Chapter 1: Lights Out
Data walked down the corridor at a steady pace, making his way to the turbolift. He nodded to those who passed by, greeting them silently. He noticed Ensign Avalie Moore smile at him, and he smiled back, thinking her an attractive young woman. Of course, his thoughts were only the product of impartial observation, not emotional appeal. His android programming rendered him completely incapable of any emotions, be them anger, irritation, joy, or love. But, he had noticed Commander Riker show sexual interest in women who had the same basic features as Avalie Moore, so he thought she might have the same appeal as those women.
As Data walked on, his arms swayed gently with his movement; his face remained impassive as he walked into the turbolift. "Deck 12," he told the computer, and the turbolift started to move. He stood in the 'lift, arms still at his sides, eyes unmoving. His slight human behaviors seemed to have been turned off while he waited alone in the turbolift, his android indifference taking over.
The doors to the turbolift swished open, and Data walked into the corridor. He turned a corner and came upon sickbay, which he entered.
Inside the medical complex, he looked around, trying to find Doctor Katherine Pulaski. Despite the doctor's coldness and her obvious dislike of his artificiality, he felt no such human emotion such as hesitation at speaking with her again. He simply knew that if her behaviors stayed consistent, she would most likely display irritation and rudeness at his coming to speak with her.
"Oh, Data, what do you want?" The familiar voice—and familiar sentiments—penetrated his field of hearing. He turned toward the older woman, who was sitting in her office behind a well-designed transparent wall that separated her from the rest of sickbay, but also allowed her to keep an eye on her patients.
It also permitted a wall of separation between them, which an annoyed Pulaski was enjoying at the moment.
Of course, the android gave himself permission to enter.
"Dr. Pulaski, have you finished with your report?" Data asked, choosing to ignore the fact that Pulaski had pronounced his name incorrectly again—as DAT-ah, instead of his preferred DAY-ta.
She didn't look up from the display in front of her. "No; if I had, I would have told you."
Data cocked his head to the side slightly. "I have reason to believe if I were Captain Picard, you would be displaying different behaviors toward me."
Pulaski looked up at this remark. "You're completely right—I don't like being ordered around by a machine."
"I have not ordered you around," Data replied, confused. Her behaviors toward him were so significantly different than any other response he had ever gotten from others that he found the doctor very confusing. Data was usually met first with interest, then maybe slight anxiety at his differences, then—as the person got to meet him—friendliness or simple impassivity. Data preferred any of these responses to Pulaski's intriguing and slightly frustrating—if one could call it that—coldness.
Pulaski sighed and looked back down at her screen. "I'm almost finished."
Data stood completely still for a moment, waiting with inhuman patience for her to finish.
Pulaski looked up, noticing he was still in the room.
"Well, don't just stand there—do something else! You're making me nervous!" she exclaimed.
"I have no intention of making you nervous," Data replied calmly. The fact that he couldn't tell he was frustrating her so much made Pulaski even more irritated.
"Then leave my office!"
Data peered at her for a moment, confused. He opened his mouth to say something to her, closed it in afterthought, then turned around and walked out of the office, stopping to stand just outside. Pulaski sighed and rubbed her temples. Data's sharp hearing picked up on the sound of her exhalation and he frowned and looked in the other direction. He must have said something wrong. He hoped his ignorance of her emotions had not upset her too much.
When Dr. Pulaski allowed him to step inside her office again, without a word she gave him the PADD with her report on it.
"Thank you, Doctor," he said, for some reason feeling as if he was a naughty child being released from the human punishment area of "time-out". Without speaking another word, he left sickbay.
Outside the door, he stopped for a moment, thought over every detail of their exchange, and, finding no social blunders on his part, shook his head and walked down the corridor, keeping the previous discourse filed away in his circuits under the title "Dr. Pulaski". And, under that, the subdivision "Social Behavior". He would think harder on the conversation later.
~/~/~/~/~/~
Data sat at his Operations station on the bridge, constantly keeping himself apprised of the conditions outside the Enterprise. Mostly there was nothing to concern himself with—nothing that consumed his attentions. It was lucky he could never get bored, because the Ops console was not known to be the most interesting post on the bridge. But, occasionally, there would be something of interest that the crew of the Enterprise would want to keep an eye on.
Right as Data was thinking these thoughts, something flittered across his console. He wasn't sure "flittered" was the correct word, but he could think of no other English word that described a motion so quick it was almost under even his absolute threshold.
He noted the occurrence and checked his console for any detection of the strange flitter. Nothing. It was almost as if nothing had happened. Suspicious, Data replayed the scene in his head. He nodded. Yes, something definitely just happened.
Data was just about to turn and report his finding to the captain, but his attention was diverted when he saw another quick ripple of light. Blue light, he noted. Strange, he thought. He turned in his chair to report the anomaly to the captain, leaving one slender pale hand on the console. But before he could speak, all the lights to the bridge—and, they would find out later, the ship—went out completely, leaving everything pitch-black. Some crewmembers gasped at the sudden loss of their vision. The sound of the Galaxy-class ship coming to a complete halt as well as losing the feeling of the humming warp core beneath their feet did not make them feel any better.
The only light in the pitch-black bridge was the brilliantly bright shock of energy coming from the Ops console, shooting from Data's hand up his arm, and electrocuting the android, sending him soaring across the bridge like a glowing firecracker.