Cerulean Stars - Interlude - Voyager - Part 1 (Patreon)

Interlude - Voyager - Part 1

Stardate 48628.44 - August 18, 2371 - 09:08:03

Inserting the isolinear drive into the holodeck memory slot, Harry Kim turned back to the display and began running the upload.

“Still can't believe it took you this long to check out what's on that,” Tom muttered in disbelief 

“We were thrown across the galaxy and I was kidnapped by Caretaker,” Harry reminded him. “I had more important things on my mind than a holodeck program."

The control panel gave a small chirp as the program finished uploading, and an introduction screen popped up on the wall display.

Welcome to Citadel Noir

Built at the center of a vast network of galaxy spanning transwarp corridors, Citadel station is the hub of galactic travel where species from all quadrants meet, work, and live. Like all such places however, more goes on then what is seen on the surface. And it is in these shadows where the true story of Citadel Station is written.

Select mode - Story, Open World

“Huh,” Tom muttered. “Been awhile since I’ve seen a dedicated twin mode system.” Only to continue once he noticed Harry's questioning glance. “They fell out of favor with most holonovel designers a couple decades ago once generative systems reached the point of being able to expand one type into the other without too much difference.”

He seemed to consider the option for several seconds before a wry grin tugged on the corner of his lips. “Makes me wonder if this is one of those stories with a tragic end.”

“So what do you think?” Harry asked, looking between the two options and wondering which of the ones would be best for taking his mind off things.

“Story of course,” Tom returned with a grin. “Not to say pure open worlds can’t be fun, but I want to see what hot mystery Commander wrote.”

Harry did too, so with a nod he selected the story option and a new box popped up.

Select Character Embodiment

Main Character

Private Detective John/Jane Sheppard - Species, Human - Suggested Gender, Male/Female 

A former special agent for the Council that runs the Citadel, Sheppard left that life behind when the dark deeds they asked Sheppard to cover up became too much. Now Sheppard lives as the only private detective on the Citadel, a position they're allowed to hold only through a dark agreement made with the Council when leaving their service.

“Hey,” Tom began in a sly voice. “You wouldn't mind if I–”

“You can play the lead on your own time,” Harry said as he registered himself as the main character.

A new list popped up, and he felt his eyebrows rise at the sheer number of secondary characters that began to scroll past. “

Select Character Embodiment 

Secondary Characters

Council Agent Kaidan Alenko - Species, Human - Suggested Gender, Male

Citadel Security Detective Garrus Vakarian - Species, Xindi-Reptilian - Suggested Gender, Male

Independent Bounty Hunter Urdnot Wrex - Species, Klingon - Suggested Gender, Male

Independent Mercenary Zaeed Massani - Species, Human - Suggested Gender, Male

Wandering Monk Thane Krios - Species, Bajoran - Suggested Gender, Male

Cerberus Lieutenant Jacob Taylor - Species, Human - Suggested Gender, Male

Council Agent Ashley Williams - Species, Human - Suggested Gender, Female

Citadel Security Detective Samara - Species, Asari - Suggested Gender, Female

Daring Thief Kasumi Goto - Species, Human - Suggested Gender, Female

Citadel Archivist Liara T'Soni - Species, Asari - Suggested Gender, Female

Pilgrim of the Migrant Fleet Tali'Zorah nar Rayya - Species, Quarian - Suggested Gender, Female.

Cerberus Lieutenant Miranda Lawson - Species, Human - Suggested Gender, Female

“What's a Quarian?” Harry asked, not recalling anything about a species with that name from the Academy.

“No clue,” Tom shrugged. “Might be a custom species the author put together.”

“So what do you think?” He continued as he finished looking over the character blurbs. “Bright eyed rookie council agent or crime family lieutenant with a heart of gold?”

“Not the mercenary?” Harry asked in surprise, since he had thought that looked a lot more Tom's usual type.

“Na,” Tom shook his head. “Feels like more of a Chakotay character.”

“Then I guess Jacob,” Harry decided.

“Dibs on Miranda then,” Tom said with a roguish grin as he made the selection.

“What?” he asked innocently upon noticing Harry's disapproving stare. “You saw her character description. And her and Jacob having an illicit romance behind the back of their Illusive Don would make a great side story.”

A feeling of exasperation swept over Harry. “You do remember this was written by a woman? I kind of doubt she made her female characters the type to fall for your usual style of pick up lines.”

Which were about as blunt as they came, and constantly left Harry wondering how Tom was as successful as he was with gaining various women's interest.

“Wanna make a bet on that?” Tom grinned. “A week's replicator rations that I can seduce at least one of the six secondary characters on that list.”

There was something about Tom's tone that made Harry suspicious. “You think it's a sure thing.”

“And you don't,” Tom said. “That's why it's something to bet on.” He gave a purposeful sigh. “But I suppose if you don't want to, we can just start the program now.”

“I don't want to,” Harry returned dryly as he tapped the control to start the program.

The heavy bulkhead doors of the holodeck slid open with a hiss to reveal a night shrouded thoroughfare backlit by a spectacular view of a purple tinged nebula.

Tom gave a flourishing gesture towards the open doorway. “Main characters first.”

Rolling his eyes, Harry walked in only to shiver slightly as the tingling feeling of a forced holomatter costume change rolled over him.

“Huh,” Harry muttered, looking down at the black trench coat he was now wearing.

“Snazzy,” Tom put forward as he looked over his own pinstripe suit.

“Just remember it's holomatter,” he warned. “You don't want to end up being Starfleet's newest naked ensign.”

Harry turned and shot Tom an odd look. “You make it sound like that's a regular thing?”

“You'd be surprised,” Tom chuckled. “Uncle Gerald used to tell me stories, and it was apparently something of a regular thing on Starbases back in the days before they started integrating replicators into the technology.”

They had needed to heavily restrict that particular integrated system on Voyager as it could be something of a resource hog, and now that Tom had brought it up, Harry just hoped he wasn’t the one who ended up being the reminder for the rest of the crew to always bring their own costumes.

A blue holographic screen popped up in front of each of them as the doors slid shut, the words “Character Backstory” brightly emblazoned as a title.

Skimming through the six pages of text, Harry found himself liking the somewhat jaded private detective just a little, and he made a mental note of the more standout character traits before tapping the close button at the end of the screen.

“Hey Harry?” Tom suddenly asked, already apparently having finished reading his own and moved to looking around the rather impressive space station that they’d appeared on. “What do you know about holonovel construction?” 

“Not a lot,” Harry confessed, since his holodesign experience had mostly been based around modifying already existing programs for testing purposes.

“All right,” Tom nodded. “Lets start with the basics then, holonovels basically have two layers to them. The layer created by people, which is what we usually interact with and contains the story. And the generative layer created by the main computer, which fills out all the stuff going on in the background of the program and gives it that sort of alive feeling.”

“I think I remember something about that,” Harry nodded as Tom’s words dredged up the memory of his first year holo-engineering classes. “But what does that have to do with the program?”

“This station isn’t generative,” Tom said as his eyes followed the curve of the large transparent dome. “It’s gotta be what, at least sixty kilometers in diameter?”

Harry glanced around and did some quick and dirty mental math. “I’d say closer to sixty five, assuming the parts we can’t see form an actual sphere.”

“Close enough,” Tom nodded. “But it’s too large, so we’re either looking at a program heavily restricting where we can go on the station.”

“Which wouldn’t fit in with the open world option at start.” Harry nodded, starting to get where the other man was going with this.

Tom nodded in agreement. “Or this was a lot bigger project than Commander Brooks inferred. Cause you’d need at least a full creative team to put together something like this.”

beep, beep, beep

A sudden alert drew Harry’s attention to his wrist, and he pulled up his new sleeve to see a high tech arm bad with a blinking red control. “It sounds like I have a message.”

“Me too,” Tom offered as he looked down at a similar device on his own wrist.

Tapping the blinking control, Harry blinked in surprise when a small semi-transparent red tinged holographic head of a robotic looking woman materialized over his wrist. Small floating text under the head labeled the robotic woman as Edi Friday, and Harry only just kept himself from rolling his eyes at the name of what was obviously Sheppard’s girl friday.

“Sheppard,” Edi greeted. “We just got word from Detective Vakarian that Fisk’s men were seen headed to Korra’s, so you’d better locate Miss Rayya fast and get out.” She scowled reproachfully at him. “And if you can’t, please, try to keep collateral damage to a minimum this time. Otherwise it’s going to be another month of cup ramen and low voltage charging, and I don't think my circuits could take that.”

“No promises,” Harry grinned, that line enough for him to start getting a general feel for the character's attitude. 

The holographic head vanished at that, and he turned to Tom just in time to catch sight of a heavily shadowed face being projected from the other man’s wrist before it disappeared in a similar manner.

“That was the boss,” Tom grinned as he said the word. “He wants me to meet up with Miranda at some place called Korra’s.”

“Must be where the plot starts,” Harry said, glancing around the thoroughfare before his eyes settled on a tasteful holographic sign that said Korra’s Lounge hovering above a nearby doorway. 

“Better not keep it waiting,” Tom returned, following Harry’s gaze before starting to walk. “Never know if the programmer might have included an event timer.”

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“Oh now that's just playing dirty,” Tom muttered under his breath as he looked around the entryway of the lounge.

“What?” Harry asked, feeling like he was missing something obvious.

“It's the Blue Alert,” Tom said, only to roll his eyes at Harry's blank look. “The famous lounge near the Academy that was built by Erika Archer after she retired? Come on man, I refuse to believe you've never gone there.”

“What can I say,” Harry gave a helpless shrug. “I mostly went to the Launching Pad.”

The staccato clicking of approaching heels drew both of their attentions back to the reception hall where a stunning Asari in a sequenced red cocktail dress was approaching them.

Tom gave an appreciative whistle and the Asari's eyes locked onto him like a guided torpedo.

“Really, Mister Taylor,” she tsked disapprovingly. “I would have thought the Don would have warned you about making promises to a girl you're not equipped to keep.”

“Trust me dollface,” Tom returned in an embarrassingly bad gangster accent. “I'm able to follow through on any promise I make.”

“And detective Sheppard,” she switched her gaze to Harry, seemingly discounting Tom entirely. “With how long it's been, I was beginning to get worried that your luck had finally run out.”

“I had a bit of a close call,” Harry said, wincing slightly as that brought to mind his recent near death experience in the Vhnori sub-dimension. “Sorry about not stopping by sooner, but things since have kept me busy.”

“I suppose so,” she hummed to herself for a moment before giving an odd smile. “But I’m guessing you two didn’t come to Korra’s to talk to Korra?”

“I’m supposed to meet up with Miranda,” Tom interjected.

“She’s at the Illusive Don’s usual booth in the back,” Korra pointed over her shoulder into the lounge proper. “I’d warn you though, whatever you two were sent out on has her in a mood. So if she uses the table to break your face, it’s going on your tab.”

“Got it,” Tom nodded before turning to Harry and offering him a grin. “Now, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

With those last words he walked off, leaving Harry to shake his head in bemusement.

“One of these days that man’s overcompensation is going to get him into some real trouble,” Korra sighed as she focused back on Harry. 

With how perfect the opening was given Tom’s recent brush with near disaster, Harry couldn’t help himself. “It already has, you’d really think he’d learn, but here we are.”

“I suppose with some people it takes multiple lessons to sink in,” Korra giggled, though her humor quickly evaporated. “So what about you? Here for your usual?”

There hadn’t been anything about what that might have been in the background information, so Harry just shook his head. “No, I’m here to meet up with a Quarian by the name of Tali'Zorah nar Rayya.”

Korra gave a contemplative hum. “Haven’t seen any Quarian’s in here tonight, but if you wanna wait at the bar I can tell my people to send her over when she gets here.”

“That should work,” Harry nodded, starting to suspect they weren’t going to be able to avoid running into Fisk’s men. “But might want to warn your staff, Fisk’s after her, so there might be trouble.”

“That’s sweet,” Korra reached over and lightly patted his cheek. “But haven’t you heard, dear, troubles my middle name.”

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Author’s Notes: Had this sitting half finished on my drive for awhile, with the fourth of July weekend I didn’t have a lot of time to write so finished it off the first part of it so you’d have something this week.