Available
Lieutenant Commander Elizabeth Shelby walked back to her quarters after her meeting with Chief Engineer LaForge. Although she had met most of the Enterprise's senior staff at the poker game earlier that evening, she had met separately with LaForge afterwards to discuss the landing party set for sunrise the next morning and now felt certain they'd be able to work well together.
The door to Liz's quarters closed behind her and she threw herself onto the nearest sofa, willing herself to relax now that she was alone. She knew she was walking a tightrope, would be the whole time she was aboard the Enterprise. She knew she'd managed to unsettle, if not outright threaten just about every officer she'd come in contact with. But even then, things wouldn't have been so tense had certain people not felt so insecure about her doing her job, as if her mere presence was a criticism.
Screw it, she thought as she gazed out the viewport. That was Riker's problem and she wasn't about to change for one fainthearted man. After all, she and LaForge had gotten along well. They were going to be working together, not at odds with each other. And Data had been downright neutral about her. Why was it LaForge and Data could treat her like a colleague when—
Liz swore under her breath, suddenly remembering she had meant to meet with Data too. She sat upright and tapped her combadge. She was usually better organized than this; but usually her attention wasn't taken up by having to coddle male ego.
"Shelby to Data," she said.
"Data here," came the prompt reply.
She rubbed her eyes, suddenly tired, as she asked, "Commander, are you available? I'd like to meet with you about tomorrow's landing party and your first-hand experience with the Borg."
"I am available, and am on my way. Data out."
She went to the wall replicator and ordered coffee, then quickly took a sip to forestall a yawn as she walked to the desk console. She seated herself and punched up Data's dossier, refreshing her memory. His research specialties were exobiology and quantum mechanics. Second in command, chief science officer, chief operations officer...assistant chief engineer and tactical officer in all but name...field command experience...considerable landing party duty...decorated for—
The door buzzed. "Enter," she called, and took a long sip from her mug.
"Commander Shelby," the android greeted.
"Please, sit down." She gestured to one of the chairs across from her, so relieved at his calm, no-nonsense manner she wanted to smile. She started to feel relaxed for the first time since she'd set foot on board the Enterprise.
They discussed Liz's theory regarding the distinctive magnetic resonance traces left by the Borg's first contact with the Enterprise, worked on refining and augmenting the readings of the traces and various ways to detect them, then went over the theories and possibilities for controlling or defeating the Borg she had discussed just that evening with LaForge. With the chief engineer, the discussion had been a wild brainstorming session with both of them throwing schematics and diagrams at each other and giving the 3-D drafting table a run for its money. In contrast, Data's measured, reasoned voice as he addressed the biological and psychological sides of the issue centered her, made her confident that there was indeed a solution. They moved to one end of the desk console so they could both view and work on the computer screen.
"The amount and depth of the research you've done on the Borg issue is amazing," Liz told the android next to her.
"I will admit to a personal interest in the Borg," Data said. "I thought that perhaps a knowledge of the Borg, who are part humanoid and part mechanical, might have its usefulness for a fully mechanical being. So far, however, my research has been inconclusive."
She turned in her chair and regarded him frankly. "You know, Commander, your service record and accomplishments are impressive, to say the very least, and I knew you could do good work. But I've never worked with an android before and I was a little apprehensive because I wasn't sure how well we'd work together as a team."
"Have you arrived at any conclusions?" he asked, clearly curious.
"Yes." And this time she did smile at him. "You make me feel comfortable."
His eyebrows went up briefly as he considered her statement, and then he said, "That is not the usual initial response to being in my presence."
"Well, when I anticipated meeting you for the first time, I felt—" She paused to remember. "—anxious, maybe a little suspicious or threatened...I don't really know what I expected from you. But you've put me at my ease in a way no one else on the Enterprise has. I don't feel any competition from you, any insecurity."
"There is no reason to behave otherwise with you, Commander."
"You'd be surprised at the reasons people have for treating each other the way they do," she said dryly.
"That is one area of human interaction I have difficulty deciphering."
"Humans have difficulty with it, too, believe me." She took another sip of her coffee and made a face at its tepidness. "I'll be right back."
She arose to go to the replicator, and then noticed him staring at her intently. "What is it, Commander?" she asked.
"Your expression was most intriguing. What did it signify?"
She looked at him, surprised, and then couldn't help a grin. "The coffee's cold." She held out the mug to him. "Have some."
He took a sip, handed the mug back and then imitated her grimace.
"That was a good try," she said, but amusement won out over encouragement and she giggled. He made another face and looked to her for approval and she started to laugh. He tried again and she laughed even harder.
"Could you tell me what I am doing incorrectly?" he asked, and his gentle tone brought her back to herself.
"I'm sorry, Commander," she said, sitting back down weakly. "I must be more tired than I thought. I shouldn't have laughed at you. Try screwing up your mouth more, or maybe wrinkling your nose," she suggested, leaning over and touching his face to help him. "I didn't notice that before," she said suddenly.
"What did you not notice?" he asked.
"Your skin. It looks matte until you get up really close, and then it's not—your skin is metallic, isn't it? Shiny and kind of glittery."
"Yes, it is," he said, his eyes calm as he looked at her.
"I'm sorry," she breathed, suddenly sober. She sat back in her chair and folded her hands in her lap, feeling an embarrassed blush rise on her cheeks. "I shouldn't have touched you, Commander."
"I did not mind," he told her. "You were only attempting to help me."
She stared at him, taking in as if seeing them for the first time his almost colorless eyes, his pale eyebrows and lashes, his long straight nose and thin lips, and his incredible skin. Her fingers were warm where they had touched his face and she felt as if she were tingling. I'm too tired to be thinking straight, she thought even as her body started to respond to his proximity.
He is a male android, isn't he? she thought idly.
He's not some sex robot you can just use like that, she countered, trying to fight a sudden physical attraction to him more intense than any she'd felt in a long time.
But I think he's charming.
He's not your type, she told herself sternly.
That's probably the best thing about him, she reasoned, and she had to admit that she had a point.
So what are you going to do about it?
It can't hurt to ask him.
Can somebody in there shut up?
"Uh," she started, not wanting him to leave but not sure what to say, "do you...would you like some coffee?"
"Cold or hot?"
Startled out of her preoccupation by his question, she looked at him, then broke into a grin. "Which would you like, Commander?" she asked, going to the replicator. When she didn't get an answer, she turned to ask Data his preference again, and found that he had followed her and was standing behind her.
"What do you suggest?" he asked.
Feeling suddenly bold, she answered, "That you call me Liz," staring directly into his eyes and hoping he knew what that signaled.
"Liz," he repeated, and his voice, suddenly smooth and mellow as fine whiskey, caressed her name. She swallowed involuntarily and he went on in the same low voice, "Please call me Data."
"I...find you very attractive, Data."
"Why is that?"
She blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Because we're not fighting each other." He appeared to consider her statement, and she elaborated, realizing how true it was. "Because you treat me as your equal."
"That is attractive?"
"Very."
"I shall have to remember that."
She grinned, musing briefly how that would play out as a pick-up line in a bar. "Do you have any objection to kissing me, Data?"
He gave her a small smile. "No, I do not." And he bent his head to hers.
She lifted her mouth and accepted with surprise a soft, lingering kiss that made her close her eyes with emotion.
How dare he—? was her first thought, angry with him for evoking so strong a response in her.
And then her next thought hit her with full force. How can he—?
She broke away, confused. "I don't understand. How can you be so—" She searched for a word. Tender? Too emotional — and, she had trouble admitting, not just for an android. "—gentle?" she finally asked.
"It is one of multiple sexual pleasuring subroutines with which I am programmed, and is the one I utilized with my last partner," he explained reasonably. Then his gaze became concerned when her expression didn't change. "Have I hurt you?" he asked.
Yes, she wanted to tell him, but how could she? Tell an android that she'd thought all she wanted was mutual, and solely, sexual satisfaction, but a mere subroutine had affected her so badly that years of emotional distance had been shattered? That a single kiss had made her suddenly realize how long it had been since she'd felt anything that intimate — had made her feel like her heart would break? "No," she said aloud in a small voice.
"Do you wish to select another subroutine?"
Even as she considered doing so, she realized she was beginning to tremble and with instinctive trust she moved closer to him. What only partially felt like good sense — he was an android, and even if her own emotions were aroused, his couldn't be — warred with long loneliness and the knowledge that he didn't want to hurt her. She brought his face down to hers and whispered before she brushed her lips against his, "I want this."
His arms went around her as they kissed. She swayed slightly against him, moving even closer. Taking his cue, he swayed with her, and then they were dancing slow, in time to his steady heartbeat, holding each other close, their mouths and then their hands exploring tentatively, touching, caressing.
And after their hesitancy turned gradually into passion and, finally, sweet release, Liz realized that she'd never felt as safe, as cherished, as Data made her feel.
She nestled against the android, her eyes closed and her cheek pressed against the pale hair of his chest. She felt him smoothing her hair back from her face in a soothing motion and she exhaled in contentment, snuggling closer to him and throwing one arm around his torso in embrace.
After a while she felt him kiss the top of her head and the warm affection of the gesture made her look up at him, smiling. "What are you thinking about, Data?" she asked, but her smile faded as she saw his expression change. It was almost as if he'd expected to see someone else's face looking back at him.
Data gently traced one last lock of hair, a damp blonde curl clinging to her forehead, with a finger before he smoothed it back deliberately, but he didn't answer. Instead, he asked, "Do you wish to be alone now? I would not be offended if you asked me to leave."
"What?" She looked at him, incredulous, and didn't even realize that he had avoided an answer to a direct question. "Why would I want you to leave?"
"Some partners have experienced difficulties with the aftermath of utilizing my sexual function."
She frowned hard at him, trying to parse his sentence, but then realized there was more to his simple declaration when she looked into his eyes.
Had she thought them flat and unrevealing? They were still a pale yellow, but she knew what sadness looked like no matter how deeply hidden. She saw it often enough in her own eyes.
She propped herself up on one elbow so she could touch his cheek. "This wasn't about 'utilizing' your 'sexual function,' Data. This was about two people making love."
"You would call it that, even though I cannot feel love?"
She traced the curve of his cheekbone, wanting to replace his carefully impassive expression with trust in her. "Yes," she said in a fierce whisper. "I wasn't using you, Data. We pleasured and pleased each other. And I have no regrets about what's happening."
"I have found, however, that for humans, that which seems reasonable at night does not always appear so during the day."
Who hurt you, Data? she longed to ask, but she knew it was none of her business. Whatever had happened in his past, he wasn't as available as his android nature suggested, and she didn't need him prying into her own past in any case. Instead she bent and kissed him. "I don't shy away from the consequences of my actions, Data," she told him softly. "I'm not in love with you, and I know you're not in love with me. But we've been kind and caring to each other and that means more to me than anything."
"I have tried to be kind," he admitted with what sounded to her like hope and she smiled.
"I know. Nothing like this has ever happened to me, Data."
He took her face in his hands. "What do you mean by that statement?" he asked.
She leaned against him and covered his hands with hers, wanting to give him something so honest he couldn't mistake how she felt. "I mean that I've spent my whole life arguing with and caring about and challenging every kind of humanoid being. I've spent the past six months thinking about nothing but the Borg. And the person who breaks through every single one of my defenses isn't human, isn't even half-human, but an android." At the slight widening of his eyes in surprise, she released one of his hands and stroked his dark hair fondly. "Data, you're the only lover who's ever made me feel secure. Adored. With the others, I felt — lonely afterwards."
Liz knew she'd never been able to hold her tongue when it was more prudent to do so, and sometimes didn't even realize what she was going to say before she said it. But when she realized she'd managed to reveal that much truth to an android, she held her breath and waited for Data's next words to prove conclusively that he was an android, that she had projected on him out of her own need—
"Do you wish me to stay?"
She couldn't keep the delight out of her eyes at his carefully framed question. "Yes, Data. Do you want to stay?"
His smile was timid but genuine. "Yes."
"Then for heaven's sake, don't go!" she said, glad to feel exasperated with him, glad to feel his pleasure at being with her.
A light touch on her arm awoke her. "A storm front formerly held back by a high pressure system is moving south-southeast and will reach the Jouret 4 crater by 0700," Data informed her.
"That doesn't give us much time," she muttered, throwing the bedclothes aside and heading for the shower. "We've got to get down there before it hits or the soil samples might be compromised. Grab the padds on the table and download the information into one science and one engineering tricorder. And get anything we worked on last night at my console downloaded, too."
"I have already done so," he said.
She suddenly registered that he was already dressed and had the tricorders in hand.
"Then order up a fresh uniform for me and a mug of coffee, double strong," she ordered, deadpan, before she disappeared into the shower.
Three minutes of sonics woke her up but didn't do much for her hair and she was still struggling to get it to behave as she charged back into the bedroom area. To her surprise, a fresh uniform was laid out on her newly-made bed, and a mug of steaming coffee sat on her nightstand.
"Why, you wonderful android!" she said, delighted. "I was joking!"
"It is difficult for me to ascertain when a statement is made in jest," the android confessed. "I am sorry if I offended you."
"No offense taken," she told him, then let her eyes smile at him over the rim of the mug as she took a deep sip. "It's not sunrise yet at the crater; do we have any palmlights or infrared equipment we can take with us?"
He indicated an equipment pouch slung over one shoulder. "I requisitioned both."
"Good." She changed into her uniform and hastily tucked her hair up.
"That hairstyle will not hold," Data noted.
"Well, damn it — where are the scissors?" she demanded half-seriously, starting to yank her hair back down. "How would I look with short hair?"
"It will not be necessary to find out," he said mildly and, moving up behind her, deftly unwound and repinned her hair.
She turned. "Thanks, Data." She reached up and kissed him with a tenderness that surprised even her. "For everything," she said before she moved away again.
His look held more meaning than she knew how to read as he answered her, "Thank you, Liz."
"Ready to go?"
"Yes. But should we also contact Commander Riker and Commander LaForge?"
She shook her head, already walking out of her quarters. "Riker's just heading the landing party, he has no special expertise to decipher the Borg magnetic resonance traces, and I've got all of LaForge's notes. We need to get down there now."
Although the information they sought could mean the return of the Borg to their sector, Liz felt almost lighthearted as she and Data worked together, the both of them careful and thorough, neither getting in the other's way, both helping the other. She felt so cheerful even Commander Riker's forbidding expression when he and LaForge finally beamed down couldn't keep her from greeting him with an old adage about a precipitate egg-laying vertebrate.
He called her aside and gave her a full dose of righteous indignation at her leaving the Enterprise before him, which usually would have annoyed her but in her present mood she answered calmly, almost pleasantly, "Data was available. I took him. We came." And then she had to smile inwardly at what she'd just said. In more senses than you'll ever know, she thought as she looked at the irate first officer.
"...only one suggestion, Data," Liz said as she and the android walked to the transporter room and she checked over the proposed modifications he and Chief O'Brien would make to the transporters in light of what they'd learned from Captain Picard's time as Locutus of Borg. "If you were able to modulate this setting to go as high as possible, that would effectively mask most of the energy signature associated with transporter use during warp." She handed Data's padd back to him.
He checked her computations and nodded. "Thank you, Liz. We will implement your suggestion. What are your plans when you arrive at Starfleet Headquarters?"
"Get my staff on the first ship to Wolf 359 and start rescue and salvage operations. After that, it'll be the Federation shipyards, planets that'll be willing to trade technology for other considerations, and several non-aligned systems that could be coaxed into the Federation with a good price for their ships. If I could convince the Corellian worlds to join the Federation, Starfleet could…"
"You have only held your new commission for a few hours, yet you already have a plan in place."
"Of course." She grinned, unrepentant. "I'm ambitious, remember? I'm going to get my command, Data." She considered the android, thoughtful. "You know, I can try to send a command your way, too."
He shook his head. "If Starfleet ordered me to take a new posting, I would do so, but my preference would be to remain aboard the Enterprise. I have no ambitions with respect to command, Liz."
"What are an android's ambitions?" she asked, curious.
"If I can be said to have any at all, I believe they concern understanding what it means to be Human."
"And staying aboard the Enterprise facilitates that?"
"To the extent that I have been able to interact with the same group of people for a number of years — yes. But my interaction with you over the past few days has been most illuminating as well."
As it was for me, Data... "We made a good team, didn't we?" she said as they entered the transporter room, deflecting the more emotional aspects of her time with the android.
"Yes, we worked well together."
She continued on a totally different topic, "I suspect you'll be getting offered a lot of new commissions. But don't turn them all down out of hand. Maybe a science vessel or something...there might be one just right for you. I'll try to keep my eye out. In the meantime—" Now she dropped her businesslike demeanor and asked, a little embarrassed to but doing so from her heart, "Don't forget me, Data."
"I cannot forget you," he assured her.
She nodded, chastising herself for once again speaking without thinking, for not even remembering the simple fact that memory for an android was a different matter than it was for humans and there was no need to get melodramatic when saying goodbyes. "Of course — your positronics."
"But I would not have it any other way," he said, his voice suddenly gentle. "You have become...special to me."
She smiled, amused at his quaint phrasing but incredibly pleased all the same. "You're very special to me, too, Data." Not particularly caring whether Chief O'Brien saw or not, Liz guided the android's face to hers and kissed him. Data responded with all the sweet gentleness of their first kiss.
"Mm." She traced his lower lip with a finger. "You certainly have a knack for taking my breath away."
"Excellent programming," he offered with a small smile.
She grinned at him. "Maybe you should get out more often, spread that programming around."
After Liz had beamed down to HQ and Data and O'Brien had started to work on the transporters, the android turned to the engineer and asked, "Chief, what is your opinion concerning Commander Shelby's suggestion?"
O'Brien's eyebrows rose in surprise, but he said readily, his eyes on his work, "For you, Commander? None." He shrugged, fine tuning a circuit. "For me — I wish I had someone to spread it around to."
Data nodded, immediately regarding the chief's remark as a problem to solve, and turned back to the readings on the panel. "Thank you, Chief."
Not aware that his half-joking remark had just changed the course of his fate, O'Brien smiled and got another tool out of his kit. "No problem, Commander."
FIN