Don't Shut Up, Wesley!
"A child in Engineering?"
Wesley Crusher looked up from his console. "I'm an acting ensign," he informed Admiral LaRoach.
"Oh," LaRoach said. "The captain promote you?"
"Yes, Admiral."
"Children…androids…what is Starfleet coming to?" LaRoach muttered.
Wesley didn't know how to respond to that. As far as he knew, he and Data were valuable additions to the crew.
"Anyhow," LaRoach continued. "What's your name?"
"Wesley Crusher, sir," the ensign said, straightening up professionaly and sticking his hand out to shake.
LaRoach's eyes widened. "Are you related to Doctor Beverly Crusher?"
Wesley lowered his hand, since LaRoach hadn't taken it, and said "Yes, sir. She's my mom."
LaRoach winced. "You must be the son she spoke of."
"Really? What did she say?"
The admiral looked distinctly uncomfortable. "She said Data reminded her of you."
Wesley smiled. "That's really flattering. He's my friend."
"You're flattered to be compared to an android?"
Wesley nodded vigorously. "Yes! Data's really smart and he's a good friend. He's helped me with science projects before."
"So…you worked together here, in Engineering, and you became friends?"
Wesley nodded.
"An interest in science got you this position?"
"Oh, yes!" Wesley said enthusiastically. "I want to be a Starfleet science officer someday!"
"Then, if you're so good at science, doesn't it bother you to know that your friend is a machine?"
Wesley's eyes widened, and the smile dropped off his face. Admiral LaRoach had a point. Wesley did know the technology of Data's brain, all the circuits and neural pathways. He knew how to program a computer and how those commands were carried out which, Wesley assumed, held true for Data. Wesley knew Data's memory capacity and operations per second, just as he knew the Enterprise computer's functions. But it was different, because Data was his friend and when Wesley saw him, he didn't think about subroutines and memory algorithms, he was hapy to be friends with someone who understood what it was like to be smarter than his peers.
"Well, I guess it might have bothered me a a little bit at first," Wesley admitted. He smiled. "But then I met him. And I think being an android makes him a good friend for me. Because he understands what it's like to feel smarter than other people."
"Because you're a child prodigy. I see." The admiral looked pained. "I have a meeting with the captain now. Thank you for your time."
"You're welcome," Wesley said brightly.
A/N Sorry about the short and late update. Life happened.
I was initially reluctant to do Wesley, because not a lot of people like him, but I got a request. This is for you, Jadeblueafterglow.
This is the second to last chapter. And honestly, my muse has been bugging me to move on for a while now. Thank you for sticking with it.