This story eliminates the "Needs of the Many" on Star Trek Online
It was only a few days away from Christmas in 2383 when Geordi LaForge, chief engineer of the USS Enterprise, was sitting at his desk in his quarters with a PADD working on an unusual starship design he was proposing to the Vulcan Science Academy that he nicknamed the Jellyfish. It was more of a hobby than anything else, but he had been contemplating about his future onboard the Enterprise for quite some time now after serving chief engineer for this ship and its immediate predecessor for 18 years.
He looked out the viewport in his quarters and remembered the one thing he didn't like about them, they were aimed away from Earth as the Enterprise was in orbit for some minor repairs and personnel transfer. He kept looking out seeing where his future lies when the computer announced that it was 1100 hours. It was a good thing that he asked the computer to remind him because he had developed a bad habit of losing track of time whenever he was working on the Jellyfish. But he took another moment worrying about something else.
He got a call from Captain Bruce Maddox from the Daystrom Institute in San Francisco urgently saying that he needed to see Geordi. Although Bruce did stop B-4, the android prototype to Data, from being disassembled by the Daystrom Institute for study, he couldn't help but remember that Maddox tried the same thing 18 years prior to Data, where Data went to court just to be recognized as having the same rights as anyone else. This also made Geordi remember in horror of the fateful day that Data sacrificed himself 4 years ago when he destroyed the Reman warbird Scimitar to save the Enterprise and her crew, yet costing him his life in the process.
The computer reminded again a minute later when unknown thoughts ran through his head which involved B-4. But he couldn't worry about them now as he left his quarters heading down towards to transporter room 2, which each step made him slightly more and more uneasy.
Geordi beamed down to the Daystrom Institute's own transporter pad which he looked out of the transparent aluminum structure and saw San Fransisco bay from Angel Island, as well as Alcatraz Island. He went to the receptionist and asked for Bruce Maddox, but before he could page Bruce, Geordi saw him coming up the escalator that lead down to the Institute itself which was both down the hill and under the bay itself.
"Commander LaForge," said Maddox as he extended his hand which Geordi received, but tried to hide his uneasiness. Not because this was the man who nearly won the case that Data was sentient, but rather does this have anything to do with B-4 and the last surviving bits of Data?
"Hey, what's this all about?" said Geordi being very direct. He looked at Maddox through his ocular implants and noticed that Bruce was concerned about something, as though he saw a ghost. "You wouldn't call me like this unless it was an emergency."
"Well..." Maddox got stumped, as if he didn't know how to put it. "I think we better go down to my lab, shall we?" They reached the escalator leading down to the laboratories of the Daystrom Institute and Maddox took a brief moment to notice the expression in Geordi's face, "Oh, don't worry. B-4's alright, just...
Yesterday, he began wondering about his history. Who found him on Omicron Theta and when? He was also wondering if it was before you discovered Lore, or even if it was before Data was discovered by the crew of the Tripoli."
"Yeah, I was wondering that myself," said Geordi. He looked out the transparent aluminum windows as they dropped below sea level, seeing the kelp farms that are used to feed the Earth's populace via replicators. He didn't like going under the water like this because of how the pressure affected his ears. Especially since despite him using his ocular implants, he still has this bad habit of using his natural senses.
"Well, I asked a colleague of mine to help me, Dr. Blake Sumner," said Maddox. "He's with the Department of Archaeological Engineering, deciphering technologies of ancient and long dead species, like the Slavers. The 3 of us got together this morning to begin, and Blake began by quantum dating B-4. It's standard operating procedure according to him."
"We did the same thing," said Geordi. "Lt. Emojung did the scan since it was her expertise, and she found that B-4 was built around the same time as Data."
Maddox and Geordi reached the 4th floor down on the escalator which they got off and turned the corner on their right into the labs. "Geordi," said Maddox, once again struggling to find the right words making Geordi more and more curious, yet uneasy, as to what's going on. "When Lieutenant..."
"Emojung."
"Emojung. When she scanned B-4, did she scan his head?"
"No, she didn't. I think she scanned one of his arms. What's going on?" Geordi asked very insistently.
It took Maddox a moment to regain some composure. Geordi could tell that there was something wrong, something that is leaving Maddox uncertain about anything. "When Blake scanned B-4, he found... an anomaly in his scan."
"Wait, what kind of anomaly?" Geordi asked when they both reached Maddox's lab. When they entered, Geordi saw B-4 sitting in a diagnostic chair fully active. Right beside B-4 was a somewhat shorter man, about an inch or 2 shorter than Geordi, noticeably big boned with dark unkempt hair and a beard to match, wearing a standard white lab coat. He reminded Geordi of a 21st century actor by the name of Jack Black from a movie he was coerced into watching... the title escapes him, but it was about a substitute teacher teaching kids how to be rock stars rather than furthering their education. It didn't really appeal to Geordi because of his support of literacy in children.
"Hello, Geordi," said B-4.
"Hi, how are you?" Geordi replied.
"Physically I am functioning within normal parameters," said B-4. Geordi thought it was strange that B-4 included the word "physically."
"Bruce," said the man aiming towards Maddox, then turned towards Geordi and extended his hand. "Oh, hi. Dr. Blake Sumner." He turned back to Maddox and said, "Test results are in. They matched perfectly."
"Oh, my god," said Maddox quietly, looking at B-4 as if he were a ghost. "Are you sure?"
"Ran the scan 3 times," said Sumner.
"Wait a minute," said Geordi, demanding that he gets involved no matter what. "What tests matched? What are you talking about 'anomaly'? What does this have to do with B-4's head?"
"The anomaly," said Maddox, "Blake found that B-4's head was nearly 500 years older than his body."
"476 to be exact," said Sumner.
"Wait a minute, how's that..." Geordi stopped realizing why it looked like they all had seen a ghost as he looked towards B-4, then looked back at both Maddox and Sumner. "You're not saying..."
"Did the scan myself," said Blake. "B-4 and Bruce told me about the time Data went back to the 19th century, his body returned to the 24th, but his head stayed behind and remained there for 500 years."
"476," B-4 corrected. Geordi turned back to B-4, completely speechless and in total disbelief. He wanted to ask B-4 many questions, but he didn't know what questions to ask. Made it worse for him that he wanted, no, needed to ask B-4, not Dr's Maddox or Sumner. But he couldn't.
"We also did a comparison between B-4, Lore and Data's records," Sumner when he noticed that Maddox was in the same state of disbelief and Geordi, to the point of being nearly paralyzed, "looking for differences in the 3 of them." He then handed Geordi the PADD he had with him. "Lore has a type L phase discriminating amplifier; both B-4 and Data have a type R.
We took some measurements. Lore's legs are 87.205 centimetres in length; B-4's are 87.201 centimetres. We looked into Data's records, 87.201.
I also looked at the power signatures of their solar induction power cells. B-4 and Data's matches perfectly. There's also..."
Dr. Sumner stopped when he saw Geordi looking over the test results. Though the evidence was right there in his hand, he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"According to these test results," Geordi said turning to B-4, and B-4 continued by saying, "That it appears that I am Data."