3. Broken Promise
Commander LaForge ran to Engineering as fast as his battered body would take him. He must have followed that same route from sickbay to the main Engineering room a thousand times but never in his life had it been such a struggle. He'd stopped at Data's quarters only for a moment to pick up some of the more intricate tools he feared he might need. As he neared the end of his trek he had to pause and lean against the rail of the warp-core to catch his breath.
As he stood, panting, with the metal pipe the only thing holding him up, one of the younger Ensigns left his post. "Are you okay, Sir?" The boy's pale face was deeply concerned.
Geordi nodded, lacking the necessary air to give an audible answer.
"If you don't mind my asking, Sir, what happened? They brought Data through here about an hour ago and he looked like a mountain fell on him."
Under any other circumstances Geordi would have found the irony of him using that exact phrase hysterical. This time it only made him sick to his stomach. "That's exactly what happened." He managed to say as he regained his balance and stumbled towards room C-4 leaving the Ensign no other option but to return to his duties.
He knew there wouldn't be anyone already working on Data. Simply because Geordi was the only one here who had ever been inside his friend's head. Oh, sure, anyone could have looked up the android's physiology on the ship's computer. But actually trying to fix something was another matter entirely. You just don't trust a nurse with a first aid book to do the intricate job of a brain surgeon. That's what it amounted to.
When the door hissed open and he saw the wreckage on the table his heart jumped into his throat and his stomach tried to take its place. He suddenly felt faint and weak in the knees and this time it wasn't for lack of breath.
On the planet he had only concerned himself with the one potentially fatal injury on Data's head. Now that he got a better over-all look he could see why the boy had guessed so accurately. The Lieutenant Commander of the Enterprise was now sprawled haphazard on the metal exam table. His tattered uniform was almost unrecognizable as such. The shoulder on his left side had been crushed at the joint leaving his arm hanging limp and utterly useless over the edge. Frayed wires and metal circuits were exposed in various places where his uniform and synthetic skin had torn. Perhaps the Ensign's estimate of the android's condition had been a bit mild. He didn't look like a mountain fell on him. He looked like a whole planet fell on him. Geordi had to look away for a moment to regain his composure. He never did like it when his friends went to pieces, particularly this friend. He always took everything so literally.
It was strange, he thought, that his mechanical parts were now so visible yet to Geordi this limp, helpless form completely oblivious of his surroundings had never seemed more human.
LaForge shook his head to try to arrange his thoughts. He had to remind himself that for Data most of those injuries were easily fixed. Although for any human the majority would have proved fatal.
He picked up one of the many devices he had set on the counter. It was a scanner he used to monitor Data's neural activity. The mechanism hummed slightly as it scanned the subject. The reading seemed to jump out of the monitor and explode in Geordi's face.
0
That can't be right! He tried again but received the same result. He heart started racing uncontrollably. He did a quick diagnostic on the instrument that only told him that it was performing at optimum levels. The report was accurate.
At this point many people would have given up. Not Geordi. He straightened up, set his jaw and marched to one of the computer consoles. It was his best friend on that table and he had given his word that things would be fixed. He had every intention of keeping that promise.
It had been three hours since Jean-Luc Picard had given the Chief Engineer permission to leave sickbay. It was time to check up on things. He tapped his commbadge. "Bridge to Commander LaForge."
"LaForge here." Geordi's labored words came over the intercom.
"How is Commander Data?" He truly expected Data's voice to chime in and start giving a detailed account of exactly what went wrong and how it had been fixed. But that's not what he heard. There was a long pause before Geordi finally replied.
"Captain, I-I…He didn't…I couldn't…" His voice cracked uncontrollably.
Picard didn't need Troi to recognize the agony in his Engineer's words but he glanced in her direction anyway. Her face confirmed his fears. It was the very image of pain and grief. "Mr. LaForge, report!"
"I lost him." These words were little more than a whisper but they hit the bridge like a photon torpedo.