Triggers: Mentions of domestic abuse, sexual situations

Stardate: 58540.2

Enterprise Holodeck Four

Once everyone had returned from the break and settled into their chairs, Captain Louvois addressed T'Mera, "Doctor Chipman, I want to see more of how they programmed Data, as well as Lore's relationship with Ms. Lucien, and, of course, how the Crystalline Entity was contacted."

T'Mera dipped her head to Captain Louvois, "It's all queued up, your honor."

"Thank you." Captain Louvois waited a moment, placed her hands on the table in front of her and interlaced her fingers, "The viewing of the Omicron Theta holographic presentation will now resume."

The lights dimmed and the holodeck transformed itself into Omicron Theta, once more.

Omicron Theta

Stardate: 14080.6

Lore waited in his customary spot in the cybernetics lab as Doctor Soong, Juliana and Doctor Lucien finished the latest round of patches for Data. His vigil was interrupted by the sound of the doors from the corridor sliding open.

Kila Marr walked through the sliding doors, then stopped near Lore. "Oh. Am I interrupting the work?"

Juliana lifted her head from the PADD she was typing on. "Kila! No, you're not interrupting. We're almost finished. We added a modesty subroutine. Data should keep his clothes on after this."

"Good." Marr chuckled, "One less thing for Renny to get into trouble with, since I'll be leaving him here."

Juliana's blue eyes widened and she rose from her stool and walked over to stand by Marr and Lore. "Leaving him?" Her expression changed to excitement, "Does that mean you got the posting?"

Marr's delight bubbled to the surface, "They accepted me on the USS Anning! It's a small science vessel, but I'll finally be able to go back to everything I'd put on hold." Her jubilation diminished, "I don't regret having Renny, of course, but…"

"I understand, Kila." Juliana smiled softly at Marr, "He's fifteen now. How's he taking the idea of you going away?"

Marr chuckled, "Well, in his mind, he's a fully-grown man and ready to be independent. He wants to stay here with his friends, and he's also excited about the upcoming playoffs. I wouldn't want to uproot his life. The Wallaces have offered to look after him." She placed a hand on Juliana's shoulder, "I'll miss you and this place."

"I'll miss you, too." Juliana embraced Marr. "I hope everything goes as planned."

Marr returned the embrace, "I'll be checking in, from time to time, so it won't be like I'm gone." She turned to regard Lore, "I'm sorry I won't be here to help you with your subspace mystery."

"I'll get Data to help me with deciphering the subspace patterns." Lore gave Marr a lopsided smile.

Marr grinned at the android, "Two positronic brains are better than one?"

"Exactly." Lore explained, "Even when they erase his memory engrams, his processing speed remains the same. All I have to do is get him caught up to where we left off. After I reintroduce myself, of course. Odds are that Data won't remember you, either, by the time he sees you again. Not that he'll care. He won't have any emotions."

Marr nodded, glancing briefly at the inert figure in the blue chair. "You know what? You should start up the old astrophysics lab. It's been abandoned since Doctor Kligman died, and none of the kids have shown any interest, because the observatory is on the peak of Mount Baldy. It's a long and arduous hike for them, but wouldn't be that difficult for you."

Lore raised his eyebrows at the comment, "Thank you, Ms. Marr. I think I'll see if I can make use of them." The sound of a tool being slammed on a table distracted Lore and he turned to look at the scientists.

"His activating units won't initialize." Doctor Soong kicked the base of the recumbent chair.

Juliana bit her lower lip, "Noonian, I'm sure it's something small that was overlooked. Don't get yourself worked up."

"Did you initialize the reload circuits?" Lucien stared at the open panel in Data's head. "None of his diagnostic lights are functioning."

Soong grabbed a different tool, then aimed it at the exposed circuitry, "I'll have to manually run a diagnostic on the input polarizers, but it's probably something we changed in the startup sequence."

Lucien sighed and walked back to the table. "Back to the drawing board."

Lore turned his attention back to Kila Marr, "It seems I'll have plenty of time to go check the observatory, after all." He started walking to the exit, stopped, and added, "Good luck in your endeavors, Ms. Marr." The doors slip open for Lore and he passed into the main corridor.

Stardate: 14205.8

Lore opened the door to the communications lab and peeked inside. Evelynn's back was turned towards him and with the earpiece inserted, she seemed oblivious to the fact that someone had entered the room. He walked up to the console and placed himself in her peripheral vision. "I'm back. Did you miss me?"

Evelynn nearly fell off the stool, then her brown eyes went wide, and she launched herself at Lore, wrapping her arms around the android. "Ohey!"

It was Lore's turn to go wide-eyed, and he returned the embrace with a calculated, gentle squeeze. "I guess you did miss me."

"You were gone for over a month." Evelynn replied, looking up into his bright yellow eyes, "Of course I missed you. I began to wonder if you froze out there, with winter starting." She raised her hands to grab Lore's shoulders.

"I can't freeze. The observatory's optics needed to be cleaned, and I wanted to make sure the telescopes were hooked into the remote connection to the astrophysics lab, so I don't have to travel up to the mountain every time I want to move the field of view." Lore explained, then raised an eyebrow, "Are you attempting to climb me?"

"I'm trying to kiss you." Evelynn reached her right hand behind Lore's head, "But you're too hard to pull."

Lore hesitated for a second, then bent his head to meet Evelynn's. At first, their lips grazed, but a second, stronger kiss grew, and then transformed into a long, passionate exchange. When they finally separated, he smirked, "My brother's presence wasn't enough to satisfy your need for me?"

Evelynn snorted and lightly swatted Lore on the chest, "Data's nothing like you. You should see what they've done to him while you've been gone."

Lore frowned with concern, "How bad is it? I was going to visit the astrophysics lab next, to enable the remote connections from this side. Should I alter my plans?"

Evelynn grabbed Lore's hand and tugged at him, "You'll see him on the way to the lab. He wanders up and down the main corridor."

Lore followed, letting the young woman pull him along, "The corridor?"

"Mmmhm." Evelynn moved through the automatic doors with the confused Lore in tow, "It was such a bad patch, he's been kicked out of the lab. Doctor Soong's working on a fix."

As they walked down the corridor, Lore's auditory sensors picked up what sounded like Data inhaling, but with an added 'whoop' and 'pop' followed by a severe arresting of the breathing function. "I hear him. Is something wrong with his vocal synthesizer?"

Evelynn started to giggle and opened her mouth to reply, but stopped as Data approached them.

"Greetings and salutations!" Data walked to meet Lore and Evelynn. "I recognize y-HIC! Ms. Lucien." He stared at Lore, "My name is Data. Who are y-HIC!"

Lore halted in mid-stride. "You may call me Lore. I'm your brother." He turned to look at Evelynn, "They wiped his engrams, but what happened to his vocalizer?"

"Doctor Soong's been trying to give Data proper hiccups, but he can't figure out how to do it. They're either too small to be noticed, or like this." Evelynn burst into laughter. "There's also still issues with his social etiquette parameters."

"I'm pleased to meet you, Brother Lore. May I hHIChelp in any way?" Data closed the distance between them, "I'm capable of execHIC!ting a variety of tasks. It would be my greatest pleasure to assist you both, in any way that I can."

Lore closed his eyes and exhaled slowly.

Evelynn tilted her head to study Lore's face, "Are you angry?"

"Not really." Lore opened his eyes, "The longer it takes them to get Data working properly, the longer I get to live." The anger in Lore's yellow irises faded as he focused on Evelynn, "I'll take Data with me to astrophysics lab. When we're done, I'll come back to see you."

"All right, Lore." Evelynn waved as she turned to head back to the Southern end of the facility. "Goodbye, Data."

Data waved emphatically, "GoodbyHIC!, Ms. Lucien. It was the utmost in satisfaction to have encountered you, this day."

Lore grabbed Data by the upper arm, "Come on, dear brother. You can help me get the astrophysics lab working."

"It's my honor HIC!and privilege to assist you, in any way possible, Brother Lore." The left side of Data's mouth lifted in a ghoulish half-smile as he allowed Lore to pull him. "Thank you, so very much, for granting me this opportunity to-"

Lore growled at Data, "Just keep quiet!" He rolled his eyes and tugged Data into the astrophysics lab. Once inside, he assigned a few tasks to his brother, then worked on getting the monitors and remote systems running.

Stardate: 14260.3

The astrophysics lab returned to use in short order after both androids repaired the neglected equipment within the small room. With that accomplished, Lore was able to return to his duties at the communications lab, while Data had been recalled to the cybernetics lab for more tinkering. On this particular day, Lore had finished his chores, checked on the astrophysics monitors, and then decided to spend his free time watching the surveillance cameras.

"Noonian, why are you keeping Lore active?" Juliana whispered as they worked on Data's programming. "He's just getting worse and worse with the colonists, and I think he suspects we intend to shut him down when Data is finished."

Noonian's irritation saturated his reply, "I'm not deactivating my one, working android until I get Data just right. I think I fixed the rude and polite problems, this time, for good."

"I hope so. You overcompensated in the last patch." Juliana retorted. "Data was obsequious to such a degree that I wanted to shut him off, myself."

"I know, I know." Noonian responded, "I couldn't stand to be in the same room with him. I'm pretty sure I have it this time."

Juliana's voice contained a level of exasperation that Lore had never heard from the normally passive woman before, "This time, this time. What if we'd spent these past nine months on fixing Lore, instead of taking two months on things like giving Data the "perfect hiccup" only to give up on that, Noonian? I'm trying to rationalize our leaving a cruel and aggressive android alone to get into who knows what trouble, while we sit here and tinker with this one, when there's no guarantee he won't turn out like Lore."

Lore's attention was drawn away from the scene by the sound of soft beeps as someone entered the code into the panel by the door. He turned to be ready to greet whoever entered.

The door slid open to reveal Evelynn, "Ohey, Lore." She walked into the small room to stand by his side, "What's on the screen today?" The door automatically slid closed behind her.

Lore stood to allow Evelynn to sit, "Father and Juliana are arguing. She wants to shut me off, and Father doesn't want to do that until Data's exactly the way he's supposed to be. Then, Juliana brought up the fact that, instead of working on Data, they could have been fixing me."

"She has a good point." Evelynn lowered her backside onto the stool. "Why doesn't he fix you? If it's just a matter of turning off your emotions…"

Lore leaned against the console, "I don't know. It's certainly within his power to fix me, although he told Ms. Marr that it's too late for me. On the other hand, look at what's happening to Data. If they take away my emotions, will I fall over? Will I be rude?"

Evelynn chuckled, "You're already kind of rude, Lore." She reached out her hand to touch his back. "But I like you, anyway."

Lore intercepted her hand, grabbing her gently by the wrist. "I like you, too, but the affection of one person isn't going to keep them from deactivating me."

Evelynn moved forward to awkwardly embrace Lore, "Then I hope they never get Data working right."

Lore closed his eyes and allowed himself to be hugged. He released his hold on her wrist and wrapped his arms around the young woman without any reply to her statement.

Stardate: 14287.6

Lore worked on the graviton emission patterns puzzle until he heard the door of the communications lab opening. He removed the earpiece from his ear and stood to face the doorway.

Evelynn entered the room, then blinked in surprise at Lore. "Ohey, Lore. Is something wrong? You're standing there, like you were waiting for me."

Lore smiled, "Nothing's wrong. I just wanted to say happy birthday. It's been one standard year since your last one."

Evelynn returned the smile, then moved closer to the android, "Thank you. I'm nineteen, now. Time flies." She looked down at her left wrist, where the brown and yellow gemmed bracelet dangled.

Lore followed her eyes to the jewelry, "I wasn't sure what to get you, this year. I thought it might be more prudent to ask you what you want."

Evelynn closed the distance between them, then reached up towards Lore's face with her right hand. "I want you, Lore."

Lore's left hand moved swiftly, and he closed his fingers around her wrist, "Why don't you just go and "play" with my brother, like the others do, if you're so curious about android bodies? He's identical to me. And his hiccups are gone."

"I don't want you because you're an android." Evelynn's dark eyes fixed on Lore's golden stare. "I want you because you're you. It doesn't matter to me whether or not you're a human or an android, because you're Lore."

Lore loosened his hold while keeping his fingers around her wrist, and allowed her to touch him.

Evelynn's fingers traced along Lore's jawline. "Sometimes it's like I know what you're feeling or thinking. I don't show it, but I'm just as angry as you are. I know how hard it is to have someone say good things about you when all your life you've been told you're useless or horrible… a waste of air… good for nothing. After a while, you start to believe them. You look into a mirror and see an ugly, worthless person staring back. You stand there and believe them… that you deserve to be hit because you're bad, and while they're hitting you, they're telling you they wouldn't do this if they didn't love you. That they wouldn't beat you, if they didn't care about you."

"You're not worthless or ugly. I think you're beautiful." Lore removed his hand from hers and reached out to stroke her cheek.

"Does that mean yes?" Evelynn nuzzled her cheek against his hand.

Lore pulled her body closer with his other hand, then leaned to kiss her, "It means yes."

Just as their lips touched, the doors to the communication center opened and Data walked in. "Hello, my brother... Evelynn. I'm here to help you with the subspace signal." His head tilted in confusion, "Am I interrupting something?"

Lore let out a sigh and released Evelynn, "Data, you have rotten timing."

Data's eyes oscillated, "My timing is digital."

Evelynn laughed, then patted Lore on the back, "We'll take a rain check, Lore. Since he's here, I'll get to my work and let you two do your thing."

Data frowned in confusion, "That was not intended as a humorous remark."

Lore nodded and beckoned to Data, "Over here, brother." He walked to the subspace console, then held out one of the earpieces to the other android. Once Data was ready, the two of them began to analyze the graviton patterns in earnest.

Stardate: 14425.6

Lore arrived for his standard duty shift at the communications lab, after checking the astronomy lab for any new information. He blinked in surprise; Evelynn had already begun her shift. "Good morning, Evelynn. You're early."

"Ohey, Lore." Evelynn greeted Lore with a smile. "I'm not early. You're looking at the new director for the communication lab and broadcasting sciences."

Lore pulled a stool over to the subspace console, "What happened to Missy?"

The smile faded from Evelynn's face. "Her health is declining. I'm sorry, Lore. I know you liked her, but…"

"She's old." Lore finished the sentence. "Humans are mortal, like most biological organisms."

"That's one way to put it, I suppose." Evelynn turned back to her work, "Where's Data?"

Lore snorted, "He's back in the blue chair."

"What?" Evelynn whipped her head to stare back at Lore, "Again? What is it now?"

Lore opened his mouth, and instead of his own voice, Tom Handy's emerged. "All right, Often Wrong, you're getting warmer, but now that Data's taken to wearing clothes, we can't tell the androids apart. There's three kids in the infirmary, because they mistook Lore for Data. Do something." Lore continued in his own voice, "So, they're giving Data some more programming to set him apart from me."

Evelynn shook her head, "If they'd made Data a girl like Juliana wanted, it would be easy to tell you apart."

"Yes, but then Data wouldn't look like Father." Lore stuck the earpiece in his ear.

Evelynn watched Lore for a moment, then whispered, "I found a place for us."

"A place for us?" Lore tilted his head inquisitively.

"Well…" Evelynn lifted herself from her stool and walked to Lore, "We have no privacy. We can't go do it in my room because my dad could catch us. It'll take a long time to requisition my own living quarters. You don't have a room. Someone could walk in on us here, and the security room is too small." A sly smile formed on her lips, "Then I remembered the emergency shelters. They're filled with beds, and nobody will be there except during some kind of storm or other problem."

"And you still want to do this?" Lore craned his head to look up at her.

Evelynn leaned forward, "I still do. Do you want it?"

Lore smiled up at Evelynn, "Doctor Soong gave me the full richness of human needs, which includes lust and physical affection. I don't know if I'm capable of love, but, if I am, I'd like to love you."

Evelynn planted her lips on Lore's, giving him a quick kiss. "We'll go to the lower level of the installation after we're done here." She raked her fingers through his hair, then returned to her chair.

Lore grinned broadly and resumed monitoring subspace transmissions.