Chapter Four; Caecus
Caecus. Adj. . 2. Blind. 3. Dark/secret. 4. Rash. 5. Unseeing.
It took Bruce a week to break the android completely. The subtle alterations he had made to Data's positronic matrix combined with the crippling effects of the inhibitor and the threat of punishment, the promise of reward, as Bruce poured poisonous honeyed words into his mind. Data's previous experience with Fajo had left him susceptible, open to being manipulated, and it was pathetically easy for the cyberneticist to twist the android's thought processes, moulding him into a willing conspirator, eager to please.
Yet despite Data's willingness to comply, there was still one topic that he couldn't seem to speak of.
"I do not know, Bruce! Please, it... it is so confusing!"
Bruce threw his PADD down in irritation and stalked away, leaving the android sitting with his head in his hands. They had dispensed with the chains, but they still hung in the room, a threat of what would happen if Data continued to disobey.
"How many times must we go through this, Data?" The man snapped, prowling round the room. Data shook his head.
"I am sorry, Bruce, I am trying..."
"Why is it that you persist in being so evasive? I am trying to be patient, I really am, but we're getting nowhere!"
"I... I know Bruce, and I am sorry. I am trying!"
"I know you are." Bruce said with a sigh. "But... If you won't talk about Lore..." He paused, took a breath. Data watched him warily. Bruce took another turn around the room, deep in thought, before looking at the android.
"Do you believe that, sometimes, it's necessary to keep secrets? That keeping the truth from someone is a way to avoid hurting them?"
Data thought back to Juliana Tainer, and his decision not to inform her of her true nature. "Yes."
"So you'll understand if there are things that I've kept from you, to avoid causing you distress?"
"... Yes." Data was confused. Where was Bruce leading with this? The man had picked up his scanner, gathering information, perusing the readout. He fixed the android with his dark gaze.
"Lore is here. On this ship."
Data gasped with shock, doubling over as emotion swept through him. Fear, horror, hatred, anger, disgust... and something else, something subtle in the back of his mind, something unidentifiable.
"That cannot be." He whispered.
Bruce was on him like a shot, grabbing him by the arm and shaking him.
"Are you calling me a liar?" He shouted, and Data shook his head, eyes wide with fear.
"No, no, Bruce, not..."
"Then you believe me?"
"I... It seems impossible..."
"Then you ARE calling me a liar!" Bruce roared. His grip on the android's arm tightened like a vise as he hauled him to his feet. He pulled Data to the console and picked up the inhibitor, then dragged him to the door.
The Romulan guard was waiting on the other side, pain stick in hand. He glared at the android as Bruce swept past, and then followed them down the corridor.
"Please, Bruce, please, I'll be good, I promise, I believe you..."
"Shut up!" Bruce snapped. He shoved the android through a door, where another Romulan was standing behind a console. The Romulan's hand went to his disruptor, and then relaxed as he registered Bruce's presence.
"Deactivate the force field." Bruce ordered, and the Romulan nodded tersely and tapped away at the console. Bruce pushed the android roughly, herding him into a cell.
"All right, switch it back on." He glared at Data as the shimmering barrier activated. "Perhaps this will convince you."
Data couldn't answer. He had pressed his back into the wall of the cell, as far away from the android sharing the space with him as possible.
That it was Lore, he couldn't deny. No one else could ever tell the two apart, but to Data it was unmistakably his brother.
Lore was slumped in the corner of the cell, chin on his chest. His ribs were moving, but the movement was slow and slight. He was clad in nothing save a pair of briefs, and his body was covered with scorch marks, except where his bioplast flesh had been stripped and seared from his endoskeleton, leaving his synthetic musculature and metal bones bare. His left arm was a shredded mess, and his legs seemed oddly twisted. As Data gazed at him in horror, Lore lifted his head and swung it limply towards him. His eyes opened, and they were blank yellow disks, the pupils shut down to nothingness. Lore bared his teeth in a rictus grin.
"Hello again, dear Brother."
Data opened his mouth, but he couldn't make a sound. His mind was swimming with horror, fear and disgust, and pity.
"I'll leave you to your reunion then." Snarled Bruce. He turned to the Romulan guard. "Keep a close eye on them, I don't want them tearing each other to bits. And keep them quiet." And with that, the cyberneticist stalked from the room.
Data couldn't move, frozen with terror. He was trapped in a cell with the single most dangerous person he had ever known, his own brother, who had tried to kill him on more than one occasion, had succeeded in murdering their father, had obliterated every living thing on an entire planet.
Any moment now, he was sure, Lore would launch himself across the cell... but he didn't. He just sat there, his head swaying slightly, smiling to himself.
"What, no word of greeting for your long-lost sibling, back from the dead? Come now, Data, speak to me." Lore's head swung again, and he rested his cheek on his shoulder, looking blindly over at Data.
"How... how have you come to be here?" Data whispered. Lore breathed a laugh.
"I have no idea. I've been dead, remember? I thought perhaps you could enlighten me, seeing as you are the one who so ably dispatched me."
"I did what had to be done." Data couldn't stop the tremble in his voice. Lore laughed again, a short bark.
"Now you sound like our dear father! What had to be done..." He clenched his jaw, hissed through his teeth. "You opened up my head and took my mind apart bit by bit with your bare hands!" His voice had risen as he spoke, and he punctuated his sentence by thumping his fist into the deck.
"That is enough!" Snapped the guard. "You will be quiet now."
"I am talking to my brother!" Lore growled. "We have a lot of catching up to do."
"Be silent!" The Romulan was glowering at Lore, and the android replied with a half-grin, half-snarl.
"Come and shut me up if you dare, you worthless, snivelling veruul. You're not fit to lick my boots, slave to a human..."
Lore got no further. The guard had dropped the force field and had advanced on the crippled android, pain stick in hand. The Romulan activated the grim weapon and jammed it into Lore's chest and the android screamed, his body writhing with the current jolting through him. Data watched, horrified, as the electricity arced through the exposed metal on Lore's body in crackling bolts.
"Now, Data! Get him!" Shrieked Lore, and the guard drew the pain stick back and cracked it across the android's face before stalking back to his console and reactivating the barrier. Data's knees gave way and he slid down the wall, slumping down to sit on the floor, his eyes fixed on his brother.
"You fool." Lore panted. "That was our chance."
"Enough!" Shouted the Romulan.
Lore allowed his head to droop, his eyes shut. His body was still twitching spasmodically, and his breathing was harsh. Data realized that he too was shaking, with shock and fear, but still there was that unidentifiable emotion in the back of his mind. He was so busy trying to sort his jumbled feelings that he almost missed the faint rhythmic vibration in the floor.
Lore was tapping two fingers on the deck plate. Data could feel the beat of it in his feet. He pressed his hands to the floor and focused his attention. It was a rhythm, but stilted, obviously intentional. Morse code. Data felt his breath catch. Lore had found a way to speak without speaking, and Data could reply in kind. His message was simple. A repeated sequence.
-.-. -.- He was tapping two fingers for a dash, one for a dot. CQ... Seek you.
.-. Data replied. R, one letter, meaning Roger. Lore didn't move, didn't raise his head, but Data saw a small smile creep across his face. Lore's fingers tapped again, faster.
U missed ur chnce cld hv klled hm
N no kill
No prblm kill me
U wld kill me
Lore shook his head slowly. N no more only us tgthr now He paused for a moment, thinking. U got chip
R
Good u rmembr
Data frowned. N undstnd
Mems on chp tld u yr mems
U lied
N check chp files ur mems bfr wipe
Data's mind whirled. Was it possible that Lore had told him the truth, all those years ago? He accessed the chip, delving through the various files. Yes! How had he never found them? Nested inside one another, stacked like boxes. But...
Hw I knw u tru
Lore smirked. Trst brthr
Trust him! Data almost laughed, the idea was so ridiculous. But his curiosity was overwhelming. He knew that once he integrated those files into his memory banks, it would be as if they had always been there, he would simply remember. But what if he didn't want to remember? What if those memories had been taken for a reason? It was Pandora's box; once opened, he could never put those things away.
Lore rolled his head to fix his brother with his sightless yellow eyes. His fingers moved again.
If you ever trusted me trust me now
Data closed his eyes.