Stardate 58523.9

Daystrom Annex on Galor IV

Emily smoothed the lapels on B-4's navy blazer, then straightened the band collar of the shirt underneath, "You look so handsome, B-4. Why don't you let me hold your hat, so you look more presentable and serious?"

B-4 reached up with reluctance and removed his red knit cap, "Lack of a hat makes me seem more serious?" He held the cherished head-covering out to Emily.

Emily took the hat and stuffed it into her suit pocket. "Well, I'm not sure what they want, but they might be put off if you're too eccentric." She raked her fingers through B-4's hair in an attempt to tame the unkempt locks.

"Emily?" B-4's soulful yellow eyes searched the software engineer's face, "Do you believe I'm alive and sentient?"

Emily placed a hand on each of the android's shoulders, "B-4, I don't just believe it. I know it. Even if everyone on that board thinks you aren't, all that means is that they're all wrong."

The statement brought a smile to B-4's face, "Even if you're the only one who thinks I'm alive, it's enough. Thank you, Emily."

"You're welcome, B-4." Emily brushed her hands from his shoulders down his sides to his waist, "Do you want me to hold Toto for you?"

"No, Toto is coming with me. I'll keep him in my pocket." B-4 stuck his left hand into his left side blazer pocket, feeling the familiar fake fur of the stuffed tribble. "I wish they would let you come in with me."

"I wish I could come in so I could support you, too." Emily raked her fingers through his unkempt chestnut hair in an attempt to style it, "But I think they want to make sure I'm not feeding you the answers."

"I can feed myself the answers." B-4 quipped. "I'm a big android who can use a spoon."

Emily chuckled softly, "Come here for a good luck kiss."

B-4 bent down to level his lips to hers, "Ooh, a new type of kiss! I like the hearing, already."

Emily planted a quick kiss on B-4's pale lips, then pressed the panel on the wall. "Good luck, B-4."

The doors to holostation two opened and B-4 stepped through them. The interior of the holostation was set for the hearing. A table in the center of the room had two angled sides, with two people sitting behind it on each side. He recognized Doctor Maddox and Admiral Haftel on the left side of the table, but not the men on the right side. There was a red-haired woman seated in the middle.

The red-haired woman blinked in shock at the android, "Are you B-4?"

B-4 tilted his head to the left inquisitively then nodded to the woman, "Yes. I'm B-4."

The woman pointed to a chair situated two meters from the center of the table, "Please have a seat, B-4. I'm Captain Phillipa Louvois, and I'm from the judge advocate general's office, assigned to the case."

B-4 complied, walked over to the chair, and sat down to face the people at the table.

"Good morning, everyone." Captain Louvois began to speak. "This is Staff Captain Phillipa Louvois calling for the record, the case of B-4 versus the United Federation of Planets, under docket number 35-0918. If all present would please state their names for the record, in order from my right to my left."

Maddox spoke up first, "I'm Captain Bruce Maddox, Chair of Robotics at the Cybernetics Division of the Daystrom Institute."

"I'm Vice Admiral Anthony Haftel, head of the cybernetics division of Starfleet Research." Admiral Haftel spoke succinctly.

The man with orange-tinted skin and ridges in his forehead spoke next, "I am Doctor Aysu Elenon, associate chair of software engineering at Daystrom Institute, Earth, San Francisco Annex." A box and a few assorted objects lay on the table in front of Elenon.

The white-haired, darker skinned man spoke last, "I'm Ferguson Davis, senior advisor to Starfleet Research, Artificial Intelligence division."

B-4 gave a slight smile to each person as they spoke, then noticed everyone staring back expectantly. "I am B-4, a Proof of Principle prototype for the positronic series of androids created by Doctor Noonian Soong. I am originally from Omicron Theta."

Louvois announced, "This hearing convened on stardate 58523.9 is to determine the legal status of the android known as B-4, and to determine the level of danger it represents to the Federation." She paused, then addressed B-4 directly, "B-4, you are an android, correct?"

B-4 nodded, "Yes, although I prefer the term artificial person."

"But you are mechanical, with no organic parts?" Louvois asked.

"That is correct." B-4 replied, then stuck his left hand in his left blazer pocket.

Louvois turned her head and addressed Doctor Elenon, "You may proceed."

Doctor Elenon picked up a square object from the table in front of him, stood up and walked over to B-4. He held out the object to the android, "Please hold this in front of you vertically and tell me what you see."

B-4 took the object, identified it as a mirror, then held it up in front of himself, "My reflection in a hand mirror." He winced, "I should have combed my hair." He held the mirror out to Doctor Elenon.

Doctor Elenon took the mirror, then walked to the table and placed the mirror down. He grabbed what seemed to be a deck of cards from the box and turned back to B-4. He held up the first card, "What do you see?"

"You are holding a red card." B-4 answered.

"Tell me about red." Doctor Elenon asked, then waited.

"Red is my favorite color." B-4 smiled, "A happy and vibrant color." His expression changed to a solemn one, "Scientifically, red is the color at the longer-wavelengths end of the spectrum of visible light, and in light has a wavelength of six hundred and twenty to seven hundred and forty nanometers. That is a more boring answer, but is also truthful."

"How do you feel, B-4?" Doctor Elenon put the card back in the deck.

B-4 glanced at the others, then back at Elenon, "Nervous."

"Why are you nervous?" Doctor Elenon picked out another card.

"I'm nervous because there are many people staring at me and judging me." B-4 replied, paying rapt attention to the next card.

Doctor Elenon showed the android a card with a picture of a woman embracing a child currently seated in her lap. "What do you think is happening in this picture?"

B-4 studied the picture for a moment, "The woman loves that child and is caring for her. It could be the child's mother."

Doctor Elenon raised an eyebrow, "B-4, are you a machine?"

B-4 frowned slightly, "That's an odd question to ask. The definition of the word 'machine' includes a broad range of mechanisms, apparatuses and even includes organic life. I could be considered a machine, in some ways."

"I'll rephrase the question." Doctor Elenon replied, "You are completely mechanical?"

"That is correct." B-4 answered.

Doctor Elenon studied the android's facial expression, "What makes you look at this picture and extrapolate love from it?"

B-4 tilted his head to the left, "When you have love or affection for someone, you hold them close. The child is sitting on the woman, which is very close. Even if it is not her own progeny or a relative, she is giving care and comfort. Her arms are around the child, encircling it."

Ferguson Davis snorted, then interrupted the proceeding, "Are we really going to waste all our time with this?"

Phillipa Louvois' eyebrows knitted together, "Mister Davis, I will warn you not to disrupt the proceedings."

Davis shook his head, "Obviously, the B-4 is an incredible simulation, and the programming is a work of genius, but that's all it is… a simulation. It can recognize love on a picture card because it's programmed to recognize it. I'm sorry, Doctor Elenon, but I see no evidence of actual sentience here."

Before any of the others at the table could speak, B-4 asserted himself, "Captain Louvois, may I please address Mister Davis?"

Louvois raised her eyebrows, then nodded, "The record will now show that B-4 is addressing the board."

B-4 directed his attention to Ferguson Davis, "It seems to be your intention that, even if I pass the sentience tests, you're going to claim that I'm just a clever simulation. Do you comprehend how difficult it is for me to have to prove that I'm alive and conscious? You've never had to prove you're alive, right? How would you do so? How would you persuade someone who didn't believe you are a sentient being?"

B-4 stood up and began to pace within the small area by the table, "What makes you the default of sentience? The fact that your programming is done through randomly generated DNA patterns that are mixed from your parents, instead of someone painstakingly designing each function? That your actions are initially governed by electrochemical reactions instead of a conclusion derived by heuristic algorithms?" He looked at each person at the table in turn, "Do you even realize what you are? You all think of me as a machine and you saw Data that way, didn't you? What if our places were reversed, and it was you sitting in this chair, being judged by mechanical people? How would you feel, to be told that you're nothing but a walking bag of watery meat and bones, and that your feelings aren't real because they're only caused by brief electrical impulses in an object in your skull that's comprised of mostly fat and water?"

B-4 spun on his heels to face Ferguson Davis again, "How do I prove to meat robots that I'm alive and that I feel and think and desire? What would possibly convince someone who has made up their mind that anything mechanical or artificial is automatically non-sentient? You could compare me to the other androids here. If you trip one of them, and if they fall, they just get up and go about their business, correct? If you call them a name, they either ignore you or they'll tell you they aren't programmed to respond to that. If you say or do anything unexpected, they crash. I don't."

Davis leaned back in his chair, with his arms folded across his chest, "I don't know…"

Maddox spoke up, "This is true. Just the other day, Mister Rylan called B-4 stupid and B-4 proceeded to bend a parsteel rod around his neck like a collar. He refused to remove it until Mister Rylan apologized."

Davis frowned, "That's rather dangerous behavior."

B-4 extended his right arm, pointing his index finger at Davis, "You can argue that I was wrong to do that, and it was bad of me to lose my temper, but if you do, then you have to admit that I have feelings that can be hurt." He brought his hand back to point the index finger directly into the center of his own chest, "I don't have anything in my programming that calls for bending parsteel around someone. I improvised that in anger, after withstanding months of him calling me names, even when I asked him not to. How come nobody questions his sentience?" He dropped his arm to his side, and addressed Captain Louvois, "Unlike my brothers, there are no synaptic scans forming the base personality of who I am. I am self-programming. I watch, I learn, I adapt, I create. I'm as alive as any of you." He returned to the chair and sat down, "That is all I have to say about that, thank you."

Louvois gave a nod of acknowledgement to B-4, then said, "If there are no further objections, the sentience testing will continue as planned."

Ferguson Davis remained quiet, looking fairly displeased.

Doctor Elenon pulled out a new card. The first panel showed a surprised-looking woman colliding with a surprised-looking man, and the second panel had the man on the floor, clutching his ankle and crying. "What do you see in the pictures?"

B-4 studied the card, then answered, "A man and woman did not see each other and bumped together. The man fell and hurt his ankle. I can't tell whether it's sprained or broken from the drawing."

Doctor Elenon put the card back and pulled out another one. "And this?" The first panel had the same images, but the woman's facial expression had changed to lowered eyebrows and a smile with gritted teeth.

B-4 tilted his head as he observed the card, "The woman bumped into the man and pushed him on purpose to hurt him. I don't know why she wanted to hurt him. Perhaps she is mean, like Zome, or maybe he did something to her and she is getting revenge."

Doctor Elenon showed no reaction, then put the cards back in the box. He pulled out a container that measured twenty centimeters long, five centimeters wide and four centimeters deep. The word 'Stylus' was written on the container. "B-4, what would you expect to be in this box?"

B-4 regarded the container with interest, "I would assume it contains a writing stylus."

Doctor Elenon opened the container, showing the contents; Several small wooden blocks were fitted inside. He closed the container. B-4, if I show this to someone who wasn't here to see its contents, what will they think is inside the box?"

B-4 snickered, "They will think it holds a stylus."

Doctor Elenon moved back to the table and placed the container inside the bigger box. "For the next part, the faces of everyone else in the room will be hidden from you, B-4." The holosuite created a one-way opaque barrier between the android and the people seated at the table. "Can you see anyone's face, B-4?"

"No." B-4 answered.

Doctor Elenon continued, "I am going to play a short musical piece for you. Your task is to sit and listen to it." Within seconds, Chopin's Prelude, Opus 28, Number 4 began to play.

B-4 listened as the piano music played. Around one minute and twelve seconds into the piece, his facial expression changed from solemn to sorrowful, and a watery sheen covered both of his eyes. Thirty seconds later, a tear formed in B-4's right eye and traveled down his cheek. He lifted his right hand, wiping at his eyes.

Once the music had finished, Doctor Elenon's voice emerged from the darkness, "B-4, had you heard that musical piece before?"

"No." B-4 replied with a slight warble to his voice.

"How do you feel, B-4?" Elenon's voice asked.

B-4 rubbed at his eyes a final time. "Sad."

"B-4." The doctor's voice instructed, "Please try to describe sadness without referencing any other emotional state. Imagine that you are trying to explain sadness to a computer that has no feelings to compare to."

B-4's eyebrows knitted together and his lips pursed, "... this test is hard …" He smacked his lips a few times, then replied, "I would describe sadness to the computer as… All processes are slowed. Malfunctions occur. Existence is in disrepair. An empty sector that cannot be filled, yet cannot be bypassed. There is a power drain and faster calculations cannot be completed."

"Thank you, B-4. That is sufficient." The doctor's voice stated. "We will remove the opaque barrier, now." The darkness around the table disappeared and the five people sitting behind it became visible.

B-4 glanced at each person, then rested his gaze on a particularly miserable-looking Ferguson Davis.

Phillipa Louvois spoke in a firm voice, "Doctor Elenon, are there any more tests you wish to conduct on B-4?"

Doctor Elenon shook his head, "No, your honor. I now defer to Doctor Maddox."

Louvois nodded, then turned her head to look at Maddox, "The record will show that Captain Maddox will now submit his evidence."

Maddox tapped on a PADD by his place, "If you will all look at your displays, these are the results of B-4's Chipman Test. He scored six out of six. In his time here at Galor IV, he has shown no signs of dangerous behavior. B-4 is not considered to be a threat."

B-4 hung his head, averting his gaze from the people at the table.

Ferguson Davis studied the display in front of him, then looked across at Maddox, "Doctor Maddox, I'm confused. You were the sole member of the Starfleet Academy entrance committee who insisted that the android, Data, wasn't sentient. Twenty-four years later, you convened a hearing and tried to prove that he was Starfleet's property. What's changed your mind about these things?"

"That hearing is what changed my mind, Mister Davis." Maddox responded to Davis, "Do you know how much I regret what I did? I take solace in the fact that none of my actions impacted Commander Data in a detrimental way. After the hearing, Data sent me regular updates on events in his life and his thoughts and perceptions. I got to know the man that he is, instead of seeing the machine that I'd convinced myself he was. With Data, seeing the person inside him was more difficult, since he acted in the absence of emotions."

Maddox paused, pressing his lips together briefly, "When I think of how I was behaving back then, I'm ashamed of myself. I first met Data, during his application to Starfleet, and I became obsessed with his design, to the point that I let myself be blinded to the fact that he had a consciousness. I was much like you, Mister Davis. So certain that anything mechanical and artificially created could never be alive. What kind of a scientist does that make me, if I refuse to see the empirical evidence that sits before me? What kind of a scientist places more importance on getting the results he wants, and ignores any facts that don't fit those results? I was so intent on duplicating Data, but how could I ever hope to, if I never faced the truth of who and what he is? That hearing changed my life more than it changed Data's."

Maddox gestured to B-4, "When we first got B-4, in 2380, he was very rudimentary and simple, but he showed signs of emotion and sentience. His first words upon activation were "Where am I?"" He turned his gaze back on Davis, "B-4 was concerned with his situation, and worried about his fate, even though he could barely comprehend what was happening to him. I wronged Commander Data, treated him with disrespect and nearly cost him his life and his freedom. The best way I can think of to make amends to Data is to ensure that B-4 isn't treated the same way. He passes the tests, Mister Davis. Whether or not you dislike androids, B-4 is sentient. This concludes my evidence."

"I'm confused." B-4 looked at Louvois. "May I ask another question?"

Louvois nodded, then spoke, "The board acknowledges a question from B-4. Go ahead."

B-4 tilted his head as he regarded the people on the board of inquiry, "Are rights in the Federation a finite quantity?"

Louvois answered the question, "No, they're not finite. Why would you think they are?"

"Because." B-4 glanced at each person in turn, "Mister Davis is acting as if us having rights means that it removes some of his or that it injures him in some way. As if it is an apple pie and if I get a slice, he gets less of a slice. Thank you."

Ferguson Davis scowled and stared at the surface of the table in front of him.

Louvois turned her head to address Admiral Haftel, "Admiral, do you have anything to add to the proceedings?"

Haftel's blue eyes held an echo of remorse, "I think all the evidence and testing, plus this interview with the subject, speaks for itself. B-4 is a conscious, sentient being, in my opinion, and represents no real danger to the Federation."

Louvois set her blue eyes on the man to her far left, "The record will now show that Mister Ferguson Davis will speak."

Davis cleared his throat, "As most of you are aware, in the 2378 decision of EMH Mark One "Joe Zimmerman" versus the United Federation of Planets, it was ruled that a seemingly sentient hologram is still not entitled to the status of personhood, although they can be considered an artist, for the purposes of creative control over their works. Prior to that, the sentient EMH holograms from starships were put to work as menial laborers. I have been instrumental in setting a precedent of ignoring the sentience in our artificial creations and condemning them to servitude."

Davis paused, then stared at B-4, "I consider myself an expert in the programming of artificial intelligence and neural networks, but even I would be unable to predict every variable needed to make B-4 behave in the manner that he has during this interview." A smile graced his lips for the first time since the start of the hearing, "However, it was not B-4's emotion that swayed me. It was his logic. You're right, B-4. I've been acting like I think that allowing sentient AI to have rights means I have less of them." He turned to regard Louvois, "Your honor, I concede the sentience and personhood of the Soong-type androids."

Louvois nodded, then spoke, "It is the ruling of this board, having interviewed the subject, and having been presented with the evidence, that the Soong-type android, B-4, is sentient, and thus not property. He is to be considered a citizen of the United Federation of Planets, as his origin is from a Federation colony. This hearing is concluded."

Doctor Elenon stood, gathered up his box of objects and left the holostation.

Ferguson Davis dipped his head to Captain Louvois, then also exited out into the hallway.

Louvois gestured to the android, "B-4, may I speak with you for a moment?"

B-4 stood up, waved to Admiral Haftel and Doctor Maddox as they left, then walked over to the center of the table, "You wanted to speak with me."

Louvois smiled at B-4, "It's amazing. Your likeness to Commander Data is remarkable."

"The three of us are virtually identical in physical appearance." B-4 explained.

"I noticed that you had your hand in your pocket throughout the hearing." Louvois pointed to B-4's left side, "I'm curious as to what's in there."

B-4 pulled out a small ball of black and grey fake fur from his left blazer pocket, "This is my tribble, Toto." He petted the ball of fur, which vibrated and made a purring sound. "It's not a real tribble, but it's still my favorite toy."

"Thank you for showing me." Louvois grinned broadly, "Thank you for your patience and willingness to undergo the tests, today. You're free to go."

"Thank you for being a nice judge." B-4 slipped Toto back into his pocket and walked to the exit. The doors whooshed open, letting him through, and he smiled as Emily intercepted him.

Emily embraced B-4, "I hear congratulations are in order."

B-4 wrapped his arms around Emily, "I am sentient and a citizen, not a property. I am also not a threat."

"I could have told anyone that." Emily beamed as she planted a kiss on B-4, letting her lips linger.

B-4 returned the slow, expressive kiss, then drew his head back, "That was not a standard kiss."

Emily winced, then stammered, "That was a, um, "congratulations on the favorable ruling" kind of kiss. I'm sorry, B-4. I got a little carried away with the excitement."

"Ah." B-4 loosened his arms from the embrace, "I only get one of those, so it's all right for it to be carried away."

Emily reached for B-4's right hand, "Let's go to Marvin's Tavern and celebrate with a Finagle's Folly."

"That sounds good." B-4 took Emily's hand and walked with her. "Part of the test was hard, but I did okay on it, because I seem like a human. I suppose since Data had no emotions, he seemed like a robot and it was hard for them to understand him." The cheer in his tone of voice faded, "Lore's part is going to be much, much harder."