No...it does NOT belong to me. STAR TREK TNG DOES NOT BELONG TO ME!!! But how I love it so...
Geordi left Deanna behind in the hallway. He hated to see the look on her face that he had hurt her in some way, but he couldn't help it. He couldn't go back and talk about his friend's death. He just couldn't.
He walked into his quarters and came to stop at the window. He gazed upon infinite space. Somewhere out there were the remains of Lt. Commander Data. Somewhere, floating in the ruins of that day, was a scrap of metal that had once made up a hand that had reassuringly rested on his shoulder. Or perhaps a burned piece of a memory chip that had stored recollections of days in Engineering trying to figure out a mysterious problem with the warp core.
Geordi felt tears welling up in his eyes as he remembered Data's first real laugh on the Bridge. He remembered the concern and regret on his face after Geordi had been kidnapped, when he had thought it had been his fault. He smiled to himself, remembering how Data would always go into his speeches when no one really wanted to hear them or what they were about.
Geordi blinked away his tears. He went to his bed and lay on it, staring at the ceiling, allowing the memories to fill his head. He did not get up when the bleeping at his door signaled someone wanted to come in, nor when Mr. and Mrs. Troi left the next morning for their new assignment on the U.S.S. Titan.
With his hands he summoned every particle into the room. They mixed and swirled amongst each other as the man stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Not quite…hmm…" he murmured to himself. He arranged the particles in a different association, then held the form it had created in the air while with the other hand he called a simplistic bed into existence and lowered the figure upon it.
The man seemed quite pleased with himself as he sat down in a chair and waited. And waited. And waited. After a few moments, he got fed up and stormed to the side of the bed, cursing. He grunted and complained to no one in particular as he went over what he had done in his head. But, finally getting fed up with not only the form but also himself for wasting time that could have been spent disrupting a family dinner on Riza, snapped his fingers and returned to the chair. He sat, brooding. He was content, though, when the figure's chest of which he had just transformed began to rise and fall in rhythm.
But inside the mind of the figure lying on the bed, things were far from peaceful. He had been torn away from his chosen place, torn from the soft colors and music, and torn from love. Memories raged. They twisted into forgotten nightmares and regrets but smoothed out after a moment, following a simple, happy tune.
"Blue skies smilin' at me…Nothin' but blue skies do I see…"
Data's eyes opened and he blinked. The light streamed into his eyes, causing him to squint. His eyes registered the ceiling above him as being foreign…someplace he had never been before. He looked to his left and his right. Everything looked foreign. He could recognize a chair or a ceiling or a table, simple everyday things; but they somehow appeared…different. Unusual.
But he could still see. And he could see that the man sitting across the room could not decide whether he was disgusted or pleased. The man looked familiar somehow… Data raised himself to a sitting position. Something clicked. Recognition.
"Q?" Data said in confusion. "What are you-"
"Data old friend!" Q greeted him. He elegantly thrust himself from his chair and walked casually to Data's side. Data watched him with curiosity. A visit from Q didn't usually mean well…and the fact that Data could not remember where he was or what he had been doing made the circumstances a lot more suspicious.
Q's usual sarcastic face displayed a grin. "How are you, Data?"
"I believe I am functioning within normal parameters," Data said slowly.
Q chuckled to himself. "I'm sure."
Data studied Q. "Although my…brain seems to be experiencing some technical difficulties."
"And why do you say that?"
Data cocked his head. "My positronic brain seems to be functioning significantly slower than normal." He glanced at Q. "I request to be returned to the Enterprise in order to run a self diagnostic."
"Is there anything I can give you before you go?" Q asked in his sweet, seductive voice. He extended his hands as if grasping imaginary jewels. "I could give you…riches, beyond imagination! Perhaps a permanent home on a beautiful planet, or a wife of a beautiful woman."
Data stopped for a moment. He had been about to open his mouth, but reconsidered it. He thought, then stated, "You forget that I am an android, and have no desires for such things. Even my emotion chip could not simulate such human…" Data paused as he said the word…human. "…desires."
Q raised an eyebrow. He did not believe him in the slightest. "My my, my dear Data. I didn't know you had learned to lie. That is a very…human sin to commit." Q strutted forward, a sinister expression overtaking his features.
Data felt a sensation over his skin. He had felt it before, though coldness had last given him the sensation of goose bumps. Now they simply appeared on their own. He felt…fear, yet anticipation and excitement.
"Q?" He raised his hand and put it before his face. His skin was no longer the unconvincing yellowish color it had been. It was the color of a true human's skin. He breathed out a shaky breath. This was real.
"What can I say?" Q said, shrugging. "My grip on cybernetics is a bit…lacking," he said with a sly smile. His face turned disgusted again. "Being human is such a cursed way to live…perhaps I can take it back-"
"No!" Data said sharply. His gaze was intently focused on his hand, as the smile grew on his face. "I am human."
"To thine own self be true." The haunting words echoed in his head. He had said them to Q once. But now it seemed that Q had ignored them. Yet Data could not bring himself to give it back. There was no mortal enemy involved, trying to tempt him with something that could harm others around him. Though he did question Q's reasons to himself, for now it wasn't hurting anyone. And it was making him more excited by the second.
"Yes, unfortunately you are." Q sighed. "You do realize that you are now flawed. Imperfect. Incomplete!"
Data finally tore his eyes away from his living flesh to meet Q's eyes. "On the contrary, Q, I have never felt more complete in my life. My life's goal has been fulfilled!"
"I wouldn't have, you know," Q said, pointing a finger at Data. "But it's just that I'm really not all that good with machines, if you know what I-"
"Q!" Q turned around to see another Q who was popping in from…literally nowhere.
"Q," Q greeted the other Q warmly. "How are you?" He dropped his pleasantries. "Seriously what do you want? Can't you see I'm busy here?!"
"Q, you need to come. The Council wants to have a little talk with you."
Q groaned. "I've had enough little talks to get all of Earth's teenagers through adolescence!" Q complained. "Can't I just do what I did last time-?"
Q gave Q a warning glance. "You can't be in two places at once, Q. The Council needs to see all of you this time. You're in big trouble this time…"
Q sighed and pouted. "Fine. Spoil all my fun."
"You are being stripped of your powers until we resolve this whole thing. Whether you get them back or not is yet to be answered…again." The other Q seemed to be fed up with Q, who stood gaping at his fellow Q.
Data looked from one Q to the other. "But, Q-"
Q snapped his fingers. It seemed clear that he had forgotten about Data. "Here," he muttered, throwing a ancient-looking comlink at Data. "See if you can contact someone."
"May I ask where we are?" Data asked. He had noticed that there were no windows or doors.
Q smiled a small smile for a moment. "One of my favorite vacation worlds." The other Q rolled his eyes.
"We'll be needing to talk about that too!" And with that, the Q pulled Q through the wall.
Data was left standing in the middle of the room. He walked around the room with the ancient comlink in his hand, more interested in the smoothness and coolness of the object than with his current predicament of being stuck in the big, white, boring room with no doors or windows.
He tried hitting the wall and discovered that his android strength was gone. He also discovered about half a second later what a bruise was, as the hand he had attempted to damage the wall with began pulsing a steady, dull pain. He knew that both were expected. Data knew that humans did not possess the abilities that he had had as an android. And though he had experienced much greater pain with his experience with the Borg Queen, he still cradled his hand as he walked around the room. Finally, he sat down in the middle of the room and stared at the wall.
The floor suddenly began to melt under him. Or, at least it seemed to. Looking down, Data discovered that it was…disappearing. He stood up and quickly and awkwardly stumbled away from the hole that was forming in the floor. He looked through it and saw the ground. Thirty feet below him.
Data glared at the wall, which was also shifting and vanishing. Q and the things he had to do to amuse himself. Even without his powers, he was probably laughing at the thought of Data realizing the room in the sky was disappearing with him in it.
Data prepared himself for the fall, and when the floor finally disappeared completely, he sailed through the air feet first. The ground sped towards him, and he met it rather gracefully. He smiled to himself. At least he could still land on his feet.
He looked around him. The planet he was on hardly looked like a vacation planet for Q; it looked like a high desert with rather unusual looking bushes. They were blue, and the sky was green. The dust beneath his feet and all over his face was an orange color, while the clouds, or what looked like clouds overhead, where smeared about the green sky in a vast display of pink and purple. It looked like a two-year-old's drawing.
Data spun around as he heard something behind him. From behind the blue speckled bushes, beings appeared. They were orange, like the color of the dust. There were five of them, and none of them looked like they wanted to be sociable. One reached for his bow with his three-fingered hand and aimed at Data. The others mimicked him.
Data didn't know what to do, and he didn't like the feeling. As an android, his robotic brain would calculate the odds, the problems, and all possible solutions and their chances of success in a matter of milliseconds. But as a human, panic was getting in the way of the calculations his human brain was attempting to make. It was then that instinct took over.
The hunted have two options when cornered: fight, or flight. And when fighting is impossible, there is really only one other choice.
Run. Run like the wind.
And that is exactly what Data did. He glimpsed the rocky, orange dusted hills ahead of him and ran like mad towards them. The first rock he reached he slid and skidded behind it and peaked out at the hostile people. But as Data studied them from behind his rock, he noticed something. Some were leaving. With dread, he realized that if they had a settlement somewhere, these primitive people would go back and get more people to find and catch this "alien" they had encountered.
Data sat back against his rock, finally catching his breath. He certainly couldn't run like the wind anymore; more like a slow breeze. Another part of being human, but he welcomed it.
He looked at the ancient comlink that he gripped in his hand. He tried to activate it, then said, "Data to anyone." He waited. "Data to anyone." Again, nothing. "Anyone?" No response. "Wonderful," Data breathed as he pried open the back panel of the device and began his work.
