"Order. Order, please. This is case 23-0157-00087, In the matter of the android Data. Before we begin," Louvois looked out over the JAG meeting room. "Who are all these people?"
"Your Honor," Soriana said, "as this hearing will determine the fate of a beloved crew member, and one of only two known Soong-type positronic androids in existence, it is of interest to many Federation citizens and others. Such hearings are public by default, unless you have grounds to close them."
"I'm aware of that, counsellor," the judge responded. "This hearing will remain open as long as the gallery is not disruptive to the proceedings. I will take Starfleet's opening statement."
The human commander nodded to the Vulcan ensign sharing his table before rising. "Your Honor, Starfleet will show unequivocally that the android under consideration is a mechanical device, not a life form. It was the life's work of a human being, and while it is a remarkable invention, its simulation of human speech and reactions are not the same as human emotion or experience. It is the property of Starfleet, full stop."
"For Lieutenant Commander Data?"
Soriana rose. "Your honor, for the past twenty-four years, Starfleet has unambiguously treated Data as a sapient life form and a Federation citizen. In fact, the single dissenting voice to Data's sapience in that entire period is one man with an obsession in seeing Data objectified and destroyed - Bruce Maddox. We will show that Maddox's singular psychotic and dangerous obsession with Data-"
"Objection!" Maddox yelled.
After a moment's pause, Louvois barked, "Well, Commander? What's your objection?"
"They're smearing me as some sort of crazy person! I am a respected cyberneticist, and my work with Data-"
"I am not listening to your arguments at this time, Commander. Do you have an actual objection under the Federation's Rules of Civil Procedure?"
Maddox conferred with Trotek. "No, your honor."
"Proceed, Mister Turhal."
"Your Honor, Bruce Maddox has a psychotic and dangerous obsession with Data, which motivates his denial of Data's clear and unambiguous sapience. We will show that Maddox's delusion regarded Data is not shared by actual experts in cybernetics, and that his status is unambiguous under existing Federation law. Thank you."
Louvois nodded. "Starfleet, your first witness?"
Ensign Trotek addressed the court this time. "Plaintiff calls Commander Bruce Maddox, PhD to the stand as an expert witness."
Soriana rose, "Your honor, we dispute the extent and nature of Bruce Maddox's expertise, but we are comfortable demonstrating this on cross-examination."
The human sat in the witness chair and presented his hand and retina to the authentication panel. "Verify, Maddox, Bruce, Commander. Current assignment, Associate Chair of Robotics, Daystrom Technological Institute. Major papers. On a Forensic Model of Positronic Reconstruction, Daystrom Review. Algorithmic Modeling of Dynamic Networks, Journal of Experimental Cybernetics. Voltage Imbalances in Soong-Type Androids, Tellarite Engineering."
"Doctor Maddox," Trotek asked, "what is your expertise in the field of cybernetics?"
"Just as the computer said," Maddox smiled, "I'm a roboticist with the Daystrom Institute. The foremost expert on the propagation of Soong-type androids."
"Data is a Soong-type android?"
"Yes. One of two known, and the one whose current whereabouts are known."
"The other android's location is unknown?"
Maddox nodded. "The android called 'Lore' was… 'incarcerated' at a rehabilitation facility on Tau Ceti Gamma before escaping."
"In your opinion, Lore was not an incarcerated criminal?"
Maddox scoffed. "No, Lore was a malfunctioning machine. They treated it like a person, tried to 'reform' it. They should have reprogrammed it."
"And your expert opinion is the same for the android called Data?" Trotek inquired.
"Of course. They run on nearly identical hardware; Doctor Soong made some programming changes that caused the Data model to respond as intended."
"Thank you, Doctor Maddox. In your expert opinion, what are the chances that you will be able to reinstall the Data software on its positronic matrix following your experiments?"
"One hundred percent," Maddox pronounced.
"No further questions."
Louvois nodded to Soriana's table. "Your witness."
The Hallian stood and slowly approached the seated cyberneticist. "Doctor Maddox, are you aware that your statements given today are recorded and, if false, can be used as the basis of a court martial?"
"Of course."
"How many peer reviewed papers in robotics bear your name as primary author?"
"Twenty-nine," he beamed, proud of his accomplishments.
"And how many of those papers are under investigation on suspicion of plagiarism or fraud?" Soriana met his gaze, as close to the witness as she could get away with.
"None! Your Honor, that's an offensive question," Maddox tried.
"Goes to the credibility of the witness, Your Honor," Soriana smiled.
The judge nodded. "That it does. But make sure you're going somewhere with this, Mister Turhal."
She just nodded. "Under penalty of perjury, you claim that none of your twenty-nine papers are under investigation?"
"That's right," he snarled.
"For the record, computer," Soriana addressed the authentication panel, "how many papers authored by Bruce Maddox are under investigation?"
"Seventeen papers listing Maddox, Bruce, Commander as an author are currently under review," the male voice intoned. Murmurs erupted from the audience, but were quickly quenched by a single word from the judge.
"Commander, would you like another opportunity to answer the question?" Soriana asked with feigned innocence.
"Objection," Trotek added calmly. "She's badgering the witness, your honor."
"Sustained. But hold a moment," Judge Louvois jumped in. "Commander, were you honestly unaware of these challenges to your papers?"
"Entirely, sir," Maddox insisted.
"Counsel for Data, did you or your client have something to do with these papers being under review?"
"Yes, your honor," Soriana admitted, and tried to ignore the rising rage coming from Maddox. "Faced with the prospect of being forced under his knife, Data made a thorough analysis of Maddox's shoddy and mediocre work. We were appalled when Data shared with us that the majority of Maddox's papers included work taken from other researchers without reference. Plagiarism on a massive scale, Your Honor."
"All in two days?" she asked incredulously.
"He's a fast reader, Your Honor."
Maddox stood, fuming. "It's a ploy! A cheap trick! Those papers are my original work!"
"Control yourself, Mister Maddox," Louvois snapped.
"Sir, under the circumstances," Trotek suggested, "perhaps a recess to give the Commander time to review these allegations so he can adequately address them?"
Soriana jumped in, "Your Honor, we would rather finish our cross-examination and the presentation of our rebuttal expert. Then we would happily agree to a recess before the ensign rehabilitates his witness."
Louvois nodded. "That's fair. Proceed."
Soriana smiled inwardly; the ploy had flustered Maddox even more than she had hoped. Now that she could sense his anger and fear, it was time to strike.
"A copy for the court," Soriana announced, sliding a pad to the judge, "and one will be sent to the record. Mister Maddox," she asked, reading from the pad in her own hand, "what is the correct micro-current to apply to address a seventh-order resonance failure in a tertiary positronic buffer?"
Maddox paled. "What?"
"A seventh-order resonance failure. If one develops in a tertiary buffer, what is the correct micro-current to rectify it?"
"I… would need to look that up. We have computers for that information."
Soriana frowned dramatically. "Are you aware of how long it would take a seventh-order resonance failure to cascade into the secondary buffer?"
He thought. "Around a half hour."
"Two point six minutes, Commander. Congratulations; in the time we've been discussing it, you've fried the neural net."
"Objection! Conclusory!" Trotek insisted.
"I withdraw my last comment," Soriana shrugged. "There are five ways to configure an ancillary logic gate in a sensory node. Can you name them?"
The list of questions continued for ten solid minutes before the judge ordered them to move on. "No one expects Commander Maddox to be a computer himself," she quipped.
"Those questions have a more specific purpose, Your Honor," the attorney claimed. "But we can move on. Mister Maddox, do you have an accurate estimation of your own abilities?"
"With respect to my field? Yes, definitely," he eyed her warily.
"You don't have a megalomaniacal streak? An insistence that you are the greatest cyberneticist in the galaxy, perhaps?" She said it lightly, but with an undercurrent of accusation.
He laughed. "No, of course not. I am a leading researcher in my field, but I say that based on my work and that of my colleagues. I know I have limits. That's part of how I can be confident that I am at the right point to carry out this experiment."
Now to spring the trap. "Would you say you are a greater expert than, for example, Doctor Ira Graves?"
"No, I wouldn't go that far. But I am an expert in my own right."
"Thank you. Your Honor, we would like to call our rebuttal witness, please. He has made himself available by subspace communication."
The computer sounded calmly. "Remote verification. Graves, Ira. Three-time recipient, Daystrom Institute Advancement Award. Five-time recipient-"
"Halt," Maddox ordered. "Your Honor, Doctor Graves is acknowledged to be an expert in the field. We don't need his record read."
Picard stood. "To the contrary, your honor. Doctor Graves stands as a rebuttal witness to Commander Maddox. Since Maddox's full record was read without objection, so should Graves's."
"Overruled," Louvois said. "Everyone sit back."
The full record quite thoroughly dwarfed Maddox's, which was the entire point.
"Doctor Graves," Soriana began, "can you tell me what micro-current is needed to address a seventh-order resonance failure in a teritary positronic buffer?"
"Eight or nine pico-amps, depending on.. wait, you said tertiary? Nine pico-amps. And you better have that tool ready because it cascades in under three minutes," he croaked. "Why d'you need to know that, dear? You shouldn't be worrying your pretty head about such things."
Ignoring the patronizing comments, Soriana walked Doctor Graves through the same questions, and he answered every one flawlessly. Since the questions were compiled based on books he had co-written decades prior, that was not terribly surprising, but it certainly did emphasize for the court that Graves was a living legend in the field of cybernetics.
"Doctor Graves, how would you rate the competence of someone who had to look up the answers to those questions?"
On the viewer, the old man shrugged. "That wouldn't tell me too much. He might still be competent in other ways; it just means he's not the man I want at my back when I'm putting together a new prototype, is all."
"Are you familiar with Commander Bruce Maddox?"
He gave a gurgling cough. "What, that crackpot? Sure, he thinks he can replicate Soong's work when he hasn't even figured out how to amortize the resistance across the positronic pathways. What a moron."
"If he disassembled Data, could you estimate his chances of rebuilding him after?"
"The same chance I have of winning a beauty contest on Orion."
"One more question, Doctor," Soriana leaned forward. "Does Data have sapience?"
The man actually paused a bit before answering that one. "Noonien designed a neural network that's every bit as flexible and adaptable as a human brain. So, yes. If humans are sapient, so is Data. His experiences and thoughts are every bit as real as ours are."
Soriana moved to sit, and Maddox replaced her. "Doctor Graves, what happened between you and Data the first time you met him?"
"I tried to turn him off so I could live in his body," Graves said.
"Turn him off? Isn't it machines that are turned off rather than humans?"
The man bared a savage grin. "Sonny: just you, me, and a phaser. I can show you how humans turn off."
"What I mean is, didn't you act as though you didn't really consider Data to be sapient, if you were willing to erase his mind in favor of yours?"
Graves paused again to consider. "You know, if I had been asked at the time, that's probably what I would have gone with." He shook his head. "But it would have been a rationalization, nothing more. I was terrified of death, and I was ready to risk someone else's life to prevent it." He stared, knowingly. "Remarkable, isn't it? What lies a man will embrace to preserve his own life, or his life's work?"