Ghosts That Haunt

Posted on Fri Dec 2nd, 2011 @ 4:21pm by Captain Claudia Drake

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
Location: Drake Residence, Oxford, Earth
Timeline: 1 Week Ago

Claudia ran her fingers through her greying hair as she stepped out of the rain of the Oxford evening. She had spent most of her day walking around the Botanic Gardens, enjoying that it had remained almost unchanged since her youth. She had spent hours sat under one of the great oaks letting the autumnal sun cascade over her, enjoying the simple act of being outside. It was only an hour or so she had decided it was time to go home and have a small evening meal, on the walk home the heavens had opened and a down-pour of rain had begun, almost bouncing off the cobbled streets.

Even after trying to run from door-way to door-way to keep out of the rain, Claudia had become soaked. She took off her thin autumn coat and hung it on the clothes peg in the hallway of her large home that had stood on Norham Street since the first corner stop was set in 1880. She had owned the house since her collegial days at Balliol College in 2010, she had always attempted to keep the house up-to-date with the latest interior designs, but over the last century or so she had dropped the ball, she was returned it to how it would have been when first created, large fire-places and wood panelling. Underneath the Victoriana she had made sure that the house had the latest security and technological advances, although they were completely unobtrusive.

She kicked off her shoes and placed them on the shoe-rack, "Adrian could you increase the ambient temperature by 2 degrees Celsius"

"One minute. Let me finish making your tea." came the familiar voice from centuries ago. When computing technology had finally reached a specific level, Claudia had spent a lot of time and effort creating a computer model of her deceased husband Adrian, and over the years with ever increasing advancements in technology she had made sure that the VI of Adrian was improved to the point where he was now more than holographic reproduction of her long dead husband, at times she forgot he wasn't her husband. A young holoprogrammer named Felix had been the one who had taken Adrian from being a mere holographic representation of her husband, to actually being her husband in a holographic body. When Adrian was alive he always believed in a brighter future, and had made Claudia promise to have his head cryogenically frozen to when technology had come to a point where they could grow him a new body, to transfer his brain over. Sadly the growth of whole new bodies had not been achieved, and most of the work required to do so was banned under the auspices of genetic engineering. But they had reached the point 4 or 5 years previously where they could put a humanoid consciousness into a holographic body. It was realised with the return of the USS Voyager to the Alpha Quadrant, their holographic doctor had expanded well beyond his own programming, and had placed the consciousness and memory of a Vidiian into a hologram with no issues.

On finding this out and carrying out further research, Claudia had contacted a former student of hers, but the name of Felix, who was widely known to be one of the greatest holographic engineers in the Federation to see if he could place Adrian's consciousness and memories into the hologram of him she already had. Felix worked tirelessly to achieve it and integrate the previous interactions between Claudia and the Adrian VI into the memories of the real Adrian's mind. Three years previously he has achieved it, and she was finally reunited with her darling Adrian nearly two and half centuries after his death.

She had spent the time since with her husband, living and arguing as husband and wife. She had spent a small fortune having all her properties and grounds outfitted with holoprojectors to allow him to live his life as freely as he wanted, with the movement towards holo-emancipation almost 49% of the planet was covered by the holo-projector network. All this allowed Claudia and Adrian live as they had centuries before. That was until she had gone to Starbase 900, it would take a few more months for her to get the projectors fitted to her suite there, so until then she and Adrian lived as most Starfleet couples did, waiting diligently for her leave, she also made sure to keep a breast in the latest mobile-emitter developments.

"Did you have a nice walk?" he asked from the Kitchen, she could smell fresh tea steeping in the pot. She walked in and hugged her husband and sat down at the table, "You should have come, you would have enjoyed it."

"I doubt it" he smiled as he poured her tea into a glass cup, and then lifted an identical teapot and poured his own holographic tea. He made every attempt to maintain the illusion that he was flesh and blood.

Claudia raised her tea to her lips as Adrian sat down opposite her, "A young man called for you whilst you were out." he said.

"Oh, who was that?" she asked sipping her tea, it tasted slightly off.

"Luther Sloane"

Claudia spat out her tea, letting the cup fall from her hands, it smashed loudly on the floor, "Luther Sloane?"

"That's the name he gave, a very nice man, he stopped for tea." said Adrian ignoring the amazed look on Claudia's face, and more importantly ignoring the smashed tea-cup.

Claudia tried to stand up, but found that her body wasn't responding. Adrian stood up and walked closer to her, "Wh..what have you done to me?"

"That's enough of the questions Director..." he said in an sinister tone. When he reached Claudia his form changed from Adrian, to that of a man she thought long dead. Standing in front of her was Luther Sloane, one of the most prolific agents of Section 31. He wore the leather uniform that she had not seen for decades.

"You're dead!" she managed to say with great difficulty. As soon as the words had forced their way past her lips, she felt his hand connect with her face, throwing her and the chair to the floor. He stood above her for what seemed like an eternity.

'"I am very dead...but the wonders of holotechnology are quite...remarkable. We thought this form might be the most appropriate to convey our message Director Drake." he placed his boot on her chest and held it there, "Forgive me, that is one of your many titles that you reject." he paused and looked at her, "No-one walks away from Section 31. You should know that as one of our first agents. Since you tried to leave your post as Director 30 years ago, we've kept a very close eye on you, and your attempts to stop our activities."

"I saw.." she groaned in the effort of speaking, "the error of my ways...31 changed from what it was supposed to be...31 is not what it should be...a force for good...not evil..."

"Save me the speech Director, we've all heard it before." he took his foot from her chest and lifted the chair up, "Heed my warning. Leave 31 alone, and stay away from the Delta Quadrant. I would hate to have to order your elimination."

"Bastard" she hissed through gritted teeth.

"This is the only warning you will get Director. It is respect to your decades in our service." he walked away from her, and looked around the kitchen, "The paralysing agent shall wear off in 15 minutes Director, but you knew that already." with that the hologram flickered out of existence.

Claudia was left paralyzed in the wooden chair, the darkness of the autumnal night beginning to set in. She knew Sloane was dead, she had read the reports. Why had they chosen his image to send to give her the message? Sloane had been the last person she had recruited to Section 31 during her tenure there. He had been her protegee, and ultimately the reason she had left 31. Seeing him come under the influence of the darker elements of 31 had made her realise that she could no longer hold them back from taking over, she was the only member of the old guard left, and 31 had changed beyond all recognition from the organisation she had joined.
After what felt like an eternity, she could feel the sensation return to her body, she gingerly pushed herself forward and could feel full control return to her. She stood up and looked at the smashed tea-cup on the floor. She turned as she heard the front door open.

"Claudia? You in?"

"I'm in the kitchen Adrian" she called back, dropping to her knees to pick up the smashed cup.

Adrian walked into the room, "I've been trying to transfer back for the last 20 minutes, but for some reason the projectors here weren't responding..." he saw Claudia on the floor, "What are you doing? What happened?" he asked, his voice filled with concern.

She stood up, holding the shattered remains of the cup, "Oh nothing, I just dropped a cup of tea." she said, trying to cover her own inner turmoil. She glanced at the table and noticed the Adrian/Sloane hologram had left his own pot of tea on the table. She hoped Adrian wouldn't notice it.

He made a move to take the cup shards from her, and smiled, "You never were made for the more domestic aspects of life" he laughed and placed them in the replicator, he then walked back to her and hugged her, "I was at the house in Minsk getting it ready for our weekend away" he smiled, 'I had hoped it would be a surprise."

Claudia looked at him, "I'm sorry, but they've cut my leave short." she lied, "I am leaving for Starbase 900 tonight."