Part 15 (1/2)
”Out. And I mean a straight line out of this area and back to the saucer where you belong.”
The infrared glow increased on Wesley's cheeks, and without a word he pivoted and strode out.
”Kids,” Geordi said, looking back at the glowing bundle of parts. ”Can you unhook it without a backflush?”
”I believe so,” Data told him, carefully picking at the octopus of wires attached to one end of a long rod. ”It actually is a remarkable idea. It may not have been tried before.”
”Yeah, Wesley thinks ideas are cheap. He doesn't understand that implementation isn't. Everything's shortcuts when you're a kid.”
”Is it?”
Geordi paused. ”Oh ... sorry.”
”No cause to apologize, my friend. I may be forced to accept what I am.”
”Now, what is that supposed to mean?”
The android's slim form glowed within its filmy sheath, and perhaps the glow increased very, very slightly. ”I am on a ... quest.”
”Oh, no-what quest?”
”I must discover my true nature.”
”That's what I was afraid of. Why do you worry about it so much? Maybe you're just special. Maybe you don't have a true nature that you can compare to anything else because there's never been anything like you. Ever think of that?”
”No, I hadn't,” Data admitted. He paused, then plucked an inset from part of Wesley's monster, and the whole thing suddenly shut down with a clean buzz-sigh. The beam of light snapped out an instant later.
Geordi repressed a s.h.i.+ver. ”That's a relief. I get the w.i.l.l.i.e.s thinking he's had this hooked up to the reserves all this time.”
”There wouldn't necessarily have been a rupture,” Data said, ”but that's problematical now.”
”I wouldn't want to test it, thanks. Let me check the stabilization ... looks clear now. Concur?”
”I do.”
Geordi tapped his insignia and said, ”LaForge to Riker.”
”Riker. What was it?”
”Just a malfunction in the seals.”
”I don't like the sound of that. Are we clear to restock the main tank?”
”I think so, sir. You might want to have it checked by a containment engineer.”
”We don't have the time. Counselor Troi insists that ent.i.ty's still in the vicinity and even though it doesn't show up on any of our monitors, I've got to a.s.sume she's right. How's Data?”
Geordi glanced at the android as Data looked up. ”He's ... fine, sir.”
”All right ... we're going to flush the antimatter reserves into the mains right away so we can power up for warp speed if we have to. You stay there and monitor it. Yell if there's so much as a ripple.”
”Yes, sir. LaForge out.” He shrugged. ”I don't think he hates you as much as you think.”
Data gathered the remains of Wesley's experiment and stuffed it into a reconditioning chute, piece by piece. ”Mr. Riker may be right about me. I have had to accept it.”
”You're starting again.”
”Perhaps so,” the android said, straightening and facing him. ”But it is important for me to discover where I fit into the range of humanness. The question of whether or not the ent.i.ty is a lifeform or what it is to be human-body, spirit, pulse, compa.s.sion-all these are things which will show where there is a place for me.” He paced toward Geordi, and finally past him to the big main schematics that showed a faintly lit diagram of the s.h.i.+p's entire warp engine system, and in a gesture almost gentle, he placed his hand on the lines and lights. ”I may be part of the scheme of evolution for the future. Man lives ... man develops machines, learns to use them, to improve them, to create machines that are smarter and faster than himself, more efficient ... and he uses those to better himself, even to make them part of himself.” He paused, turned, looked at Geordi's visor, and knew that even in the faintly lit darkness Geordi could see him with astonis.h.i.+ng clarity. ”Like you, my friend. You are part of the scheme too. Eventually, perhaps man achieves symbiosis with machines, perhaps even creates life?” He gazed at the board again. ”Is that my place? Machines that live?
”And now Captain Picard must decide what to do. Because I know ... I know that thing means to destroy this s.h.i.+p when it finds us again. It believes that is its purpose. Yet I have received impressions inconsistent with that goal.”
”Like what?”
”Like fear. Am I right? That isn't consistent.”
Geordi shrugged lamely. ”I dunno. It could be. You mean it's afraid of us?”
”No. It is afraid for us.”
”Sorry, but you'll have to explain that one. I just see well, remember? I'm no psychologist.”
”The aliens who created it actually knew what life is made of. They knew the moment when consciousness and sense of self begin in a ma.s.s of cells. Somehow they encoded the ent.i.ty with the belief that it must absorb us in order to protect us from this very s.h.i.+p.”
”That's great,” Geordi grumbled, ”just great. Doesn't it have the brains to know the s.h.i.+p is what's protecting us from the environment of s.p.a.ce?”
”It is a tool, Geordi. A mechanism that decides for itself according to its best judgment.” Data spoke softly, as though entreating him to understand what it could be like to rely only on memory and not on intuition, on programming rather than insight. He paused, and flattened his hand even more intimately on the display board. ”It is my greatest fear,” he said, ”that I may find I am nothing more than a tool.”
Aching with empathy, Geordi felt the sting of his own helplessness. He could mutter some useless rea.s.surances, but he had no answers. None that would satisfy or comfort Data as there might be comfort for a human being. Data's relentlessly a.n.a.lytical mind wouldn't allow him to accept simple answers, and he had stumbled onto a question that defied answers, and would defy them until time ground to a tired halt. Then everything would start up again and the question would resurface, slippery as ever.
”Data ... ” he said finally, ”if it's any consolation, I don't think I could be friends with a machine.”
The android's eyes lost their focus for a moment. The kind words ran through his body, and actually warmed him. Geordi could see the change.
Then Data looked at him askance, and his mouth lengthened into that crooked little grin. ”Thank you, Geordi. I will never forget that. No matter what happens.”
Still soft, still sentimental. No slang, no trappings. That was the real Data. Except for the hint of foreknowledge in his tone, which Geordi didn't digest for several seconds.
Perhaps it was that Data didn't look away, but that he kept gazing with that curious look, a look that said he had something else cooking in his idea kitchen, and after a moment Geordi took a suspicious step toward him.
”What do you mean, no matter what happens? Hey!”
The deck dropped out from under him. His arms and legs flared out with the initial shock of being lifted, and he realized that he too had committed the crime of forgetting where human ability stopped and android ability took over.
”Data, put me down! What are you-” The room spun, and he was deposited neatly on his feet at the top of a stack of heavy-stress storage units. As he got his balance he noticed the flash of metallic skin as Data plucked the insignia-com from Geordi's own chest and stepped down from the crates.
Geordi waved his arms and complained, ”What're you doing?”