Damocles; The Perilous Blade
Chapter One; Repono
Repono. Verb. 1. Put back. 2. Restore. 3. Repeat 4. Store
When he materialised behind the glowing force field his first reaction was to laugh, which startled him. He wasn't quite sure where the impulse had come from, and the feeling bubbled up through him until it left his mouth as a hysterical sob. Ah, nervous laughter, a response to fear. Well, that made sense.
There was a Romulan male glaring at him from the other side of the force field.
Data twitched his head, and the fear stopped.
"Why have you transported me here?" He asked. The Romulan didn't reply, except to glance over and nod to someone outside of Data's field of vision. Two more Romulans approached, a male and a female. They were armed with disruptors, although they were holstered. The first Romulan male was holding a rod-like object, vaguely reminiscent of a Klingon pain stick.
"Come with us." The Romulan said, and deactivated the force field.
"Where are you taking me?" He asked, but they simply stood and waited for him to follow the order. He stepped out of the cell, and the two guards turned and led him from the room and down a narrow corridor, with the first guard behind him. He walked twelve paces and then dashed forwards and swung both of his fists around into the two guards ahead of him, slamming the breath from their bodies with a hammer-blow to each of their stomachs. As they sank to the floor he made to grab the female's disruptor from its holster, but instead found that, radiating from a point on his back, all of his tactile sensors had activated in a wave of sensory information, causing all of his micro-hydraulics and servos to fire randomly in response. He flailed uselessly as he fell to the floor, ending up face to face with the male Romulan he had downed, who was gasping for air, and looked furious.
"Get up." Said the only guard still standing, as he pulled the rod away. Data's limbs stilled and his sensors stopped registering that curious sensation, and he pushed himself to his feet.
"I am obliged to continue to attempt to escape." He informed the guard, who shrugged.
"I am obliged to stop you. Now, move." The Romulan still had the stick held ready, and Data contemplated his options for a moment before turning and continuing down the corridor, leaving the two other guards to stumble after.
"In there." The Romulan pointed with the rod, indicating a doorway to a laboratory, and Data took the opportunity to whip his hand out sideways to grab the guard's arm and twist, forcing him to drop the stick with a cry. Data forced the Romulan to his knees and followed him down, snatching the rod-like weapon from the floor.
What he hadn't expected was that the person emerging from the laboratory would know exactly where to jab him in the back.
When he was reactivated he was standing in the laboratory. It was standard Starfleet grey, the various consoles shimmering with light, gleaming on glass and chrome. It appeared clean and clinical, much like the man moving around from behind him to stand and look into his face. Under his sharp blue uniform his body was lean and toned, not an ounce of spare flesh. His face was long and his dark eyes hooded, with the shadow of stubble on his chiselled jaw. To Data, he was unmistakeable.
"Commander Maddox." Data said.
"Please, Data, I think we've known each other for long enough to be on first name terms. Call me Bruce."
"Why am I here?"
"I would have thought you'd worked that out for yourself by now. Why don't you tell me?" Maddox had picked up a tricorder and was scanning the android, transferring the information to a PADD held in his other hand.
"I surmise that you are the person that Kivas Fajo was intending to deliver me to. You have the knowledge and the means to have provided him with the tools of my capture, and your information on the systems of the Enterprise presumably allowed you to beam me out at the rendezvous point. I assume that you are working either with or for the Romulans, who have provided you with personnel and technology, and I am forced to conclude that in return you intend to provide them with androids of their own, modelled on myself."
"Excellent." Maddox said to the PADD. He looked up at the android.
"This is fascinating. You've made some... very interesting modifications to your circuitry since I last had the opportunity to examine you. Some of the alterations appear to have happened as a result of changes in your programming, new neural pathways and subroutines, which is just wonderful. However, there are some adjustments that you've made manually, or had done for you. Correct?"
"I am under no obligation to provide you with any information regarding my physiology, or anything else for that matter."
"No, no, of course not." Maddox put the PADD down and thought for a moment, before fixing his dark eyes on the android.
"Data, I am sure you are aware that it is possible for me to make your time here incredibly uncomfortable. However, I am giving you the chance to understand that if you simply do as I ask, then all of that... unpleasantness, can be avoided. I would much rather have your cooperation in this, I want us to work together. Do you understand?"
"I am duty bound to attempt to escape. I am also compelled to take you into custody if at all possible."
Maddox pursed his lips and nodded, as if this was exactly the reply he had expected.
"Fajo managed to make you comply, didn't he? Do you really wish to go through that again?"
"I was not able to switch my emotion chip off. Now that that option is available to me, you will be unable to negatively affect me with either physical or psychological abuse."
"Of course." Maddox pressed his palms together and brought his hands up to his lips, almost as if in prayer. He closed his eyes for a moment, before lowering his hands and locking eyes with Data.
"Then I'm afraid you leave me no alternative. I don't want to use force, you understand, I would much rather you helped me willingly. But I will do what I have to do."
He shook his head and turned around to pick up a small object from a table to one side, and Data immediately recognised it as being the same as the inhibiting device used by Kivas Fajo. It took him three long strides to reach the man and grab the point where his neck met his shoulder. Maddox tensed, and then relaxed as the nerve grip rendered him insensible, and Data lowered him to the floor. The android wrenched a panel from one of the terminals and pulled out a bundle of cables, swiftly binding Maddox's hands behind his back and tying his ankles together. That done, Data searched the lab briefly for weapons but, finding none, settled for twisting and ripping the torn-off panel into a makeshift knife. He picked up the inhibiting device and crushed it, and then made for the door. It slid open to reveal the Romulan guard, pain stick held out before him at the ready. No challenge for the android really, who would have struck the guard's outstretched arm had he not been distracted by a voice from right behind him.
"Oh, Data, I am disappointed." Maddox said, and Data whirled around to see the commander standing shaking his head just a pace behind him, and that moment of confusion was enough to enable the guard to jab the rod into his back again, and the android found himself on the floor once more, synthetic muscles twitching. Maddox's shining black shoes came into his field of vision, the guard removed the rod from his back, and Maddox deactivated him again.
This time when he came back online he was in a standing position once more, although now his arms were stretched up over his head.
"Now Data, please, I will have no more of this ridiculous behaviour. You must have realised by now that you won't be able to escape, and I really don't want to have to be more severe with you than I have to. I want you to help me, willingly. Can't you see that fighting against me will do no good?"
"I will do everything in my power to resist you, Commander. I will not aid you, nor will I comply with your requests. I will continue to attempt to escape." Data looked up at his wrists, held tightly in duranium cuffs, anchored to the ceiling with thick chain. He could see that the chain ran through some sort of mechanism, presumably to allow it to be shortened and lengthened. He pulled experimentally, and then tugged sharply. The chain and cuffs held and he theorised that, as Maddox had access to much information regarding his physiology, the restraints had been made specifically to account for his android strength.
"Data..." Maddox sighed. "I am trying to be reasonable!"
"You have captured me and are holding me against my will. You have restrained me, and you are now threatening me with torture should I continue to resist you. This is, in my opinion, far from reasonable."
"I understand Data, I really do, but you must try and see this from my perspective!" Maddox ran a hand over his long face. "It has taken me years! Years of planning and preparation, a, quite frankly extortionate amount of Latinum, and now my career. That's how much you mean to me Data!" The man clenched his fist passionately, slamming into his open palm. "I have given up everything for this opportunity! And all I ask is that you help me! You, you are my world now, Data. You would deny me, after everything I've gone through?"
"I would deny you, yes, after everything that you have put me through." The android replied mildly.
"You know, I really had hoped for better." Maddox frowned deeply, and picked up a sonic driver. He stepped towards the android, and Data bounced off the balls of his feet, lifting himself on the chain to wrap his legs around the man's neck. Maddox dropped the driver in shock and clutched at the android's shins, and Data twisted his body and snapped the man's neck. The body dropped to the floor with a thud, and Data pulled himself upside down to brace his feet against the winch. With a single explosive movement he straightened his body and the mechanism burst apart. He had just enough space to be able to put his hands down before his face met the floor, and as his feet hit the deck he was already reaching for the driver, ready to remove the cuffs.
"For goodness sake, Data! You do realise that you've left me no other option now?" Barked Maddox, and Data looked up to see the man in the doorway and the Romulan guard striding towards him, pain stick sparking with energy. Data dropped the driver to backhand the Romulan in the jaw, and the guard fell with a grunt of pain. Data started towards Maddox, but once again found himself on the floor, the rod in his back. He watched the Maddox with the broken neck disappear, drifting into spiralling motes of light.
'Ah, of course! Holograms!' He thought, and the world went black again.
He came back to consciousness with a gasp as terror flooded his mind. His hands were chained above him, the chain so taut that his feet were barely touching the floor. He tried to lift himself, but his arms trembled and spasmed, and he recognized the crippling effect of the strange inhibiting device acting upon him, weakening the signal from his positronic brain to his limbs. His head swung from side to side, assessing. Maddox walked around from behind him.
"There now. How do you feel?"
"I... I am f-functioning within..." Data stammered, and Maddox clicked his tongue.
"I didn't ask about whether or not you were functioning! I asked how you were feeling! We'll never get anywhere if you continue to be so obstinate!" Maddox clenched his teeth in irritation and picked up a PADD. "There have been significant changes in your neural nets since I saw you last, and I need as much information as I can get, and the only way that we can do this properly is for you to comply!"
"I will not!" Data set his jaw, his breathing harsh with barely restrained panic. "I will not allow you to disassemble me!"
"Disassemble? Data, I'm not going to disassemble you!" Maddox's jaw dropped, his eyes wide with surprise. Data's eyes flicked from side to side in agitation as he assimilated this new information.
"It... it was always your intention..." Data stammered, shock and confusion writ large on his face.
"Oh, it was foolish of me to think that I'd learn what I needed to from dissecting you. No, I wouldn't, I couldn't! I need you, Data! You can help me! And, I saw how well you did with Lal... I'm sorry, I know the memory must be painful for you," Maddox said softly, as Data's face crumpled, "but, this way, we can work together, and make new androids, ones that work, and live, and thrive! Think what we can achieve if we work together!"
"I will not help you. You intend to give them to the Romulans. They will be used as tools, as slaves or worse. I will not allow it."
"And I understand your trepidation, but you have my assurance and theirs that our androids will be treated with dignity." Maddox was regarding the android with fond understanding. "You are so precious to me, do you really think that I would allow anything bad to happen to our creations? They will be cherished..."
"You allowed Fajo to mistreat me!" Data said, anger blazing in his golden eyes. "You gave him the means to torture me, and... and to..." His voice faltered, and Maddox looked down, breathing out hard through his nose.
"I know. I gave him too much power over you, I understand that. I never dreamed that he would... abuse you in that manner."
"You... know what he did?" Data whispered, horror creeping over him as Maddox nodded. The man lifted dark eyes to meet his.
"I saw the security footage. Fajo was sending me everything, so that I could be prepared for your arrival. But, frankly, I was shocked. I had no idea that he would do that, I assure you. But, it did help me. Now, I have a better idea of what is necessary to ensure your compliance. You'll have realised that I've removed the switch from your emotion chip, and the visual acuity transmitter is gone too, so there'll be no more transmissions. And I am sorry, Data, truly I am, but you know, you've left me no other choice." Maddox shook his head slowly as he lifted the pain stick.