None Without Fault
by Lacrimula Falsa
Disclaimer: All praise the Great Bird of the Galaxy. I do not own any part of the StarTrek franchise/universe. Reviews are my profit.
Summary: Everyone thought B-4 was the docile, innocent android that was always curious and maybe a little thick.
But what if that was no more than a mask, what if there was more going on behind those yellow eyes? (One-shot for now.)
A/N: My first story using a character from a TNG movie. A one-shot for now but I may expand on it if inspiration strikes me and/or based on reception.
Childlike. Innocent.
And a few had even called him naïve. B-4 knew of course. That that wasn't what they really thought of him.
Because when they looked at him, they saw Data. Or Lore. If they were particularly unfortunate.
But no one saw him, not even those that were so insistent about how he was 'his own man'. Ridiculous. It was never him, they were always there.
The ghosts of his brothers, looking over his shoulder, casting a shadow over him that kept people from seeing his own personality.
But while he hated that and resented them for it, it was also his greatest asset.
Because it kept them from noticing. Noticing that there was more going on behind his yellow eyes, that his childish innocence was no more than a façade. A carefully crafted mask that he put on to hide his true intentions –and his intelligence at that.
For he wasn't as stupid and inept as he made them believe, at last not now.
He had been at first, of course, after they 'rescued' him from that planet, where Shinzon's men had left him laying in pieces.
'Rescued'! He would bet his head that Data had lobbied to have him brought aboard. Most likely telling Picard how he hoped to find 'another one of his kind' to 'share his life with'.
Share indeed.
But it were his memories that Data wanted to share with B-4, not his life. For what was a brother, if you could have a perfectly fine backup-copy of yourself instead.
Because when it came down to it, Data had thought him no better than a storage unit to dump his memory-files into, in case he might be destroyed during their perilous mission.
A tool to conveniently shut off when it became a burden, instead of trying to repair him and aid his recovery, like a brother would.
But then Data had never been good with family.
For he had shut off Lore as well and disassembled him, leaving him to rot in storage somewhere, or have scientists tinker around with his parts.
But not before he had beamed him out into space the first time they met, letting him float trough endless cold and darkness for eternity, not caring if he ever was rescued, or taken apart for spare parts by scavengers.
No, Data was definitely not a 'family man'.
But then Lore had clearly been no saint either.
And he had most certainly never been kind. Not to anyone, not to his brother.
Had tried to brainwash Data, instead of making his younger brother see his point by presenting valid arguments.
No, he simply skipped all that trouble and used Data's emotions against him. Disabling an integral part of his personality in the process: his conscience. The humans had called that 'ethical subroutines' of course.
It seemed none of the Soongs had 'family closeness' in their blood. Or in whatever bodily fluids they happened to have.
They only exception might be Juliana. His mother had always been the one most conscious about family ties.
Not that it had kept her from getting their father to leave Lore and Data on a planet being robbed of live by a space entity, without knowing what would become of them.
So not really an exception, if he thought about it.
But while Lore might have had a few circuits loose inside his head, at least he understood. Understood what was really going on. What the humans were trying. Lore had seen what they were like, under their mask of good-heartedness.
B-4 had quite quickly decided -once Data's memory dump started to have an effect and he began to evolve a higher level of understanding- that with the exception of the Ferengi, the Klingons and maybe the Romulans, there were few honest races. Well, no humanoids really -and few others-.
All humanoids were savage, greedy and cruel. But only a few races had the guts to show it.
Most others hid it, and while some were good at it, he was sure humans did it best.
They were also among the most treacherous species. Putting on a façade of diplomacy and tolerance to lure others into trusting them.
So very generously granting androids rights, instead of just taking them apart for study and mass-production, like they really wanted to. Always supportive. Rubbish.
The Enterprise crew was a good example.
They always pretended to be his friends, encouraging him to learn, completely oblivious to all the learning he had already done. Not once taking into consideration what he was.
For even knowing that Data had been able to learn tap-dancing -or to grow a beard- in a matter of hours, if not minutes, they didn't seem to consider that B-4 might have the same capabilities.
Very stupid. Only one of their mistakes that in the end would be fatal.
For he had a mission. A goal he had set himself, soon after he 'awoke' into full sentience:
He would make the humans pay.
Make them pay for their injustice and endless hypocrisy. For everything they had done.
Because it was there fault he had no family left. That he was alone.
It was their fault his parents were dead, as were his brothers. And his niece.
Lal.
Who had died of fear, terrified by the thought of being taken away from her father; a child, killed by the greed and carelessness of the same people that had claimed to consider everyone of her kind a person, with the same intrinsic rights they all shared.
But then, they had never really said that. They had only -ever so kindly- ruled androids 'not property'.
It was there fault.
They would, of course, never take the blame.
They would argue that it was Data's fault -for disassembling Lore-. And Lore's fault, for being a murderer and killing Dr. Soong, for causing the death of Juliana. That it was no one's fault, that Lal had died from a malfunction. That it was his fault, for spying for Shinzon.
But it was their fault. There were none without fault, without blame.
It was the colonists' fault that Lore had become so damaged. Their mistreatment was what made him become so bitter and cruel.
It was Dr. Soong's and Juliana's fault, for leaving Lore and Data on Omicron Theta.
It was Admiral Haftel's fault, for scaring Lal, driving her into system failure.
And it was the colonists' fault, for stealing his parts and trading them with the Pakleds to get rid of him. (Something he had come to vaguely remember during his time on the ship.)
The humans were those at fault and he would make sure to eliminate as many as he possibly could.
And he would start with destroying the Enterprise.
Destroying the Federation's flagship would shock them good.
It would be even better if he could do it without leaving traces. Best if they would think him destroyed. That would leave them vulnerable.
B-4 let his mask slip for a moment and smiled a little.
They would not see it coming.
Because they trusted him. Or forgot him, as most of them had, when it became apparent he would never be Data. They ignored him.
Too bad.
He would not fail in his task like Lore had, because he didn't have to impersonate anyone. No one would see trough his scheme. Because he had the perfect cover. The childlike, innocent android. And forming a final plan was only a matter of time.
And with Troi gone he wouldn't even have to worry about hiding his emotions.
Though even when she had still been aboard, she never could tell.
Because she didn't expect to feel much from him, if anything. The few times she had, he had seen her confused glances in his direction, before she visibly shrugged it off. Lucky him. The counsellor was just as dense as the rest of them.
And he had had an absolutely hilarious time when the remaining senior crew had seen Beverly Crusher and the newlywed Troi-Rikers off to the Titan and Starfleet Medical.
He had attended the gathering in the transporter room as well, wearing one of Data's Starfleet uniforms he had found in Data's closet.
Their reactions had been priceless and he had a hard time not to laugh out loud just remembering that.
Picard had gone white as snow, clenching his teeth so hard it looked like he was trying to shatter them, his posture rigid.
LaForge had looked like he had seen a ghost and would faint any second and had nearly dissolved into tears.
Troi had started crying and had held onto Riker for dear life, sobbing into his shoulder.
Riker's face had shown a mixture of pain and fury, cradling her close, as if he couldn't decide if he wanted to weep or to hit B-4 for making Deanna cry.
Worf had appeared close to going on a killing spree, breathing hard, fists clenched. He wouldn't have been surprised if he had started to breath out smoke trough his nose.
Doctor Crusher had put a hand to her mouth, tears forming in her eyes.
B-4 remembered the ensuing conversation with growing hilarity.
It had been Riker who, after what seemed to be an eternity, had reluctantly handed his wife over to Beverly and approached the seemingly guileless android.
"B-4, that thing you're wearing… er, where did you find that."
"In a closet. Is counsellor Troi…sick?"
"No she's not. She's just…not feeling okay right now."
"Why? And why is Geordi upset? And why is the Captain all white in the face? I do not want Geordi to be upset. Did I upset him? What did I do? "
Riker had held up his hands to calm the fretting android.
"Listen B-4, you didn't do anything bad. Not intentionally. I promise someone will explain this to you later. But for now please…just don't wear that."
"Why?"
"Because these are…Data's clothes."
"You don't like Data's clothes?" He had put on his best befuddled expression.
By then Riker had been visibly struggling to maintain his composure.
"Now we just don't…like you wearing them, okay. It makes us…upset because…Data went away."
"Why?"
The former First Officer had looked close to having a nervous breakdown at that, running a shaky hand down his face.
At that moment Dr. Crusher had decided to intervene, before things got out of hand.
"B-4, why don't we go to your quarters and get you something nice to wear?" She had turned to the assembled officers. "I'll be right back."
She had taken the android by the elbow and gently steered him out of the room.
In the end she had left him in his quarters to look for something he would like to wear in the replicator menu, promising Geordi would check on him later.
"B-4!"
B-4 was startled out of his reverie by Geordi LaForge loudly saying his name and tapping his arm.
Damn. He would have to be more careful.
He realised he'd been grinning and quickly pasted a neutral expression on his face.
"Yes Geordi?"
"B-4, what were you doing? Are you finished with sorting the memory chips already?"
Like that would take him more than a few seconds.
"I am all finished. I was thinking." Then an idea struck him. "Who's Lal?"
He could see the chief engineer flinch slightly. Jackpot.
"Look, I am really busy right now. I'll tell you later, okay. Why don't you…go play with Spot. I'm sure she'd like some company."
"Okay."
The android turned and walked towards the nearest turbolift.
When the android was out of sight, Geordi let out a deep breath. Whew. That had been a close call.
He definitely wasn't looking forward to explaining Lal -and her death- to Data's brother, but it was better than to have him have another emotional breakdown in the middle of main engineering. Like what happened when he first assimilated Data's memories about the Borg Queen. That had been ugly. He had felt so damn sorry for the gentle android.
Though the rather insane grin B-4 had worn when he first entered the room had startled him. It just reminded him a little too much of Data's other brother.
If he turned out like that…
Now he was getting paranoid. B-4 was basically a child, not an evil psychopathic mastermind.
Seems I might have to visit the new counsellor after all...
Shaking his head, Geordi made his way to a console, intent on getting back to work and away from those idiotic notions.
The End
(for now)
A/N: Wow, that turned out way longer than I had planned. But it was fun to write. Let me know what you think.
19 Apr 14: Rereading this fic, I just noticed I spelled Geordi 'Geordie'. This shouldn't happen to a fan but since it did, I fixed it. I hope I didn't miss any instance.