The Return of Data

This is my first sci-fi story.

This story follows the happenings of Nemesis.

Chapter 1

Cindy Scoffield was thinking about her last voyage on Earth, when she met one of her best friends, Admiral Janeway, at the Starfleet headquarters. It was a beautiful day, in May, when the birds sang with joy and the flowers were open to a new season of colours and scents. The Admiral was in fact an old friend of the Cindy's family, because she met during the years in the Academy Cindy's grandfather, Peter Scoffield, who was a famous Admiral who saved in a dangerous mission his home world, Venus 5, from an attack of the Romulans. Janeway admired the strength of his will and he learnt by him some precious stratagems which were important during the long mission of Voyager. She was always grateful to him and she tried to remain in good relationship with all the members of his family.

Admiral Janeway spoke to Cindy about the importance of the duties towards the Starfleet and the other officials on board in the moments of extreme danger. A good official should be recognized when he offers promptly his life in order to save his ship and his friends. The most remarkable example was Captain Kirk, the most famous and intrepid official of Starfleet's history, but the most recent and sad sacrifice was offered by the Lieutenant Commander Data, who was destroyed during an impossible mission against the threat of a new sort of bomb.

Cindy saw the images on the computer about Data's mission. She heard often stories about the Enterprise and its crew. She felt attracted by the figure of this introverted but amusing android…He had a very strange destiny, indeed. He lost his parents, his child and the woman whom he loved, Tasha Yar, he suffered from his diversity from the other beings around him and he found himself unable to reach his greatest desire: to be human!

According to Starfleet's files, only one being in the galaxy could have satisfied this dream: the omnipotent Q, an alien who seemed to have all the powers in self.

But Q had a negative personality, so nobody called him for help.

Cindy was 35 years old and she was the Counsellor on the starship Jupiter. The Captain was Frank Rivers, and the First Officer was Will Meredith. Both of them were excellent middle-aged officers. Admiral Janeway spoke with Cindy about the possibility that Rivers could obtain a promotion and she could be the next First Officer on the Jupiter. But she should pass a difficult exam, so the Admiral tried to explain to her the situation. Cindy was fascinated by this chance, but she knew that she should study very hard in order to pass the exam.

- " Hello, Cindy! "- an handsome Lieutenant said to her. It was her friend Michael Parker.

- " How are you? What did the Admiral say to you? Good news?" - he asked her.

- " Fine, thanks. The Admiral told me about the possibility of a promotion…"- she answered.

- " Hey, this is a great news indeed, we should drink a glass of champagne…" - he said enthusiastically.

- " It is too early, Michael, but however I thank you. I don't know a lot of technical notions and I should pass a very difficult exam in order to become the new First Officer." - she said with resignation. She was an expert in foreign languages, but she also studied psychology because she liked the idea of joining Starfleet. Her cultural background didn't include any advanced technical knowledge, so she knew that she wasn't the right person for this job.

- "I am a good engineer, you know, if you want, I can help you and you will easily pass this exam!" - he said with hope.

- " Thank you, Michael, but I am a good Counsellor and maybe that's enough for now, isn't it? I don't want really this job… The Admiral told me about the glorious, but sad, stories of Kirk and Data…" - she replied. Cindy feared that she would be unable to save anybody from a real danger with her poor knowledge of the ship…

- " Sure, Cindy, you are an excellent Counsellor! But if we could simulate the test in the holodeck? Perhaps it is not too difficult… we could try and then decide. Tomorrow evening, at 18:00 hours." - he said with decision.

- " OK, we will try and then we will decide. But if I am not sure about the right procedures, we immediately stop the test. " – she said resolutely.

Michael was happy to hear her answer, but he saw something changed in her behaviour towards him and he didn't understand well what had changed.

Cindy was angry that evening. She didn't want this rank, she felt that there were too many responsibilities in this position. The Counsellor had a good life, without real dangers. She liked the company of Michael. He was a 40-year-old man with blue eyes and brown hair. He was still single…and he had always a positive attitude towards the future and towards the people around him.

But he didn't understand the real motive of the change in Cindy… She had fallen in love with Data! She had a strange obsession for him, she read all the files about him and she was never completely satisfied. She loved a ghost who lived only in the memories of his old friends and of Starfleet's computers…She tried to think about anything else, but she was unable to do it….

So she think about the possibility to search for Q in order to solve her dilemma, but she should first study for the exam…

Michael was very gentle with her. He liked this woman. She had blond hair and brown eyes. She had never had a love story with anybody on Jupiter, because she searched for a perfect mate who cannot exist in the reality. She was too romantic and idealist, so she lost a lot of good occasions which didn't repeat. Now she believed to have found the right person, but it was an android, not a real man and he was already dead…

She knew that Data had a brother, B-4, and that he had all the files of memory of Data. The only problem was to reactivate the memory files in the primitive structure of the brain of B-4.

During a mission Cindy met an eccentric scientist on the planet Mars 15, Dr Bloom. He was always fascinated by the studies on the robotics of Dr Soong, so he proposed to Starfleet to repair the damaged brain of B-4. The problem was to assure to Captain Picard the B-4 would return to Enterprise without any damage and it was very difficult, because he didn't want to separate from this android, because his brother, Data, sacrificed himself for him. He felt guilty for this loss and so he wanted to be a sort of father for this android.

Cindy promised to herself that she would try to go to Enterprise after the exam. Captain Picard would listen more probably to a First Officer, not to a simple Counsellor. Now she had a mission….