A/N: I recently noticed that all of the em-dashes in my writing were turned into en-dashes when I uploaded my fics. I've just been going through and fixing that in order to make my fics a little easier to read.
Chapter 2:
"Beep beep whistle!"
"Don't use that tone with me, R2! It certainly wasn't my fault that..."
"Beep!"
"What...? Oh!"
Noticing a pale, slender humanoid figure in the doorway of the engine room, C-3PO and R2-D2 both turned.
"Hello, sir! I am C-3PO: human-cyborg relations, and this is R2-D2. How may we be of service?"
"Thank you, but am not in need of assistance—and it is unnecessary to address me as 'sir.' I am also a droid."
"Oh!"
C3PO and R2 looked him up and down, noting sloppily stitched-up tears in the skin of his left cheek, on his right arm, and across his skinny shoulders, the latter being visible despite the ratty tunic.
"Pardon me, but...what sort of droid, exactly?"
"I am an android. My name is Data."
"Data," 3PO hesitated for a moment. "What is your function?"
Data blinked.
"I have no assigned function; instead, I possess the capacity to learn and develop new skills."
There was another pause as 3PO and R2 digested this information.
"Beep beep!"
"Don't be rude, R2!"
"Whistle beep!"
"All right, I'll ask!" 3PO turned to Data. "R2 would like to know the name of your maker."
"My 'maker'—my father—was a cyperneticist by the name of Noonian Soong."
"You consider your creator...your parent?"
Data executed a mediocre imitation of a human shrug.
"He considered me to be his son."
Suddenly, Princess Leia ducked in the doorway.
"3PO, have Han and Luke come back..." She caught sight of Data.
"Er, hi."
"Greetings."
Leia stared into Data's yellow eyes.
"Uh...HAN!"
Han came running.
"Wha...oh."
He gestured to the android.
"Leia, Data. Data, Leia."
Suddenly, Chewie stuck his head in.
"Raaaaaaagh!"
"All right, I'm coming! You droids get started on the hyperdrive! I'll be back!"
The wookie returned to the cockpit, dragging Han behind him.
"What's with you?"
"Raaaaaaaaah!"
"The Empire? Here?"
Han checked the subspace radio, and sure enough, several transmissions picked up by their subspace radio were from the Empire, advising all industries and businesses to join up.
"Graaaaaagh!"
"I know. We need to get out of here."
Data glanced around the Falcon. The ship looked old, and was a bit of a wreck—no matter what Han insisted.
Be that as it may, he found their hyperdrive most intriguing.
This engine differs greatly from the Enterprise-D's matter/antimatter reactors.
A related bit of information suddenly came up in his thought process:
Geordi would be very interested in this "hyperdrive."
He immediately canceled that train of thought. Geordi was hundreds of light-years and a black hole away. Data knew that there was no use in lingering on his memories, but there was no way to keep his thought process from opening his files on his friends, short of deleting them from his brain.
Delete files? Y/N
Deletion canceled.
Although that would be the more logical course of action, as it would enable him to focus fully on the situation at hand, Data couldn't bring himself to do so.
Despite that the odds of me ever communicating with Geordi again are astronomical, I would prefer to keep my memories of him and the others.
And, despite the selfishness of the desire, Data found himself hoping that they would remember him, too.