Sitting in a chair staring out into the star speckled darkness that encompassed the Starship the woman could not help but feel empty. Space, the final frontier, the one great adventure left for humanity but she was not human, the only human she had ever cared for was gone and she was alone in the universe. Alone for the first time in her life and for the first time she felt afraid.
"I am starting to believe this window was built with a hypnotic in it," An amused female voice said from beside the woman, "Everyone who comes on the ship ends up staring out it for hours,"
"Hypnotics would not be effective on me," The woman said numbly, her hands laying limply in her lap.
"No I don't suppose they would be," The stranger chuckled, pulling up the chair beside the woman, "I am Guinan, welcome to Ten Forward," Looking away from the window the woman turned to the stranger, a dark skinned humanoid woman in a blue dress with a massive matching hat.
"I am Nai," She replied, her eyes taking in every detail of the stranger.
"Nai? I like it. What does it mean?" Guinan asked, linking her fingers in front of her.
"My name means 'My dreams are reality'," Nai said quietly, "It is from the ancient Mayan culture of Earth,"
"My dreams are reality," Guinan said with a nod, "Fitting I suppose for the first sentient android," Tilting her head slightly Nai inhaled needlessly.
"Does everyone on this ship know everything about me," Nai said dryly, her fingers fixing on the bottom of her oversized brown coat, a stupid thing to wear in a climate controlled space ship but she didn't care, she was not vulnerable to mundane things like overheating. Guinan laughed.
"I doubt that is everything about you," She said gently, "Now why don't you tell me what has you staring out the window with such a depressed look on your face," Nai said nothing for a moment, her eyes scanning the humanoid female's face for signs of malice.
"I am remembering," Nai said finally, turning her head back to the window, "I am remembering the first time I saw the stars,"
"The first time you saw stars? I wish I could remember my first time, I suppose it was when I was a baby…my memory is okay but not that good," Guinan said gently.
"It was the day I was activated," Nai mused, "The first of April 2311 on Omicron Theta,"
Noonian Soong was a brilliant man, a revolutionary in the world of cybernetics. He had been well documented since he first appeared in the federation science scene at the age of twenty one talking about artificial life positronic brains, both commended and criticized for his far out ideas. It took him four years to convince them to fund his research and six years later with nothing to show he assumed a false identity and ran away to a colony. Now do not miss understand, it was not that his research was flawed for he had indeed created a working, functional positronic net. He simply could not give it up. He had been thirteen the first time he had dreamed of Androids, or more specifically one particular android, and the golden eyes and pale skinned cybernetic creature had been his muse as he delved into making them a reality. It took fourteen months on Omicron Theta in secret to make his first positronic net a body, the perfect body, in the image of his muse and two more months to sneakily take the parts to his home and assemble them. Never in his life did he feel love like the moment he switched on his first android.
Watching the eyelids flicker open to reveal golden eyes his heart rate spiked, breath catching in his throat. The android's eyes focused for the first time on the bright lights on his ceiling before they turned to look at him, their lips formed a smile, one so perfect he could not look away.
"Hello there," He chuckled, grinning down at the creature on the table, "I am Noonian,"
"Hell-oh the-air," The vocal processor stumbled around the words, "I am Noon-ee-an," Blinking the Doctor frowned.
"No," He said shaking his head and then motioning to himself, "Noonian…"
"No," The android replied motioning to their chest, "Noon-ee-an…" Noonian sighed, reaching down and taking them by the shoulders, lifting them to sitting. The android blinked three times repeatedly, their head twitching left in an unnatural head tilt, their arms reaching out to take his shoulders. A light bulb went off in Noonian Soong's brilliant mind and gently he took a hold of the Android's hands, touching them to his chest.
"Noonian," He said simply.
"Noon-ee-an," The android repeated before watching their hands being pushed to their own chest.
"Nai," He said clearly. Pausing for a moment the android looked from their hands to Noonian's face.
"Nuh-eye," It said. Noonian grinned and nodded, elated when Nai just grinned back.
"I am Nai," Nai said in an almost questioning manner, pushing their fingertips against their chest again.
"Yes," Noonian chuckled, "You are Nai,"
Noonian Soong had never seen anything as beautiful in his mind as Nai. Her five foot three frame weighed exactly seventy kilograms, her legs were seventy two centimetres long and her black hair reached exactly half way down her spine. Her skin was so pale it was almost white and in the right light it almost seemed to sparkle with golden flecks. Her big bright eyes were tinted the same gold as her plump lips and teamed with her hour glass figure Noonian doubted any man on any world could do anything but stare. He surely couldn't. She truly was his dream made real, now all that was left to do was to teach her positronic net, the most beautiful thing about her.
It took him three hours to work out that making her touch the object he was trying to name was easiest way to teach her. It took this long because for the first two hours he was trying to help the eleven stone woman to walk around home without tripping over her own feet. Once she had mastered not falling flat on her face he set about teaching her speech but although it was obvious when she understood what he was saying she didn't seem to follow where he pointed and just stared in utter confusion at his face, repeating the words as if that would make her understand. In the end in a frustrated huff he grabbed a cushion and named it watching in astonishment as she stood, stumbled ungracefully to him, put her hands on the soft black cushion and named it also. It was an epiphany of monumentous importance and sped her learning astronomically.
So six hours after being activated Nai was, in the crudest sense, walking and talking. Shame, he mused to himself as he watched her totter around his living room pointing and naming objects, I suppose I shall have to wait to dance with her.
"Painting," She said, "Chair, table…floor,"
"Very good Nai," He praised. She turned to him.
"Very good?" She repeated, looking around.
"I am pleased with you," He said slowly, "Noonian is pleased with Nai," He could see her processing what he had said.
"Please is very good," She decided, "Nai is very good, I am very good. Noonian is pleased with Nai…I am Nai. You are Noonian. You are pleased with I," Noonian blinked once, grinning at her slightly flawed speech but perfect logical reasoning.
"Close enough," He murmured to himself, scanning her naked figure, "I should find you some clothes, you are getting a little distracting,"
"What is find you some clothes?" Nai said, her feet plodding her to him with a quizzical look on her face. He reached for her hands and brought them to his shirt, wrapping her fingers around his collar.
"Clothes," He said, "I wear clothes," She hummed as she ran her fingers over the material, the noise taking her creator by surprise.
"Clothes," She repeated, "Nai wear clothes?"
"Nai has no clothes, Nai is naked. I shall find you some clothes so you can wear them," He said, trying to think past the pleasant feeling of her running her hands over his torso, "I have clothes in the chest," Nai's head quirked to his face and then she turned and pointed at the wooden crate beside the sofa.
"Chest," She stated, "Chest wear clothes," With one palm Noonian smacked his forehead.
"No," He chuckled, leading her to the chest, "The chest contains clothes,"
"Contains? What is contains?" She asked. Noonian grinned and winked, leaning down and opening the chest to reveal the piles of woman's clothing he had collected that would fit her perfectly.
"Contains is inside. The clothes are inside the chest. The clothes are contained in the chest," He explained, selecting a few items from the jumbled contents. She tilted her head and turned to look around the room, pointing to a vase filled with flowers.
"The flowers are inside the vase," She said, her forehead creasing in a way Noonian could only describe as cute.
"Yes," He said, "Well done," Before she could ask he corrected himself, "Very good,"
"You are pleased," She stated.
"Yes I am, you are learning very quickly," He chuckled, before holding up her underwear, "Clothes,"
Compared to creating her positronic net teaching her to dress herself should have been easy. It was not. In his thirty two years of life he had spent over a third of it able to take OFF a woman's bra but never had he had to put one ON. After wrestling her into her knickers she and he stared at the bra as if it would suddenly become sentient and explain how it worked.
"I guess we shall learn together," He mused, half to himself.
"Together?" She asked, her fingers playing with the waist band of her black lace knickers seeming to be dubious as to whether she liked it on her.
"Noonian and Nai, together," He explained, sliding her arms into the bra and stepping behind her to attempt to fasten it.
"Together," She said turning her head and smiling back at him, "Together is very good," He chuckled, picking up the dress and sliding it over her head.
She learnt at an extremely rapid pace, taking in everything and storing it in her seven hundred quadrillion bit memory banks for later recall. Her body learnt motor skills and her mind speech without any problems, her fingers dancing over puzzles with little difficulty within a few attempts. It was easy enough for her to see mathematical patterns and predict outcomes even if her mind could see little use in the paintings on his walls. Even if Noonian was her creator he was still extremely impressed with his work. Although within a few hours she could speak as well as any adult her mind was still very childlike, inquisitive without compare and he quickly realised he would have to keep her close to save her or others from accidental injury. He had to admit he had no worry about her wondering off, she did not seem to want to leave him for a second. This however quickly became an issue.
"Nai the bathroom is a private place, when using it you need privacy," He tried to explain, standing in the doorway in desperate need of a wee.
"What is privacy?" She asked, her fingers running along her dress. His mouth hung open for a moment.
"Privacy is alone…not together," He explained.
"Oh," She said looking down to her feet with an adorable pout, "Noonian or Nai…not Noonian and Nai,"
"Exactly…wait here, I'll be back in a minute," And with that he shut the door.
Three relieving minutes later he emerged to a shocking scene. Nai was where he left her but her face streaked with golden tears, her bottom lip trembling, body shaking. Fearing a malfunction Dr Soong grabbed her shoulders to steady her.
"Nai!" He exclaimed his eyes scanning her for injury, "What is wrong?"
"Privacy…is…not very good," She choked, "Together…I want together, no more privacy," Blinking at her first sentient thought her creator smiled, cupping her cheeks and wiping away her tears with his thumbs.
"Shush," He chuckled, pulling her into his arms, "I said I'd be back and here I am,"
"I could not see you," She sobbed, her arms fixing around his torso and her face hiding in his shoulder, smearing his shirt with her golden tears.
"Just because you cannot see me doesn't mean I'm gone, and when I say I'll come back Nai I mean it…I will never lie to you," He whispered softly.
"Lies are bad things?" She asked, voice muffled.
"The worst," He chuckled, tucking one finger beneath her chin and tilting her head to look at him, "I'll never leave you Nai, I've been waiting for you for a very long time…I'm not going to throw that all away," Leaning in he kissed her forehead, letting his lips linger there. Pulling back he noticed the odd expression on her face, yellow tears still running down her cheeks.
"What?" He said with a smirk.
"That," She said, her fingers touching her forehead and then his lips, "I like that,"
"I am sure you do like to be kissed…" He said teasingly, "If you're a good girl and stop crying I might do it again,"
"Crying? Is that why my face is wet?" She sniffed, he just nodded, watching her dry her face on the back of her hand before replacing on his lower back and looking up at him expectantly.
"Demanding little minx," He chuckled with a grin, tilting her head back further and leaning down to press a chaste kiss to her lips, "Was that satisfactory?" She smiled at him, reaching up to touch his lips.
"I like your lips on me…this kissing is a pleasing thing," She whispered.
"Kissing is something that only happens between people who are very close…emotionally that is although I suppose physical closeness is a requisite," He warned with a coy smile.
"Are we close," She asked, leaning in to his lips as her hands trailed down his neck.
"I created you so yes we are…" He said taking her fingers from his neck and kissing them softly, "But kissing is for special things Nai, we cannot just go around kissing all the time simply because we want to…kissing is special," She frowned but nodded.
"I understand," She said halting her ascent to his lips.
"Good girl," He said gently, "Now let's have dinner, I am getting hungry,"
Dinner was an odd affair, especially when you have to explain its importance to a being who doesn't need to eat or drink but it was obvious to the doctor that Nai was trying her best to understand.
"So although we look similar you are a Human and I am an Android. You were conceived and born and I was built and activated," She said slowly, "You have biological organs and need the nutrients of food to survive and whilst I can ingest food it is not necessary for my survival,"
"Exactly," He said glancing sideways at her whilst they ate. He had replicated vegetable soup today, deciding a spoon was a good utensil to start with. She ate slowly, obviously only eating to humour him.
"Noonian," She said, "What is outside of home?"
"Outside of home?" He murmured, "Oh! Outdoors? Well how about once we are finished eating I'll take you out and show you," He winked at her as she put down her spoon and smiled.
"I am finished," She said simply.
It was very obvious that Nai was getting more and more sure of what she wanted. She changed her shoes four times and tried on five different coats and jumpers before plonking a knitted black beret on her head and wrapping a matching long scarf around her neck. Although it was April on Omicron Theta it was the start of the winter cycle and the nights were cold and dark. Noonian sat on his bed wearing his thick brown padded coat and heavy brown leather boots watching Nai inspect her reflection in his full length mirror, seeming to be debating changing her clothes again.
"So do you want to go outdoors or are you going to play catwalk model all night," Noonian teased, she turned frowned questioningly.
"Catwalk models put on clothes and parade up and down long walk ways to display new clothes," He explained.
"That sounds tiring if they do that all day," Nai mused.
"So are we going outdoors?" Noonian chuckled, "The mirror will still be there when we come back," Hurrying to him Nai snatched up his hand and grinned.
"Let's go outdoors!" She giggled, tugging him off the bed so fast he stumbled. For a petite little thing she sure was strong.
"Someone's excited," He chuckled.
"Yes I am," She nodded, "I've never seen this sky you talk of,"
Stepping out the back door the first thing to catch Nai's attention was the vast expanse of black overhead lit by millions of twinkling lights.
"So many lights," She breathed in wonder, her free hand latching onto the forearm attached to rhe hand she was holding.
"They are called Stars and they are light years away from us," Noonian explained, brandishing one arm to the sky with a flourish.
"They must be very big to be seen from so far away," Nai mused.
"Yes, at least one hundred times bigger than this planet in diameter and exponentially heavier," Noonian explained, "But that is not why we look at them like this, we look because they are beautiful,"
"Beautiful?" Nai said turning her head to look up at him.
"Pleasing to the senses and mind aesthetically," He said, tracing patterns on the back of her hand with his thumb. She smiled and turned her eyes back to the heavens.
"Beautiful," The word left her lips like a breath from an angel, barely audible but entirely entrancing, "What else is beautiful,"
"On earth there is an old saying 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'," He replied with a gentle smile, worming his hand out of her grasp and pulling her into his side, "It means beauty is subjective, each person has different views on what is beautiful," She hummed, thinking about it for moment.
"What do you find beautiful," She asked, leaning into him.
"Well," He said thoughtfully, "Lots of things…it is hard to really say…saying something is beautiful is a very in the moment thing,"
"You are unsure?" She murmured.
"To me," He whispered into her ear, "You are the most beautiful thing in the whole universe," Her back straightened and her lips blossomed in an endearing smile as she turned her golden eyes to him.
"Hearing that, I do not understand, it makes me feel….make me feel…so very good," She said turning to slide her arms around his neck, her fingers playing with the ends of his hair as she stared into his eyes, "Almost as good as together," Noonian smirked, his free hands settling with the other on the small of her back. She, he decided, was the best decision he would ever make and as he held her to him on that first day beneath the stars he knew this would be his happiest moment for a long time. One of his hands slid from her waist to rest on the back of his neck, pulling her face to his as he leant down. Their lips met in a gentle kiss, a kiss that Noonian's whole body wanted with every ounce of his being. He knew it was wrong, he had not created her to love him, he had created her to prove he could, to make his dream become a reality but now she was here he never wanted to let her go. For Nai it did not matter why Noonian had created her as long as he was there, his lips against hers made her circuitry buzz in a way that had her legs almost giving way, had her clinging to him desperately. The stars shone overhead, the two moons lit the sky and bathed them in pale light, and in that moment Nai knew, somehow, that she would never feel like this for someone ever again. Noonian Soong and she would always be together.
"That first day I learnt so much, more than I ever have again…Noonian guided me over the next few months to make me more human like, to complete my training. We never spoke of our kiss beneath the stars until the day he died…for almost fifty seven years we were together, there was not a day that I did not see him and now…he is gone," Nai said turning to Guinan, "He lied to me…he promised me we'd always be together and now he is gone and he isn't coming back,"
"I know it is hard Nai, I've lost many people over the years…it is hard and it hurts but you are not alone, not here on the Enterprise. Data is here, I know he doesn't know you but I think he'd like too," She said gently, patting the Android's shoulder, "Just think about it…" Looking to Guinan Nai frowned. Perhaps, the Android thought, not all biological life forms were that bad. Perhaps there were others as accepting as Noonian Soong.
Okay so this is a little different from my usual things BUT I was raised Trekkie and my TNG Science Officer Uniform hoodie arrived from Think Geek today so thought I would celebrate by posting my new brain child. This will end up as a DataXNai story but that is a while away! Enjoy!
Emmie X