Strange Maze

Posted on Jan 23, 2017 @ 11:03pm by Lieutenant Jasmine Yu
Edited on on Jan 23, 2017 @ 11:04pm

Mission: Holodeck Havoc

“Strange Maze”
(contd from Jerome and Shawn’s ‘What’s Wrong with This Picture’)

Location: USS PHOENIX
SD: [2.17] 0123.1801
Scene: Holodeck 10

So the decision to follow the sleigh was the correct one. When Jasmine consulted the layout, she found she was on the right path towards the centre of the labyrinth. The Asian woman smiled, stealing a glance at her three new companions, tap dancing their way behind her. This was a strange scenario, Native American tribes from Northern Canada, emperor penguins whose home was in Antarctica and a group of Vikings, who hailed from the Scandinavian countries, all in one place. **Well, that’s the holodeck for you, **Jasmine thought with amusement.

Jasmine stopped at an opening through the next inner circle wall and inhaled a single breath, briefly glancing at the penguins, who stood by her side. The trio gazed up at her as if awaiting her next decision. The security chief turned on her heel and stepped through the gap, getting closer to her goal to reaching the innermost circle, where the entry to floor four awaited her impending arrival. The penguins followed suit, resuming their tap dancing again.

Expecting to find another corridor, surrounded by circular glacier walls, Jasmine’s eyes widened. Facing her was a forest and a small company, comprising of an elf, a human woman and a bunch of dead bodies, lying around her. The security chief’s mouth dropped, staring at rats as large as bipedal beings. She looked up, where a green bolt of lightning slashed through the night sky, followed by the thunder rumbling. A stark contrast from her last location, where the sky was filled with bright, dancing, multi-coloured lights, akin to the Northern Lights on Earth. Then there was an evil laughter, which chilled Jasmine to the bone.

“Okay,” the Asian woman said, nervous about the laughter. “Better find another way.” She quickly turned around and jogged back through the opening, relieved to be back in the glacier labyrinth with the penguin trio, dancing near her. Little did she realize, the human woman called out in her direction. Releasing a huge sigh of relief, Jasmine addressed her companions. “Okay, guys, let’s go find another route.” She continued walking further down the icy path, her brow furrowed. “This is not right,” she said. “According to the layout, that was the right way.” Yu took a few steps backwards and then sighed. “Computer, freeze program.” But nothing happened. Jasmine gave the penguins a look of concern. “Something’s wrong.” Tapping on her comm badge, the young woman spoke, “Yu to Bridge.” No response. Her anxiety grew. Something was really wrong – looked like the communications were down. Was the ship in trouble? But the Phoenix was sitting at Spacedock. Or perhaps there was a glitch in the system.

“Display layout,” she commanded. Immediately, the map of the third floor of the 3D maze was displayed above her. Jasmine frowned. “So I did go the right way.” Turning to her tap dancing avian friends, she grinned. “Maybe, like the bath house, this is an obstacle I will need to overcome to go further.” Her lips curled into a tiny smile, when the penguins shook their heads in unison. She turned around and headed back to the opening with the birds tagging along.

Inhaling deeply, Jasmine put one foot forward through the gap and then the other. She raised an eyebrow, confusion washing over her features. In place of the forest as she expected, was a room filled with many cubicles with humans seated inside, wearing headsets and chattering away to themselves. “Hmmm, seems safe. Perhaps a different obstacle, every time I return to the same place. I will go forward.” She moved slowly, navigating through an aisle surrounded by cubicles and the penguins continued after her. She turned a corner and a burst of cold air flew into her face. Jasmine shivered, giving herself a quick hug. The young woman, once again, stood between glacier walls – she was back in her maze with a puzzled expression. “That was hardly an obstacle.” But at least, she was on the right track to the centre. Letting out a sigh of relief, Jasmine then chuckled, turning to speak with the penguins, when a man’s voice made her glance behind.

A heavy set man, sporting a thick, reddish brown beard and wearing brown furs and black body armor, came charging at her. His hand raised in the air, clutching an axe, the hologram let out a roar. Jasmine went into a fighting stance, urging the penguins to stand behind her. The Viking was her obstacle, perhaps she was to spar with him and win to be allowed further progress in the maze. But what happened in the next second, surprised her. The Viking was no longer the burly man, yelling and charging with an axe, instead a hologram walking at a casual pace and no longer giving out war cries.

Jasmine took note of the man’s facial features and her mind flashed to the senior staff’s profiles. Standing before her was not one of the holograms in the maze, but her ExO, who was still holding the axe in the air without likely realizing it. “Wait…Commander Crichton?”

“Yes, that’s me,” Jake replied. “And I am guessing you are not really a hologram?”

It was then Jasmine, realized to her embarrassment that she hadn’t the chance to meet the ExO, upon her arrival as she was immediately thrust into the holodeck. And now her first meeting with him was through a hologram, how weird was that. “Commander, I’m Lieutenant Jasmine Yu, newly assigned Chief of Security and Tactical.”

“Oh, yes,” Jake said, giving her a tiny smile. “I know. I was planning on dropping by the security centre to see how you were settling in and…” His voice trailed, when he noticed the look of discomfort in the Asian woman’s eyes, which he realized were fixed on his right arm. Jake gave her a reassuring smile. “Oh this is a water bottle.”

“A water bottle, sir?” She raised an eyebrow. “I see an axe. You are dressed as a Viking warrior, who, before you appeared, was charging at me.”

Jake blinked. “A Viking? What program are you been running?”

“Well,” said Jasmine in a calm voice, “I’m running a 3D maze with ten floors, going from top to the bottom, which would be the tenth floor. Each floor contains a different maze within that I need to solve before proceeding to the next floor. Right now, I am on the third floor, which is a concentric circle labyrinth with glaciers acting as the walls. I am attempting to reach the centre of the labyrinth, in order to move further down to the fourth floor.”

“Ah it all makes sense,” the first officer said, lowering the axe/water bottle. “That Viking hologram was an obstacle you need to beat to progress.”

“Yes sir.” Jasmine nodded. “What’s going on? I tried freezing the program and contacting the bridge, but nothing worked. Are the comms down?”

Jake answered, “Looks that way. My program was acting strange. When I was trying to enter the bathroom, I ended up in an old Cardassian station and that’s not supposed to happen at a twenty first century tech support centre.”

“21st century, tech support,” the young woman repeated. “Ah, those rows of cubicles with people chatting away. That is your program.” She then sported a puzzled expression. “But that doesn’t explain the forest, lightning and the group comprising of a human woman, an elf.”

“That wasn’t in my program.” Crichton shook his head. “It looks like the holodeck matrix is not functioning properly. So that could be why our holodeck programs may be bleeding into each other.”

Jasmine nodded in understanding. She had become so caught up in solving the challenging maze that she had forgotten problems could arise with the holodecks. The young woman sighed, hoping it would be resolved.

“I’m talking to Jasmine, Dave,” Jake argued with the air, well in Jasmine’s view, which confused the security chief.

“Dave?”

The ExO turned forward and grinned. “Dave is a hologram in my program. See, there, you are a woman they call, Nina and standing in front of a photocopier.” Jasmine blinked in confusion. “And that they are calling that penguin, Pamela, who is operating a fax machine.” He pointed his finger at one of the penguins but didn’t seem to have noticed the other two.

“You see the penguins?” Yu raised an eyebrow.

But Jake was once again, arguing with the air. “Dave, I didn’t mean to offend the peng…I mean Pamela.” Turning back to the Lieutenant, he said, “You say, three penguins. I only see one.”

Jasmine sighed, glancing at her penguin companions. “Maybe, only one penguin hologram is showing up in your program.”
“Commander Crichton,” a woman called behind him. “How did you get in my program…?” Her voice trailed, when she laid eyes on the security chief. “I saw you earlier but you turned around and vanished in thin air. And now you are back here again.”

“Ensign Lynette Ryan, Assistant Engineer,” Jake began quickly introducing, realizing the two women hadn’t met before, “Meet Lieutenant Jasmine Yu, our new chief of security and tactical.”

“Pleased to meet you, Lieutenant Yu,” Lynette said, addressing the other woman.

“Hello, Ensign Ryan,” Jasmine greeted with a tiny smile and then wore a puzzled expression. “Pardon me, Ensign Ryan, but I see your hologram, represented as a shield maiden.”

“Shield maiden?” Lynette raised an eyebrow. “Oh, wait…you see me as a hologram in your program.”

Jasmine nodded, returning a weak smile. “I am guessing we are all seeing each other as holograms, according to our programs’ settings.”

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~*~
Ranjani S.
Writing for

Lieutenant Jasmine Yu
Chief of Security and Tactical
USS PHOENIX