Stardate 52048.9 Lieutenant Commander Oblokoni'Slyt Enoz sat cross legged in her quarters. Breathing deeply and methodically, she was merely trying hard to stay calm. Ming had realized before anyone that Enoz was suffering from stress, and had given her three straight days off. Serving aboard the Equinox under Captain Winston had been a true pleasure. Not that Mason was a bad commanding officer, but ever since he had come aboard, events had been truly taxing on the three eyed woman. Her thoughts kept drifting back to her old friend Kalamarina, who had died mysteriously as a result of something in Ensign Etely Bruder's now destroyed shuttlecraft, the Enigma. Under Winston, eventful missions had happened, but at least he had kept things consistent. Under Mason's command, the only thing that had remained calm was the Captain himself. Things were so different than they had said they would be at the Academy. Reminiscing about the Academy brought a tear to one of her eyes. Kalamarina had been a year ahead of her there. The Klingon-Romulan-Vulcan hybrid should have outranked her now, but instead had been demoted and died, Enoz desperately wanted her company now. Being a senior officer was difficult enough, but her whole ordeal with Syxx and her triad had grinded her to the core of her soul. Protocol suggested she visit a counselor, but in true Oblokoni fashion, she knew she could not trust the observations of herself from those younger than she, especially from any bigenderal species. Enoz stood up and bolted from her quarters. Strolling quickly and crying, she wound her way through the corridors until she entered Holodeck 2. Summoning all her strength, she stared at the blank walls for a moment before addressing the computer, "Computer, activate program Slyt-Marina 4.5." The setting immediately changed to a vista of carnage and fiery rubble. It was a recreation of Enoz's home city, when the Troubles were in full fury. The two of them had used this program for hand to hand combat exercise. "Computer, I want a recreation of Lieutenant Kalamarina. Make it as accurate as you can, medical records, personnel files, log recordings, everything. If you need to access restricted files, do so. Security clearance Enoz, Alpha-Charlie-Delta-Mu-Pi-248." The computer beeped for a moment, and then a holographic representation of Kalamarina appeared. "It's been a long time, Kal," Enoz smiled, mildly, knowing this wasn't real. "I know," Kalamarina whispered, "So this is what it's like to be dead. Sto-Vo-Kor is a holodeck with you." Enoz's eyes sharpened in shock. "What's the matter, Enoz," continued Kal, "My sarcasm catching you off guard? You did tell the computer to recreate me accurately." "So I did," muttered the Oblokoni. Kalamarina stuttered and fell to the ground. Enoz rushed to her. "Such compassion for someone who is dead," chuckled Kal, "The computer just finished uploading my files. I just learned how I died." Overcome by emotion, Enoz suddenly embraced the hologram and wept. She had not realized how much she had missed Kal, how much she still did. Both the Oblokoni and the hologram felt their anger surge at a particular Ensign. "Well," said Enoz, "As long as I'm running our sparring program, we might as well duke it out for old time's sake." "I don't know how real it will be for you, my being a hologram," Kalamarina stated dryly. Enoz merely smiled, "Computer, disengage mortality failsafes." The computer did so and the Oblokoni raised one hand over her head, assuming a defensive posture. Kalamarina stood, then charged. Meanwhile on the bridge, Mason and Ming sat in their chairs, watching the runabout slowly exit the rear of the ship. Syxx glanced up from his console, "Captain, the transport of Bruder to the runabout isn't complete! The runabout was in motion during the transport and her signal passed through the warp core!" "Enoz to the bridge!", ordered Mason as he stepped up to the Engineering station. "How did it pass through the warp core? Transporter signals don't follow physical routes!", commented Ming. Mason answered before Syxx could, "The runabout's trajectory put the warp core directly between it and the transport emitter. It scrambled Bruder's pattern." "I'm trying to rematerialize her pattern but it's not working on either transporter. Recommend we dock the runabout and physically attach its systems to ours. We may able to weave her pattern back together in the computer." "Proceed," ordered Mason. He turned back towards his seat but stopped when Enoz rushed onto the bridge, holding one arm limp with a nose dripping blood all over her uniform. "I'm sorry, sir," Enoz said, "I was visiting an old friend." Enoz plopped down beside Syxx and her eyes bulged at the display in front of her. Syxx glanced at her, seemingly amused at Bruder's current situation. He tapped a comm button, "Shuttlebay, attach the auxiliary craft system diagnostic cable to the runabout's port side computer access!" "What the heck is that?", asked Enoz. "It's something we use to scan a shuttle's computer for viruses to make sure the Equinox doesn't get Trojan horsed. By removing the safety and virus filters, it's the fastest way to dump that half of Etely's pattern into our computer," he said, quickly tapping buttons, initiating the dump. "Are you sure we don't need the virus filters?", asked Ming, "Were they run when we brought it back up from that Changeling?" Syxx turned to the XO, "I don't know, someone else on my staff was responsible for the repairs." "Well, I hope they remembered to because I just dumped the whole runabout core into the computer," stated Enoz, "I'm rerouting both halves of her pattern to the deflector dish processor. It's got the most advanced algorithms on the ship and should enable me to reconstruct her pattern." "Now entering the asteroid belt," stated the helmsman calmly. "What asteroid belt?!", shrieked Enoz. "We're on a standard survey course," said Ming. "If space particles accumulate too much the dish will activate to push them out of the way and since I'm running it at maximum to.." "..save Bruder we could lose her if something like that rock gets in our way," Mason interrupted pointing at an asteroid on the viewscreen. Seeing the helmsman freeze in shock, and being closer to the helm than Mason, Ming sprung up, shoving both men out of the way. She punched in the commands for full reverse impulse and the ship lurched back. Rising to her feet, she helped Mason up. "Enoz," said Mason, "Do we still have Bruder?" "No. We weren't fast enough. The dish charged and emitted her pattern all over that rock," Enoz said quietly. Ming's brow furrowed in confusion, "Is that possible?" "Who knows what's going on with Bruder around," muttered Syxx, so only Enoz could hear. Mason watched as another asteroid plummeted into the first and rocks flew off in all directions. "So much for Ensign Bruder," he added loudly, "Everybody make their log entries, then let's be on with things." The bridge crew tried to return to normal, but murmurs of confusion arose as everyone saw the displays on their panels. "There is a virus!", stated Enoz, "It's partitioning our computer systems and replicating the files. The Changeling must have written it not to delete all our files but copy them over and over until it filled up and locked up our systems!" "Captain," yelled Syxx, "Bruder's pattern is one of the files being replicated. The one on the asteroid was just one copy." "Don't try reintegrating all of them, just one of them," ordered Mason. "Use the next available computer system other than the dish processor." Enoz quickly determined that the Holodeck systems were the best option not infected yet. She instructed what was left of the computer to merge the patterns back together using Holodeck 1's matrix. In Holodeck 1, Beeg was running his men through another simulation, when a hologram of Bruder appeared. Screaming in agony, the Pinx dropped his claymore and yelled, "Computer, there's a bug in this program, delete the entire file!" The computer chirped complyingly and everything disappeared, including Bruder's pattern matrix. "We lost her again, Captain!", yelled Enoz. "Try again from another one of the file partitions. Beam her straight into sickbay," Mason stated, checking his panel, "Belay that. Sickbay's systems are down. Beam her into Holodeck 2. We can recreate any equipment we need for her there." Enoz switched her access to another one of the file partitions and reintegrated the patterns again, this time successfully merging them and rematerializing the Ensign in Holodeck 2. "Enoz," Ming said, "My panel shows one of your programs is still running down there." "Uh-oh," said Enoz. In Holodeck 2, the third recreation of Ensign Etely Bruder rose her head stiffly, barely conscious between the confusion in her head, and her new surroundings. A hologram of a deceased science officer stepped over her. Lifting her with one hand around her neck, Kalamarina growled, "I've been told that Borg nanoprobes in your head made you unfit for duty and are killing you. Hardly original!" The Klingon slammed the Ensign against a wall, face first, "Time to show you what a pain you really are!" Back on the bridge, Mason ordered Ming to the Holodeck, as they were unable to shut down the program. She bolted into the turbolift and quickly descended to the lower decks. Hitting her shoulder on the door as she rushed out, she sprinted down the corridor, knocking down two other Ensigns along the way. When she got to the Holodeck entrance, she took a deep breath and opened the doors. Seeing a bloodied laughing recreation of Kalamarina sitting on a rock disturbed her. Not seeing Bruder, Ming stepped in carefully for a few steps. "Where's Bruder, Lieutenant?", she asked, hoping the hologram would recognize authority. It did. "You're standing in her, sir," grinned Kal. Mason instinctively covered his ears as Ming's shriek deafened the bridge comm system. He cut the channel and turned to Syxx and Enoz, "All right, try another partition, and delete the ones we've already used. If we give the virus room, it'll keep recreating patterns until we get one right." "Actually sir, all the Bruder pattern files are being copied from the primary and secondary pattern buffers, and we only have time to try it one more time before the pattern degrades too much to be usable," said Syxx, "Besides which, the rest of our computer files are replicating themselves exponentially. We have to shut down and reboot from the protected core soon before the ship's systems start to fail." "Then get it right," Mason urged. Syxx turned back to his station and found access controls to a transporter still functioning. This time, Mason sent Mull Valen to be there when Etely awoke. Just as Mull got there, Etely was starting to rematerialize. All of Bruder up to the gold collar on her uniform appeared on the transporter pad, but that was all. The headless Bruder fell over onto the transporter pad. Mull tapped his comm badge, "Captain, Ensign Bruder didn't make it. The transporter didn't materialize her head." "She always did lose her head in critical situations," muttered Syxx. He looked up as the lights flickered and came back up, "Captain, the ship's systems have been reinitialized. All the files have been reloaded from the protected core. All the pattern buffers have been purged, so there are no more copies of Bruder's pattern to use." Mason sat silently, it looked like that was the end of Etely Bruder. Instinctively, though, something told him it wasn't. She always seemed to keep coming back. Standing slowly, unsure why, he called out, "Computer, locate Ensign Etely Bruder." "Ensign Bruder is in Sickbay." "Bridge to Sickbay, report," Mason called out. "I saw Bruder dematerialize to be beamed to the runabout, but then she rematerialized immediately afterward, she's been resting here since then. I've been treating a few minor injuries, but everyone's fine down here," the EMH said. Enoz lowered her head and started banging it against her console.