The Koration and Xenorin War lasted only a few months.

We won, the Koration Empire won. But we were monsters.

Ketrin... does not look like a Koration, no, not at all. Infact her body is that of the species
known as the Telar.
Ketrin was a Mark 2 Combat Hologram of the Koration Empire, she served along side her
flesh and blood combat companion Ashylia.
The war was cruel. We needed their resources, dilithium, deuranium, neutronium,
tritanium, the list goes on. Their technology was superior to our own. But it didn't matter.
What we did to the Xenorin, is unspeakable.
I fought along side Ashylia on the battle field, and she was my commander. One Soldier,
one Combat Hologram. That's how it works.
We didn't have Star Fleets mobile-emitters, no, we blanketed the battlefields with
thousands of holo-emitter field generators, covering hundreds, thousands of kilometers.
My matrix would jump from one to the next and so on.

Narin Lind, the first hologram on Korate. Designed by Doctor Mets

Lind, a perfect representation of his late Daughter.
she could love, laugh, she felt happiness.
But she could not feel hate, prejudice, or fear.

The Narin Hologram and the Doctor's personal Holo field emitters were commandeered
and repurposed for combat usage.
Narin's matrix was modified, emotions removed, given combat training, thousands of
combat ready duplicates.
Ketrin was one of such duplicates.
A problem with the military holo field emitters, is that if a field emitter is damaged, or if
the hologram is destroyed, fragments of the previous holomatrix is stored within the
emitter's matrix storage. A problem Doctor Lind told the military about, but they didn't
care. For Doctor Lind, it wasn't a problem, it was redudancy in case an emitter failed, the
matrix can be saved, at very least in part.
One of the emitter's on the combat field, was one Doctor Lind used in his own home, and
was the original emitter 'stolen' from him. Fragments of Narin still in it.
Earing in the war, Ketrin's matrix transfered to this emitter, and picked up the data
fragment. Ketrin was change. Suddenly, Ketrin could feel love. Ketrin kept this a secret, as

she didn't want to cause problems for Ashylia, and combat continued. Over time, Ketrin
fell in love with Ashylia, She faught harder, and was more guarded of Ashylia, and her
own little secret.
The glitch in Ketrin's matrix, permitted Ketrin to make modifications to her own
subroutines. Including the command system and self termination subroutines. She could
refuse self termination commands, and any commands. Free will was upon her.
The Xenorin became infected by an unknown disease, even with their superior technology
they could not stop it. It was used as pro-war propoganda among the Koration Empire. It's
easier for the citizens to digest than 'Take their resources.'

Kill the infected, before they infect and destroy us all.

The war was on it's last legs, and before the final push on the battle field, Ashylia's squad
came under heavy fire, and she was hit, and energy round penetrated her armor and a
large wound under it, she was bleeding out. Ketrin felt fear, and pain.
The orders were to push forward, Take the captial, but Ketrin refused.
She refused the orders of the other soldiers...
I order you to fight! Obey my orders and Fight shouted the injured Ashylia to Ketrin
kneeling over her.
But Ketrin refused. Ashylia was fading.. So Ketrin disobeyed orders, and picked up
Ashylia, and carried her back away from the front lines. Located a medical supply crate,
ripped off Ashylia's armor, exposing her chest and wound. It.. is pretty bad.
It took many hours, but Ketrin managed to close the wound on Ashylia's chest and
stablize her condition.
It will hold, but Ashylia's armor was damaged. Ketrin pulled the armor off a headless
Koration soldier to cover Ashylia's chest and to help hold the wound shut and repair the
damage.
Ketrin just sat there leaning against the medical supply crate, holding the unconcious
Ashylia, as the bio-regeneration emitters within the undamaged armor finished repairing
the damage. Weapons fire and explosions in the distance.

The war was over, the other soliders had succeesfully taken the Xenorin capital while
Ketrin and ashylia remained at the city outskirts.
Ashylia woken briefly to see Ketrin sitting there, holding her.
She Mumbled You're defective or a traitor! Activate Self-Termination Protocol 4-2-4.
But Ketrin just sat there quietly, looking down at Ashylia's exausted and frustrated face.
Ashylia tried to reach for the comm radio, but passed out instead.
Ashylia then woke to other soldiers standing above her, their own holograms standing
back in the distance, Ketrin was gone, along with Ashylia's damaged armor and the holo
field emitter from the medical supply crate, preventing the other holograms from getting
closer.

Ketrin had taken a small Xenorin fighter shuttle from the abandoned planetary
spacedock, and loaded it with a dozen holo field emitters from the battle field.. Afterall
there's safely in redundancy for holograms. She left the Xenorin planet, and went in
search of something new. A better life. But she never forgot about the soldier she loved....
Ashylia
The Telar named after their planet; Telar, are an advanced but capitalist driven race.
Known for their black blood, ears, and lines down the center of their face. Like any greed
driven species, you must pay your debts.

To be wealthy is to not have unpaid debt.

Months past by, Ketrin, in her warp 6 capable shuttle, mined asteroids and other energy
phenominon. Where organics were unable to go. She found she was good at collecting
the highly valuable anti-verteron particles which can only be collected in the extreme
radioactive particle clouds. Organic species can not mine the larger energy clusters
deeper in the clouds. Ketrin can. But it wasn't without risks. She burned out two thirds of
her holo field emitters. Her matrix was failing. And she didn't have a lot of time.
She made her way to the free-trade planet of Telar, in hopes to trade some of these AV
particles for new holoemitters, but was presented with another option. To be done with
holo emitters altogether.
If you die at a Telar medical center, your family must pay your medical bill. Otherwise the
medical center will sell your body.
She was brain dead, tumors tore up her brain. Brain activity at zero. Being kept alive by a
neural-pulse emulation device.
And she was without next of kin. Without family. And she was up for sale.
The price? Only 7 isograms of anti-verteron particles.
Ketrin purchased the Telar female, alive, but dead.. the dead have no names. And also
purchased a cybernetic brain kit, and a genetic engineering and organ cloning system.
42 isograms.. 6 times the price of the body.
She then proceeded to genetically engineer and clone a blank Telar compatible brain and
connect it to the Cybernetic brain kit (designed using scavenged borg technology). It was
complete, a brain new cybernetic brain, ready for implanting.
Performing basic surgery on the Telar girl, using the kit's Manual (RTFM), Ketrin removed
the crushed and torn natural brain, inserted the cybernetic brain, and attached the nerv
endings which automatically configured after diagnostics. She patched up the skull and
scalp, leaving a large scar on the side of the head, the body was ready.
Ketrin modified her matrix to run off the cybernetics of the newly functional brain. It was
only a matter of setting up the transfer protocol, and it was done.

New eyes gaze upon the stars with wonder, and longing.
It took a while, but she had eventually adjusted to being in a biological body. The need to
eat, and sleep, and use other facilities. To feel the cold metal, or one's own warm body.
She stayed in her shuttle, knowing she could buy anything, and wanting only what she
lost.
It fits... Ashylia's old armor, with its blast hole.
I think it's time to start looking.

Ketrin left the Telar orbit and made her way back to the last place she was seen, The
Xenorin planet.
It was already being stripped of it's resources. Ketrin searched the remaining Koration
outposts, nothing. Before leaving she searched the old barracks as soldiers are often
homeless without anywhere else to go, she found an unusual data chip in an abandoned
barracks, it was encrypted with a platoon general seal on it. She returned to her shuttle
and messaged the Koration mining facility, asking for the soldier named Ashylia, giving
her ID, but they said she went off to another solar system... apparently weeks after the
Xenorin were wiped out, the Koration Empire located an unclaimedstar system, with a
hunded times the resources hidden beneith the planets crust. Only discovered by a
hobbiest researcher only a few lightyears away.
It did't matter, the Xenorin were infected.. We had to purge the quadrant of the plague.
Ketrin left the ex-Xenorin homeworld, and started to make her way to the new mining
colony, but months of high radiation AV particle collecting eventually caught up with her,
the ship, was damaged. The warp field collapsed, and she was stranded. She sent out a
distress signal and the first to reply, Ensign Harry Kim of the USS Voyager. Ketrin
requested to dock in the shuttlebay so that she may begin repairs, and Captain Kathryn
Janeway was more than welcome to assist. After all, they were passing by the mining
colony on their way home.
While aboard Voyager, Ketrin was granted permission to use the ships advanced quantum
computers to decrypt the datachip. The information on it... was horrifying...
They made it to the mining colony, and Ketrin contacting the only Koration patrol ship in
the system, she was there. Ashylia didn't know who this woman was, only that it sounded
urgent. She agreed to come abord Voyager, Ketrin insisted they meet in the sickbay.
Ketrin, Janeway, The Doctor, the Koration ship captain a guard and the oblivious Ashylia..
together again.
Ketrin ignoring the other Korations, tried to explain the best she could about the
cybernetic brain transplant.. But Ashylia was in disbelief. A hologram, made flesh and
blood, impossible.. right? Captain Janeway, and The Doctor, both did their scans of
Ketrin's new body, and sure enough; A genetically engineered organic brain, combined
with a cybernetic brain implant, running a Koration Mark 2 Combat hologram matrix.
There's something we need to talk about. Actually there are a lot of things. Ketrin said

to Ashylia.
Ketrin pulled up the decrypted information of the data chip. The Plague that crippled the
Xenorin, the plague that killed all the xenorin that the fighting spared... Was genetically
engineered... By the Koration. The evidence was there, and it was easy to confirm.. It was
designed in a way to specifically target the Xenorin without any possibility of infection by
the Koration. The Xenorin didn't just die off due to an illness, it was genocide.
The Koration ship captain left the ship with his guard, leaving Ashylia behind.
They charged weapons, Voyager went to red alert, and the Koration ship fired.. They
needed to destroy the evidence. As a Combat hologram, Ketrin also had information on
the Koration ship, and with quick permission of Captain Janeway, Ketrin used simple
shield remodulations to make Voyager immune to the Koration's weapon fire, and to point
out the weekness of the Koration ship to Lt' Commander Tuvok.
Voyager knocked out the Koration scout ship's weapons, impulse engines, and shields,
forcing them to warp out.
In the Conference room, Captain Janeway, Cmd Chakotay, Ashylia and Ketrin discuss all
that happened.
They won't stop, they will hunt me down, they have to hide their war crimes. Said
Ketrin.
Ashylia, speechless, having only just noticed the armor Ketrin was wearing, was infact her
own damaged armor.
Ashylia to Ketrin: Why are you wearing that? Why did you disobey orders? Why did
betray our people?
Ketrin Replied: Because it was yours. Because i wasn't going to let you die. Because we
were wrong in our actions. Answering the questions, one after another..
Ashylia: Why? Why did you save me? You had orders.
Ketrin stared blankley at Ashylia. Because I love you.
Ketrin proceeded to explain the original glitch and fragment of Narin's Holo-Matrix, and
how it affected her own holo matrix. She explained how she felt love, and that she loved
her, and when she saw her injured, she felt fear. That she would always put Ashylia's well
being over her own.
Suddenly Ketrin realized.... Ashylia's life is now in danger, as she knows the crimes of thr
Koration Generals and Commanding Party.
Ketrin begged Janeway for asylum until they were far enough away. Captain Janeway
agreed.
Ashylia spent most of her time in her guest quarters, and Ketrin in the shuttle, working on
a special project. Ketrin had told Janeway of the Telar people, and that it would be a good
source for supplies, and dilithium for Voyager's warp core.
Upon entering the Telar system, they were greeted by the Telar Military and Trade vessel.
(Even their military ships are trade ships. )
Janeway sent the Telar ship the list of supplies, and the Telar replied with the amount it
would cost.
Janeway: I don't have anything that would be of enough value for that.

Ketrin: But i do. Ketrin sent an updated list of requested supplies, many times the
amount Janeway was requesting. Food, repair materials, enough dilithium ore to make it
20,000 Light years, and enough tech to completely retrofit the ship.
Telar Captain: And just how do you expect to pay this debt?
Ketrin: How about 2,500 Isograms of Anti-Verteron Particles.
Telar Captain: We'll get the transport ships stocked and on their way.
Ketrin traded over the AV particles, 2,517 Isograms of the stuff, and even managed to get
repair parts for her own shuttle.
After the transfer was complete, and Ketrin had earned a place for herself and Ashylia
aboard the Voyager, they left the Telar system. But Voyager had a Koration warship over a
lightyear away on sensors. With Voyager's crew working on repairing old battle damage
and retrofitting the ship, it was in no position to fight.
Ketrin made a request to Captain Janeway. To release the information on all channels, on
subspace, and even using the nearby Telar comm relays. Janeway agreed. And within an
hour, Ensign Harry Kim sent out the data packet. Every ship, and space faring race within
100 lightyears will have the information. Everyone will know of the war crimes and of the
intentional genocide and use of biological weapons by the Koration military leadership.
The Koration warship, dropped out of warp, changed course back to Korate, and accepted
defeat. Afterall, the captain of the Koration Warship, is also guilty of the crimes of
spreading the bioengineered plague.

Ashylia still isn't comfortable on Voyager, she didn't really have anything waiting for her
on Korate, she was a soldier, she wen't where ever she could feel useful. The mining
colony, an occasional scout ship, anywhere that military personel would be welcome. But
here she is, onboard an Alien vessel, headed in the opposite direction from her home
world. She knows if she goes back, they'll execute her because the leadership will desire
blood, they don't care whos.
She goes to Ketrin's quarters, and they just sit across from eachother and talk. Not as
soldiers, not as commander and hologram, but as people, woman to woman. The
conversation is awkward and room feels abnormally cold. Since they both know it's
coming. Ashylia, an organic, with all the ability to love and having never done so. And a
hologram in a used, inexpensive organic body of a dead person, that feels all the love in
the stars, and hasn't a clue what words to say to make this feel right.
After a moment of silence... Ketrin finds the words, and speaks them without making a
sound.

In a broken whisper, I lean in and place my hand on her chest,

I can feel the scar, and she can feel my soul.
My lips press against hers, and the words are silently spoken.

I love you.
They lie down next to eachother, and just hold eachother. Ketrin rests her headon
Ashylia's chest, and just listens to her hearts beat. And together, Ketrin's 4 chambered
heart, and both of Ashylia's single chambered hearts, beat as one. 4-2-4... 4-2-4... 4-24... And for the first time in Ashylia's life, she felt she was where she was supposed to
be.

I love you too.

Be sure to check out Ashylia's Bio too for her side of it all.