[files/recovered/logs/personal/rala/~unknown-date]
Posted on Wed Jun 3rd, 2026 @ 2:25am by Lieutenant Rala
Edited on Wed Jun 3rd, 2026 @ 2:25am
>../CHIMERA/FS/CR/O/LtRALA/LOGS
File created stardate 72%#&*$
[error: data corrupt; attempting recovery........partial success; displaying recovered data.]
I almost died today.
I wish that was an exaggeration, but it’s not.
Well...I suppose the circumstances that led to this outcome were astronomically unlikely to happen anywhere but in the vicinity of a well-equipped and -staffed Starfleet medical facility; ours may not be quite as well-equipped as we’d like, but it is very well-staffed...but the point stands.
I suppose I should clarify: I wasn’t the only one who almost died, but I’ll get to that.
Of all things, it was the Makers-damned holodeck.
These things are supposed to be foolproof and fail-safe, right? With a safety record that one needs to break out a tunneling electron microscope to see the spots in, what with how many person-hours of use they’ve racked up with only a handful of mishaps that aren’t simply user error?
Figures I’d be at the center of another blemish on that record.
...Okay, maybe not the center; I sure as hell didn’t cause it, and I intend to help Katie track down who or what did. But I was there for all of it.
It all started with what was supposed to be a friendly race with Raven—Lt. Windancer, that is. Wasn’t until we were in the thick of it that something went seriously wrong. She clipped something, crashed, and...the holodeck’s safety protocols were offline.
She’ll be fine. She’s sleeping right now, here in recovery in Sickbay. But she took a nasty blow to the head.
And then, while trying to get her to Sickbay, I naturally forgot to make sure no one else could use them. And who’s the next unfortunate soul who wanders in thinking everything’s fine only to wind up in mortal danger?
Tessa.
I know, she’s nearly fully grown, well-trained in combat, and is basically considered an adult in her own culture. Hell, she’s technically a political figure of fairly high status.
But she’s 17. And their years are slightly shorter than ours—Draakri years, that is—so probably 15 or 16 by our counting.
And she’s so kind and sweet, and eager to learn—it’s humbling how rapidly she soaks up knowledge.
Some part of me has latched on to those latter traits and that stark measure of the linear passing of time and decided she’s a youngling who needs to be protected from anything that might harm her, at any cost.
So when I realized that she was in the holodeck...a malfunctioning holodeck that had already led someone else into mortal danger...
I didn’t think. I just ran. All the way from Sickbay back to the holodeck. And...at some point, I fell into the raxxuka, the haze. I don’t remember much after that. Red in my eyes; orange blood, from the peo[data corrupt]aracters I...killed.
Not real people, sure, but my claws and tail and teeth couldn’t tell the difference.
I don’t know when Henry joined the fray, but I vaguely remember directing the two of them toward the door. And, in the corridor, Tessa telling me she was safe, although I was so out of it by then that it wasn’t until I finally saw her after my own surgery that I was sure that had been real.
I still don’t know exactly what happened in that holodeck; they haven’t told me the details. But ‘unscathed’, I was not. Multiple severe lacerations and extreme blood loss.
Fuck the raxxuka. It helped me this time, but it also nearly got me killed.
Never again, if I can help it.
