This spilled out of my head while I was pondering and plotting how best to expand an essay/presentation into an actual article. I didn't mean it to come out all in a flood like that, but I couldn't make it stop! Now I gotta get back to that article if I hope to finish before Monday... But, I hope you enjoy this next part...even if it is where the bad things begin to begin...

Part Eight

Nearly four years later…

"That should do it," Soong said, tightening the miniscule fastening rung then pushing up his magnifying headset, fixing Lore with a bright, boyish grin. "Oh, my boy, I'm starting to think I really am the genius you and your brothers think I am. This D-6 model is sure to be stable, I know it!"

Lore leaned his projected hologram over the open access panel in the unfinished android's skull and squinted at the new connections.

Juliana had done a lot to improve Lore's image resolution, opacity and solidity over the years and, in his opinion, the upgrade he'd received for his eighteenth birthday had been the best one yet, actually allowing him some freedom of movement. Even if that movement was restricted to the range of the holoemitters she'd installed throughout the house, for the first time in his life Lore was able to "leave" the walls and interact with his parents and brothers from an entirely different perspective – an experience he still found utterly fascinating. He also found himself taking great pride in the new three-dimensional projection of his self-image which, to everyone's astonishment, seemed to be growing up with him. In height and build, his hologram was now almost a match for his father – perhaps a little taller than the aging scientist and certainly slimmer – but his face and expression was that of a rather haughty eighteen-year-old. And, unlike his father, whose rapidly graying hair stood wildly in all directions, Lore kept his hair meticulously neat. He also wore it slightly longer in front than in back in keeping with current styles, the dark strands swept a little to the right, just to the level of his sharp blue eyes.

"Yeah, maybe," he said after a moment's study. "But even with these upgrades, D-6 is still going to be getting a lot of electron resistance along these neural pathways, and that's just going to slow down his processing speed."

"You're right," Soong allowed. "But. You're looking at this new system design as if it were a computer. That was my mistake too, early on, and a big reason for why poor Bertie and Charlie are the way they are. It took me this long to understand the error in my approach – and the crazy thing is, it's the one fundamental I've been arguing all along! The positronic brain is a mechanical construct, yes, but a construct based on what?"

Lore rolled his eyes.

"The human brain, yes, I know," he said, exasperated. "But, Father, even you must acknowledge the human brain's design is ridiculously inefficient. Looking at it is like looking at a chart of Earth's evolutionary history, all layered and loaded down with dead-ends and redundancies. If you really want to build a human being from scratch, I say you should start from scratch. Toss out the leftovers from the fish and the frogs and make something really efficient. Anything else is just…backwards! An evolutionary step in the wrong direction."

Soong laughed and brought an affectionate hand to his son's holographic cheek.

"My dear, dear Lore," he said, looking warmly into his eyes. "You are a brilliant computer, and a wonderful son. But, efficiency isn't always about streamlining. Sometimes, it's the apparent inefficiencies that make the whole thing work."

He cocked a bushy eyebrow, as if in challenge, then shuffled over to his notes.

Lore frowned, and followed him.

"I don't understand," he said.

"Not yet," Soong agreed, still flipping through his notes.

Lore's expression clenched in frustration.

"Argh! I hate it when you get like this!" he exclaimed. "Why can't you just say what you mean?"

Soong looked at him.

"I did. You didn't hear it. But, with a little more experience, a little more appreciation, you'll make the necessary connections, as I did. And then, you'll understand."

"Is this more of that cryptic cognitive development nonsense? Because if it is, I don't need it," Lore snapped angrily, but he was clearly hurt and upset that he couldn't quite see, let alone follow, his father's line of thinking.

Soong gave his son a sympathetic look, then reached out to squeeze his upper arm.

"I think it's time we took a break," he said. "How about you and I—"

"Father, Father, Father!" Charlie yelled, racing into the cluttered lab and passing right in front of Lore's primary holoemitter. Lore's image wavered and quaked.

"Charlie, what the hell!" he exclaimed. "Get out of the way!"

"Oh, sorry brother!" the young android said, moving quickly. Lore's image refreshed, and he breathed a deep sigh.

"God, I hate that," he said, and shouted at the top of his voice: "Mother, these holoemitters of yours suck! I need something better!"

"I love you too, Lore!" Juliana shouted back from the depths of the main house.

Lore growled, but Soong and Charlie seemed on the brink of giggles.

"So, what do you want, anyway?" Lore snapped at his brother.

"Oh, right! Oh, Father! It's Bertie," Charlie said, his wide golden eyes bright with worry. "He's having trouble picking up his checkers again. We were in the middle of a game and he just…froze! Over and over again. He keeps dropping things, Father, and it's getting worse and worse and worse!"

Soong's lined face creased further, and he shared a concerned look with Lore.

"The anomaly?" Lore asked.

The older man nodded grimly.

"It's affecting his motor functions…" He lowered his head. "It's my fault. I didn't know enough when I constructed him…didn't understand… Now, his matrix is destabilizing right before my eyes and there's nothing I can do to make it right."

"Bertie may be slow, but he has been functioning just fine for a very long time, Father," Lore said, an uncharacteristic softness touching his voice. "Even if he has developed a few errors and faults over the years, it's still a tribute to your design that he's lasted as long as he has. You really have done everything you can do for him."

"Bertie has always been such a good boy," Soong said hoarsely. "My sweet, gentle little boy…"

Lore frowned thoughtfully, cupping his chin in his hand.

"These system anomalies work on his brain like an inoperable tumor, corrupting his functions as it spreads," he mused out loud. "He doesn't feel any pain, of course, and he's not bright enough to comprehend what's really going on…inside. But he is aware of the malfunction, and we all know it scares him to see how worried we are. So, I say, if these are to be his last days, we should just tell him. Maybe even shut him down ourselves, before the malfunction spreads so far his brain shuts down completely…like Archie's did. At least, then, we might stand a chance of repairing him one day, even if it's slim."

Soong's dejected posture didn't change, but his eyes filled with a sad resignation.

"Yes…" he sighed. "You may be right. That could be the kindest way…"

Charlie's eyes went wide and frightened.

"I…I do not understand. You…both of you…you want to turn Bertie off? To…to make him stop working?"

Lore sucked the inside of his cheek and shook his head.

"Look, Charlie, he's going to die anyway. According to my ethical subroutine, this is a viable alternative to an inevitable and increasingly debilitating decline. You don't want him to suffer, do you?"

"No." Charlie's lip wobbled and his eyes filled with tears. "NO! This isn't right, it isn't fair!"

"Nope," Lore said, repeating words his father had often said before. "It's life."

"It's death, and it's wrong," Charlie retorted. "You're wrong, brother! Wrong, wrong, wrong!"

Soong's expression sagged, and he shuffled over to his android son, pulling the frantic boy into a close embrace. Charlie hugged him back, sobbing against his father's shoulder while Lore watched them through a scowl, his arms crossed and his head down.

"I don't want Bertie to die, Father," Charlie said. "Please, please, don't let him die."

"Oh, Charlie," he sighed, and smoothed the android's hair back from his pale, tear-streaked face. Looking to his sons, he shook his head slightly and said, "Come here, the both of you. Sit down."

Charlie and Lore each took a stool while Soong sank tiredly onto his ancient brown thinking couch.

"Lore," he said after a moment. "Do you remember when Archie died?"

"Of course I do," Lore scoffed. "I remember every fact I am exposed to."

Soong held up a hand.

"Yes, yes, I should have said: did you comprehend Archie's death?"

Lore's brow furrowed and he averted his gaze.

"No."

Soong nodded slowly.

"And Bertie's situation? Do you comprehend that?"

"I know he's dying," Lore said. "I know there's nothing we can do to stop or reverse the development of unstable anomalies in his neural net, and that these anomalies will inevitably lead to a complete, and irreversible, system failure. The logical course is therefore to deactivate the malfunctioning unit and wait for a time when we've learned enough to repair him."

"Then, in your mind, turning Bertie off at this point is not the same as ending his life."

"No, it's not," Lore said. "If anything, it's an attempt to preserve it…even if the odds of repairing him fall at only—"

"I don't think we need to hear the odds, thank you," Soong interrupted. "Charlie, what do you think of your brother's argument? Do you agree or disagree?"

"Disagree, disagree, disagree!" Charlie exclaimed. "I don't want Bertie to go away, Father. I'll miss him too much!"

Lore shot his brother a scornful look.

"How can you not get this?" he said. "Bertie is 'going away' whether you want him to or not. The question here is how long. If we let him succumb completely to those system anomalies, that's it. His positronic brain may as well be a fizzled out lump of metal, no more living than a paperweight. But, if we turn him off now, there's a teensy-tiny chance we could wake him up again someday. He'll still be an idiot, but he'll be a conscious idiot and that's better than nothing."

"Lore," Soong scolded. "Our Bertie is not an idiot. He just lacks your advanced cognitive abilities."

"Same difference."

"Stop!" Charlie cried, starting to get frantic again. "Please, I don't understand! What is making Bertie sick? Why does he have to die?"

Soong sighed.

"We are all fragile beings, Charlie," he said. "Me, your mother, Bertie, you…even Lore."

Lore snorted and crossed his arms.

"Sometimes," Soong continued, shooting Lore a bit of a look, "it's not how long we live that really matters. It's the quality of our lives, and the love we share while we're here together, that makes our experiences worthwhile. Charlie," he said, turning his eyes to the nervous young android. "Do you love your brother, Bertie?"

"Yes, Father," Charlie said. "I do, I really do."

"And do you feel that Bertie loves you?"

"I know he loves me, Father, because he said so."

Soong smiled a little.

"And if Bertie does have to leave us…whenever it may happen…will you remember that feeling? That love you know you share?"

"I will," Charlie said. "I remember things I know too, just like Lore!"

"Yes," Soong said affectionately, though Lore was shaking his head. "Well, that feeling, Charlie, that memory…that's Bertie. It's the impression he's made on you, an imprint of his love for you that will never leave your heart. As long as you remember him – remember all of us – we will always live in you."

Lore rolled his eyes at his father's words, but Charlie looked cautiously enlightened.

"Then…if I remember Bertie…and all the games we play together…Bertie will not be dead?"

"He'll be a memory," Soong told him. "A memory you can pass on to others, every time you tell someone what a good, sweet boy your brother Bertie really is."

"I…I don't understand," Charlie said. "But…I am no longer frightened, Father. Bertie is very sick. He may cease to function. But he will not disappear. He will be a memory, and memories can be shared."

He smiled and straightened on his stool.

"Father, may I go outside and play now?"

"Go ahead, Charlie," Soong said, gazing fondly after him as he dashed happily out of the lab.

"Why did you create him, Father?" Lore asked, his sharp stare aimed in the same direction. "He's based on the same flawed design as Bertie. In a few years…"

"We are not having this discussion, Lore," Soong said firmly. "And I created him for the same reason I created you. All of you."

"Just for the hell of it?"

Soong glared.

"I know what this is," he said. "You're scared to lose Bertie too. That android idolizes you and somehow, some way, you've come to realize how much you love him back."

Lore glowered down at the floor.

"I'm supposed to be his 'big brother,' aren't I?" he grumbled. "Big brothers are supposed to protect their little brothers. Watch out for them. But, I can't protect Bertie, can't save him. Can't do anything except suggest we shut him off before it's too late."

"I'm his father, Lore," Soong said. "How you do think I feel?"

Lore snorted slightly, and lifted his eyes to Soong's.

"Charlie's right," he said. "It isn't fair. Maybe…maybe this whole premise is flawed. If the A-3 prototype destabilized, and now B-4…and eventually C-5… Why should we even finish work on D-6? Why construct a being with so little chance of surviving?"

"D-6 is different," Soong said fiercely. "His matrix will be stable. I know it will because of the mistakes I made and missteps I took with Archie, Bertie and Charlie. Don't you see, Lore, even if their matrices do eventually destabilize and fail, their legacy will live on in their brother. It's the only way their legacy will live on. That is why I have to create D-6. For them, as much as for myself. I have to prove…"

"Prove we're all more than a fluke?" Lore asked.

"You know I don't mean it like that."

"I know, Father," Lore said and sighed, casting his gaze around the shabby, cluttered lab. "You should have better facilities. The best equipment, a chance to publish your work, under your own name—"

"I told you before, Lore, I'm happy here as Andrew Martin."

"Still. For the work you do…you deserve so much more."

"Let's not talk about this," Soong said tiredly, resting his forehead in his hand. "What we need to do is have a discussion with your mother. Bertie deserves a proper send-off. I want him to know – really know – how much we love him, and how sincerely we celebrate the life he's had. It's important, Lore. Important he goes out with the dignity befitting a caring, intelligent, living being."

Lore nodded.

"Yes…" he said, and smirked. "Let's throw a party. The biggest party this backwater colony's ever seen. It'll confuse the hell out of poor Bertie, but he'll have a great time. I'll make sure of it."

"A party sounds nice," Soong said. "But maybe it'll be best to keep it small, within the family. This moment…it's something deep, personal. I don't think I want it shared."

Lore sucked in his cheek, but acknowledged his father's point.

"All right. Then, the next question is…when?" he said quietly.

"Hush, hold on," Soong said, rising from the couch and striding to the window. "Do you hear that?"

Lore tilted his head.

"Voices," he said. "Eight children…and Charlie—!"

Lore disappeared from his father's side, reappearing at the very edge of his holoemitters' range, on the lawn in front of the house. He used the house sensors to scan the area, his head turning until he spotted Charlie racing over a flower-speckled hill. His pale face had been made up like a clown – red smudged around his lips and the tip of his nose; smears of black, blue, and yellow marking his cheeks, forehead, and eyelids. He carried something in his arms, something large, humanoid…

"Bertie…" Lore gasped and glared, a hot, fuming anger churning deep within him.

"Spazzy robot!" one the children chasing the androids shouted. "Stupid clown!"

"Come back," another yelled. "Your facepaint's all smudged!"

"Look at the robot, running home to Daddy," yet another taunted.

"Charlie's a snitch! Stupid robot snitch!"

"Stop!" Lore shouted, projecting his voice from every grate and speaker in the house.

The startled children stopped in their tracks, but Charlie kept running, tears streaking his pale, painted face as he carried his motionless brother into the yard and huddled, trembling, behind Lore's image.

"Who the hell are you?" one of the older kids demanded.

"I'm their big brother," Lore told them, his holographic face a mask of fury. "What did you do to them?"

"Don't tell me Mad Martin's made another one," the boy scoffed to his friends.

"I'm no android, if that's what you mean," Lore said, staring the boy down as he felt for his remote connection to the family's speeder and riding mower, fully intending to use those vehicles…and any other mobile devices he could access…to chase the brats off his property. "And I don't take kindly to bullies. I ask you again, human, what have you idiot primates been doing to my brothers?"

"We didn't do anything to those spazzy robots," one of the girls shouted. "We were just playing ball. That one," she pointed to Bertie, "bent down to catch it and just let it roll between his legs. He stayed there like that, all bent over, while this one," she pointed to Charlie, "started freaking out! Yelling stuff about anomalies and memories and I don't know what else. It's not our fault they spazzed out like they did. They used to be fun when we were younger. Now they're just nuts, the pair of them!"

Lore's glare deepened.

"If all you were doing was playing ball, explain how that paint got on Charlie's face."

"He always did look like a clown, with that stupid white skin and those creepy yellow eyes," the older boy snarked. "I say the make-up's an improvement."

Lore's eyes widened dangerously. As they did, every light in the house flicked on, and a roaring sound of engines started up in the garage.

The kids stepped back a little, confused, but not yet alarmed enough to leave.

"Lore!" Juliana cried, running out onto the lawn. "Oh my… Charlie, get Bertie into the house, quickly. Your father is getting the lab ready for him. Lore, what is going on here?"

"These half-formed human parasites have been torturing Bertie and Charlie," Lore snarled. "I was just about to teach them a lesson."

"You'll do no such thing, Lore," Juliana said firmly, and glared at the children, her icy blue eyes piercing each of them in turn. "I know you," she said. "I've known you all since you were small. Why would you do something like this? You've always been such friends with Bertie and Charlie."

"Can't be friends with a robot," the older boy said, and the kids around him murmured their agreement. "My folks say it's not natural. And neither are you, pretending like they're your kids or something. Robots are tools, not people!"

"Lore…" Juliana squeezed the warning through clenched teeth, her staying hand clamped tight on his shoulder.

"I want you all to get out of here," she said, as calmly as she could manage. "Bertie is very ill. If your antics today have hurt him in any way, you can each expect a call to your parents."

The children scoffed, but a few of them seemed a little uncomfortable. One or two even looked downright guilty.

"Yeah, we'll go," the ringleader said. "But you better keep those stupid robots away from us from now on. And that Lore too. Whatever he is…"

"Mother, I swear…" Lore started, but her grip on his shoulder only grew tighter.

"No, Lore," she said. "Let them go."

"Dr. O'Donnell…?"

The small voice came from a small boy, about seven or eight years old, dithering at the far end of the retreating group.

"What do you want, Renny?" Juliana said coldly.

"I…I'm sorry about the facepaint. And…everything else. I like Bertie and Charlie. I don't really know how this happened."

Juliana sighed, and her expression softened.

"Go home, Renny," she said. But the boy continued to dither.

"Is…is Bertie really very sick?"

"Yes, he is," Juliana said.

"Is he going to be OK?"

"I don't know, Renny. I…I don't think so."

The boy lowered his eyes, then raced forward and held out his hand.

"This is his checker piece," he said, giving it to Juliana. "He dropped it when they…" He shrugged and shifted his feet. "He said it was his winning piece. The only time he ever beat Charlie."

Juliana's eyes filled with tears and she clutched the red checker close to her chest.

"Thank you," she whispered huskily, and the boy ran away, back over the hill.

Juliana looked up at Lore, his face still a cold, hard mask. Without a word, she gently threaded her arm with his and, together, they walked back into the house.

"It wasn't supposed to end like this," Juliana said, her accented voice rough with tears. "Not like this…"

Bertie's motionless body lay stretched out on the climate controlled storage shelf they'd built into one of a large system of caves not far from their home, frozen vapors curling around his dark, silver-streaked form like a blanketing cloud. They'd left the boys at home while they interred their Bertie together...a solemn, silent ceremony with no witnesses to share their grief.

"There's still a chance, Julie," Noonien told her, his arm resting lightly behind her waist in a gentle half-embrace. "We were able to shut him down before the anomaly…" He swallowed, sniffing back his stinging tears. "There just might be a chance."

"He lived a life so full of love," Juliana said. "But those…those children…"

"Don't think about them," Noonien said. "They don't matter. All that matters is us. Our family."

He turned to face her, catching her left hand between his.

"Our lives are so brief, Julie," he said, running his finger gently over her rather worn engagement ring. "Barely a blip…and we're gone. And I…I can't deny, I'm starting to feel the big 60 creeping up on me. If this is ever going to happen for us, it has to happen now. I can't wait any more. Not another moment."

"Oh, but Noon," Juliana said, catching his meaning right away. "You know how my mother feels about us getting married. As long as we're only living together, she can fool herself into thinking I'll find someone else. But, if we go through with this, make it official, she'll talk, I know she will. And, if she does…"

"Then we'll marry in secret!" Noonien exclaimed. "I want to be your husband, Juliana. You want to be my wife. It won't take much to sneak away, just for a few days. Lore can watch Charlie while we're gone."

"Where would we go?" she asked, starting to get caught up in the idea despite herself.

"We'll find a place," he told her. "Somewhere small, secluded, where no one knows or cares who Noonien Soong is or what he might have done. I want my name on our marriage certificate. I want to hear it spoken at the ceremony. My real name."

"But, that's stupid!" Lore exclaimed, his holographic face flushed and angry. "You two can't just leave, not so soon after…"

He turned away and clenched his fists, his shoulders trembling as he fought to control his grief.

"It's only for a short time, Lore," Soong said. He noted, with some concern, that his son had altered his holographic image, rather severely sweeping the stylish bangs he'd been so proud of straight back from his forehead, but he didn't feel it was the right time to comment, or question the change. "You know how important this has always been to your mother and me."

"But why now?" Lore cried, his voice cracking despite his pride's best efforts to keep it steady. "Bertie's gone. He's gone, Father! How can you do this? Don't you even care?"

"It was Bertie who made us realize we have to act," Soong told him, his whole expression pleading with his son to understand. "I'm not getting any younger, Lore. If Juliana and I don't get married now, it may never happen."

"Then it doesn't happen! What's the big deal, anyway?" Lore demanded. "You're already living together. You already have a family together. What the hell difference will some ridiculous certificate make?"

"I'm not going to argue with you any longer, Lore," Soong said. "You've made it clear you don't want to understand. Just book the hotel and make the reservations on that transport. We'll be back in four days."

"Four days. Four days?" Lore looked absolutely taken aback. "But…but you've never been gone that long. Not for more than nine hours. Father…"

Soong pursed his lips, and took his son gently by the shoulder.

"You can do this, Lore," he said. "You're nearly nineteen now, you don't need your old man around every minute."

"But…but I want you around. I love you, Father. And Charlie, he needs you, now more than ever. He and Bertie were so close…and now…"

"Now, he'll have you," Soong said, and sighed. "Lore, you know if it were up to me I'd have the ceremony right here. But, with things as they are…"

"Yeah…" Lore said, a cold bitterness setting in behind his eyes. "I know that old line. Graves and his stories."

"Will you make the reservations, Lore?" Soong said.

Lore glared down at his father, already accessing his link with the Federation's subspace network and running the appropriate search. Barely three seconds later, the hotel and transport reservations were booked for the somewhat politically unstable smuggling outpost Mavala IV. One ticket for O'Donnell, Juliana. The other listed in the name of Soong, Noonien.

Lore hadn't even blinked.

"Done," he said flatly.

"Thank you," Soong said, and gave Lore's shoulder a little squeeze. "I know this isn't the ideal time, son. But, I hope you understand…this might be the only chance your mother and I have to finally make our little family unit official."

"Whatever," Lore muttered, and broke away from his father's grasp. "I'll see you when you get back."

To Be Continued…

References include: Descent I/II; Datalore; Brothers; Inheritance; Silicon Avatar. Any possible timeline inconsistencies are in part due to fitting Juliana's given backstory in with earlier versions of Data, Lore, and Soong's given backstories and in part due to the skip-around structure of this story which, like all fanfiction, is slightly AU. Still, I did my best. Hope you don't mind!

Thank you so much for reading, for your support, and for all your fantastic comments! :)