Chapter 5:
Dawn didn't know what had just happened, but she couldn't deny that something was different about her. What's more, this sudden change in not only her appearance, but her perspective from being a voice in some guys head to being fully autonomous again only made her desire to find Buffy that much greater.
: Please, whoever you are, you must calm down: Data tried to urge her from his new perspective of being only a voice in her head.
'No, have to find Buffy,' Dawn was repeating it like a mantra, over and over in her head.
"Who are you? What the hell just happened? What did you do to Data?" Beverly accused, unconsciously backing away from the young girl/android beside Geordi.
Dawn instantly focused on the Doctor. "I…I don't know," she said in a whining, panicky voice. "I-I, I have to get to Buffy. I have to find Buffy. Please, where's Buffy?"
"She was assigned some quarters after she was released from Sickbay," the doctor said in light calming tones. "We'll call her down here immediately. Just please try to remain calm. I want to understand, but I'll need your help and cooperation. What have you done with Data?"
Dawn just shook her head, backing up against the bed that Data had been lying on just minutes before. "I…I-I-I, I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't done anything! I have to find Buffy. Please, please, I need to see my sister." Dawn pleaded, tears almost forming at her eyes with the words.
"Sister?" Beverly asked, unbelieving.
"Sister?" Geordi asked, disbelieving.
: Sister?: Data asked curiously.
Dawn rolled her eyes. "Yes, sister! Now where is she?" Dawn shouted now that her fear was starting to turn into anger at their patronizing of her.
'Just because I'm young does not mean that they can patronize me like that!' Dawn thought at Data.
: I must concur. Though humans often tend to lead that age conveys wisdom and therefore highly underestimate even the intelligence of most youth…: Data began to lecture.
Unconsciously, Dawn thought and said the next words aloud. "Data, not now!"
"You can speak with Data! Let him talk!" Geordi immediately demanded.
Dawn frowned at him and repeated, "Where is Buffy?"
: You know, even if the doctor and Geordi did know, it is possible that she may move to another location while you are traversing there, so I think it would be best if you just waited here while the doctor brings her to Sickbay. At most you would have to wait…: Data pointed out.
'How do I find Buffy?' Dawn interrupted him.
: You could ask the computer.: Data helpfully informed her.
"Computer! Where is Buffy?" Dawn immediately shouted.
"Crewman listed as 'Buffy' is currently in assigned guest quarters 2041 on Deck 13, Port side." The Computer, ever the helpful instrument, monotonely answered.
Immediately, Dawn rushed past the doctor/engineer couple and into the primary Sickbay facility, where she soon spotted the exit. A couple of nurses and Security guards left in the Sickbay tried to get in the girl's way, but just because she no longer looked like Data did not mean that Dawn was not still an android. She had no intention of hurting anyone, she just wanted to get to her sister, so when the guards and nurses got in her way, she went with her first impulse to just push them out of the way, not expecting the reaction she got, which was to have bodies suddenly flying away at her touch. After the first three or four casualties, no one else tried to stop the girl as she quickly left Sickbay and headed as fast as her android legs could carry her to Deck 13, Port side.
However, just before she was out of the medical area, one of the Enterprise's "guests" spotted the girl tossing guards out of her way left and right.
"Lil' bit?" Spike asked in confusion and slight fear.
In Buffy's quarters, Deanna and Buffy were just finishing up talking about Buffy's mother's death, and how it had affected the girl. Shortly after describing how she felt about all of it, Buffy began to break down and cry, while Deanna just held her and was generally just there for her. After a few minutes of this, Buffy gathered herself and sighed deeply.
"Thank you for listening Deanna," Buffy said, "I, I really needed this."
"It's perfectly all right Buffy. In fact it's sort of in my job description to help you with this," Deanna comforted, her arms still around Buffy's shoulders. "You're mother sounds like a wonderful and very special woman."
Buffy smiled through her tears. "She was. The funny thing is though…ten minutes ago in Sickbay…I could barely remember having a mother. Then there was that whole vision thing when you say that you contacted me telepathically, and I see a woman who I know now is my mother, another older man that for all I know could have been my father, and then another girl that looks about my age. Then in the hall, when we did the telepathy thing again, five minutes later…I'm telling you everything that I remember about my mother. What if…"
Deanna suddenly caught on to what Buffy was getting at. "What if using your telepathy is jogging your memory!?" Deanna finished. Buffy nodded vigorously.
"Do…do you want to try again? Maybe this time you can try and initiate contact," Deanna suggested, releasing Buffy and simply sitting beside her.
Buffy said nothing, but just nodded and wiped away some tears and sniffled a little, then sat straighter and stared deeply into Deanna's eyes. After several minutes of doing nothing but staring hard into each other's eyes, Buffy finally gave up and just thought in general, 'Is something supposed to happen?'
Deanna's eyebrows raised up as she responded telepathically, 'I think "something" just did,' she pointed out. Buffy's eyes widened in surprise as she heard, clear as a bell, the Counselor's words. 'I heard you!' Buffy thought 'at' her.
Deanna smiled and nodded, 'And I heard you,' the half-Betazoid answered.
'So…how did I do it? I mean, I've been trying for like the last five minutes to do that link thing that we did the first time, but… And then I just thought my words at you…and you heard them?'
'That's generally how it works,' Deanna told her. 'As for the initial link that you experienced, I think that was a combination of your telepathy being activated, and those first memories being unlocked by the telepathic contact. Do you remember anything else? Anything at all?'
'No, not yet any—' Buffy stopped and slowly turned her head towards her door.
"Buffy? Is anything wrong?" Deanna asked aloud.
'Dawn…?' Buffy thought to the empath.
'Who's Dawn?' Deanna thought back.
In response, Buffy got to her feet and slowly made her way to the door, which opened upon her approach. "I'm not sure," Buffy answered the Counselor's question aloud. She then stepped out into the hall and started down in the direction of the others' quarters, with Deanna right on her tail.
"Buffy? What's wrong?" Deanna asked when they passed Cordelia's quarters without stopping or showing any true sign of their direction.
"I don't know. It's…sort of a feeling. Something…something's coming…" Buffy muttered as they trekked on.
About seventy meters in front of Buffy and Deanna, and a deck above, Dawn was running as fast as she could, using Data's knowledge of the layout of the ship to get herself to her sister's quarters as quickly as she could, which considering the android legs she was using was an almost blinding speed.
: Perhaps if you exercised a small amount of patience, I am sure that we can guarantee you will see your sister soon: Data tried to calm Dawn down.
'Stop trying to stop me Data!' Dawn yelled at him. 'I can find my sister on my own. And I do not want to just sit around being asked stupid, inane questions that no one knows the answers to! I have to find Buffy. I have to. Where can I get to the next deck?'
: There is a Jeffery Tube access down at the end of the next corridor. : Data helpfully informed the spirit possessing his body.
Immediately Dawn made her way down the specified corridor when almost out of nowhere no less than a dozen guards with phasers, two with phaser rifles, blocked Dawn off from her destination, cornered her on two sides, and flanked her from the hallway she had just exited. The distraught girl only stopped long enough that it could be called a pause to judge the security in front of her. Then she continued on her path and barely acknowledged knocking the four of them into the walls with hardly a glance, continuing to the Jeffery tube.
One of the remaining officers raised his phaser, set on heavy stun, to fire, but Dawn disappeared before he could even get a shot. He sighed and lowered his weapon and tapped his commbadge to inform the Doctor of their progress, or rather lack of it.
Buffy and Deanna were just walking down the hall when all of a sudden a squad of Security ran by them, with very grim faces. Buffy frowned and asked the Counselor with her mind, 'What's their deal?'
'I'm not sure. Perhaps there is a situation with Spike?' Deanna asked innocently, a small grin on her face and in her tone.
Buffy mimicked the sentiment, and then suddenly frowned when she felt that same pressure in her gut that had caused her to leave her quarters in the first place. For some reason…it was very familiar to her.
"Up ahead…whatever it is, it's up ahead," Buffy said aloud and started walking again.
Deanna walked right behind Buffy, concern etched into her face at the young girl's behavior. But more because she was concerned that Buffy was right about her feeling than at her being sick or affected in her biology after coming through the Phenomenon in Engineering.
They did not have far to go before they came to what they were looking for. Up ahead was a sharp turn in the corridor, and suddenly as the two women watched, one of the Security that had rushed by them but minutes ago was flying through the air before hitting the hull with a loud thud and sliding down to the deck, unconscious.
The same thought instantly shot through both Betazoid and Slayer's minds, 'What the hell was that?' They got their answer in the next instant when two more guards backed cautiously to help their fellow officer, holding their weapons at the ready.
Then came Dawn. Her head tracked immediately to Buffy, whose own eyes suddenly went wide at the girl that she had seen at the end of her vision earlier, as well as her sudden connection as to who this girl was. Plus the sight of the thin girl in a Lt. Cmdr. Yellow collared Star Fleet uniform was rather striking in its own right.
"Dawn!" Buffy shouted at the sight of the young girl in the military uniform.
"Buffy!" Dawn shouted back, immense relief shooting throughout her entire being.
Deanna too recognized Dawn from the vision she had shared with Buffy, and was more surprised at her presence than that Buffy knew who she was. The two girls ran at each other and embraced in a bone-jarring hug and didn't let go of each other for at least a full minute.
During that minute, the Security forces that had been chasing Dawn since she'd fled Sickbay quickly surrounded the two, weapons up and armed. Deanna tried to get them to stand down, but she was still too distracted by Dawn's appearance to respond in time before the two broke up.
"What are you doing here?" Buffy asked when she and Dawn released from their hug.
"Looking for you," Dawn answered with a slight tremble in her voice. "Buffy, what is going on? The last thing that I remember is talking with Willow and Tara in their room at school."
Buffy frowned. "Who's Tara? And…wait a sec, you know Willow? Ofcourse you know Willow, she's my best friend and you're my sister. Dawn, how did you get here?"
Dawn frowned slightly but before she could answer, the Security Chief interrupted.
"Excuse me," a stern looking woman with short cropped black hair barked at the two "girls". "I'm real sorry to break up whatever kind of reunion this is, but we have orders to detain this…girl, or whatever she is, that has taken control of Commander Data's body. Now miss, I have to ask you to step aside so we can take her back to Sickbay."
Buffy immediately did not like this woman. Other than her tone, her words, and her general gruff attitude, there was just something that rubbed her the wrong way with Buffy. Deanna could immediately sense a sudden and rapid change in Buffy's emotional state as the blonde came to the decision to confront the Security Chief. The Counselor knew she had to get in there and stop anything before it had a chance to get started.
"Buffy!" Deanna called over the shoulders of the Security officers. The yellow-collared officers immediately made a path for the Betazed until she was beside the two young women. Troi thought it wise to deal with what she knew she could handle first, she turned to the Security Chief.
"Lieutenant, stand down! That's an order!" Deanna ordered in her best ever 'Command' voice. The Security Chief straightened at the Counselor's voice, which signaled all the other Security officers to do the same. Deanna was finally able to worm her way through the tight crowd.
"Buffy, it's going to be all right, just trust me," Deanna said to the confused young woman when Deanna got to the center of the group. Buffy nodded her head and answered 'I do.' Deanna couldn't help smiling back at that.
All ease of expression faded from the Betazoid's face as she turned back to the Security Chief. "Now, what seems to be the trouble here?" the Counselor asked in her diplomatic voice. Though it was obvious to anyone with eyes in the visual light spectrum that she was pissed at the Security officers.
The Security Chief, still standing fully erect, answered back as any good Star Fleet officer would a superior. "This…young woman, Sir, is a result of the power surge that Commander Data received in his quarters. When he awoke in Sickbay, this creature took control of his body, changed it, and escaped the confines of Sickbay, and we've chased it here."
"My sister is not a thing!" Buffy exclaimed in distaste. Deanna held up her hand, and that and the half-alien woman's glare held her back.
"Dawn?" the Counselor tentatively asked the android girl. The girl jerked in surprise at the use of her name by a stranger, but when she saw the question in the woman's eyes, she slowly nodded her head to confirm the question, holding tighter to Buffy as well.
"What happened to Commander Data?" Deanna asked, once she saw the girl was listening to her.
Dawn blinked, again, in surprise, but answered, her voice extremely timid as she was obviously very afraid. "He-he's here. He's not hurt. And I can hear him, the same way that he heard me before…" Dawn then gestured downward, indicating the changed body. Troi nodded in understanding.
"I'm sorry if I did anything wrong, but…" Dawn started to speak, "…but, when I woke up, I was confused and I didn't know what was going on, I still don't know what is going on, and then I heard Buffy was on board, or at least nearby and all I knew was that I had to find her. I had to get to my sister because…she would make it all better. She's always protected me, and helped me, and saved me. Always."
Buffy, who was standing right next to Dawn, just smiled sweetly at the face she now remembered so vividly, close to tears with the words the Key had just spoken. Buffy frowned suddenly. 'Key…?'
In the next instant, flashes of memory, so many, so intense, Buffy was soon drowned in the memories of her former life, of her past, of her destiny… And then everything went black.
Deanna was no clue the wiser about what happened than any of the others present. One second Buffy had been perfectly fine, looking lovingly up at her taller, but younger, sister and the next, her eyes rolled up into her head and she collapsed and began to have convulsive fits. She would have fallen to the floor if the android girl Dawn hadn't been holding onto her and caught her.
"Buffy? Buffy!? BUFFY!" Dawn became frantic once more.
:We must get her to Sickbay. It is the only way to know what is happening to her.: Data advised. Dawn nodded to the subconscious suggestion. "Sickbay. We have to get her to Sickbay," Dawn demanded to the kindly eyed Councilor.
Deanna Troi nodded and glared at the Security forces to back off as she tapped her commbadge. "Computer, three for Emergency Transport to Sickbay!"
Just before they disappeared into the sparkle of lights, Deanna saw Dawn take Buffy's hand into her own and the tears leaking down the android's face to land on the Slayer's skin. 'Energy creature or not, these two truly are sisters. I only hope that they stay sisters for longer than these few minutes.' She thought to herself.
It was another hour before Buffy awoke. All the "guests" had been told of the incident and had instantly reported to Sickbay to check on their friend. As well as meet yet another stranger that seemed to be a part of their group.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Xander asked for the twelfth time.
Dawn/Data rolled her eyes again. Still in her youthful female form, though according to all of Geordi's scans and tests, she was Data, just with a different appearance. The problem came when they found no one, not even Dawn or Data, knew how to reverse the process and change "Dawn" back into "Data" of if it even was possible.
"I told you Xander," Dawn repeated for the eleventh time, her voice sounding extremely annoyed, "I'm Dawn. Dawn Summers. Buffy is my sister. Unfortunately, other than everyone's names and everything that Data knows, that is all I can remember."
"Xander, please, calm down. Buffy's going to be fine. Doctor Crusher made sure of that," Willow attempted to sooth her friend. Xander began pacing again, what he'd been doing between the times he tried to interrogate Dawn.
The Captain, having a rather large stake in the situation was in attendance as well, and continued from where Xander had interrupted. "Now, please bear with me…Dawn is it? I'm trying to understand what happened. You are saying that when you regained consciousness, you found yourself inside Data, and only when his Emotion chip was activated did you become fully aware of his body, or even him of you?"
Dawn just nodded again. Then she shrugged and backed it up with, "Well I'm really not too certain that Data could have been aware of me with his Emotion chip off. It seems, to me anyway, that most of his primary cognitive and personality factors revolve around it. I'm not even sure what would happen if Geordi would deactivate the chip. I might go back to whatever stasis I was in when Data activated…or I would remain in control and Data would go into that stasis and I would just no longer be aware of him."
Picard, and most of the people there, sighed in frustration. Dawn had been giving them the same answers over and over, just in varied formats. And Geordi had already dismissed the idea of turning off the Emotion chip. Like Dawn said, there was no guarantee on what would happen.
Deanna, however, had a thoughtful look on her face, until finally she spoke what had been on her mind. "Dawn…do you remember what was happening, or what happened just before you found yourself in Data's body?" the Counselor asked.
Dawn tilted her head just so, the same way that Data did when he was "thinking long and hard" on a given problem. And as with Data, she looked back with the answer after a few seconds.
"I…I-I…I think so… I'm…not really sure. I… I, I-I remember…space."
"Space?" several of the group of strangers repeated. Dawn nodded, her eyes glazed, lost in the memory.
"Yeah…I-I'm pretty sure it was…space. And then…" Dawn trailed off as she struggled to put the vague memories into a feasible order. "It's all right, take your time," Deanna supported. After another minute, "And then…something, I have absolutely no idea what, it-it caught me. At first I…I think I was scared, panicked maybe. But after a while, I…can't be too sure how long, I felt…better about it. It, whatever it was, was kinda comforting. Like a security blanket, protecting me from the cold of space. And then, a long time later, like I said I have no idea how long this was, another thing, exactly the same as the first one, showed up and I think…they were talking about me. And they were excited, or happy about something. And then…after that I blacked out and the next thing I know…I'm in Data."
The Star Fleet crew shared several long glances between themselves, understanding more about the vague descriptions than even the one that had given them did. The other strangers were completely baffled, and also thought that Dawn was a complete nutcase.
"Do you remember anything before that?" Deanna prompted again.
Dawn's eyes glazed over for another minute. After unexpectedly long wait, Dawn finally just shrugged, an unhappy confused look on her features. "Not really. I mean, nothing really outstanding. I know that I lived on Earth, in America, and in California. Buffy is my sister, and our mother died recently, and the names of the others, who I think were Buffy's friends. Except for Spike. He was the only one that treated me with respect. At least I think he was…"
"I think that's enough for now, thank you for your cooperation Dawn," Deanna excused the confused young girl. She turned to her fellow officers in the room and made an indication, which they all recognized, that she would like to see them outside, away from the group for the time being.
All the Star Fleet officers, save two Security officers at the entrance, exited the lab and went into Doctor Crusher's office. "What is it Counselor?" the Captain asked the nanosecond the doors had fully closed.
Deanna turned to regard each of her friends. Captain Picard was standing, resolute and a pillar of emotional strength and fatherly concern, as he felt towards the entire ship, but at the moment was directing a large piece of that directly at her. Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge had taken a seat in on of the Doctor's visitor chairs and was staring with concern at her with those bizarre blue optical implants. She could also sense a great deal of concern over his friend, and a desire to understand what had happened to him. And the Doctor Beverly Crusher, her closest friend, other than her own fiancée, for all these many years they had served together on board the Enterprise. Beverly was only concerned with her patients' welfare and at the moment nothing more. Unfortunately, Deanna was about to change all of that.
"Dawn is Data," the Counselor blurted, "And Data, from what I am sensing, has always been Dawn. Without putting too fine a point on it, they were made for each other. Literally. I don't understand it myself, but their personalities are so well meshed together that the only difference I could find between them was that one is of a fifteen year old human girl, and the other is that of a thirty year old android. And Dawn, as near as I can focus on her, rather than Data, is telling the truth, the whole truth. Data is mostly concerned about what happened, but he wasn't feeling any fear or great concern directly about Dawn. In fact his concern was mostly for Dawn and her feelings over finding her sister."
"Counselor, are you saying that Data now has…two personalities within him?" the Captain was trying to understand.
Deanna shook her head. "Not exactly. Data is still "Data" but now there is also "Dawn". Without understanding what she really is or came from, there's no way to say if she is a second personality, or something that was always meant to be apart of Data, but wasn't added until now. Like…like Data's Emotion Chip. He wasn't first activated with it, and lived most of his life without it. Now, none of us can imagine Data without emotions, and I think this might be another part to it."
"Wait a moment Counselor," the Doctor interrupted from her chair behind the office desk, "Are you telling us that this-this…"Dawn" is actually supposed to take over Data's body? That he's supposed to be transformed into a fifteen year old girl?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying. How else can you explain that Data's body actually accepted the energy from the phenomenon, rather than let it overload his power matrix, or overtax his systems, the energy actually worked with Data's systems, making them better, more efficient even. And then there is the fact that Data was transformed at all. To require a transformation like that requires a great deal of energy, and time to reconstruct Data's basic systems to handle the change. Data was unconscious for less than a day, and the moment that he awoke, he transformed. Geordi, can you give a rough estimate, that if Data hadn't been pre-prepared for this kind of alteration of how long even an evolved energy being would need to prepare him?"
Geordi's eyes went wide as he considered the problem, going over every bit of information he could recall about Data's makeup, and had his answer almost immediately. "Even for an evolved being, unless it was a Q, it would need…at least a week, to have every last diode converted with absolutely no fault. And that's what my scans in there confirmed. Data…er, Dawn is as fully functional an android as Data ever could be. Except for that weird energy that power surge put in him, there's absolutely nothing wrong with him. Except that he's a her."
"I think this actually all stems from the same source," the Captain inputted into the train of thought. Deanna found herself agreeing with what the Captain was thinking.
"I agree Captain," she supported. "If not this sector of space, then most definitely with our guests. Once their memories return, I'm sure that we'll have all the answers we'll need."
"Yes, I quite agree on that as well Counselor, however…" the Captain was stopped when a very loud and very terrified feminine scream tore through Sickbay. All the Officers and the guests quickly raced out to the source, a terrified and struggling Buffy.
Several Security officers were racing forward to hold her down on the Bio bed until the force fields could be put in place, but they were having an extremely difficult time of it. Until Buffy decked one unconscious leaving only two, which was just one not enough. Almost with ease, Buffy tossed the Security force off of her as she had Beverly when she'd woken up earlier, and jumped up into a ready position as she had before. Except this time she didn't freeze when the officers came up with their phasers, this time she attacked.
"Where is the bitch?!" Buffy screamed, rage echoing throughout her form. "WHERE'S GLORY?!"
TBC…