Viviana Morgante, praised creator of holographic roleplay games and old friend of Riker, arrives on the Enterprise and introduces him, Deanna and Data to her latest fantasy creation. Unfortunately, the computer apparently goes nuts, cutting off the...
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[Original story formerly published in paper by the Star Trek Italian Club, which graciously granted permission to publish it digitally. Cover and drawings by Chiara Falchini.]
Chapter II
In the following days, Viviana was very busy, but she liked her job immensely and she didn't bother to work on it even ten, twelve hours on the row, all the more so because a good part of it consisted in testing the improvements, that is, playing on the holodeck.
She spent most of her spare time with Riker, both chatting and doing some physical activity: among other things, both were excellent martial artists, and if Riker was certainly the stronger one, Viviana was surely the more agile one, hence their matches ended up very often in a tie. The very first days they preferred to stay alone, recalling times past and telling each other their adventures, but little by little Viviana met also Riker's other friends and he witnessed with no surprise her immediate integration in the group: he remembered perfectly her exceptional communication skills at the time of the Academy, when everybody was falling over himself or herself to be her friend and she spent a gentle word with everyone, even if with no one else she has established a relationship even by far comparable to the one they shared. He remembered well also that many equivocated the nature of their friendship, but at that time, as today, they didn't give a damn.
Viviana showed vivacious reactions to all: the Klingon Worf, chief of security, aroused her enthusiasm ("Lieutenant, you're the perfect personification of the warrior, with your permission I'll take you as a model for my next fantasy game"); the android Data, the ship's second officer, thrilled her ("Commander, I've heard a lot about you, it's a great honour to meet you"); doctor Beverly Crusher, the ship's chief medical officer, stroke her ("Doctor, you inspire complete trust, I'm not surprised they consider you a formidable physician"); Captain Jean-Luc Picard, finally, fascinated her, but strangely enough, he also intimidated her, and it was therefore to Riker that she expressed her opinion ("Should I need to choose someone to entrust my life with, it would be him"). With La Forge she established a perfect work tandem ("Commander, I never met an engineer like you, meticulous and creative at the same time"); as for Deanna Troi, a kind of complicity arose quickly between them, and Riker ended up to be often their victim, being regularly the target of their jokes and gags. This didn't bother him at all, because both of them were kind and polite, and none offended him, not in the least, ever.
About ten days passed, and finally Viviana announced she was happy with her work, with La Forge's full approval.
"All we have to do now is testing the modifications in the field", the woman smiled, already looking forward to it, "I have right here a new fantasy game to experiment before being released, and I had a mind to invite a small group of persons. What do you say, Geordi, would you like to try it?"
"Yeah, I'd like to, but someone must stay behind to monitor things from the outside, and I'd like to do it myself", the chief engineer answered, "But you can count on me for the second test."
