Chapter Fourteen: Meet the New Boss

 Once again at the conference room table, D'arko sat forward, his fingers steepled, his antennae almost mirroring, he took a deep breath.

"Mr. T'Upok, what have you found?"

T'Upok, stood and approached the wall viewer, an image of the Galaxy-Class U.S.S. Enterprise appeared.

"The Enterprise, NCC-1701D was destroyed at Veridian III in 2371. The saucer section was, at least partially saved due to an emergency separation and a... landing... on the planet's surface. Most of the systems were destroyed, those that survived were recycled into other ships...

"One such system, "the image changed to show a black cube with a dozen bio-neural leads attached, "was this data-node. It was registered as an experimental data interface and was installed here on Pendragon during her last refit. History of this device was, as it turns out, incomplete due to damage of the Enterprise ship's logs from the crash."

The image changed again, this time displaying a gold-skinned humanoid, a dark-skinned human in a VISOR, and the human Lieutenant Starr described, all in Victorian garb.

"Six years prior, in 2365, "T'Upok continued, "on the holodeck of the Enterprise, Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge, in an attempt to create a challenging holoprogram for then Lieutenant Commander Data, a Soong-type Android, and the only one in Starfleet, instructed the computer to create an adversary capable of defeating, not Sherlock Holmes, as would befit the simulation, but capable of defeating Data. The computer, then,  devised the simulation of Professor James Moriarty.

"Based on the Holmsian character fo the same name, THIS Moriarty would be given self-awareness by the computer as a way of levelling the playing field between himself and Data. Moriarty then learned some rudimentary ability to influence the ship and was able to call for the arch within the holodeck, accessing some levels of the ship's computers. In a brief amount of time, he became aware of what his existence entailed."

Captain D'arko rubbed his temples.

"Eventually, Captain Picard convinced Moriarty to release the ship in exchange for not deleting the program. This détente, is the last complete record we have. The rest is partial conjecture based on incomplete and damaged log entries.

"Some time between 2367 and the Enterprise's destruction, Moriarty returned, along with a companion, one Countess Regina Bartholomew, also a self-aware holo program. Moriarty's patience had worn thin and he once again, took control of the Enterprise from the holodeck. This time, he refused to release control of the ship until a way was found to allow both the Countess and himself off the ship."

Crad took the moment to continue the story.

"It looks like," The Chief said, lightly scratching his neck, "Commander Data had created a data node to contain Professor Moriarty and Countess Bartholomew in a secondary simulation, tricking them into believing they'd left the holodeck and separating them from the main computer, preventing them from exerting any control over the ship. Since the records of the event were far from complete, the Corps of Engineers had no idea what that data node was actually doing. Since it was damaged in the crash, even a proper examination was inconclusive."

"And someone in the bureaucratic chain of command," Captain D'arko cut in, the exasperation in his voice nearly tangible,"thought it was a good idea to install it into my ship without so much as a proper test... Also, what in the name of K'ohlk'r was wrong with the Enterpise's crew? They just couldn't deal with anything NORMAL on their missions, could they? Okay, Chief, I want that thing removed from our systems yesterday."

At that moment, the main lighting for the ship turned a deep, pulsing crimson as alert klaxons began to blare.

"Captain to the bridge. Red alert!" Lieutenant Song's voice shouted over the ship-wide. The assembled officers ran out to the bridge.

On the main viewer, over a dozen Jem'Hadar raiders approached at high speed.

"Fourteen Jem'Hadar, Sir. Weapons hot and locked. They'll be in range in... four minutes," Starr reported as she took the tactical post.

"Get phasers armed in rapid-fire. Helm, ready with defence pattern epsilon," D'arko tapped the comm-control in his command chair, "Bridge to CAG!"

"Townshend here."

"GC, I need a wing scrambled. How fast can you go?"

"I'll have them airborne in 90 seconds, Skip!'

In 75 seconds time, the screen displayed a wing of twenty Kestrel-class fighters swarming out toward the raiders on an intercept course...

And the raiders blinked out of existence.

"Report!" D'arko barked at the air.

"No trace of the Jem'Hadar, Captain," Starr said as she continued to scan for any sign of the previously impending attack., "Kestrel wing confirms. No sign."

"Route appears clear, Sir," Song reported, "No engine...." She trailed off.

"Lieutenant?" D'arko began.

The Betazoid helm officer let out a sudden scream of pain and collapsed.

"Captain!" Lieutenant Starr shouted from tactical, "Weapons have just come online! We're... We're targeting the Kestrels!"

"Take them offline, Starr!"

Frantically working her controls in futility, Starr smashed them with her fists.

"I can't, Sir. They're not responding!"

"Pendragon to Kestrel wing! Initiate evasive..."

At that moment, the phasers of the Pendragon unleashed Hell upon her own fighter escorts, all twenty erupting into balls of pure inferno.

"Flight deck, report!"

"Aye sir," an unfamiliar voice came over comms, "Six pilots recovered via emergency eject transport. two uninjured."

"You're not Townshend," D'arko said, tension rising in his throat.

"No, Sir. Uhh... My name's Jacobs. The CAG took lead on the sortie, Sir. He made it back, but... Well, he's on his way to sickbay."

Da'mi'en jabbed the communication control on his command chair.

"Someone want to tell me what just happened?"

"I trust I have your attention, Captain?" A resonant voice came from behind him. He stood up and turned.

Professor Moriarty stood at the back wall of the bridge, his hands calming behind his back, a small, playful smile on his lips.

"We have much to discuss."