FRESH UPDATE, HOT OFF THE KEYBOARD! HAPPY NEW YEAR! :D
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The soft sounds of biomonitors bleeped and hummed in the dimly lit little clinic. Kurak lay sleeping; her long, wavy hair spread over the pillow and a silver-blue blanket tucked over her shoulders. But, Mikey was wide awake.
"Data!" he cheered happily, sitting up on his biobed as the android strode to his side. "You're back! Howard was just telling me how there was a quake while you were gone. Then, Kay's mom started thrashing around and the doctor had to come and do surgery on her and—" He shook his head. "I can't believe I slept through all that! Those must be some tranquilizers that Freja lady gave me!"
"Indeed?"
"Oh yeah," Mikey said. "She gave me some pretty good painkillers too. Way better than that Cardassian stuff."
"Hm…" Data knit his eyebrows. "Well, in any event, I am pleased you were able to get some rest."
He looked over to Howard, who was efficiently attending the control panels.
"Howard," he said, "Counselor Troi tells me that you have been very helpful here."
"I am Howard: Your Helpful Home Domestic Droid," Howard told him in his chipper way. "I am here to serve."
"And you are doing quite well," Data said. "Thank you, Howard."
"My orders are to monitor the woman and the boy," Howard said. "I am here to keep them safe."
"Yes," Data said, rather bemused by the robot's unflaggingly one-note attitude. "Well, the boy will be coming with me. But, I will need you to keep monitoring Kurak."
"I am here to serve," Howard acknowledged, and fixed his glowing photoelectric cells on the monitor panel.
Data shook his head, and turned his slight smile to Mikey.
"The runabout has landed," he said. "Dr. Crusher is getting the sickbay ready for you."
"What?" Mikey straightened. "Oh…I mean, it's here already? That was quick."
Data offered the boy his hand.
"Shall we go?"
"Yeah. Of course."
Mikey's eyes flicked to his hands, which were wringing and twisting the bed's silvery blanket like a wet rag.
"Mikey?" Data inquired with some concern. "Are you all right? Your body language indicates that you are feeling…hesitance? Trepidation?"
"No," Mikey said. "I'm not scared. It's just…"
"What is it, Mikey?" Data asked, sitting down beside him on the biobed. "You can tell me."
Mikey roughly shook his head, then leaned into Data's shoulder, clinging to him with all his strength.
"I'm sorry," Mikey sobbed. "I'm sorry."
"What have you to be sorry about?" Data asked him.
"I shouldn't have come here," the boy mumbled, his grip starting to loosen. "I shouldn't have followed you and Kay when you broke out of that Skin dump. Now, everyone's going through all this trouble and it's all my stupid fault!"
"Mikey…?" Data placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to see his face. "I do not quite understand what you are—"
"I wish I was an android!" Mikey snapped, keeping his head down as he roughly wiped his eyes. "Or, a robot, like Howard. Then you could be the one to fix me, and I wouldn't ever even need a sickbay, or any cancer doctor!"
"I appreciate your faith in me," Data said, rather sadly. "But, you must know that you are in better hands with Dr. Crusher."
"I've been so much trouble to everyone," Mikey cried, burying his face in Data's shoulder. "Ishta's right. You got a smart, Starfleet doctor to bring a ship all the way to this dustbowl planet just because she's your friend, when everyone knows I'm just going to die anyway. And then…"
Mikey pulled away and turned his head, hiding his reddened face from view.
"I keep thinking how…how I should have died back in those caves. How that would have been better. How, if I hadn't followed you…"
He wiped his sniffles on his sleeve and mumbled miserably into his medical gown.
"I mean…I've known I'm dying for a long time. My family is dead. I was going to die too. OK. No big deal. Because, you see, no one cared before. No one was bothered. One less mouth to feed, one less Skin to lug to market. And then… Then, I met Kay, and you, and…you care. And, now…when I die…"
He closed his eyes against his tears and sniffled, hard.
"I don't want you to be sad, Data, or Kay," he said. "I don't want anyone to miss me. I know what that's like, to miss people, and…" He shook his head. "That's why I'm scared now…and I wasn't scared before…"
"You know, Mikey," Data said. "It may anger Ishta to learn this, but she does not know everything. Dr. Crusher believes there is a very good chance that you will—"
"Dr. Crusher doesn't know what I feel," Mikey said, and leaned back against his pillow, his expression turned inward.
"What do you feel?" Data asked quietly.
Mikey regarded him, then swallowed and turned his eyes away.
"It's like, I'm in two pieces," he said. "There's the me part, you know? The part that thinks and hums and remembers… And, then there's the sick part. The sick part is everything else. Used to be, most of the time, the me part could control the sick part; keep it quiet, under wraps. But…"
He sighed and looked back at Data.
"I can't do it anymore," he admitted. "The sick part just keeps getting stronger. Before you came, I thought it would take me over. Then Kay attacked those Orion guards, and you asked us to trust you, to follow you out of that awful place and… It was like, the me part woke up again. And, I knew it was wrong, that I didn't have a chance, but I had to go with you. I had to try…"
"Come here, Mikey," Data said, opening his arms and gently pulling the boy into a hug. "Come here."
He looked down into Mikey's tearful eyes, and affectionately brushed the hair from his warm forehead.
"What you did was not wrong at all," he said. "Your actions have proven to me that you are very brave, Mikey. Brave enough to hold on to your hope – something too many of the others in that cavern prison had lost. Now, you fear that I will regret taking the time to know you and care about you because you think your life is near its end. Let me assure you, I will not. Knowing you has been my privilege, Mikey. I could never be sad about that."
"You say that now," Mikey mumbled. "But, I've seen what happens. I've seen it over and over… People you love die or get killed and you get so angry and it hurts so much… So, what's the point? What's the point of having hope and being brave and caring about people if we're all just going to die anyway?"
Data's arms tightened around the boy and he closed his eyes, his mind brushing cautiously against a memory he had consciously avoided accessing even before he'd installed his emotion chip.
A memory he only hesitantly opened now.
…Lal…
…Lal… I—
Data took in a sharp, hitching breath and blinked rapidly, trying to head off the lump in his throat, the tears burning in his eyes…
He'd known it would be like this: that the record in his mind would play out with an emotional overlay he had been incapable of fully processing at the time. Since activating the chip, most of his earlier memories had proven to be emotionally affecting on at least some level.
But, this…
He stood in the cybernetics lab, back on the Enterprise-D, his daughter gently propped within the diagnostic elevator, too weak to balance adequately on her own. He knew she was dying, and that she knew it too. But, he spoke the words just the same…
…Lal. I am unable to correct the malfunction… …We must say goodbye now…
"Data?" Mikey said worriedly, touching the tear tracks on the android's pale face.
Data quickly dried his eyes on his sleeve and gave Mikey's hand a little squeeze.
"You ask, why do we care?" he said a little hoarsely. "This is a question I have often asked myself. Why do I nurture a deep attachment to a cat I know will die in only a handful of years? Why do I endeavor to cultivate close friendships with humans, when I know death will inevitably separate us?"
"Do you know?" Mikey asked him.
Data swallowed, hearing his daughter's voice replaying in his head; seeing her looking up at him, her dark eyes so intense…so alive…
…Father… …I feel…
He sighed, and brushed Mikey's tousled hair back behind his ears.
"I know my daughter tried to teach me," he said. "A long time ago…"
Mikey smirked a little and leaned back in Data's arms.
"I knew you had to have a kid," he said. "Is she an android, like you?"
"She was," Data said. "Her name was Lal. I constructed her, using myself as a model. We had approximately two weeks together, before catastrophic, pan-systematic cascade failure caused a permanent and irreversible shutdown of her positronic brain."
Mikey sat up, staring into Data's pale face.
"She's dead."
Data nodded and lowered his eyes, his voice growing heavier with each word he spoke.
"It came on suddenly, with very little warning. I tried everything I could…did everything possible to stay ahead of the system failures. But, I could not keep up. The damage was too extensive. In the end, I…"
He swallowed hard, and blinked his reddened eyes.
"I had to tell her that I could not save her. There was nothing I or anyone else could do. But Lal… She knew."
"Was she angry?" Mikey asked.
"No…"
Data frowned a little, his expression distant as he finally allowed the memory to replay in its entirety, recalling the frustration and pain of her loss…the guilt of his inability to protect her…
…I am unable to correct the malfunction…
...I know, Father…
…We must say goodbye…
And then, he accessed her file…the memories he had recovered and downloaded into his own brain before they were lost or corrupted in the system collapse…
...I feel…
…What do you feel, Lal?...
He heard his voice through her ears, saw his face through her eyes, his white-gold features drawn and blank. And, he felt…
…I love you, Father…
He felt all that she had felt…
…I wish I could feel it with you…
…I will feel it for both of us…
Data's throat grew tight and his eyes stung, but when he could speak again his voice was bright with wonder.
"No, she wasn't angry," he realized. "She thanked me for her life…for the time we spent together, and all the opportunities she had to learn… She told me…"
…I love you, Father…
"She told me that she loved me," he said. "She said she felt enough love for both of us…"
He looked down at Mikey, his amber eyes shining with much more than tears.
"That is why we care, Mikey," he said. "That is why we hold on to hope, and risk heartbreak again and again. Because the love we share connects us, no matter how long or seemingly final our separation may be. When I think of my dear Lal, I feel the pain of her loss but – more than that – I remember her curiosity, her energy…the feel of her hand holding mine… I had a daughter, Mikey. My daughter loved me, and she loved her life. I could never resent or regret having known her, or treasuring the special connection that developed between us in those short weeks we had together. And, I will never regret knowing you, no matter what happens."
Mikey held on to Data, resting his head against his chest.
"Data?" he said.
"Yes, Mikey?"
"Can I tell you something true?"
Data's lips twitched into a fond little smile.
"Of course you can," he said.
"I used to want to die," Mikey told him. "I used to wait for it…especially at night, when I remembered… What things were like before? When my Dad would sing me to sleep, and my Mom used to let me be the one to plant her little seedlings outside in the vegetable garden… And…after missing them for so long, it got to be like the memories I had were more real than anything real that was going on, you know? Like, the Cardassians and Father and the Orions were just this awful dream I was having, and my family was waiting for me…back in the real world. But…"
"Yes?" Data prompted gently.
Mikey sighed, and burrowed deeper into his arms.
"But, when we started on that trip through the desert?" he said. "It was like, I started to dream ahead, not behind, you know? I started to wonder what tomorrow might be like…what I might be like if I wasn't so sick… And I tried to be like that. And, now…"
He sat up and looked at Data.
"Hope can really suck sometimes," he said. "When you don't have it, nothing matters. But when you do… You have everything to lose, you know?"
Data stared thoughtfully at the boy, nodding slowly.
"I think I do," he said. "Mikey, I believe that—"
"Crusher to Data," his combadge interrupted. "Is everything all right? I have sickbay all ready, if you—"
"Everything is fine, Doctor," Data assured her, giving Mikey a questioning look, which he answered with a determined nod. "Mikey and I are on our way."
"Acknowledged, Data," Crusher said.
Data stood up and opened his arms to the boy, but Mikey shook his head.
"I'm OK," he said. "I want to walk."
"As you wish," Data said, and held out his hand.
Mikey smiled and took it, giving Data's fingers a little squeeze.
"Data?" he said.
"Yes, Mikey?"
"Will you sing to me again…before they make me sleep?"
"Certainly," he said.
"Data?"
"Yes, Mikey?"
"Will you stay with me while the doctor works?"
"I promise, I will be right by your side."
"Data?"
"Yes, Mikey?"
"Are you scared?"
Data's expression softened, and he crouched down to the boy's eye level.
"I am," he said. "It's all right to feel afraid, Mikey. As you pointed out, there is a great deal at stake here. There is much that could be lost, but far more to gain if Dr. Crusher is successful."
Mikey nodded, and gave the android's hand a stronger squeeze.
"OK," he said. "I'm ready."
Kurak watched as the android and the human boy walked through the sliding doors, hand in hand. She still felt infuriatingly weak and woozy and far too nauseous to stand…yet, she knew the medications that had been pumped into her system weren't the only thing making her head swim.
"Hey you!" she croaked, and coughed. "Robot!"
"My name is Howard," Howard said cheerily. "How may I serve you?"
"Water," she demanded. "With ice! Who was that man who just left?"
"'That man who just left' is my current de facto owner."
"What's his name, idiot?"
"My master's name is Lieutenant Commander Data," Howard told her as he headed across the room to fill her order at the replicator.
"Impossible," Kurak grunted. "Commander Data is a machine. I saw him when I was on the Enterprise."
"You are correct," Howard said, handing her a covered cup of ice water and a flexible straw. "Lt. Commander Data is a Soong-type android. Current assignment: Second Officer, USS Enterprise-E."
Kurak sipped the water and cleared her throat.
"Didn't look like that when I saw him," she grunted suspiciously. "Talk like that either. What's his story?"
"Lt. Commander Data is a Soong-type android," Howard repeated in his helpful way. "Current assignment: Second Officer, USS Enterprise-E."
"By Kahless," she growled, and threw her cup back at him. "I'd be better off talking to a computer! Where is everyone, anyway? I want to know how long before I can get out of this damned bed!"
"Would you like to summon an emergency contact?" Howard inquired, efficiently retrieving the cup and placing it back on the replicator shelf for dematerialization.
"Call Melinda, Tu'Pari, Nat, Freja, anyone," she snapped. "And, find my daughter! I won't have her ranking in school slip because of this."
"I am here to serve," Howard acknowledged and returned to the console to carry out her demands.
As Kurak fell back against her pillow with a fierce sigh, Silarra watched from her crouched position among the domed ceiling's metal support braces and smiled.
"I think I've gathered enough to get started…" she said to herself, and closed her little holorecording device. "Time to begin setting this plan into motion."
A firm tap on her wrist, and her camouflaged form silently dissolved into silver sparkles, subtle enough for the woozy Klingon below to dismiss as a trick of the light.
To Be Continued…
References Include - TNG: The Offspring (some direct quotes); Suspicions; Touched By An Angel: Psalm 151 (references primarily derived from a memory of watching this episode with my Grandma. I looked up its title on IMDb).
Next Time: What's Silarra up to? Will Dr. Crusher be able to help Mikey? Stay Tuned! Thanks so much for your reviews! :D
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please let me know what you think! :D
P.S.: I just got this 'inspirational e-mail' from a magazine for children's publishing, and I thought it would be nice to pass on the message here in fanfic land 'cause it's the New Year and a good time to reevaluate, reaffirm, and reassert our inspiration, and also because it's something I happen to believe [enough for it to be the central theme of a story I wrote a few years ago: "The Day No One Died"]. :)
So, here it is:
"As writers, we can often feel frustrated, and even overwhelmed, by our perceived smallness...We wonder whether our efforts truly matter, and whether the world really needs our contributions.
"If we can give you one gift to begin 2017, it would be to erase that sort of thinking from your mind...Because it only takes one reader to be changed and moved by your words for you to set in motion a massive impact on this planet.
"We like to think that big changes in the world happen only by big people doing big things. But that's not true at all. The history of the planet is really the history of the "butterfly effect". Of people with vision inspiring others, who then inspire others.
"You are a critical part of this cycle,and you absolutely cannot give up and break this chain. Your butterfly wings can create a hurricane of humanity, decency and hope. But only if you are willing to fly."
I think this message is particularly relevant to fanfiction writers and fanfiction readers - to all the stories we create and enjoy together. Happy 2017, and thanks so much for reading my stories! :D
