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Part Thirteen

Omicron Theta, several weeks later…

Soong stepped off the transport and into real sunlight for the first time in months. The warmth felt wonderful on his face and hands, but the pleasure faded quickly, the moment his eyes fell on the grim, suspicious faces gathered around the landing pad.

"Well," Tom Handy said, his arms crossed over his blue coveralls. "If it isn't ol' Mad Martin, back from lock-up. No, wait, it's Soong, isn't it." He shook his head, his expression grim and cold. "For nearly nine years, I thought I knew you, Andrew. I thought I had a friend I could trust. Yet, this is the way we find out who and what you really are?"

"Please, Tom," Juliana said quietly, meeting each of the gathered colonists' eyes in turn. "It's been a long journey—"

"And it's not over yet!" Mike Jarrett shouted out. "That judge may have released your husband on his own recognizance, Juliana, but he's still got a trial to face. Until then, it's up to all of us to make sure he doesn't try one of his infamous disappearing acts!" He turned his glare on Soong's defense lawyer, who was only just exiting the transport with her overstuffed black satchel. "Who gave you the right to dump that kind of responsibility on us, Eileen!"

Eileen Forrester pursed her lips and shook her head, but Soong spoke first.

"I'll admit," he said, his voice rough and anguished, "I handled this whole thing badly, right from the start. You opened your homes, and your hearts, to me and to Juliana from the moment we arrived, and I was wrong to think—"

"Seems to me, you've been too often wrong, Soong," Handy spoke angrily over him, and joined in as the colonists erupted in shouts and jeers, disparaging the disgraced scientist with insults and catcalls.

"He's often wrong, for sure."

"Yeah, Often Wrong Soong, that's the name for him!"

"Reclusive freak!"

"You should have stayed in lock-up, Soong! We don't want you here!"

"Stop, stop it, all of you!" Juliana shouted, not liking the way Noonien just passively stood there and absorbed their abuse. "Mistakes were made, that's a given, but all this shouting won't help anything. Now, please, we just want to go home."

The colonists kept shouting, but Eileen pushed past them, gesturing for the Soongs to follow her to the small parking dome not far from the transport pad.

"We'll take my speeder," she said, striding to the compact vehicle and stowing her satchel in the trunk. The Soongs did likewise with their small suitcases, and the three of them climbed in.

"Wait!"

Tom Handy jogged over and snagged the seat beside Eileen.

"I'm coming too," he said. "As elected representative for the town, it's my responsibility, more than anyone else's, to make sure Soong is where he's supposed to be. At all times."

"That isn't necessary, Tom," Eileen said dryly.

"It is if you don't want a mob on your hands," Handy said coldly.

Noonien lowered his head, and Juliana gave his hand a squeeze. He didn't return it, didn't even raise his eyes, until the little ground vehicle pulled into the Soongs' driveway.

Juliana had done what she could to put the house back in order following its thorough and methodical ransacking by Starfleet officials, but Soong felt a sick, gnawing emptiness spread from his heart outward as he walked slowly from room to room. The absence of his sons, of his Lore, was a palpable thing for the aging scientist. He shuffled slowly to one of the darkened holoviewers Juliana had set into the walls for Lore's fifteenth birthday, brushed his fingers against the vacant screen...

"I'm sorry…" he choked. "Oh, God, I'm so…so very sorry…"

"Noon…?" Juliana said gently, slipping her hand over his shoulder. "Noonien, are you all right?"

Soong raised his face toward hers, his blue eyes red and streaming with tears.

Eileen fidgeted in sympathy, and even Handy looked uncomfortable.

"This didn't have to happen, Soong," he said, but the harsh anger had faded from his voice. "It didn't have to be this way…"

"You told them, didn't you," Soong said quietly. "When the vultures came asking… You let them know where to find me."

"They said you were a criminal, Soong," Handy retorted. "They came claiming intellectual theft, computer terrorism! What were we supposed to think, huh? It wasn't like you'd given us any reason to doubt them, always holed up in your lab tinkering with those creepy robots of yours!"

"No," Soong said, his tone suddenly sharp and growing fiercer as he spoke. "Not robots. Not mere machines. Lore and Charlie may be constructs, but they are alive, Tom. As alive and aware as you are. That's why they were taken, can't you see? I achieved what Graves could only dream, and now he has them, he has my children, and he's going to use them, he's going to adapt the technology to suit his own selfish ends, and you let him in, Tom, you let his goons take my sons, my family!"

"Hey, hey, calm down!" Handy said, backing away from Soong's furious grasp. "I didn't know, OK? No one did. Maybe if you'd put less effort into hiding and more into involving yourself in our community, you would have had some support when the chips finally fell. But you didn't. You chose not to trust us. You can't blame us now for acting on the only information we had!"

Soong's expression crumpled and he turned away, his posture sagging as he leaned a supporting hand against the wall.

"Please, go," he said, his voice cracked and broken.

Eileen nodded, gave Juliana's hand a squeeze, and headed for the door.

Handy hesitated before turning to join her.

"I'll be back," he said. "And I'll bring some of Donna's meatloaf. You both look like you could use a hot meal."

Juliana sniffed back a sudden surge of tears.

"Thank you, Tom," she managed.

"Yeah…" he said, and walked away.

As the door closed, Juliana turned to face her husband.

"Noonien—" she started.

"Not now, Juliana," Soong said.

"Noon, we have to decide, and soon. I think Eileen's strategy is sound."

"I can't believe you're supporting this," he snapped angrily. "Lore and Charlie are people, Julie, not property! To even suggest a property suit... It's like...like..."

"It's a means to an end, Noon, that's all," Juliana said. "We can't expect strangers, outsiders, to understand our boys the way we do."

"They're not property, Juliana!" Soong exclaimed. "I will not deny their personhood for the sake of the convenience of a few Federation litigators who wouldn't recognize a computer consciousness if it-"

"Listen to me," Juliana snapped. "This isn't about principles or personhood. The cold facts are that androids and computers are not recognized as sentient life forms by the Federation, no matter how sophisticated they may be. If we try to fight Graves your way, it'll mean forcing the Federation to reconsider the very definition of life itself! It's not going to happen, Noon, not now, not yet. Eileen's suggestion of a property suit is a fight we can win, and isn't that what's most important right now? Noonien..."

She took his shoulder.

"Let's get our boys back first. When they're home, safe...then we can look into ways to change their status. Now, can I tell Eileen she has our support?"

Soong squeezed his eyes shut, his throat tensing as he swallowed. He shook his head, his graying hair falling over his forehead.

"No... No, I can't..."

"Then don't think of yourself," Juliana said. "Think of Lore and Charlie. Would you really force them to spend a moment longer than necessary with that man, that Graves, because of a point of pride?"

"It's not about pride, it's about what's right! What's just!"

"The law is a process, Noon," she said gently. "It doesn't change in a day. Let's think of this as the first step on a much longer road. Can you do that, Noon? For them?"

Soong seemed to shudder deep, deep inside. But, finally he nodded.

"I'm going to my lab," he ground out, and Juliana let him go, her heart an aching lump in her chest. She only hoped their boys weren't suffering the same separation pains that had been tearing their parents to shreds...

To Be Continued...

References include: Datalore; Brothers; The Measure of A Man.