I’m still on Force and Motion (I haven’t read shit in the last couple of weeks) and the author decided to give Keiko O’Brien a Traumatic Childhood Event: 

During a family picnic in Japan she wandered off in the woods and found a stepstool had been knocked over (it was the first thing she noticed) then looked up and saw a man hanging. She’s 6 so she knows fuck all about what’s going on but tells her parents and her dad goes to look and comes back with tears in his face. Years later she looked up the case and found out his family had died in an accident a couple of years prior

Anyhoo all of that was to say that when she asks her class on DS9 “what’s the worst day of your life” she’s got a good story.

There have been cases of holographic intelligences achieving sentience,“ Lal offered. "Though usually under extraordinary circumstances.”
“Or if someone is willing to devote the processing power,” Moriarity countered. “And wants a lounge singer.”

This week I’m reading Jeffrey Lang’s The Light Fantastic (TNG) at  work. I should have finished it today but I'v been lazy. It has so many good elements, a direct sequel to the Cold Equation Trilogy but we’ve got Data in his new body, Lal, Moriarty, fucking MORIARTY who’s kidnapped Lal! The only thing so far is I think Geordi is written a bit more stiffly than usual (a turn of phrase somewhere took me out of the story. Again we’re weaving disparate threads across the trekverse into a cohesive whole which includes:

Keep reading