The main lounge and recreational facility on-board a Galaxy-class starship, such as the USS Enterprise-D was located on deck 10, section 1. The person in charge of the upkeep and maintenance was managed by the mysterious woman belonging to the El-Aurian species, Guinan. Guinan saw herself as more than just a barkeep, she enjoyed helping people and many people who had served with her regarded her as one of the most selfless and caring individuals they had ever known.
In Ten Forward, two officers were enjoying their long awaited break, for which they were very grateful. As a few more officers came and sat by their table, they carefully and quickly shunted their belongings along, leaving the new arrivals some breathing space.
"Well, then?" Ensign Grace Fletcher said as she eyed her friend eagerly, "Who's your celebrity crush?"
Ensign Saunders had been daydreaming, but she wasn't really asleep and so blinked a little and then answered her friend's question, almost, "Oh... I don't know..." She said, sighing.
"Come, on, Sarah!" Grace encouraged the other ensign. "I am sure you can think of someone!"
"Alright, then," Sarah said finally, after a moment of brief silence, "But, promise me you won't laugh."
"I can't promise you anything," Grace said carefully.
"Okay, then," Sarah finally gave in to her friend's persistence, "Octavian."
Grace twitched slightly, thinking. "Who?" She gave up.
"You've heard of Rome, right?" Sarah said, and Grace nodded. "Well, he was the first emperor."
"I thought that was Caesar," Grace wondered.
Sarah shook her head. "Nope. He was dictator."
"Anyway, how can you even know what this Octavian looked like? They didn't have cameras back then," Grace reasoned.
"Statues, paintings, mosaics, carvings," Sarah replied. "The list is endless."
Lieutenant Summers had been sitting quietly for a while now. "Wait, when was this guy around?" He asked, of Octavian.
"Not sure," Sarah answered. "I know he was born in 63BC."
"So… that's over two-thousand, three-hundred years ago," he said, thinking over his calculation.
Grace grinned. "Wow. That is old."
Sarah scowled at her. "Whatever, I don't care," she said stubbornly. "Anyway, Grace, who's you celebrity crush?" She asked; her eyes began to narrow.
Sighing, Grace soon replied quietly, "I don't know."
"Go on..." Sarah prompted her.
"Anyway," Grace said, trying to get out of it. "He's not a celebrity, so, I cannot say."
Again, Andy interrupted. "Come on."
"If you think I'm going to say it is you—" Grace began.
He raised up his hands submissively. "Of course not." He smirked. After sobering a little, he asked her, "There are so many to choose from. I mean, if you like guys who are millennia years old, like Sarah does, I will not judge."
Grace rolled her eyes and then continued, and her voice was as quiet as a mouse's, "Commander Data."
"What?" ensign Saunders studied the expression of her colleague. She sipped her synthehol and shook her head. "Grace, you can't be serious!" She chuckled, showing her perfect smile.
Ensign Fletcher stared defiantly at her confused shipmate. "What's wrong with him?" She looked around the room, suddenly getting the feeling that everyone was looking at her. They weren't.
Saunders leaned forward and waved a disapproving finger, tipped with expertly applied clear nail varnish at her friend. "Well, for one, he isn't even a person!" She reminded her friend, before glancing around the table and seeing everyone's obviously amused expressions, causing her to chortle and she wiped her brow, sighing.
"You dated that Klingon before, right?" Fletcher defended her corner with a defiant folding of her arms and she leant back, reclining in her seat.
Saunders sighed. "That was different."
"How is Mr Ich-Ach-Och any more human than Data?" She giggled at her own impersonation of a Klingon.
"Exactly." Andy pointed out.
"Shut up, Andy." Fletcher scowled at the lieutenant opposite with dark blond hair and who had half a bowl of spaghetti in his mouth.
"All right, all right," Andy Summers backed off, raising his arms up in some sort of informal recognition of surrender, "calm down," he said, in a slightly patronising tone
"Look," Saunders leant forward and looked into her friend's eyes, "If you really think you have a chance, why don't you go and talk to him?" She put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "What have you got to lose?"
Fletcher grinned, before adding, "I suppose you're right." She was about to stand up, when she seated herself again. "This is inappropriate. He ranks me. I can't ask him."
"Sure you can," Sarah encouraged.
"Yeah," Andy Summers chimed in again, "you never know, you might be lucky. He may even let you..." He thought long and hard, perhaps for too long a time, about what word be an amusing innuendo to say "... rewire his neural net." He jabbed his elbow into an officer next to him who obviously understood the joke and they high-fived, making a rather loud and annoying noise appear to ricochet around them.
Saunders cast a disappointed and annoyed look in his direction. "Shut up. Why don't you just keep your nose out and mind your own damn business?"
"Suit yourselves." Andy harrumphed and slumped in his seat, as he quietly consumed his spaghetti, which was almost definitely cold by now.
"What are you waiting for?" Sarah encouraged Grace. Grace had never really been very lucky with men, and so Sarah felt as though, because she was her best friend, she should offer her some encouragement. The last boyfriend that Grace had had was actually lieutenant Andy Summers, and that was over three years ago. Grace was very pretty so Sarah could never quite understand why she couldn't find anyone.
Ensign Grace Fletcher smiled, before anxiously replying. "Here goes."
As soon as Grace had only got a mere five meters away from the table, she spun on her heel, and returned to her original seated position near the large observation windows.
"That was quick." Saunders observed, slightly sarcastically, but she was interested too.
Exhaling, Fletcher looked at her and then said. "I don't know where he is." She looked glum and a little annoyed.
"Oh." Sarah Saunders laughed grimly. "Aren't you going to see if you can find out?"
"Nah," she waved the suggestion off, "he's probably busy."
"Maybe you should ask someone?" Sarah offered up a suggestion.
Andy leant forward. "Maybe," he interjected, "you should stop mooning over him and look for a real man." He clicked his teeth and pointed both his thumbs in his own direction.
"Why don't you just leave?" Saunders said wearily. She got no response, but she could have sworn that she caught sight of him pulling a crude face, aimed at her.
Fletcher slowly inclined her body towards the table. "I'm not sure."
"You've never been shy." Ensign Saunders ascertained. "I've always been the shy one."
Grace added. "Well, not in this instance."
"If you're not that comfortable, the maybe you should just wait a while. You know, give it time."
"Hmm..." Grace considered the point that her friend had made.
"It might just be a phase."
"By 'phase'," Grace attempted to lighten the mood, thus uplifting her spirits, "do you mean, like, me being attracted to artificially intelligent lifeforms?"
"If you want to think of it in that particular way, then yes." Sarah Saunders replied. "Hey, don't you think we should leave now?"
Grace looked alarmed; she had never been late to start her shift, and she certainly had no desire whatsoever to tarnish her perfect attendance record. "Why, what's the time?"
"There's a clock over there." Sarah observed.
Grace turned her head so she was facing in the direction that her crew-mate had just pointed. "So there is. When does your shift start?"
"Well, its 1910 hours now, and my shift in engineering started at 1900 hours."
"You're right, we should be going." Grace suddenly realised that the timings of her shifts had recently changed. "Wait, I don't start for another two hours. You go on ahead." She gestured towards the large sliding doors that provided the only exit from Ten Forward.
Sarah glanced over her shoulder, in the direction of the crowd of people that were sat around the table that she and Grace had previously been sat. "I'll leave you in the capable hands of Andy." She chuckled.
"Gee, thanks." Grace replied, sarcastically.
"If I'm honest," she stepped forward, "I think he's got a bit of a soft spot for you."
Grace a visibly flabbergasted. "Who? Andy?"
"Duh! Who else would I be talking about?"
"I don't know, I just wanted to be sure that we were both talking about the same Andy." Grace had know Andy since her childhood, and they used to be best friends, but all that was different now.
"Just look." She gestured to ensign Summers, who was obviously winking at Grace.
"Ugh." Grace expressed her annoyance. "You saw how he behaved earlier."
"I know, but men are weird creatures." She chuckled.
"How do you mean?"
"Let me put it this way, I think it would be far easier if men were more like Data."
Once again, Grace was confused as to what exactly her friend had meant by what she had said. "What?" She asked for further clarification.
"Well, then they would do anything we tell them. They wouldn't wander off or talk about mindless things. They would just be totally dedicated to you." She bit her lip, then laughed. "They would do anything."
"I see your point." Grace then waved her friend off and sat down on one of the many bar stools at the entrance to Ten Forward, where she was approached by Guinan who asked her what was troubling her. "You look a bit, lost. Anything I can do?"
"No, not unless you know a way of getting Data to even look twice at me." She looked glumly at the floor.
Guinan pulled up a chair and sat next to her. "You'd be surprise." She smiled. "Anything I can get you?"
"No thanks, Guinan."
"Are you sure? I know counsellor Troi quite often finds that a piece chocolate helps her to relax."
"Don't worry, but thanks anyway. I think I'll leave now."
"Mind how you go." Guinan advised, before wandering around the room to collect up the used plates and cutlery, pausing to talk to almost every single person she passed.
The walk to engineering seemed to Grace to be to be taking longer than usual. It was only a short stroll and an even shorter turbo lift ride away. On the way to her assigned post, she decided to ask the ship's computer for Data's whereabouts. She reached a comm panel and then asked, "Computer, locate lieutenant commander Data."
"Information regarding lieutenant commander Data's position on this ship cannot be clarified due to rank deviations." The computer's plain, female voice bluntly pointed out, before beeping and annoying little tone.
"Thanks a lot." Grace muttered under her breath. Now, where should I look? She asked herself. After a few moments of considering what to do, ensign Fletcher decided to walk around the whole ship. Although Data was most often seen at the helm station on the Enterprise's bridge, Grace knew that at present he was not on bridge duty. It was Wesley Crusher who had disclosed that information to her, for which she was grateful.
She spun on her heels, just in time to catch sight of a yellow and black blur disappearing around a corner. She realised it was Geordi La Forge. "Commander La Forge!" She called down the vast grey coloured corridor. When she realised there was no response, she walked quickly to the location where she estimated Geordi to have gone. She was relieved to find that she had estimated correctly, as if she had not been so successful in finding him, it would surely mean that she would have to look for him in another place. She simply did not have the time to do so as her shift was due to start in less than an hour and she always preferred it if she could be early.
Once she had reached her destination she walked up to La Forge who was busy analysing and recording the output of the starship's state of the art warp drive. The warp drive could reach almost unimaginable speeds of warp 9.6, and was the starship's primary and most efficient method to travel the tremendous distances involved in interstellar travel. The warp coils in the nacelles created a subspace displacement field which 'warps' the space around the ship allowing it to travel on a spatial distortion, thus propelling it faster than the speed of light. As well as having one of the best warp drives in operation, the Enterprise also had an impulse drive, which was capable of reaching up to half of light speed, for use when dealing with smaller distances and when in stellar systems. RCS thrusters were also another method of propulsion that the Enterprise was able to use.
The Enterprise was one of the best; and considered by many to be the best, ship in the fleet. Geordi found it a very big privilege to be in charge of the heart and soul of this simply magnificent example of engineering; the warp core. "Commander La Forge?" She asked.
"Yeah, I'll be with you in," he typed something quickly on his PADD, after glancing briefly at the readings he smiled gladly and full of relief; everything was working normally, "one moment." After putting his PADD down on the engineering console that was nearest to him he turned around to see who had wanted to speak with him. "Oh, ensign Fletcher, what can I do for you?" He asked politely.
Grace nervously held her hands behind her back. "I was wondering if you knew where lieutenant commander Data was." She asked as politely as she could.
"Any particular reason?" He asked her, whilst he was recording more information and readings on his PADD. His fingers were moving in rapidly, stabbing motions, which were necessary so he could keep up with the new information being read by the ship's computer which was then instantly feeding that data to his PADD at colossal speeds.
She stepped forward, "Oh, well... "She cleared her throat "... Nothing important."
"If you want, I could send a message to him. I shouldn't be too long here." He frowned at the readings his PADD was displaying him. "ensign McIntyre, check the radiation output levels." He called out.
The young, however, intelligent ginger haired officer turned around and replied, "Output levels are normal, sir."
"That was weird. Its probably just my PADD playing up again." He walked over to a panel that had a spare PADD on top of it and he picked up and use it to scan the radiation output levels. They were fine. "Hmm..." He pondered. "Anyway, sorry about that, what was it that you wanted again?"
Grace had been daydreaming whilst this minor disruption in engineering was taking place. She was thinking about what she could say to Data if and when she finally had a chance to talk to him. "Oh, I... erm... I just wanted to know where Data was."
"Oh, sure. I think should be on the bridge. That is where he usually is."
Grace's hopeful facial expression soon faded; she had yet to be given full bridge clearance and was only allowed access to the bridge, at present, during security breaches and when all hands had been called to battle stations.
"I can check for you if you want, though. I'm not quite myself today." He asked the computer for the present location of Data and the computer instantly replied that he was in his quarters. "Good thing I checked, huh?"
Grace nodded and made a small, quiet noise which denoted that she agreed with his analysis.
"Otherwise you would have been on your way to the bridge." He chuckled.
"Thanks, commander." Ensign Fletcher conveyed her appreciation and then proceeded to the deck where his quarters were situated. She wasn't entirely sure if she had remembered the exact location correctly. She knew that they were located on the outer side of the saucer section, as was custom for all officers of a high rank. Grace, herself, being only an ensign, had to share her quarters with her friend and fellow officer, Sarah Saunders.
"Grace!" A high pitched voice called out to her; it was not coming from far away. The sound marginally alarmed her and she twisted round to see Sarah waving at her, moving her arms in small, circular motions.
"Uh uh?" Grace asked bluntly, inadvertently adding the precursor for the conversation to continue, despite wanting to avoid the possibility of carrying on the discussion any further.
Sarah walked over to her and began to quiz her on whether or not she had had a chance to speak with Data. "So?.." She gesticulated with her hands, as if attempting to elaborate on her unwanted point.
Grace moaned, breathing out perhaps a little louder than she had intended, resulting in a considerable amount of the officers working in the engineering room to turn away from their workstations in order to see what the disruptive and annoying noise was related to. "I haven't talked to him... yet." She added.
"I thought you said that you were going to, as soon as you had left Ten Forward." Saunders displayed a confused look on her face.
Grace sighed. "I did, yes. But, as I didn't know where exactly 'he' was, I thought it would be best to ask Geordi if he knew."
"Ask Geordi what?" The chief engineer walked over, pushing his VISOR up, further up his small nose.
Grace turned to face him, unsure of what to say in response to the commander's question. Looking at her friend's perplexed and struggling, Sarah decided she would step in. "Oh, nothing interesting, commander," she clarified for him.
Geordi La Forge seemed to be happy with that particular response and he continued on with his work.
Sarah Saunders recommenced the conversation she had initiated with ensign Grace Fletcher, who obviously had no desire whatsoever to talk any more. "When are you going to finally talk to him?" She asked, impatiently.
"What is this? The Spanish inquisition?" Grace exclaimed, but she soon had a change of heart once she noticed her friend's disheartened and slightly insulted facial expression. "Sorry." She rounded off her question with an apology.
"Don't be silly." ensign Saunders dismissed Grace's apology. "I don't mind, really. But," she continued, "I must ask. When will you talk to him?"
Grace estimated that more than half of the crew members who were now working in main engineering had heard hers and the persistent ensign's conversation. "I talked to Geordi to ask him if he knew where Data was, as I've just said, and he said he'd be in his quarters. So, that's where I am going to go. Have you finished asking the questions now?" She moaned.
"Yes, yes." Sarah replied, before turning back to her assigned place in main engineering and sighing as she thought of her friend's desire to talk to this...being. She didn't really know what to call Data. Artificial life form? Android, or, perhaps, robot? Could she call him a 'man', like Grace does? She didn't think so, at least not yet. She found it weird, although she didn't like to admit it, that a completely synthetic, inorganic... creation could be serving on the bridge on the USS Enterprise, which was one of the best ships in not only Starfleet, but in the galaxy too.
Grace ran through, in her mind, the number of decks on the ship. She knew that deck one housed the captain's ready room, the bridge and all the many conference rooms and that on all the other earlier decks there was the cargo bay, main shuttle-bay, ship's stores and interrogation facilities. She highly doubted that any of the crew's quarters would be located there; hers were on deck nine. She deduced that of the grand total of forty two decks, the place that would be most likely to find Data's quarters would be from either deck seven to deck fourteen.
So, she used this information and walked along the corridor until she reached the nearest turbo lift. She stepped into it and waited for the door to close, which happened almost instantaneously, this slight hiss of which made her jump ever so slightly. She then walked along the corridor. It was grey and had numerous subtle splashes of faint orange. The walk would have been very dull if it had not been for the infinite beauty of the stars streaking passed, clearly visible trough the large, floor to ceiling windows. Nonetheless, every single time she walked too close to the window she had an underlying feeling that would sit in the bottom of her stomach, telling her that she might fall out. Of course, it was completely and utterly ridiculous, but she still thought about it. Not that it affected her that much any more.
Grace's face suddenly lit up when she remembered where Data's personal quarters were located. She knew they were located on deck eight, only one deck above hers. She recalled seeing on the Okudagram that lieutenant commander Geordi La Forge had shown here earlier, whilst in engineering, that there was the number 0905, very near to counsellor Troi and commander Riker's quarters. She headed for room 0905 and pressed the button on the comm panel just outside the entrance door, exhaling and inhaling alternatively. "Lieutenant commander Data?" She asked, nervously.
"Yes. Enter." Came the android's bland, yet somehow calm voice which was incredibly hard to distinguish over the high level volume of the classical music blaring.
Grace waited for the door to slide open and she walked in. as soon as she had, Data ordered the computer to turn off the disruptive music. "I like classical music too," she stated, trying to find some rare possibility of common ground that she and him could share. Grace didn't particularly care for classical music, she, herself, was more into rock music. But, she wasn't going to tell Data that.
"With regards to my musical preferences, I to, tend to opt for classical music, especially by those such as Bach and Mozart."
Grace nodded, and exhaled once more as she prepared herself for explaining the real reason that she had come to his personal quarters. "Data," she asked, "I was wondering if you would be able to give me some advice..." she trailed off, for no reason which she could even attempt to deduce.
The android asked for a clarification.
"Well... erm... I have a technical paper due in very soon which will determine whether or not I'll make it to the rank of ensign and I thought you could... read it?" She half asked the question and half stated a fact. "To, you know, check it. I mean, if you're not busy or anything."
"Do you have the paper with you?" Data asked.
Grace looked behind her quickly and swore under her breath. Oh shit. She no longer had anything that could act as a precursor for spending some time with him. She turned back around to face him, "No, I must have left it in my quarters." She replied. "My mind's like a sieve today."
Data obviously did not understand the analogy but after a brief search of his databases, he soon learnt what it mean and his facial expression changed ever so slightly. It was somewhere between a twitch and slight shudder. Grace guessed it was just Data's way of expressing the fact that he now understood what she had said.
"If you do not have the paper with you, the computer will have it stored. Would you like me to access it digitally?"
"Please." Grace walked over to Data who was standing by the computer console that was in his quarters, which, apart from the small pot plant in the corner and the few paintings on canvases, were very Spartan. "You're lucky." She observed.
Data offered no visible reply and her continued to search the ship's computer for her scientific paper.
"You've actually got windows in your quarters." Grace continued.
"Do your quarters not have any windows?" Data asked as he brought her paper on to the computer's main screen.
"No, you see, as an ensign, I have to share. Although, I do share with my friend, so its not all that bad I guess. I love looking at the stars streak past; this is a spectacular view." She looked in amazement at the many balls of light that sped past the windows as the Enterprise travelled at maximum warp. "I often think how many stars will have planets. I mean, I know there are other Earth-like planets out there, but its just so fascinating."
"Ensign Fletcher," Data spoke again, "Your paper is of excellent quality and it is my belief that you will achieve the rank of lieutenant commander if the testing is based on the results from this piece of work in particular."
"Thank you." Grace squealed with excitement. "So, maybe I'll be able to get quarters with windows." She smiled.
Data turned to face her. "That does seem to be a possibility."
Grace thought to herself about whether or not she should stay longer in an attempt to try and get to know the android operations officer better. On the other, hand, she mused, she had no idea whatsoever about what she could say to him. Did he even have interests? "I... erm... these... paintings are really good, commander." She gestured to one of the many paintings that decorated his personal quarters. It was most definitely abstract and consisted of mainly white squares with squares of other colours and sizes scattered around in between.
"It is called 'Tableau I with Red, Black, Blue and Yellow', from the early 20th century of Earth." Data added some factual detail for a response.
"Oh, yeah..." Her voice trailed off; for she had no real interest in art, although she did appreciate it. "Its by erm..." She paused, trying to use the time of silence in a feeble attempt to think about the few famous painters she knew. Of which, she knew very little about. The only artists she had heard of were Leonardo Da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh and Salvador Dali. However, none of those people could has been responsible for an abstract, confusing and plain piece of work, much like this one. She mused for a little while longer, then after thoroughly searching her brain for further, however minute, clues she remembered that one artists she recognised that could have possibly created this odd painting. "...Picasso?.." Her statement morphed in to a question.
Data raised a pale, white, yet non-criticising finger and pointed it in the direction of the nervous young ensign. "Although the painting appears to be of very abstract design, the man who painted it was a Dutchman called Piet Mondrian."
"Now, I see it." She clicked her fingers and sighed; expressing some sort of relief. "Its all in the... lines..." She cursed herself for saying what she had just said. They way she was going about trying to spend more time with lieutenant commander Data, anyone passing or observing her actions would think that she had been simply put up to it; that she could not care less. That assumption was wrong, Grace assured herself that she was just nervous and her nerves were definitely beginning to get the better of her.
Data, in his usual manner of conveying the level of his understanding of situations at hand, cocked his head towards the left slightly and his face very mildly contorted into an expression of confusion and abashment. He gave no easily audible response.
Grace suddenly had a recollection of a conversation that she and counsellor Deanna Troi had engaged in not that long ago. At the time, it seemed to be just irrelevant small talk, but now, Grace saw her chance and used it to her advantage. Deanna Troi and her had been talking, in general, about their personal likes and dislikes. Somehow, Grace was not entirely sure exactly why, Data's fondness for painting began to leak into their confabulation. She recalled how the ship's Betazoid counsellor had told her that her favourite piece of artistic creation attributed to lieutenant commander Data was of something very much akin to a wormhole. Deanna, herself, had never actually seen a wormhole but she added it to her description of Data's painting as William Riker had once told mentioned to her some rather dull information about a wormhole he saw whilst working as an ensign on the USS Pegasus. Deanna highly doubted that the encounter commander Riker had told her about was actually true, nonetheless, she still remembered it.
When Grace looked at the painting, she liked to think of it as the sun peaking defiantly through the clouds that darkened the majority of the painting. "This one is better, though." She said, nodding in the direction of the painting that Deanna likened to a wormhole.
"Thank you." Data responded to her, showing an obviously programmed look of gratitude on his pale face.
"It must have take you a long time." She stated, carefully taking in the neatness and clarity of the painting.
Data stepped forward and began to to study and scrutinize the piece of art in question. "It took me approximately four point two three hours to complete."
"Very precise." Grace observed at a medium volume. "I though it would surely have taken much longer than that." She then hastily added, "Not that I think you're incapable of doings so in such little time."
"Chief O'Brien's reaction was much the same. I do recall him telling me that he once attempted to create a painting but it took much longer than what is considered to be the average for him to finish it."
"How long?" Grace asked.
Data paused momentarily, allowing his memory banks enough time to gather the information that was asked of him. It didn't take very long. "Records show that he was serving on board the USS Rutledge, as an enlisted crewman. That was in 2346."
"That's over twenty four years ago." Grace quickly closed her mouth, after realising that she had a rather unpleasant, unattractive gormless expression on her face. "It took him twenty years to finish a painting?" She let out a short but sweet cackle of laughter.
"It appears so."
Something critical crossed Grace's mind. What was it? She knew it was most definitely something of paramount importance, but she couldn't quite remember exactly what it was. Geordi La Forge certainly wasn't the only crew member who didn't feel quite their self today. All of a sudden, she remembered what it was. She must be almost due for her shift! A dark shadow of foreboding crept across her usually bubbly face and she gasped. She did not want to be late. Just to be sure, she resolved to ask Data to clarify what the time was. "Do you have clock in your quarters, commander?" A worried expression grew on her face.
"I do not, however, if you should like me to tell you the time-"
The ensign interrupted him, leaving him with a perplexed and uncertain expression plastered on his white face. "Yes," She replied hurriedly, ahead of closing her premature response with as polite a word she could think of, "please."
Data's head jerked, but it was hardly visible. The change it made to his facial expression were negligible. "The time, at present, is 2100 hours. Would you like a more precise determination?" He offered, cordially.
"No, thank you, commander. 2100 hours is fine." She then spun on her heel and began to walk towards the door. Just a few feet away from it, she stopped in her stopped in her tracks and turned to face the commander. "Oh, and sorry for interrupting you." She apologized sarahfully. Catching sight of Data nod, to show that he had accepted her apology, she continued to exit from his personal quarters and jumped, once more, and the sound of the automatic doors slide close behind her as she stepped into the vast grey corridor of deck eight.
The realisation that her shift started in less than ten minutes caused a sharp chill to travel down her
spine. Never, in her five year career in Starfleet had she ever been late for a meeting. Not whilst on assignment as a cadet working on the Nebula-class starship, the USS Phoenix. She did not intend to even mark a blemish on her entirely perfect attendance and punctuality record. Now that lieutenant commander Data had read through the final draft of her engineering paper, she knew that her chances of being promoted to ensign were considerably greater than she had previously expected.
Grace Fletcher made it to main engineering with only seconds to spare. Once there, she began to start with her work and began to carefully study the plasma injectors, which seemed to be operating normally. She was very grateful that her present assignment in engineering was not one that required huge effort and undertaking. She could easily operate a tricorder and analyse the results that the plethora of Okudagrams in the room whilst the main fraction of her brain was fixed on resolving the long withstanding issue concerning her relationship, or to put it better, lack of relationship with Data.
Whilst she was waiting for the ship's computers to collect and display the information on the many brightly lit Okudagrams, Grace felt a hand on her shoulder. She followed it up and saw that it was ensign Saunders. "Oh, it's you." Grace exclaimed sarcastically.
"I'll just leave then, shall I?" Saunders pointed to the door and grinned.
"I thought you wanted to know how it went with Data." Grace set the focus. "To be honest, it didn't really go all that well. Not as well as I had been hoping, anyway." She looked glumly at the dark grey floor.
Sarah Saunders put her hands on her hips. "Come on then, spill." She encouraged her friend and fellow crew member.
"I went over to talk to him and we somehow got talking about paintings and Picasso..."
"Right," Sarah nodded her head slowly, not entirely sure if she understood where Grace was going with this, "right."
"Anyway, getting to the point," Grace continued, "I asked him to read through that paper I had to do, you know, to determine whether I was capable" of becoming an ensign."
Else Saunders shifted her hands from her hips and folded her arms. "How did it go? Did he say it was good?" She asked, with a combination of intrigue and worry for her friend.
"He said it was good, really good, but I didn't actually get a chance to talk to him properly."
"Properly?"
"Yeah, I mean, about if he could, you know," her voice lowered to a barely audible whisper, "have any feelings for me."
"Aw, don't beat yourself up, Grace. I'm sure you'll get a chance to talk to him." She reached out and put a reassuring hand on her colleague's shoulder.
"Thanks." Grace managed to hold a faint smile. It was delicate, nonetheless, it was just about distinguishable as being a smile.
Sarah held out her arms. "Do you need a hug?" She asked. It was rare for her to 'offer' a hug as she was not the sort of woman who would enjoy talking about the contents of her wardrobe, more
regarding her winnings in the many chess games that would quite often be happening on the Enterprise.
"Uhuh." Grace replied. Pulling herself out of the short-lived embrace, she made an observation. "Its coming up to 2130 hours."
Sarah needed more information. "And?"
"Isn't it the chess tournament today?"
"So it is." She slapped her forehead, obviously annoyed with herself. "How could I have forgotten?"
Grace waved her off as she hurried out of engineering. "See you later." Tapping her fingers on the Okudagram, she pondered about the day so far. It was night, but she was on a starship some dozens of light years away from Earth, so what exactly did constitute 'night'? Grace had no idea whatsoever as to why she was thinking about mindless things such as this, but she had nothing better to do. All her shift required her to was make sure that the plasma injectors were functioning as they should be, which they were.
Ensign Grace Fletcher' shift ended at 2300 hours. If she was back on her much missed home planet, Earth, she would surely have been fast asleep. She hurriedly made her way from deck thirty six, the location of main engineering to the nearest turbo lift. Luckily, it was not too far away. She instructed the computer to send her to deck eight.
Her and Sarah's personal quarters differed greatly from lieutenant commander Data's, not only on the basis of size, for Data's where much larger, but in design, too. Data's quarters were very bland, despite his effort to increase the aesthetics of the room with numerous paintings, shrubbery and musical instruments. In contrast, ensign Saunders and Fletcher' quarters were colourful and bright and seemed very crowded. However, that perception of the room being is often put down to the most obvious reason, which is that the quarters are simply too small. This lack of space was one of the reasons that Grace had been longing for the promotion to lieutenant. Of course, she wanted to be promoted simply to prove to herself that she could do it, but an increase in rank would also mean that she would get allocated her own, private quarters. Her and Sarah had grown close, as they had been sharing quarters for just over two years and, up until the last few months, they had been working in engineering. The sudden, unexpected change in shift times meant that they no longer shared assignment times, expect on very rare occasions.
"Increase light intensity to fifteen percent." She ordered the computer quietly. Instantly, the computer complied and the room began to brighten, to some extent. She promptly changed into her night clothes and clambered in the bed in the room adjacent to the room compartment in which Sarah Saunders was sleeping. As she did so, she instructed to computer do decrease the lght intensity completely. It was now pitch black. Despite it having been a long day and the fact that she was very tired, Grace could not seem to get to sleep. Occasionally, she would drift off for a few minutes, but she would always wake up again and again. Sighing, she sat opened her eyes fully, rubbing them. She didn't understand why she was unable to fall asleep.
She kept running over again and again, in her already confused head about what to say to Data, when and if she ever got the chance to finally talk to him again. She didn't have any other options; she was in her mid-twenties and had only ever had one steady boyfriend, which was back at Starfleet Academy. That was Andy Summers. She knew it was best to try and forget about him, so she always tried her hardest to do exactly that.
Was Data even capable of feeling? Grace asked herself, causing more and more ideas and thoughts to whirl around her head. Grace was certainly no expert in robots or in cybernetics, but she did have common sense. No android being could possibly be so advanced that they have the ability to distinguish between different feelings, to react to them and to physically feel them, for themselves. Nonetheless, she had always liked to think of herself as a positive person, one who always looks on the bright side. Serving with Starfleet had reminded her that one moment life can be with you, and the very next it can be cruelly snatched away from you. Never to be seen again. She had seen her friends and crew mates die; some of them dying noble deaths, but others dying unimportant, insignificant and meaningless deaths. She wanted her death to have meaning, even if it is only to a small degree.
She rubbed her face gently yet vigorously to try and remind herself that she had to look forward, always. Data was a competent, observant and respectful individual, but Grace knew he was something more underneath. His ability to concentrate, even under great pressure, was admired by many, if not, all of the officers assigned to the USS Enterprise.
Data was the only person she had ever been attracted to, since Andy. Generally, she found all the other men serving with Starfleet to be slightly pompous and arrogant. These less desirable qualities and characteristics were quite common with officers serving on the Enterprise. This was almost definitely due to the fact that it was one of the best ships and was envied by many, including the Romulans.
Sarah Saunders was always telling her that Andy Summers had a soft spot for her, but Grace tried not to think about it. She didn't really like Andy that much and found him to be pretentious, extremely narcissistic and generally rude. His ignorance made her skin crawl and she certainly was not fond of his company, either. Ever since her days at the Academy, Grace had been constantly pursued by Andy. It wasn't harassment, it was just simply very vexatious. Sometimes, she found Andy to be amusing, as he was always the practical joker. More recently, however, he had been reprimanded for various reasons on multiple occasions. He was incredibly close to being completely withdrawn from assignment on board the Enterprise and many considered him to be extremely lucky that Starfleet haven't already taken any evasive action.
Maybe, Grace thought, I could... help him to feel...