"DATA!"
"Sorry Chief O'Brien but I noticed that the computers efficiency was down and as such I decided to rectify the problem"
"You messed with the program called pup, you have no idea what's potentially been unleashed now"
"Chief..."
"I'll get it off the furniture once I find it again Captain, not my fault, or yours alone, both of us forgot to warn him about that program and the Commander has been known to do things like this before, let me see the damage and go from there...I hope that the voles haven't gotten to the wires because that would be a disaster"
"Right, Chief you're debriefing him once that's done"
"Yes sir I'll be...sir I don't have to do anything"
"What do you mean Chief"
"Just that sir, the program is still contained but...Commander Data what did you do?"
"I noticed the program called pup and reasoned it was there for a reason. As such I increased the security around said program while deleting unnecessary functions to increase the efficiency of the computer, though I admit to some difficulty going around the Cardassian programming that gives you trouble on occasion as far as I could see"
"Thanks for that Data, now then I think you should just let O'Brien deal with the computer from now on while you handle your other duties"
"Yes sir"
Two months into the assignment Odo and Data had made yet another step towards dismantling Section 31 with the help of Bashir whom they had decided to bring in thanks to his connection to that group when they would be dealt a setback once more. Data and Bashir were in the infirmary discussing recent repairs done to Data after an altercation with two voles and some wires when there was suddenly an explosion and it was quickly discovered to be from Odo's office
"Bashir to Ops security team needed at Odo's!"
Bashir gathered a medical team that included Data since Data was now qualified as a field medic (he had obtained that qualification shortly before his and Odo's assumed death after a nasty mission shortly after the Dominion War had ended and there were no qualified medics available to give treatment) and once the fire suppression system was done they went inside and learned just how much damage had been done
"Scan for Odo, be warned that he may be severely injured and in his gelatinous state and as such we'll need to tread carefully, if he's not in his gelatinous state he may have severe burns which require their own set of precautions"
Fifteen minutes later and Bashir and Data were in the infirmary and not looking forward to what they had to report to Ops because they had been forced to conclude that Odo had died in the explosion, and that it had been so fast he hadn't been forced into temporary solid form because they had found very little of his gelatinous state amongst the debris, but it was enough to identify it as Odo, or at least what was left of Odo
(Sighs) "I guess there's no use delaying this any further"
"No Doctor Bashir, there is not"
"Right, Bashir to Ops"
"Ops here, how's Odo?"
"Dead"
"What?"
"Odo is dead, he was killed in the explosion in his office"
"Are you sure?"
"As sure as I can be considering the evidence"
"What exactly is the evidence Bashir?"
"We found just enough of Odo's pieces when he was in a gelatinous state to identify it as him Captain, there...there really wasn't much left, we're lucky we got that much as it is"
(Sighs) "I see, thank you Doctor, I'll let you know when the memorial is, for now Lt. Commander Data is to continue his job on the station however I am transferring you to security until further notice"
"Understood sir...sir what will happen after the next rotation on the Enterprise?"
"We keep up the rotation schedule, Bashir will take Odo's place in your secondary mission"
"Understood sir"
The rest of Data's stay was him working in security, though not as it's chief and trying to find out who managed to not only get an explosive onto the station but also into Odo's office considering all the security measures Odo had put into place over the years during the Dominion War and especially after his return from the supposed dead, even if he hadn't been back for very long at the time. The memorial service that had been held two days after his death had been a mixture of Starfleet protocol, Bajoran beliefs and Odo's own request that they be blended along with what was left burned into ashes and stuck into a bucket, and they were simply waiting for a Dominion delegation (properly escorted by a Starfleet vessel) to give his remains back to his people who had indicated that they were willing, but needed time to get things properly arranged between their Starfleet escort and their J'em Hadar guards, no Vorta this time around but only because of the fact that it was by their insistence, finally though two days before Data was scheduled to return to the Enterprise they came and docked to claim Odo's remains and Data was selected as the one to greet them at the place they had docked
"My name is Lt. Commander Data, I shall escort you to the infirmary where Doctor Bashir has been taking care of Odo's remains"
"How did he die?"
"In an explosion, there was not much left of his body, fortunately there was enough to identify the remains as him and once that was done we did as requested and cremated him, according to Doctor Bashir if not for the suddenness of the explosion he would have turned to ash naturally"
"Indeed, shall we?"
They head to the infirmary where Bashir was waiting with Odo's bucket
"Here's Odo's remains"
"Thank you, the Lt. Commander here already told us how he died, what I want to know is if it was painful"
"If it was it would have been very brief from what I could tell from my readings, as such I like to believe he wasn't in any pain when he died"
"Thank you"
"You should know...we're still investigating the cause of the explosion and while we may not be able to make it the highest priority at all times we won't stop until we find out who killed him and why"
"Thank you Doctor, for more than just giving us this reassurance, according to Odo you were the one who managed to get the cure to our disease, though he hasn't explained how"
"That is I'm afraid a secret that you can't know for your own good, as for this reassurance regarding Odo's death Captain Sisko would have given it to you himself if not for the fact that he's on a return journey from Earth after an...incident regarding Command, as for Colonel Kira she's a bit too busy to meet with you herself"
"We understand, we'll go now since we know that things are still tense between our people"
"Thank you for understanding"
The group left and then two days later Data left to return to the Enterprise who had already heard about what had happened to Odo, only Captain Picard so far knew that the rotation schedule would continue as planned but he was unsure of how Data would deal with his secondary mission solo on the ship (Sisko had told him of the fact that Bashir was also involved because of his personal connection to Section 31)
"Data...you should know that I'm going to be forced to make changes to your secondary mission with the loss of Odo, you're to tell me before you explore any leads unlike before, you're also going to need more secure communication in your quarters so that you and Bashir can continue the mission as undisturbed as possible...no Data Sisko and I are both going to be firm about the communication issue, Bashir already has his quarters, the infirmary, and Ops upgraded in security to try and keep Section 31 out, you're to contact him immediately after your communication is secure and get those same upgrades to your quarters at the very least. Finally while I know your PADDS are as secure as possible I want no trace of your search into Section 31 on the ships systems, and if possible I want you to wipe the PADDS and commit all of your research to memory from now on, that's the only thing I can think of to try and keep this ship safe"
"Understood sir"
The next three years established a pattern with both DS9 and the Enterprise, every three months Data would work on one of his posts with the occasional disappearing act that lasted no more than three days at a time with the knowledge of Picard and Sisko per his orders to not leave to follow leads without informing anyone, at DS9 he and Bashir were in Bashir's office constantly but the one step forward two steps back pattern that had been established from the start continued in regards to taking down Section 31. Both groups also knew that Data had taken the loss of Odo hard and had yet to truly recover and was in fact still mourning his death, because even if he said he didn't have emotions he did they were just way more subtle with the emotion chip that he had installed two and a half years after Odo's death off. In partial activation he was still pretty much emotionless but he did admit to some emotion, he had yet to fully activate it stating that until he was ready to deal with the emotions that he would feel once activated in full he wouldn't put anyone at risk, however at the same time though he did have the chip on limited emotional activation for part of the day so that it wasn't such a shock to his system once the chip was fully activated. At the moment he was on DS9 working security because the security chief had been injured while dealing with another infestation of Voles, which Cardassia had been trying to help with as well but unfortunately they had made very little progress in figuring out where the Voles were even coming from