After Beverly cried herself to sleep, I cast sleep on her and ensured she wouldn't wake up for a while. With this unexpected development, my plans to leave the ship after a certain amount of time had to change. My initial plan to consult with Beverly about another date, and how long she wanted me to stay onboard, was now pointless. She needed to get away and I would provide that for her.
Luckily, the Enterprise was in normal space as it investigated a spacial anomaly, so it was fairly easy for me to use my clairvoyance power to check the next sector of the ship's flight path. Captain Picard, Lt. Commander Data, Chief Engineer Georgi LaForge, and Councillor Deanna Troi had a conference to attend in a few days, which meant the Enterprise would be under Commander Riker's command until their return a few days after that.
That was plenty of time for me to set up what I needed and I reinitialized my own full set of powers, now that I didn't need to hide anymore. I dressed in my normal clothes and set a mental waypoint with Beverly's biological signature, then I stepped away from the stationary ship to the empty sector of space.
I could survive in space, thanks to a few of the powers I gained from the Worm Entities, and I took out a copy of the USS Retaliation from my inventory. It was the smaller sister ship of Voyager and would be perfect for my needs. It had been heavily modified over the years of its operation, thanks to advancements in both Starfleet technology and my abilities with integrating different alien technology.
I stepped from there and onto the bridge of the ship and everything was dark. It took me about an hour to initialize the startup protocols and my authorization codes, then I stepped from the bridge to Engineering and started up the warp core. It went perfectly and power soon flowed throughout the rest of the ship as the various systems came online.
I nodded as I watched all the diagnostics on the engineering display come back in the green and stepped from there back to the bridge. I took out the android I had rebuilt and transfigured to look like Doctor Chappel.
“That was disconcerting.” Doctor Chappel said as she looked around.
“I'm sorry about that. Beverly showed up unexpectedly and I had to store you.” I said and gave her a questioning look. “Was it an instant transfer from then to now? Did your new systems detect anything while you were in a time-locked stasis?”
“No, that is why it is unsettling. One microsecond I was listening to you describe your plan to copy me and make me your crew in a few weeks, perhaps a month, then I was here on the USS Retaliation.” Doctor Chappel said.
“I don't plan on hiding you anymore, now that my plans had to change.” I said and she gave me a questioning look right back. “The Picard and Crusher Show had a sudden and explosive ending and I'm getting Beverly off the Enterprise and I need you to become every member of the crew necessary to run this ship.”
The android's eyes widened slightly and then she smiled. “I'll have more of me to test myself!”
I laughed at her jumping to that conclusion right away. “I need you to work first, Christine. You can play later on your own time.”
She gave me a very dry look. “I'm an android, Tom. I don't need to eat or sleep or have time off.”
I put a hand on her shoulder. “I'm not a heartless species bigot. You have all the rights and privileges as the rest of us meatbags.”
Christine looked surprised. “Really?”
“Data was given an exception and was ruled by Starfleet as his own person and not property. Why would I make you any different? Because you can be easily copied and can share data? Doesn't that make your multiple existence better than a singular one?”
She smiled and nodded. “Then have at it, Tom. I want to meet my sister selves.”
I let her shoulder go and waved around the small bridge and it was suddenly filled with 50 Doctor Chappel androids. Not surprisingly, they all gasped and stared at each other, shared their thoughts over their wireless connection, then all of them smiled.
“I assume you can decide on your own which of you will attend to each station on the ship without my help.” I said and they nodded. “As soon as most of you leave and make room, I'll create 25 more of you and you can split the shifts however you want.”
“Thank you, Tom.” They all said as one and it sounded pretty neat.
“We are definitely going to have a concert with you all singing background for me.” I said and they all chuckled, which also sounded really cool.
“I am taking command of main engineering and I need ten of us with me.” One of them said.
A scattering of hands raised and those 11 androids moved towards the turbolift and had to split into two groups to fit. It only took a second for the first lift to zoom off and another turbolift replaced it and the other half left the bridge to head towards the engineering department.
“I will head to medical and activate my counterpart there.” One said and tapped the two Doctor Chappels next to her. “We should check everything over to make sure it is all up to our standards.”
The other two nodded and the three of them took the turbolift to sickbay.
“I will take the maintenance department and head the rescue crew.” Doctor Chappel said and 14 others went with her. They needed three lifts to leave and left less than half of the created androids left.
“Cargo bays and general crew workers?” Doctor Chappel asked and 15 of them put up their hands. They needed three lifts to leave as well and that left the original android I had made and 7 others.
“Bridge crew.” Christine said and they nodded and spread out to man the stations across the bridge. “Having access to Data's programming and all the experience he has at all the different jobs on a starship, really makes us versatile.”
I nodded and motioned to the second chair. “I reserve the right to let Beverly sit there as my first officer.”
Christine chuckled. “Of course you do. You're doing this early for her and she needs the distraction.” She walked over to the command chair and sat in it. “We'll check everything over and will await your emergency call to come to your rescue, Tom.”
I smiled and saluted her with a proper salute, which she returned, and I created another 25 of her. They looked surprised for a moment, then chuckled as one and went to the turbolift. They were off duty until the next shift and talked about how they would enjoy themselves exploring the ship and picking quarters to make their own.
I stepped from there and back to my quarters on the Enterprise. I needed to wait for Beverly to wake up and would let her witness me calling for help from an old friend. Once we were off the ship, I would let her in on a few of the secrets I knew, then I would show her what medical technology looked like a hundred years in the future.
For now, I stripped off and climbed back into bed with her. We both needed to sleep to face the day tomorrow and I suspected it was going to be quite eventful. Beverly's situation had made my imagined choice to leave in an outrageous manner, the one I would actually be doing with her. Slipping away with no one knowing was no longer an option.
*
The command crew gathered in the meeting room before their shift to discuss a certain anomaly and what to do with him. None of them mentioned the previous day's argument between the captain and the chief medical officer, mostly because word of it had already spread across the ship and everyone onboard knew about the epic blowup between them and that Beverly Crusher had been relieved of duty.
That made it sound like anyone that argued with the captain were punished and a lot of the crew members didn't know how to handle that. The captain was a person that deserved respect, since you couldn't become a captain without being an outstanding officer; but, to never be allowed to argue with one without being fired? That was a bit too much for a lot of them to accept.
Captain Picard sat at the head of the table and tried to not let his consternation show. He had received some very weird looks as he walked to work this morning and he knew the source of them. He couldn't say anything about it, since it was part of an ongoing investigation that he suspected wouldn't go any further than the investigators examining Lieutenant Riker for themselves.
“We don't know.” Geordi said and motioned to Data.
“As far as we can determine, it is a command code from the highest ranks of Starfleet Command. When I tried to track who could have such codes, I found nothing in the database and no other searches produced results.” Data told them. “I put in a request for a list of officers with that level of computer access and was denied.”
Commander Riker thought about that. “Perhaps they don't want to reveal who could have complete access to our computer systems, since those codes can stop us from accessing those programs.”
“Then how did Lieutenant Riker get them?” Picard asked and no one had an answer for him. “Can we disable his program or stop his access to that program?”
Georgi shook his head. “We don't even know what program he locked under the codes.”
“No known data configurations match what the computer loaded at that time.” Data said. “It is either a new program or was modified so much that it does not match anything else we have in the computer database.”
Picard let out a small sigh. “Have you gone over the access times Lieutenant Riker was inside the holodeck?”
“Yes, sir. He spent almost two full days inside the smallest holodeck. Since it is so small, the demands for booking time there is minimal.” Data answered. “Computer monitoring was also disabled for the duration of the time he was working.”
Not one person at the table suggested someone should talk with Beverly Crusher about what she and Thomas Riker had done during their time on the holodeck, although that was a valid tactic to investigating what he did to the thing to achieve such an unprecedented technological achievement.
“Bridge OPS to Commander Riker.” A female voice said from Riker's comm badge.
Commander Riker tapped it. “Riker here, go ahead.”
“Sir, I just detected an unauthorized access code to the communications network. It still went through, however.” The woman said. “What do I do?”
“Where is the call from and where is it going?” Riker asked.
“As far as I can tell, the signal was sent out into open space to the next sector. As for the origin, it's from the private quarters on deck nine, number 03.”
Commander Riker and Councillor Troi knew exactly who that was. One because he assigned the smallest suite at the back of the saucer section to his clone as a cheap shot to show him who was the better Riker. The other one knew because she had gone there to talk to him to explain that she wasn't the same woman he knew from eight years ago.
Picard saw their face and knew who it was as well. “Can you interrupt it or stop it?”
“It's already over, captain.” The woman said and there were several beeps. “Apparently, it was sent in the clear and wasn't encoded. I have it recorded and can play it for you.”
“Let's hear it.” Riker said.
“You might as well come pick me up, Commander. This mission is scrubbed.” A voice similar to Riker's said. “The plan isn't working like it was supposed to and there's no way they'll allow me to feed them updates for their technology after what happened.”
“Then I'll bring the ship to an intercept course and will pick you up shortly.” A very familiar female voice spoke.
“Mother!” Deanna Troi gasped.
“I'll pack quickly.” Tom Riker responded. “Thanks, Christine.”
Deanna's surprise quickly changed to confusion, because the voice didn't belong to her mother, Lwaxana.
“You're welcome, Tom. I'll hail the Enterprise when the ship is in range for a safe transport.” The named Christine told him. “See you soon.”
The call ended and the woman at OPS spoke again. “Sir? Should I send a security team to deck nine?”
Commander Riker looked at Picard.
“No, it's not necessary. He's apparently leaving the ship much sooner than I expected him to.” Picard said.
“Thank you for bringing this to our attention, ensign.” Commander Riker said. “Riker out.”
“You're welcome, sir.” She said and the call ended.
“Arresting him is an idea, since he did circumvent our systems.” Worf suggested.
“He is not a member of Starfleet and is not subject to the United Federation of Planets penal codes. If he had still been a lieutenant when he performed his actions, he could be held accountable and detained, questioned, and interrogated about his methods.” Data informed them.
No one in the room missed the implication that it was Picard's fault that Tom Riker was not a Starfleet officer. That had been a revelation during his and Beverly's argument as she used it as proof that Picard was a petty man and couldn't let what he thought was a cheap copy outshine his first officer.
“As a guest on the ship, it was his first offence and can only be issued a warning for tampering with recreational technology, since the modification did not harm the ship or our operations in any way.” Data continued. “Since he is also classed as a child, it will not be put on his permanent record. Child laws are quite lax for first offences and grants them a lot of leeway for mischief.”
That made a few of them feel bad about the whole situation and then Geordi frowned slightly. He typed a few things on his panel and the screen changed to show the vocals of the recording and he played a very specific part he heard.
“...feed them updates to their technology...” Tom Riker's voice said.
Data nodded. “The holodeck modification might have been the first of many updates.”
“It might also be the easiest one to do in the limited time he had so far.” Geordi said and typed up a few things. The screen now showed reams of data code. “It's mostly software based and I'm sure we could figure it out eventually, now that we have an example and an idea to simulate.”
Deanna caught her breath and hit some buttons on the panel in front over her to bring up the file she had written with some of the things Tom had let her see that day. It appeared on the screen and every eye in the room turned to look at it.
“I saw this list on Tom's personal console when I visited him to tell him I wasn't available.” Deanna said and everyone read the things she could remember, the biggest one being his ability to integrate technology.
“He mentioned he had a talent for that when we met him on the surface of Nervala IV.” Data said.
“I assumed he was boasting.” Worf said.
“As did I.” Commander Riker said.
Picard read the list for a second time and knew for sure that he had majorly screwed up. If Tom could do even half of the things on that list, he was a supremely valuable resource that was now firmly against sharing his talents with them, thanks to his treatment. That was especially true for what happened with Beverly Crusher, since that came about because of Tom's situation.
“Bridge to Captain Picard!” A slightly panicked male voice said over the captain's comm badge.
Picard tapped it. “Picard here.”
“Sir, there's an unknown ship approaching us at high warp.” The male voice said.
“We'll be right there. Picard out.” Picard said and tapped his comm badge to end the call. He stood up and gave the people around the table a look. “Everyone to your assigned stations.”
“Yessir.” They all said and stood, then followed him out of the meeting room and down the hall to the bridge.
They had an unknown ship and an unknown crew to meet and greet. They all hoped the ship didn't prove to be hostile, because a ship with unknown capabilities was not one they wanted to tangle with, not with Tom Riker onboard and he had command codes that could override their own.