Unreal reality
Posted on Sun Mar 1st, 2009 @ 8:13pm by Lieutenant JG Lucy Carter
591 words; about a 3 minute read
Ensign Lucy Carter. Personal log stardate 63770.22.
I have completed the majority of the ship's psych evaluations now and must say there is a really mixed bag of people on board. Some are pleasant enough but some are downright rude. I even had the mother of all headaches after one session, that I could only relieve after meditation.
Notwithstanding this miserable state of affairs, I went, this evening, to the holodeck to make some friends there. I find it so much easier to socialise with holocharacters, after all.
While I was there I thought I would make better acquaintance with the EMH and instructed the computer to call him into the holodeck.
"Please state the nature of..." he began, then launched into a tirade of verbal abuse as he realised he was not on sickbay.
I waited for him to finish then explained. "Surely, doctor, you want to see places other than sickbay?" I ventured.
"I fail to see how bringing me to this, this..."
"Pub?" I suggested.
"This pub in the middle of some... area... can possibly expand my horizons" he spluttered on.
"OK, doctor, why don't you have a seat?" I said. "If you are really that miserable after 5 minutes then you can go. But why don't you try to enjoy yourself? I should like to get to know you a bit better".
I had never heard a hologram hurumph before, but that is what he did and then begrudgingly took a seat. "I suppose I could make notes on humanoid characters in this setting and add them to my data bank" he said, with reluctance.
I smiled at that and went to get us both a drink from the bar.
When I returned he was sitting in his seat and watching the flames from the holofire in the corner of the pub.
"I didn't realise contained combustion could be so alluring" he said, rather more quietly this time. He took his drink and had a sip. "Of course, you realise I can't actually taste anything, don't you" he said.
"I know, doctor" I replied. "But can you see that it's relaxing being here?"
"Relaxing? I am a hologram. I was not programmed to relax"
"Well, it's relaxing for me to chat to you, doctor, so I suppose you could say you are just doing your job while you are here. "
"A case of who counsels the counsellor, I suppose" he said.
"Doctor, that was almost a joke" I laughed.
Amazingly, the corners of his mouth twitched slightly. I was getting somewhere. We chatted pleasantly for another 15 minutes or so, mostly about his work in sickbay and how he wished he could be activated more often as he thought he had more to offer the ship. At the end of the conversation, I asked him about my DNA, which had been bothering me from day 1.
"Doctor, I wanted to ask you about my DNA that you sampled" I started...
"You will have to see the real ship's doctor about that" he snapped back. "Now if this audience is over, please return me to sickbay".
I sighed. This relationship was going to need work. "Goodbye doctor. I hope we can meet again soon."
He was silent for a moment. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt" he said at length."
I was delighted. "Computer, please transfer the EMH programme back to sickbay and deactivate the programme".
The doctor vanished into a haze so I ended the pub programme and returned to my quarters. I might just have a friend on board at last.
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