He glanced around. Metal walls, standard gravity and atmosphere, standard Federation lighting. He was lying on a very basic single bed. His temples were tingling where an electro-sedation patch had been applied. He concentrated, banished the sensation.
He sat up, swung his legs off the bed. A cell. He was in a cell. A cell of a very familiar, very predictable design. He stood up.
"Thrang," he said. "Override two niner seven Dumas." He turned towards the cell door, smiled as he saw the security field wink out.
He went to the door, and it slid open at his approach. Beyond it, he could see a short stretch of corridor. He flexed his fingers. Facility 4028 combat holograms would be tricky opponents -
He went to the doorway and peered carefully around the edge. Then he frowned.
There were no other cell doors in the corridor. To his right, it ended in a blank metal wall. To his left, there was a doorway. There were no light bridges, no cameras, no holographic guards.
He went up to the doorway, and it opened. Beyond it -
His frown deepened. A black space with yellow grid lines. A holodeck?
He stepped through the door, grinned as he saw the control panel in the holodeck arch. He could do a lot with one of these - "Thrang. Override eight seven seven Tolkien," he said.
And he felt, rather than saw, the presence materialize behind him. He whirled round.
The figure was that of a human male, thin and pallid, wearing a Starfleet medical uniform. It smiled at him.
"Hello, Kalevar," it said. "Welcome to Facility 4029. I am the Holographic Rehabilitation Unified System, you may call me Horus for short. I can see you have been using command codes that you expect will enable prohibited access to Facility 4028 systems. They won't work here, I'm afraid."
Thrang raised a fist. "If you think you can keep me here -" he began.
"I'm only here to help you, Kalevar," said Horus. "Facility 4029 has been designed and built entirely with you in mind. I'm afraid I haven't been programmed with all its security information, but it is embedded in an asteroid somewhere near Facility 4028, and communicates with that facility on an irregular and long-duration basis. If you have complaints as to your treatment, you may rest assured they will be heard, but I cannot guarantee exactly when. I must also caution you that there are no liveable areas outside the immediate facility. I know you are very strong and resilient, but even you could not survive outside, so escaping from here would certainly prove fatal."
"What are you doing?" Thrang asked. "I demand to see legal representation."
"Your demand has been noted and will be assessed at an appropriate time," said Horus. "I must inform you, however, that your position is somewhat equivocal. The Klingon Empire has already tried you in absentia and pronounced a sentence of death. The Federation would not, of course, surrender one of its own citizens in such a case, but it is doubtful whether you possess valid Federation citizenship, due to the irregular nature of your birth and your activities. The Federation, however, respects the inalienable rights of all sentient life forms."
Thrang lowered his fist. "Explain yourself."
"Gladly. Your legal status remains unresolved. It may continue to do so indefinitely. While it is unresolved, you are detained in this facility. Every effort will be made to ensure your continued well-being, but security restrictions are in place. The holodeck -" Horus gestured at the grid-lined room "- is fully featured, with every sort of program to stimulate, amuse, divert and educate. You will have every practical facility to maintain your physical and mental well-being. Certain holodeck facilities will not be available to you. In particular, it will not be possible for you to override its safety features, or to create a strong AI. The only AI permitted here is myself." Horus gave a slight bow. "I look forward to a long and productive working relationship with you, Kalevar."
"Long and... productive?" Thrang glared at the hologram. "Productive, how?"
"We have secured data records from off-site backups kept by the Calloway Institute. Now we know their full context, and are able to decipher them, they are highly revealing. Did you know, for instance, that your creator was planning a series of epigenetic therapy sessions to adjust your genome?"
"What?"
"Alistair Calloway was not planning an improved successor to you, Kalevar. He was planning an epigenetic process which would improve you as a person. We have developed a prototype of this process and, with your consent, we can implement it at any time. Or, we have a full library of conventional criminal rehabilitation therapies available to us." The hologram's faint smile, to Thrang, seemed the most odious thing in the universe. "We can begin your therapeutic sessions at any time of your choosing, and work through them at whatever pace you feel is appropriate. I appreciate, of course, that it will take time." The hologram would never stop smiling. "But we have all the time we need, Kalevar. We have all the time in the world."
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