Chapter Two: Bounty Huntin' Aboard the Enterprise
Waking up, Deckard found himself lying on a bed in a futuristic looking room. Afraid of having gone in some trap, he quickly sat up.
On the other side of the room, a middle-aged woman looked intrigued at a computer display, turning around towards him when she noticed that he was awake. "Pulaski to Picard. Our guest is now awake and physically well from what i can tell." "Very well, bring him to conference room one. I'd like to have the whole senior staff around when talking to him for the first time. Picard out."
"Where am I? Who are you?", Deckard inquired. "You're aboard the starship Enterprise. My name is Pulaski, I'm a doctor. We found you on the surface of Nerewia II... But, we better wait with these things until we're at the meeting, the Captain of this ship, Picard, wants to talk to you. Do you think you're well enough to walk a few steps?" "Whatever, I'm fine." "Good. Follow me."
Leaving the infirmary, Deckard noticed his escort consisting of two armed guards. "Am I your prisoner?", he asked. The doctor smiled and replied "No. We're just... cautious because we've seen that you had a weapon with you, standard procedure when dealing with unknown guests of your nature. You don't need to worry, we're very peaceful and friendly." Deckard grinned, nodded. Excellent, he thought, first they bring me to a strange desert, intoxicate me, then put me on a spaceship into custody and want to interrogate me, very friendly indeed. I wonder how many days have passed, if SFPD is already searching for me.
When entering the conference room, Deckard was shocked. "What's that?", he asked, pointing at the android. "Lieutenant Data, an android", Pulaski exclaimed. "And before you ask your next question: The person over there is Lieutenant Worf, he's a Klingon." Deckard hadn't noticed the brown-skinned monster sitting at the far side of the table before. Now even more shocked, he inquired: "Is he a mutant? What happened to his forehead?" "They're all like this, it's normal for Klingons. Now please sit down."
Picard started questioning the visitor. "Dr. Pulaski informed us that your body shows signs of being exposed to radiation for a long time. While there was an unknown radiation on the planet where we found you, type and duration indicate that whatever happened to you was before. Can you enlighten us about that?"
"Why, I was on earth of course..."
"Really? Well, the vehicle which arrived together with you, our engineers reported that it's most likely made by humans, but our archives have no data about it's exact type. Where exactly do you come from? And, more important, which year?"
Deckard was annoyed by these stupid questions. "I'm from San Francisco, as I'm sure you already know. This interrogation is a farce. My spinner is a standard police-issue duty vehicle. Ah yes, and the year is 2019. What the hell do you want from me? Why did you bring me to that desert, and now aboard this ship? Was it on Mars? Why do you play these games with me? You might as well just kill me, I have no information important enough for you people to play such a show on me."
"We're not playing any games with you", a bearded man in his thirties said. He had some brutish quality reminding Deckard about his superior. Bryant must have been similar to this man when he was younger. "We didn't bring you to this planet, you just arrived there out of nowhere when we were nearby, by chance. If we hadn't taken you to our ship, you would have died within a few hours because of the poisonous atmosphere. And it's not Mars. This planet is called Nerewia II, we're many lightyears away from earth. And this is not the year 2019, we're well into the 24th century."
Deckard looked puzzled, he didn't believe what they told him.
Captain Picard asked the next question. "Tell us about your job, am I right that you are a police officer? The objects we found in your vehicle indicate this, as well."
"I'm a bounty hunter assigned to northern California. I'm not going to tell you anything more about my profession. Not before I know who or what you guys are and what you're doing with me."
"According to our history records, there were no 'bounty hunters' in California in the year 2019", Data said, half askingly.
"I bet you'd want me to believe that!", Deckard replied cynically. "And why do you look so.. flashy?"
Data tried to emulate the warmest voice he could accomplish: "I am an android, I look this way because I was built this way. I suppose you have never seen an artificial lifeform before?"
"Oh I've seen a lot of androids, but they all did a much better job at looking human than you do. What are you? An old K-3 model? They haven't been in use for at least ten years..."
"I see you are very interested in androids, Mr. Deckard", the Captain interrupted, "But for the moment, I'd like you to leave the room for an instant so that I can confer with my staff about what we just learned from you. We might want to ask you some more questions in about ten minutes, if that's alright for you?"
"Whatever you say, 'Captain'", Deckard answered, "but would you allow me to take that entity you refer to as Data with me, I've some questions I'd need to have answered, myself."
After exchanging some glances with his servants, Picard complied. "I agree, the sooner we can solve out all our questions, the sooner we might be able to find out about the nature of this encounter."
"And may I take my suitcase with me for that, there are some tools inside it I need to use..."
"Very well. Make it so."
"Captain! I must protest!", the Klingon shouted, "There is a weapon in that suitcase, it's an inacceptable security risk to leave Mr. Data alone with an armed bandit."
Picard made a dismissing gesture with his hands, "No, I think Mr. Deckard is not a bandit. He is confused in this situation, that's just understandable. I think he is a reasonable man who won't do anything stupid, and Mr. Data is well capable of taking care of his own security."
Deckard and Data went into conference room number two, while the rest stayed and started discussing the background of their strange visitor.
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The lights in conference room two dimmed, Rick Deckard and Lieutenant Data sat on different sides of the table, facing eachother.
"What's that apparatus you have there?", Data asked while the bounty hunter installed the Voight-Kampff machine.
"It will help me determine whether you're really what you claim to be or just another alien lifeform like that 'Klingon' or what it was."
"If it is just that what you want to know, I can easily prove the nature of my existence by showing you my..."
"No!", Deckard gestured to the android to shut up, "I want to evaluate by means I am trained with, I want to be one hundred percent sure. No time for stories and counterfeit 'proof' this time."
"Alright, I am willing to cooperate with you and go through your procedure. Are you ready to begin with it?"
"Yes. Please hold your head as still as you can so that this pointer here stays focused on your left eye... I'm going to ask you a series of questions, just say how you'd react in the given situations, the rest is done by the machine and my professional assessment. Reaction time is a very important aspect of the test, so please concentrate."
The machine started emitting some blueish light and a clicking sound, as Deckard began by asking the first question.
"You're casually sitting on your couch watching TV, when suddenly..."
"Pardon, what is 'TV', i cannot understand what this expression is referring to?"
"Television. You understand?"
"Oh, I see. Please proceed."
"So you are sitting. Watching television. Suddenly, you notice a wasp crawling up your arm. How do you react?"
The V-K machine didn't show the slightest reading while Data told his answer. "It might depend on the emission I was watching. If the programme wasn't more interesting than the animal I would probably decide to investigate the insect." A complete nonsense answer, the subject didn't at all get the point of the question. This, paired with the fact that the machine neither indicated an empathic reaction, Deckard was sure the test would be over very soon. He continued with a more provoking question.
"Fine. Next question. You are married to a woman you love very much. One day, you come home from work earlier. You enter your apartment to see in the living room... Your wife having hardcore sex with your best friend!"
"Well I would ask her why she feels the need to cheat on me with a blind man. I should be satisfactory to her..."
This answer was kind of acceptable, but the retinal reaction was still inexistent. That almost suffices, Deckard decided, maybe one more question then I'm already done with that.
"Why are you asking this kind of question, Mr. Deckard? Is there reason for me to feel offended?", Data asked.
"I don't ask just for kicks, 'Mr.' Data. The aim of the questions is to provoke an emotional reaction, and I'm not the one who wrote them..."
"I see, please proceed."
"Good. Now let's try this: You're walking in the desert. Suddenly, you discover a tortoise trotting along on the ground. You kneel down to examine her. You grab her and turn her around. She is lying on the back, the sun burning on her unprotected belly with impunity, she futilely moves her legs trying to turn herself around, but she can't. Not without your help. But you don't help. Just why, Data? Why are you doing that?"
"I... I would never do such a thing. I cannot imagine ever doing such cruel things to an animal. What a sadistic person are you, Mr. Deckard? There is nothing more I can say to that. Please proceed to the next question."
"There is no next question. The test is concluded. You're a very primitive type of 'andy."
Deckard smiled. This was just too easy. The firm who had manufactured this 'Data' entity hadn't even tried to give it a program for emulating human reactions. Overwhelmed with the joy of successful detection and because of the routine of delivering the test which he had applied so many times, Deckard for a moment forgot where he was, that this was not his area of jurisdiction. He grabbed his laser pistol inside the suitcase and pointed it quickly at the andy, shooting.
Data was equipped with much better reactions than it's emotional program (or the lack thereof) had implied. The android quickly jumped up to evade the laser beam, which in course hit it's well-protected stomach area, doing only minor damage. But Deckard was too experienced in dealing with such surprises, it took him less than a second to deliver his second and final shot, this time hitting the machine directly into the head, which immediately exploded. The android then dropped to the ground, disabled.
Deckard noticed the shrill alarm sound. They'd be coming for him. He didn't even have enough time to think about how bad a mistake he had just made, whether he should surrender or try to fight the others. Before he could say 'well, now I'm licked' a security team stormed the room and stunned him professionally, giving him no time to react.