was flooded with luminescent particles. It seemed to take only a few seconds for the consciousness to accept the fact that there was not sufficient space within the gel packs for it to sustain itself, and then the mute Monorhan hologram standing before them showed its first signs of “life” by blinking its long-lashed eyelids.
Harry turned to B’Elanna and caught her premature smile of satisfaction. But the moment of success was cut short as the hologram raised its hands and looked at them closely, as if it were seeing them for the first time.
“It’s all right,” Harry said gently, approaching the hologram cautiously.
The hiss of the doors alerted him to the fact that Seven had joined them, but Harry stayed focused on the hologram, fully aware of how disorienting this process must be for the consciousness they had just trapped.
He vaguely heard Seven ask disdainfully “What have you done?” before the hologram looked on him with dark despair and began to wail and groan, the clicking of its secondary tongue thrashing against its lower palate indicating what Harry believed was imminent danger or distress.
As the hologram fell to its knees it began to tear at the skin of its face with the dulled claws that jutted from its fingers. Dark blue blood poured from the rents in its face as its pitiful cry echoed throughout the room.
“Computer, deactivate holomatrix,” Seven ordered through the confusion.
As Harry turned on her, B’Elanna said sharply, “You can’t do that!”
But Seven was working furiously, reconfiguring the physical parameters of the holomatrix. “There is no alternative,” Seven chided her, undeterred.
“The synaptic patterns are destabilizing,” B’Elanna warned as the gel-pack network began to glow. “The patterns are attempting to return along the same path, but the temporary neural network can’t sustain them.”
As if to prove her point, one of the gel packs burst, spewing its contents onto the workstation. The others were expanding quickly and within moments would also be ruined.
“Computer,” Seven called, “activate holographic file Kim Monorhan interface beta.”
Another Monorhan shimmered into view. It bore a vague resemblance to the neutral Monorhan Harry and B’Elanna had created. Harry didn’t immediately register the significance of the alterations Seven had made, but he could see that B’Elanna recognized the new template immediately.
“That’s Assylia,” B’Elanna said softly.
“Who’s Assylia?” Harry asked, but there was no time for B’Elanna or Seven to respond. A second gel pack exploded, and for a moment it seemed that the consciousness would rather face extinction than another experience in the holobuffer. Harry reasoned in a flash that either way their options were rapidly disintegrating and shut down the miniature neural network.
The revised hologram came again to life. But this time it was as if it sensed the change in its physical form and found it more curious than frightening.
Hoping that Seven’s assumption had been right, Harry added a full-length mirror to the room and placed it before the Monorhan.
The hologram was again examining its arms and hands, running its eyes down the length of its body with wonder. When the mirror appeared, its elongated jaw dropped open and its eyes grew large. Only when it had extracted and extended its secondary arms and swallowed with visible relief did Harry start breathing again.
Finally, hiding its secondary arms within a pouch in the back of its cloak, it turned to Harry, Seven, and B’Elanna and said, “How is this possible?”
Harry smiled slightly, still disconcerted by their first failed attempt to integrate the consciousness with a holomatrix, and said, “We possess technology that allowed us to re-create your body using something we call a holomatrix.”
“Who are you?” the hologram demanded haughtily.
“My name is Harry Kim, and this is the starship Voyager.”