Chapter Eleven
The scene in the hall was the kind of controlled chaos familiar to anyone who had served aboard a starship, as Starfleet personnel and androids alike moved to their emergency stations. If anyone noticed the facility's commander holding a phaser on one of the Oscar series, no one took the time to remark on it. Maddox led them straight to the main reactor area, with Data offering no resistance or conversation, to help keep his Oscar disguise intact. This part of the facility had been the most heavily modified, with the original power generators shut down completely and replaced with standard Starfleet dilithium reactors, so that complete retraining of the engineering crew would not be required.
Here there were no androids, apparently the status quo, and after whispering a warning to Data to stay quiet, Maddox went straight to a Vulcan who was working quickly on a panel. "Commander T'Lara, report," he barked.
"Intermix controls have failed," she replied, crisply, not yet turning to look at him. "We are attempting to compensate manually."
"Attempting? Can you compensate or not?"
Now he earned a look that might have been a glare even from a non-Vulcan. "I will know that more quickly if I am allowed to work," she informed him, and even Data could see that they must have clashed before. But Maddox did not retaliate and simply stepped back, a measure of how concerned he was. When he spoke again, he addressed his question instead to a human ensign nearby. "Do you know what caused this?" he asked sharply, and the unfortunate ensign nearly jumped out of his skin.
"Sir, no, sir, not with certainty. It may have been -"
"Was it sabotage?"
The ensign blinked. "Sir? No, I – I don't believe so."
He started to add more but was interrupted by T'Lara, her attention caught by Maddox's question, though again she did not look away from her work. "Sabotage, here? Impossible."
"I would like more reassurance on that point than your ego, Commander," Maddox shot back.
"I would expect you to be reassured by the very stringent security measures in place throughout this facility, Commander," was the brisk reply. "No unauthorized personnel could gain access to any systems, either directly or remotely." She paused, something on the panel catching her eye. "Mr. Varga, check readings for primary dilithium chamber," she ordered, and the ensign snapped to work.
"Power output fluctuating. Temperature 3 million Kelvin and rising."
"Realign the containment fields," T'Lara ordered, still struggling to perform the manual calibrations necessary to hold disaster off for a while longer.
Realignment was the standard procedure, Data noted, though it was soon apparent that it was not working. "Temperature 3.5 million and rising," Varga reported. "Field breakdown estimated in ten minutes."
Again T'Lara followed procedure and ordered more power diverted to the modulator assembly. This had no more success, however, and Varga began to look more than a little panicked. "Temperature 4 million and rising. Probability of cascade failure 48%."
Now there were no more usual procedures, and T'Lara hesitated a fraction of a second. "Reroute the magnetic field modulator," she ordered – a distinctly unorthodox approach, though her crew obeyed immediately.
Maddox leaned closer to Data, his voice quietly furious. "Stop this," he hissed.
"I did not start it," Data replied, truthfully. "Why are you so certain that I can stop it?"
"You're a very resourceful individual. Besides, you don't want your new friends to be destroyed, do you?"
"I came here in an attempt to preserve life, not destroy it."
"Then find a way to stop this." Maddox almost growled the words, raising the phaser and gripping it more tightly, leaving Data wondering if this threat to the man's work had unhinged him.
At that moment, another alert sounded. "Warning. Cascade failure in progress. Approximately nine minutes to implosion."
T'Lara immediately began evacuation procedures, but Maddox was only more angry than ever. "No! You have to stop this! Stay at your station, Commander! Data, you can still stop this!"
But Data was already calmly shaking his head. "I am afraid not, Commander. It is impossible to stop a cascade failure once it has begun, even for me."
"You did this." His finger on the firing button, Maddox pressed the phaser against Data's chest. Automatically, the android calculated the odds of gaining control of the weapon or otherwise avoiding the beam – all options generating unnervingly small numbers – and understood why he had so often been cut off when reciting such odds. He thought of his dream and how Maya had appeared next to him, and seemed to feel her presence again now.
"Commander." Another voice intruded – T'Lara had approached them while the rest of the personnel hurried out of the area. "Your actions are illogical," she said, taking in the scene before her with a faint frown. "We must evacuate, the station cannot be saved."
But Maddox ignored her. "You did this," he again hissed at Data, and T'Lara raised an eyebrow.
"You are accusing Oscar 57 of an act of sabotage?"
"He isn't -" Maddox stopped himself, realizing that this was not the time for that particular conversation. He lowered the phaser a fraction, though this did not significantly change the odds Data had just calculated. "Oscar 57 isn't capable of that, of course," he continued, managing a steadier tone. "But the androids' network may have been compromised."
T'Lara clearly found this highly improbable, and Data could not blame her. The network was completely self-contained, virtually impervious to external attack even without the additional security measures Starfleet had installed. Anyone attempting to breach that security would have to be inside the facility, and though Data had managed that feat, he well knew how difficult it would have been for anyone else.
Apparently choosing her battles, however, T'Lara said only, "Regardless of the cause, Commander, the situation is dire and we must evacuate. We can continue to theorize as to what happened from a safe distance."
"Of course, Commander," Maddox replied, stiffly. "Do whatever you need to do here, and we'll leave together."
Though not entirely reassured, T'Lara merely followed her own advice and finished what preparations she could make, ensuring that the area was cleared of all personnel before beginning to close the blast doors. They would not stop an explosion of this magnitude – few things could – but anything that would slow it down was still worth doing. "After you, Commander," she finally said, giving 'Oscar' another doubtful glance. The main doors would remain open the longest, the blast shields closing in a preprogrammed sequence, but they had only seconds in which to exit, and for a moment Maddox seemed deeply reluctant to do so.
At last he nodded once, tensely, motioning Data ahead of him. He kept the phaser low to help shield it from others, but T'Lara was still very aware of its presence. Whatever else might come of the events here, it was likely that Maddox would need to offer some official explanations for his actions.
Once away from the engineering area, they found themselves surrounded, though not by Starfleet personnel, many of whom were already at their evacuation points. Instead there were androids in motion all around them – though not nearly as quickly as they were capable of moving, Data noted – and Maddox was instantly suspicious. "Where are they going? Who ordered them to evacuate?" he demanded.
T'Lara was also frowning. "Perhaps they are programmed to try to reach the surface of the planet in the event of serious danger inside the facility," she suggested. "They could easily survive the surface conditions."
"Yes, they could, couldn't they?" Maddox agreed, glancing at Data. "You get to your assigned escape pod, Commander. I have some notes I need to get from my office before I leave. This android will evacuate with me. I've been working on some promising modifications to this particular model."
"Yes, sir," was T'Lara's cautious reply before she turned to leave, possibly relieved not to have to deal with Maddox any further.
After the Vulcan was gone and the rush of people and androids had begun to thin out, Maddox sighed theatrically. "Not much of a plan, Data," he said, shaking his head. "All you've done is ruin your career and very possibly cause the Federation to lose this war. Oh, and even assuming all your friends survive the destruction, they'll still be homeless... though of course you're far more worried about that then they are. How is that emotion chip working out for you?"
"Destroying this facility is no part of any plan of mine, Commander, I can assure you."
"Don't lie to me, Data. You sabotaged the reactor, or got one of the other androids to do it. So now we're going to find Norman. I want to know how it managed to so thoroughly disobey its programming."
He stopped one of the last androids passing by, Maisie 121. "Where is Norman?" he demanded.
Maisie tilted her head. "I am not programmed to respond in that area," she said, then turned and continued on her way.
"Not programmed -" Maddox echoed, stunned, before turning to Data. "What did you do to them?"
"I have done nothing to any of them. Perhaps they have simply begun to evolve."
"Evolve," Maddox scoffed. "Just tell me what you did."
"You are currently posing a serious threat to my life," Data replied, calmly. And Maya's, he thought, feeling a flash of anger despite the human's ignorance of the situation. "I have no incentive to lie to you."
Again Maddox seemed ready to ignore this, but paused. "Most humanoids would consider this an excellent time to start lying, if they thought it might save them... but perhaps you don't think like that. You'll never really be human, after all."
Though he might not have wished to resort to lying, Data had no qualms about trying anything he could think of to distract the human. "You still seem very concerned with my humanity, Commander, or more precisely my lack of it. Do you feel threatened by me?"
"What?" Anger flashed across Maddox's face, the question striking home in a way Data had not expected, given how little the human seemed to care about the opinions of an android – or possibly for the opinions of anyone else. "No, of course not. Humanity is not a zero-sum game. No, why would I feel threatened by you?"
"I do not know. Nevertheless, that appears to be the case."
The only reply Maddox made was to point the phaser squarely at Data's face, and for the first time he felt sure that Maddox was about to fire. His best chance, Data calculated, was to duck as low as he could and hope to stay under the beam while he brought Maddox down.
But before he could attempt it, there was a sudden flurry of movement as androids quickly began to arrive on the scene. First the Oscars appeared, surrounding their lookalike until Data was lost in a crowd of identical faces. Then came the rest – Annabels and Trudys, Alices and Hermans. None of them made any threatening moves, but the sheer numbers of them forced the surprised Maddox to drop back. Though he seemed to realize the futility of it, he again raised the phaser, apparently prepared to go down fighting.
Then the choice was taken away from him, as a hand gripped the phaser and wrenched it from his grasp. Norman tossed the weapon aside, and for a long moment the two stared at each other, the human finally looking away, unable to meet Norman's gaze any longer. "You win," Maddox said at last. "It was a better plan than I thought." He searched the crowd, fruitlessly seeking out one particular android, then glanced uneasily back at Norman. "So you lied, Data – when you said that you didn't do anything to them."
Data shook his head. "I did not. If they are different now, it is because they have changed. Evolved," he replied.
Again Maddox glanced at Norman, then sighed. "All right, have it your way. Now what are you going to do with me?"
"Nothing," Data replied, with faint surprise. "You will evacuate with the others. With the production facilities here no longer available, the Federation's interest in this planet will be minimal. I imagine you will be reassigned to the Daystrom Institute to continue your cybernetic work. You are still more than capable of making extremely valuable discoveries."
"Ah, the Daystrom Institute. The epitome of safe and careful," Maddox said, disdainfully, turned towards Data's voice even though he was still lost among the others. "You know I can still ruin you, Data. Don't think I won't."
"That is your decision. In any case, I will not be returning to Starfleet. If ruining my career is what you wish, you have already accomplished that."
Maddox was silent for a moment, then shook his head. "For what it's worth, Data, I've always wanted us to be able to work together. I hope you know what you're doing." Then he was gone, vanished into the corridors.
