Captain's log, Stardate 46437.2. After receiving a high priority message from Starfleet Command the Enterprise has interrupted it's survey of the Orba Nebula. We will be traveling to the Federation science outpost in orbit around the fourth planet of the Bellerophon system. There have been some troubling reports about the nature of the experiments being conducted there and the Enterprise is being sent to investigate.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard sat at his desk in his ready room, involved in reading up on the staff of the Bellerophon outpost, when he heard a chime. "Come." He said, looking up to give his visitor his full attention.
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge entered, not making a move to sit down unless his captain indicated he do so. "Captain, you wanted to see me about the delay?"
Picard stood, picking up a PADD from his desk and looked through the data it displayed. It contained information on the scans of the Orba Nebula that La Forge wanted to perform before they left for the Bellerophon mission. The Orba Nebula was an interesting space phenomenon, relatively small in size and held together by forces not entirely understood by the scientists of the Federation, forces that seemed to have been failing for hundreds of years. It was theorized that the periodic energy discharges that were detected in the Nebula were part of what kept the Nebula stable, but the discharges were becoming infrequent and the Nebula was beginning it's final dispersion within the last few years. "No, Mister La Forge, we can spare an hour or two to finish up scans of the Nebula. Although I am curious why you thought it was necessary to request a delay in the first place. Have your scans detected something to be concerned about in the Orba Nebula?"
La Forge nodded his head and reached for Picard's PADD. He highlighted a few sections containing pertinent information, then handed it back to him. "Yes, Captain. As you can see here the long range scans that Starfleet has already done on the Nebula indicated the dispersion process it is undergoing would would be completed in about a year, but the scans the Enterprise have performed at close range indicate the dispersion process will be complete in around a month or two. The scans we're doing now might be the only ones we're going to get. I thought it was worth a small delay."
Picard looked through the data and frowned a little. "Yes, this is something to be concerned about. I'll send a message to Starfleet requesting they send a ship to scan the Nebula while we still can."
"Sir, if I might make a suggestion, I think it would be worthwhile to increase the delay to a day or two. This really is a puzzle I'd like to solve while it's still available."
Picard gave a quick smile at his chief engineer's enthusiasm, but shook his head. "I'm sorry Mister La Forge, but the delay I've already granted you is all that we can afford. The investigation of the Bellerophon facility is of utmost importance."
La Forge nodded his head in acceptance of Picard's decision. "Alright. It's a little disappointing not to be a part of the work, but once Starfleet becomes aware of the results of some of our preliminary scans I'm sure they'll be quick to send a science vessel here to finish what we've started. Is there anything else you needed from me?"
Picard sat back down at his desk and and gave a slight nod of his head as he briefly considered what to tell his chief engineer. He trusted his crew completely and he had originally asked La Forge to his ready room to inform him about the specifics of the Bellerophon mission, but what he was going to tell him wasn't something that you just jumped into. "Tell me, Mister La Forge, what do you know about Bellerophon?"
La Forge had been reading up on the system, but even without that he would have been able to easily answer that question. "It's a single star system. It's fourth planet would be M-class, that is, if it's surface didn't contain various exotic life destroying radiations that keep it a barren world. The science outpost in orbit there is studying terraforming technologies, with one of it's goals being the potential terraforming of Bellerophon IV."
"It is those terraforming technologies that Starfleet is concerned about." Picard said, tapping his PADD on his desk. "They've already made a few breakthroughs in widescale planetary terraforming techniques, and one of them was considered too dangerous to be currently usable by the Federation. Still, they went through with a few tests and the Federation Science Council had to step in."
"I heard about that. Some kind of self replicating nanomachines." La Forge said with a small amount of admiration. "Not in itself a total breakthrough, the real beauty of the system was the programming that allowed the machines to reconstruct their enviroment to be supportive of whatever ecology you wanted to import."
"A technology open to misuse, or simple accidental catastrophe." Picard said grimly. "As their own failed experiment proved. Now there's whispers that the facility is experimenting with Genesis."
"Genesis?" La Forge asked with no small amount of concern. "How is it even possible for them to get enough information about that to proceed with research? I thought it was pretty much forbidden."
"Not completely forbidden, some elements of the technology have been repurposed for it's potential to restart dead stars. However, the use of the technology to terraform planets is highly regulated and the Bellerophon outpost doesn't have authorization to study it."
"Have they developed a working device, or are they just working with small scale uses of the Genesis effect?"
Picard shook his head wearily. "We don't even know for sure that they are experimenting with Genesis, that's what we have to investigate. However, if they actually went so far as to create a working device..."
Picard pictured in his mind the potential of a fully functional Genesis Device. A barren, colorless world instantly transformed into a verdant, living world. The same device used on another world, this time a world viewed at night with countless glittering lights indicating cities scattered across it's surface. As the Genesis Device is detonated on the planets surface those lights are swept away by the resulting genesis wave, cities and the people populating them being transformed into simple life producing matter. Destruction through creation.
"Maybe this is all a misunderstanding. Or perhaps the staff at Bellerophon are simply studying the theory behind the Genesis Device and are not actually intent on constructing one. However, we must be sure. We must investigate."
***
Just minutes before the Enterprise finished it's scans and entered warp to travel to the Bellerophon system a presence approached it. The presence was sapient and it, and in the past others of it's kind, lived in the Orba Nebula. It knew it's world was growing smaller, and it was growing fearful. It was alone, normally there was supposed to be a handful of it's kind active during a given generation. When they grew old the inhabitants of the nebula weaved new life out of the light that filled their home. However, when the time came for new life and the entity was to be created it was during a time when home was dim. The elders claimed the histories communicated from generation to generation recorded such times of dimness, and they had plans in place. The entity was strong, effort was expended during it's creation to make it more robust, so that it would last the period of dimness. Also, the siblings it would have had were reduced to a single sibling created as strong as it, a safeguard to ensure their species survival and to prevent loneliness.
The siblings had existed for a long time, tending to their home and gazing out at the universe that existed outside. It was a hard existence but they found comfort in the companionship they offered each other. However the dimness of their home did not cease, there was no return of light like their progenitors had promised. The younger sibling eventually grew weak and sickly, the elder having to cradle the spark of it's sibling within it's very being, hoping that someday it would find someplace better then their home that was clearly dying and the sibling might be reborn.
Home was on the verge of complete darkness, and the entity was on the verge of hopelessness. The long period of growing darkness and loneliness as it's home died around it did not destroy the entity's curiosity, however, and the strange, solid mass of the Enterprise was a wonder to it. The entity probed it, lightly and carefully caressing it while examining it with it's many senses. Solid things weren't unknown to it, solid masses on occasion had passed through it's home, but this thing was strange. It seemed to be hollow, containing pockets of gas. It also radiated power, and seemed to move itself.
Is this thing an alien, some other kind of life? The entity wondered to itself. It had an imagination and could conceive that the universe contained others similar to itself in mind, but perhaps differing wildly in form. It tried to communicate with the Enterprise, but no signals that the Enterprise was emitting made sense to it. The entity decided that it's theory that this was some kind of strange alien was still valid, despite the lack of communication, but it also entertained the notion that this thing it had found could be probe. Technology was not unknown to the entity, but it's kind manipulated energy so a solid probe was a strange notion, but a hopeful one. If this thing was either a life form itself or a probe meant for exploration sent by some other life form the entity could find a way to ask for help. It was one last chance.
Suddenly, just when the entity was detecting a large build up of energy it found something startling. There was a spark hidden inside the solid thing that felt familiar, homelike. It would just take some folding in on itself for the entity to fit inside. The build up of energy that the entity detected from the Enterprise was similar to what it did when it jumped from one part of it's home to another, so it realized that such a build up from the Enterprise might mean it was leaving. With little time to think and a hopeful wish to it's ancestors the entity folded in on itself and easily permeated the solid hull of the Enterprise, seeking asylum within the spark it had felt. It could only have faith that whatever intelligence the solid object belonged to would look on it with kindness and generosity when it discovered what it had done. Besides, the entity was lonely, and eager to forge new bonds and find joy in the company of another once again.
The Enterprise warped out of the Orba Nebula with two unexpected extra passengers.
***
After only ten minutes into a trip that would have normally taken around seven hours the Enterprise's engines abruptly shut down. Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge began the process of figuring out what happened as engineers buzzed around him in main engineering. He quickly discovered that there was a major spike in energy consumption in the ships holodeck systems, causing an emergency drop out of warp.
"Bridge to engineering. Mister La Forge, we've just dropped out of warp. Can you tell us what's happened?" Picard's voice said over the Enterprise's communication system.
"La Forge here. Captain, I've detected a power surge in holodeck five. Somehow it drained a tremendous amount of power from our systems, doing a number on our engines in the process. It looks like I can get main engines back online in a matter of minutes but we'll only be able to limp at low warp. It's going to take us a few days to get to Bellerophon rather then a few hours."
There was a pause were La Forge assumed Picard was conferring with the other bridge officers, then he continued. "Mister La Forge, will you be able to speed up the process? It's imperative that we reach our destination quickly."
La Forge considered, but he felt his original estimate was correct. Though he did add some optimism to his report. "Sir, I'm pretty sure I can solve the problem with the engines within a day, but we'll need to have the engines offline to do a fix. That will take at least two days. It's probably faster just to travel to Bellerophon on the power the Enterprise has and fix her when we reach our destination."
There was only a brief pause on the line before La Forge heard Picard again. "Acknowledged, Mister La Forge. I'm sending Mister Data down to you, if you both can come up with a solution that will get us to Bellerophon quicker then your initial estimates implement it. Also, I want the holodecks offline for the moment while an investigation is prepared to figure out what went wrong with them. I'll leave the details to your discretion, but the engines take priority."
"Understood, Captain." La Forge got to work, motioning Lieutenant Reginald Barclay over to him. "Reg, I need you to go to holodeck five and see what's going on. The massive energy loss it caused seems to have been just a momentary event but the system is still draining much more power then it should and we can't seem to stop it remotely. See if you can fix it, and if you can't at least see if you can stabilize the situation until we can get an engineering team there to work on the problem."
Reginald Barclay suffered severely from social anxiety, but because La Forge was a friend of his he only stuttered a bit when he responded. "I-I'll get right on that, Commander. Should be a piece of cake. I'll let you and Commander Data know if there is anything important you should... know."
***
In Ponyville Twilight Sparkle had just suffered a severe headache while levitating two volatile chemicals that she had theorized could be carefully combined to form a stable compound, but which happened to form a very volatile compound when rapidly mixed. The resulting explosion covered her face in soot, made her mane a mess and turned out to be of scientific interest.
"Spike, make a note of that." She said, as she wobbled around on her hooves and had trouble focusing her eyes for a moment.
"Gotcha. Blue stuff mixed with green stuff equals explosion. Why can't science always be this interesting?" Spike said jokingly, while still using his hands to steady his boss and friend.
"Heh. Thank you, Spike." Twilight said with a smile at her tiny dragon assistants gesture of concern, before turning serious. "However, those aren't the scientific names of the chemicals that we were experimenting with. It's clear enough that it works for personal notes but We'll have to be more precise when we publish our findings. Beyond that I'm concerned about what exactly just happened."
"An explosion?" Spike said with a deadpan expression.
Twilight rolled her eyes at Spikes attempt at snark. "No Spike, I'm wondering what happened that caused my lapse in concentration. I don't normally have splitting migraines from out of nowhere. And I've suddenly got a really bad feeling."
Spike shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe it's something you're picking up with your unicorn horn? Aren't unicorns sensitive to magic stuff?"
Twilight put a hoof to her mouth and tapped it as she puzzled over that suggestion. "Hmm, maybe. Thinking about it the pain was reminiscent of a time I had thaumaturgical backlash caused by improperly accessing a leyline and causing a mana feedback loop. But simple telekinesis with magically inert chemicals like the ones we are currently working with shouldn't cause anything like that kind of reaction. So it's not something wrong with me, perhaps it's something wrong with the world? I wonder if all unicorns were affected, or just those with magical training. Ooooh, maybe the phenomenon was only noticeable to those unicorn ponies who were performing magic during the time of the event. We'll need to conduct interviews with the unicorns of Ponyville, see what they were doing during the time I sensed the disturbance..."
Sensing Twilight getting worked up, Spike tried to get her attention. "Uh, Twilight?"
Twilight ignored Spike and continued, growing upset as a new possibility occured to her. "Oh no! I just remembered that thaumaturgical backlash caused by mana feedback loops becomes exponentially more dangerous the more magically adept you are! This event could have been harmful to the Princesses, perhaps very harmful!! Spike, We need to send a letter to the Princess now!!!"
As Twilight got more and more worked up she had been invading Spikes personal space more and more until her face was right in front of his, her eyes wide and filled with fear and worry. Twilight loved and respected both of the Princesses, Celestia her mentor especially.
"Twilight! Relax!" Spike said loudly, not because he was angry but just to make sure he would get through to her. "This is the Princess we're talking about, no way is Princess Celestia going to be taken out by some magic head-", Spike was interrupted by a large burp and burst of flame erupting out of his mouth that signaled that a message from the Princess had arrived.
"Oh, a message from the Princess. Yay!" Twilight said with immense relief, successfully going from "panic" to "normal" in a second. She opened the letter and began to read it aloud. "To my most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. You have probably become aware of an event that has left a fundamental change to our world. To normal unicorn ponies it would seem like a brief feeling of being mentally disjointed. You may have felt a pain of some kind. Luna and I will need a day to recover but we will be fine. This event heralds something I knew was coming though I did not know an exact date. A new age is coming not just for our country but for our world, and I would ask that you and your friends be the ponies that lead us into this new age. There was once a time I feared this day, but the actions of you and your friends in saving my sister proves Equestria is a nation that can proudly face that which is to come. In the trial you will face remember your lessons in friendship and that all encounters may have a peaceful solution. And know that I love you and all my little ponies. Good luck."
Spike scratched the scales on his head. "Well... that was a little cryptic. I mean, it's great to know the Princess loves us, but what are we supposed to do? I mean, I think she technically gave us the authority to do what we wanted about whatever is going to happen, but we don't know what's going to happen."
Twilight was silent. The letter was full of emotion, and Twilight felt the familiar feeling of being unsure of how worthy she was of the amount of trust and faith the Princess seemed to place in her. "Well," she finally said, "Whatever is going to happen we'll be ready for it. The Princess is counting on us. Let's gather the girls."
***
Barclay had his tricorder out, scanning his surroundings as he nervously side stepped other crew members as he made his way to holodeck five. The ship's internal sensors were having trouble scanning the holodeck, which was pretty worrisome, so Barclay was keeping a running scan going as he went. It was only when he was within 20 meters of the holodeck that he began to get some fuzzy readings. There was a powerful energy reading in the holodeck, like there was a large amount of plasma in it. Worrying that if he entered he'd be flash fried by the potential escaping plasma he removed a panel from the wall next to the holodeck's entrance to gain access to more advanced holodeck controls. The readouts he gained access to showed that the holodeck was running a program, and that though there was an extreme amount of energy in the holodeck it seemed safe to enter. Barclay tried to end the program that was running, but the external controls were unresponsive. The holodeck's safety protocols were functional so Barclay figured it would be safe to enter, but he decided it would be best to warn his superior officer before doing so.
He tapped his combadge and said tentatively, "Commander La Forge? My scans show a great deal of power emitting from the holodeck and there is a program currently running that can't be shut down. However other then that it seems to be running fine and the safety protocols are active. I'm going inside to see if I can get a better idea what's going on."
"OK, Reg. First sign of trouble get out of there."
Barclay took a deep breath to steady his nerves and entered the holodeck. What met his eyes when he entered was a rather picturesque lightly wooded area. Sunlight peeked through the branches of trees and the weather was perfect, neither too hot or too cold. Barclay shielded his eyes with his hand while taking a look upwards at the beautiful sky with a grin on his face. Despite knowing that suffering from holo-addiction he needed to be careful of such feelings he couldn't help but feel comfortable in the simulated environment of the holodeck. Though there was something a bit odd about this simulation that he couldn't quite put his finger on.
With a sigh, he decided to quit being distracted and got to work. "Computer, arch." He said, and the arch appeared giving him access to panels and readouts to better understand the situation in the holodeck. He made his tricorders scanning function supplement the holodeck's own self diagnostic function, because it seemed that the holodeck itself didn't know what it was doing. Trying to access what program was running resulted in the display spitting out a bunch of nonsense information. Barclay couldn't get specifics but some kind of large, procedurally generated program was being run. A large area could be simulated in such a fashion, larger still because Barclay was detecting that something unexplained was taking some of the pressure off the computer processes that needed to be tasked with running the simulation. All in all, the holodeck was currently hogging ship resources to produce a simulation of extraordinary complexity, but the amount of resources being used and the complexity of the simulation seemed to be at odds. The simulation should be draining way more then it was, but it wasn't.
"Reg, you okay in there? We're having some trouble keeping a read on you. You're fading in and out of our sensors." La Forge's voice announced over Barclay's combadge.
"I'm fine, commander. The amount of energy that is bleeding out of the holodeck is probably what's causing that." Barclay replied. "Sir, something strange is going on here. I'm currently standing in a pleasant simulation of a lightly wooded forest, but the amount of energy and the complexity of this simulation is astounding. I think something has commandeered ship systems to make this simulation, but I don't know why. I also can't find out what is causing all this energy that we're detecting, but I'm guessing that it is what's causing this simulation to be so complex without using up more of Enterprise's resources. The holodeck uses a comparatively small amount of Enterprise's power to keep an internal reaction going."
"Good work, Reg. Come on back and we can work on analyzing what you've already discovered. I'm a bit worried leaving you there when we have so little knowledge of what's going on."
"Hold on, commander." Barclay said, as he excitedly tapped on his tricorder. "I'm detecting some chronitons here, along with a temporal discrepancy. I think the interior of the holodeck was temporally out of sync with the rest of the Enterprise for awhile, resulting in a massive drain of energy from ship systems in a short amount of time for us, while the holodeck experienced time at an accelerated rate. That's what cause the massive power loss that resulted in us dropping out of warp. That shows us what initially caused our problem, but it also indicates that this simulation could have a subjective history of years, or even hundreds of years. I'm heading back to main engineering."
Barclay pressed a button and the holodeck exit materialized, and when he went through it the arch and the exit disappeared.
***
Twilight Sparkle's jaw dropped as the strange bipedal creature went through the portal and the portal disappeared. She and her friends had been out investigating when Twilight had detected something strange, a disturbance in the world. She thought the situation important enough to attempt a group teleport despite the fact that there would be a bit of backlash. She was happy to find that only she herself was a bit singed by the teleport, and that her friends were fine, but her happiness was interrupted by surprise as they all saw a portal open up from nothingness and a strange figure walked through it.
Fluttershy had been the first to react and she dived into a bush, and the others followed her. It seemed that Fluttershy's natural shyness was a boon in this situation because it allowed them all to observe the creature that had appeared without drawing it's notice. It was a biped with it's upper appendages ending in paws with flexible digits, like Spike's, that allowed it to manipulate a small device it held in it's hand. It was wearing clothes, a close fitting outfit of gold and black with a piece of jewelry attached to the chest. After a brief pause to apparently enjoy the forest, it had magically conjured up an arch of metal that it then started to fiddle with. The creature then had a conversation with a voice from nowhere that was surprisingly understandable despite the fact that some of the words didn't make much sense. The creature then left, causing the metal arch to vanish as well as Twilight's jaw to drop.
"Does anypony want to tell me why we were hiding?" Rainbow Dash said, her voice filled with annoyance. "This is our home, why are we walking on clouds to avoid a confrontation with some weirdo alien invader?"
"We didn't want to startle the poor creature." Fluttershy said with her voice tinged with concern. "We have to be careful when we contact... whatever that was. We don't know how a foreign animal will react to strangers. It could get scared or," Fluttershy's voice became barely audible as she let out a squeak. "or it could get angry."
"Ha!" Rainbow Dash laughed. "That thing was pretty tall but it looked about as dangerous as you, Fluttershy. No offense."
"If that was true that's a might more dangerous then I'm comfortable with, don't ya think?" Applejack said with a grin and a poke at Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash stuck out her tongue at Applejack. "OK, maybe Fluttershy is more dangerous then she looks, but what are the chances that thing has a Stare?"
"Dashie, he didn't use a magic stair, he used some kind of magic door." Pinkie said. "Huh, I wonder how that magic door worked? We have to figure out where it appears next so that we know where to throw the welcome party!"
"Pinkie, darling, don't you think you're getting a little ahead of yourself? I believe the first order of business is deciding how to best initiate first contact. Isn't that right, Twilight?" Rarity said, turning to their leader.
"Hmm. That creature seemed to be exploring, looking for answers. That tool he was using seemed made for gathering information rather then being some kind of weapon. Also, his friend he was talking to seemed to worry about his well being, which we know because apparently we speak the same language. Seems safe enough to make an attempt at first contact." Twilight said after some consideration.
"Twi, are you sure it's safe, or are you letting yer curiosity about that critter get the better of you?" Applejack said uncertainly.
Twilight grinned. "AJ, I have to admit that I'm pretty desperate to find out more about our strange visitor, but I wouldn't put us into needless danger. Besides, I don't think we should assume the worst of somepony we never met."
Rarity primped her hair a bit with her hoof. "Besides, Applejack dear, it's not like we ladies are without defenses."
Applejack tipped her hat to Rarity. "Seeing as I recall you bucking a manticore in the face I'll have to agree with you there. We'll be all right."
"Alright, Everypony, listen up. Head home and gather supplies. We're going to camp here and wait for that magic door to open again so we can introduce ourselves to whoever steps through it." Twilight said in her organizer voice. "Does anypony have anything going on that will interfere with that plan?"
"No, darling. I'm free for a few days. I've just finished and delivered a shipment of dresses for Canterlot and was going to spend a few days working on dress ideas. I can just as easily do that camping with some dear friends as I could at home." Rarity said.
"There's not much to do on the farm at the moment that Big Mac can't take care of himself, and if there's an emergency this is close enough to Sweet Apple Acres that I can run on down easy as apple pie. I'm good to go, sugar cube." AppleJack said with a grin.
"Camping sounds like a blast!" Rainbow Dash said. "I'll still need to fly off to do some weather control stuff, but I should be able to do any work in, like, ten seconds."
Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had to decline the camping trip. Fluttershy because she had her animals to take care of and that was a full time job, Pinkie Pie because the Cakes need someone to watch their foals often. They both promised to make trips to the camping site when they could. Twilight hoped that Pinkie Pie's mysterious Pinkie Sense would let her show up when she was needed, but knew better then to put her trust in the uncertain gift.
Twilight looked around at her gathered friends and gave a firm nod of her head. "Alright, everypony. We'll all head home and those that are camping will come back here to camp out tonight so that in the morning we can hopefully make first contact with an alien species. I'll bring the marshmallows."
Geordi La Forge was with Data in main engineering and had been standing at the Master Systems Display table, a table filled with computer displays that monitored the ship, discussing the implications of what Barclay had found when he came jogging up, looking excited and out of breath.
"Reg, you made good time." La Forge said with a grin as Barclay leaned a bit on the MSD table. "Catch your breath, Data and I are already up to speed on what you've discovered and we've got some ideas about what happened. Data?"
Data gave a quick nod and began to go into exposition mode. "Lieutenant Barclay, your initial theory about the cause of the massive energy drain that prompted the Enterprise to drop out of warp seems to have been correct." He tapped on the MSD table and brought up a schematic display of the Enterprise, with a close up of holodeck five. The schematic display of the holodeck had a bubble of energy in it with various symbols surrounding it indicating energy concentrations and types. "We have confimed that a unique confluence of energies created a kind of pocket space time continuum in our holodeck, and that there needed to be a massive drain from the systems of the Enterprise in order to keep the bubble in existence for even the short amount of time that it persisted." Data's fingers then danced around, quickly entering data into the MSD table and bringing up a new display. "Using the scans you performed in the holodeck we have been able to piece together previous scans we have made with internal and external sensors and have discovered what has brought about the creation of this space time bubble. A complex energy singularity entered the holodeck and had interacted with the internal conditions of the holodeck, and this combination is what has caused current events."
La Forge looked at the displays with a thoughtful expression on his face. "So at the moment we have a "how", but we still don't have a "why". I'm not sure I buy that this was a random event. All this is too well put together to be accidental. The combination of our holodeck and this energy singularity has created something that functions beautifully, even though we don't know exactly what it does."
Barclay had been studying the displays intently, waiting for a lull in the conversation before screwing up his courage to make a comment. "Sir, I think I have an idea about "Why". Seeing the scans now it really seems to me that the energy singularity in our holodeck already showed up on our scans like our holodeck before it ever took up residence there. Maybe the reason why it entered the holodeck is because it operates on similar principles and the holodeck seemed like "home"?"
"That would indicate intelligence." La Forge said, the excitement in his voice audible at that prospect.
"Fascinating." Data said with a cocked eyebrow and his head tilted slightly. "Perhaps the energy singularity is some kind of probe. It could be based on a completely different kind of technology then what we use, a technology based upon the direct manipulation of energy. The reason why it intergrated with our holodeck could be that it was the only part of our technology with which it was compatible." Data briefly had a far away expression as he made some internal calculations, then he moved to another part of the MSD table and started tapping away.
La Forge moved over to Data's side, looking at what he was doing with interest. Data had a way of figuring out problems that fascinated him. "What is it Data, did you figure something out?"
"I believe so Geordi. Our supposition that the energy singularity is similar in structure to the enviroment in one of our active holodecks gave me a new point of view for analyzing our previous scans of the Orba nebula. Observe."
La Forge looked at the data that was on display. He slowly began nodding his head. "I think I see what you're getting at, Data. The mysterious energy discharges that we were investigating in the Orba nebula have the same energy signature as the energy singularity that has hitched a ride on our holodeck. The energy singularity, in turn, only seemed to hitch a ride on our holodeck because our holodeck shares similarities with it." This turn of events was amazing, and La Forge wasn't entirely sure what the implications were. "Perhaps the whole Orba nebula was some kind of energy based computer, and this is it's way of contacting us?"
La Forge noticed that something seemed to be troubling Barclay. "Maybe the energy that has taken up residence in the holodeck is, itself, alive in some way." Barclay said suddenly. "I had a weird feeling when I was on the holodeck, like I was being observed."
"Regardless of whether or not the energy on the holodeck is the tool of an intelligent being, or it is an intelligent being itself, it would seem likely that what we are dealing with here is, in fact, an intelligence." Data said.
"Yeah, I think you're right, Data." La Forge said, looking at the information they had gathered. "I'm going to inform the captain about what we have discovered and ask for authorization for the three of us to enter the holodeck. This could be a first contact situation, and the three of us seem to be the best suited individuals to initiate a dialogue with whatever intelligence is behind all this."
***
Twilight Sparkle and her friends were having an enjoyable evening out camping, sitting around a campfire as night approached. Initially Twilight had been in a bit of a sour mood. The playful antics of her friends had put a damper on the gravitas she felt there should be during a scientific expedition. This had not been helped by Rainbow Dash saying that she shouldn't "Twilight" up their fun camping trip. Twilight had taken exception to her name becoming a verb with such a negative connotation, and things had degenerated a bit until Rarity and Applejack's diplomatic skills won out. They explained that though Dash had expressed herself poorly she just meant that Twilight should enjoy herself rather then worry too much, that she shouldn't be concentrating on the details of what they were doing at the expense of enjoying the historic event they were all taking part in, and that she should try to enjoy the opportunity to spend quality time with friends.
Still, even while having fun with her friends Twilight had seen fit to organize their camping trip so that the first location of where the alien's magic doorway appeared was marked. This turned out to be commendable forsight on Twilight's part because they were well away from the doorway, eating smores, when it materialized into existence. Twilight dropped her smore, Dash and Applejack had stuffed theirs into their mouths quickly eating them, and Rarity had wrapped hers in a napkin and carefully put it away before staring in awe as 3 aliens walked through the door.
Twilight and her friends sat quietly as they observed the aliens. They were not hiding, the camp was reasonably close to the area the door appeared with the camp arranged so that the ponies would be facing the aliens when they arrived. Still, other then a glance the aliens didn't seem to give them much attention.
"Reg, did you notice simulated animal life in addition to the forest the last time you were here?" Said one of the bipeds. He was in a similar gold and black outfit as his fellow, indeed this was the outfit that all three of them wore. Twilight assumed that this indicated the outfit was a uniform of some kind. Excitedly she took notes. The biped who had spoken to "Reg" was different in that the hairless face and hands that poked out of his outfit was of darker coloration then his fellow. He also wore a strange eye covering, something Twilight assumed might be a decoration. The other biped besides "Reg" being very pale in his flesh tone indicated that the bipeds were as diverse in their appearance as ponies. Luckily Twilight was a bit too involved with her observations to notice the somewhat insulting designation of "Animal" for her and her friends.
"No sir." The biped called Reg said, giving more attention to the ponies then his friends, who were waving around devices and studying them carefully. "I don't think it's accurate to call them animals, though. Look, they have a campfire and other tools meant for camping out. It's almost like they were waiting for us."
Being a bit annoyed with the bipeds not making the first move and acting like they either couldn't hear or understand them, Twilight decided to make the first move herself. She walked up to them, slowly and making sure to keep from making any aggressive movements, and addressed them. "Hello. I am Twilight Sparkle, representative of Princess Celestia. I welcome you to Equestria, the nation that Princess Celestia rules. May we ask who you are, and why you have come here?"
Reg kneeled down to be on a more even hoof as Twilight. "My name is Reginald Endicott Barclay. These are my friends, Geordi La Forge and Data. We're Starfleet officers. Could you tell us a little more about yourselves? I'd be interested in hearing about it."
Twilight was relieved to find that the aliens seemed friendly, if a bit distant and patronizing. Twilight knew that ponies often had names that told you a bit about what their interests were and about their personalities, so she wondered a bit about the names of the three aliens. Forge was a name that brought to mind a blacksmith, so Mister La Forge might be a maker of things. Data was self explanatory, if the aliens naming traditions were at all similar to those of ponies, he must like information. "Mr. Brocolli, I'd be happy to tell you all about us, but I'd really like to have an exchange of information." Twilight said, not realizing until Barclay looked a bit embarrassed that she'd gotten his name wrong.
Barclay shook his head and tried to put a smile on his face when Twilight tried to apologize. "No, it's fine. Just calling me "Reg" would be fine."
Twilight still felt a bit bad about hurting his feelings so tried to explain herself. "See, according to pony naming conventions Mr. Brocolli would be a fine name. Aheh." Her little laugh died as she looked around awkwardly.
La Forge closed the device he was using and walked over to Barclay. "Reg, what are you doing? We could use your help scanning."
"Yes, sir. I was just talking to Twilight here, trying to get an idea of the simulation that is being run. You know, getting an in character history of this place?" Barclay said, getting up.
"Geordi, I think Lieutenant Barclay's idea has merit." the biped named Data said. "Understanding what this simulation entails may grant us insight into the minds of the ones who created it."
Twilight was confused by the talk of simulation and wanted some answers. "Hold on. What's all this talk about "simulation"? Can any of you three actually talk to me? I'm trying to be polite here, but you three appear out of some kind of mysterious door and you don't even bother to explain yourselves!"
The other ponies had made the decision to let Twilight handle things, but her losing her temper had resulted in Dash jumping to her defense. "Yeah! You weirdo aliens are on our turf! So answer our questions about your weird door!"
La Forge hesitated. "You are aware of our... magic door?"
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Yes, we can see your door. Listen, it seems self evident that your understanding of magic exceeds ours, but we aren't some primitive lifeforms. Our understanding of math and science is advanced, and our practical application of that knowledge in technology and magic can produce wonders. I'm sure if you treat us as equals and open up a dialogue with us you'll find that your "Starfleet" and us ponies can both benefit from sharing our knowledge."
The three bipeds who claimed to be "Starfleet officers" exchanged glances with each other. They seemed worried about something and were suddenly hesitant to speak. After a pause La Forge spoke. "Listen, Twilight was it? Starfleet, the organization we represent, is very careful about how it deals with cultures that haven't reached a certain level of developement. We believe it's unethical to alter the independent developement of cultures by interfering with them before they are ready. We don't know much about you, so we don't know what the possible ramifications for our interacting are. We didn't really even know you'd be here."
"You didn't know we were here?" Twilight said with a puzzled expression on her face. "You mean you didn't have some kind of scrying spell or telescope or something to show you what was on the other side of your portal? If you made your journey blind then you three must be very brave. Perhaps a bit foolish as well."
"Actually, we knew that this place would be safe for us, we just didn't know what would be here. I'm sorry to cut this short, but we need to get back home and discuss things with our leader. The next time we come here we will definitely answer your questions about us, and we hope you all will answer our questions about you." La Forge said, as he and his friends gathered their things and got ready to leave.
Twilight walked excitedly over to the door. "Oh, how interesting! I wanted to get a closer look at how your portal works. I was a bit too surprised by your appearance the last time you used it to make proper observations. If it wouldn't be a bother could I step through with you and meet your leader? I have a talent for organization and I could help schedule our interactions."
Barclay quickly rested his hand on Twilight's shoulder, firmly stopping her before he jerked his hand back. Twilight thought that seemed a rather nervous gesture, though she could understand being nervous meeting strangers from another world. "Oh, um, sorry about that Twilight. I just had to stop you before you accidentally hurt yourself. You must be careful around our magic door." Making sure Twilight was standing still, he gestured for La Forge to open the door. When the door was open he bent down to pick up a small rock from the ground and tossed it out the open door. The rock faded out of existence.
Her friends gasped in shock and Twilight verbalized her surprise. "What happened? Is this portal dangerous?"
"Well, the portal itself isn't dangerous," La Forge said. "but it would be dangerous for you our your friends to step through it to enter our world. The... properties of your world that let you exist don't function where we're from."
"Interesting. So your world has different fundemental properties then our world..." Twilight said softly, almost to herself. "Well! We'll definitely be very careful when we interact with your portal."
"Thank you, Twilight." La Forge said. "Now, we'll be going and be back in the morning, along with some others. So don't be alarmed when we come back in greater numbers. We'll leave our portal visible so that you know were to find it, but it will be shut tight until we come through again. We wouldn't want any animals wandering through and fading out of existence."
Twilight gave a serious nod of her head. "Sounds like a plan, Mister Forge. We had already set up a base camp here that we had planned to, if necessary, provide for us for a few days while we waited for your portal to show up again, so we're all set to spend the night here waiting for you and your friends to show up tomorrow. We look forward to meeting you all."
The three aliens walked through the portal and it hissed shut. Twilight walked over and gave it an experimental knock with her hoof. She wasn't a dedicated student of metallurgy but she had read quite a few books on the subject and the material that the door was made from wasn't familiar to her.
Rarity walked over with a concerned look on her face. "Twilight, darling, are you sure it's a good idea to be playing around with that door? Those gentlemen claimed it was dangerous."
"Thank you for your concern Rarity, but I think it's safe enough." Twilight said, quickly turning her head to give a reassuring grin to her friend before turning back to her observations. "They said it was just dangerous to go through the portal, I think studying the metal door that covers the portal is okay."
Rainbow Dash circled the door with a dubious and distrustful expression on her face. "I don't know, Twilight. How can we trust what they say? Also, what's that business about not knowing we'd be here? Why were they coming here in the first place then?"
Applejack was experimenting with touching the metal door along with Twilight, but she plopped down on all four hooves and frowned at Dash when she heard her comment. "Rainbow, we should be neighborly and not just assume the worst about the folk who are visit'n us." She then turned to Twilight with a curious look on her face. "Twilight, what were they talking about when they mentioned "simulation"? I saw that seemed to bother you some."
Twilight nodded her head with a thoughtful expression on her face. "Yeah, I was wondering what they were talking about, but something else they said gave me an idea about what they might have been talking about."
Rarity walked over to a pillow she had brought along so that she wouldn't need to sit on the grass and delicately sat on it. "Well, don't leave us in suspense, Twilight, explain your theory."
Twilight and the other girls sat down with Rarity. "Well, they mentioned our worlds operating on different principles, that being the reason why it was dangerous for us to go to their world. I wondered why it was okay for them to travel to our world if the reverse was lethal for us."
"Maybe it's like how pegasus ponies can stand on clouds while other kinds of ponies can't?" Rainbow said.
"An interesting point, Rainbow. That might be the case." Twilight said, pleased that her normally athletically focused friend was making the effort to brainstorm with everypony. "I had another theory as to what their ability to exist in our world while we can't exist in their world has to do with their talk about simulation, though. Perhaps they can't enter our world!"
"But we were just talking to them Twilight. How would that be possible if they can't enter our world?" Applejack asked.
"You don't need to physically met to be able to communicate. Look at the letters we send to Princess Celestia with Spike's help." Twilight explained. "See, I was thinking that my solution to being unable to enter a world to explore it would be to magically create an avatar of myself that I could control like a puppet. If you could magically use your senses through the avatar it would be just like being where you wanted to go!"
Rarity's eyes lit up at that idea. "Why, it would be fabulous to not have to deal with the negative effects of certain enviroments, yet still experience the positive."
Applejack grinned playfully at Rarity. "I'm thinking the technology would be used for more important things then avoiding getting yer hooves dirty, missy."
"Yes, and it's just a theory, anyways." Twilight said. "We'll be able to ask our new friends about it when they come back tomorrow. I'm so excited I'm not sure I'll be able to get any sleep!"
***
Captain Picard had assembled the Enterprise's senior staff in the observaton lounge that served as the ship's briefing room. La Forge and Data had given them all a brief run down on what they had encountered, but Picard was finding the situation a little absurd. "So, one of our holodecks has been commandeered by a group of colorful, seemingly sapient ponies?"
Data nodded. "Yes, captain. The diminuitive equines currently occupying our holodeck seem to be self aware."
Commander Riker, the ships first officer, couldn't keep a grin off his face, though he tried to take the situation seriously. "Can you really determine that these holodeck characters are self aware? Couldn't they just be programmed to appear to be aware of elements intruding into their simulation?"
La Forge shrugged his shoulders. "Can we really determine if Data is self aware? Couldn't the arguement be made that he is simply a collection of heuristic programs and neural nets that mimic sapience? Couldn't the chemistry of the brain be interpreted as doing something similar?"
"This is venturing into the realm of philosophy." Picard said. "There are definite questions about what constitutes being self aware, what it means to be a person. However, we must keep in mind that the holodeck is a purpose built tool designed to allow us to interact with simulated enviroments, and characters, that are nearly indistinguishable from reality."
Beverly Crusher, the ships chief medical officer, was frowning. "Captain, I don't think we have the right to make assumptions about these entities just because they have been discovered in a device that we use for entertainment. If there is even a chance that these ponies are alive they should be treated with respect."
Picard raised his palm in a calming gesture. "Beverly, it is the mission of Starfleet to seek out new life, rest assured that I will take no action that could be dangerous to these... ponies until we determine exactly what they are. Now, Mister La Forge, I'm interested in your findings concerning the energy anomaly that seems to be the source off all this. Why would it create a civilization in our holodeck?"
"To tell you the truth, captain, I don't really know. All I do know is that the undertaking in creating what is currently in our holodeck was remarkable. It's not something that happened by coincidence, an intelligence was behind it." La Forge gestured to Data. "Data had a theory he came up with after Lieutenant Barclay pointed out how similar the energy singularity was in make up to the energy enviroment that exists in our holodecks."
Data continued. "I theorized that the energy singularity chose to enter our holodecks because it was aware that it was an enviroment with which it was compatible."
"An enviroment similar to the one in the Orba nebula, where we assume that the energy singularity originated from." Picard finished.
Crusher was looking through information on her PADD. "Looking over the scans that we took of the Orba nebula what intitially seemed to be a mishmash of energy could instead be interpreted as a kind of ecosystem, one made up of light and energy. However, with the dispersal of the Orba nebula imminent that ecosystem is dying. Perhaps what we have here is a refugee from a dying world."
"Perhaps that could indicate the reason behind the ponies on the holodeck." Counselor Deanna Troi said. "It would only be natural for a lifeform to seek out companionship in whatever way it could."
"Yes, but why ponies of all things?" Riker asked, bemused.
"Counselor Troi brings up an interesting observation." Picard said. "Whatever these ponies are, their origin seems to be due to an alien intelligence's attempt to stave off loneliness. Now, whether this means that we are dealing with a lifeform capable of creating life, or if it just means that these ponies are an elaborate shadow play surrounding a pearl of life at it's center, remains to be seen." Picard looked to Crusher and Troi. "Doctor, counselor, currently the enviroment on the holodeck is in a night stage, and the ponies are sleeping, but tomorrow I want you two to accompany Mister La Forge and Mister Data while they continue their investigation of the ponies. Counselor, I'd specifically appreciate it if you could see if it's possible to sense anything from these ponies, and also see if you can get any kind of reading from the intelligence behind all this. Doctor, examine the ponies. I'm not sure they are anything but holodeck simulations even if they do qualify as self aware, but perhaps there is something more to them."
"Captain, how do we approach the ponies?" La Forge said. "They have a subjective history lasting at least a couple hundred years even though they were only created recently from our point of view. Do we treat them as a pre-warp civilizaton? What would be acceptable to tell them about their origins?"
Picard gave that some thought before answering. "I believe that the nature of their world isn't something that should be kept secret from them. Indeed, their reaction to such information could grant us insight into how self aware they truly are. Other then that no specifics. Your description of the ponies camp site seemed fairly low tech, perhaps it's best to avoid altering the speed with which they acquire technology."
"Captain, I think I'd like to lead the away team as it investigates the ponies." Riker said. He still had a bit of a twinkle in his eye, but he seemed serious in his desire to meet a possible new species.
"I trust your judgement, number one, and it would be useful to have you on site to make command level decisions. Mr. La Forge, will there still be communication problems?"
"I wouldn't count on clean communications, sir. The temporal anomaly that preceded the creation of the pony simulation and resulted in both their subjective history and our dropping out of warp is over, but the residue from that anomaly and the high level interplay of energy that is still going on in the holodeck will still make communication difficult. Additionally, the point that we enter the simulation can't be altered, so while in the simulation we'll have to travel on foot."
"Alright. Number one, it seems you'll be on your own while in there. I envy you this chance to explore this mystery, but the Enterprise still has the mission to Bellerophon to deal with. Everyone, get some sleep and meet at holodeck five at 0900, dismissed."
***
Twilight and her friends had woken up early and ate a quick breakfast. It may have been overkill to wake up at dawn, but Twilight had felt that it was worth it to make sure that they met the Star Fleet officers while they were all awake. She'd have died of embarrassment if they had woken up bleary eyed to see the bipeds standing over them, waiting. The previous night had been busy, so everypony was a little tired. Twilight had made sure to inform Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie about what happened; Fluttershy was interested but chose to refrain from direct interaction while Pinkie Pie had elected to stay in Ponyville to prepare a welcome party. A letter had also been sent to Princess Celestia detailing the events that had occurred, and her reply still indicated that Twilight had the authority to deal with the aliens as she saw fit.
It was around mid-morning when the metal door of the alien portal opened up and the now familiar forms of the star fleet officers walked through it. Along with the three individuals they already knew there were three more, a large bearded individual in a uniform similar to the first three but red and black instead of gold and black, and two individuals in uniforms that were blue instead of gold or red. The last two individuals were interesting in their physiological differences to the other four individuals. Twilight assumed by their voices, which were very similar to ponies in their vocal range, that the four individuals in gold and red were male. That seemed to indicate that individuals in blue had to be female. An interesting point of similarity between their species cultures seemed to be that the females wore their manes longer. This caused a digression in Twilight's thoughts about cross species fashion exchanges and how Rarity would be overjoyed by the prospect, until she forced herself to pay attention to the task at hoof.
Before Twilight had a chance to react the bearded biped purposefully walked forward and began to speak. "Hello, my name is Commander William T. Riker, first officer of the USS Enterprise. I'm here to oversee these first few steps forward in the friendship between our two peoples. To put you at ease, I'd like to answer some of your questions first, I'm sure you have a lot of them."
Twilight smiled up at the man, she liked having her curiousity indulged. "Thank you, Commander. Before we continue I think I should introduce myself to you. I am Twilight Sparkle, personal student of Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, and I have been given full authority to speak to you, answering your questions and asking my own. I think my first question has to be about your ranking structure. It's naval, isn't it? The Enterprise is a ship?"
Riker nodded. "We are a spacefaring people, but our naming conventions for our ranks is based on the naval traditions from when our people's main mode of transportation was sailing across oceans. The organization we work for, Starfleet, is tasked with exploration and defense and it employs space ships that travel the stars for those purposes. Starfleet itself is just the exploratory and defense service of an organization called the United Federation of Planets. Those are really just details, though, probably the most important thing you need to know about us is that we are explorers. What we're doing right here, discovering each other, is what we all signed up for."
Twilight could barely contain her excitement. "So you really are from another world! Well, I knew you were from another world, but I wasn't sure about the mechanics of how you traveled. Is your ship in orbit around our world? Why did you use that magic door to come to the surface rather then land your ship? Why can't we go through your portal safely? Mr. Forge mentioned something about the fundemental nature of your world being different, but what did he mean by that? Is it just a matter of a different enviroment, like a fish being unable to live out of water? And if we are unable to exist where you can, then why can you exist here? Is it an inherent property of your people, or do you use technology? Are you even here right now or are you using some kind of telepresence technology or magic to appear to be here? Does your beard indicate your superior rank..."
"Whoa, there." Riker said, not quite keeping the amusement out of his voice. "Slow down, Ms. Sparkle! We've got time to learn about each other. Why don't you take us to the nearest settlement, then we can all have a nice long discussion."
Twilight nodded happily, and Riker held back while she and her friends walked off chatting excitedly with the more subdued group of La Forge, Data and Barclay.
"Deanna, can you sense anything." Riker quietly asked Troi, while looking around at their enviroment with a more serious expression then the one he had displayed for the ponies.
Deanna Troi couldn't keep a smile off her face as she looked at the ponies walking ahead of them. "Will, I can sense a young mind brimming with enthusiasm and curiousity that reminds me of the better students I've met in my life. She's focused, perhaps even obsessive, with more then her share of anxieties but overall she is a good hearted individual."
"So they are sapient?" Riker said, looking at Twilight with a guarded expression.
Deanna nodded, a thoughtful expression of her face. "I think so. It's not impossible, I suppose, for someone to fabricate a means to fool my senses. But if something feels real to so many senses, who is to say it isn't real?" She bent over to pick up a rock and tossed it over to Riker, who caught it easily.
Riker grinned to himself as he tossed the rock he held from one hand to another, examining it. "But a stone is so easy to simulate. A mind..." he shook his head, tossing the rock aside, "A mind is something else entirely. What is going on here?"
"There's something else, Will." Troi said, a worried expression on her face. "I can feel something in the background here. I wasn't sure what exactly it is, and at first I wasn't sure it was even really there. The longer I'm here the more sure I am of it existing, though I can't get a clear idea what it is."
"Is it dangerous to you?" Riker asked, examining Troi for signs of distress.
"No." Troi said firmly. "Whatever it is I'm sensing it isn't dangerous, either intentionally of unintentionally. Just something to keep in mind, I suppose."
"Well, keep Doctor Crusher informed about your condition and if you feel any kind of distress we'll pull out of here." Riker said, his face displaying his concern. "For now we'll see what kind of answers we can find at the settlement the enthusiastic Ms. Sparkle is taking us too."
