First Encounter

Musik: ,,Up in the Air" – Thirty Seconds to Mars

Lieutenant Tasha Yar perused the functionality of the weapon systems, as the door to bridge opened with a sizzeling. A man – or rather boy? – with strangely metallic, silvery white skin stepped out of the lift, paced with slightly waddling and very constant footsteps by her and looked at her shortly. His expression didn't change a bit. There was no emphasized indifferent yet still appraising look. And also no blatant, greedy stare like she wouldn't be much more than a pretty object to fetch, like back then at the damn colony. He didn't look at her like if he already would think about how much she would fight back, how he would bend her will the best. She was so many years away… away from… from emthere/em… and still she expected every time to be gaped at again. Every time, if someone unknown came up to her, she instinctively estimated how good her chances in a fight would be. With what tactic she could defeat best. At her first time at Starfleet she still tried to get rid of it. Then she realized that it was part of her and ignored it. Like everything from her past. Never think about it. Never remember.

But this young, silvery golden skinned officer didn't provoke a inner fighting alert. She found it almost irritating how utterly every warning signals, that should have come of him, that must have come of him, missed. He seemed so entirely harmless. Maybe because he was actually just high advantaged technology, like the console before her, the warp core or her office terminal, and could threat her just as little as them?

The guy paced into the front part of bridge, pushed the console for the ships sensors before him and sat down. The movement was efficient and reduced to the basics. The Starfleet uniform snuggled tight against his slender, wiry body. His long fingers flitted over the touchscreen, as he made himself familiar with the systems. He sat completely upright there. Tasha looked at his silvery white neck and the to a austere hairdo back-combed dark brown hair, a strong contrast to his pale skin. Involuntarily she wondered how it would feel like to touch this silvery white neck, to carefully trace the tendons of his neck…

She shook her head and dedicated herself to the tactical console. As she looked forward again, the guy still sat as upright like earlier, although it must have become already very exhausting.

The first android at Starfleet. She wasn't sure what she had expected. But nevertheless he seemed more human and more alien as she imagined at the same time.

,,Except for the skin color he looks entirely humanoid. And yet he seems so strange that I not even could say if I found him ugly or not.", she thought.

,,Set course for Iota 6.", the captain commanded, ,,Lieutenant Commander, how long do we need to this solar system?"

,,What, that guy is Lieutenant Commander? He looks like twenty, seems like maybe seventeen and already has such a high rank?! He's far to young for that!"

,,With Warp 4 we need one day, four hours, thirty-four minutes and forty-two point seventy-eight seconds, with Warp 5 nineteen hours, fifty-eight minutes and twenty-one point seventeen seconds, with Warp 6…"

,,Yeah, that's enough.", Riker interrupted him.

The guy turned around, slanted his head and asked: ,,Did I do something wrong?"

He didn't sound like a Ensign fresh from academia, who expected to be pushed out of the airlock at the smallest critic and sounded submissive and whiny. His voice was high and strangely emotionless, and yet somehow desperate, as if he would be ashamed of not realizing how meticulous his time designation was.

He was different, and it seemed to her like if he tried everything to be not. But he failed.

He looked at Tasha with unsecure, slightly helpless glance that remembered her on a rabbit. His eyes were big, almond-shaped and topas yellow, his face lathy with high cheekbones and narrow jaw. His fairly big, pointed nose promoted the impression of rabbit-likeness only more.

He seemed so innocent… so pure… He would never harm her, never harm anybody. And nevertheless this being wanted to be normal, human. She didn't understand. Cause she knew what humans were capable to do.

Wasn't he a stranger, just like her? Didn't he understand social behavior even lesser than her? Were they not both different, the young android and the woman from the civil war colony? But being different hurts.

A/N: Created for the task ,,Character enters the room" of writing school. This was the first fanfiction I ever wrote, and I really had to overcome to do so at first. Oh damn, I just realized how bad my English really is as I tried to translate this story. I hope it isn't as bad as it seemed to me. If there are grammar or word mistakes – I bet there are plenty - , just tell me, I will correct them.

Tasha was one of the most intriguing characters of TNG and I was so angry and sad that she had to die so early, she had potential and she was so badass and strong but nevertheless vulnerable trough her trauma. Her past was utterly disturbing, but also the most interesting of the crews beside Datas. And I also found her ,,relationship" with Data fascinating. Usually love storys bore me, but a traumatized warrior and a young android who can't feel love because he isn't programmed for it, that's a very fascinating starting situation.