Chapter Three

Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge was concerned about his friend, Data. Since boarding the shuttlebus six and a half minutes earlier, the anxious android had seemed strangely distracted. One might even say: preoccupied.

Geordi had tried to engage his attention with a description of his sister's home, her husband Wendie (short for Wendell), and their twin boys, Edward and Silvester, but Data had just sat there, staring out the window and drumming his fingers against the metal armrest so fast Geordi was surprised they didn't make sparks.

"Data, are you even listening to me?"

"I have heard every word you said, Geordi," Data told him, still drumming. "In fact, I could repeat back every word spoken on this trolley since we took off, if you like."

Geordi rolled his eyes behind his VISOR.

"Then will you stop that damned drumming and look at me? What's wrong with you, anyway? You can't tell me this…behavior…of yours is all down to that tribunal."

"It is not," Data said.

"Then, what is it?" Geordi demanded. "Honestly, Data, if I didn't know better, I'd say you're acting like you spotted a ghost back there!"

Data clenched his tapping fingers and faced his friend at last, his golden eyes very wide.

"You saw her too?"

"What? Saw who?"

At his friend's look of utter incomprehension, Data's expression fell. Hard.

Geordi frowned.

"Come on, Data, you're worrying me now. What the hell is going on?"

"Geordi," the android said, and swallowed nervously. "Would you think me…unstable…if I were to tell you that I think…perhaps…I did?"

Geordi furrowed his brow.

"Did what?" he asked.

"See a ghost!" Data said, and sank lower in his chair, his yellow eyes darting around as if afraid of being overheard.

"Impossible," Geordi told him.

Data tilted his head.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because there's no such thing!"

"You do not believe in ghosts?"

"You're telling me you do?"

"Not as such," Data admitted. "But, need I remind you, Geordi, of our…rather electrifying…encounter with the anaphasic life form, Ronin, who inhabited an heirloom candle and haunted Dr. Crusher's family for generations?"

"OK, OK, but that thing wasn't a ghost."

"Perhaps not in the strictest sense but, for all intents and purposes, it can be said that we, and Dr. Crusher, did experience a 'haunting,' of sorts."

"And now you think you may have experienced something similar?"

"No. Not exactly."

"Then, what's going on with you, Data?" Geordi said. "What happened back at that shuttlestop that's got you so rattled?"

Data lowered his eyes and twiddled his thumbs in his lap.

"I believe I saw Lieutenant Yar," he confessed in a mumble so low Geordi had to strain to hear him over the shuttlebus's engines, and the chatter from the other passengers.

"You saw what?"

"Lieutenant Yar!" Data pronounced; slowly, and with more urgency. "Or, at least, someone who resembled her with discomfiting exactitude. She walked past the crowd toward the JAG offices. I followed, but was unable to see which building she entered."

"You sound pretty sure that it was her."

"Geordi…" The android sighed. "If this had occurred before I installed my emotion chip, I would have had little cause to doubt what I thought I saw. Now…" He looked anxiously at his friend. "I saw her for only a fleeting moment, from behind. The record in my memory banks is exact, but… Do you think it possible that wishful thinking could be clouding my observations?"

"'Wishful thinking'?" Geordi prompted.

Data's expression grew distant, and he turned his eyes back to the rapidly passing land-and-waterscape outside the window.

Geordi waited for him to answer, then waited a beat longer. After another beat, the engineer sighed through his nose.

"Data," he said gently. "I think I know how you're feeling. We all mourned Tasha when she died, but you… It's got to be different, now that you're…"

"More 'in touch' with my emotions?" Data said, offering his friend a little smirk.

Geordi nodded.

"Yeah," he said. "But, Tasha Yar is gone. She's been gone for…oh, almost eight years now. She wasn't phased or displaced or kidnapped or pulled into a warp bubble. She died. Killed by that Armus creature. And, as I've had to learn – the hard way, I might add – dead people just don't come back to life."

"I am aware of that, Geordi," Data said, and lowered his eyes. "Perhaps all this… Losing the Enterprise...returning to Earth…" He pursed his lips, and released a sigh. "I must admit, our current situation has prompted me to dwell on other significant losses in my life. It is possible that all this dwelling has caused me to somehow…conflate…one woman's passing…with the passing of another…"

He blinked, and raised his head.

"My apologies, Geordi," he said. "I did not mean to dim the anticipation of meeting your sister and her family with such grim musings."

"Hey, don't worry about it, Data," Geordi said, and smiled. "Look, Ariana's not expecting us until this afternoon. How about we take some time to explore the neighborhood before we head over to the house? Get our bearings. If I remember right, there's this little corner bakery not far from the shuttlestation. They make the most amazing apple pies there. Gruyere and cheddar cheese baked right into the crust!"

Data scrunched up his face in something like horror.

"Cheese? In apple pie?"

Geordi laughed.

"I know, I never thought it would work either," he said. "But, you'll change your tune once you taste this stuff. Trust me, you're gonna love it."

As the two friends turned their minds from thoughts of loss, both past and present, to thoughts of tender, flaky pie crusts enrobing tart, juicy fruit fillings, a shadowed figure at the back of the shuttlebus had her thoughts focused entirely on them.

Tasha Yar had not seen Data follow her through the crowd from the shuttlestop, but she thought she had heard a spine-chillingly familiar male voice shout out her name shortly after she had passed through the doors of the main JAG office. She had tried to pass it off as a trick of the senses but, after making a quick inquiry at the main JAG office's main reception desk regarding the scheduled time and date of the Enterprise court martial, Tasha had dashed back to the – now largely diminished – crowd…

—Just in time to see the back of Data's impeccably groomed head disappear into the depths of the nearly full shuttlebus.

Faced with such a moment, a more cautious or rational personality may have stopped to consider the consequences of being recognized. After all, being a miracle of medical science might sound pretty marvelous…until the authorities took note of that miracle and marked you down as a featured specimen. But, as Tasha had always possessed a rather hotheaded temperament, the former security chief did not stop to think. At the sight of her android crewmate's unmistakable white-gold neck and slicked-back hair, Tasha's anxious heart gave a hopeful leap that sent her legs sprinting up the shuttlebus steps and her shoulders huddling into the densely packed pack of passengers just moments before the bus doors closed and the driver lifted off.

Now, the once-dead, mysteriously alive-again woman fixed her eyes on the engineer and the android who had once been two of the closest friends she'd ever had and realized...she barely recognized them. It wasn't just that they both looked older, or that the uniforms they wore were quite different from the style of uniform they had all worn some eight years ago. Something had changed in their expressions, their bearing...

A change that seemed to apply to Data, in particular.

"He laughed...!" she whispered to herself, not quite sure how to feel about what she was seeing. "A real laugh! I always told him he'd get the hang of humor once he stopped trying so hard, but..."

"What's that?" the man crushed against her side asked. "You say something, lady?"

"I said, how long to the next stop?" she covered.

The man strained against the pressing crowd to check his timekeeper.

"We should be landing in Walnut Creek in just under two min—"

"Next stop, Walnut Creek," the shuttlebus's computer drowned him out. "Please stand away from the doors until the trolley comes to a complete stop."

Geordi and Data stood and edged their way into the crammed center aisle as the shuttlebus made its smooth descent. Tasha started edging forward herself, offering the man beside her a quick smile as she said, "Looks like this is where I get off. Thanks."

To Be Continued…

References Include - TNG: Sub Rosa; Skin of Evil; Interface; The Next Phase; Remember Me; Parallels; Gambit; and the movie Generations.

Until next time! Reviews are always welcome! :)