Genre: StarTrek: The Next Generation

Title: New Civilizations

Summary: Guinan plays dumb, Data takes his show on the road, and D'Jang makes a discovery.

Chapter 16

Ten Forward was busy in spite of the Yellow Alert. Everybody had checked in with their commands and were ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. Guinan was drifting from group to group, table to table, overseeing without intruding, was generally unobserved unless she wanted to be. The wedding reception was as alive and well as it had been when it started and needed no help. A couple of members had had to leave because of the Alert, but their absence had not dampened the party spirit.

Guinan was purposely avoiding the table where the young yeoman and the Tarlusian were seated. She had seen their reunion from the beginning, noticing that when first the yeoman entered, he'd looked about and had then a table alone; seen his face when the Tarlusian had entered, had seen that first spark of recognition, the rejection of the recognition and then the blank stare. She didn't have to listen in on the conversation to know what course it took. At first, the Tarlusian had done all the talking, explaining, actually. The reactions from the young yeoman were predictable; questioning his friend's change, recognizing the fact that he had not been trusted, feeling hurt. Then the talk began flowing back and forth: accusation and complaint, explanation of assumptions and apologies, resistance to the apologies, ruffled feelings, new ground rules laid, etc. Finally, the conversation turned to inconsequentials. Guinan approached the table ostensibly to check to see if they required any service.

The yeoman hailed her cheerfully, "Guinan, look who I found! Zidadit!"

"You found! My great aunt nebula! I called you!" The Tarlusion cuffed his companion's arm.

Deciding to play along, Guinan said, "But you told me your friend was a girl." She winked ever so slightly at Zidadit.

"He was!" He turned to stare admiringly at his friend. "Only he forgot to tell me that next time I should be on the lookout for my friend, the 'man' with blue skin." He grinned at Guinan. "Can you imagine forgetting to tell somebody about that?"

Guinan shrugged and said, "I'd find it a little confusing. Don't you mind? I mean, you used to have a girlfriend."

The yeoman shrugged back and said, "Nope! Man friend, woman friend, I can still beat the daylights out of him in chess and he'll win easier at racquetball and..." he paused, his face lighting up with delight. "Wrestling! Hey! You've put on some extra muscle mass. It was the only thing we couldn't do before."

Zidadit stood up, "You're on. Come on, best three out of five."

The yeoman stood up so fast his chair almost fell over. "You'll only be prolonging the agony. I'd have settled for two out of three." He headed for the exit.

"What's the matter, afraid of three falls?" Zidadit called after the retreating figure. He turned briefly to Guinan and said, "Thanks. I owe you." He trotted towards the exit.

Guinan smirked to herself, "That's what they all say." She turned her attention to a sound that had been nagging at her for a couple of minutes. It was the sound of cards being ruffled and Data's voice saying, "Pick a card, any card."

Data was standing at the bar with Chief O'Brien and his wife Keiko. He had a deck of cards fanned out in his hand and was proffering them to Keiko.

Keiko looked questioningly at Data and then turned to look at her husband.

Chief O'Brien shrugged. "Don't look at me. I don't know what this is about."

Data obliged them both with an explanation. "I am currently making a study of the human desire to be mystified. I am following the pattern set long ago by performers. According to the information I have found about magicians in recorded history, I am about to perform a trick that is always a crowd pleaser, always causes people to wonder how it is done, to wonder what powers the performer has. I am about to awe you, to set you to wondering. Please, take a card from anywhere in the deck."

Data had continued holding the cards out with a frozen look of invitation on his face as he spoke. Keiko shrugged and reached out for the deck. As she did so, Data turned his head to one side with a jerk. "I am averting my gaze as you take out the card. I want you to look at the card and show it to Mr. O'Brien and anyone else you care to. Do not show it to me. When you are finished put the card back into the deck in any part you wish."

When Keiko had done as she was instructed Data swung his head to face front, stopping just short of whiplash. "Now," he said as he stepped back, "I will shuffle the cards. Notice that at no time do I look at the cards. At no time do the cards leave my hands. At no time do my hands leave my arms." While he spoke, he shuffled the cards with lightning speed, all the while staring deadpan into Keiko's face. Truth to tell, no one could see Data's hands operate, so no one would have been able to swear they didn't leave his arms. Only knowing that Data couldn't lie was enough proof. At times, the cards seemed to hang in mid-air shuffling of their own accord. Suddenly Data stopped. He affected a pose so that he had one hand on his hip, bending slightly at the waist, his other hand extended towards Keiko with the deck of cards, perfectly stacked, in his upward palm. "Would you please take the top card and look at it?"

Keiko took the top card, a perplexed look on her face. She looked from the card to Data.

"Is it the card you originally took from the deck?" Data asked, standing up straight.

Keiko giggled and said, "Well, of course, Data."

Data frowned slightly. "Of course?" he queried. "But, were you not amazed? Do you not question how it is your card was shuffled so that it came from somewhere within the deck to the top at the last shuffle?"

Keiko smiled at Data and said, "Why should I be amazed, Data? You handled the cards with inhuman speed and precision. You worked faster than my eye could follow, and that's nothing new, I've seen you go that fast before."

Data inclined his head towards Keiko slightly. "There is something about the art that mystifies most humans. Were you not mystified Keiko? Chief?"

Keiko put a consoling hand on Data's arm. "Well, Data, maybe it was because I know that you can move faster than my eye can follow. There's no mystery. I have no doubt you knew the position of every card even while you were shuffling."

Data's head went into the cocked position again. "There has never been any question that the great magicians of the centuries, ever since Houdini on Earth or Vhourto of the Klingons, used tricks, actions so subtle that the eye missed them."

Chief O'Brien spoke up, "It wasn't a question of how did you do it. Don't you see? We know you can work faster than the eye can follow. It's fun to watch, but amazing? Hardly."

Data internalized the information a moment. He looked up at his two friends and said, "You mean that the parlor tricks are good for a slight diversion but that I should not plan to take the show out on the road?"

The two looked at each other and each said, one after the other, "Come again? On the road?"

Considering again, Data said, "Come to think of it. Maybe you are just a tough audience. If they do not like it in New Bedford, that doesn't mean they will not like it in Poughkeepsie. I think I will try my act out on that table over there. Will you please excuse me?" Not realizing he had achieved his aim, he left the now mystified pair at the bar and advanced on a group seated around one of the tables.

About half an hour later Guinan found Data seated alone at the bar, a deck of slightly frayed playing cards placed to one side. Data had the 'internal search mode' stamped on his face. Standing in front of the android, Guinan said, "How's it going, Data?"

"They did not like it in Poughkeepsie either, Guinan."

Guinan nodded and smiled, "You don't say?"

Data almost replied, then changed his mind, and instead said, "Ah! Rhetorical statement of neutral quality, usually requiring no reply, or, as in this case, a way of seeking more information. Am I correct?"

Guinan smiled congenially but said nothing.

"I was using some rather obscure metaphors as used by vaudeville people in the late 19th and early 20th Century. In fact, such statements were probably made by showmen throughout Earth history, though the naming of the cities varied—"

Guinan smiled and nodded. "I say again, 'how's it going?' You laying aside your card tricks?" She reached under the bar and pulled out a bar rag and began wiping casually at nonexistent spills.

Data glanced at the cards. "I shall have to devise some other way to study human fascination with being mystified. Everyone seems to take my attempts at legerdemain as merely a fine display of mechanical abilities." Data looked at one of his hands, turned it palm up wiggled his fingers and dropped it back to the bar. He shrugged, seemed to make an adjustment, and said, "For now I shall, instead, do some research on the art of puns."

Guinan abruptly stopped wiping and stared hard at Data. Talking as if her life depended on it, she said, "Data, I think I'd better tell you something about human nature. You see, almost no one minds magic tricks and a lot of people even like them. Puns, on the other hand, are a different matter altogether. Either people like them or they hate them. Now, I like puns myself but you see, the people that hate them, do so with alarming acerbity. Frankly, I think that if you're going to try your luck with puns, you should not, I repeat not, try them out in Ten Forward."

"Why?" questioned Data.

"Because, people who don't like puns will either start avoiding the place where the puns were committed or they may even be brought to violence. I've never had to call the security team to Ten Forward and I don't want to start. I like the people who come into Ten Forward, all of them, and I'd hate to think that many would stay away for the next year or so. Do you get my meaning?"

"You mean that I should restrict my experimentation with puns to anywhere but Ten Forward?"

"I would suggest you should include anywhere of general public assembly but yes, Ten Forward specifically."

"Ah! I will take your words to memory. The information is probably useful. Every pun in its place."

Guinan looked around sharply to see if anyone had heard. "Data!"

"Excuse me, Guinan, I will not do it again."

"Data, my mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you. Now take your puns and go knock 'em dead in Poughkeepsie."

Data passed Doc D'Jang coming in as he was going out. "Doc D'Jang, may I bring Spot in for a checkup, soon?"

"Sure, Data. Is something wrong?"

"No, Doctor, it is just that, well, you might say he just is not spot-on." Data cocked his head and raised his eyebrows.

D'Jang looked at him inquiringly. "Pardon?"

Data was about to answer but noticed Guinan standing close by. "There is nothing wrong with him that I know of but I will never-the-less bring him in for a checkup when I can. Thank you."

D'Jang shook her head, wondering what that little exchange had been all about, and then remembered what she had come in for. She spied Guinan and went over to her.

"I came in here sort of hoping I'd see some beast of a person with bloody hands and a wild look in his eyes."

Guinan theatrically looked around the deck and peered under the bar. "Nope, no one of that description here. If I see him, shall I tell him to get in contact with you?"

D'Jang looked at Guinan with a jaundiced eyed. "No, just tell him to go directly to Security and turn himself in. That'll save time all around." She looked about casually and waived a silent greeting to Keiko. She noticed that one of the newlywed couples was circulating among the tables, receiving congratulations. Even from the other side of the deck from where D'Jang stood, the multi-hued woman, shy and clinging closely to her husband, was hard to miss. "I see the wedding took place." She cocked her head as if listening to something, then shook her head briefly in dismissal.

Noticing the gesture, Guinan said, "You hear something?"

"Aw, I must be getting old or something. Maybe I'm just tired. I'd swear I just got a feeling of animal in here. No animals allowed in Ten Forward though, right?" Guinan nodded. "Sensing animal in Riker, animal here, I think maybe I need a nap."

"How about something to help you relax?" Guinan's face had taken on that sweet, caring expression reserved for the people who needed to wind down from a hard day.

"What are you suggesting?" D'Jang slid onto one of the bar stools.

"I've got two never-fail relaxers, take your pick. Warm milk or catnip tea. Either one will help you to sleep and you'll pop right awake if we go to Red Alert."

D'Jang said without hesitation, "I'll take the warm milk with a bit of sugar and a hint of vanilla. No catnip tea for me. That stuff always tastes like the smell of a field of dry weeds on a hot humid day."

Guinan turned to get the preparation but was stopped by the arrival of one of the wedding party at the bar. A young man leaned forward urgently and called, "Guinan. Would it be all right if Tameena and Jonina did a little dance for everybody?"

"Dance?" Guinan queried. "What sort of dance? There isn't room for them to do much."

"It's not much. They just," he waved his hands, "and well, slither around." He grinned. "Oh, please. It'll be fun. Everybody'll like it."

Guinan was an easy mark for a polite request. She nodded and smiled. "Sure, I bet it'll be interesting. Just tell them to keep it gentle." The young man had left before she could finish. Smiling as she shook her head, looking at D'Jang, she said, "I'll get the milk."

By the time D'Jang was taking her first sip, the dancing had begun.

Three of the party, two clapping in intricate unison, another clapping a counterpoint, were providing the 'music'. From their places beside the men they had married, the two girls each started swaying in time to the beat of the claps, then stepped out, their bodies gracefully following along, their hands weaving delicate patterns, their fingers fluttering in time with the counterpoint. The claps were steady, persistent, but not particularly fast. The steps of the girls took them around the tables, past fascinated people. Each girl did an individual dance, different from the other yet much the same. Each ignored the other even when their paths among the tables brought them within inches. The looks on their faces were anxious, eager and effort filled.

D'Jang, at first, watched passively. She was simply filling in the time, waiting for the soothing effects of the beverage to take effect, and gazed appreciatively at the beautiful movements of the lovely creatures. One of them moved closer, her intent, apparently, to dance up to the bar. But no sooner had the girl reached her goal than D'Jang, who had been leaning back casually in the stool, sat up with a jerk.

TBC to Chapter 17

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