Chu had been working for over six hours in the science lab on what remained of Ensign ASHER. He had discovered the reason that the ASHER hologram had been non-responsive and had also taken a look at the mobile emitter. Now he stood outside the Captain's ready room to inform the Captain of his findings. He pressed the door chime and almost immediately the doors opened and Captain Taybar ushered Chu in.

"So you've discovered what has been happening with Ensign ASHER ?" Aki commented.

"Of a sort yes Captain." Chu replied. "It appears that he was somehow effected by the probe that we initially sent to keep track of the ISS Leviathan. We know that the probe was captured and modified by the crew of the mirror vessel, but not to what extent. During ASHER's examination of the probe when we recaptured it, he was infected by some kind of holo-virus. From his own studies and what I have learnt on my own, this virus was designed to attack and reconfigure his core sub-routines."

"But if I remember correctly ASHER was a combination of Protector technology and a Federation holomatrix." Aki stated. "Surely he would have had some sort of protection against such an act."

"The Federation matrix his initial programme combine with was a mark four EMH from the Enterprise-E. This holomatrix like its predecessor the mark three had in-built security measures to prevent tampering with its sub-routines." Chu replied. "Which is what may have prevented his systems from becoming compromised."

"So when the virus started to attack ASHER's core sub-routines, that's what happened." Aki suggested. "The security protocols prevented it from getting attacked."

"Not exactly." Chu said. "The sub-routines from the EMH were protected, but the virus did start to reconfigure the Protector sub-routines within ASHER. The problem was that the two matrices were so intertwined that in effect ASHER became two separate entities. There were two sets of sub-routines, one Federation the other Protector which were vying for control of ASHER."

"So in effect ASHER was spilt into two separate personalities." Aki suggested.

"Unfortunately I've seen the results of this before." Chu stated.

"When ?" Aki enquired.

"About a year after ASHER arrived on Jupiter station." Chu replied. "We collaborated on a joint project to see if we could repeat the experiment that produced ASHER. We managed to create a Federation matrix and attempted to copy some of ASHER's own sub-routines into the matrix. The resulting hologram 'DARLA' was only active for a few days, her Federation matrix came into conflict with the Protector sub-routines and eventually the entire matrix became unstable and we were forced to destroy it. ASHER took it very bad, he was the one who had suggested the project to Doctor Zimmermann and designed the physical parameters for 'DARLA'. Where he got them from I have no idea, it was like he had this image inside him that just came out."

"So what is the situation now ?" Aki asked.

"It appears that to prevent any further damage to his Protector sub-routines, he has downloaded the Federation matrix into the ships computer, along with all the data that he has collected. The Protector sub-routines have remained in the mobile emitter that has been placed into a permanent diagnostic loop. In theory that should prevent any further deterioration in this programming."

"Can we get him back ?" Aki enquired.

"We can't at the moment get the Protector part back, to do so would destroy him within hours. As for the Federation matrix, that is stored in the ship's computer, but is nothing more than a huge databank with ASHER's body. All his personality is within the half of him that is locked inside the emitter. The hologram doesn't even have the basic interface systems. I'm attempting to graft some to the matrix as we speak, but it's going to be a long task, there are so many broken links where the Protector sub-routines joined." Chu replied. "There's only two people who can help us now, the Protectors and the person who created the virus in the first place."