Chapter Seven
"I'm telling you, we can trust him," Applewood insisted, looking around the conference table at the tense faces of his ship's captain and senior staff: First Officer Hugo, Doc Nathan, Chief Engineer Valdez, and Security Chief Gibson. "If we tell him the truth, explain what we're up against—"
"But, what of the Prime Directive?" Captain Zh'shrythaa said, her blue antennae dipped pensively over her feathery white hair. "Our responsibility to protect the timeline? If we offer our android guest this information and he does, by some miracle, find his way back to his own time… He will have knowledge of future events. Detailed knowledge that could prove exceptionally dangerous, not only to the android himself, but to our present. Everything we are – the past thirty years of our history – could be altered or erased. And while, given the present state of the Federation, the prospect of such change may seem favorable, those changes may not necessarily be for the better."
"Exactly what I've been saying. The situation can always be worse," said first officer Hugo, his dark, owlish eyebrows knitting over his thin nose. "Don't forget, Mike, our troubles didn't start with the rise of the KEHL on Earth, or Vulcan's exit from the UFP. They were just a symptom of something bigger, deeper. A manifestation of the deep-set fears and prejudices that have always lurked in the humanoid heart. Federation principles of mutual understanding and cooperation across cultures… That was the aberration. An idealist's dream that buckled after the Dominion War."
"With respect, Commander, I don't believe that," Applewood snapped. "The Federation was built by and for humanoids from different worlds and backgrounds on the premise of shared respect and shared opportunity. For centuries, humanoids from across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants worked to weave a strong community with strong alliances, emphasizing curiosity over fear, science over suspicion. Even today, with the Keep Earth Human League and other xenophobic, isolationist, hate-fueled organizations like them holding important positions in Starfleet and planetary governments – they're still a minority, Lennie. Them, and their followers. They're a reaction left over from the paranoia sparked by the Changeling incursion. And now that Data's here…whether the Preservers sent him or not… It's as if we've been offered a second chance."
"A chance to what? Turn back the clock?" Hugo shook his head. "The Changelings knew better than anyone, Mike, even before they infiltrated Earth: the fissures that fractured the Federation were there from the start. All it took was the right pressure in the right spot to set the whole structure crumbling from the inside out. Those Changeling Founders and their damn Dominion are long gone now, but the Federation's still falling apart. All by itself."
"What if you're wrong?" Applewood countered. "Civil war between what's left of the UFP and its former member worlds is not as inevitable as you seem to think. If it can be prevented, Lennie – if the rise of the Cardassia-Bajor Alliance, the Romulan annexation of Vulcan and the collapse of the Klingon Empire can be prevented – shouldn't we take that chance?"
Commander Hugo frowned and folded his hands on the table. "So, what are you saying, Mike? We should abandon the Prime Directive? Ignore the lives of individuals and families, all the children that have been born over the past three decades, reset the entire board just because events haven't been playing out in our favor?"
Commander Applewood tensed his jaw. "You know that's not what I mean."
"No," Hugo said. "No, I don't know that. All I know is that, from the moment that…machine…first appeared on our bridge, you've been falling head over heels to give that android and its preposterous story the benefit of the doubt."
Applewood bristled. "Lieutenant Commander Data is—"
"And there he goes again," Hugo spoke over him, leaning back in his chair with a sigh and extending his gaze to include the rest of the gathered officers. "Lieutenant Commander Data was lost at an archaeological site over thirty years ago, lightyears away from our current position. That Commander Applewood should trust this android's story so immediately and so completely—"
"Lennie," the captain interrupted, placing her hand flat on the table between them. "I think we all know where you stand. Mike," she turned her dark eyes to her second officer. "Tell me. What is it that makes you so certain our…guest…is truly who he says he is?"
"Captain," Applewood said. "Commander Data may be a stranger to this time. But, if anyone can be considered a Federation patriot, it's him."
"That is not in debate," Zh'shrythaa said calmly. "The Data of history was indeed notable for his honesty, and his service to the Federation. I wish to know why you believe so fervently that the android currently aboard our ship is, in fact, the same android who saved your life when you were a child. And, I don't want your opinion, Commander Applewood. I want facts."
"Doc Nathan," Applewood said, turning to face the doctor who had been quietly listening. "Your medical scans back up the commander's story."
"It's true," Doc Nathan confirmed, leaning forward so he could address the captain more directly. "There is every indication the android came here to us, as he says, through a 'quantum tunnel' from the past. Given the scans, the physical aging the poor man's endured since his arrival in this time, and the talks I've shared with him, I think we can trust that—"
"We can't 'trust' anything," Hugo shot back. "How can we know for certain this android is not another faulty Romulan reconstruction, like that B-4 decoy the Remans unleashed some twenty years ago? Or a reprogrammed shell of the original? For god's sake, Applewood, his appearance doesn't even match Starfleet records!"
"Yes. And that, even more than Doc Nathan's scans, is why I am convinced the man in our sickbay is Commander Data," Applewood said firmly, his gaze fixed on the captain. "No one knew Data replaced his skin before he vanished, sir. Only his closest friends and the few of us who were on Nineveh IV when it happened, and Captain Picard ordered us all to keep quiet about it just to make sure we could identify him as the real Commander Data when he returned." He looked up, meeting each of the gathered officers' eyes in turn. "And he has."
Captain Zh'shrythaa twitched her antennae and nodded once.
"Very well," she said, placing a hand on Hugo's arm before he could protest. "I have made my decision." Addressing the young security chief, she said, "Lieutenant Gibson, please allow Commander Data in."
Data hadn't seen much of the ship on his way to sickbay. Like many of the new Federation warships of his own day, the bridge had an emergency turbolift directly linking the bridge and sickbay, designed to allow quicker access to the wounded...and the dead.
Instead of leading him back to that emergency lift, though, the young Bajoran security officer took him through the main doors and down a narrow corridor – where Data's intense curiosity immediately shifted to concern.
The lighting in sickbay had been pretty dim – perhaps to highlight the holoscreens, he'd thought – but the main corridor outside was actually dark. Red and orange emergency lights cast shadows on slate-gray walls. There had been no attempt to improve the ship's interior aesthetics by covering exposed power couplings or ventilation ducts, and the floor – far from the carpeted corridors he'd known even on the Enterprise-E – was made of removable metal grating that clanged under their boots, possibly installed to allow ready access to maintenance shafts.
"It all looks very…functional," he commented as he scanned his eyes over the details, noting every scorch mark and patch-job that marred the inner hull. "Tell me, Ensign, do you enjoy serving aboard this ship?"
"I do my duty, sir," the Bajoran said, typing in an access code then standing aside to allow Data to step into the turbolift ahead of her. "Bridge," she said, as the doors slid closed.
"Let me put it another way," Data said, frowning at the way the orange lighting dimmed and flickered as the lift began to move. "Have you seen much action?"
"The Romulans tried some posturing as we headed past Vulcan space," she said, making him wonder if that had been the cause of the yellow alert that had pulled Mikey from sickbay. "But it's been pretty quiet this run. Here we are, sir."
The lift doors opened and she guided him onto the bright, bustling bridge and across the upper horseshoe to the conference room doors. "The captain and senior staff are inside," she said, tapping a small wall panel. "I just signaled your presence. The doors will open when they're ready for you."
"Thank you, Ensign…?" he prompted, hoping to learn her name. But the young Bajoran had already started her march back to the turbolift.
Data glanced around the bridge, taking in the grim faces and the colorless, military-cut of the uniforms, until a green light flashed on the wall panel. Setting his jaw, he strode through the sliding doors to meet a set of even grimmer faces, these looking up at him from a long, oval shaped table. Behind them, the room's narrow windows were darkly shaded. The shading probably made the ship harder to spot from space but, inside, it blotted out the view of the stars.
"Commander Data," Applewood greeted, ignoring his colleagues' surprised mutterings – "God, he looks so old!" "He didn't look like that when he appeared on the bridge…" – and rising at once to offer him a seat. "I believe you've met Captain Zh'shrythaa and Doc Nathan. This is our first officer, Commander Lennie Hugo; Chief Engineer Valdez; and Security Chief Gibson."
"A pleasure," Data said in response to their suspicious grunts. As not one of them seemed open to shaking hands, Data folded his on the table.
"Commander," Captain Zh'shrythaa said, her antennae politely postured. "My second officer speaks most highly of you."
"Thank you," Data said, turning a small, warm smile to Commander Applewood. "If it's not inappropriate, I'd like to say for my part how very proud I am of him."
"Noted," she said, and turned her antennae forward. "Mr. Data. Your arrival here has presented quite a conundrum."
"I assure you, Captain, it was not by choice," Data told her.
"No," she agreed, her expression wry. "If your story is to be believed, it was the Preservers who guided you to us."
Data glanced at Applewood, who winced. But, Data just nodded his understanding and openly met the Captain's searching gaze.
"I don't know enough to say for sure," he admitted. "But I am certain there is a reason I was sent to this ship at this time. There is something here, something inherent to this time and place, that I must learn. It's my hope that you can help me determine what that might be."
"And once you learn this…something…Commander," the captain said, "you intend to return to your place in the past."
"I would hope that would be the case," Data said. "Although, at this moment, I am uncertain as to how or even if it might be possible to replicate the process that sent me into the Preservers' Stairway, let alone use that technology to return to my own—"
"Captain," a gruff voice sounded over the ship's comm system. "We have an intruder alert in Shuttle Bay Five."
"On my way," the captain said, and closed the channel. "I want details, Lieutenant," she said to Gibson as she stood and gestured with her head that the senior staff should return to their posts. Applewood put a hand on Data's arm, disregarding Hugo's glowering stare as he led the android past the first officer and down a side ramp to join him at his ops console at the front of the bridge.
"Security claims two intruders just appeared in the shuttle bay, sir," Lt. Gibson reported from her security station just behind the captain's chair. "As with the android, there seem to be no energy traces, no transporter residuals. It's as if the pair apparated out of thin air."
"Are these intruders in custody?" the captain asked.
"Not yet, sir. They're resisting arrest. Shall I lift the bay's phaser dampening field, Captain?"
"Wait!" Data said, his amber eyes wide as he darted his fingers over Applewood's console. "Mikey, look at these scans of the intruders' life signs! Two females. One reads as Klingon, the other Orion."
"No…" Applewood frowned, running his own hands over the scrolling screens as he checked and re-checked the readings. "Oh god, you don't think—!"
"Report, Mr. Applewood," the captain ordered, her voice sharp with impatience.
"Captain," Applewood said. "I…I know this sounds impossible. But, it seems we've just become host to two more missing persons. If these readings are right—"
"Shuttle Bay Five to Bridge," a rather harassed voice interrupted over the comm. "Captain, the intruders insisted I call you directly. They're demanding to see a Lieutenant Commander Data? Do you know of any—?"
"It's all right, Chief," the captain said irritably and signaled to Gibson, who nodded and strode for the turbolift. "I'm dispatching a security detail to your location. Tell the intruders, if they want to see Mr. Data, they'll come along quietly. If they resist, you have my permission to stun them."
"Understood, Captain," the chief said.
"Captain," Applewood said hurriedly, jumping to his feet. "I request that Commander Data and I go too. If these newcomers have followed the commander here from the past, as I suspect, security may have a hard time getting them to cooperate until they see Mr. Data is, in fact, here and safe."
The captain's antennae flattened angrily over her dark-eyed glare.
"Tell me, Commander Data," she said. "Should I be expecting the arrival of any more unexpected guests?"
"I would hope not, Captain," Data said. "If these two girls did follow me into the Stairway, they did so purely out of concern for my welfare. I can assure you, they are not a threat."
"As long as they're here in this time, rather than their own," the captain said, "they pose as much threat as you do, Mr. Data."
The Andorian pursed her violet lips until they nearly turned white, her antennae lifting as she shook her head with a sigh.
"Go," she said, waving her hand at Data and Applewood. "And bring the intruders to me. I expect a full explanation from all four of you in my briefing room the moment you get back."
"Yes, Captain," Data and Applewood chorused, and the pair of them rushed for the turbolift.
To Be Continued…
References Include: DS9 - Homefront / Paradise Lost; TOS - Journey to Babel; and the novel Sarek by A.C. Crispin.
Thanks so much for reading, for all your nudges, and for your encouraging comments and reviews! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Next Time: Kay and Ishta get more than they bargained for as they're reunited with Data and Mikey in a future on the brink of civil war. Will they be able to find a way back to their own time? Stay tuned!
Croaked and Alternative Data are in line for updates, and so is Mind the Gap. Thanks so much for your patience and for reading my stories! Please Review! :D
