A/N - What's this? Another WPW entry so soon? Well! That's because Penny bonds with another robot from a fictional AU. And we all know how much I love best girl Penny. :)

The Last Remnant

Captain's Log, Stardate 45416.2

The Enterprise has arrived at the Pelennor System in the Black Cluster to begin a two week survey of the system's sole planet. Initial teams have encountered ruins of an ancient civilization, however the indigenous creatures have proven to be somewhat hostile. I have added security personnel to the away missions, which seems to have been sufficient for the time being.

Of particular interest is a crystalline substance, which seems to display a wide variety of effects (see report E4259, Cmdr LaForge). The society that once lived on Pelennor I appears to have been pre-warp, and the ultimate cause of their demise is uncertain.

One final note, Cmdr. LaForge has made an intriguing discovery, an android of some sort. He has requested permission to bring it aboard, along with samples of the crystalline material. I have chosen to grant his request, and await the results of his research. Despite the machine's great age, we may perhaps learn more of the peoples' fate.

At first, there was only darkness. Penny tried to look around, but found that in addition to being unable to see, she could not move. She could, however, hear.

"Geordi, the android's systems – to be – online, howev—not stable"

'Hello?' she tried to say. Who was this 'Geordi'? Where was Mr. Ironwood? Strange… Who was this Mr. Ironwood? She knew it was important, but she was having difficulty accessing her primary storage.

"Let's try br—ing the power—onlin—" she felt a tingling, and then her arm – she had an arm? Someone had found her and was trying to bring her back online! She still couldn't see, but she could feel her limb twitch in response. "Wait a second, there we go. How does it look now, Data?" She tried to speak again, but no words would come. She could feel her systems start to come back online, but it was very slow.

"The power system seems to be stabilizing. I will attempt to bring her primary logic system back online." There were a series of beeps and warbles, and her eyes opened. She found herself staring up at a beige-colored ceiling. She tried to sit up, but found that she still could not move, and when she tried to speak, her jaw moved, but no words came out. "Ah, it – she is awake."

A very pale man with dark, slicked back hair leaned into view. "Greetings," he said. She tried to reply with 'Salutations', but found that she still had no voice. "Ah, yes, one moment. I will attempt to repair your vocal circuits. Please try not to move."

He reached for something, and a higher pitched warble emitted from something he held while he held up another object that beeped and chittered. His pale yellow eyes were intent on whatever it was he was holding, while his other hand passed some kind of device over her throat. He would occasionally move slender fingers over the handheld device, which made corresponding beeps. Whatever he was doing made her eyes twitch and flutter, but she was otherwise able to do as he had asked.

After a minute and twenty seconds, he placed the stubby cylinder into the end of the little box and flipped the lower half up. "I believe I have corrected the instability. Can you talk now?"

"Salutations," she said with a smile, which faltered when she heard her voice. It didn't sound right, and she engaged a diagnostic. The subroutine found a set of partially corroded circuitry that was only partially functional, and it would need to be replaced. "Where am I?"

The man leaned in three inches closer and said, "You are on board the Federation Starship Enterprise. My name is Data." Another man came into her periphery, and she looked at him. He was dark-skinned, and wore a strange object over his eyes. Both men wore gold and black long-sleeved shirts.

"Hello," she said to the new man. "It's a pleasure to meet you. Are you Geordi?"

"That's right," he replied with a grin. "Can you tell us your name?"

She paused to search her memory and found very large gaps of fragmented data. After a moment of searching, she replied, "My name is Penny. I would shake your hand, but I'm not able to move."

He nodded at that with a wry twist of his lips. "Yeah, when we found you, you were heavily damaged and in pieces. For whatever reason, the alloy of your endoskeleton resisted our efforts to repair it." He looked up at the pale man.

"Since we were unsuccessful in our initial attempts to put you back together, entire pieces had to be replaced with a facsimile comprised of molybdenum-cobalt alloy."

"Goodness! That sounds complicated. I hope it wasn't too much trouble, Data." She tried to understand what he was saying. The part about her internal skeleton made sense, but she had no knowledge of the metal he described."

Geordi pressed a few buttons on the wall to her left and came back over. "It's no trouble, Penny. We had to stop, though, once we realized your power core was reaching critical levels." She couldn't quite see what he was doing, but she could feel a slight, brief vibration. The table she lay on angled upward. "I'm going to unlock the cervical vertebrae so you can look around, but we need to keep the rest of you immobilized for now."

There was a quiet clunk behind her head, and she was able to look around as the room rose into view. The walls were adorned with a variety of cheerfully colored displays, all sweeping lines and little blocks. One screen held a large representation of what must be her bones, which looked a little silly. Another series of images were displayed next to it, and they were different aspects of her: circuits, wiring, even the cabling that served as her muscles.

The window in the room, however, was the most startling sight. There were stars, and she could just see a wide band of blues and greens arcing across the bottom edge. There was a kind of glow to it, and it made her gasp. "What is that?" she asked excitedly. "It's beautiful!"

Data turned his head to follow her gaze for a moment before turning his attention back to her. "That is the planet on which we found you." Penny's eyes grew wide. "We're in a high, geosynchronous orbit above Pelennor One."

"Oh! We're in space? Your ship flies in space?" She wasn't sure why that surprised her, but it did. Then she looked down at herself. A wide band of metal laid across her chest and arms, which she deduced was what kept her from sliding down the table. "Oh my," she said in dismay. The reason they had strapped her down was because everything below her torso lay completely separate from the rest of her body.

"Ah, yes," Data said. "As Geordi stated we had to interrupt our reconstruction efforts in order to preserve what little remaining power you had." Several cables were laid over the edge of the table where they disappeared from sight. "I apologize for not having completed the work, but your power requirements were very precise; it took time to determine the correct frequency and voltage."

"And now that we've taken care of that, we can get back to-" Geordi began, but was interrupted by a disembodied voice.

"Riker to LaForge."

He reached up and tapped a pointed badge on his chest. "LaForge here."

"Geordi, we're having some problems with the sensor array at the remote observation post that could use your expertise."

Geordi nodded and said, "On my way, sir." He reached across the table and handed a pad of some kind to his companion. "I shouldn't be gone long, Data. If you need a hand, I can have Sorensen join you?"

Data shook his head as he accepted the device. "I believe I can manage while you are gone, Geordi. Thank you." He turned to go.

"It was nice to meet you, Geordi LaForge," Penny said with a smile. "Thank you for helping put me back together."

He grinned back at her and patted her on the shoulder. "It was nice to meet you too, Penny. You're in good hands with Data. In fact, I'll bet he'll have you sorted out before I even get back." He gave her a final nod and disappeared behind her. She heard a hiss, followed by another two seconds later, and then he was gone.

Data had pulled her legs and hips closer to the rest of her body and began reconnecting wiring. His movements were fast and precise – too much so, it seemed to her. "Are you an artificial person, too?" she asked.

Data looked at her with his brows furrowed as he considered the question, and then they went up. "Hm! I have never thought of it like that, but that is an apt description." He face held a thoughtful look for a moment, and then he bent back to his work. "The proper term is android."

"Android," she said slowly, savoring the foreign word. "Hmmm. It's shorter, but I like artificial person better for some reason."

Her fellow android tilted his head this way, and then the other way. "I suppose it does hold an essence of poetry." He worked for several minutes in silence, and he referred to the small device that he had flipped open and laid on her left thigh. "I believe I have completed reconnecting the servos for this leg." He tapped a few buttons and suddenly the sensors began reporting information to her. Unfortunately, the flood of data also caused it to twitch and kick rather violently.

Data clamped a firm hand down on her knee to keep it from striking him, and then applied a slow effort to push it back onto the table. While he restrained her leg, he tapped more keys without looking, and the offending appendage flopped back onto the table with a hollow thud. While he had done that, Penny had reviewed the sensor log.

"You appear to have crosslinked the twenty third and twenty-second nodes by mistake. If you show me the schematic, I can point them out for you." These people were being kind enough to put her back together – the least she could do was help them with it. He produced an electronic pad and called up the appropriate diagram and pointed to each node until she could identify the problem area.

They talked while he continued Penny's repairs – or rather she asked questions, and Data patiently answered them all. She learned about the United Federation of Planets, and that her world was just one of countless thousands in the galaxy – a word she had no concept of until Data had explained it to her. The idea of alien races didn't bother her at all.

After all, Remnant had the Faunus, and…

Her train of thought came to a screeching halt. Her senses were flooded with information, to the point that it overwhelmed her vision. When she recovered, she found herself leaning against the window. The planet below was blue and green, but there were many large patches of ugly black and red. She couldn't remember why, but she had a sinking feeling that it couldn't be a good thing.

Data came to stand beside her. "Penny, is something wrong?"

She shook her head back and forth, as if it might shake loose her missing memories. "I don't know. I can't seem to remember anything after leaving Atlas Academy with Mister Ironwood. Even that is spotty at best. It's as if there are huge pieces missing."

'Yes, your storage scheme is a mix of solid state and volatile memory in a multi-tiered structure. Some were damaged, while others have degraded. Your core system," he indicated by holding a hand up to her head, "was surprisingly stable, especially given how long it was exposed to the elements. Perhaps you should come back to the table."

Penny stared at the planet below forlornly. "How long? Was there anything there with m-?" She turned away from the window and faced Data. His shirt was torn, and there was a deep gash that exposed blinking lights. "Oh, no! You are damaged!"

After everything he had done for her, too! She looked over at the table she'd left behind. The band that had held her up in place was broken and bent at a wicked angle. Sparks shot out of the side of the table, which trailed ripped cabling that led to her, and ended somewhere inside the cavity above her hip. "I'm so sorry, Data. You must be terribly upset with me…"

Data looked down at the injury and inspected it as best he could. Her bottom lip quivered when he looked back up at her, face impassive. "I am incapable of anger, Penny, or any emotion for that matter. The damage is minimal – easily repaired."

Penny clasped her hands over her chest. "Are you sure? I feel terrible…"

Data looked surprised at her statement. "You are able to feel emotions?" She nodded. "Intriguing." He studied her, but was interrupted by that same hissing sound. A man and a woman entered the room swiftly, holding small, oblong objects in their hands.

"Sir, is everything alright in here?" the woman asked cautiously.

Data waved a hand, and they lowered their weapons. "Everything is fine, crewman. There was a minor mishap, but the moment has passed. You may return to your stations."

The woman took in the state of the room, noting the jagged edge of the armature with narrowed eyes. "Aye, sir." The pair reversed direction and left.

"Perhaps it would be wise to return to the workstation, Penny. Your power cells are not fully recharged yet. It would be unfortunate if you were to remain disconnected for the time being." She made a small noise of assent and reached down to take up the loose cable as she walked back to the table with him. He removed the pieces of the broken arm from the table and set them aside.

Data spent a few minutes replacing the torn cables with new ones, and he got her plugged in to the ship's power system again. He resumed work, and for a while Penny was reluctant to ask more questions. He reached a stopping point thirty eight minutes later. "I must attend my duty station soon. Please remain here and allow your power cells to fully recharge. If you need anything, the security officers will be right outside the door."

He turned to go, and Penny stretched a hand out to grab his shoulder. "Data, wait." He stopped and faced her again. "How long was I… down there like that? Do you know?"

He took a breath, and then tilted his head. "Are you certain you wish to know, Penny? You may not like the answer."

"I… I think I need to know. How long?"

Data inclined his head. "The decay rate on your power system was constant. Assuming a full charge when you went offline, it has been five hundred forty seven years, four months, two days." Her jaw opened in shock, but she nodded jerkily and let go of him. "I shall return soon," he said. He took a few steps, and then came back, though she hardly noticed. He opened a blue cylinder that was laid on its side and took out a small, shiny object. He returned to the table and held it out to her. "You were found only with this."

She took the bit of metal from him and stared at it. "Thank you, Data," she murmured. If she had barely noticed his brief return, she completely missed his exit. The object was flat and silver, engraved in the image of a flowering rose. She stared at it for a very long time, and the longer she looked, the sadder she became, but she didn't know why.