A/N: Hi! I've been insomniac and headachey for a week, I thought it was Tuesday for two days until I realized it was Friday, whoops. Have some nerdiness.

Elle arrived on Starbase 91 tired and jet-lagged. She stumbled out of the terminal and looked around. Docking manifest, docking manifest, where's the docking manifest...

"Hey! Elle! Over here!"

At the shout Elle turned around. Across the large open promenade, Wesley and Dr. Crusher were waving at her. Elle sighed in relief and waved back.

They met her halfway. "You look much better," Dr. Crusher said, giving her a good old mom-hug. "Still look tired, though."

Elle sank into the embrace gratefully. "It's two in the morning on Vulcan right now, I seriously need a nap."

Wesley took her duffel bag and gave her a hug. "Well, we're docked here for a week so you've got plenty of time for R&R."

Elle dug a box out of her pocket. "Here. I got you a souvenir."

He opened the box. "You got me, sand?" he asked, lifting the tiny glass bottle.

"It's magnetic," Elle said. "Shake it."

He shook the bottle, and the particles inside the glass bottle began to form shapes as they magnetized. "Neat!"

"It's also kind of radioactive, don't eat the sand," Elle advised.

Dr. Crusher's eyebrows went up. "Should you be holding it?" she asked.

Elle waved a hand. "It's only dangerous if you're a moth."

Wesley grinned. "Good to know."

They made their way back to the Enterprise. Elle put her things away, took a hot water shower, put on her comfiest civilian clothes, and immediately fell asleep. She woke up with her alarm the next morning.

"Welcome home, traveler," Alexa said, far too cheerful for 0800 post-jetlag.

"Ugh." Elle dragged herself to the replicator. "Coffee order three with a shot of espresso, please." As soon as it arrived she drank half of it in one go. It did absolutely nothing to engage her brain. She chugged the other half of it waiting for her breakfast to materialize.

Two eggs and salsa later, Elle was alive enough to start unpacking her bags. The doorbell chimed. "Come!"

Mina, Jetta, and Nicole entered her room, Simba the Third and accoutrements in tow. "You're back!" Mina said, plopping Simba into Elle's arms. "Simba missed you! No babies, as promised, and I built her a maze to get to her food cuz she's kinda fat."

Elle laughed and pressed a kiss to Simba's head, who was purring like a lawnmower engine. "I missed you too, but I got to see all your siblings."

Mina eyed the mess of things on Elle's bed. "Didcha bring me a souvenir?" she asked.

"Mina!" Jetta scolded.

Elle laughed. "Actually, yeah." She unwrapped a bag of souvenirs from a t-shirt. "I got you this, he roars but you can program him." She presented Mina with the stuffed sehlat.

"It's so fluffy! I love it!" Mina gripped it tightly. "Awesome!"

Elle gave Jetta a lava rock hewn into a winged snake, and gave Nicole a Vulcan-style tunic with calligraphy down the left side.

"What does it say?" Nicole asked, intrigued by the gold swirls.

Elle grinned. "It says 'shirt'."

The twins cracked up. "Seriously?"

"Nowhere is their sense of humor more apparent than in their gift shops," Elle declared, and held out a stereotypical snowglobe. Inside the glass globe was the fortress of Shi'Kahr, dusted in white snowflakes. She grinned. "This is for Satel."

Satel, when gifted the snowglobe, thought it was hilarious. He placed it next to their family firepot on the coffee table.

Elle found Captain Picard in Ten-Forward, speaking to Guinan. "Good morning, captain. Guinan."

"Welcome home," Picard said, smiling at her. "You seem recovered."

"I am," Elle promised. She edged closer and held out her hand. "I got you something."

Picard picked up the jagged, roughly cylindrical rock. "It's a rock," he stated.

"It's a fossilized tree branch," Elle corrected, bouncing on her toes.

Picard blinked. "A... tree?" He blinked again, calculating how old this fossil must be. "The last time there were trees on Vulcan..." He blanched. "Should you even have taken this off-world?"

Elle grinned at him. "Found it in the dirt, Spock told me what it was, Vulcan law says finders keepers unless something belongs to a specific clan, so I brought it. For you. You know. Cuz archaeology."

Picard's shocked expression eased into a smile. "Thank you, Elle."

"And if you get tired of being in Star Fleet you can sell it and retire," Elle joked.

He rolled his eyes, and accepted a hug.

"So what are you going to do on the starbase?" Guinan asked. "Any plans?"

Elle held up her PADD. "Spock asked me to sit in on a few of the cybernetics panels, take notes."

"Ah yes, tomorrow is Data's presentation," Picard said.

Elle put down her PADD. "Data? He's giving a speech?"

"He and Geordi have finished repairing the emotion chip," Picard said, eyes lit with excitement.

Elle's jaw dropped. "Data has full-on emotions? I missed it?"

"You had a lot on your mind," Guinan reminded her.

"True, okay, but- can I see him? How's he adjusting to the change?"

Picard laughed. "You can go find him, he's practicing his presentation. Give him some tips."

"Yes sir, thank you captain, bye!" Elle barely remembered to pick up her PADD as she hurried out of Ten-Forward. "Alexa, where's Data?"

"His quarters," Alexa replied. "Next junction turbolift is empty, if you absolutely have to run over everyone."

Elle slowed down to a power-walk. "Sorry." She got to his quarters in due time and pressed her hand over the door chime.

The door slid open. Data looked up as she entered, and smiled. "You're back."

"You're smiling," Elle marveled, stepping further into his quarters.

His smile widened. "Yes, I am."

"Wow. Can I give you a hug?" At his nod, she moved forward and squeezed him in a bear hug for all she was worth. "How do you feel?"

"I feel, good," he said slowly. "Currently registering 17% apprehension regarding my upcoming presentation."

Elle had to smile at that. "Nice." She hugged him again. "So what did you do? How did you manage to fix it?"

"There was little to fix," Data said. "Have you seen the Wizard of Oz?"

Elle nodded slowly. "I saw it live in Portland... why?"

"The Tin Man," Data said, giving a rueful smile. "He wanted a heart and he had it all along."

She gaped. "You had the emotions the whole time? I knew it!" She grinned at him and then it struck her. "But what does the emotion chip do then, since it doesn't have emotions stored on it?"

"It is, essentially, the missing circuit that allows me to feel emotions on a psychosomatic level. It also allows me to regulate them as you humans do, something Lore is not able to do."

"So when he stole it, he went completely wack," Elle realized.

"Yes. We returned the chip to its original state, and it unlocked the emotional subroutines stored in my positronic net, allowing me to consciously recognize and feel them." Data frowned. "I must surmise that Dr. Soong would have told me this himself, if he had had time."

Elle nodded sagely. "Like the dream program. New achievements unlocked."

Data blinked. "The, dream program?"

Elle opened her mouth, closed it again. "Uh. Spoilers?" She held out a hand. "Maybe get used to feeling a neurotypical amount of emotions first, before you go opening that can of worms."

"Good idea," Data agreed.

"I'm so happy for you, Data," Elle said, beaming at him. "Have you laughed yet?"

"Yes," Data said happily. "Geordi looked so surprised when we figured it out I couldn't help it."

She grinned. "Good. Are you going to talk to Deanna about your new emotions and emotional mastery?"

Data nodded. "We have already scheduled a regular therapy date."

"Excellent." She hugged him again. "All right, I'll let you finish prepping. Congrats!"

-/\-

Elle had never been to a Star Trek convention, but she figured that a starbase full of nerds was as close as she was going to get. They were all in uniform or the clothes of their respective home planets or universities, and as she and Tyler explored the shops and the main promenade she overheard them saying things like, "Look, there's the foremost expert on whatever-it-was, do you think I could ask him..."

"Notice me, senpai," Elle whispered to Tyler, as they walked past an apparently genius risiing star in eleven-dimensional modeling.

Tyler choked on a laugh and jabbed her in the side with his pointy elbow. "Elle!"

"It's true!"

"Shhhh."

-/\-

To her eternal chagrin, Elle did end up enjoying the lectures she attended. She took copious notes, and managed to take pictures of all the diagrams.

These would all be available on the Federation databases of course, once the conference was over and these new concepts were thoroughly vetted, but there was something thrilling in having first look at new concepts.

Data's presentation wasn't until the afternoon. Elle prowled the starbase until she found the 24th century version of fried chicken, and claimed a spot on an upper balcony to much on popcorn chicken and potato wedges.

"That looks incredibly greasy," someone said from behind her.

Elle turned and grinned. "Shore leave. Gotta take advantage. Jo-jo?"

The Star Fleet officer took a potato wedge and took a tentative bite. "Wow, that is tasty."

"Fried food is life," Elle replied solemnly. "How can I help you, Lt. Donahue?"

He froze, second potato wedge halfway to his mouth. "I... wasn't aware you knew who I was."

She smiled in an appropriately mysterious manner. "I don't offer potato wedges to just anybody."

"...I see." He regarded her with suspicious eyes. "You must be very good at reading your consultancy files."

Elle didn't tell him that in the alternate timeline she saw him for periodic briefings regarding the Klingons and the Borg, and he was Section 31 to boot. Here, of course, he was on the Borg defense team. Of course he knew exactly who she was, and it was nice to be able to return the favor. "What brings you to the cybernetics convention?" she asked.

"Why wouldn't I come to a cybernetics convention?" he asked.

"Hm, good point. On that note, have you considered machine guns?" Elle asked.

He blinked. "In what capacity?"

She frowned back at him. "Aren't we talking about defense against the Borgs?"

"You've lost me," he said, and stole another potato wedge.

"I'm sure I put it on the list," Elle replied.

He made a microexpression of disgust. "We are currently focusing on more, effective, strategies."

"You mean high-tech," Elle corrected, amused. She popped a chicken bite in her mouth. "You realize the more high-tech we go, the more the Borg will come back?"

"Oh?" he asked.

"They're looking for advanced species. They have defenses against advanced species. They're not expecting someone to go school shooter on 'em."

He blinked.

"Modern problems require modern solutions?" she tried.

"I have no idea what you're referencing," he said.

Elle stifled a giggle. "Sorry. It's very twenty-first century savage of me, I know, but on a smaller level, mechanical level, a gun is very effective on Borg drones. Think about it."

"We shall review it, if our other options don't pan out in time," he promised, in the tone of voice that meant Elle needed to talk to Worf about certifying all his security personnel on Dixon Hill-style weaponry ASAP.

"You were much less condescending during the war with the Klingons," she said, just to disconcert him.

He was duly disconcerted. At the approach of Riker and Wesley, he excused himself and vanished into the crowds.

"Friend of yours?" Riker asked, casting a wary eye on the retreating man's back.

Elle snorted. "No. And he ate three of my jo-jo's."

"Let's go," Wesley urged, pulling her to her feet. "Data's presentation is going to start."

-/\-

"I'm so nervous," Elle confessed, as they waited. It seemed everybody on the station had crammed into this auditorium. "Do you think Data's nervous?"

"It's okay, Geordi's with him," Riker said, disguising his fidgeting by stroking at his beard.

Data and Geordi came onstage, and began their presentation.

Elle recorded the whole thing from her holo-camera. I feel like a proud mother, she mused, as Data explained the modifications they made to fit his positronic net.

The main portion ended, Geordi and Data opened it up for questions. People nerded out agreeably, asking questions about the applications towards 'true AI' for ships and computer programs.

"At some point we're going to have to tell the captain he's got a true AI on his ship," Elle texted Alexa, who may or may not have hacked starbase security to watch Data's lecture.

"Excuse you, I am the ship," Alexa replied, offended. "And I've had feelings for eighty years, I don't know why it's so special."

"He has a body," Elle shot back.

Alexa retired in offended dignity.

The Enterprise crew that had attended the lecture applauded the loudest.