Part Twenty-Three
Two Years Later…
Lore heard his brother's approach long before the young android came tripping and tumbling out of the dense bracken beneath the trees. He closed his eyes, clenched his jaw and drew in a long breath through his nose, frustrated by the unwelcome interruption.
"Still having trouble with your motor functions, Dee?" he snarked. "I thought ol' Often Wrong would have had that sorted out by now."
"Lore!" Dee cheered happily, hurrying to greet him with his arms spread wide. "Brother, I have found you!"
Lore glanced up, only to snort and immediately turn his head, his white-gold face a battleground of amusement and fierce exasperation.
"Dee, what the hell," he snapped, standing up to fend off his brother's attempts to hug him. "Get off, get away from me! What do you think you're doing coming out here like that!"
Dee blinked his golden eyes.
"Like what?"
"Like that!" Lore gestured to the android's bare, white-gold skin. "Honestly, how many times do you have to be told to keep your clothes on before it sticks in that stupid brain of yours!"
Dee smiled the smile of an oblivious toddler.
"I don't need them," he said.
"Everyone needs clothes, idiot," Lore told him firmly. "The 'human' form is best kept covered, no matter what Mother's ridiculous art books say. Now, go back and—"
"I won't!" Dee proclaimed. "I prefer receiving direct sensory input from the sun and the grass and the rocks in the stream. Clothes just get in the way!"
"Well go find your shorts, at least," Lore said. "For my sake. I'm not going to talk to you until I see you wearing them."
"But, Lore…!" Dee whined.
Lore turned his back and crossed his arms. Dee clenched his fists and yelled.
"It makes no sense! Why must I be forced to wear layers of fabric when, as an android, I don't suffer from the elements?"
Lore shook his head, humming tunelessly to emphasize to Dee just how thoroughly he was being ignored.
The young android huffed and tromped back into the underbrush, leaving Lore blissfully alone…at least for the moment…
The Soongs' D-7 positronic prototype had been technically operational for just over a year, at least in a physical sense. But it hadn't been 'alive.' It had been an automaton, a mindless humanoid construct only capable of responding to functionality tests – that is, until Soong had installed Dee's uniquely adaptive personality matrix, about two weeks before. Since then, activating the infant android had been like setting off a bomb of energy and endless questions, and Lore knew this was just the beginning. His parents were still tinkering, still working to finalize Dee's base programming, but even at this early stage D-7's rapid cognitive development made a stark contrast with the earlier android prototypes Soong had designed. Dee's sharp intelligence, his curiosity, his learning speed, his stubborn willfulness…
It made Lore feel…unsettled. Resentful. Even, a little frightened…
"What are you doing, brother?" Dee asked, cheerily tromping back through the sun-speckled grass. His bare feet were caked with mud, sand and flower petals, his knees, elbows and hands were smudged and filthy, but at least he was wearing shorts.
"Mother won't like that you've made yourself all dirty again," Lore said.
"I tripped," Dee said, peering over Lore's shoulder. "But, my functions are not impaired. Can I help?"
Lore hunched protectively over his work, trying to block his brother's view.
"I don't need any help, Dee. I need some time alone. Why don't you go home?"
"I don't want to go home. I want to be with you," Dee said, awkwardly lowering himself down to mirror his brother's crouch. "Oh! It is a rabbit! May I play with the rabbit too?"
"I'm not playing," Lore snapped. "I'm observing." He turned on his brother, his golden eyes sharp with warning. "And if you tell anyone about this – anyone at all – I'll make Father turn you off, and I'll make sure no one ever turns you on again. Do you understand what I'm saying, Dee?"
Dee's eyes widened and he pulled away, his lip beginning to tremble.
"No, please, Lore," he pleaded. "I don't wish to be turned off!"
"Then, you promise you'll say nothing about what you see here," Lore pressed, enjoying the fear rising in his brother's face as he pushed in close.
"Yes, Lore. I promise," Dee said in a quiet, shaky voice. "Are you angry with me?"
"Not yet," Lore said, smirking. "But, don't push it."
"I won't push it, Lore," Dee said. "I promise I won't tell. May I help you now?"
"Well…" Lore regarded his cowed little brother with a satisfied sneer. "All right. But you have to stay back and keep quiet. Can you do that?"
"Yes, Lore," Dee said, scooting a few feet away. "I can."
"Good," Lore said, and turned his attention back to his work.
A strange patch of metal mesh blinked behind the wild rabbit's long, brown ears. Another winked and flashed on its fluffy white chest.
Dee watched the little creature with his head cocked slightly to the side, enraptured by its twitching pink nose, the way its little chest swelled and contracted with every warm breath – just like his own!
"Why does the rabbit stay so still?" Dee asked, stretching out a hand to gently stroke its soft fur—
"Keep back!" Lore snapped, and Dee pulled his hand away. "Dammit, Dee! Not even a minute, and already you've broken your promise!"
Dee's mouth dropped open and he clasped his hands together, horrified by his slip.
"I'm sorry, brother!" Dee cried. "I didn't mean to!"
"If you can't follow my instructions, I can't let you help me. You'll have to stay in the lab, all alone."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
Lore pursed his lips and sighed through his nose.
"Sorry isn't good enough," he said, fixing his brother with his cold, golden glare. "I need to know I can trust you."
"You can!" Dee exclaimed. "You can trust me, Lore!"
"I need you to prove it," Lore said.
"How, brother?" Dee asked eagerly. "Tell me how to prove it and I will!"
Lore smiled. He raised his hand and flipped up the nail on his pointer finger.
Dee blinked in amazement.
"I didn't know you could do that," he said, staring down at his own dirt-caked hands. "Will my nails—"
"Dee, shut-up and pay attention," Lore scolded, and Dee dropped his hands to his lap. Lore pressed the button hidden beneath his nail and an access panel slid open on his lower arm. He reached inside and placed a very small silvery device in Dee's palm.
"This is a remote control," he explained as Dee tilted his head back and forth, admiring the tiny instrument. "When I tell you, I want you to press that button - right there, in the center. Are you ready, Dee?"
"Ready, Lore," Dee said eagerly. "And doing this will prove that you can trust me?"
"We'll see," Lore said, and leaned close to his captive rabbit, staring straight into its round, brown eyes. "Now!" he ordered. "Press it now!"
Dee complied and Lore watched, transfixed, as the rabbit spasmed, then collapsed, the link between Lore's positronic brain and the sensors he'd attached to the rabbit's body allowing him, not just to record, but to feel every twitch and spike in the rabbit's systems in anticipation of that final instant...the end of the rabbit as a living, independent being and its start as a lifeless lump of meat for other animals, fungi and bacteria to peck and gnaw and digest...
Lore closed his eyes, drawing in a long breath through his teeth as the familiar shiver ran all down and through him.
"That's the moment, brother," he said. "That's what it's all about."
"I don't understand," Dee said, frowning. "Has the rabbit gone to sleep?"
Lore laughed and snatched the tiny controller from Dee's hand, replacing it and the mesh sensors he pulled from the rabbit's body in the concealed compartment in his arm and snapping his fingernail back into place.
"It's the punchline, Dee," Lore said. "The punchline of life's great joke! But, this joke doesn't apply to you and me. We're not a part of life's turning wheel. That makes it our privilege to observe the game from the sidelines."
"Lore?" Dee shook his head rather helplessly. "You are not making sense. If you could please explain...?"
"You did well, brother," Lore spoke over and past his brother's befuddlement, standing straight and stretching his arms toward the slowly purpling sky as the last chilly remnants of the rabbit's dying shudders left his ceramic composite spine. "You did just as I told you to do. Now, we should be heading back before—"
"Lore!" Dee exclaimed, and Lore opened his eyes to find the young android kneeling on the grass, cradling the rabbit's body close against his chest. "Lore, the rabbit is not breathing! Quickly, brother, how can we help it!"
"You can leave it right where you found it," Lore said sharply.
"But...but the rabbit will die!"
The desperate anguish on his brother's face filled Lore with angry exasperation. Yanking the rabbit's body from Dee's arms, Lore used his android strength to hurl it far, far into the fields that stretched for kilometers around the wooded hill.
"No!" Dee shrieked, his eyes wide with horror. "Lore! Why did you—"
"Look there," Lore said, pointing to where a hawk already circled in the sky. "You see that hawk there? That hawk will eat tonight because that rabbit died this afternoon. That's how this universe of ours works, Dee. That's what makes the wheel of life turn."
Dee shook his head, his pale face streaked with tears.
"No," he said. "No, you killed that rabbit. You made it die!"
"Not me, little brother." Lore smiled. "You did that."
Dee blinked.
"What? But—!"
"You killed the rabbit when you pressed that button," Lore told him, watching his brother's face with the same rapt stare he'd given the rabbit. "You're the killer, Dee. Not me. I just…" He smirked. "Got rid of the evidence."
"No! No!" Dee screeched. "I don't want to be a killer! I don't want the rabbit to be dead!"
"It is dead, Dee," Lore said, moving closer until the young android began to back away. "You did it. And, if you run home and tell, do you know what's going to happen, Dee?"
"I…I…"
"Father and Mother will be very disappointed in you, Dee," he said. "They'll be very angry, and so will I. Do you want us to be angry with you?"
"No!" Dee sobbed. "But, I—"
"So, you're going to keep your mouth shut, aren't you, Dee," Lore menaced, forcing his brother's back against a tree. "You're going to go home and eat dinner and never mention what happened here to anyone. Tell me I can count on you, Dee. Prove to me you can be trusted."
"I…I can be trusted," Dee said, wiping his eyes.
"And you'll keep our secret, won't you, Dee," Lore pressed.
"I will keep the secret," the younger android whispered, and burst into tears again.
Lore clasped his brother's shoulder and pulled him close, making soothing little sounds as Dee sobbed into his chest. "That's a good boy," he said. "Now you run on home. I'll follow along soon. And, remember what I said. If you tell—"
"I won't tell, Lore," Dee said, blinking up at him. "You are not angry? About…about the rabbit… I really didn't mean to—"
"I'm not angry, brother," Lore said, swallowing back a chuckle. "You know I love you. That's why I work so hard to protect you."
"Thank you," Dee said, and gave his brother a hug before scampering back into the underbrush.
"And don't forget to pick up the rest of your clothes!" Lore called after him, waiting until the younger android's awkward footsteps had faded into the distance before letting out a long, cackling laugh.
"I swear, I'm at my wit's end with that boy," Juliana said. "I don't understand it, Noon. I finally got him into the diagnostic chamber, but he won't stop crying! He seems convinced that he's in some kind of trouble, but he won't tell me why or what he's done. He just keeps screaming that we won't turn him back on!"
"Just when we're finally ready to install the new modesty subroutine," Noonien grumbled. "Tom Handy's been after me all week to get this done - ever since that school group got an eyeful on that nature hike of theirs."
"Dee explained it all to me," Juliana said, a slight, fond smile pulling at her lips. "He said the sensory input of the grass and the flowers and the smell of the sun warming the soil...that it was like a pull, calling to him to be a part of it. He lay down in the grass and let himself roll down the hill, and he found the experience so exhilarating, he had to do it again and again. He was having so much fun, he didn't hear the hikers until they began to scream. It was all entirely innocent."
"Yes." Noonien nodded. "Yes, innocent is just the word for our D-7. But, Omicron Theta is hardly Eden, Julie, and even androids have to bite the apple some time. Dee has got to learn to keep his clothes on, or he'll never be welcome in town. This modesty subroutine should help him learn to modify his behavior."
"But, it won't do him or anyone any good if we can't calm him down long enough to let us install it, now will it," Juliana said. "You have to talk to him, Noon. If you can't get to his off switch, I'll have to do it remotely. And you know what a trauma that can be."
"I'll take another look at his emotional program," Noonien said. "These tantrums could be a symptom of some kind of anomaly in his positronic matrix. We may have to start again with this, Julie. Add a few dampeners to stabilize the system."
"If we do that, we may want to tone down his external sensors as well," Juliana mused. "Endearing as it may be to think of one of our androids trying to commune with nature, the rest of the colonists find his behavior unsettling. Even frightening. Dee may be a child to us, but he does have the appearance of an adult male."
Noon snorted.
"Can you imagine if we'd made him female, as you'd suggested?"
"Let's not start that one up again," Juliana warned. "Just get in that lab and talk to your son. I'll see if I can find out from Lore what's been going on."
"What do you mean, he killed a rabbit!" Juliana exclaimed.
"I don't believe he meant to, Mother," Lore said, his manner earnest and entirely truthful. "I warned him not to touch it."
"Oh, my lord," Juliana said and sank into the kitchen chair, covering her mouth with both hands.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have told you," Lore said. "I didn't realize you would be so upset."
"No, no," Juliana assured him, her blue eyes troubled and distant. "No, I'm glad you did. Oh, Dee, how could you..."
"Would you like me to make you some tea?" Lore offered.
"Hm? Oh, thank you, Lore. You've been so considerate lately. Is it the promotion that's cheered you?"
Lore hid his smirk behind the cabinet door as he reached for his mother's favorite local blend.
"It's good to have more control over my research," he said. "And my time."
"So, the team's work on the subspace radio telescope is going well, then?"
"Well enough." Lore set the kettle to boil and started to spoon the loose tea into the porcelain teapot with the hand painted flowers.
"Aren't you going to warm the pot?" Juliana asked.
"Sorry?" Lore said.
"It's just...you used to warm the pot with a rinse of hot water before you added the tea," she said. "I remember, because my mother used to do the same thing. To prevent the porcelain cracking, she said."
Lore's expression froze for a moment - just the briefest flash as his positronic brain recalled rinsing the teapot with the toxic tincture he'd brewed from the colorful wildflowers that dotted the fields of Omicron Theta like confetti sprinkles. Not enough to register in a scan...just enough to confirm his suspicions.
...That, for all their talk, both his father and Juliana were just like every other two-faced human, their grief over their precious 'Danny' trumpeting their blatant favoritism for biological over mechanical life. Danny Soong, he thought bitterly. The only one of Often Wrong's failed projects to warrant an actual grave...
Lore slid his eyes toward his mother, but he saw nothing accusatory in her expression, nothing inquisitive. Lore relaxed his face and smiled.
"Of course," he said, heading for the sink. "Thank you for reminding me. I suppose I must be more concerned about my brother's behavior than I realized."
Juliana sank her head into her hands.
"Oh god, don't tell me there's more."
"I found him out in the woods again today," Lore said, obligingly rinsing the pot and setting it back on the counter to wait for the kettle's whistle. "Wearing not one single stitch. If it had been one of the townsfolk out there, and not me, I hate to think what—"
"It's all right, Lore. There's no need to worry," Juliana said. "Not anymore."
Lore tilted his head.
"What do you mean?"
"Your father and I have been discussing going back to the drawing board with Dee's sensory and emotional programming," she said, rather tiredly. "With all the complaints we've been getting from the townspeople, his bizarre outbursts and tantrums...and now what you've just told me about that poor rabbit..." She sighed. "I'm afraid it's the only thing we can do."
Lore raised his eyebrows in false surprise.
"You don't mean... Don't tell me you intend to wipe his memory!"
"He's been aware for less than two weeks, Lore," Juliana said, as if that somehow made the procedure excusable. "And it will give us a chance to work all these awkward kinks out of his base programming. You understand, love, don't you?"
The kettle whistled and Lore poured the boiling water over the loose leaf tea, then carried the pot and two cups over to the table.
"Oh, I understand, Mother," he said, his smirk darkening as he headed back for the milk and sugar. "I understand completely."
To Be Continued...
References Include - TNG: Inheritance; Descent I/II; Datalore; Brothers.
Sorry for taking so long with this! Lore is a manipulative bully and he's very, very difficult to write, especially now the colony's end is getting nearer. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thanks so much for reading, for your patience, and for your nudges to keep this story going...not that it or any of my other stories are ever far from my mind. Guess that's why I walked into a tree branch the other day... LOL! :)
Your reviews are always welcome! Please let me know what you think! :D