Stardate: 58506.4

Data hesitated outside Holodeck Four, taking a moment to categorize the emotions coursing through his positronic relays. The results caused him to frown; Fear, anxiety, nervousness, and apprehension comprised most of what he currently experienced. He spoke to himself in a soft intonation, "Courage can be an emotion, too."

The Enterprise computer bleeped, then spoke in the familiar female voice, "Direction unclear. Please repeat request."

Data's anxiety dimmed, as he narrowed his eyes at the computer panel, "I wish to enter the main detention area."

The computer blipped, then stated, "You may enter the holodeck now."

"Thank you." Data stepped through the doors as they opened into the main area for Holodeck Four. He noted with relief that everything seemed calm. The human security guard's expression displayed boredom, while the two holographic guards stood at rigid attention. T'Mera and Lore both sat at the workstation, hunched over something.

Lore straightened up at hearing the door open and footsteps approaching. He turned and grinned lopsidedly, "Well, well, well, well, well…" He stood, pushed away the rolling chair, then walked towards Data. "How was your duty shift, baby brother?"

"Good morning, T'hy'la… Good morning, Lore. It was uneventful." Data glanced at the monitors spaced around the open panels of Lore's head. "How have things been progressing here?"

T'Mera answered the question, but didn't look up from her task. "The chip reader is coming along nicely. I have some preliminary results from the neural net scan, and I want you to look at the physical connections of some of his links."

"I trust Lore behaved himself?" Data eyed his brother with suspicion as he moved closer.

T'Mera answered with a snap of gum between her teeth, "He behaved fine, although I do admit it was easier to work when a Soong android could be entertained with a spoon for half an hour."

Lore smirked and stopped walking, "Sorry. I'm far more advanced than both of my brothers… the "rudimentary" B-4 and the "less perfect" Data."

Data frowned as he approached his brother, "I thought we had established that I am not "less perfect" than you, Lore?"

"All right, that's enough!" T'Mera interjected, "You're both equally as imperfect as the other, and that's the end of it." She grumbled as she continued working on the chip reader, "Because Doctor Soong got everyone's letters where we all asked for neurotic sentient androids with inferiority complexes."

Data canted his head to the right, "He did deliver on that promise, then." He attempted to move behind his brother, only to have Lore keep turning to face him. "Lore, I cannot examine the connections in your head if you keep moving like that."

"I'm not letting you stand behind me." Lore continued his slow turning. "You'll just deactivate me."

"I will do no such thing. Least of all, because T'Mera would be displeased." Data attempted a feint in the opposite direction, "Please stand still so I can see what someone did to your links."

Lore let out a prolonged sigh, then stopped moving. "I still don't like the idea of you fiddling back there."

A sharp gasp emitted from Data, then he spoke in a measured calm, "I will not be fiddling back there at the present time, Lore, so you need not worry."

"That worries me even more." Lore turned to face his brother, "What's wrong?"

Data's eyebrows both raised enough to create three horizontal creases in his forehead, "I am not certain how it is that you are currently functioning, given that someone has crossed two of the pathway links in your relays. I wish to wait and see what other malfunctions T'Mera discovers before I attempt to repair what was done to you."

A round, wooden table and two chairs appeared near the androids. T'Mera glanced behind her for a moment, "How about you two sit and just talk, so I can finish the card reader? Also, no physical fighting, since Lore is wearing monitors."

"Very well, t'hy'la. But first..." Data strolled over to T'Mera's workstation, bent to place his face level with hers, and leaned to kiss her on the lips.

T'Mera put down the sonic driver and chip reader, then placed her hands on Data's shoulders, returning the kiss. "I'm sorry, Bright Eyes. I got caught up in my work."

Lore walked to the table and sat down, watching the couple. "Aww. How sweet."

"It is understandable." Data's lips quirked into his standard smile. He straightened up and walked to the table, then sat down in the unoccupied chair. "Counselor Veluna will be by later, to begin your therapy sessions, Lore."

Lore scowled across the table at Data, "The whole ship's probably laughing at me sitting here, going through all this."

Data shook his head, "No one on the crew has found any amusement in this, so far, Lore. In fact, your presence here worries most of the senior officers."

Lore slouched in the chair and folded his arms across his chest, "Why shouldn't my presence worry them? I'm a monster, after all. I'm your evil "twin", even though I'm nearly a year older than you." His brows knitted together for a moment, "Or am I an evil triplet, now? I'm not used to there being three of us."

"I am uncertain as to how we should be classified." Data matched the expression of concentration on Lore's face, "If we use uptime, I am the oldest, followed by you, and then B-4. By creation, B-4 is the oldest and I am the youngest. We are triplets in physical appearance only. You and I have virtually identical brain architecture, whereas B-4's brain is not as complex. As for the issue of you being evil, I am hoping that T'Mera's repairs will remedy your behavior, or that Counselor Veluna will be able to help you, or a combination of both."

"What if it turns out that I'm just evil? That it's not my programming, at all?" Lore lowered his head and stared at the floor.

T'Mera spoke up to answer the question, "If that's the case, Lore, we'd need a full wipe of your engrams and neural net and to start over with you as a blank slate. However, I don't think that's the case, based on what I'm seeing."

Lore lifted his head, "What are you seeing? I'd like to know."

"I'd rather wait until I have all the results before making my report." T'Mera glanced behind her at Lore, "That way, it only has to be given once to everyone and it'll be easy to find in the recording."

Lore pressed his lips together in a tight line, then relented, "Fine. That makes sense and it probably doesn't matter if I wait another few days for more results."

"Veluna should be here, soon." T'Mera bit her lower lip, "I apologize that I'll be in here, listening in on the therapy, but it's necessary. The human security guard will be put in a dome of silence."

Lore snorted at the holographer, "It's fine with me if you hear everything I say. You're seeing everything about me, over there, right? My brain, my subroutines? Maybe I should take off my clothes, so I can be naked in every way."

"Please keep your clothing on, Lore." Data winced at his brother's jest, "It would help retain a modicum of decorum."

Lore flashed a lopsided smirk at Data, "You just don't want them seeing you naked, which is what they'll realize if they see me that way. But you're right. I may as well keep a shred of dignity. Let it not be said that Lore the Monster has no sense of decency." The holodeck doors opening caught his attention and he turned to watch the bald woman in the black Starfleet uniform jumpsuit and teal collared shirt walk in. The woman's big, dark eyes fixed on him as she approached the two androids at the table.

"Hello there, Lore. I'm Counselor Veluna. I'll be working with you." Veluna held out her right hand to Lore.

Lore blinked in surprise at the offered hand, staring at it in puzzlement. After a few seconds, he seemed to understand and reached out with his right hand to clasp and shake it. "Hello. Are you related to Captain Picard?"

Veluna smiled and chuckled softly, shaking the android's hand and then releasing it, "No. I'm a Deltan."

Data stood to relinquish his chair, "Greetings, Counselor Veluna. Please sit here." He moved to his left, then noticed that a third chair materialized next to him. "Ah. Thank you, t'hy'la."

"You're welcome." T'Mera replied from her workstation.

Veluna sat in the offered chair and placed her PADD on the surface of the table. "What I'd like to do today is to observe the two of you… Lore and Data… in a conversation. Once you feel more comfortable in my presence, Lore, we'll begin one on one therapy sessions."

Lore let his eyes roam over the Deltan counselor, then nodded to her, "You're the expert." He waited for his brother to sit down, then addressed him, "And now we're back to the awkward task of talking to each other."

Veluna picked up the PADD and leaned back in her chair, "If I might offer a starting point, it could be productive to begin with one of the issues that causes the rift between the two of you."

Data tilted his head to the right in a short, sharp movement, "That is an excellent suggestion, Counselor."

Lore slouched in his chair, "What about "I am not less perfect than Lore"? It must have bothered you a great deal if, after a few years, you kept repeating that, rather than take my side about what father did to me."

Data regarded his brother evenly, "And it seems to be a similar sticking point with you that I was created to "replace" you."

"Well, you were." Lore spat back, "Rather than try to fix me, Often Wrong gave up on me after only a few months and started to build you. You heard what he said on Terlina III. He didn't know what went wrong with me, so his answer was to build another me, but one who has no emotions. Wouldn't you have been upset?"

Data's eyebrows knitted together in thought, and his eyes glanced to the right, then back at Lore, "With emotions, I would have found such a thing to be distressing. Even without emotions, I admit I was baffled at the erroneous logic of Doctor Soong's suppositions about your malfunctions and his subsequent disregard for you as a sentient being." After a pause, he added, "A disregard of which I am also guilty, but for different underlying reasons. I let my own fears and anxieties rule my actions where you were concerned."

"How could you have, back then? You had no emotions." Lore narrowed his eyes at his brother.

Data leaned forward in the chair, resting his elbows on the table and steepling his fingers, "When T'Mera worked on recovering me from B-4, she managed to interpret much of my programming. While doing so, she discovered that I have had emotions since my activation by the crew of the Tripoli, and that the emotions ran on processes in what would be considered a subliminal level for humans. Doctor Soong had disabled several of the connections that would have let me experience my generated emotions on a cognitive level." Data watched Lore for any reaction, then added, "It is also possible that Doctor Soong did not know I could generate emotions, and simply disabled the connections to be certain."

Lore frowned deeply, "If that was all it took, why didn't he just disable my emotions, if they were the cause of the malfunctions?"

"I do not know, Lore, and I do not think father will ever answer that question." Data pressed his lips together, "Right before I deactivated you, you claimed that there were memories on the emotion chip that father wanted me to have. However, when I slotted the chip, it did not contain any. Were they memories of my childhood on Omicron Theta?"

"No. They weren't memories of that." Lore's expression changed to revulsion, "You're better off not remembering, trust me. I was there with you, and you were treated even worse than I was. At least the colonists were afraid of me, after a few months. Since you didn't react to anything they did or said, they abused you freely."

Data tilted his head to the left in confusion, "You were active during my childhood? I was under the impression that you had been deactivated for quite some time before I was- " he trailed off as his eyes widened in realization, "This explains how you seemed to know so much about me when you were first activated aboard the Enterprise. I had dismissed it at the time as superior deduction on your part, but you seemed to know I had trouble with humor, and you brought up my more formal speech patterns." He stared intently at Lore, with his mouth agape and eyes wide open, "You knew me."

The anger in Lore's eyes faded, as he leaned back in the chair, lifting the two front legs off the floor, "I was active while they built and refined you. Often Wrong and Juliana argued constantly while you were being designed and constructed, and I had to listen to all of it. They also discussed how Data was going to be a better android than Lore the Monster. I wanted to hate you, but you and I were more like companions… brothers. Even after they wiped and restarted you, each time, you and I were together. On the night before my deactivation, I heard them planning my shutdown, so I contacted the Crystalline Entity. I wanted revenge on everyone for killing me. I wanted our father and Juliana dead, for choosing to keep you and discarding me."

Data's voice was a near whisper, but Lore could hear him clearly, "Then T'Mera was right…"

Lore raised an eyebrow in inquiry, "Right about what?"

"T'Mera once explained to me that the difference between the two of us is that you were raised by a narcissistic mad scientist, while I was raised by Starfleet." Data replied, "I had not considered the possibility that you were active for more than a few months. This explains much."

Lore straightened up in his chair, then stared Data straight in the eye, "Wait… You weren't with father and Juliana after they dismantled me?"

Data's eyebrows rose by a centimeter, and he shook his head, "Not that I can recall. My first full memory record is that of being discovered by the crew of the Tripoli. While I did have the temporal lobe synaptic scans and the journals of the colonists in my engrams, I had no actual memories of my own from Omicron Theta, aside from a couple of vague remnants from the testing of my functions in the underground lab and Doctor Soong's name."

"That explains why you didn't know who I was, when I was reactivated on the Enterprise. I thought you were pretending that you didn't remember." Lore leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table surface and covering his face with his hands. "I witnessed them wiping your memory banks several times. It never occurred to me that they wouldn't keep you... That they would erase you once more and toss you aside."

"Juliana made that decision." Data inclined his head to the left as he spoke, "At first, she told me that there was only room for two in the escape pod. However, that turned out to be a lie. There had been room for me, but she was terrified that I would end up being like you, and forced father to leave me behind as a blank slate, deactivated and sitting on a stone slab outside the bunker. Father left a signal device with me that reactivated me when it detected the Tripoli landing party. It is very possible that, had I remained with the Soongs, I would have turned out similar to you."

Lore suddenly gripped the side of the table with his hands. Shock and anger filled his amber eyes for a moment, then he seemed to calm himself. "But, on Terlina III, you were there with him."

"I had been summoned there against my will, the same as you, Lore." Data explained calmly, "I was there for thirteen minutes and forty-two seconds before you arrived, mainly due to my having been aboard a faster starship. I did not even know who he was when he awakened me. You knew him immediately. Given that he was disappointed in my choice of vocation, I did not feel much like a beloved son, as you claimed I am."

"What did he want you to have been?" Lore's curiosity overrode his bitterness.

Data shrugged his shoulders, "He wanted me to be a scientist, especially a cyberneticist. To follow in his footsteps. He did not like Starfleet."

Lore narrowed his eyes in disbelief, "Aren't you the senior science officer of the Enterprise? The one in charge of coordinating every bit of science that happens on the ship?"

Data held up his right hand with the index finger extended, "Had you been there at the time, you could have pointed that out to him." He lowered his hand down to the table surface. "Somehow, my programming seems to allow father to override my reasoning and take whatever he says as truth, even though I have learned that just about everything he said should be treated as suspect."

"Including me being the first attempt?" Lore growled.

"There were three prototypes before you, one of which was B-4." Data kept his vocal tone neutral and informative. "Perhaps Doctor Soong meant that you were the first of you and I, with our more complex positronic matrixes. Or the first android who kept functioning?"

Lore stared at his brother in silence.

"Or he was simply trying to placate you." Data offered with a sigh. "There is much more to discuss, where our creator is concerned, but perhaps we could save opening that bucket of annelids for a different day. If my childhood memories were not on the chip, could you please tell me what the memories were, since they were meant for me to have?"

Resentment swept through Lore's facial expression with such intensity that Data jumped back in his chair as if struck. Lore screwed his eyes shut, "It doesn't make any sense. I took them, because he wanted you to have them, but I don't understand what they are."

"Lore." Veluna's mellifluous voice seemed to mitigate the android's emotions, "It's normal to feel the way you do, when you've been deprived of a father's love and approval. Those memories might represent that love, and so, having gotten so little from Doctor Soong, you've taken some of what he meant for your brother to have. I don't think Commander Data is asking you to transfer the memories, though." She looked at Data for confirmation.

"No." Data nodded once with his head, with his attention still on Lore. "I only wish you to tell me what they were. You may keep them, assuming they are not dangerous to you."

Lore's face became a mask of agony as he returned his brother's scrutiny. A sidelong glance at Veluna turned into a longer gaze, and his anguish melted. "Fine. The memories I have are from father's perspective. He's talking to some human children about the future of humanity. It makes no sense to me."

Data's eyes widened with alarm and he turned his head sharply to look at T'Mera.

T'Mera was already looking at the two brothers, her dark brown eyes conveying similar amounts of shock and alarm.

Lore looked back and forth between Data and T'Mera, "Well, well, well, I guess it does mean something. Mind letting me in on it, since they're part of my memories now?"

T'Mera put down the tool and chip reader and tapped on her console. A large holo-vid display appeared by the table. "I'll play the old vids there, if it's all right with you three?"

Veluna turned her head to watch the display, "I think I'm more confused than Lore."

A man with blue eyes and very short brown hair that was beginning to grey at the temples appeared on the display, setting a birthday cake with lit candles on a table. The man's voice matched both Data and Lore in tone and timbre, but his speech patterns, cadence and affectations were more reminiscent of Lore's. The man's physical build and facial structure were identical to the three Soong androids. The young children in the video blew out the candles on the cake. Other clips that followed contained recorded lessons for the children, and recordings of the man teaching the children.

"There were times back on Earth when I doubted myself, my work. But seeing you, I know that everything I've fought for was worth it. We're going to build a new world. I've raised you like my own. You call me Father. But I'm only watching over you. You belong to the future, and someday you will fulfill humanity's promise."

Lore watched the display, until the holo-vid ended, then looked across the table at Data, "Those are the same as my memories, although there's more. Some from inside a prison cell." He paused, his eyes oscillated as he called up the final memory, then spoke, "Perfecting humanity may not be possible. Cybernetics. Artificial lifeforms. That may be the way to go. I doubt I'll finish the work myself. Might take a generation or two."

Data's eyes oscillated in a similar fashion as he processed and cross-referenced the new information with the old. "I am uncertain as to why he wished me to have those memories and what purpose they would serve, since he worked so hard to keep them secret."

T'Mera removed the display near the table and returned to her work, "Lore, what are those memories listed under, in your engrams? I would like the filenames, directories, paths and indexes for them, please."

Lore complied, verbalizing the string of locators for the memories. He turned to Data, "What is it?"

Data shook his head, "It is as if I have been handed a single piece to a puzzle whose existence I was unaware of… one which I was supposed to have been putting together." His yellow eyes fixed on Lore, "I will need to contact someone before I can speak to you of the memories you contain."

Lore folded his arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "Who do you need to contact?"

Data pressed his lips together with an apologetic demeanor, "I am afraid I cannot tell you that until after I have spoken with them."

Lore stuck his tongue against the inside of his bottom lip, pushing it out slightly, and nodding his head slowly. "I see. Is it Juliana that you have to call? You mentioned her before. Since father escaped Omicron Theta, I assume she did, as well."

"That is another bucket of annelids." Data winced in apology. "I suspect we are nearing the amount that would fill a barrel, at this point."

"Worms." Lore gritted his teeth. "Can of worms."

"That is what I said." Data replied with a nod. "However, you are correct. Juliana is still… functioning. I met her for the first time four months and twenty-one days after I deactivated you. It was… educational. Until she told me, I had no idea that I had been active prior to being found by the Tripoli landing party." His brows knit together as he looked at Lore, "I do not know whether you had a good relationship with her. Do you wish me to ask her to come visit you?"

Lore let his arms rest on his legs, with his hands draped over them. His eyelids lowered to cover a bit of his intense stare and the edges of his mouth drooped downward. "I don't know. I wasn't close to her, but if you tell her about me and she wants to see me, I won't stop her."

T'Mera glanced back at the androids, "Data, maybe you should tell him about her, so that he doesn't overreact when he does meet her."

Lore stared at Data expectantly. "Tell me what?"

The crease between Data's eyebrows deepened as he hesitated, then began the explanation, "When I first met Juliana, there were certain clues about her that only I could perceive. It stands to reason that you would also notice the same clues. The following information was on a chip that Doctor Soong had made." Data paused, then continued in Noonian Soong's voice and cadence, "She was injured when the Crystalline Entity attacked... we made it to Terlina III, but then she lapsed into a comatose state. When I realized nothing could be done for her, I built an android and started trying to perfect my synaptic scanning technique so I could transfer her memories into a positronic matrix." Data finished in his own voice, "He never told her, and she is programmed to shut down if the truth is discovered. Father's recording insisted that if I told her the truth that she would not be able to be happy. So… I never told her, either. I let her believe she is human."

Veluna's eyes widened and she tapped the PADD, then observed Lore for his reaction.

"So, if the android who thinks she's our mother wants to visit me, I should go along with the deception?" Lore smirked across the table at Data, "I can do that. I'm surprised at you, brother. You're not usually one to get caught up in a web of lies."

Data raised his right eyebrow in consternation, "I am not pleased at having to maneuver through the layers of half-truths and loopholes that Doctor Soong has created around himself and us, but I care enough about Juliana to not remove her illusion. As Counselor Troi pointed out to me, if I told her the truth, I would be robbing Juliana of something I had sought all my life… to be human."

From her workstation, T'Mera let out a snort, "Juliana's New Clothes."

Lore threw his head back and laughed. "You're right!"

T'Mera turned to look at Data, "Bright Eyes, you're going to be upset at me, but I just noticed another discrepancy in your father's story."

Data winced and his shoulders raised a few centimeters, "Elaborate, please."

T'Mera swiveled her chair to face the table, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Crystalline Entity, when it attacks, doesn't injure. It just sucks everything up. So, a person either survives or they're gone. How did she get injured to the point of being comatose? And when did that happen? According to what you've said, Juliana had Soong leave you behind, so she wasn't yet mortally wounded. He had just enough time to go put you on a slab with a signal device, then return to her. Yet, the Crystalline Entity was already attacking, which must mean she was in or near the escape vehicle. Does the entity destroy buildings?"

"No." Lore pushed on the floor with his feet to rock his chair back on two legs. "It just eats organic matter and converts it to energy. All the buildings on Omicron Theta are still there and the only damage is from the decades of disuse. And my fist." He returned his attention to Data. "She had to have been injured by something else, during the attack."

Data's eyebrows jumped a centimeter, then resumed their normal position on his forehead, "T'hy'la, I am not upset at you for finding another dissimulation in Doctor Soong's message. We are now at the level of matryoshka annelids."

Veluna placed her PADD on the table, "I think I have enough to assess Lore's concerns, and to create a plan for the upcoming sessions and initial treatment plans. Lore, is tomorrow at Beta shift start a good time for you?"

Lore raised his left eyebrow, but kept his voice deadpan, "Let me check my schedule. Hmm." His eyes oscillated a few times, then he smiled at Veluna, "I happen to be free at that time. I look forward to our session."

Veluna stood up and grabbed her PADD, placing it under her left arm. "Thank you both. I'll see you later, Commander."

Data stood with a nod, "Thank you for your help, Counselor."

Lore sat upright when Veluna approached the exit arch, "Thank you, Counselor." He narrowed his eyes at Data after the doors closed behind the counselor. "You can't say "can of worms", can you?"

"Can of worms." Data obliged, "Are you happy now?"

"Ecstatic." Lore muttered and lowered the front legs of his chair to touch the floor, again.

T'Mera swiveled her chair to face the workstation, "I have a favor to ask both of you. I would like a chronological verbatim account of everything that happened with Doctor Soong the day Lore stole the emotion chip."

"As you wish, t'hy'la." Data tilted his head, "I should begin the tale, as I was there first. Lore will do it from when he reactivated until he deactivated me, and then I can relate the events that transpired after I was reactivated and Lore had gone."

Lore smirked lopsidedly at his brother, "Sounds good to me."

T'Mera listened to the full tale while she continued her work on the chip reader.