Ian had been in the holodeck for about an hour. He had been fighting the American Civil War and was close to changing history. He had even gone so far as to record the outcome in case historians would one day want to know how the South should have won.
Ian was in the general's tent looking over the maps of the battlefield. Suddenly, the light began to shift and change. For a moment, Ian didn't think about it until he noticed that it was the lights of the holodeck causing a problem, not the candles that were in the tent illuminating his work space.
Ian didn't think about it considering Engineering had been having several power surges over the past week. Ian continued to look closely at the map until a Lieutenant arrived.
"General," the subordinate said. "We have word that the enemy is upon us."
"How can that be?" Ian said in the accent of a southern general. "My information is only ten minutes old.
"Yes, sir," the lieutenant said. "However, Union soldiers have been spotted entering the camp."
Just then, there was the noise of a pistol being shot. The lieutenant clutched his chest and fell over. Ian went to his side, but it was too late. The lieutenant was dead. "This isn't how it's supposed to happen," he thought to himself.
Another bullet pierced the tent near Ian's head and he quickly ducked under the tent and out the other side. Men were screaming everywhere at the sound of the bullets flying. Confederate troops were trying to load weapons and fight back, but the Union army was too strong. Rather than take prisoners, however, the Union continued to kill every Confederate soldier it saw.
Ian could not believe what was going on. It seemed as if the holodeck program had been re written and the computer was dealing with all of the programming at the same time. Not bothering to sort it out and allow one true winner. The computer was malfunctioning, that was for certain, but what Ian didn't know was if the safety protocols had been removed.
Not willing to take the chance, Ian started to run the other way. The soldiers that had been under Ian's command saw him and shouted for him to return. Ian was no coward by any means. However, under the circumstances, he knew that it would be more prudent to survive his time in the holodeck .
A cannon fired from the distance landed a shell near where Ian had been running and he was knocked to the ground. It took several minutes for him to get up and he was in severe pain. Ian checked his body and discovered that he had shrapnel sticking out of his leg and was bleeding from his head. This confirmed that the safety protocols had been disengaged and Ian knew that he was a sitting duck. If he didn't exit the holodeck, he could be a casualty of a war that was not his own.
Ian crawled and slowly made his way toward the edge of the forest that surrounded the Confederate camp. "Computer, arch!" he yelled. However, the computer did not comply. Ian kept crawling hoping not to be seen by the Union soldiers that were slaughtering every man nearby.
"Computer, arch!" he yelled again. This time, though, a Union soldier heard him and started to run after him. Taking a pistol out, the soldier stopped and took aim at Ian. Ian had made it to the computer console and was in process of stopping the program when he heard the sound of gunpowder being ignited. Ian looked up as the bullet came flying toward him and his hands moved quickly on the control panel and ran an emergency override on the holodeck. The bullet disappeared in the air, but Ian was still in pain. The shrapnel did not disappear, nor did the wound to his head.
"Medical Emergency in Holodeck 1," Ian said, pressing his comm badge. This would take time to heal, but Ian knew that once he was healed, he'd be back in the war again. The war that was not his own and yet everything that made him who he was as a leader and as a person.
