Annika Hansen stood in the lobby of the brig locked in a staring contest with the Orion Danar. The two had been like this for the better half of the time she had spent here. Danar, the lead male Orion, had proven so far uncooperative.
“Ms. Hansen? A moment?” One of her security officers interrupted.
“What is it?”
“The Columbine is in orbit requesting a status update from you.”
“Inform them I’m on my way.”
“Yes, mum.” The officer replied, chirping on his comm badge before exiting the brig.
“Well, Danar, it appears you yet again get to escape interrogation.” Annika commented before leaving. The Orion’s response was snide at best, yet incoherent.
Inside the command center, Annika took the primary communication console and activated the channel set to the Columbine. “Greetings, Captain.”
“Director, Thank you for seeing us. Admiral Quinn informed us there had been an incident with some Orions, but I see no Orion ships in orbit. Is everything secure here?”
“It is now, Captain. There are a few remaining Orions in my brig but I have been detained from interrogating them further on numerous incidents.”
“Ma’am if you don’t mind Starfleet will be kind enough to transport them to a more suited starbase for questioning.”
“I look forward to being rid of the vermin. I’ll inform the transporter room to expect your arrival.”
“Thank you, ma’am. Do you need any support repairing the facility?”
“At the moment the Exobyte has provided enough capable engineers to correct the damage the Orions caused.” Annika deflected.
The captain nodded his response. “Then I’ll leave you be to them. A security detail shall be down shortly.”
“Hansen out.” Annika replied before closing the channel. With a sigh, she turned to an operations coordinator, “Make sure that transporters are aware the Columbine will be sending down a security team for the prisoners.”
With a casual stroll, Annika exited the command center and made her way through the corridors to Medical. Inside, she found En. Solek discussing things with a very weary looking Lt. Calvin. Before she could approach on her own, Lt. Calvin limply motioned her to join them. Calvin’s voice was strained, tired and abundantly hoarse. “Ms. Hansen, the Doctor…”
“Lt. Calvin, Mr. Barclay has informed me what exactly happened to the Doctor, however it remains a question of how to reverse it. I have notified Admiral Quinn of your actions, including the circumstances. Now if you—”
Edgar made a sweeping motion with his hand, agreeing and dismissing her statements as trivial items. “Yes, yes, I assumed you would…The Doctor, Ms. Hansen.”
“What about him?”
“Bring up his program in the holomatrix editor and enter code Edgar-seven-two-gamma-phi-three-sigma. It should undo all of the changes I made and load a backup I saved in a garbage file.”
“Then it appears we have been examining the wrong file. I’ll inform Mr. Barclay of the code.” Annika replied before turning to leave.
“Director?”
“Yes, Lieutenant?”
“My sincerest apologies for putting the Doctor at such a risk. I tried to take every precaution possible to keep him safe from their attempts to get the ECH.”
Annika didn’t respond, unsure if she wanted to accept the apology at the time.
The holomatrix lab held an atmosphere of a patient about to die. Annika’s entrance seemed only to heighten that effect. “What’s your status, Mr. Barclay?”
“Sev…Annika, it’s really difficult to say. The matrix has become such a spider’s web it could take days just to find the starting point.”
“Lt. Calvin was kind enough to be conscious when I stopped by and gave me a code to enter. He claims it will reverse all of his changes and restore the Doctor to his state prior to the attack.”
“Let’s hope it works.”
“Computer activate code sequence Edgar-seven-two-gamma-phi-three-sigma.”
“Code sequence activated. Running script.” The visual output of the Doctor seemed to flicker and suffer various white-noise effects distorted the image. The code sequence completed unnervingly quickly and, the Doctor stood on the platform.
After a few automated unit tests to verify the program was stable, the Doctor activated once again, “Please state the nature of the medical emergency. I have really got to change that greeting.”