Naomi's Gift

Naomi's Gift

His combadge chirped: “Kim to Sickbay!”

The Doctor didn’t look up from his computer screen, or mute the recording of Les Miserables echoing through his office. “What’s the emergency, Mr. Kim, I’m rather busy.”

“It’s hardly anemergency, but Tom took an eight ball to his eye socket!” The Doctor heard Harry chuckle at his own joke while Paris groaned from somewhere nearby. “We’re on Holodeck One, Doc.”

“Well I certainly didn’t think you were in Astrometrics. Sickbay out.” The Doctor tapped his combadge and released an annoyed sigh. As he gathered a medical tricorder and a dermal regenerator he vowed to speak to the Captain about mandatory safety protocols whether the holoprogram was Sandrine’s or The Three Musketeers.

When the Doctor transferred to the Holodeck he discovered that his program was malfunctioning. All of his senses were gone: he couldn’t see, couldn’t hear his own simulated breathing, couldn’t feel anything beneath his boots. But then a child’s voice broke through the darkness.

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you,” Naomi Wildman sang. Light bloomed from a sun that suddenly appeared. Additional voices joined Naomi’s. “Happy birthday, dear Doctor, happy birthday to you!”

The Doctor found himself standing next to a picnic table in the middle of a field of white and gold wildflowers. In front of him the ground dove over a shallow cliff and into an excited sea. On the red-and-white-checkered tablecloth was a gigantic pink birthday cake adorned with a single candle.

“Happy birthday, Doctor.” A grinning Kathryn Janeway, wearing a bright sundress, stepped forward and embraced him.

“Oh my,” the Doctor breathed, “I don’t know what to say!” He shook hands with Chakotay and Harry, and returned Seven and Tuvok’s nods. Tom slapped him heartily on the back before helping the pregnant Torres sit on a bench.

“Make a wish, Doctor!” Naomi had a palm cupped around the candle. “Quick, before the breeze blows it out!”

“What should I wish for?” the Doctor asked, moving to lean over Naomi’s shoulder and admire the cake. “What more could a hologram ask for than his very own birthday?”

“Miss Wildman’s idea,” Janeway explained. She thanked Chakotay when he handed her a cup of coffee. “I’m curious, Naomi, how did you decide on today?”

Naomi shrugged while using both hands to protect the candle. “According to my research Dr. Zimmerman was born on January 2nd, he first introduced the EMH on March 14th, the Doctor was first activated on November 20th…” Her eyes widened in fear as the candle flickered from her breath.

Seven, the only partygoer in uniform, cocked an eyebrow. “This date is not the second of January, nor the fourteenth of March, nor the twentieth of November.”

“I know. I couldn’t decide and then I got tired of waiting. Doctor, hurry!”

“Here, help me, ready? One, two—” Together, Naomi and the Doctor blew the candle out and everyone clapped.

Paris began to cut the cake and he handed the first piece to the drooling Naomi. “What did you wish for, Doc?”

“Oh no,” Kim said from the seat next to him. “If he tells us then it won’t come true!”

“Maybe that rule doesn’t apply to holograms,” Chakotay surmised.

“Hey, if this is a party, where are the presents?” the Doctor demanded with a grin.

Janeway choked a bit on her coffee. “The combined minds before you couldn’t think of a single thing, Doctor.”

“I kid, this is lovely. Naomi, did you choose the location, too?”

Naomi was cutting her next bite with her right hand and fishing in her pockets with her left. “It’s from the northern hemisphere of my father’s home planet,” she explained. “Mom helped me choose it. Here, I made you a present.” Naomi handed the Doctor a crumpled piece of paper but B’Elanna spoke up before he could look at it.

“You dodged the question, Doctor.” Her green dress amplified her skin which was aglow with motherhood. “What do holographic doctors wish for on their first birthdays?”

“I’m not so sure I should tell…” The Doctor glanced at Naomi for permission. She shrugged and went back to concentrating on the icing on her fork.