Stardate: 70129.1720
Title: Weeping for the Innocent
Author: Ambassador Thessyr Tal
Time: Immediately following "Checking In"
Scene: USS Relentless, XO’s Office


Thess and Relentless stared at each other for a few moments before he held out a hand of invitation. She in turn came to his embrace. They stood there and he held her for a long time, the time passing slowly, as he savored the nuances of the being he could sense beyond the hologram.

Holograms were never satisfactory for Deltans, at least the normal Starfleet ones. They didn’t live, they didn’t have the feel of living creatures and they didn’t project the correct neurogenic fields. Deltans had, some time ago actually, incorporated neurogenic projectors into their holosuites and created a much more ‘alive’ hologram. Since then, especially for the psionically sensitive species, their holoprograms and suites had become very popular.

And for them, far more satisfying.

The experience of holding Relentless, her holographic form, was very similar to holding a Deltan child from one of their holosuites. The main difference of course that he had a better sense of personality from the Relentless. As an II (Incorporeal Intelligence), she had a sense of self that even the best of the Artificial Intelligences never seemed to have, except for the very few that had been allowed to evolve and develop over time.

That was why Thess considered her an II, rather than an AI. She was an incorporeal intelligence, not an artificial one. He had made contact. Now he needed to understand her.

Feeling her sense of self gave him awareness of her inner being; the self of which one only usually could sense in deep rapport. He was an Am’, a priest and a spiritual leader amongst his people. He had been trained to seek this out in any lifeform he encountered to best understand their motivations.

In his arms he held a child. One whose innocence had just been lost, the damage to her sense of self had been significant. Her sense of violation, irredeemable.

She didn’t understand it. She couldn’t fathom why someone would do that to her. She couldn’t even express her pain because she had no prior example of it, no words, no metaphor.

He wept for her.


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Ambassador Thessyr Tal
Ambassador, FCS
USS Relentless
NCC-11966
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