Stardate: 58663.5

Several crew members passed Lore as he walked from Stellar Cartography to the turbolift. During his first week of probation aboard the Enterprise, Lore had to fight against being defensive when humans approached him. After another two weeks without incident, both Lore and the Enterprise crew exchanged polite nods of acknowledgement. While he kept mostly to himself, Lore felt gratified that none of the crew treated him with revulsion; Even Doctor Crusher had been more relaxed around him.

The turbolift doors opened with Data already inside. "Ah. There you are, Lore."

Lore entered the lift without hesitation and pointed to the combadge on his teal jumpsuit. "You can't have lost me, brother. Even without it, you'd still have this band around my ankle tracking my whereabouts." He studied Data for a moment, then smirked, "The red uniform makes your bioplast look slightly pink."

"I realize that, Lore," Data answered, "However, as I am now First Officer, I am in the command division, which is signified with a red shirt."

Lore gave a brief nod to Data, then noticed the turbolift hadn't moved. "Deck ten." With his command, the lift began to move. "I was summoned to the crew lounge. I have no idea why."

"I, too, have been summoned there." Data replied cryptically, then stepped out as the doors opened.

Lore followed his brother through the corridor until they reached the door of the crew lounge. As Data pressed the panel, the doors opened to a completely unlit and silent room. Through the darkness, Lore could easily see T'Mera, Veluna and Murphy standing around a small table. Before he could ask why everyone was standing around in the dark, the lights turned back on to full.

"Surprise!"

Lore glanced at Data, "What is this?"

"It is a surprise party, Lore." Data moved through the doorway. "You do realize what Earth date this is, do you not?"

Lore eyed his brother with light suspicion, "The Earth date is the first of September." He followed Data into the room, then watched as Counselor Veluna pulled the cover off of what appeared to be a round cake. He moved closer to inspect the object; The cake's icing consisted of chocolate and vanilla buttercream, swirled to create a yin yang pattern. "That's a cake."

"We weren't sure what kind of cake androids like." T'Mera began to stick three small candles into the top of the cake, following the line separating yin from yang. "Then, it hit me. Angel Food and Devil's Food cakes with icing that symbolizes the two of you and your duality."

Data moved to stand next to Lore. "A fitting confection, t'hy'la."

Murphy extended their hand, with the index finger pointing out. A small flame formed at the end of their finger, lighting one of the candles.

"Thank you, Renay." Veluna smiled, then used the lit candle to light the others.

Murphy dipped their head to the counselor. "My pleasure."

Once the candles were lit, the three of them began to sing:

"Happy activation day to you,

Happy activation day to you,

Happy activation day, Lore and Data…

Happy activation day to you."

Data smiled pleasantly. "Thank you, everyone." He leaned forward and inhaled deeply.

Lore managed to sync his movements to Data's as they both blew out the candles on the cake.

"Aw, you two didn't make your wishes." Murphy tilted their head, "I thought that was the traditional humanoid thing to do?"

Data held up the index finger of his right hand. "Both myself and Lore are capable of several thousand thoughts within a fraction of a second. You may rest assured that we have both made wishes."

"Biological lifeforms are so sentimental," Lore scoffed, then his smirk softened into a genuine smile, "But thank you all."

Murphy sliced pieces of the small cake to set on plates. "I must have picked it up from being around humans."

Veluna smiled as she handed a piece of cake to each android brother. "Deltans can be sentimental, so I don't take offense."

"My fault." T'Mera reached up with her right hand to fiddle with the lemniscate charm on her choker. "I knew that neither of you had celebrated a birthday, so I figured why not."

Lore gave T'Mera a wistful smile, then moved to stand by one of the windows. He lifted the fork to his mouth, tasting the cake, while watching the star trails go by. His reflection in the transparent aluminum was joined by Data's. "I was just thinking that B-4 would find this funny. Androids eating cake with a fork."

Data's lips quirked upwards with amusement. "Indeed. I find it amusing that, out of those of us gathered here for the party, only the Counselor requires the ingestion of nutrients of an organic nature." After a beat, he lowered his voice. "I thought you had expressed disinterest in viewing stars?"

"Yes, I did say that," Lore replied in an equally soft voice. "But, somehow the stars are different, now that I finally belong somewhere."