-= Holodeck 1 =- He kneeled in the snow. It could almost be mistaken by the real thing, for the Andorian snow covered steppe. Thanks to the holodeck, he was clad in winter gear and armed for the hunt. He prefered the bow and arrow for the hunt, he thought it was fair against the animals, rather than the long range rifles modern day hunters used, he believed it direspected nature, giving an unfair advantage to the weaker specie. He carried on tracking his prey. It moved north, unaware of the chase initiated moments ago, hours after the start of the program. He climbed up a small cliff, which was easy enough to navigate and stood on top of a small plateau overlooking a clearing. He placed his binoculars to his eyes and observed the landscape ahead. A group of four females and their cubs seemed to be enjoying the cool weather, as he noticed the one he was chasing join them. He observed them for a while, watching the cubs play and learn. He longed for a real hunt on Andor. He wanted to go back home, it had been such a long time, he could not bare the pain anymore, he had to challenge his father and beat him to regain his righful place in his clan and once again freely live like he wants to. He stood and moved along the ridge, searching for a manageable route to the clearing below. Once again, he found the tracks he'd been following and moved swiftly along them, towards the group. As he moved, he noticed the tracks changing gradually from bear marks to humanoid foot prints. He stopped and looked about. "What the hell, this is a simulation, it's not suppose to happen like that." He knew he could do something if someone had tampered with the program, but his curiosity urged him to play it till the end and see what lay ahead. He smiled and moved on, now following humaoid tracks. He caught himself running, unintentionally throwing the book out the window on stealth approach and seeemd to come to the end of the track. It turned around a large snow covered rock. He heard laughing ahead... He knew that laugh, heard it plenty of times, in his good days. He ran, dropping his bow to gain speed. He ran around the rock to find Ghalev and Lilen rather than the bears he'd been chasing. "What the...?" His sentence was cut short as they both screamed in terror. "Computer, freeze program!" He shouted. Everything stopped, frozen in time. Gaalen leaned to one side and felt something fury resist his body. He turned and fell to the ground. A blue bear had been milimeters from clawing him to pieces, the sigh froze him in place for a few seconds. He then turned around, but they both where gone. Like they had never even existed. He rolled over and stood up. He moved to their previous place and searched the area, nothing was amiss, besides the pair. "Computer - list all humanoid characters in this simulation." He asked the ever hearing computer. "There are no humanoid characters programmed in this simulation." She monotonely replied. Gaalen knew the answer before she replied, he had programmed this hunting simulation himself. "Is there any trace of photonic alien lifeforms on this holodeck?" That question was a long shot. "Negative." The computer replied. "Computer, end program and delete." He requested. It chirped in answer and the hologrid appeared, he was once again clad in his civilian attire. He rubbed his eyes, hoping it was not a side effect of the rescent pollen exposure on Kinsi. He chose to call it quits and get back to his quarters. He still had a ball to attend to, even if he did not really want to go, his presence was required and it was a good chance of meeting the officer staff of this ship. Ltjg Gaalen Idrani Deputy Chief Engineer USS Chimera __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Meet the all-new My Yahoo! - Try it today! http://my.yahoo.com