“Harry?”

The hologram continued to look at the console in front of him, pretending not to hear Asani’s voice. Thomas stood by Asani and could only shrug.

“Harry, please turn around and face me. I am trying to say I am sorry,” said Asani with a sincere tone.

Harry repeated Asani’s words but in a mocking tone like a teenager.

“Ensign Harry Michaels! You stand at attention when your Captain addresses you!”

Harry turned and stared at Asani with his angry face. The only angry face his program would allow. “Do not try and access my Federation subroutines, Asani! You had those disactivated because you hated us talking as Starfleet personal!”

“I will reactivate them if you do not talk to me,” warned Asani.

Harry sat back and folded his arms and stared at Asani with the same angry face. Thomas gave a nervous smile wondering if he should say something.

After a few tense moments, Asani said, “I am sorry for putting you two in these positions where you are needing to save my life, but—”

“But that is what we are programmed to do,” interrupted Harry. “We are nothing but machines to you! Holograms to serve you! You want to wipe away all our personality subroutines and just do what you order us to do! Well, maybe I want you to erase them, so I do not have to worry!”

Thomas gave a shocked look and then turned to Asani and nervously shook his head.

“Harry,” said Asani patiently. “I was going to say, but I do this because I trust you. I trust you like a friend.” Thomas gave the bittersweet face while Harry’s mouth showed a small upward curl but quickly retreated to his angry face. “This is what it is like being on a Starfleet crew. The reason I want you to keep those personality subroutines running is because I depend on your advice. We are a team.”

Harry gave a shrug. “I just don’t want to see you die, Asani.” He gave a glance to Thomas who nodded. “You act like you are wanting to die in some glorious manner. Like you are in pain and need some type of fulfillment.”

“Wow!” said Thomas with his surprised face. “That was quite a diagnosis.”

“I was rewatching Twentieth century talk shows,” said Harry with a giddy face. “They really give good inspiration.”

“Oh yes,” agreed Thomas. “Oprah is a beloved treasure.”

“Ahem,” said Asani. Both looked at him with faces forgetting what the conversation was about. Harry immediately went back to his angry face. “I promise. I will be less reckless and will listen more to your advice.” Harry’s face began to show a glimpse of happiness. “Are we good?” Harry then nodded and jumped up and gave Asani a big hug. Thomas joined in.

After a long hug that Asani thought was too long, he then gave them a stern face. “Now team. We have work to get done.” Both nodded. “Harry. I need your detective skills again.” Harry gave him an excited face which then changed to a look showing he wanted to ask a question but was afraid. Asani seeing the look, knew exactly what he wanted. “Yes, Harry. You can do it as your favorite detective.” Immediately Harry’s face switched its appearance to that of a well know actress from the eighties and nineties. “Except her,” said Asani with a disappointed face. “I refuse to call you Jessica Fletcher.”

“Oh,” said Harry but in the voice of the actress. “Angela Lansbury is a beloved American treasure.”

“Harry,” said Asani with a stern look.

“Fine.” His appearance changed to another actor. “I will be Sherlock.” The look on his face showed he wanted to ask another question.

“Yes Harry,” said Asani. “You can wear the hat.”

A deerstalker hat appeared atop Harry’s head and a pipe from his mouth. “Sherlock is on the case,” said Harry in the voice of the actor.

“It is like I am talking to the real Sherlock Holmes,” said Thomas in an excited tone.

Asani gave a heavy sigh. “What I need you to do Harry, is find out everything you can about my killer.” A small holographic image appeared before them showing the creature that shot Asani with the disruptor rifle. “The funny thing about him is that our scanners did not pick him up. It was like he was invisible to everyone around. The only way we have these images is because of these contacts I wear.” He pointed at his eyes with an impressed face knowing he had invented them. “Everything I see is record to memory on this ship.”

“Yes,” said Thomas with a worried face. “We been meaning to talk to you. Any chance you can turn them off when you go to the restroom.”

“Or when you bathe,” said Harry with his yuck face.

Another heavy sigh. “I want you to study these images and then look through all databases and see if anything matches. We need to know who he is.”

Harry immediately rubbed his hands together and showed his excited face. “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

“Thank you, Harr…I mean Sherlock.” Harry gave a small smile and then sat at his console on the bridge and went to work. “Now for you Thomas.” Thomas immediately stood at attention. “I need the Warp Core back online and as good as you can get it.” Thomas nodded. “I am hoping we can at least do Warp two without flooding the ship with radiation. Do what you can and when we get to the Starbase, we will see about getting additional parts.”

Both looked at him with excited faces. “We are going to a Federation Starbase?” they both asked with the same enthusiastic tone.

“Starbase Lya Station Alpha is the closest to our position and may give us the help we need,” said Asani. Harry and Thomas gave each other an air high-five. “It will be a welcome site after having to live on this miserable planet for years.”

Thomas gave Asani a confused face. “Your tone does not match your excitement.”

Asani looked at Thomas with puzzled face of his own. “What do you mean?”

“For years you have been saying the same statement with vitriol and hatred. Now when the moment is here for you to finally leave, you seem sad.”

“I have noticed the same thing,” said Sherlock with his pipe puffing out smoke. “It is elementary my dear Watson.”

“I am surprised myself that I have any feelings for this hellhole, but it may be the way that I am leaving,” said Asani as he scanned the room obviously looking for something. “I was beginning to actually love my shop and disorganized mess of a warehouse,” both holograms nodded in agreement as Asani continued to open cabinets and shuffle things around, “but now that has been taken away like everything else…where in the blazes are those transporter tags?”

Thomas pointed at a cabinet in the corner. “They are in the cabinet that you marked miscellaneous.”

Asani walked over to the cabinet and opened it. Many different items came tumbling out including a bag of transporter tags. Asani picked up the bag and looked at it with a gloomy face. “Well, I guess it is time to go find out what is left of my home.” He gave a heavy sigh. “I wasn’t able to grab everything before I was apparently killed.”

Both Thomas and Harry looked at Asani with their sadden faces. “Don’t worry ol’ chap,” said Sherlock with the accent of nineteenth century English. “Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.”

“For some odd reason, Harr…Sherlock, that makes me feel better,” expressed Asani with a small smile on his face. “I will leave you two to your work.” Both Thomas and Harry nodded and began working on their ordered tasks. Asani stood still and then said, “Computer.” A small signal was heard. “One to beam down.” A blue flash was seen, and Asani was found at his home for the last time.

There was debris everywhere on the top level. Almost all the walls were completely demolished after two torpedo hits. Even the buildings around his home were in pieces. He had no idea if there were any survivors from those buildings, and he knew that no one would be coming to help. You were on your own if you lived here, that was the point of being on this miserable planet. Still, it was home.

The pathway to the bottom level was completely blocked so he decided to try out his other invention. Asani pulled out a small circular device and pointed at a destination below that looked to be clear from debris and the ground was stable. With a click of a button a red laser beamed from the device to where he was pointing. The device then came back with coordinates of his attended destination and with another click, another blue flash was seen, and he was found at his new destination. Side-to-side transporter worked well in this area as long as he was within a certain distance from his ship. No need to rappel down with ropes or other equipment, just point and click.

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He scanned the bottom level and found all walls demolished, burned marks everywhere from explosions and all his work scattered everywhere. He heard creaking and shifting of material so it would not be long until everything came crashing down. With careful steps, he made his way to his makeshift holodeck. Once there, he began placing transporter tags on everything even if it was damaged. He could repair the equipment faster than finding new pieces especially since this was not a standard “out of the box” device that Starfleet shipped to all its flagships. As he moved carefully from room to room, finding items to transport, memories came rushing into his mind. He found himself thinking about her once again. Especially now with the recent events and the name he was told.

“Asani, I have to be going. You know very well I cannot be late.” She picked up her usual items that she took with her every day, but before she could stand up, she was pulled back to her chair seated at the table where they were having breakfast together and then Asani gave her another kiss. She gave a heavy sigh. “Asani, I need to go.”

“Sorry, Faye” whispered Asani. “I just don’t want last night to end.” She gave him that smile that he loved. “Can’t you call in sick?”

Faye gave him her look that meant he was in trouble. “This is not Starfleet, and we are on an away mission to discover who these people are.” She picked up her items and began grabbing other things. “But last night was wonderful. Let’s just leave that out of the report,” she said with the same smile and a wink.

“I know your father would not enjoy it,” Asani said with his grin.

“I can deal with Admiral Riker. It is my mother and my older sister that I would be worried about.”

“Your father has the authority to execute me. Your mother can only read my thoughts, and your sister, she is a pacifist” said Asani with a shrug. “So, I would say I fear your father most.”

“Oh, Asani. My family is a complicated manner.” Faye said as she headed towards the door. She turned and met his eyes. “We still need to finish our conversation from last night. Our other priorities got in the way,” she said with a grin. Asani returned a smile and a shrug. Her face then turned serious. “There are things I am seeing in the Government’s offices that worry me. Powerful people that I never expected.”

“Who was it that you mention last night?” asked Asani.

“His name is Threok.”

“I have not heard of him before. His name sounds Cardassian,” said Asani with his eyes narrowed.

“He being Cardassian is not what scares me. He is the Peace Ambassador with Starfleet.” Faye gave another nervous look. “Why would someone like him be working with the Xiezios. That would mean Starfleet is working with them.”

“That is a far jump,” said Asani with a doubtful look. “If true then maybe he is here to work out a treaty.”

“And not tell us,” she said with the same doubtful look. “I know this mission his highly classified but if we are creating treaties with the Xiezios through the Cardassians, they should be informing us.”

Asani nodded. “I completely agree but there might be a reason why they are not telling us.”

“Or they could be passing secrets.” Faye gave a look that showed she knew more than what she had shared. Asani gave her his shocked face. “Asani. I have seen the files.” She removed from her bag a PADD. “Please do not get mad at me but I had to check.”

Asani slowly took the PADD from her and looked nervous to view what was on the screen. He viewed the files and could tell immediately that the information was not meant to be seen by anyone. “How did you get these!?” He continued to look through them shocked on what he was seeing.

“I was able to sneak in and steal it off one of the consoles.”

“They would have executed you on the spot!” shouted Asani. “This was never approved by leadership, by anyone on the team or by me!”

“Without risk there is no reward,” she repeated his catchphrase. “Isn’t that what you always say?”

“If they knew you had these, they would torture you until they got all the information from you plus, they would find out you are from Starfleet!” yelled Asani. “The whole mission would be done!”

“I understood the risk, Asani!” she shouted. Her eyes showed her anger. “They did not catch me! Will you just look at what the files say?!”

“I see what they say!” he screamed back. “They are purchase orders for the ‘death’ mineral they mine!”

“Yes, and look at these files,” she said as she moved objects on the PADD. “Look who is buying!”

Asani saw accounts that looked very familiar. “Those are definitely Starfleet accounts,” he said with more sadness than shock.

“There is no way that the Xiezios would be selling their prize material to Starfleet without other negotiations.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “I am scared about what is going on here.”

Asani sighed heavily. His face showed sympathy. “There could be a perfectly logical reason why Starfleet would be doing this. Let’s not jump to any conclusions.”

“Starfleet is not what it used to be, Asani,” she said with the same concern face. “I have learned not to trust them completely.”

Asani gave her a naïve smile. “Says an officer of Starfleet and an Admiral’s daughter. “

“I am his adopted daughter, but that story is for another time,” she said. She grabbed the PADD and headed for the door. She stopped, turned around and gave Asani another kiss. “I promise. No more risks.”

Debris came crashing down from above a few hundred feet off to his left which brought him back to reality. He needed to hurry, or he would be buried with everything else around him. He found a few more things that he needed to take with him and placed on them the remaining transporter tags. He then saw something glittering in the debris. He walked over to where he saw the object and gently picked it up. It was a gift from her. He wore it every day around his neck until she was gone. The jewels sparkled in the hot sun and the symbol that represented “love” in Betazed slowly twirled on the chain. “This must be a sign from her because it would be nearly impossible to find this in all this rubble,” Asani thought. He gently placed it around his neck. He grasped the symbol and whispered, “I miss you, Faye.” Tears flowed down his cheeks. “I am sorry I was not there to stop them. But I promise you that I will finish this.”

He then stood and took a last look around his destroyed home and then with a whisper said, “Computer.” A small signal was heard. “One to beam up.” A blue flash and he was now on his ship that was hovering a few thousand feet above his home. He walked to the console in the transporter room and began to locate all tags that he had placed on the objects below. He then began the monotonous process of beaming everything to the ship to a certain place. Once complete, he then made his way to the bridge.

As he walked through the bridge doors, Thomas and Harry or Sherlock, immediately arose. “Captain on the bridge.”

Asani smiled and shook his head. He knew they were trying to brighten his spirits. “Let’s stop with the Starfleet procedures.” He walked to his ‘captain’ chair. “I think I have thought enough about Starfleet today.”

“But, Asani,” said Thomas that sounded like the voice of a little boy. “It is our first mission and he both so want to start this off as a real live Starfleet crew.” Harry with the face of Sherlock gave him the same pleading face.

Asani sighed heavily. “Fine. Let’s play Starfleet.”

Thomas and Harry began to fidget happily and sat at their consoles. “Orders, Captain Nasos?” said Thomas.

Asani rolled his eyes. “Full impulse power, Ensign Thomas. Take us to 97 mark 32. Orbit the planet.”

Thomas turned and looked at Asani. “Don’t we need to clear all moorings?”

“We are not in a space station, Thomas,” said Asani with a confused face.

“But Asani, this is our first time,” said Thomas with his lip pouting.

Asani raised his hands into the air. “Fine. Clear all moorings.”

Thomas turned excitedly. “All moorings cleared.”

“Take us to 97 mark 32.”

“Coordinates entered, Captain.”

The ship began its ascension into space with all thrusters working as expected. Asani stood up and looked out the window of his ship. What was left of his home was decreasing in size rapidly. Mixed feelings still resonated in his chest. He looked down and saw the chain around his neck and he gave it another squeeze. His eyes close and for a moment, he saw her face.

“Approaching coordinates, Captain,” said an overeagerly Thomas. Harry was showing the same excitement. He was still looking through anything he could find on Asani’s “killer”. But this moment deserved a small break.

“I hope the Warp Core is ready for our first mission,” said Asani with anxiety in his voice.

Thomas turned with a smile on his face. “We should be good up to Warp two as commanded sir.”

“Very good job, Ensign Thomas,” said Asani with genuine admiration. He took a seat in his chair again. He saw on the main monitor that they were orbiting the “miserable” planet. What lied before them was the vastness of space or what he called, “Freedom”. “Ensign, Thomas?”

“Yes, Captain,” said a very anxious voice. He was fidgeting nervously in his chair.

“Plot course for Starbase Lya Station Alpha. 237 mark 125.”

“Coordinates plotted,” said Thomas. His tone showed his excitement. Harry was clapping his hands.

“Very good, Ensign Thomas. Let’s be off.”

Both Thomas and Harry turned and looked at him with sadness in their eyes. Asani looked at them with his confused face. Then he rolled his eyes, knowing what they wanted. “Fine.” Both Harry and Thomas and turned and looked at the main monitor. Asani raised his hand and pointed with one finger at the monitor while saying, “Engage.”

Harry clapped again. Thomas raised his hands in the air and then pushed the button. A small mechanical sound was heard but then nothing happened. Thomas then began looking nervously at the console. “Sorry, sorry. I forgot to set the Warp Core adapter to proceed. Your ship does not follow the same protocol. A few changes.” He pushed a few more buttons and then said, “Ok, now ready.” He turned and looked at Asani.

Asani gave him the confused face. “Ok. Let’s go.” Both Thomas and Harry gave the same sad face.

Asani gave even a bigger sigh this time. With his hand in the air, he then pointed at the monitor and said, “Engage.”

Thomas turned and pushed the button gain with glee on his face. Harry was ecstatic. But the ship did not move. “Whoops. The protocol wasn’t set to confirm. Lot of manual steps on this ship.” A few more buttons. “Ok, now I am certain we are ready.”

Asani brushed his hand through his mop on his head. “You don’t expect me to do this again.”

“Asani!” said both of them. Their faces pleaded.

Another heavy sigh. Both Harry and Thomas turned and looked at the main monitor.

With his hand in the air a third time, Asani pointed at the monitor and said with power, “Engage!”

Thomas clapped and Harry stood and shouted. Thomas pushed the button and a blue vortex opened in front of them and the ship pushed forward with amazing speed. Soon the ship was flying through space at Warp two. The vortex around them looked stable. All systems on the ship looked to be working as expected. Both Harry and Thomas breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well done, team,” whispered Asani. Emotion clearly found in his tone. Harry and Thomas gave him a smile and then went back to their duties. Asani found the symbol on his chain around his neck and gave it another squeeze.